Omar Suleiman – Fear
AI: Summary ©
The speakers discuss the negative impact of fear on health and relationships, as well as the potential for anxiety and sadness to affect behavior. They stress the importance of fear for people's health and relationships, as well as the use of sh Harting to prevent people from overpowering their emotions. They also discuss the importance of protecting one's health and future generations, including being mindful of subhanous behavior.
AI: Summary ©
So when I was asked about the topic,
there was one word that came to mind,
and it is because it's a prevailing sentiment
right now.
And the word is fear.
Fear.
Al khawf.
And this is a word that speaks to
many different circumstances and to many different situations
in our lives, both in regards to our
deen as well as our dunya, that we
often feel paralyzed by fear.
And that is, in fact, the statement that
would be made.
I'm paralyzed by fear.
I can't move because of my fear.
For some, that fear is of what's happening
in terms of the global ummah, in terms
of what's happening in Palestine or Lebanon.
May Allah Subh'anaHu Wa Ta-A'la
grant victory to our brothers and sisters that
fight this distinguishly evil enemy.
May Allah Subh'anaHu Wa Ta-A'la
grant them victory over it.
Allahumma ameen.
So there's fear.
What's next?
And how is this going to end?
And what's going to come about this?
And what does this mean for the greater
Muslim ummah?
There's a lot of fear about what post
-election looks like for Muslims in the United
States.
What's going to happen to us?
Is this going to happen?
Are we going to lose whatever progress we've
made over the last 20 years?
Are we going to find ourselves in a
situation where we're fighting this battle or that
battle?
What does this mean for my children growing
up in this country?
There's fear of poverty that perpetually disturbs most
men.
And that's why the Prophet Sallallahu Alaihi Wasallam
used to frequently seek refuge in Allah Subh
'anaHu Wa Ta-A'la from debt.
And debt usually comes with qahr al-rijal,
with cruelty, to accompany it.
There are fears in regards to those who
don't have relationships yet.
Will I ever find a spouse?
And there are fears for those who are
in their marriages of whether their marriages will
end or not.
There are fears that we have for our
children in regards to their deen, in regards
to their future.
Fear, fear, fear, fear.
Now SubhanAllah, walk that back and first and
foremost frame it from an Islamic perspective.
How does Allah Subh'anaHu Wa Ta-A
'la talk about this notion of al-khawth,
of fear?
And one of the things that's incredibly powerful
is that Allah Subh'anaHu Wa Ta-A
'la doesn't just acknowledge that you have fear
no matter who you are, but Allah Subh
'anaHu Wa Ta-A'la reminds of his
blessing in giving you safety in the first
place, and then calls you to continue to
seek safety from him.
Allah Subh'anaHu Wa Ta-A'la reminds
Quraysh of the favor when he fed them
in their hunger and he secured them in
regards to their fear.
And Allah Subh'anaHu Wa Ta-A'la
reminds us of the dua of Ibrahim Alayhi
As-Salaam for Mecca, where Ibrahim Alayhi As
-Salaam said, Oh Allah, make this a safe
place.
And Ibrahim Alayhi As-Salaam made dua for
Allah to feed the people of Mecca, to
provide them from his tamarats, from his fruits.
And so they were living the fruits of
the dua of a righteous man well before.
But the point is Allah Subh'anaHu Wa
Ta-A'la acknowledges you have fear and
you have hunger, and Allah Subh'anaHu Wa
Ta-A'la provided you safety, and Allah
Subh'anaHu Wa Ta-A'la provided you
sustenance.
Allah Azawajal says, وَلَنَبْلُوَنَّكُمْ بِشَيْءٍ مِنَ الْخَوْفِ وَالْجُوعِ
that we will test you with something of
fear and hunger.
The words that Hafiz Sajjad read tonight in
the second rak'ah, the first words that
the angels will say to the righteous believer,
may Allah Subh'anaHu Wa Ta-A'la
make us amongst them are, أَلَّا تَخَافُوا don't
be afraid, وَلَا تَحْزَنُوا and don't grieve.
