Ali Ataie – Healing the Emptiness When You Feel Down & Depressed, Read Surah AdDuha
AI: Summary ©
The Parah of the Quran provides evidence of anxiety and depression due to self-policing nature, and the importance of worship and face challenges. The speaker discusses various ways to deal with these situations, including praying and praying. The speaker also emphasizes the importance of the holy spirit in prosperity and adversity, and the use of "has" in the context of past blessings and the importance of remembering the meaning of La ilaha illallah. The speaker emphasizes the importance of learning the Quran and teaching it to others.
AI: Summary ©
Inshallah.
For today's footba, I want to,
talk about,
an amazing Surah of the Quran.
It is a Surah,
the,
prototypical
Surah of consolation,
a Surah that has a lot of resonance
for us,
always
and for all times.
Surah Al Duha is chapter 93
of the Quran. Some historical background. We know
that the prophet Muhammad sallallahu alaihi wasallam
when he went to the mountain of light
and he received the revelation, the wahi descended
upon him,
from Jibril alaihi wasallam,
and he was commissioned as a prophet,
and he saw Jabil alayhi salam in the
incarnated form, and when he exited the cave,
he saw Jibil alaihi sallam in the way
that Allah subhanahu wa ta'ala created him covering
the horizons,
and then he heard,
voices greeting him,
Siggia saying, Assalamu alaikia Rasulullah, or peace be
upon you, oh messenger of God, and you
would look and
and
he explained what had happened and of course
we know they went to Warakah bin Naufal
who said,
That he said to the prophet
that the great namus, the great, the great
law of God has come unto you
just as it came upon Musa alaihis salam.
Now a few more,
revelations
came to the prophet sallallahu alaihi wasallam,
and then there was a break in the
revelation,
and during this break, from what we can
tell from the sources,
the prophet sallallahu alaihi wasallam,
was experiencing
a bit of anxiety,
uneasiness,
and worry,
even some depression.
Why was he experiencing this? It's because the
prophet salallahu alaihi wasalam was a very self
reproaching person.
He had thought within himself salallahu
alaihi wasalam, and this is from his tawadur,
this is from his humility, sallallahu alaihi wasallam,
that perhaps he had done something
that angered Allah subhanahu wa ta'ala.
That the prophet
was someone who wasn't
always self victimizing
himself.
That he wasn't blaming others for his problems.
He turned the spotlight inward as it were.
Imam Tabari says, on top of this, some
of the mushrikeen
had caught wind that the prophet
was declaring himself a prophet
or that he was claiming that revelation was
coming to him,
and they began to mock and ridicule him
sallallahu alaihi wasallam.
And some of them said in ridicule your
shaitan has left you, and some of them
said to him in sarcasm and ridicule,
indeed his lord has forsaken him
and hates him.
Now when Jibril alaihis salam did eventually come
back to the prophet sallallahu alaihi wasallam, it
is mentioned in a hadith that is mentioned
by many, many of the mufasir in the
Quran,
that the prophet sallallahu alaihi wa sallam, he
said to Jibril alaihi wa sallam,
I felt a type of anxiety
when you did not visit me,
and it's because I fell in love with
you.
This is what he's saying to Jibril Alaihi
Salam.
I fell in love with you and felt
a sense of longing towards you, and I
wanted to see you again. And Jibreel alaihi
salam said to him, salam alaihi salam, I
fell in love with you as well,
and I felt a longing to see you
again,
But I am a servant under command,
and I only descend by the permission
of Allah Subhanahu Wa Ta'ala. So why was
there a break in the revelation?
Allahu an'am. Perhaps Allah subhanahu wa ta'ala wanted
to teach him and by us and us
by extension
as to how to deal with this type
of situation in our lives.
Perhaps,
sometimes we feel as if we are cut
off as it were
from divine providence.
Something I hear a lot from the youth
is, you know, I'm not feeling it anymore.
I used to hear the Quran. This is
what I'm hearing. I used to hear the
Quran,
and I would have a chill go up
my spine, and now I don't feel anything.
