Test, Unrest, & Protest: Is Victory Near? - Mufti Azeemuddin Ahmed

Opening Supplications

Introduction: Sitting with Sincerity

Every single time we sit, we should always sit with sincerity and desire — that we are tālib and Allah is matlūb. We want Allah, and we say: Ya Allah, I'm coming with an open plate, I'm coming with an empty plate — You place in it what I need.

Many brothers said, Alhamdulillah, I was able to hear exactly what I needed to hear. And that is the power of your own sincerity. If you sit in every single talk with sincerity, saying Allah, please allow me to listen and hear what I need to hear — you will, inshallah, find every single talk to be super beneficial and on point, addressing the very issues that you need to hear.

The intention we're making should be: Allah, any good that I hear, allow me to put it into practice and allow me to propagate it to others as well. And Ya Allah, do not allow the knowledge that I hear and share to become a proof against me — make it a proof for me.

A person should sit in a state of wudu, should make niyyah when we're in the masjid, and we should try to be as respectful to the majlis of 'ilm as possible. Part of that respect is that we arrive from the beginning of the majlis, and part of the respect is that we stay till the end. A person who has to leave can take permission from the one who is speaking — through a gesture — but a person should not treat a majlis of 'ilm like a show that's happening on the sidewalk, coming and going whenever they want. A person should try to participate from the beginning to the end.

Also: consistency. Consistency is a very big thing. Whatever majlis of 'ilm we are attending — a weekly program, monthly program — we should remain consistent. Barakah is with consistency. When a person is not consistent, the blessing of that majlis goes away. Sometimes we wonder why there's no growth — the reason there's no growth is because we don't remain consistent. We go all out in Ramadan, here till 3am, 4am, all night till Fajr. But then what happens after Ramadan? Can we not attend a gathering of 'ilm once a week? This is something we should be telling ourselves: I have to remain consistent in at least one thing — one majlis of dhikr, one majlis of 'ilm after Ramadan as well — that will bring some beneficial long-term change in my life, inshallah.

The State of the Ummah: Why Do We Go Through Difficulty?

No one is unaware about the situation of the ummah — not only in Palestine, not only in Gaza, but in so many other places throughout the world. When the imam makes du'a after salah, we run out of places — whether it's China, Burma, Syria, Sudan, the Central African Republic, Sri Lanka, Kashmir, and so many more. May Allah grant victory to the ummah wherever they are oppressed.

The question is: why does the ummah go through difficulty? The ummah — and we as individuals — go through difficulty because this is the system. This is how Allah has created this world for us. Why do we need oxygen? Why do we need water? Allah could have created us without these things. He chose to create it the way He did. The real answer is: Allah has chosen this world to be a place of difficulty. That is the DNA of this dunya — it is a place of difficulty.

If there was anyone who was not supposed to go through difficulty, it would have been the Prophet ﷺ and the Prophets. But the complete opposite has been mentioned. The people who go through the most difficulty are the Prophets, and then those who come after them in piety and righteousness. A man gets tested based on his deen. The stronger your deen, the greater your difficulty. The weaker your deen, the lesser your test — until the day comes when you're walking on the earth with not a single sin in your book of deeds.

So going through difficulty is the sunnah of the Prophets. It is the sunnah of the Awliya. It is the sunnah of the Sahaba. It is the sunnah of the people who are chosen. It is part of the system of how Allah has created this world.

Indeed, We have created the human being in difficulty. Think about this — Allah could have made the process of how a new baby is born any way He wished. A seed germinating, a rose opening, fruit growing — anything. But Allah chose to make the process of a child coming into this world one of the most painful things a human being has to handle. He was not forced by laws of nature — He chose it to be like that. And then on the other end is death.

The Prophet ﷺ in His Final Moments

The Prophet ﷺ — the most chosen of creation — was sweating in his final moments, his hand in a bowl of water, wiping his forehead. He was in so much pain he could not even move his lips. He saw Abdur Rahman ibn Abi Bakr walking into the house with a miswak. Aisha (may Allah be pleased with her) looked at her husband — he was eyeing her brother as he walked in. She asked him if he wanted the miswak. He did not have the strength to say yes — just with his eyes he gestured. He did not have the strength to chew it or move it himself. She took it from him, softened it, wetted it, and put it into his mouth and moved it around. And she said: How lucky I am that the Prophet ﷺ passed away with my saliva in his mouth from the miswak, and with his head on my chest. SubhanAllah.

And what was he saying in those moments? Indeed death has its pangs, death has its difficulty. After Aisha saw how painful the Prophet's death was, she said she would not judge anyone based on their death — an easy death means nothing, a difficult death means nothing — because the Prophet ﷺ himself had very painful final moments, and yet there are people who may not have that difficulty at the end.

Allah chose death to be like this. He chose childbirth to be so difficult. This is what it means: Indeed the human being has been created in difficulty. Our very existence — to the very last moment of our life — is filled with challenge and difficulty. And in between? It is the same. It is always some sort of trouble and trial. The only place that is free of trouble is Jannah — not even the Akhirah broadly, but Jannah specifically. Besides that, every single place is filled with difficulty. This is how Allah has chosen to create this world, and we are living in it, so we must go with the plan — whether we like it or not.

The Believer's Perspective vs. the Disbeliever's

Changing one's faith does not change the difficulty in one's life. Many people today say, I'm done with Islam because of the problem of evil. They can't wrap their mind around why evil exists and why people go through difficulty. They say, my grandmother prayed all her life and died of cancer — how did her salah help her? And so they say they'll leave Islam. But does leaving Islam end their problem? Of course not. In reality, you have made your life even more difficult, because you have zero silver lining. There's nothing positive in your perspective anymore — you're still suffering, but now without any meaning.

