Hamzah Wald Maqbul – Khutbah Dealing With The Gift of Adversity MSI 11112016.mp4
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By the father of Allah Subhanahu Wa Ta'ala
in the past year, I've had the privilege
of teaching a very small book,
the. It's a book that summarizes the from
the Muslim.
Community. It is a universally agreed upon book
from the different and different schools of thought
of Islam
represent
a a creedal formulation, and it's a transmission.
Didn't just write it as an original work,
Rather, it is a summer summarization of the
transmission of the
sacred creed of Islam,
which was transmitted to him through the 2
students of
from Imam Abu Hanifa
It transcends differences,
all of the different had accepted.
Imam Abu Hanifa also, of course,
didn't make it up or write some original
work on Aqidah, rather he transmits it from
the
Sahaba directly.
He transmits
4 4 hadith and 4 Sahaba
directly, including Sayna Aliz bin Malik
And then indirectly through the senior Tabireen.
A great number of hadith, the hadith
have been recently printed
in 20 volumes.
The tactic was done by a a Muhadith
who lives in Makkamukaraman,
Mawana Motibi Rahman Beyraji from the Indian subcontinent.
I had the privilege of meeting him and
reading his other works.
One of the items in the creed,
which is not something that is
something you have to look very
you know, with great difficulty for in the
is the belief in Qadr, the belief in
destiny.
That we believe in Qadr that Allah ta'ala
has before He created the heavens and the
earth, knowledge over
everything that was and everything that is and
everything that will ever be. And whatever happens,
happens not only with his permission, it only
happens through his enabling it to happen. Him
is giving it the power to happen.
So we believe in the divine destiny.
The good of it and the evil of
it. Now the words good and evil
that are used in the hadith of the
prophet
themselves.
They don't refer to a moral judgment.
They don't refer to a moral judgment because
morally speaking, everything that happens is good. Why?
Because it all comes from Allah subhanahu wa
ta'ala.
Allah made 2 systems. 1 system for us
and one for himself.
There is nothing like unto him, no one
like unto him, and he's the all seeing
and the all hearing.
Allah
doesn't share his book with his
creation.
So the system for us is what we
call the
the system regarding divine legislation.
Allah ta'ala said, this is my sacred law
that I've made it off for you as
my creation.
These are the things you should be happy
with. These are the things that you should
not be happy with. You should be happy
with truth. You should not be happy with
falsehood. You should be happy with iman. You
should not be happy with kufr. You should
be happy with trusting in Allah
You should not be happy with with with
hasad, with with jealousy, with ranker, with all
of these other things.
But Allah
keeps for himself a different.
His is the
what we refer as.
If
is divine legislation,
is what actually ends up happening.
So in the hikmah of Allah ta'ala, he
allows justice to happen in a place, and
he allows his to happen in a place,
and he allows injustice to happen in a
certain locus of time and space.
Ultimately, it gets worked out, but at that
time, a murderer is a murderer.
He wasn't able to murder except for by
Allah Ta'ala's leave.
A liar is a liar. He wasn't able
to lie except for by Allah Ta'ala's leave.
A cheater is a cheater. He wasn't able
to cheat except for by Allah ta'ala's leave.
If a person looks at the small picture,
they may be upset with what something that
happens.
But if a person looks at the big
picture, they'll understand. But here's the catch, no
one's going to be able to see the
big picture. Why? Because the slave is the
slave, and the Lord is the Lord. Allah
subhanahu wa ta'ala
is
Allah. His knowledge outstrips the knowledge knowledge of
his creation.
Right?
The creation is not able to understand any
part of his except for what he desires,
what he throws to you, an eye as
a bread crumb. When he throws to you
an eye as a bread crumb, and it
doesn't decrease from his knowledge except for less
than what the needle when dipped in the
ocean, the amount of water will pull out
of the ocean. That's how much is decreased
by by by understanding whatever we understand.
