Surah Furqan - Ep.8 | Mufti Azeemuddin Ahmed

بِسْمِ اللَّهِ الرَّحْمَٰنِ الرَّحِيمِ

Beloved brothers and sisters, dear students, dear listeners — السَّلَامُ عَلَيْكُمْ وَرَحْمَةُ اللَّهِ وَبَرَكَاتُهُ

We thank Almighty Allah who has blessed us to be healthy, to be alive, to be blessed with Iman, to be blessed with the tawfiq to attend a gathering of knowledge and dhikr, and to be sitting with the Qur'an and to be blessed to have the love of the Qur'an to an extent that allows us to come out of our home on an average weeknight to sit in His house and to spend some time reading through a few verses of this beautiful gift to us — and the greatest miracle of Rasulullah ﷺ, a miracle that never ceases to exist and that never ceases to continuously impress us in its various forms and ways.

Every single thing — the Qur'an has the solution for anything and everything. Every time a person who is a ṭālib, a person who is searching for his answers, will find them to be in the Book of Allah. Solutions to our problems, shifā' — cure for physical and spiritual illnesses — you name it, everything is in the Qur'an. Cure for whatever problem a person may be going through, even the most difficult of things.

The Power of Istighfār — A Qur'anic Solution

As Allah says in Surah Nuh:

Seek forgiveness from your Lord — He is the one who is most willing to accept your repentance. And if you seek forgiveness, He will pour down the rain for you. He will give you wealth, and He will give you children — banīn, specifically sons. He will give you gardens, He will give you rivers, right here in this dunya.

The desire to have a child is natural in every mom and dad, and the desire to have sons — Allah in this Surah Nuh is specifically saying: do istighfār and I will give you sons. And it is a verse of the Qur'an. A person tries all sorts of different methods and ways to be gifted with children, but the solution lies in the Qur'an. So just like that, whatever we are looking for, we will find.

And so every single week when we come to the house of Allah and attend this Tuesday night dars, this is what we should all be saying: Ya Allah, I am here for You. I am here looking for solutions to my problems. I am looking to find solutions to my financial issues, domestic issues, spiritual issues, physical issues, family issues, business issues. Ya Allah, what better place than Your house? And what better avenue than a night when we sit with the Qur'an and study its meanings?

So if that is our sincere approach to the Book of Allah, then I give you the glad tidings that you will find whatever you are looking for, because it is all here.

The Opening Supplications of the Dars

The Du'ā of the Angels — Surah Al-Baqarah

This is why when we begin the dars we read:

سُبْحَانَكَ لَا عِلْمَ لَنَا — We make nafi, we have no knowledge. لَا عِلْمَ لَنَا — We know nothing. إِلَّا مَا عَلَّمْتَنَا — Except what You have taught us. إِنَّكَ أَنتَ الْعَلِيمُ الْحَكِيمُ — Indeed, You are most knowledgeable, Al-Ḥakīm, most wise.

Why do we say this at the beginning of our dars and at the beginning when we teach class? It is to distance any type of sense of entitlement, any type of sense of a knowledge that we claim to possess on ourselves. We are nobody, we know nothing. Whatever we are sharing tonight is from what Allah has taught us. And whatever we will ever share on any day or night will not be of our own — it is from Allah. Everything is gifted to you and I from Allah.

So when a person recites this verse before he begins speaking, we hope and we expect from Allah that He will continue to inspire him as he speaks — to speak what is needed, what is required by the audience.

The Du'ā of Mūsā — Surah Taha

And then another verse, from Surah Taha:

O Allah, allow my chest to be expanded — allow me to be relaxed, allow me to feel content, allow me to feel happy, allow me to feel in tune with what is happening, and allow me to have full confidence in what I am speaking about. شَرْحُ الصَّدْرِ. وَيَسِّرْ لِي أَمْرِي — O Allah, make my affairs easy for me, whatever the affair may be. وَاحْلُلْ عُقْدَةً مِّن لِّسَانِي — And O Allah, remove any type of knot that may be on my tongue that may become an obstacle in people understanding my talk. يَفْقَهُوا قَوْلِي — So that people may understand my speech.

You all can share this and recite this when you do your presentations at work, at school, and so forth — that Allah allows you to become confident, that Allah allows people to understand what you are saying, that all obstacles of communication are removed, and so forth.

The Beautiful Names of Allah

And then the third thing: some of the names of Allah.

Yā Wahhāb — the one who grants the most gifts. Yā Fattāḥ — the opener. We ask Allah to grant us the gift of proper speech and give all those who are listening the gift of proper listening. What does proper listening mean? That listening which will in turn lead to practice — that is what you call proper listening.

So we ask Allah — Yā Wahhāb, the one who gives the most gifts — that You open our tongue to speak and open our hearts to listen in a manner that You want us to speak and a manner that You want us to hear. And then Yā Fattāḥ, the opener — Ya Allah, You open our tongue and open our hearts and minds to grasp this beautiful kalām of Yours.

What are we dealing with? We are dealing with the speech of Allah. It is no small thing. The speech of Allah — imagine what type of chest we have to have to be able to accept this. Imagine what type of tongue we have to have to be able to speak it. Imagine what type of mind and intellect we have to have to be able to delve into it.

And Yā Jabbār — Al-Jabbār, the name of Allah of absolute strength and power. Just as Allah is most powerful, we ask Allah that He grants us that power when speaking and grants us that power when listening, that no external influence — of any shayāṭīn from the humans or shayāṭīn from the jinn — should come and affect this communication.

As Allah says in the Qur'an:

That when revelation comes from Allah — لَا يَأْتِيهِ الْبَاطِلُ مِن بَيْنِ يَدَيْهِ وَلَا مِنْ خَلْفِهِ — this revelation, نَزَلَ بِهِ الرُّوحُ الْأَمِينُ, is brought down by Jibreel Ameen. It is brought by Al-Qawiyyu Al-Matīn — brought down by the most powerful of all angels. The most powerful of all angels brings this waḥy and revelation, and it is protected.

You see — in the dunya, when they transport gold, when they transport jewels, what type of security is provided? When a head of state is transported, what type of security is provided? Wallahi, we know that no head of state, no prime minister, no president, and no jewels and gems of this world can come and be valued equivalent to even one dot of the Book of Allah, one letter of the Book of Allah.

So imagine what type of protection and security Allah must have granted to this Qur'an — that it was revealed directly from Allah, brought down by the most powerful angel, and now it is not revealed onto a mountain but was revealed عَلَى قَلْبِكَ — onto the heart of the Prophet ﷺ. The place where this Qur'an was revealed is the most protected, most preserved, most munawwar, most blessed, most illuminated place.

What could be more illuminated? More illuminated than the Ka'bah, more illuminated than the Lawḥ al-Maḥfūẓ, more illuminated than the ʿArsh, more illuminated than the Kursī, more illuminated than any other spot in the world — has to be the blessed, honorable heart of Rasulullah ﷺ. And that is where this was revealed.

And so Allah says — during the process of revelation, what about coming from there to here? What about any type of mishap? No — nothing can attack this book, this revelation as it was coming down, because it is coming from تَنزِيلٌ مِّنْ حَكِيمٍ حَمِيدٍ — from the most wise, worthy of all praise. He knows what He is doing.

Even when we begin to speak, the Qur'an will tell you what to speak, how to start your speech. When we end our speech:

End with praise of Allah. That is mentioned in the Qur'an — that the last thing the people of Jannah will be saying after all their discussions is الْحَمْدُ لِلَّهِ رَبِّ الْعَالَمِينَ. So this is how we end our talk as well.