The difference is: when you are a person of faith, you have a vision and view of life that it doesn't end at death — it's actually only getting started at death. Whatever happened over here does not go unnoticed. Everything in the next world will be based on what happened over here. If you went through difficulty for the sake of Allah, then don't worry — you are not going to face difficulty over there.

The hadith mentions: Allah does not bring together two fears for a servant. If a person fears Allah in this dunya, he will not have to fear Him in the akhirah. And if a person didn't fear Him here, then he has to fear in the akhirah. You can't eat the cake and have it too. If you're fearing Allah here, you don't need to worry about tomorrow.

People say, I'll see you in court. But what if the judge is bribed? What if there is no functioning court system? Look at what's happening in Gaza — when is the court going to come? Which court? Especially when the courts themselves are bought out. But when a person says, I believe in the akhirah, and I am waiting for al-Malik al-Dayyan, Malik al-Mulk, Malik Yawm al-Deen, Rabb al-'Alameen — I am going to have my day in court with Him — that gives you an amazing sense of peace.

To wrap up this answer: difficulty is the way Allah created this world — there is no avoiding it. For a believer, difficulty is a blessing. For a disbeliever, it brings nothing — he will unfortunately suffer here and in the akhirah as well. But for a believer, difficulty brings immense good. The proof? The people closest to Allah — the Prophets, the Awliya, the pious — go through the most difficulty. If we have a proper perspective, we will be able to handle anything thrown at us. If you don't have proper 'aqeedah and yaqeen in the akhirah, you're going to have a very depressing life. It's bad enough that you're suffering — but not having a proper perspective of the akhirah will make life far more miserable.

Difficulty as a Call to Reflection: The Du'a of Ta'if

When difficulty befalls us, the way we should act is to always ask ourselves: Maybe I'm suffering because of some problem I caused. Just today after 'Asr, we read about one of the muhaddithun who lost his eyesight and started saying, I probably lost my eyesight because maybe I spoke too much about myself, praised myself, or let people know who I am. They were always playing it safe — it shouldn't happen that Allah is punishing me for my mistake.

Like what happened in Ta'if. After the Rasulullah ﷺ pours his heart out in Ta'if, expressing his anguish and pain — as he is pelted with stones, pushed away, driven out, spat at, with all sorts of horrible things happening to him — his du'a is not a complaint. He does not say, Why is this happening? I'm on official business! Why are people treating me like this? Instead, he says:

(Reported in the Seerah of Ibn Hisham and referenced in Sahih al-Bukhari and Sahih Muslim in related narrations)

He is not saying, Ya Allah, I'm complaining to you — these people are so horrible, so oppressive, so wrong. Whatever word he used for them would not do justice to how horrible these people were. But instead, he talks about himself. Ya Allah, I'm sorry — my fault. I complain to you about my own weakness. It's my fault these people are doing this. I don't have the strength needed to do this job. I myself didn't properly plan things out. I'm complaining to you about how people are taking me lightly, how people don't value me — because maybe there's something wrong with me.

Just think about this, brothers. When you've gone through difficulty with people — your classmates, co-workers — maybe they're not very welcoming. What's the first thing we all say? These guys are all jerks. These guys are all like this. We just blame everyone. That's what we thrive on — messed up people, messed up people. And the Prophet ﷺ is taking the blame himself. We can spend the whole night on this one du'a — there is so much to reflect on.

And then he says: Who have you handed me over to, Ya Allah? Is it an enemy attacking me, or someone close to me, that you have given power over me? Where am I being thrown? At whose mercy? And then he ends this du'a by saying: Oh Allah, if You are not upset at me, then I don't mind. Allahu Akbar. The issue is not my problem — the issue is, I just hope You are not upset at me. All that I'm suffering — the emotional pain — I don't mind it, as long as You are pleased with me.

The Weight of the Prophet's ﷺ Emotional Pain

Think about what Nabi ﷺ went through emotionally. If a son disrespects his father — that is far more painful than a $5,000 or $10,000 car accident. The emotional pain of your own child speaking to you that way cannot be described — because you know your position as a father, your blood is in him, you've done everything for him. A teacher walks into the classroom and a student openly disrespects him — as a madrasa teacher, if a student said that to your face, it's game over. You crossed the red line — you disrespected the teacher in front of everyone.

Now take that a million, billion, trillion times up. The Prophet ﷺ knew he was a Nabi of Allah. He knew he was Sayyid Wuldi Adam — literally the leader of all the children of Adam. Every single person, including Adam (peace be upon him), will be under the flag of Rasulullah ﷺ. Jannah is held back for every prophet and every nation until the Prophet ﷺ enters it. He knew all of this — and yet this is how his people treated him. We cannot fathom the level of emotional pain the Prophet ﷺ went through.

When a person is thrown into a cold, dark dungeon — depending on who that person is, the effect is vastly different. A person who has been homeless for two generations, a regular person who has slept on a masjid floor before, and a prince who has never even made his own bed — the experience is not the same. The Prophet ﷺ was of such a high status that a thorn pricking him was far worse than someone else being chopped to pieces — because for a being of his status, any type of difficulty was not befitting. Not befitting. And yet Allah allowed him to go through all of this.

In Ta'if, after the unbelievable emotional pain of 'Am al-Huzn — the Year of Grief — when he lost his wife Khadijah (may Allah be pleased with her), and his uncle Abu Talib — so much happening — and then this. Can you imagine how emotionally broken he was? And yet his perspective was: I don't mind as long as You are happy with me.

