Omar Suleiman – Waiting For The Mahdi Or A Miracle
AI: Summary ©
The segment discusses the tragic events that occurred in Yemen and the importance of finding ways to contribute to society, such as finding ways to help people in need and finding ways to be creative in their work. The speaker emphasizes the need for change and finding one's own success in a field, while also acknowledging the importance of history and the actions of the Prophet serving the people of the Middle East. The segment also touches on the confusion surrounding Mahdi's actions and the importance of trusting in Islam.
AI: Summary ©
As-salamu alaykum, masha'Allah it's wonderful to
be here once again.
I ask Allah subhanahu wa ta'ala to
bless this gathering.
I ask Allah subhanahu wa ta'ala to
make it a means by which each and
every single one of you and all of
us enter into Al-Firdaws Al-A'la,
Allahuma Ameen.
Bismillahir Rahmanir Raheem.
Alhamdulillahi Rabbil Alameen.
Was-salatu was-salamu ala Rasulihi Al-Kareem
wa ala alihi wa sahbihi ajma'een.
Dear brothers and sisters, in the story of
Al-Feel, Alam tara kayfa fa'ala rabbuka
bi-ashaab al-feel.
Where Allah subhanahu wa ta'ala mentions to
us the destruction of the army of Abraha.
An arrogant man who was jealous of the
Kaaba and who wanted to destroy the Kaaba
so that people would instead come to the
home that he had built in Yemen and
they would take that as the place of
their tawaf.
In that story, Allah subhanahu wa ta'ala
appointed birds.
And those birds, as we know, were birds
that no one had ever seen before that
came and that pelted the army of Abraha
protecting the house of Allah subhanahu wa ta
'ala even though the house of Allah subhanahu
wa ta'ala had been marked by all
sorts of idols and depictions that were contrary
to the message of tawheed upon which it
was built.
Can you imagine all of the Arab that
witnessed that miraculous incident and the testimonies were
many, yet still insisting upon kufr, upon disbelief
after Allah subhanahu wa ta'ala sent the
Prophet ﷺ with the message of Islam.
Abraha himself, can you imagine?
Allah subhanahu wa ta'ala spared that zalim.
He spared the oppressor himself.
Many people don't know this.
And he caused a disease to overtake that
zalim, to overtake the core tyrant.
And that disease ripped up the body of
Abraha piece by piece, limb by limb, every
single morsel of his physical existence in front
of his people until he died a completely
humiliated death.
And such is the state of the zalim,
such is the state of the oppressor.
Allah subhanahu wa ta'ala delays the oppressor
until Allah subhanahu wa ta'ala seizes him.
And Allah subhanahu wa ta'ala does not
let him go at that point.
Khubayb ibn Adi radiyallahu ta'ala anhu, one
of the great companions in Hadithatul Raji' a
massacre that took place after Uhud.
Khubayb was taken prisoner in Mecca.
And before he was crucified in the area
of Tan'im, where you go today to
redo your ihram, your intention for ihram, if
you're going to make multiple Umrahs.
Khubayb radiyallahu ta'ala anhu, as he was
in captivity, a hostage, the woman that was
in charge of watching him, said that I
saw when I would enter upon him, he
had grapes that were the size of a
human head.
Miraculously provided to him.
And he said that this is from Allah
subhanahu wa ta'ala.
Asim ibn Thabit radiyallahu ta'ala anhu, a
companion of his that was with him.
And that was also attacked and separately killed.
He had a bounty on his head of
a hundred camels.
One of the women of Quraysh wanted his
head specifically to drink wine in his skull.
And as he was about to be killed,
he said, اللهم إني حميت دينك أول النهار
فحمي لي لحم آخرهم Oh Allah, I protected
your religion in the beginning of the affair.
So protect my body at the end of
the affair.
And what he meant by that is that
after he was killed radiyallahu ta'ala anhu,
he did not want that woman to have
the satisfaction of drinking out of his skull.
