Spiritual Advice In Light of COVID-19 Shutdown Shaykh

prepared, and especially given all that is happening, may I strongly, strongly suggest, in fact, may I remind you that our Prophet صلى الله عليه وسلم himself said it is not allowed for a Muslim to let three nights pass and he wants to make a will, except that he writes that will, or she writes that will, and so write a will, and make sure that it is something that is going to be following the commandments of Allah subhanahu wa ta'ala.

Point 5: Sincere Du'a to Allah

The next point that I want to remind myself and all of you is sincere du'a to Allah subhanahu wa ta'ala, and this is something that is very, very explicit in the Quran, that Allahazawajal says in the Quran:

"Why didn't they beg and plead us in du'a? Why didn't they come to us in du'a when our punishment came down?"

It is the sunnah of Allah subhanahu wa ta'ala that the purpose of these trials and tribulations is that we turn to Allah, and I have said this before and I'll say it again, if you lived a life of heedlessness before, don't feel guilty that this calamity is causing you to become religious.

On the contrary, the purpose of a calamity is to make you religious, the purpose of a trial and tribulation is to bring out that iman that was latent, that was stored inside of you. Dear Muslim, if you are feeling religious now, and you want to turn to Allah now, and you find a sense of desperation now, you know what that means? It means deep down inside you really had iman. Deep down inside it was there, and that's why it is coming out.

That is the purpose of the trial and tribulation. Allow that iman to grow, let it come out, and make du'a to Allah to avert calamity from you and me, from your loved ones and my loved ones. Make sincere du'a to Allah subhanahu wa ta'ala to protect all of us.

Point 6: Charity and Mercy to Creation

The next point after this one is we remind ourselves that it is a time to be charitable and merciful to the creation. If things are going to proceed as people are predicting, then in all likelihood we are going to see very, very economically challenging times.

People's rizq, all of our sustenance in all likelihood will be pinched, and that is when real generosity is shown, real charity and karam is shown. This is when we will be tested. Do you truly believe that when you give something to someone else for the sake of Allah, you will get more back in this world? Do you and I really, really, really believe that our Prophet صلى الله عليه وسلم gave a qasam to Allah, Wallahi, your money does not go down when you give it in charity.

Do you really believe that? Because now, I and you will be tested. Now, there will be people that need, and we might have a little bit of surplus, and perhaps we're going to feel, oh, I need to protect it. And again, be reasonable, but indeed, we are going to be tested in all likelihood, all of us.

And so, this is the time when our compassion, our mercy, our charity is going to be demonstrated. Dear Muslims, I remind you and me of the famous hadith of the Prophet صلى الله عليه وسلم

(Abu Dawud hadith 4941)

"Show compassion to those on earth, and the One in the heavens will show compassion to you."

We will be tested with compassion.

There will be people that will need our help. May I suggest myself and all of you, reach out to those who are elderly, who are alone, who don't have family, reach out to those who might need more people to be around them, and they don't have them, and you have the opportunity. You know there are specific age groups where the risk is much higher. If you belong to an age group that the risk is much lower, and you have the capacity, the means to go shopping for those that are elderly and they're not allowed to leave, then go ahead and do that. That's going to be a charity. Charity doesn't have to be writing a check.

It doesn't have to be giving your money to somebody else. Charity could be an optimistic word, could be an enthusiasm, a cheering up of somebody. Charity could be spending your time, your gasoline, your car to help somebody do a chore. As long as it is reasonable, we don't want anybody to take any unreasonable risks, but still helping others out within reason, within precaution, that is indeed a sign of iman.

Point 7: Family Time and Patience

The next point I wanted to say is that it does look like, it does look like that we will be told to remain long periods inside of our houses. In fact, the things are getting from bad to worse, not day by day, but hour by hour.

And we're being told that, you know, the elderly should stay home and even all of us, if there's no need, we shouldn't be going outside. And this means that we will be cooped up in our houses and with our families. And this means we're going to have to have patience as we're already seeing amongst family members.

We're going to have to control our tongue. But you know what? Find the blessing in that. We now have family time. We now have time for tarbiyah of the family, to develop the bonds of love. We have time to set role model examples about salah, establish the salah in your houses, pray salah together, at least one or two prayers, do some Quran together, try to do certain family activities together, so that inshaAllah ta'ala, you're going to be able to get those bonds of love, get that communal feeling.

