Zia Sheikh – The Trials And Tribulations Of Our Prophet PBUH
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AI: Transcript ©
In the name of Allah, the Most Gracious,
the Most Merciful.
In the name of Allah, the Most Gracious,
the Most Merciful.
My dear respected elders, brothers and sisters, As
-salamu alaykum wa rahmatullahi wa barakatuhu once again.
My talk today is about the trials and
tribulations of the Prophet ﷺ.
But first, prior to going into those things
that are related to the Prophet ﷺ, and
even before going into my talk, I just
request everybody to be quiet and listen to
the lecture, please.
Because the words that are being spoken are
not words which are ordinary words.
These are the words of Allah ﷻ, the
sayings of the Prophet ﷺ.
So to be chatting and talking while this
talk is going on, it's extremely disrespectful.
So if you do need to talk, just
kindly step outside and talk outside, inshallah.
And if the brothers and sisters sitting here
could pay attention, that would be wonderful, inshallah.
So, trials and tribulations, or ibtila, as the
Arabic word is, why do we have them?
This is actually something that all of us
will face one day.
And it's part and parcel of being a
Muslim.
Part and parcel of being a mu'min.
That once you have accepted iman, once you've
accepted Islam, then for sure you're going to
be tried, and you're going to be tested
by Allah ﷻ.
So that is why Allah ﷻ tells us
at the beginning of Surah Al-Ankabut, Alif
Laam Meem, Do people think that they're just
going to say amanna, we have iman, and
they're not going to be tested?
This is not the case.
We've tested everybody before.
Each and every person that claimed to be
a Muslim, each and every person that claimed
to be a mu'min, Allah ﷻ tested him
and put him through trial and tribulation.
So, this is important for us to understand,
that we are all going to go through
this trial.
In another verse Allah ﷻ says, that most
certainly we'll test you.
Most certainly we're going to test you in
different ways.
Sometimes you're going to have fear.
Sometimes you're going to have hunger.
Sometimes you're going to lose your job, and
you're not going to have money.
Sometimes somebody is going to pass away.
Sometimes you're going to be involved in a
war.
Sometimes you're going to have a tyrant that
is ruling over you.
And there are so many problems that we
could be facing.
But Allah ﷻ gives glad tidings to those
people that stand firm in the face of
these adversities and these difficulties.
Allah says that a true mu'min, when he's
going through these trials and tribulations, what does
he say?
Whenever they are faced with these difficulties and
adversities, they simply say that this life is
very short.
This life is limited.
The difficulties, the trials, the tribulations that I'm
going to face in this world, they're going
to finish one day.
And I'm going to meet Allah ﷻ.
What do they say?
We belong to Allah ﷻ.
He can do whatever He likes with us.
He can test us.
He can put us through difficulty.
He can put us through adversity.
We're going to go back to Him one
day.
The main focus of that person is what
am I doing to please Allah ﷻ?
And in that difficulty, he doesn't lose hope.
This is the state of a mu'min.
On the other hand, there are some people,
Allah ﷻ describes them as worshipping Allah ﷻ
on the edge.
There are some people that worship Allah ﷻ
right on the edge of iman.
And as long as good is happening to
them, as long as they are in a
good situation, they say, we'll worship Allah ﷻ.
As long as good is happening to the
people, they say, all fine and well.
We're going to continue to worship Allah ﷻ.
But then when they are tried, and when
they go through difficulty, they turn their backs
to Allah ﷻ.
As if to say, I worshipped Allah for
so long.
I did this for so long.
I prayed for so long.
And then, what do I end up with?
I end up with this hardship.
You know what?
I don't need this anymore.
I'm not going to worship Allah anymore because
He owes me.
He owes me and He didn't pay up
when the time came.
So this is the attitude of a person
who is a wheeler and a dealer.
A person who tries to bargain with Allah
ﷻ.
A person who thinks that he should get
payback for his worship in this world immediately.
This is something that we are not supposed
to be.
So trials and tribulations, when they come to
a believer, it actually fortifies his iman.
It strengthens his belief.