Humility Before the Qur'an

So whatever situation you may be in, wherever you are looking for answers, my beloved listeners — I implore myself and all here: find those solutions in the Book of Allah. They are present, but it simply requires a little bit of humbleness.

When we visited Turkey, many times, alhamdulillah, we went to the old madrasas and visited them. Any of those old madrasas have small rooms where all the mashāyikh used to sit — some of them, alhamdulillah, have been revived now as well. And you will see that the doors for each of those rooms all look like the entrance to a Hobbit book — small little round doors, oval doors, and they are short. All the doors are maybe five foot five. Those doors are not meant for kids or, you know, only for small people — they are meant for large tall men as well. But the purpose is they intentionally made all those doors leading up to the teachers like that, so that every single person who enters must lower his head before he enters. You have to lower your head before you enter the classroom. And if you have got too much arrogance to do that, then you are not going to fit in. There is no space here. This is how it works.

We have to remove the attitude. With the press of a button, I want everything in my home. How many people say this? Brother, I want something online. How much online content there is — just from this masjid itself, we have thousands of hours of online content from 2013 since the masjid opened. So what? There are millions of hours throughout online things. Hidāyah doesn't come when you are sitting in your sofa chair eating potato chips and watching something else and listening to something else and flipping through something else. Hidāyah comes from your simple small little muṣallā next door, from your MSA muṣallā, from your masjid down the street — humble, small neighborhood muṣallā — but you go there with humility and a sense of need. Then that muṣallā can give you everything.

And a person who does not have the humility to go to a teacher, to go to a madrasa, to go to a masjid with the intention of learning — he will never be able to learn. Two people will never be able to learn: the one who has kibr — arrogance — and the one who is too shy to ask.

If you have ever met certain famous people, influencers — I spoke about them last week too — you will realize very quickly how hollow they are. Honestly speaking, very hollow. And sometimes I have had meetups where I met them, and I try to encourage them a little bit: "Brother, you know it would be nice for you to go to your local area scholars, just simply just once in a while — maybe just don't do any postings this week, just go and take from someone else, sit in their company." But those sentences fall on deaf ears, because once a person has reached that stage of fame and name, and when it is so easy to make money and so easy to do things for people, then to go humble yourself in front of someone is very difficult.

Mawlana Sajjad Nu'mani — the son of Mawlana Manzoor Nu'mani — one day he was giving an amazing biography of his life and how his mom and dad raised him. The son of one of the amazing ulama of the past century in the Indian subcontinent — alhamdulillah, he is still alive, may Allah grant him long life and health, one of the most prominent ulama of India. So he mentioned at the end he was giving advice. He was sharing his life story, and then at the end he said something very powerful — may Allah give me tawfīq to understand this and all of us. He said, "May I say something to my young ulama?" — his humility and humbleness. He said, "Don't make a mistake the way we did." And then he said: "Before you become great and senior in the eyes of the people, learn how to become humble and simple and small and insignificant. Work your way up — learn how to become humble and simple and small before you rise up the ranks of fame and name. Because once you go up, it is very hard to then humble yourself. The only way you come down is flat on your face, and that we don't know — we don't want to do that."

And so an advice to parents as well who are guiding their children: it is good to push your children forward, it is important to break their fear, to create confidence within them. But make sure you do not allow it to get to their head. Do not allow their competitions — their speech and Qur'an competitions and whatever else they are doing, sports etc. — do not allow that to get to their head. Because, Allah forbid, if it does, then the first one they are going to stomp down is you, the first one that is going to suffer is you as a parent, and everyone else after that.

We have to ensure that our children take these strides step by step, that they continuously seek ilm and learn. But social media has given an opportunity for a five-year-old to become an influencer. And nowadays there is a law that has just been passed in the state of Illinois — the only state, I am told — where now children who are being used by their parents to make money, those children are literally being abused. Because their parents — my blood boils when I read these things — how can a mom and dad be so insensitive and so materialistic that they take the greatest gift Allah has given us — our children — and their innocent moments, and their moments of breaking down crying, and their moments of having their temper tantrums, and going through various biological processes in their life, going through puberty and things of that sort — and that is being recorded, livestreamed, interactions being posted for likes? If this is not child abuse, what is? For the sake of making money.

Those parents — child abuse comes in many different forms. So this is the first state now that has given children the right to protect themselves and have a right to how their money — that their parents are making off of them — is to be used. It is a sad reality.

My ustādh one day told me — one of my teachers — he said today is a time you cannot even trust your teachers. A teacher, a coach, usually always wants to see his student progress. But he said we live in a time where you cannot even trust your teacher — a teacher ends up also becoming jealous of his student's progress. But we cannot stop there. We cannot even trust, sometimes, even parents. Today, materialism, greed — it has become so bad that people misuse their kids just for their own growth.

And so in that challenging, difficult world that we live in, we need to have humility and humbleness in front of the Qur'an. And the Qur'an will guide me and will guide you to become the best moms and dads, and to become the best sons and daughters, and to be able to be the best citizens of this world.

And this was just an introduction — I thought today I will share about some of the verses that I read at the beginning of every dars. You hear me do so, and so an explanation of that has been shared with all of you.

Tafsir of Surah Al-Furqān — Āyah 31

Allah says: "And so it is that We have appointed for every prophet an inveterate enemy from amongst the defiant and disbelievers. Yet sufficient is your Lord, O Prophet, as a guide and a supporter."

Just to remind us of the first previous āyah — Allah spoke about Rasulullah ﷺ who, either in this world or on the Day of Judgment, will be making this complaint to Allah about his ummah — that the ummah neglected the Qur'an. Either he is speaking about in this world, that "Ya Allah, the disbelievers have thrown Your book behind their backs and they don't care about it," or he is going to be making this complaint on the Day of Judgment about those people who did not read the Qur'an — we talked about this last week — who did not recite the Qur'an properly, or who did not ponder over its meanings, or who did not practice on it.

And we talked about how it is a right of the Qur'an to at least, at least, read the entire Qur'an twice a year — at least — for beginners. So that is where we ended.

Enemies Are Placed by Allah — A Test of Sincerity

In this verse here, Allah says something extremely relevant to all of us. Today I was asked by the students — some of the first-year students. I said, "What do you want to talk about today in class?" They said, "How do we deal with our families who don't understand what we're doing here, who don't understand what we're doing at Darussalam, studying — whether it's the one-year program or the seven-year program?" I think at least a third of the class, if not more — maybe half, between a third to half — raised their hand that they deal with the same issue.

It is sad that these students are making this level of sacrifice — to leave their homes and leave all the comforts and the environments that are attractive to them — for the sake of deen. And then it doesn't stop there. You thought that people would appreciate that. But instead they have to face challenges from their own parents, uncles, aunts — saying, "What's wrong with you? Why are you wasting your time? When is this going to end? When are you going to come back home?" One of them said he is asked, "Who would ever give their daughter to you? How would you ever get married?" These are the things that people have to hear — the abusive language that parents, grandparents especially, and siblings and uncles and aunts, unfortunately, say to the students of knowledge.

It is not the first time I have heard this question — I am hearing this from day one. And I tell them: subhanAllah, look at this verse here. Allah is saying that every single prophet — Allah Himself has appointed enemies. He has appointed them. If He wanted, if your Lord wanted, He could have made the entire humanity into one ummah that follows the prophet. It would not even take a second — He would will it and it would happen. But Allah does not force hidāyah.

Allah could have guided the entire humanity and He could have forced them to guidance. But Allah instead has left a path towards Him — not easy, but filled with obstacles — to ensure those who reach Allah are only the sincere ones.