We learn from the Seerah that whenever we go through difficulty, we should always introspect and ask: Maybe I am at fault. Maybe this is a wake-up call for me. I'm going to keep begging You for help, begging You for forgiveness, coming back to You until You become pleased with me. That was Rasulullah ﷺ.

To wrap up: when difficulty befalls the ummah — collectively and individually — this is a moment of reflection. To see what sins we may have committed because of which we are paying the price. Maybe Allah is not doing it because of our sin — maybe He simply wants to elevate our status. But the humility of a servant should be such that he doesn't say, Alhamdulillah, MashAllah, I'm almost at Jannat al-Firdaws, Allah made me go through a little difficulty to finish off the rest. Instead it should be: Ya Allah, I'm sorry. I must have done a hundred wrong things today. I hope this covers all of them. I hope it's not one for each. That is the humility of a servant in front of Allah.

Muslim Leaders Who Fail to Act: The Maftoon

What about the flip side — the leaders today who have the power to stop oppression but refuse to do so? Our attitude toward them is: these people are maftoon — they have fallen into fitna. They are going to pay a huge price for it.

Think of a young 14-year-old who does something foolish — picks up a weapon he doesn't even know how to use, something goes wrong, and now he's going to be incarcerated for the rest of his life. He has utterly ruined his entire life for what? For one moment of poor judgment. Similarly, these leaders who have the power to stop oppression and are not using it — they have doomed themselves for the Akhirah. Unless they repent. What awaits them at the time of death. What they shall see when they leave this world. What their first night in the grave will be. What will happen when they are raised in front of billions on the Day of Judgment. And how difficult that 50,000-year day will be. And then where they will be headed after that.

If only they knew — they would have done everything they could to stop it. But since the belief in the Hereafter is weak — even though they claim to be Muslims, have Muslim names, names of our Prophet, names of the Sahaba, and speak the language of the Quran — the reason they act this way is that they have literally sold their soul to money, to materialism. They claim to worship Allah, but deep down they are 100% materialistic. And that is the new religion — materialism is the new deen. What is Dajjalism? It is materialism.

So you see that it is not sufficient to recite La ilaha illallah Muhammadur Rasulullah. Not sufficient to show up for Eid. Not sufficient to wear a thawb or a kufi or a kufiyyah. Those are external things. Internally, your faith in the Akhirah is the key thing. If that is present, Alhamdulillah, everything else will come. If it is not present, then all the external Islamic trappings — even Islamic prayer — do you no good.

The Myth of "We Just Need More Muslims in High Places"

We always hear: we need more Muslims in politics, we need more Muslims with money, we need more Muslims who own huge companies, we need more Muslim billionaires. The answer to that is: No, we don't. We have enough Muslim businessmen. We have enough Muslim wealthy people. Forget politicians — what is a congressman? You've got kings, man. Not one, not two, not three — over 55 Muslim-owned countries. How has that helped?

Getting a Muslim into a Fortune 500 company's C-suite does you no good if he only serves his own interest. You need a mu'min who truly believes in the Akhirah, who has not sold his soul to anyone besides Allah, and who will work for his own akhirah and the akhirah of others. Then that person — even if he is a sweeper in a company — will be more beneficial for us than a CEO who has sold his soul.

Some of the biggest banks of this country have been bailed out by money from the Middle East. Some of the biggest companies here — if I remember correctly, our entire Chicago street parking, a billion-dollar enterprise, has been bought out by a Middle Eastern company. They paid a billion dollars and leased it — they made it back quickly. So you're talking about power? They're the ones who can buy 100 Rolls Royces in a minute and burn 30 of them for the sake of it. And yet — how does that make a difference?

If you don't have deen, you're not going to help anyone besides your own stomach. You'll become a little puppy for the forces of falsehood — just wagging your tail behind them. This crisis has shown us today that all the wealth of the Muslims in the trillions, all that power, those nuclear weapons, those fighter jets, those scientists and doctors and engineers and lawyers and university professors and policy makers — zilch, nothing.

Where did the Sahaba have trillions when they ruled the world? They were barefoot. But they instilled fear and awe in the face of the enemy because they had one thing. Khalid ibn al-Walid would tell the general of the opposing army: Listen, I'm just letting you know — it's in your best interest to accept Islam before we begin. If not, I have with me a group of people who love death more than your army loves to drink alcohol. We are not scared of death.

Every narration of the Sahaba in jihad is amazing — they were saying, Ya Allah, please do not take me back home. Never allow me to see my land again, my family again, my house again. I don't want to go back having lost. I want to become a winner in this battle by getting martyred. That was who the Sahaba were.

Are politics, wealth, arms, scientists, and doctors beneficial? 100% — yes, they are. But the most important thing — sandwiching everything — is faith. If iman bil ghayb is there, dedication to Allah and His Messenger is there, then Alhamdulillah, all of these things will be beneficial. And if they're not present, then unfortunately all of those things become a liability.

The Hadith of the Ummah Being Devoured

What's going on in Gaza — and the crisis at large — is exactly what the Prophet ﷺ had prophesied. He said that a time will come when the forces of this world will gather together against the Muslims:

(Sunan Abi Dawud, Hadith 4297)

The way people attack a platter of food — this is how the nations of the world will attack the Muslims. When he said this, the Companions were shocked. They said:

Is it because our numbers will be very few, O Messenger of Allah? And he replied:

(Sunan Abi Dawud, Hadith 4297)

No — you will be many in number, huge numbers. 57 countries, 58 countries, 1.2 billion and growing, 3,500 masajid and 600 Islamic schools in this country alone, masajid opening up on every corner. But you will be like the foam, the worthless debris that floats on the surface of a river. And Allah will take away your awe from the hearts of your enemies.

