Allah Promised You This #02 Facing Hardships

Stella Sato sons Ron l. H. C. Mr. Thoughtful Vaughn is a licensed professional counselor having obtained a master's degree in mental health counseling and as practiced therapy for nearly 10 years. She is both a research fellow at European Institute for Islamic research a teacher at Muscat University and one of the newest instructors here at a McRib was her commitment to her work and fascination with the intersections between Islamic spirituality, psychology and counseling was that a thorough brings a unique insight into the field of knowledge absolutely critical for the modern Muslim community.

Bismillah AR sloth was salam ala Rasulillah ala alihi wa sahbihi wa Manuela and my by the Sadam on econ one on how to live to get to everyone.

Does that one love hate for your patients? And all of the speakers before are right, that was very awkward. But does that gonna let fade for we honorable introduction.

So the last four months, as we've been talking about throughout today, have naturally been very, very tough for us to witness the pain, the anger, the anxiety, associated with the unpredictability of what the future looks like. Everything that we have seen, and things that we continue to see that continue to be very overwhelming. But our OMA, as we're hearing here today, is not unfamiliar with challenges is not unfamiliar with these emotions. Our history is filled with loss. Our history is filled with triumphs

that go all the way back to the beginning of Islam and Allah Spano. Tata reminds us he says, I'm happy with them and that the whole Jana Do you think that you will be admitted into paradise? When I'm Maga Chico method or levena Holloman Kabila come with without being tested like those before you

must set homall baxa Or what Dourado was zero. They were afflicted with suffering and adversity and were so violently shaken so violently rocked.

Had de Akula Rasulullah levena M and Omar that even the messenger and the believers with him, they cried out, and what did they ask? They asked

metta muscle law?

When will Allah's help come? And what does Allah subhanaw taala respond with?

Allah in a sort of login club,

that indeed Allah says help is always near. And if there's one thing to leave with today, it's the reminder that Allah has passed that does help is here it is near and it's not going anywhere.

Allah's path out as help is always with us. And so the fact is that, we know that we are being tested by nearly witnessing what is happening to our brothers and sisters, from China, to Sudan to full esteem, we are being tested through this. And it's painful, when we feel powerless when we feel unable to evoke change. But remembering that Allah subhanaw taala is always near his help is always near, and that we're never powerless when we have Allah subhanaw taala. And this on top of it all is amplified when you go through your own personal struggles. Our struggles cannot compare to this. But in reality, you're all struggling, you all have your hardships, you all have your difficulties.

And you face them along with facing the difficulties of our brothers and sisters. So we've all been thrust into situations into roles that we didn't anticipate sometimes ones that we didn't even want, right? Whether on a mass scale, or on a personal level.

And that's often the hardest part. It's the surprise, the surprise and the shock that comes with the unpredictable tests that we're faced with. Whether this is witnessing genocide, or whether it's hearing cruel words spoken by someone you love when you never thought they would come out of their mouth, whether it's the car accident on the way to work that blindsides you out of nowhere, or whether it's being blindsided by the lack of compassion and the lack of empathy of the world in what we're witnessing. It is often the shock. That's the hardest part. And this is why the prophesy Salam reminds us that patience is at the first strike, because that's the hardest time when you are

shocked and when something happens and I want you all to imagine in your lives, you've all experienced these unanticipated moments, these unanticipated changes that these unanticipated tests that shock you and worry

You and bring up the anxiety and the fear.

So how do we deal with those? How do we navigate them? How do we face them with perseverance and with faith and with resilience?

How do we hold on to that faith, rather than allowing it to trickle through our fingers at the time when we need that connection with Allah Spano Tata the most.

And so I wanted to delve into the story of a beautiful woman

to teach us how we can step up, how we can face our struggles head on, instead of hoping they're going to disappear instead of hoping somebody else is going to handle them for us. And this is a woman who is very near and dear to my heart. Her story is very near and dear to my heart because my own daughter is her namesake. She was named after her, and that is Sofia about the law. I'm had the honor of the Prophet Muhammad sallallahu alayhi wa sallam.

So Sophia or the lion had dealt with loss after loss after loss and unimaginable hardships, as so many of the companions did, during the time, a little slice of them. But one theme that I noticed in her story, throughout all of the stories of her life that I read, was this unfailing decision to step up to face the struggles head on. And this is something that I want us all to leave with

is that she was not a passive participant in her life.

She was an active participant in her life. And she wasn't a bystander. She didn't didn't allow her life story to pass her by. She was an upstander. She stood up in every possible circumstance, and that's our goal to do the same. And so I want to focus on two particular stories from her life that I found very moving. And the lessons that we can gain from her example in sha Allah. So one story the first story begins with the Battle of ahead. Now all had to was a very, very difficult time for the Muslims. It was a very difficult day where it was said that there was not one family and Medina who wasn't grieving. There was not one family and Medina who wasn't touched by loss, so the entire

city was in mourning. And one of those who was lost. One of those who passed away in this battle was Hamza while the Lauryn Hill. He was known as the Lion of Allah Spano Tata, and he was also the beloved brother of Sofia or the low Imam. When the prophet Mohamed Salah Lottie was setting them saw the body of Hamza and all the low on

and keep in mind he wasn't just killed, he was very violently mutilated.

