Battling Depression Through The Psychology of Surah Al-Duha Shaykh

Battling Depression Through The Psychology of Surah Al-Duha

By Shaykh Dr. Yasir Qadhi

Opening

All praise is due to Allah. We praise Him, seek His help and forgiveness. We seek refuge in Allah from the evil of our souls and from the wickedness of our deeds. Whomever Allah guides, none can misguide; and whomever He misguides, none can guide. And I bear witness that there is no deity worthy of worship except Allah alone, without any partners. And I bear witness that Muhammad is His servant and messenger.

"O you who have believed, fear Allah as He should be feared and do not die except as Muslims [in submission to Him]."

أما بعد ، my dear brothers and sisters in Islam, this trial, this life of ours is full of trials. There is no stage of our lives except that we face in it anxieties, grief, stress, and worries.

The Prophet's Crisis and Allah's Response

And, if you look at the life of our Prophet (صلى الله عليه وسلم) he faced far more powerful struggles than we did. His anxieties were far greater than anything we can imagine. And Allah جل جلاله revealed at the very first major crisis of his life, of his spiritual life.

Allah revealed a surah that will be the subject of our khutbah today. Because it deals with how to grapple with anxiety and stress. It deals with what to do when you're facing challenges.

It deals with what to do when you're so overcome, you might be verging on depression. You might be thinking thoughts that are un-Islamic. And our Prophet (صلى الله عليه وسلم) himself went through something of this nature, very minuscule amount at the beginning of his prophethood.

The Period of No Revelation

If you look at the early seerah of the Prophet (صلى الله عليه وسلم) in the first year of the revelation of the Quran, there was a time frame, some scholars said up to six months, that Allah did not reveal any Quran.

So the Quran came, Iqra came, Muzzammil came, Muddathir came, and then after a while, no Quran. And the Prophet (صلى الله عليه وسلم) began wondering, what's wrong? Is there something wrong with me? Maybe Allah doesn't love me anymore. Maybe I've done something to displease Allah and I'm not worthy of Allah's love.

These feelings that we now call anxiety, borderline depression, these feelings of doubting your self-worth, they came to none other than the greatest human being ever to walk the face of this earth.

And for many weeks, many months, no revelation came. So much so that he began to think that Allah does not like him anymore.

That he is not beloved to Allah. That he has failed in the mission. Then, at the very end of this time frame, Abu Lahab's wife taunted him and said, What's this? We haven't seen any Quran for so long. Maybe your shaitan has abandoned you. (Audhu billah, audhu billah). And this really hurt him (صلى الله عليه وسلم). And he went home very depressed, anxious.

And it was at that point in time that Allah revealed the surah that we all know. It is surah Ad-Duha.

The Structure of Surah Ad-Duha

Now, this surah is a very beautiful surah. One short khutbah cannot do justice. But we need to talk about it in its entirety.

So what I will do, I will divide this surah into 4 different sections. The first of them, 2 verses, the Qasam of Allah, the oath. These are optimistic oath. These are oaths that are very positive. Then the second is 3 verses. The third is 3 verses and the fourth is 3 verses.

3 plus 3 plus 3 plus 2 gives you total of the number of verses in this surah which is 11.

The Four Sections

1. The first of the 3 verses negates the feeling of being worthless in the eyes of Allah, the spiritual depression, the feeling of negativity that I'm not worth anything, there's no good in me. Allah negates that, get rid of it.

2. The second series of 3 verses, it negates the feeling of being useless in society, of not being blessed in society, all my luck is against me.

3. The final 3 verses, it directs the energies of the person to do something everlasting, to do something positive. Channel your negativity and do something worthwhile.

Section One: The Optimistic Oath

We said the first section is the qasam, the oath, which is a very positive qasam.

