20160115-Second khutba-Imam Dawood Yasin

The Dawah and Prayer of Ibrahim: Our Blessed Ummah

Allah is the Greatest, Allah is the Greatest.

I am the Dawah of Ibrahim. I am the prayer of Ibrahim. What was the prayer of Ibrahim? He said in the Quran that Ibrahim عليه السلام makes du'a to Allah that He will send a messenger to them — who will recite His ayat, and will teach them the Book and the wisdom, will teach them the Quran and teach them the wisdom of Allah. That this is the Sunnah. The wisdom, the hikmah, is the Sunnah. That He will purify them from any traces of shirk or any traces of those things that are displeasing to Allah.

You and I are the beneficiaries of that supplication from Ibrahim عليه السلام. That we have the honor to be in the ummah of Sayyidina Muhammad ﷺ. And then he says that I am the bushra, I am the glad tidings of Isa عليه السلام.

And what is that verse? That Isa عليه السلام gives the glad tidings of the coming of the Prophet ﷺ. And again, as a reminder to ourselves, that we are blessed to be in that ummah. And then the longing of this ummah is one that Musa عليه السلام recognized and asked Allah if he could be of the ummah of Sayyidina Muhammad ﷺ. That's the reality of our deen. That's the reality of our Islam. That's the reality of our life when we embrace it.

We Are a Blessed People

We are a blessed people. We are indeed a blessed people — inwardly and outwardly, irrespective of what the outward realities are. And if you look at the seerah — and you look at it over and over and over and over again and you examine it — that's what the message is. How to maintain in the face of opposition, in the face of hardship, because there is an outward reality to everything and there is an inward reality to everything.

And when we face these hardships, we can walk away, we can complain, we can blame it on other people. But is that the way of our Prophet ﷺ? We can ask what is happening to us and why do we deserve this? But just look for one moment. Even accepting the message so that we could sit here in Plano, Texas as recipients and beneficiaries of that message — just the receiving of the message in and of itself was spiritually and physically a hardship for the Prophet ﷺ.

The First Revelation: The Weight of the Quran

We know the story — that when Jibreel عليه السلام comes to him in that form and he is squeezing the Prophet ﷺ with the command of:

Iqra — Read, I cannot read. Read, I cannot read. Read, I cannot read. Iqra — and then the verse continues, and we know this. But the reality is that the Prophet ﷺ, when he was explaining this, he said it was as if each squeeze — the life was going to be squeezed out of me. And the scholars have taken that to say that this is to acknowledge the difficulty of the Quran. The revelation is not easy. It will literally squeeze the blameworthy traits out of us and make us the best person that we can — if we allow it to be.

And he is in a state of shock. Some say: wrap him up — and we know the surah:

Zammilooni, zammilooni — but does Allah leave him alone? No, there is already a plan. There is already a plan for Khadijah, may Allah be pleased with her, to be there — to console him, to cover him, to then believe in him, and then to remind him. And she reminds him that Allah would not afflict you with a hardship — why? Because you take care of the orphan, and you look after the widow, and you give charity to the people in need, and you help the oppressed. So how can Allah abandon you?

That's our reality. I was here last night and they said that they were talking about the donations that were coming — the food donations that were coming to this community today to be spread out. That is the reality of this right here. That you are people that are committed to doing good in any category that you can. And how can Allah abandon you?

So all of the things that we are seeing outwardly are just that — they are outward manifestations but they are not the inward reality with Allah. The inward reality is that you are people that are committed to khair. You are people that are committed to good. And not just good for this community or for this area right here, but the good of our broader society. And that's how every single group — how actually the Muslims who came to this country — made their claim and made their stake and made their stance inside of this country. And we are no different. Allah is not going to abandon us. We are committed to that good, irrespective of what people will say.

Is there a reward for good, except for good? This is holding Allah in a good opinion — having husn al-dhann as we say with Allah. And having husn al-dhann, having a good opinion of each other.

