Mohammad Elshinawy – IsnT The Help Of Allah Near
AI: Summary ©
The importance of affirmations and affirmations in driving people to faith is emphasized, along with the need for people to have faith and be prepared for potential disaster. The speakers also emphasize the importance of trusting in Islam and not just blindly hopping. The truest reality of God is discussed, including issues of evil, evil, and false accusations, and the need for acceptance and compassion. The speakers stress the importance of being a gifted person for others and trusting in Islam.
AI: Summary ©
Bismillah, alhamdulillah, wassalatu wassalamu ala rasulillah wa ala
alihi wa sahbihi ajma'in.
Allow me to begin by saying that all
praise be to Allah, who is matchless in
His mercy, subhanahu wa ta'ala, and He
is flawless in His justice, and He is
perfect in His wisdom, subhanahu wa ta'ala,
the glorified and exalted.
He's the one that sometimes grants oppressors, the
most heartless human beings, a grace period, enough
rope to choke themselves with.
And in the process, in the meantime, He
showcases the faith of true believers, and He
distinguishes some of them with martyrdom.
And then He comes back at those oppressors,
at those tyrants, and He snatches them in
a way that only the Almighty can.
Upon that creed, upon that unshakable faith and
conviction, we live as Muslims, we die, inshallah,
as Muslims, and with it we meet Allah,
subhanahu wa ta'ala, the mighty and majestic.
In fact, it is only possible through the
lens of that creed to understand the objective
of this talk, which is what it actually
means that the help of Allah is near.
Ala inna nasrAllahi qareeb, certainly, without doubt, the
help of Allah is near, the support of
Allah is near, the victory of Allah is
near.
We often hear this, but what exactly does
that mean?
If you try to process it through the
lens of the ego, the lens of the
self-centered aspects of our personality, through the
lens of entitlement, you're going to think it
means that help and support and victory and
the tables turning are going to happen any
minute.
And it's actually impossible for it to mean
that.
Do you know why it's impossible for it
to mean that?
Because this is the examination room, this is
not paradise.
Paradise is where you get instant gratification, not
here, right?
And it also means that you're the God
and He serves you.
What you want, He gives you.
And that's not the case either.
We are the servants and the nature of
this world is a world that evaluates, assesses
and examines.
Therefore, there must be something else to it.
And before I mention what it could mean,
the multiple correct ways, not like we're doubting,
multiple correct ways to understand this.
I do have to say a personal or
a little aside, which is that there's nothing
actually more frustrating for people in modern times
than this assumption that they can wield full
control and be masters of their own destiny.
That's what makes people hopeless in life.
You are the master of your own destiny.
And then when you get hit with reality,
oh, it's actually not true, right?
You feel like it was your failure because
it was up to me to make it
different.
It was up to me to deliver myself
to a different destiny, a different outcome.
And so you own the failure as well
and it breaks you.
I can do it without saying inshallah, right?
I am worth it without qualifiers, right?
These words of affirmation need to be replaced
for a person of true faith with affirmation
in Allah Subhanahu wa ta'ala.
Otherwise you become hopeless or at the very
least you become hasty.
You lose patience, you lose stamina.
The Prophet Sallallahu Alaihi Wasallam in the early
years when the Sahaba were going through difficult
persecution and they said to him like, when's
it going to end already?
He said, it's going to happen.
Allah never breaks his promises, but you are
being hasty.
It's on his clock, not yours.
And likewise in the Quran, Allah Azawajal says
similarly about the oppressors and tyrants, don't lose
patience about them.
How could they be left to do all
that they do?
Don't get impatient.
We are counting down for them.
Ibn Abbas radiallahu anhuma, he says, what Allah
means is even the breaths, not just how
many days are left, how many minutes are
left, the inhales and exhales.
Allah is counting that there's a time.
And so this is the meaning.
What does it mean that Allah's help is
near?
It means that Allah can bring it about
at any minute.
We must retain unwavering faith in that, unshakable
certainty in that.
That's one meaning.
The second meaning is he will in fact,
there's a countdown with him, not with us,
his clock, not ours, right?
The second meaning is that he has already
decided that it will happen at a preordained
time.
It's already been decided.
It's already been determined.