Your enemy would not mind spilling your blood. Did you hear what happened at Shifa Hospital? Executing surgeons — live executions of patients, destroying life-saving equipment. Who does that? Who goes into a hospital and kills point-blank doctors? Who kills point-blank patients? Every single day. But they don't care — because there is no fear. You can spill the blood of a Muslim all you want. If you do it to a cat or a dog, you get in trouble. But if you do it to a Muslim, no one stands up. That is exactly what Rasulullah ﷺ said — the fear of shedding the blood of a Muslim will be taken away from the hearts of the enemy.

And then: Allah will put wahan in your hearts. What is wahan? It is the love of the dunya and the fear of death — حُبُّ الدُّنْيَا وَكَرَاهِيَةُ الْمَوْتِ.

The Gaza crisis has not stopped the raves, not stopped the nightclubs, not stopped the endless parties and weddings, not stopped the endless vacations. Life is moving on. Seven-star hotels are becoming eight-star and nine-star resorts in Muslim lands. We have become worshippers of the dunya. And when you become a worshipper of dunya, you don't really believe in the akhirah. Then you're scared of death — because you've got nothing to look forward to beyond this life. Everything is here. And so you cannot bring yourself to die for anything — because everything you have is in this world.

I remember, during the Iraq War, we would pick up the Chicago Tribune and every day — whether it was 2003, 2004, or 2005 — there would be: 150 dead, 200 dead, 300 dead. Continuous car bombs, skirmishes. Thousands of Iraqis — Muslims, rahimahumullah — would die every day. The only difference between then and now is that we don't have live video the way it's coming out of Gaza. Otherwise, Iraq was not a small thing. Go check the numbers of how many people died in Iraq. Then Afghanistan. It is 100 times more. Unbelievable. We forget.

One of those days, there was a picture on the third or fourth page of the Tribune — US soldiers and UK soldiers standing in front of a wall. There was Arabic written on that wall — a mural, spray-painted. And when I brought it close, I saw it was the very same hadith I just shared with you: about how the Muslims will be devoured from all sides, how they will love the dunya, fear death, and how the non-Muslims will have no fear of killing them. That hadith was literally spray-painted on the wall, and you had US soldiers standing in front of it. That was the picture in the Tribune. That was just the irony of it.

We are definitely in that era right now. If a person after seeing everything still doesn't wake up and still doesn't realize that the solution lies in the ummah going back to Allah — and strengthening their relationship with Allah, and then using all the means available — then it is a case of خُسْرَانُ الدُّنْيَا وَالآخِرَةِ — you lose this dunya and you lose the akhirah. If someone had a car accident and didn't learn a lesson, got a ticket and didn't learn a lesson, went to prison and didn't learn a lesson — what can you say? That's it.

What is going on in Gaza is horrible. But the fact that a big chunk of the ummah is not waking up and repenting is a bigger problem. And we hope — in these final days and nights — that we are all able to reflect, and millions of Muslims across the world begin to ask themselves these tough questions and come to the real conclusion that we need to arrive at.

How Do We Bring the Ummah Along?

If we make a U-turn, other people will start making a U-turn. When you see famous people who recently accepted Islam — MashAllah, that inspires people. Similarly, every one of us has our own sphere of influence. When we start coming closer to the deen, that will have an effect on the people around us.

Honestly, I don't know if you've been watching to what degree of religiosity has been sparked within the Jewish community. It's at an all-time high. There's a lot of resort to tilawah, a lot of chanting, a lot of different types of spiritual practices in their religion that they are resorting to — to win this genocide, as they see it. The religious people are going with their prayer beads and their Torah, going into the midst of the front lines, making du'a there, setting up camps, helping soldiers with prayer. They are showing — even among the kuffar — that you have to join the physical and the spiritual. It's very clear.

We need to ensure that each one of us, if we bring change properly within ourselves, the people around us will start to notice. One brother told me he was planning a vacation to Egypt after Ramadan — but then he felt guilty. How can I go sit on a beach while within an hour away this is what's happening? He cancelled the tickets, cancelled the vacation — Alhamdulillah. When people do things of that sort and share it, it creates an awakening within their cousins, their relatives, their immediate family, their employees, their employers.

Brothers who are vaping — this is a great time to give it up. If you're smoking cigarettes, or Allah forbid on something else — just say, khalas. I want these incidents to bring a change in my life. What kind of person am I that I can't give up this addiction while people are giving up their lives every single second, every single day?

Let these incidents make a means of all of us bringing some major change in our lives — to such an extent that the people around us begin to notice. And then when they ask, What's going on with you? How come you're not partying on Saturday night anymore? — you say, Brother, I'm done. I have to really focus on my akhirah. If 150 people do that, and each of us has a sphere of influence of at least 10 people, and those 10 have another 10 — that is how change works.

The Importance of Seeking Islamic Knowledge

Islam needs successful people in the dunya. We need people doing well in school, doing well in their careers. But you can't stop there. It has to be strong in deen and strong in dunya — and then the strength in the dunya will become a means of helping the deen.

Even if just one person in power in one of these 55 Muslim countries had the fear of Allah — he would have been able to inspire someone else and bring serious change. Yes, the geopolitics of the world is very complicated. It's foolish for us to sit in the masjid and say, This king should have done this, this leader should have done that. Because if we were in that position — Allahu a'lam what we would have done. When your own life comes on the line, your money, your house — everything changes.

