Dr. Hamid Ghazali - 4-11-25

As-salamu alaykum wa rahmatullahi wa barakatuhu.

The Difficulties We Face

Dear brothers and sisters, I pray to Allah to grant you health and strength, protect you and your children and your families, and protect our brothers all over the world, especially in Gaza, Sudan, Syria, Yemen, in the areas that are bombarded and the areas that are suffering right now.

We have a few minutes that I would like to share with you some thoughts about the difficulties that we face and how the Quran dealt with these difficulties. We live in a time where those who invest have no guarantees where their money is going to go. One day it's up, the next day it's down. As we see in yesterday and the last few days, it's going crazy. Some make billions and some lose thousands and millions. So it's a world that is not stable unfortunately.

We see people in Gaza and Sudan and different places losing their lives and nobody cares. What kind of world we live in becomes very sad for us as Muslims, because we are the victims unfortunately. And we are the ones who suffer. So it is important to look into how Allah dealt with this, how we deal with that, and how we really look forward into Allah's words and teachings that keep us on the straight path.

We are so much in pain seeing what happens every day, and we stand helpless. Add to that, people say: Why are you letting your children suffer? Look into your ideology. Even Ramadan you let a child who is 5 years old or 6 years old go through hunger and suffer. Why all of that? Why don't you just enjoy your life? So you see people somehow don't understand our philosophy. Where are we? What do we believe in? How do we look at this life? And that's where Allah was guiding the Prophet.

Learning from the Quran and Seerah

So to start with, where do we go? If we really look into difficulties and how we deal with difficulties in the Quran, couple of suggestions for that. Definitely we look into the seerah of the Prophet and we combine it with the Quran.

The Story of Ashab al-Ukhdud

Go to Ashab al-Ukhdud and understand why Allah sent that surah - Surah al-Buruj. Why did Allah send that surah? To tell the Muslims that you are going to suffer and you are going to lose thousands and thousands, but you stay on your principles and what you believe in, and Allah will make you victorious.

As the child in Ashab al-Ukhdud was telling the king different stories, and at the end he was ordering the king, telling him how to kill him. And people woke up after that - after he was killed, after he showed the king how to kill him. Couldn't kill him. The story is long, just hinting now giving you highlights. That is very significant.

The Alif Lam Ra Surahs

You go to the alif lam ra, and especially Ibrahim. Maybe many of us are not familiar with Ibrahim, but at the end of surah Ibrahim - and that is the same with the alif lam ra starting with Yunus, Hud, Yusuf, and you know Ibrahim, and al-Hijr - you will see something very striking.

When the Muslims were suffering, were tortured, were helpless like we are standing helpless right now, Allah tells the Muslims:

Don't ever think that Allah is not aware of what the wrongdoers, what those who are committing injustices are doing. Don't ever think that way. Allah is aware, but Allah is delaying them to a point where they will feel the pain and will feel how they gonna pay for their crimes.

And continues to say to them:

Don't ever think that Allah will not fulfill His promise to His messengers, and definitely the followers of the messengers. Don't ever think of that. That's one place I leave the details for you to look at it.

The Ta-Seen Surahs

You wanna look also into how the Prophet ﷺ was dealing with that and how he was getting the Tarbiyah, the guidance from Allah. At the end of the Ta-Seen, and you wanna look at the Ta-Seen - surahs that start with Ta-Seen - you really wanna look at them. You wanna learn from them. Allah was teaching the Muslims a lot.

And just the highlights: giving them a surah that talks about miracles, fiction. And Surah An-Naml for example. Why would Allah talk like fiction? Empowering human beings to do miracles. To tell the Prophet ﷺ and his companions: even if it takes a miracle, Allah will make it happen. But trust Allah.

Sulaiman - the one who was given the knowledge of the book brings the chair of the queen of Saba in just a blink of an eye in front of Sulaiman ﷺ. He wasn't a jinn. He was somebody who was given the knowledge of the book. And we have seen Umar ibn al-Khattab gives instructions to Sariah and says, "Ya Sariah al-Jabal al-Jabal" and Sariah hears him hundreds of miles away and change his route. Miracles could happen, but before that, we gotta have the strong belief in Allah and in the power that He gives us.

Never Lose Hope

Don't ever lose hope. Resort to dua. When Allah, the Muslims were suffering and were standing helpless, Allah told them in Surah An-Nisa: withhold your hands, don't fight back, and establish the prayers until a new time comes in. But while Allah was telling them withhold your hand and technically at a certain point commit suicide in other words, Allah tells them in Surah Ash-Shura - and you wanna go to the end of Surah Ash-Shura to learn something - that the Muslims should never, never, let the injustice go without taking care of it.

Allah tells us at the end of Surah Ash-Shura: when aggression is made against them, oppression is made against them, they fight back. Fighting back could be done right away. Could be done next week, next month, next year. Doesn't matter. The Muslims in Mecca stayed 13 years before they started to fight back.

The key is: you weigh consequences. And here comes, you really weigh consequences and you make decisions. There is no black and white. The black and white is saving lives. The black and white is saving your faith before your life. Standing for what you believe in, regardless of what matters happens, whatever happens to you.

As the child in Ashab al-Ukhdud stood and made a stand and lost his life because of that stand. Imam Ahmad ibn Hanbal made a stand and suffered years. And one word could have saved him from staying in jail for years, but those are our scholars who understood the deen, understood what it takes to really gain victory.

Trust in Allah

Trust Allah. Trust that Allah is not just letting things go without taking a note and counting the days until the victory comes. May Allah grant us victory. May Allah grant us confidence in Islam.

Creating a New Reality

One note before I ask you to make dua: When the Muslims had that confidence, the people of Mecca said those Muslims are out of touch with reality. They thought of them as out of touch with the realities. But no, they were not out of touch with realities. They were creating a new reality.

And I want every one of you and every Muslim to create a new reality inside yourself, within your family, within your community. With Allah, with us, we will be victorious, inshallah.

Du'a

Dear brothers and sisters, rest assured that if you have Allah with you, you have everything. And if you have everything but Allah, you don't have anything. That reality was in the heart of Musa alayhi salam, the heart of Ibrahim, in the heart of Lut, in the heart of the Prophet salallahu alayhi wasalam.

Summarized in a statement: when everything fails and Abu Bakr is worried about the life of the Prophet salallahu alayhi wasalam and the mushrik surrounding him, the Prophet salallahu alayhi wasalam smiles in the most difficult time and tells Abu Bakr: "What do you think of two? Allah is the third."

In the process, we lose lives. We incur losses. But this life is short and temporary. As one of the companions expressed it: You're going to die anyway, sooner or later. Die and what you believe in. As the child of Ashab al-Ukhdud did. Stand for who you are. Stand for what you believe in. The circumstances that you lose hope and trust in Allah, always stand as those who were called out of touch with reality.

We're not out of touch with reality and we'll never be out of touch with reality. We create new realities. We love Allah. We trust Allah.

May Allah be with our brothers in Gaza, in Sudan, in Lebanon, in Yemen, in every place in the world that is suffering right now. I ask Allah to relieve, send them a relief, send them angels to stand with them, to help them as he sent angels to the companions. May Allah grant us victory, grant us support, and strengthen our feet.