Jummah Khutbah 11/11/2016 - Kamran Riaz & Mufti Azeemuddin

بِسْمِ اللَّهِ الرَّحْمَنِ الرَّحِيمِ

Alhamdulillah. We begin by reminding ourselves and one another that the most useful and the most beneficial of reminders on this day is about the importance of the awareness, the accountability, and the need to have fear before Allah. To that I say, أُوصِي نَفْسِي وَأُوصِيكُمْ بِتَقْوَى اللَّهِ عَزَّ وَجَلَّ — that I counsel myself and all of you concerning the importance of the Taqwa of Allah, the Exalted, the Almighty.

Part One — Khutbah by Mufti Azeemuddin Ahmed

Processing Our Emotions After a Difficult Time

There is perhaps no more difficult khutbah to give than today — since the first Jumu'ah after 9-11 — because we as a community feel the psychological and social effects of what has happened in the past few days. What we thought would happen, and now what we thought would happen didn't happen. And already in the past few days we're starting to see some ugly and horrible things that are starting to happen, both in the discourse and even in actions and things that are happening against Muslims and other minorities. And it makes many of us feel very sad, and angry, and depressed, and frustrated, and worried, and a thousand and one other emotions.

And it's natural to feel that way. There is nothing wrong in feeling sad or worried about what's going to happen. It is part of being a human being.

It's okay to feel sad. It's okay to feel angry. It's okay to feel depressed right now. But that's an immediate emotion. It's not a long-term emotion. It's not a positive thing that we can take to move forward.

We see in the life of Rasulullah ﷺ — who was our ultimate role model — that whenever tragedy afflicted the Prophet ﷺ, whenever challenges happened, he wasn't some sort of robot that didn't feel emotions. He did feel sadness. He did cry. He did grieve. When he had to leave Makkah, he wept looking at Makkah, and Allah had to reveal the verse:

— that the one who has sent down the Qur'an will return you back to the place of your cradle, O Muhammad ﷺ. So the Prophet ﷺ wasn't some emotionless robot. He did feel these emotions that we feel as well, but what made him different is that he didn't wallow in these emotions and stay in these emotions and feel sorry for himself. He didn't victimize himself and say, "Oh, I'm miskeen. What's going to happen?" He felt it, but he moved on. He moved forward.

And that's what we have to move towards in the next couple of days — that yes, it's natural to feel these emotions right now based on what's happened, but it would be completely unhealthy and completely unprophetic to stay in those emotions for the long term. And that's why the verse I read at the beginning of the khutbah is a very powerful ayah which comes in Surah Tawbah. When Allah tells us to say this, it's interesting — Allah doesn't say "don't feel sad," or just "remember that everything comes from Allah." Allah tells us what to say when bad things happen, when tragedy and afflictions and challenges happen. Allah says: this is what you should say, O believers.

That this is what we should be saying — to ourselves, to our families, to our communities, to one another. لَن يُصِيبَنَا — لَن in the Arabic language is used to describe an impossibility. So nothing shall ever afflict us, إِلَّا مَا كَتَبَ اللَّهُ لَنَا — except that which Allah has decreed for us. هُوَ مَوْلَانَا — he is our protector, he is our guardian, he is our ally. وَعَلَى اللَّهِ فَلْيَتَوَكَّلِ الْمُؤْمِنُونَ — so therefore upon Allah let the believers put their trust.

So this is what is told to us: if you feel this fear and anxiety, remind yourselves that whatever has happened has happened from Allah. He is our guardian Lord, and if we have anything to move forward with, this is it — that He is still Allah. Allah was Allah on November 8th, and Allah is still Allah on November 10th. The day after the election didn't change that, did it? The people in power may have changed, but Allah doesn't change.

Step One: Detox from the Media

So one of the things that we have to do — in addition to stopping this depression and grief after a short time — is we need to detox ourselves from the media. Just turn off the garbage on CNN and MSNBC, and God have mercy on you if you're watching Fox these days. Just turn it off. Shut it off. We know who won — who cares? Do something more productive with our time. Because people now are watching these post-mortem dissections and analyses like after sporting events, where they try to analyze what happened because they threw the pass here or they made a defensive stop there. Who cares? Turn that stuff off, because wallahi it is so unhealthy for us right now to be watching it. There are so many better things that we can be doing.

Step Two: Remember That Allah Is Still in Control

The second is to remind ourselves that Allah is still in control. He didn't lose control. People were saying "I'm with her" — that was the big hashtag, the bumper stickers. But Allah tells us:

— that He is with you wherever you are. So Allah is with us. The thing we have to remind ourselves is: I should be with Him. Allah is still in control, so I'm going to be with Him.

And reminding ourselves that in the history of human beings, it is the custom of Allah to allow unjust and tyrannical rulers to have their day, to have their moment in the sun. From the time of the characters that we read about in the Qur'an and in the various lives of the prophets, we know there's Nimrod and Fir'aun and all of these other clowns that came up in history. Allah says about Fir'aun:

— that Fir'aun sought to make himself grand in the land, and he split people into groups, and he deemed this group weak and others strong by implication. Sound familiar? That unless you're part of this group you're not strong, and if you're part of a minority — you're Muslim, you're brown, you're this and that — then you're weak. يَسْتَضْعِفُ طَائِفَةً مِّنْهُمْ.