Why Do We Face Hardship? Lessons from the Seerah

So let's look again, just very quickly, because I get that question a lot: Why is Allah doing this to us? Why are we in this state? As if for some reason hardship is not going to afflict us. Have we not read the surah? Have we not reflected on the nations that went before? Have we not realized that Abu Bakr, may Allah be pleased with him, was of the wealthiest Meccans? And when he accepted this path and when he began, he ended up at a time when he had absolutely nothing. But in reality he had everything. Because the one who has things but doesn't have Allah is bankrupt. And the one who has Allah — and may not possess things, if you will — what are they at loss of? That's our reality.

And the seerah, as we said, the life is to remind us of that reality over and over and over again. That rewards are commensurate to the hardship that one faces:

Rewards are commensurate to the hardship that one faces.

But the deen is not built upon hardships. But if those hardships come, then we are there — we are there to take them with patience. That's the seerah, that's the celebration that I'm talking about. That's the applicability of the life of the Prophet ﷺ. So it doesn't stand just immortalized on the shelf of one of our homes — we are adorning it every single day in our lives.

The Medicine: Turning to Prayer in Times of Hardship

Here's the medicine. The Prophet ﷺ is narrated in a hadith:

(Sunan Abu Dawud, Book 2, Hadith 1319)

When any type of hardship afflicted him, he turned to prayer. I have to ask myself this question. With everything that has been happening — San Bernardino and this action and this action and this action — what is the first thing that I am doing? Am I turning on the news, looking to what Al Jazeera has to say, looking to what Anderson Cooper has to say, looking to what Wolf Blitzer has to say, looking at whoever has to say something about the situation? Or have I turned to Allah, applying the medicine in the direction of the life of the Prophet ﷺ?

I have to ask myself this question. If we are diagnosed with some sort of strep throat or some other illness, and we are given a cycle of penicillin, of antibiotics, and we don't take those antibiotics, and we don't become healthy — is the blame on the antibiotics? Or does the blame rest on us? If we are not feeling that inward tranquility, but yet we are not taking the steps that will bring us that inward tranquility, then where does the question lie? "Islam is not the answer, Islam is somehow flawed" — I hear this in my conversation with a lot of the young adults right now. I hear this conversation, and I have this conversation. But the question is: if you don't take the medicine, is the problem with the medicine?

Years 7, 8, and 9: The Years of the Ban

Just looking at the first early years of the Meccan period — I'll skip and fast forward to year 7, 8, 9. Years 7, 8, and 9 of the Meccan period are the years known as the years of the ban. When the Muslims were banished from Mecca by their own tribes of Banu Hashim and Banu Muttalib in years 7, 8, and 9. They were banned from entering Mecca, they were banned from anyone doing commerce with them, there was a document that was written and hung inside of the Ka'bah with all of their conditions.

We know the story. We know the story that the Meccans were outside with their children, as it is said — the cries of their children filled the air — and that they had to eat the leaves from the trees. And we see this is happening again today in Syria, and the towns are besieged. May Allah give them ease. Allahumma Ameen. May Allah bring them ease and protect their children and bring them ease swiftly. Allahumma Ameen.

That they boiled the skins of the animals — the leather, if you will — to make some sort of soup just to console themselves. But as you know, Allah had 4 months that were sacred months, and the Arabs honored that. So during those 4 months, during the 3 years of the ban, the Muslims who were banned from Mecca could enter into Mecca. But look how vile they were in opposing Islam — during that time, they raised the price of food to such a degree that the Muslims could not afford it.

After hardship there is ease. And that's the lesson over and over and over again. After hardship there is ease. We are not at that. We are not even close to that. We have people that are asking how they can support. Yes, there is that other side. We acknowledge that. But that other side has always been there. The barking dogs at the caravan. We are on the caravan headed to Jannah — let the dogs bark. Let the dogs bark. May Allah bless us.