Because subhanAllah, before this timeframe, you know, we barely got a chance to sit with our families. We will be here and there and busy. And perhaps this is a blessing in disguise that for the next few weeks, few months, maybe even year. Today, I read an article a year and a half, some of the experts are predicting 18 months. SubhanAllah. (نَسْأَلُ اللَّهَ السَّلَامَةَ وَالْعَافِيَةَ - nas'al allaha as-salāmah wal-ʿāfiyah).

But if that is the case, then maybe there is also the silver lining, the hidden blessing. And that is that we will be the family that learns to live together, cope together, establish those bonds of love, despite the fact there's going to be irritations, there's going to be nuisances, there's going to be screaming, that's human nature. But in all of that, inshaAllah, those bonds and those memories that will be established, they will last us through an entire lifetime. So use that family time with wisdom.

See what you can do. Make sure there is communal activities of salah and other things that are being done. And these are my spiritual advice.

Taking Logistical Precautions is Part of Iman

Now, I want to also tell you a little bit about some necessary precautions that we need to do that are not spiritual. These are logistical precautions. And taking logistical precautions, I said they are not spiritual. Let me cancel that. No, it is spiritual.

Dear Muslims, every one of you knows the hadith of the Prophet صلى الله عليه وسلم of the man who came and said, Oh, messenger of Allah, should I when I go to sleep, let my camel loose and trust Allah or should I tie my camel up? You all know the hadith.

He said, tie your camel and then put your trust in Allah. Tying your camel doesn't go against iman. It is a part of iman.

So now that we are facing this tragedy, now that we have this global catastrophe, the likes of which we used to read about in history books. Well, I was talking to a friend of mine today over the phone and I said to him, you know, this reminds me of reading the tarikh of Ibn Kathir or the tarikh of At-Tabari where we would read that. And in the year such and such a great calamity came and the people abandoned the masajid and they did this and they did that.

And it is as if you would read these mythological historical tales. And lo and behold, Allah has willed that we are living it in our own lifetimes. I would never have imagined we see a day when the masajid themselves are shut down because we ourselves are shutting them down.

Dare I say that in all likelihood, it has never happened in the history of Islam that so many masajid have been shut down voluntarily across the globe. This might be the first time that we are seeing this. And so subhanAllah, the situation is indeed dire, but we turn to Allah and we take reasonable precautions.

Following Medical Experts

Now, what are those precautions? Here, let me say, and if you've been hearing me in this masjid and before for the last few months, for the last few years, what I'm about to say will come of no shock to you. Dear Muslims, listen to the experts when they tell you about their areas of expertise.

I speak to you as somebody who has spent the last three decades almost of my life, almost three decades have gone by. And every single day, as far as I can remember, I have been studying Islam full time. I have dedicated my life to this religion and ask Allah for acceptance and ask Allah to accept from me and to forgive the mistakes. And I speak to you as somebody who has been studying Islam full time.

Listen to me when I say, do not go to the ulama for medical advice. We are not the people you need to go to, to tell you about the specifics of logistics of how to prepare. Dear Muslims, our Prophet صلى الله عليه وسلم said hadith is in Bukhari:

(Muslim hadith 2363)

"You know the affairs of your worldly matters better than I do."

He is the Rasulullah صلى الله عليه وسلم and he is telling a group of experts about agriculture. You know agricultural techniques better than I do.

Dear Muslims, what we are facing now, there's an element of religion. There's always an element of religion in everything, but the bulk of what we need to do logistically is not going to be found from people of knowledge. It's not going to be found in our classical textbooks of fiqh and of theology. This is something that our medical experts are going to be far more knowledgeable about.

What to do, what not to do, what precautions to take than people that have studied 10 years in a seminary, 20 years in a madrasa. Go to the ulama for their expertise and go to the medical experts for their expertise.

The Issue of Closing Masajid

And therefore, dear Muslims, and again, I must bring this up, I must say this again that please do not raise the people of Islamic knowledge above their role. Indeed, it is true that the Prophet صلى الله عليه وسلم praised the ulama as being the inheritors of the Prophet, and that means the role of the Prophet of spiritual guidance will collectively be from the Islamiculama. That is true. We all agree with that, and I ask Allah to make me even just related to that category and I'll be happy.

But that is the role of spiritual guidance. As for logistics, go to the experts. And I am not an expert in epidemics, diseases, in the spread of coronavirus, in how virus is spread.

And if you find that ulama are divided about the best way forward in terms of logistics, then go to the opinion that the experts are sticking with. Yes, don't jump over the ulama completely. But when you find the ulama divided, you find two opinions, and the issue that they're differing over is related to modern

issues, whether it is medicine, whether it is anything, then follow the opinion that matches the expertise advice.

