Mufti Azeemuddin Ahmed | Friday Khutbah

The Reality of Life's Difficulties

There are certain realities that exist in the world that a person cannot move away from, cannot deny. And one of those realities, no matter how bitter it must be, is that Allah has created us in a world that is filled with issues, difficulties and problems. And no matter how much a person may try, you cannot find shelter in a place where you will be safe from problems.

Instead, as someone has said, if you find yourself absolutely trouble-free and problem-free, you've probably already passed away and now in your paradise. Because it cannot be possible that you say, my wife is, everything is fine with her, my children, everything is fine with them, with my parents and siblings, job, work, health, wealth, everything, mentally 100% absolutely stressed and trouble-free. That does not exist.

Although the world through the advance of technology and the advance of medicine is trying to create this type of world, in which a person may live stress-free, trouble-free, but by Allah they will never be able to achieve that. It will never happen. That is never meant to happen in this world. That is reserved for the akhira in paradise.

In this world Allah says:

You will continue to make an effort and toil until you reach us. This world is surrounded by difficulty. Allah says:

Indeed we have created the human being in difficulty. The way the human being comes into this world is filled with the most difficulty. And the way the soul is pulled out and the person is lowered into the grave is also filled with most difficulty. Literally from beginning to end is masaib and difficulties.

The Prophet's Illustration of Life's Trials

And the Prophet once, he drew on the floor, on the sand with a stick, he drew a model. He was sitting with the companions and the Prophet drew a line. He drew a line and around this line the Prophet drew some horizontal lines. And he showed one from here, one from here, one from here, one from here. And then the Prophet made a rectangular box around this line. So you've got one vertical line, one rectangular box around it, and then multiple horizontal smaller lines around it.

Then the Prophet said, "This middle line is the human being. This is his life. All the smaller lines under the right and left are difficulties and problems in his life. If he happens to miss one, he's definitely going to get caught with the other one. If he happens to miss one, the other one will come and take him. You may escape an accident today, but you'll get it tomorrow. You may escape some sort of stressful situation today, but you'll end up in it tomorrow. It's not possible that you evade all of that. One after another, one after another, a person's life is filled with difficulties."

And then the Prophet mentioned that this line that he drew around which is a rectangular box, this line continues past the rectangular box. So you have the ceiling of the rectangular box there, but this line doesn't stop there, it keeps on going. The Prophet said, "This rectangular box cover, the cover at the top, this is death. That even if you somehow miss every single smaller horizontal line which was what? Difficulties. Eventually death will definitely overtake a person. No matter how lucky he tried to lead his life. However, that line that continues to extend beyond that box, that's his wishes, his desires, and his long drawn out plans."

That his plans, we're all planning way after death. Not for the hereafter, for this world. A man is meant to die at the age of 60, but he's planning for the age of 80. A man is meant to die at the age of 20, but he's planning for the age of 70. This is the world. We're always planning ahead, not thinking that, you know what, tonight may be my last. Today may be the last. A person usually never thinks about that.

The Sudden Nature of Change

Who would have ever told us when the last normal Jummah, we prayed shoulder to shoulder. If anyone were to tell you this is going to be your final Jummah of this year, or the next one and a half year, or two years, that you're going to be praying in a room full of people shoulder to shoulder without masks. You say, what are you talking about? We'll pray the next Jummah, it's alright. I don't mind praying in the back. One day I'll be in the front. SubhanAllah, we would have never believed it. And within five days, what happened? The world changed upside down, inside out. And we had our masajid locked up for a whole year, subhanAllah. So that's how quickly a person's life changes without a person preparing or realizing it.

So this is the bitter reality. The bitter reality is you and I have to live in this world surrounded by challenges and difficulty. Now, we can choose to try to make something good out of it, or we can choose to allow it to ruin us. As the famous saying goes, when life gives you lemons, make lemonade. So subhanAllah, the deen teaches us to make the very best lemonade.

Faith as the Foundation of Resilience

The deen teaches us that you can, I'm telling you, even the most horrific type of situation, deen will give you the ability to get through that. You look at the people who are being bombed out, whether it's in Gaza, whether it's in Syria, whether it's in Iraq or Afghanistan, some of them for three generations they're being bombed out. Some of them have lost four generations of family members since the early 1900s. West Africa, subhanAllah, East Asia, what type of difficulties they're going through, poverty struck them, civil war struck them, right? All sorts of things. They never had a single day where they say, okay, you know, we can just relax and enjoy a meal together, all of us extended family together. There's no concept of that.

