Era of Trials and Tribulations

Era of Trials and Tribulations

Opening and Praise

Verily, all praise is due to Allah. We praise Him and we seek His help. And we seek refuge in Allah from the evil of our souls and the consequences of our actions.

Indeed, whomever Allah guides, none can misguide. And whomever Allah chooses to misguide, none can guide him back to the straight path. I bear witness and I testify that there's no deity worthy of worship other than Allah.

And that Muhammad (peace and blessings be upon him) is His final Prophet and His most perfect worshipper. As to what follows, Allah has reminded us in the Quran to be conscious of Him until we die. For He says:

O you who believe, be conscious of Allah as He deserves that you be conscious of Him. And do not die except in a state of submission.

The Prophet's Vision of Future Trials

My dear brothers and sisters in Islam, it is reported in the Sahih of Imam Muslim that once our Prophet (peace and blessings be upon him) was sitting with a group of companions on top of the roof of one of the larger houses of Medina. And it was a beautiful day and the city was clear in front of them.

And he said to them, do you see what I see? They said, Allah and His Messenger know best. We don't know what you are seeing, Ya Rasulullah. He said, I see fitan, calamities and trials falling on you, on all of these houses, the way that rain falls down on them.

I see that you and the entire ummah, not just the city of Medina, will be engulfed in a torrent of trials and tribulations. You do not see them, but I see that it is going to happen.

The Nature of This Ummah's Trials

And we learned in another hadith also reported in Sahih Muslim that our Prophet (peace and blessings be upon him) said, every Prophet has come in order to warn his people, to protect them from the harm and to guide them to the good.

And what I am telling you, with a warning I am going to give to you, what I am telling you is that the blessed state of this ummah is its earlier state. As for its later state:

As for its later state, calamities and trials will befall, that you will end up rejecting them.

So he told us in this hadith that the earliest phase would be a blessed phase. The phase of the khulafa ar- rashidun, the phase of Abu Bakr and Umar and Uthman and Ali (may Allah be pleased with them), the phase of the sahaba, that was the blessed era. That was the era of barakah, that was the era of ilm, that was the era of expansion, that was the era of conquest, that was the era, even if minor issues happened, overall the ummah was in a state of glory, in a state of izzah.

The Escalating Nature of Trials

As for after that blessed state, as for later time frames, and there is no question, we are in those later time frames. They shall be tested and tried with calamities that will cause you to reject. Calamities that the earlier ummah did not see. And he said in the same hadith:

(Sahih Muslim)

Fitnas are going to come. Each one of them is going to make the previous one appear to be soft, appear to be easy, appear to be not a big deal. Every time a fitna comes, the Prophet (peace and blessings be upon him) said, a person will say:

This fitna will destroy me.

Then it will be lifted up. Then another one will come. Then the believer will say:

This is the one that will destroy me. This is the one that will destroy me.

And the hadith goes on, we're gonna come back to its ending at the end of our khutbah today.

The Prophet's Predictions and Their Wisdom

But let's pause here for a while. I quoted you two or three traditions of our Prophet (peace and blessings be upon him). In which he told us a number of things.

First and foremost, he predicted the future. That's what a Prophet does. He prophesizes, he predicts the future by the permission of Allah. He tells us what's going to happen. And he told us of something that was inconceivable in the peace of Medina, in the stability of the new Islamic state in that great and glorious era. He said, you guys, you don't see what I'm seeing. This ummah will be immersed in turmoil, fitnas.

Secondly, he said, there will be a lot in quantity. He compared them to the drops of rain. Just like you cannot protect yourself from the rain. Even if you have an umbrella that mashaAllah protects you, your house, your property, your friends, they will all get wet. Even if you manage to protect yourself partially, you cannot save yourself totally from the fitna.

And thirdly, he told us something that is a little bit scary, but the purpose is to make us firm. And he said, the fitna will continue to come so much so that each time one comes, you will think the worst has come, and yet the worst is yet to come. Every time the fitna comes, you think there can't be anything worse than this. And then another one comes and you realize, you know what? We faced an easier one, now we have a bigger one.

Understanding the Concept of Fitna

So what exactly is this concept of fitna? And why is Allah immersing us? What is the wisdom of these fitnas? The word fatana in Arabic means to examine, to test. The word fatana means to examine, to test.

And to make something pure, both of them are there, because what does an examination do? It makes you pure, or it makes the classroom pure. What does a professor do when he tests the students? He sifts the good, and he knows who the good are.

In classical Arabic, the goldsmith who would take raw gold ore from the ground, and then purify it via the furnace, the goldsmith was called fattan, the one who causes fitna. The goldsmith was called fattan, the one who causes fitna. Why? He would take raw gold, and raw gold has within it pebbles, rocks, stone, dirt, and it has the most precious substance, and that is gold. And he would then sift through it, throw it through the furnace, and at the end of the furnace, what do you have? You have pure gold that is worth the most expensive thing, and you have the rocks and the pebbles.

