Corrected Khutba - Overcoming Sadness & Depression
By Yasmin Mogahed | 2026-01-10T03:35:10.228563+00:00 | Topic: Trials
Khutba: Overcoming Sadness & Depression
by Ustadha Yasmin Mogahed
Opening Prayer
Translation: I seek refuge in Allah from the accursed Satan. In the name of Allah, the Most Gracious, the Most Merciful.
The Nature of This Life
So the topic that I wanted to talk about today was a topic that has to do with dealing with hardships, dealing with what can sometimes become, you know, dealing with pain but even on a deeper level where it becomes even to the point of possibly depression. And how, you know, really this life is not, I mean of course this life is not Jannah, this life will never be Jannah, and only Jannah can be Jannah. And that this life we know we will have struggles in this life, we will have to encounter loss in this life, we will have to encounter pain in this life, things don't always turn out the way we want.
But I think what I want to talk about today is basically what I would say some advice that we're told by Allah and His Messenger of how to get through what we'll call maybe the struggle of this life.
The Divine Acknowledgment of Our Struggle
Translation: And Allah says in the Quran: "O mankind, indeed, you are toiling towards your Lord, but you shall meet Him."
So first Allah in this ayah is saying that it's almost like you know when a friend is comforting you and that friend comforts you by telling you I know what you're going through, like I understand that you're struggling, I understand what you're going through.
And that's how she begins to comfort you, by just understanding, basically just sometimes acknowledging your struggle is enough to comfort you, to say I see it, I understand, right? Almost giving validity to what it is that you're going through, right? So Allah begins here by saying yes, you are struggling, you are toiling towards your Lord. Because what is the end to all of this struggle? Where do all matters end? At Allah.
Allah is the end. And all matters, you know Allah is al-awwal wal-akhir, He is the first, the beginning, there's nothing before Him, and He is al-akhir, the last. Everything goes with Him. Everything is moving towards Allah and everything ends with Allah.
He is the end. So when we are struggling and toiling, no matter what it is that we are striving for, it's still Allah, because Allah is the end. Allah is the final destination.
The Hope in Meeting Allah
But there is, this ayah ends with hope. And Allah, the hope that Allah ends this ayah with is that you shall meet Him. So Allah says, and this by the way, Allah is addressing all of mankind.
So sometimes Allah in the Quran will address the believers, right? And sometimes Allah addresses all of mankind. In this ayah, He is addressing all of mankind. So it's talking that it's not just the believers who are toiling towards Allah.
But everybody, all of humanity, for all of time is toiling towards this end, which is Allah. The hope here is that you will eventually meet Him. And this is hope for the believer.
That there will come an end to the struggle, to the toil, and it will be with Allah. Now, there is another ayah that I want to share with you. This is an ayah which personally has a very deep meaning for me personally.
The Warning Against False Refuge
Translation: It's an ayah where Allah, I see it as a warning. Allah says to us, He warns us from taking, He says, "And do not call upon another deity with Allah. There is no deity except Him."
Allah is warning us from calling on an ilah other than Allah. Okay, so I've translated everything except for the word ilah. And then I'll talk about, and then at the end of the ayah I'll get to that. So the first thing Allah says is He's warning us, advising us, do not call on an ilah other than Allah. And then Allah says, or at the end of the ayah says, or you will be among the tormented.
Okay. So usually when we look at an ayah like this, we might think, if we look at it from a very sort of surface way, you would see it as, you know, don't worship a statue or don't, you know, don't worship other than Allah. Otherwise on the day of judgment or in the hereafter, you're going to go to hell.
And that's definitely one meaning to this ayah. Obviously this is true. But there is more to this ayah than just that.
Understanding the Meaning of "Ilah"
In order to really understand what it is, you have to understand the meaning of the word ilah. And when you look and you study the meaning of the word ilah, it comes from, you know, every Arabic word can be broken down into three root letters, right? Okay. So when you look at the root letters that make up the word ilah, you get a couple of meanings.
One of the meanings has to do with finding shelter. One of the meanings has to do with finding refuge. One of the meanings has to do with basically having such a strong feeling towards something, you know, that you just cling to it.
