Humbleness

Khutbah on Humbleness

Shaykh Zaid Shakir - December 17, 2010

The Greatest Blessings: Faith and Humility

Allah blessed us in many, many, many different ways. One of the greatest blessings Allah can give to a human being is the blessing of faith. And one of, if not the greatest blessing, because faith is the key to salvation.

And one of the greatest blessings Allah can give to a believer is the blessing of humility. Humility is the negation of arrogance. And arrogance is the sin of shaitan.

The Arrogance of Shaitan

So shaitan arrogated himself. Allah describes his action with:

"So when we said to the angels, prostrate yourselves to Adam, they prostrated themselves, except Iblis. He refused and was arrogant, and he was among the disbelievers."

The order was given to the angels, but he was in their presence when the order was given. And he was included in the order. Allah mentions him, (كَانَ مِنَ الْجِنِّ - "He was from the jinn.") (Quran 18:50). Not from the angels, but he was in their presence. And so Allah says, they all prostrated themselves except shaitan. At that, he refused. (وَاسْتَكْبَرَ - "And he arrogated himself.") (وَكَانَ مِنَ الْكَافِرِينَ - "And he was amongst those who rejected faith.")

So his rejection is rooted in his arrogance. His refusal is rooted in his arrogance. And his arrogance is a function of his misunderstanding. He said I'm better than Adam. He didn't understand Adam's situation. And I'm better than him. I'm better than him.

The Prophetic Command to Humble Ourselves

So as believers, we should strive to humble ourselves so that we do not assume we're better than anyone. Our Prophet mentions: "I have been ordered to instruct the people to humble themselves so that no one would take pride over anyone else. So that no one would take pride over anyone else."

So when we become arrogant, we start looking down on others. And we start elevating ourselves. And this was what shaitan did. So this is a very satanic way of functioning.

Characteristics of the Believers

Allah mentions one of the crucial characteristics of the believers: that the believers are none other than those when Allah is mentioned, their hearts quiver.

He describes the believers as walking humbly on the earth:

"And the servants of the Most Merciful are those who walk upon the earth humbly, and when the ignorant address them [harshly], they say [words of] peace."

So they walk humbly on the earth. And when they're addressed by the ignorant people, they don't fight them. They don't insult them in turn. They don't try to retaliate against them. They say peace. (وَإِذَا خَاطَبَهُمُ الْجَاهِلُونَ قَالُوا سَلَامًا - They say peace.

The Maturity of Adult Concerns

Because they understand that this life is too short to be worried about tit for tat. This life is too short to be worried about petty retaliation for petty slights. We have a bigger mission. We have braver concerns. And we have to get on with our business.

We have business, that's play. That's play. And that's why children like to do it so much. If a child can find an avenue to get his parents or her parents caught up in a back and forth with them, a child relishes that because it's an element of control. And the child sees himself or herself exerting their control. It's as if they say, you know, I can make my mommy start yelling at me anytime I want. Watch this. That's control. And it's very childish.

An adult to think like that, you know, I'm going to make this dude start tripping out. Check this out. That's childish. An adult should be worried about, what can I do to make this world better? What can I do to make it easier for somebody? What can I do to extend some peace into the lives of people whose hearts are being rendered asunder by all the confusion and nonsense that people have been forced to deal with on a day-to-day basis? Those are adult concerns.

The Ultimate Concern: The Akhira

And ultimately, the ultimate adult concern, what can I do to work for my Akhira? Because a child isn't thinking about his or her Akhira. They might not even be able to conceptualize the idea of the hereafter.

But an adult should be able to understand the nature of this world, and the nature of this life, and the nature of the life hereafter. And to understand that what I do now is critical in terms of determining where I'm going to be tomorrow. And where I'm going to be tomorrow, there's really two things at the end of the day.

They're either perpetual bliss or perpetual torment. And for some, a limited torment. But the torment of the hellfire is so terrible, a person wouldn't want to spend an instant in it. Let alone 50,000, 100,000 years. And then they're taken out because they have faith. But their faith was accompanied by sins. And they're punished by their sins and eventually saved by their faith. But after what? After they've been burned in the hellfire? Until they become something that resembles a lump of coal? Hashirillah, may Allah ward that off from all of us. And one of the greatest things we can do is to humble ourselves.

