Suhaib Webb – Prophetic Guidance On Anxiety & Depression
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AI: Transcript ©
It's great to see,
everybody here, alhamdulillah,
early in the morning,
Especially for those of us who work,
in the weekdays.
This is certainly asking a lot of us,
Masha'Allah. I've kind of been in the same
boat,
now that I have a I work, like
outside of the masjidah side of the community.
And it's also a blessing to see so
many people who I know and have
known. Alhamdulillah.
You know, relationships are a blessing.
So
what,
I decided to do is just to read
some a hadith of the prophet salallahu alaihi
wasallam
on,
sadness and hardship and difficulties.
From a really
great book
of hadith
that are just dua
and remembrance that were collected by Imam Ibn
Taymiyyah,
Rahimohullah.
Called Al Karim Appasha, Al Karim App Payib.
Good words.
And then
in New York City
we have
tendencies, you know, different communities,
neo traditional community, the neo Sadafi community,
fighting over very simple things like personalities,
and shiks, and groups.
Most of us you know like as one
brother told me, he said, I don't know
who,
you
know, even Abi Sheba was. I just want
to raise my kids, man. You know what
I mean? Like I'm just trying to raise
my kids.
But, the people of the Masjid, they're fighting
over people who are dead.
Why don't they fight over people who are
alive? SubhanAllah.
So,
I'm the kind of person I don't care
about these kind of things. I have my
own
way I was trained and as Hari Shaha'i
Muhammad, you know, in Egypt.
But I don't believe that we should make
our personal
opinions
as a means to destroy and weaken the
Sunni community in particular, and Muslims.
So the reason also I teach this book
is because it was explained
around 200 years later or a 100 years
later or so, by Imam Al A'ini, Al
Hanafi al Maturidi.
Who's like the opposite of Iba Taimiyyah. So
like, Iba Taimiyyah writes the book,
Imam al Ayni Badruddin al Ayni, he's actually
buried if you're from Egypt in Dabbar Umar,
in Dabbar Atraq he's right behind his grave
and his madrassa is right behind Jami'i Al
Azhar.
Still there is panAllah.
So
what I appreciated
in Imam Al Ayni's work is
even if he was
perhaps critical
of Ibn Taymiyyah
at times, It's like very academic.
It's not like personal.
And I believe like, I don't know if
anyone's seen recently Sheikha Asokhadi's post about Yajujimatuj,
like
it's his opinion,
like people are destroying him.
Like like if we look at
an academic religious opinion the position that a
Sheik Yasir took whether
we agree or you agree or whatever, this
doesn't this doesn't matter. What matters is like
he took an academic position that has support
in our tradition,
and then he's being, like, eviscerated
by people. Like, SubhanAllah.
As though we don't understand
how important each other is to one another's
success.
So what I appreciated especially in this age,
I teach in a I teach in kind
of like the Berkeley of the East Coast,
which is NYU,
you know,
and I have a problem with the left
and the right. I think muslims should be
beyond left and right, to be honest with
you. We should be moralists,
we're prophetic, we're not left or right.
Is the
speed in of which people can just be
completely cancelled.
Like just deemed irredeemable.
Like like,
Abubakr when
he decided not to forgive Mishtah,
his relative,
and he said, I'm not going to give
him zakah anymore
or charity because he slandered. He was from
the people who slandered say to Aisha.
Allah sent the verse
Allah and Allah said to Abu Bakr like,
don't you want people to Don't you want
Allah to forgive you? And then Abu Bakr
said, wallahi, I want Allah to forgive me.
So I forgive him and I will continue
to give him
like charity.
So what I appreciate about Imam al Aini
is his ability to nuance
his differences
with Imam Ibn Taymiyyah
but without
deeming him irredeemable.
And, even Qayyim does that also with the
imam al Harari and madarjes sariki.
Which was originally Manaz al As Sayyirin, which
we study in Azhar, which is like one
of the major books of Tuzov.
Ibn Qayyam takes the time to explain it
and then at times he says, you know,
a sheikh.
When he talks about, Imam al Harari, you
call it a sheikh.
He doesn't say like this evil person,
is stuff for Allah, akeber, shayateen
or a isa dajayal.
So I think sometimes one of the things
we can learn
from our earlier
scholars and thinkers and academics
is their ability to nuance their differences in
a way that's like very mature.
