Advice in Light of Coronavirus (COVID-19) Khutbah

Bismillah in the name of Allah subhanho wa taala, the Creator of the heavens and the earth, the one who raises only wills and debases showing their worth, the controller of the sun and moon, the stars and winds and the cloud, the all powerful legislator who decides who decides what is prohibited and what is allowed. He alone is our Rob, sustaining us from our birth and until our death, providing us all of our needs, each morsel of food and every breath. Praise be to Allah whom the angels worship without tyre continuously. All shall come to him on the Day of Judgment humbly and with humility, and may peace and Salutations be upon the leader of the children of Adam, our Prophet Muhammad

sallallahu alayhi wa sallam whose status no human can ever fathom. Know that Allah Subhana Allah to Allah has commanded us to have Taqwa of him when he says, Yeah, are you 100 Adina taco la haka. 241 temotu illa, one two Muslim moon, or you who believe be conscious of Allah, the way that it is befitting that you be conscious of him and do not die except in a state of Islam. Dear Muslims, the entire world is talking about this potential plague this Coronavirus that is taking place. And so I thought that insha Allah in today's Hazza let us look at some of the wisdoms we can derive some of the morals and lessons that we can learn from what we see around us. For the believer always looks

at the wisdom, the believer always tries to derive benefit from every single aspect around him. And today's hookbait in sha Allah Allah, I will summarize seven benefits and seven lessons that all of us can learn from what is going on around us the first of these seven, to make us humble, and to realize that none of us is powerful, and only Allah azza wa jal is all powerful. No human is superhuman, no human is almighty, all of us are under the control of a powerful Rob, look at this virus, the largest country in the world in terms of population, and that is China, the most powerful country in the history of humanity, and that is our country, America, all over the world. All

nations mighty and weak, the entire human race is in terror, doesn't matter where they're from. And what are they terrified acts, they're terrified at the smallest of the small, they're terrified at something that is a manifestation of life. In fact, scientists even wonder, is the virus technically alive, or is it something between life and death, and the virus is the smallest manifestation of any creation, it is around 20 to 30 nanometers in length. To even look at it, we cannot even look at it with a normal microscope, we only can see it from a special type of microscope called an electron microscope, and the electron microscope does not bounce light off of the object, it bounces

electrons off of the object. And to give you an idea of how small this virus is, to give you an idea of what is causing all of mankind to be terrified at something so minuscule, just to see this virus, we need to magnify it at least 100,000 times. Now, to put that in perspective, to give you an idea, if we were to take a grain of rice, just a rice seed, if we were to take a grain of rice and expand it 100,000 times that grain of rice would be as large as five or six football fields. This is just to see the virus you have to expand it 100,000 times from this virus, all of us mankind are terrified. What does this show us that there is indeed a rub that despite all of our technology,

despite all that we have come we are not masters of our own destiny. We do not even control our own lives, much less the lives of others. How can we not humble ourselves in front of subpanel harder, the one who creates everything, the one whom Allah azza wa jal mentions in the Quran about himself well Yeah, hello Kumada Allah Moon he creates that which you cannot even know you don't even understand. That is ALLAH SubhanA wa Tada. So the first of these lessons is to make us realize there is a Rob and Rob is in charge of us. The second of the seven lessons that we can benefit from is to appreciate that life and death are real. Why? Because all too often we ignore death. All too often

we become so comfortable in this dunya we start living the life we start enjoying

of material pleasures, we become complacent of the riches that we have we become engrossed to such an extent that we become heedless that this dunya is not the end all and be all and these types of calamities, these types of tragedies it is a wake up call that no one lives forever why Mr. Jalla, the Bashara milk clinical hold no human has been given immortality every one of us dies in a coma uterine we're in the Houma you don't call don't have sin that your cultural moat every single social die just because we ignore it just because we don't think about it. It does not change the reality of life and death. Allah the Halacha motor will hire Allah is the One who created death, and he

