When Your Heart Is On Empty
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Channel: Omar Suleiman
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AI Generated Summary ©
The transcript discusses the meaning of a "hammer's heart" in Arabic language to describe the struggles of the second century, including the loss of joy and sadness caused by actions of leaders. The dual reality of hesitation and the importance of maintaining empathy for people is emphasized, as well as the need to act upon actions and find a connection with Allah through personal and professional activities to avoid feeling empty and dry out of deeds.AI Generated Transcript ©
We begin by praising Allah and
bearing witness that none has the right to
be worshipped or unconditionally obeyed except for him.
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 in his blessed path until
the day of judgment. And we ask Allah
to make us amongst them.
Dear brothers and sisters,
in the midst of the destruction
of what is taking place in Gaza,
There was a question that someone had asked
me that I found very interesting. So this
was a brother that wasn't familiar with the
Arabic language, and he was watching
one of the rescue workers go through and
pick people up
and move bodies around
and settle families and deliver food.
And as he was watching this video,
there was a subtitle
that said
his heart is like a stone.
And so he actually stopped me and he
said, what does it mean
his heart is like a stone?
Because that sounds like something inherently negative.
And obviously,
there is a there is a saying that
you will hear in some Arab cultures that
say
His heart is like a stone or like
a rock,
but it means something entirely different from what
we're actually accustomed
to its meaning and the Qur'anic implication of
it.
When that saying is said,
it's referring to a person
who is able to bear so much pain
in the moment, who is able to settle
themselves in the moment and take care of
people and almost suppress their own emotions
as they're dealing with other people.
And so it's actually said in a praiseworthy
way. Khalbuzal Hajar, they'll say this. He has
a heart like stone. He can go through
there. He can, you know, carry the wounded.
He can take this. He can take that.
And look at him. He's not even crying.
Look at him. He's not screaming. Everyone else
around him is screaming. He's in the zone.
Right?
And I thought to myself, subhanAllah, the difference
between that
and what Allah, subhanahu wa ta'ala, says
Isn't it time for those who believe to
humble their hearts to Allah subhanahu wa ta'ala
and the remembrance
that he has revealed of truth?
And Allah says, and don't be like those
who came before you from the people of
the book whose hearts became hard. They became
like rock.
In Surat Al Baqarah that some people's hearts
become hard like rocks.
Some people's hearts become even harder than stone.
And Allah subhanahu wa ta'ala condemns that type
of a heart. A heart that can't receive
anything good anymore. A heart that doesn't have
any type of beating of hayl, any type
of beating of good. It's just dead.
And, subhanAllah, the implications of those two things
could not be more different.
And I realize
that there's a difference
between a hard heart
and a tired heart. There's a difference between
a heart
that
has shut itself off from revelation and the
implications of revelation and in the process became
hard.
And a heart that had to bear the
consequences
of having to sustain so many people. It's
like if you have multiple oxygen machines plugged
into 1 and so that heart has to
be at a certain level and has to
give up its own oxygen. But there's a
difference between the 2.
And is there any basis for this? Is
there anything within the Quran and the sunnah
that speak to this?
And why is it so important right now?
As we come into the month of Ramadan
and the genocide in Gaza continues,
there are 2 sentiments that many of us
have heard or felt.
I feel empty.
I'm tired.
Ibadah. I don't feel the worship like I
used to. Or, you know, I'm seeing these
images and it's an overload of these images.
Now, I'm not crying anymore or my tears
are drying up. How do
I how do I cry? Or how do
I still feel something? Because I don't want
to get used to this. Right? Or, of
course, I put it away
because it's becoming too much for me. So
how do I deal with all of this?
And subhanAllah, it just so happens
that
we are in the 12th juz or we
have come through the Surah
of Yusuf alaihi salaam.
And we've been reflecting on Yusuf alayhis salam
in multiple ways and the story of Yaqub
alayhis salam in multiple ways.
And I want you to think about what
Allah says about Yahuwah alaihi salam.
It's, you know, from from a pure Arabic
language
perspective, just analyzing this from a language perspective,
from a linguistic perspective. SubhanAllah.
Seemingly
2 completely contradicting emotions in 1.
He cried his eyes out to a point
of blindness.
