How to Understand Why Allah Allows Mass Suffering

Allah's Sunan: The Laws Governing This World

This world is governed by laws. There are physical laws, there are biological laws, there are chemical laws. It's how this world works.

And there are some laws that are not to do with physics and chemistry. Allah's sunnah on this earth. Allah has sunan. He has certain ways in which this earth runs. One of the sunnahs of Allah is that there will always be a fight between good and evil. There will always be a fight between good and evil.

Allah subhanahu wa ta'ala says in the Quran — those who are removed from their households only because they said our Lord is Allah. If not for the fact that Allah made people oppose each other and fight each other — one attacking and one defending — if Allah didn't create this situation, many masajid and places of worship would be destroyed.

وَلَيَنصُرَنَّ اللَّهُ مَنْ يَنصُرُهُ — And Allah will definitely help those who serve Him sincerely. إِنَّ اللَّهَ لَقَوِيٌّ عَزِيزٌ — Allah is powerful and He is dominating.

In this ayah and in many others in the Quran, Allah subhanahu wa ta'ala tells us: there will always be enemies to the truth. He created them to oppose us. He created them to create a problem.

Ibn Taymiyyah and the Wisdom Behind Enemies of Islam

Because Ibn Taymiyyah mentioned this. You know Ibn Taymiyyah — Ahmad ibn Abd al-Salam Ibn Taymiyyah al-Harrani al-Dimashqi, from Damascus in Syria, this great scholar. He lived at a time when the Mongols destroyed Muslim civilization. They came to Iraq. They took all the books that the Muslim scholars had written and they threw them into the sea, until the sea became blue with ink — after it was red with blood.

Now one may think: how did Allah allow the destruction of this entire Ummah, this Khilafah, all these millions and millions of Muslims at the hands of the Mongols? Ibn Taymiyyah said — when Allah wants to revive Islam, listen carefully to this statement — when Allah wants to revive Islam, He creates enemies to Islam. Because when there are enemies, then Muslims will stand up to defend their faith and they step up. When they feel threatened.

And this is why, if you go to some Muslim countries — we are now not in a Muslim country — when you go to Muslim countries, you see people, generally speaking, they are less religious. They are less keen, their masajid are less full. If you come here at Fajr time to this masjid, and you go to a masjid in a Muslim country, you might find this masjid is a lot more full. Why? One of the reasons, psychologically, is that Muslims in Muslim countries feel safe. There's no threat. There's nothing to worry about.

Here, day in and day out, there's always a threat to your iman. So you are worried. You are in fear. And that's what makes you step up your game. That's what makes you increase your commitment. You know if you don't increase your commitment, you're going to be finished. You're swimming against the current. You're not swimming with the current.

Allah Gives Power to Both the Believer and the Oppressor

And so this is why — the first thing, very important to understand — Allah is the most powerful. But Allah subhanahu wa ta'ala sometimes gives power to the zalim, the oppressor. He does. That's His sunnah. And sometimes Allah gives power to the believer. And in both of those is a test. These are the sunnah of Allah. He will always create for the believers a group of enemies, to see — because when that situation is created, the real committed believers will shine. Only when the believers are truly tested with a difficult enemy do the true believers shine. And the fake believers run away from the battle.

The War We Are In Today

Today, we are at war. Yes, we are at war. Maybe not a physical war. But Muslims, there is an intellectual war — from atheism, from all these liberal ideologies, from these gender ideologies — whether it's at school, whether it's at university. We are at war. A war of ideas, not a war of weapons. If it's not you, your children will be victims to this war.

And the real question is: who is going to stand up and fight? Who is going to defend their deen with ilm, with basirah, with knowledge, and with wisdom, and with intelligence? Who is going to defend Islam and who is going to move forward with confidence? And who is going to hide in the corner? And who is going to slink away from the battle and say, maybe Islam really isn't the truth? This is where the true believers — the men — get separated from the boys.

When Allah describes true real men in the Quran, Allah says:

From the believers, some of them were real men — people who were true to the promise they made to Allah. When Allah made them a promise, they trusted in Allah's promise. Even if it took hundreds of years, they are not going to give up. They are patient.

