Hamzah Wald Maqbul – Khutbah The Blessing of Struggle ICC 09202019
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AI: Transcript ©
Allah.
All praises to Allah.
All praises to Allah who guided us to
Islam, into iman, into his Mubarik house, on
this Mubarik hour, of this Mubarik day, and
we were not to be guided. Was it
not that he had guided us?
Oh, Allah. To you his praises is commensurate
with the majesty of your countenance and the
greatness of your authority.
Oh Allah, we do not limit you with
any praise we can come up with ourselves
rather we admit that you're the only one
who knows the true extent of your praise
worthiness.
And may the peace and blessings of Allah
ta'ala be upon his servant and messenger, our
master Sayyidina Muhammad Sallallahu Alaihi Wasallam.
May the peace and blessings of Allah ta'ala
be upon him and upon his noble companions,
and upon
his Mubarak
family and progeny, and upon his pure wives,
and upon all of those who follow all
of their way until the day of judgement.
Allah ta'ala said in the opening ayatul, Suratul
An Kabut.
Do the people think that they will be
left to say, we believe and they will
not be tested.
Verily we have tested those who have come
before you.
So that Allah may indeed know
those who are truthful in their claim
and those who are liars.
And indeed ending ayah of this same Mubarak
Surah. Allah subhanahu wa ta'ala said that those
who struggle in our path,
indeed we will guide them.
Those who struggle in our way and struggle
for our sakes, indeed we will guide them
to our many paths.
And indeed Allah Ta'ala is with those people
who do things with Ihsan, with beauty.
This is a question a person may be
forgiven for thinking even though most of us,
masha Allah, are socially apt enough to not
say these types of things out loud.
What's the big deal if Allah guides me?
What's in it for me?
And the guidance of Allah
is a really big deal.
Forget about getting to Jannah. If you didn't
have the guidance of Allah
You wouldn't make it to the bathroom from
your bedroom
and when you wake up in the morning.
If you didn't have the guidance of Allah
subhanahu wa ta'ala, you wouldn't have been able
to make it to work. You wouldn't have
been able to open your eyes or shut
your eyes. Imagine just the signal that goes
from your brain to your eyelid to blink.
Without the guidance of Allah Allah subhanahu wa
ta'ala, how would it reach where it needs
to reach? How would it come back?
But more than that brothers and sisters, what
does guidance mean?
If I were to tell you
I bought you a brand new Tesla,
it's somewhere in town. The keys are inside
of it. The registration is in your name.
But you have no idea where it is.
What good is it to you?
Obviously, a person would say, where is it?
Tell me where it is so I can
come and take it.
Allah subhanahu
wa ta'ala has created has literally created for
your makan and jannah. There is This comes
to the hadith of the prophet sallallahu alaihi
wa sallam that there's no person.
Whether that person's fate is sa'adah or shakawah.
Whether that person's fate is felicitousness
or
wretchedness.
Whether the person is fated to be from
the people of Jannah or from the people
of the hellfire. There is not one of
you except for Allah ta'ala has made for
you a place in Jannah.
You and I just need to figure out
how to get there.
Those who struggle in the path of Allah
ta'ala,
struggle, go through difficulty.
Allah ta'ala will open their eyes and show
them how to get to that maqam in
Jannah.
Allah ta'ala will show them how to earn
their risk and get their livelihood.
Allah ta'ala will show them how to fulfill
their needs in this world and the hereafter.
Allah ta'ala will show them how to find
that happiness which eludes so many people. It
eludes so many people who have money. So
many people who have health. So many people
who have power. It illud so many people.
If Allah doesn't show you how to get
there, you're not going to be able to
take advantage of it even if it's
a treasure that's
bigger than a person can imagine.
What is the way to be shown the
path to
those things that you need and that I
need
in order to be successful in this world
and the hereafter.
It's
that struggle in the path of Allah ta'ala.
Allah subhanahu wa ta'ala says in his book
very simply,
Perhaps our children even know it.
As for the person who's crooked, as for
the person who's rebellious,
And that person
prefers the life of this world over the
hereafter.
Indeed for that person the blazing fire is
their abode.
This is not a joke.
The Islam that we've made for ourselves,
The Islam
of pick and choose. The Islam of have
it your way. The Islam of being told
constantly.
Those things that affirm us and never being
told the truth that we need to hear.
Even if it's bitter.
The Islam of
5th optional.
That you can pick and choose whether something
you feel is halal and you feel is
haram.
And then afterward, if you ever receive a
correction from anybody,
you cut that person off. You block them
out.