One of the first thoughts that came to his mind was, I don't want Sofia to see her beloved brother in this way. I don't want her to deal with the trauma of the situation.

And so he tells her son as Zubaydah what are the low on goal and find her go and find your mother, and make sure she doesn't see the body of hams out on the lawn.

And so as you obeyed the law on he goes, and he tries to find her and as the women raced onto the battlefield, as they do after battle, looking for their loved ones, he sees his mother Sophia or the law on her, and she is battling her way through the battlefield. And some narration she has a dagger and other narration, she has a spear. But she is quite literally battling her way through the battlefield. And this tells you a lot about her personality, and one of the reasons why I love her so much. And so she's searching for her brother.

The other thing she has in her hand, is a shroud. She has the material to bury her brother Hamza all day long in. And so she sees her son, and she asks, I heard that Hamza was killed. And if this is true, I'll be patient and seek the reward of Allah. Can you imagine? Can you imagine hearing news like that? And that's the response.

Incredible conviction, incredible resilience, incredible trust and Allah soprano data. And so when as of a data for other line confirms this.

She look at what she does. When she's able to go to the body of hams out on the lawn, and she witnesses his body that has been mutilated. tears begin to fall from her eyes.

This is some this was one of the closest people to her. So much of her life revolved around him she loved him so deeply.

And what does she say?

She says in many Mackay we're in Nayla hero Geralyn indeed to Allah. We belong and to Him we return and then she asks, Oh ALLAH forgive him. Oh ALLAH forgive him. Oh ALLAH forgive him. Look at that incredible Subhan Allah and she stays with his body.

Late into the night and constantly constantly asking Allah Subhana Allah for forgiveness for him, making God for him. And her heart is so deeply connected to him. But her heart is even more deeply connected to the one, the only one who can help him at that point, and that is Allah subhanaw taala. And so what does she do? She makes diet for him. She embraces her grief. She allows herself to feel her grief. She accepts her grief. And she acknowledges Allah Spano Tata, as the one who knows as the best of planners. But she also says, and I love this diet, she says, Oh Allah, I seek the reward of this loss with you.

She knows that this pain is unbearable, unimaginable, unanticipated, and that she can't deal with it without the help of Allah subhanaw taala. And so that's what she does, she seeks the help of ALLAH SubhanA knowing that he witnesses every single bit of that pain, and that he witnesses every single bit of the pain that we struggle with to and that our brothers and sisters struggle with as well. And so in her grief, she composed these lines of poetry, expressing her sadness for the loss of Hampstead on the lawn. This was a team effort to try to translate this from the original Arabic which is so beautiful. This was a team effort from Chef Ahmad chef Ibrahim Shiva, Hannah, who was

honored earlier today. So it took a lot of people to try to translate this.

And I took a little bit of creative liberty to try to get it to rhyme. So these are the lines that she mentioned about the loss of her brother. She said, The News bearer said Hamza has fallen, the lieutenant of the Messenger of Allah and what an excellent Lieutenant he was invited by the possessor of the throne, the God of truth, to gardens where he will live in joyfully soothe indeed, this is what we hope for and sought for Hamza on the Day of Gathering What better abode What better destination, could we ever have thought, by Allah, I shall never forget you as long as the Northwind continues to blow in my present and my future path, my weeping continues, as my tears endlessly

flow.

As I grieve the loss of a lion by whom Islam was guarded, with goodness, may the best brother and supporter be rewarded. So these were some of her words upon the death of her brother, but on the lawn. And so, through these words, through her actions, we learned several things. The first is that when we accepted the decree of Allah subhanaw taala, it doesn't mean that we don't feel the pain.

You can accept the decree of Allah during the most difficult time in your life, and still feel the grief and still feel the pain. And it doesn't mean that you're not accepting the plan of Allah subhanaw taala. It doesn't mean it doesn't hurt. It doesn't mean that you like it, it means that you trust that Allah's path that has wisdom is beyond our own.

So even if it's not what we would have would have chosen for ourselves, we know that what Allah pathauto chooses for us is better, even if it doesn't feel that way.

The other thing that we learned from her is to allow ourselves to feel this emotion, we see that her tears were flowing, we see that in her poem, she says, I'm going to remember you forever, I'm going to grieve this loss forever.

And then she channels it into diet. When you are having your most difficult moments. Use those emotions to turn to Allah subhana, WA, tada, channel those emotions into dot

and turn to the one in whose hands is everything. Every goodness, every ease, every success comes from illustrata. So turn to him during those difficult times.

