The Believer's Advantage: Finding Comfort and Hope Through Iman

The Blessing of Iman and the Believer's Advantage

Things happen to us as human beings. These things happen to us as human beings. But the ni'mah we have and the blessing we have is this blessing of iman.

There is a hadith of the Prophet ﷺ where he mentions that a believer, he's always happy.

(Sahih Muslim, Book 55, Hadith 2999)

The Prophet ﷺ mentions that if any calamity falls on a believer, he has patience and he gets reward for that. And the Prophet ﷺ continues and he says, that if anything good happens to him, he's thankful, he's grateful, and he gets reward for that. That is good for him. So the Prophet ﷺ is mentioning that a believer, he always has an advantage, he's always a step ahead. Why? Because of this ni'mah of iman he has. Because he knows that whatever happens, whatever will happen is in the hands of Allah. Our responsibility is to have tawakkul on Allah. And then we'll see everything is falling in, everything is falling in.

Surah Ad-Duha: Context and Comfort

Now this surah, Surah Ad-Duha, a very common surah we recite — a lot of us, the majority of us have memorized, and the majority of us know this surah. And this surah that I have recited, what is it talking about? It's actually talking about a specific incident where the Prophet ﷺ, he wasn't receiving revelation for a good amount of time, for a certain amount of time. Allah wasn't sending him wahi.

There was a certain time Allah was not sending him wahi. And now the Prophet ﷺ, he was worried and he was sad. Why is this happening? Is Allah angry with me? What is going on? You know, there are many times, many situations where we feel like this. Our duas are not getting accepted. Allah is not probably giving us what we ask for. And we're frustrated. We're frustrated — why isn't Allah accepting my dua? Why are these calamities falling on me? What have I done? So we face similar situations that the Prophet ﷺ faced at that specific time. And now if we read this surah and ponder over these ayat, insha'Allah Allah will comfort us with these ayat. Because this is what Allah told the Prophet ﷺ.

By the Morning Brightness — وَالضُّحَىٰ

He starts off the surah by saying:

Allah is doing qasam — He's saying, by the morning brightness. And look at the wisdom of Allah. Why is Allah mentioning this? Because the first thing we want to, or we should hear after being down, or after having a bad day, or if we're frustrated or if we're sad, we want to hear good news. So Allah is making things bright. He's saying, by the morning brightness. We need to be reminded that not everything in life is dark — no, there is brightness. In other words, Allah is telling the Prophet ﷺ, and He's telling us, look at the positive side, look at the positive things, don't always look at the negative. So Allah is cheering him up. Allah is cheering the Prophet ﷺ up.

By the Night When It Settles — وَاللَّيْلِ إِذَا سَجَىٰ

And then He continues and He says:

And by the night when it is covered with darkness. Allah now completely switches and He's talking about the night, the importance of the night, because He does qasam on it. And Allah is telling us, telling the Prophet ﷺ, and us — He is telling us that there are two sides of things: there is day and there is night. This is Allah's wisdom. Allah switches the day and brings the night. Why? Because we might be bored of the day. If we have light the whole day, how are we going to sleep? If we have night the whole day, we're going to be tired. So this is all Allah's hikmah. And this is the reason Allah is showing the Prophet ﷺ that the reason I did not give wahi to you for these specific days is because you might get bored. So I stopped it for a couple of days — I don't want to get you tired.

Your Lord Has Not Abandoned You — مَا وَدَّعَكَ رَبُّكَ وَمَا قَلَىٰ

Then the Prophet ﷺ — what's the reason he was upset? What's the reason he was sad and worried? Is Allah angry with me? Is Allah mad at me? Did I do something wrong? Allah clarifies that in the next ayah:

He tells the Prophet ﷺ that, ya Nabi, look — your Lord has neither abandoned you nor is He displeased with you. Allah is clarifying that with the Prophet ﷺ. And then He is mentioning that definitely the next life is better for you than the first life, meaning this dunya. What is Allah telling the Prophet ﷺ? That your future will be bright.

