What Makes You Cry

What Makes You Cry

We bear witness that there is none worthy of worship except Allah, obeyed and none is obeyed except through Him, and we bear witness that Muhammad ﷺ is his final messenger. We ask Allah to send his peace and blessings upon him, the prophets and messengers that came before him, his family and Companions that served alongside him, and those that follow in his blessed path until the Day of Judgment. We ask Allah to make us amongst them. Allahumma ameen.

Dear brothers and sisters, I wanted to begin this khutbah with an overview of a stark contrast between the crying of Shaitaan and the crying of Adam عليه السلام. It's very interesting because if you think about it, the idea of Shaitaan crying in and of itself might shock some people. Isn't he a creature that has no remorse for what he has done? A person might even wonder — is that even possible for the Shaitaan to cry? And what would cause him to cry?

And with Adam عليه السلام — what is it that causes Adam عليه السلام to cry after Allah has forgiven him, already guaranteed him Jannah, and told him that he has risen above that one slip that he made that caused him to leave Paradise in the first place? So why is it that Shaitaan would cry when Shaitaan is a being of no remorse? And why is it that Adam عليه السلام would cry if he has already been forgiven and assured Paradise?

And ultimately, as we survey these narrations, the question that I want to come to is: what makes us cry? And where do we find our own resemblance in regards to the tears of these two creatures that are on opposing ends?

The Tears of Shaitaan

You start off with Iblis, Shaitaan. The Prophet ﷺ said in a famous hadith in Sahih Muslim that every time the Shaitaan sees the son of Adam making sujood — prostrating —

(Sahih Muslim, Book 1, Hadith 81)

He goes to a corner and he cries. He says: "He was commanded to make sujood, and he responded — and I was commanded, and I rejected." So if you read the narration and ask yourself — is this the remorse of Shaitaan? Is he saying that this person was commanded by Allah to prostrate and they responded, and I rejected Allah — what an evil creature I was or I am, to continue to insist on this way? Is this a form of regret? Because the Prophet ﷺ said:

(Sunan Ibn Majah, Book 37, Hadith 4252)

Sincere regret is repentance. It's the beginning of repentance. It is the foundation of what repentance actually is. So is his crying because of that? Or is this something else?

And subhanAllah, there is another narration, as we often find, that gives a little bit more detail — that makes it obvious as to why he was crying, or why he cries, when he sees one of us obey Allah. Abu Huraira رضي الله تعالى عنه narrates an authentic narration in Ibn Majah that the Prophet ﷺ said: When the child of Adam reads a verse of prostration — a sajda — that causes them to prostrate, and then they make their sajda, they prostrate, they respond to the call to bow and worship Allah:

(Sahih Muslim, Book 1, Hadith 81; Sunan Ibn Majah, Book 5, Hadith 1052)

It's only a simple addition, but it gives you so much context. The Prophet ﷺ says that when he sees you make sujood, he says: "Woe to me! The son of Adam was commanded to prostrate and he responded — and so he gets Jannah. And I was commanded to prostrate and I refused — so I get the punishment of the Fire."

There's something very telling about that. Shaitaan is not doing anything to show remorse for his own deeds. He's upset that he's left out. He's crying not over the crime, but over the consequences of the crime — consequences that are self-inflicted. And these are the tears of a narcissist.

A narcissist cries as well, but a narcissist does not cry because of the hurt that they cause to others, or because of any type of regret for their deeds. They cry because they are always the victim in their own stories — even when they are the criminals in their own stories. And so he's crying because he lost Jannah. Not because he disobeyed a Rabb, a Lord who should not be disobeyed — a merciful Lord who did absolutely nothing to be disobeyed.

When Ibrahim عليه السلام spoke to his father and said: "O my father, do not worship the Shaitaan — verily the Shaitaan was to a Merciful Lord exceedingly disobedient." Allah did not give him anything for him to truly disobey Him the way that he did. But he's crying over missing out on al-Jannah.

Shaitaan's Tears at Surah Al-Fatihah

Abu Huraira رضي الله تعالى عنه narrates that Shaitaan cried at the revelation of Surah Al-Fatihah. Why? Because no one who asks Allah for guidance 17 times a day will be misguided. No one who asks Allah for His pleasure 17 times a day sincerely will attain His wrath instead. And he knows that. And it bothers him that the Muslims have this tool with which they attain the mercy of Allah on a regular basis. A Muslim who memorizes nothing else of the Quran knows Surah Al-Fatihah. And so if you recite that with sincerity, that is your connection to Allah.