So when we see tyrannical rulers — this guy that was elected is really not even the worst of the bunch. We think, "Oh my goodness, we're now dealing with the worst of the rulers." Historically we've had much worse rulers. In other prophets' times, and even in the history of the Ummah, you have people like Hajjaj, you have people like Yazid. We've had much worse rulers. We survived, didn't we? The Ummah is still here. So we survived worse rulers, and we shouldn't feel that we can't survive this.

The question is: are we with Allah? Because He's with us — وَهُوَ مَعَكُمْ أَيْنَ مَا كُنتُمْ. So we should process this fear and anxiety that we have by looking at history and understanding that this is the custom of Allah — that sometimes He makes these things happen and we don't understand. And I'm not going to profess here and say that this was a wonderful thing that happened, the results of the election. But it could be that there is some goodness in there. And that's why the other verse said:

Allah says: perhaps it may be that you dislike — you hate something — but there's actually goodness in it for you. And it's possible that you love something but there's actually great evil in it for you. Why? Because Allah knows and you don't know.

Now I'm not going to sit here on November 11th and say that this is going to be wonderful, that everything's going to be perfect. But what I am going to say is that Allah Ta'ala is still in control. And this is what we have to believe — that there is some goodness that eventually will manifest itself, provided we do our part. Because that has been the custom of Allah from all of human history. Sunnat Allah — that's the Sunnah of Allah.

You won't find any change in the Sunnah of Allah. Because He gives authority to people and He takes it away when He wants. And that's why we should remind ourselves of this other amazing du'a in the Qur'an:

That Allah tells us to say this du'a as well: that Allah, who is the Malikal Mulk — the King of all kings and the owner of all dominion — He gives dominion and authority to those whom He wills, and He takes it away, He snatches it away from those whom He wills. And He elevates and gives honor to those whom He wills, and He brings down and humiliates those whom He wills. But Allah says بِيَدِكَ الْخَيْرُ — remember that in Your hands, O Allah, is where goodness lies. And that is where we as Muslims should seek. And that is what we should remind ourselves. Why? إِنَّكَ عَلَىٰ كُلِّ شَيْءٍ قَدِيرٌ — because Allah has power over all things.

Step Three: Get to Work in Our Local Communities

The third point is that this should be a time where we realize that we as a community need to get our act together and do work in our local communities. The Prophet ﷺ beautifully reminds us:

This is the definition of the believer — that whosoever believes in Allah and the Last Day, then let him honor his neighbor. And this is what we need to do. Forget about the political process; we need to be involved in the social process about making friendships and relationships with the people around us — our neighbors, our co-workers. To talk to them, to explain to them, and to form friendships and healthy dialogues and connections.

Because it is a simplistic explanation to say that everybody who voted for this guy did so because they're all racist. Certainly there are people like that, but we should understand why people voted as they did, and we should work to dispel a lot of the ignorance and a lot of the false information that people have been given. Many people who voted for this person have never even talked to a Muslim — and that's our fault, because we're not going out there and talking to people, we're not going out there and forming relationships.

When you look at the Prophet ﷺ in Mecca, he didn't just sit all day in Dar al-Arqam, just sitting there waiting for people to come to him. He went out and he talked to people. He went out and engaged with them and debated with them. When the Muslims came back from the valley of Abu Talib and they were trying to reintegrate into society, the Prophet ﷺ went up to one of the most powerful wrestlers of the time — this is like someone going up to LeBron James at the time — a man by the name of Rukana. He started to tell him about Islam, and Rukana said, "I don't want to listen unless you defeat me in wrestling." So the Prophet ﷺ of course wrestled him and defeated him three times, and basically gave him da'wah. Now I'm not saying to go start picking fights with people or try to challenge people to one-on-one, because you'll lose. What I'm saying is that he was willing to engage with people from every walk of society. He didn't say, "Oh this is just an athlete, he's just a strong man, he's a thug, I'm not going to go talk to him." He wanted to talk to everybody. He didn't just talk to the people that live in your zip code or earn your income tax bracket — he talked to everybody. He told them about Islam.

And that's what we need to start doing — we have to be able to talk to people, have outreach and dialogue, and understand that the good in this country, the good in the people of this country, still outweighs the bad. Because that's what the popular vote represented, right? That's what the popular vote represented. And we have to tap into that good, and not think that everybody just hates us, and try to paint the same picture about them that they paint about us. We can't respond to hate with hate. We have to respond the way that our Habib ﷺ responded — which is through compassion, through da'wah, through serving people, through serving humanity.