I used to pray Fajr, and I feel
a sense of spirituality
throughout my day.
Or something like, well, I don't think my
duas are being answered anymore. I just don't
feel like they're being answered.
Dealing with the latter from the hadith,
the ulama have gathered that when we make
a dua,
one of 3 things happen.
Of course, we know Allah subhanahu wa ta'ala
says in the Quran,
When my servants ask you concerning me say
that I am indeed close to them.
That I answer the supplication of every supplicant
when he calls upon me. We know that
the prophet salallahu alaihi wasallam said in the
sound hadith, a du'am musul aibada, al kamakal
alaihi salatu wa salam. That supplication du'a is
the essence of worship.
So they say one of 3 things will
happen.
Either Allah subhanahu wa ta'ala will give you
what you're asking for in this dunya.
He'll give it to you. And all of
us can testify to this. There are certain
things we make du'a and it happens in
the dunya.
Or he won't give you that specific thing,
but will give you something better.
And you might not perceive it to be
better.
And this better thing could simply be the
fact that he saved us. He prevented Ebosiba
from
from afflicting us.
So it's ultimately good for us, but sometimes
we don't know what's good for us.
Perhaps you love something that is not good
for you, that is bad for you, that
is evil for you.
Or third possibility,
that Allah subhanahu wa ta'ala won't give us
what we're asking for in this dunya at
all.
Then on the yawmur qiyama, as it states
in the hadith,
people will see
jibal, mountains of good deeds,
mountains of rewards.
And they will ask, what is this?
And the answer will come that this is
from your dua, your supplications.
Allah subhanahu wa ta'ala did not answer your
supplications in the dunya, but he rewarded you
for making those supplications, in effect, answering your
dua. And on the Yomul Qiyama,
and the servant will say, I wish none
of my duas were answered in the world.
I wish that none of my duas were
answered in the world.
In a hadith,
there's some weakness in the hadith.
The prophet sallallahu alaihi wasallam, he said, Allah
will answer as long as one does not
become hasty.
And they said to the prophet sallallahu alaihi
wa sallam, what does it mean to become
hasty?
And he said, that's when one says,
That's when the servant says, I made dua
to my lord and he never answered me.
So we have to be steadfast.
We have to keep asking Allah subhanahu wa
ta'ala. One of my teachers even said, keep
nagging. He used that word, keep nagging Allah
subhanahu wa ta'ala. He never grows tired. When
someone nags
us, we get tired, we get frustrated.
But when we ask Allah Subhanahu Wa Ta'ala
repeatedly, this is something that He loves and
something that will benefit us.
Insha'Allah ta'ala.
So the beginning of the surah, Allah subhanahu
wa ta'ala says,
taking a qasam, taking an oath by the
soothing morning light.
And the urnama, many of the urnama here
say, duha is a symbol for the revelation
itself. Duha is the soothing morning light.
The the the sunlight
before it gets too hot. It's very soothing.
And they say this is a symbol of
the revelation. Now the prophet salallahu alaihi wasallam,
he was a Hanif.
He was
an archetypal monotheist. He never worshiped idols. He
never engaged in the frivolity
of the culture of the pre Islamic Arabs.
He was someone who was dedicated to the
creed of Ibrahim alaihi salam even before the
Wahi descended upon him, sallallahu alaihi wasallam. And
he would practice tahannouth,
which is a way of saying that he
would shun the idolatry of his people and
seek solitude
with his Lord subhanahu wa ta'ala. This is
what his intellect, his Akhil, suggested to him.
His rational faculty through his intellect. This is
how keen and sharp his intellect was, and
how pure his fitra was.
And then the nakal, the revelation descended upon
him salallahu alaihi sallam.