So when you decide to lead a life that is so-called normal, filled with sin, no one is going to get upset. How many youth don't show up for Fajr? No problem. If a person doesn't follow the sunnah of dress, the sunnah of the beard, the sunnah of akhlāq — no problem. But as soon as a person begins to dress in a certain way, be more punctual in ṣalāh, wanting to become a student of knowledge — all of a sudden people start crowding around them: "What's going on? Why are you becoming over righteous, over zealous, fanatical, fundamentalist?" And the words, mashallah, roll off the tongue.

What is happening? These are obstacles placed by Allah to see how true you are. These are God-sent, to see who is just here because this is the cool thing to do, and who is here because — no, it is not the cool thing to do, there is a lot of opposition — but I am here because I really want to be here and I will remain firm against all obstacles.

I mentioned to my students here — subhanAllah, there are many of my colleagues and classmates who went to go study in the 90s. And many of them had absolute opposition from their parents — not support, opposition. And it was with so much difficulty they left this country to study abroad.

All of you are probably well aware of Mawlana Tariq Jameel from Pakistan. He shares his story as well — of how he went to study knowledge and how his father pretty much disowned him and disconnected himself. It took decades of sacrifice for his father to realize who his son actually had become and what type of sacrifice his son had endured — of being cut off from his dad and being cut off from the wealth that their family had. That sacrifice — subhanAllah — Allah returned it back handsomely with massive profits, and inshallah with much greater profits in the ākhirah.

That is something that every single student of knowledge must understand. Not just the student of knowledge — if you want to practice the deen, if you want to start changing your life, any of us who are listening and want to start becoming a stronger student of the Qur'an, want to start becoming closer to the sunnah — expect it, expect it, expect it that the people around you will start pushing you back, pulling you away from where you are trying to move. You will think that it is easy, but no.

Women who started trying to wear the hijab have told me that days came when their own friends literally pulled off the hijab off of them and said, "What's wrong with you? Who have you been listening to that you've decided to start wearing the hijab?" The same in the masjid — "How dare you come to the masjid with your head covered?" And they were crying — to say, subhanAllah, "I can't believe it — that these women would do something to me when I'm trying to come closer to the deen." But they say no. And the same thing goes for men who want to follow the deen — they go through so many other things.

This is the system of Allah:

Allah says in the 8th juz — Allah has made for every single prophet enemies, and these enemies come from the shayāṭīn: شَيَاطِينَ الْإِنسِ وَالْجِنِّ — Allah mentions humans first, shayāṭīn from the humans, and shayāṭīn from the jinn.

Stop Forwarding Messages — Shaytan's Use of Fear

I want you to understand this verse, because we — youngsters and adults — always pass forward messages on WhatsApp, email, text, and all the other social media platforms: "Did you just hear what happened to the Muslims of such and such country? Did you just hear what they did to the Qur'an? Did you just hear what they did to the masjid?" It is talk — we are not going to do anything.

I remember I gave a talk on Islamophobia three years ago in one masjid. The organizers of the talk said a lot of the youth didn't show up because their parents were afraid to send their kids to the masjid. I was talking about Islamophobia and they practically showed how they had been affected by Islamophobia. Honestly, people who say, "Brother, you need to have a security guard outside of a masjid otherwise you can't go pray" — subhanAllah. You need to have a security guard outside of your Macy's too. Look what's happening in the malls, look what's happening in the streets of Chicago and beyond, look at how much crime is happening, look at how many people die every single day on the streets. Shaytan doesn't make you think, "Let's stop driving. I'm gonna stay at home." Shaytan won't tell you, "Let's not do shopping. Let's not go to banks." How many bank robberies have happened? How many people have shot up a bank compared to masājid? Ask yourself.

No one talks about that. The only thing is that one masjid some place got attacked. What about the suicide bombs that happened in Pakistan? Right now we just suffered — fifty people last week, fifty or sixty became shuhadā' in a masjid. What about that? When are the Pakistanis going to stop showing up to the masjid? The Afghans, the Iraqis — because of suicide bombers, have they stopped going? But here we have, mashallah, in America — alhamdulillah, may Allah keep it amān — not a single suicide bomb in any masjid, no major attack of that sort. But shaytan comes: "It's not safe anymore."

What is that? That is the way shaytan uses his tactics. We don't realize that shaytan uses tactics of fear to get people away from the deen. That is why I want you to understand — we have enemies from the shayāṭīn of humans and shayāṭīn of the jinn. Allah placed it for us. So stop getting worried. Stop making a big deal about every single item in the news: "Oh my god, what's gonna happen? What's gonna happen?"

We shall see. Are you going to become a weaker Muslim or a stronger Muslim? Are you going to stop going to the masjid, or are you going to become even more regular in the masjid? Are you going to start praying two extra rak'āt ṣalātul ḥājah for the ummah, or are you going to stop even praying your ʿIshā'? That is the question.

The responsibility of a Muslim does not end by forwarding a message about some oppression that the Muslims are going through. At times all it does is make people even more weak, more weak — and to say, "What's happening?"

I remember one auntie — she called my mother a long time ago, right, 2005-2006. She said, "Please tell your son when he drives" — didn't say wear the seatbelt, drive under the speed limit, drive well rested. She said, "Please take off the topi and the kufi when he's driving." She was scared — he might face some problems, some road rage, etc. How many people, when they travel, will take off the kufi? When they go on the airplane, take off the thawb — you tell me, from the nineteen hijackers of 9/11, how many of them were wearing a thawb? How many of them were wearing turbans? How many of them wearing kufis?

What is going on? Just think about it — it is all inside. Inside the heart, we are so scared of this and that. And who has done that? Shaytan has so masterfully created fear of deen within us. "If I pray ṣalāh in the open I am going to get arrested. If I practice my deen openly, this is what is going to happen."

Alhamdulillah, at the moment we are living in one of the most amazing countries of the world — may Allah keep it like this. May Allah not test us the way He is testing the people of France and the people of other European countries. But if we do not benefit from the freedoms that Allah has given us in this country, then who is to blame?

So the point to our beloved youth and adults as well: expect animosity when you stand up on the deen, when you follow the sunnah, when you try to do something right. Expect that. And if you say, "Oh, this is too much for me" — then what have you got yourself into? Understand that this is the deen. It is not going to be a walk in the park.

The Linguistic Wisdom of the Word 'Adūw'

So Allah, that is why He says that He has created for every prophet عَدُوًّا — ʿadūw — min al-mujrimīn. ʿAdūw comes for the enemy, singular and plural. Most places Allah uses the form — for example, فَإِنَّهُمْ عَدُوٌّ لِّي إِلَّا رَبَّ الْعَالَمِينَ — "They are my enemies except for Allah, who is my friend; all of these idols are my enemy." In this place also the singular word has been used. However, there is one place where Allah says:

"Remember Allah's blessings upon you — if you were أَعْدَاءً — when all of you were enemies." What word has been used? The plural — aʿdā'. Allah joins your hearts.

Why is the plural used here? The ʿulamā of lughah and tafsīr mention that the word ʿadūw can be used for one or plural — singular or plural. However, ʿadūw is used when you have multiple enemies but they all hate you for the same reason. You have all these disbelievers who hate us — all for what? For Imān.

الْكُفْرُ مِلَّةٌ وَاحِدَةٌ — Kufr, no matter how many shapes, colors, sizes and forms it may be, it is all one religion. Kufr is all one. And you are seeing that — as we get closer to the Day of Judgment it is becoming very apparent. The munāfiqūn and the kuffār are all making their alliances. As shocking as it is — "Oh my god, I can't believe this would happen in a Muslim country. I can't believe XYZ did this." Well this is part of how the world is going to come to an end. Allah is making it so clear. It is easy — you do not have to worry about who is the munāfiq. You can see who the munāfiq is because the munāfiq is no longer hiding. He is letting his kufr become very clear with the alliances he makes and the choices he makes to oppress Muslims. Very obvious.