The Story of Musa and the Trust in Al-Qawiyy

When you know Allah is Al-Qawiyy, you know that He might give power to the person who is not a good person. Yes, Allah gave power to Napoleon Bonaparte and he came to Egypt. And he sent his soldiers to urinate in Al-Azhar and in the masajid of Egypt, and to burn all the books. Yes, Allah gave power to our enemies.

And this question was asked in the Quran by Musa. Musa says: O Allah, you gave Firaun — this horrible individual — you gave him so much decoration and beauty and wealth. O Allah, you gave them all of this and they are going to use it to misguide people. And then Musa makes du'a against them. O Allah, I do not have the wealth that they have. It is as though Musa is saying: O Allah, I don't have the wealth of Firaun. I don't have the army of Firaun. But I only have You. O Allah, show them the punishment. O Allah, show them Your power.

And with this little stick of Musa — this 'asa — he defeated Firaun and his army. The power is not in the tool. We think that if we become engineers, we will be powerful. If we have weapons, we will be powerful. If we have social media, we will be powerful. The power is not in the tool. Musa عليه السلام defeated Firaun with a stick. With a stick. It is not about the stick. It is about trusting that Allah is more powerful than our enemies.

Remember this moment — as Musa stands on the edge of the sea, and behind him, the hooves are slamming on the ground and the dust is in the air, as the army of Firaun comes close to finish him off. And his people give up. They say: we are finished, we are finished. But Musa عليه السلام — the man with a stick and no army — he says: no, my Lord is with me. He will show us the way.

It is this trust in Allah Al-Qawiyy that gave him the strength to split the sea. It is this trust in Allah Al-Qawiyy that drowned the greatest army the world had ever seen. It is this trust in Allah Al-Qawiyy that will help us over our enemies — in this war that we are in, in this war over our children's iman, to preserve the iman of our children, the identity of our children, our salah, our commitment to Allah. It is a war that we have to fight to preserve our identity and protect our iman. And we won't be able to do it with tools, with wealth. We will do it with the help of Al-Qawiyy — Allah, the Powerful.

The Confidence of the Prophet and the Lesson for Us

It is this belief in the Most Powerful that gave the Prophet ﷺ the confidence to never compromise on a single letter. When the disbelievers came to him and said, "Worship our Lord for one day, we will worship your Lord for one day" — he said no. When they came to him and said, "Take some money, take some women, what do you want?" — he said: no, I don't want anything. It is because he knew Allah is Al-Qawiyy. He is not waiting for some handout from the government. He is not waiting for the liberals to come on his side. He doesn't need the wrong people to be on his side. He just needs Allah on his side. And with that, he was able to completely decimate the Arabian Peninsula and dominate the world.

They did it when they believed in Al-Qawiyy. They didn't do it because of tools. They didn't do it because of degrees. They didn't do it because of anything from this dunya. But because of the strength of their certainty in the promise of Allah, Allah opened for them the dunya. And because we have a weak certainty in Allah — and we have instead a strong certainty in everything else — the dunya has closed up to us.

Allah's Help Must Be Earned

If we do not sweat for Allah, Allah is not going to help us. Allah says — with emphasis:

"I will definitely — 100% — I promise you, I will help those who serve Me." Have we sweated for the sake of Allah? Have we ever done anything in our life to deserve the help of Allah? For ourselves. For our children. For our communities. When was the last time we took an hour out to serve Allah? To help the needy. To help the neighbor. To pray Qiyam al-Layl. To go and to struggle in the masjid. These are the front lines today that we are fighting.

When was the last time we did something? It takes an earthquake for Muslims to spend money for the sake of Allah. It takes people dying. But we will not spend to keep their iman alive. We will not spend on our children's education. If it's GCSE science tuition, we will pay £30 an hour. But for Quran tuition, if I have to pay £30 a month, I'm going to fight with the management. We are not willing to spend and sweat and bleed for Allah. But we are willing to sweat and bleed for everything else. Are we surprised? Are we shocked that the help of Allah is never going to come?

What have we done to deserve it, my friends? We have to ask ourselves this question. Allah's nusra — Allah's quwa, His power — is not free. It's an expensive commodity. And we have to pay the price and pay the dues if we want to achieve it and we want to receive it from Allah.