The Verse That Made Iblis Cry

And then there is a chapter in the books of tafsir called حِينَ بَكَى إِبْلِيسُ — the time that Iblis cried, or the ayah that caused Iblis to cry. It's based on a narration from Anas ibn Malik رضي الله تعالى عنه and Thabit al-Bunani رضي الله تعالى عنه. That when Allah revealed the verse in Surah Ali Imran:

"And those who, when they commit a shameful act or wrong themselves, remember Allah and seek forgiveness for their sins — and who forgives sins except Allah? — and they do not persist in what they have done, while they know."

That's the difference between sincere repentance and regret. They remember Allah — Ya Allah, I disobeyed Allah. What right did I have to disobey Allah? Who is Allah to be disobeyed by me, His creation? ذَكَرُوا اللَّهَ فَاسْتَغْفَرُوا لِذُنُوبِهِمْ — before someone else made them ashamed of their sin, or before someone else reminded them, or before they faced the consequences of their sin. And that's why in Islam, even in the legal sense, if a person regrets before they are caught and they have repented before they are caught, then they are to be forgiven.

وَمَن يَغْفِرُ الذُّنُوبَ إِلَّا اللَّهُ — who is going to forgive them except Allah? وَلَمْ يُصِرُّوا عَلَىٰ مَا فَعَلُوا وَهُمْ يَعْلَمُونَ — they don't insist on their ways knowingly. The opposite of Shaitaan, who continues to go down a path that he knows is a path of destruction — and he takes as many people with him as he can.

Which is also how some people start to spiral. They know they are doing wrong, but they say "I'm just going to keep on going, and I'll bring some people with me on this path of despair so that I'm not lonely in my destruction."

So Anas رضي الله تعالى عنه and Thabit رضي الله تعالى عنه narrate that this was the verse that caused Iblis to cry. And there is another narration that explains it further — a narration from one of the Tabi'een, Ataf ibn Khalid, who says: "It was related that when this verse was revealed, Iblis shouted out and he actually began to put dirt on his head" — meaning he was so frustrated by this verse when it was revealed — until his soldiers all came to him and said: "What is it, O our master? What's causing you to scream and shout and cry? Why are you panicking?"

And he said that Allah has revealed the verse that the child of Adam no longer has to fear — so long as they repent to Allah, they no longer have to fear their sins. And so he was upset. This really ruins much of his plotting and his planning.

And so his soldiers said to him: نَفْتَحُ لَهُمْ أَبْوَابَ الْأَهْوَاءِ — "We will open for them the doors of innovations and desirous ways of thinking, wishful thinking — فَلَا يَتُوبُونَ وَلَا يَسْتَغْفِرُونَ — so they will not repent and they will not seek forgiveness — وَلَا يَرَوْنَ إِلَّا أَنَّهُمْ عَلَى الْحَقِّ — and they will think nothing except that they are upon the truth." As the Quran says:

He's crying over the destruction of his plans. He's crying over his own loss.

The Tears of Adam

Now let's contrast that for a moment to Adam عليه السلام — Adam, who has already been guaranteed his place back in Jannah. Think about that.

Now, narrations in the books of tafsir say that Adam cried for 200 years over his sin. وَابْكِي عَلَى خَطَايَاكَ — the way of the believer is indeed to cry over their sins. He cried for 200 years over his sins. He regretted deeply what he did — even after Allah's forgiveness was assured for him.

But now Adam is sent to this earth. All he has to worry about is: "I'm only here for a short while, then I go back to Jannah." If Adam was like Iblis, he would have said: "I'm good, I'm going right back to where I came from. I don't really have to worry about anything else." But that's not what we see.

Look at what the Prophet ﷺ said when he met Adam on the night of Isra and Mi'raj:

(Sahih al-Bukhari, Book 55, Hadith 608; Sahih Muslim, Book 1, Hadith 309)

The Prophet ﷺ said: "When we ascended to the lowest heaven, there was a man with large groups of people to his right and to his left. When he looked to his right and saw that large group, he laughed — ضَحِكَ — out of joy. And when he looked to his left and saw that large group, he cried — بَكَى — out of sadness."

قُلْتُ: يَا جِبْرِيلُ، مَنْ هَذَا؟ — "I said: O Jibreel, who is this man?" قَالَ: هَذَا آدَمُ — "He said: This is Adam." وَهَذِهِ الْأَسْوِدَةُ عَنْ يَمِينِهِ وَعَنْ شِمَالِهِ نَسَمُ بَنِيهِ — "And these people to his right and to his left are his descendants." فَأَهْلُ الْيَمِينِ أَهْلُ الْجَنَّةِ — "The people on the right are the people of Paradise." وَأَهْلُ الشِّمَالِ أَهْلُ النَّارِ — "And the people on the left are the people of the Fire."

So when he looks to his right, he laughs out of joy for his children. And when he looks to his left, he cries out of sadness for his children. The crying of an empath.

