Dealing With Trials & Tribulations - Dr Ahsan Hanif

Dealing With Trials & Tribulations

We live in a time of trials and tribulations. A time of difficulties and hardship. It is rare that you can listen to the news or hear about the news except that you hear something across the world taking place about Islam or the Muslims. You have the ongoing conflicts in places like Syria, places like Palestine. Even those places that are no longer within the news but there are still problems there, like Somalia, the Central African Republic — all of those places that we know about across the Muslim world. And when a person even reads local news these days, you hear about these alleged plots of Muslims over schools, and all of these things about Islam and the Muslim community and the way that the Muslims are behaving.

No doubt we live in a time of trials and tribulations. But the question is, my dear brothers and sisters in Islam, how do we as Muslims respond to these trials that we see facing us all around us? Whether they affect us or they don't affect us. Those trials which affect us on an individual level, at a family level, at the level of a community within the city, at the level of the Muslim Ummah.

There are those people who will disengage from trials. They will look at these problems and they will neglect them, or ignore them, or pretend that they don't exist. There are other people who, when they see these problems, they become over-emotional. And instead of thinking about what they're going to do, what they're going to say, instead of making sure that their actions and their speech is measured by the Qur'an and the Sunnah of the Prophet ﷺ, they let their emotions overcome them. And then there are many shades and scales in between those two extremes as well.

So today's khutbah I want to dedicate to this issue: what is the methodology, the manhaj, of the Muslim in times of trial.

The Trials of the Early Muslims

We look at the trials around us and some of us think that it is only in our time, in our lifetime, in our generation, that the Muslims were afflicted with trials. That we have all of these problems going on around us. And sometimes we forget — we're ignorant, or we feign ignorance — of the fact that there were trials that existed from the moment that the Prophet ﷺ began to preach this religion. From the moment that he stood on the mountain of As-Safa and he openly proclaimed the message of Islam, the Muslims underwent trials and tribulations, hardships and difficulties.

And if you were to compare what we're going through today with the trials that the companions of the Prophet ﷺ faced, then they would pale in significance. Those were a group of people who, when they underwent trials, it wasn't just a news story that they had to listen to. It wasn't just someone looking at them in a way that they weren't pleased with when they were walking on the street. It wasn't just someone saying a word to them.

When they underwent trials it meant persecution and torture and oppression. When they underwent trials it meant that one of them would be killed, or their family members would be killed. It meant that they would be exiled from the city that they were born in, that they grew up in, that they call their home. It meant that their wealth would be taken from them, that they would be split from their families — from their wives and their husbands and their children — simply because they say لا إله إلا الله.

And so in the time of the Prophet ﷺ, not only did the companions go through trials, but the Prophet ﷺ established for us principles in the way that we engage with those trials.

Principle One: Trials Are from the Decree of Allah

The first of those principles, my dear brothers and sisters, is that trials are from the decree of Allah. It is something which must take place. It is something which takes place because Allah decrees it, and He has decreed it for every single time and generation of Muslims.

In the famous hadith in Sahih Muslim, narrated by Abdurrahman ibn Abdirabbil Ka'bah, he said: I entered into Al-Masjid Al-Haram and I saw the companion Abdullah ibn 'Amr ibn Al-'As (may Allah be pleased with him) sitting under the shade of the Ka'bah. So I, along with a group of people, went and sat around him. And he began to narrate a hadith. He said that we were once travelling with the Prophet ﷺ, and as we were travelling with him, we came to rest at a certain place. So as we were resting, there were companions who began to set up their tents, other companions who began to compete in the shooting of arrows, and other companions who took their animals to graze. Everyone was doing their own thing until we heard a man call out and announce: الصلاةُ جامعة — the prayer is being called, the prayer is being called. So we gathered and we went to the Prophet ﷺ.

And the Prophet ﷺ, once we gathered, said to us:

(Sahih Muslim, Book 33, Hadith 4553)

Indeed it is the right upon every single Prophet that they should warn their companions, their people, their nations — and teach it to them — and they should warn them of that which is evil for them and tell them to stay away and abstain from it. And verily this Ummah of yours: its peaceful time will be in its earliest generations. And as for its later generations, then they will undergo trials and hardships and other affairs that you will disagree with. Until the extent will come that a trial will come, and every single trial that comes before it pales in significance. A trial will come and the believer will say, "This is my destruction," and then the trial will pass by. And another trial will come and the person will say — the believer will say — "Rather this is my destruction, this is my destruction." So whosoever wants to be saved from the Fire of Hell, and whosoever wants to enter into Jannah, then let death come to them whilst they believe in Allah and in the Last Day.