Allah gives the oath, the qasam, and we all know qasam means, Allah wants to draw attention, Allah wants to emphasize what He is saying is true and listen to what I'm about to say. And by giving the qasam of the dawn, what does the dawn symbolize? In every culture, in every language, in every society, in every civilization, what does the dawn symbolize? The beginning of a new era. It is a new day. It is new opportunity. It is new hope. Yesterday is gone.

Today is a new day. (وَالضُّحَىٰ) This is how Allah begins the surah. Don't look at the past. Look at the future. Don't worry about what happened. Today is a new day with new opportunities.

The sun is coming up again. The sun is bringing new opportunities. The day is bringing new opportunities.

Allah gives the qasam by the morning sun that is coming up. The early time, which is the time of barakah, the time of activity, the time when everybody wakes up and the hustle and bustle and the traffic, all of this is (وَالضُّحَىٰ) And the night when it becomes calm, which is the time of sleep, which is the time of sukoon. Once again, both of these are contrasting.

When you go to sleep as well, the worries of this dunya go away. When you wake up and the sun is coming up, no matter how bad was yesterday, today is a new day.

Section Two: Negating Spiritual Worthlessness

What is the rest of the surah?

This is a negation. Stop feeling that you are worthless. Stop feeling that you're worth nothing. (مَا وَدَّعَكَ رَبُّكَ وَمَا قَلَىٰ) Your Lord has neither abandoned you nor does He hate you. Allah does not hate any believer. No believer is despised by Allah.

Yes, Allah does not love sins. But Allah loves those who turn to Him. Allah loves the repenter. Allah loves the muhsineen. Allah loves the muttaqeen. Allah loves the mu'mineen.

(Bukhari)

Our Prophet (صلى الله عليه وسلم) said, Allah loves His servants more than a mother loves her baby child. Allah is the wadood, the one who is ever loving.

Your Lord has neither abandoned you nor does He despise you.

No doubt, this ayah is in the singular to the Prophet (صلى الله عليه وسلم). And no doubt, he occupies the maximum share. But it is true that every person who believes in that Prophet, every person who considers himself of the ummah of that Prophet (صلى الله عليه وسلم), a share of this verse will apply to him or her as well.

Your Lord does not hate you, O Muslim. Your Lord does not despise you, O believer in Allah. Your Lord has not abandoned you, O you who says, (لا إله إلا الله) Your Lord will never abandon you. Did He not create you? Did He not guide you? Did He not give you all that you have? Stop feeling this sense of worthlessness.

The Promise of Better Days

Now this verse comes and after getting rid of the negativity, it's substituted with positive feeling and think positive. Get rid of the pessimism and change it with optimism. Tomorrow will be a better day. (وَلَلْآخِرَةُ خَيْرٌ لَّكَ مِنَ الْأُولَىٰ) The future will be better than the past.

The future meaning in this dunya will be better than the past. This is a part of our creed. Our Prophet (صلى الله عليه وسلم) said, Allah loves optimism.

(Tirmidhi hadith 1606)

It's an authentic hadith, memorize it. Allah loves optimism. It is a part of iman to be optimistic. We think tomorrow will be better than yesterday. (وَلَلْآخِرَةُ خَيْرٌ لَّكَ مِنَ الْأُولَى) Today the Meccans are persecuting you. Today your followers are being killed. Today this is happening. Tomorrow you will enter this city as a conqueror. The day after tomorrow,

Three days from now, the whole ummah will be Muslim. From beginning to end you will see Muslims everywhere in every corner as we see right now. (وَالْآخِرَةُ خَيْرٌ لَّكَ مِنَ الْأُولَى) Always be optimistic.

Now somebody will say, but sometimes the future is not better than the past. And we say, perhaps in this dunya, perhaps for some people, tomorrow will be a little bit more difficult than yesterday. But, (وَلْلْآخِرَةُ خَيْرٌ لَّكَ مِنَ الْأُولَى) For every single believer without exception. Even if this world is a world of misery and pain, the believer has something else to look forward to.