And this helps us mitigate the brunt of
these whispers.
And we all get these whispers.
Like how could all of this atrocity, this
genocide, this hypocrisy in the world, the double
standards, the biases, the gaslighting, how can all
this be happening?
You need to come back to your fountain
of faith.
You come back to the Quran and say,
wait a minute, did Allah promise me it
wouldn't happen?
No, he didn't.
In fact, he promised me it would happen.
You know, that verse that ends with certainly
the help of Allah is near.
Do you know how that very, don't go
elsewhere, the very same verse, how it begins?
Do you really think you're just going to
stroll into paradise?
وَلَمَّا يَأْتِكُمْ مَثَلُ الَّذِينَ خَلَوْا مِنْ قَبْلِكُمْ Before
there comes to you what was encountered by
those before you مَسَّتْهُمُ الْبَأْسَاءُ وَالضَّرَّاءُ وَزُلْزِلُ They
experienced so much persecution, so much oppression, so
much difficulty, so much pain, so much poverty.
وَزُلْزِلُ Until they were shaken to their core.
حَتَّى يَقُولَ الرَّسُولُ وَالَّذِينَ آمَنُوا مَعَهُ مَتَى نَصْرُ
اللَّهِ To the point that the messenger himself
and the believers alongside him said, when is
the help of Allah coming?
We all get the whisper.
The difference is the believer that has unshakable
faith recalls as the verse ends by saying,
أَلَا إِنَّ نَصْرَ اللَّهِ قَرِيبٌ They are sufficed,
they are anchored, they are content with their
belief that the help of Allah is near
and there's no doubt in that.
And so until it comes, and it will
come, this is seen as our opportunity to
get through Jannah's doors, to chase our Jannah.
We're not going to stroll through this opportunity.
Look at the paradigm shift.
Through the proper understanding, our worst days, our
worst year, this could have been the worst
year of your life as many have said
since last October.
Your worst year could in fact be your
best year with Allah.
It's okay to get anxious.
It's okay to get feel burnt out at
times to go through bouts, right?
There are rounds in this fight.
It's okay to feel exhausted.
That's fine.
But remember that the Prophet ﷺ said, يَضْحَكُ
رَبُّنَا مِنْ قُنُوطِ عِبَادِهِ مَعَ قُرْبِ غِيَرِهِ Our
Lord smiles from how his servants are about
to lose faith, about, but they fight it.
They resist.
This is an act of resistance.
Are about to lose faith despite the fact
that his change, meaning the change he's about
to effect, bring about for the better, is
so near.
How quickly despite it being so near.
The Sahaba, may Allah be pleased with them
said, Ya Rasulullah, our Lord smiles?
He said, yes.
They said, لَنَّ عَدِمَ مِنْ رَبٍّ يَضْحَكُ خَيْرًا
In that case, we will never be shortchanged
for good coming our way from a Lord
who laughs.
This is a Lord of goodwill.
A Lord of great wisdom.
A Lord of exceptional love and compassion.
Subhanahu wa ta'ala.
And another thought that could be helpful here,
in addition to it being our opportunity to
chase our Jannah, an opportunity to please Allah,
and an opportunity to be the reason for
him smiling at us.
A smile that we will never ever go
astray after.
All of that.
Also, we have to ask ourselves a sobering
question.
Are we stipulating that things have to go
our way for us to believe in Allah?
You know, Allah Azawajal cautions against this in
the Quran and he says, وَمِنَ النَّاسِ مَنْ
يَعْبُدُ اللَّهَ عَلَىٰ حَرْفٍ Among humanity are those
who worship Allah.
They devote their lives to Allah on edge.
On my terms, right?
One foot in, one foot out.
They're like on the negotiation table, right?
Or think of the edge of the cliff
about to plummet, right?
They're footing the line.
Worship Allah on edge.
فَإِنْ أَصَابَهُ خَيْرٌ أُطْمَأَنَّ بِهِ When something good
happens to them, they're reassured by that.
And when something bad happens to them, they
about face, like no.
But if that's the case, this is the
sobering question now, then you are not a
servant of Allah.
You are a servant of your comfort.
I'll serve you so long as you make
me comfortable, right?
So you are reassured, you are content with
the blessing, not with the blesser.