This is the nivam of Allah subhanahu wa
ta'ala. So the hukam, the amr to the
believers is what? To be pleased with the
tava of Allah ta'ala. To be pleased with
the judgment in the hukum of Allah subhanahu
wa ta'ala and all matters in the past.
In the future,
we're pleased with Allah's hukum and the past
we're pleased with Allah's hukum, but there are
2 different sunnas.
The sunnah for the past is what happened
happened, and it's the greatest greatest thing, the
best thing that could have happened. To be
pleased with Allah subhanahu wa ta'ala's hukum with
regarding the past has three levels. The bare
minimum is what? That you should make supper
with it. Something happened, you didn't want it
to happen. You know it comes from Allah
subhanahu wa ta'ala. There's some in it, but
you have some anxiety inside of your heart.
You have some anxiety inside of your heart
about what happened, what it means for you,
what it means for your future, what it
means for your,
for your well-being, what it means for your
safety in this world, maybe even in the
hereafter. You have some anxiety about that. This
is when we say that you're supposed to
accept the qadr of Allah
The good and the evil of it, the
sweet and the bitter. Good and evil again
are not moral pronouncements.
They are
descriptors and adjectives of how you feel about
what happened.
So if something happens that you don't that
that's difficult for you to accept emotionally, you're
mentally, you're able to say, okay, fine. It
came from Allah Ta'ala. There's some khair in
it, but emotionally, you struggle in order to
accept it. This is what we mean by
We don't mean something that Allah didn't want
to happen because nothing exists in the universe
that he doesn't want to happen. The lowest
level of iman is that you make patience
with that difficulty and that feeling you have
inside of your heart. This is the lowest
level of a person's faith is to have
patience with it. If you cannot have patience
with it, if you are saying that this
is wrong, then what are you doing? You're
questioning Allah Subhanahu Wa Ta'ala's judgment. And whoever
questions Allah Subhanahu Wa Ta'ala's judgment, the text
of the is very clear.
That person has disbelieved in Allah give
us all patience.
The one who questioned why because
This is a great this is a great
principle laid out in the Quran regarding Allah
He is not to be questioned about what
he does, even though he has the right
to question all other people. In In fact,
he will question all other people on one
day. No one has the right to question
him about his hikmah. You're not able to
understand it in the first place. And even
if you don't agree with it, your disagreement
means absolutely nothing. My disagreement means absolutely nothing.
The lowest level of iman is what? That
a person should be patient with that decree
of Allah
that they feel inside of their heart, involuntary
discomfort with. That discomfort is not a sin.
That discomfort is not, being you're a bad
person or that you don't have faith. That
discomfort is part of being a human being.
That discomfort is a normal thing. Some people,
the discomfort will overwhelm them. There are ways
you can get help for that discomfort. You
can talk to your peers, you can talk
to the people from the community who have
knowledge to tell you a word that will
comfort you again. You can increase your salah,
you can increase your,
you can increase your zikr, you can increase
your recitation of the Quran, you can do
a number of things. If it's even more
than that, you can get professional help. There
are people who give you professional
the Khaleel Center is just down the road.
You don't have to be absolutely,
out of your mind crazy in order to
get help with mental issues.
Not everybody who goes to the hospital is
having a heart attack. Sometimes someone just broke
a finger and they need a small amount
of help. There's no shame in that. There's
no shame in that. But there's ways to
cope with this.
The second degree, that's a degree higher than
this, is that a person shows shows indifference
when things like this happen. Something happens which
ostensibly a normal man would find against their
favor, a person their heart doesn't change when
Allah's
decree
comes against them. Or when Allah ta'ala's decree
comes in a way that a normal man
would be emotionally disturbed by it,
the level of imam higher is what? Is
that a person? Is not disturbed by it.
This is shown by Sadat alaihi alahu anhu,
a very well known statement of his.
What that
I wake up in the morning
and I don't know if today Allah gives
me ease or it gives me difficulty. I
don't know which one will be better for
me. I don't know which one to ask
for because I don't know which one will
be better for me, which is what Allah
I've
I've had this experience
several times that things have gone both ways
and they've all been good for me. So
I'm going to just let Allah ta'ala decide.