The Power of Charity and Humility

Allah Ta'ala, the Messenger of Allah reminds us:

(مَا نَقَصَتْ صَدَقَةٌ مِنْ مَالٍ - "Charity will never decrease wealth.") (Sahih Muslim 2588)

And this is the key to understanding the power of humility. Why is the hadith that culminates with:

(وَمَا تَوَاضَعَ أَحَدٌ لِلَّهِ إِلَّا رَفَعَهُ اللَّهُ - "And no one humbles themselves for the sake of Allah, except that Allah elevates them.") (Sahih Muslim 2588)

Why does it start off with mentioning charity will never decrease your wealth? Because it starts off by reminding us that the physical realities that we see are accompanied by a deeper metaphysical reality. And that for us to begin to grow spiritually and therefore to begin to mature as a human being because it's our spirituality that makes us uniquely human, we have to begin to look beyond the physical and to begin to look to the metaphysical, those realities beyond the physical.

Understanding Metaphysical Reality

So if we look at just the physical reality, we give our wealth, we had a hundred dollars, we gave fifty dollars, we have fifty left, how can that be true? How can charity not decrease my wealth? I had one hundred, I gave fifty in charity, I'm down to fifty now.

That's a decrease. But if we look at the metaphysical, we understand that that fifty remaining, we mentioned this previously, we can buy more with it than we would have bought with the one hundred. So it's as if we still have the one hundred or we have even more. Because there's barakah, there's blessing. There's blessing in the money that remains. And that blessing involves a metaphysical idea. Something that's not rooted in this physical reality but something we know is real because we've all seen it in our lives. We've all seen it in the lives of others. We've seen what blessed people can do.

The Need for Metaphysical Power

And this is what we need. We need blessed people today. We're talking about the Muslims, we need to get stronger. Our enemies are selling us from every angle. We need more planes, more bombs. If we can't get more bombs, we'll blow ourselves up. But we need more physical power. As if that's the key to our success. We need more metaphysical power.

We need more people who Allah subhanahu wa ta'ala describes when He says:

"And you did not throw when you threw, but it was Allah who threw."

In other words, Allah was with you. And Allah caused what you did to have more effect and impact than you could have imagined. Those are the people we need.

The Protected Friends of Allah

We need people whom Allah describes in a hadith Qudsi:

(مَنْ عَادَى لِي وَلِيًّا فَقَدْ آذَنْتُهُ بِالْحَرْبِ - "Whoever shows enmity to a friend of Mine, I have declared war against him.") (Sahih al-Bukhari 6502)

We need more people like that. We need more people like Imam Ali radiyallahu anh. When he picked up the door at Khaybar, that after the battle, ten men couldn't budge. But did he pick it up because of his physical stature? Imam Ali wasn't that big. He wasn't tall and statuesque like Umar radiyallahu anh. Or Ubaid bin Salman or some of the other really big, powerfully built companions.

But he had a force with him that transcends the physical. And this is what we have to understand. And one of the keys to getting in touch with that force is humility.

Orienting Our Youth Toward True Power

And one of the keys to humility is looking beyond this physical reality. And we have to orient our young people. We have young people, some fake Muslim come, you know, if you're a real concern for this. Our sisters are being raped. And our people are being harmed. And you're sitting here in America getting fat. If you are a real man, I'm a real man. If you're a real man, then take this and blow up some babies and women and children. I'm a real man, I'll do it.

Why are some youth deluded like that? Because they don't understand what real manhood is. And they don't understand what real power is. We have to orient our youth. It's not what you physically possess. Because you'll always be lacking. And if you're always lacking, you'll always be seeking for desperate means to make up the gap. That's not going to do anything for anybody.

Strength of Character Over Physical Strength

But when you have strength of character, strength of heart, strength of spirit, strength of soul, those are the people that have an impact. Those are the people that have understanding. And people of understanding, they know how to reach people. They know how to talk to people.

