Trust Him, He Has Plans

Bismillah Alhamdulillah wa Salatu was Salam ala Rasulillah are the only who will be who are Manuela? Allahu Allah, Allah Allah Allah Allah Allah Allah Allah in, inter alia will Hakeem Allah who live near mine pharaoh now 1010 I was in Alma Yarrabah I mean, Allah Who Marina called was looking at Teva. What do you know about the law belt? What are the Canadian ABA or said, Oh, my econ what happened to law here? Or what a cat do?

First of all, just to address the punk rock thing real quick.

Actually, she asked me whether she should mention or not. And I was like, listen, it's gotten mentioned so many times now. And actually, recently, there was an article published about Muslims in America. And it said something to the effect of we even have young Imams who are punk rock singers now, and I was like, wait, I'm not in a punk rock band anymore. And I was like, years and years ago. But that is something that gets said, and I'm neither here nor there on that issue. So whatever had that Allah.

Second of all, the topic for today, when I was given the title for the topic of today.

I don't know I'm not sure if you have picked it up in the book, yet or not. But it says, just trust Him. He has plans. The first thing that popped into my mind and please excuse me for this is what as soon as I heard plans, I just thought about the Joker's line when he's talking to Harvey Dent. And he tells him, he says, I have no plans. Like I don't make plans. They make plans. Do I look like a person who has plans? He says, I'm just like a dog chasing a car. Even if I caught it, I wouldn't know what to do with it. Right? And for some reason, that popped into my mind and I thought to myself how to love that sometimes, you know, and by the way, the Joker isn't an anarchist. Right. So

life like he doesn't matter for him. What could the consequences are? His goal in life is to create chaos. And my apologies for giving you a little little bit of a lesson in comic books. I highly apologize for that. Hopefully there aren't any parents in the room.

That'll hear that. But indeed, when it comes to understanding plans, we hear plans being mentioned in the Quran. We hear the Prophet sallallahu Sallam talking about plans, because you know what plans are important. Our plans our personal plans are important. But most importantly are the plans of Allah subhanho wa taala. Or what Allah subhanaw taala has planned for us and what Allah has decreed. That is why the Allah and Kadar of Allah Subhana Allah to Allah, the Divine Decree of Allah Subhana Allah to Allah is part of our aqidah it is part of our faith. It is a core aspect of our faith, to believe in the other in the Divine Decree of Allah subhanaw taala. And even we know when the Prophet

sallallahu alayhi wa sallam himself, went through a difficult time went through a dangerous time, when the murder was plotted of the Prophet salallahu Alaihe Salam, the chieftains of of the Quraysh they gathered together one night and they plotted the murder of the person said unknown, and we hear that a lot protected the privacy setting them, but we also hear Allah subhanaw taala say William Corona, William could Allah that they plan and they plot but Allah plans as well? Will Allah halal market in and Allah is the best of planners. And that once again is a principle of our aqidah that no matter what is going on in our lives, and no matter how many people may plot and plan and no

matter what is happening, we believe in the other the Divine Decree of Allah subhanaw taala. And that leads us to have trust in Allah subhanho wa taala. So you know, those feelings that we were having, the night that Donald Trump got elected.

And I know a lot of us, we went through like the stages of grief, right? Eventually, we came to accept it. And I know there are people saying things like, you know, it's time to move to Canada, or it's time to move to whatever Muslim country or whatever, for us,

as Muslims, first of all, and then as Americans as well. It's not about leaving the plans. It is about understanding that if Allah Subhana Allah has decreed something for us, then it is definitely part of the bigger picture. And that there's no such thing of of a life where we're not going to go through difficulties and tests and trials, and indeed, those difficulties and those tests and those trials are part of the plan of Allah subhanaw taala. And, you know, interestingly enough, and I apologize that I'm going to do this for the second time in one talk.

But I need to I need to talk about comic books again.

How much of the NASA Jenga just walked in there?

It's gonna be awkward. I'm gonna try not make eye contact. Those of you who saw

Batman vs. Superman, right, and I'm not encouraged.

Why would you bring them over? Okay, first of all, I'm not I'm not going to defend that movie, right, even though I believe is it was a, it was awesome.

