A Night Even Better Than Laylatul Qadr
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Channel: Omar Suleiman
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AI Generated Summary ©
The importance of witnessing actions of Muhammad sallali Alaihi and his followers is emphasized, along with the need to be in a state of fear to receive the reward of actions. The importance of shedding tears in the eyes of the Prophet salallahu alayhi wa sallam and recognizing priorities is also emphasized. The importance of praise for brother and sisters and allocating energy towards priorities is also emphasized. Finally, the speaker emphasizes the importance of shedding tears in the eyes of the Prophet salallahu alayhi wa sallam and acknowledging reward and responsibility for actions.AI Generated Transcript ©
We begin by praising Allah, Subhanahu Wa Ta'ala,
and bearing witness that none has the right
to be worshipped or unconditionally
obeyed except for him. And we bear witness
that Muhammad
sallallahu alaihi wasallam is his final messenger. We
ask Allah to send his peace and blessings
upon him, the prophets and messengers that came
before him, his family and companions that served
alongside him, and those that follow on his
blessed path until the day of judgment. We
ask Allah to make us amongst them.
Dear brothers and sisters,
over the last couple of months,
we have had people from this community
that have
made a painful decision along with their families
to literally go to Gaza
not knowing whether they would be returning to
their families or not.
And, subhanAllah,
if you were to ask me a year
ago
if I would be privy to these types
of conversations at the level
that I've had to be privy to these
types of types of conversations, I wouldn't have
known how to respond.
Doctors
upon doctors, medical volunteers, people who
many many of whom grew up in comfort,
have lived extremely comfortable lives,
decided to go place themselves in the middle
of a genocide
in hospitals that are being targeted
to help our brothers and sisters in Gaza.
And almost none of them are actually Palestinian.
Muslims,
people of conscience
who sit with their families
and say, I'm going to leave all of
this behind
and go put myself there because this is
where I'm needed right now.
And I can't tell you how proud I
am of each and every single one of
them
and of their families.
SubhanAllah, witnessing this
in front of my eyes in 'id.
Many of you would not have known, and
some of the kids are even here now,
masha'Allah,
that their
fathers were actually in Gaza at the time
of Eid because they left quietly
to go on these medical volunteer missions and
come back and some of them return today.
May Allah Subhanahu Wa Ta'ala bless them all.
And may Allah protect our brothers and sisters
who have gone there. And may Allah subhanahu
wa ta'ala protect our brothers and sisters who
are the original Murabitun, who have stayed there,
who have insisted on holding it down and
refused to be terrorized and psychologically
brutalized
and removed from their land. Allama ami.
Why do I begin with this type of
an introduction?
We've been talking about how Gaza has given
life to many ahadith and many stories from
the Sira that otherwise we were not familiar
with.
And we're coming out of Ramadan,
and I couldn't think of a better time
to talk about this narration from the prophet
Sallallahu Alaihi Wasallam and a body of narrations
that speak to this
because otherwise,
these things seem so distant from us.
And the title of the Khutba is a
night even better than Nayratul Qadr.
Some people messaged me and said, Sheikh, is
this clickbait? I said, no. It's not clickbait.
It's an actual hadith. And I'll say that
there are multiple narrations, all of whom are
traced to the companions of the prophet sallallahu
alaihi wa sallam,
about acts of worship that continue after Ramadan
in which you can realize the reward, and
I'll talk about those another time,
but a night better than Laylatul Qadr, something
actually better than Laylatul Qadr.
And it's an authentic hadith
that's narrated by Al Hakim,
and Al Bayhaki and others have considered it
to be authentic, imam al Asa'i.
Shall I not tell you about a night
that is greater than Laylatul Qadr? That is
even greater than the night of power.
So, obviously,
the Sahaba,
knowing the value of the greatest night of
the year, Laylatul Qadr I Khayram alfishahar,
Better than an entire lifetime of good deeds.
What is it, oh messenger of Allah? The
prophet, sallallahu alaihi wa sallam, said,
a guard
who stands guard
in a land of fear,
not knowing if he's going to return back
to his family or not.
Speaking about al Murabitun,
al Ribat,
And Palestine, of course, is Ardu Ribat, and
Ribat is holding down the fort. And I
want you to try to put yourself in
the mindset of a person because obviously, this
is a circumstance
that most of us will probably never live.
But to derive the spirit from it is
not important when you see the reward of
it because this is a religion where circumstance
and outcome
are not nearly as relevant as intention.
You spiritually prepare yourself for circumstances
even if you never physically get put in
that circumstance, and that is a testimony to
your truthfulness with Allah Subhanahu Wa Ta'ala. What
would it be like for me to be
in that situation?
Would I be willing? What would I tell
myself? Would the reward be worth it? If
a time came? Because if you were to
talk to some of the brothers and I'm
just giving one example
of this hadith that came to life.
