Why are you doubting the plan of Allah

Why Are You Doubting the Plan of Allah?

Opening Salutation

Opening Khutbah (Khutbah al-Hajah)

Indeed, all praise is due to Allah. We praise Him, we seek His help, we seek His forgiveness, and we seek refuge in Allah from the evil of our souls and from the evil of our deeds. Whomsoever Allah guides, none can misguide him, and whomsoever He leads astray, none can guide him. And I bear witness that there is none worthy of worship except Allah, alone, without partner. 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.

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

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

(Sahih Muslim, Hadith 867)

Indeed, the truest of speech is the Book of Allah, and the best of guidance is the guidance of Muhammad. And the worst of affairs are the newly invented matters, and every innovation is an innovation, and every innovation is misguidance, and every misguidance is in the Fire.

Introduction: The State of the Ummah

My dear brothers and sisters, there's a lot going on in the world right now. And the majority of it has to do with us. I mean this is just the reality of the world. What is on the news, what is in the news, what is about the news has to do with Islam and the Muslims in some form or fashion. Even though it might be labeled as something else. This is the reality.

We know this is the way of the media anyway. They say one thing, but if any of you have ever had any touches with journalism, you will know that the media says one thing and in reality it is meant to mean something else. And for those who understand, they understand what is truly meant.

All of this is happening while this ummah is at a place where there is a lot of confusion within Islam, within the ummah. Within the ummah of Muhammad (peace and blessings be upon him), there is tremendous confusion. And I see this, I see it everywhere I go. Every country I have been to in the past year, there is confusion. There is misinformation. There are a lot of people who don't know what it is they should be doing, what they should not be doing, or where they should be going.

And this is a major problem. It's a major problem. And a lot of times we ask ourselves, what is it that we can do? What is it that we can do as Muslims to better this situation?

The Tool We Need: Iman

You know in times like this when the ummah is being tested so heavily, when the ummah is being tested so heavily, there is one tool that we need more than anything else. And this tool is Iman. This tool is Iman. Because you see, Iman is the catalyst by which everything else happens for the believer.

Without this understanding of the type of Iman that we must have, then we will fail. Wallahi, we will fail. This is reality.

Allah says very clearly in the Qur'an:

That indeed the believers are successful. The believers, those people who possess Iman, they will be successful. And by that standard it means that the opposite is also true. That those without Iman, those without belief, will be losers and they will fail.

You see this is what we have to understand brothers and sisters. There is so much at stake right now. So much at stake and so very little maybe you and I can do as one human individual. Very little. But our Iman in Allah can make the impossible possible. Our trust in Allah, complete reliance on Allah, can make that which no one ever thought might be able to happen, happen very easily.

You see this is something the believers have to grasp once again. I'll give you a couple of stories and examples. This is a topic that could be discussed at length and at length and at length and at length.

The Story of Musa and His Mother

Let's look at the story of Musa (peace be upon him). Musa (peace be upon him). When Fir'aun had his dream, he had a dream that there would be someone who would come from Bani Israel, who would overthrow his kingdom. Would overthrow his kingdom. You see and this frightens him. This frightens him.

So what did he decide to do? He decided to take some logical action. Some logical action. Tyrannic action. He decided to kill all of the male children of Bani Israel. Prevent this from happening. Enslave their women. So that this will not happen. So this is the plot that he planned. And he carried it out.

The mother of Musa (peace be upon him) was pregnant. But she was able to hide her pregnancy. You can hide pregnancy. If you dress appropriately, you can hide pregnancy. But when the baby was born, there's no way to hide an infant. A crying baby is a crying baby. All of you who are parents know this. There's nothing you can do about that.

So she had no idea. Now what do I do? What do I do? This is a woman from Bani Israel who had Iman in Allah.

So she put her faith in Allah. Ya Allah, what do I do? What do I do? And Allah told her, the plan. The plan. Take your child, put him in a box, and put him into the river.