The Prophet Sallallahu Alaihi Wasallam taught us to
say every morning and every evening, اللهم إني
أعوذ بك من الهم والحزن.
Oh Allah I seek refuge in you from
الهم, anxiety, and what produces anxiety?
Fear produces anxiety.
Fear produces anxiety, right?
A person is مهموم often because they're afraid
of what's to come.
It's uncertainty.
It's what's going to happen tomorrow?
What's going to happen tonight?
What's going to happen next year?
What's going to happen this?
Am I going to be able to pass
this exam?
Am I going to be able to get
this job?
Am I going to be able to marry
this person?
Is this going to be okay?
Am I going to get past this health
difficulty?
هم is anxiety that is more often than
not fear produced.
حزن is grief over the past.
Sadness is grief over the past.
And I could go on and on and
on about the Qur'an and the hadith
and some of the ulema pointed to the
fact that usually you will find the very
first emotion that Allah Subh'anaHu Wa Ta
-A'la speaks to is fear because fear
is the most overpowering emotion that exists in
our emotional makeup.
Fear has the capacity to completely cripple a
person more so than any other enemy.
حزن in fact some of the ulema speak
about this in their tafsir that حزن which
is grief every single human being lives with
grief but people are usually able to work
past grief.
Key word here is work past grief.
Most people as they get older will carry
the burden of dead family members, will carry
the sadness of something that happened to them
in the past but most people are able
to work through that even though they feel
sadness as they are working.
But if you're too scared of what is
to come you can't do anything.
Fear absolutely paralyzes you and SubhanAllah in surah
Ali Imran where Allah Subh'anaHu Wa Ta
-A'la mentions to us إنما ذلكم الشيطان
يخوف أولياء that verily that is the shaitaan
he scares you through his followers يخوف أولياء
scares you through his followers فلا تخافهم وخافون
إن كنتم مؤمنين do not be afraid of
them be afraid of me instead if you
are indeed believers.
One of the things about the quran in
this regard is that the quran often explains
itself in different places.
Tafsir of the quran from other parts of
the quran.
Surah Ali Imran is speaking to a concept
of badr going into uhud.
Badr a badri reality going into uhud and
in fact that's why in surah Ali Imran
you have these incredible incidents that are being
captured where Allah Subh'anaHu Wa Ta-A
'la mentions that the believers are facing what
is seemingly an insurmountable obstacle in front of
them but Allah Subh'anaHu Wa Ta-A
'la increases them and they say حسبنا الله
ونعم الوكيل Allah is sufficient for us and
Allah Subh'anaHu Wa Ta-A'la is
the best of protectors that the believers in
these situations Allah Azawajal sends them angels and
he makes the angels visible to them in
some capacity to where there is a a
number to this right Allah Azawajal mentions specific
numbers of the malaika so that you knew
that your angels that were fighting alongside you
outnumbered the shayateen that were ahead of you
the people that were ahead of you and
once you perceive them in badr then you
knew that every battle that you fought after
badr those same mechanics of Allah Subh'anaHu
Wa Ta-A'la is overpowering the enemy
would be present so long as you did
your part and what the ulema mention in
this tafsir of this verse انما ذلكم الشيطان
يخويف اولياء that the shaitaan tries to make
us fear that the shaitaan tries to instill
this inside of us is when the hypocrites
who were driven by the shayateen and this
is really profound imam baghawi rahimahullah ta'ala
mentions the hypocrites as the mouthpieces of the
shaitaan right there are human beings that are
amplifying in human form the voice of shaitaan
and when they said ان الناس قد جمعوا
لكم فاخشوهم that this is what this the
primary incident that this is referring to is
that there are way too many people ahead
of you right now be afraid there is
no way that you will be able to
overcome this insurmountable obstacle so be afraid now
at that moment when you hear that and
i want you to think about this you're
in the battlefield you hear the number that
is coming ahead of you you have a
decision to make either you can sit with
that fear and you can let it paralyze
you or you can overpower that emotion with
a greater emotion you can overpower that emotion
with a greater emotion and so i want
us to come to this point inshallah and
kind of break down what does that look
like and imam ibn al-qayyim rahimahullah ta
'ala mentions that every emotion that allah subhanahu
wa ta'ala has given to us he
has given us a means of producing it
and something to produce with that emotion so