You run to it. And one of the meanings actually talks about a she-camel, like the baby of a she-camel, that when it's lost and then it finds its mother, and basically it's like nestled with its mother. All of these meanings to the word ilah are much different than just something you pray to.
You guys understanding what I'm saying here? That it is more, it gives you the sense of a refuge, a comfort, of feeling so strongly towards something that you basically go to it. Because of the intensity of emotion, you seek it for comfort or for shelter. So now when we take this meaning of ilah, and we put it back in the ayah, Allah is telling us, don't seek refuge, don't seek shelter, don't seek ultimate comfort, don't go to something other than Allah for these things, or you're going to suffer.
The Universal Law of Attachment
And your suffering is not just in the hereafter, as we know. I mean any of us who have lived in this life long enough know that when you seek something other than Allah to give you ultimate comfort or for ultimate, or you put your complete dependency on anything other than Allah, it will torment you, it will let you down, it will hurt you. And this is the sunnah of Allah.
This is like a universal law. And the reason for this is nothing else other than Allah can be the ilah. And that's what we're saying when we say:
Translation: We're saying that we bear witness that there is nothing that can be an ilah, and now we've talked about this other meaning of ilah, in addition to obviously what you worship and what you pray to, but what you're seeking for comfort, what is your ultimate refuge, what is your ultimate refuge, that nothing else can be that except for Allah.
The Mercy in Closed Doors
And so one thing is too that you see that Allah, out of his mercy, and this is what we also have to see, imagine that I'm in a situation and I need help. I'm in trouble, I'm in a difficulty, I'm struggling with something, and I need help.
And usually when we're in a situation like that, the first thing we do is we seek some sort of means from the dunya. We might seek security. We want security.
We want security and we want help. We want to hold on to something. We want to depend on something.
And sometimes that thing, by the way, that you try to depend on is your own self, which is the same problem. It's the same problem. Because myself is also a creation and is also weak and also is not an ilah.
I'm not an ilah. Okay? And in fact, Allah talks about people who take their own selves as an ilah. In fact, he says that they take their desires as an ilah.
So this is also something that we need to avoid. Taking our own self, our own desires as an ilah. Similarly, taking anything other than Allah as an ilah.
So what we do in this situation, we're having difficulty, we need help, we want to hold on to something, we want to depend on something. We seek security in other than Allah. So maybe we might start out by seeking security in our money, in our wealth.
We might try by seeking security in our job. We might try to seek this in our relationship, in the people around us, in our parents, in our children, in our friends, in our spouse. Okay? We'll try to find this comfort, this thing to hold on to, this thing to latch on to.
The Metaphor of the Doors
You know you're climbing a cliff and you need to hold on to something? You need to because you don't want to fall. And so what you do is you hold on to these other things. But what happens then when you do that is a lot of times those things will close.
Those things will break or those things will let you down. So you're seeking, for example, imagine that there are a hundred doors to find shelter in. And only one door is the correct door.
Every other door has a drop. Imagine that it's just a, you know, it's a, it's a fake. And basically you open the door.
As soon as you enter the door, you fall because there's a drop. Okay? Now Allah knows this. We don't know this, but Allah knows this.
And by the way, He warns us of this many times in the Quran. Allah knows that every other door other than His just has a drop. You're just going to fall.
You're just going to break. So sometimes out of Allah's mercy, He actually keeps the door closed. You're sitting there banging and knocking on the door trying to seek that thing, and Allah keeps it closed.
This is Allah closing the means. Allah will close. So maybe I'm having my trust or I'm seeking or I'm putting my hope in something other than Allah, and this is me knocking on the door.
This is me trying to seek refuge and shelter in that thing, which is me knocking on the door. And out of Allah's mercy, He will not open that door for me. Or that door will close for me.
I can't, I can't, I'm trying, but I can't get to it. I can't get to it. Then I leave that door, I go to a new door.
Another means other than Allah. Another person. This person let me down, I go to this person.
I'm talking about people here because we're sisters here. And this is what we tend to do. We tend to, you know, other people, you know, men, I think their weaknesses, they try to depend on themselves.
Right? That's kind of where they get their sense of, you know, self-respect. And I don't need anybody. I can do it myself.
Or I provide for my family. It's my job. Exactly.
It's coming from me. I'm the one. So it's this idea of needing to feel self-sufficient, to feel autonomous.