And this is what our masajid and our organizations need to take the lead on — our community service. Never before has there been a time for us to have more community service projects than there is now. And if we're not serving our communities, then honestly we should leave. We should leave, go somewhere else. Because if you're not going to serve your community — on your own time, in whatever shape and fashion that your skills and talents allow — then we're not doing anything for the Ummah. Don't think we're doing something for the Ummah just by earning a nice paycheck and sitting in our homes. That's not how we serve the Ummah. So we need to serve the community that we live in, and form outreach and form relationships.

Step Four: Rethink Our Activism and Political Involvement

The next point is that we have to rethink our activism and involvement in the political process. For the past eight years we've been very happy that we have a seat at the table — there are Muslim iftars now in Ramadan. I wonder how that's going to be in 2017. We were so happy with that. What we have to remind ourselves is: the way that we can show that we have a role and a voice in this community is by being involved in serving people. That's where it starts. It doesn't start by the amount of money that we can donate to this lobbyist and that political group. And I'm not here to make this into that, because I have very little knowledge of the political process. But we need to rethink our activism and involvement in the political process because that old way wasn't working.

And if Muslims want to have a voice, if Muslims want to have some type of authority, then I believe — and this is my opinion, I'm saying this is totally my opinion, not what everybody has to do — our involvement on a grassroots level, our involvement in local government and local elections and things like that, that is important. That's a place to start. That's where we start, and this is where we have to be serious.

Step Five: Talk to Our Children

The next point is especially for those of us that are parents. This is a difficult time for children. Bullying is going to go up. They're going to be made fun of in public schools for their faith, and people of minorities are going to be targeted. And we need to be able to talk to our children. This is going to be a test of how well you can be a parent. We need to be able to hug our children and talk to them and reassure them that just because values like hatred and misogyny and xenophobia and all of these things seem to have won the day, that it's not okay to disrespect women, it's not okay to disrespect minorities. And to follow those type of immoral characters that our president-elect has — we still subscribe to a higher morality, and we still teach our children the same things that we taught them before. We just have to do an even better job at it.

That is the challenge of being a parent now. It is going to be tougher to be a parent, but that's the challenge that those of us who are parents — myself included — have to be willing to take on. We need to spend more time with our children, especially if they're in schools, to make sure they're not being bullied, to teach them the right things, and to tell them that we don't respond to hate with hate. This is what we should be reminding ourselves, and this is what we as parents have to step up and do.

Step Six: Be Safe and Take Precautions

The next point: be safe. Take precautions. Be in groups. If anything — if someone says something or does something — don't take the law into your own hands. Report it to the appropriate authorities. Try to record it if you can. Get license plate numbers if you can. We don't respond with violence and with ignorance. We report it and we make sure that the authorities — the local police and these types of things — take care of these miscreants. And our masajid should work with the authorities and the local law enforcement to make sure that our places of worship, our schools, our madrasas — that these things are protected.

The worst thing that we can do is to make things up. Don't fabricate a hate crime or cry wolf, because when people do that it's going to make it far worse when it really does happen. And already there was one incident that I read about where someone made things up. So don't make things up. Be safe. Take precautions. Don't try to be a hero. Especially for our sisters — if you're going to go out at night time, be in groups, be with family, don't try to be in a place where you're by yourself, because we don't want anything bad to happen to our women and to our elderly folks.

So be in groups. Don't try to provoke the situation. These are very common-sense things, but it's useful to remind ourselves about how we need to remain safe in these times, and that we don't respond to hatred with hatred. When the Prophet ﷺ was in Mecca and people insulted him, threw things at him, verbally abused him, psychologically abused him, physically abused him — not once in Mecca do we see the Prophet ﷺ ever calling them by a curse word or responding with violence. He responded to them with compassion. When the old woman who wanted nothing to do with Muhammad tried to escape from Mecca, it was the Prophet ﷺ himself who carried her belongings and helped her to set up in another place — even though throughout the journey she kept saying, "I don't want to hear about Muhammad. Don't talk to me about Muhammad." He said, "Fine. I'm still going to help you." That's how we respond. They don't want to hear about Islam, they don't want to hear about Muhammad — we're still going to serve our communities, we're still going to be good civic citizens, we're still going to worship Allah. That is how we respond.

Step Seven: Look in the Mirror — Unity Within the Ummah

As far as our community goes — we rail against people being racist and xenophobic against us, but we need to look in the mirror and ask ourselves: how much intra-Muslim racism and xenophobia do we have against people that are not from our country, not from our ethnic background? The divide that is there between indigenous or convert Muslims and the so-called immigrant Muslims — that nonsense. There has never been a time perhaps where we can just forget and get rid of that nonsense more than there is now.

All of the arguments that we have about vertical cut and horizontal cut and how long one's beard should be — those arguments' days are long gone. You can have them in the privacy of your own homes, or in very select scholarly discussions, but those days are long gone. We've got bigger issues to worry about. So if there's anything that can bring our community together, it is perhaps this — and this is why وَعَسَىٰ أَن تَكْرَهُوا شَيْئًا وَهُوَ خَيْرٌ لَّكُمْ — that if we realize that if we don't stick together we really don't have anybody else.