What river? The Nile River. Have any of you ever been to the Nile River? If any of you have ever been to Egypt, I used to live, Alhamdulillah, with a flat facing the Nile River in Egypt. Alhamdulillah. This is not just a little stream that's just bubbling along. This is a very strong currented river. A human being, if I jumped in the middle of it, I might not be safe. Much less putting a child in it.

So the logical recourse that Allah has given her, if she used her logic, then she would not do it. Because this is insane. This is killing my own child. But Allah promised her, if you do it, I promise you he will be safe, and I will raise him up to be a leader and prophet amongst his people.

So, Musa's mother now has the task at hand. Do I trust in me? And what I know is logical, if I put my child in a river, it'll die. Or do I have faith in Allah? So she trusted in Allah, placed him in. And he started to flow down the river. So she sent her daughter, go and see where this thing goes. Just keep an eye on it, and tell me where it goes.

Now remember the promise, is that Allah would protect him from Fir'aun, and raise him to be a leader amongst his people. Now where does this box drift and land? It lands at the palace of Fir'aun. It sets itself on the shores

of the very place that she was trying to protect him from.

Now logically again, logically, this is a disaster. This is a disaster. She trusted in Allah, placed her child in the river to protect him from Fir'aun. Now he lands in Fir'aun's backyard, subhanAllah. And many people, many of us would have lost hope, that the promise of Allah has not been fulfilled, he's gonna be killed surely. It's the end of it.

But you see, we don't always understand the plan of Allah Azza wa Jal. We don't. This is why iman is so important. Because it's not always that you need to trust the plan. You need to trust the planner. You need to trust the planner. And the planner is Allah Azza wa Jal. The controller of the heavens and the earth. The controller of all affairs.

You see Allah had one of his agents inside of the house of Fir'aun. Allah had one of his agents. You see Allah reminds us, that it's not always the brothers dressed in fatigues on the front lines that work for him, for his sake, in his army. Allah has his army everywhere. Places that you can't even imagine. He has his workers.

Inside of the house of Fir'aun was Fir'aun's wife. Who had belief in Allah. She kept it. She hid it. And this is where the story takes the turn. Fir'aun's wife finds the child. She falls in love with it instantly. Instantly. Falls in love with this child, and begs her husband to allow her to adopt it. And he reluctantly does so.

Now, they had problems with this child, because it wouldn't breastfeed. It wouldn't take any milk from any woman. They kept bringing woman, after woman, after woman. And he would not take it. So he was going to die. If this child doesn't eat, he will die.

So as the sister of Musa, had seen this taking place, because she was watching, she came forward and said, can I guide you to that which will solve it? Can I guide you to the one who I guarantee you, will be able to breastfeed him? They said, sure, send her.

So she sent for her mother. The mother of Musa comes, after trusting in Allah, dropping her son in the river, not knowing whether she will ever see him again or not. She comes and as soon as she approaches, he starts to feed. Alhamdulillah. See the plan of Allah is perfect. It is perfect.

And then so the wife of Fir'aun negotiates with her, look, we'll hire you. You come here and feed him and this and that. You see she had bargaining power now. She was the one who could make her demands, because who else you gonna get? No, you bring him to my home. You bring him to my home, how many times a day? Over and over and over again. Every day you bring him to my house, and I'll feed him there. That's my only condition. And so she agreed.

Now this same child who was on a death list, that Allah told her to get rid of, he was put in a box and floated to Fir'aun. Now he is being marched to his own home, by a royal procession. And when he is in that home, guards are surrounding him to make sure nothing happens to him. SubhanAllah.

You see this is the plan of Allah that we don't always see. We can't always see the plan of Allah, until it starts to unfold itself. But this is only because she decided to fuel this plan with her iman, trusting in Allah.

And we all know the story of what happened next. Musa (peace be upon him) grows up to bring down Fir'aun, and free the children of Israel, and become one of the greatest of the anbiya to ever walk the face of this earth.

You see this is the plan of Allah for the believers.

