Salah Mahmoud – Can A Believer Be Depressed
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AI: Transcript ©
There is a Messenger who comes after his
name is Ahmad.
And when he came to them with clear
proofs, they said, This is clear sorcery.
Who is more unjust than one who invents
a lie against Allah while he is being
called to Islam?
And Allah does not guide the wrongdoing people.
They want to cover the light of Allah
with their mouths.
And Allah will complete His light, even if
the disbelievers hate it.
Allah is the Greatest I bear witness that
there is none worthy of worship except Allah
I bear witness that there is none worthy
of worship except Allah I bear witness
that Muhammad is the Messenger of Allah I
bear witness that Muhammad is the Messenger of
Allah Come to
Prayer Come to
Prayer Come to
success Come to
success Allah is
the Greatest Allah is the Greatest There
is none worthy of worship except Allah There
is
none
worthy of worship except
Allah O people, fear your Lord, Who created
you from one soul and created from it
its wife And He spread among them many
men and women And fear Allah, with whom
you ask for help and mercy.
Indeed, Allah is ever watching over you O
you who have believed, fear Allah and say
the truth Allah is the Greatest I bear
witness that there is none worthy of worship
except Allah Allah is the
Greatest Allah
is the Greatest Allah is the Greatest We've
seen the blessings and the barakah of Rasulullah
Sallallahu Alaihi Wasallam in each and every session
We've seen the blessings and the barakah of
Rasulullah Sallallahu Alaihi Wasallam Amongst the volunteers and
amongst the scholars and amongst everyone Alhamdulillah Rabbil
Alameen and more to come inshallah Because this
community deserves all khair and all goodness Alhamdulillah
May Allah bless you Dear brothers and sisters,
a couple of months ago, about a year
ago I gave two khutba as commentary on
a book that landed in my hand called
Good Without God Some of you may remember
this And the title of the khutba was
Is It Really Good Without God?
So basically, the summary of the book, for
the most part it's nonsense So I'm just
going to summarize For the most part they're
just talking about humanism That we do not
need God or deen in our life Because
our life can just be good Without having
God, without having deen, without having someone sending
a member to tell us how to live
our life And so on and so forth
That's the concept of the book They're saying
that if we look at the top or
the best countries in the world And the
happiest countries in the world You'll find that
none of the Muslim countries are actually in
this list So how can you make sense
of that?
And actually they're promoting for a very evil
concept Which is the concept of just being
a good person I'm a good person, I
have a clean heart, I have a white
heart Alhamdulillah, I'm going to be in Jannah
with the Prophet and Abu Bakr and Umar
and Uthman and Ali And al-Khulafa al
-Rashidi inshallah Just because I'm a good person
Whereas Allah subhanahu wa ta'ala tells us
in Qur'an الذين آمنوا وعملوا الصالحات Work
and do the righteous deeds These two things
You can't just say I'm good, I don't
have to work I don't have to come
to the prayer I don't have to do
this or that You have to do both
And it's not just about the heart Because
I know the heart is the most important
thing But a heart that doesn't put their
forehead to Allah subhanahu wa ta'ala That's
a corrupt heart A heart of a person
who is arrogant to worship Allah subhanahu wa
ta'ala And someone who denies the signs
of Allah subhanahu wa ta'ala And the
ayat of Allah subhanahu wa ta'ala Is
not a clean heart Because Allah created our
hearts So Islam and Allah subhanahu wa ta
'ala tells us There is no contradiction You
can also be a good person even if
you're not Muslim That's very true You have
some co-workers, some colleagues, some classmates They're
very good and they're not Muslims, right?
That's very true, we see this So how
can we make sense of that?
We've talked about this I'm just not trying
to repeat myself But we said that Allah
subhanahu wa ta'ala tells us in Qur
'an In surat al-shams وَنَفْسٍ وَمَا سَوَّاهَا
فَأَلْهَمَهَا فُجُورَهَا وَتَقْوَاهَا That Allah subhanahu wa ta
'ala Allah subhanahu wa ta'ala has given
us the fitrah And the fitrah was not
corrupted It's just the environment that corrupts the
fitrah And when people choose to worship Other
than Allah subhanahu wa ta'ala Their fitrah
is deviated a little bit And we need
to fix their fitrah again Right?