So all of these madhabi differences — whether Witr is two-and-one or three, moon sighting versus calculation and all of this — those are the luxuries of the days of the past. Sometimes we yearn for those days, to have that argument. That's a luxury now. Irrelevant. Irrelevant. We have to figure out: how do we keep this Ummah together? How do we keep people within the fold of the deen?

Step Eight: Get Right with Allah

And that leads me to my last point — which is perhaps the most important. That's why I left it for last. We need to get right with Allah, and we need to get right with one another. We need to make sure that our relationship with Allah is sound, that we are worshipping Him properly, that we are not sinning against Him. And if we're committing sins, that we're making tawbah constantly and looking to amend them.

The problem that I've seen in our recent discourse is that we've started to discuss that x, y, and z are no longer even sins, and people stop making an effort. We're more interested in going to every single dawat and party and baby shower and sprinkle party than we are about doing the work that needs to be done — staying away from sins and worshipping Allah. So the days of us being like The Great Gatsby and going to every single party are over. We've got to get right with Allah. We've got to stop sinning. We've got to make a better effort with the Sunnah and the nawafil actions as well. The fard al-'ayn is a given, but our relationship with Allah must be sound. Because we should understand that if there are calamities that do afflict us, it is because of what we have earned.

And that's what the Sahaba and the Tabi'in and the Tabi' al-Tabi'in did — when bad things happened, they asked themselves why they were happening. Did we do this to bring this about? That is what we have to ask ourselves. And we have to get right with people as well, as I talked about earlier.

Cautious Optimism — The Way Forward

I'm going to end with this last point. I know I've gone over the time, but this is an important talk. The last point is that our mentality needs to be one of cautious optimism. And what do I mean by that? I'm not going to lie to you and say that everything is going to be perfect, everything will be wonderful, no harm will come to us. But we should have yaqeen — certainty — that the way that our Prophet ﷺ looked at the world is that he was the most optimistic person there ever was. And we have to continue to be optimistic. But we take these precautions that we talked about, we make sure that we're doing what we have to do, and that is how we can be optimistic and remain positive.

Because we understand that Allah — قُل لَّن يُصِيبَنَا إِلَّا مَا كَتَبَ اللَّهُ لَنَا هُوَ مَوْلَانَا — nothing will ever afflict us except that which Allah has prescribed, that which Allah has decreed. He is our guardian Lord.

And perhaps the best example of cautious optimism is what the Prophet ﷺ told us:

(Musnad Ahmad, Hadith 12902; also referenced in al-Adab al-Mufrad)

If the Hour were to come upon any one of you, and in his hand is a palm tree sapling, then let him plant it — even though it's not going to grow. So where's the optimism there? But he says: that's what you have, that's what you do. So Qiyamah hasn't come. Trump isn't Qiyamah. It may seem like it, but we've dealt with far worse. In difficult times, the way we remain optimistic is by asking ourselves and one another: what can we do? And whatever is in our capacity, we do it. When we do that, insha'Allah we'll find that Allah puts sakinah and puts rahmah and 'afiyah in our hearts and in our minds.

And that is our du'a to Allah in this most difficult of times — that we remind ourselves of the most beautiful du'as of the Prophet ﷺ:

O Allah, we seek refuge in You from anxiety and grief — anxiety about the future and grief about the past. We ask Allah to watch over the Muslims of this country and the Muslims all over the world. That He makes things easy for us, that He makes it easy to continue to practice our deen. That He protects all of us physically — especially our women, and our children, and our elderly. And that He gives hidayah to the leaders that are in power, locally and nationally, to do what is good for all of creation and what is good for all of humanity.

Part Two — Second Khutbah

بِسْمِ اللَّهِ الرَّحْمَنِ الرَّحِيمِ. Alhamdulillah wa kafa, wa as-salatu wa as-salamu 'ala Rasulillah. Amma ba'd. Allah says in the Glorious Qur'an, after seeking refuge with Allah from the accursed Satan:

Respected friends, elders and brothers, youth, students, mothers and sisters — As-salamu alaykum wa rahmatullahi wa barakatuh.

The Absolute Knowledge of Allah

Almighty Allah — well before the creation of the heavens and the earth, well before the creation of man and jinn, well before the creation of everything that has ever been — Allah ordered the Qalam. Allah created the Qalam and the Lawh. Allah created the pen and the tablet, and said: اكْتُبْ مَقَادِيرَ الْخَلَائِقِ — O pen, begin to write the destiny of the creation — everything that will ever happen till the end of times and beyond, every single thing, bit by bit, word by word, minute by minute, have it all written. Rasulullah ﷺ mentioned this in the hadith, that Allah ordered the pen — which is also a creation of His — and the tablet — which is also a creation of His — as mentioned in the Qur'an, in the Preserved Tablet, Allah ordered that to be written.

What did that teach us? That taught us that our faith and our deen has made clear to us the fact that Allah — not only is He our Creator, not only is He the giver of life and giver of death — but along with that He holds absolute knowledge of every single thing. Allah throughout the Qur'an speaks about His ilm. Allah says:

Nothing remains hidden from Allah's knowledge — not even an iota's worth in the heavens and the earth.