And you have a convergence
of intellect and revelation, aqal and naqal, imam
al razi, he says this is the meaning
of nurun alanoo
And the famous
revelation and intellect. Allah
Allah says,
That that which is internal and and Imam
al Badawi mentions, that Imam al Razi also
mentions that the nispah and this ayah is
a is a, is a reference to the
heart of the prophet Muhammad salallahu alaihi wa
sallam. And that the oil of the of
the lamp, that which is internal to the
prophet salallahu alaihi wasallam, his pure fitrah
or his rational faculty,
it would almost illuminate even though the fire,
the Nor, which is a symbol of the
revelation itself has not even touched it. Meaning
that the prophet sallallahu alaihi wasalam's,
understanding of Allah Subhanahu wa ta'ala. His theological
understanding if you will, and his ethical world
view was almost perfectly in line with what
would become,
in the Sharia and the wahi.
And that there were sparks of this illumination
that were witnessed by people in the pre
Islamic days.
Pre prophetic miracles.
Ir hasat that were that were that were
noticed by people, like Tahira the monk.
So we have this convergence of revelation and
intellect.
And by the night when it is still,
this continues the Qasam.
And the ulama mentioned
here that this is the reference to the
the,
the break in the revelation.
That the duha is a reference to the
revelation when it's shining and then there's a
break. In other words, whether you're receiving revelation
or not,
whether you, salam alayhi salam, are receiving revelation
or not,
your lord has not
forsaken you
nor does he hate you, nor does he
hate. And here, as we mentioned in many
many,
lectures is a transitive verb,
which
which normally requires a direct object, but Allah
subhanahu wa ta'ala here does not mention the
direct object. He doesn't say because
he would never even insinuate that he hates
the prophet sallallahu alaihi
wasallam.
And Allah subhanahu wa ta'ala identifies himself as
the lord of the prophet sallallahu alaihi wasallam.
The rub, the imminent deity,
the one who takes care of you.
This is why Sufyanathawri
he said, on the yomul qiyama, I would
rather Allah subhanahu wa ta'ala to judge me
than my own parents,
because Allah subhanahu wa ta'ala loves me more
than my own parents.
He is arrub,
He is the Lord, the imminent deity, the
one who takes care of us.
And the afterlife is better for you than
the here and now.
That's one way of interpreting it.
Or that what is later in life
is better than the present moment.
And both meetings could be true at the
same time.
In other words, be optimistic.
Have hope in the future.
Don't be pessimistic.
Don't be a cynic. Be optimistic.
Ibn Hajim mentions and many other urama mention
that at
before the battle of Khandaq, when the Sahaba
were digging the trench,
morale was low.
They're digging ditches. The prophet salallahu alaihi wasallam
was seen, he was very slender, they weren't
eating, they tied rocks around their stomachs, he
tied 2 rocks around his stomach, Sallallahu alaihi
wasallam.
And there was this huge stone that nobody
could crack, so the prophet sallallahu alaihi wasallam,
he picked up a pickaxe
and he struck it, and a spark flew.
And he says he said, I I have
been given the keys of Syria.
The keys of Syria, they're about to be
attacked by a confederacy.
10,000 people are about to storm the oasis
of Madinah to Manawra, Mushriqim from the south,
Bedouin mercenaries from the east. You have internal
units
that internal people in Madina,
Bani Israel and Munafiqeen that are causing problems.
This is an all out siege, and what
does he say, salallahu alaihi wasalam? I have
the the keys I've seen I have seen
the the keys of Syria. The keys of
Syria have been given to me. Syria is
under Byzantine control, Roman Empire.
And then he strikes it again at another
spark and he says, Allahu Akbar,
I have been given the keys of Persia,
and he strikes it a third time, Allahu
Akbar, another spark in the in the stone
shatters.
I've been given the keys of Yemen.
Morale was low, he picked up his people
sallallahu alaihi wasallam.
He said sallallahu alaihi wasallam, Ajbali Amrulbudmin. How
how wonderful, how incredible
is the affair of the believer.
All of his affairs are good.
All of his affairs are good. When he's
afflicted with something, he's patient.
In terms of prosperity,
he's he is grateful.
The first people called the Jannah and the
Umal Qiyama
are those who praise Allah
in prosperity
and in adversity.
What is later is better than the former.
And soon your Lord will give you something,
and the object here again is not mentioned.
