Light Beyond the Tunnel | Mufti Abdul Rahman Waheed

Light Beyond the Tunnel

Everything where you can feel, you're tangible, you're there in front of a teacher, you're there with your friends and your companions — and now we're just sitting in front of a screen. But may Allah reward you, that's the best we could do. There are many hadith about people who are staying home for certain reasons where Allah blesses them with so much reward and blessing. So alhamdulillah, we have the blessings of health and iman and we're home with our families and our loved ones. So alhamdulillah, we're still saying alhamdulillah in all conditions.

It's strange for me to do this but inshallah I'll give it a shot, and in today's session I've chosen to speak about something hopefully very relevant in terms of what's going on nowadays.

The First Prophet's Story Revealed in the Qur'an

A few months ago I had a session in which I said this was the first story revealed in the Qur'an — and hopefully many of you remember that the first story revealed in the Qur'an, in that session, we went over the story that was mentioned in Surah Al-Qalam:

The people of the garden — Surah Al-Qalam is one of the first five surahs revealed in the Qur'an, and that story was the first story revealed in the Qur'an. Now today we're going to be speaking about the first Prophet's story revealed in the Qur'an. There's a difference. That was the first story revealed in the Qur'an, and this is the first story of a Prophet revealed in the Qur'an.

Which Prophet's story was the first one to be revealed in the Qur'an? Was it the story of Musa عليه السلام? Musa's story is mentioned numerous times. Was it the story of Adam? In terms of ترتيب, in Surah Al-Baqarah, yes, the first story mentioned in Surah Al-Baqarah is the story of Adam — but is that the first story revealed in the Qur'an? Was it the story of Yusuf عليه السلام?

The answer is: the story of Yunus عليه السلام was the first Prophet's story to be revealed in the Qur'an. And it's interesting on many levels — why did Allah subhanahu wa ta'ala choose to reveal the story of Yunus as the first Prophet's story? What was the hikmah behind it? What's the wisdom? Of course Allah is the only one who knows. He is أَحْكَمُ الْحَاكِمِينَ and He is the Knower of all wisdoms.

But there are Mufassireen who mention different anecdotes and reasons for this story to be the first one to be revealed in the Qur'an. Among them is that in this story there is a lesson for the Ummah of the Prophet ﷺ. Because remember — after him there is no Prophet to come. This Ummah will be facing many different crises throughout its time, and there will be no Prophet to come to rescue them. They will have the Qur'an and they will have the stories of the past, they will have the life of the Prophet ﷺ and the lives of the Sahaba — but they won't have a live person in front of them.

It would be so remarkable — like in the time of the Prophet ﷺ — where the Sahaba went through crises, they would just come to the masjid, they would see the Prophet ﷺ and they would just feel so much better just by looking at him. It doesn't matter what they were going through — whether it was Uhud or Khandaq — just being around the Prophet ﷺ made them feel so much better. But we don't have that. We don't have that luxury.

So this story was to be mentioned because it had an emphasis for the Ummah of the Prophet — there is something in the story that is so relevant and so practical that we can take from it and that can help us in our daily lives.

The Story of Yunus in Surah As-Saffat

The verses I will choose today — Yunus's story is mentioned in a few different places in the Qur'an, but I will start with Surah As-Saffat, where Allah says:

Now many of us already know his story. The fact that his story is unique — he was a prophet whom Allah sent to a nation in a place called Nineveh, a place in Iraq. He gave da'wah to his nation for many years, and at a point when he realized — on his own, without revelation from Allah — that these people are not going to believe. He had tried so hard, he had done everything possible, but nothing was happening.

So he decided to overnight leave his town, and he made a du'a against them, saying: "O Allah, I have done everything I could, and now they are not listening — You take care of them in the manner that is befitting to You." Allah mentions this in Surah Al-Anbiya:

There are three different names Allah uses in the Qur'an for this same person — one is Yunus, one is Dhul-Nun (ذُو النُّون), and one is Sahibul Hut (صَاحِبُ الْحُوت) — and all three refer to the same person: Yunus عليه السلام.