And indeed Allah subhanahu wa ta'ala provided
a coat of bees that surrounded his body
to where when they tried to approach his
body after they killed him, after they rained
down the arrows upon him and the different
weaponry upon him, they were unable to access
his body.
And they said, we'll come back later.
And it was so that Allah subhanahu wa
ta'ala allowed his body to be carried
into the valley naturally.
And they called him دفين الملائكة or دفين
الله, the one who was buried by Allah
or buried by the angels.
All of these miracles were supernatural things happen.
But then you also have to take a
step back.
And remember that Khubaib radiyallahu ta'ala anhu
who had that miracle provided to him also
was martyred.
He was still crucified radiyallahu ta'ala anhu.
Asim ibn Thabit radiyallahu ta'ala anhu who
made that special dua was still martyred.
Even though Allah subhanahu wa ta'ala provided
a miracle after the fact.
We know of the miracles of Badr where
Allah Azawajal sent the angels in the thousands.
And they saw the impact of those angels
both from the side of the believers as
well as the side of the disbelievers.
And it's important for us to remember that
just as how on a personal level, the
angels surround us and they are protecting us
by the permission of Allah.
That when Allah Azawajal commands them to step
aside, they step aside.
And for the believer that is for our
benefit.
That Allah allows harm to come towards us
when Allah Azawajal decrees it.
It's not that he's incapable of the miracle
subhanahu wa ta'ala.
It's that in his divine wisdom, he intends
something else for us subhanahu wa ta'ala.
And the sahaba understood that with their aqeedah.
They understood that in their creed.
That if Allah subhanahu wa ta'ala withheld
some sort of a miracle or some sort
of supernatural support.
That so long as they were not withholding
their taqwa.
That all of that would be khair for
them.
All of that would be for their own
good.
And they did not doubt Allah subhanahu wa
ta'ala as a result.
All of these manifestations.
They speak to an ayah.
وَمَا يَعْلَمُ جُنُودُ رَبِّكَ إِلَّا هُوَ No one
knows the soldiers of your Lord except for
him.
The first meaning of this ayah is the
junood of Allah.
The army of Allah subhanahu wa ta'ala.
The soldiers of Allah are the angels.
And you don't know the number of the
angels or the amount of angels.
That Allah subhanahu wa ta'ala sends to
support the believers when he decrees it.
Imam al-Awza'i rahimahullah ta'ala.
He narrates an athar that Musa alayhi as
-salam asked Allah subhanahu wa ta'ala.
O Allah who is with you in the
heavens?
And he said mala'ikati, my angels.
And Musa alayhi as-salam said, and how
many angels are there?
And Allah azawajal said 19 groups.
And how much in every slipped?
How much in every caravan of angels?
Allah subhanahu wa ta'ala said adadat turab.
The amount of particles of sand on the
earth.
It's how many angels exist amongst the soldiers,
the armies of Allah subhanahu wa ta'ala
in the heavens.
But beyond that as the ulama say, in
some manifestations the army of Allah subhanahu wa
ta'ala could be the birds.
Sometimes the soldiers of Allah subhanahu wa ta
'ala can be some sort of being.
The bees in the case of Asim al
-Muthabit radiyaAllahu ta'ala anhu.
The ant in the story of Sulaiman alayhi
as-salam.
Sometimes the army of Allah subhanahu wa ta
'ala, the soldiers of Allah subhanahu wa ta
'ala are numerous and beyond.
And we look towards that and here is
what we fail to read into that ayah.
Why is it that when you hear wa
ma ya'lamu junoodu rabbika illa hu, that
no one knows the soldiers of Allah except
for him, that your mind goes to, I
wonder what it's going to be and who
it's going to be, and you don't step
back and consider maybe for a moment, what
if I'm that unknown soldier of Allah subhanahu
wa ta'ala.
And to be clear, I'm not promoting violence,
not telling anyone to do anything crazy, because
I know how Islamophobes will cut things out
of context.
I'm saying that agent for good, that agent
for change, that's not some supernatural or miraculous
existence, it's just you, a abd of Allah
subhanahu wa ta'ala, who perhaps doesn't have
a major platform, who perhaps isn't someone famous,
who perhaps doesn't have a whole bunch of
money, who perhaps doesn't have a whole bunch
of influence.
