Suhaib Webb – Hikam Seven Tests Resilience Can Be A Blessing
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AI: Transcript ©
What's up? What's going on?
We're back together again, growing together, and I
know the last few hiccups have been, like,
really earth shattering.
Allah Subhanahu Wa Ta'ala says in the Quran,
after 'Auzu billahi minashaitanal regime,
Allah Subhanahu Wa Ta'ala says that he gives
wisdom to who he wants,
and whoever has been given wisdom has been
given an infinite good.
In describing our beloved Messenger Muhammad Sallallahu
Wa
Allah says, yuzekkihim
wayu alimuhumulkitaba
wal hikma.
That the prophets job is to purify the
internal and external character and intellects of people
to teach them the book and to teach
them wisdom,
The application
of the book. So knowledge and wisdom are
2 very different things, subhanAllah.
That takes us now to the text we've
been reading together here at Swiss. For those
of you who haven't enrolled
in all of our classes for $10 a
month as we build something incredible.
Atsuahibweb.com/swiss.
We move now to a really important
hicom, the 10th hicom,
that touches on
some very, very powerful concepts that can rock
us. So
let's kind of frame where we are. The
hiccup starts by framing actions and deeds.
Like don't get too caught up in the
good you do. Don't get defeated by the
evil that you do.
In my podcast with brother Ryan Harris, he
told me as an NFL player, one of
the things he knew
is that
what was important for him that people usually
don't notice when they watch a game is
how people deal with failure.
And that tells you if you've defeated your
opponent or not. So how do we deal
with also failure and slip ups,
in in the deeds that we do?
And then we talked about emergent religiosity,
and being too impulsive, or too negligent, and
then we talked about our emotions,
and our feelings, and our personal kind of,
drives that may not necessarily, you know, be
the best for us.
We talked about
anxiety, depression, and sadness.
We talked about
responsibilities
and the signs of
putting faith first, if you will.
And then we talked after that,
about, you know,
the power of dua
that's unanswered,
and then when things don't go our way
that we think are are promised to us,
and how we appreciate that could be a
test from God.
The next thing that we wanna talk about
is health.
You know the prophet said,
You know that
something that most people fail to take advantage
of, one of them is their free time.
We know that time is so important, look
at the last part of the Quran, the
last 30th part of the Quran. It actually
starts backwards. Like when we think about our
lives in the dunya,
in this temporary world, we think about our
birth until where we are today. Least I
can say for myself.
The 30th part of the Quran starts backwards.
It starts with the day of resurrection.
It goes from that to our times in
the grave.
It goes to heaven and *, our times
in the grave, and so on and so
forth. Then it goes to Al Alak, when
we're created,
and then it goes before that,
right before creation.
And then at the end of the 30th
part of the Quran, walaser, it swears by
time. As if to say like time encapsulates
your success and all those things.
So sometimes health is a challenge because health
keeps us from bad health,
from worshiping in the way that we intended.
And that may cause us to lose hope
and trust in Allah.
Or we may see people around us
who are sick,
and we're moved by that, our dear ones,
and they're no longer able to worship
or serve in the way that they wanted
to. We may begin to question trusting in
God. Remember the first 25 hikam
are about trusting in Allah.
So Imam ibn Utta'a Allah says, Iza Fataha
laka wijhatan
minata'aruf.
Izaawin
Fataha opened like Surat Fatiha,
wijhatan,
excuse me, minata'arruf.
When Allah has opened for you
a a
a place where you can get to know
him.
A situation,
Wijha is hard to translate in English.
Wijha like
a vantage point.
But here it means like when Allah Subhanahu
Wa Ta'ala has given you the opportunity
to know him,
Don't, like don't let that bother you
if
the good you did is suddenly reduced.
What he means here is if Allah Subhanahu
Wa Ta'ala has allowed you to be tested
through your wealth, through your health, through some
kind of loss, but here specifically health
by illness,
do not
despair
if your deeds are not like they used
to be when you were when you were
healthy.
Fa'inahu
ma fataaha
lakila wahuayuridu
anya ta'arwafa
ilaik.
He said the only reason that Allah Subhana
Wa Ta'la has allowed you to experience this
is so that you can increase your relationship
with Him.
Alam Talam, don't you know Alna Ta'arrufa
Huwamuridu
Huwariq?
Aren't you aware, like,
this is
this opportunity to know him
is
his, like, his will for you.
His will for you.
Could also be, mean like a blessing, what
he wanted to happen
for you. Like trust that.
What Aamaluanta
muhudiha
ilayin that you, you just simply,
you present these to him as like an
offering.
Wa'aina matuhudihi
ilayhi mimahuamuriduhuwalik.
And and like where,
How do you compare, like, what you've given
to God in comparison to what God has
decreed for you?