If you were to speak to some of
these brothers and sisters
before October of last year, they would have
never thought they'd be stepping into a genocide
today, and they've had to make certain calculations
in their mind, and their families have had
to make certain calculations.
Even though we have a false sense of
security when we go and we take our
families and drop them off at the
airport, certain that they will return to us
even when they go anywhere else. Allah knows
best where our place of death is, but
you've got to know when you're stepping into
a circumstance
I want you to imagine
walking out
to a place
where you are anticipating
the enemy attacking.
Put yourself back in khandaq. Put yourself back
in Uhrid. Put yourself back in Badr the
night before.
You have to go out there and you
have to stand there.
And from your direction,
it is anticipated that at any moment in
the night,
something can happen.
Think about Ali radiAllahu ta'ala Anhu sleeping in
the bed of the Prophet Sallallahu Alaihi Wasallam
when the Prophet Sallallahu Alaihi Wasallam had already
migrated.
And there was an assassination attempt that was
anticipated for the prophet sallallahu alaihi wasallam that
night. And Adi radiAllahu anhu sleeps alone in
that house, in that bed, knowing that that
night,
there are certainly going to be men with
spears over him, and he still does it.
Not only that,
he gets some of the best sleep of
his life
because of his certainty in Allah, subhanahu wa
ta'ala. What type of a spiritual
engineering is necessary to be able to be
in that type of a situation?
And what type of a calculation do you
have to make?
And when you make that calculation,
what type of contentment do you realize that
you did not even know was possible for
yourself?
Because one of the conversations that I was
able to have with the brothers who came
back, he said, subhanAllah, this elevated my spirituality
in a way that no Ramadan, no Laylatul
Qadr, no Hajj, no Umrah ever has.
This elevated my spirituality. This brought me to
a place that I didn't know in my
relationship with Allah Subhanahu Wa Ta'ala. Because think
about that.
Imagine being that person.
You know that you are voluntarily stepping into
a place where that might be it.
Now,
what does this have to do with us?
And how do we bring this back to
a reality? And why would the Prophet SallAllahu
Alaihi Wasallam even relate it to Daylatul Qadr?
Why would he relate it to this concept
of Qiyamul Layl, this concept of standing up
in prayer at night?
The ulama speak to multiple reasons, and they
find the implication in multiple narrations. So it's
fresh to you as someone who just came
out of the last 10 nights of Ramadan.
There's the sacrifice of comfort for a greater
reward.
There is the realization
of something greater
than your material life.
There is something
more worth it than sleep. There is the
contradicting
of a natural
desire
of your body to rest so that your
soul can find itself alive.
You're doing certain things that contradict your physical
nature for a higher spiritual goal, sacrificing for
the sake of Allah, Subhanahu Wa Ta'ala, and
the prophet, salallahu alayhi wasalam, put these two
things together in multiple narrations.
And so the next group of people I
want you to think about
are implied in this hadith from the Prophet
sallallahu alaihi wa sallam as well, the famous
hadith
2 eyes that will not be touched by
the fire.
And he said, sallallahu alaihi wa sallam,
an eye that shed tears
in all of its Lord. An eye that
shed tears in all of its Lord.
And how many of those eyes were shedding
tears in those last 10 nights? May
protect us from dry eyes and hard hearts.
Allahu ameen. How many of those eyes were
shedding tears
in these last 10 nights?
The sake of Allah.
The same word is used, haras,
harasa.
And I want you to think about this,
dear brothers and sisters. What's something that we
can implement? May Allah reward our volunteers and
our security, who while we were all in
here in these last 10 nights,
they're making certain calculations. They're out there watching
the masjid, seeing if something is wrong. They're
out there sacrificing the night of spirituality
here
because they have a reward out there and
a responsibility that's out there. That's a certain
type of mindset, and the prophet salAllahu alayhi
wasalam is able to include the reward of
both of those things in the same sentence.
One
eye is looking down
and shedding tears. Another eye is wide open,
but they're both open and closed, dry and
wet for the sake of Allah. And subhanallah,
their ilama say, look at the beauty of
this. And a watchful eye doesn't blink,
so it gets dry.
Whereas an eye in prayer gets wet.
Right?
But both of them are
Both of them are in the cause of
Allah, Subhanahu Wa Ta'ala, and that's where the
beauty of this comes from.
And so that person that's on the outside
of the masjid might be realizing
the same reward, if not a greater reward,
for the sake of Allah, subhanahu wa ta'ala.
How do we bring this back to our
own reality, dear brothers and sisters?
There are multiple narrations where the prophet, salAllahu
alaihi wasalam, talked about how to bring the
lessons of these practices, these circumstances into your
life. So when he mentions, for example, alayhi
salaat to salaam,
prayer to prayer is baat, is a form
of holding it down.
You're just fighting a different type of enemy.
When you stay in the masjid from prayer
to prayer, that's a form of ri'baat. But
the prophet
doesn't want you to become distant from these
lofty
stations in the religion because the circumstances seem
so distant from you.
