Lessons from Prophet Noah (Nuh)

Khutbah: Lessons from Prophet Noah (Nuh)

Opening Prayers and Invocations

Alhamdulillah, Allahumma salli wa sallim alayhi fil awwaleen, wa fil aakhireen, wa fil mal'il a'la, ya rabbal alameen.

"O you who have believed, fear Allah as He should be feared and do not die except as Muslims."

"O mankind, fear your Lord, who created you from one soul and created from it its mate and dispersed from both of them many men and women. And fear Allah , through whom you ask one another, and the wombs. Indeed Allah is ever, over you, an Observer."

"O you who have believed, fear Allah and speak words of appropriate justice. He will [then] amend for you your deeds and forgive you your sins. And whoever obeys Allah and His Messenger has certainly attained a great attainment."

Amma ba'd, fa inna asdaqal hadithi kitaaballahi ta'ala wa khairul hadi hadi Muhammadin sallallahu alayhi wa sallam, wa sharral umur muhdathatuha, wa kulla muhdathatin bid'ah, wa kulla bid'atin dhalalah, wa kulla dhalalatin fin naar.

Praising Allah and Sending Blessings Upon the Prophet

We praise Allah, we ask Him to send us peace and blessings upon our beloved messenger Muhammad sallallahu alayhi wa sallam, upon all of the prophets. As the prophet said:

Al-anbiya ikhwa wa deenuhum wahid - The prophets are brothers and their faith is one (Sahih al-Bukhari 3443)

Upon his companions and upon his Family and those who follow him sallallahu alayhi wa sallam till the end of time.

The Purpose of Stories in the Quran

Allah said to our beloved prophet:

Faqsasil qasasa la'allahum yatafakkarun (Quran 7:176)

Allah ordered the prophet sallallahu alayhi wa sallam to relate stories to his people so that perhaps they would give thought and ponder and come back to Allah. And Allah in the Quran mentioned that the purpose of stories:

Lenu thabbitu bihi fu'adak - To strengthen the heart (Quran 11:120)

To strengthen the heart of the prophet sallallahu alayhi wa sallam and the hearts of those who follow him sallallahu alayhi wa sallam.

The Value of Righteous Stories According to the Scholars

Imam Abu Hanifa, the great scholar of fiqh, used to say:

Hikayatul salihin habu ilayya min kathratul fiqh - The stories of the righteous people are more beloved to me than fiqh, than jurisprudence.

People asked him, why? He said because in the stories of the righteous, you have the embodiment of the deen of Islam.

Imam al-Junaid, Imam al-Arifin, used to say that righteous stories, the stories of the righteous and the lessons of the righteous are:

Jun min junudillah - Soldiers from God.

People said to him, do you have some evidence for that? He said yes, Allah says:

Wa kullan naqussu alayka min anba'ir rusuli ma nu thabbitu bihi fu'adak (Quran 11:120)

Allah then mentioned the verse in the end of Surah Yusuf where Allah said everything that we have related to you, O Muhammad, has been sent to you in order to strengthen your heart, to give you strength. That's why some of the Salaf as-Saleh used to say that if you feel depressed, if you feel down, if you feel that life has knocked you off your feet, then read Surah Yusuf, read the 12th chapter of the Quran.

The Recent Film and Our Opportunity

That being said, this movie which came out a week ago, Noah, is an important opportunity for us as a community to teach others our position about the Prophets and to remind ourselves some lessons that we can take from this important story. The first is the portrayal of the Prophets in ways which would show them as being disobedient to Allah. Our creed about the Prophets is very simple and that's what we're going to talk about in the first khutbah.

Part One: The Islamic Creed Regarding the Prophets

Introduction to Our Belief About the Prophets

What is our position as a community about the Prophets? Imam Marzuqi Al-Maliki radiallahu anhu in his Mandhuma, which we studied here and finished Alhamdulillah this book on Sunday, Wednesday and Friday this year - Alhamdulillah we finished more than four texts. Alhamdulillah for people who come, one of the texts that we studied was Aqidatul Awam. This book has been memorized in the Muslim world, especially in Morocco, for the community, a Muslim community. It has formed like the basic literacy, the tradition of our Ummah for now more than 500 years. This book has been taught in Al-Azhar and Al-Qarawiyyin.

The Shaykh says:

Arsalan Anbiya Thawil Fatana

The first thing he said is Allah sent the Prophets.

The Meaning of Prophet and Messenger

We have two words for Prophets: Rasul and Nabi. The word Rasul actually means the one who was sent, the one who was sent. The other word we have for Prophets is Al-Nabi. The word Nabi comes from two meanings; the scholars are different. Prophet, number one: Al-Naba', Al-Nabi'ukum - the one who informs you. Surat Al-Naba' - the information we call in Arabic the news, Al-Akhbar. But also we use the word, same word, to mean news like the news you watch or read.