I'll never forget — I was at a walimah here in Lombard, and the father-in-law of a friend of mine — a mashAllah accomplished doctor, 55-60 years old — came up to me and said, Beta, I have a question: if I'm praying and I lose my wudu, what do I do? This man was a senior citizen. These are things we have to take time out to learn and understand, or you'll be asking basic questions as a senior citizen. We need people who are strong in both deen and dunya — but one cannot be sacrificed for the other.

People say, I can't take a year off to study the deen — I'll fall behind. Do you know how evil that statement is? If you take one year to study Qala Allah, Qala Rasulullah, Quran and Hadith — and you say you fall behind? Where is your 'aqeedah? Where is your iman? Do you even believe in the akhirah? What are we doing right now — it's 2am, shouldn't we be sleeping? We don't say that, do we?

As a medical student myself — I did the one-year program in 2015, and it's now 2024 — Alhamdulillah I'm sitting in medical school and on a daily basis I still benefit from things I learned in 2015. People come up and say, We want to do what you did. You don't lose a year — you literally go light years ahead of everyone else. So don't ever let that idea come in your head that you can't take three weeks or one year off. You will not fall behind.

The Story of Musa and Khadir: What Looks Like Loss May Be Gain

Not everything is as it seems. Behind everything is the qudra of Allah, and Allah can make any incident a source of benefit or harm.

Look at the story of Musa and Khadir (peace be upon them). In the first incident, a ship has been damaged — that's apparent harm. In the second, an innocent young boy has been killed — apparent harm. Khadir himself is doing this, by the order of Allah. But why? Because there is long-term benefit in it. The loss of that one young boy carried benefit — he was going to become a great source of pain for his parents, and had he grown up he would have become a kafir and would have made them suffer. So Allah took him away as an innocent child, replaced him with one who became a means of great piety for the parents. And the damaged ship — that apparent loss — saved the ship from being seized by an oppressive king.

Similarly, what we see now as massive loss in Gaza — what exactly is happening in the long run, we're not sure. Rather, we should be hopeful. We should have high expectations from Allah.

Just like the apparent loss of the Treaty of Hudaybiyyah — when Rasulullah ﷺ and the Sahaba could not perform Umrah, and were forced into a treaty that was extremely one-sided and favoured the non-Muslims in everything. But Allah revealed at that time:

Indeed, We have granted you a clear victory. Wait — where's the victory? You are only looking at what's happening today. You do not have the foresight of what's going to happen in the future. Allah made that a refresher for all of us. The number of people who accepted Islam in the entire 13 years in Mecca and all the way until the treaty was signed — put them on one scale. Then put the Muslims who accepted Islam after the treaty was signed until the Prophet ﷺ passed away — it outweighs the first by many fold. About three and a half to four years brought in more Muslims than subhanAllah about 19 years combined. And that happened because of this apparent horrible defeat.

But Allah didn't call it a defeat. He called it an open victory. A person at that time would never believe it: How can you call this a victory? Everything is stacked against us. Go study Surah al-Fath — it is a powerful surah to reflect on, with so much benefit.

The Ummah Has Risen Before — and Will Rise Again

What we're seeing in Gaza is not the first time the Muslims have suffered in huge numbers. Just in the past two decades — in Afghanistan and Iraq. Then what about Muslim-on-Muslim violence in Syria? The torture that people endured in those jails — you wonder what Jahannam is going to be like if a human being can do this to another human being. What's happened in Turkey, in Yemen, in Sudan — these civil wars, these killings and mutilations — Muslims suffering.

One of the elders said something very powerful from the early 2000s: Ye Islam ka bagheecha hi aisa hai ki Musalmanon ka khoon hi usko sariyab karta hai — Islam is such a garden that gets irrigated through the blood of Muslims. Through their blood, it grows. Through their blood, it remains fresh and flourishing. No pain, no gain.

And all the blood of the entire Muslim ummah combined cannot equal the blood that the Prophet ﷺ lost in Ta'if, or in Uhud, and in other places. If Allah allowed the Prophet ﷺ to bleed, allowed his cheek to be torn, allowed his teeth to be martyred, allowed him to fall and almost break his bones in the ditch of Uhud, allowed him to not be able to eat meat and bread on the same day, allowed him not to cook a single meal for three months in a row, allowed him to pass away having taken a loan from someone and put his sword as collateral to borrow from a Jewish person — if Allah allowed His Prophet to go through so much, then how can we complain about our pain?

This is the system of Allah. This is our story. Think of it as a two-volume book. In volume one, the innocent person is backstabbed, his children have passed away, he's lost everything — it's so depressing. But then you open volume two, and the entire plot has turned around and this same person becomes victorious. Dunya is volume one. Akhirah is volume two. If you don't read volume two, you're going to think it's horrible. We have to keep our eyes on volume two.

And what we see now in Gaza — the libraries being destroyed, the universities being burnt, the hospitals being demolished — this is not the first time. The Tartars came without bombs, without drones, without grenades. They manually chopped heads one after another and built pyramids of Muslim skulls. At that time, well over a million people were killed. They destroyed hundreds of institutions of learning, took books and threw them into the river — they say the color of the river changed to black from all the ink. People thought Islam was done, finished, Qiyamah was around the corner. That was almost 900 years ago.

Then you have the Spanish Inquisition. Then British colonialism in India. Every single region has its own story of zulm and oppression. And from those ashes, Islam rises up again.