Every day you're trying to dodge bullets, you're trying to dodge drone attacks, you're trying to dodge F-18s, and that's their normal life. Now you tell me what gives them the motivation to live till the next day, right? Think about it. When you've already lost so many family members due to this aggression, what motivates you to even try to make the best of what you got? It's faith that one day all of this will end and I will be given a reward that will far exceed the difficulty that I went through. One day I will live in a world that will be so beautiful, so luxurious that I will never even remember that I have gone through such difficulty. Faith in Allah, faith in destiny is what makes it easy for a person to handle no matter what life throws at you.

Stories of Unshakeable Faith

And my dear friends, I remember there's so many stories I can share with you, of interviews that I've heard, of people going through the most difficult life. When, subhanAllah, powerful stories, powerful stories, powerful stories of a family in Yemen, who was living off like one to two eggs per day. That was their ration of the entire family. One to two eggs, that's it. And when the interviewer asks, what have you got to say? The simple answer is:

Allah is sufficient for us and He is the best of caretakers.

When I heard an interview of these two beautiful little Syrian children, out in the streets of somewhere in Syria, five-year-old and maybe a seven-year-old, right, subhanAllah, out fending for themselves, picking up small crumbs of bread off of the street. And the interviewer asks this little cute girl, you know, what message have you got to say to the world? And she says, my message, in her beautiful Arabic, she says, the message to the world is, once you have learned how to handle hunger, you can handle anything. SubhanAllah. Allahu Akbar.

Then she said, I want to tell the world, that you all have forsaken us. You have left us, defend for ourselves, but don't worry. We have Allah with us, we don't need you. We have Allah with us, we don't need you. This is the aqeedah of a seven-year-old, that find me a seven-year-old sheikh who can say this. Find yourself. I can never say something like this. SubhanAllah.

You see this seven-year-old, who's got this trust in Allah, who really feels, إِنَّمَا أَشْكُو بَثِّي وَحُزْنِي إِلَى اللَّهِ. That I complain about my difficulties and my sorrow and sadness only to Allah. As Yusuf's father, Yaqub, mentioned when he saw one after another, his children were gone and disappearing.

The Contrast: Life Without Faith

Dear friends, what you see is, faith gives you the strength to be able to handle, no matter what difficulty comes. On the other hand in United States and other parts of the developed world, a person loses in the stock market, he buys a gun and kills himself. SubhanAllah. You have a beautiful wife, children, home, everything. Yes, you lost a half a million dollars on a bad bet or a bad stock, you know, decision. Why take the life? What's that? Because the yaqeen is not there. Aqeedah is not there. Ta'aluk with Allah is not there. Spirituality is not there.

A small upset, a divorce. People, what's happening in our country? We have 225 mass shootings so far. Right? 225 mass shootings. The latest one yesterday, or day before yesterday in California. Guy gets fired, comes up and shoots 8 people and kills himself. La ilaha illallah. What's going on? When a person doesn't have faith, he thinks a pink slip is the end of the world. He thinks being let off from work or having a divorce or a child being diagnosed with cancer or a mother being diagnosed with something else is the end. That's it. There's no point for me to live. I'm not only take my life, I'm gonna take everyone around me.

And we're seeing Muslims in America and Canada doing this in the past year. Where they've taken their life, homicide, suicide, double murder type of cases. We're seeing, unfortunately, in the community. What is this a symptom of? This is a symptom of a lack of faith. A lack of connection with Allah.

Understanding Divine Wisdom in Every Trial

Dear friends, when a person has iman, and a person knows that behind every difficulty and behind every ease, there is a wisdom and a hikmah that Allah has placed. And that the whole world can come to one side, but whatever was meant to happen, will happen. It's not like I just wished I did this, I wished I did that. No. I wished I had called a stock market broker before I made this decision. I wished I had spoken to my investor friends before I made this decision. I wished I had talked to so and so before I got married. No. Before the sun and the moon were created, this marriage was already set and was already set to break. This investment of yours was already set and was meant to break. You're already meant to make a move, and then once you move to that area, you have to move back.