We'll give you something. Your Lord, the one
who loves you and takes care of you,
he's going to give you something
and immediately you'll be pleased. Imam al Suyuti
mentions in his tafsir that when the prophet
shalallahu alaihi wa sallam heard this ayah he
said,
I will never be pleased while even one
person from my ummah
is in the fire.
So what is this thing that Allah subhanahu
wa ta'ala will give the prophet salallahu alaihi
wa sallam that will immediately please him, The
salvation of the entire ummah of the prophet
Muhammad sallallahu alaihi wa sallam.
The salvation of the entire ummah. There's a
hadith in Tirmidi where the prophet salallahu alaihi
wasallam he said, the last man to come
out of the hellfire
will come crawling out of the hellfire.
The last,
the true monotheist,
come crawling out of the hellfire.
And Allah
will say to him, you will be given
whatever you wish for
and 10 times the dunya.
You will be given whatever you wish for
and 10 times the dunya.
The answer the the response of this man
is interesting. He said he said,
Are you mocking
me? Are are you ridiculing me? Are you
make making fun of me and you're the
king?
And and Ibid Mas'ud who released the hadith,
he said the prophet sallallahu alaihi wasallam when
he mentioned that he smiled until his nawajid,
his molders were showing.
That this man was so profoundly struck
by the mercy of Allah subhanahu wa ta'ala.
That that he's the last one, the worst
of the believers, and he gets 10 times
the dunya and everything he asked for? This
must be a joke.
You must be mocking me. This was his
immediate response.
And then Allah subhanahu wa ta'ala,
and this is obviously something again that
applies to us by extension.
Allah subhanahu wa ta'ala reminds the prophet sallallahu
alaihi wasallam of past blessings.
Were you not an orphan,
and he gave you shelter?
The prophet salallahu alaihi wa sallam's father died
before he was born. His mother died when
he was 6. His grandfather died when he
was 8.
And Allah subhanahu wa ta'ala kept taking care
of him. Wasn't he taking care of you?
All of us can think of a crisis
we were in and we came out of
it.
Whether it's a family crisis or a financial
crisis.
Allah
commands us in the Quran. Remember the blessing
of Allah subhanahu wa ta'ala
upon you, remember the past, the past blessings.
Allah subhanahu wa ta'ala continues
And he found you and with respect to
the prophet sallallahu alaihi wasallam, this does not
mean that the prophet was astray or lost
or something.
It means that he was searching,
that he was without sacred law, that the
Sharia had not been revealed to him.
And
then he guided you with.
But now look at ourselves.
Maybe we
were leading lives
completely.
Of Allah So how did we get here
then?
Think about it.
How did you get to Salatul Jumaa?
How did you get to Islam?
It's a nirma of Allah Subhanahu Wa Ta'ala.
At one point, we were totally heedless.
At one point, this was not a priority
at all. I'll tell you something. When I
was in 9th grade,
I was at the San Ramon library,
and I was just studying there,
and a South Asian brother who is an
exchange student, I think he was in my
history class, he saw me there,
and he said, what is your name? I
said, Ali. He said, oh, you're a Muslim,
and I said,
no, not really. My parents are Muslim, I
think.
Said, oh,
really? So he started to tell me about
the meaning of La ilaha illallah,
and he started to tell me about Islamic
ethics.
And wallahi, I started laughing in his face.
I mocked and derided him. I made fun
of him. I made fun of his accent.
I can remember this very very clearly.
Allah subhanahu wa ta'ala did not give up
on me.
You probably have similar
stories in your own life.
Remember these past blessings,
is reminding the prophet Muhammad salallahu alaihi wasalam.
These are things that he knows. Alam, when
Allah subhanahu wa ta'ala begins a question with
Alam, it is a rhetorical question. In other
words, remember
that
Didn't you see what your lord did? In
other words, remember what your lord did to
the companions of the elephant of the year
you were born. Why do you think that
happened? That was protecting the city because you
were going to be born. You are my
Habib sallallahu alaihi wasallam.
And he found you burdened
with massive pressure, and he enriched you. Imam
Al Bagawi, he says here that Allah
enriched the prophet sallallahu alaihi wa sallam outwardly
and inwardly.
