Kamil Ahmad – Coping with Calamities
AI: Summary ©
The importance of faith and patientity in Islam is essential, as it is essential for everyone to be patient at the initial shock of a Hamilton. The three tests that we are tested for, fear, remembering Allah, and the combination of worship of the heart and worship of the beast. The importance of patientity is the worship of the heart and worship of the beast, and the importance of being patient when faced with trials is the worship of the heart and worship of the beast. It is essential to have faith in Allah's power and not be a victim of his mistakes, and to contemplate what has been lost and have faith in God's power to replace it with something better.
AI: Summary ©
The life in which we live in
is a life
that Allah has made to be a life
of test
and trial
and tribulation.
And so each and every single one of
us, Allah has tested them with different kinds
of trials.
He makes us go through
certain kinds
of hardships
and calamities,
such as
the loss of a loved one,
or an illness,
or disability,
or a financial crisis,
or marital problems,
or war,
or famine.
The whole purpose behind Allah making making us
to go through such trials
is
to see who's gonna pass the test of
Allah.
Allah is the one who created life,
and He created death
to see
to test us, to see
who's gonna do the best of deeds.
Who's gonna react
to these tests and these trials?
How are you gonna deal with it?
Will you bear patiently?
Will you submit
to Allah
and the decree of Allah,
or will you object
and lose patience?
Allah subhanahu wa ta'ala tells us
that He will test us
with 3 different kinds of calamities.
And He also tests us He also tells
us how we should deal with these calamities
in 3 different ways.
And then He tells us
3 rewards
for those
who pass that test.
Allah
says,
minal kawfi
waljuaywanakasimminalamwali
walanfussiwatsamarat.
We will surely test you
with something of
fear.
So the first is fear of your enemies
and
of hunger,
a lack of food, famine,
drought.
And number 3, a loss,
a loss of something. Allah mentions 3 things,
a loss of wealth,
a loss of lives,
and a loss of fruits and crops.
So these are the 3 things that Allah
tests most of us with.
And then
Allah
tells us,
Allah mentions 3 things to do.
The first
is to be patient
when we are tested
with such trials.
And patience is the worship of the heart.
The second,
to remember Allah.
To remember Allah keeping your your tongue
busy with the dhikr of Allah.
And here Allah mentions
one of those adkar,
when we are tested
with a calamity,
Allah says,
give glad tidings
to those who are patient.
Those who, when they are afflicted with a
calamity,
they say,
To Allah, we belong, and to Him, we
are returning.
And the 3rd,
a combination
of worship of the heart and worship of
the tongue
along with worship of the limbs,
and that is salah.
Whenever you are tested with something,
resort to a
salah. As Allah mentions before these ayaat,
All you who
believe, seek help.
For whatever difficulty you're going through, seek help
through 2 two things,
patience
and salah.
Patience and salah.
And that's why the Prophet sallallahu alaihi wa
sallam,
whenever something would worry him,
whenever he would be worried about something,
fearful of something,
he would immediately resort to salah
because he would find comfort and peace and
serenity
in talking to Allah Subhanahu Wa Ta'ala
and ask for patience.
One day, the prophet sallallahu alaihi wa sallam,
he passed by a woman who was sitting
over a grave crying.
And so he said to her,
fear Allah
and be patient.
What was her reaction?
She said,
you have no clue what I'm going through.
So the prophet
left her. And later on, someone came and
told her who he was. She didn't know
it was the prophet, sallallahu alaihi wasallam.
So she went to the prophet, sallallahu alaihi
wasallam,
and apologized.
And And so the
prophet
told
her,
patience,
true patience
is
at the initial shock,
at the initial
affliction of the calamity,
that is when
patience
is the most beneficial
because
not everyone is able to be patient at
that time.
Later on,
everyone's able to bear patiently.
But at the initial
shock,
that is when most people lose patience.
And so it is for this reason
that Allah says in these ayat,
and give glad tidings
to those who are patient.
Musiba.
Those who when
they are afflicted with a calamity, meaning at
the time of being afflicted
with a calamity,
they are the ones who are patient.
So Prophet
says, whenever anyone is afflicted with a calamity,
and then he says these words,
Inna Lillah
wa Innna ilahi rajirun. And then he says,
O Allahumma ajarnifimusuibati
wakhlufli
khayra.
Oh, Allah.
Compensate me
for this calamity
that has befallen me
and replace it with something better,
then Allah will surely compensate for him and
will replace for him what he has lost
with something far
better in exchange.
She had lost her husband, Abu Salamah.