So Allah says: when Yunus عليه السلام decided to leave town in a state of anger — he was angry with his nation, he was fed up with them, hopeless — he left and decided to leave without Allah telling him he could leave yet. This was his error: Allah had not yet revealed to him that he could leave, and he left.

So now he leaves, gets to the shore, sees a boat, and jumps onto it. When he boards this boat, it is traveling — and usually at this time there were no stormy winds. This was a time when it was easy to sail a boat, which is why these fishermen were on it. Then the winds became strong and the waves became fierce, and they noticed that this was something not regular, not normal — something unnatural, something out of the norm was happening. So they realized this boat was about to tip over.

Lesson One: Take Responsibility

At this point, they made a declaration — according to their belief, these types of violent winds and fierce storms take place when a slave has run away from his master. So there must be someone on this boat who has fled. Now Yunus عليه السلام, right when he hears this, says: "Well, I'm the one — I ran away from my master." Everybody says: "No way, it can't be you."

And right here — even in this moment of Yunus عليه السلام saying "it was me" — there is a point of reflection for us. When things start becoming difficult in our life, the first thing we should do is take responsibility. In that boat, there were no known Muslims — no one who had said the Kalima. Yunus عليه السلام had been giving da'wah for all these years and no one had accepted his call. The people on the boat were not worshippers of Allah — he was the only worshipper, he was a prophet of Allah. Why would he take responsibility for the winds becoming violent? He was a pious servant of Allah. But he did not deflect responsibility. He did not start talking about other things. He took responsibility on his own: "It was me. It's my fault."

This is missing in the Ummah today. Look — right now the circumstances are all over the world. I believe that if we made a graph — before and after this whole coronavirus outbreak — before, we were going to the masjid this much, and now we're going this much. One of them that will be tilted is: before corona, our phone and WhatsApp usage was this much, and now it's like this much. Instead of tracking every statistic — did some of us see the videos of Mecca and Medina where Madinah was empty and the Haram was empty? Wallahi, it makes me cry so much.

The fact is — Allah doesn't need us. It is true. Allah is غني from us. Allah doesn't need us to come do tawaf around His house. The Prophet ﷺ does not need us to go there and say salaam to him — he is the Prophet of Allah, the greatest one to ever walk on the face of the earth. He doesn't need anything. He doesn't need us to go there. His masjid does not need us to be there. We need to be there. It is our need, our necessity, to go there to cleanse ourselves.

But when this happened, I was on some WhatsApp groups and you start hearing comments — "Oh yeah, the government's like this" and "these crazy people, they closed the masjid, they have no taqwa." Habibi — take responsibility. What did I do wrong? Is there something I did wrong, even sitting here in America? Was there a time — how ironic — how ironic that the moment Umrah became so easy, when recently we were hearing how easy the visa is now, the e-visa, just get it, go online, book the hotels and you're there — when it became so easy to go, it becomes so difficult to go. Because this is an acceptance from Allah. Maybe we did something. Maybe I did something which is depriving me of being accepted by Allah. Maybe as an Ummah we have done something which has deprived us of being accepted to walk into the house of Allah in Mecca, in Madinatul Munawwara.

This is a privilege. This is an acceptance. It's not a vacation trip — which we have, as an Ummah collectively, made this mistake of treating it as one. We should make tawbah and say: "O Allah, maybe it's my fault, I'll take responsibility for this" — and then forgive me. Everyone starts doing it individually.

Yunus عليه السلام is on this boat. The first lesson from his story is: he takes responsibility. He takes responsibility for the circumstances around him being unfavorable.

In our homes — if our spouse acts in a manner during these difficult times — there was a graph we saw from China that during this coronavirus outbreak, where everyone is quarantining in their homes, the divorce rate spikes, because everyone is together at home all the time. Your kids are getting on your nerves. I'm home right now, sitting in the basement of my house — for me, the silver lining is I've never been home this long in my life, so I'm actually enjoying it. I'm enjoying being with my kids. I'm enjoying my one-and-a-half, two-year-old. But at the same time, I can see that people who are not used to being around their wife or their kids the whole day — when something happens in our homes — rather than taking responsibility, we deflect. "It's your fault, you know what you did first." Or deflecting on our husband. Instead — take responsibility.

