Yasir Qadhi – Do You Still Have Hope in Allah
AI: Summary ©
AI: Transcript ©
You know, looking at the reality of what
is happening in the world today, one of
the verses in the Qur'an that is
very pertinent for us, is a verse that
was revealed after some of the tragedies, like
the battle of Uhud, when the Muslims were
feeling a little bit demoralized, a little bit
down.
And Allah Azzawajal revealed in Surah An-Nisa,
إِن تَكُونُوا تَأْلَمُونَ فَإِنَّهُمْ يَأْلَمُونَ كَمَا تَأْلَمُونَ وَتَرْجُونَ
مِنَ اللَّهِ مَا لَا يَرْجُونَ If you are
in pain, then realize, they too have pain
like your pain.
Both sides have suffered.
This is in the battle of Uhud, Allah
is saying, إِن تَكُونُوا تَأْلَمُونَ If you have
tragedies, if you have had loss of life,
if you are bleeding, realize, they too are
in fear and bleeding.
They too are in pain.
Then Allah says, what is the difference between
your side and their side?
وَتَرْجُونَ مِنَ اللَّهِ مَا لَا يَرْجُونَ But you
have a hope and an optimism and a
positive spirit with Allah that they do not
have.
So, today's brief khatira will be about the
reality of this hope, the reality of this
raja, the reality of this optimism that Allah
commands us when we feel down, when we
feel deflated, when the world seems to just
throw us so much bitterness, when there doesn't
seem optimism.
Allah says, the two sides are not the
same.
They're never going to be the same.
Because yes, you have suffered tragedy.
Yes, you have suffered defeat.
And yes, by the way, so have they.
It's a two-way street in that regard.
But on the one hand, you have Allah,
and you have hope in Allah, and you
have raja in Allah, and they have no
such equivalent.
So, what is this hope?
And what is this raja?
And how many categories are there?
That's going to be our brief talk today.
The concept of raja, the concept of hope,
Ibn Al-Qayyim says, having hope in Allah
is linked to understanding who Allah is.
When you understand Allah is Al-Kareem, Allah
is Al-Mannan, Allah is Al-Rahman, Allah
is Al-Ra'uf.
When you understand the divine nature of Allah,
the attributes of Allah, automatically, you will be
optimistic.
Automatically, you will feel a sense of hope,
and a sense of positive attitude.
So, iman in Allah automatically causes optimism.
And not having iman in Allah will cause
what?
Pessimism.
Not having iman in Allah will cause a
lack of positive hope.
And this is exactly what Ya'qub says
when he sends his children out, after 25
years of searching for Yusuf, and not even
getting a scent of Yusuf, not even a
whiff of Yusuf.
Ya'qub says to his children, that, oh
my children, try again one more time, and
do not give up hope of Allah's mercy.
Notice the optimism is there, and there is
no glimmer, there's no light at the end
of the tunnel, but the optimism is there.
Do not give up hope in Allah's mercy,
because only the kafir, he says, gives up
hope of Allah's mercy.
This is Surah Yusuf.
Only the kafir.
If you don't know who is Allah, if
you don't know the names of Allah, then
and only then, will you give up hope
in Allah's mercy.
Otherwise, you will always be optimistic, you will
always have a positive attitude.
Now if you look at the Qur'an
and the sunnah, one can extract at least
seven specific categories of raja, of optimism.
And inshaAllah we'll go over them very quickly
today.
And as usual our khatir is very brief.
So the first of them, the first raja,
the first optimism, is to be optimistic that
Allah subhanahu wa ta'ala will reward you
for your good deeds.
You give sadaqa, you pray tahajjud, you come
to the masjid, there should be a raja
that Allah will reward me.
And the Prophet ﷺ explicitly said, من صام
رمضان إيمانا واحتسابا This ihtisab is raja.
Whoever fasts Ramadan with iman and expecting Allah's
reward, this is raja over here.
And Allah subhanahu wa ta'ala says in
the Qur'an that, وَأَنفِقُ مِمَا رَزَقْنَاهُمْ that
they give from their money, يَرْجُونَ تِجَارَةً لَنْ
تَبُورْ When they give sadaqa, they have raja
that Allah will give them a transaction that
will never be at a loss.
They will always be positive.
So Allah links charity with raja.
When the mu'min gives charity, when the mu'min
fasts, there is a type of raja that
Allah subhanahu wa ta'ala will give me
more than my deeds that I have given
him.
The second type of raja is the raja
of Allah's rahma when you are suffering, when
you are in pain.