It strengthens his connection with Allah ﷻ.
He makes more dua to Allah ﷻ.
He turns more to Allah in tahajjud, in
qiyamul layl.
And he makes more istighfar, knowing that maybe
it was possibly because of a mistake of
mine that Allah ﷻ is putting me through
this trial.
Maybe Allah ﷻ wants to elevate me in
my status in the hereafter.
That's why He's putting me through this trial.
And He accepts it being from Allah ﷻ.
Realizing the promise of Allah ﷻ, فَإِنَّ مَعَ
الْعُسْرِ يُسْرًا Indeed with every difficulty there is
ease.
With every difficulty certainly there is ease.
This is the promise of Allah ﷻ.
So that's why we as Muslims, as mu'mins
are going to go through hardship.
For sure it's going to happen to us
one day.
There is no such thing as a person
going through life without having faced some kind
of difficulty and hardship and adversity.
It's going to happen sooner or later.
The question is how do we deal with
it?
Now the Prophet ﷺ, he gave us a
stern warning.
Not a stern warning but he warned people
that the closer you are to Allah ﷻ,
the more difficulty you're going to face.
The closer you are to Allah ﷻ, the
more difficulty you will face.
It is going to happen.
He says in a hadith, أَشَدُّ النَّاسِ بَلَآءًا
الْأَنبِيَاءُ ثُمَّ صَالِحُونَ ثُمَّ الْأَمْثَلْ فَالْأَمْثَلْ The people
that face the most difficulties are the Anbiya
ﷺ.
Then the pious people.
Then according to their status with Allah ﷻ,
they will face the most difficulties.
So a person when he is going through
hardship, he should not feel that Allah ﷻ
is giving me a hard time.
Maybe it is because of your closeness to
Allah ﷻ that you are going through this
hardship.
Now how you deal with it is really
a reflection of your iman.
We look at the Prophet ﷺ, how his
attitude was when he was going through this
difficulty.
How he remained positive.
And how he had a positive outlook on
life in the most difficult of circumstances.
It is a very famous story of Suraqa
ibn Malik, right?
Prior to that story of Suraqa ibn Malik,
the Prophet ﷺ, he is escaping Makkah.
He is leaving Makkah and it is one
of the most difficult decisions of his life
that he has had to make.
Allah ﷻ orders him to leave Makkah.
And he basically is turning to the Kaaba
and he is saying to the Kaaba, O
Kaaba, O House of Allah, I love you
so much, but what can I do?
My people are turning me away.
So he is leaving Makkah and people are
basically trying to kill him that night.
The night that he is leaving, they have
told him, they have planned already that they
are going to murder him that particular night.
He leaves and decides, as the command of
Allah ﷻ, to make hijrah to Medina.
Prior to making that hijrah, he has to
seek refuge in a cave with Abu Bakr
ﷺ.
And we know the story, right?
The people, the trackers, they track the Prophet
ﷺ and Abu Bakr ﷺ right up to
the cave.
And if they only looked into the cave,
they would have seen the Prophet ﷺ and
Abu Bakr ﷺ.
Allah ﷻ says in Surah At-Tawbah, إِلَّا
تَنْصُرُوهُ فَقَدْ نَسَرَهُ اللَّهُ إِذْ أَخْرَجَهُ الَّذِينَ كَفَرُوا
فَانِيَ اثْنَيْنَ إِذْ هُمَا فِي الْغَارِ إِذْ يَقُولُ
لِصَاحِبِهِ لَا تَحْزَنْ إِنَّ اللَّهَ مَعَنَا Look at
the situation that they are in.
You know, death is looking them in their
eyes.
The people of Quraysh are just standing outside
the cave.
All they had to do is look down
and they would have seen both of them.
At that difficult time, the Prophet ﷺ is
addressing Abu Bakr ﷺ and telling him, Don't
be afraid.
Indeed Allah ﷻ, He is with us.