But it may be that through you Allah
subhanahu wa ta'ala works a major change
in this world, because of your sincerity, because
you wait, not for Allah subhanahu wa ta
'ala to send you a miracle, but prepare
for Allah subhanahu wa ta'ala to make
you a miracle, to make you a reason
by which something happens in the world, by
which a change happens in your community, by
which Allah subhanahu wa ta'ala brings about
something major in this ummah.
Why do we always read these ayahs and
think, I wonder where the miracle is going
to come from, I wonder where that bird
is going to come from, I wonder where
Allah subhanahu wa ta'ala is going to
send something that's going to blow everyone's mind,
and we don't ask ourselves, what if I
could be that miracle?
What if I could be that unknown agent
for change?
SubhanAllah, there's a story about a man who
wanted to show his tawakkul upon Allah subhanahu
wa ta'ala, his trust in Allah subhanahu
wa ta'ala.
So he read the hadith of the Prophet
ﷺ, that if you were to trust in
Allah subhanahu wa ta'ala, haqqa tawakkuli, the
way you should trust Him, that Allah subhanahu
wa ta'ala would care for you like
the birds.
They leave out in the morning with their
stomachs empty, they come back with their stomachs
full.
Allah would provide for you the way that
He provides for the birds.
So he said, okay, I'm going to have
tawakkul in Allah subhanahu wa ta'ala.
So he said, I'm going to go sleep
in the masjid, and I'm going to have
tawakkul in Allah subhanahu wa ta'ala, that
Allah subhanahu wa ta'ala is going to
provide for me somehow.
I'm not going to say anything, I'm just
going to go sleep in the masjid.
And he did.
He went and he slept in the masjid.
Then as he's sleeping in the masjid, he's
starting to get hungry.
A few days go on, nothing's coming to
him.
So he's starting to get upset and angry.
Then he notices a bird outside, and that
bird has a clipped wing.
And so he says, I'm going to watch
this bird, because I wonder how this bird
is sustained.
So lo and behold, some time goes on,
and then he sees another bird fly, and
bring some food for that bird, and provide
for it, and then the bird flies away.
He says, ah, this is a sign from
Allah that I must continue.
So I'm going to continue on.
And then some more time goes on, and
he's getting so hungry that eventually, he relinquishes
the hunger tawakkul strike.
He says, this isn't working out for me.
And he goes to a shaykh, and he's
so upset.
He says, you know, I thought that I
can manifest this hadith of the Prophet ﷺ,
توكلت على الله, I have trust in Allah
SWT, so I was waiting for Allah SWT
to send me something.
But it didn't happen.
And the shaykh told him, he said to
him, how come when you saw that image,
or you saw that incident of the bird
with the clipped wing, and the bird that
came and provided for it, you assume the
role of the bird with the clipped wing,
instead of the bird that provided for the
bird with the clipped wing.
Why did you assume the vulnerable position automatically?
Why didn't you instead see that perhaps Allah
SWT was guiding you because you have the
capability to provide for someone else, to go
and to be a provider, knowing that the
ultimate provider is no one but Allah SWT.
Why did you put yourself in that situation?
And the reality is, while that sounds ridiculous
to so many of us, many of us
sit back and we say, why aren't they
doing anything?
Why isn't this person doing more?
Why isn't my community doing this?
And you have so much commentary about the
failures of everyone else that you're not unlocking
the own potential of your success.
Because everybody else is flawed and everyone else
has problems.
And yes, when you take the example of
this genocide in particular, this genocide in Gaza,
may Allah SWT give victory to our brothers
and sisters in Gaza over these evil Zionists.
No matter what field you are in, no
matter what area you are in, there's somewhere
for you to find a way to contribute.
If you're in medicine, you have a way
to contribute.
If you're in business, you have a way
to contribute.
You look at your supply and you look
at your demand.
If you are an engineer, you have a
way to contribute.