But actually I will defend a part of that movie. So one of the one of the one of the criticisms of that movie, is that the main villain in the movie

he is he's a lacking character, right? His motivations are not clear. And usually when it comes to storytelling, it's an important aspect of sport is storytelling that when you have characters that you understand their motivations, and they have a story, arc, and so on a character arc, and so on and so forth. So a claim that is made, by the way about Lex Luthor, who is the main villain and if I've completely lost you, I apologize. I'll be done with this analogy in like three or four minutes in Java. But there's, there's a claim that he doesn't have. There's no what like, his motivations are not clear. He just hates Superman, and he's trying to kill Superman and trying to get rid of

him. But in actuality, those of you who saw the movie and I'm not encouraging you to watch movies or watch that movie, he's want to make that clear for all the parents and uncles and animals in the house. But he actually makes his motivations very, very clear. In in a particular scene, there's a scene where he's standing on the rooftop, it's called, it's called, like the rooftop scene, where he has Lois Lane, the love of Superman, and he throws her off of the building. It's a very high building and he throws her off because he knows Superman is gonna come and save her. And that's why does the end Superman does come and savor and then he comes in, he faces Lex Luthor, and then Lex

Luthor at that point, explains to him why he hates him so much. And he says, Look, I learned long time ago, and this is not an exact quote, but it's pretty close to what Lex Luthor says. He says, I learned a long time ago, that you can't be all good. Sorry, you can't be all powerful, and all good at the same time. If you're all powerful, then you won't let anything bad happen. So if God and he says this, in his speech to Superman, is that if God is all powerful, then he cannot be all good. And if he is all good, then he cannot be all powerful. And he views Superman. As his as as you know, he cannot obviously Lex Luthor can't go after God. So he can go after a quote unquote, when they

react to God like being right. So he views Superman as a godlike being. So he says, Listen, I want to prove to the world that you're not a good person, that you're not good. Because if you were good, then you wouldn't allow any type of bad or evil to exist. And now this is how to love this issue. And by the way, that's his motivation, right? For those of you like, he doesn't have a motivation, or it's not clear, like why does he hate Superman? That's why he hates Superman, and obviously has a history of child abuse. We learned in the movie as well, that his dad would beat him. And as a child, he would think, well, where's God now? Right? Like, what if God is all good? Then how can God

isn't protecting me from my father hitting me? Right? So he came to the conclusion that God can't be all good. Now, this is what we call a Shubha a doubt in our aqidah in our belief, we understand actually and I just, sometimes I think all someone needed to do was to sit Lex Luthor down and give them a lesson nappy. And maybe he wouldn't hate Superman so much he wouldn't be trying to take over the world. But the point is, that it is part of our acne the to believe that Allah subhanaw taala allows seemingly bad things to happen, but there is no such thing as pure evil or pure bad, because there is some goodness or there is some there is goodness attached to everything, whether we see it

or realize it or not, and that my brothers and sisters is the essence of our token on Allah subhanaw taala. Then when matters are getting hard matters or getting difficult when things seem to be evil and bad, we trust in the in the bigger picture in the larger plan of Allah subhanaw taala. So when we go through illness, which from our perspective is evil or bad, we remind ourselves that there is some goodness in this bad, right for example, we know that sickness is one of the ways that Allah's parent data removes our sins. Difficulty as a whole, is one of the ways that ALLAH SubhanA data removes our sins, we understand that none of us will enter paradise. With sins upon us. Our sins

have to be cleansed in one way or the other. And they can be cleansed in this life through hardship and difficulty through Toba. And still

All, or if we haven't done all that one of the ways that are cleansed is spending a certain amount of time and the Hellfire May Allah protect us. Right? So it was patented, Allah puts us through difficulty, to cleanse us of our sins to to, to raise our rank with Allah subhana wa Tada. And that is why if we look at the lives of the prophets, all of them, every single prophet, went through tests and trials. And they went through immense difficulty. And the prime example of that is our beloved Prophet Muhammad, sal, Allahu Allah, he was sending them.