So Allah uses the word ʿadūw because all the enemies have one reason to hate the believers. But when Allah speaks about the other verse — "Remember the blessing of Allah, when all of you were enemies" — the enmity that came before Islam was because of different reasons. Someone hated you because you were rich, someone hated you because you were beautiful, someone hated someone else because they were more educated, someone hated another because he had a bigger date plantation, someone hated another person because he had more children. So the reasons for hate in the dunyā are for multiple reasons. But when it comes to the matter of deen, it is one reason. That is why when it comes to the matter of deen, ʿadūw has been used in the singular form; and when it comes to the matter of dunyā, the plural word aʿdā' has been used. Just a small interesting point about the word usage in the Qur'an.

"Your Lord Is Sufficient As Guide and Supporter"

Allah says: "Don't worry, O Rasulullah — your Lord is sufficient for you as a guide and a supporter. Guide and a supporter."

You do not need — who is with us? Allah. We have complete reliance on that Allah who is Al-Ḥayy, who is all-living, الَّذِي لَا يَمُوتُ — who will never die. We say, "This DSP" or whatever they call this SP and DSP in police, "and we have this governor and this person — he is a very nice person, we have him on our side." But no matter who that person is, his term will come to an end or he will die. There is only one Being whose term does not come to an end and who shall not die — that is Allah.

That is what Allah says — have reliance upon Allah, الَّذِي لَا يَمُوتُ, who shall not perish and will not die. You do not need anyone else. Are you watching what they are doing? Is the international court watching? Are the judges of the world watching? Are the powers of the world watching? What type of ẓulm is happening?

Your Lord is sufficient — as a watchful, knowledgeable Supreme Being — regarding the sins of mankind. You do not need anyone else. The international court is bought out. International powers are all bought out. No problem. No one is there to stand up for the rights of the downtrodden and oppressed ones. Don't worry — Allah says, "I am sufficient. I am with you. I am watching every single thing."

لَا يَخْفَى عَلَى اللَّهِ شَيْءٌ فِي الْأَرْضِ وَلَا فِي السَّمَاءِ — Nothing can be hidden from Allah — not in the earth, not in the heavens. What powerful words of strength for you and I.

Because the years ahead, my beloved listeners, are not going to be easy. Let us be honest. When the doctor gives you an injection, what does he say? "This is going to hurt, I am just letting you know. I am going to pull your teeth out, it is going to hurt." You give a warning. Allah is giving His Nabī a warning: "I am letting you know that I have already prepared all these enemies. Don't say, 'Where did they come from? It is too much.' They have been placed by me. All the dogs of the world and the armies — these are all makhlūq of Allah. Allah has placed them there."

So understand — it is not "where is Allah?" No. This is the proof. Allah is saying: "Every single enemy of yours is a proof that I exist — I have placed them there."

The Coming of Imam Mahdi — A Word of Caution

The road ahead — I do not want to say this but I have to say it — it is not an easy one. And you have heard me say this before. When I asked Hazrat Mufti Ridā'ul Ḥaqq — people say Mahdī is near, this and that — what do you have to say about this? I had just finished speaking about the efforts of this institution, the students, the community and so forth. I maybe even showed him a calendar.

He said — "You just finished speaking to me about all these efforts of deen that are happening currently, alhamdulillah. And then you are asking about Mahdī?" He said, "Mahdī is not going to come now." He said, "When Mahdī comes — yes, Mahdī is a huge help that everyone is looking forward to — but understand, Mahdī will only come when the ummah will have completely, completely been absolutely fatigued and exhausted from having patience. Where the people who follow the deen will go through so much oppression, so much hardship, that either they will leave Islam, leave the deen, or will have just almost nearly given up that it is just too hard. And Allah will crank up the heat to such levels that only the people who will be remaining on deen will be the ones who spend their nights and days begging, crying, and beseeching Allah for help. And at that time, to help that group of absolutely oppressed Muslims, Allah will send Mahdī."

At the time right now — when we are practicing — who stopped you from coming here tonight? Who stopped the people who did not come here tonight? Who is enticing us to be here? What is happening? What type of amazing freedom we enjoy. We ask Allah not to make this freedom a proof against us but rather a proof for us. It is scary indeed. We have everything available for us. SubhanAllah.

So I want you to understand: be prepared. If we are already failing the test of ease, what shall happen when the test of difficulty will come? When laws will change. When people start doing things that you never expected. And those who follow the deen will be pushed into a corner, and your own — as they say — your own shadow won't support you. Your own brother may end up being a hypocrite, bought out. You don't know who to trust.

As one brother from one of the Muslim countries was telling me — subhanAllah — "We don't know what is happening. Strange, strange stories of what is happening even right now." He was saying that you cannot trust anyone — anyone — even your own sibling, because you do not know who the government has bought out, has forced into becoming an informant or an agent in a certain country overseas. And he was just saying practicing the deen has become so, so challenging. One simple mistake.

He said he was paying $500 a year to have tinted windows — that is extra money you have to pay. I said, "Why?" He said, "Because I am growing out my beard and I don't want to be seen while I am driving around." A small beard — just to protect himself, tinted windows, not to be seen. Anyone below 18 cannot enter the house of Allah — you have to be 18 and above to enter the masjid, no kids allowed. You want to go for Hajj or ʿUmrah — you have to be 45 or 50 and above.

One day, he said, the imam was not there — he is a scholar — someone said, "Lead Maghrib." So he ended up leading Maghrib. He had not even finished his Maghrib when the police arrested him: "How dare you lead?" And they wanted to give him, I think, a five-year jail sentence. The community people put together money and bribed the police to let him go.

And he said things that were just unbelievable — things that happened to himself following the deen. SubhanAllah. What effort people make under communism especially — I am talking about communist countries, or those who just came out of communism — what effort of deen people have to make to preserve it is something that will baffle you.

And today subhanAllah — we are doing no effort, everything is free and easy. Yet we are so lazy. How are we going to face these people on the Day of Judgment when they say, "To be able to simply learn the Qur'an, we had to do so much"?

How the Qur'an Was Preserved Under Oppression

These are stories you may have heard — I do not know if you have heard these or not — of how the Qur'an was preserved in some of these countries. One of them: a sheikh or scholar who had studied overseas came back and realized the country had changed, the laws had changed, and teaching of the Qur'an had been banned. So he got a parcel of land, dedicated himself to being a farmer, and just all the time on his tractor like a madman, crazy over his farm. But in his farm, he created a spot deep in there — created a dungeon inside. And every single night, while seeming to be using it for gardening, in the night he would take his children, a few students of his, and go below the farm — under the ground — and have a small light and sit there and teach until Fajr, his kids and those few from the neighborhood — teach them Qur'an. Could not teach that during the day, but would teach them below in the cellar he had made under his farm. And that became the root — the seeds of deen remaining alive.

These are not fake stories. There are brothers who have gone out in the jamāʿat, in the path of Allah, subhanAllah, in some of these countries. And they say that, literally, when you go to a certain country they say, "What should you take? It is a very cold country, you should take extra pairs of socks. What do people appreciate there as gifts? Take some American-made items, some granola bars, candy, cereal boxes." They went to some of these countries and were told: "Just take boxes and boxes of maṣāḥif, Qur'ans." Because everyone there is just dying to see the Qur'an. They may have Muslim names, they have Lā ilāha illallāh on their hearts, but they have been deprived. Seventy years old and they have never had their eyes fall upon a muṣḥaf. Forget about hearing a recitation.