If you ever receive a correction from anybody,
you say
Allah knows what's inside of my heart. Yes,
brothers and sisters. Allah knows what's inside of
your heart and he knows what's inside of
my heart as well.
He's the one who sent down the sharia
not as a punishment but as a mercy.
He's the one who sent his Rasul Sallallahu
Alaihi Wasallam with his deen not as a
punishment but as a mercy.
He's the one who created the treasure. He's
the one who created the happiness. He's the
one who created the eternal bliss for you
and for me.
And he's the one who gave us the
instructions on how to get there. In that
struggle itself is a mercy if a person
only knew.
But this is what This is a cheap
trick of the nafs that a person doesn't
want to ever go through any difficulty. And
a person wants to enjoy right now and
not think about tomorrow.
Don't you see how this way of thinking
is disaster for this world and it's disaster
for the hereafter?
To think about this right here and right
now, what's in front of you, not think
about what's going to happen tomorrow.
Fear Allah ta'ala and let every soul look
what is prepared for tomorrow. And fear Allah,
this preparation for what you have prepared and
what I have prepared for tomorrow. There's a
great mercy in it. To only think about
today. To only think about here and now.
To only think about the thing that's gonna
make me happy right now, and not think
about what the consequences going to be for
tomorrow.
Brothers and sisters, this is a recipe for
destruction in this world. It's a recipe for
destruction in the hereafter.
You don't need to be a person who
reads the Quran in order to understand that.
Every kafir knows that as well.
That if you don't think and you don't
plan for tomorrow, you're going to destroy yourself.
The benefit that we have as believers that
a person that doesn't know Allah or his
Rasool Allah subhanahu alaihi wa sallam doesn't have
is that we know that that destruction, it
doesn't end with your physical death rather it
lasts forever and ever in the hereafter. May
Allah ta'ala be our protection from such an
end.
Allah ta'ala says that the one who's crooked,
the one who deviates,
that and that the one who prefers the
life of this world over the hereafter.
Allah ta'ala is prepared for that person what?
The blazing fire as an eternal abode.
And as for the one who fears his
Lord,
as for the one who fears the day
he's going to stand in front of his
Lord,
and is able to tell his own ego,
is able to tell his own no
from all of those things that it desires.
What is that eternal abode of such a
person? It's Jannah.
It's It's
that established and eternal blessing from the Rav
Tabarakahu ta'ala, from Lord Tabarakahu Ta'ala.
Now tell me something,
is there any mercy in indulging your nafs
if it's going to end up in the
fire?
There's no mercy in it whatsoever.
Tell me something, is there any cruelty in
saying no to your nafs and for forbidding
your nafs from its desire if it's going
to end in a maqam forever and ever
with the oliya of Allah subhanahu wa ta'ala.
Absolutely. There's no cruelty in it whatsoever.
It is itself
aynurrahma.
It is mercy itself
by definition.
But why is it that we run away
from this reminder?
Why is it that we run away from
this reminder? Even though Allah Ta'ala is the
one who says,
The only one who will run away from
this reminder, the only one who will avoid
this reminder
is the ashqah, the most wretched of people.
The one who will be roasted indeed.
Greatest of fires
in which he will neither die but nor
will he quite be alive.
Brothers and sisters, there is a great benefit
and a great mercy in
embracing this
embracing this sacrifice, embracing the struggle for the
sake of Allah.
Don't you see if something is worth having,
it's worth working for? We know in our
own dunya that the person who wishes to
work out and become strong.
You have to go to the gym. It's
funny when you see people going to the
gym. The first time anyone goes to the
gym, they see like these people like bench
pressing £300
they say, yeah. I can do that. That
looks easy. And so, okay. Hold on. Hold
on a second. Slow down there, buddy.
And you hand them just the bar with
no weight on it. They say, oh, I
can do this. And they struggle even to
push the bar up.
Many of us may have gone through this
experience ourselves at some point.
It's difficult.
The first time you come home, you're in
pain. And the next day, you're in a
lot of pain.
What is the point of it? So that
you can live in pain for the rest
of your life? No. You get over it.
After 10 days, you'll start putting on more
weight. After 20 days, you'll start putting on
more and more weight.
After a year, you'll put on weight like
the big boys are putting on.
You'll not only put on more weight, but
when you work out, you'll come home, you're
not going to be sore.
And the person who runs away from that,
that person will be weak for the rest
of their life.
So people will pay money to a personal
trainer
literally to go and prod them and incite
them and insult them and encourage them and
support them. With every way they can. Positive
or negative in order for them to go
through that pain so that they can reach
a state which is superior to the state
that they're in.