Look at the Uzbek community, the people from ex-USSR areas — if you go to their masajid, some of the most practicing and most generous Muslims I have ever come across. They were deprived of hearing the adhan, deprived of having Arabic names, deprived of seeing a Mushaf for generations. The stories that came out — women and men begging, saying, We'll give all our money — can we just see a Mushaf? When the jamaats went to those areas after the fall of the USSR, they would take suitcases full of Mushafs. People would line up just to see one. That type of zulm happened. And yet, when they came here, Allah willed — and now mashAllah they outshine everyone at fundraisers, 100, 200, everything from one table, wallahi. When you suppress a people, you cannot suppress the deen.

When you read the books of the signs of the Hour, you'll see that the scholars who explained those ahadith always explained them based on what they were facing in their own time — even 700 or 800 years ago — and they would say, Khalas, it's done. And then Islam revived again and life moved on. So it's not over until it's over.

We need to stop thinking doomsday is around the corner. We need to stop thinking the Mahdi is about to come and so we should just stay in the basement playing video games until he shows up. We need to take control of our lives. I don't know when the Mahdi is coming. But I do know that I'm most likely not going to live another 50 to 60 years if I'm already 30 or 40. I may die tomorrow, next month, next year. That I know for sure. So let me focus on preparing for something which is definitely inevitable — my death. Then you will start working not only for a better you, but a better world.

The Power of a Vision: One Teacher, One Student, One Tree

When British colonialism had taken over undivided India — when it was all finished, they had lost the uprising — Shaykh al-Hind said: We have to start something. One teacher, one student, sitting under a tree, beginning some Nazra classes, some Quran classes. What is this going to do? But it was a vision and sincerity. And then Allah's command. That one teacher and one student sitting under a pomegranate tree literally brought about a revival that is unimaginable in size — unimaginable in the number of hearts, minds, and souls that have been touched, and in the number of institutions that have been established. Your head will hurt if you think about how it started. One teacher, one student. One tree.

Did they get to see the fruits of their labor? No, they didn't. And you don't have to see the fruits of your labor. That's not our job. We don't work to see results. We work to build foundations for a brighter future and we don't need to see it — we will see it in our graves. Just do your work and go away.

Think of a person working on an assembly line building a Rolls Royce. His job is to work on one aspect of it. He has no idea what the final product looks like. He's in his little area, working quietly, 12 hours a day. He might never even be able to afford to ride one. But that doesn't matter — he does his job. All of us have our job. Let's stop talking about the past, stop talking about the future — let's talk about now. What are you doing today, right now, to make this place better? What are you doing to leave a good legacy? What are you doing to ensure that your children inherit more deen than you inherited from your parents?

That's what the Prophet ﷺ said — that if a person knows the Day of Judgment is right now, today, in this moment, and he still has a chance and opportunity to plant a tree — then go ahead and do it. Allahu Akbar. What an amazing hadith. Who's going to eat from it? Who's going to enjoy it? That's not your problem. Just do it. The Day of Judgment should not come while you're lying down. Get a shovel and get to work.

(Musnad Ahmad, Hadith 12902; also reported in al-Adab al-Mufrad of Imam al-Bukhari)

The Day of Judgment is not coming today or tomorrow — we have a very long time for that. So what are we doing right now? People are just glued — watching videos, sending forwards, Did you see this? Okay, so what? What is that motivating you to do? From morning till now, what have you done for Islam? What have you done for Muslims? What have you done to ensure deen will flourish? What have you done for the next generation? These are the real tough questions.

Sitting around making noise about the world's problems gets you nowhere. No benefit of dunya, no benefit of akhirah. In fact, if you're going to watch those videos and read those things, it better translate into action. Otherwise what are we going to answer Allah on the Day of Judgment? Oh yeah, I watched all those videos, I read everything... And then what did you do with it? Nothing. How are we going to answer Allah for that?

Becoming Visionaries: Building for the Future

The crisis in Gaza and across the ummah has shown us exactly what needs to change. And the good news is — there is so much hope.

Look at where we're sitting right now. If this doesn't give you hope, what will? This beautiful environment at 2:30am — this many young brothers. Every Tuesday we have Tafsir here with a crowd larger than this — about 50 sisters and 150 to 200 brothers, every single Tuesday, rain, snow, or sleet. When we have 500 people for Salat al-Fajr in the morning — Alhamdulillah, that's just amazing. English-speaking ulama everywhere now, aqeedah classes being taught in English, atheism and agnosticism being addressed from the mimbar at a high level — this wasn't happening 20 years ago. There is so much hope, I promise you.

I just came from Bridgeview and I met youth — multiple students who told me they had already applied for the one-year program, waiting to get accepted. I sat with their teacher for over an hour. I said, I don't want four students — I need ten. I need ten students this year from your community so you can come back and work together to actually establish something. Sustainable change will come when you come as a group.

These young Palestinian Arab brothers — 19, 20, 22 years old — who wouldn't let us leave without walking us to the car. Who asks like that? How does this not give us hope? How does this not give us an amazing sense of excitement?

The deen has solutions — for whatever your problem is. Whatever you've got, the answer is in the deen. I got a call from someone in another state talking about all his financial problems. I said, Brother, you come here. You find Allah here. Your problem will be solved — I give you my word. Come to i'tikaf. Come to the masjid in these final days and nights. There's no quick fix. The first step is always building your relationship with Allah. There's no doubt about it — these things happen because a person is distant. Allah wants to bring you back to the masjid, so He throws these things at you.