With the comfort, not the comforter.
سُبْحَانَهُ وَتَعَالَى With your perspective, not his providence,
his wisdom.
One of the early Muslims, he used to
say about this, عَبْدُ النِّعَمِ كَثِيرُونَ The servants,
like think of a servant.
Servant is dependent on his master, right?
The servants of the blessings are many.
أَمَّا عَبْدُ الْمُنْعِمِ فَقَلِيلُونَ As for the servants
of the blesser, they are few.
May Allah Azzawajal make us and you of
the few.
And also, you use that to remedy the
question of why is it taking so long?
Once you're sure there's a wisdom, you may
start being allowed by Allah to notice some
of the wisdom.
You'll never see it if you don't believe
it's there, right?
If you believe in the unseen and that
Allah's wisdom will unfold, then he will begin
to give you more access to see some
of it, to give you more stamina, to
give you more resilience and patience.
Why is it taking so long?
Wait a minute.
Maybe it's so that we can finally liberate
Palestine during our lifetime.
May Allah make it a reality.
Maybe it can actually happen in this generation.
Maybe we will go back to normal as
we often have before if it would have
ended early.
Maybe only Gaza will find some relief and
recuperation and it will not be the entire
historical Palestine and beyond.
Maybe this is what it takes.
You know, Sufyan Rahimahullah Al-Thawri, he used
to say about this notion that I am
certain that him withholding is actually him giving.
If we can just lock in on that.
Another one of the early Muslims used to
say that when Allah gives me something I
want, I praise him for it.
And when he does not give me what
I want, I praise him for it 10
times.
Because the first one was my choice for
myself.
I don't know if I'm picking the right
things, preferring the right outcomes.
Yeah.
But when it's not what I want, I
know it's what he wants.
SubhanAllah.
Right.
His choice for me is better than my
choice for myself.
That's what we're working towards.
And it's a jihad.
We have to say that.
Like these tests are not there to be
a walk in the park, nor are they
there to test your muscles.
No, they're not.
They're there to test, you know, the strength
of your trust in Allah Subhanahu wa ta
'ala.
And trusting means also that you don't understand.
You're not always going to understand because you're
trusting.
Islam, yes, doesn't call you to blind faith.
But once you know why you believe what
you believe, I can now blindly trust.
I know there's water in the pool.
Now I'll jump.
That's the leap of faith.
I'm not going to jump before I check.
Is there water in the pool or not?
I have my eyes open, confirmed.
Okay, I trust.
Because it's a challenge.
What's also very beautiful is that Allah Azza
wa Jal acknowledges for us throughout the Quran
that the problem of evil and human suffering
is a challenge.
The angels were saying, Ya Allah, and right
there in the beginning, Surah Al-Baqarah You're
going to sort of place on earth those
that are going to wreak havoc on earth
and like spill each other's blood on earth.
Like why the human race exactly?
He said, I know what you don't know.
You know what's profound about this?
That he's showing you that even the intelligence
of the angels struggled with this issue.
It's fine.
Don't beat yourself up about the struggle to
understand.
But at the same time, the angels had
so much unshakable faith that it was enough
of an answer for them that I know
and you don't know.
Is that enough of an answer for you?
Perhaps I hate something and it's better for
me.
Perhaps I love something.
It's worse for me.
And Allah knows and you don't know.
That's another verse Surah Al-Baqarah Not just
the angels, even the prophets.
You know that whole long story about Musa
Alayhi Salaam and Al-Khadir where he has
to go learn from a man who is
lesser than him in knowledge, but knows some
things he doesn't know.
Musa Alayhi Salaam doesn't know.
And so he keeps subjecting him to scenes
that are apparently evil.
And Musa Alayhi Salaam's sense of justice can't
just walk away.
Even though, and this is deep.
Even though Allah says to him, go learn
from that man.
A man that we granted exceptional mercy to.
And what was Musa Alayhi Salaam's objection?
He told him up front.
Yeah, we know the story.
And so like we just walk, go through
the motions when we read it.
But from the beginning, Allah is telling him,
we granted him an exceptional compassion and mercy
from us.
And we taught him from our knowledge, a
great deal.
What were the three incidents?