The first lesson from the story of Yunus عليه السلام is: take responsibility for unfavorable circumstances that are around us. If Yunus — who was a Messenger of Allah — when he saw this happening around him, he was the first one to take responsibility, even though everybody around him said: "No, it can't be you — you're the most pious one among us, it must be one of us." And he kept insisting: "No, it's me."

Think about this in the Battle of Uhud. The Sahaba saw such circumstances that they could not imagine. Just coming from the Battle of Badr, where Allah gave them such victory, such conquest they couldn't imagine — and now, Uhud was set to be another day like Badr. The Prophet ﷺ was with them, all the Sahaba were there, Hamza ibn Abd al-Muttalib was there. And then, all of a sudden, within a few moments — at the beginning the Muslims were winning the battle — and then the sides tilted, the field tilted, and it happened so fast that people could not understand what was going on.

This is like what happened to us — two weeks ago we were sitting and everything was fine. Last week on Thursday, the governor still hadn't made an announcement that schools had to be shut down. We still had our school. And then Friday happened, and every single day things were just happening so fast we could not make sense of it. The same happened at the Battle of Uhud — things happened so quickly that the Sahaba didn't know what had just hit them.

Now they're sitting after the Battle of Uhud. The Prophet's ﷺ teeth were martyred. His uncle Hamza, whom he loved so dearly, was martyred. The Prophet ﷺ cried so much on that day. Many of his great Sahaba passed away — 70 shuhada. Now Aisha رضي الله عنها asked — she was there, and Fatimah, the daughter of the Prophet ﷺ, was also there, and she was pregnant with Al-Hasan on that day. So Aisha رضي الله عنها asked: "Ya Rasulullah, was there any day more difficult than this day in your life?"

And the Prophet ﷺ looks at her and says: "Aisha, no — the day of Ta'if was a more difficult and challenging day." When the Prophet ﷺ leaves and goes to Ta'if, thinking that this is the only light beyond the tunnel — he sees darkness all around him, no one is trying to help him, no one is assisting him — and he leaves his own hometown and goes to Ta'if, thinking that he has good assumptions of these people: they are hospitable, they help and feed guests, they are respectful, they are honorable. He hears all these things about them, and because of this he makes the decision to go there. And when he gets there — we all know the story — he gets pelted with stones and has to run kilometers after kilometers, and finally sits in the garden of Utbah and Shaybah, sits there under a tree. And while he is sitting there, he makes a du'a.

Look at the du'a of the Prophet ﷺ — he takes responsibility:

He says: "O Allah, I am complaining to You about my weakness — اللَّهُمَّ إِنِّي أَشْكُو إِلَيْكَ ضَعْفَ قُوَّتِي — maybe I could have withstood those stones longer. I had to leave. I couldn't stand there anymore." O Allah, he takes responsibility. وَقِلَّةَ حِيلَتِي — "maybe I didn't have the best strategies, and the fact that I had such little resources, and my strategies were probably not right." And then وَهَوَانِي عَلَى النَّاسِ — "maybe because I am not respected in their eyes, that is why they shun me away." Again, the Prophet ﷺ takes responsibility — even though it was not his fault. We all know that hidayah is in the hands of Allah. He did whatever he could do. He could not withstand those stones anymore, so he started running — he had no choice.

So the first lesson we learn from the story of the Prophet ﷺ and from Yunus عليه السلام is: take responsibility.

And then — after they did a draw on the boat, and whoever's name came out they would throw into the ocean — the first time his name came out they said: "No, it can't be you, you're the most righteous person." Second time: "It can't be you." Third time — it was him. So they threw him in.

The Three Darknesses

Abdullah ibn Mas'ud رضي الله عنه, commenting under this ayah in Surah Al-Anbiya, says something very interesting. He says: ظُلْمَةُ بَطْنِ الْحُوتِ — first, there were three darknesses that night.