If you're in humanitarian work, you have a
way to contribute.
Whatever field you are studying or you work
in or you have an expertise, you have
a way to contribute and sincerity will unlock
creativity.
You'll find your way.
And Allah SWT will guide you to do
something productive.
But you have to actually want to do
something productive.
I tell you what, even if the only
thing you have is time and you don't
have an expertise.
Instead of doom-scrolling on social media, you
have the ability with your time to do
something beneficial for your brothers and sisters.
Why do we always assume the position of
the bird that needs another bird to show
up and give it its food?
What happened to the mindset of tie your
camel and put your trust in Allah SWT?
How are we tying our camels and then
putting our trust in Allah SWT?
It is not from the mindset of a
Muslim to always wait for a miracle.
It's of the mindset of a Muslim to
try to be the miracle by the pleasure
of Allah SWT.
The angels did not show up in Badr
and everyone else took a step back and
said, well, if Allah is sending all these
thousands of angels, I don't need to do
anything.
In fact, you have the narration of Sa'd,
Abd al-Rahman ibn Auf, where he says
there were two young men, two Mu'ads,
tapped them on the shoulder, and said, ya
'am, uncle, which one of those men is
Abu Jahl?
I'm thinking to myself like, what are you
gonna do with Abu Jahl?
The Fir'aun of this ummah.
What are you gonna do with Abu Jahl?
And then the other young boy says, our
mom told us not to come home until
we kill Abu Jahl.
And you think like, what are these two
young men gonna do?
And then subhanAllah, when the battle of Badr
happens, they both come across Abu Jahl like
this.
And each one of them strikes him from
a direction, and then he falls to the
ground and Abdullah ibn Mas'ud radiAllahu ta
'ala anhu climbs on top of him and
ends him.
The sahaba didn't say, alhamdulillah, the mala'ika
showed up.
The Prophet SAW said, hadha Jibreel, Jibreel alaihi
salam, is coming to us and he has
his horse and he has with him the
appearance and the tools of war.
They didn't say in that case we're good
because they understood that Allah's help comes when
we help ourselves.
That miracles arise when we put forth our
best efforts.
You don't wait for the miracle, you put
forth the efforts.
And Allah subhanahu wa ta'ala brings about
miracles in the capacity of those sincere efforts.
لِيَطْمَئِنَّ قَلْبِكَ So that your heart can be
at ease.
You see Allah azawajal did not need the
angels to defeat the mushrikun in Badr.
Allah subhanahu wa ta'ala did that to
put faith and tranquility in the hearts of
the believers because they knew that the angels
were on their side.
They saw the effect of those angels.
You don't wait for the angels.
You be the best version of a Muslim,
of a human being that you can be.
And Allah subhanahu wa ta'ala sends help
in miraculous ways.
Whether you see or perceive or not, you
are always dependent upon Allah subhanahu wa ta
'ala, upon the supernatural for the otherwise natural
to transpire in a way that's most pleasing
to you.
Was it not our Messenger salallahu alayhi wa
sallam who crafted the path of the hijrah
and then found himself in a cave salallahu
alayhi wa sallam with Abu Bakr as-Siddiq
radiyallahu ta'ala anhu.
And did he say to Abu Bakr, لا
تحسن, don't worry.
I saw this spider web outside or I
saw the bird's nest and that's going to
make them think that nothing's gonna happen.
Or did he say لا تحسن إن الله
معنا.
Don't worry, Allah is with us.
Whatever tools Allah subhanahu wa ta'ala decides
to use in the process, الحمد لله because
ان تنصر الله ينصركم.
If you support the cause of Allah subhanahu
wa ta'ala, Allah will support you in
His ways.
Don't worry about His ways, worry about yours.
Don't worry about how He's going to do
it, worry about what you're going to do
to deserve Him doing it for you.
And we have a sickness sometimes in ourselves
where we're waiting and waiting and waiting and
waiting.
I'm gonna go into something a little bit
controversial.
It's late at night so if I'm a
little controversial, may Allah forgive me, let it
go please.