This is the plan of Allah. We might not always see it. It might seem though it's impossible. There is no way, no way. The conditions are far too out of hand for this to be possible. But Allah says with me, anything is possible. All things are possible. There is nothing that is outside the grasp, and the power, and the ability of the creator of all things.

Musa's Confrontation with Fir'aun

Later on the same Musa (peace be upon him), when he spoke to Allah, and this is one of the greatest gifts given to Nabi Musa (peace be upon him), is that he spoke to Allah with no intermediary. Directly Allah spoke to him from the burning bush. And what did Allah tell him to do? First of all that he was going to be a prophet, go to Fir'aun, etc.

And then Allah told him, I want to show you something, what I can do. Throw your stick. Because Musa always had the walking stick with him. Throw your stick. So Musa threw his stick and it turned into a snake. And what does the Qur'an say he did? He took off running. He took off running so fast he didn't even turn around and look.

He was absolutely terrified of this stick that had turned into a snake. But then Allah strengthened him with the iman. And Allah sent him to Fir'aun. And he challenged Fir'aun. Challenged him. And Fir'aun said, you're nothing but a sorcerer. You're nothing but a magician. I have plenty of them. Better than you, the best that the earth has ever seen. I have them. And these are not sleight of hand magicians. These are people who were trained in the art of magic.

So Musa (peace be upon him) said, Bring them together on the day of:

The biggest day of all of Egypt. When everybody will come. You see this is the iman of the believer. Bring them on the biggest day. Not let's test it out and we'll meet them together alone where nobody can see. And let's see if this thing works. Musa had complete trust in Allah. Bring whoever you got. All that you have. The best that you have. The brightest that you have.

Bring them. And I'll show you the power of Allah whom you deny. So they were all brought. Thousands and thousands and thousands and thousands of them were brought on this day. And they were aligned in ranks.

Imagine this scene brothers and sisters. Aligned row after row after row of these powerful magicians. And here is Musa (peace be upon him) all alone. Here is Musa.

What This Ummah Needs Today

You see brothers and sisters, this is what this ummah needs today. We need Iman. We need Iman that is put into action. Iman that is willing to take a step towards Allah. Iman that is willing to say, Ya Allah, what do you want from me?

We have too many people today that are ready. They're ready in their minds to take the greatest steps. We're ready to put our lives on the line for Iman. Alhamdulillah. But how many of us are even willing and ready to get out of our beds at 5:30 in the morning, get in our vehicles and drive to the masajid and stand in front of Allah in jama'a in the middle of the morning, in the early of the morning. You can't even do that, but you're ready to put your life on the line for Islam.

We have so much to be done. You want to say that you want to go from being the weakest of Muslims to the greatest of Muslims overnight. But yet when your alarm goes off at 3 in the morning for qiyam al-layl, you hit the snooze button and roll over.

Allah is standing in the nearest heavens in a manner that befits His majesty and honor. Unlike His creation, calling out to all the inhabitants of this earth, who is willing to stand for me and ask for me to forgive them? I'm ready to give it to them. We'll hit the snooze button and roll over.

But we're ready to take over the world, right? You see brothers and sisters, we're missing a lot. We're missing the basics. It does not take great leaps. It takes small steps, sincerely for Allah, that can change everything in an instant.

Examples from the Life of the Prophet

Let's look at the life of the Prophet (peace and blessings be upon him). When he's ready to make hijrah, when the Meccans know that if we can stop him now, it's over. Surround his house. There's nowhere he can go. We got him. It's over. It's done. If he takes a step out, we'll kill him. And if not, before fajr, we'll kill him.

Little do they know that they plotted and planned.

They plotted and planned and Allah planned. And Allah is the best of those who plan. And the Prophet (peace and blessings be upon him) walked right past them.