Even those things that are as hidden as the whisperings of the heart — something which a person hasn't even uttered yet, it's still in the mind, it's still a thought — Allah says: I know the secrets of the heart. He says سِرًّا وَأَخْفَى — I know the secret, and whatever is more hidden than the secret. Allah says يَعْلَمُ خَائِنَةَ الْأَعْيُنِ — that Allah knows very well when something as small and minute as the eye moves and focuses on one place or another, how that eye is being used, whether it's being misused or being used in a proper and permissible manner. What we are focusing on and what we are not — Almighty Allah says that deception, or the deceptive ways a person may use his eyes to look at that which is impermissible, is also in the knowledge of Allah.

To Allah belongs the keys of the unseen — none knows them besides Him. He knows whatever is in the oceans and whatever is on land, whatever was, whatever is, and whatever will be. And not a leaf falls in the season of fall — as we see here, the autumn and fall changes throughout the world — except Allah knows it. And not a seed, whether it is dry or fresh, whether it is dead or alive, except that it is in the Preserved Tablet, in the Book that has the knowledge of everything.

Not a single leaf can fall without Allah knowing when and where it will fall, and once it falls, when it will be disintegrated, and when and where its particles will go into the ground, and which animal or which insect will go and partake from that leaf, and after it becomes disintegrated, what other means it will become to provide sustenance to small worms, small insects in the ground, and how it will serve as fertilizer for next year's crops, next year's grass. Every single particle of matter and energy — not destroyed, just moving from phase to phase, from place to place. So how this one leaf — where it came from and where it's headed into next spring and what it will form into — is in the absolute knowledge of Allah.

Allah also says that He knows what you are going to do tomorrow: مَا تَكْسِبُ غَدًا — what exactly you're going to do today, tomorrow — all is in the knowledge of Allah. And Allah has complete knowledge of which portion of the world and where on earth you are going to pass away.

My friends, the knowledge of Allah is so encompassing and so powerful. Just as He is infinite, His knowledge is infinite as well. Just as He is pre-eternal, His knowledge is pre-eternal as well. Just like Allah does not have a beginning — He is the First that has no beginning — similarly His knowledge has no beginning. His knowledge was always there. Allah was Alim before there were any ma'lumat. Allah was Khaliq before there were any makhluqat. Allah was Rabb before there was any marboob. And Allah had the attribute of giving sustenance, the attribute of creation, the attribute of knowing, the attribute of hearing, the attribute of providing — before there was any creation that was accepting these things, before there was a creation that was benefiting from these attributes. Allah didn't increase in His attributes by the creation coming into existence. It wasn't that He needed the world to run in order for Him to be manifested. No — Allah is Ghani, absolutely not in need of anyone or anything.

O people, you are all in need of Allah, and indeed Allah is free of all want, worthy of all praise.

Why a Third of the Qur'an Speaks of Allah's Greatness

My brothers and sisters — a third of the Qur'an, and more, focuses on this one aspect: learn the Creator through the creation. Focus on the greatness and the magnificence of your Creator. Your whole purpose on this earth is to look at your surroundings and understand Allah's hidden hand in everything. From the rising of the sun to the setting of the sun — that is a qudra of Allah. From a beautiful dew that comes at night and peacefully graces our lawns, to a hurricane that may come and destroy an entire coastal region — that is also the qudra of Allah and a sign towards His greatness. When greenery comes about in springtime with beautiful gardens and beautiful crops — that is a sign of Allah. And when yellowness overtakes the crops and everything begins to wither away and die — in that withering away is also a sign of Allah.

When a new baby comes into a family and you hear the crying of that little baby that keeps you awake at night, and people come celebrating and sharing cards and balloons and gifts — most definitely that is pointing towards the existence of Allah. And on the flip side of that, when a janazah is being taken away from the home and people are also coming and filling up the house with food — consoling you in grief and difficult times — that is also a sign of Allah.

He says: O Muhammad ﷺ, tell them — when you want to praise Allah, when you want to understand Allah, say:

O Allah, you are the owner of all dominion — your kingdom doesn't have a term limit, your kingdom doesn't have jurisdiction that covers only a certain area. Absolutely not. You are Malikal Mulk. You are King of all kings. You are Rabbul 'Alamin. All other kings are subservient to you. All other governors are subservient to you. All other presidents are subservient to you. Every father in a household is subservient to you. Every manager in a workplace is subservient to you. Every business owner, no matter how large his business may be, is subservient to you.

