Omar Suleiman – Allah Will Surprise You – Embracing The Unknown
AI: Summary ©
The transcript describes a woman named Farrukh who married a young man named Suhaila and spent 30,000 dinars on their property. The couple discussed the shock of the death of their family and the lack of knowledge of the future. They also talked about the importance of telling people about the future and the importance of being aware of the future. The interviewer emphasizes the need for certainty and peace in order to achieve success, and the importance of embracing the uncertainty and focusing on the right things to live in the present and future.
AI: Summary ©
I want you to imagine with me for
a moment that you are returning home after
several decades to a family who didn't even
know that you were still alive.
There's a story about a great Tabi'i,
his name is Farrukh Abi Abdur-Rahman.
And Farrukh was a free slave of Al
-Rabee' Ibn Zayd, Al-Rabee' Ibn Ziyad, Rahimahullah
Ta'ala, who was praised by Umar bin
Al-Khattab radiAllahu ta'ala was one of
the greatest commanders in the history of Islam.
And when he passes away and he leaves
behind Farrukh, this is a man that goes
out and strives in the path of Allah
subhanahu wa ta'ala just as he was
taught to do.
This is a man who follows in the
path of his mentors, this is a man
who spends for the sake of Allah subhanahu
wa ta'ala and has absolutely no connection
to this dunya.
And he marries a woman by the name
of Suhaila.
And as he's sitting in the masjid and
the call for the next battle comes to
go out in another expedition in Khorasan, he
comes home to his pregnant wife Suhaila.
And he says to her, listen, here is
30,000 dinars.
I have collected it through the various missions
of the spoils of war.
So invest it.
Spend on yourself and on the child that
will be born to you.
And I'll come back to you when Allah
subhanahu wa ta'ala decrees.
He goes out and I'm paraphrasing the story
because it's a very long one and I
don't want it to become the sole focus
of the khutbah.
But he goes out for almost three decades.
And he comes home 27 years later.
And when he enters into the house, the
young man that was his son, who did
not recognize him, rises up to approach him.
And subhanAllah, up until this moment, you can
imagine the mental anguish and torture of the
wife that was waiting for her husband to
come home.
And she would ask the expeditions, what happened?
Did he become a prisoner in the hands
of the enemies?
And that was a theory.
Did he die in the path of Allah?
And that was a theory and that was
the most likely one.
What happened to my husband?
And some people would say, I think I
saw him there.
I think I saw him there.
But he enters into the house and this
young man approaches him to fight him because
he thinks he's a stranger.
And he says to him, Oh, enemy of
Allah, get out of my home.
Don't you know that you're infringing upon the
sanctity of a home?
And he says to him, Oh, enemy of
Allah, you get out of my house.
This is my house.
And as the commotion starts between the two
men, he said that Imam Malik, he comes
in and he says to Farrukh, who's an
old man at this point, he says, You
can find any other home.
Go, it's okay.
Just go to another house.
Why are you coming into this house like
this?
There are many homes for you to go
to.
Why do you have to come into this
house in particular?
And he says, this is my house.
I own this house.
This is my house.
And the young man says to him that
I will not leave you until I take
you to the Sultan.
I'm going to take you to the judge.
I'm going to get you in trouble.
Why are you coming into this house?
And what is this claim?
And as they're both fighting, the woman walks
in and she solves the debate.
And she says, that is my husband.
And that is my son.
Meet your father who you haven't seen for
almost three decades.
And SubhanAllah, as this family reunion is happening,
he says to her, you know, what has
life been like?
And what happened since I've been gone?
And what happened to the 30,000 dinars?
How did you spend them?
What do we own now?
And she said, go to the masjid.
And he goes to the masjid and from
a distance, he sees that same young man
wrapped in a turban and the people all
sitting around that young man.
And this young man is a teacher of
Imam Malik and Imam Abu Hanifa.
May Allah be pleased with them.
This young man is a teacher of the
likes of Sufyan al-Thawri.
This young man has met some of the
greatest of the companions and the tabi'een.
And he comes back home and she says
to him, 30,000 dinars?
Which of them is more beloved to you?