created life when these plagues come. And when death surrounds us, we become more cognizant our hearts that might have been hard become soft, our minds who only think of the dunya we start thinking of the euro. And if this type of calamity makes our hearts that were hard, soft, then this is a blessing and not to calamity. If this calamity wakes us up from the slumber of the dunya and makes us realize that all of life is temporary than it is Wallahi not a calamity, but it is a blessing in disguise. This is the second benefit we gain from our mortality. Life is not permanent death is around the corner as Abu Bakr Siddiq Radi Allahu Anhu said every single day we all wake up

and death is closer to us than our shoe strap that is on our toe, our death is closer to us. Every day we wake up and we do not know when we're going to die. So these types of calamities rubbed the point home that life is not eternal, and only Allah azza wa jal knows when we are going to die. The third blessing we can see the wisdom that we can extract from what we see around us, is the notion that some people are better than others. And the fact that this virus attacks all of humanity equally, it really shows us the foolishness of the superiority complex, the foolishness of racism, the foolishness of thinking, my race, my people, my nation state is better than anyone else. No,

this virus is attacking all of humanity equally, all classes, the rich and the poor, all ethnicities, the white, and the black, and the yellow, and the brown, all socio economic privilege is gone. Every single human is equally human. could look Amen. Adam, what are the momento? Rob, anybody who feels that because I have a certain background or because my bank account has more or because my nationality because my passport, because my look and my tribe and whatnot, all of this is thrown in the dust, every one of us, our blood cells are exactly the same. We are all equally human, and all illusions that we create, of superiority of dis of differences between us. All of this has

shown to be foolish, and the message of Islam, that the only thing that really separates us is in the eyes of Allah and that is through Taqwa. In this world, we are all equally human. And so this virus and the scare that it is generating, in fact, should make us realize the truth of our religion of Islam, when it tells us that every one of us is equally human, all of us have come from the same origin and our end result will be exactly the same. There is a beautiful nokta or just an anecdote and Allah knows if it's authentic or not, that is mentioned in our books of history, that once there was a tyrannical king, he was torturing, you know, scholars and righteous people. And he was mocking

a scholar in front of him. And as he was mocking some flies came and irritated him, and he swatted these flies away. And he said, Tell me, oh alum, what is the wisdom of Allah creating flies, flies are always pesky. Flies are always a nuisance. And so this Adam responded, Allah azza wa jal is using flies, to humble the arrogant of His creation, like you, the wisdom of having flies is to show you oh king, that you're still a human like I am. So this is what we see here that this virus does not differentiate between Prime Minister there was a minister of some country falls sick and between peasant between rich between poor between white between black, every one of us is equally affected,

because we are one in our humanity. The fourth wisdom that we can derive from what we see around us, is to show us that this dunya and the wealth that comes with it, and the blessings that come with it is not an indication of success and happiness. No, not at all. Rather, the fact that people that seem to be innocent or good or righteous or struck with calamities, and the fact that people that might be evil or bad seem to be going scot free. It may

Just realize that this dunya is not the end, we must recognize that there's going to be hereafter this virus, it seems to sometimes take innocent children, innocent people, not just this virus, any calamity, sometimes the righteous are affected, and sometimes the evil people are left. And this should make us reflect that whoever has this dunya doesn't mean that Allah is pleased with them. Whoever has this dunya taken away does not mean that Allah is angry with them. On the contrary, this dunya is not an indication that Allah loves you, as one of our scholars said that this dunya is given to the one whom Allah despises, and the one whom Allah loves doesn't matter. And this dunya is

taken away from the one whom Allah despises, and the one whom Allah loves this world, and all of the blessings associated with it are not the indication of success. They're not the indication of Allah's pleasure, rather, it is the era that is the full indication of Allah's pleasure. And Allah mentions in the Quran what Oh, fitna 10 Love to see when the lady in avala more men come hos beware of the tragedy or of the fitting up, beware of the trial, that is not only going to affect those who do wrong amongst you, this virus is spreading everywhere, it is the righteous and unrighteous. It is the good and the bad. It is the cyber handlebar all of them are being affected at equal. And it is