And this is why Allah ﷻ, after that
He says, فَأَنْزَلَ اللَّهُ سَكِينَتَهُ وَعَلَيْهُ وَأَيَّدَهُ بِجُنُودٍ
لَمْ تَرَوْهَا وَجَعَلَ كَلِمَةَ الَّذِينَ كَفَرُوا صُفْلَةً وَكَلِمَةُ
اللَّهِ يَكُكِي الْعُلِيَةَ When you have that kind
of attitude, the Sakina of Allah ﷻ comes
down.
The peace of Allah ﷻ comes down.
And Allah ﷻ brings help.
And this is exactly what happened.
They didn't see the Prophet ﷺ and Abu
Bakr and they left empty handed.
Further on in this story, a person was
enticed with the reward that the Quraish were
offering for the capture of the Prophet ﷺ,
a hundred camels, Surah Ibn Malik.
He pursues them.
He is an expert tracker.
He is known for his tracking abilities to
hunt and find humans and animals.
And he tracks the Prophet ﷺ and Abu
Bakr ﷺ.
As he sees them and he is running
with his horse to try to catch both
of them, his horse's feet slip into the
sand and he falls.
This was done by Allah ﷻ.
He gets up, rides the horse again, tries
to pursue them.
His horse's feet sink into the sand and
he falls again.
This happens a number of times until the
Prophet ﷺ, he tells him, just accept this
message of mine and I promise you the
bracelets of the Emperor of the Persian Empire.
Just imagine the attitude that the Prophet ﷺ
is having in this difficult time.
Again he is staring death in the face.
He has nothing to his name.
He is leaving the city that he was
born in and raised in.
He is leaving his relatives, the people that
he loves and he is escaping and seeking
refuge in a completely new town.
But he tells Suraqa ibn Malik that I
promise you the bracelets of the Emperor of
Persia.
Many years later when the Persian Empire was
conquered, Suraqa ibn Malik was given these bracelets.
He got them.
The promise of the Prophet ﷺ was fulfilled.
So again the attitude.
Some might say well the Prophet ﷺ was
given wahi so he had that positive attitude.
But it is still a lesson for us
that how despite the odds, despite the adversities,
the Prophet ﷺ remained in this very positive
state.
Further on a very critical time that occurred
with the Muslims was the story of Khandaq.
What happened at Ghazwat Khandaq?
Also known as Ghazwatul Ahzab.
Mentioned in Suratul Ahzab, Allah SWT describes it
in great detail.
Allah says about that difficult time At the
time of Ghazwat Khandaq, the people were tested
and they were severely shaken If any of
you are familiar with Arabic, this concept of
the verb being repeated is called It's for
emphasis.
So the Muslims were shaken very very severely.
How so?
All of the disbelievers had basically ganged up.
Thousands of them.
And they had just camped outside Medina and
they were basically waiting for the provisions and
the food and the drink of the Muslims
to run out so that they could come
in and attack them.
So everybody thought they're going to die.
At that point, the separation between the attitude
of the believers and disbelievers is mentioned in
great detail in the Quran.
And I wish you could read Suratul Ahzab.
I don't have time to go into it
right now.
But Suratul Ahzab is a great example of
the attitude of believers versus non-believers or
people who are weak in their faith when
they are faced with difficulty, with adversity.
And especially with a difficulty that is as
difficult as a person losing his life.
So Allah SWT describes that in the Quran
and I won't go into great detail there
but I'm going to just talk about one
snippet of that story what happened.
We know that according to the opinion of
Salman al-Farsi to protect the people of
Medina what was going to be done that
they're going to dig a trench.
And that's why the battle is called Ghazwat
Khandat.
Something unique.
Something that had never been done in the
history of warfare in the Arab lands.
There was a point in the digging of
this trench that a rock came in between
the people that were digging and basically they
could not move this rock.
They tried their hardest and remember during this
time the Sahaba had come and complained to
the Prophet A.S. They had lifted up
their shirts and showed the Prophet S.A
.W. Ya Rasulullah we're so hungry we have
to tie a rock to our stomach.
The Prophet S.A.W. himself he raised
his shirt and two rocks were tied to
his stomach.
That was the difficulty that they were facing.