The first was raja of Allah's thawab, when
you do a good deed.
The second, raja of Allah's rahma when you
are in pain, when something happens, you console
yourself.
When your heart is feeling pained, when you're
feeling anxious, when you're feeling stressed out, you
bring some ointment to the heart, spiritual ointment.
That spiritual ointment calms the heart down.
What is the spiritual ointment?
Raja, that every pain that I feel, Allah
will reward me for it.
Allah will give me His rahma.
And that's what Allah says in the Qur
'an, يرجون رحمة الله They have raja in
Allah's rahma.
So anytime you're facing calamity, tragedy, grief, stress,
anxiety, you should placate yourself.
You should make yourself feel optimistic that you
know what, this pain is not in waste.
This pain is not in vain.
Every pain that I have, our Prophet ﷺ
said, مَا أَصَابَ مُؤْمِنٌ No mu'min has هَمٌ
وَلَا حَزَنٌ No grief, no anxiety, no stress,
no any physical pain, even a thorn that
pricks him, except that Allah will reward him
for that.
This is authentic hadith of Sahih Bukhari.
No mu'min has grief or anxiety, stress or
pain.
He mentioned four things.
Each one of them covers all the problems
of this dunya.
Whatever problem you're facing, you have to expect
Allah's raja.
Allah will give you reward for that suffering
that you have.
This is the second type of raja.
The third type of raja is a raja
in which you are optimistic and hoping, you're
excited to meet Allah SWT.
You should be positively daydreaming, that one day
a time will come where Allah SWT, I
will meet him, and Allah will bless me,
and Allah will reward me.
Our Prophet ﷺ said, مَنْ أَحَبَّ لِقَاءَ اللَّهِ
أَحَبَّ اللَّهُ لِقَاءَهُ Whoever is eager and loves
to meet Allah, Allah is eager to meet
him.
Aisha radiallahu anha said, Ya Rasulallah, none of
us likes death.
None of us, death is an uncertainty.
The Prophet ﷺ said, No, I'm not talking
about death.
Yes, death we are scared of, but there's
gonna be a place after death.
There's gonna be a meeting after death.
The Prophet ﷺ said, when the mu'min sees
Allah's blessings, he will be excited to see
Allah.
That is the point here.
When the mu'min sees Allah's rahmah at the
time of death, during death, in the qabr,
all of the blessings will be presented.
That will calm the mu'min down, and the
mu'min will be excited to see Allah.
That is a raja.
And even in this world, there should be
an excitement and a positive attitude, that inshaAllahu
ta'ala, on the day of judgment.
Yes, we're gonna come to the point, there
should always be fear as well.
We're gonna come to this point.
Fear and hope will be together.
But there should be hope as well.
Today we're talking about hope.
Another khatira will also mention the fear issue,
because they go hand in hand.
But hope, and Allah says in the Quran,
that, أُولَٰئِكَ يَرْجُونَ لِقَى اللَّهِ They are wanting
liqaa Allah.
يَرْجُونَ They are looking forward to liqaa, to
meeting Allah subhanahu wa ta'ala.
This is the third type of raja.
The fourth type of raja is the necessary
result of the third type.
What happens when you positively meet Allah?
You will meet Allah's reward which is jannah.
So number four, you are excited for jannah.
Raja for jannah itself.
You should be optimistic that inshaAllah you will
enter jannah.
Optimism always tempered with fear as I said.
Optimism and fear go hand in hand.
You should genuinely be excited.
You should want to meet Allah, and then
this should lead to entering jannah.
And Allah subhanahu wa ta'ala says, لِمَن
كَانَ يَرْجُوا اللَّهُ وَالْيَوْمَ الْآخِرِ Those who are
having raja of Allah and of the last
day, meaning of jannah.
So there should be an excitement and an
optimism for the believer that inshaAllah ta'ala
I want to enter jannah.
I'm excited to go to jannah.
This is the fourth type of raja.
The fifth type of raja that is mentioned
in the Quran.
The fifth type of raja of hope, of
optimism, is optimism that yes I have committed
sins, but inshaAllah Allah is forgiving and will
forgive me.
So raja of forgiveness.
Raja that if I turn to Allah, and
if I do tawbah, then Allah will forgive
all of my sins.
This is a part and parcel of iman.
And the mu'min always hopes of forgiveness, even
as they're scared of not being forgiven as
we will mention at the end, raja and
khuf go hand in hand.
But we're mentioning right now raja.