I'm gonna break this down because I know
it's it's not easy to translate, but it's
really beautiful, SubhanAllah.
When Allah Subhanahu Wa Ta'ala has given you
a window into knowing him through
in here like illness or loss.
Falatubari
maaha il qallaamaluk.
Don't don't get upset
if if your deeds,
like,
are reduced.
The only reason that he allowed that that
to happen is so he can make himself
manifest you in your life. Usually, when it's
through loss, through failure,
people either are gonna get defeated,
or they're gonna realize that this is an
opportunity to grow and learn.
And they're going to see, like, oh, wow.
I'm not completely capable.
So what can I do
to improve my capability?
And if I can't do that, then I
am completely in the state of submission
to the authority above me. So you see
something happening here.
Aren't you aren't you aware that
God's
will is for you to know him through
this experience?
Well, you
know, you just you just give deeds as
the gift, as the offering to God, because
he's commanded you to.
And how do you compare what you've given
him to what he's willed for you?
Alright, this is beautiful.
And let's go through it. Sheikh Shar Nabi
says,
We know that one of the names of
God is Al Fattah,
Oh, Al Fata, open things for me,
open things for me.
Wijhatanajeeha
minjihadata'aruf
when Allah has given you the opportunity to
know him. Wa talkajihaqalamradi
walbalaya
walfaqaat
fa'innaha
walgharihima.
So in general,
and although I mentioned health, it's a little
bit wider than that, any type of loss.
He mentions el emrod because we wanna talk
about that because that that's what impacts most
people. But any type of loss. Recently, I
was talking to a friend who his uncle
was a millionaire, and then just like,
boom, it was gone.
Right? Allah Yartim yasha Allah gives and he
takes from who he wants. He raises and
he lowers who he wants.
So
the point is that
these different trials and losses are meant for
us to find instability in the losses,
and stability in the Lord of everything.
Because Allah Subhanahu Wa Ta'ala, our relationship with
him is what has to be stable. We
tend to invert it.
So we tend to base our relationship with
God
strictly on the measurements of the world. This
goes back to what I talked about in
the last few hicom, whereas if I'm obeying
Allah and I am with God,
everything else is salt on the food, man.
Those who say Allah is our lord, and
then they stay down. Staying down is the
crux
of understanding
the logic of the world we live in.
Between the will of God, the command of
God, and our choices.
So the Sheikh he says very beautifully,
You know, and the opportunity to know God
here is specifically meaning like through illness, through
trials and tests, and through loss.
And because these are opportunities,
these are a cause by which we can
know Allah subhanahu wa ta'ala's
attributes. So like if I'm sick I turn
to him for healing, if I'm
needing,
you know to be enriched financially Allah is
a razzak.
If I'm looking for any any name of
Allah,
the challenge of the names of God and
the attributes of God, and we have a
class on this in the future called the
aims of the names,
Is to be able to find intersectionality
between his names and our lives.
And that's marifa,
the ability to contextualize that.
So he's saying this is an opportunity
for us to know,
for example, Allah's kindness,
his authority, and power, and other things. And
then he says, and the one who's being
addressed here is the person who's woke, and
you know I I gave a moteyaqib.
I gave on my podcast, you can find
the series on being woke, when woke was
like that term, and I talked about how
Imam al Harari,
in his Manazal Asse'irim, like in Ibn Qayyim
and his madad is just sariqim, which is
like an abridgment of it. They mentioned that
the first
stop in the spiritual path is being awake.
Right?
Someone who's and this is not just being
awake, this is like deliberately woke, like I'm
invested.
So it's not the world that's causing me
to wake up. No, I am in a
state of deliberate,
alertness.
Wal Mutayakev
is the one who's being addressed here is
someone that, like, they they they're alert to
God's
names and attributes, and they see those things
in their lives.
Not someone that has doubt in Allah Subhanahu
Wa Ta'ala. And the Sheikh, he continues in
this part of this hicom is extremely relevant
to us today. One of the things that
we struggle with, at least in the west,
is the idea of ministry to Muslims. Like
we we're good at being we're
good at being scholars of Al Qaeda, we're
good at being,
you know, enforcers of certain things, but we're
not very good at chaplaincy.
So we see, even in the call out
culture. Right. Muslims are destroyed. For me,
that's not the sign of a complete community.
A com a complete community
community is not one that simply holds people
to be responsible,
but a complete prophetic community is one that
also offers them redemption.
We're not modeling that well for people. So
we're seeing people destroyed. Their lives are done,
and and the Muslim community has just cast
them out.
That's not prophetic, man.
That's not a prophetic community. That that's something
else. That's a community that's working for something
else, and that worries me. That doesn't mean
that we,
minimize
the mistakes people have made. We should hold
people accountable,
but there's accountability with redemption.
