Saif Morad – How a Muslim stays POSITIVE During Hard Times

To

whom my dear brothers and sisters, may

Allah bless us with the best in this

world and the next.

You know it's very easy to get sucked

into everything that is happening,

to feel sad, and to get overwhelmed.

In addition to that, many of the people

we speak to are gonna be very negative

towards the situation.

And not only this situation, but in life

in general, people tend to focus on the

negative aspects. They always tend to focus on

the problems,

and negativity

is toxic. It's very draining to be around

somebody who's negative.

And victims are the ones who always look

at things in a negative light. They always

complain.

They're never happy,

but that is not the attitude of a

believer.

A believer is always positive.

So how can we as believers

be positive no matter the situation?

Well, firstly, we need to reconnect with our

purpose,

to understand why Allah subhanahu wa ta'ala created

us in the first place. Allah subhanahu wa

ta'ala tells us in the Quran.

We were created to adhere to the commandments

of Allah Subhanahu Wa Ta'ala. We were created

to know Allah Subhanahu Wa Ta'ala, to worship

Allah Subhanahu Wa Ta'ala, and the believer understands

this.

They understand their reason for being created.

They understand that this life is temporary, that

our final destination is heaven. This life is

meant for us to do the deeds that

will take us to heaven.

And once we reconnect with this purpose,

the second thing we need to do is

we need to understand that the path to

heaven has obstacles along the way, which are

tests.

Allah subhanahu wa ta'ala told us in the

Quran.

Allah subhanahu wa ta'ala is telling us

that do people think that just because they

say we believe that they will not be

tested.

So when we believe in Allah subhanahu wa

ta'ala,

we will definitely be tested.

And most of us think that tests are

the difficult things in life, But Allah subhanahu

wa

ta'ala tells

us,

Allah is telling us that every soul shall

taste death, and we will test you with

good

and bad

as a test, as a trial,

and to us you will return.

Allah

will test us with good, with comfort, with

luxury,

and he will also test us with bad,

with difficulty, with sicknesses, with diseases.

Allah

already knows the end destination of everybody,

but the people have to do the deeds

in order to separate themselves from one another,

and the believer understands

that every situation is good for them. And

the third thing is to always have a

positive outlook no matter the situation. As the

prophet sallallahu alaihi wa sallam said, wonders is

the affair of the believer.

Everything,

every affair of his is good for him.

Yes, in every matter there is good for

the believer,

and this is not the case except for

a believer.

Somebody who believes, who has faith, who believes

in Allah, his books, his angels, his messengers,

the divine decree of Allah subhanahu wa ta'ala

whether good or bad, and does action and

takes action because belief needs to be backed

by action. And somebody who has reached that

level of belief and action,

every single thing that happens to them is

good. The prophet sallallahu alaihi wa sallam further

explains and he says,

that when they are blessed with good,

with happiness, with wealth, with children, they are

grateful to Allah subhanahu wa ta'ala because they

understand that every blessing is from Allah subhanahu

wa ta'ala. It's not because what they did,

but it's because Allah subhanahu wa ta'ala favored

them and blessed them and they are grateful,

and this is what protects the blessings.

Being grateful to Allah subhanahu wa ta'ala protects

the blessings, and not only that, but it

brings about more blessings. The prophet salallahu alaihi

wa sallam said that when they are tried

with difficulties,

they are patient, and that is good for

them. They understand

that this difficulty is from Allah subhanahu wa

ta'ala, the one who loves them more than

their own mothers,

And they know that Allah subhanahu wa taala

wants good for them. They know that Allah

subhanahu wa taala wants to cleanse them, wants

to elevate their status.

Therefore, they are patient.

Believing and hoping in the reward from Allah

subhanahu wa taala while taking the means

and expecting that Allah subhanahu wa ta'ala will

turn the situation around.

So no matter the situation whether good or

bad, the believer is always in a positive

state. They are grateful during times of ease

and when they are given

and they are patient and they turn back

to Allah subhanahu wa ta'ala during times of

difficulty.