He went blind
from
crying. Al Muqaddir
says he was blind for 6 years because
of the amount of crying,
because of the amount of grief over Yusuf
salam. And the brothers of Yusuf alaihis salam
thought that by throwing him away,
they would diminish
the favoritism. They diminish
the attachment of Yaqub to Yusuf alaihis salam.
But what ended up happening is that Yaqub
loved him even more.
That Yaqub's attachment to him remained and it
only grew in terms of love. And so
those that tried to throw away Youssef ended
up creating an even greater attachment and longing
and empathy for Youssef. It sounds very much
so, by the way, like our oppressors
that think that the more that they kill,
the more that the world will get used
to the killing,
and the less people will sympathize and people
will just simply accept this as a matter
of life. May Allah allow us to prove
them wrong.
May Allah allow us to prove them wrong.
Because that's what they're counting on.
Right? So the brothers of use of thought,
we throw him away. Eventually, he gets over
it. Eventually, he gets over
it. He cried so much
that he went blind for 6 years. Think
about the time frame of 6 years.
But Allah
says while he was swallowing it. It's like,
wait. What?
You know, Allah says,
we
mean Those who swallow their anger. And he
uses the same word for Yaqub alayhis salam.
He swallowed it.
What does that mean?
Says what that means is
He used to cry with Allah Subhanahu Wa
Ta'ala and he would take his grief to
Allah. So when he says
that I complain of my sadness and grief
to Allah, that's not posturing.
That's not him saying to his sons, like,
you know, sometimes you say, I only do
this for the sake of Allah, and the
fact of you saying I only do this
for the sake of Allah is an indication
that maybe you're not doing it for the
sake of Allah.
Right? Or I only cry for the sake
of Allah could actually be
a statement because the Munafi used to make
grand statements. Right? It doesn't mean everyone who
makes a statement is a. That means that
the hypocrites in their nature would make grand
statements,
but have a lot of emptiness behind those
statements.
A lot of a lot of platitudes, a
lot of posturing.
When Yaqub alayhis salam says this to his
kids, he's not posturing that I complain of
my grief to Allah Subhanahu wa ta'ala. Take
my tears and my grief to Allah Subhanahu
wa ta'ala. It's literally a lifestyle that he
has. It is a lifestyle
that he bears it and then he takes
it to a certain part. And the intensity
of those emotions
is felt in his
and then felt in his not giving up
hope in Yusuf alaihis salaam. But it's not
to a point. I mean, you would think
that a man who cries over Yusuf alaihis
salaam that much would not be able to
live with the brothers of Yusuf alaihi salaam.
Somehow
somehow Yaqub alaihi salaam still functions.
Somehow
he's still in the same household with those
that caused him this pain for all of
these years.
SubhanAllah. What's going on here?
And how do we reckon with the intensity
of the emotion on one hand
and the seemingly
diminished emotion
on the other hand?
And here we are, subhanAllah,
and we face these two realities.
The dual reality of Ramadan
going on,
Acts of worship being intensified, but perhaps
the emptiness of emotion.
And seeing so much tragedy
that at some point, just like if a
part of your body gets stabbed or a
part of your body gets blunted over and
over again, there's a protection mechanism to where
it numbs itself, we feel numbness.
And I don't know how to reckon with
that numbness. Should I feel guilty? Is Allah
subhanahu wa ta'ala going to punish me because
the tears dry out? Am I going to
be asked about this? And this is what
I want to come to
in these few moments, insha'Allah, of this khutba.
And I hope you think about it
and
inject
your worship with what Allah Subhanahu Wa Ta'ala
has given you to inject your worship with
and inject what you are doing for your
brothers and sisters
with something special.
When Allah
talks about revelation in the Quran
and when the prophet
talks about revelation in the Quran,
there is not a condemnation
of those who don't feel the intensity of
emotion
with the revelation. Rather, there is praise for
those that do have an intensity of emotion.
So the intensity of emotion
with the revelation coming down is something that's
praiseworthy.
If it leads you in khushur, if it
leads you into humility, and it leads
you if it leads you to to prostration
and crying, there's praise of that.
But when Allah subhanahu wa ta'ala praises or
or when Allah, ajazal, condemns the other side
of that, Allah, subhanahu wa ta'ala, is not
condemning the lack of emotion. Allah, subhanahu wa
ta'ala, is condemning the lack of action on
it.
