Prophet Muhammad's Journey Through Trials And Triumphs

Opening Glorification of Allah

Dear brothers and sisters, we start off with the glorification of Allah as any khutbah, any sermon devoid of the mention of the greatness of Allah remains incomplete.

O Allah, the eyes cannot see You. And thoughts are not able to completely fathom You. And anyone attempting to describe Allah is unable to do so. He knows the weight of the weightiest mountains, and the depths of the deepest oceans. Nothing remains hidden from the sight and the vision of Allah. He is all-hearing, all-seeing, and all-capable.

As He commanded His beloved Habib صلى الله عليه وسلم in the Qur'an:

Say, O Rasulullah صلى الله عليه وسلم, that if all the water that exists in the oceans of the planet, and all the trees that exist on the face of the earth — the trees are transformed into pens, and the water is transformed into ink — and there they start to note down the glorification of Allah, the pens will perish, and the ink will finish. Yet the glorification of Allah can never be completely noted down. And there is the aspect of constant replenishment — meaning that they are being replaced again and again.

Salutations Upon the Prophet

Then we send peace and blessings and salawat upon Rasulullah صلى الله عليه وسلم. As the sha'ir stated:

The eyes have not seen anything as beautiful as Rasulullah صلى الله عليه وسلم. And the women are not capable of giving birth to anyone as beautiful as Rasulullah صلى الله عليه وسلم. You have been created devoid of all defects. It is as if you yourself were given the choice by Allah of how you would like your creation to be.

The Highs and Lows in the Life of the Prophet

Respected audience, dear brothers and sisters, when we look at the life of Rasulullah صلى الله عليه وسلم, we notice its highs and lows. There are moments of celebration, there are moments of joy — from the victory in the battle of Uhud, to the entrance into the city of Makkah al-Mukarramah victorious. These are moments that bring joy and happiness to every believer. And these are moments that whenever we read throughout the seerah of Rasulullah صلى الله عليه وسلم, we find that happiness 1400 plus years later as well.

But there are also other moments from the life of Rasulullah صلى الله عليه وسلم that bring grief and sorrow. And many a times those moments are dominant over the moments of happiness and joy.

The Beginning of Rejection

We notice throughout the seerah from the very beginning — the very first moment Rasulullah صلى الله عليه وسلم gets up on the mountain calling his people towards Allah. His own family is going to reject him. From وَأَنذِرْ عَشِيرَتَكَ الْأَقْرَبِينَ — that Rasulullah صلى الله عليه وسلم instil the fear of Allah into the hearts of your family members — instant rejection. Destruction be for you, O Muhammad صلى الله عليه وسلم, for the remainder of the day. The message that you give us indeed is a strange message.

The Boycott in the Valley

Then onwards to a boycott for complete three years in which nobody is allowed to buy or sell anything with the Muslims. They are isolated in a valley and you could hear the haunts, the wailing of the women and children that are crying due to hunger and thirst. Nobody is allowed to marry into them, neither could they marry outside. Nobody is allowed to give them food. It's one thing that you prohibit buying and selling, but it's a completely different thing that you don't even provide aid and assistance to anyone — not even donation.

And so these are the moments that Rasulullah صلى الله عليه وسلم is experiencing with his people. These aren't the moments where he is separated in a separate location, being provided with all aid, with food and assistance, while his people are going through the suffering. No — Rasulullah صلى الله عليه وسلم himself is there with his people.

And once he is able to come out of the boycott — it's a very interesting story in which the principles of the boycott were listed on a piece of paper, and ultimately it was eaten by an insect — Abu Talib will tell his people, specifically the chiefs of Quraysh, that this is what Muhammad صلى الله عليه وسلم is saying, that the document has been devoured by insects, and that is how the boycott came to an end.

The Loss of Abu Talib and Khadijah

Rasulullah صلى الله عليه وسلم didn't have the luxury of a timeout. You know how sometimes when we go through moments of stress or grief, you can say, "timeout, let me take a step back and re-evaluate the decisions of my life." We have the luxury of maybe rethinking the job that we're doing. If the job is causing you stress, then you can switch to a different job. If a specific community is causing stress, or a specific location, or a place where you're probably not enjoying freedom itself, you can always move to a different location. Is Rasulullah صلى الله عليه وسلم being afforded the same luxury? No, he couldn't take that timeout.

Immediately after that, the pillars of support in his life — Abu Talib — that's why we notice that sometimes Allah will take the assistance or the aid of His deen from even a non-Muslim individual. And we see that in the case of Abu Talib, where he issued the statement:

He said to Rasulullah — he's not a Muslim — but he said to the Prophet صلى الله عليه وسلم: "By Allah, these people will not be able to reach you until I am buried in the ground, into the dust." And so that pillar of support, Abu Talib, is gone. And shortly thereafter, Khadijah رضي الله عنها also passes away. And so that support that Rasulullah صلى الله عليه وسلم had is also gone.