Now, let's look at ourselves. There are many times we are making dua to Allah. We are praying our salah, we are praying extra salah, we are reading Qur'an. But we're still dealing with things, we're still dealing with some sort of problems. Now, as I mentioned, we are believers. So just because we are doing the right things does not mean that Allah will not test us. This dunya is a test. We have to understand that.

And the Prophet ﷺ, he gave the believers glad tidings. He said, look, a believer, as I mentioned in the beginning, a believer is always happy and he's always successful. Why? Because even if calamity falls on him, he's patient, he has tawakkul. He knows that this is from Allah. So from these ayat, we have to understand that the Prophet ﷺ, the greatest being, he went through things as well. He was also sad at times, he was also upset at times, he was also dealing with things. But Allah gave him these teachings. And these are the teachings of Allah — look at your future. Even if your duas are not accepted right now, eventually you will be rewarded. On the Day of Judgment, Allah will reward you.

And Allah is saying:

That listen — even if we don't get what we want in this dunya, we will get it in the akhirah. And that's essentially what we all want. We want jannah, right? That's what we make dua for. Yes, we're in this life, we're in this dunya, we want things here because we have to live. But even if we're not getting everything, always know — Allah is teaching us — always know, insha'Allah, Allah will reward you on the Day of Judgment. He will give you jannah. If we as believers — and alhamdulillah we are all believers — when we have this belief, we are content. When we have this belief, we have barakah from Allah. Then everything becomes easy for us. Our life will always be good, always be smooth. Why? Because we have this belief.

And Soon Your Lord Will Give You — وَلَسَوْفَ يُعْطِيكَ رَبُّكَ فَتَرْضَىٰ

Then Allah continues and He says:

Allah is telling the Prophet ﷺ that soon your Lord will give you what you want. And this is specific to the Prophet ﷺ. As we know, the Prophet ﷺ, he gave da'wah his whole life. He spread Islam so much so that that land — the first time in history — everybody was Muslim at one time. And not just there, Islam spread throughout the whole world. So the Prophet ﷺ's da'wah eventually was accepted. And this Islam reached every single person.

So that's the worldly thing that was accepted for the Prophet ﷺ. Now we can imagine what the Prophet ﷺ will get in the hereafter — much, much more. Imamul Anbiya. And the blessing we have is that we are his followers. It is said that we are the best followers from all the followers of the Anbiya ﷺ.

So Allah says the hereafter is better for us. But then He tells the Prophet ﷺ, don't worry — your duas will be accepted soon. Now, let's think about this. Imagine we make dua to Allah. We do the right things. And our duas get accepted. We have to be grateful. And we have to know that if our duas are getting accepted now, we have to also make dua — ya Allah, reward us in the hereafter as well. Because the reward in the hereafter is much more. That's the main prize. We want that prize. We don't just want this temporary prize. No, we want the permanent prize. And we have to always keep that in our dua.

So this surah is teaching us the importance of dua, and the importance of having sabr, and the importance of being grateful. These are all things that as believers we have to have. And once we put these things in our life, we will always be content. Once these qualities are with us, we will always have barakah. Why? Because these are qualities of believers. These are the qualities of the Anbiya عليهم السلام. These were the qualities of the Sahaba رضي الله عنهم. And these are the qualities we have to follow.

Allah's Reminders of His Care

Did He Not Find You an Orphan? — أَلَمْ يَجِدْكَ يَتِيمًا فَآوَىٰ

Then Allah continues and He mentions:

He tells the Prophet ﷺ — did We not find you as an orphan and shelter you? The Prophet ﷺ grew up without parents. And then his uncle passed away, his grandfather passed away. Allah is reminding him that Allah was always with him.

We have to be grateful. Think about it — how many times in this world, in our life, no one looked at us, no one helped us. The only reason we are back on our feet is because of Allah. Think about it. This is what Allah is saying. This applies to all of us. How many times were we dealing with things, we didn't want to get out of our room, we didn't want to get out of our house, we were frustrated. But who helped us? Nobody called us, nobody texted us, nobody was advising us. But who was there for us? Allah.