Outwardly through our lady Khadija tul Kubra, that
she was his helper and his patron, his
first disciple.
May Allah subhanahu wa ta'ala be pleased with
her, alaihi salaam.
And inwardly,
with what's known as
The prophet sallallahu alaihi wa sallam, he said,
true true enrichment
is the enrichment of the heart, enrichment of
the soul. A soul that is free of
desire for worldly things.
All that is other than Allah subhanahu wa
ta'ala is perishable,
and all that is perishable does not deserve
to be in our hearts.
There's a hadith in our tradition of Isa
alaihi salam, where Isa alaihi salam, the disciples,
the hawariyum, they come to him and they
say, how do you how is it that
you could walk on water? And he said,
bring me 3 objects, gold, stones, and mud.
So they brought him these 3 objects and
he said to he said to them, what
do you say about these 3 objects?
And they said, oh, the gold is better
than the stones, the stones are better than
the mud. He said, they're all the same
to me.
There's no difference.
Learn the secret of that and you will
transcend the physical.
You'll be able to walk on water. Ibn
Saidin, he says that water when you see
water in a dream, the most prevalent meaning
is that it's that it's knowledge.
So that the walk on water means to
attain the highest type of knowledge,
means to attain
intimate knowledge of Allah subhanahu wa ta'ala.
That if we see the world for what
it is,
that is just mud. We will transcend this
world and enter into a a type of
knowledge of of Allah subhanahu wa ta'ala. A
type of true knowledge. The greatest type of
knowledge.
And then Allah subhanahu wa ta'ala he says
to finish the surah,
And now Allah
after reminding the prophet
of past blessings, and by extension all of
us, we remember past blessings. We didn't know
anything. We didn't know 1 iota in our
mother's wombs.
We were nothing. We had no consciousness. We're
not conscious of anything at the time, and
now we're here. Now Allah subhanahu wa ta'ala,
he's saying, now look to those who are
less fortunate than you.
This is how to come out of anxiety,
out of depression.
What are we depressed about? We're inundated with
Mi'am of Allah subhanahu wa ta'ala. Take a
minute. Think about what what happened in the
past. How Allah Subhanahu Wa Ta'ala, Allah Subhanahu
Wa Ta'ala guided us to this time right
now.
And then think about those who are less
fortunate than us. As for the orphan, do
not scorn him. The prophet salallahu alaihi wasalam,
he said, the one who takes care of
an orphan
will be with me like this in paradise.
And he put up his index finger and
his middle finger like this, sallallahu alaihi
wala alaihi wasallam will be in prophetic company.
Allah subhanahu wa ta'ala even says that if
a man is struggling to take care of
orphans
and fears that he will not be able
to treat them fairly,
then rather than discontinue his support, he could
marry additional women to help him take care
of the
orphans.
It is not a necessary condition but it
is the initial context
such as the importance
of taking care
of the weakest of our human society of
children.
And as for the beggar,
do not repel him.
Anas ibn Malik, he said that the prophet
sallallahu alaihi wa sallam, he never said la
to anybody. Somebody asked him for something. If
it was within his capacity,
he would give to that person. He never
said la except when he said la ilaha
illa Allah.
I
Baba. The final eye. And as for the
blessing of thy lord,
proclaim. Imam Al Qutobi said that the mentioned
in his final ayah of Surah Al Duha
is a reference to the Quran itself.
So what does this mean for us?
Stay engaged with the Quran.
Don't leave the book of Allah Subhanahu Wa
Ta'ala,
but read
it, reflect upon it,
study its meanings,
memorize it,
implement it.
The prophet salallahu alaihi wasalam, he said, al
Quran,
He said that the Quran is either a
proof for you or against you. May Allah
subhanahu wa ta'ala make it a proof for
us.
The prophet salallahu alaihi wasalam, he said,
He said the best of you are those
who learn the Quran and teach it to
others. May Allah subhanahu wa ta'ala give us
tufik to learn the Quran and to teach
something of it to others.