But it's the same trap. It's just another door. But for us women, we tend to depend on our relationships.
We tend to seek other people as our door. So our door is other people. But guess what? So we go to one person, they let us down, we go to another.
We go to another. We keep trying. This friend, man, they let us down, we go to this other friend.
We try our husband. We try our, you know, our parents. We try one after the other.
And each door is closed. Each door is closed. Finally, we've tried every single door.
What do we do now? Now we knock on Allah's door. Now this is the only door left. That's why we're going to it.
That's why we're going to it. Because we've tried all the rest and they're closed. Or maybe we tried it, we fell.
Okay, we're not going to do that one again. Let's try this one. But subhanAllah, you see how Allah really, He protects us and He, out of His mercy, He makes these other doors close.
How Allah Purifies Our Hearts
Or He makes these other doors hurt us. What happens when somebody or something hurts you? When somebody, imagine that you're extremely attached to something, and it's perhaps a rival with Allah in your heart. It's a rival with Allah in your heart.
The Beauty of Creation from Afar
The fact that when I try to get too close or depend too much on the creation, it pushes me to Allah. And I'll give you a lot of examples in Allah's creation that's like this. Allah's creation is such that from far away, it's beautiful.
From far away, it's beautiful, and that beauty is a pointer to Allah's beauty. Okay? So, for example, those candles right there. Like, from where I'm at right now, they're extremely beautiful.
Right? But what happens if I get too close to those candles? They will burn me. Okay. The sun.
The sun, you know, the sunset, the sunrise, the sun is beautiful. From far away. What happens if you get too close to the sun? Right? If the sun were even to get even, you know, you guys, I don't know if you
guys, you know about these, like, it's crazy, like, if the sun were even just a tiny bit closer to the earth, what would happen? And they make, like, movies out of this and stuff, like, right? We would die.
We would boil into death. Okay? The stars. The stars are very beautiful from where we're at, from far away.
Right? The creation. But when you get close to a star, what is a star? Like, gas, burning up gas, I mean, you can get close to it. A cloud.
A cloud, you know, okay, so, like, if you travel and you look at these clouds from the airplane, it is so beautiful. It cannot, I mean, you can't look at a cloud with the right mind and not say SubhanAllah. You know, it's beautiful.
It's fluffy. Yeah. Hey, look, and that's beautiful, right? They're fluffy.
She says they're fluffy. But it's an illusion. Because if you get, you know what happens if you get too, you go into the, so you're in the airplane, from far away, it's fluffy, it has shape, it's beautiful.
But when you get into it, it actually disappears because it's nothing. SubhanAllah. It looks so solid.
It looks solid. It's thick and dense. Perfect.
But, yeah. Yeah, it's a mirage, really, right? You get to it, you get too into it, it's actually not really there. SubhanAllah.
The Purpose of Beauty in Creation
The idea here is what? That the creation, it's beautiful from the outside. It's intended to be beautiful from the outside. But it's intended for a certain reason.
Allah, SubhanAllah, says, "Indeed, in the creation of the heavens and the earth, and the alternation of the night and the day, are signs for those who possess understanding."
These are, indeed, signs for those who reflect, for those who have al-baab, al-baab, ulil al-baab, basically those who have a mind and who use it, who think, who reflect. All of these things that Allah puts beauty in are a sign for those who reflect. That fire is a sign for those who reflect.
The sun is a sign for those who reflect. The ocean that you guys, you know, we live just like minutes away from is a sign for those who reflect. A sign of what? A sign of Allah, a sign of Allah's greatness, a sign of Allah's beauty, a sign of Allah's oneness.
But let me ask you this. What happens if you, I mean, you can sit on the shore and you can look at the ocean and you can say, mashallah, allahu akbar, that ocean is beautiful. But what happens if you get too
close to the ocean? What happens if you enter the ocean? That's when you drown.
You guys feel me? So the creation, this is the, this is the nature of the creation. And I'm giving you guys these as our metaphors, but I'm telling you guys this because it will happen with all of the creation, including other people, including human beings, including relationships. When you take your relationships and you try to depend on them, you try to get too close, in a sense, and you try to basically put somebody at a place where only Allah can be.