The Journey to Ta'if

So he attempts the birth of Islam in a different city. He goes to the city of Ta'if and calls people towards Allah. Those of you who have studied seerah know the response. For 10 days he is calling the people towards Allah, and there is rejection one after another. So he decides to go back to his city, and then the gangsters of the city will chase after him, pelting him with stones, until the shoes of Rasulullah صلى الله عليه وسلم are bloodied.

So these are the moments of difficulty that every believer has to experience. There are moments of joy that we see in the life of Rasulullah صلى الله عليه وسلم, but there are also the moments of sorrow. The most important thing is — how do we conduct ourselves in the moments of sorrow?

Turning to Allah in Times of Difficulty

Because when you look at the example of Rasulullah صلى الله عليه وسلم, you will find that immediately his attention is diverted towards Allah. When we find ourselves in moments of difficulty, where does our attention go? Is it towards the money, the material, the support system that we have, the family members? In the case of Rasulullah:

(Sunan Abi Dawud, Hadith 1319)

That the moment Rasulullah صلى الله عليه وسلم was faced with difficulty, he would immediately turn his attention towards Allah.

The Famous Du'a of Ta'if

And so we notice that as he is coming out of Ta'if, there is a very famous du'a that Rasulullah صلى الله عليه وسلم makes at that moment. This du'a is a message for the entirety of the ummah:

O Allah, I complain to You. And normally when there's a problem or difficulty in our life, we sometimes direct the blame towards things that we shouldn't be directing it towards. Here Rasulullah صلى الله عليه وسلم says: "I do complain, O Allah, but what do I complain of? I complain of my weakness. I complain of my lack of respect amongst the people."

And then he says: "O Allah, who are you handing me over to? Are you handing me over to an enemy that has complete control over me? Or an enemy that will make a disgusting face when he sees me?" We all experience that. And only in the name of our deen — that's probably the worst that we've experienced. We have never experienced torture, or anyone pelting stones at us for the sake of our deen.

And then in the end, Rasulullah صلى الله عليه وسلم says: "If You are happy with me, O Allah, then I don't have a care in the world." And he says: "I ask in the name of that nur, which enlightens the entirety of the dunya, the entirety of the heavens and the earth — that O Allah, You forgive me. And if You are happy with me, there is no worry and grief in the world."

So Rasulullah صلى الله عليه وسلم essentially directed his ummah as to what to do in times of grief and sorrow — where should your attention be diverted? And so it is towards Allah.

Proclaiming Faith in Difficulty

You know, one of the main directives in times of sorrow — when you lose someone, or you lose something that is very near and dear to you — is:

The first thing is that you proclaim your faith in Allah. That O Allah, my faith is as strong in You as it was before the difficulty came down upon me. My iman has not become weak. There is no weakness whatsoever that happened in my iman. The strength of my iman is still there. The stability of my iman is still there. So I'm proclaiming that by saying: "Verily I come from Allah, and to Allah we are going to return." So you reiterate your faith, and you establish your iman once again in Allah.

The Reality of This Dunya

So the direction for the ummah is that you will have those moments of happiness and pleasure.

Allah will give you that happiness in life, but there will also be difficulties. Imam Ghazali rahimahullah did state: أَصْلُ الدُّنْيَا الْبَلَاءُ — that the reality and the essence of this dunya is difficulty. And then you will have a few moments that you will enjoy in this dunya — those will be the moments of concession that will be granted by Allah.

When Will I Find Peace?

I want to conclude with a statement of Hasan al-Basri rahimahullah, in which a person comes to him and asks him: مَتَى الرَّاحَةُ؟ — "When am I going to find peace in the dunya?" And he says:

"By the first step that you're going to take into Jannah." Meaning that if you're going to search for that ease in this dunya, you won't be able to find it. You're only going to find that eternal peace in Jannah — in the hereafter, in the court of Allah.

Connecting to Ramadan: Sacrifice and Difficulty

So as we approach the month of Ramadan, one of the main things that we learn is the element of sacrifice. There is that essence of difficulty that is connected with Ramadan. What's the first thing that comes to your mind when you think of Ramadan? Of course, inshallah, hopefully all of us think of the blessings of Allah, the multiplication of rewards, the shayateen being chained away and far away from us. But we also think of no food, no drink, standing in long rakahs in front of Allah, having to wake up in the middle of the night, lack of sleep, etc.

Those are things that are also attached with the month of Ramadan. So there is that element of difficulty. There is that element of sacrifice. The things that you would normally do — in which there is no harm, there is no command of Allah against them — you also have to abstain from those things. So that's the connection that Ramadan also has with the element of sacrifice and difficulty.

And so even in those moments — when we are fasting, when we are not able to eat, when we are not able to drink — we will always divert our attention back to Allah:

Closing