Other Ulama they said: La', Al-Nabi from Nubwa, which means something honored, something given a high status. Because the more someone obeys Allah and the more someone establishes the relationship with Allah, then the honor for them is going to be great. Al-Jaza'u min jins al-amal - the reward is from the type of action. And Allah chose these people, Alhamdulillah, to be those who best exemplify His obedience.

First Quality: Supreme Intelligence (Fatana)

So the Shaykh says: Arsala al-Anbiya'a Thawil Fatana - Allah sent the Prophets. The first thing we believe about them is Fatana. Fatana means in Arabic not just to be smart but extremely smart, someone who understands things very well.

Imam Ibn al-Qayyim said what that means is that the Prophets had understanding of two things: number one, Ma'rifat Allah wa Deeni - they know Allah. As the Prophet said:

I am the most knowledgeable of Allah and the one who fears Allah more than anyone else (Sahih al-Bukhari 20)

So the knowledge and the Taqwa go hand in hand.

وَاتَّقُوا اللَّهَ وَيُعَلِّمُكُمُ اللَّهُ وَاللَّهُ بِكُلِّ شَيْءٍ عَلِيمٌ

Wa ttaqoo allaha wa yu'allimukum Allah wallahu bikulli shay'in alim (Quran 2:282)

As is mentioned in Surah al-Baqarah: if you fear Allah, Allah will teach you and increase your knowledge. And vice versa:

Innama yakhshallaha min ibadihi al-ulama - Those who fear Allah most are the scholars (Quran 35:28)

So number one, as Muslims we believe it's impossible for the Prophets to act in a way of ignorance or stupidity. It's impossible. That's why Sayyidina Musa said:

Qala a'uthu billahi an akuna min al-jahileen - He said: I seek refuge in Allah from being ignorant (Quran 2:67)

Sayyidina Musa said: I seek refuge in Allah from being ignorant. So a Muslim community who claims to follow the Prophet and doesn't work to learn from the Ulama and the scholars who live with them because they are too arrogant or too proud or too whatever, then they have taken on a quality which is the opposite of the Prophets.

The Prophet said:

Innama bu'ithtu mu'alliman muyassiran - I was sent as a teacher and to facilitate things (Sahih Muslim 1478, from Aisha)

And he said:

Innama al-'ilmu bita'allum - Knowledge is acquired (Al-Mu'jam al-Awsat 6286)

It's sought, it's learned. That's why the Prophet said: There will come a time when there is an Alim amongst you who people will - and he described the Salaf as-Saleh - he said people will take camels to travel to study with him. And this Alim in the Hadith mentioned is Imam Malik because the Prophet said he will be in Medina. And that's why Yahya, the best narrator of the Muwatta, out of Naqasim, and Ibn Kathir - a different Ibn Kathir, not the one of Tafsir - came to Medina when he was 18 years old from Spain to study with Malik.

So the first that we believe about the Prophets - and I saw this movie with a group of Muslims - is that it's impossible for them to be portrayed as being imbeciles.

Second Quality: Truthfulness (Sidq)

The second thing he said in the poem - for our Arabic brothers, the form of the poem is Rajaz - he said that Allah sent the Prophets incredibly intelligent, number two, as truthful people, meaning that they don't lie and they don't deceive. And unfortunately in that movie we saw a Prophet being portrayed as a liar. We believe that the Prophets, it's impossible for them to lie. They are the truthful people.

There was a survey done once in Forbes magazine around 13 years ago: one of the most important qualities of CEOs, the number one quality was being truthful. Of leadership is being truthful.

Third Quality: Delivering the Message (Tabligh)

Wa Tabligh. Tabligh means that everything that Allah asked them to tell the people, they told them. They didn't hide anything from anybody. Everything that Allah commissioned them. Allah says in Surah al-Ma'idah:

Ya ayyuhal rasulu balligh ma unzila ilayka min rabbik - O Messenger, deliver what has been revealed to you from your Lord (Quran 5:67)

O Messenger of Allah, actually this Tabligh, the word is a word for a sponge when it soaks water. This is that word. So the idea is that the brain soaks the knowledge of the Prophets and the heart soaks the knowledge of the Prophets. Nothing is hidden.

And the Prophet said - it's related by [multiple sources]: anything that will bring you close to Allah, I taught you. Anything that will take you away from Allah, I warned you about it.