The first: it was the darkness of the night. He gets thrown off this boat into the water, and it is night time. Swimming in the middle of the ocean at night is so terrifying — some of us can't even walk next to the beach at night, the noise, the sound of the ocean makes you move away from it. He is in the middle of the ocean, in the darkness of the night.

The second: ظُلْمَةُ الْبَحْرِ — the darkness of the ocean itself, inside, in the depth of the ocean. The darkest place on earth is in the depths of the ocean. He is there. There is no light.

And then, all of a sudden, the whale comes and swallows him — and he is now in the belly of the whale. Three darknesses. No light beyond the tunnel. Nothing. There he is when he makes his du'a. That is why Allah says:

Had it not been for the du'a that he made, he would have remained in the belly until the Day of Resurrection. But he made a du'a. And of course this is a du'a that has been circulating on WhatsApp and different social media pages for the last few weeks — we should make this du'a. So let's understand the background of this du'a:

The Du'a of Yunus

Now let's understand this du'a. In this du'a there is no sual. When we think of a du'a, we think of asking Allah — "O Allah, I need this" — that's why we make du'a. The word du'a is synonymous with asking Allah for something. But this du'a has no sual — no request.

Reflection Two: Submitting to Allah's Qudra

لَّا إِلَٰهَ إِلَّا أَنتَ سُبْحَانَكَ — the first part of this du'a is understanding the قدر of Allah. Just bowing your head and admitting: "O Allah, لَّا إِلَٰهَ إِلَّا أَنتَ — there is none worthy of worship but You. O Allah, You are غني. O Allah, You are قادر. O Allah, You are رازق."

Today that is what is happening in the world. The same person who, a few weeks ago, was raving about "my restaurant is making $3,000 a day, three bands a day, it's going so amazing" — today they cannot even keep the restaurant open because they cannot pay any employees. The restaurant is closed. People who were raving about the real estate business or this or that and had no time for anything, assuming that it was their expertise — their way of talking, their degree, whatever it was — that was sustaining them. Today that person has to put his head down in front of Allah: "O Allah, You are the رازق. You're the one who was sustaining me all along. I was under this illusion that it was my job sustaining me. This was just a means. You could sustain me without means. You could sustain me with means. This is You, O Allah."

Allah could sustain Ibrahim in the fire for 40 days without any means. Allah could sustain Yusuf in the well without any means. Allah could sustain Yunus in the belly of the whale without any means. This is where — when Yunus says لَّا إِلَٰهَ إِلَّا أَنتَ — we are admitting to Allah: "O Allah, You are قادر. You are everything."

Today the whole world is coming to this point — we don't have a vaccine, we don't know what to do, we don't even know what all the symptoms are, we don't know exactly how it even transmits — but we just know: isolate yourself, stay in your homes, don't go anywhere. This is the time to just confess to Allah, admit to Allah, talk about Allah. These are the times when we sit in the middle of the night and just talk about Allah's greatness, talk to each other about Allah — that Allah is the قادر, Allah is the رازق, we don't do anything, everything is in the hands of Allah, everything is in the قدر of Allah, everything is between His كُن فَيَكُون — Allah wants it to be and it becomes. We have no control over anything.

And Allah is teaching this lesson to the Ummah today. I believe if we can learn this lesson from this crisis, it is a great lesson to be learned. If after a crisis we can learn something that is very important in our lives, then it is worth it — honestly, it is worth it.

Reflection Three: Confessing and Apologizing to Allah

The third reflection from this du'a is: إِنِّي كُنتُ مِنَ الظَّالِمِينَ. It is almost the same thing as acknowledging. There is no sual — he just confesses to his own mistake. The first reflection is acknowledging Allah's greatness. The second is submitting to Allah's قدر — saying to yourself, "O Allah, I am nothing, You are everything." My father once told me: "Before you give a talk, always remind yourself —" in Urdu: maikunthshi, mira kunthshi, tu sabkutshi, tira sabkutshi — "I am nothing, I have nothing. O Allah, You are everything, everything belongs to You." Nothing belongs to us. Everything belongs to Allah. Everything we have is from Allah.

