Iqbal Gora – The Islamic Conceptualization of Victory in Light of Travesty
AI: Summary ©
The speakers discuss the meaning of victory for believers, the importance of knowing the right religion for a better life, and the historical context of the story of the thirteenth century Christian faith. They also remind leaders to not be from those sitting on the sidelines and to stay on the sideline, not hold onto their religion, and to not turn off their faith. The message is to learn from the monk and come back to their family, and to stay on the Islam culture.
AI: Summary ©
As we witness the atrocities happening in Gaza
and the blindness of the world to them,
it becomes important for a person to recognize
and realize what victory actually looks like for
a believer. We see that there are over
13,000
people that have lost their lives, perhaps much
more than this injured and over a 1000000
people displaced.
And we see this calamity
seeming to be getting worse and worse and
worse. When we look at this particular situation
of our brothers and sisters in Gaza, it
becomes important for a Muslim to conceptualize
what victory actually looks like. Because a person
might become confused, a person might become confounded
when they hear the words of Allah Subhanahu
Wa Ta'ala, words of promise wherein Allah Subhanahu
Wa Ta'ala tells the believers, walatahinu,
walatahzanu,
walantumulaalonain
kuntum mumineen. Do not grieve, do not despair,
you will be victorious
if you have iman. If you have belief
then you will be victorious.
And a person they might ask, what type
of victory
is dead children? What type of victory is
a city that has been eviscerated?
What type of victory is a city that
has been starved of food and water? What
type of victory
is the ignorance,
not ignorance, but rather the the knowledge that
they know that all of these atrocities are
happening and still they turn the entire world,
especially the powers that have the ability to
stop this, turn a blind eye. When we
look at all of this, we need to
go back to what victory means.
Let us go back to the Anbiya alaymus
salatu was salam.
Nuh alayhis salaam gave dawah for 950
years and his people rejected him, and thereafter
he made a dua.
Nuh alayhis salam used that dua that every
prophet gets, and he made that dua to
Allah subhanahu wa ta'ala to not leave any
disobedient,
disobeying,
or dis believer as an inhabitant on this
planet. And you could say that that was
a type of victory after a lot of
years of struggle. When we look at Musa
alaihis salam, Allah Subhanahu Wa Ta'ala, he mentions
in the Quran the story of Musa alaihis
salam and his struggle with Fir'awn. And when
he leads the people
of Bani
Israel across the Red Sea and wherein Allah
Subha Tawla says,
The famous story that we all know, wherein
Allah Subhanahu Wa Ta'ala drowned Firaun and his
army and saved Musa alaihis salam, that you
could be seen as a type of victory.
When we look at 'Isa alaihis salam, even
though there were those that killed him or
they thought they killed him, we don't believe
this as Muslims.
But those people that thought that they killed
him or even those that took him as
a god, at the end of the day,
Allah subhanahu wa ta'ala mentions that when 'Isa
alaihi salam comes back, wa immin ahlulkitab
I illa layoo minanabbhiqabalamotih.
That there will be no person from ahlulkitab,
from the Jews or the Christians, those that
sought to kill him or those that also
tried to turn him into
a
God, except that they will believe in him
as a prophet. When you go to the
prophet sallallahu alaihi wa sallam and you see
his victory. Inna fathahna lakya fathhamubina.
After those 23 years of struggle, Allah subhanahu
wa'ta'ala within 30 years makes it such that
Islam is the dominant civilization on the planet,
and we see the victory of the Prophet
sallallahu alaihi wasallam. In today's hutba, we'll talk
about a different type of victory, a type
of victory that sometimes you don't conceptualize
or think about because for a person thinking
from a secular standpoint,
death is the ultimate defeat. Death is the
ultimate defeat. When a person is dead, then
that is it, and how can there be
any sense of victory
after that point? We will discuss in today's
khutba the story of Ashab ul Uhdud wherein
Allah Subhanahu Wa Ta'ala mentions in Surat al
Buruj the story of the people of the
trench.
Cursed were the people of the trench. Now
who were the people of the trench? It
is mentioned that around 40 to 70 years
before the Prophet Sallallahu Alaihi Wasallam was born
in the Himyar Kingdom in the southern part
of the Arabian Peninsula in Yemen, that there
was a person by the name of Dun
Nawaz.