And also another Qira'ah, another Qira'ah, Allah uses the plural, meaning that if you did not, O Muhammad, relate this message, then you would have not related all of the messages of the Prophets before you.

So we believe that anything that will bring us closer to Allah, the Prophets told us about it. Anything we needed to draw near to Allah, the Prophets told us about it. And that's why the scholars of Usul have an axiom, they have an axiom that says: what is not allowed - it's impossible for us to believe that at the point of need a Prophet would not have clarified the issue to the people.

So number one: intelligence. Number two: honesty and integrity. Number three: that they did not hide the knowledge.

Allah said: those who hide what was sent by Allah to people, those things and those things that will help them draw near to them, if they hide it, Allah will curse them and the angels will curse them and all humanity will curse them, because what is in that message is what benefits people.

So: knowledge, honesty, and delivering the message of Allah.

Fourth Quality: Trustworthiness (Amanah)

The last is that they are trustworthy, that they are trustworthy, they are honest, they are not treacherous. And also our beloved messenger, for 40 years he lived with his people and he was given the name Al-Amin - the one you can bank on.

Unfortunately in this film we see a Prophet being portrayed in a way which would show him as not being trustworthy. We ask Allah.

Summary of the Qualities of the Prophets

So those qualities of the Prophets are what we believe: number one, intelligence; number two, truthfulness;

Part Two: Lessons from the Story of Prophet Nuh

Introduction to the Story of Nuh

Allah in the Quran mentions the story of Sayyidina Nuh, Prophet Noah, who we call Nuh. And what we are going to do is just take a few lessons from the story so that we can take them hopefully and have some conversations with people at work, with some of our classmates, with our neighbors, with our friends online, whatever, and lovingly and concerningly share what we know to be the true story of Sayyidina Nuh, peace be upon him.

Allah mentions in the Quran his story in a number of places. Allah mentions something incredible about this Prophet: that he preached to his people for more than a thousand years.

First Lesson: Patience (Sabr)

The first lesson that we take is patience, sabr. That change doesn't happen quickly. Often times we convert to Islam, we want to become - the day after we accept Islam - it doesn't happen. And it's very profound because the Prophet, in a hadith related by al-Bukhari, said:

(Sahih al-Bukhari 5705)

All of the nations were presented to me, and I saw a Prophet who had many followers, and I saw a Prophet that had two or three people with him, and I saw a Prophet and he had no followers

Subhanallah, sometimes, you know, as a community we rush things. Allah said most people, they race, they want to see change quickly. So we learn to be patient, to have patience, to take our time.

Once one of my teachers, I was memorizing five pages of Quran everyday, and he grabbed me and he said: slow down, the road is a long road. And then he told me: I'm not listening to more than two pages. I said: but I can memorize five. He said: you can memorize five and forget six.

So sometimes as a community we get impatient, and the impatience leads to frustration, and the frustration leads to anger, and the anger leads to acting ignorantly.

The Prophet, once he was walking in the Kaaba and the people complained to him: when is the help of Allah going to come? When is the change going to happen? And he mentioned to them: there were people before you who were sawed in half for the truth and they didn't change, they stayed patient. And he said: but most of you, you're rushing.

Second Lesson: Understanding His People

So we see Sayyiduna Nuh, something powerful in his da'wa: that he knows his people. That's why in the Quran it's constantly mentioned. So the second point is that he was embedded in his reality. He understood his people. He distanced himself from the evil that people did, but in the good that they were involved in, he was involved in.

And that's why Allah says - those of you who understand Arabic really well, you're going to understand - Allah says that we sent Nuh in his people. He was inside their bodies:

Inna arsalna Nuhan ila qawmihi

But the expression "في" - like الخبز في الكوب، الماء في الكوب - we say you know, the water is in the cup, literally in the cup. So Allah describes Nuh with his people as though he's inside them, not عندهم,not فيهم because he understands his people well.

And sometimes as a community in this country, we get nervous, we get empathetic beginning to speak to the people of this country according to their culture. We have to, because our prophets were sent in the people, not outside of the people. But the problem is when ignorance becomes what we measure by, the knowledge is seen as ignorance.

And that's why المعري said - المعري said in his poem: when I saw ignorance was the norm of the people, I learned until they called me ignorant.

So Sayyiduna Nuh is part of his people. He understands his people. He doesn't dress differently than them. He doesn't talk differently than them. He doesn't come with something different than them. He comes as they are.

That's why when Allah sent Sayyidina Jibreel to the prophet ﷺ, always he wore the clothes of the people he was sent to - cultural relevance.