And that's when the Prophet said:

(Sahih Muslim, Hadith 2664)

Don't ever say, if only I did this and only I did that. For indeed, "if only" opens up the avenue for shaytan to start playing with your mind. Instead, once you do what you've done, you leave it up to Allah. You make every effort to try to make the best decision. But once things are done, then after that, you simply rely upon Allah.

Learning Complete Reliance on Allah

So our deen gives us the beautiful way of how to handle things. And the first and foremost thing is that, learn how to cut ourselves off from humanity. Learn to stop depending upon people. This is a lesson, I hope Allah allows me to learn this and allow all of us to learn it. Say ameen.

You don't trust your husband, you don't rely on your wife, you don't rely on your parents, you don't rely on your children, you don't rely on your grandkids, you don't rely on your office manager, you don't rely on your VP of your company, you don't rely on the stock market, you don't rely on the real estate business, you rely upon none besides Allah. Yes, you're in a world of means, of course. You try your best.

But when anyone lets you down or something goes down, you don't think it's the end of the world because you never trusted them in the first place. You said, well, try it. If it works, alhamdulillah. If it doesn't work, I have my Allah with me. نِعْمَ الْمَوْلَىٰ وَنِعْمَ النَّصِيرُ — The best of caretakers and the best of helpers. This is what our deen teaches us. And this is the first and the final lesson that a person if he reaches this level where his trust upon people, or rather I should say reliance upon people, is removed towards reliance upon Allah, the world will change.

Dear friends, we have so many beautiful statements from the Quran and Sunnah regarding this beautiful belief and aqeedah. The Prophet sallallahu alayhi wa sallam one day was approached by a man. And he said, إِلَى مَا تَدْعُو — Who are you inviting towards? I hear you're inviting towards a God. Can you give me a description of this God? He said, أَدْعُو إِلَى اللَّهِ وَحْدَهُ — I invite you and I supplicate to the one Allah.

(Musnad Ahmad, Hadith 15650)

That being that when you're afflicted by difficulty and you ask him to remove it, he removes it. And when you lose your animal or you lose your camel or horse in a desert area and you turn to him in supplication, he returns to you your lost item. And that one, when you suffer drought or poverty or difficulty and you supplicate to him, he will turn his attention and not only that, he will start growing plants for you. That is that Allah subhanahu wa ta'ala who turns his attention to you on the condition that a person does not turn his attention to others.

Dear friends, a poet has said so beautifully:

He said, you ask the small son of Adam. Who is the small son of Adam? All of us. No matter what VP, no matter what president, no matter what millionaire we become, we're at the end of the day آدَمْ کے چھوٹے بچے — That's who we are. We're nobody. We came from nothing, we'll go back to nothing.

Once a king, he asked a scholar to give him advice. He said, mashaAllah, the kings at that time also said, give me advice. So the scholar was a little bit tough on him. So he looked at the scholar and he said, أَتَعْرِفُ مَنْ تُخَاطِبُ — Do you recognize who you are addressing? He said, do you know who I am? And so the scholar, he responded, نَعَمْ — Yes, I do know who you are. But who am I? He says:

That your beginning, you start off from a dirty drop of sperm. This is your introduction. Your ending is a smelly corpse. And in between these two phases, you're carrying around filth in your body. This applies to that king and this applies to me and applies to all of us. This is our beginning, this is our end, and in between we got nothing to be proud about. That one day, one hour, a person doesn't use his deodorant, he doesn't use his toothbrush, doesn't use the restroom, what will happen? SubhanAllah. That's the reality for all of us.

So he says, the poet says, you're asking the small son of Adam for your needs. Instead ask the one whose doors are never shunned and never closed. For indeed Allah becomes angry when you stop asking him. And the small son of Adam becomes angry when you begin to ask him. He says, I gave you already once, why are you asking me a second time? A person will get upset. And on the other hand, Allah subhanahu wa ta'ala, what does he want to hear from us? He wants to hear from us, Ya Allah, ana al-faqeeru bi-babik. I am that one who is a poverty stricken individual begging at your door. Anta al-ghani, wa nahnu al-fuqara'u ilayk. You are the ultimate free of all want, free of all need. We are the ones who are in need of you.