We need to fix their fitrah And that's
where the role of da'wah comes into
place When you make da'wah to someone
What you're doing here You're correcting the behavior
actually You're correcting their fitrah Because the fitrah
Allah tells us basically what it means The
fitrah If you're born in a desert, a
place There's nobody You don't have parents around
you You will grow up worshiping Allah subhanahu
wa ta'ala Because that is your It's
wired within ourselves That's the concept of fitrah
So yes, you can find someone Who's not
a believer, who's not a Muslim But they're
good people Alright?
They're good people There's no contradiction Alhamdulillah But
if you're a good person And you also
obey Allah subhanahu wa ta'ala That's perfect
That is what Allah subhanahu wa ta'ala
wants from us So we said Why is
not good without God?
Why do we need deen in our lives?
One of the things that we said Because,
Ikhwani Every single human being Has some sort
of belief Alright?
Even if they claim that they do not
have any belief If they claim that they
do not believe in anything Tell them you
are lying You're not seeing the truth Alright?
They have to believe in something And those
who do not believe in Allah subhanahu wa
ta'ala They do believe that there is
no God So that's also a belief Alright?
So the aqeedah The aqeedah is in everyone's
heart People need to worship something Alright?
One of the historians said I have seen
towns and villages Without schools Without hospitals But
I have never ever In history Read or
seen a town or a village Without a
house of worship Which is very true A
house of worship I'm not talking about a
masjid A house of worship And that tells
us something That the deen is part of
our lives Alright?
I visited, you know The Mayan Those who
went to Mexico I visited the Mayan tribe
Subhanallah You feel like they live in Thousands
of years back But the people are still
worshiping something They worship something They have belief
also Alright?
It's our role to fix that belief So
brothers and sisters You cannot isolate the idea
of Allah subhanahu wa ta'ala From the
society From Allah subhanahu wa ta'ala Or
from our hearts You cannot Simply it's not
gonna work Why do we need Allah in
our lives?
One of the things also that we said
We said because the deen or the religion
answers Three crucial and three critical questions And
no other belief system Would have the ability
to answer Okay?
What are these questions?
Who created us?
Where are we coming from?
What is the origin?
What is our origin?
Alright?
Why did he create us?
And what is going to happen after that?
Find me a belief system Can give you
these answers Except the deen of Allah subhanahu
wa ta'ala Allah subhanahu wa ta'ala
tells us in Quran لَقَدِ خَلَقْنَا الْإِنسَانَ فِي
أَحْسَنِ تَقْوِيمٍ Allah who created you Allah created
you Alright?
Why?
وَمَا خَلَقْتُ الْجِنَّ وَالإِنسَ إِلَّا لِيَعْبُدُونَ I created
jinn and mankind just to worship me That's
the purpose of creation And we can talk
about this And what is going to happen
after that?
No one else has an answer Allah subhanahu
wa ta'ala says ثُمَّ إِنَّكُمْ بَعْدَ ذَٰلِكَ
لَمَيِّتُونَ Then you will die Okay, after that
ثُمَّ إِنَّكُمْ يَوْمَ الْقِيَامَةِ تُبَعَثُونَ Then you will
be resurrected Very simple Without these answers You're
lost in this dunya There is no purpose
So the deen gives you this clarity brothers
and sisters Why do we need Allah subhanahu
wa ta'ala in our lives?
Because Allah subhanahu wa ta'ala And the
deen of Allah subhanahu wa ta'ala Will
give you comfort, peace and reassurance السلام النفسي
Peace of mind And peace in your heart
Because we have an amazing concept The concept
of القدر And Allah subhanahu wa ta'ala
told us in Quran That you will be
tested I will be tested And everyone will
be tested Everything is clear It's just a
matter of how to deal with the test
Alright So Allah subhanahu wa ta'ala tells
us وَلَنَبِلُوَنَّكُمْ بِشَيْءٍ مِّنَ الْخَوْفِ وَالْجُوعِ وَنَقَصِمْ مِّنَ
الْأَمْوَالِ وَالْأَنفُسِ وَالثَّمَرَاتِ We will be testing you
with poverty, with hunger, with you know losses
and all of that And then he says
وَبَشِّرِ الصَّابِرِينَ But we know that's going to
be difficult for you people It will be
very difficult for you لَقَدْ خَلَقْنَا الْإِنسَانَ فِي
كَبَدْ It will be difficult for you to
lose a loved one It will be difficult
for you to lose your job It will
be difficult for you to have marital issues
It will be difficult for you to have
issues with your children It will be difficult
But that's the nature of the life Now
the question is You have two choices Either
to give up Or to have sabr of
Allah subhanahu wa ta'ala And Allah subhanahu
wa ta'ala will reward you for this
Right?