Malikal Mulk — you give dominion to whoever you wish, whenever you wish, however you wish, based on whatever wisdom you have in mind. وَتَنزِعُ الْمُلْكَ مِمَّن تَشَاءُ — and when the time is right, you snatch away the dominion also from whoever you wish, whenever you wish, however you wish, based on the infinite wisdom that you have. وَتُعِزُّ مَن تَشَاءُ — and when you wish to give honor to someone, you do so in the most amazing manner. When that person is surrounded by means of disgrace, if you choose to give that person honor, you do so and no one can ask you why. وَتُذِلُّ مَن تَشَاءُ — and when you choose to disgrace someone, when you choose to expose someone, when you choose to bring someone down, you do so in such an amazing manner — in a shocking manner — that a person sees he is surrounded by means of honor and protection, yet they fall down on their face so quickly, so hard, that they will never be able to get back up from there again. بِيَدِكَ الْخَيْرُ إِنَّكَ عَلَىٰ كُلِّ شَيْءٍ قَدِيرٌ — in Your hands lies all good. Indeed You are all-powerful over everything. You work with the means and you work without the means. You work based on our understanding and logic, and you can also work most definitely against what we expect, against our logic, against the tide of history.

Allah asks us to say:

You bring about the night into the day. The day may seem very bright and never-ending, but most definitely nightfall comes. Every day must come to an end. And then when night is there, it seems like it's never going to end, it's so dark — but just like the nightfall came, most definitely the sun will rise and most definitely this night will end.

وَتُخْرِجُ الْحَيَّ مِنَ الْمَيِّتِ — You take out living things from the dead. You are able to take out the most amazing things from the most horrible of conditions. You are able to bring out beauty. وَتُخْرِجُ الْمَيِّتَ مِنَ الْحَيِّ — and in the most conducive and beautiful of environments, where goodness is there, you can also take out evil. Some scholars have explained this as Allah bringing Iman into a household — a son or a daughter — surrounded by kufr. A righteous boy, a righteous girl comes out of a home in which there is no environment of righteousness. And on the other hand, there is a very good household surrounded by righteousness, but then one person chooses to go completely against the environment. Allah can take out a living from the dead, and a dead from the living.

وَتَرْزُقُ مَن تَشَاءُ بِغَيْرِ حِسَابٍ — and O Allah, you give sustenance to whoever you wish, without accounting. There is no asking, "But they did this and did that — how come you gave them that and not me?" Allah is not answerable for what He does: لَا يُسْأَلُ عَمَّا يَفْعَلُ وَهُمْ يُسْأَلُونَ — Allah cannot be questioned for what He does, while everyone else will be asked and held accountable for their actions.

Why is a third of the Qur'an dedicated to this? Why is over a third of the Qur'an speaking about this? Find me a page in which Allah does not speak about His might, His grandeur, His greatness, His knowledge, His benevolence, His mercy, His strength. Because, my brothers and sisters, we all depend upon that. As long as a person's belief and conviction in Allah is strong, that person will definitely be able to withstand whatever things come — whether it's a small enjoyable ripple in a pond or a crashing fifteen-foot wave. No matter what comes at you, you'll be able to handle it. But a person whose belief in Allah is weak, or — Allah forbid — who outright doesn't even believe in the powers of Allah or His existence, then even the smallest of winds will throw that person down.

Two Groups of People Before the Verses of Allah

Allah says: whenever a Surah would be revealed upon the Prophet ﷺ while he was alive and people would be around him, there would be two groups of people:

Amongst the Sahaba and the munafiqun and the believers and the disbelievers sitting together, there was a group at that time who would say — upon hearing new revelation — "Did you just hear this?" — أَيُّكُمْ زَادَتْهُ هَذِهِ إِيمَانًا — "Whose Iman has increased after hearing this?" Allah says: look, there are two groups. As for those who already believe in Allah and His Messenger — every verse, whether it's about Paradise or Hell, whether it's about a new injunction about something being permissible or forbidden — it increases them in their faith and they take glad tidings from every verse. And as for those who have a sickness in their heart — a sickness of doubt and skepticism, a love of materialistic things — for those who have a sickness in their heart, every verse only pushes them further away from Islam. Every ayah of the Qur'an, instead of bringing them closer, makes them doubt their faith more. Every single khutbah, every single halaqa, unfortunately pushes these people further, because they came with sickness in the heart.

You have two pieces of land — one that is fertile, beautiful ground, and one that is not. When springtime comes and it rains, that beautiful garden that you had done good work on in the fall — when the rain comes, tulips will come, green beautiful grass will grow, vegetables will come. And a few feet away, a piece of your backyard or a forest preserve that no one plowed and no one worked on — when the same rain comes, that same rain that brought about tulips and flowers and roses in your garden will a few feet away become a means of thorns growing, harmful plants, plants that give you no benefit. One rain — but different results. What happened? The problem is not with the rain. The problem is what's in the earth. The problem is not with the verses of the Qur'an or the conditions that surround us. The problem is what's in the heart.

The same condition that makes people closer to Allah can make other people further away from Allah. You and I can't change the rain falling, but we can definitely plow the land. You and I cannot change the conditions around us, but we can definitely plow our hearts. We can weed them out. We can plant good seeds in them. And then, prepared for whatever comes, no matter what condition comes our way, it will only push us towards Allah.