our reaction that determines piety, not the affliction itself. Those of you who are suffering from any calamity or affliction, do not interpret it as Allah not being pleased with you. On the contrary, our Prophet sallallahu alayhi wa sallam said, these plagues that you see, they are an either, but for some group of people, and Rahama for the believers, the same thing can be another and the same thing can be a Rama. Why because it is of this dunya money can be a punishment, and money can be a blessing, good health can be a type of punishment, if you don't use it properly, and good health can be a blessing from Allah subhanho wa taala. So we see in this point, point number

four, that this dunya and getting it or not getting, it does not indicate at all a person's MACOM in the eyes of Allah subhana wa taala. Rather, this dunya sometimes the best people get nothing of it. And sometimes they get a lot of it. And sometimes the worst people seem to have the best of this dunya and sometimes they don't get anything of this. And the same goes for this virus as well. Point number five in our list of seven things that we're going to mention in today's hold the bulk of the blessings really that we see from this tragedy because again, the purpose of today's hold well we find blessings and tragedy we find the positives we find the silver lining, as we say in English, we

always look at the positive as our religion instructs us to do of the blessings that we see is that it makes selfish people realize they need family and friends, they need other people Subhanallah what is going to happen if one of us were to fall sick, who will take care of us there are many who want to live selfish lives enough, see enough. See, and this is not the way of Islam, it is not the way of any decent human being a human being needs to love and to be loved a human being needs to be a part of a good society. In fact, one can also extrapolate from this point number five, not just the importance of family and friends, not just the importance of having people to take care of you,

but also the importance of civil order of law of society of government. Because we need systems that are checks and balances, we need systems that are going to make sure that people don't go into chaos that people are taken care of. And that is why when Islam came and the Arabs, pre Islam were not to civilization, the Arabs pre Islam were in Geneva, and Islam came and it lifted the Arabs from Jaya Helia until they control the whole world from China to Andalus. Why? Because Islam came and it gave them many things. And of the things that gave them is the pillar for Russia, of the things that gave them is political strength and power. And this shows us it's human nature and civilization, you want

to have a successful dunya you need to come together and have law and order. You need to come together individuals, families, friends, and all communities and form systems and societies that will keep things in check. And of course, this is not the place to get into the issue of universal health care or not. But nonetheless, these types of viruses and these types of plagues. They make us think the pros and cons of various positions out there. They make us think what would be better if all of us came together and all of us were taken care of or if it was an individual system, believe it or not, these types of trials. They make the person think and they make them see even when it

comes to our worldly policies. This is the fifth of our seven points in today's

But the six of the seven points is to demonstrate for us that there must be a higher power that pre determines what is happening, there must be what would be called an Arabic EMA and Bill Kadar, this virus and the

anxiety that comes from it. And the seemingly randomness who gets it who doesn't get it, this doesn't just come out of nowhere, there must be everything that is predetermined by Fedora, as Allah says in the Quran, in color che in halacha. Now who will cover everything we have done, we have created it with other a person can take every single precaution, a person can always wash his hands and wear the mask and no don't go anywhere and still be afflicted with the virus, another person can walk to the very Epicenter without any protection and nothing happens to him and that is why in the end of the day, there must be a higher power and there must be a power that is telling who is what