And patience has 3 categories.

First, that a person is patient upon the

obedience of Allah subhanahu wa ta'ala. It's not

easy to do good deeds. It's it's not

easy to wake up for fajr, but a

person does it and is patient upon that

expecting the reward from Allah Subhanahu Wa Ta'ala.

Secondly, they are patient upon staying away from

bad deeds. They know that Allah subhanahu wa

ta'ala forbade them from it. They know that

Allah subhanahu wa ta'ala dislikes these things

even though their own souls

are drawn towards these actions,

but they are patient and they stay away

from these kind of things. And the 3rd

category is that a believer is patient upon

the decree of Allah Subhanahu Wa Ta'ala.

Whether good or bad, they are patient. They

don't complain. They are happy with what Allah

Subhanahu Wa Ta'ala has decreed for them, and

they expect the reward from Allah subhanahu wa

ta'ala while they take the means to turn

the situation around, and they expect Allah subhanahu

wa ta'ala to

relieve them from this difficulty.

And the 4th thing that we can do

in order to remain positive is

to actually look for the positive things.

That when a difficulty

comes upon us, we focus on the positive

things. We ask ourselves the questions, what is

the opportunity here? How can I turn this

situation around? What shortcomings do I have that

I need to fix in order to turn

this thing around? And we remind ourselves that

no matter what the situation is always good.

As the prophet

told us, that no fatigue, no disease, nor

sorrow, nor sadness, nor hurt, nor distress befalls

a Muslim.

Even it were the prick he receives from

a thorn,

but that Allah

expiates

some of his sins.

So whether we go through pain mentally or

physically,

everything that we go through is a means

to cleanse us. And it doesn't remove all

sins, but it removes some sins

because we all have shortcomings.

And Allah subhanahu wa ta'ala purifies us through

these things. So we need to focus on

the good in every situation. And finally,

to call upon Allah subhanahu wa ta'ala while

taking the means and then putting our trust

in Allah subhanahu wa ta'ala. We make dua

to Allah subhanahu wa ta'ala consistently,

to make us people who think positively all

the time, and it's not easy and nobody's

saying it's easy. Shaytan wants us to be

miserable, but after we make dua to Allah

and we're consistent in it, we have to

take the means.

When negative thoughts come in, we focus on

positive things. We focus on Allah

and we take the means. We read the

Quran. We read the hadith. We surround ourselves

with positive people, we talk about good things,

we focus on solutions, not problems.

We focus on ideas, not gossip. We try

to be in the company of people who

remind us about our purpose,

about the hereafter,

who encourage us to do good deeds.

And once we take the means, we put

our trust in Allah and

we expect the best from Allah

We expect that he's gonna turn things around.

We expect that we can change, because if

we think that we cannot change, we've already

lost the battle.

And negativity is something that we've learned.

People are not born negative, and because it

is something that we learned,

because of our environment, our friends, society,

it is something that we can unlearn, and

we have to learn to be positive. We

have to learn to focus on the good.

We need to practice.

And as we practice,

we ask Allah and

we take the means and we put our

trust in Allah

we will

be able to think good all the time.

So to recap,

number 1, we reconnect with our purpose.

We remind ourselves as to why Allah subhanahu

wa ta'ala created us. We understand that life

is a test, both the good aspects and

the bad aspects. Allah

will definitely test us, and the test is

in everything, and the believer knows that everything

is good for them. So we work on

our faith where we get to that level,

where we see everything as good, because it's

not gonna come overnight. It takes practice.

And in every situation, we always focus on

the good things. And lastly, we make lots

of dua to Allah subhanahu wa ta'ala while

taking the means and then we turn our

affair to Allah subhanahu wa ta'ala and we

expect the best from him. Today's exercise is

to write down 3 things that we are

grateful for during this pandemic.

Even though things are difficult,

we can find 3 things that we are

grateful for, and we have to focus

because where focus goes, energy flows. So may

Allah

forgive our sins,

and may he make our affairs easy,

and may he

remove this disease from the world.

Until next time.