We have nothing but hope. But you cannot be optimistic if you don't do anything. Every one of you who is listening must have a plan, a vision, a calling, something that really keeps you motivated. You have to come up with that. These are the final nights of Ramadan — make lots of du'a:

Be ambitious. When you ask Allah, ask big. Don't just ask for a nice car — go ahead and say, Ya Allah, make me an inventor of a new car. And 95% of the profits I want to give back to the deen. Why not? A brother asked me — he said he made du'a for a six-figure salary, got it. Then seven figures, got it. Now he's asking for eight figures. He asked me: is this okay? I said it depends on what you can do with it. I said, how much can you eat, how many clothes can you wear, what are you going to do with 20 or 30 million if your goal is not to serve the deen? You're playing with fire. But if your goal is to serve the deen — ask for 8, 9, 10 figures. Just say: Ya Allah, I want wealth that is mubarak, that is blessed, wealth that won't become a burden on me, wealth I don't have to answer questions about.

There is a narration about Abdurrahman ibn 'Awf — one of the greatest things he did with his money was take responsibility for the expenses of all the wives of the Prophet ﷺ after his death. Yet someone saw him in a dream — sweating, looking exhausted — and he said: My questioning has just ended. It was a very long questioning. Abdurrahman ibn 'Awf — from among those given glad tidings of Jannah — was going through this questioning. So don't think just having a lot of money is good. It has to be money that is blessed, used for the right purpose, and that you don't have to answer endless questions about on the Day of Judgment.

Do not walk away from this gathering thinking I'm telling you not to study in college, or not to have a high GPA, or not to aspire to a top university or a Fortune 500 company. No — build your own. Become everything. Why not? We should aspire to build our own Harvard. The type of people this institution should produce are global leaders, ulama rabbaniyyun, people who are connected with Allah along with knowledge and material resources. When we talk about an endowment fund — our goal here at Darussalam, just this year alone, Alhamdulillah, we gave out $850,000 in scholarships. The goal is to increase that to a million this year and continue growing — so that anyone who wants to come, from anywhere in the world, for however many years they want to study, if they don't have the ability to pay, they get a free ride. Deen must be accessible. Whoever can pay should pay. But the one who cannot should not be penalized for it.

Islamic Banking: Building Our Own Institutions

Recently, a senior mufti of Pakistan came to visit Darussalam with a brother who is now a senior vice president of a major bank. This brother was able to convince that bank to start a complete separate Islamic division — not just Islamic loans, but actual Islamic banking where you can deposit money and they ensure it is not used in interest-based transactions, and it is only used to give out halal loans. Complete separation — no mixing.

The mufti said that in Pakistan right now, Islamic banks are doing so well that brand new, fully standalone Islamic banks are being established from scratch — not just Islamic divisions, but entirely new institutions. And he said that the senior muftis of the country are now considering saying it will be haram to do banking in any system that is not 100% pure Islamic banking — when you have a pure 100% alternative, there is absolutely no reason to go the other way.

He also told me: I want to help you all start your own banks. I've been doing this for 30 years. I want to sit with the visionaries among you who have the means, and I will guide you to help you set up a bank. That's the type of thinking we need. We don't just become a CEO of a company — we build a company. We don't just become wealthy in a financial institution — we build our own.

Our parents' generation worked three jobs to pay the rent — Alhamdulillah. Our generation, Allah has given enormous wealth. If it is used properly, I promise you — deen will spread from the West to the East. We will have the ability to uplift people from across the globe — from Africa, the Middle East, Southeast Asia — from poverty into a livable standard. We have the means, the intelligence, the wealth. We need the firm resolve: I'm going to do this whether anyone supports me or not. I'm all in.

And then Allah looks at your fervor, your jazbah, your firm resolve, your fikr, your concern. And based on that, Allah sends His hidden help — and that's where the barakah comes in. When you and I get into the field, no one can beat us. We won't just have the help of a bank or a financial institution — we'll have our IQ, our smarts, our finances, but coupled with the power of fasting, the power of tahajjud, the power of du'a, the power of crying before Allah. That is exactly what the era of the Sahaba and the golden ages was. They were number one — because along with the smarts and the tools they had, they had unparalleled conviction in Allah. An unlimited line of credit from Allah.

Involvement in Politics and Protest: A Balanced Approach

When it comes to involvement in politics — I spoke about the importance of voting. When it comes to local politics — school boards, state laws, village ordinances — we can immediately see the effect of collective voting. Massive amounts of change can happen. Nationally, it takes more effort. But locally, where Muslims are living together, this is what must be done. We need to live in areas together where we can effectively vote as a block and bring change. Some towns in the Detroit area have city councils that are almost entirely Muslim — and they've been able to enact laws consistent with their constituents and that help their constituents practice their faith freely.

None of the changes we are trying to bring will harm anyone. Islam is not about harming others — it's about bringing peace, happiness, khair, and goodness for everyone. There's this strange idea in the air — and I feel it in myself too — that if you're a practicing Muslim who goes to the masjid, you shouldn't be involved in politics. That's just for the liberals, for the people who don't care about the deen. But that is completely wrong. It is precisely the people sitting in the masjid who need to be involved — to ensure that policies inconsistent with the teachings of the deen can be changed. If we leave it to people who are disconnected from the masjid, it doesn't help Islam. It only bolsters their own career and pocket.

And yes — is it hard to remain firm on the deen when you enter politics? Absolutely. Don't go into it unless you know what it takes. You must have a spiritual mentor. You must be extremely consistent with your adhkar. You must be praying salah in the masjid, fasting nafil fasts, waking up for tahajjud. If you're not doing these things — forget it. Either you won't win, or if you win, you'll lose your deen. Those involved in politics must ensure they are also spiritually connected.