The End of the Ban: Allah's Help in an Unexpected Way

So again, in years 7, 8, and 9 there was the ban — and then in the 9th year when it was lifted and the Muslims entered back into Mecca, I'm just fast-forwarding here but just to show you who is in control. When the ban was lifted and they returned back to the Ka'bah — what did they find of the document that laid out all of the conditions of the ban? What happened to it? Allah sent His help in a manner in which none of us could ever think about. Allah sent some sort of insect that ate up the entire document, and the only part which remained on the wall of the Ka'bah was:

Oh Allah, in Your name — that was the only part of the document that remained. Who was in control of this affair?

As Allah says in the Noble Quran:

Year 10: The Year of Sadness

Alhamdulillah. From years 7, 8, 9 we have the ban and we have the help of Allah which brings us to year 10 — which is known as what? The Year of Sadness. Year 10 is called the Year of Sadness. Why? Because the Prophet ﷺ's wife, the lady Khadijah, may Allah be pleased with her — who represented the inner protection, the inner solace, the support of the Prophet ﷺ — passes into the mercy of Allah. And his uncle Abu Talib also dies 4 months later after the death of Khadijah, may Allah be pleased with her. He also dies, and he represented the outer protection of the Prophet ﷺ, because he was the chief of the Meccans.

And this is where we hear the story — that yes, in word they had given a commitment to not harming the Prophet ﷺ and he could openly make his da'wah. But this is the type of thing that began to happen to him. This is the hadith — when we hear the story that the Prophet ﷺ was in sujood and they came and put dirt on his back, and then excrement — the dung of the animals — and then they came and took the entrails of the camel. So if you've slaughtered on Eid and you've seen the innards that were taken outside of the sheep, think about that times 10, sitting in the sun and rotting and stinking — and they took that and put it on the back of the Prophet ﷺ. This was his reality, now with the death of Abu Talib.

The Journey to Ta'if

So what does he do? After that hardship he goes to Ta'if, and for 10 days he is in Ta'if making da'wah. And during those 10 days not a person listens to him and not a person accepts his message. Shall we look then that his message is not a message that is correct? Shall we look that somehow Allah is displeased with him? That's what I said — irrespective of the outward realities, the inward reality is with Allah. And what is that inward reality? That Allah only wants good for us, irrespective of the outward realities that we are facing.

May Allah increase us in Iman. And we know this story — on the 10th day the leaders of Ta'if send out the children and those that they say are majnoon, and the servants, and they pelt the Prophet ﷺ with stones and they stone him. So coming off of the death of Khadijah, coming off of the death of Abu Talib, coming off of losing the protection and status that he had amongst his people with the death of Abu Talib — he then moves out to give da'wah, and he is rejected, and he is stoned.

And as he sits there, ﷺ, bloodied — does he blame people? Does he ask Allah why this is happening to him, he who is the Messenger of Allah? No. He teaches us the lesson from the seerah that is one of the greatest lessons we should be taking in. He turns to Allah and says — in this state, that his only protector is Allah — and he turns to Him, teaching us. Because he says: I have only been sent as a teacher, and I have only been sent to perfect the noblest of character traits, which were the character traits of the anbiya. That's our teacher, ﷺ.

And regardless of what anyone wants to say, what anyone wants to do, what anyone wants to think — they cannot take that reality away from him, ﷺ. He turns to Allah and says:

Oh Allah, to You alone I complain of my weakness, my insufficient ability, and my insignificance before people. He turns it on himself. But as Allah says in the Quran — I give my affair over to Allah, and He is my wakil, He is my naseer, He is the one who will give me victory, He is the one who will protect me, He is the Sustainer. And anytime that we want to look at anything other than that in this world, we will be dissatisfied — we will be disappointed. That's the test that we have. May Allah give us the ability to pass that test. Allahumma Ameen.

Du'a

Aqim al-salat — Establish the prayer. May Allah have mercy on me and on you all.