for example allah azawajal does not tell us
to negate love you don't negate love in
any capacity not the love of the spouse
there is charity there is a good deed
when you channel passion love in its most
base physical means when you channel that in
the halal you are rewarded for it right
when you channel the love of a salihin
the love of the righteous i love the
righteous though i'm not amongst them there's something
rewarding to that allahumma inni yas'aluka hubbak
oh allah i ask you for your love
and the love of those whom you love
and the love of every deed that brings
me closer to your love we love or
one of the emotions that we have is
attention seeking every human being seeks attention but
don't seek the attention of people seek the
attention of allah subhanahu wa ta'ala instead
so every emotion that allah subhanahu wa ta
'ala has to us he's given us another
emotion or a means of producing that emotion
properly and then something to produce with that
emotion and so allah azawajal does not tell
the believers in this situation where you're afraid
to not be afraid rather allah subhanahu wa
ta'ala says be afraid of something don't
be afraid of them be afraid of me
because fear is inherent in our personalities it's
inherent in our emotional makeup but what are
you afraid of two people in this current
political climate that we have could be sitting
right now in the same home and be
very afraid one of them as they are
watching i just want you to imagine two
people sitting on a couch watching what's happening
in gaza one of them internalizes that and
says i am afraid of meeting allah subhanahu
wa ta'ala with this crime happening in
front of me and allah subhanahu wa ta
'ala saying to me what did you do
what did you do when this was happening
the other one sitting down looking at the
same thing the outward mechanics of crying or
shivering or some sort of bodily movement is
afraid of what does this mean for us
at what point is this killing machine going
to take its turn and come to us
i'll bring it even closer subhanallah one of
the worst things that's happening to us right
now in gaza is the the bitter realization
that there are tens of millions of muslims
right around that small area that is being
devoured by these beasts and there's a complete
incapacity and sometimes an unwillingness right and i
want you to think about i want you
to imagine if you lived right along the
rafah border if you lived in egypt right
next to the rafah border are you watching
that and are you going i fear that
these monsters will start to come and devour
our village they'll come after us next are
you watching that and saying i fear allah
subhanahu wa ta'ala when he asks me
what what are you doing what are you
doing right so fear is the emotion but
what are you what's producing that fear and
then what do you do with that fear
what's producing the fear and what is the
fear producing and you have to diagnose it
just like everything else from the start what's
producing the fear what am i afraid of
that companion that was in a difficult situation
fears meeting allah subhanahu wa ta'ala and
allah subhanahu wa ta'ala taking them to
task i fear not doing enough so where
does the fear come from then what do
i do with that fear what does that
fear produce now bring it to you know
bring it to us in a very personal
way and how we actually start to analyze
that what do we do with all of
this first and foremost you know there's a
saying that no one has ever conquered a
fear through thinking right fear is conquered through
action think about when you're afraid of something
if you sit there and you just read
more and think about it more what does
it do it makes you more afraid it
makes you more paralyzed right you have to
actually do something something has to come out
of that right it has to move you
to something otherwise you'll dwell in that fear
and the prison of fear will become greater
the shackles of fear will become greater and
that's why subhanallah many of the ilmah mentioned
the wisdom in the quran that when we
are afraid of allah subhanahu wa ta'ala
we run back to him we move you
take that fear and you channel it into
a dua you channel it into a salah
you channel it into a good deed you
channel it into action action is what conquers
fear not overthinking a situation overthinking only perpetuates
a fear further now that doesn't mean you're
not mindful because in in the sharia when
we are acting we're also thinking but we're
acting more right we're moving in the process
i'm afraid of my sins ليس الخائف من
يبكي ويمسح عيني a person who's truly afraid
of allah subhanahu wa ta'ala is not
someone who cries and then wipes their tears
a person who truly fears allah subhanahu wa