So I teach this book actually at my
school. I have an online school called Swiss,
you can enroll. It's $10 a month. It's
a cheap plug, I'm sorry.
But, you know, our plan is to launch
a full Islamic curriculum in English based on
like Azhar in West Africa in English online.
That will be an app on your phone.
And it it's directed so the way that
because my background in education we have different
focus groups for different
targeted audiences because oftentimes as religious studies teachers
we don't know what you need.
So it's hard to like last night, it's
hard to speak to such a big audience,
you know.
So we have focus groups that talk to
high school students like what are your questions
about God? What what is it that you
wanna know about Muhammad alaihi sallam? What are
the issues that are important to you? And
then the curriculum
answers those questions. For young professionals,
focus groups.
For old folks, focus groups. So that not
only do you have one curriculum but you
have curriculums
that are speaking directly to the needs of
the learner. This is a long term process.
We've been working on this project for 3
years, self funded
And then we ran out of money, which
is, you know, pretty pretty normal,
in America. And then we did a beta
launch. Where we're at now is a beta
launch. $10 a month because we don't wanna
do fundraisers.
Wanna give people something.
And then in the fall, Insha'Allah, we just
hired our first employee, Masha'Allah.
Sister Sabrina. And we work with people purposely
like in the occupied territories. We hire people
to do our jobs for us that are
Muslim.
We believe in nation building.
So I'm adamant about hiring Muslims as best
I can. And then also hiring Muslims in
places like Palestine, places like
before Myanmar.
Places where, you know, there's a need. So
Upwork, if anyone uses Upwork, you can actually
find people that are looking for employment
in places where people are subjected to like
horrible treatment. The third thing is it's $10
a month. Hello is like 2 lattes, man.
And that's for the whole family. Like people,
we worry that
the commodification of religious education is not something
that's prophetic.
Like prophets were non prophet.
The first 501c3
is prophethood.
I don't look for a profit. So we've
also felt that it's affordable. So this book
actually, there's 15 lessons now.
So imagine like Netflix but an Islamic school
and we have 2 seasons every year.
Fall season, spring season, and then eventually we
plan on to get into like short film
production
and expanding
the depth. So our Arabic class for example,
you go with the person to the grocery
store like vlogging it.
So instead of just sitting at a table
like a drawing of an orange like,
Like, you know and I know we're gonna
forget it,
but instead you we call it you know,
the rikhla logawiya, like you go out
and so the person vlogs
like Snapchat imam style
Arabic.
So that you can like see and live
it. So, InshaAllah, if you're interested, $10 a
month, go to suhayweb.com,
hook us up, you know what I'm saying?
Be good InshaAllah. So the book in front
of us, the reason I said it's important
is it at times you won't see it
today. It nuances.
The difference is that unfortunately our community doesn't
seem to have the maturity to nuance.
So
it's interesting that the 35th chapter in the
book,
of collections of dua would surprise people. Faslun,
fi,
oops. My my screen went
somewhere by itself.
What's going on?
Projecting while they're in there. Oh, the Lord,
there's a function maybe.
Yeah, I think what happened when it somehow
moved my my screen.
But this chapter is on al Husan,
which I I thought was interesting when I
was learning these hadith with the masheikh
because oftentimes we hear
that people are told, like, you know, if
you feel sad or you're anxious
or you're depressed, it's because your faith is
weak.
And I have to say subhanAllah,
that that has to be the most
successfully stupid thing I've ever heard in my
life.
And not only is it stupid, excuse me
if your kids are here,
but it's also extremely irresponsible
and it destroys people.
You know, one of the challenges of being
in my position is continuing having to play
cleanup duty
for someone who tells something
extremely problematic
and then that person walks away and they
feel like they're com they're defeated. Like
they heard something from someone that they think
maybe is a religious leader or a teacher
that actually has contributed to their destruction.
We're not talking about like halal and haram.
We're not talking about,
you know, saying something to someone like this
is wrong and you should stop it. We're
talking about saying to someone that struggles with
clinical anxiety that the reason that you're anxious
is because your relationship with Allah is bad.
Whereas, it should be the opposite.
We should be framing that your relationship with
Allah can
contribute to your emancipation from this challenge.
So that's one of the the reasons that
when I found this text I said, SubhanAllah.