The Believer's Affair Is Always Good

(Sahih Muslim, Hadith 2999)

Strange is the affair of a believer — indeed all his affairs are good, and that guarantee is only for believers. This is only for mu'minin — people who truly believe in what we just spoke about: belief in Allah, His attributes, His qualities, His omnipotence, His omnipresence, His strength. The one who believes in all of those will find good in everything. How does that happen? The Prophet ﷺ explains: if good times come — wealth and health and prosperity and favorable conditions — then he is not upset about it. Rather, شَكَرَ — he is grateful and thankful to Allah for the blessings he has, and that is good for him. And if difficulty comes his or her way, صَبَرَ — he remains patient in the face of this hardship, and the end result is indeed beneficial for him.

Rasulullah ﷺ said: no matter what comes to you — if it's light rain, go out and enjoy it. During Hajj time, when it started raining, people would come out from where they were covered and say, "We want to go enjoy the rain around the Ka'bah." And if it becomes harmful rain, then what are you going to do? You can't stop the rain. You're going to pull out your rain jacket, pull out your umbrella, go find refuge. That's it. You cannot change what happens around you, but you can change your perception of it, how you interact with conditions.

For a believer, every condition has benefit in it. If it is something to be thankful for, he is thankful. If it's something to be patient about, he is patient. And either way, every day brings him closer to Allah.

You Will Hear Hurtful Things — And the Way Through

The ayah I recited at the beginning — Allah says:

Most definitely you will hear harmful, hurtful things — تَسْمَعُنَّ — most definitely you will hear. Allah said this with much emphasis: not just adha but adhan kathira — hurtful things, insults. From whom? From the disbelievers, whether they are the People of the Book or the polytheists. You will definitely hear things you don't like.

And Allah says: what is the way out? Two things. وَإِن تَصْبِرُوا وَتَتَّقُوا — if you are patient, and if you have fear of Allah more than anyone else. That as long as my Lord is happy with me, I am on the right path. I had a good day — but if I ended up getting scared and cowed in, and because of that I cowered away from Allah and broke His command, then that is a failure regardless of what else I saved or achieved that day.

It's fine to feel disturbed. Someone does something, you feel bad about it — that's fine. But the principle of success in difficulty is: اصْبِرُوا وَصَابِرُوا — remain patient, remain steadfast. وَاتَّقُوا اللَّهَ — and always keep your goal on Allah's happiness. فَإِنَّ ذَٰلِكَ مِنْ عَزْمِ الْأُمُورِ — indeed that is the greatest of affairs, the greatest of things that you could be given from Allah — to remain firm and patient.

O believers, when difficulty comes your way — remain patient, remain steadfast, and fear Allah. And if you do so, indeed you will become successful.

Many times believers think something is most definitely going to be only bad news — but Allah says many times that you may think something is bad for you, but Allah has a wisdom that you don't know about. عَسَى اللَّهُ — very likely Allah may put some good in that of which you are unaware.

Who is able to understand this? The one who has faith in Allah. The one who knows that from the very first hadith — Allah already told the pen to write. Every single thing has been written. And a person who has trust in Allah — the fact that we know everything is following the script — even when we get scared, we say, SubhanAllah, this event seems like it's getting off schedule, two minutes behind, ten minutes behind your schedule that you wrote. But it is definitely not behind in Allah's script. Everything follows a script. There is no such thing as delay — not a delay of a second. You can't prepone something, you can't postpone something. Every single thing that is happening, from the blink of an eye, is in the taqdeer.

The Lesson of Hudaybiyyah

My brothers and sisters, let us renew our faith in Allah. Let us renew our faith in the decree of Allah. Let us have a hopeful message for ourselves and for all of us. Let the good come through.

When the Treaty of Hudaybiyyah took place — an apparent loss — we don't have time to get into the whole Seerah lesson, but when that treaty took place, which was apparently a huge loss for the Muslims, people like even Umar al-Khattab, may Allah be pleased with him, were shocked. "Why are we signing off on this? Why are we losing this opportunity?" And SubhanAllah, Allah brought so much khayr from it. Amr ibn al-'As, may Allah be pleased with him, and Khalid ibn al-Walid, may Allah be pleased with him — the greatest generals, who for twenty years had caused havoc and killed hundreds and thousands of Muslims — these people accepted Islam after Hudaybiyyah. We've all heard of Khalid ibn al-Walid, but when did he accept Islam? Not in the first year — absolutely not, my friends. In the last three to four years of the life of Rasulullah ﷺ. And Amr ibn al-'As — the conqueror of all of Palestine and all of Egypt — when did he accept Islam? In the last portion of the life of Rasulullah ﷺ, after the Treaty of Hudaybiyyah. You don't know what hidden wisdom Allah has in affairs.

These events that have happened must only energize us, must only create within us a renewed commitment to our faith, a renewed commitment to our masajid, a renewed commitment to Allah. And insha'Allah, you will see that no matter what, this will end up only in good. Because my Nabi ﷺ — وَمَا يَنطِقُ عَنِ الْهَوَىٰ إِنْ هُوَ إِلَّا وَحْيٌ يُوحَىٰ — he doesn't speak out of his own desires; he only speaks based on revelation. And he said: everything is good for you. You simply have to know how to handle the situation.