Teddy's telling what is going to happen to whom. And this is of course our belief in Qatar. And this is something that is mentioned in a hadith narrated in the midst of the boom and some have said it is more cough on even a bus that it is reported that our profits a little I sent him said Lanyon fire has grown men casual taking precautions will not help you against kadar. Think about this taking precautions will not help you against other meaning. If you were to take every precaution in the book, but it is decreed for you that it is going to happen then your precautions are they going to change. So if Allah has decreed death in a certain place, and you wore protective armor and you

did everything you could will the mela cool mouth not be able to take your soul just because you have protective armor. No. This is what this narration says Len Yen has a run many other you taking precautions will not save you from Allah SCADA. What but the Prophet CISM said, well I can do. Yun Feldman, Muslim women Muslim men zeal for it can be dua about Allah, but rather dua is helping you against what has happened and what is going to happen. Dua is your weapon that you turn to. So I commend you to have to and to make dua, are servants of Allah subhanho wa taala. The Muslim, the Mothman finds constellation in belief in other this does not mean that we don't take protect

precautions. That Hadith does not say we act foolishly the hadith is saying even if you were to take every precaution, yet it is Allah's other that something will happen, those precautions will not benefit you this is what the hadith is saying, which means obviously Allah SCADA is going to happen but we don't know Allah SCADA. So we take reasonable precautions. We tie our camel and then we put our trust in Allah subhanahu wa taala as the famous incident in the Sierra in the books of history. One of the worst plagues that afflicted the early OMA was the plague of unwashed bar when I'm washed in the 18th year of the hijra, it is estimated at least 50,000 of the Sahaba died in that plague and

it is in of the people died in that play, and it took place in Syria and the story is go as we all know, we mentioned this multiple times that rumor mill hotdog was proceeding onwards to Syria with reinforcements for the army, and then they heard there is a plague in Syria and they're debating amongst themselves What should we do until finally they decide to go back to Medina. One of them says Omar Abdullah hottub are you running away from Allah's Adar and what did removable hardtop say, we are running from Allah, Allah to Allah as it is Allah's other that we protect ourselves, we are not trying to there is no way we can protect from Allah SCADA. Whatever we do is also Allah other we

are running from cradle to cradle going back to Medina which is a bastion of safety right now. The plague has not reached Medina, going back to Medina is Qatar Allah we are not running away ultimately from other we are doing Khadir of Allah azza wa jal when we take precautions, and then we leave the rest to Allah subhanho wa taala. So other does not mean we don't take precautions Kadar doesn't mean that whatever happens happens by the will of Allah subhana wa Tada and we have to memorize this verse and put it in our minds online you'll see been ill Khattab Allahu La Nina as the situation is appearing to worsen dear Muslims put this is an excerpt in your spiritual heart, colon,

your sleeve, Anna, Ilana Khattab Allahu Allah say nothing will happen to us, except if Allah has decreed it upon us. Nothing will happen to you or to me, unless Allah has decreed it. We accept the other of Allah, even as we make dua for Allah azza wa jal to protect us. We accept the color of Allah and we use the color of Allah to protect us from the color of Allah

xojo And then whatever happens happens, but we don't act foolishly. So point number six eemaan In other comes in a very necessary pillar over here, no matter what we do. In the end everything is with other that doesn't mean we act foolishly we believe in other and we use cada to protect ourselves from Qatar. And this leads me to point number seven, our final point in today's call, and that is that of the greatest wisdoms of any type of calamity, especially a calamity that is as universal as what is happening now that all of mankind is plagued by it. One of the greatest wisdoms is that during these times, people rediscover their faith, people turn to Allah subhana wa Tada.

People turn to faith and to religion, even those that are not that religious, they generally become religious, even those that might not worship Allah very regularly, at times of calamity, at times of stress, everybody turns to Allah subhana wa Tada. And this is one of the most blessed wisdoms of any calamity. And in fact, in the Quran, there are at least a dozen verses, no exaggeration, at least a dozen verses in which Allah subhana wa Tada mentions that at times of stress, mankind remembers me when they're about to drown in the ocean, they think of me when some calamity comes to them. They call upon me when they're in pain or anguish, Allah says they make dua to me standing, sitting and