Later on in the battle of Badr, a couple hundred, couple hundred facing thousands. SubhanAllah. Couple hundred facing a thousand. And what is it logically going to happen? If we were to use our logic, we would say it's over. If you were to go outside right now and there's 300 people ready to fight a thousand, you'd be like, man, let's watch this massacre. This is going to be interesting. And that's what the Meccans thought they had. That's what they thought they had.

We got him now. We're going to exterminate them today. And even as Shaytan, as the Prophet (peace and blessings be upon him) said, was there that day urging them, do away with them, finish them off.

And the Prophet (peace and blessings be upon him) didn't tell them, let's go get some more weapons. Let's go get some more people. This is a fight we can't win. Let's just let this one be. No. His iman spoke. And he raised his two hands in front of him to the heavens and he said, O Allah, here are your believers. This is what you have on earth. If we are destroyed today, you will no longer be worshipped after this day.

You see, iman spoke. And the battle began and Allah jalla jalaluhu sent his real soldiers. He sent the angels to protect and defend them and rout the Meccans. And this is what happened, they lost.

The Battle of Khandaq

We forward a little bit to the battle of Khandaq. The battle of the trench. When they had dug a trench on one side of Medina, the exposed side. Now was that trench enough? No, it wasn't sufficient. There was 10,000. You think some point they would eventually have figured out how to get over it? Of course they would have figured out how to get over it. But this was just the best that they could do. We're doing what we can do. The rest we put up to the trust of Allah jalla jalaluhu.

And the munafiqeen came running to them. Are you serious? Do you think this plan is going to work? This trench is going to stop them? Don't you know that one of the largest armies that have ever been assembled on these lands is on the other side? Are you out of your minds in order to make them afraid?

But Allah jalla jalaluhu said it only increased their iman. Because they knew the tougher the battle, the stronger the test, the harder the test, the more that Allah jalla jalaluhu is on the side of the believers who trusted Him.

So they said to them clearly, boldly, no question, yes we understand that trench is not enough. We got that. Our numbers are not enough. We got that. Our weapons are not enough. We know that. But:

Allah is enough. Allah is enough with the believer. When the believer has a firm reliance on Allah jalla jalaluhu, nothing else is necessary. They took the steps that they could take, they put in some effort for Allah jalla jalaluhu, and they left the rest to Allah. And they went to bed. The next morning they woke up to find, no one. No one left. Not a single person left to challenge them. Completely routed.

They did not even have to lift one finger, except for a couple of skirmishes that took place. You see, this is the Iman. This is Iman in action. Iman is intangible. We can't see it, but we can see its results. We do see the results of it in our lives.

The Reality of Our Strength

This is what this world needs, Iman. Because our strength will never be enough.

(Sahih al-Bukhari, Hadith 4205)

There is no power, there is no strength, no capability, except the capability that Allah gives to you.

We have to grasp that. I cannot walk one step from this mimbar if Allah does not give me the ability and will to do so. I know that. Every breath I take is because Allah has given me the ability to do so. Every step I take is because Allah has empowered me to do so. And at any moment, at any time, at any place, Allah can strip it from me. And that's the reality.

Our power will never be enough. Our numbers will never be enough. Our strength will never be enough. But for sure, Iman and Allah, the Creator of all things is always going to be enough. So if we are failing, it's because our Iman is failing us. We are failing ourselves with our Iman. This is something I have no doubt in.

If we are losing, it's because we already killed ourselves with our own Iman. We destroyed our own selves by failing to have trust properly in Allah. I have no doubt about this. We need to wake up to the reality that we don't live in a three dimensional world. That's only where we are temporarily with our bodies. This world is much more than that. Much more than that.

Allah has promised already:

The believers are successful. Do you doubt that? Do you doubt that Allah promised you 1400 years ago, that if you possess Iman, you are successful. What are we afraid of?

Those people who command to good and forbid evil, Allah has promised these people are successful.

Allah has promised the believers Jannah. Do you doubt that? Allah has promised you, if you believe in me, no matter what you go through in this life, no matter what you struggle through, no matter what happens to you, that at the end of the road, Jannah belongs to you. Do you doubt that for one minute?