So they told us that they would go pass out maṣāḥif — people would become so emotional, so crying, kissing the Qur'an, saying: "We have never seen it. We begged Allah that before we die, Ya Allah, allow us to at least see a muṣḥaf." And in some of those masājid — those countries have changed now — they would have a Qārī reciting, and he said literally old women would come and open up their purses and just put in all the money that they would have, because they had never heard the Qur'an being recited before.

The thing is, the deen flourishes wherever you place it — and sometimes flourishes more under pressure. We do not have pressure, so we are taking it easy. And we are losing — left and right — our youth, left and right our women and our children. And subhanAllah, instead of benefiting from the great freedom that Allah has blessed us here, we have unfortunately misused this and have chosen to throw the Qur'an behind our backs. And that is why I am afraid of what will happen in the future years.

This is a time for all of us to please start taking our deen seriously. Working on our youngsters, working on our sisters, our brothers — so important — and to wake them up from their slumber of ghafla.

Tafsir of Surah Al-Furqān — Āyah 32

Allah says — your Lord is a sufficient guide and supporter, even in the worst and most difficult circumstances, as we would say: Allah has got your back.

Moreover, the disbelievers — what did they say? "If only the Qur'an was sent down to him all at once."

Why? Why do they care? The reason — they do not care. It is just an excuse. Whatever it is, when you do not want to listen, you just wake up with excuses. You know — little kids: "Baba, what do you want to eat?" It will be twelve o'clock at night. "What is available? What has been cooked?" They will say something which you cannot find at twelve o'clock at night. And then when you say, "No, we do not have it" — then they will start crying, making you feel bad. But where am I supposed to get this at twelve o'clock at night?

If you are in a hot place, they will ask you for something cold; if you are in a cold place, they will ask for something hot. If you are in a grocery store, they will ask for something from a department store. If you are in a department store, they will ask for something from a grocery store — just to make sure you just cannot get it. That is the purpose. Little kids — they are in a cranky, bad mood.

The disbelievers simply do not want to follow the Qur'an, so they come up with an excuse: "Why is the Qur'an revealed like this?" Also, they claimed — or they thought — that the Injīl and the Tawrāh were all revealed all at once. So the Qur'an — why should it also not be revealed all at once?

The Wisdom of Gradual Revelation

Allah says:

"Yet even so, We have revealed it gradually" — كَذَٰلِكَ — "We intentionally revealed it gradually. The reason We have done it is so that We may set firm your heart with it — to grant you strength, O Rasulullah." وَرَتَّلْنَاهُ تَرْتِيلًا — "And O Prophet ﷺ, thus We have recited to you in a measured recital."

Allah does not have to give us a reason why. He is God Almighty. لَا يُسْأَلُ عَمَّا يَفْعَلُ — He cannot, should not, and will not be asked why He does what He does. If you can ask God Almighty why He does what He does, then He is not God — you are mistaken, you are talking about someone else. That is the definition of God: that He cannot be asked what He does, why He does. Imagine — I am a business owner, I am a CEO, founder, owner of a company, and you are asking me why I did this, why I did that. Wait — who is the employer and who is the employee? Who is the founder and who is the newbie that just joined the company yesterday? We switched our roles or what? Allah Almighty cannot be asked why He does. وَهُمْ يُسْأَلُونَ — And they will be asked.

Yet Allah is so merciful, so kind — He is doing what He does not have to do, which is giving an explanation. And the explanation is that the reason He revealed the Qur'an gradually is so that He may set firm your heart with it, to grant you strength, O Rasulullah. وَرَتَّلْنَاهُ تَرْتِيلًا — "And O Prophet ﷺ, thus We have recited to you in a measured recital."

Meaning: those people who have thrown the Qur'an behind their backs — as mentioned in the previous verse — they are the same people who Allah has made your enemy, and they are the same people who claim the Qur'an should have been revealed altogether. Allah is saying: "Don't worry about these people. The real reason We have done it — Allah knows best — but one hikmah and wisdom is that We have revealed it in this manner so that the Qur'an can become a live, interactive revelation."

As some of the ʿulamā explain: الْقُرْآنُ كِتَابُ اللَّهِ الْحَيِّ — the Qur'an is the Book of the Living Allah, it is alive. لَا بُدَّ أَنْ نَتَفَاعَلَ مَعَهُ — We have to engage the Qur'an. You know these 3D books that pop out? You have AI and virtual reality — all this stuff where you are interacting with your spaces, when you wear those goggles. By Allah, that is what we have to do with the Qur'an. That is what the Qur'an is for. That is what this dars is for — to say, "How does this āyah apply to me today, right now?" That is the purpose of this dars.

And I know a vast majority of us are younger people who attend here — that is why in my tafsīr I look at the crowd and address that. So some of our adults may not seem to appreciate everything I share, but I promise you this is something, inshallah, your sons and daughters will appreciate. You might not find it relevant, but it is for that group that I am addressing, because the Qur'an is — as I said — a living book. In every era it has its application.

The Living Book — Examples from the Sirah

So Allah here is saying the verses of the Qur'an were revealed based on the circumstances. ʿĀ'ishah, raḍiyallāhu ʿanhā, is being accused of the most heinous crime — how do you handle that? You just remember, "Ah, the Qur'an said this ten years ago"? No — the whole ṣaḥābah are crying, the Ahl al-Bayt are crying, the family of Rasul ﷺ himself is so worried. Now at this time, what better way to address this situation than thirteen — or however many — verses of the Qur'an revealed on the spot?

You have the three ṣaḥābah who stayed back from Ghazwat Tabūk and have been boycotted by Rasul ﷺ and all the ṣaḥābah by waḥy, by revelation. Now how do you deal with this situation? It has been fifty long days. The whole of Medina feels the pain of these three ṣaḥābah being boycotted for staying behind from Tabuk. Now you have — in Surah Tawbah — we can give a hundred examples.

So the Qur'an was revealed so that it hits the spot, at that time, in that place. That is one main reason.

Three Lessons from Gradual Revelation

From here we also understand how to be a teacher. The Qur'an teaches us how to be a teacher — a teacher of grammar, a teacher of math, a teacher of science. And a teacher, meaning a father and mother teaching their kids: don't share all the rules at the same time. Don't do an information overload. Share your information and the piece of knowledge and advice over time. And the best piece of advice and the best knowledge — the way they will never forget — is to share it when there is something happening in their life. When someone makes a mistake, when someone is going through a bout of sadness, when someone is going through a phase of excitement — then you give them advice on how to handle that sadness, how to handle that anger, how to handle that happiness. Then they will remember that.

That is why one of the best ways to learn grammar is when you read the text and the teacher says — and you say, "Why did you read this with ḍammah on it?" — then he makes you start thinking. That is the best way for you to remember your rules: that you practically practice reading Arabic in front of a teacher, and when you make a mistake he will ask you why, what — and then you will be reminded of or taught a rule. You have your clinical rotations that the doctors have to go through, or medical students have to go through, and then the residency after that. So you are taking what you have — the fiqh that you learn in class — and then you have the fiqh of life that you learn outside, the practicals. So the Qur'an is meant to be a practical, living book.

And this is where the ṣuḥbah and the companionship of righteous, pious, God-fearing, sunnah-following ʿulamā comes in. SubhanAllah — so much can be said on this.

The Qur'an — if you do not have a proper guide, you can really mess up. Every single deviant sect — from Qādiyānīs to all the various other groups, rejecters of hadith and you name it, everyone else — they will always bring a verse of the Qur'an to prove their point, because they do not have proper guidance on how to understand those verses of the Qur'an. It is not sufficient that we just read the Qur'an. It is very important that we read the Qur'an with the help and the guidance of a true muttaqī, God-fearing, sunnah-following scholar. And in their guidance, inshallah, we will find solutions.