Facing starvation, thirst, illness and ultimately they were
facing death.
In that situation the Prophet S.A.W.
he climbed into the trench himself.
He took a pickax and he started hitting
this rock.
The first time it hit the rock sparks
flew out.
And in these sparks the Prophet S.A
.W. declared that I see victory over the
Roman Empire.
Just imagine that.
Mind boggling.
They have rocks tied to their stomach.
They don't know where their next meal is
coming from.
They're facing death in the form of these
soldiers that are encamped outside Medina.
And the Prophet S.A.W. is declaring
he's declaring that I see the destruction of
the Roman Empire in these sparks that are
flying out of this rock.
He hits it a second time and sparks
are flying out of this rock.
And he says I see the destruction of
the Persian Empire.
I see victory over the Persian Empire in
these sparks.
The third time he hits it again and
he says I see victory over the Syrian
lands in this or Yemeni lands in these
rocks in these sparks.
Again baffling and mind boggling but the attitude
that the Prophet S.A.W. is showing
his followers is that even in this adversity
we're not supposed to lose hope.
We're not supposed to give up hope.
And ultimately Allah S.W.T. did grant
them victory.
The Munafiqeen at that very difficult time they
stood up and they started saying All these
promises that we've been given about victories and
help of Allah S.W.T. and conquest
all of these things that we've been told
over the years all of these were just
lies.
That's what the Munafiqeen said.
You know what the believers said?
They said This is what Allah and His
Prophet have promised us that it's going to
happen.
We're going to be faced with difficulties and
adversities.
And the believers when they were faced with
this difficulty it increased their Iman and increased
their submission to Allah S.W.T. This
is how we're supposed to be when we
are faced with difficulty and adversity.
This was the attitude that the Prophet A
.S. had when he faced these difficulties.
So there were many many things that also
happened to the Prophet S.A.W. Go
into them right now.
I mean if you think about that the
Prophet S.A.W. before his Prophethood even
what happened to him?
Number one before he was born his father
passed away.
So he's basically he comes into this world
and he's an orphan already.
At the age of six his mother passes
away.
Again the most two beloved people to a
person are his parents.
The people that one turns to for support
and for solace and for you know for
comfort.
The parents they are gone at the age
of six.
And then the grandfather takes over.
Takes the place of the father.
The grandfather takes care of him.
After a few years he also passes away.
He comes into the care of his uncle.
So by the age of about eleven or
twelve all the Prophet A.S. has seen
is basically death in his family.
Yes he was from a very noble lineage
and his family was very supportive.
But still the loss of the parents is
a huge test for anybody.
So before Prophethood you had these trials and
tribulations.
After Prophethood when he started preaching the message
there were difficult hurdles that he had to
cross.
The Quraysh basically tried tactic after tactic to
try to dissuade the Prophet A.S. from
preaching his message.
The first tactic was that they came to
Abu Talib and they tried to tell him
that look your nephew is basically causing trouble.
He is trying to break the status quo.
He is causing problems for us.
Please tell him to stop.
So Abu Talib basically at that point told
them it's ok I'll take care of it.
And he sent them away in a nice
way.
Later on when the Prophet A.S. didn't
stop then they came back with more threats.
They said that if you don't stop this
nephew of yours then we're going to disgrace
both of you.
At that time Abu Talib was forced to
talk to the Prophet A.S. and tell
him that you know it's getting difficult for
me.
I'm getting old and you're doing what you're
doing.
I'm not going to stop you doing that
but just think about what you're doing.
You're causing rifts between families.
You're causing difficulty for me.
So please stop.
So these were the tactics that the Quraysh
employed to try to stop the Prophet A
.S. from doing this Dawah work.
After that they started throwing false accusations at
the Prophet A.S. which are mentioned throughout
the Quran.
First of all they said he's a Majnoon.
He is afflicted with a jinn.
وَقَالُوا يَا أَيُّهَا الَّذِينَ نُزِّلَ عَلَيْهِ ذِكْرَ إِنَّكَ
لَمَجْنُونَ The Quran describes them talking to the
Prophet A.S. Oh one upon whom this
zikr has been revealed.