30,000 dinars?
Or this glory that your son is in?
And who was his son?
Rabi'a.
Rabi'a al-Ra'i.
The great scholar and teacher of the Imams.
And his investments that he left behind had
yielded him a tabi'een for whom you
still reap the rewards.
Now this is a story that shows up
in the books of history.
I paraphrased it for you.
Some of the scholars say it's authentic.
Some of them say it's not.
But there is certainly something of that sort
that planted the seeds for Rabi'a who
became Amir al-Khurasan, the Amir of his
people who became one of the greatest scholars
in the Islamic traditions.
But subhanallah, over the last few days, as
I was looking at some of these people
that came out of the prisons of Hama,
after 40 years, can you imagine being in
a tortured dungeon for 40 years and coming
out to your people 40 years later subjected
to all sorts of torture?
Your family doesn't even know that you're still
alive, rising from a dungeon for 40 years.
I said, Allahu Akbar.
What are the conversations like?
And we see them with the Palestinians, some
of them that were taken into the Israeli
prisons at the age of five years old
and coming out at the age of 38
or 40 years old.
And you see the shock of the mom,
the shock of a spouse, the shock of
a child.
How do you catch someone up on all
of that?
I remember, subhanallah, interacting with someone who was
in a coma for over 10 years.
How do you catch someone up who's been
sleeping in a bed for 10 years and
tell them all that happened over 10 years?
How do you explain to the family you're
back?
These are the types of surprises.
These are the types of aja'ib, the
types of miracles, that Allah subhanahu wa ta
'ala shows us in our lives.
And while none of us, or I'd venture
to say none of us have probably had
that type of an experience, all of us
have been surprised by the qadr of Allah
subhanahu wa ta'ala at various points of
our lives.
And there's a narration of a man named
Warith ibn Amr.
He was from the Bedouins in the time
of the Prophet ﷺ.
In some of the books of hadith, he's
the one, or one of the people, the
Bedouins that approached the Prophet ﷺ aggressively and
said, when is the hour?
Because you can always count on the people
from the outskirts to ask the Prophet ﷺ
these direct questions.
But he didn't just ask the Prophet ﷺ
about the hour.
The idea was, you're a prophet of Allah,
so you should tell me everything that's going
to happen.
Because this was a society that was used
to soothsayers, that was used to magicians, that
was used to people that give them the
horoscopes, that was used to the people that
tell them you're going to marry this person,
have this many children.
That's the idea of someone that can look
into another realm, as someone that can tell
you the future.
So he said to the Prophet ﷺ, Ya
Muhammad ﷺ, قال إن أرضنا أجدبت.
فمتى ينزل الغيث؟
Our land has become barren.
We're waiting for rain.
So can you tell us when the rain
is going to fall?
و تركت امرأتي حبلة.
And I left my wife and she's pregnant.
فمتى تريد؟
When's she going to give birth?
Can you give me a birthday in advance?
Can you tell me when it's going to
rain?
Can you give me a birthday in advance?
قال وقد علمت أين ولدت فبأي أرض أموت.
And I know where I was born, so
can you tell me where I will die?
And so Allah ﷻ revealed in Surah Luqman,
إن الله عنده علم الساعة و ينزل الغيث
و يعلم ما في الأرحام.
وما تدري نفس ماذا تكسب غدًا وما تدري
نفس بأي أرض تموت.
إن الله عليم خبير.
That indeed Allah alone has knowledge of the
hour and He sends down the rain and
He knows what's inside of the wombs.
And no soul knows what it will earn
tomorrow and no soul knows in which land
it will die because verily Allah is the
all-knowing and the all-aware.
In another hadith the Prophet ﷺ said مَثَاتِيحُ
الْغَيْبِ خَمْسُ that the keys of the unseen
are five.
No Nabi of Allah knows these five things
and I want you to sit with that
for a moment.
No Prophet of Allah knows these five things
because sometimes it's hard to understand the psychology
of the people around the Prophet ﷺ.
He's so clearly divinely inspired.
Why can't you see that?
Because they didn't believe in gods.
Everything in religion had been turned into stones
and material.