ta'ala is the one who leaves off
what is causing them to cry in the
first place there is an action that has
to be produced otherwise the paralysis will be
perpetuated meaning what even in the situation that
we find in today of political uncertainty if
you're sitting around and dwelling and finding that
that fear is becoming more overwhelming but it's
not channeling you to some sort of concerted
effort then the fear will only grow but
if you're in that capacity of movement what
you will notice is that allah subhanahu wa
ta'ala will put barakah will put blessing
in the little and allah subhanahu wa ta
'ala will reward you with the steadfastness to
be able to continue there's something that comes
out of moving for the sake of allah
subhanahu wa ta'ala of literally getting up
and doing things for the sake of allah
subhanahu wa ta'ala and you put in
the capacity of that fear because one of
the reasons why it becomes so overwhelming is
that we think that the obstacle cannot be
conquered so what do you do if you
fear your sins you remember allah and so
you seek forgiveness for your sins laa taqnatoo
min rahmatillaa inna allaha yakhfiroodhinooba jameeAAa say oh
my servants who have despaired as a result
of their sins do not despair or have
transgressed against themselves with their sins do not
despair from the mercy of allah verily allah
forgives all sins so take your despair and
remind yourself that the one that you are
seeking forgiveness from is fully capable of seeing
you through that process of redemption not because
you're a great person but because that's how
great his forgiveness is you put your tawbah
back in the hands of allah subhanahu wa
ta'ala as far as the completion of
the process is concerned but you put the
effort of that process entirely in your court
you don't sit around and say all right
i cried it out allah is going to
forgive me that's insulting but you put the
actual redemption the quality of redemption entirely in
the hands of allah subhanahu wa ta'ala
while you put the effort entirely in your
hands that i need to do everything that
i can and i'm putting the tawbah the
actual result of tawbah in allah subhanahu wa
ta'ala's hands when you fear an obstacle
subhanallah something so simple like when the prophet
salallahu alayhi wasalam would be ascending the prophet
salallahu alayhi wasalam would be saying allahu akbar
right reminding yourself that allah subhanahu wa ta
'ala is greater than the obstacle that you
are sending allah is greater than what you
are climbing allah is greater than what threatens
you when you find that the doubts start
to bother you and you start to fear
your doubts you say your affirmation is i
believe in allah and so the doubts are
quelled in the certainty of your affirmation so
number one the way that we conquer our
fear is by whether it's fear of our
sins or fear of the cruelty of someone
else or fear of an obstacle or fear
of an end result is we always factor
allah subhanahu wa ta'ala into the equation
as the greatest factor so something very simple
very simple affirmations no matter who wins the
election allah subhanahu wa ta'ala is still
in charge no matter who wins the election
no matter what these shayateen do to our
brothers and sisters allah is still in charge
this is one of the greatest ways to
affirm yourself not only is allah in charge
in some sort of you know philosophical ambiguous
sense but allah is in charge to the
point that i know that you will not
harm me and this is the prophet's advice
to ibn abbas when he's telling abdullah ibn
abbas look stuff's gonna happen he's talking to
his teenage boy subhanallah like think about sometimes
we have to make this more real you
know the best conversations you have with your
kids when you're driving just you and your
kid right by the way subhanallah one thing
i learned from one of my mashayikh is
he'd always take one of his kids to
a dars never have the whole crew it's
like they always just fight each other when
i have them together but when i have
a one-on-one time right you travel
with your kid you talk to your kid
in the car that's where the most real
advice comes there's something about being in a
journey there's something about a moving vehicle like
you can have conversations when you take a
drive together even as friends what does you
know make it that real the prophet salallahu
alayhi wa sallam is riding with abdullah ibn
abbas and he turns around in the vehicle
says let me teach you some words let
me give you some advice be mindful of
allah allah will protect you be mindful of
allah you'll find him in front of you
be mindful be mindful of allah subhanahu wa
ta'ala and allah subhanahu wa ta'ala
will secure you in every single way and