Closing Du'a

I pray and I beg to Allah that He grants us faith in Him and His Prophet ﷺ and in the Book of Allah, that allows us to understand our situations properly. I pray to Allah that He increases our faith, that He increases our Iman, that He allows us now to fill up our masajid, that He allows us now to truly love Him, to truly connect with Him, to supplicate to Him throughout the day and throughout the night.

I pray to Almighty Allah that He protects our youth — our boys and girls and our adults — from being intimidated, from falling prey to the various attacks, to the various scare tactics. I pray to Almighty Allah that He fills our hearts only with His fear and not the fear of His creation, and only with the love of Him and His Messenger ﷺ.

I pray to Almighty Allah that He protects all our masajid, all our deen institutions, all the deen effort that is taking place — our wealth, our health, our Iman, and generations to come. Allow these events of this past week to become only a means of the Muslim community getting stronger and growing in number, and becoming a means for the non-Muslim citizens of this country and our fellow friends to see the beauty of Islam.

I pray to Almighty Allah that He grants us the wisdom and the patience to be able to act in a proper manner when things don't go our way. I pray to Almighty Allah that He saves us from having doubts in our faith, from having doubts in Islam and Iman and the Qur'an. I pray to Almighty Allah that whoever is going through whatever type of difficulty — may Allah alleviate and remove those difficulties throughout the world. May Allah make this one of those pivotal moments in the history of this country in which He decrees that Iman and Islam will flourish, and that this country will become a means of goodness and khayr spreading throughout the entire world. Say Ameen.

I say this and I ask Allah's forgiveness for me and for you and for the rest of the Muslims from every sin — so ask His forgiveness, for He is the Most Forgiving and Merciful.

Community Announcements

JazakAllah khair, Dr. Kamran. May Allah bless you and accept those words. And may we all, insha'Allah, become more involved in our local communities, and really try to maintain our hope with Allah — knowing that everything started with Allah, and everything will end with Allah, and Allah has everything in between. Alhamdulillah.

A few announcements for our community. Next Friday, insha'Allah, will be our next session for Real Talk — an Islamic Foundation youth event in which every two weeks we get together. It is open for high school and college-age boys and girls to come, have a short lecture, but most importantly a Q&A session in which they can have their questions answered. It really brings up a lot of good discussion. Alhamdulillah, we've been doing this every two weeks for almost the last four months now. About 40 or so young people come through regularly. We'd love to be able to share this with all of the young people of our community — boys and girls, high school and college age, young men and women. Snacks are always served, Mashallah, and I think this week we're going to be having lasagna too — so if that's not an incentive, do come through.

And then the next day, insha'Allah, on November 19th, the Islamic Foundation will be hosting its annual fundraising dinner banquet. Please come through with your support — your du'a, your efforts, as well as your financial contributions — to help keep this center running and help maintain it as a means of holding on to our Islamic identity for this generation as well as for generations to come.

May Allah grant us life so long as He decides that is best for us, and may Allah allow us to continue to support good Islamic works in our communities today and in the future. JazakumAllahu Khayran. As-salamu alaykum.

JazakAllah khair, Mufti Azeemuddin. May Allah accept your words and may Allah strengthen our resolve and allow us to act upon the advice given — to strengthen our connection with Allah and to engage in acts that will bring us closer to Allah. For it has always begun with Allah, it will always end with Allah, and it is Allah in everything in between. So connect yourself with Allah, and we shall see better days — even though it may seem bleak right now. Obviously Allah has only our best interest in mind, even if it may not be easy for us to see to that point. Alhamdulillah.

In our area at Masjid Darussalam, next Friday there will be a program entitled Unbreakable Faith — an opportunity to connect yourself with Allah and strengthen your Iman and gain the strength that is necessary in these times when we may feel the weakest. I encourage everyone to, insha'Allah, take part in that. The program is open for everyone. It is at Darussalam next Friday evening. Look it up at dsfnd.org.

Also on the same day, here at the Islamic Foundation, we'll have our next session of Real Talk — an Islamic Foundation youth initiative in which high school and college-age boys and girls are welcome to come participate in a short discussion, but more importantly a Q&A opportunity to have your questions answered and an opportunity to express yourself. That will be next Friday here at the Islamic Foundation from 6 to 8pm.

And then on Saturday, the next day, we'll have the Islamic Foundation's annual fundraising dinner — an opportunity to support not only financially, but also with your experience, your efforts, and most importantly your du'a, to support your Islamic Foundation. A place where Allah has chosen to be a means of benefit for so many — an opportunity to strengthen the generations to come. That dinner will be on Saturday, November 19th. You can purchase your tickets now and support financially ahead of time, as well as on your way out. Please do support with whatever you can. And Allah will reward you on a day when you are most in need. May Allah show His mercy upon us at that time. Allahumma Ameen. As-salamu alaykum.