So you have to tell me what's going
to happen tomorrow.
You have to tell me what I'm getting
out of this.
You have to tell me what I'm getting
out of that.
They became a very transactional people.
There's no akhirah.
There's no إِذَا مِتْنَا وَكُنَّا تُرَابًا وَعِظَامًا Like
we die and we become bones and stones.
What is it that we get out of
this?
And the Prophet ﷺ says مَثَاتِيحُ الْغَيْبِ خَمْسُ
There are five keys of the unseen.
No Nabi of Allah, no Prophet of Allah
knows these five things and the Prophet ﷺ
mentions إن الله عنده علم الساعة وَيُنَزِّلُ الْغَيْفِ
وَيَعْلُمُ مَا فِي الْأَرْحَامِ And he recited the
ayah ﷺ.
Now I want you to pay attention to
what Allah ﷻ is telling us through this
ayah.
He's telling us the who.
Allah sends the rain.
The who.
He's telling us what he sends.
وَيُنَزِّلُ الْغَيْفِ He's telling us وَيَعْلَمُ مَا فِي
الْأَرْحَامِ Only Allah knows how it will come.
He's telling us وَمَا تَدْرِي نَفْسٌ مَاذَا تَكْسِبُ
غَدَى When it will come.
And he's telling us وَمَا تَدْرِي نَفْسٌ بِأَيِّ
أَرْضًا تَمُوتُ And you don't know where it
will come.
So Allah ﷻ in one ayah answers the
who, how, what, when, and where.
And the Prophet ﷺ called these مَفَاتِيحُ الْغَيْبِ
The five keys of the unseen.
And when you sit with this for a
moment, Allah has shown the Prophet ﷺ all
types of things.
Anbiya before the Prophet ﷺ raised the dead
to life.
The Prophet ﷺ has seen al-Dajjal.
The Prophet ﷺ has gone from Mecca to
Jerusalem, led the Prophets in prayer.
And al-Aqsa has been taken to the
highest heavens, has seen all sorts of things
that you cannot imagine.
But even the Prophet ﷺ and all of
these Anbiya of Allah who were able to
stop the sun, like Yusha ibn Nun ﷺ,
or who were able to raise the dead
like Isa ﷺ, none of them were told
what's happening next.
All of them had that concealed.
And that's why the Prophet ﷺ when he
was at the wedding of Rubaiyyah, one of
the poets started to sing, وَفِينَا نَبِيٌ يَعْلَمُ
مَا فِي غَدْ And we have amongst us
a Prophet who knows what will happen tomorrow.
And the Prophet ﷺ, he could have took
it, he could have said, you know, it's
poetic license, it's art, it's culture, it's okay,
it can mean different things.
And in some ways the Prophet ﷺ told
us what will come next.
Because if you think of Ghad as in
Yawm al-Qiyamah, the hour, the day of
judgment, he told us ﷺ some of the
signs.
So maybe there's something there.
But he doesn't do that ﷺ.
In the middle of a wedding, the Prophet
ﷺ stops and he says, أَمَّا هَذَا فَلَا
تَقُولُوا He said, look, ask for this, don't
say it.
مَا يَعْلَمُ مَا فِي غَدْ إِلَّا اللَّهُ No
one knows what is coming tomorrow except for
Allah.
The premise of this khutbah, dear brothers and
sisters, is Allah is going to surprise you
many times in life.
Your life is full of surprises.
Surprises as an ummah, surprises as an individual.
If you were to look through the ahadith
and you look at the words, فُجَاءَ, sudden
death, a sudden loss of blessings.
Or فَزَعَ, someone who is shocked by something
out of nowhere.
And we are a people that don't like
الموت الفجاء, a sudden death, because we like
to prepare for death.
These things that come out of nowhere, زَوَارِ
نِعْمَةِ The Prophet ﷺ used to seek refuge
in Allah from a sudden decline in blessings.
It's the premise that there are things that
are ahead of us that none of us
can predict, none of us know.
And it is part of what makes the
test of Bani Adam and the test of
Ummat Muhammad ﷺ what it is in the
first place.