Because there's hardly a test or a trial that you can go through in your life in your personal life, except that the Prophet salaallah on it sent them went through something similar. And that's part of the miraculous nature of Allah subhanaw taala, sending the process seldom, that's part of the proof of his prophethood. By the way, the fact that whatever difficulty you may be going through in your life, you can find a parallel in the life of the person sending them and if not, in the life of the person send them which is like 95% of the cases than one of the other prophets, you'll find one of the other prophets going through a similar difficulty. And you know, subhanAllah, I'm a new parent,

are fairly new. My son is almost two years old now. And a lot of my, my views on life My perspective is has shifted quite a bit after having a child. And I often used to hear people talk about the most difficult, the most painful thing a human being can go through. And oftentimes people will say, that thing is a loss of a child, to see your child go through pain and difficulty and if you know, may Allah protect us to see your child pass away or see your child die, that is the probably the most painful thing that a human being can go through. And I and I accepted it before. But as a parent that takes on a completely different dimension. And the parents in the house, maybe few, but the

parents in the house know exactly what I'm talking about. If you've seen your son or your daughter go through not not even like a major sickness, just minor sicknesses or, or pain, or they bump their head or they you know, get a wound or something like that, that really, really affects you. All right. But something is painful as that. The Prophet said a lot he said them went through.

He saw the loss of his his child, Ibrahim, and actually we have a very vivid description of the last moments of the life of his son. The prophets satellite sent them held Ibrahim to his chest, as he breathed his last breath.

And he became lifeless, as he was laying as his head was pressed against the blessing chest of the Prophet sallallaahu sending them

so there's no difficulty my brothers and sisters, whether it be the loss of a child, whether it be the loss of your spouse, the loss of the love of your life and witness the death of Khadija or the Allah that

whether it be the loss of your parents, whether it being rejected from your community, whether it be oppression, whether it be being stereotyped, whether it being being prejudiced against whether it be people land, lying and slandering, and spreading rumors about you, whether it be people turning against you as a whole, whatever it may be. We find an example of that in the life of the prophet muhammad sallallahu alayhi wa sallam, because he was an embodiment of the message of Islam. He was the embodiment of our acne that what we're supposed to believe, in, a lot of times we study act either as points and principles. And that's great. But it's another thing to live the athlete of

Islam. It's another thing to take the aqidah of Islam and apply it in your life. It's another thing to wake up in the morning, and your head spinning, because you realize Donald Trump had just become the president. And then in that moment, to apply the athlete of Islam, I want to share with you just a few, a few verses from Surah Al Baqarah, where we hear about another individual

who had to rely and trust upon Allah subhanaw taala in a moment, in a time of difficulty, and I'm gonna start reciting these out and then in a bit I'm going to tell you, who we're talking about. In these, Allah Subhana Allah tells us of some of the categories or some of the ways that we are tested as human beings. Allah Subhana Allah says, What I never knew wouldn't know Combi che in mineral health. Allah says we will test you

with some matters such as COF fear while you are hung

Finger, one knuckles a minute. I'm one he was unfussy with Emeraude and the loss of wealth and lives and fruit. And then Allah Subhana Allah says whereby she was sobbing. Now,

who does this apply to? These is very, very interesting spatula because you know a lot of times the mom or the body who's reciting these Iots, like in tarawih, for example, they'll recite these if they'll get to a buffet of sobbing, and then Allah Subhana Allah says, and let the you know either Asaba to masiva called to enter into Raja own hula la Ahimsa to interrupt him, what would I do? And then the next idea is in the Safa Wolmar what happened, in that Safa and Marwa are from the symbols of Allah, and it seems like the topic is changing. It seems like there's a new topic now. So most people will just say Allah about and then in the next let's begin with the rest of the ayat.

But I want you to think about one individual. I want you to think about how legit it has said,

the wife of Ibrahim, who, after having given birth to her child, her infant child is married. The Prophet Ibrahim takes her out

to the barren desert, to the middle of the desert, where there is nothing around. Nothing. As far as the eye can see. There's no food and as a matter of fact, what has mentioned in this area, that is what we see. Allah says we will test you with hunger.

She was hungry, and her child became hungry because there was no food. They took a limited amount of supplies. And how's it he said, um, as Ibrahim Allah, He said, leaves her there. And he begins to walk away. How did I they said I'm begins to freak out a little bit. She's like, what's going on? Like, why are you leaving with like, what's happening? And he checked and she chases him. And he doesn't because he's in such pain. He can't even respond to her and he keeps walking until she says, Allahu Allah kabhi Harada. She's says it is is it Allah? Who has commanded you to do that to us? Is it Allah who has commanded you to bring us out here to the middle of the desert and leave us when

there's nothing? And he says, no harm? He says, Yes. She says, he then in that case, Allah Subhan, Allah to Allah will not leave us, Allah who will not let us go to waste out here in this barren land. So hunger, her supplies ran out, she had a few supplies with us a little bit about a little bit of food with her.