And the Prophet ﷺ told us عَجَبَلْ لِأَمْرِ
الْمُؤْمِنِ I wonder for the fear of the
believers Very famous hadith We hear it all
the time إِنَّ أَمْرَهُ كُلَّهُ لَهُ خَيْرٌ Anything
that is happening to you right now It
is khayr for you Doesn't matter You think
it's good or bad It is khayr for
you Because Allah chose it for you Right?
إِنَّ أَمْرَهُ كُلَّهُ خَيْرٌ حَيَاتُكَ بَيْنَ شَيْئَيْنِ Your
life falls amongst two Between two things شُكْرَ
وَصَبْرَ If Allah gives you something good الحَمْدُ
لِلَّهِ شُكْرَةُ اللَّهِ تَبَارِكَ وَتَعَالَىٰ If something bad
or evil You consider evil ثِنَا الصَّبْرِ إِنَّ
اللَّهَ مَعَ الصَّابِرِينَ So these concepts Brothers and
sisters Give us what?
They give us comfort And peace of mind
And سَكِينَ And tranquility And the deen gives
you that Alright?
And the deen gives you And by the
way I'm coming to the question The main
topic of actually the khutbah Can a believer
be depressed?
That's the title of the khutbah And I'm
coming to this Inshallah Right?
Because I'm talking about the deen now Can
the deen give you that You know, clarity
in your life?
Absolutely The deen can do that Is it
good without God?
No It is not good without God You
need God in your life And you need
Allah Subhanahu wa ta'ala In your life
And you need the deen in your life
So While I was doing the research There
was a I came across a You know
A new research By Harvard School of Public
Health They said The people who attended Religious
services At least once a week Were significantly
less likely To die from death or despair
Including death related to You know Basically Ending
their lives Drug overdues And alcohol And I
remember I mentioned this statistic before And this
study before And one of the brothers I
think he was a psychiatrist He met me
after the prayer And he said You know,
Sheikh What I noticed from my work Is
that You know We give people Obviously a
sheet Right One of the questions that we
ask Are you a part of a community?
Are you a part of a group?
Most of the people Who have negative thoughts
Most of the people Who want to end
their lives They uncheck it Meaning that we
don't have A community We don't have a
group We live by ourselves We don't belong
to anything Right So here The role and
the responsibility Of the deen Look at this
brotherhood And sisterhood That you see in the
masjid It gives you that sakina You feel
like The sakina comes from Allah subhanahu wa
ta'ala And Allah subhanahu wa ta'ala
Is still in your heart Right And if
we look at the You know The hayat
Of Imam Ibn Taymiyyah Sheikh of Islam Ibn
Taymiyyah He says You know He was in
jail And he was Facing difficulties Right He
was His life was not easy at all
And then he says What can my enemies
do to me?
Look at the Look at the perspective Of
Sheikh of Islam Ibn Taymiyyah Someone who spent
Most of his life in jail Someone who
was tortured Punished All of these things And
And look what To his statements And compare
it to Our statements When we face some
difficulty He says What can my enemies Do
to me?
What is the worst That they can do
to me?
He says My paradise My jannah My garden
Are in my heart Wherever I go I
have jannah In my heart Wherever I go
Okay What are What are the possibilities?
What can the enemy do?
Alright What can the enemy Do to anybody?
He says He said If I'm in prison
It's a seclusion For worship It's atikaf They
put me in jail It's atikaf I'm With
Allah For years Right If I am killed
It's shahadah I'm shaheed I'm going to jannah
Inshallah If I am expelled They're gonna You
know Exile me Guess what?
This is tourism I'm gonna get to see
You know Get to see a new place
Look at this Brothers and sisters This is
what the deen Does to you The deen
Helps you Look at things From different perspectives
Look at the khair And the positive And
you know In the midst of darkness That's
what Allah Subhanahu wa ta'ala Tells us
Inna ma'al usri yusra Inna ma'al
usri yusra With hardship With With Hardship There
is ease Yusuf alayhi salam Allah subhanahu wa
ta'ala Says something beautiful While he was
You know Going to jail Allah subhanahu wa
ta'ala Says Wadakhala ma'ahu Al-sijna
fatayyan Two young inmates They went to jail
with him With him You know One of
them Was the reason actually Yusuf alayhi salam
Got out of jail Right The guy who
sold the dream Correct?
