Nouman Ali Khan – Why are bad things happening to me?

			But in one particular place in the Quran sutra Anka Bucha, Allah talks about tests that are
difficult meaning, not the tests of good, but the tests of bad when you go through a difficult
situation or people are causing you harm, or you're going through duress, then that's a very
difficult kind of test. And it's at those points that a lot of people lose their faith. So Allah
azza wa jal gave a passage told us that Allah salAllahu Alaihe Salam, at an occasion this was later
on in the Moroccan period. So the prophets like Selim was already preaching the message of Islam for
nearly a decade now. And things had escalated. So not only were the Muslims being made fun of, or
		

			they were being ridiculed or pushed away, or, you know, uh, you know, they were they were kicked out
of their families and things like that, or economically boycotted, if things took the next step.
Now, Muslims were being tortured. So one such Muslim was kebab and Arato, the Allahu anhu, who they
grabbed him the Bucha and grabbed him, and they took coal, and they heated coal on the ground. And
then they forced him to lie down on it on his back, and then they stood on him. So his back kept on
burning, and he kept screaming, and they wouldn't get off of him. And until his entire back, just
melted off. And he was completely, like, traumatized and burned. And in that state, he came to the
		

			Prophet salallahu Alaihe Salam, and he cried. And he said, Yeah, also Allah, we're the ones that
have the truth. Why is Allah letting this happened to us? Why, if you're doing the right thing, why
should bad things happen to you? Right? And if these are the best people, they're the ones that are
supporting the messenger of allah sallallahu alayhi wasallam. So if they're, they're not just doing
some random good deed, they're doing the best of all deeds. And yet these terrible things are
happening to them. Now, this is an important question, because a lot of people say I'm trying to do
the right thing, then why are bad things happening to me? Right? And before we ask ourselves that
		

			question, why is it happening to me, you and I have to remind ourselves, that there were people that
came before us that were much better than us profits, people that supported profits, and those
prophets themselves and the people who supported them went through much more difficult things than
will ever go through. That's a reality Allah put them through it. Our prophets, Allah, Allahu Allah
was publicly humiliated constantly for over a decade. Then there was attempts made that his life,
his own family used to abuse him every single day. And that's the messenger of allah sallallahu
alayhi wa sallam, and then he had to escape from his own home, that he loves to death, he has to
		

			escape from it, because they're trying to kill him. So it's his entire life. Actually, one way of
looking at it is his entire life. SallAllahu wasallam is a life of pain is a life of extreme pain.
And the people that were close to him are decided to follow his way. The pain came with it. You
know, sometimes people say, Well, why should I follow Islam? What's it got for me? Like, what do I
get? If I follow this religion? Is my life gonna get better? Are my problems gonna get solved? Am I
gonna get a job? Am I gonna get healthier? Because you know, people say like, something like, Man, I
didn't use to pray. And then I had exam season coming. So I started making saliva and stuff. And I
		

			made so much DUA and I stopped doing haram things, and I still failed. What's the point? Like, it
didn't work? You know? Cuz the whole idea is, if I turn to religion, it should do something for me.
It should help me in some way. That's the whole point. Right? So and that's this is actually what
many other religions offer, you go to the temple and you go to some church, or you go to some place
of worship, and you have some idol in front of you. And you put some things in front of that idle
and say, I really need a new car, or you put something in front of his hand, man, I really need this
problem to go away, can you help this problem go away, because the entire promise is that something
		

			in this life will get better if you turn to this religion, right. And then people turn to saints and
turn to idols and turn to other forms objects, because they want their worldly problems to be
solved. But Quran is painting a completely opposite picture. These people are coming, turning to
God, and everything used to be normal before they turned to his thumb. And when they turned towards
the Prophet alayhi salam, their family hates them, they lost all their money, they're being
tortured, they're being burned alive. And like their life turned to *, because they beat because
they accepted Islam. So unlike any other religion, where you could say, you know, you should accept
		

			his faith because things are gonna work out for you. I actually, this is a true story. I went, many
of you are familiar with Joel Olsteen. And he's a very famous preacher, you know, out in Houston,
and I was curious about about his popularity, I wanted to know what is he what message is he giving
to people and by the way about the Bible, Allah azza wa jal about the Bible and the torah, the
torah, and EG Allah does say that in it, there is still some light and some guidance. Allah doesn't
reject the previous revelations. So I wanted to see for myself what it's like, when, you know, he
preaches and what what how do people take in what he's saying what his sermon is like? And I
		

			actually he was a couple of years ago.
		