I have no preference for 1 over the
other.
I have no preference for 1 over the
other.
And there's a degree higher than this of
iman, which is also encapsulated in the statement
of Sayyidina Muhammad
Which is what? There are certain people who
don't see things that happen, but they see
the one who's doing those things that happen.
So every single kaman, every single hukum, every
single decree of Allah subhanahu wa ta'ala
is a cause for joy for them. It's
a cause for them to rejoice. Why? Because
they don't see what's happening, they see the
one behind what's happening.
And their love for Allah subhanahu wa ta'ala
is such, Allah ta'ala put his love in
the hearts of everyone of His creation.
Even the even the even the the sinner,
even that non Muslim, even the atheist who
denies Allah subhanahu wa ta'ala exists. How many
times have I spoken to an atheist from
my friends in college, or from people I
meet in different gatherings, in different public gatherings,
in different,
dialogues and in different discourses,
that when we say something about
Allah their eyes light up, they become they
become happy,
and they say something like, I wish I
could believe in that.
The barrier preventing their belief, this is the
topic of another discourse. But even they, when
they hear about Allah makes them happy. Why?
Because the
was made to rejoice and be happy with
the remembrance of Allah subhanahu wa ta'ala.
With that remembrance of Allah subhanahu wa ta'ala.
So there are certain people who they see
whatever happens and whether that thing would make
another man cringe or would make another man
happy, they remember not the thing that's happening
not the thing that's happening, but the one
from which this thing comes, the one from
which this this this this reality originates, which
is Allah
And the root of every person was designed
by design was designed to be happy with
the remembrance of Allah
Nay, indeed, verily, by the remembrance of Allah
Subhanahu wa ta'ala, do the hearts find peace
and contentment.
This is the of the hadith of the
Rasul
that
That the prophet sallallahu alaihi wa sallam
said, one of your
no one of you will perfect your iman.
No one of you. You can begin the
journey but you are not have not arrived
yet. You can begin the journey but you
haven't arrived yet. And tell one of you,
your
your desires, your own desires are conformant with
the thing that I brought.
Conformant with the thing that I brought. Meaning
what? In the beginning, waking up for fajr
is very difficult. The person who's been praying
fajr on time for the last 40 years,
that person if their alarm clocks malfunction, they'll
wake up at that time anyway. The person
who's reading tahajjud for the last 40 years
is going to wake up even before Fajr.
Right?
One of you doesn't perfect your iman until
your desires are conformant with that which I
brought, with that which I brought, meaning the
deen of Islam. In the beginning, it's difficult,
but as you make your saluk toward Allah
subhanahu wa ta'ala, as you make your journey
on the path toward Allah subhanahu wa ta'ala,
your own heart and your own inside, your
own spiritual
apparatus. Like, you have a physical apparatus. Right?
If a person punches a wall
every day for, like, 5 hours
for 20 years, what's gonna happen? Their fist
is gonna be really hard. And I used
to take kung fu for, in university. There
are some people who literally you can, like,
slash them with a knife, it won't cut
because their bodies become so hard for being
hit so many times.
That happens to the also. There are some
people
things that will harm and damage another person
spiritually, they're not gonna touch that person. Why?
Because that person has been working out Working
out, not not at the not at the
export fitness.
But what in their salute toward Allah subhanahu
wa ta'ala, they have the endurance of a
marathon runner, whereas some of us when we
walk from the parking lot to the masjid
door, from the parking lot to the door
of the Walmart,
We're out of breath, but these people are
fit by Allah Ta'ala's Fadl. So what is
it? What is it? The person who keeps
keeps reminding themselves of these lessons, their internal
state will reconform, reconfigure to conform to what
Allah and his messenger sallallahu alaihi wa sallam
brought.
In the context of this small lesson, this
lesson is a universal lesson. It will serve
all of us, not just in this strange
day that we find ourselves in, but in
other days as well. It will serve us
in this world and in the hereafter as
well.