That you could have the greatest forecasters, political
forecasters, economic forecasters, weather forecasters.
They could tell you there is rain in
the horizon.
They could tell you there is risk tomorrow.
They could tell you that this superpower is
going to demolish this.
But then you turn on the news the
next day or you come outside and it
is the complete opposite of what was forecasted.
And sometimes that news comes to you from
different places.
And the Prophet ﷺ loved to remind us
of that uncertainty.
That in that uncertainty, that's where tawakkul is
found in Allah ﷻ.
That's where trust in Allah is found, is
in the uncertainty of what is ahead.
And that's why Aisha ﷺ, she was asked,
did the Prophet ﷺ used to recite a
shi'r?
Did he used to recite sometimes some poetry?
Did he like some of the lines of
poetry?
And she said, رضي الله تعالى عنها كان
يتمثل ﷺ بشعر ابن رواحة The Prophet ﷺ
liked the poetry of Ibn Rawaha.
و يتمثل بقوله يأتيك بالأخبار من لم تزود
That verily news will come to you from
places you don't expect.
And من لم تزود is someone that you
did not commission.
Someone that you did not pay.
Someone you didn't subscribe to.
Someone that didn't travel with you.
Someone that doesn't have any familiarity to you.
And someone pops up and gives you news
and you have no idea how it came
from this person.
Meaning you invest in lines of certainty.
You plan in certain ways.
But Allah ﷻ shows you that those plans
are not actually what makes things move.
What does this mean for us as an
ummah?
As the ummah of Muhammad ﷺ?
Before we talk about the potential of Gaza
being free and Gaza will be free and
al-Aqsa will be free because Allah ﷻ
promised it.
Allah ﷻ will free it.
But before we talk about the way things
are looking for Palestine, the way things are
looking for the ummah, the projection of this
place and the projection of that place, let's
actually start with the places where we have
certainty.
What does this mean for us as an
ummah?
That we shouldn't be too hopeful in what
seems stable.
At any point, the most stable lands can
be overtaken from beneath or above.
At any point, the most prosperous population can
be tested with poverty.
This is the sunnah of Allah ﷻ.
That at any point, your hope can turn
into despair.
Your stability can turn into insecurity.
Your safety can turn into fear.
Allah ﷻ can flip it upside down just
like that.
So as an ummah, even the places of
the ummah, and I'm not just talking about
the physical places, the areas of the ummah
where we seem to be stable, we don't
put too much stock into that.
And on the opposite side, we don't despair
in what seems absolutely impossible.
I don't see a way.
I don't see a way.
I don't see a way for victory to
come here.
I don't see strategically how this is going
to happen.
I don't see how this is going to
happen.
It looks bleak.
You're right.
It can look bleak.
It can look bleak.
But I want you to just take the
news over the last two weeks.
And be honest.
When you turn on the news, did anyone
think that the headlines would be South Korea
or Syria?
Was anyone anticipating any of this?
No.
Because the headlines change very quickly.
And subhanAllah, there's a psychology in the digital
age, without getting too deep, back then when
you talk about your community and uncertainty, you
know about your neighbors, you know about things
that are happening a little bit down here
or there.
Uncertainty is whether your animals will give birth,
whether the harvest will come.
Uncertainty is in the weather.
Uncertainty is in something of health.
But when you're tied to global events, when
you're tied to the world, because it's all
at your fingerprints, psychologically as human beings, we
tie ourselves to global events and to global
actors.
And I'm not talking about celebrities.
I'm just talking about larger than life figures,
whether they're ulama or whether they're celebrities, or
whether they're political leaders.
And Allah shows you how unstable that all
is.
Because you can open the news and your
favorite celebrity died in a plane crash, or
your favorite celebrity committed suicide, or the young
scholar had a heart attack, or the young
political leader died in a car accident.
And then these global events shift.
And it just shows you that Allah Subh
'anaHu Wa Ta-A'la can turn things
upside down very quickly and the circumstances change.
But what does it mean on a personal
level now?
For every single one of us, you and
I, I want you to think about the
Prophet Sallallahu Alaihi Wasallam when he went to
Waraq al-Nufal radiAllahu ta'ala Anhu.