Either in your love or in your dependency, that will be your source of pain. It will torment you, it will hurt you, it will let you down. And through that process, that's when you are pushed to Allah. So never think that that process is necessarily bad.
The Purification Process
That is a purifying process. It is essentially a liberating process. Because what you're doing, what's happening through that process is you're being liberated of your attachments to other than Allah. And you're being pushed towards the ultimate attachment to Allah and Allah alone.
So in the context of depression or in the context of hardship, pain, struggle, I want to encourage yourself, you and myself, to see it in a different light. To see the, you know, the disappointment, the struggle, the loss, the pain, all of it, I want to ask us to see it in a different light. To actually see it as a blessing from Allah and as a purifier from Allah to clean my heart of anything else other than Allah. Because our hearts are full, full of other than Allah. Our hearts are full of dunya.
We are full of dunya in our hearts. And through these hard times, that's when we're purified. And there's a really beautiful quote.
It's a Rumi quote where he says that when somebody beats a rug, the beating is not intended for the rug. It's intended for the dirt inside of the rug. Now when we go through hardship, that hardship is clean, is not intended to hurt us, is what I'm saying.
It's not intended to hurt us. Allah is more merciful to us than a mother is to her child. So Allah doesn't want pain for us.
Allah doesn't want to hurt us. But Allah wants good for us. And Allah wants to clean us, wants to purify us, and wants to liberate us.
And so we are full of, you know, again, we are full of these attachments, these chains, but that's exactly what they are. They keep us chained to the dunya. They keep us chained to people.
The Purification of Gold Analogy
And it's through these sometimes sort of these hardships or this pain that we are purified. You know, if you think about the process of gold being purified, what do you do to gold to purify it? The thing you do to gold to purify it is you heat it up. You heat up gold in order to remove the impurities from it.
Translation: And subhanAllah, even in the Qur'an, when Allah talks about hardship, He says "so that Allah may purify those who believe." And the word yumahis, tamhees, means, it's like the same word that's used for the purification of gold. It's that heating up.
And Allah uses that exact word in saying that the hardship, when we send hardship and tribulation, this is what it does to the believer, tamhees, so that Allah may purify those who believe. But this is only for the believer. For the believer, hardship is a purification.
And so it is a blessing from Allah. It's not a punishment. It's not, you know, we shouldn't even see it as something bad. But we should see it as something that is actually elevating us and something that is bringing us closer to Allah.
The Strange Matter of the Believer
You know, there's a hadith of the Prophet صلى الله عليه وسلم, and it says that the matters of a believer are strange.
(Muslim 2999)
Translation: And the reason why the matters of a believer are strange is because the Prophet صلى الله عليه وسلم tells us that everything for a believer is good for him. If something he dislikes, you know, some hardship comes to him, he's patient, so it's good for him. And if something that he likes, something you know, good in quotation marks, something that he likes comes to him, he is grateful, so it's good for him.
And this case, he emphasizes that this is only the case for the believer. So you see that the situation for if you truly are a believer and you truly seek Allah, then no matter what happens in your life, no matter what happens in your life, it is good for you. Imagine that.
Imagine a situation where no matter what comes your way, it's good for you. The reason why it's good for you is it brings you nearer to Allah. And let's think for a second. Ultimately, what's our goal? All of this dunya is passing away.
And in the end, what's going to determine success or failure? The only thing that's going to determine success or failure is where we stand with Allah. If Allah is pleased with us, we've succeeded, and it does not matter how or what happened in this life. Right? You guys with me? I mean, let's just break it down. If
Allah, at the end of the road, after all this dream is over, right? You know, one example of this life, it's like a dream.
This Life as a Dream
You wake up from it, you look back, and you say, like, you know, oh, it just lasted just such a short time. Similarly, when we wake up from this life in the hereafter, and the people ask each other, how long were you in that life? We say, (يَوْمًا أَوْ بَعْضَ يَوْمٍ - yawman al ba'da yawm), a day or part of a day. This life, when we look back on it, will look like, will feel the same way that we look back at a dream.
A day or part of a day. The idea is what's going to determine whether we succeeded or whether we failed. It's not going to be by how many days we were happy or we thought we were happy.
It's not going to be by how much money we had. It's not going to be about how many people we had around us, how many people liked us, how pretty we were, how thin we were, what we looked like. None of these things are going to determine anything.