And the Mufasirun,
they differ as to the religion of Dun
Nawaz. The majority of them they say he
was Jewish, some of them they say that
he was a mushrik
like Ibn Kathir, a person that would have
been a polytheist.
Nonetheless, he was a person,
he was a person that was a ruler
and
in that particular area and he was a
tyrant. It is mentioned about Dun Nawaz that
when he was
in his in his particular kingdom, a story
mentioned in the
in the in the Sahih Khabimah Muslim wherein
there was a king being the Nawaz, and
there was a Sahih, a magician, and also
a young boy. In this story, Allah Subhanahu
Wa Ta'ala
elucidates
this lengthy story of al Haab al Uqdood.
It's mentioned that Dun Nawaz,
this particular leader at the time, he had
a magician that he would use to cure
the blind, to heal the sick and this
person used to deal with the jinn. So
So, it is mentioned that this magician came
to the Nawaz and he told the Nawaz
that I am getting old, I need a
disciple that I can be able to teach
my craft to so that when I'm no
longer
around, he can take over and be from
those that continues this tradition of sihr or
magic, which is Haram in Islam, and they
would use this to cure the blind and
the sick and those that had particular illnesses.
So the king, he goes and he finds
a bright young boy, and this bright young
boy is tasked with learning from the Sahir,
from this magician.
And it just so happened that one day
on his way to the Sahir, he finds
himself stopped or he sees a person on
the road, a Rahib, a monk that was
a Christian monk at the time.
And when we understand that in the time
of the fatra between Prophets, what would have
been the correct religion before the Prophet sallallahu
alaihi wasallam arrived on the scene? It would
have been those that believed in Isa alaihis
salam as a prophet and they continued along
with his traditions the muhidoons from among the
Christians, those that believed in tawhid from among
the Christians, not those that after the year
325
in the Council of Nicaea, then they both
started to believe in the trinity, but those
that stayed firm to the fact of the
true message Isa alaihis salam. So this monk
who was on the road, he was from
among those Christians. And when this boy sat
next to this monk on the side of
the road, he became angry
and he beat up this kid for being
late. So he complained to the rahib, the
magician, he got angry and he beat up
this kid for being late. So he complained
to the rahib, he complained to the monk,
and the monk told him that if the
sahir asks you why you are late, tell
him my family delayed me and on the
way back come back to me and learn
from me again. And if your family asks
you why you are late, tell them the
sahir delayed me. So this kid, he would
learn from the monk and he would learn
from the sahir simultaneously.
You would learn from the monk in the
early parts of the day, then you would
learn from the sahir, then you would go
back to the monk, and then you would
go back to his families.
It happened that one day there was an
animal that was released in the town that
they were in. An animal perhaps a lion,
perhaps a leopard, perhaps a bull, but this
animal was causing a lot of havoc in
and around that particular town and at this
the boy he made a dua He said,
Allahumma
inkaanaamru
rahib, ahabba ilaykumilamrisahil
faktulhadihid
daba.
So this boy he made this dua that,
Oh Allah, if the religion of the Rahib,
of the monk is more beloved to you
than the religion of the sahir of the
magician, than kill this animal. And he took
a rock and he threw it at this
animal, and the animal died.
He conveyed this message to the,
Monk, the Rahib. And the Monk, he told
him something very interesting that we need to
always remember. He said, the Monk told this
boy that you have received, you have attained
a high rank, you have surpassed me in
your piety, and because this has happened, you
will definitely be tested. And that is something
we need to understand as well. The, the
prophet sallallahu alaihi wa sallallahu alaihi wa sallam
mentions in some ahadith. For example, he says
Those that are tested the most are the
prophets and then those closest to them and
those closest to them. So when you look
at the people of Gaza, we might see
them as being physically
destroyed, meaning they're being physically attacked,
but spiritually they are alive. Perhaps physically they
are dead, but spiritually they are alive. And
we contrast that to us wherein we have
everything and still sometimes we have a negative
opinion of Allah Subhanahu Wa Ta'ala. We are
physically alive but spiritually dead. Those people in
the ghazah, many of them you see in
the videos, non Muslims are impressed by their
faith that despite everything they still say hasboon
Allahu Niyaamalwakeer.