And when we talk and communicate to people, we find out we're all in the same boat. Some Muslims act like Muslims are the only victims of the increasingly pernicious and venal corporate rape of this planet. We're the least of the victims.

The Global Crisis Affects All

There are whole people that have been wiped out. There are islands in the South Pacific that are underwater. People's homes have been engulfed as a result of global warming. The people in the north, the Inuits and other northern people, the ice is melting. Their way of life, their villages are falling into the ocean. The bears they used to hunt and the fish and seals are disappearing. Whole lifestyles, whole ways of life, whole populations are

being threatened with extinction. And it's all based on the same cause. In this country, there are people we have common cause with.

You want to do something, go, go join those veterans for peace who were chaining themselves to the White House yesterday. Protesting against the vicious war machine that misguided Muslims only empower. They only empower. They go, all these Muslims are terrorists, that's why we need these wars. No, we're people of peace. Boom. One Muslim blows himself or something up. Oh, see, I told you. That's called an advanced state of idiocy. If I had a stronger word, I would use it. That's idiocy. That's stupidity. That's immaturity. That's imbecility. That's desperation.

Allah's Promise to Help the Believers

Allah is not going to take care of his business. Allah Ta'ala says in the Quran:

"And it was a right upon Us to support the believers."

That we've made it a right over ourselves. We can't impose a right on Allah. But He said, I've made it a right over myself that I will help the believers. But who, which believers? Allah is not going to help people that murder babies and women and then justify how they kill our babies and our women.

They Are Not Our Teachers

Many of you remember the movie, The Lion of the Desert. And the scene where the Muslims popped out of the desert and they ambushed the Italians and one Italian survived and Omar Mukhtar, actually Anthony Quinn, gave him the flag back and said, take this to your general, tell him it doesn't belong to him. And one of his men said, we should kill him. And then Omar Mukhtar says, we don't kill prisoners.

And then his man said, well they killed our prisoners. And then what did he say? They are not our teachers. They are not our teachers. The CIA is not our teachers. They torture. The US military is not our teachers. They kill civilians. They bomb wedding parties. The Israeli Defense Force is not our teacher.

Muhammad is our teacher. And one of the few things that's been narrated by absolute binding consensus, Ijma'at. Ijma'at are very few. Many. And they say you don't become a true scholar until you learn the differences. But one thing that the Ummah has agreed on:

(نَهَى رَسُولُ اللَّهِ صلى الله عليه وسلم عَنْ قَتْلِ النِّسَاءِ وَالصَّبْيَانِ - "The Messenger of Allah prohibited killing women and children.") (Sahih al-Bukhari 3015, Sahih Muslim 1744)

So where does a Muslim get off? Blowing up a bunch of women and children who didn't even do anything to him. Who don't even know why the world is spinning the way it's spinning.

The Need for Humility in Our Youth

We don't need that. We need people who can humble themselves. And that's what we need to tell our young

people. Humble yourself. You don't have all the answers. Matter of fact, you don't have any answers.

And I've been there. I was the hot, most hot-headed. Let's go. And you know what? One of my friends, we were talking a few years ago. He said, you know, we were running around blowing off all that steam. He said, someone should have taken us in an alley and spanked us.

And a lot of these young kids need to be taken into an alley somewhere and spanked. Because your foolishness is undermining what serious people are trying to accomplish. And one day they'll thank you. One day there'll be a lot of thanking for the spanking. But only after humility. Only after humility, realize you know what? He's right. She's right. I don't have all the answers. I need to humble myself.

I need to listen to someone who's been around the block a few times. Before I try to come in and run the neighborhood. And you know what happens with that? This scenario happens. We just come in, try to run the neighborhood. Didn't even talk to no one on the block. Didn't consult anybody. You know what happens. And that's a metaphor for things that might happen. If we don't get control of our community, we need humility.

Allah Elevates the Humble

And if we're humble, Allah will elevate us. This is the point. Charity will never decrease your wealth. And Allah will only increase a servant who has the ability to pardon others with honor.