All that's going to matter is where we are with Allah, and if Allah says to us on that day that He's pleased with us, and if Allah tells us on that day that He's pleased with us, then nothing else is going to matter, right? Nothing else is going to matter, and it's going to mean that we succeeded. So we need to look at our life in this way. Everything that comes to us, if we are believers, it's hard, it's a loss, it's whatever it is, if it's bringing us closer to Allah, it is good for us.
And so long as we keep our eyes focused on Allah, whatever happens to you, whether good or bad, it will elevate you and bring you nearer to Allah.
The Lessons from the Prophets
And see your hardships, your hardest times, as your time to be purified and to be brought closer to Allah, and to make your dependency, your attachment to Allah stronger, and your trust in Him, to build that, to build that tawakkul on Allah. You know, when you look at one of the other things that I really recommend is for all of us to do, is to study the stories of the Prophets. Because the stories of the Prophets are told to us for a very specific purpose. They're told to us because they have in them very deep lessons for us.
Allah never just tells a story because He's a storyteller. Allah is telling us a story in order that we gain something from that lesson. So when we look at the stories of the Prophets, did any of them have easy lives? Did any of them have easy lives? No, they didn't.
So one can never say that if Allah loves you, you're going to have an easy life, because then that would contradict that. The Prophets all had the hardest and the biggest hardships. And so one can never think that, oh, I have this hardship, it means Allah is not happy with me, it means Allah does not love me.
That's from Shaytan. Because that would mean, I seek refuge with Allah, that Allah doesn't love His Prophets. They were tested the most.
When Allah Loves Someone, He Tests Them
And in fact, the Prophets (صلى الله عليه وسلم) said that when Allah has hubb for someone, when Allah has love for someone, He will test him. He will send him trials. Now the question would be why, right? Why? The answer is what we just talked about.
Because it is through those trials that people are purified, that people are elevated, that people become closer to Allah. It is through those trials. And in fact, this is the case even for the Prophets. Let me give you one example.
The Example of Ibrahim (عليه السلام)
Ibrahim (عليه السلام), he couldn't have a child for a long time. Finally Allah blessed him with a child, right? Basically this was the thing that Ibrahim (عليه السلام) loved most, his son. So if there was anything that Ibrahim (عليه السلام) might become attached to, or may possibly have been any sort of, you know, attachment to Ibrahim (عليه السلام), with Allah, it would have been him.
So what does Allah do? Allah tells him to slaughter his son. Allah is not just, He is, yes, He is testing him, but I think we limit the meaning of test to as if it is a multiple choice test. Okay, here is a test, you know, are you going to choose A, B or C? Wrong answer, right answer.
It is deeper than that. It is not just Allah wants to see what you are going to do, but Allah is also training you. Allah is also purifying you.
Allah is also giving you through the test. He is not just asking you. So don't ever think a test is just, okay, I am going to get the right answer, I am not going to get the right answer and that's it.
Move on, you know, like we take a test in school. Allah through the test is actually giving you. He is actually blessing you through the test if you pass the test.
If you do, if you pass the test, you are elevated. If you pass the test, you are purified of your sins, you are purified of your, you know, whatever it is in your heart, there is a part of it that is purified, that anything that could possibly be may be veiling you between you and, being a veil between you and Allah.
So in this case, Ibrahim (عليه السلام) yes he is being tested, what is he going to do, but beyond that, there is something deeper here. By being able to slaughter that thing which he loves most, being able to do that, what is he doing? He is breaking his attachment or any possible attachment that he could have had to anything other than Allah. And when he did that, then Allah told him, no, you know, like you can keep it, because now, Subhanallah, now the gift is no longer in the heart, it is in the hand.
Gifts in the Hand vs. Heart
The gift is now in the hand. When the gift is in the heart, it will cause a lot of pain, it will cause a lot of, you know when something is put in the wrong place, you know, it is going to wreak havoc because it is in the wrong place. When you take the gifts of Allah, when you take, you know, your family or your health, your beauty, your money, your status, all of these things, and instead of having them in your hand, you put them in your heart, it is going to create a lot of problems for you, because you are keeping it in the wrong place.