Indeed you are Majnoon.
You are crazy.
So they accused him of being crazy.
They accused him of being a sahir, a
magician.
وَعَجِبُوا أَن جَاءَهُم مُنذِرٌ مِّنْهُمْ وَقَالَ الْكَافِرُونَ هَذَا
سَاحِرٌ They were astonished that a person should
come amongst them and preach to them this
message of Islam and they said this is
simply a lying magician that has come into
our midst.
So they accused him with this false accusation
of sihr.
And again remember the respect that the Prophet
A.S. had before prophethood a sadiq an
amin the trustworthy one the truthful one and
now all of a sudden it's completely changed
and he is now a sahir and a
majnoon and a liar نعوذ بالله They accused
him of lying وَقَالَ الَّذِينَ كَفَرُوا إِنْ هَذَا
إِلَّا إِفْكُوا نِفْتَرَاهُ وَأَعَانَهُ عَلَيْهِ قَوْمٌ آخَرُونَ They
said that this is simply a fabrication that
Muhammad has been bringing and other people are
helping him in this fabrication.
They accused him of bringing stories of the
old tales of the old and they said
وَقَالُوا أَسَاطِيرُ الْأَوَّلِينَ اكْتَتَبَهَا فَهِيَ تُمْلَى عَلَيْهِ
بُكْرَةً وَأَصِيلًا These are the tales that are
being dictated to him and he brings them
night and day he writes them down night
and day and then they said that the
Quran is not from Allah SWT it is
just a fabricated thing it's a human made
thing وَلَقَدْ نَعْلَمُ أَنَّهُمْ يَقُولُونَ إِنَّمَا يُعَلِّمُهُ بَشَرٌ
Allah SWT says indeed we know that they're
going to accuse you and tell you that
a human being has taught him these words
of the Quran this is not from Allah
but rather this is from this is from
a human being so these are the accusations
that the Prophet A.S. faced so this
was a test that the Prophet had to
face when these things didn't work they started
ridiculing him and making fun of him and
taunting him this is also mentioned in the
Quran وَكَذَٰلِكَ فَتَنَّا بَعْضَهُمْ بِبَعْضِ لِيَقُولُوا أَهَا أُولَٰئِ
مَنَّ اللَّهُ عَلَيْهِم مِّن بَيْنِنَا أَلَيْسَ اللَّهُ بِعَعْلَهُ
بِشَاكِرِينَ basically the gist of the verse is
that did Allah SWT only find this person
to be a Prophet again this is alluding
to the story of Taif one of the
most difficult times at the time of the
Prophet with which I'll finish inshallah there are
so many other stories the story of Taif
is mentioned that the Prophet went to visit
the people of Taif because they were very
influential in the community and he thought that
if he could talk to them and invite
them to Islam then it would make a
big difference in inviting other people so he
went and he met the three chiefs of
the people of Taif and each one of
them had a very demeaning attitude to the
Prophet SAW and they said words which were
not even worthy of a normal downtrodden human
being let alone the Prophet SAW and then
on top of that after insulting him that
way they basically threw him out and not
only did they throw him out they basically
sent street urchins after him the boys of
the streets after him to throw stones at
him the Prophet SAW if you can imagine
and he was pelted with stones he was
pelted with stones until he was covered in
blood from head to feet his feet, his
shoes were covered in his own blood just
imagine you know we have this attitude of
saying well I did this for my masjid,
I did this for my community I did
this for the organization did you bleed this
way like the Prophet SAW bled this is
a question we need to ask ourselves, did
we ever face that kind of difficulty?
did we ever face that kind of trial
or tribulation?
we have never and probably we never will
may Allah SWT protect us from that kind
of test it was at that time when
the Prophet SAW came to his senses that
the angel Jibreel came to him and told
him oh Prophet of Allah the angel of
these mountains is ready and waiting for you
all you have to do is give the
command give the order and we are going
to crush this village of Taif between these
two mountains just give the order