Omar Suleiman – The Inner Strength To Keep Fighting
AI: Summary ©
The speakers discuss the importance of witnessing the worship of Allah and bearing his witness in the context of his life. They stress the significance of witnessing his actions and the need for a universal sermon. The speakers also touch on the strangest thing about the Prophet sallama's inner strength and the importance of his ability to face challenges. The speakers emphasize the interrelated elements of his actions and his importance in achieving reward for theR Assassination planting. The importance of patience and faith in achieving the rewards of theR Assassination planting is also emphasized.AI: Transcript ©
We begin by praising Allah
and bearing witness that none has the right
to be worshipped unconditionally obeyed except for him.
And we bear witness that Muhammad sallallahu alaihi
wa sallam is his final messenger. We ask
Allah to send his peace and blessings upon
him, the prophets and Dear
brothers
Dear brothers and sisters, the Ayah in the
Quran, inna laveenaqalu
rabbunallahu
fummastaqamu
tatanazalu
almalaaikatualla
until the end of the ayah, where Allah
Subhanahu Wa Ta'ala says, Verily those who believe
and they remain firm,
The angels descend upon them and say to
them, do not be afraid and do not
grieve.
This ayat is often brought up
solely in the context of death
that when the believer is dying,
the angels
descend upon the believer and the angels put
the believer at ease and the angels say
to the believer,
don't be afraid
and don't grieve.
And glad tidings of the paradise
that you were promised.
And subhanAllah, one of the things about this
verse is that Allah subhanahu wa ta'ala did
not restrict this verse to the time of
death
even though you will need the angels to
descend upon you more at that time than
any other time of your existence.
And even though there's something distinct about that
moment which is that you can actually see
the angels not just perceive them. You can
see them. You can hear them directly telling
you don't be afraid and do not grieve.
But many of the scholars of tafsir mentioned
that Allah Subhanahu Wa Ta'ala not restricting
this verse to the time of death
is for the benefit that the angels descend
upon
And
especially when we are abiding by the part
of
Anytime we are saying our Lord is Allah
and we're remaining steadfast,
there's a descent of angels upon the believer
that put them at ease and say, don't
be afraid and don't grieve. And so basically
understand the verse this way, that
any time there is a reason for you
to be in a state of fear or
grief,
There is an opening for Allah Subhanahu Wa
Ta'ala to cause angels to descend upon you
and to settle your heart and to say
Don't be afraid
and do not grieve.
Why is this so significant
to interpret outside of the place of death?
Because sometimes
there are moments when we feel like we're
suffocating
by abiding by the command of Allah
or wanting to do for the sake of
Allah
especially when we see the devastating circumstances in
the world,
we feel like we're suffocating,
but we need that opening from Allah Subhanahu
Wa Ta'ala, even if it is not the
Hanukkah, the strangle of death. And I want
to take you to 2 scenes of
Prophet sallallahu alaihi wa sallam
that we often disconnect.
Where do we summon that inner strength
that is necessary
for continuous
steadfastness?
There is Rasulullah Sallallahu Alaihi Wasallam as the
worshiper
and there is Rasulullah Sallallahu
Alaihi Wasallam as the warrior
and the ingredient
that grounded the prophet sallallahu alaihi wasallam in
his worship is exactly the same ingredient that
grounded him as a warrior alaihi salatu wasallam.
How?
The very famous hadith of Khadifa ibn Yaman
He says, I walked in on the Prophet
as he was in his PM, and I
joined the Messenger of Allah
in the first raka.
And this is Hudayfa, who is the furthest
away from hypocrisy,
the secret keeper of the Prophet SAW.
It's a very famous hadith.
And he said, I prayed behind the Prophet
and he started to recite Surat Al Baqarah.
And I thought he would recite only up
to a 100 verses, but he continued
until he finished 200 verses.
And Hudayfah
was admitting that he's getting a little antsy
because the Prophet in his qiyam would recite
1 verse at a time and he would
make dua and dhikr after every verse. So
his Surat Al Baqarah is not like our
Surat Al Baqarah. Then he finished Surat Al
Baqarah. Then I thought he'd finished. Then he
started Alayhi Salatu wasalam and Nisa.
I thought he'd read a 100 verses. He
finished a 100 verses. He kept going. He
finished the Nisa. You can imagine Hudayfah radiAllahu
anhu, his exhaustion and he's thinking, okay, finally,
we're gonna go into the court.
He started Ali Imran.
I thought he'd do a hundred verses. He
finished the whole Surah, Alayhis Salat was Salaam.
Then he went into ruku, and you think
ruku is a break. His ruku was as
long as his standing
His sujood was as long as his standing
And that's why when a companion of that
stature says
that I thought to do something really bad,
which was to abandon the Prophet in his
salah and sujud. I couldn't keep up with
him.