The third is confessing and apologizing to Allah: إِنِّي كُنتُ مِنَ الظَّالِمِينَ — it was my fault. I'm sorry. If we understood the value of apologizing, it is so powerful.

Today the world has forgotten how to apologize. I was in Canada, and this husband came to me to speak about the difficulties he was having in his marriage, and he said this to me at least 15 times: "My only problem with my wife is — I know I have my issues — but she can never apologize. She just doesn't apologize. If she just apologized, I'll be okay. If she said 'I'm sorry.'" And I hear this from wives as well: "If my husband just apologized, just said 'I'm sorry.'" I'm sorry is so powerful.

Here is Yunus عليه السلام saying: "O Allah, I am sorry." That's it. Apologizing to Allah. This is so powerful.

In a hadith it comes:

(Referenced in various books of hadith and Islamic etiquette; the principle is established from prophetic guidance on initiating peace.)

And we loosely translate this as: "The one who begins with salaam is freed of arrogance." But the Muhaddithin mention that this doesn't just mean literally saying As-Salamu Alaykum — this means the one who starts the peace talk, the one who begins the conversation of reconciling, is the one freed of arrogance. Meaning: the one who initiates the apology — "I'm sorry, forgive me, it's my fault." Sometimes it's not even your fault, but trust me, the power of apology is remarkable.

We have to teach our kids this early on in life — "sorry." I have my two-year-old son — he knows how to say it now. "Hussain, say sorry." He says it now. And it's so powerful. Make them apologize. And teach the kids — right when they apologize, you give it back to them: "Okay, so you sit up, you apologized, here it is — here's your thing back."

So this is the third reflection we hear from the story of Yunus عليه السلام — he apologizes to Allah: إِنِّي كُنتُ مِنَ الظَّالِمِينَ. "It was my fault. My bad. I'm sorry." So let us learn this as well, in this time of crisis.

Sustained in the Belly — and the Light After

We now learn that after this, he stays in the belly of the whale — some say 40 days — and he gets sustained. Right now, we are pretty much in the belly of our homes. Many of us are thinking: my job, I was working, and it's really tough times. Michigan, for example, is tonight at midnight — stay home, we can't leave anywhere, businesses are closed, non-essential jobs cannot be done.

This is the situation we are going through as an Ummah today. It is a crisis. Think about the people in India and Pakistan and other countries — the small people riding rickshaws, those with small shops that they were earning their livelihood from, and now they have to close those stores for the next three or four weeks. How are they going to survive?

This is the story of Yunus. Allah is saying: look — Yunus عليه السلام survived in the belly of the whale without any nourishment or sustenance, because of the Qudra of Allah. If we just believed in Allah — Allah says: "I will treat My servant the way he or she expects of Me." We say: "O Allah, I am weak, I have nothing, You take care of me." Of course, we do whatever we can do in terms of developing strategies and making use of means — we do that. We don't just become lazy, sleep in bed all day and say "Allah, whatever You want to do." No. But at this point, we firmly believe in our heart: "O Allah, You are the one who will take care of me. And here is my small strategy that I have done."

The way the whale then comes to the side of the ocean and releases Yunus from its belly — and Yunus عليه السلام comes out alive — Allah then prepares a tree for him, where he takes shade, Allah gives him nourishment, he gets strength again, he gets to walk again:

This will happen to us again, inshallah. One of these days — 40 days from now, 50 days from now, whatever it may be, maybe sooner or later — we will be fine. We will be walking around and we will say alhamdulillah, we survived, everything was good. But in these days, if we can do tawbah, if we can reflect over these few lessons from the story of Yunus عليه السلام — take responsibility, admit Allah's qudra, and apologize — Allah will take care of us.

And that is why it comes about this du'a — the Prophet ﷺ said:

(Sunan At-Tirmidhi, Hadith 3505; also referenced in Mustadrak Al-Hakim)

Any Muslim — any believer — who makes this du'a to their Lord in anything, Allah will respond to them and give them what they need. That is why in the Qur'an it says:

"And thus do We save the believers." The way We rescued Yunus عليه السلام, We will rescue those who believe in Allah. So may Allah make us among those who understand these reflections from his story.