They still believe in Allah Subhanahu Wa Ta'ala,
they still have a sense of optimism after
all of this and those people that are
being tested in this way, they have a
status that us living here in safety and
security can never attain because those closest to
the ambia, alaymus salatu as salam are those
that are the most severely tested, thummal amfal,
fal amfal, and then those lesser and then
those lesser.
So we see in this particular story, this
is what the monk, he tells this boy.
He also tells him that if you are
told to release my name, expose who I
am, do not do so. It just to
happen at some time later, a companion of
Dun Nawaz, a companion of the king, he
was one that was blind and he wanted
cure from this. So the King instructed him
to go to this boy and this companion
of the King brought a lot of gifts
for the boy and he said that if
you clear if you cure my blindness,
all of these gifts are yours. This boy,
he says that I do not cure,
but my Lord cures, and if you believe
in my Lord, I will make dua to
him that he cures you. And this man,
this companion of the king, he agrees, and
this boy he makes dua and this man
he is cured. The king then confronts this
particular man, and he says that who has
cured you? This man he said, Rub be
my lord. The king Dun Nawaz then says,
meaning me, meaning me and then this man
he says, know my lord and your lord
who is Allah. This upsets and angers the
king, and he decides to torture this companion
that he had. He tortures him and wants
him to release the name of the person
that told him this. Under duress, this man
he releases the name of the boy and
then the boy is brought and then the
boy is questioned as well that who is
your Lord? Is it me? This man he
says, no, your Lord and my Lord is
Allah subhanahu
wa ta'ala. The king gets angered by this
and then he decides to torture this boy
as well, wanting him to reveal the name
of the one that's taught him all of
this. And under duress, under this torture, the
boy cannot hold himself and he releases the
name of the monk. The monk, the Rahib,
is then brought
and he is asked to renounce his religion.
He is asked to renounce his religion but
he refuses to do so.
So Isa is brought and this monk, this
Rahib, he is cut in half. Thereafter, the
companion of the king is asked the same
question. He has said, he is told that
you see what happened to this monk, you
renounced the religion, he refuses to do so,
the saw is brought and this person is
also cut in half. Thereafter, the king turns
to the boy. Dun Nawaz returns to the
boy and he tells this boy renounce your
religion. He refuses. So he takes this boy
to a tall cliff, to a high cliff,
and he tells his soldiers to push him
off. The soldiers, when they take this boy
to this cliff, and they attempt to push
him off, this boy he makes dua to
Allah Subhanahu Wa Ta'ala that sufficed me against
these people. Allah Subhanahu Wa Ta'ala makes it
such that those that are on top of
this cliff, they fall down and the boy
is saved through this dua.
He walks back to the king
and the king is astonished by this and
he makes a second attempt at murdering him
and he tells his soldiers, another group of
soldiers because his soldiers were disposable.
He tells this group of soldiers, take him
to a lake and dump him overboard, throw
him overboard. And again, this boy, when he
is on this boat, he makes a du'a.
Those that were on the boat on the
boat with him from the soldiers, they fall
overboard. He is saved and he goes back
to the king, and then he tells the
king something. There is only one way that
you will be able to kill me. And
the King, he asks him, how is this?
It is mentioned to him that you need
to call all of the inhabitants of this
town, of the Himyar Kingdom in the Southern
Arabian Peninsula, call them all to a town,
20,000 of them,
and
bring them to this square and tie me
to a tree trunk, and then take a
bow and before you shoot say Bismillahirabbil
Hulam. In the name of Allah, the Lord
of the boy and shoot. So this King
he does exactly this. He says, Bismillahi Rabbil
Khulam, he shoots and the boy passes away.
Those 20,000 people that were around, when they
witnessed this particular event, all of them they
embrace Islam. They embrace the religion of Allah
Subhanahu
Wa Ta'ala
And this angered the king. Now we learn
something else from here as well.
This boy, he sacrificed himself for the sake
of Dawah, And subhanAllah we see with all
of the atrocities happening in Gaza, how many
non Muslims when they look into this and
they see the faith and the steadfastness of
those Muslims in Gaza, how many of them
embraced Islam in the same way that we
see in this particular story? And that is
a type of victory that sometimes we forget
about. When people were ignorant about Falustin,
when people were ignorant about the Quran, and
then they see these videos, and they see
the faith of the Muslimen that are not
willing to give up their religion. They are
living in the land of Al Ribaat, in
the land of,
in the land in which Allah subhanahu wa
ta'ala said, this is a land that should
be protected, a land that is honored, Arudul
Muqaddasa.