That person was called fattan, the one who causes fitna. From this linguistic meaning, we already understand the theological implications of a fitna. From the luga, we get to aqeedah. From the language, what is fitna? What is the fattan? We understand some of the wisdoms of Allah in creating and causing these types of trials and tests.

Allah's Wisdom in Testing Humanity

Allah tells us in the Quran:

Do the people think that they will be left to say, "We believe" and they will not be tried? But We have certainly tried those before them, and Allah will surely make evident those who are truthful, and He will surely make evident the liars.

As to presume that we would create them and then let them be without testing them? Of a surety we tested the people before, so why do they think they will be got off scot-free? Of a surety we tested the generations before. And what is the purpose of the fitna? Allah will see who is telling the truth and Allah will see who is the liar. Who is telling the truth? I believe in Allah, and who is the liar? He says he believes, but his actions do not match up to his words.

Life as a Comprehensive Test

Who is telling the truth? Yes, I will have sabr, I will have iman, I will have tawakkul, I will have ikhlas. He says it, who doesn't say it? Versus who is the one who is not able to live up to that? And Allah mentions in the Quran that this whole life is a fitna. Everything in it is a fitna.

You see my dear brothers and sisters, it is not of the philosophy of the believer to presume that Jannah is in this world. That's the philosophy of those who reject Allah. They want to be gifted Jannah on a silver platter.

Do you think you will enter Jannah just like that? And Allah has yet to test and see who is the one striving, who is the one who is patient.

This is what the non-Muslim as the Quran says, who demands Jannah for nothing. I want Jannah just because you created me, you gift me with Jannah. And this is what we hear by the way of those who reject God. They say, well, look at all of this evil and suffering. If God existed, why doesn't we just live in complete peace? See, they want Jannah in this world.

The Purpose of This World

And that's not the philosophy of Iman and Taqwa. Jannah is the gift that Allah gives to those who, I'm not gonna say deserve it because Jannah is too precious to deserve. I'm not gonna say earn it because Jannah cannot be earned by our actions.

Jannah is a gift to those who demonstrate a desire to achieve it. That's what it is. You want Jannah, and you put in a little bit of effort, just a little bit of effort, and Allah will gift it to you as a karam, as a generosity from Him.

And how is that gift decided? By how we react to the fitan. The purpose of fitan. The purpose, we want the gold. What is the gold? Jannah. We want the prize. What is the prize? Allah's pleasure.

We have to go through the furnace. And that furnace is the furnace of fitan. That furnace is the furnace of trials and tribulations. This world is a place of trial and tribulation. This world is not the place of Jannah.

This world is not the place of rest. This world is not the place of complete and perpetual bliss. That will be in the akhirah if we prepare and we desire it.

The Universal Nature of Trials

As for this world, there is not a single human being who is in full bliss and harmony with his or her life. This is the reality. Every person has anxieties. Every person has struggle. Every person has inner and outer pain. This is what life is. And some of these are bigger than others. No doubt we are not comparing every single pain and suffering. But still, it is impossible for a human being to live except that there's going to be internal and external suffering and anxiety and pain.

In fact, everything is a fitna in some level. Allah says:

Your money is a fitna for you. Your children are a fitna for you.

What does it mean a fitna? They're a trial, they're a test. Every one of us is struggling with family in our own way. Every one of us without exception has family issues. This is the reality of life.

And you as well are a fitna to others. You are looking at it from your paradigm. Yet the reality is you are a fitna to others just like they are a fitna to you. If you are a father, as a child, they will look to you and you are their test. If you are a husband, the wife will look to you and you are her test. And vice versa.

As Allah says in the Quran:

Every one of you we have made a fitna unto others.

No one is innocent. Don't just look at the world through your eyes. Put yourself in the eyes of the other. You are being used to test other people. And other people are being used to test you.

Different Types of Tests

Every one of us is a test to the other. The rich are a test to the poor. The poor are a test to the rich. The kings are a test to their subjects. The subjects are a test to their kings. Men are a test to women. Women are a test to men. Every group is a test unto others. And they too are going to be tested via others. This is the sunnah of Allah in His creation.

And of course the fitna of wealth. We all understand the fitna of wealth. Hadith in Tirmidhi, our Prophet (peace and blessings be upon him) said:

Every ummah has been tested with one particular fitna more than others. And the fitna that will be the fitna for my ummah will be the fitna of money:

(Tirmidhi 2336)

Surplus, abundance of wealth.

And Allah will then ask us what we did with that wealth, how we earned that wealth, how we spent that wealth. This is the fitna of money. The fitna of our relations with other people. The fitna of domestic and international affairs. We are painfully aware of what is going on across the globe. We're painfully aware of the domestic fitna that are taking place.