Those very things which you have in your heart that are not supposed to be there are going to be the cause of your pain. They are what is going to cause you the most pain, that very thing that you have in the wrong place. Okay, your money itself, your status itself, your family themselves.
Okay? Until you take it out of the heart and now you can get it back, you can have it, but you keep it in your hand now. You love it, you love, we love our families, we love, you know, to be beautiful, we love to be young, we love to have money, we love these things, these are gifts from Allah. We ask Allah never to deprive us of His gifts. He is Al-Kareem, He is the most Generous, He loves to give gifts, Al-Wahab loves to give gifts, but here is the thing, if that gift, He gives it to us, it is going to corrupt us, it is going to make us dependent on the gift instead, sometimes Allah takes it away.
He takes it away out of His mercy, and in this case, Ibrahim (عليه السلام) he is in a sense taking away, asking Ibrahim (عليه السلام) to cut that, you know, basically break that attachment, take it out of the heart, and now when it is returned, it is in the hand, his own son, because that was the, you know, and then after that, you know, when we talk about Ibrahim (عليه السلام) we talk about Ibrahim'sTawheed being the purest. He, when we talk about Ibrahim (عليه السلام) it is Ibrahim (عليه السلام) and Tawheed. He was Hanif, he was the one who had the pure monotheism, because you know, he went through this process, it was a process, and that is the thing, it is a process.
The Training of Prophet Muhammad (صلى الله عليه وسلم)
Even with the Prophets, Allah trained them. Musa (عليه السلام) same thing Allah trained him, and Muhammad (صلى الله عليه وسلم) look at his life, since the time he was born, everyone that he could possibly have become attached to, what happened to them? They died. They died.
So you look at him from the time he was born, one afternoon, you know, we learn this story, like, I remember when I was a kid learning this, okay, for this person died when he was this age, and then this person died, and we don't understand the significance of this. Why is this happening? It's just a story, you know, I just remember, it's just a story. But when you look back and you reflect on this, why? His father died before he was born, then his mother died when he was born, then his grandfather, then his uncle, and then even Khadijah, right? Every time there was somebody who, you know, and look at Subhanallah,
so beautiful, what happens when Allah takes something away from you? When Allah takes something away, He replaces it with something better.
The Year of Sadness and the Night Journey
And what did He replace? Think about the life of the Prophet (صلى الله عليه وسلم). In the year of sadness, this is when Allah took two things away from the Prophet (صلى الله عليه وسلم),which he loved most, his uncle and his wife. And both of them, don't think this is a coincidence, both of them were the ones who supported him. So you see the doors closing, remember we talked about the doors closing? Now he can't, he can't depend on, because these are the things that he depended on, these are the things that the people who supported him, now they're both taken away at the same time, these doors closing.
So what does Allah give in return? The night journey at that same time. So think about it, think about Allah takes what Allah gives more than He takes. In fact, Allah takes in order to give.
Allah withholds in order to give. In this case, Allah, yes, He took His wife and He took His uncle, but He brought him up to Him, to such a level that even Jibreel (عليه السلام) couldn't go that far. So you see how Allah, when He takes away the means, it's in order that He can give you Himself.
And what is anything else? All we want is Allah, that's all we want. Allah sometimes closes doors in order that we can seek Him more completely.
Translation: Allah says, "enter into security completely," kaffah completely.
But sometimes we can't do that when we're scattered. We have part of ourselves in this, part of ourselves in this. Our heart is all over the place.
Our heart is full of other things. So we can't really give our heart completely to Allah. So Allah, when He wishes good for a servant, He tests him. By taking away those things, you are left with just a pure sense of just tawheed, of Allah. And that's the right answer.
The Handhold That Never Breaks
Translation: That's the actual, Allah says, that whoever holds, Allah's handhold is the handhold that never breaks. Every other handhold, everything else we try to hold on to will break. So Allah in Surah Al- Baqarah, He says, "So whoever disbelieves in Taghut and believes in Allah has grasped the most trustworthy handhold with no break in it. And Allah is Hearing and Knowing."
That he has indeed held on to the handhold that never breaks.
So Allah is the only handhold that never breaks. And sometimes we go through hard times in our life. We lose things.
We hit, you know, we feel like we hit rock bottom. But this is not what it seems, is what I'm saying. That rock bottom is sometimes just part of the path.