We need think tanks — not fancy buildings, just four brothers in the corner of the masjid with a cup of chai every week — making fikr. How do we create a lobby in the state of Illinois to have our Islamic schools subsidized? How do we get a voucher system so that if we're paying taxes but putting our children in Islamic schools, we get at least a discount? It might take ten years. But if you play your cards right and figure out how the system works and who you need to speak to — subhanAllah, you'll be amazed at what's possible.

There's so much work to do. We got an email from the local juvenile prison asking for someone from our community to come speak to Muslim youth there. The largest Naval training base in the country — Naval Station Great Lakes, about 50 miles from here, with 38,000-40,000 people cycling through — a chaplain reached out asking for Muslims to come teach, to lead salah, to teach the basics. So many places, so much work. Find your passion. You don't all have to become muftis and ulama and imams. You're an IT professional, a dentist, an entrepreneur — find something where you can say, This is my calling. I'm going to serve the deen in this regard. Work with the ulama, have scholars as mentors, work under their guidance — and you'll see Islam thrive.

On Protest

Protest is also fine — but not if you're missing your Zuhr and Asr while doing it. Not if you're protesting on a Friday without praying Jumu'ah. Not if you're protesting without your hijab, or holding hands with random people, or acting like a hooligan — screaming, burning tires. How does that help? Astaghfirullah. We look like fools. People have told me: We felt ashamed to be Muslim when we saw what the protesters were doing. That is not deen. That is something else entirely.

Instead — you do a million salawat as you protest. Everyone does salawat loudly. Everyone does لَا إِلَهَ إِلَّا أَنتَ سُبْحَانَكَ إِنِّي كُنتُ مِنَ الظَّالِمِينَ. You do your tasbih, your tahmid, your tahlil as you're walking — begging Allah for help. Peacefully. Quietly. And then everyone stops and prays Salat al-Dhuhr together and makes a beautiful du'a. That protest, I think, is far more powerful. And if anything, it will lead people to want to learn more about this beautiful deen.

Using Even the Unexpected for Islam

Speaking of begging Allah for help — Nabi ﷺ made a du'a: Ya Allah, strengthen Islam with one of the two 'Umars. So can we make a similar du'a — Ya Allah, strengthen Islam through whoever You will?

The Prophet ﷺ said:

Allah at times uses a very sinful or transgressing person to help the deen. So Allah can use anyone He wants — Muslim or non-Muslim. The only thing is that the person being used by Allah should hope that after being used, he doesn't get thrown into the garbage bin — rather that he dies with iman and is raised with iman. That is in their own best interest.

We should make du'a that whoever gets elected will be a means of khair. And from the depth of our hearts, we should not be making du'a just for ourselves — wallahi, this country is in a mess. The economy is in a mess, people are suffering. Every time I go to a grocery store, I think about the cashier — how does she afford to buy groceries? Basic fruits, bread, and milk cost so much. The medical system is broken. The educational system is declining. We have so many problems. When we make du'a, we should genuinely make du'a for our country — that Allah guides our politicians to do what's best not just for Islam, but for this country and all the people in it. Because after all, this is our country. We live here, we were born here, we're not going anywhere. It is in our best interest to work for the goodness and islah of this place, and to make du'a for its politicians and its people.

Closing: A Call to Action and Du'a

Tonight, before Fajr salah, I want all of you to promise me you're going to pray two rakat of Salat al-Hajah and make a long du'a for yourself. Say:

Ya Allah, please allow this night to become a life-changing night for me. I am sick of mediocrity. I'm done. Everyone earns money, everyone goes to college — so what? I want to become a reviver of Islam. I want to become someone who leaves behind such a change that a thousand years later, people may not know my name — but they will be making du'a for me. They will say, subhanAllah, whoever he was, was an amazing person.

Make du'a that Allah makes you a reviver of Islam. That Allah takes great work from you, from your siblings, from your future children. I ask Allah that He accepts this conversation of ours tonight. May He not make it a proof against me and against you, but rather a proof for us. May He not make it just chit-chat — but rather a means of genuine change that I bring into my life, and that you bring into yours.

Du'a

O Allah, allow us to lead a life free of sin, O Allah. O Allah, grant us all pain and remorse over our bad deeds. O Allah, keep us connected to the masjid. Keep us connected to the deen and the circles of deen. O Allah, keep us amongst those blessed to perform Fajr and Isha in the masjid every day. O Allah, make us amongst those whose walking and talking becomes a means of guidance — whose every movement is a means of hidayah. O Allah, use us for the service of Islam.

O Allah, please allow these nights and days to be accepted. O Allah, we beg You to allow the Muslim ummah to witness a revival — and allow us all to become part of that revival. O Allah, allow the crises unfolding in different parts of the world to become a means of all of us repenting and changing the course of our lives to a better one. O Allah, grant us all yaqeen in every verse of the Quran, and yaqeen in all the promises of the Prophet ﷺ. O Allah, grant us the ability to seek knowledge, to improve our character, to remember You abundantly, to love and care for the ummah.

O Allah, make every one of us a leader, a reviver, a thinker — someone who inspires others toward the betterment of the ummah. O Allah, reward our teachers, our parents, and all those who have done so much for us to be here today. O Allah, allow every moment of i'tikaf to become extremely beneficial for us, our children, and our spouses. Allow our sitting here to be a revival of our dead hearts, and a means of reviving our families.

O Allah, whatever du'as our brothers and sisters are making at this late hour — grant them. Whatever their hearts desire, whatever their needs — fulfill them. O Allah, grant us all the good that Rasulullah ﷺ had asked You of, and protect us from all the evil that the Prophet ﷺ sought refuge from. Ameen.