If there's anyone ever I mean, this is
funny because the same the same habits that
make us failures as human beings, not just
as Muslims, as human beings. The same habits
that make us failures in this world are
the same habits that make us failures in
the hereafter. And the same habits that make
us successful in this world are the same
ones that make us successful in the hereafter.
The Rasul sallallahu alaihi wa sallam himself said
this.
It's
That the best of you in jahiliyah will
be the best of you in Islam as
long as you bother to understand this deed.
You see, like Facebook has all kinds of
weird ads, Twitter, social media.
If you buy this, like, gimmicky weird exercise
band or if you buy this gimmicky,
diet plan or whatever. You don't have to
do anything. You'll become this big built ripped
monster type guy. You know, only in 4
months. And people fall for it. Literally, people
fall for it every day.
What's the worst that will happen? You'll be
out of a $100, 200, $300, and you'll
be out of shape after another week. You'll
try it and fail once, twice, three times
until you wise up and you know that
you cannot achieve anything physically with your own
health without
putting in substantial amounts of effort.
It's not that big of a deal. It's
a fraud you fell for. You'll have a
laugh about it afterward with your friends. Even
though you may be upset in the short
term.
But brothers and sisters, when you do this
with your deen,
when you do this with your deen, and
you quote ayat of the Quran out of
context,
you say,
And you would neglect to mention that the
beginning of that ayah, that's not the beginning
of the ayah nor is it the entire
ayah.
The beginning of the ayah is what?
When you tell people Allah didn't make any
difficulty for you in the deen,
and you don't mention that this is not
the beginning of the ayah nor is it
the complete ayah. The beginning of the ayah
is what?
Strive in Allah's way as it's His right
that you should strive.
Now tell me something, is the right of
Allah to Allah smaller or is it great?
It's greater than a person can imagine, it's
a greater than a person can fathom, it's
overwhelming.
And then after when he says that he
didn't make the deen difficult for you, what
does this mean? There's a context for it.
The meaning is what? Don't complain.
Keep working.
Because with great with great difficulty comes great
help.
With great difficulty comes great help.
But it doesn't mean that a person should
water their deen down because it becomes hard
at some point. You don't water down, you
double down.
It's a hadith of the prophet salallahu alaihi
wa sallam narrated in Sahib Bukhari nonetheless. And
it's a hadith Qudsi in which the messenger
of Allah salallahu alaihi wa sallam relates that
Allah ta'ala says,
my slave, when my slave comes to me
a hands breath, shibran.
A hands breath from the tip of the
middle finger to the wrist.
I come to him a cubit. What is
a cubit? A cubit, it's a very biblical
term. It's a It's
the amount that's from the tip of the
middle finger till the tip of the elbow.
You come this small amount and Allah to
Allah comes this amount.
And if my slave comes to me a
cubit,
then I will come to him. A
an arm span. A person's arm span is
generally as as wide as that person is
tall.
You come a little bit. You move a
little bit toward Allah and look how much
he moves toward you. If my slave comes
a hand's breath, I come to him a
cubit. And if he comes to me a
cubit, I come to him an arm span.
And if he comes to me walking, I
come to him running.
If he comes to me walking, I come
to him running.
Now tell me something, is struggling in the
path of Allah ta'ala a difficulty that Allah
ta'ala has cruelly imposed upon you and I,
or is it a mercy?
It's a mercy you and I cannot even
imagine.
It's a mercy you and I cannot even
imagine.
Just like that person going to the gym,
just like that person improving their health is
a mercy. Just like that person saving their
money
in order to buy a house and a
car,
rather than blowing it off on cigarettes and
alcohol and gambling. It's a mercy.
Rather, we don't make a kiosk analogy between
the two. Because
saving money for a house is an entirely
material proposition.
Rather Allah subhanahu wa ta'ala, what does it
mean if Allah ta'ala comes to you running,
if he loves you that way?
That you came to him walking and he
says, I come to my slave running. What
does that mean? Will anything harm you in
this world?
Will anything harm you in the hereafter?
Sayyidina Bilal radiAllahu ta'ala Anhu.
Sayyidina Bilal radiAllahu anhu when he was being
tortured by Umayyah.
And he was about to be killed.
And he was saying,
that I that that Allah is the one
and the only. Allah is the one and
the only.
Comes in the narrations that he said, in
the moment of that in the in those
moments, those difficult moments that I felt like,
hey, my my ruuh, my spirit was like
a bird.
Caged inside of a cage and it was
anticipating the the moment of freedom.
It was anticipating the moment of freedom. Is
that a bad thing or a good thing?
Person gets out of let out of jail.
Is it a bad thing or is it
a good thing?