And to be honest with you in in
the 6 canonical books of hadith,
you're going to find chapters on sadness, anxiety,
fear,
hardship.
Because the prophet sallallahu alaihi wasallam,
in our aqida,
we believe that the prophets
experience
normal human things.
So Imam al Marzuki,
he says in his book
He said, you know, it is
possible when it's when we're talking about the
rights of the prophets,
that
they can experience,
you know,
human
issues.
As long as those like sickness, fear, anxiety,
sadness, happiness,
as long as those things do not compromise
their ability to be prophets.
So it's it's really important that we share
with people the idea that when you're struggling
with certain issues, there are prophetic examples for
you to find help in.
When you feel that you're down in life,
while the prophet sallallahu alaihi wasallam, he experienced
times where he was challenged.
When you feel happy, there were times when
the prophets experienced happiness.
And they are the epitome of the etiquette
with Al Khaddaw al Qadr.
Because if if the prophets only model for
us happiness, then who we turn to for
sadness?
If the prophets only modeled sadness, then who
we turn to for happiness.
And that's why Sayna Muhammad sallallahu alaihi wasallam
Allah says laqadakanada
kunfirasoolillahi
uswatoon hasana.
Sayna Muhammad is the uswa hasana and here
it's used in a form which means unrestricted
example
in every
majal and every aspect of our life.
So when we see Fastun Fil Korb, wal
Husani walhem,
you know the chapter
on hardship
and sadness
and anxiety.
We shouldn't say like, oh, Astaghfirullah alaihi wa
sallam. No, no. The prophet sallallahu alaihi wa
sallam is the complete model.
Because if someone was only asked to model
success then that's like easy, we can all
model success well.
But what makes people truly unique is their
ability to hold on to principles
in the face of serious threats
and in the face of serious hardships. And
that's why I say, Muhammad sallallahu alaihi wasallam,
he said
when people ask him, who are the people
who were tested the most?
The the prophets and the righteous.
So this
collection here that we're about to go through
talks about
those supplications that can be said
when we are experiencing challenges.
Anxiety,
hardship, and sadness.
We also
need to be careful
that sometimes people are told
who may have like very serious clinical needs,
that they should not seek
remedies
like, you know, therapy. So
I know in in the community that I
served in in the past and now at
NYU,
In Boston when I was there we started
a clinic
for people that was ran by Muslim clinicians
for mental and emotional health.
And so many, SubhanAllah, so many marriages were
saved.
And so many people's iman was saved, Masha'Allah.
I remember here before,
there was doctor Kamal Shahrawi
who used to come, you know, every Sunday
and help people. And now in NYU, Imam
Khaled Masha'Allah, he just hired 2 women
professional clinicians
to serve our community. Yes ma'am. You have
the Khaleel Center right here in the Yeah,
and we actually partner with the Khaleel Center
in New York. So, people that aren't students
we refer them to the Khalil
Center. Because when we run away from things
as Muslims,
if we run away from things in the
name of religion, then we can't get angry
when that thing is acting in a way
which is irreligious.
Right? So if we pull away from say
offering these services and then we find, I
remember when I lived here, subhanAllah, I was
in the park one day and this this
middle aged woman came to me and she
said, I hate you. Woah.
I said, man,
what did I do? You know. And she
was like, I was in an abusive relationship,
and I came to this mosque every Friday,
and I tried to find people to help
me, and no one would help me. And
I was like, I didn't know
I don't know you,
so don't hate me.
But besides you hating me, let's make you
the issue.
And she said that she actually This is
before the Hillel Center and before Doctor. Sharawi.
She actually had to go to like a
Jewish community for help, man. And then she
said my own ethnic community became upset with
me because they were like you're going to
the Jewish community. But she's like there's no
Muslim services. Right? So if there's no services
provided
you don't have a right to,
like,
share an informed evaluation. We pulled out, An
empty chair can't speak for us. So alhamdulillah,
that's the second thing. The prophet said,
It's hadith of the prophet where he said,
you know, servants of Allah seek remedies. Some
people maybe they'll mention the hadith of the
woman who had epilepsy
in the time of Sayyidina Rabi salallahu alaihi
wa sallam who came to him and asked
him to make dua for her. And then
the prophet told her isbri
be patient. I can make dua for you
or you can be patient, it's better for
you.
She was patient.
Most of the ulama,
they said this hadith is for this woman
only because of her maqam.
That her her station was so high, subhanAllah,
that that only applied to her because other
companions came to say, Nabi salallahu alaihi wa
sallam
and he got them help
or he himself seek help
salallahu alaihi wa sallam.
So, this is one of those hadith where
it's not allowed
to to apply it to someone else.
So we'll start with the the first hadith,
we'll go through some of these duas. They're
like super beautiful and usually when I teach
this we only have like an hour and
a half. We get into groups and we
talk and we share. It's really a a
good experience.
But, this hadith of Sayyidina Abbas,
That in the face of hardship.
And
we have 3 types of hardship.
2 are
considered commendable
and then 1 is considered problematic.
So the first is, I experience hardship
in the necessities of my life.
You know, like taking care of my family,
having what's called a kefah.
Things that are, you know, our basic needs.
There's actually 4 types
and that's okay.
Like I should turn to Allah and seek
Allah's help and ask Allah to increase me
and bless me and sustain
me. The second is hardship and deen.
So like maybe I struggle to practice religion
for any
reason.
Maybe it's my parents if I'm a convert,
or my parents aren't very religious. Maybe it's
a spouse,
you know, maybe it's my work.
Islamophobia
is the continued attempt to condition
the curly hair of the Muslims to be
straight like Becky.
Right, to make us conform
to their understanding of religion.
Right? That creates
hardship for us.
So, or maybe it's my nafs, I'm struggling
against my soul.
So again, that's something commendable.
It's a struggle.
The third is problematic and that is that
I feel hardship in the Haram.
You know, like man, I really wanted to
go and do something bad and I can't.
That's something that is considered.
And the 4th is experiencing hardship and a
lack of opulence.
So like I want more. So like I
have a house in San Jose, man I
want a house in Los Gatos.
And I feel like
anxiety and stress, I'm like upset about it,
like ruins my day.
I remember once there was a couple
in Oklahoma
that came to the masjid and they were
fighting in front of the masjid,
like fighting.
So I was an apprentice imam, I was
27 years old. I was like, man, I
quit.
Like, this is the first day on the
job.
So
I sat down with this couple. I'm not
gonna say who was it he or she
who said these things, but they were literally
like there was ripped clothing, man.
So I said like, I read like the
3 coals like 300,000 times, you know.
And then I said, listen, I'm very young,
I don't really know how to handle this
but what's going on?
And one of them said, like, I saw
my friend. They had this really nice
credit card
and my spouse won't allow me to get
this credit card.
Like that's what they were fighting over in
front of Masjid, man. So I said, why
why did you come to the Masjid? Like,
you could have fought anywhere.
And then
he he and she they were talking
and one of them said I came to
the masjid to pray that Allah will protect
me from the other one.
So I was like,
we need to open up the clinic.
But
the point is like, no one should be
getting into a fight over a credit card.
They shouldn't feel that's a hardship.
Hardship should be felt in Dean
Our attempt to practice and live our religious
life and then
the basic things that we need for sustenance.
And our goals, the goals that fall in
normality. Right?
Not irrational goals.
The 2 that are a problem
are related to
hardships felt in Haram. Like man, I really
wanted to go to the club and they
wouldn't let me in. Like, I'm so sad.
That's that's not a good hardship. Right? Or
in what's called a Al Israf. Going
beyond
and wanting more than what I already have.
What's remarkable about this and you learn a
lot from Hadith is that Ibn Abbas is
saying that the prophet Sallallahu Alaihi Wasallam,
he said this
at during hardship. How would ibn Abbas know
that the prophet is experiencing hardship?
Either he saw it
or he felt it or both.
So even though he's a young person,
ibn Abbas is attentive to the needs of
people around him. He understands what people are
emotionally going through. It's actually a very beautiful
thing.
He he
he hass
with what the prophet is experiencing.
Or
the prophet
showed signs of this hardship and then he
models as we said earlier
for how to deal with hardship. Often times
it's very difficult and we've all been there.
My daughter, she was born in in Ramadan,
you know, the first two weeks she's in
Nikku.
Like that stuff messes with you, man. You
see your baby in ICU for babies.
She was orange from,
you know,
having some issues. She was like bright orange.
And
they were like her oxygen levels are dropping.
We don't know why.
That stuff will like put you in code
red mode.
The first thing you're like, oh god, why
is god doing Like that first notion is
like, is god doing Don't think that way.
But it's hard.
It's not easy. So,
subhanAllah,
the process of models how to manage when
things seem to be falling apart.
And he doesn't question God.
He trusts God. It's tough.
So he says, and Allah sallallahu alaihi sallam,
kaniyakulu
andal kerb and yaqulu.
Yaqulu
means that he did this a lot.
That form of the verb
means like he he said this often.
In Balaha, we said this kind of verb,
it means something that's consistent in rhetoric.
He didn't say, he said it that,
he would say.
So again, the idea of modeling,
When hardship would appear. La
ilaha illallah and there's the I don't know
if you guys can see my mouse but
there's the dua.
That there's
no except we'll
talk about it in a minute.
This hadith is related by Sayna Imam al
Bukhari and Sayna Imam Muslim.
Alhamdulillah,
between me and Bukhari is 13 people.
From Sheikh Abdulrahman Kattani. So inshallah if somebody
memorizes all these dua and you contact me
I'll give you the senate inshallah to these
dua.
So Sayidina Muhammad salayhi sallam
he would make this dua.
He would say La Ilah Ilah Allah because
usually when we experience hardship it's related to
fear.
And fear is a powerful thing, especially if
it's behind us.
We wanna keep fear in front of
us. Yes, ma'am? Is there anyone who could
fix the visual?
Honestly, I didn't,
yeah, I have no idea what's going on.
I'm just here.
Yeah. It was on when you came. Yeah.
And then it went off.
I I I'm I'm from New York,
But,
I don't know why it turned off. Ahmadino.
I think your voice your voice was your
voice was
video conversion issue. It was on though.
I've,
I'm sorry.
If there's an MCA, do you know where
that brother went?
Yeah. So
the dua that you can't see,
is La ilaha illallah and I appreciate your
patience. La ilaha illallah hoo.
And the reason that the prophet would say
La ilaha illallah is because sometimes hardship
can throw us off man. It can shake
us, it can move us.
So we have to remind ourselves who's the
ilah, the ilah is Allah.
Look at in in the 43rd chapter of
the Quran, how as a strategy
Firaun uses fear. So,
Firaun,
he tries to incite fear in people and
then they obey him. He becomes an ilah.
So in the face of something that may
be difficult and hard,
the prophet invokes
the divinity of his Lord to remind him,
stay centered.
Ahmed Shoke,
you know, this famous poem of this ant.
We plan to actually do a series on
his poems with, like, you know, animation
for kids. They're so good.
And he has this poem about this aunt.
Ahmed Shope is like the Iqbal of the
Arab world.
And, you know, he mentions this aunt is
walking on this hill.
The Muqaddam if you're from Cairo.
You know, an ant is walking on this
hill,
this large mountain.
And then suddenly her legs go like this.
Like as an ant, like freaks out.
And then she starts to say,
wow. I'm an ant.
Ants shouldn't be climbing mountains.
She she gets scared,
so she starts running.
She allows the fear to consume her, to
un center her.
And as she's running she slips and falls
into a puddle.
And he says, you know a puddle to
an ant is an ocean.
So she starts drowning
and as she's drowning she says, you know,
like, why did I listen to my fear?
Why did I allow the fear to cause
me to react impulsively?
And then he says,
So,
yeah, why would you why why why would
you be allow it to consume you
Because what you may run into inadvertently
from what you fear is worse for you
than what you feared.
So Sayna Rasool Sallallahu Alaihi Wasallam,
he begins La ilaha illallah
in the face of hardship
because the statement la ilaha illallah
centers
us and reminds us, laarabasiwa.
There's nothing
in control except Allah.
Even
the thing that I'm worried about has an
ilah
and its ilah is Allah.
So la ilaha illallah
and then he says
Al
'Avim.
Avim
is a word
which implies that Allah Subhanahu Ta'ala
it's called Sifah Mu Shaba
in Arabic
that
Allah Subhanahu Ta'ala transcends all things.
No one can escape Allah.
No one can step out of Allah's knowledge.
No one can step away from his power.
Good and evil,
bad
and the beautiful, all are created by Allah.
Imam Nasafi
in his aqeeda said, that good, evil, pain,
happiness, sadness.
But here it's used
to remind the person to be brave.