Societal Trials

And in fact some ulama say, when the Prophet (peace and blessings be upon him) predicted the fitna, like the drops of rain, he is not talking about personal fitna. Like the drops of rain affects society, he's talking about societal fitna. He's talking about civil war. He's talking about political pressures that we're very familiar with in the time frames that we're living in right now.

So in reality my dear brothers and sisters, rather than ask why are we being tested, in fact we should understand life is a test. That is the purpose of life.

The Reward for Passing the Test

Allah created us to be tested so that those who pass the test will inshaAllah be rewarded with a reward that the test itself would never have given them. It is a gift from Allah. But just because you passed it, Allah rewarded you much more.

Imagine my dear brothers and sisters, just imagine if you pass an undergraduate class in mathematics and organic chemistry, and as a reward the teacher says to you, the professor says to you, from now on here's 10 million dollars, you never have to work for the rest of your life. You think that is fair? Of course not. We would like it, but it's not the way the world works.

Jannah is worth more than 10 million dollars. Jannah is worth much more. And Allah is gifting us Jannah for a measly effort, a small effort if we wanna pass the test.

How to Deal with Trials

So how then do we pass the test? What do we do in the face of fitan? What is the response to fitan? A number of things. First and foremost my dear brothers and sisters, of the most important aspects that help us deal with all types of fitan. The fitan of our wealth, the fitan of our spousal relations, the fitan of our children, the fitan of domestic, international affairs, all types of fitan.

Number one, turn to Allah with dua:

(Sahih Muslim 2867)

Hadith of the Prophet (peace and blessings be upon him): Seek refuge in Allah from every fitan, the hidden and the apparent, the big and the small, the large and the tiny.

Seek refuge in Allah. And he would say:

(Sahih Muslim 590)

We seek refuge in Allah from fitan. So the first thing we do, dua to Allah, dua.

2. Do Not Lose Hope in Allah

Number two, we realize and understand the purpose of a fitna is to pass the test. So we had better not fail. Simple as that. How does one fail the fitna? Many ways but the most important way we seek Allah's refuge is to lose faith and trust and hope in Allah.

Allah says in the Qur'an, that there are those who worship Allah with a condition. If things are good:

He's happy and he worship Allah. And when things go bad, he will turn away from Allah.

Allah says in the Qur'an, that there are those people that:

They make the fitna of people like the punishment of Allah. They equate the fitna that comes from mankind, they equate that fitna like the punishment from Allah.

Do not equate the fitna from people whether it is the fitna of money, or the fitna of politics, or the fitna of fame, or the fitna of persecution. This is this dunya, it comes, it goes, you will die, I will die. Never equate the fitna of this world with the azab of Allah.

And Allah criticizes those people who think the fitna of this world is the end all, and that's it, and they cannot bear it, and this and that. This world is temporary, all of its problems are temporary. Think of the permanent solution, and that is the pleasure of Allah.

Do not make the fitna of this world like the punishment of Allah. So number two, we do not lose hope in Allah. We do not lose our iman, and our trust in Allah.

The Promise of Salvation

You know the hadith I began with, in which the Prophet (peace and blessings be upon him) said, fitnas are gonna come one after the other, each one will make the one before it to be trivial. How did he finish that hadith? He said, whoever wants to be saved from the fire of hell, and enter jannah, let death come to him:

(Sahih Muslim 1844)

And his iman in Allah and his messenger is still there.

That's the way we save from fitna. To be brutally honest, may Allah protect me and you, so what if we lose something of this dunya, but through it we gain the akhirah. We don't want to lose this dunya:

But in the bigger scale, in the larger scale, so what if we lose this dunya for the sake of the permanent akhirah. Never equate the fitna of this world with the azab of Allah. That's point number two.

3. Increase in Good Deeds

Pass the test by having iman in Allah strong. Number three, and this goes back again to iman. For number one, two and three all go back to iman. And number three is amal, deeds.

Sahih Bukhari reports, one day the Prophet (peace and blessings be upon him) woke up. He had seen a vision, a dream of fitna coming down. He didn't tell us what he saw. He had seen a dream of a future event. And he said, I seek refuge in Allah from the fitna that have come down. I seek refuge in Allah from what Allah has decreed for the future. We don't know what he saw. It was something that made him worried, anxious, terrified.

And he stood up to pray tahajjud. And then he said, go and wake the women. He told the servants, Bilal wanted to go and wake the women and tell them to pray as well, his wives. Go wake up my wives, tell them to pray as well. What is interesting here, what was the response to the fitna? What was the response when the Prophet (peace and blessings be upon him) saw a fitna? To turn to Allah, to increase one's ibadah, one's salah.