The Prophet (peace and blessings be upon him) said:

(Sahih al-Bukhari, Hadith 3244)

Allah has prepared for the believers that which an eye has never seen, that which an ear has never heard about, that which a mind cannot imagine.

Do you doubt that? If you have no doubt in that, you will never be worried about what we are confronted with. It will never cause you a night of restless sleep. It will never cause you heartache for one moment because you will know, no matter what I'm going through, Allah has the plan. And I'm just going to stick to the plan. It's gonna stick to the plan. Trust in Allah.

Do what's within my capacity to do. And the success of it is in the hands of my Creator.

صَلَّى اللَّهُ عَلَى رَسُولِ اللهِ وَعَلَى آلِهِ وَصَحْبِهِ أَجْمَعِينَ وَأَشْهَدُ أَنْ لَا إِلَهَ إِلَّا اللَّهُ وَحْدَهُ لَا شَرِيكَ لَهُ وَأَشْهَدُ أَنَّ مُحَمَّدًا عَبْدُهُ وَرَسُولُهُ

The Iman Crisis

That's what we have. We have an Iman crisis going on in this ummah. Not only do Muslims have a problem believing, they have a problem believing correctly. This is another problem. It's not that we don't believe in anything, but we don't know what we should properly believe in. This is a problem.

This is where this ummah needs to go back to the basics. Forget about everything that is esoteric and has no effect on your daily life whatsoever and let's get back to the basics. Belief in Allah and His Messenger and what that really means. What that really, really means.

If we are in Iman crisis, how do we get it back? How do we get it back? How do we continue to trust in Allah?

Reconnecting with Allah

The first and foremost, brothers, is you need to have a reconnection. And I've talked about this on this minbar a number of times. You need to have a reconnection with Allah. You need to reconnect your life with Allah. And that comes about through the ibadah that you give to Allah and most importantly, it comes to having a connection to the words of Allah, the Qur'an.

Because there is no ibadah that you can offer to Allah. There is no salah that you're going to give to Allah. You're not going to stand up in the middle of the night, in the middle of the day, in the morning, in the evening, and pray to Allah if you have not included a part of His Kitab. It's not possible.

So your connection to the Qur'an, ask yourself, what is my connection to the Book of Allah? That will automatically give you a litmus test of what your connection is with your Rabb. What your connection is with your Rabb.

Allah doesn't need you to be the most pious worshiper that has ever lived on the face of this earth. He doesn't need you to offer 50 salawat a day. He didn't need that. If He wanted that, He would have required that. What Allah wants is that everything you give to Him, you give it for His sake alone. For His sake alone, even if it's little.

Even if the best you can do right now is your five daily salawat, give that sincerely for Allah. Take those five minutes and say, nothing else matters right now except Allah. When you say Allahu Akbar, that means that Allah is greater than everything.

Allah is greater than your problems right now. Allah is greater than your money right now. Allah is greater than your family right now. Everything that you're worried about, that you're stressed about, when you say Allahu Akbar, you're making a testification that Allah is greater than that, and I need to have my focus right here, right now. This is the type of effort that we can make simply, simply with trust in Allah, doing things solely for Allah's sake. This is what we need.

Making the Change

Maybe you have been very slacking in your deen. Maybe the only time you've made it to the masjid in the past two months is during the Salatul Jumu'ah, maybe. But that doesn't mean you can't change that. You can fix that today. You can change that tomorrow morning. You can be a new person when you wake up.

When you go to bed tonight, you can say to yourself, and you can say to Allah, Ya Allah, tomorrow I'm gonna be different. I'm gonna be better, I'm gonna do more. Give me the tawfiq to be able to fulfill my words. And Allah will strengthen you, trust me. Allah will never ever let you down. Ever, there is no way.

Allah does not break His promises. He does not disappoint the believers. He does not fail them. It has never happened and it will never happen. And you're not gonna be the first one.