The Final Lesson: The Nation of Yunus and Collective Tawbah

عجيب، عجيب — think about those people whom Yunus عليه السلام left, hopeless. "These people have nothing. There is no way they will believe in Allah. I've tried everything, it's not working out." He leaves and makes a du'a — a Prophet makes du'a against them. Meaning they had all the cards stacked against them. But they all got together and collectively made tawbah and believed in Allah upon seeing the signs of the punishment of Allah. And Allah uplifted His punishment. He then actually rebuked Yunus for leaving them so soon. And that entire nation got saved from the punishment of Allah and became believers.

Think about that for one second. They saw the signs of the punishment of Allah. Upon seeing it, they collectively did tawbah. And in an instant, Allah uplifted the punishment. And they became believers. And Yunus عليه السلام had to come back.

This can happen today. We have to believe. We have to come to this realization that whatever is happening in the world is a punishment from Allah. It is. Now we have to, as a collective Ummah — just like the nation of Yunus عليه السلام — collectively do tawbah to Allah, and Allah will uplift this punishment. If Allah could do it for them, then Allah can do it for the Ummah of the Prophet ﷺ as well. And we have that within our means — collectively, individually, as households, as communities, as people of one city, and as a community at large throughout the world.

We should urge everyone around us: look, remember the story of the nation of Yunus. The punishment was about to come to them. They saw the dark clouds. They did tawbah. Allah then removed the punishment from them. We can do that as well.

Good News and Bad News

There is light beyond the tunnel. Sheikh Sulaiman Mulla — he mentions this a lot. He says that when an imam comes to the masjid, he says: "I have good news and bad news for you. Should I tell you the good news first or the bad news first?" He says, "Good news first." "The good news is — you know that parking lot that the masjid was trying to build, they were trying to collect two or three hundred thousand dollars for it? The good news is we have collected that money." Everyone says alhamdulillah, Allahu Akbar. "The bad news is — it's still in your pockets. The money is still in your bank account."

The good news is that we have the solution to rescue the Ummah. The bad news is it's on our shelf in the Qur'an. The bad news is the musalla is wrapped up in a corner. But the good news is we have the solution that the Ummah needs today.

Put the musalla down. Make the musalla wet with our tears. Take responsibility. Remember Allah's greatness and our insignificance. Confess to our sins. Do tawbah like the nation of Yunus. Allah will remove our difficulties. And then we won't be looking for light beyond the tunnel — this tunnel will be over and there will be light.

Closing Du'a

May Allah make us among those who can see light beyond the tunnel, and act upon what was said, and convey to others. And may Allah make us among those who recite this du'a frequently:

I say this to you, and I make du'a for myself and our families — that we stay safe, we stay within our homes, we follow whatever the regulations are, and Allah removes us from these difficulties, removes this punishment from the Ummah, and keeps our children, our families, and our loved ones safe.

And may Allah take us back to Mecca and Madinah — to see the Ka'bah and to see Masjid An-Nabawi again. And inshallah, when we go back, this time we will go back with a different thought process, with a different feeling. We'll go back with tears and joy that we're back there, and alhamdulillah, Allah gave us this acceptance again. When the doors of the masjid open, we'll go back into the masjid with a different feeling now. Since the masjids were closed to us, when we go back, we'll go back with a different feeling now.

So may Allah make us among those who have these feelings in their hearts, and we're making real firm intentions — that when this washes away, we will truly be different people. We will not just go back to our normal ways. Like Bani Isra'il — every time punishment would come they would make tawbah, and Allah would uplift it, and then they'd go back to their normal ways. May Allah make us among those who truly are different, and may He forgive all of our sins, and make us among those who are صابرين محتسبين.

Wa akhiru da'wana alhamdulillah. Inshallah we'll see you soon. As-Salamu Alaykum wa rahmatullahi wa barakatuh.