lying down. Now listen to this carefully in the whole Quran. Allah never criticizes, rediscovering faith at times of calamity, Allah never criticizes, turning to him. When a person is in distress. Where is the criticism? Their criticism comes after the distress is lifted, after Allah saves you after all of this is over, then you forget and you worship other than Allah. That is the criticism to become religious at times of stress. This is the essence of iman. There's nothing wrong with that. In fact, this is what the Muslim and Mortman does. At times of stress, the prophet system would increase Salah would pray longer tahajjud would make dua to Allah subhana wa Tada. That is

exactly what you do. When the situation gets tough. Don't feel guilty that you're becoming more religious because of stress. Feel guilty only if after it is over you neglect and forget and go back to your ways you need to raise the bar during times of stress. Turn to Allah subhana wa Tada. Increase your solder and your DUA. And once the stress is over, and if Allah blesses you to live after that, then don't forget the blessing Allah has given you and thank Allah for that blessing, the the censure in the Quran, the reprobation that comes in the Quran. It is for those who remember Allah at times of stress, and then forget everything after it is over. So keep this point in mind.

In fact, the Quran reminds us that during times of stress and fitna we should turn to Allah and by turning to Allah, this is one of the main ways of protecting us. Allah says in the Quran, fellow Allah is a homebuyer. So now Tadahiro why didn't they beg us in dua when the punishment came down? Allah is asking a rhetorical question. Why didn't they turn to me? Why didn't they make dua to me when the punishment came down, rather, their hearts became hard and they neglected Allah did not criticize them except for not making dua. The criticism was for not being religious at times of fitna. In fact dear Muslims, the very purpose of being tested and tried is so that we turn back to

Allah before it is too late. the very purpose of a fitna is that Allah azza wa jal is testing us with a small tragedy to protect us from the largest tragedy, which is the fire of hell, Allah is giving us a small amount of pain so that we wake up and protect ourselves from the ultimate pain. And Allah mentions this in the Quran that Allah azza wa jal says that Maya file Allah will be either they come in Shackleton wa mentum what will Allah gain by punishing you? What will Allah gain by sending a punishment down? If you truly believe in Allah and you are thankful to Allah, Allah azza wa jal does not gain any sadistic pleasure by seeing his servants in pain. That's not the wisdom.

The wisdom is we turn to Allah before it is too late. And so the greatest moral and the greatest wisdom from this tragedy around us the purpose of it is so that we rekindle our relationship with Allah we rediscover the sweetness of Eman we turn to Allah in Salah, and in dua, and in tahajjud and in sadaqa and in that indeed will be our salvation. May Allah subhana wa Allah bless me and you with him through the Quran, and may make us of those who is versus they understand and who seek is halal and haram throughout our lifespan. I ask Allah's forgiveness you as well ask for he is the afford or human

Al Hamdulillah Al Hamdulillah helwa had had a summit a lead in a myriad. Voila, Mulan Windermere Kula who phoned ahead, what

do you Muslims, I have said in our previous code buzz, and many scholars are saying the same thing. Taking reasonable precautions is a part and parcel of our religion. And it is not the job of the aroma to be specific about what precautions to take this is the job of the scientists and of the doctors. But what we have heard and what we are all listening is that we need to be cautious about our hands and what they're touching and touching the back to our face as much as possible. And during these times, a person is allowed to err on the side of caution during these times in the first place, it's not wise, you have to shake somebody's hand anyway, by the way, it is not

obligatory, to shake somebody's hand. And if you feel that you're in a place or a situation where you'd rather not do that you are not obliged to shake their hand, what is wajib is to return this alarms verbally and unhandled that there's no problem doing that whatsoever. So if you choose not to shake somebody's hand, it is up to you. And don't feel any intimidation from the Shediac point of view, as well. The whole concept of you being extra cautious if you feel these symptoms. We already said this, and last week, a number of Obama gave fatawa about this regard and I already said this few weeks ago that if you are feeling sick or feverish and you do not know what the cause of it is,

err on the side of caution and do not come to congregations do not come for Salah Allah azza wa jal will not punish you. If you're erring on the side of caution Allah knows your Nia Allah azza wa jal knows you're doing this for precaution. As we know this virus spreads in crowds of people as we know this virus spreads because of sneezing or droplets. And therefore, if you have the symptoms, it's going to take many weeks to figure out if you have this virus or not. May Allah protect all of us but if you have any fevers, any coughing and sneezing in this timeframe, err on the side of caution and try your best to not congregate. Try your best to wear masks at this point in time because