This beautiful hadith of the Prophet ﷺ encapsulates for us the principles and the methodology of the Muslim in times of fitna. And the first of those principles, as I said, is that it is a decree of Allah — especially in the later times, the latter times of this Ummah — that we will undergo many trials. Trials that afflict you and trials that don't afflict you. Trials that are to do with you and your person or your family only, and trials which afflict the whole.

Allah says in Surah Al-'Ankabut:

Alif Lam Mim. Do the people think that they simply say "we believe" — that because they say "we believe" they will be left alone and they won't be tried and tested? And of a surety We tested those who came before them, so that Allah could make it known those who from amongst them were truthful and those who were liars.

Trials come to every single person, and they come to every single generation of the Muslims in every time and in every place.

Principle Two: Preserve Your Religion Above All Else

But when we look at this hadith of Abdurrahman ibn Abdirabbil Ka'bah — what the Prophet ﷺ told us with regards to the fitna and the trials that we will face — after knowing that everything that takes place is from the decree of Allah and there is no escaping the decree of Allah, the second principle is that the most important thing that you can do in times of trial is to preserve your religion.

That is the most important principle within Islam — that you preserve your religion. Before you make a single statement, before you perform a single action, before you take a single stance on one point of view or the other, the overriding thought that should enter into your mind is: what will preserve my religion? What is it that will please Allah? Will please the Prophet ﷺ? What is in accordance with the Qur'an and the Sunnah?

This is something which the Prophet ﷺ nurtured his companions upon. When you look at the examples of the companions of the Prophet ﷺ, you see there are many ahadith in which the Prophet ﷺ mentioned many trials. He mentioned the greatest trial that will ever befall any group of Muslims — and that is the trial of the Dajjal. The Prophet ﷺ said: from the time of Adam ﷺ until the establishment of the Hour, there is not a single trial which is greater than the trial of the Dajjal.

In another hadith, when the Prophet ﷺ was giving the description of the Dajjal — that he will be on earth for 40 days, the length of the first day will be like a year, the length of the second day will be like a month, the length of the third day will be like a week, and then all of the other days will be normal days — the companions, what do you think they asked the Prophet ﷺ in relation to the greatest trial that will ever befall the people? What was the one single question they asked?

What army formation? What weapons? What advisers? What shall we do militarily in order to combat the Dajjal? Did they ask these types of questions? No. They asked a single question. They said: O Messenger of Allah, on those days — the day that is the length of a year, or a month, or a week — how do we pray? And the Prophet ﷺ said: estimate the timings.

The companions understood that any trial that comes to you — no matter the scale of that trial, no matter how many people it's affecting, no matter how evil it seems — the only salvation for you in any trial is for you to hold on to your religion, for you to strengthen your connection to Allah, for you to be strong in your Iman, for you to adhere to the teachings of the Qur'an and the Sunnah. They understood that if Allah was going to give them salvation from the Dajjal, then they would have to make their worship of Allah strong. How, O Messenger of Allah, do we worship Allah? Do we pray on those days?

This is the principle that the Prophet ﷺ laid down for us as an Ummah. In the hadith of Ma'qil ibn Yasar in Sahih Muslim, the Prophet ﷺ said: to worship Allah in times of trial and difficulty is like making Hijrah to the Prophet ﷺ.

There is a hadith in Sahih al-Bukhari on the authority of Umm Salamah, our mother, the wife of the Prophet ﷺ. She said: he woke up and he was in a frightened state. SubhanAllah — glory be to Allah! How many treasures has Allah sent down upon the earth and how many trials has Allah sent down upon the earth? Who will go and wake up my wives — meaning so that they can pray during the night, they can pray Qiyamul Layl — for perhaps the person who is clothed in this life will come naked upon the Day of Judgment.

The Prophet ﷺ, when things would come upon him and he would be afraid, surprised by something, he would go and turn back to Allah. In times of difficulty and hardship he would go back to the prayer. If he needed solace and contentment, he would ask Bilal to make the Adhan and to call for the prayer. These are the principles that the Prophet ﷺ instilled within this Ummah.

And when we lose sight of these principles — when we no longer know how to engage with these trials and what the methodology is — when it becomes difficult for ourselves, when we make mistakes in the name of Islam, when we ascribe things to Allah and to the Prophet ﷺ yet they are free of them...

Principle Three: Optimism — Al-Fa'al

The third principle that we take is what is known in Islam as Al-Fa'al or At-Tafa'ul — to be optimistic even in the most direst of situations. The most difficult of situations — the Muslim is one who is optimistic. Optimistic in the promise of Allah, because they have certainty that Allah is the Sustainer, the Lord of the Heavens and the Earth, and that everything that takes place takes place only by the permission of Allah.