There's a mindset.
There's a heart that's involved. There's a spiritual
preparation that's involved. There's a willingness
to sacrifice
for the sake of Allah Subhanahu Wa Ta'ala
that's involved, and there is a realization, a
spiritual realization that either precedes that or comes
after it, but it certainly
perfects itself after a person goes through one
of these circumstances. And that is that Allah
Subhanahu Wa Ta'ala
who is the source of my energy, therefore
I'll give up my sleep for him.
Allah subhanahu wa ta'ala is the true source
of sustenance.
He's the true source of security.
He's the true source of dignity.
That I will find that
nothing
that I do in these noble endeavors
is in fact in loss.
All of it is in gain because Allah
subhanahu wa ta'ala is the one
who has put me in these circumstances
to test me
with my intentions.
Now why does this become increasingly relevant today?
And I'll end with this, dear brothers and
sisters.
We can praise as we should praise our
brothers and sisters, men, women, and children
who are holding it down in Gaza today.
You look at them, subhanAllah, under the bomb
saying, so we
will stay here. That is a Ribat. And
there is no doubt that that is the
greatest realization of a Hadith like this.
But we can also
bring it to our daily lives and we
can say, listen,
there might come a time where you're going
to be asked out of nowhere or you're
going to be put in a situation where
it's going to be your deen, your principles
versus your job.
How quick is that calculation going to happen?
The same one that you were standing for
at night is worth it for you during
the day.
There are going to be moments where maybe
even your safety is compromised, where you are
threatened,
where you have people come after you because
of your principles.
Right now, there is nothing more dangerous in
the vocation of activism than to be pro
Palestinian. Right? That means that every single element
of you
every single element of you is suddenly being
targeted. SubhanAllah.
Where is this coming from?
But I want you to understand
that the true realizations that are to come
out of Ramadan and the true reward that
is to be anticipated
is from you realizing the priorities
of your existence
and then proportionally
allocating
your energy towards that.
And having that conviction in your head and
that conviction in your heart
that Allah is the source of my sustenance,
Allah is the source of my security.
Allah is the source of my dignity.
And if I'm put in a situation
where I have to make that call, I'm
not going to hesitate
because Allah Subhanahu Wa Ta'ala will protect me
and Allah will provide for me.
And the hereafter is better and everlasting.
So while we praise our brothers and sisters
and we see suddenly, subhanAllah, some of these
local manifestations
that are coming out. And and I ask
Allah to reward each and every single one
of you that took that mission and that
went out there. Subhanallah, some of these brothers
went twice
already as if it's not enough. And I
ask Allah Subhanahu Wa Ta'ala to reward the
brothers and sisters that watch the masjid. And
I ask Allah Subhanahu Wa Ta'ala to reward
those that sacrifice
that calm
feeling of spirituality
for that deeper realization of it. May Allah
Subhanahu Wa Ta'ala reward them all. May Allah
Subhanahu Wa Ta'ala bring out something in us
as well, to where if
we are put in certain
situations,
we never hesitate to sacrifice,
And so the answer to this question, is
there a night better than Laylatul Qadr? For
that person, yes.
There's a night that's better than Laylatul Qadr.
And the last thing that I'll end with,
dear brothers and sisters here, is for you
and I, the night that Allah
looks towards you and sees your sincerity.
The night that Allah subhanahu wa ta'ala looks
towards you and sees you repenting.
The night that Allah subhanahu wa ta'ala looks
towards you and sees a change in you
could be the greatest night in your life,
even if it's not a night in Ramadan,
even if it's an average night for everybody
else around you. It's the day and the
night that you turn your heart towards Allah
in a certain way and you say, you
Allah, nothing
is worth losing your pleasure.
You Allah,
everything
is worth risking to gain your pleasure. May
Allah, Subhanahu Wa Ta'ala, make us of the
courageous and the wise, the sincere and the
steadfast. May Allah, Subhanahu Wa Ta'ala, grant us
the reward of Ramadan, the reward of Laylatul
Qadr, and forgive us for our shortcomings.
Dear brothers and sisters, I want to reiterate
that this Monday, Insha'Allah Ta'ala, is a national
strike for Gaza. I ask you to participate
in any way that you can, dear brothers
and sisters.
Sisters. At the bare minimum, no spending.
Let's actually show the power in our numbers,
insha'Allah ta'ala. Let's show the power of our
conviction and our principles. So please do, Insha'Allah
Ta'ala, participate.
Look for the information online. It's not hard
to find strike for Gaza. May Allah, Subhanahu
Wa Ta'ala, allow us to do in our
capacity what is pleasing to him and what
actually benefits our brothers and sisters that are
struggling right now in Gaza. May Allah
allow our voices to amplify their voices and
their ranks on the day of judgment.
their ranks on the day of judgment.