So Allah subhanahu wa ta'ala mentions the
reality of the raja of rahmatullah and the
raja of maghfiratullah.
And in the hadith in Sahih Bukhari, when
the Prophet ﷺ visited a person on his
deathbed, and he asked this person, how do
you feel right now?
And the person said that, I am scared
of Allah's anger, but I'm hopeful of Allah's
forgiveness.
I'm scared, but I'm also hopeful Allah will
forgive me.
And the Prophet ﷺ said, never do these
two emotions combine at the time of death,
except that, listen to this, Allah will protect
him from what he's scared of, and grant
him from what he's optimistic in.
Never do these two emotions combine at the
time of death, except that Allah has guaranteed
that Allah will protect you from what you're
scared.
The man said, I'm scared of my sins.
But then what he also say, and I'm
optimistic.
I have raja, he said, arju rahmatullah.
I have raja that Allah will also forgive
me for my sins.
The Prophet ﷺ said, anytime these two emotions
are combined at this time of death, because
there's no fooling around at the time of
death.
At the time of death, you will be
serious.
At the time of death, your real you
will come out.
You know you're about to die, you're on
your deathbed, you're on your final stages.
At that stage, your heart is worried about
your bad deeds, but optimistic about your good
deeds and forgiveness.
That combination is what will get you jannah.
So this is the fifth category of raja,
raja of forgiveness of sins.
The sixth category of raja, the sixth category
of optimism, is optimism in Allah answering your
du'as.
Optimism in Allah answering your du'as.
Our Prophet ﷺ said, when you make du
'a to Allah, then be certain that Allah
will answer your du'as.
You don't make a wishy-washy du'a.
You don't make a du'a that you
are, nah, maybe Allah will give, maybe Allah
will not give.
No, when you make du'a, you have
raja.
Allah will answer me.
Allah is Samee'a, Allah is Qareeb, Allah
is Mujeeb.
Allah is the one who answers du'a.
You should have a positive attitude.
The Prophet ﷺ said, ادعوا الله وأنتم موقنون
بالإجابة.
Make du'a to Allah in the state
of you being yaqeen, that Allah will listen
to you and answer you.
Have the highest form of raja.
Be certain that Allah is listening and Allah
will respond.
This is the sixth category of raja.
You have raja when you make du'a.
And all of this goes back to iman.
If you know Allah is Samee'a, if
you know Allah is Qareeb, if you know
Allah is Mujeeb, if you know that Allah
is أما يجيب المضطر إذا دعا.
If you know all of these attributes of
Allah, how can you possibly lose hope in
Allah's answering your du'a.
This is the sixth category of du'a.
And the seventh category of raja, the seventh
and final category we'll mention, and of course
there are others as well, but it's summary.
The seventh and final category we'll mention.
Raja for matters of this world.
Raja, optimism for a better life, for Allah's
aid coming down, for political victory, military victory.
Raja for a pay raise in your job.
Raja for promotion of you want.
You should be optimistic for the dunya as
well.
And this is a part of raja.
Allah subhanahu wa ta'ala says in the
Qur'an that, فَإِمَّا تُعْرِضَنَّ عَنْهُ مُبْتِغَءَ رَحْمَةٍ
مِنْ رَبِّكَ تَرْجُوهَا فَقُلْ لَهُمْ قَوْلٌ مَيْسُورًا If
you cannot give your parents what you want,
or what they're asking for, but you are
hopeful that Allah will give it to you,
then still give them positive words, and Allah
will give you what you want.
In other words, your parents are demanding something,
and you don't have the money to give
them.
So Allah is saying, اِبْتِغَءَ رَحْمَةٍ مِنْ رَبِّكَ
تَرْجُوهَا You should have raja, that Allah will
give you what they are wanting for, and
be positive in your attitude towards them.
Don't say to them, I don't have anything.
Rather be optimistic, and say, inshaAllah, we'll make
it.
InshaAllah, we'll help it out, and Allah will
give you from His rahmah.
And this here, rahmah here means money.
Because the parents are asking for something, and
the man doesn't have it.
Allah is saying, ah, but you should have,
اِبْتِغَءَ رَحْمَةٍ مِنْ رَبِّكَ تَرْجُوهَا You should have
that optimism, that Allah will give you what
you want, or what your parents are asking
of you, even of this dunya.
And this goes back to the verse that
I began, the khatirah by, that if you
are suffering, they're also suffering.
But you have raja that they do not
have.
And a part of that raja is military
victory.