Yeah It was one of them The yusra
Entered with Yusuf alayhi salam In jail Together
Wadakhala ma'ahu Inna ma'al usri yusra
You're facing difficulties But the yusra will come
It will come Sooner or later And that
is the nature of life Brothers and sisters
Nothing stays the same And that takes me
to A very important question Can a believer
be depressed?
And to Attempt and try to answer this
question Insha'Allah we'll take a break And
we'll try again So
I went there and I spoke with them
And I told them Let me tell you
something One of the issues that we're struggling
with Is the issue of the mental illnesses
Okay We have A lot of us When
we talk about mental illnesses And you know
Going to a counselor Or a therapist Or
a psychiatrist It's a taboo for us Like
we don't We don't want to try that
Right I'm okay Right I'm okay Why?
Because I'm a believer I believe in Allah
We already spoke about that We said yeah
The Iman can definitely help you 100%
There is no question The Iman and the
faith can help you Improve your mental wellness
No one can deny that Including the You
know The physicians and doctors and psychiatrists And
all of that Alright But does If you
are depressed If you're facing some severe depression
Does it mean that your Iman is less?
Does it mean that your relationship With Allah
SWT is not strong?
Alright Does it mean that you have a
flaw In your Iman?
That you don't have Tawakkar Allah SWT That
you don't have Yaqeen Allah SWT Absolutely not
Absolutely not It doesn't mean anything We said
The Deen and the Iman Will definitely help
you But there are certain types Of mental
illnesses That you need to see a doctor
And they have a dalil from the Quran
Dalil from the Quran Evidence Allah SWT says
If you do not know Why you behave
in certain ways Go to the experts Go
talk to people It's from the Quran Allah
tells us Go see a therapist and a
counselor Allah SWT says Go seek treatment Talk
to people Come out to the community Don't
submit and surrender to shaitan And let shaitan
play and control your emotions This is part
of our Deen Allah SWT says Yes absolutely
You can be depressed You know what He
says in the Quran?
Subhanahu wa ta'ala وَخُلِقَ الْإِنسَانُ ضَعِيفًا He
said We were created in a state of
weakness A man was created in a state
of weakness Allah says So yes you can
be depressed Right?
And then Allah SWT Gives you another ayah
in Quran He says لَا يُكَلِّفُ اللَّهُ نَفْسًا
إِلَّا وُسَعَهَا Allah will not give you something
That you cannot handle But Allah sometimes is
really difficult How can I handle that?
There are problems and difficulties and issues That
are way bigger than my ability I cannot
bear it Allah SWT then has a new
ayah for you He says فَاتَّقُوا اللَّهَ مَسْتَطَعَتُمْ
Be mindful and fear Allah SWT And do
your part as much as you can Look
at this balance Right?
So can we be depressed?
100% Well a couple of years ago
Actually it's one of the reasons When you
go to Al-Masjid Al-Haram You see
the barriers You see the fences There was
no fences before We actually We were able
to enjoy the view of the Kaaba from
the top Right?
We had the ability to enjoy the view
of the Kaaba But what happened after that?
They closed it Why?
Because someone climbed and jumped out of the
third floor And died immediately But well Are
you saying he ended his life in Al
-Masjid Al-Haram?
Yes he did He ended his life in
Al-Masjid Al-Haram One of my students
in New York He was Hafiz Al-Quran
I listened to Quran from him And he
ended his life Hafiz Al-Quran How can
we make sense of that?
Because if someone like this He has been
depressed for a way or the other We
investigated We knew the parents They played a
very dangerous role in there By shaming him
all the time By making him feel guilty
all the time By not trying to treat
this poor young man Alright?
And making him feel like your relationship with
Allah SWT is no good And this is
Jahl of the Quran Allah says that young
man needed treatment That young man can be
depressed His relationship with Allah is good It's
good But He's still a human being And
Allah tells us We were created in a
state of weakness We can get sick We
can get weak So brothers and sisters A
believer can When someone is facing depression Don't
say that's because of your Iman What we
say Is that Iman can help you It
can basically go hand in hand with science
And medicine Medicine to help you get better
If you ignore the science And just go
to the You know To say the deen
can handle that It will not work Because
if you have a stomach ache If you
have a problem You have to go to
a physician Alright?