So — it is telling us there is something in the Qur'an. First of all: it was beneficial for Rasulullah ﷺ and the ṣaḥābah to receive revelation based on their circumstances. Number one. Number two: the Qur'an is teaching us how to teach — do not give everything at the same time; teach things as the need arises and they will remember those rules even better, they will remember the piece of advice better. Third: whether you are very happy today, very sad today, very angry today — there is something in the Qur'an for you.

There is always something in the Qur'an. If you are sincere — say, "I am just so frustrated, I am so angry, I am so sad, I am so" — whatever emotion — do fresh wuḍū', open up the muṣḥaf, and say, "Ya Allah, I am going to do some tilāwah." And inshallah, if you do not even know the translation, you will feel better. But if you are reading the Qur'an and then read the translation of what you read — I promise you, I promise you, I promise you — you will hear something, you will read something that will hit you in your heart. You will say, "Wow, this is exactly what I needed to hear."

It has to. I am telling you — I stand by my word, I will take an oath on it — if you are sincere and you approach the Qur'an on any given day, you will read something that will be the most important āyah for you for that day. You will come across it on a WhatsApp message or in a dars or something and say, "I needed to hear that." Why? This is not magic. This is Allah. This is the qudrah of Allah. And the Qur'an has been revealed — it is as though the Qur'an has been revealed now.

What is a great example for that? ʿUmar raḍiyallāhu ʿanhu — when he climbed up the minbar and said, "Whoever said Muḥammad ﷺ has passed away, I am going to finish him. He has not passed away — he has simply gone to speak to Allah the way Mūsā went to speak to Allah." And he was in extreme — what was that? That is not crazy. That is madly in love. He cannot imagine accepting it. He can accept his mom passing away, accept his dad passing away, accept his wife passing away, accept his children passing away — all of them, no problem, he can handle it. But how can he handle the grief of losing the Nabī ﷺ? That is what this is — understand that ʿUmar raḍiyallāhu ʿanhu was madly in love. If Allah were to give you and I a hundredth of it, we would be the luckiest people on earth. This is not a craze of some sort — this is love that you and I do not even know. That is the love ʿUmar raḍiyallāhu ʿanhu had for his Nabī. May Allah grant us this love.

So then a flavor of another love came in — Abū Bakr raḍiyallāhu ʿanhu. Who can compare in his love? Allahu Akbar. But it is in a different flavor. And he comes in and he simply starts reciting the verses:

"Muḥammad is but a messenger — many prophets have passed away before him. If he passes away or is killed" — see, Allah left it open — "are you going to turn on your backs and turn on your heels and run away from the deen? Whoever does that, he will never harm Allah. You will only harm yourself."

So at that moment, the beautiful, powerful statement of Abū Bakr raḍiyallāhu ʿanhu: "Whoever was worshipping Muḥammad, he should know that Muḥammad has died ﷺ. And whoever is worshipping Allah, he should know that Allah is absolutely alive, running the entire world."

So what did ʿUmar raḍiyallāhu ʿanhu say? He said, "To me, it felt like these verses were revealed right now."

I remember giving an emotional khuṭbah here three years ago. As I came up to the minbar I was thinking — what should I do? COVID had just come in, and we were literally crying because we had never felt this before. We had no idea — all of you cried. We had no idea what was going to happen. Not only were we losing Muslims and our relatives left and right, but we were wondering: what is going to happen to Islam? What is going to happen to the deen? What is going to happen to our masājid? What is going to happen to our institutions?

And so subhanAllah, this verse came to my mind as I gave that khuṭbah: the Lord of the worlds is also the Lord of corona. Nothing changes. Corona or no corona, virus or no virus — our dedication to Allah, whether in the masjid, and if we are not allowed to congregate in the masjid then outside the masjid, in a parking lot, in an open space, in our home, in our living room — our dedication to Allah cannot change, cannot waver. And if you just worship Allah outside of COVID and say "COVID is here, khalas, salām ʿalaykum, khalas" — then you know, you go. But if you worship Allah, then this situation should not change our dedication to the deen.

May Allah not test us again like that. But this is the beautiful thing — what we learned is that the Qur'anic verses are so beautiful, they are revealed for a specific time at that time, but every time we read them now, they seem like they have been revealed for us now.

Tafsir of Surah Al-Furqān — Āyah 33

"And they never, never do they bring forth for you any false argument by way of example" — mathal means false argument by way of example — "but that We have brought forth for you the truth of it and its best exposition."

Allah is saying that they make a lot of false statements about the deen. They say wrong things — like, "If the Qur'an were to be revealed all together, we would have followed it," and so forth. So Allah is saying: "We are going to respond to it in a much better, much more powerful manner — in the way We want. We are not going to cave into what they are saying. We are not going to stoop low."

That is why Allah says to the Rasul ﷺ:

"It is only through the mercy of Allah that you have become soft" — meaning you actually should not be soft as a human being; you should have lost it, given the way people treat you. But it is through the raḥmah of Allah that Allah allows you to do something beyond what an average human can do. This ṣabr, this patience, this calmness, this coolness, this forbearance with these people — it is coming from Allah. وَلَوْ كُنتَ فَظًّا غَلِيظَ الْقَلْبِ لَانفَضُّوا مِنْ حَوْلِكَ — "And if you were to be harsh-tongued and harsh-hearted, they would run away from you."

Tafsir of Surah Al-Furqān — Āyah 34

Allah speaks to the disbelievers — believe it or not, we probably do not think about it like this — He speaks to the disbelievers also in a nice manner. He says: "They are those who shall be marshaled on their faces to hell. It is they who are in the very worst position and furthest astray from Allah's way."

These people who are speaking all of this nonsense about the Qur'an and Rasulullah ﷺ — doesn't Allah know their names? Of course He does. But He does not call them out. He just says "these people." He does not mention them. They will be raised on their faces, marshaled the way prisoners are marshaled to the prison — similarly, they will all be lined up. They will not be walking on their feet — they will be walking on their faces.

Once someone asked Rasulullah ﷺ: "How will they walk on their faces?" The Prophet ﷺ responded:

(Sahih al-Bukhari, Hadith 4760; Sahih Muslim, Hadith 2806)

"The One who made them walk on their feet today — is He not capable of making them walk on their faces?" Of course He is capable of making them walk on their faces. Meaning: that is not for you to worry about. Allah is capable of doing anything.

Mawlana Ibrahim Pandur, who was here just two nights ago — if you missed the talk on Sunday, please do listen to it. Mawlana Ahmadullah's talk was in Urdu and Mawlana Ibrahim's talk was in English. One nice thing he mentioned: someone came and went to one of his teachers — I think it was Mufti Maḥmūd Ḥasan Gangohī or Ḥaḍrat Shaykh Zakariyyā, one of the two. And he said, "Shaykh, I am sick and tired of all my problems in my life. I cannot handle it anymore. I am now just making du'ā that Allah takes my life away." You hear people say, "Ya Allah, take me away — I can't handle it."

So he was full of emotions at that time. So Mawlana waited, let him share his sad story, and then after a while, a few minutes later, he said: "Listen, can I ask you something? Is Allah capable of just randomly taking your life away, killing you just like that?" He said, "Of course — that is why I am asking Allah to take me away, because I am sick of the problems." He said: "Is that Allah who is capable of taking your life away — is He also capable of removing your problems?" He said, "Uh, yeah." He said: "Then why don't you ask that? Why are you asking death from Allah? Why don't you simply ask Allah to remove your problems? Wouldn't that be a better ask?"