He punctures the ship.
He kills the young man.
He builds the wall, restores the wall and
doesn't accept compensation.
The scholars mentioned that it not just did
Musa Alayhi Salaam struggle to understand why those
had to happen.
But Allah chose for him three events that
were not random.
How could you object, oh Musa, to the
ship being punctured?
It was for the greater good, right?
It was to defect it so that the
pirates would not take it.
But how could you object when you yourself
were where in a basket and you did
not drown?
Notice the correlation.
And then they kill the young man.
How could you not realize that there's probably
more to the story?
Because the whole world accused you of murdering
the Coptic guy and there was more to
the story.
And how could you object to restoring the
wall without payment?
Yes, the people were a stingy town and
they were not hospitable hosts and all that
other stuff.
But there has to be more to the
story.
You wanted something bigger.
When you yourself, oh Musa, when you were
turned into a fugitive and a refugee, you
wound up needy at the well of Median
and you got water for two young ladies
and you stepped away and you didn't take
payment.
Notice what Allah chose for him.
Part of that is to show us that
even if it's right in front of you,
you're just not gonna always be able to
see it.
But we know it's near.
His wisdom is near.
His power is near.
His greatness is near, Subhanahu wa ta'ala.
You know, the great scholar Ibn al-Jawzi,
Rahimahullah, he says, people don't understand what the
hardest test of being a Muslim is about.
The hardest test of submission is all about
Islam submission, right?
He says, it's the test that scared the
universe.
He's referring to Surah Al-Ahzab.
In the end of Surah Al-Ahzab, Allah
Azza wa Jal said, Inna aradna al-amana
We offered this responsibility to believe, right?
To the skies, the earth, the mountains, and
they all declined and they were horrified of
it and the human being took it on.
I'll take it.
Because it's the responsibility to have unshakable faith.
To live correctly, you know, as an extension
or as the fruit of that faith that
you've rooted in your heart.
You get to go to paradise and be
with him forever.
But there's also the risk of hellfire.
So they said, no, no, we're not.
The risk is too high.
We're not down for this kind of challenge.
No.
And they were horrified and the human being
took it on.
He said, what made them so scared?
Ibn al-Jawzi is saying.
Do you think they were afraid of like
two rakahs or two dollars or washing some
limbs and offering some ritual devotion?
He said, that's not it.
These are of the lightest of the responsibilities
of the submitter, of the Muslim.
He said of the most difficult is when
you see the world descending into mayhem around
you.
He said a thousand years ago, you see
children suffering, innocent.
You see animals dying.
He said that.
And in that moment, you still have to
lock yourself in on him being the most
merciful of any of those who show mercy.
That's the tough one.
He said in understanding that, is what helps
you realize the great disparity, the great difference
between the submission of the body, which is
far easier, and the submission of the intellect.
Intellectual humility to surrender your mind to him,
Azza wa Jal.
That's the logical thing to do, by the
way.
That's the rational thing to do is to
understand that since I'm not the most wise,
I cannot know all the wisdom.
And therefore, I cannot make all the decisions.
Bringing that to the fore.
That's work.
It's not like sort of intellectual acrobatics or
you're just going to hypnotize yourself.
No.
You put in work to invite that into
your heart.
It's a gift from Allah, Azza wa Jal.
You know, Imam Muhammad Ghazali, Rahim Allah, the
contemporary, he said something very beautiful in his
discussion of Surah Al-A'raf.
He says, when we Muslims talk about dhikr,
being mindful of Allah, the remembrance of Allah,
don't think that this is about you trying
to like strong arm your mind into recalling
some distant reality, like God is real and
stuff.
No.
He said it's about trying to recall yourself
back to the actual reality.
You're resuscitating yourself.
I could borrow a medical term, right?
From your coma.
Because compared to Allah, we're not real.
We're real.
We're real.
Not the matrix.
You know, we're real.
Allah's a real creator.
He really created us, right?
So we're real as a creation.
But relatively compared to Allah, the divine reality,
the reality of God is the truest reality.
We're just keep, we keep getting sucked into
being absent minded of that.
And so to stay awake, fight yourself out
of the coma, that is the jihad.
And by the way, as I close here,
that is the third meaning of the help
of Allah is near.