One one story I want to share in
the context of this lesson is what? When
I was in the university, I was making
a tikaf. Before 911,
the border between Canada and between America is
very easy to cross. It's still relatively easy,
but in those days, it was like as
if it didn't exist. So the closest masjid
to my house, I used to live in
Washington state, it was actually in, in Canada,
so we'd cross the border and go pray
over there. I was making a tikaf. There's
a Bosnian refugee brother. His name was Adnan.
He was making a tikaf with us. He
described one time one of the horrific difficulties
that their community had to go through. One
of the horrific difficulties,
people getting killed, people getting shot, constant war.
He described he described horrific difficulty they had
to go through, and I made a comment
that brother Adnan, I'm really sorry. I feel
sorry for what you and and your people
had to go through. He said, don't say
sorry.
Don't say sorry. I'm happy that it happened.
I said, This is a very strange thing
for someone to say. For someone from the
outside to make a remark like that is
maybe easy.
For someone from inside going through a situation
like that, losing family members,
seeing just horrific crimes, your own neighbors turning
on you for no reason whatsoever.
He said, I'm happy it happened. I said,
Why why in the world would anyone say
that? He said, You know the reason is
before the before any of the difficulties
happened in Bosnia. He said, I didn't even
know I was a Muslim. He said, I
didn't know I was a Muslim. So many
families, what happened?
Their served neighbors, their Croat neighbors start firing
at them.
They make threats to them. I'm gonna kill
you. You have 24 hours, 48 hours to
leave our our, our village, leave your house.
I'll kill you. I'll do this to your
family. I'll do this to your sister. I'll
do this to your, daughters. I'll do this
and that.
Acts of violence.
I said, why? We're friends. We went to
school together. We're neighbors. Because you're a Muslim.
Are you a Muslim? Yeah. You're a Muslim.
What's that? Well, you see so many centuries
ago, the Turks did this, that, and the
other thing, and your family, your last name
is a certain name. So we're not we're
they all grew up under, like, the,
communist rule of Marshall Tito. They were all
atheists, basically. None of them knew anything about
Din. Din was very, very suppressed. There were
a few families that kept the memory of
Din alive. A majority of people had no
idea what Islam even was. He said, that's
the day that I I I realized I
was a Muslim.
That's the day I realized I was a
Muslim. So I thought I may as well
read about it. I started reading about it.
I may as well pray my salah. I
may as well, fast in Ramadan. I may
as well pay zakat. I may do well
do all of these things. He said if
it didn't happen, I wouldn't have known anything
about din.
This memory, even though brother Adnan is not
a and he's not gone on 4 months
or 40 days or any of these things
or he doesn't have, like, the normal benchmark
trapping. Maybe if you saw him on the
street, you wouldn't even recognize this person is
a Muslim or not.
But what? This is a sign of a
person's iman that they understand they understand a
basic lesson. They understand a basic lesson. And
for someone, by the way, one of us,
don't be so callous as to say something
like that. It was good what happened in
Bosnia. No. No. No. Don't say that. You
didn't go through it. That type of callousness
is not something that's permitted in the deen.
You and I cannot say it, but he
said it. For him, that was his right
to say.
And for us to appreciate what? That a
person sees the hikmah and the and what
Allah subhanahu wa ta'ala's decree is, even in
the worst of situations
by a materialistic standard, there's some
Now brothers and sisters, it's something that
It's not something that's a hidden thing or
a secret, that the past couple of days
have been a stressful couple of days for
our community and for many other communities in
this in this country.
But the fact of the matter is what?
Every single decree of Allah subhanahu wa ta'ala
there's khairil.
If you and I were to ask be
asked to choose, we would have never chosen
this, except for some of us who perhaps
have very
eccentric and unique ways of thinking.
But the majority of us,
none of us would have chosen this for
ourselves. And it's a very scary it's a
very scary thing that happened.