It's a beautiful thing.
But your own nafs, my own nafs.
Shaitan has fooled you and fooled me into
thinking what? That somehow if we start praying
5 times a day, if we wake up
for fajr, if we wake up for tahajjud,
if we fast on a Monday or a
Thursday, sometime.
If we give up something for the sake
of Allah, somehow we'll be sad, we'll be
wretched. It's going to make us unhappy. Don't
you know Allah ta'ala is the one who
sat down on the heart of His Nabi
We did not send this Quran down upon
you so that you could be wretched. So
everybody else enjoys and you're unhappy. So that
everybody else is having fun and you're in
pain.
No. Rather Allah sent this Quran down on
the Rasulullah Sallallahu Alaihi Wasallam.
A reminder for the one who fears Allah
subhanahu wa ta'ala so that you can
win. You can you can you can earn
that happiness that lasts forever. That happiness for
which there is no qiyas, there is no
analogy.
But brothers and sisters, our own nafus, our
own selves. Forget about shaitan. Shaitan is easy
to deal with. The one that's hard to
deal with is the own nafs that that
you have between your sides, that I have
between my own two sides, has fooled us
into thinking.
If we don't carry carry the poison of
haram, if we don't carry the poison of
evil inside of our hearts, if we don't
depend on money, and we don't depend
on on on other people, and we don't
depend on the creation, somehow we're going to
be made fools of, Somehow we're going to
become wretched. We're going to be unhappy.
If you're able to help yourself, you would
have helped yourself. If you're able to help
yourself, you would have let yourself live forever.
But you know you're going to die. Know
I'm going
to die. If we were able to do
anything for ourselves, we would have done it
by now.
Haven't we tried hard enough? Isn't it time
to leave? To leave depending on that thing
that's failed us every single time
and depend on the one that never failed?
Depend on the one who never let anyone
down.
This is the secret of mujahada.
This is the secret of sacrifice for the
sake of Allah ta'ala. It's not that Allah
to Allah wants you to be upset or
angry. It's not that Allah to Allah wants
you to be sad or to be deprived.
Rather, Allah subhanahu wa ta'ala asks you for
so little and he gives you so much
in return.
He asks you for so little and he
gives you so much in return.
My brothers and sisters, alhamdulillah, by Allah subhanahu
wa ta'ala, if you look at state of
the Ummah right now, look at our brothers
and sisters in Yemen, look at our brothers
and sisters in Sham, look at our brothers
and sisters in Burma, Look at our brothers
and sisters literally in concentration camps in Turkestan.
Look at our brothers and sisters who are
literally,
sitting under the weight of the highest concentration
occupation in the world in Kashmir.
And that's on top of the many countries
of the muslim world in which they're going
through difficulty.
That itself would be a difficulty that many
of us would run away from, and some
of us in fact have run away from.
Compared to those people, the difficulty, and the
sacrifice, and the struggle we do is very
little. It's very little. And we thank Allah
ta'ala for that. We don't feel guilty for
it, rather we thank Him for it.
But brothers and sisters, I implore you and
I remind myself that we have to keep
taking the struggle upon us. We have to
keep taking the struggle upon us. Not only
for our sake but for the sake of
others, for the sake of those who cannot
carry that weight and carry that burden on
their own selves. So that
Allah will save us from the and the
destruction
of following our own egos for ourselves,
and save those of us who are
buckling under the yoke of oppression in different
parts of the world.
If you're in good health, spare some of
your health
by going and studying the deen and teaching
it to somebody else.
If you have time, spare some of your
time by serving the masjid, by serving the
poor.
If you have wealth enough that you have
a place to live, alhamdulillah.
And you have food to eat, alhamdulillah.
You have a car, you have your needs
taken care of.
Then don't just think that more is better.
Give some part of that for the sake
of Allah ta'ala for those who need help.
Both in this community and around the world,
there are people in this Masjid right now
that struggle to pay their bills. There are
people in this community, single mothers who cannot
be in the masjid because they have to
take care of children and work full time.
And they have to go to churches then
to ask for food. And they're forced to
sit in in in in mass in order
to ask for food, ask for help.
If we don't go out and look for
those people, if we don't support those people,
Allah will ask us about them. If we
support those people, Allah will give us barakah
and blessing.
You have to take a little bit of
that struggle upon yourself. Allah doesn't ask anyone
to kill themselves and he doesn't ask anyone
to destroy themselves.
But at the same time,
That thing which is not
attained in completion.
It's also you don't have the right and
you don't have the, you don't have the
right and you don't have the permission to
leave it completely either. Allah subhanahu wa ta'ala
give all of us so much