A part of that raja is political victory.
A part of that raja is the conquest
of Makkah that Allah gave to the Prophet
ﷺ and the sahabah.
This is also a part of raja.
We shall be victorious.
We will be the winners.
Allah Azza wa Jal and His army will
be the victorious army.
اِنَّ جُنْدَنَا لَهُمُ الْغَالِبُونَ This is a raja.
The haqq is always gonna win over the
batil.
This is a raja.
We should have that raja, even for matters
of this world.
Now before we conclude, obviously as I've already
hinted at, raja must always coexist with another
emotion.
And that is what?
Khawf, fear.
Raja should never be 100% absent from
fear.
The two coexist.
The two are always buddies.
You have to have both.
Because if fear did not exist, raja would
become arrogance.
It would not be hope.
You get the point.
Hope automatically means it's not guaranteed.
Because hope is hope.
Hope is an emotion.
If you remove fear from the equation, hope
becomes arrogance.
Hope becomes a demand.
And we do not have the right to
demand.
We do not have the right to expect
that it will happen.
That's not us.
So we are hopeful.
We are optimistic.
We have raja.
And raja is always tempered with khawf as
we said.
And then one final nuqta which I'm not
gonna go over.
I have given a brief khatira I think
last year about this.
But it deals with raja.
And that is one of the famous genres
of tafsir and of adab literature is the
contest if you like.
Which verse in the Qur'an is the
most raja-ful verse?
I just made a new word, raja-ful.
Arja.
Which verse in the Qur'an has the
most raja?
Which verse of the Qur'an is the
most optimistic?
And this is a nuqta.
This is a genre that we find scholars,
they write about it.
And they love to say, Oh, depending on
who you ask, each famous scholar and each
famous sahabi had a different verse.
And I gave a khatira.
I'm not gonna go over today.
It's another 20 minute khatira.
I went over, I think 10 or 15
of the sahaba and tabi'oon.
Abu Bakr had one verse.
Umar had one verse.
Uthman Ali radiallahu anhu.
Umm Darda, Ibn Mas'ud, Ibn Abbas.
And then the sahaba.
And then Imam Al-Shafi'i.
We all have collections of people that they
read the Qur'an, read the Qur'an,
read the Qur'an.
And then they say, Oh, in my opinion,
this verse is the most arja ayatin fi
kitabillah.
The most raja, full ayah.
The most optimistic ayah in the book of
Allah.
Suffice to say, out of all of the
opinions there, the one verse that appears the
most commonly, as being the most optimistic verse
in the whole Qur'an is, what is
it?
قُلْ يَا عِبَادِيَ الَّذِينَ أَسْرَفُوا عَلَىٰ أَنفُسِهِمْ لَا
تَقْنَطُوا مِن رَحْمَةِ اللَّهِ إِنَّ اللَّهَ يَغْفِرُ الذِّنُوبَ
جَمِيعًا Oh, my servants who have committed sins
against themselves, never give up hope of Allah's
mercy.
Allah forgives all sins.
And we conclude with a beautiful hadith reported
in the Musadrak of Al-Hakim.
A man comes to the Prophet ﷺ, says,
Ya Rasulullah, I have committed so many sins.
I don't know what to do.
I'm in despair.
I've committed so many sins.
What do I do now?
The Prophet ﷺ said, repeat after me.
He said, repeat after me.
He said, اللهم مغفرتك أوسع من ذنوبي Oh
Allah, your maghfirah is bigger and vaster than
my sins.
ورحمتك أرجى عندي من عملي And your rahmah
has more hope for me than my good
deeds.
Oh Allah, your maghfirah is bigger than my
sins.
And oh Allah, your rahmah gives me more
optimism than what?
Than my own deeds.
Your rahmah is arjah than my amal.
And the man said this, the Prophet ﷺ
said, go and leave, Allah has forgiven your
sins.
Beautiful short hadith.
Oh Allah, your maghfirah is bigger than my
sins.
Your maghfirah is much more than my sins.
And oh Allah, your rahmah brings me more
optimism, arjah.
Your rahmah brings me more optimism than my
good deeds.
Say this constantly and frequently and believe in
it.
And Allah subhanahu wa ta'ala will fulfill
your rajah in him.
May Allah subhanahu wa ta'ala make us
of those who perfect that rajah with khawf.
And inshallah we'll continue later on.
Wassalamualaikum warahmatullahi wabarakatuhu.
As
-salamu alaykum.
Al-Fatiha.