if you ask ask of allah and if
you seek help seek help of allah and
know that if the whole world were to
gather together to benefit you with something they
will not be able to benefit you with
anything unless allah has written it for you
and if they gather together to harm you
with something they would not be able to
harm you with something unless allah subhanahu wa
ta'ala has written it against you sit
with this for a moment and think about
it you know how your mashayikh will remind
you often that allah is testing you in
ease as much as he's testing you in
hardship that it is balaa it is ibtilaa
allah is testing you with good and with
bad that the test that you have with
your prosperity is just as severe as it
is far more severe to be tested with
prosperity and ease than it is to be
tested with poverty and hardship it is a
much greater test when you go home to
your comfortable home in dallas and you lay
down and you're not thinking about the bills
at night and you don't feel the urgency
to connect to allah subhanahu wa ta'ala
you're being tested far more than that person
that is under the bombs of gaza fleeing
from tent to tent because that is a
parable to that person's existence in dunya they
know they're being tested they don't have time
to be deluded by the shaitan what shaitan
is going to delude you in gaza except
for with fear by the way what's he
going to tempt you with in gaza what
are you going to be deluded by but
in that situation when you're at ease you're
not thinking about how urgent the situation is
is your situation any less dire in regards
to your existence with allah subhanahu wa ta
'ala than a person who's jumping from tent
to tent fleeing a bomb it's the same
dire situation what does this have to do
with ibn abbas's hadith notice that the prophet
started with benefit before harm because if you
don't know you know they say if you
don't know who pays your bills then you
won't understand who actually can fire you in
corporate if you don't know who benefits you
in the first place then of course you're
going to have a skewed understanding of harm
if you're not attributing every moment of blessing
to allah subhanahu wa ta'ala allowing that
blessing to come to you to provoke something
out of you that's greater then of course
you're not going to contextualize properly when harm
comes to you that allah subhanahu wa ta
'ala is giving me this harm to provoke
something greater out of me you didn't understand
enough how are you going to understand how
are you going to understand you didn't understand
benefit how are you going to understand harm
so oh young man who has everything going
for him in life right now abdullah ibn
abbas is the pride of of of quraish
right the pride of that family so beautiful
handsome speaks well presence ilm, hikmah, knowledge, wisdom,
popularity at a young age everything is going
to come to him right prophet sallallahu alayhi
wasallam is telling him all those people that
will come around you no one will come
to you except by allah subhanahu wa ta
'ala's permission know that they won't be able
to benefit you unless allah azza wa jal
allows it and when the tables turn because
he would live to see the fitan too
know that they will not be able to
harm you unless allah subhanahu wa ta'ala
wrote it against you it's deeply profound because
fear and hope for the believer are produced
from the same place allah subhanahu wa ta
'ala what do i have hope in do
i look around and i say i've got
myself fortified am i placing my hope in
the instruments of power or the instruments of
security that i have or am i placing
my hope in the one who provided me
that security in the first place allah and
so when it's taken away from me or
when i feel like it could be taken
away from me am i placing my fear
back in allah subhanahu wa ta'ala that
i fear failing the test more than i
fear the test itself no qayyim rahim allah
says that one of the righteous man once
said as he was dying and the people
came to him when he was dying and
he was crying and he was shivering and
he said if you think i fear death
i don't fear death i fear what comes
after death so if you're looking at me
right now and you think that i'm crying
out of the fear of death that's not
what this is i fear what comes after
death i fear what allah subhanahu wa ta
'ala has in store for me there should
i not find myself in the legion of
those who are pleasing to allah subhanahu wa
ta'ala come back to this dear brothers
and sisters when you get scared ask yourself
why you're scared and then ask yourself what
you're going to do with that fear one
of the greatest blessings from allah subhanahu wa
ta'ala is that he allows us to