The way he could ground himself in salah
was the most ajeeb thing about the Prophet
The strangest thing about the Prophet
by the words of our mother Aisha
It was the strangest thing about him, sallallahu
alaihi wa sallam. The most amazing thing about
him was how long he could stand in
prayer at night.
And he got up and what did he
recite? He finished
a Saba'atliwal,
the 7 long Surah. So he continued with
Al Maida
continued with Al Anam and he kept on
going
with the same pace. Salam
said, I remember seeing the Prophet
sick
in his sickness, and he recited all 7
of the long Surahs in the 1st raka
alaihi salatu wasallam. It was strange.
It was a strange thing to see him
grounded in his salah with his feet swelling
as if he's not noticing
the swelling in his feet. There's physical pain,
but there's spiritual joy. What he's getting is
greater than what he's giving
But if you saw him in that, you
say, Masha'Allah.
The prophet sallAllahu alaihi wasalam's feet
had thabat,
firmness,
that no one else had in the time
of prayer. Now compare that to the the
battlefield where Ali and
Ali
is no joke.
He's a lion of Allah.
Ali radiAllahu Anhu is the most courageous of
people. He's the person that responds to the
call out from the other side and goes
to the battlefield. You talk about frontline, Ali
always confronts their frontline.
But he says
That when the sun used to be right
on top of our heads in battle,
like we were face to face literally in
the heat of battle.
We would all start hiding behind the Prophet
We take shelter with the Prophet Sallallahu Alaihi
Wasallam,
and no one would be closer to the
enemy than him, Sallallahu Alaihi Wasallam. You talk
about front lines.
No one would be closer to the enemy
than him, sallallahu alaihi wa sallam. He'd be
right in their face.
Usually, the leader stays behind.
Prophet
changed the game,
changed the dynamics.
He would be right in their face.
I am the prophet
and that is no lie. I am the
son of Abdul Muttalib.
Allah Oh Allah, send down your victory upon
us. Pour down your victory upon us.
Ali saying we have to get behind him.
So there's a connection between the firmness of
the feet of the Prophet SAW Alaihi Wasallam
at night that no one could understand and
the firmness of the Prophet SAW Alaihi Wasallam
in the battlefield that no one could understand.
What planted his feet there planted his feet
here.
You hear about the prophet salam
as present as he was with his family
when the call of Adhan came,
as if he didn't even know us anymore.
Immediate to the salah.
Wasaba
He would jump out of his bed if
he was sleeping
like a lion.
And he would rush to the masjid alayhis
salatu was salam. When Adhan comes,
the call of Allah overwhelms the call of
every
other comfort in this world.
But if you compare that
to what Anas says
when he says
that he was
He was the most courageous man I ever
saw.
One time the people of Medina shook because
they heard a loud noise on the outside,
like we were being attacked.
There's a process that has to happen there.
Is it worth it?
The same process
when it comes to salah. Is it worth
it? Do I go now?
Is it worth it at night or do
I hit the snooze button? Is it worth
it? Is it worth it? Is it worth
it? Or maybe I'm scared when there is
an enemy present. You see, the battlefield is
different from the
struggle against the self. This is serious. I
might find someone on the other side, not
just my own exhaustion,
but an energetic enemy on the other side
that's ready to kill me.
And Madinah is full of warriors.
Madinah is full of righteous warriors. But Anas
radiAllahu ta'ala Anhu said, by the time people
got to the edges of Madinah,
The prophet met them on a horse of
Abu Talha. He took the first horse he
could find, sallallahu alaihi wasallam. The horse was
unsaddled.
Think of the image.
And he said,
The prophet
had his sword hanging on his neck.
Like he jumped on a horse, put his
sword on his neck and ran to the
outside of Madinah by himself
By the time other people got up and
thought to confront, the prophet
had already cleared the premise, and he came
back and he said, lam turah o lam
turah. Don't be afraid. Don't be afraid. It's
nothing. I checked it out.
Is there not a connection between the prophet
hearing the call for prayer
and then hearing the call for protection of
the ummah?
Is there not a connection between his willingness,
alayhis salat wa salam,
to be in the front line of salah
and to be in the front line
of battle?
Is there not a connection
between what he generates of contentment in his
prayer
and what he generates of courage and his
perseverance
It's all interrelated.
In fact, it's so interlaced
that the Prophet sallallahu alaihi wasallam embedded these
elements into the moment of the battle.
The Hadith of Abu Darda
where he says
about the
Prophet
We'd go out with the Prophet in battle.
This is not so it's not one chazwah.
It's not one battle.
It's a consistent trend.