Sorry, I was praying that starts with, with hope with fear, right? And you can imagine her being out there by herself in the middle of the desert, with nothing around, of course, she's suffering from fear. Of course, she's fearful. Not only her, but she has her infant child with her. And Allah says, What is your and hunger, there's no food around. And at that point, you can imagine that she begins to think about her mortality, but how she may not survive out here. And not even not not only that, her child may not survive. And so this fear is very real one Nicholson Minute, I'm wildly will unfussy with Camelot and a loss of wealth. She had no wealth, she had nothing with her

unfulfilled lives. There's no people there. There's not a single individual except for her. And her infant child is married with them rot, you know, if she doesn't have food with her, if there's no people around, at least maybe there's some vegetation. At least maybe there's there's a tree or there's maybe something she can get from the earth to feed herself and to feed her child, but there's nothing there aren't even any fruits and vegetation. But Allah subhanaw taala says, well, Bashir Assad did in but give glad tidings to those who are patient and Medina either Asaba, to Musa those that when they're afflicted with a calamity or new, they say in early Allah, certainly we

belong to Allah.

We're in a in a hurry, Raji Arun, and certainly we will return to Allah. And by the way, that statement, the scholars mentioned as one of the statements of telecoil.

That's one of the statements of reliance upon Allah Subhan Allah to Allah.

Because what does that mean?

Sometimes we just use that statement only when someone dies, right? We're just in the habit. Someone dies we say in that Allah He when they hit our God, and that's it. But what's fantastic tells us this is a statement for our Messiah and for our difficulties for our hardships. For when we are feeling pain when we're suffering and we're going through difficult times, that's when we bring up this this statement. You know, I'll give you an analogy.

knew that it could be applied to this statement right here. Imagine right now, after this talk is over, you walk outside and someone comes up to you. And they say to you, you know, I'm a really rich guy. And I have tons and tons of money. So I have decided to give you $10 million.

And you're like, What are you talking about? Is this a joke? Is this a prank? Where the cameras at? And like, no, no, no, no pranks, no jokes, nothing like that. I just want to give you $10 million.

And after not believing it, and this and that, whatever, you finally come to realize that they're telling the truth. And they actually do want to give you $10 million.

How are you going to feel? Well, you're going to be pretty happy, you're going to be very thankful, very grateful. $10 million. That's great. And that means I can like, relax, now I can retire. I know how I can drop out of school, I can, you know, quit my job, I just whatever $10 million, I can try to invest it, you know, whatever it may be, you're feeling secure now. And then the guy he straight up writes you a check for $10 million. And you take it to the bank. And you know what it is really $10 million that he's given to you.

Now, imagine you come back tomorrow, for the second day of this conference. And you see that guy, and you see him like waving you down. And you're like, wait a minute, is he going to ask for the money back? And you try to avoid him. You try to make not try not to make eye contact and you're like all over the place until he finally grabs you by the shoulder. He's like, listen, listen. Do you remember me? And you're like, Yeah, I remember you. And he goes, I gave you $10 million yesterday. And you go Yeah, of course. I remember. He goes, Well, I need a favor from you. And you're like, Yeah, of course. Anything for you. You know, you gave me $10 million. In my book,

you're like the greatest guy right now. Anything you want. I got you. He goes, Well, I need you.

To give me $1,000

Right. And you're like, what? He's like, Yeah, I need $1,000 I've run out of money and I just need $1,000 How are you going to respond? Are you gonna be like, Nah, man $1,000 That's a lot of money. Like, I can't you know, that's just too much. I barely even know you. Right? You're not gonna say that. You're gonna be like, Dude, you gave me $10 million. And all you want is 1000. Of course, I'll give you 1000 As a matter of fact, take 10,000 As a matter of fact, take 100,000 500,000 will lie. Even if he asked you for 5 million. You'd be like, Dude, you gave me 10 million, you can take 5 million. Right? Likewise, but Allah He must, Allah, every single thing we have in this life is given

to us by who?