Right. So this is what we are seeing — Allah is capable of doing anything and everything. He made you walk on your feet today. Allah says in Surah an-Nūr:

"Allah created every single walking animal from water. There are some who walk on their stomach — meaning crawl on their stomach. And those who walk on their two feet. And those who walk on four legs. Allah creates whatever He wants." So in the dunyā, He has created all these different types. It is not about what is "normal" — Allah is not bound by any laws of nature. Those so-called laws of nature are made by who? By Allah. Those so-called natural properties are made by who? By Allah. Properties and so-called nature are dependent upon Allah — not the other way around. So Allah can make people walk on their faces.

And some of the ʿulamā say that "walking on the face" actually means absolute disgrace — that a person will be in absolutely the worst situation. Imagine: if someone, Allah forbid, spits on your face — it is not hurting physically, but it is the worst type of disgrace. You get slapped on a hand — not so bad. That same force on the face is the worst thing. So imagine — not a spit, but having to walk on the face. When you walk with your feet, what happens? You have got dirt, you have got rocks, you have got holes, you have got stones, you have got insects, you have all sorts of stuff on the floor. Imagine the face having to go through all of this. That is the level of disgrace. May Allah save us.

But I was saying that Allah keeps the doors open for the disbelievers by not mentioning their names, by giving them an opportunity that if they want to turn back, they can turn back. Even to the man who claimed divinity, who claimed to be God himself — Allah told Mūsā and Hārūn:

"Speak to him softly — maybe he will take heed and benefit, begin to fear Allah."

I will end with this — if Allah wants every prophet to do this, why did every prophet have an enemy? Because you are trying to get people away from what they are accustomed to — kufr, shirk — towards something that is going to go completely against their nafs, completely against their desires: Islam and deen. That will require a major shift. So they are naturally going to have antagonism towards this huge shift that you want them to make. It is bad enough — hard enough, rather — that you want people to change, to do a 180. But on top of that, if you say it in a harsh manner, then that is just making it more difficult to take that bitter pill.

Hence, every prophet has had enemies. But every prophet was sent to a specific small nation for a selected period of years — yet they had enemies. Our Prophet ﷺ was sent for the entire humanity and jinn, and till the Day of Judgment. Hence his dawah has to be the most widespread, the most deep, and the longest, most long-lasting. And similarly, what is going to be the deepest, widest, and longest lasting? The enmity. The enmity. So that is why Nabī ﷺ is the most appreciated, most highly spoken of — and also the one who has got the most attacks as well, till today. People cannot take his name — they get angry. And then of course there are people who love him.

But Allah is telling that Nabī ﷺ as well: when you give dawah, you have to do it in a nice manner — softly, even to the disbelievers. Keep the door open.

This thing is just amazing — Allah says to Rasulullah ﷺ:

"You know what? You all do not want to listen to me — I am trying, I am trying. Guess what? لَا تُسْأَلُونَ — you all will not be asked about our sins." But whose sins? Nabī ﷺ's — أَجْرَمْنَا. "You are not going to be asked about my sins." وَلَا نُسْأَلُ عَمَّا تَعْمَلُونَ — "And we will not be asked about what you used to do."

When it comes to the word sin, Rasulullah ﷺ is being told to use it for himself. And when it comes to the disbelievers, what has been used for them? تَعْمَلُونَ — "what you used to do." Not sin — ʿamal has been used. This is the way you talk to people. You try to debate them, you try to warn them, and then you say, "Okay, you know what? May Allah guide us to what is right. If I am sinning, Allah is going to punish me. And if what you are doing is not the best, then you are also going to get punished. May Allah guide us to what is right." That type of thing.

Then the next verse — Allah is going to gather us one day:

"And then He is going to make the judgment call — of who is right and who is wrong. He is the opener, the most knowledgeable."

This is a method of dawah. If you want to speak to your kids, or spouse, or parents, or whoever — they are doing something wrong. No one likes to be told that they are wrong. Instead, you say: "Hey, we could improve in this manner. Talk about your own mistakes. You know, I am not perfect, I am far from it. I made tens of mistakes — I made tens of them today — and I hope I can one day get rid of the majority of them, and I need your help in achieving that. Along with that, I want to point out that in this process of mutual help, there are certain things I just want to bring to your attention as well." So now you have a soft landing.

If we want to speak to our spouse — "You are wrong, I am sick and tired of this" — no one else is going to listen. But if you say, "I have ten mistakes within me — maybe you only have one that is just kind of really obvious. By no means, if I am sharing a mistake of yours, does it mean that I am absolved of it — I have ten times more, and I expect you to help me correct that." So now a person will be willing to listen. So the way we address our children, the way we address our spouses when we are trying to rectify them — that has to be done with ḥikmah.

When Allah is asking His prophets to speak to the people who — in His knowledge He already knows — are going to Jahannam, like Pharaoh, He still tells them to speak to them in a nice, kind manner. Because it is very hard to give up your bad old habits. Do not make it harder by being harsh when you speak to them.

The Statement of Ibn ʿAjībah on the Sunnah

May Allah give us the fahm and the understanding of what has been shared. May Allah grant me the tawfīq and all of us the tawfīq to become the best representatives of the deen. May Allah grant us strength and istiqāmah and steadfastness on the sunnah of the Prophet ﷺ. As long as we are following the sunnah, inshallah, Allah will keep us on the right track. And as soon as we neglect the sunnah is where things will fall apart.

I want to share with you a beautiful statement of Ibn ʿAjībah. He said:

"Allah has made His messenger a protection for his ummah as long as his Nabī is alive. When the Prophet ﷺ passed away, his sunnah remained as a protection for this ummah. But when his sunnah will be neglected, then the trials, tribulations, and fitna that they have been promised will begin to afflict them."

Just remember that. We must be staunch followers of the sunnah — not what is being advertised as sunnah today, but the reality of what is sunnah.

Announcement: Annual Seerah Conference

And so, in the month of Rabīʿ al-Awwal, as we speak about in the ten sīrah conferences — please, please, please do not miss our next weekend's annual Sīrah conference, as has been announced. This is something extremely important for our presence and for our benefit.

Alhamdulillah, we have put in a lot of effort. I cannot tell you how much thought goes into this. Every single year we have a very specific theme, and every single talk — from the first till the last — goes in order, follows a certain tartīb in order to fulfill and achieve the purpose behind that Sīrah conference. Every single conference from day one has a specific theme, and every single speech in that conference is connected to that theme very clearly.

This year we are speaking about the miracles of the Prophet ﷺ, because people have simply lost trust in miracles and in the unseen. We live in an era of materialism, so we are very skeptical of anything that we cannot test in a lab or that does not have some empirical data around it. And that is a very big problem — when you lose trust in miracles, when you lose trust in the unseen, the deen is out. So all of our talks will be focused on different aspects of Rasulullah ﷺ's miracles, including the miracle of the Qur'an — which will be an outstanding workshop on Saturday morning for three hours with our two extremely knowledgeable colleagues, Mawlana Iḥtirāmul Ḥaqq and Mawlana Yusuf Ghauth, who will be inshallah teaching that class on Saturday morning.

Please be here Friday after ʿIshā' and Saturday from 10am to 10pm.

And the sisters, inshallah, will be speaking about the timeless compassion — the Prophet ﷺ's eternal mercy. Our women are being misinformed and being taught that Islam is sexist, is anti-women, is merciless — "Leave the deen, it is misogynist, the Qur'an is misogynist" — all sorts of stuff. And our little girls, our college students, are literally falling for this. We need our sisters, our moms and daughters, to become not only knowledgeable but to have enough knowledge to be able to educate their own next generation of men and women — that our deen is always a deen of compassion for every single segment of society: men, women, and it does not stop there — even animals, plants, and the environment as well.

And alhamdulillah, this year's Sīrah conference — hopefully the first of many future ones — will be completely led by our female staff: graduates of Darussalam as well as the teachers of Darussalam. So ensure that your sisters, daughters, and wives are present for the entire program, which will be 100% led by our sisters. And of course it will be live streamed as well.