And he says,
Sometimes it would be so hot
that he said,
I mean, imagine the scene of the companions.
They'd literally start trying to shelter themselves from
the sun like this.
That's how hot it was in the desert
with him, sallallahu alaihi wa sallam.
And he said,
Not a single one of us would be
fasting except for the prophet
and Abdulazhm rahualli.
Think about that.
He's bringing it in, sallallahu alaihi wa sallam.
He's seeing it as a means of bringing
about perseverance.
What does this have to do with us
beyond the admiration of the messenger of Allah
sallallahu alaihi wa sallam who is perfect in
this and perfect in that, perfect in his
sincerity, perfect in his steadfastness,
perfect in his courage, perfect in his contentment.
If you go back to the ayah,
That verily those who say, Our Lord is
Allah, and then they stay firm.
The narration of they staying firm is,
On the obligations that Allah has placed upon
them or in relation to this affair from
Allah Subhanahu Wa Ta'ala. What that means is
there's a direct connection
between how quickly you respond to the things
that Allah subhanahu wa ta'ala calls you to
that are completely ordinary outside of the extraordinary,
not related to confronting the tyranny of these
people, not related to Gaza. There is a
connection between your willingness and your readiness when
Allah calls you to anything
and you squash the hesitation
and you respond
to the courage that is required
for the moment
when Allah Subhanahu Wa Ta'ala puts us in
this.
Now,
Allah Azzawajal also says and I'll conclude with
this.
Allah Subhanahu Wa Ta'ala says, O you who
believe,
seek my help
with patience and prayer. Indeed, Allah is with
the patience.
How many times have you seen the second
part of that ayah clipped out and plastered
on something?
It's fine. Allah is with the patient. But
are you actually
part of that category here? Because you have
to do what Allah
tells you to do in the first part
of the ayah in order to qualify for
the reward of the second part of the
ayah.
So are you simply saying
and then defining sabr yourself,
defining patience yourself?
When the scholars talk about this ayah,
here is actually referring to the practice of
a song, fasting.
Fasting is patience
that is required to restrict you from desire.
Do you hold yourself back from desire
When you have the opportunity to displease Allah
Subhanahu Wa Ta'ala,
the ability to control yourself,
willpower
first starts with discipline.
A salah is the patience. The patience that's
required to pray long days and long nights
is the patience to abide by the command
of Allah Subhanahu Wa Ta'ala. It's the exertion
of energy. There's a physical response when you
come to prayer,
when you get up for salah, when you
plant your feet, when you take your time
in your recitation.
There's a physical exertion.
And so willpower is discipline and then willpower
is determination. There are 2 types of sabr
here. There are 2 types of patience that
are being alluded to.
As we're in the moment that we're in
right now where things are going on for
so long,
things are going on for so long, it's
been so many months, How long are we
gonna talk about this? How long are we
gonna keep on doing this? It doesn't seem
like any doors are opening. It doesn't seem
like this. It doesn't seem like that. By
the way, objectively speaking, this was possibly the
worst week for Israel since its illegal existence,
Objectively speaking,
if you just took a step back, an
ICC warrant
on an Israeli prime minister
and a defense minister. Who would have thought
that's possible?
An ICC order against Israel, multiple nations around
the world recognizing Palestine all in one week.
It was a miserable week for them. Alhamdulillah,
may Allah give them many more miserable weeks.
But we have to be able to take
a step back and be like, you know
what? There's a perseverance here that's required for
this. No one said this was gonna be
a few months here.
No one said this is gonna be a
few months.
But while you're trying to figure out the
next strategy to do this or the next
strategy to do that,
realize that there's a direct correlation between your
increase in your Ibadah and your quickness to
respond to Allah Subhanahu Wa Ta'ala and your
quickness to respond to the next action that's
necessary there.
Be like the Prophet Sallallahu Alaihi Wasallam, the
worshiper. Be like the Prophet Sallallahu
Alaihi Wasallam. There's no one who manifests perfection
more than him. There's no one who is
more worthy of victory like him Sallallahu Alaihi
Wasallam. The more we become like him, the
more deserving we become, the more dedicated we
become, the more
we start to bring about, insha'Allah, the reality
that we know came about with the messenger
of Allah sallallahu alaihi wa sallam. May Allah
grant us that reality. May Allah allow us
to summon that strength
through staying dedicated
to the major and the minor acts of
worship
and staying the course with him, subhanahu wa
ta'ala, and growing in our journey towards him.
And may Allah allow that to be an
Ummah wide reality
that leads to the victory for this Ummah
Allahumma. Ameen Aku lukawhiyaa wastafallahu
lakumrisalamustamin
fastakhiruwinaawraghfurwahi.
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