This is reminding me of 2 things. One
is, like I said, the Bosnian, the situation
that happened to our brothers and sisters in
Bosnia.
Another thing that's that it's reminding me of
Oh. Is of of is what? Of the
partition.
Where the partition of India and Pakistan where
you see huge amounts of communal violence.
Race based,
ethnically based, religiously based violence. The conflation of
ethnic identity, racial identity,
religious identity, these things are all jahiliyah. Prophet
sallallahu alaihi wa sallam was very clear that
these things are all jahiliyah.
That there will be a time when people
call the dawah of jahiliya and the person
who responds to them, the prophet didn't have
nice things to say about those person. Those
persons and the people who called to that,
Dawa of Jahiliyyah, the prophet
didn't have nice things to say about those
people.
And it is possible.
If you think and if I think that
this is something that can go very wrong.
Not in the other of Allah because he's
the one who chooses everything for a hikmah.
But we're also right? What is the sunnah
of dealing with the past is to accept
what happened. The sunnah dealing with something in
the future is what? Right?
That the real man is not the one
who gives up for who gives up in
the face of the destiny of Allah
Rather, the real man is the one who
stands up, and he repels a good faith
with an even better one. He's the one
who stands up and repels a good faith
with an even better one. And this is
summarized by Sayna Amr alaihi wa ta'ala anhu
when he was going to sham. He was
going to sham from Madinah Munawwala
when he heard the the the the news
that the plague has spread in Sham, so
he turned around and started coming back, one
of the companions of the Messenger of Allah
sallallahu alaihi wa sallam said what? He said
what? He said he said, are you running
away from the Qadr of Allah Ta'ala? Are
you running away from your destiny? He says,
yes. I'm running from my destiny to work
my destiny.
Which means what? In the future, we accept
that Allah predestined everything also, but the sunnah
of the Saabah radiAllahu anhu, and the sunnah
chalked out for us by Rasulullah salallahu alaihi
wa sallam is to make the best of
plans, and to do what we think is
best, and afterward what ends up happening ends
up happening, but we can't just sit back
and relax. So in that context, trust me,
this is really bad.
This is really bad. A majority of our
brothers and sisters as Americans
have made a decision
that really doesn't respect our
human dignity.
And this is something we've seen in history,
it can go very wrong.
So I give a warning, and I give
good news to all of us.
The warning is what? This is something if
you are here just to make money,
if you are here just to throw a
big wedding for your children,
if you are here just to buy a
nice house, if you are here just to
ice skate by, this this this this is
a
sign in your face saying you can shave
your beard, you can take your hijab off.
Okay? You can, accept everything. You can accept
alternate lifestyles.
You can accept, you
know, all sorts of things. You can change
your your name to Bobby and Mike.
Hello. My name Bobby. Your name's not Bobby.
You're a What is this? Knock it off.
Right? You have a name, your father gave
you a name. Use your real name.
Nobody respects somebody who has no backbone. Nobody
respects somebody who has no backbone.
I'm not saying this as like looking down
on other people. My father is an immigrant,
he's gone through all of these things himself.
He regrets some of these decisions he made
himself as well.
This is a sign that we thought at
one point these things are gonna help us
get by. It doesn't matter. You can wear
suit, tie, change your name. Every single thing
in the book you can do, they'll never
they'll never love you. They'll never love you
for that.
They may love you because you stand up
for what you believe in. They may love
you because of Islam, but they're never gonna
love you for wanting to be like them.
In fact, that's a an excuse. It's a
license to treat you, and I even more
with even more humiliation.
Right? This is a lesson in Sharjah. It
teaches us this lesson. And guess what? We
didn't have to wait till 2016
to know this. What did
what did Allah subhanahu wa ta'ala say in
his?
That the are not going to be pleased
with you. What is
here? It's not individual Jews and Christians, and
it's not the theology of Judaism and Christianity.
It's the civilization that both of them bring.