In the hadith of Khabbab ibn Al-Aratt in Sahih al-Bukhari — in the early days of Islam in Mecca, when the Muslims were weak and few in number, and the Muslims were being persecuted and tortured and oppressed — the companions came to the Prophet ﷺ while he was in the shade of the Ka'bah, and they said: don't you seek help for us? Don't you pray for us? And he ﷺ said:

(Sahih al-Bukhari, Hadith 3852)

Indeed, there used to be from those people who came before you — a man would come, and a hole would be dug in the ground for him, and he would be placed in it. And a man would be sawn into two halves, and a man would be combed with combs of metal and iron — they would comb off the flesh and the skin off of his bones — but this would not turn him away from his religion. By Allah, Allah will complete this affair — meaning this religion — until a person will travel from Sana'a to Hadramaut and all he fears is Allah and the wolf upon his sheep. But you are a people who are hasty.

He ﷺ said to those companions: don't be hasty, but rather be optimistic. Have certainty in the promise of Allah. For the Muslim, our role when we have trials that face us — Allah is looking at the way that you will respond. Whether that trial brings you closer to Allah, whether it strengthens your Iman, or whether it takes you further away from Allah. Yes, the trial affects all of the Ummah, but the Ummah is made up of individuals. Depending on how you respond to that trial, that trial will either be successful for you in the way that you deal with it, or you will fail in the way that you deal with that trial.

The Prophet ﷺ, even in the most difficult of situations, would have hope, and he would show optimism, and he would love to be optimistic. In the Battle of Khandaq — the Battle of the Trench — when all of the disbelievers were surrounding and encircling the Muslims in Madinah, the Quraysh and their allies were surrounding the Muslims. The Prophet ﷺ was digging a trench. And in those difficult times, as they were digging the trench, they would go for many days without any food. To the extent that one of the companions said: I saw that the Prophet ﷺ himself would dig the trench to the extent that his chest would be black — black because of the mud and the dirt that he was picking up; I couldn't see his chest for the blackness that was upon it. Another companion said that he would be so hungry during those days that he would tie stones to his stomach in order to lessen the pangs of hunger.

The Prophet ﷺ, as he was digging that trench, the companions came across a boulder — a rock which was too big for them to break. So they came and they asked the Prophet ﷺ to help them. The Prophet ﷺ came and he struck the rock. As he struck the rock and a piece of it broke, he said: الحمد لله، الله أكبر — all praise is due to Allah, Allah is the Greatest! Indeed I see that the treasures of Sham will come to us. And then he struck it again and it broke some more, and he said: الله أكبر — Allah is the Greatest! Indeed I see the treasures of Persia coming to us.

Even in the most difficult of times, even in the times of most hardship, the Prophet ﷺ had hope. He would be optimistic and he would show the companions that he was optimistic.

Principle Four: No Excuse to Disobey Allah in Times of Trial

From the principles of dealing with fitan and trials that we take from the Sunnah and the life of the Prophet ﷺ is that, despite how big a trial may seem, despite how difficult it may be, despite how much of an impact it may have on your life — there is no excuse to do that which displeases Allah or displeases the Prophet ﷺ. There is no excuse to contradict the teachings of the Qur'an and the Sunnah.

At all times the Prophet ﷺ would uphold the rights of others. He would look after the rights of his family. He would look after the rights of the poor. He would look after the rights of the orphans and the widows. He would look after the rights of the non-Muslims. Even the animals — he would look after their rights. The Muslims are being persecuted, they are being tortured, yet the Prophet ﷺ would look after and uphold the rights of the people.

The rights of the elders doesn't mean that the laws of Allah no longer exist. Doesn't mean that those laws no longer apply to you. But rather, that is the test Allah has given to you.

The People of the Cave

One of the ways that this is illustrated in the Qur'an is in the story of the People of the Cave — Ashab Al-Kahf. When they wake up after 300 years of sleeping, and they are hungry — even though they don't know that they've slept for so long, they think that they only slept for a day or a part of a day — when they wake up and they experience hunger, they say to one another: who will go to the city and bring for us أَزْكَى طَعَامًا — the purest of food. The scholars of tafsir say that it means the most halal of food.

These were a group of people who entered the cave out of fear for their lives and their religion. They're being persecuted. And even though 300 years have passed, they don't realize that such a long time has passed. They're in a situation of necessity and need. It is allowed in such situations to take any food or any drink because you're fearing your life. But they had standards. They understood that the way they come close to Allah is to excel even in the least of things. So Allah praises for them this stance — that they asked for the most halal, the purest of food, even in the most difficult of times.