So, this part of the hiccup
hits on something I feel that is anemic
in the Muslim community in America, and that's
ministry.
So he says,
Falatubali
ma'aha il qallaamaluk.
So if you're impacted by
sickness,
loss,
illness,
a loss of wealth,
existential issues, and we can also say like,
you know,
this happened to a lot of people, Falatubari,
ma'aha, in Qalaamaluk.
Then don't don't get down if that happens
to you.
Listen to the Hadith of of the prophet
that speaks to this, Think about people that
we know and love, who are sick and
ill, can no longer worship
in the way that they did when they
were healthy.
Prophet said,
Allah Subhanahu Wa Ta'ala says to the Malaika,
the Malaika that are in charge, kiraman kati
binyaramanamatafarul
mentioned in Surat al Fitar.
You know, write down
the
the good that this person who's now sick,
write down for them now in their sickness
the good that they used to do when
they were healthy. It's also an encouragement for
those of us who are still somewhat young
or younger or really young and healthy, to
get busy, man.
Don't say like, I'm going to wait till
I get older
to do things. And I'll do it now
so that it becomes a pattern. So when
we become older, and our physical ability is
compromised, our intellectual ability is compromised,
su'ul kibr,
the prophet Sa'd, you know, dua
protection from.
That that will be like written for us.
So people with Alzheimer's, dementia,
you know, we see them, we feel upset
and sad, but let's remember that the good
they did before, they're getting the reward for
it now.
Somebody that's bedridden, we can say to them,
you know, the wijha
ta'arof, this opportunity to know God,
is not something that should get you down,
because you are being compensated for the good
that you did, because why? All this falls
on the famous hadith, in the malameru biryat.
Actions are by the intentions, because if that
person was healthy, we know they would do
it.
SubhanAllah. So he says,
The point here,
how do we know God through this? He
said, this is Muwadi Dhuhu,
this is what
Allah subhanahu wa ta'ala wanted for you. And
if you compare that to the actions that
you would normally have done,
the fact that God is compensating you as
though you did these actions perfectly
means that the reward is going to be
greater while you're sick
than the deeds that you and I presented
while we were healthy, or we had what
we needed to perform those deeds,
because we'll be deficient.
So what he's saying, and this is dope,
is that this is an opportunity to know
Allah
because
your rewards now are greater
and his blessings are greater
because it's automatically
understood that you did these deeds perfectly.
And that wouldn't happen while we were healthy.
So like while I'm healthy, if I pray
Fajr, my mind might be somewhere, you know,
I'm
I'm I'm, you know, like
doing what I normally do, my mind is
not focused. Right?
But if I was somehow incapacitated
and I had regularly played Fajr,
but I was still, you know alive, but
just not able to function like I normally
did,
I'll be rewarded for that Fajr as though
it was perfect.
So what he's saying is, muhwadiuhwaliq,
like how do you compare that
blessing in the sense of that illness when
that's going, when that's happening
to when you were healthy and there were
deficiencies in your deeds. And this is what
he means by wizhetun
wizhetun,
minata'arruf.
Like this is one component of getting to
know the mercy,
love,
and kindness of Allah Subhanahu Wa Ta'ala.
So, when we're talking with people who are
ill, we're talking with people that may have
lost things that they're not able because of
that loss, they're not able to perform
the way that they used to. We should
remind them of this man. That Allah is
rewarding you as though you did those things
when you were healthy, Alhamdulillah,
and when you had the ability, and
now because Allah is so kind, and merciful,
and loving to the believers.
You are getting
the full recompense for the deeds.
That's why Sheikh Shar Nabi says
You know, and like this is this is
the opportunity
now for for you to cash in because
this is a greater blessing,
than having to try to fulfill the requirements
of worship when you were healthy.
Masha'Allah.
May Allah bless us, bless us, and help
us again one more time. This hikm says,
You know, if the opportunity arises
for you to learn about God through loss,
through a test, this is what's understood.
Don't don't get down.
If you're not able to maintain the good
that you used to do.
The
only reason that this happened is Allah wanted
you to have the opportunity to know him.
And that is what God has commanded of
us, and this is what God wills for
us, is the opportunity to learn about him
because knowing Allah is what helps center us
in life.
What,
and
and and and and and the deeds that
you do, those are simply things that you
present because you've been commanded.
Like, you know, you've been commanded
to do those things.
They're a sign of your guidance and your
gift, if you will, to your creator. Wa'ina
matoodihi
ilayhi minma huwumawiduhu
alaikin. How do you compare what you've done
to what God has willed for you? SubhanAllah,
we ask Allah Subhanahu Wa Ta'ala to bless
us and bless you.