Questions & Answers

Q: I attend programs where the guys and girls sit in the same room with no curtain but are separated — is it okay to attend?

A person should avoid that type of environment. You already have that in college — it is bad enough. You already have that elsewhere. In the house of Allah, where you are trying to come and gain spirituality, we should try to do things that have the spirit of Islam and the spirit of deen. And the fact that you are asking this question means you already feel uncomfortable about it. If you have fiṭrah, you will feel uncomfortable about this type of circumstance. And we ask Allah to allow our brothers and sisters who are in those communities, who are part of that — may Allah guide the ones who are doing these types of programs to what is right, and allow them to understand the true spirit of the deen.

Q: Leaving flowers at the grave of our loved ones?

There is no real reason to do that. There is just one riwāyah of Rasulullah ﷺ placing a branch — he broke off a branch and placed it, and said along the lines that they will benefit as long as this is fresh. Some ʿulamā have said this was not flowers by any chance — it was just a tree branch — and that this was a muʿjizah and a miracle of the Prophet ﷺ: that he had been informed of how long these people are going to be protected from the punishment of Allah. Some have also explained that this was the tasbīḥ of that specific plant. But generally, there is no reason for us to be leaving flowers.

Q: Can I attend a mixed MSA gathering with the intention of giving da'wah to the male students?

If a male is speaking, then yes. You see — the masjid environment is different from the university environment. Work with what you have. Alhamdulillah, in our masjid, it is our atmosphere — we can deal with whatever we can; we have full ability to do that. When you are in college, there are some boys sitting here alhamdulillah themselves giving istiqāmah to themselves — they are trying to make sure that their events have sisters separately, brothers separately. So those universities that have the capacity to do that, alhamdulillah you can do those types of events. Or you can do it off-campus — in an apartment: sisters' ḥalaqah in the sisters' apartment, brothers' ḥalaqah in the brothers' apartment. Definitely. But if that is not possible, then at least follow the way they used to previously — brothers in the front, sisters in the auditorium up on top.

And the way our brothers and sisters are attending college — if a person says that because of the mixing in the MSA event they should not attend, then I would say they should really, ideally, just take online classes. Because if a person is going in college classes — and that is another whole topic — of all those practicing Muslim brothers and sisters who send off their girls unattended on trains and planes to other parts of the country or another part of the city, and they have no idea what is going on, who is doing what, and how easily our sons and daughters can be manipulated or abused or touched inappropriately or misled, or can have ḥarām relationships — these are things we need to think about. We cannot just throw them into the deep end without teaching them how to swim.

Q: How do we balance doing well in both deen and dunya?

My dear student, brother, or sister — remember, there is no such thing as deen and dunyā for us. Our dunyā is deen; deen is dunyā. Everything you do, if you do it properly, it is going to be deen. When you go to work, when you go to school — it is all deen. Just follow the sunnah wherever you are. Excel, excel, excel at your studies, excel at work, excel at your business. But make sure you follow the sunnah of the Prophet.

Q: When advising people on what they believe to be correct but we think it isn't, how do we balance between being assertive and being open to correction?

This is where the guidance of scholars is important. If there is a difference of opinion, we should have our proofs — we should study the deen so we know, so we speak with conviction, we speak with proof. We are not speaking from our back pocket. Whatever we are speaking about, we speak with ilm. And if you are not sure, then just say, "I have heard my teacher, my scholar say that — the details are with so-and-so."

Q: Am I a munafiq if I don't wear kufi and thawb to the university?

No, no one said that. I hope I never implied that by any means.

Q: If Allah has angels that worship Him 24/7, then why do I exist? What is my purpose?

Allah did not create us because He needed us. Yes, Allah wants us to worship Him. But there is never such a thing as a "need" — because Allah has no need. If He had a need, then He cannot be Allah. Allah is free of wants, free of needs. It is simply His irādah — His intention, His will — that He has created us. And now, what should we do? Well, these are laws, these are rules, and it is our job to obey them.

Q: Is going once a day to the masjid enough?

Once a day is a great start. The more you do, the better. At least if we are not doing anything, once a day is much better.

Q: When going through a time of uncertainty, worry and doubt, with doors looking closed — what is the best thing for us to do?

The best thing to do is to pray two rakʿāt Ṣalātul Ḥājah every single night. Make sure you pray your ṣalāh on time — farḍ ṣalāh on time. Pray Ṣalātul Ḥājah. Then read a portion of the Qur'an, do dhikr, and then pour your heart out in duʿā'.

If you can pray Fajr in the masjid and stay till Ishrāq — the Prophet ﷺ said: whoever performs Ṣalāt al-Ishrāq, Allah will take care of all the needs of the day. Ishrāq is usually prayed after Fajr ṣalāh, and you sit and do dhikr till sunrise — usually only about half an hour to forty minutes between the Fajr jamāʿah and sunrise. That is something very beneficial.

Q: If a fard salah falls during a class of ilm al-din, then what should the student do?

The student should leave and stop the class and go perform the ṣalāh. If the class is going to perform the farḍ ṣalāh together afterwards, then that is fine. If you are alone taking a class online, then it is not appropriate for you to be in an online class in a masjid while the jamāʿah is happening.

Q: How to handle an alim al-din misguiding their kids on how to handle their spouses?

May Allah make it easy for you. Doctors might not always make the best decisions — ʿulamā also might not always make the best decisions. So what happens when you have a doctor who gives an opinion that you have doubts about? You go to another doctor — you get a second opinion. Everyone does that, especially in a precarious situation. So when it comes to issues like this, get a second opinion from another scholar. And inshallah, hopefully that will help address the problem.

Q: What should we do to follow the footsteps of the Prophet ﷺ?

Number one: build love for him — and build love for him through ṣalawāt. Send as many salutations on the Prophet ﷺ as you can. Number two: study the sīrah. Study his life — not once — every single day. Our ʿulamā say a person should always be reading through the sīrah. Every single day. Once you finish one book, you move on to another. Once you finish that, move on to another. Why? Because this is our Nabī ﷺ.

Q: Why did Allah allow me to be a part of the ummah that doesn't face the trials of Imam Mahdi's time? What is my purpose?

Allah knows what we can handle and what we cannot handle. He knows you cannot handle that — that is why He placed you right now, here. So just do your work, which is to worship Allah in the best possible manner. There were tābiʿīn who told the ṣaḥābah: "We wish we were born a few years earlier — we would have never allowed Rasulullah ﷺ's feet to touch the ground, we would have carried him on our foreheads." And the ṣaḥābah said: "Hey, what are you talking about? Don't say that. If you were born at the time of the Prophet, what makes you think you would not have been like Abū Jahl and Abū Lahab? Do you have proof for that?" Just thank Allah for the era you were born in. Do what you have to do.

Q: How to remove evil eye from oneself?

Read the last āyāt of Surah al-Qalam (29th juz, second sūrah):

Some of the ʿulamā have said to read it 21 times morning and evening, and blow on yourself. Blow on water and drink it as well. And read the 30 verses called Manzil — download the PDF and read through those 30 āyāt. Very effective in protecting yourself. Should not just be used as an antibiotic — use it as a supplement, a vitamin, a vaccine. Use it regularly as well.

Closing

If anything was beneficial, may Allah accept it. If anything was a mistake or wrong, may Allah forgive me for that. And may Allah reward you for your patience and allow us to have istiqāmah in whatever khayr and good was said.

Jazākumullāhu Khayran. وَالسَّلَامُ عَلَيْكُمْ وَرَحْمَةُ اللَّهِ وَبَرَكَاتُهُ