(وَمَا تَوَاضَعَ أَحَدٌ لِلَّهِ إِلَّا رَفَعَهُ اللَّهُ - "And no one humbles themselves for the sake of Allah except that Allah exalts them.") (Sahih Muslim 2588)

So we can take our chances. We can try to exalt ourselves. We can engage in desperate means and desperate measures to exalt ourselves. And it's across the board. It can be in our communities. It can be in our marriages. One wants to exalt themselves. Wants to be the boss. Not listen to the other spouse. Not consult.

The Choice: Self-Elevation or Divine Elevation

So we can try to elevate ourselves. Or we can humble ourselves and let Allah elevate us. Who's going to end up in a higher position? One who elevates himself or herself based on his or her human weaknesses and frailties and ignorance. Or one who's elevated by Allah based on his infinite unlimited power. His infinite unlimited knowledge. His infinite unlimited mercy.

I take my chances with Allah subhanahu wa ta'ala.

(يَا أَيُّهَا الَّذِينَ آمَنُوا صَلُّوا عَلَيْهِ وَسَلِّمُوا تَسْلِيمًا - "Indeed, Allah and His angels send blessings upon the Prophet. O you who have believed, ask Allah to send blessings upon him and ask Allah to grant him peace.") (Quran 33:56)

(اللَّهُمَّ صَلِّ وَسَلَّمْ وَبَارِكْ عَلَى سَيِّدِنَا مُحَمَّدٍ وَعَلَى آلِهِ وَصَحْبِهِ وَسَلَّمْ تَسْلِيمًا

Being With Allah Through Humility

Just to remind all the brothers and sisters that a person who is humble is with Allah subhanahu wa ta'ala. And a person who is with Allah subhanahu wa ta'ala isn't shaken by these worldly vicissitudes, the ups and downs of the world. A person who is with the world will be on a roller coaster. The world goes up to the top, they go up to the top. The world comes cascading down, they come cascading down. The world goes in a wild turn, they go into a wild turn.

But a person who is with Allah subhanahu wa ta'ala is above all of that. And again, that person, their position, their standing with Allah is based on their humility.

The Home of the Hereafter

Allah subhanahu wa ta'ala mentions:

"This is the home of the hereafter. And we've made that home, the heavenly home, for those who don't desire to exalt themselves in the earth nor corruption. And the [best] outcome is for the people of taqwa, the people of righteousness."

The end will be for the people of righteousness. So we don't have to panic. Allah subhanahu wa ta'ala said the end is for the righteous. Our challenge is to work so that we can be amongst the righteous. That's our challenge. Our challenge is not to figure out every twist and turn of the world. Our challenge is to work, to struggle, to strive so that we can be amongst the righteous.

Worldly Trials Increase Faith

And if we're amongst the righteous, we'll be with Allah subhanahu wa ta'ala. And if we're with Allah, we'll understand that the end is for the righteous. And we'll understand that all of these worldly things, if we're with Allah, they only increase our faith.

Allah ta'ala mentions:

"Those who when the people said to them, 'The people are gathering against you, fear them,' it only increased their faith. And they said, 'Allah suffices us, what an excellent one to entrust our affair to.'"

That's mean all this tension. You should be afraid. And they said it only increased their faith. (وَقَالُوا حَسْبُنَا اللَّهُ وَنِعْمَ الْوَكِيلُ - "Allah suffices us, what an excellent one to be, to entrust our affair to.")

The Stability of the Believer

If we give our affair to Allah subhanahu wa ta'ala, we're going to be alright. Everything is going to be all right. And the believer has that stability. The believer has that inner peace. The believer has that confidence. And he or she understands this is the dunya.

Imam Ali radiyallahu anh mentioned:

(مَنْ عَرَفَ الدُّنْيَا حَانَتْ عَلَيْهِ مُصِيبَاتُهَا - "The one who understands the nature of this world, calamities and tribulations become easy to deal with.")

Because he or she understands that's the nature of the world. The world is the abode of trial, the abode of tribulation, the abode of calamities.

Responding to Calamity

And the believer's job, Allah ta'ala tells us: