Suhaib Webb – Virtual Khutbah
AI: Summary ©
The "employee of the internet" discusses the importance of faith and resilience in times of crisis, including the loss of three daughters to the bubonic plague and the need for people to show faith in their actions. They stress the importance of learning to act and not surrendering to the lie of the world. The speaker also touches on the importance of faith and self reliance, and the use of it to avoid going to the hospital. The importance of working on one's devotion to God and praying for peace is also emphasized.
AI: Summary ©
Let me just add on the phone when
he wants to start.
Okay, Ahmed. You are live. You are live.
Okay.
One of the traditions that at least in
many Muslim countries is that before salatul Uma,
somebody is reading the Quran.
There's a number of benefits in that. And,
alhamdulillah, we know that the prophet, salatulillah, one
of the groups of people he loved the
most were the young people who had an
attachment to the Quran. In fact, there were
times where he made leaders
a very important,
armies and missions.
He made the leaders young people because of
how much Quran they understood and knew. So
before we start, this virtual khuba insha'Allah, and
then people could pray dhor after. I'm really
happy to introduce my brother Tarek. Tarek, are
you there? I'm there.
Tarek is a is is one of those.
You know, this new generation of young American
Muslims, Egyptian, of course,
that was helpful,
who spends time with the shoo who memorizes
the Quran with the scholars, learns how to
read correctly.
And he has a really great Instagram page
too. So I'm just gonna turn it over
to you,
First of all, I wanna thank,
our brother Tarek Khalil,
for the beautiful first citation of the Quran.
I hope that every one of you are
doing well, and ask Allah
to bless,
each and every one of us during this
time and to increase us inshallah and khair.
Brothers and sisters,
As Allah said to the prophet, you
know, let's stay
with Allah
and stay with the promise of Allah.
That being said, these are
understandably difficult times,
trying times,
times which test us and and cause us
to really begin to question a number of
things. And last week,
in our short virtual Khutba, I mentioned
a very important historical person, Imam ibn Hajar,
one of the great, great scholars of hadith
who dedicated his life to serving the traditions
of the prophet sallallahu alaihi wa sallam,
and who lived really a very difficult life,
was born
as an orphan. He lost his parents, was
raised by his sister, Masha'Allah, and his sister
who lived with poverty so that she could
keep the library of his father. And she
used to say, I did this so that
my brother will become a scholar, subhanAllah,
behind as they say, every great man is
a greater woman. And and she sacrificed and
he said like Rahim Allah, may Allah have
mercy on my sister who who like sacrificed
for me to become who I was today.
The second
thing that
we learned about him is that actually he
lost 3 daughters to the bubonic plague. Out
of 6 children, he lost 3 to a
plague, 1 in 8/19
after the migration of the prophet, and the
second, 2 actually in 8/19, excuse me, and
1 in 833.
But then he still writes this
short,
very powerful
work on
how you can turn a a plague into
a blessing.
It's like how subhanAllah could someone have the
capacity to do that, Rahimullah.
But that's the spirit of the believer.
As the prophet
said, that I am amazed by the faithful.
I'm amazed by the affairs of the faithful.
Because for them, any affair is good.
If they are blessed, they are thankful,
and if they're afflicted, they're patient. And being
thankful is good for them,
and being resilient and patient is for them.
That's why we say in Islam
that faith rests on 2 wings,
the wings of gratitude
and the wings of resilience,
There's a section of this text that I
wanted to just briefly
share with everybody because,
I know, again, it's it's it's the the
role that religion plays in times like this
is that no other science, no other philosophy
can make sense
of what's happening right now
except Al Haqq,
except the truth.
And he mentioned
later on in that text because we talked
about the etiquettes last week of isolation,
the etiquettes of shouldering a plague and anchoring
a plague. And I noted how
this, out of the 7 major works of
hadith, 5 of those texts actually have chapters
on plagues
and trauma and difficulties and hardships.
It's part of life. Allah
says,
We will test you.
You will be tested
by things that cause you to be fearful,
by things which cause you to experience hunger
and poverty,
by loss of life. Like, that's that's life.
It's hard. Sometimes it's difficult,
but give good news to the patient. SubhanAllah.
1 of those scholars said, notice how it
didn't say console the resilient.
Console the patient. It said give good news
to the resilient
because the rewards of the resilient
people in the Quran
are innumerable. And resilience also doesn't mean that
we surrender, and we don't stand up for
what's right. That's not resilience.
Resilience is to boldly face challenges
and to bravely speak out against injustices
while understanding that everything is from Allah.
And that's why one of our beliefs in
Islam, and this is very central to tawhid,
is that if everything in the world around
us goes against what's in the Quran,
We should not surrender to the lie of
the world,
but we should should submit to the message
of the Quran. And that's what it means
when it says to believe in the unseen.
Because everything around me is lit. Everything around
me is, like, hype. Everything around me is
telling me, yo. Why are you trying to
be righteous?
Why are you trying to make sense of
something like this? Why are you trying to
be upright? Everyone else is going this way.
Why are you trying to go that way?
But it's in that moment whether I can
choose the liquor store or the liquor store.
I could see I could choose the bar
or the minbar. I could choose
things that are evil, or I can choose
righteousness.
Now I learn to earn because I'm righteous.
So how do I now then
act on that?
At that moment, even though I see all
of the material things in front of me
telling me one thing,
I believe in the unseen.
So what Allah's command is, I stick to
it. And that's what we say,
Those who believe in the unseen.
They choose what's with Allah, even though everything
around them may be going against that. And
that leads to bravery, and that leads to
wisdom, and that leads to insight. That takes
us beyond being blinded by the bling
of the streets
into being guided by the light of Allah.
Imagine, like, if people are just caught up
Netflix binging and you know what I'm saying?
In the little material things, how much on
on the outside of that wall are they
missing?
The knowledge of Allah is infinite.
So imam, and we call that basira.
Right? Insight.
The ability to see beyond
the definitions
and constructions of the material.
That's why when one of the Sahabi, the
prophet said to him his companions, kifa, asbaat.
How is your morning? He said, asbaatu mu'minan.
I have
arisen today as a believer in Allah.
And the prophet said, really?
Every every speech had something which can verify
that speech. So how do you verify that
you're a believer?
He said, when I look at the world,
it is though I see myself between the
heavens and the earth,
and nothing will dissuade me from seeing the
world that way.
The meaning of what he said. And the
prophet said, that's
that's faith, man. The ability to see beyond
all this.
So Imam ibn Hajar,
as a believer does,
and as the prophet mentioned that the affairs
of the of the faithful are always good
because the faithful realize this is temporary.
This is just a test.
You know, it's gonna come. It's gonna go.
I have to stand up against evil. If
the whole world is doing evil, I don't
use that as an excuse to surrender to
evil. I stand and sacrifice
for what's right
by by choosing the path of justice
and by choosing the fat the path of
righteousness and faith. SubhanAllah.
So the prophet sallallahu alaihi wa sallam, he
said
He said, be careful of the inside of
the believer because the believer sees with the
light of God.
Imam ibn Hajar, he cast a light
on the confusion perhaps that we find in
this time. And I mentioned last week, for
example, a benefit is I know a brother
he called me, and this brother has I've
known this brother, we converted in the nineties.
Still a Muslim,
but we all got our challenges, man. We
all have our challenges. We all have our
issues. One of the things that this has
exposed is a myth of self reliance.
How much we really need one another.
So the brother, he called me and he
said, because of
this lockdown,
I haven't been able to drink alcohol in
2 weeks. This is the first time I've
been able to stay away from alcohol since
we were youngsters.
And he said, like, look how Allah has
blessed me even though I'm in this difficult
situation,
how this opportunity has now been used to.
The Quran says that this has happened to
you
so that you can be purified and cleansed
of your evil.
That being said, imam, ibn Hajjr gives us
4 things to think about. I'll make it
quick, and I hope all of you are
blessed and doing well. You know, these are
very difficult times. Just 3 days ago, my
daughter, 10 month older daughter, started to have
a 102,
almost 103 degree temperature. She started freaking out,
man.
And, you know, the debate of whether to
go
to the hospital. Because, you know, if you
go to the hospital, basically, you may
catch the virus,
pediatrician on computer doing a Zoom meeting with
our pediatrician and just, you know, being there
at the service of my beautiful daughter who
I love, and my wife who I love
intently,
intensely. And you're just making dua, praying,
do what you gotta do. These are very
interesting times, and I realized, man,
the the the only place I can go
for a lot of the things I need
is Allah.
Allah says
* Tawba, he mentions that one of the
blessings he gave people to come back to
him, that's why the chapter is called repentance.
Like, the earth constricted
them, began to suffocate them
till they felt the only place they could
flee was from Allah to Allah.
SubhanAllah.
Like you're boxed in.
Well, the great scholars said this is one
of the greatest blessings of Allah, that someone
experienced
the
physical component of faith in God, where they
actually see
in the world that there are circumstances and
times
where the only place you can flee to
is Allah.
And, usually,
that comes through hardship.
So imam ibn Hajar gives us 4 things
to think about, and I hope you guys
are doing wonderful and blessed. Alhamdulillah.
And that is number 1, he said,
that from the fruit of a plague is
what's called Taksir ul Amal.
Taksir ul Amal.
What he means by Taksir ul Amal is
that somebody
is able to really understand
where they're delusional
and where they're, like, giving into false hopes.
So what he means is clarity.
So, you know,
I I have
my sphere of influence.
I have my sphere of concern. Usually, we
invert those. Our sphere of concerns becomes what
we think is our sphere of influence. Very
very rarely can we actually benefit our sphere
of concern. And that we use that to
neglect what we could really impact.
So he said, with the potential threat of
one's immediate doom
comes the clarity
of how they should be really focused in
living their life.
What's important?
I was talking to a brother a few
days ago who's been writing this book for
a long time, and he said to me,
man, I've written more in the last 2
weeks than I've written in the last, like,
5 years.
Because I realized, like, what's important.
You talk to couples. They're like, man, we
really started to build a very good relationship
because we realized how important,
how necessary you are for one another.
When my daughter was sick, you know, and
we asked God to cure all the sick
and all these children and all these people
and protect us from this virus.
You know, like,
the intimacy
and the and the intensity that you have
in that moment.
So the first, he says,
that a person will be able to do
reconnaissance
of their dreams and ambitions
and cut out the fat.
Cut out what's not real.
Some of our our scholars talked about this
idea of, like, false hope.
Right? Things that no one will ever be
able to do, but they get caught up.
But if you think about a lot of
marketing is geared towards
expanding the notion of false hope
and restricting the ability to do
really meaningful, impactful work.
The second thing he said was
that a plague will help us be better
in the work that we do.
And this means 2 things. Number 1 is
in our devotion to God. Like,
now I can say I feel like my
prayer is a little different.
You know, yesterday, my my my extended family
I have a a large extended family.
So 4 generations of people,
me and my brother-in-law, Allah bless him. We
went out and did all the shopping for
4 generations.
So we was up in Costco deep. You
know what I mean?
And masked up and everything. Felt like the
old days. We used to wear masks.
And,
you know,
we did it, and we did it, like,
focused.
We got it done. We did it right.
We had to list everything. Boom boom boom
boom boom. Right? So it and and we're
very careful.
So he said an outcome of a plague
is that your work will be better. And
before we left,
my brother-in-law said, man, let's pray to a
cup. Let's pray. Let's take it to Allah.
Ask Allah, O Allah.
You know?
Who would have ever thought that you would
think, like, Costco was like Crenshaw? You know
what I mean? On a Saturday night or
something. Like, Costco is a place where you
could get hurt. Costco?
Like, we're making turakah. Imagine how Allah is
humbled us as human beings
that we are making turakah Hajah
for Allah to protect us
in Costco.
Allahu Akbar.
That's not 23rd Street in Oklahoma City.
You know, like, wow. Back in the days
on a on late night trips,
that's Costco.
But look how, subhanallah, this has
shown
our fragility as a species.
And within that fragility will come the desire
and Allah, we believe, created this in us
as people
to make us constantly wanna get better.
We made you with the best mold. You
always wanna be better.
So when he says
that means in 2 areas. Number 1 is
a heightened intensity in worship. Ask yourself, man,
is your sujood the same as it used
to be?
Is your sujood the same as it used
to be before this happened?
Is your dua
the same as it used to be before
this happened?
Is your the same as it used to
be when you leave the house? You know
when you leave the house.
Even Hajj said, that's a blessing because before
you weren't like that.
And then in the corporal work that we
do,
whether we're artists, whether we're lawyers, whether we're
on the front lines this week, You know,
I've been in contact with a number of
physicians
and the work they're doing, man. We should
all be doing fundraisers to make sure that
the physicians in our community that we know,
that's our sphere of influence. Right? They all
have the material that they need to serve
the sick.
The prophet said,
whoever equips a soldier,
is like someone who went for the battle.
So then what about the person who helps
equip, like doctor Kadira in DC on the
front lines? Our brother Saqib in New York
is on the front lines. Brother Walehan in
Chicago on the front lines. Those local communities,
we,
right, we should be raising money to make
sure they have their masks, that they have
everything they need.
And if we can, their colleagues also. That's
real work.
That's
understanding what needs to be done.
And then
is to execute properly.
To execute properly.
The last 2 are very important,
and he said the third
is,
Allahu
Akbar.
He said that you're woke
after your negligence. And, you know, the idea
of being woke and other terms kind of
play it out.
And I see even sometimes Muslims making fun
of this term, astaghfirullah.
That term has a value to other communities
that we should love and defend
and be on the frontline support.
To be Muslim
and not care about the inequality
that minorities
and black people in this country experience is
to be a hypocrite to the message of
Malcolm
and to be a hypocrite to the message
of the prophet Muhammad sallallahu alaihi wasallam.
We see now how the in in inequalities
of this country are exposing
what many of us knew to be real.
This virus has, excuse me, exposed this.
So to be woke, it's interesting if you
look at imam
al Harari, his text, Manaz al Asayireen.
And imam Ibn Qayyam theseqaros lived 100 and
centuries of years ago,
What's the first station
in Islamic spirituality?
What's the first stop?
Is
to be
woke? Why didn't why didn't we partner with
people in that terminology?
Why didn't we offer some Islamic cadence to
that terminology? Why didn't we share our own
perspective? Instead of also just adopting
or appropriating other people's definitions,
bring your stuff to the table and share
with people.
Say, as a spiritual tradition,
Islam says, as a religious tradition, in its
spiritual component,
the first station
is
Allah
says to the prophet, tell them I inspire
and awaken you
with. So Imam Ibn Hajir says,
Look, man. I remember
in 911, people were worried that the mosque
were gonna become empty,
that MSAs would be abandoned, and we saw
the opposite. Muslims that were struggling
became saintly people.
Brothers in the most difficult and sisters in
the most difficult situations,
whether incarcerated. I remember there was a a
a a,
the carceral state is a monster, but I
remember there was a prison
that a brother
told me he gave 500.
500 brothers and sisters became Muslim.
How many peoples went to Barnes and Noble
for a turmeric latte
and came back home with a kufi?
Right? How many people went, you know,
to, like, even maybe I remember there was
a a brother in Oklahoma that used to
come and attack Islam at the mosque. And
what did the brothers do? And the sisters,
they fed him.
They not only fed his stomach,
but Allah fed his heart,
and he came into al Islam.