Abu Yazid al-Bastami's Observation

Abu Yazid al-Bastami, rahimahullah, a very famous saint. He said something beautiful. He said, عِشْتُ مَعَ النَّاسِ أَرْبَعِينَ سَنَةً — I lived for 40 years amongst people. Like all of us have, you know, spent time with people. So he said, this is my observation of people. Listen to his observation. He says, فَوَجَدْتُهُمْ أَمْوَاتاً غَيْرَ أَحْيَاءٍ — I found them to be dead and not alive. وَمَا يَشْعُرُونَ أَيَّانَ يُبْعَثُونَ — They are completely unaware of when they are going to be resurrected. فَكَبَّرْتُ عَلَيْهِمْ أَرْبَعَ تَكْبِيرَاتٍ — So I performed four takbeers. Which four takbeers is this? Which four takbeers? Salatul janaza. He said, I performed salatul janaza and humanity. وَنَفَضْتُ يَدِي مِنْهُمْ — I washed my hands off of them. Like you throw dust on the dead man and you wash your hands off of the dust and you walk away to your car. He said, I did this to humanity. I prayed four takbeers, salatul janaza and humanity. And I washed my hands off of them.

وَجَدْتُهُمْ لَا يَقْطَعُونَ وَلَا يَصِلُونَ — I found them to be so incapable that they cannot break ties which they have been connected, and they are not able to join ties which were broken. لَا يُمِيتُونَ — They are not able to give death. وَلَا يُحْيُونَ — They are not able to give life. لَا يُقَرِّبُونَ — They are not able to bring anything that's far away. They are not able to bring it close. وَلَا يُبَعِّدُونَ — They are not able to take something which is close. They are not able to push it away. لَا يُعِزُّونَ — They are not able to give honor. وَلَا يُذِلُّونَ — They are not able to disgrace. لَا يَنْفَعُونَ — They are not able to give benefit. لَا يَضُرُّونَ — They are not able to give harm.

ثُمَّ قَالَ — And then he said, this poem that I just said in front of you, that you're asking the son of Adam for your needs when this small son of Adam becomes angry. Instead, why do you not turn to Allah subhanahu wa ta'ala who gets angry when he's asked?

Our Laylatul Qadr

My dear brothers and sisters, my dear listeners, our Laylatul Qadr did not end in Ramadan. Any day, any night that you and I choose to turn to Allah in repentance is the day of our night of power. As they say, jis rat ki qadr ki jai wa apki laylatul qadr. Whichever night you value, that becomes your Laylatul Qadr. Our days of mercy and tawbah of Allah subhanahu wa ta'ala did not end with the passing away of Ramadan. Absolutely not. Instead, any day that we sit down and say, bas hoga, I'm done. Ya Allah, I've knocked on too many doors. I've called too many people. Now I'm gonna try knocking on your door. Now I'm gonna take this musallah and sit down in my room. And I'm gonna beg you for mercy to get me out of this mess I'm in. And by Allah, you will see such ajaib, such things come.

The Power of Humility

Allah, all He wants to see from us, my dear friends, is humility and humbleness. As fathers, we're sitting here. When our children, when the young ones or whatnot act up, what do we want to hear from them? We want to hear from them, I'm sorry. You look down, apologize and move on. And if a father rebukes his son, he looks right back into his eyes and says, I don't care. How that infuriates you more than anything else. That infuriates you more than whatever else sin he's done. Allah subhanahu wa ta'ala wants to see humility and humbleness from us. To have our gazes down in front of him. To say, Allah, I'm the biggest sinner of this whole crowd. Ya Allah, you know the reality of me. I don't deserve a single blessing. By Allah, my presence here may become the means of people being deprived. Ya Allah, do not deprive them because of the likes of me in this crowd. That level of humility and humbleness in front of Allah is something so powerful.