They're not going to accept you until you
follow
their And guess what? Even when you follow
their the acceptance and guess what? Even when
you follow their the acceptance is going to
be like, yes, we accept you. You can
make the coffee and wait on us, hand
and foot. When you make something for yourself
and you show in the face of other
people, friend and foe alike, that you're worthy
of being respected,
that you're worthy. You're not just demanding respect
because we have a lot of people who
demand respect. Respect is not demanded, it's earned.
When you earn the respect of people around
you, then even if they don't like you,
they're still going to treat you with a
modicum of respect.
And when you don't earn the respect of
the people around you, even if they say,
oh, look, this guy's with me, you're still
not going to have any respect with them.
This is a basic teaching of the deen.
This is something that even a non Muslim,
if you told it to them, they would
understand and they would accept.
This is something we have to learn. This
is a lesson we have to learn. Okay?
911 was a like this. After 911, the
rate of people converting to Islam went up
4 fold in this country. Perhaps even more
than that. After this, you'll see that rate
increase.
I have friends who work in DC
in government and in,
organizations that are close to government.
All the old guard is being kicked out
right now. The foreign policy establishment, both parties,
they're being kicked out right now. That means
they're gonna have to staff all of these
positions with new people from
Nebraska,
from Alabama,
and South Carolina, and Arkansas, and all of
these weird states that are that are have
affinity toward this this this, new reality.
Those people know nothing about Islam. They're gonna
have to read something about Islam. What do
you think is going to happen? From the
same houses,
from the same houses
as from the same house as from the
same house as
from the same house as from the same
house, from the same house,
who are the first people to accept Islam.
His father will accept Islam at the hands
of the prophet sallallahu alaihi wa sallam more
than 10 years later. This is something that
will happen, but this is not going to
happen by changing your name, by shaving your
beard, and taking your hijab off. It's not
gonna happen by by by taking your topi
off. In fact, if you're not wearing something
on it, go ahead and wear it. Show
your Islam to people.
And be smart about it. Don't be silly
about it that you're driving through rural, part
of the the state or through the county
in the middle of the night, and you
know people are hostile, use some some smarts,
some street smarts. Sisters, use some street smarts.
Go buy a pepper spray or a taser
if you need to. Protect yourself.
Be smart about these things. Don't subject yourself
to the humiliation that is inevitably going to
come with this because nobody came with the
except for it's caused them some sort of
difficulty.
Allah
himself in his book, when he describes the
the salatul khoth,
How is the the way that the Muslims
pray on the battlefield? You're not excused from
salat on the battlefield.
None of us are gonna go to the
battlefield anytime soon, but this is a superlative
example
to teach us about the situations that we're
in that are not as intense.
What is the sunnah? That half of the
half of the army step forward and pray
1 raka behind the behind the imam. And
then the imam stands for the second raka'a
and it, the the half finishes their prayer.
And then the second half comes in and
takbir in Allahu Akbar. And And when they're
in line, then what happens?
Then the imam will lead them in the
the second rakah, and then when he says
salaam, they'll finish their prayer. Allah says something
very
very simple in the in his book, which
is what? Don't be don't be a a
a heebas of your of your weapons and
your armor during this time because the people
who disbelieve would be happy for you to
leave your weapons and your armor down. Who
is he saying this to?
He's saying this to who?
The They're not Marvel X men superhero characters
that someone shoots a gun at them and
or an arrow at them and it deflects
magically
through mutant powers.
Those people became who they were by dealing
with hard circumstances like we have to, by
dealing with hard circumstances.
So use your common sense and plan for
the future, and know that what happens is
good. And if you have difficulty, we're here
to help one another. Let's talk to one
another. Let's use the help for one another.
Don't go into depression.
Don't hide. It's not going to help. It
never helped in the past. Allah
make a bright future for us and for
our communities.
Allah protect our masajid. Allah protect our children.
Allah protect our women. Allah protect the vulnerable
amongst us. Allah
make this
Allah Ta'ala make us people who who who
have a bright future and who every single
thing that happens,
Every single thing that happens is for our
better.