taste and i'll leave you with this he
allows you to taste the volatility of your
blessing in this dunya so that you can
realize that it is not something for you
to take as a foundation in life i
want you to understand what i'm saying allah
tests you with a little bit of faqr
with a little bit of poverty a little
bit just a pinch so that you can
know that money is no guarantee of your
security allah tests you with a health thing
that comes out of nowhere so that you
can know that there will come a time
where your health will completely fail you allah
tests you with a little bit of loss
of your security so that you can know
that there is no one who can secure
you but allah subhanahu wa ta'ala and
there is no one who can secure you
from allah but allah allah gives you that
like if you because if you're resting on
pillars and this is what you kind of
look around i got this person i've got
this i've got this in place i've got
my passport i've got you know i've got
this citizenship i've got this much money stored
in the bank and you're leaning on this
pillar for strength allah lets it shake for
you so that you can realize it's not
the pillar of strength that you actually thought
it was until you take that back and
you channel it to allah subhanahu wa ta
'ala so what are we teaching our children
what are we teaching our future generations in
the midst of all of this we should
not be teaching them fear we should be
teaching them courage then when you look at
the people of gaza who can stare an
enemy right in the eyes for the devil
that he is and there is nothing you
can do to that person to break that
person even shattering their limbs and you can't
break their spirits we heard about these people
in the past we heard about hamza radiyallahu
ta'ala anhu we heard about mus'ab
radiyallahu ta'ala anhu we heard about shaykh
al-istan bin taymiyya rahimullah standing in the
courtroom of his oppressor and saying what can
my enemy do to me naqatli shahada kill
me it's shahada put me in prison it's
khalwa it's seclusion with allah subhanahu wa ta
'ala deport me it's siyaha it's a chance
to contemplate the signs of allah subhanahu wa
ta'ala my jannah is in my heart
what are you going to do to me
we used to read about these people now
we see these people what are we taking
of the courage of the people of gaza
in the face of these seemingly insurmountable obstacles
that are ahead of us may allah subhanahu
wa ta'ala grant us a sincerity that
produces courage and may allah subhanahu wa ta
'ala protect us from a fear that produces
cowardice may allah affirm us and grant us
thabat in that which is pleasing to him
may allah subhanahu wa ta'ala allow us
to find our strength through him may allah
subhanahu wa ta'ala allow us to internalize
in the fullest sense of the phrase may
allah allow us to internalize in the fullest
sense of the phrase may allah subhanahu wa
ta'ala not make us amongst those who
find a test that exposes an ugly inner
reality but may allah subhanahu wa ta'ala
make us amongst because those instead, who when
they are tested in any way, that it
produces the most beautiful of scents and that
it produces only that which is pleasing to
him.
And may Allah Subh'anaHu Wa Ta-A
'la make the end of the test of
this dunya, the blessing and the success of
the Akhirah, a perpetual fauz, a perpetual success
alongside Ashab ul-Ukhdud, alongside those who burned
in the bottom of the ditch and alongside
those who stood in triumph for the sake
of Allah Subh'anaHu Wa Ta-A'la.
May Allah Azawajal make us all amongst the
Faizeen.
And may Allah Subh'anaHu Wa Ta-A
'la protect us from al-hamm-i, wal
-hazm, wal-ajzi, wal-kasal, wal-jibni, wal
-bukhul, and ghalabat-i-d-daini, wa-qahri
-r-rijal.
May Allah protect us from anxiety and grief.
May Allah Subh'anaHu Wa Ta-A'la
protect us from laziness and incapacity.
May Allah Subh'anaHu Wa Ta-A'la
protect us from stinginess and cowardice.
And may Allah Subh'anaHu Wa Ta-A
'la protect us from death and from the
cruelty of man.
And may Allah Subh'anaHu Wa Ta-A
'la guide us to that which He loves
and guide us to whom he loves and
may Allah Subhanahu wa Ta'ala make us
amongst those whom he loves.
Allahumma ameen wa sallallahu wa sallam wa barakatuhu
nabiyyina Muhammad wa ala alihi wa sahbihi ajma
'in wa sallallahu wa sallam wa barakatuhu nabiyyina
Muhammad wa ala alihi wa sahbihi ajma'in
wa salamu alaykum wa rahmatullahi wa barakatuhu ayyuha
allatheena aamanu sallu alayhi wa sallimu tasleema inna
allatheena yu'udhoon allaha wa rasoolahu la'anahumu
allahu fiddunyaa wal aakhirati wa a'adda lahum
a'adhaban muheena wa allatheena yu'udhoon almu'mineena
walmu'minaati bighayri makhtasaboo faqadi ihtamaloo buhtanaan wa ithman
mubeena