The Prophet ﷺ said in an authentic hadith,
لا تذهب الدنيا حتى يملك العرب رجلا من
أهل بيتي.
The dunya will not cease to exist until
a man from my family will rule the
Arabs.
He said ﷺ, he would have my name,
Muhammad ibn Abdullah, famously known as who?
Al-Mahdi, right?
The Mahdi, the guided one.
A reviver that Allah subhanahu wa ta'ala
would send from the offspring of the Prophet
ﷺ that would lead the Muslims until the
descent of Isa ﷺ for a few years.
And should we see that time, may Allah
subhanahu wa ta'ala place us in his
ranks.
Allahumma ameen.
But here's the thing, I believe in it
because there's tawatur, there's enough narrations about the
coming of the Mahdi to where it's affirmed
in the sunnah.
I believe in it because anything the Prophet
ﷺ said, I affirm it.
Anything that's authentically narrated, whether I can point
where it is or not, the Prophet ﷺ
said it's happening, it's happening.
But you tell me, where in the psyche
of the Muslims, with all the turmoil that
our ummah has faced, did you find the
scholars writing about, maybe the Mahdi will come
now, or the Mahdi is going to come
and we're all going to be okay.
Where in the psyche of the Muslims was
this emphasis or this obsession of a savior
that would take them out of their despair.
I'm going to call it Mahdi syndrome.
Where a person justifies their passiveness by saying,
well, Allah is going to send a savior.
And even if it's not the Mahdi, it
could be Salahuddin complex too.
We're waiting for the next Salahuddin Al-Ayubi,
rahimahullah ta'ala, to take us out of
the darkness, to take us out of the
depths of our despair.
In fact, within the corpus of Ahlus Sunnah
wal Jama'ah, the words al-Mahdi al
-Muntadhir, the awaited Mahdi are actually not used.
It's not in the Sunni school to call
him the awaited Mahdi, because the concept of
awaited is not actually there.
It's not a savior, he's a sign of
the day of judgment, that will arise as
a muslih, as a righteous one, as a
reviver, and we pray that if we are
alive at that time, Allah SWT put us
in his ranks.
Allahumma ameen.
But, we're not sitting around waiting for a
savior.
You're not waiting for a figure that's going
to revive the ummah.
You see yourself as part of a group
of revivers bi-idhnillahi ta'ala.
And the Mahdi is a continuation of Mahdiyin,
Mahdis, throughout Islamic history.
The Prophet ﷺ called them al-Khulafa, al
-Rashideen, al-Mahdiyin, the guided righteous Khulafa.
Abu Bakr was a Mahdi, Umar was a
Mahdi, Uthman was a Mahdi, Ali was a
Mahdi, al-Hasan was a Mahdi, radiyallahu anhum
ajma'in.
They were all guided in their actions, saviors
in their own right.
But the idea of an awaited figure that
justifies us sitting back and accepting our situation.
It's not in the psyche of who we
are.
That's not in the ethos of who we
are.
That's not what this ummah is made of.
When Allah SWT says, وَالَّذِينَ جَاهَدُوا فِينَا لَنَهْدِيَنَّهُمْ
سُبُولَنَا Those who strive in our way, we
will guide them.
We will grant them guidance to our paths.
They can be Mahdiyin, just like they can
be musliheen.
They can be revivers.
You don't have to be the reviver, the
mujaddid of the century to be a mujaddid
in your own right.
You could be a mujaddid in your community.
Allah SWT has given each and every single
one of us access to do things that
are of great meaning in the midst of
the critical moments in our ummah.
And even if history books don't record us
amongst the reasons for these changes, amongst the
reasons for these impacts, Allah SWT says, سَنَكْتُمُ
مَا قَدَّمُوا وَآثَرُوا Allah will write down everything
that we put forth and the effect that
you have.
Because, وَمَا يَعْلَمُ جُنُودَ رَبِّكَ إِلَّا هُوَ No
one knows the army of your Lord except
for Him.
And sometimes, those unknown soldiers in history that
perhaps we don't know were the reasons for
some of the greatest turning points.