And he told Waraqa what happens about the
experience with Jibreel Alaihi Wasallam.
And Waraqa said the eternal words, I wish
I could be alive the day that your
people run you out.
And the answer of the Prophet Sallallahu Alaihi
Wasallam was, people running me out?
My people will run me out?
He's the most beloved of his people Sallallahu
Alaihi Wasallam.
Think about that physically on a day to
day.
That means that As-Sadiq Al-Ameen Sallallahu
Alaihi Wasallam when the Prophet Sallallahu Alaihi Wasallam
would walk the streets of Mecca.
At that point in his life, people would
want him to come into their house.
People would shower him with compliments.
People would give the Prophet Sallallahu Alaihi Wasallam
their trust.
People would praise the Prophet Sallallahu Alaihi Wasallam
without it being solicited.
The Prophet Sallallahu Alaihi Wasallam used to walk
through the streets of Mecca like a hero,
beloved to his people.
And now this man is telling me, your
people are gonna run you away?
Wait, what?
And SubhanAllah, 10 years later, the opposite circumstance
exists where the Prophet Sallallahu Alaihi Wasallam can't
find anyone to take him in.
Where it's a surprise that these six young
men from Yathrib, from Al-Madinah Al-Munawwara,
from the makings of the Ansar would tell
the Prophet Sallallahu Alaihi Wasallam, come into us.
Because the fortunes have completely changed to where
it was surprising that I'd be kicked out.
Now it's surprising that I would be welcomed.
May Allah Azza wa Jall place the love
of the Prophet Sallallahu Alaihi Wasallam in our
hearts.
Allahumma Ameen.
What does this mean for us?
Dear brothers and sisters, your cards are entirely
different based on circumstances that you have zero
control over.
Your family planning and you've got all these
dreams and hopes for your kids and then
a disease suddenly strikes you.
I remember being SubhanAllah with someone and when
you're an Imam or when you deal with
people on this level, you see someone who
wakes up in a hospital bed and doesn't
remember the car accident and they're missing limbs
or they're missing something.
I don't remember when this even happened.
How do you tell someone, by the way,
when you look down and I've been in
this situation, you're gonna notice you don't have
any legs anymore and you don't remember the
accident that took it away from you.
You're planning these things for your career and
then political instability happens.
You're planning these things for yourself.
You have all these aspirations and Allah SubhanAllah
tests you with this and then your calculations
in life change altogether because you're planning with
something entirely different.
But the reality is, is that no person
in here is going to have the next
10 years exactly as they predict.
No one knows.
No one of us is making the calculations
to where we actually know what's going to
happen.
So what do we do?
When we realize you can't determine the future
as nearly as you like, no matter what
you do.
You embrace the uncertainty of the future with
your certainty and the one who controls all
time and all circumstances.
And you focus on what you're doing.
One of the traits of the hypocrites is
that they tie themselves to the past and
the future but not to the present.
They don't live in the present.
They say that if tomorrow comes, a different
version of me will show up.
لَإِنْ أَخَرْتَنِي إِلَىٰ أَجَلٍ قَرِيبٍ If you delay
me, then I'll switch.
Or, قَالَ رَبِّ رَجِعُونَ Send me back.
لَعَلِّي أَعْمَنُوا صَالِحًا فِي مَا تَرَكْتُ So that
I can do good with that which I
left behind.
The hypocrite lives in the past and lives
in the future and has all these supposed
selves that would come out in the past
differently or come out in the future differently.
The mu'min lives in the present and the
انتظار of the mu'min, the calculations of the
mu'min is not waiting for a circumstance that's
out of their hands.
مَتَ السَّاعَةِ The Prophet ﷺ said, إِذَا ضُيَعَتَ
الْأَمَانَةِ فَانْتَظِرَ السَّاعَةِ When trust is lost, then
wait for the hour.
Ibn Umar ﷺ says, إِذَا أَمْسَيْتَ فَلَا تَنْطَضِرَ
الصَّبَاحِ وَإِذَا أَصْبَحْتَ فَلَا تَنْطَضِرِ الْمَسَاءِ It's very
simple.