			So on Christmas Eve, actually, he was coming to Dallas at the American Airlines stadium. And I
bought tickets. And I went, and I sat up in the bleachers. And I observed the entire program for
three hours. I watched the program, I wanted to see what they do. What what goes on in there. And I
kid you not the entire time. He's here and his mom came, his mom said, I used to have cancer, the
doctors told me I had just a year and I said, Jesus, you're gonna give me 15 years.
		

			And you know what? It's been 30 years and everybody's clapping. And then then he comes on and he
says, this problem got solved up. And then at the end of it all, the promise was this year, God's
going to help you with that divorce, he's going to help you with that lawsuit, you're gonna get a
new job, you're gonna get that car, you're gonna get that promotion. This is the year of the do this
is the year where things are gonna work out for you. Because, you know, you turn to Jesus things
will work out for you. They gave guarantees over the next 12 months, everybody's economic situation
and health situation. And cancer diagnosis is going to turn around. They gave these guarantees of
		

			this world for three hours. And people were like, yes, yes. It's all gonna work out because the
promise isn't of anything but a better life here. A better life here. The Quran gives a very harsh
reality check. Look at the Halacha in Santa Fe covered, we created the human being drowned in
exhausting, painful labor. This life is exhausting. It's difficult. For some people, it's
financially exhausting. For other people, it's mentally exhausting. For other people. It's
physically exhausting. There are different kinds of exertions. Sometimes your problems come from
your own body. Sometimes problem comes from the people around you. Sometimes problem comes from
		

			because from the weather, they come from all kinds of things. But this life isn't a luxury and it's
not suffering either. There are way there are things Allah gave us in this life that can make this a
good life. But the Quran definition of a good life is very different from anybody else's definition
of a good life. For everybody else. A good life means nobody's giving me a hard time I have I have
decent money in the bank, I have a car, I have a house, I have health. That's a good life. I got it
made, you know, come pretty close to the American dream. But the Quran is picture of a good life is
no matter what storms are happening around you and outside you. And no matter what people are doing,
		

			there's a calm inside you. You're content with Allah. And you know that whatever you're going
through, is going to come and go. But the only thing of value the real treasure you have to protect
is actually your iman inside your faith inside. And everything else can shake, money can come in,
money can go job can come in job can go people can come in your life, and people can go people you
thought will never leave you will leave you know it's fine. And people that you know you dependent
on Allah decide sometimes people are so connected to their, their family, their parents, their
sibling, their daughter, their son, their spouse, and they die. And they die and that breaks their
		

			heart. It's not an easy thing to cope with death. But you know what Allah does Allah azza wa jal
gives strength to the heart. And He allows you to pass through those tests. Because no matter what
happens, what bad stuff happens outside, the inside is preserved if you if you turn to. And if you
could do that, then you've succeeded, then you have a good life, then you've succeeded in this life.
This is really when when we talk about the greatest successes in history, like to take the example
of Ibrahim Ali said I'm one of the most successful human beings that ever lived. How was it
successful to be kicked out of your home? How was it successful to be homeless? How was it
		

			successful to be told you have to slaughter your son, or you have to leave your family in the middle
of a desert? How's it successful to be thrown into a giant fire? Right? That success isn't on the
outside? If you look at this man's life, you know, you're like, he's why what happened to him? He's
thrown in a fire. He's kicked out of his house. He was almost killed by a mob. That doesn't look
like a good story. You know, when you when you drive by somebody's home, you've got a beautiful
matching law. These people are so successful. But if you see a homeless person you say, Man, this
guy's if you know what happened, and how did they fail it life? Right? Because our definition of
		

			success, it looks like certain things and our definition of failure looks like certain things. Our
messenger sallallahu alayhi salam lived in a cave for a couple of years in a cave. He tied rocks to
his belly so the stomach wouldn't grow. If you saw another person living in a cave, and they can't
eat normal food. They're eating leaves. You wouldn't call that success. But we are messengers the
greatest success of all sallallahu alayhi wa sallam