And don't just become blind and say, oh, because the Sheikh I love said it, I'm going to follow him. Just like if you had a medical issue that really affected your life, you wouldn't just go to a Sheikh and get his advice. You would first and foremost go to the doctor, and then vet what the doctor says if it's a really controversial issue.

Is this halal? Is this haram? And you'd get the opinions of ulama, and you would especially go to those ulama that are more familiar with medicine. And you would go to those doctors that are more familiar with Islamic sciences.

So dear Muslims, the whole purpose of all of those last few minutes is so that I bring up once again this issue of shutting the masajid down.

Personal Struggle with Closing the Masjid

Dear Muslims, I don't want to say this, but I will be honest with you. All of today, I have literally been crying to Allah subhanahu wa ta'ala. I swear to you, this is not an exaggeration.

I was literally, my heart is like it is. I have never felt this way. I was just crying in my room and crying in my cars, thinking that the masajid of Allah subhanahu wa ta'ala are shut around the world.

This is because of sins that we have done. There's no question about this. Allah knows how sad this is, just the thought of not coming to the masjid for weeks and for months.

The thought of not praying fajr, the thought of not coming here. It is something that is truly, truly terrifying, and it is something that makes me feel empty and guilty and sad. I don't say this out of any pleasure or pride, and yet still I say I fully agree with the logistical advice from the experts that we do need to shut down any public place.

We do need to minimize any public interaction. Now I know that some of you know that some ulama have allowed masjids to be open, but dear Muslims, open your eyes and look around you. The councils over a dozen Muslim lands, from Saudi Arabia to Kuwait to United Arab Emirates to Qatar to Malaysia to Turkey, the list goes on and on.

Here in America, the Fiqh Council of America and AMJAD, the Islamic Medical Association, they've all basically said the same thing, which is that if the situation gets to that dire level, then yes, we should shut down the Jumu'ah and the Jama'at. And dear Muslims, in most cities, I'm not speaking about the globe, but in most major cities in America and in England and in Canada and other places, the situation has indeed become dire.

Our Response to the Crisis

Now, let every community leaders say what they need to say. I am speaking about Dallas, Texas. I'm speaking about the community that I live in, and we have asked the experts and we've asked the people in our communities and the experts that know this issue and to a man, all of them, to a man or woman, all of them, they have said that we really should minimize any interaction and it is best to shut down these congregational prayers that we are having. It is not an easy decision.

It is not something that we like to do, and Allah knows my heart is greatly troubled. But dear Muslims, we cannot use a simplistic emotional response. We cannot use a misunderstanding of theology to go against that which we know to be true.

Indeed, we put our trust in Allahsubhanahu wa ta'ala, but we tie our camel. Some of you say, oh, our Prophet (صَلَّىٰ ٱللَّٰهُ عَلَيْهِ وَسَلَّمَ - sallallahu alayhi wa sallam) would stand up to pray when he became when he became flustered or anxious. Yes.

Stand up to pray. I'm not telling you not to do that. Go stand up to pray.

The Symbolic Jumu'ah

Some of us have said, some people have said that it's never been shown that, you know, in the past, Muslims closed their masajid. Well, maybe you are correct that to this level, it has never happened. By the way, in regional places, it's sometimes because of a great fear, obviously in regional places, yes, there have been times when masajid have stopped for specific fears.

But I agree with you as at a global scale, we might be quite literally seeing for the very first time in over a dozen Muslim lands and over a dozen non-Muslim lands, hundreds of thousands of masajid shut down for the average Muslim to come. This might be the first time, but do you think that this decision is coming out of nothing?

I ask you, by Allah, I ask you a simple question. If there were a masjid that you were told the engineers and the architects or the local city council said, oh, this masjid, its pillars are about to collapse, its pillars are going to fall down.

It was constructed incorrectly. If you were told that, would you say, no, we must pray in this masjid and Allah wants us to pray in this masjid? No, you would say, okay, this masjid is a dangerous place, not because of anything evil with the masjid, but circumstances are like this.

So the point is that the situation that we are in right now, this situation is a situation in which we now are far more familiar with the causes of how this disease is transmitted. We are familiar with how this coronavirus goes from person to person, and we know what our past scholars did not know. We know

more about science and medicine than people did in the past. Therefore, we are required by Allah to take that knowledge into account when we derive our rulings.