And this family was one of the very
early
Muslim families
to accept Islam
and then to migrate the first migration to
Abyssinia.
Later
on, they came back to Mecca,
and then they migrated to Medina
after
becoming
separated. After some time in Medina, her husband
passes away,
and the prophet
told her this.
Make this dua to Allah.
She wondered who could possibly be better than
who I have lost?
Who could possibly be better than Abu Salama?
But she said, I said it knowing that
he is the Messenger of Allah and that
whatever he says must be true.
So she says that she made the dua
with Yaqeen
and with the iman.
And before you know it,
who ends up marrying her? None other than
Rasulullah,
salallahu
alaihi, wasalam.
Allah subhanahu wa ta'ala then tells us the
three rewards
for those
who deal with calamities in the right way.
They are the ones
who will
have salawat from their rub,
Meaning, Allah will mention
them to those who are nearest to Him.
Allah raises the rank of these people
to the point where He mentions them
to the angels that are around him
raising their status.
And for them
is the mercy of Allah,
tranquility in their hearts,
also compensation for their sins,
and a multiplication of their rewards
and their good deeds.
Wa'ulaikahumulmuthadoon.
And they
will be guided by Allah Subhanahu Wa Ta'ala.
Not only will they be guided
to the straight path in this dunya,
but also in the akhirah, they will be
guided
to Jannah.
And so this is the reward
for those
who deal with calamities
in the way that Allah mentions in these
ayaats.
All you who believe, fear Allah.
Have the taqwa of Allah.
Be conscious of Allah, place a barrier
between you and the punishment of Allah,
and that each and every single one of
you
look
to what he has set forth for his
tomorrow.
Let each and every single one of us
stop and ask ourselves,
what have I prepared for my tomorrow,
for my akhirah?
And so my dear brothers and sisters,
each and every single one of us
is bound to be afflicted
by these calamities
in this life
whether it be sooner or later.
Whether it be
by losing a loved one
or being afflicted with a disease
or a sickness
or a disability
or having one of your loved ones to
live
with a certain disability,
or a loss of wealth,
being in financial problems,
or legal problems,
or marital problems,
Whatever kind of calamity it is, it is
from Allah.
And although it is all from Allah,
the way the people react
is in different ways.
Ibn Uqayib Rahimahu
Ta'ala, he says
calamities that befall a person
which he cannot ward off,
such as the death of a loved one,
wealth being stolen,
an illness, a sickness, etc.
People
are in 4 different states.
The first
are those who are in the state of
impatience,
complaining,
and being dissatisfied
and discontent.
The second,
the state of the patient,
Those who understand that this is from Allah,
I'm gonna be patient,
even though
it may be bitter.
The third,
the state of being satisfied and content.
Not only are you patient,
but you're actually satisfied
and content
because you know that this is the decree
of Allah.
It is from Allah,
and so I'm satisfied.
The 4th,
he says,
the state of gratitude,
where not only are you patient,
not only are you satisfied,
but on top of that,
you're actually
grateful to Allah
that He has
afflicted you in this way
because
you know the reward of those
who Allah afflicts them with calamities.
That it is great.
Because as a prophet says,
those who are afflicted with calamities the most,
who are they?
Are they those who are the most distant
from Allah?
Are they the Kuffar, the wicked?
No.
The prophet sallallahu alaihi wa sallam says,
They are the prophets and the messengers of
Allah.
And then the righteous after them.
And so the closer you are to Allah,
the more Allah is gonna test you,
and so you bear patiently.
You're satisfied with the decree of Allah. And
on top of that, you're actually grateful to
Allah, subhanahu wa ta'ala,
for having afflicted you
with whatever test that He has afflicted you
with.
Knowing that if I'm patient,
then that's all that I'm gonna suffer with.
I'm not gonna have to suffer in the
akhirah.
And so what we learned from this is
that not everyone
is the same.
Not everyone reacts in the same way.
Everyone reacts based on
what is in their heart
of Iman,
of Yaqeen,
of Taqwa.
And so how can we elevate ourselves
to be among those who are patient
and satisfied
and grateful
when Allah
afflicts us with calamities.
The first
is by contemplating all the over these words
of Allah.
When Allah says,
give glad tidings to those who are patient,
Those who when they are afflicted with a
calamity, they say
Contemplate over these words.
We say it, but do we understand what
it means?
Allah is telling us
that we are all from Him. He created
us.
And so
if we lose a loved one,
he was from Allah,
and Allah is taking him back.
It's as simple as that.