One time I went to my teacher and he told me: why do you always dress like that? I said: it's sunnah. He said: that's sunnah, but maybe dressing like your people is a more important sunnah. I said: I never thought about this before. He said: that's why I'm the shaykh and you're the student. I said: yeah.

So cultural relevance. فيهم - he understands them. He knows how to speak. So many times in one chapter: call me my people, my people, my concern are my people. And those of us who have been brought to this deen, we better make sure our concern is our people, our people.

So Allah teaches us his ability to be embedded and concerned about his folk. And that's why he says:

Inni da'awtu qawmi laylan wa nahara - I called them night and day

Falam yazid'hum du'a'i illa firara - And the only thing my dawah brought them was to flee from me

Wa inni kullama da'awtuhum litaghfira lahum - And every time I called them so that You could forgive them

Ja'alu asabi'ahum fi athanihim

This is interesting in Arabic because it says in Arabic that they put their entire fingers in their ear, like they took their fingers and shoved them in their head. That's impossible. جَعَلُوا أَصَابِعَهُمْ فِي آذَانِهِمْ - but the meaning is only the tips of their fingers. But they were so harsh and stood so against the truth, it was like they wanted to shove their hands in their ears, you know, not to hear him.

Wastaghshaw thiyabahum - And they veiled themselves in their clothes

وَاسْتَغْشَوْا ثِيَابَهُمْ - arrogant.

Third Lesson: Not Being Swayed by Worldly Status

The next point that we take from this is: people having clothes in the time of Sayyiduna Nuh was rare. People having clothes was a rarity. Nowadays we have clothes everywhere, but there was a time where - and that's why the ulama said the man who urinated in the masjid of the prophet, one of the reasons the prophet didn't allow them to stop him is because he would have urinated on their clothes, because the companions only had one pair of clothes. Clothes were not the commodity that we have now.

So what we learn from this, the fourth point - and that's what Allah says very beautifully:

Wa kullama marra alayhi mala'un min qawmihi sakhiru minhu

In the Quran Allah said that every time - he used the word mala' - people, the rich people, the cool people, the people that, you know, people want to be like, people that they want to emulate, whether they're successful in Wall Street or they're successful in the other streets, it doesn't matter. That's mala'.

So not only was he making da'wah, but he dealt with peer pressure. He dealt with the idea of being made fun of. سَخِرُوا مِنْهُ - they debased him. So he was not swerved by dunya. He was not swerved by the lie of this world, but he was focused.

Qala in taskharu minna fa inna naskharu minkum kama taskharun

And actually he responded to them in the Quran and said: as you make fun of us, we're going to make fun of you one day.

Fasawfa ta'lamuna man ya'tihi athabun yukhzihi wa yahillu alayhi athabun muqim

And one day you're going to know who's going to be - he continues and they continue to belittle him. And it's incredible when he mentions what happened to Sayyidina Nuh, it's very powerful.

Fourth Lesson: The Test of Family

But there are two more points that we'll take and we'll stop. Three. Number one is: da'wah always comes with a test. The truth always has a test. And the greatest test anyone can face is their family.

Most of the scholars say only 80 people followed him. 80 people followed Sayyidina Nuh. 80 people. And from amongst those who rejected him were his son and his wife.

Innahu laysa min ahlik, innahu amalun ghayru salih

In fact, Allah, Sayyidina Nuh, he made dua: my son, my son, because it's natural to love his son. But in those moments of disparity, those moments of hardship, those moments of difficulty:

Fada'a rabbahu anni maghlubun fantasir

In those moments of hardship and difficulty, what does he do? He doesn't go to make some kind of ill decision. He calls his Lord and says انتصر - and it's interesting, انتصر the form, you know, is مبالغة because it actually doesn't exist in Arabic. This happens a lot in the Quran, that a verbal form is used that doesn't exist to show intensity, to show power, to show how desperate he was.

And we see in the Quran his desperation is found:

Inna arsalna Nuhan ila qawmihi an anthir qawmaka min qabli an ya'tiyahum athabun alim

Allah orders him: go to your people and warn them. Once in the Quran, always نذیر, why? Because his people were so bad, Allah never called Prophet Nuh a bringer of good tidings, because his people were so bad. They

didn't need ترغيب, they needed ترهيب. His people were wild. They needed someone to wake them up and remind them.

But look at the next verse:

Qala ya qawmi

Allah says: indeed we commissioned Nuh, we sent him to his people to warn them of a grievous punishment. It doesn't say "and he said," "he said." It doesn't say فقال or وقال or فقال وبدون بدون, to show there is no conjunction. And this is the beauty of the Arabic language again.