It's just one stop on our path to Allah. And you will find that you can use rock bottom to make yourself so much better, to make yourself so much stronger, and to get closer to Allah in a way that you couldn't do anywhere else, other than rock bottom.
The Example of Yunus (عليه السلام)
Think about the story of Yunus (عليه السلام). Yunus (عليه السلام) was the one who, he was the Prophet (عليه السلام) who he left his people before he was commanded to do so. And so Allah commanded that the whale slash fish swallow him.
And so Yunus (عليه السلام) is now in a position where he's trapped. He's in the belly of the whale, right? Darkness upon darkness upon darkness. I mean, you have the darkness of the whale, you have the darkness of the ocean, you have the darkness of the night.
I mean, imagine this situation. You'd probably consider this rock bottom, right? I don't really think there could be more rock bottom than being in the belly of a whale. You guys feel me? Okay.
We are never going to get to a point, right? That's any lower than that, any harder than that, right? That's what I mean. And when he's in that situation, look what he says to Allah. The dua of Yunus (عليه السلام)in fact we're told that we should say this exact dua when we are going through hardship.
Translation: The du'a of Yunus (عليه السلام)he says "There is no deity except You; exalted are You. Indeed, I have been of the wrongdoers."
This goes back to this original point that we started with. There is no ilah other than you. You're high above, high above what? High above everything. Allah is high above every other thing in my life including my own sadness. Allah is high above my own struggles, high above everything else in my life.
"Indeed, I was among the wrongdoers." So look at what Yunus (عليه السلام) is doing here. First he acknowledges Allah, the place Allah's greatness, and then he recognizes his own mistake, his own sort of humbleness in front of Allah. "Indeed, I have been of the wrongdoers." Look at the humility.
The Prescription for Hardship
This is how we get out of hardships. This is how. In this du'a is the prescription.
You recognize Allah, you focus on Allah, and you humble yourself. You realize one, your own kind of like where are you compared to Allah. Your own lowness compared to Allah, and then your need for Allah. Your need for Allah. That in this place that you're at, one of the, in fact, the purposes of hardship is to make you realize your need for Allah. And that's called (ضرورة - darura).
The Concept of Darura (Necessity)
You know how we, you know Allah in the Qur'an, He gives different reasons for hardship.
Translation: And we talked about one of them. We said "so that Allah may purify those who believe." Tamhees is that process of, you know, like you would purify gold by heating it up in order to remove the impurities. That's tamhees.
That's one of the purposes Allah gives in the Qur'an for hardship. There's another one, and that's (ضرورة) called something.
Translation: "That they might humble themselves." Two different places.
The concept of (ضرورة) is when you are not just humble in front of Allah, not just helpless in front of Allah, but completely humble and helpless in front of Allah. And if you really want to like understand the concept of (ضرورة) you have to imagine a person who's stuck in the middle of an ocean.
And while they're in that situation, they, a storm comes. And this is a storm that brings, you know, like the waves that are like mountains, and you are completely and utterly alone in the middle of that ocean, and you have no one to call on. And then you call on Allah.
In that situation. How would you call on Him? In what state would you call on Allah? That's (ضرورة).
We don't normally reach that state when we're on shore. We have to first be put in that situation to reach that state, right? So, Allah is saying that we send hardship to help them get to that state. To help them get to (ضرورة).
Because what's so beautiful about (ضرورة), that's what it is. You and Allah, and you are so close to Allah in that state. That's what's so beautiful about (ضرورة).
Because when you're not, when you're on the shore, you're not as close to Allah. You're not as, you know, desperate and just clinging for dear life. Because you don't realize that your need for Allah as you do when you're in that.
Conclusion
In conclusion, let us remember that the pursuit of knowledge is a lifelong journey, one that enriches our understanding of Allah, ourselves, and the world around us. May Allah guide us to seek knowledge that benefits us in this life and the hereafter, and may He grant us the wisdom to use it for good.
May Allah accept our efforts, forgive our shortcomings, and bless us with tawfiq to continue learning and growing in faith and knowledge. May we always be among those who strive to increase in knowledge and act upon it with sincerity and devotion.
Ameen.
In the name of Allah, the Most Gracious, the Most Merciful.
All praise is due to Allah, Lord of all the worlds.