The Struggle and the Solution

Dear Muslims, our masjid, we thank Allah, our places where people are packed together of all ethnicities and all backgrounds. But in these times, that blessing is the exact ambience that these viruses need to spread from person to person. There are hundreds of people of all different backgrounds, of all different nationalities, of all different traveling places coming together, packed, standing next to each other for lengthy periods of time.

And every single medical expert is saying that this is the number one preventative measure, and that is to stop the transmission or the potential transmission by practicing social isolation, by putting in, you know, barriers, physical space between you and other people. MashaAllah, dear Muslims, we're a friendly bunch. We thank Allah for that.

Is it possible for me or you to come to the masjid and not shake people's hands? There's going to be a hundred people, a thousand people. Is it possible to come and not hug? It's not possible, really, and even if we tried to do it, it would not happen. And therefore, medical experts are unanimous that we really should shut down these areas until this disease passes by.

Nonetheless, dear Muslims, I was feeling extremely, extremely distressed at the closing of especially our East Plano Islamic Center. And I spoke with the board about a technical, just a technicality that perhaps we can work around, that at least for Jumu'ah, at least for Jumu'ah, if we have a symbolic, a symbolic Jumu'ah.

And this, I'm only telling you this so that you realize we are all feeling, I am feeling, all of us religious, you know, especially us, the imam, the ustad, the shaykh, myself, I know we are all feeling especially hurt, psychologically and spiritually. So I requested from the board that at least for Jumu'ah, if the four of us, and that is because the minimum you need is three, the minimum for Jumu'ah you need is three.

And that is Hafiz Sajjad, and Ustad Ba'jud, and Imam Ladeem, and myself. If the four of us, we come for Jumu'ah and we stand apart from each other and just symbolically just give a khutbah for the barakah, that something is done. Now please, this is only being done as a token symbolism.

We cannot and we will not open, not even the board members are going to be coming to this. I told them I just want to token Jumu'ah so that we feel, because technically from a fiqh perspective, by definition, the jami' masjid is the masjid where the Jumu'ah takes place. And I really felt that if this goes for a long time, how can we have a masjid without even the adhan being raised and the salah being done, at least once in a while.

So just for the barakah, I'm just telling you this so that we understand, just for the barakah, not for anyone else, not even the staff of the masjid, not even the board members, they were going to be coming, just the four of us. One of us will give the khutbah that will be broadcast live, and three of us will be standing literally at one side of the masjid, not even salams to one another, physically we'll just wave to each other and we'll go separate ways. This is how cautious we are being just to keep the symbolism of the masjid alive.

Looking Forward

Needless to say, this might continue for many, many weeks. We might need to prepare a contingency plan for Ramadan. That will inshaAllah be spoken about, but we will continue to update you and we have set up a mini studio. By the way, I'm not sitting in the musalla, you might think I'm sitting in the musalla. We have set up a mini studio so that it looks like I'm in the musalla, I'm in a room all by myself, nobody else is here, the camera's in front of me. That's how the level of caution that we are doing amongst ourselves.

Can you imagine if we opened the door to 2,000 people or 500 people? It would not serve the purpose. And as we are aware, there was a religious gathering, by the way, in Indonesia, look this up, or Malaysia, excuse me, a religious gathering where people came from all over the world and they spent some time together for the sake of Islam. Their niyyah was good.

Because of that religious gathering, one person had the virus, now 45 people, according to what I read the other day, have that virus. From that one person, because of a religious gathering, we tie our camel, we do not act foolishly and coming together, ignoring what every expert is saying, is acting foolishly and our religion is not a foolish religion. It is not a religion of superstition.

It is a religion of knowledge and Allah tells us to act with knowledge and the people of knowledge are telling us that the number one mechanism to spread this virus is by person to person contact and that is why we are taking these precautions.

It is still too early to say about Ramadan, but inshaAllah ta'ala, if worst case scenario, we will be giving you every single day, without exception, religious reminders to myself and all of you. We are going to try our best to keep a virtual masjid as much as we can on a daily basis.

There is going to be an entire schedule, I think you have been told as well about this, that every one of us is going to be doing certain projects and things every single day so that we keep that attachment because now is the time for that attachment. Now is the time especially to turn back to Allahsubhanahu wa ta'ala.