I wonder who the person with Salahuddin Al
-Ayubi رحمه الله تعالى, I wonder who that
person was that changed the course of history.
I wonder who the doctor of Salahuddin was,
the nurse of Salahuddin in a moment where
he was perhaps extremely desperate and he was
about to die 10-15 years before, that
cured him, that treated him by the permission
of Allah SWT, the ultimate healer.
I wonder who that person was.
I wonder who the loyal soldiers of Salahuddin
were.
I wonder who the trustworthy journalists at the
time of Salahuddin were, the message carriers of
Salahuddin were.
It's never just a man, it's always a
movement.
And in the case of the Prophet ﷺ,
he too had a movement around him ﷺ.
He had a blessed family ﷺ, Ahlul Bayt.
He had blessed sahaba around him ﷺ.
And he has a blessed ummah that he
is proud of.
May Allah عز و جل make us amongst
those that he's proud of, Allahumma ameen.
And the people that would make him most
proud, no doubt, are Ahlul Ghazah.
Imagine how many of them.
The Prophet ﷺ rushes to meet as they
transition into that realm of the barzakh amongst
the shuhada.
To be greeted by Allah عز و جل
and greeted by the anbiya and the righteous
ones that preceded them.
We too have the ability to be amongst
these people so long as we put our
trust in Allah ﷻ and let that trust
be activated in working for the sake of
Allah ﷻ.
Dear brothers and sisters, you know, a lot
of times, subhanAllah, it feels like we sit
down in a room, the door is locked,
and Allah ﷻ has given us the keys
to open that door.
But we sit there and we wait for
Allah عز و جل to send us someone
through the roof that's going to open that
door for us.
I wanna leave you with this thought.
The people that will be in the ranks
of a person like al-Mahdi, and then
eventually in the ranks of Sayyidina Isa ﷺ,
Isa ibn Maryam ﷺ, when he descends upon
al-Masjid al-Amawi, which we are seeing
today in Damascus.
May Allah ﷻ see forth the full victory
of the people of Syria.
And may Allah عز و جل allow that
victory to transition to Palestine and to Lebanon
and to the people of Ash-Sham as
a whole.
Allahumma ameen.
The people that will join those ranks are
not people that were waiting around on social
media to say, all right, now it's time.
They're people that are already inclined towards the
khayr that Allah ﷻ would bless to be
in those ranks anyway when it happens.
They're people that would have already been toiling
for the sake of Allah ﷻ that Allah
عز و جل would then honor to be
considered amongst blessed ranks in this dunya just
as He would consider them to be amongst
blessed ranks in the hereafter.
But ask yourself right now, are you fully
opening the doors that Allah ﷻ has given
you with the keys that are in your
hands?
And are you making yourself worthy of that
help from Allah ﷻ such that Allah ﷻ
would count you amongst Ansarullah, amongst the helpers
of Allah's cause in this world.
May Allah عز و جل make each and
every single one of us worthy.
May Allah ﷻ allow us to be torchbearers
of good, not passive but active towards khayr.
كُنْتُمْ خَيْرَ أُمَّةٍ أُخْرِجَتْ لِلنَّاسِ تَأْمُرُونَ بِالْمَعْرُوفِ
وَتَنْهَوْنَ عَنِ الْمُنْكَرِ وَتُؤْمِنُونَ بِاللَّهِ You are the
best ummah because you enjoin good, you forbid
evil, and you believe in Allah.
May Allah ﷻ make us a people who
enjoin good and forbid evil and believe in
Allah ﷻ along the way.
May Allah ﷻ make us amongst those who
have certainty in His plan.
And may Allah ﷻ make us part of
His plan for the ummah, part of His
plan for humanity, bearers of khayr, bearers of
good.
And may Allah ﷻ forgive us for our
shortcomings and remove from us the sins that
weigh us down and the little thinking that
stops us from achieving great purposes.
Allahumma ameen.
بارك الله فيكم, dear brothers and sisters.
والسلام عليكم ورحمة الله وبركاته