When you wake up, the calculation that you're
making is I don't believe that I'm gonna
live to see the evening.
And when you go to sleep at night,
I don't believe that I'm going to live
to see the morning.
Because there's a tomorrow that's uncertainty.
مَاذَا تَكْسِبُ غَدَى And then there is a
tomorrow that is certain.
Where Allah ﷻ says, يَا أَيُّهَا الَّذِينَ آمَنُوا
تَقُوا اللَّهَ وَلَتَنظُرُ نَفْسٌ مَا قَدَّمَتْ لِغَدٍ O
you who believe, fear Allah and look to
what you have prepared for tomorrow.
And this tomorrow is what Qatada ﷺ mentions
is الساعة is the hour.
And he said, رحمه الله قَرَّبَ السَّاعَةَ حَتَّى
جَعْلَهَا كَالْغَدٍ Allah ﷻ has made the day
of judgment so near to us that it's
like He made it tomorrow.
And so don't talk about what you might
be tomorrow or what you're planning for tomorrow
as if a different version of yourself should
come out.
Expect that Allah is going to surprise you
with all sorts of things in life.
And have حسن الظن in Allah ﷻ that
Allah will give you in that process.
A good assumption of Allah that Allah will
give you in that process what gives you
the best potential to be the best Muslim.
Not the exact specifications of what you prepare.
But Allah ﷻ does not لا يضيع أجر
المحسنين Allah will not let the good deeds
that you have planted go to waste.
May Allah ﷻ grant us the best of
this life, the best of the next, and
protect us from the fire.
رَبَّنَا آتِنَا فِي الدُّنْيَا حَسَنًا وَفِي الْآخِرَةِ حَسْنًا
وَقِنَا عَذَابَ النَّارِ أَقُولُ قَوْلِ هَذَا وَاسْتَغْفِرُ اللَّهَ
يَبِيُّ لَكَمْ وَإِسَاءَ الْمُسْلِمِينَ فَاسْتَغْفِرُوا إِنَّهُ الْغَفُورُ
الرَّحِيمُ الحمد لله والصلاة والسلام على رسول الله
وعلى آله وصحبه ومن ولاه اللهم اغفر المؤمنين
والمؤمنات والمسلمين والمسلمات الأحياء منهم والأموات إنك سميع
قريب واجيب الدعوات اللهم اغفر لنا وارحمنا وَاعْفُوا
عَنَّا وَلَا تُعَذِّبْنَا رَبَّنَا ظَلَمْنَا أَنْفُسَنَا وَإِنْ لَمْ
تَغْفِرْ لَنَا وَتَرْحَمْنَا لَنَكُونَنَّ مِنَ الْخَاسِرِينَ اللهم إنك
عفو كريم تحب العفو فاعف عننا اللهم اغفر
لوالدينا رَبِّ رَحَمَهُمَا كَمَا رَبَّوْنَا سِغَارًا رَبَّنَا هَبْلَنَا
مِنْ أَزْوَاجِنَا وَذُرِّيَاتِنَا قُرَّةَ أَعْيُمْ وَجَعَلْنَا لِلْمُتَّقِينَ
إِمَامًا اللهم انصر إخوان المستضعفين في فلسطين اللهم
انصر إخوان المستضعفين في فلسطين اللهم انصر إخوان
المستضعفين والمجاهدين في فلسطين وفي السودان وفي سوريا
وفي كل مكان اللهم أصلح حوال إخوان المنكوبين
في كل مكان اللهم عليك بأعدائك أعداء الدين
اللهم أرنا فيه معجائب قدرتك اللهم أهلك الظالمين
بالظالمين وأخرجنا وأخوانا من بينهم سالمين عباد الله
الله يأمر بالعرض والإحسان وإيتاء ذي القربى وينهى
عن الفحشاء والمنكر والبغي يعيذكم لعلكم تذكرون فاذكروا
الله يذكركم واشكروه على النعماء يزد لكم ولذكر
الله أكبر والله يعنى ما تصنعون واقم بالسلطة