And they do not wish to give up
that land and they protect it in the
way that they are and they still have
firm faith in Allah Subhanahu Wa Ta'ala. When
they see this, this impresses them and when
they become Muslim, then this is a type
of victory for Islam sometimes we do not
even conceive. As the story goes further, it
is mentioned that Un Nawaz now we decided
to construct a trench and that is mentioned
in Surat Al Buruj.
Cursed are the people of a trench
and in this trench it is mentioned that
there was fuel and fire. He lit up
this trench with fuel and fire
and they were sitting thereby and SubhanAllah this
is a reminder for us and also for
the leaders.
And what is happening to the believers, they
were witness to all of this. All of
those leaders are seeing the same videos we
have seen, all of the leaders are seeing
the same lies that we have seen, all
of the leaders are seeing the same atrocities
we are seeing And when they have that
power and they're sitting on the sidelines and
they're witness to all of this, this will
be a proof against them on the day
of judgment. And also it's a reminder for
us to not be from those that are
sitting on the sideline. Idhumaalaihaqurud.
Do not be from among those but at
the very least feel what is happening in
your heart. For the prophet salallahu alaihi wasallam,
he says,
Allahu alaihis
salam, he tells us the parable of a
believer to another believer in terms of their
love, in terms of their compassion, in terms
of their kindness, is like that of a
body, that when one part of it is
hurt, the rest of the body is sleepless,
cannot go to sleep, and in a state
of fever. If you find yourself like this,
that you are different from October 7th till
now, you cannot sleep and it is the
only thing on your mind, you cannot enjoy
your hobbies, then this is a sign of
your iman. And if you do not feel
this way, then you are from those that
has a lacking of their iman. Do not
be from one of those that is sitting
on the sideline, but do whatever you can
in whatever capacity you are able to do
so to help the people of al Steen
because this will be a proof for you
and not against you on your ul Qiyamah.
Allah subhanahu wa ta'ala he goes on, and
he goes on to say something else as
well. He
says,
Allah Subhanahu Wa Ta'ala says, those that test
and try the believers, and the word fitna
can also mean to burn.
As Allah Subhanahu Wa Ta'ala mentions in the
Quran. Those that are burned in the trench,
those that are burned by missiles, when a
people are doing this towards the believers,
and then they do not repent,
For them is the punishment of jahannam and
a severe burning punishment that they will all
receive. When Allah Subhanahu Wa Ta'ala describes the
believers, and by the way there is 1
person in the story, one lady in this
story that is mentioned in the hadith as
well. It is mentioned about her that as
these 20,000 people were being forced into the
trench, they all went in. They were not
even hesitating because they did not want to
give up their religion. But this one lady,
this one sister, she hesitated for a second,
and her infant spoke. She had an infant
with her,
and that is one of those infants that
spoke in infancy like Ayesha alaihis salam. And
she goes on to say,
be patient my mother for you are upon
the truth, and she went in and she
fell into this particular trench as well. Allah
Subhanahu Wa Ta'ala when he discusses the believer,
he says,
And that is the part and important lesson
of today's khutbah. That is the important lesson
of today's khutbah. Allah subhanahu wa ta'ala says,
as for the believers, they will have gardens
beneath
which rivers flow, and He mentions about them
the fact that they did not give up
their religion.
Allah Subhanahu Wa Ta'ala mentions about them even
if they were to lose their life, that
can still be a type of victory and
that is something that we need to remember.
Thaalik al Fozul kabeer, that is the great
victory. Those particular people,
irrespective of their circumstance, they hold the religion
of Islam.
Contrast that to us. Sometimes we become people
that because of the fact that Allah subhanahu
wa ta'ala tested us with our finances,
with our relationships, with our health, we decide
we don't want to worship Allah Subhanahu Wa
Ta'ala. Remember one fact, that if you don't
worship Allah, the only person it harms is
yourself.