Did He Not Find You Astray and Guide You? — وَوَجَدَكَ ضَالًّا فَهَدَىٰ

The Prophet ﷺ, in the beginning he was ma'sum. He always had a great heart and he was always Muslim. But Allah taught him the principles and taught him the rules. That is what Allah is reminding him. And think about our situations. We are all Muslims, alhamdulillah. But how many times and how many days — there were times we didn't want to go to the masjid, we didn't want to pray. We were struggling praying five times a day. We were struggling coming to the masjid to pray in jama'ah. Who brought us here today? Why are we here today? It's because of Allah.

This necessarily doesn't refer to the kuffar — it doesn't mean that the kuffar were misguiding and Allah guided them. No, Allah is talking to the Prophet ﷺ and us. How many times are we struggling with our ibadat? And Allah helped us.

Did He Not Find You in Need and Enrich You? — وَوَجَدَكَ عَائِلًا فَأَغْنَىٰ

Allah says, how many times have We found you in need of things and We enriched you. Think about times where we were in financial problems. When we were having difficulties in financial situations, who helped us? Who was there for us? Allah. He is the one that helped us.

Obligations That Flow from Gratitude

Allah continues and He tells the Prophet ﷺ, look, there are many people out there who don't have the same things as you do and as we have. There are people — الْيَتِيمَ — people who are orphans. Orphans, they don't have food, they don't have a house. Allah is essentially telling us, be grateful. Be grateful, think about them, look at them and ponder. فَلَا تَقْهَرْ — and don't ignore them, no, help them out. And look at the people who don't have money, who are dealing with financial problems. Are you dealing with that? No, Allah has given us so much — be grateful.

One of the main tools we have is this quality of shukr. Allah says:

If that quality of shukr is in our life, as I mentioned, we will be content.

Proclaim the Blessings of Your Lord — وَأَمَّا بِنِعْمَةِ رَبِّكَ فَحَدِّثْ

Allah ends the surah and He says, and as for your Lord's blessing, proclaim it. This dunya is a test. We are here to please Allah. What we have to do is as much ibadat as we can for Allah. We have to do as much dhikr — and the best dhikr is the Qur'an.

Maintaining Qur'an Beyond Ramadan

Ramadan has just passed a couple of weeks ago. Is the Qur'an only for Ramadan? No. Do we worship Ramadan? No. We worship Allah. We have to maintain what we did in the month of Ramadan and continue for the rest of the year and the rest of our life. So, in order for our life to be content and for us to have blessings and barakah, Allah is telling us — remember Allah. Remember His blessings. Always be grateful. Always do His dhikr. And the best of dhikr is doing the tilawat of Qur'an.

One hadith I want to mention about the Qur'an is: this Qur'an is either going to witness for us or against us. And this Qur'an is the best of dhikr. We want this Qur'an to witness for us on the Day of Judgment. And how will that happen? If we read the Qur'an daily.

You know, we have a misunderstanding — oh, if someone is a hafiz, he'll enter Jannah. No. A hafiz, if he doesn't read the Qur'an daily — the Prophet ﷺ mentions:

(Sunan Abi Dawud, Hadith 1464; Sunan al-Tirmidhi, Hadith 2914)

Who is the sahib al-Qur'an? The one who is attached to the Qur'an. He's friends with the Qur'an. So this Qur'an, as it is the best of dhikr, we have to try and read it daily. However much we can, but we have to try.

Closing Reflection

So these are a couple of ayahs, and this is a surah — Surah Ad-Duha — that Allah revealed to the Prophet ﷺ. Because the Prophet ﷺ was going through some things, and he was sad that Allah might be angry with him. And that is the Prophet ﷺ — the best human being, the best person that ever walked on the face of the earth. Who are we compared to him? We have so many things we are dealing with. We have so many problems we are dealing with. We have so many mistakes and sins we have committed. We should look at this surah and ponder over these ayat.

And we make dua to Allah that He gives us the tawfiq to ponder over these ayat. And He gives us the good of both worlds. And Allah gives us the tawfiq to act upon the sunnah of the Prophet ﷺ.