Everything is from Allah. You submit to this
fact
and everything
is going back to Allah. No one is
gonna remain here forever.
Everything and everyone on earth is gonna disappear,
and the only one who will remain is
Allah
The second
is by having yaqeen,
by having certainty
that whatever has befallen you,
you could not have avoided it.
And whatever has missed you,
whatever has not befallen you, it would never
have befallen you.
As the Prophet sallallahu alaihi wa sallam said
to Ibn Abbas
Know
that whatever befalls you,
whatever Allah
decrees to befall you,
it would have been impossible to avoid it.
And whatever
has missed you,
it would never have befallen you.
We know this. We believe in it.
But do we have certainty in our hearts
regarding it?
Number
3, having certainty
and yaqeen
that
whatever you have lost,
whatever
Allah has tested you with,
Allah will replace
that for you with something which is far
better.
Whether it be in this dunya or whether
it be in the akhira,
Perhaps you may dislike something,
but it is better for you.
The decrees of Allah.
The decrees of Allah that Allah
sends down for us.
We may look at it from a certain
angle
as being negative,
as being pure suffering,
as being pure evil,
But we forget
that Allah does not do that to His
believing servants.
And that there is
there is an angle
that is hidden from us.
There is an angle in that suffering that
is hidden from us.
And that angle
is from the perspective of Allah.
Allah decreed it for you
for something far greater,
for something far better.
And there are so many examples of this
from the
lives of the companions.
Take the example
Take the example of
when she lost her son in the battle
of Badr.
She went searching, and she found her son
to be among those who were martyred.
And the prophet sallallahu alaihi wa sallam came
to her,
And she asked the prophet Sallallahu Alaihi Wasallam,
where is he?
Where is Haritha?
The prophet
said she he is in Jannah.
She said, what is Jannah? He said, it
is not 1 Jannah,
but many
gardens.
And he told her that as long as
you are patient,
then you will meet him over there.
The other example
is the example
of the black woman
who came to the prophet sallallahu alaihi wa
sallam
complaining of a certain
disability that she had. She had epilepsy,
and so she would have these fits
and seizures,
and her hijab would come off.
So she came to the prophet sallallahu alaihi
wasallam
and said, please make du'a to Allah to
cure me.
So the prophet sallallahu alaihi wasallam said,
I could do that. However,
I could do something else for you.
I could guarantee you something.
I could guarantee you that as long as
you live with this patiently
with,
then I guarantee you Jannah.
So here was a woman
who had a man
and she had in her heart
for the words of the prophet sallallahu alaihi
wa sallam.
If it was any of us,
we would have opted
for the Prophet sallallahu alaihi wa sallam making
du'a for us,
to cure us because we don't want to
suffer in the dunya.
But what did she prefer?
She said, in that case,
I will prefer Jannah, and I will live
with it patiently. However,
at least make dua to Allah
that when I have these seizures, my my
hijab does not come off, and so the
prophet
did that.
Fourthly,
look around you
and you will find
that every single person
is being afflicted by something.
And don't look at those
don't look at those
who seem to be far better off than
you,
but rather
look to those
who are going through a greater suffering than
you. The prophet says,
ajidaru
allatazdaru
ni hamat Allah.
He says, do not look
at those
who are above you,
who are far
well off than you,
who aren't going through what you're going through,
but rather
look to those below you.
Look to the less fortunate.
If you're going through a certain problem, there
are others who are going through
more suffering than you.
The prophet sallallahu alaihi wasallam tells us the
reason for that. He says,
because this will cause you to not look
down
on the blessings of Allah upon you.
There are certain blessings that you have
that others don't have. And
so be grateful to Allah that although you
are suffering from one thing, you are not
suffering from something else.
Finally,
think about the reward,
the great reward
for those who are patient
and endure the suffering in this dunya.
The prophet
says
that Allah
says,
There is no greater reward
that I will give to my servant, my
believing servant,
when I take away someone who is beloved
to him.
There is no greater reward for him than
Jannah.
And the prophet sallallahu alaihi wa sallam says,
The prophet sallallahu alaihi wa sallam says
that there is no calamity
that befalls a believer
no matter how small it is.
Even if it is
the prick of a thorn.
Even that much
small
suffering,
the prophet sallallahu alaihi wa sallam says,
except
that in
it is expiation of your sins.
And so whatever suffering you're going through, remember
that it is from Allah,
and it is a means of erasing your
sins,
elevating your status.
And that as long as you are patient,
then the ultimate reward awaits you
with Allah.