When Allah said: we ordered him to go to his people, there is not even an "and" or a "then." The "and" and "then" are gone. It just says: we ordered him to go to his people, he said. To show you that Prophet Nuh didn't wait one second to make da'wah to his people. Not even the second you would need to say "and" or "then."

Fifth Lesson: Building in the Face of Destruction

And that's the last lesson that we'll focus on because of time: that in the face of destruction, in the face of difficulty, the Muslim is the one who builds. That in the face of negativity, the Muslim is the one who constructs. That in the face of hardship, the Muslim reflects those hardships with goodness.

And he says - and what does he do? He builds this incredible ark by the will of Allah. And here is success. Success: how do we deal with success with Allah?

Summary of Key Lessons

So there are really an infinite number of lessons that can be taken from the story, but those that we want to reflect on quickly are:

First: That they're truthful, that they're intelligent, that they make da'wah to their people, Alhamdulillah, and that they're trustworthy people, they're trustworthy people.

Then we mentioned some lessons from the story of Sayyidina Nuh:

Number one: The artistry by which he brought the message to the people, the sincerity in his message to the point that there's no conjunction - la fa wa la wa - there's no conjunction. We send him, we send him, and we send him, he said, just like the Malaika, because they were so shocked when they heard about this creation of Allah, Alhamdulillah. This is a beautiful point in rhetoric.

Number two: He knows his people. So he says he's invested in them. If we spend our time talking ill of people more than we do making da'wah for them, we have a problem. Our beloved Prophet made da'wah for the two Umars at the height of their hatred for our beloved Prophet. He responds to them with da'wah, and Allah brought from that blessed da'wah Sayyidina Umar Ibn al-Khattab, may Allah be pleased with him.

Number three: Patience. And that's why, look, Allah orders Nuh to spread goodness and he doesn't wait the time it takes for us to use a conjunction. But then when Sayyidina Nuh talks about his efforts to his Lord in

da'wah, he says "then," then. He says: patience. Patience with our children, patience with our family, patience with people around us. Patience. The Prophet said: no one was given anything better than patience.

The other lesson that we learn: Not to be swayed by peer pressure. Mala', you know, the popular crowd from his people stuck their whole hands in their head, right? And they were wearing clothes that they could actually veil themselves with those clothes, as mentioned by the scholars of Tafsir. The popular crowd doesn't sway the believer. The believer knows that what's with Allah - sometimes as parents we make decisions for our children based on what people are going to say, popularity, and we sacrifice their deen - the opposite.

And then finally we mentioned: How Sayyidina Nuh was a believer. The Muslim is someone who brings good, brings benefit. And that's why Allah says: we sent Nuh to his people, because we believe Allah doesn't do anything - and this is a major problem in this movie, the underlying theme is that Allah does things without any purpose. We believe Allah - and nothing is done without transcendent knowledge of Allah Ta'ala. But Allah says: we sent you to them, and the lam means that we sent you for the benefit of people, to bring to the people and protect them from.

So in the face of hardship, we bring benefit and we prevent harm. This is the crux of our religion as we're learning in Harvard on Tuesday night: that in the face of difficulties and hardships, we build things.

And that's why our beloved messenger Muhammad (صلى الله عليه وسلم) said: if Yawm al-Qiyamah starts and you have a seed in your hand, plant it. Plant it, put it in the ground.

Closing Supplications

So we ask Allah to revive our hearts with faith. We ask Him to love the Quran. We ask Him to put in our souls the Quran.

Allahumma salli wa sallim and bless our master Muhammad in the beginning and in the end and in the highest heaven, O Lord of the worlds.

O our Lord, do not tear our hearts after You guided us and bestow mercy upon us, You are the Bestower (Quran 3:8)

O Allah, the returner of hearts, fix our hearts on Your religion and Your obedience and Your good worship, O Lord of the worlds.

O Allah, make us of the grateful and make us of the righteous, make us of the believers and make us of those who believe in You, O Lord of the worlds.

We ask Allah to unite us with our beloved messenger sallallahu alayhi wa sallam in the hereafter.

We ask Allah to cure the sick in our community.

We ask Allah to forgive those who have passed away.

May Allah preserve the sanctity of the Awliya in every place.

We ask Allah to help the people of Sham, the people of Somalia, the people of Palestine, the people of this country, the people who lost their lives recently in Texas.

We ask Allah to help the family of the firefighters who were killed last week in our beloved city of Boston.

We ask Allah to protect this masjid, to protect the people of this masjid, to strengthen the iman of the people of this masjid and the entire Muslim community in this area.

We ask Allah.

Subhana rabbika rabbil izzati amma yasifoon, wassalamun ala al mursaleen, wa alhamdulillahi rabbil alamin