And in authentic hadith our Prophet (peace and blessings be upon him) said:

(Sahih Muslim 2948)

Worship during times of fitna is like making hijrah to me.

And this is a beautiful hadith because, those sahaba who were being persecuted across the Arabian Peninsula, when they came to Medina, under the leadership of the Prophet (peace and blessings be upon him), what did they find? Peace, tranquility, izzah, honor, glory. That's what they found. What did our

Prophet (peace and blessings be upon him) say? Worshipping Allah during times of fitna is like making the hijrah to me.

You will find your honor, your izzah, your strength, your glory, your stability, you will find it in the worship of Allah. So at times of fitna, never ever ever be lazy about your salawat, about your ibadah, about your salah, about your charity. Always be on the top when it comes to these issues. This is point number three.

4. Seek Knowledge

Point number four, how do we respond to the challenge of the fitna? Also hadith in Sahih Bukhari, our Prophet (peace and blessings be upon him) said, towards the end of times, there gonna be many things that happen. And he said in a long list, he put two things together.

He said, knowledge will be lifted up, knowledge will be taken away, and fitna will spread (Sahih Bukhari 81). Notice, the two are causally related. The two are linked together. Knowledge lifted up, fitna spreads.

So one of the ways we battle against fitna, is to be educated about our religion, to learn our religion, to have ilm of Islam, of the Qur'an, of our sharia, of our theology, to study what does our religion teach us. These are hadith that the Prophet (peace and blessings be upon him) told us about the end of times.

These are hadith about fitna increasing. They are not meant to terrify. They're not meant to make us feel scared. They're meant to prepare us. They're meant for us to have our courage, our moral fortitude. They're meant for us to stand up and deal with these adversaries like true believers.

It is a warning. If we study them, we will be better prepared. So learn your religion. Study the traditions of Islam. Attend the circles of knowledge. Associate yourself with those who will teach you about Allah and His Messenger. Learn ilm, and that will help you during times of fitna.

Summary of Response to Trials

So we mentioned number one, seek refuge in Allah and make dua to Allah. We mentioned number two, have your iman strong when it comes to these issues. And never allow a fitna to shake your iman in Allah. And unfortunately this is happening that many of our young men and women, they don't understand the purpose of life. So when they are troubled, they give up religion. They say, ah, why would God do this? And they end up leaving religion as if that will solve their problems and it makes their problems even worse.

Number three, after you have iman in Allah, increase your good deeds. Make sure you have a strong relationship with Allah. And number four, ilm, and that is knowledge of this religion. And there are other things that can be said as well. But this is a brief way to respond to every fitna. The fitna that are apparent, and the fitna that are hidden. The fitna that are personal, and the fitna that are domestic and international. May Allah protect all of us from the fitna.

May Allah bless me and you with and through the Quran. And may He make us of those whose verses they understand. And those who applies halal and haram throughout our life span. I ask Allah to forgive me, you as well ask Him. For He is the Ghafoor, the Rahman. Alhamdulillah.

Second Part: Contemporary Situation in Kashmir

My dear brothers and sisters, of the fitna that appears to be brewing in the world today, as if we didn't have any enough of them. And remember what our Prophet (peace and blessings be upon him) said, fitna will continue to come. There is no end to fitna. But of the fitna that are brewing, and we need to raise public awareness. And every one of us should be monitoring the situation, is what is currently happening in that beautiful land of Kashmir.

Background on Kashmir

Kashmir, for those of you who are not aware, Kashmir is the only province of the current country of India that is a majority Muslim province. And to make a long story short, especially most of our brothers not from that region are not aware. When the partition took place in 1947, the goal was Muslim majority provinces would be given to the land of Pakistan. And Hindu majority would be in the land of India.

And the only exception to this, which was something that the British engineered with the Hindu Maharaja of Kashmir. Kashmir was a majority Muslim, but the ruler of Kashmir was Hindu. But the people were Muslim, majority Muslim, more than 95% Muslim. But for reasons beyond the scope of our khutbah, the one in charge of Kashmir, the ruling family, the Maharaja dynasty of Kashmir, it was a Hindu dynasty.

And long story short, they made a deal, the British pressured, etc., etc. And so, the Maharaja signed on to the Indian side. Even though the people of the land at the time, what happened afterwards is beyond the scope of our khutbah, at the time, there is no question, at the time, the majority of them wanted obviously to be with their Muslim brethren on the other side which is Pakistan.

Historical Consequences

But what happened happened, because of that double conniving, because of this trickery and deceit, the two countries went to war multiple times. Some parts of Kashmir were then taken over by Pakistan, and that is now Azad Kashmir, or there is a section of Kashmir that is ruled by Pakistan. But the bulk of Kashmir, the Jammu and Kashmir province, the region of Srinagar and others, they are ruled under occupation state, under complete brutal military surveillance by the regime in India.