So please, brothers and sisters, maybe you've been on the wrong road. Maybe you've been hanging out with the wrong people. Maybe you've been involved in the wrong thing. Maybe you know for a long time your heart's been poking you. The time to change, it's time to change. That's your own soul warning you, it's time to change. The angel of death is chasing you, time to change.

There's nothing stopping you from that, but you. But you, you can be better. That's what this ummah needs. We need an attitude that, ya Allah, we wanna be better. We don't wanna be perfect, we'll never be perfect, it's impossible. But we wanna be better.

And we wanna be better solely for Allah's sake. If we see that type of change in this ummah, just a sincere ummah that maybe they don't have the most knowledge, maybe they aren't the most pious worshippers, maybe they aren't giving hundreds and thousands of charity, but they have made a soul commitment to be better for the sake of Allah jalla wa ala alone. And they are leaving the results of what happens around them, and the results of what comes of their life, to the hands of Allah and His plan.

If you do this, brothers and sisters, you will be successful. You'll be successful. I don't care if you end up with nothing. I don't care if they take your job, and your home, and your car, and you end up in the streets with your family. If you continue to trust in the plan of Allah, it will come.

The Story of the Woman and Dawud

Finally, lastly, I'll give you one small story. There's a story about the time of Dawud (peace be upon him). This is where we end. A woman came to Dawud (peace be upon him), and she said, Dawud, is Allah just? Is Allah just or unjust? And he said, woe to you woman, what kind of question do you ask? Surely there is no one that is more just than Allah.

He said, what's the matter? She said, on the way, I'm a single mother. I'm a single mother. I support my children. I put food in their mouths by knitting, by making garments and taking them to the market and sell them, and then buying food and taking it home and putting it on my family. That's all I have everyday, is what I bring home.

Now I was on the way to the market, and a bird came and swooped what I had knitted out of my hand, and took it off. And now I have nothing to give to my children. So is not Allah unjust or just?

You see, sometimes we're tested. When we decide I want to trust in Allah, Allah is going to test you. Do you think that you say you will believe and you won't be tested? You're going to be tested. For sure you'll be tested.

There were times in my life that I don't like including personal stories. There was a time in my life where I had nothing, and wallahi, Allah is my witness, I was walking the streets of my hometown, looking for coins on the street to buy anything to eat and put in my stomach. Wallahi ya adheem, Allah knows. I had nothing. But I never once doubted that Allah would eventually find a way. Alhamdulillah, Allah provides. Allah is Ar-Razaq.

So, at that time a group came in of merchants, sailors, they came in and they each had a hundred dinar, similar in money at that time. And they said, we want to donate this to the sake of Allah, and want you to choose whom it should go to. And they asked, what do you mean?

They said, we were out sailing, coming here, and a great storm came and damaged our boat, and it seemed as if we were going to die, and we made an oath that if Allah bring us out of this difficulty, we would donate what we had in His sake. And then a bird came, and dropped some materials, this yarn and knitting material that we needed to fix our boat, so we repaired our boat with it, and we've made it here and we hand it in you.

He looked at the woman, and he said, Isn't Allah just? You are doubting your Rabb, who works for you on land and at sea. And you're doubting him. And he gave her the whole thousand dinar, and said, go feed your children.

You see this is sometimes we have to just trust in the plan of Allah. We can't be so quick to jump to a reaction, we can't be so quick to lose our heads, we can't be so quick to doubt, because the plan of Allah sometimes doesn't make sense to your little feeble mind.

There might be other things at work throughout the universe, that Allah is putting into motion just for you, and you don't know it and you're doubting. Allah might be moving the heavens and earth for you, and you might be doubting. Just trust in Allah.

There has never been a believer, that has ever brought any story forward, that they've ever trusted in Allah with all of their trust, and He has ever let them down. And I'm still waiting for one to come forward. It doesn't happen.

The believers are successful already. Allah supports those who believe.

Closing

End of Khutbah