That he can bring it any moment.
We said he has already preordained the moment
in which it will materialize.
We said the third one is Allah can
bring you to states where you are at
peace on the inside, regardless of what's happening
on the outside.
It's already near.
The help of Allah is already near for
those seeking to be near to him.
Yes.
Alaysallahu bikafin abda.
Is Allah not enough for his servants?
But some of the prophets were killed, guys.
Right?
Yahya and Zakariya alayhim assalam.
Some of the prophets were imprisoned.
Like Yusuf alayhis salam and even our prophet
sallallahu alayhi wa sallam, right, during the boycott
those three years.
And they were sort of in effectively a
concentration camp, right?
Cut off from everything.
So was Allah not with them?
Yes, but Allah being with you is about
something in here, right?
Unwavering, unshakable.
The world around me comes crashing down.
I'm fine, right?
I'm at peace.
May Allah grant us all that peace.
When we see our brothers and sisters in
Gaza going through everything they're going through and
our brothers and sisters in Lebanon going through
everything they're going through and our brothers and
sisters in Sudan and in Yemen and in
Turkmenistan and the wounds of this ummah are
many.
We have to be able in order to
move forward, take a step back and anchor
ourselves in you.
To be able to see through it enough
to be able to deal with it.
We're reacting to Allah not just what's happening
down here on the ground.
Yes, they're being killed by devils.
Our children all over the world.
But they're also being received by angels.
And their blood is watering the tree of
faith for so many people.
And turning the wheels and getting it started
in a direction that is pleasing to Allah
and his messenger for the betterment of this
ummah.
SubhanAllah, you think about the prophets.
Like their lives come crashing down.
It's like they're struck by swords and the
peace they're in and other people that don't
have this nearness to Allah or access to
it.
They're pricked by a thorn and their whole
lives come crumbling down.
Come crumbling, right?
I'll mention to you, just so we bring
it full circle and not just say these
were the prophets.
Even the companions, yes.
Imran ibn Hussain radiAllahu anhu and this will
be my final share about having an impregnable
peace, being invincible at heart, right?
Imran ibn Hussain was the companion of the
prophet salallahu alayhi wasalam who narrated to us
the hadith.
Pray standing if you can't and sitting if
you can't then on your side.
The reason was that he had that question
for the prophet salallahu alayhi wasalam.
He had that circumstance that caused the prophet
salallahu alayhi wasalam to tell him that.
He was bedridden for the last 30 years
of his life and one of his close
companions, one of the early scholars of Islam,
his name was Mutarrif.
Mutarrif came to him and apologized to him
one day and he says to him, the
only reason I can't visit you is because
I cannot bear to see what you're going
through.
You're on your bed, the sores, they cut
a hole in the bottom of the bed,
you know, to be able to answer the
call of nature and I can't even see
you in this condition.
One time he visited him in another narration
and he began to cry.
He told him, why are you crying?
Let me tell you something.
Whatever is more beloved to Allah is more
beloved to me and I'm going to share
with you something now that you're not allowed
to share with anyone for as long as
I live but perhaps after I've passed, you
know, the danger zone of conceit and otherwise,
right?
Perhaps after I die, Allah may benefit some
people with hearing this.
The angels visit me regularly and I could
hear them giving me salams.
I'm not dreaming, I'm not sort of falling
in out of consciousness and I returned their
salams to them and they sit by my
bed and all of that causes me to
be further reassured, causes me to realize for
certain that this is not a punishment from
Allah Subh'anaHu Wa Ta-A'la because
so much good is coming out of it
and at the end of the day, whoever
goes through what I'm going through and senses
that support, those bursts of help, how can
they ever be distressed in their difficulties?
So may Allah Azza wa Jal enlist us
in the jihad of fighting for our faith
and being able to fight the good fight
for the sake of our brothers and sisters.
May Allah bring us closer to the Quran
where our worldview comes from and anchor us
in it in unwavering ways and may Allah
Subh'anaHu Wa Ta-A'la inspire us
and move us forward to put in the
work, the spiritual labor that will in fact
entitle us to be gifted unshakable faith.
Allahumma ameen.
Wassalamu alaikum warahmatullahi wabarakatuh