Allah subhanahu wa ta'ala condemns
people that turn away from the revelation.
The prophet, salallahu alayhi wasalam, condemns people that
turn away from the revelation.
And, essentially, what you start to see is
that the prophet sallallahu alaihi wa sallam
hones in on this idea that you lose
the revelation
when you fail to recite it and act
upon it.
If you're not reciting the Quran frequently, you
will lose it. If you're not acting upon
the Quran frequently, you will lose it. And
that loss is not simply a loss of
memory.
Your camels will go loose
and the Quran
will leave from you and actually become a
testimony against you on the day of judgement.
May Allah protect us.
So the way that you maintain the revelation
of the Quran is by reciting it and
by acting upon it.
What about when it comes to empathy?
How do I maintain empathy?
And what is empathy when it comes to
our brothers and sisters and what is happening
right now?
A lot of times, dear brothers and sisters,
we mistake
apathy
for fatigue.
They're not the same thing.
It's one thing to intentionally not care
and to not care that you don't care.
Like, I I want to move away from
this all night. I actually,
you know, I need to protect myself.
So I'm not going to expose myself to
what's happening in the world.
It's another thing
to care and to be tired but then
to try to find ways to make sure
that what drove your empathy in the first
place continues to drive you to action. If
the way to maintain revelation
is through recitation
and through acting upon it, The way to
maintain empathy is through acting upon it as
well.
Meaning what? On the day of judgment, Allah
subhanahu wa ta'ala is not gonna raise you
and say to you, you didn't shed enough
tears
for Gaza
or you didn't cry enough. But he will
take you to account for not speaking enough,
for not doing enough, for not praying enough,
for not moving enough.
Because that's what the point of that empathy
is. It's not the intensity of the emotion.
It's the imperative of the action, the deed
that follows. That's how you guard it. The
intensity of emotion is good, especially
if you can find a way to channel
it the way that Yaqub alaihis salam did.
And that's the perfection of our messenger sallallahu
alaihi wasallam. The perfection of the prophets.
As much as the prophet sallallahu alaihi wa
sallam was exposed
to tragedy and if there was anyone that
could numb himself, it would be the prophet
sallallahu alaihi wa sallam. The intensity of his
qiyam, the intensity of his dua, the intensity
of his relationship with Allah Subhanahu wa ta'ala
allowed him that necessary outlet
so that he could keep doing this
in a way that was pleasing to Allah
Subhanahu Wa Ta'ala until Allah is pleased.
And the last thing I'll say in this
regard, when someone says these, you know, when
someone says I feel empty, I feel numb,
I need to move on and things of
that sort, I need to protect myself.
You know, I was reading
when he talks about
how Siyan provokes something, how fasting provokes something.
To be of the hungry. So he could
actually empathize with.
Okay.
He could empathize with the one who's hungry.
It's not just so that a person takes
their own blessings and says, I understand my
blessings. But the end result of that is
that you're thinking about the jair. You're thinking
about the one who's actually starving. You're thinking
about the one who's actually hungry. Not just
that, alhamdulillah, I feel good. I know now
the blessings that I have.
Alhamdulillah, I have these blessings. They don't have
those blessings. How can I get them over
to them?
What do I do? How do I push
myself? That has to drive you. But if
you're if you're finding at times that the
emotion part
diminishes a bit, you know, subhanAllah, that's going
to happen.
You're going to find yourself in a situation
where it's gonna be hard. You know,
they talk about this idea of crying yourself
out.
You're gonna dry out of tears at times.
But when you dry out of tears, don't
dry out of deeds.
And find that connection with Allah
through this personal
that allows for an outlet
and that allows for an input as well.
The output
is definitely tears and brokenness. The input has
to be sincerity and dedication.
And then you can channel yourself towards those
things, inshaAllah, constantly.
So it's not about feeling empty.
It's about being empty when it comes to
your deeds. May Allah subhanahu wa ta'ala fill
our hearts,
fill our souls with the Quran,
allow us to be amongst those that recite
the revelation,
that make dua with the revelation,
lives and towards our brothers and sisters.
lives and towards our brothers and sisters.