And that is the real akhirah. That is the akhirah of jannah. Okay, maybe this dunya is tough. Okay, maybe you're going through some tough times. But never forget, there is an akhirah. And in that akhirah Allah عز وجل will reward you.

Allah will reward and reward and reward. There shall be everlasting bliss.

Divine Assurance of Satisfaction

You shall get. Maybe not exactly what you want, but you will get enough good that you will be happy and content. Whenever Allah takes something away, our Prophet (صلى الله عليه وسلم) said he gives something better than this, the authentic hadith.

Whenever Allah takes something away, and you are patient, Allah gives you something better than what He has taken away.

Allah will give you, and give you, and give you until you will be content. He didn't say He will give you what you want. No, maybe you won't get what you want. But Allah will give you. And Allah will give you until you are happy with Allah'sqadr and decree.

And once again in this dunya, and just in case it's not in this dunya, then for sure in the akhirah.

Section Three: Reminders of Allah's Blessings

So these three verses we said, they negate spiritual feelings of emptiness and negativity. Spiritually people feel, I'm not worthwhile, Allah doesn't love me, I'm not good enough. These three verses negates them, you are worthwhile, Allah does love you, you have potential in you.

The next three verses, they negate feelings of worthlessness in this dunya. People think, I've always been unlucky, whatever I do, I just don't get it.

Three rhetorical questions. And the purpose of a rhetorical question is to emphasize what is already known, not to teach something you didn't know. To bring up a memory, you should have it, you should be thinking about it, but you're not thinking about it. Something has clouded you.

The Three Divine Favors

Your mother died, your father died, your grandfather died. You were a yateem in every sense of the word. Yet, at every stage of your life, didn't we take care of you? Didn't we send someone else to protect you? When your father passed away, even before you were born, your mother was there for you. When your mother passes away, your grandfather took you. When your grandfather passed away, your uncle Abu Talib took you. At every stage of your life, your vulnerability was protected by Allah.

You didn't know the truth, Ya Rasulullah. You used to go to Ghar-e-Hira. You used to be praying to Allah to guide you. You didn't know how to worship Allah. You didn't know the details of Iman, the details of the Quran. And so Allah Subhanahu wa Ta'ala guided you. You were not upon the guidance. You didn't know the guidance. Allah Azawajal guided you.

And we found you, you didn't have any money, Ya Rasulullah. You didn't have anything. You were poor. Your parents did not leave you a fortune. But now we gifted you. Our scholars say أَغْنَى here is Khadijah and the wealth of Khadijah. And this shows us the blessings of having a good spouse and a righteous spouse.

The Lesson for Us

Anytime something negative faces you, anytime your business fails, anytime you're in a car crash, anytime your exam doesn't pass, anytime shaitan comes and throws a thought in your head, Oh my God, I have no luck. Realize, there are always positives in your life that you're overlooking at that stage.

Shaitan has caused you to neglect some of the biggest blessings that Allah has given you. And you concentrate on the negative rather than the positive. Ya Rasulullah, look at all of these positives that you have.

How could you ever have thought that Allah abandoned you? Allah neglected you? Allah hated you? How is that even possible? At every stage of your life, Allah blessed you with all of these things.

Looking at What We Have

(Bukhari hadith 6490)

Our Prophet (صلى الله عليه وسلم) said, when one of you sees someone with something that he doesn't have and he wants it, don't look at that. Look at another person whom you have been blessed over and you have something that person doesn't have.

See, this society that we live in, this modern culture, it emphasizes what we don't have. Look at this multi-million dollar mansion, look at this beautiful cars, look at this, and we want to just aspire, we want that, we want that, we want that.

Our sharia says, stop looking at what you don't have and look at what you do have. This is a hadith of our Prophet (صلى الله عليه وسلم). When one of you sees something that you don't have and you begin to desire it, stop looking there and look at somebody who doesn't have what you have been blessed with, so that you appreciate the positive that you have.

Section Four: Channeling Energy into Positive Action

Then Allah subhanahu wa ta'ala tells us,