So now
how many of us have been awakened?
We were caught up.
I was following the Kardashians.
Let me follow Muhammad sallallahu alaihi wa sallam.
I was caught up, you know,
in in,
you know,
fantasy football and this and that and betting
and gambling. My brothers had told me this,
and now I've been brought out of that
fantasy.
I was caught up not appreciating my family,
my spouse, my children,
what's important,
now I got eyes I can see again.
You know, in Islam, we believe that loss
brings value.
It's tough, man. It's a tough one to
deal with because
the present is a gift.
But look at the Sahaba.
When the prophet sallallahu alaihi wa sallam passed
away, their love for him increased.
Look look at great figures
that have impacted societies
in any field. Right?
People tend not to really appreciate them
until they're gone. Imam Zain ul Abidine, when
he died,
the request for zakat in his city
rose so much that the government
sent people and asked, what happened?
Why now are so many people needing zakat?
They said, Imam Zain ul Abidine,
the great the the grandson of Sayna Adi.
Great grandson of Sayna Adi. He used to
give us jobs. He used to provide employment.
He wasn't just a religious figure. He made
moves,
and now we miss him. Now we see
the impact of his loss,
and that causes us to appreciate people more.
So al Yaqaba,
ibn Hajr said
that this kind of impending threat
does not allow for the budget
of negligence. How many of you miss fajr
today?
How could you miss fudged it?
When the prophet said
and I saw this on my brother, Tone
Trump's,
Instagram.
Whoever this beautiful hadith reminded me of it.
It was like I never heard it before.
Whoever prays
Allah will protect that person for the whole
day.
Like, if I believe in that hadith,
I'm not gonna miss Fajr now.
The last thing that he mentions,
Rahim
is very powerful,
and very profound.
And he says,
that
number 1,
is that a person is going to be
able to to to to focus on truly
what's important not got get caught up in
delusion.
Number 2, they're going to improve their devotion
and their professional
their professional
labor.
Number 3, aliyahqadha
minu rafla.
And the last Allah
is that a person now will truly prepare
for the trip ahead.
Can you imagine, man? Allah says in the
Quran,
You coming to me.
We're gonna meet.
Who loves to meet Allah, Allah loves to
meet them.
If I look at my trip to the
hereafter,
similar to the airport,
How much baggage am I gonna be able
to bring on that trip?
What does that Allah says, so prepare for.
Prepare for this journey this journey through life
to live for a greater life.
And those provisions, he said,
when you feel
like I'm about I may leave this this
this this stop in dunya. I may leave
this and move on.
Then what am I preparing for the next
move?
What am I now,
you know, packing, if you will,
for this journey to Allah.
So ask Allah
to bless all of us. We ask Allah
to bless you.
We pray to Allah to protect the most
vulnerable.
The Palestinians go and research a place called
Jarash.
Go research
a camp in the middle of nowhere
called Jarash.
Read about those people and ask yourselves, how
in today's world
can anyone allow this to happen?
Think about those children
on the border
who those tears are coming down their eyes.
They may be impacted by this virus. They
haven't seen their parents in months.
They've been separated by their parents.
Think about those people
and ask Allah
to protect them and make us agents of
their protection.
Ask Allah, as the prophet said,
The best person is the one who who
serves people.
Ask Allah to make us
servants
and served.
Think about
people in this country,
minorities who are being gravely impacted
by this virus because of the social programming
and setting and constructions that happened in this
country.
We have to be
agents of healing.
Think about our brothers and sisters in Kashmir,
through Rohingya.
Think about the people in Italy.
Right? Those people who are dying in my
city, New York City, people who are dying
there.
We ask Allah
to bless the sick,
to cure the sick, and we ask Allah
to bless all of the health care providers,
those on the front lines, those nurses, those
doctors,
people who go to work every day, don't
have the proper equipment,
who are sacrificing
themselves for others.
We pray that Allah bless you and your
family. We ask Allah to increase us in
goodness.