Q&A Session

So inshaAllah ta'ala, with that, I want to open the floor for Q&A. I have my iPad in front of me which has a number of questions that people have sent in and feel free to send in other questions and this is how we are going to be doing this from now on by the way, a live Q&A that we are going to be updating and whenever you want to ask questions, you are going to be able to ask them and inshaAllah, I will try to answer them one by one inshaAllah.

Selected Questions and Answers

Q: Can we do Jumu'ah in our home with a few neighbors? Are there any guidelines? Are we allowed to pray Jumu'ah in small groups since the masjids are closed?

This defeats the purpose. Agreed, agreed, it is better to have small gatherings than large ones but what is going to happen if you advertise you are having a Jumu'ah in your house, your 5, 10, 15 neighbors are going to come, number one.

Number two, from a technical perspective, Jumu'ah is done in the masjid al-jami'ah, I am not saying it is not allowed elsewhere, sometimes you have to do this. I don't encourage this as of yet and this is not the default, the default is that Jumu'ah is done in the masjid and the large community comes. If the Jumu'ah is not done in the masjid, then you pray Dhuhr at home.

Q: Do you think this is one of the signs of the end of times?

Allah knows best, Allah knows best, I don't want to say any more than this, but regardless we need to turn to Allahsubhanahu wa ta'ala, regardless we need to turn to Allahsubhanahu wa ta'ala and we ask Allah for aafiyah.

Q: Some of the members of my family are feeling very anxious and others are feeling very sad, what is to be done?

This is something that is explicit in the Quran:

"we are going to test you, some of you are going to be anxious and scared, some of you are going to feel that," and Allahazawajal in the same series of verses he tells us what to do:

"Seek help through patience and through prayer." Patience and prayer are the two ways we seek the help of Allahsubhanahu wa ta'ala, and inshaAllah over the course of the next few weeks we will be doing a number of lectures and series about what does it mean to seek help through patience and through prayer.

Q: If somebody dies in this coronavirus timeframe, will they be considered shaheed?

Yes inshaAllah they will be, yes inshaAllah they will be, and I ask Allah for aafiyah for myself and my loved ones and for all of you, we don't want to be tested, but those of us that are tested, we need to look forward to Allah that that is the death of a shaheed, our Prophet (صَلَّىٰ ٱللَّٰهُ عَلَيْهِ وَسَلَّمَ - sallallahu alayhi wa sallam) said that whoever lives in a land where the plague comes and he expects that whatever happens, happens by the will of Allah, and he expects that it's Allah'sqadr, meaning he doesn't become a coward, he doesn't run away, it's happening, it's happening, what can he do? Then if he dies, our Prophet (صَلَّىٰ ٱللَّٰهُ عَلَيْهِ وَسَلَّمَ - sallallahu alayhi wa sallam) said he shall get the reward of a shaheed.

Conclusion

Dear Muslims, this is the essence of Islam and iman, I'm concluding and wrapping up today's lecture, but this is just the beginning, it's not the end, it is the beginning of, in all likelihood, many many weeks, months, maybe even a year or more of a different mechanism, and we will cope, and we shall persevere, and we shall turn to Allahsubhanahu wa ta'ala, we will be tested in ways we never even imagined, we will be tested in ways where our minds did not even go possible, wallahi I could never have imagined that the world is going to shut down its masajid, that a time will come when I'm not going to be doing Jumu'ah and Jama'at and Ramadan and what not in congregation, but Allahazawajal is testing, and He shall give us the mechanism to overcome those tests, and we shall come out stronger, more faithful, more appreciative of the blessings of Allahsubhanahu wa ta'ala, and if Allah chooses other than this, that we don't come out of this, then inshaAllah we'll come out winners in the akhirah, and that is the ultimate ultimate goal to come out winners in the akhirah.

May Allahsubhanahu wa ta'ala grant me and you and my loved ones and your loved ones aafiyah, may Allah avert from all of us a calamity, may Allahsubhanahu wa ta'ala send salam down to the ummah and to all the entire world, may Allahsubhanahu wa ta'ala grant all of us a peacefulness and a security and a safety that we need, may Allah strengthen our iman, make our resolves firm, may Allahazawajal allow us to be role models for the people around us who don't know our faith, may this calamity be the hidden disguise and the treasure that we've been waiting for, that people see the beauty of our faith, may Allah subhanahu wa ta'ala allow us to come out of this bit better and more stronger and more faithful and role models of our religion.

"And our final supplication is, praise to Allah, Lord of the worlds. May Allah’s peace, blessings, and grace be upon His servant Muhammad, his family, and all his companions. Peace, mercy, and blessings of Allah be upon you."