And I read something by one of the ulema, I mentioned something so beautiful. He says, sometimes a person makes dua and dua and dua. And then he sees that his duas are not being apparently, apparently being accepted or rather I should say, he's not getting exactly what he's asking for. Now there's two ways to deal with this situation. To get angry. To say, what is this? I've been making dua for so long, I'm not getting it. That is the way of those who are destroyed. And the other hand is the one who says, Ya Allah, I probably have led, I've done sins for sure. I don't know which sin it is that has angered you because of which you are not fulfilling my need. Ya Allah, forget about my need. I'm asking you to simply forgive me because of which you're angry at me and you have not given me what I'm asking for.

And the ulema say, when that person reaches that level of humility that he says, the reason my duas are not being accepted is because of my own ugly self. Because of my own sinful soul. Then subhanAllah, that humility is more powerful than all your tahajjud, than all your duas, than all your Quran. Allah wants to see us to be broken hearted in front. أَنَا عِنْدَ الْمُنْكَسِرَةِ قُلُوبُهُمْ — The Prophet sallallahu alayhi wa sallam says, Allah says, you wanna know where I'm gonna find? You wanna find me? You're gonna find me with those whose hearts are broken for my sake.

Our Path Forward

So I encourage everyone, starting off with myself, to utilize this blessed day of Jum'ah and every single day and night that Allah has given us for the remainder of our life, to utilize this to turn to Him in genuine submission with dua. And no matter what issues we're facing through, know very well you've got one number, one place to get all of those answered and that is simply turning our hearts towards Allah and saying, Allah please forgive me. Ya Allah, please take care of this need. Ya Allah, I'm a runaway slave who's come back to you. Please, please rectify my affairs.

And then we don't just be selfish. We pray for our parents, our siblings, our spouses, our children, and most definitely for the entire ummah of Rasulullah sallallahu alayhi wa sallam. And this is how Allah will see that this individual, he cares about my makhluq. And my dear friends, if you spend five minutes asking for Allah's creation, imagine how happy Allah will be with us and how much Allah subhanahu wa ta'ala will shower upon us.

So the problems will never go away. They're meant to be. But remember, these problems can definitely be the means of you and I attaining the highest levels of Jannah and being joined up with Rasulullah sallallahu alayhi wa sallam. My talk, what I just said right now, I know is relevant to every single individual. I have no doubt. Because every single individual is going through issues. I am going through my own and you're all going through your own. What we need to realize is that stop thinking, when is this gonna stop? It won't stop. If not this, then something else will come. If not that, something else will come. What we need to do is use this as a motivation to turn to Allah, to rectify our lives, to repent, and to involve ourselves in dhikr and dua. The day you and I start doing that to a higher level and higher degree than we are doing now, that's a successful day for us.

Closing Du'a

And inshallah tabarak wa ta'ala, we hope that Allah subhanahu wa ta'ala grants us the ability to make the best of what the world gives us. Be it difficulty, be it ease. In all situations, may He allow us to either be patient or may He allow us to be grateful and to do shukr. We should all ask Allah for aafiyah. We ask Allah subhanahu wa ta'ala, Say ameen. We ask Allah that He doesn't test us more than we can handle. We ask Allah that whatever situation He puts us in, may He allow us to react to that situation in the manner that is beloved to Him. And inshallah tabarak wa ta'ala, we ask Allah subhanahu wa ta'ala that He accept our words.

Inshallah tonight, I will be here with some of our students from Darussalam Seminary in Chicago.

And after Maghrib and after Isha, after Isha will be a youth program and after Maghrib for the community. And we'll be speaking on Salahuddin Ayubi رحمه الله and his amazing efforts for the deen and of course the whole issue of Palestine. His own conquest and the lessons we learned from him, الحمد لله, and how we can implement that in our own lives. إن شاء الله تبارك وتعالى. So please join us إن شاء الله tonight for that program here at IAGD.

And additionally on the way out, please do pick up some flyers for our retreat that we're holding in Darussalam in Chicago, whether you're in person or online, whichever way it is. And the entire theme of the retreat is how to handle adversity. Because we are going through the pandemic and we've lost, I've lost relatives. You all have lost friends and relatives. It's been a very challenging year. So how to be able to handle and come out stronger from this, this is the theme of this year's annual retreat on the weekend of June 18th. So please do join us virtually or onsite in Chicago and make du'a that this becomes a means of giving strength to people and reviving the iman in the hearts of the people.

I seek refuge in Allah from the accursed Satan.