Master being told to be worn by those who are sick, it's not going to protect the people around just from breathing it in because the virus is so small, it will go through this mask. The purpose of the mask, as we're hearing from the doctors is that your droplets if you're infected, do not go outside. As for the virus itself, a mask is not going to stop it it is too small for that. Obviously we also benefit from our Shetty, in that we are commanded to wash our hands all the time we're commanded to be pure of the simple Sooners is that the left hand is used for anything that is not noble and the right hand is used for that which is noble, so even these small things inshallah they will help and

protect us. But my point is that our Shetty tells us to tie our camel and then put our trust in Allah subhana wa Tada. And a part of tying our camels is to take these reasonable precautions and to listen to the medical experts if the situation is even to the level and I just heard today that one or two massages in some zones here in America, in some cities, they stopped Joomla because the number of viruses were very high in that locality. And this is wisdom. This is a part and parcel of implementing the Shetty, Allah, Allah subhana wa Tala let no one thing that this is somehow against the teachings of Islam. On the contrary, the preservation of life is one of the goals of the Sharia.

And there's nothing wrong with praying for at home. If the situation gets there. And before it gets there. This needs to be set on the member under the hood. But if it does happen, then you should know that if the situation that the government or the the health ministry says that there should be no congregations we will follow that and implement that and we will expect Allah to reward us for not coming for Juma and we will pray to her at our homes instead. The point Dear brothers and sisters all of this football is about very simply that we always look at the positive we always look at the bright matters we always find optimism and in the end, this dunya is temporary. Allah azza wa

jal chooses to test some people in it in different ways. If Allah chooses to test any of us then in sha Allah Who to Allah, we pray to Allah that we are given the hem and the courage to pass the test. But we ask Allah that to not even test us because we don't want to be tested Allahumma in NIDA and for a minute

you are a homeowner you are a hemo Allah we ask that you not leave any sin of ours except that you have forgiven it your Allah and any worry of ours except that you have eliminated your Allah and any debt of ours except that you have paid it your Allah and then he's sickness of ours except that you have cured it your Allah and any souls of our deceased except that you have honored it your Allah and any desires of ours that is pure and pleasing to accept that you have granted your Allah Yeah. When you your Kadeem, oh Allah we ask you to bless Islam and its people and the Ummah make it protected and blissful and the lands make them safe and peaceful and ourselves, strengthen our

emotions and make us

thankful and our families give them a man and make them exceptional, and our children, guide them to righteousness and make them not sinful and our health gift us the best and make it the most desirable and our wealth, let it be pure and make it plentiful and our lives make them noble and purposeful and are dead sia Allah make them upon the Kenema and graceful all of this we ask you, oh Allah that You grant us with your approval. Yara Ramanujam Rahim, are servants of Allah, Allah Subhana Allah to Allah has commanded you with a command that he began with himself and then seconded with the angels themselves, and then followed it up by commanding all of us ourselves for Allah says

in the Quran, in Allah, how am Allah equatorial saloon other Nebby Yeah, you are Latina. Amanu Sallu alayhi wa sallam with a screamer. Allahumma Salli wa Sallim wa Barik Well, I'm Abdullah Sudha Mohamed in what are the the he was such a big marine servants of Allah Allah azza wa jal commands Justice and excellence and being good to relatives and He forbids lewd deeds and evil and rebelliousness. He reminds you of all of this so that you may pay heed. So remember Allah subhanho wa Taala Allah will remember you and thank Allah, Allah will bless you and know that nothing is greater than the remembrance of Allah and that Allah knows all that you do. Well okay Miss salah.