The Prophet ﷺ said in the famous hadith of Jundub ibn Abdillah in Sahih al-Bukhari:

Indeed the first thing that will decompose in the grave from the person is the abdomen — the stomach. So whosoever can ensure that they only eat that which is good and pure, then let them do so. And whosoever can ensure that nothing comes between them and Jannah — not even a handful of blood that they unlawfully spilt — then let them do so.

Even in the times of difficulty and trial. We know the hadith of 'Ammar ibn Yasir (may Allah be pleased with him), who when he was fighting in a battle — in the middle of war, with all of the pressure and the difficulty and the hardship that a person encounters on a battlefield — he came across a man from the opposing army. As he overcame him and drew his sword towards his neck, the man said لا إله إلا الله.

Difficult circumstances. 'Ammar ibn Yasir used his judgment and he killed the man even though he had said لا إله إلا الله. He then went to the Prophet ﷺ and informed him of this. The Prophet ﷺ said to 'Ammar: how can you kill him after he said لا إله إلا الله? 'Ammar (may Allah be pleased with him) said: O Messenger of Allah, he only said it for fear of my sword — meaning he wasn't sincere, he didn't really want to accept Islam, he wanted to save his own life, his skin. So he said لا إله إلا الله. The Prophet ﷺ said: did you open his heart? Do you know what he intended? How can you kill him after he said لا إله إلا الله?

These are the principles. This is the methodology that the Prophet ﷺ had himself, instilled within his companions, and left as a legacy for me and you — in terms of the way that we deal with these trials that we encounter.

Principle Five: Do Not Increase Fitna

One of the principles in relation to dealing with trials and tribulations that we find within the life of the Prophet ﷺ is that it is not allowed in times of fitna to increase fitna. In times of trials it is not allowed to increase trial — to make things more difficult, to add fuel to the fire. Nor is it allowed, generally speaking, for a person to go and look out for trials or to hope that trials should come to them.

The Prophet ﷺ said:

(Sahih Muslim, Book 1, Hadith 213)

Hasten with good deeds before trials come to you like portions of the black night — meaning that each one of them will be more severe after the other. Hasten with good deeds before those trials come to you. A man will awake in the morning as a believer but by evening he will be a disbeliever. Or in the evening he will be a believer but by the morning he will be a disbeliever. He will sell his religion for one of the worldly gains.

This is one of the reasons why a person stays away from fitna. And the Prophet ﷺ would say to the companions:

(Sahih Muslim, Introduction, Hadith 5)

It is enough of a lie for a person to narrate everything which they hear — especially in times of fitna, especially in times of trial. And 'Umar (may Allah be pleased with him) would say: when fitna, when trial, comes upon the community, then the tongue is just as dangerous as the sword.

So the companions (may Allah be pleased with them) would not allow anyone to increase fitna, but rather they would do things to stop the fitna and to kill the fitna. And at the same time they would encourage the companions to stay away from fitna, to not engage with trials, out of fear for their religion.

The Prophet ﷺ said in the hadith of Abu Hurairah in Sahih Muslim:

(Sahih Muslim, Book 54, Hadith 2886)

Indeed there will be trials. The one who is sitting in those trials will be better than the one who is standing. And the one who is standing is better than the one who is walking. And the one who is walking is better than the one who is running. Meaning that these are different stages of people engaging with those trials — those who stay the furthest back, they stay sitting, they stay away; they are better than those who run towards those trials. Whosoever exposes themselves to those trials, the Prophet ﷺ said, they will become engulfed with them. So whosoever can seek refuge and shelter from those trials, then let them do so.

Conclusion

We live in times which are difficult. Times in which there are many trials. And it is difficult to look at each and every trial and to know how to deal with it on an individual basis. And that is why within our religion the Prophet ﷺ established for us a methodology, a solid foundation — principles that if you know them, you adhere to them, you apply them, you can deal with any fitnah no matter how great or small it is. No matter who it affects — whether you as an individual, or your family, or whether it affects all of the Ummah.

So the message of today's khutbah is to go back to the Sunnah of the Prophet ﷺ, especially in times of trial. To learn about your religion and the principles in dealing with those trials. And the most important of those principles is to safeguard your religion, to strengthen your Iman, and to strengthen your connection with Allah.

Du'a

Ask Allah that He safeguards all of us and our families and our children from every type of trial and tribulation, from every hardship and difficulty — that which we can see and that which is hidden from us. We ask Allah with His perfect and complete protection to protect us and our families and the Muslim Ummah. We ask Allah that He helps our brothers and sisters who are undergoing oppression and tyranny and undergoing difficulty, whether that be our brothers and sisters within this community or abroad. We ask Allah that He showers His blessings upon us, that He preserves us and blesses us within our families and our wealth and our time, and that Allah guides us to that which He loves and is pleased with, and that Allah takes us back to the Qur'an and the Sunnah of the Prophet ﷺ.