They have to go This is our deen
Alright?
So brothers and sisters To answer the question
Absolutely If you are depressed If you are
going through difficulties Don't think because your relationship
with Allah SWT is bad Could be one
of the reasons It could be one of
the reasons You know why?
Let me conclude with this InshaAllah We are
created of How many components?
We have the body And we have the
soul Okay?
You can nurture the body You know, by
food and all of that What about the
soul?
The soul was created from heaven From Allah
SWT Right?
It was created from heaven Now You take
care of your body But your soul You
say, you know Music, reading, this and that
That is not what it is There are
a lot of people MashaAllah Even musicians themselves
They have a lot of mental illnesses So
how can you make sense of that?
Right?
So what is the reason for Sometimes you
don't feel good You don't feel good You
just came out of a trip And they
tell you There is something called Post-vacation
depression Post-vacation You need a vacation from
a vacation Right?
SubhanAllah al-Azim How is that possible?
You went to the best place in the
world But you are still not feeling good
There is something You know what?
You are not able to feed your soul
And the soul is wired And connected to
the creator of the soul Which is Allah
SWT Look right Look left If you do
not satisfy your soul By connecting to Allah
SWT Then your mental illness Might even get
worse Right?
So to recap Yes, I believe I can
be depressed There is nothing wrong with that
But if this is the case Go see
a professional And talk to them And seek
help We ask Allah SWT To put the
sakina And put the peace and comfort In
our hearts And we ask Allah SWT To
protect our youngsters And brothers and sisters From
mental illnesses From all kinds of depressions And
evil, O Lord of the worlds And we
ask Allah SWT To make us understand the
reality And the nature of this world O
Lord of the worlds And we ask Allah
SWT To never take our soul except By
saying There is no god but Allah Muhammad
is the Messenger of Allah We ask Allah
SWT To take our soul while making sujood
We ask Allah SWT To take our souls
while making ruku' We ask Allah SWT To
take our souls while performing the prayer O
Lord of the worlds Allahumma ameen And establish
the prayer I
bear witness that Muhammad is the Messenger of
Allah Come to prayer Come to success The
prayer has been established Allah is the greatest
Allah is the greatest There is no god
but Allah I bear witness that Muhammad is
the Messenger of Allah Come to prayer Allah
is the greatest All praise is due to
Allah, Lord of the worlds The Entirely Merciful,
the Especially Merciful Master of the Day of
Judgment It is You we worship And You
we ask for help Guide us to the
straight path The path of those on whom
You have bestowed favor Those who have not
incurred Your wrath And those who have not
gone astray Ameen
Allah does not burden a soul except in
its capacity To it is what it earned
And to it is what it earned Our
Lord, do not take us If we forget
or make a mistake Our Lord, and do
not burden upon us a burden As You
have burdened those before us Our Lord, and
do not burden us with that which we
have no power to bear And
pardon us and forgive us and have mercy
on us You are our Master, so
help us against the disbelieving people Allah
is the greatest All praise
is due to Allah, Lord of the worlds
The Entirely Merciful, the Especially Merciful Master of
the Day of Judgment It is You we
worship And You we ask for help Guide
us to the straight path The path of
those on whom You have bestowed favor Those
who have not incurred Your wrath And those
who have not gone astray Ameen
To the people of Quraish, to them is
the journey of winter and summer So let
them worship the Lord of this House Who
fed them from hunger and gave them faith
from fear Peace
be upon you To
remind the brothers, inshallah we have a few
spots left in Umrah, inshallah, Thanksgiving So please
join us, inshallah, I'm going to be leading
this group So join us The dua for
the mother of brother Mubasher We ask Allah
to give her forgiveness And to make her
for the people of Jannah And to unite
us with her son and the family In
Jannah Al-Firdaus Allahumma Ameen Three announcements very
quickly The most important one The ICF annual
fundraising dinner is on November 3rd November 3rd,
this time it's a different venue At the
Star, Ford Center at the Star Inshallah There
is an early bird pricing Tickets are a
little bit more expensive than the last time
With the cost of everything going up But
if you buy them early, inshallah There is
a discount And the second reminder is that
there is a retreat That Shaykh Salah is
taking us all on On October 19th Some
spots are still left on the retreat Please
join there Shaykh Abdul Nasir Jangra, Sister Hale
Banani Is going to be there, inshallah