Allah subhanaw taala.

So what does it mean when Allah takes something away from us? Does it mean anything?

How are we supposed to behave? We're supposed to say in everything we have, we it is from Allah Subhan Allah data and we will return to Allah. And yes, it may feel difficult, we may feel pain, it may be hard. But in the end of the day, our athey that our creed tells us that everything we have is from Allah. So what if he takes away something? What if he takes away a little bit? Right? And that is why Allah subhanaw taala gives these people Glad Tidings well, but she does sobbing, give glad tidings to give congratulate the people who are able to remain patient in these times of difficulty, Allah, you can let him Salah to Mira be him, upon them, our blessings from Allah subhanho wa taala.

What they're doing, it is those people who are guided and you know, subhanAllah people don't realize sometimes the relationship between guidance and telecoil and patience.

Because a lot of times when it comes to our guidance,

and our emaan and how we feel how our spiritual status is, a lot of times it's related to matters like these. How many people have lost faith when going through a difficulty?

How many people have lost a loved one, and then they turned around and said,

Why would God do this to me? Is God even real? It doesn't make sense. Lex Luthor lost faith. Right? But many people do as well. When they're put in that difficulty, they lose faith. And so Allah Panama's data tells us the person who is able to remain patient to put things into perspective, to remind themselves that everything that they have in life is from Allah subhanaw taala. And indeed, these times of difficulty are a time to raise our rank with Allah. It is a time to have our sins removed. It is a time to get spiritually closer to Allah subhana data. It is those people who are truly truly blessed. And it is those people who are guided it's not the

A super Muslim out there with his fit to a hammer and the Haram police and all that kind of stuff. That's fine. You know, it's easy to be a super Muslim in times of ease, but it's another thing to have the karma. It is another thing to be consistent and upright and firm when matters become difficult. And that is why when that companion came to the presses send them and asked him for advice, the rest of them said to Billahi some must stop him. He said say I believe in Allah and then stay firm upon Not,

not as why Allah Subhana Allah tells us is Spiro wasabi wasabi was founded on tell us have patience is smooth wasabi roo and have more patience, more patients than want more patients than anything that you're going through. Whatever your difficulty is, have more patients than not, however hard this situation is make sure your patients is on another level. What all bill to

and Robbie through comes from the word robbed,

which means to tie, tie yourself down, hunker down, prepare yourself be firm, from day to day in our Eman is not just about one day. And that's it. Our Eman is not just about hey, right now I'm a good Muslim and and I feel great. Our Iman is the day to day, the moment to moment, the minute to minute when our hearts begin to fluctuate. That is where the man is,

in the moments of difficulty in the moments of ease in the whatever our political and social climate is in those moments that we want to have that rupt

it is in moments like that, that we want to hunker down and tie down and remind ourselves of the basic principles of Islam. And I know Subhanallah it sounds cliched that when you're going through difficulty someone says hey, you know, trust in Allah's plans. And it's sad that we think of those things is cliche now, right? It's sad that when you tell someone, listen, be patient, they say Come on, man. Like how many lectures have I heard on being patient? You know what that sounds like? That sounds like that woman who is crying at the grave of her child and the process that LEM said to her Be patient.

He said it's been a while the CB said Be patient and hope for Allah's reward. And she said what do you know of my pain? Right? That's what we sound like sometimes a how cliched. But come on, tell me something else. How do we how do we deal with this situation? I want a transformative experience. Well Subhan Allah Our transformative experience lies in the principles of our deen and that is why in moments like these, we turn back to our principles, the principles of telecoil the principles of the Kabbalah and other of Allah subhanaw taala. The principles of being patient in times of difficulty. I ask Allah Subhana Allah, to grant us patience, in all times, in times of ease and

times of difficulty, I ask Allah subhanaw taala to make these moments and these tests and trials that we are going through as an ummah, as a community and and, and us on an individual level. I ask Allah Subhana Allah to make these a time of purity and a time of growth. And Allah Subhan Allah to Allah knows best Subhana Allah Houma will be Hambrick a shadow Allah ilaha illa and Estelle Furukawa Tulelake what is Kamala Clara was set on white eco rahmatullahi wa barakaatuh