As Musa alaihis salam, he tells his
people,
If you decide to disobey Allah and all
mankind decides to do the same, Allah is
independent, He does not in need of any
of your worship. Be one that has a
good opinion of Allah
irrespective of your circumstance, and that will grant
you success like the people of Gaza that
are not
own we do not perceive. They are people
whose hearts are alive even though their hearts
physically are dead, and we are people whose
hearts are dead even though physically we are
alive.
The prophet sallallahu alaihi wa sallam, he mentions
in a hadith,
None of you should pass away except that
you think good of Allah Subhanahu wa ta'ala.
Have Husnu Vun of your Creator, and the
prophet sallallahu alaihi wa sallam he mentions this
3 days before he passed away.
We also see that sometimes within our own
life there might be situations in which you
held fast to Islam and we're hoping for
victory in this dunya, but it does not
come. But as long as we held on
to the traditions and the teachings of the
prophet sallallahu alaihi wa sallam, valikil fuzul kabeer.
Let us mention some examples. Let's say for
example a person, he wants to purchase a
house as all of us would wish to,
but this person, he fears falling into riba,
and we're not talking about the hukum itself,
many of the scholars have said it's haram,
many of them they said it's allowed with
certain conditions to buy a house with mortgage.
Nonetheless, let's say a person is practicing the
quality of alwara, of cautious piety, because the
prophet sallallahu alaihi wasallam he says, even this
will grant you reward. You're fearing to go
into haram even if it is halal, but
you fear it and you decide not to
do it, this will grant you reward. What
is the proof of this? The hadith of
the Prophet Sallallahu Alaihi Wasallam.
Muhammad
Sallallahu Alaihi Wasallam
he mentions in this hadith,
Halal is clear, haram
is clear. And between them there are matters
which are dubious,
and if a person wishes to protect themselves
and their deen, then they will stay away
from these particular things and that will grant
them victory as well. So let's say for
example a person, he does this, and he
thinks to himself Allah will grant me more,
because that is what we believe. If you
stay away from haram, Allah will grant you
more. So he tries to save his money
in a halal way and let's say for
example he loses his job, Let's say for
example, the economy as we know today, everything
becomes expensive and he passes away without having
ever purchased a house. In this life, people
would consider him to be a loser. Maybe
his friends bought one with interest and they
would consider him to be a loser, the
one that did not have a house, but
this person held on to something.
Allah subhanahu wa ta'ala,
he can for example also make it such
that there's a court case between 2 people.
Let's say for example, and one of the
party parties was wrong, and the court sides
with the wrong party, as happens in many
situations. Let's say for example, the court sides
with the wrong party and it might see
that this person loses everything, but after all
of this he does not become angry, he
does not lose his morality, he does not
become angry, he does not act in revenge,
and he dies in this way from the
perspective of his dunya, he's a loser. But
Allah Subhanahu Wa Ta'ala what does he say?
Dalikil fazul kabeer. It could also be in
a situation in which a person has a
bad reputation among his peers. He embraces Islam,
he becomes a much better person, but they
still remember him by these bad habits that
he has, and he dies in this way
and the people remember him in a negative
way. It might be that in a dunya
his reputation
was destroyed, but as long as he turned
back to Allah Subhanahu Wa Ta'ala, he might
not receive anything of good in this life,
but he held on to his faith.
It might be in many other situations
that this particular scenario might occur. It might
be that you're good to your friends
and your colleagues and especially if you are
good to your family and that family does
not reciprocate any of that good, good, but
you understand the virtue of it. When you
pass away, they still insult you, but you
are one that held on to what was
right even despite the fact that in this
dunya you got nothing out of it.
And that is one point that we need
to remember with respect to our Muslim brothers
and sisters in Gaza that that is a
type of victory. Holding on to the deen
of Islam is a type of victory. Sometimes
victory does not come in the form of
military victory even though we believe this will
definitely happen.
Allah mentions in the Quran,
The Muslims will enter the Masjid just as
they did the first time. We believe this
to be true, but as all of these
atrocities are happening, let us remember the ultimate
fact.
We hope in Allah
things that the other party does not have
hope in. We ask Allah to protect the
Muslims in Gaza. We ask Allah to make
us from those that understands what true victory
actually looks like, and we ask
Allah to make us from those that does
our part in helping our Muslim brothers and
sisters in Gaza.