And then we finally see something which is the signature of Sofia or the law on her

that these moments, if you think about a moment that was really hard in your life, where you lost something where something shocked you where it was unanticipated. Those are the moments we hold on to forever. Those are the moments we remember forever. Who do you want to be in those moments? How do you want to look back on yourself and how you handled yourself in those moments.

We can't control the circumstances that were dealt, but we can control our response to them. And we see that the way Sofia or the low im had navigated it was she gave Hamza or the low on the last a gift he would get in this life which was the shroud he was buried in. And she gave him the gifts that would benefit him in the next life, which were the dot that she made for him.

What gifts can you give yourself for your life now? And in the akhira based on the way that you deal with the challenges that you're faced? That's the question to keep in mind. And that's the example that we learned from Sofia or the law into now the last story

And I will keep it short. If you know anything about the field or the lawn head, this is the story, you know. And this is my favorite story from her life. This happened during the Battle of conduct the Battle of the Trench.

And so during battle times the prophesy said them would make the women and children and the elderly, they would be in a fortified area to protect them. And so has some myths about the law. And he's narrating this incident that occurred when the women children elderly are in this in this fortress. And he was a poet, he was not a warrior. So he wasn't able to engage in the battles in in the same way. And so he was in this fortress as well. And so he's narrating that Sofia out on the lawn. Hmm. She noticed from a top the fortress, she noticed that there was a man walking around, or a couple of men and they were looking, you know, they were looking a little bit suspicious. Or as my son would

say, sauce. He was, well, they were looking for us, right? And so. So she's she's watching and she's like, this is one of the enemies and they're trying to see, are there weapons? Are there men? Are there warriors in this fortress. If they find out that there are none, we're done. We're done. They're gonna attack because there's nobody to defend us. So Sophia, or the lamb had turned Sasson in Messiah, trolley line. And she says, Go handle him go deal with him. And he tells her, I'm not a warrior. If I was a warrior, I'd be on the battlefield, not here with you guys. You know, like, that's not that's not why I'm here. And so she says, okay, she hides behind the door. She takes a

poll. And as this man comes around the corner, she attacks him with a poll and single handedly kills him. And I want you to keep in mind, at this point, she was in her 50s Because she was only about a year older than middle school saw Salem. So she's not a young woman. She's in her 50s. And she does this. And so she kills this man. And she's on top of the roof. So she doesn't just do that. She throws the body off the top of this fortress to convey to them, Hey, we're not defenseless. There are warriors in here, even if she's the only warrior there, right. We're not defenseless. And so they see this and they said, Okay, we're not going to mess with this place. We're we're going to

leave single handedly defended the women, children and the elderly, from attack SubhanAllah. And when little Sasa them heard the story, he said in the hasslefree. Yeah, he said that Sofia, that is Sofia, that's the only one who could do something like that. That's like, she's so unique. She stepped up. She used her strengths. She used her her her persistence. And she was the one who defended all of these people. And so what are the lessons that we leave with, to end this talk from this incident?

Sometime sometimes, you are placed in a position that is unique. Sometimes you didn't anticipate that position. Sometimes you didn't choose that position. But your one choice in that moment can affect so much. And we see that in the story of Sofia, maybe Allah soprano Tada is giving you an opportunity that you expect didn't expect you didn't even want it. But grasp it. Why? Because first, Alicia pathauto promises law you can live Allah Who laughs And Allah was I heard that he doesn't burden a soul beyond what he can bear. And second, this situation is tailored to you. There's a reason it was Sofia, or the law on her right? Not somebody else. So what situation in your life is

being tailored to you that you need to face?

And then the second is that sometimes I'll ask five out of places you in a situation or role, you didn't anticipate it? You didn't seek it out, but it's an opportunity. It's an opportunity and reframing this as an opportunity is very powerful, asking yourself, Who is Allah subhanaw taala positioning you to become because of the struggle, what traits and qualities are you gaming through this that you never would have otherwise had? And this is a gift from Allah subhanaw taala.

And then finally, to realize that, in some situations, you are uniquely positioned to make a difference.

That you are uniquely equipped to create change to handle something only you can do. And it makes all the difference. So asking yourself, How many opportunities is Allah's path at a place in our path, but we ignore them because we think we're not capable. We think we can't do it. We wait for somebody else to handle it. We wait for somebody else to donate we wait for somebody else to post we wait for somebody else to step up. And then we become bystanders in our own lives instead of upstanders in the way that Sofia yet on the low on how was and so if ALLAH SubhanA wa Tada put you in the path of this struggle in the path of this opportunity you are capable of facing it. You are

capable of rising through it and you are capable of thriving through it. May Allah Subhana Allah allow us all to be upstanders like the amazing, strong and resilient

Fears suffer Yeah or the low mmm hmm And grant us all the ability to face our struggles in a way that brings us closer to him and Lahoma me