Adam عليه السلام teaches us a different type of crying. You know, to do da'wah is also from empathy — that you want good for people in their akhira just like you want good for them in this dunya. It's from the same place. You want success and salvation for them in the hereafter just like you want it for yourself. The same way that in this dunya you serve people and give to people because you want for them what you want for yourself — that's the spirit of da'wah.

The Tears of the Prophet

And so Adam عليه السلام is teaching us the tears of a prophet. And the greatest manifestation of that is the way of our Prophet ﷺ.

In the authentic narration of Abdullah ibn Amr رضي الله تعالى عنهما, the Prophet ﷺ was once crying. He read the ayah where Allah tells us about the du'a of Ibrahim عليه السلام — where Ibrahim is complaining about some of his descendants that go astray:

And the Prophet ﷺ raised his hands to the sky and said: اللَّهُمَّ أُمَّتِي أُمَّتِي — "Oh Allah, my Ummah, my Ummah" — and he started to cry ﷺ.

So Allah said: يَا جِبْرِيلُ، اذْهَبْ إِلَى مُحَمَّدٍ — وَرَبُّكَ أَعْلَمُ — فَسَلْهُ مَا يُبْكِيهِ — "O Jibreel, go to Muhammad — and your Lord knows best — ask him what's causing you to cry, O Muhammad." So Jibreel عليه السلام came to the Prophet ﷺ and asked him, and the Prophet ﷺ said: أُمَّتِي أُمَّتِي — "My Ummah, my Ummah." Then Allah said: يَا جِبْرِيلُ، اذْهَبْ إِلَى مُحَمَّدٍ فَقُلْ لَهُ: سَنُرْضِيكَ فِي أُمَّتِكَ وَلَا نَسُوءُكَ — "O Muhammad, We will please you with your Ummah. We will not disappoint you."

(Sahih Muslim, Book 1, Hadith 479)

That was the crying of the Prophet ﷺ. And that's why his one du'a on the Day of Judgment is a du'a of intercession for other than himself. It is the epitome of what a prophet cries for.

And subhanAllah, the ulama point to the fact that if you look at the crying of the Prophet ﷺ — when he was rejected by his uncle Abu Lahab compared to his crying when he was trying to prompt his uncle Abu Talib to say لَا إِلَٰهَ إِلَّا اللَّهُ — the buka, the crying of the Prophet ﷺ when trying to save his uncle Abu Talib was far greater than any crying when his uncle Abu Lahab was humiliating him and harassing him.

What Makes You Cry?

So it brings us to a question: Do you cry like an empath or do you cry like a narcissist? Do you cry like a worshipper or do you cry like a devil?

The Prophet ﷺ, who cried over the harm that was being inflicted on other than himself more than the harm that was being inflicted on him. The Prophet ﷺ, who cried for the salvation of the very same people that were causing him suffering in this world. That's our Prophet ﷺ.

Dear brothers and sisters, we examine our hearts — because now is a time where people express vulnerability, and vulnerability in and of itself is good. It's good to be vulnerable. But if some people express vulnerability only as a means of gaining sympathy so that they can escape accountability for their deeds and the consequences of their deeds, that's not positive.

What makes you cry? What gives you hemm? What gives you anxiety? What causes you to grieve? Think about it. And it's not something that you can answer to me — it's something between you and Allah.

And if someone says "Well, I don't cry at all" — then soften your heart with the two things that are the opposite of what Iblis brings: and that is the recitation of the Quran, and the Prophet ﷺ saying to accompany the orphans — وَامْسَحْ عَلَى رَأْسِ الْيَتِيمِ — to accompany and engage with the people that are suffering. The remembrance of Allah — ذِكْرُ اللَّهِ — in private moments of solitude where you cry at the remembrance of Allah and the recitation of the greatest reminder, which is the Quran.

And then for other than yourself — whether it's the Uyghurs, or our brothers and sisters in Palestine, or wherever it may be — you cry. You actually bring yourself to cry and make du'a for people. Soften your heart.

SubhanAllah — are we so hardened in our hearts that we can cry watching a movie about fictional characters, but we can't cry watching the real-life suffering of our brothers and sisters? That's a problem.

Soften the heart with the recitation of the Quran. Take moments of solitude. And cry like a prophet, not like a devil. Don't be someone that grieves only when they lose out — but grieve for what others are missing as well. And let that drive your da'wah. Let that drive your spirit. Let that drive your worship.

May Allah grant us those hearts, and those eyes, and those supplications. We seek refuge in Allah from eyes that don't shed tears, from hearts that are not moved, and from supplications that are not answered.

Allah commands justice, good conduct, and giving to relatives, and He forbids immorality, wrongdoing, and oppression. He admonishes you so that you may take heed. Remember Allah and He will remember you. Be grateful to Him for His blessings and He will increase you. And the remembrance of Allah is the greatest thing.