Gratitude And Humility In The Face Of Life's Conditions

Jumu'ah Khutbah — Yusuf Iyoob

In the name of Allah, the Most Gracious, the Most Merciful. All praise is due to Allah, Lord of the Worlds. And peace and blessings be upon His Trustworthy Messenger, our Prophet Muhammad and all his family and companions.

This World: A Mixture of Good and Bad

The Prophet, peace and blessings be upon him, said to a man who asked him, "O Messenger of Allah, which of the people will be tested the most?" — and we will return to this hadith. This dunya that we live in, this temporary world, is a hybrid between good conditions and bad conditions. Every single person will experience both states. But in the akhirah, there is a dichotomy — those who are successful and enter jannah will have everlasting peace and everlasting happiness. But those who enter jahannam are in everlasting doom and suffering and terror.

Their punishment will only increase. It will never get better. But for the mu'min in jannah:

Whatever he wants will be presented towards him. His wish will be fulfilled. But in this world, as we mentioned, we will all experience both conditions — the good and the bad.

The Du'a of Good Conditions

The Prophet, peace and blessings be upon him, has taught us how to act, how to deal with both conditions. And he has given us du'as for both states. When we are in a good condition, we read:

"All praise is due to Allah, the One through Whose bounty, through Whose ni'ma, all good things are completed." Any good thing in this world comes from Allah. And we see that whenever something good happens, we always realign our focus towards Allah — that we don't say it is through my effort, it is through my intelligence, it is through anything of mine that this good thing happened. Whether I got a job promotion, got accepted into a college, or got a raise from my job — we always turn it back to Allah.

The Humility of the Prophet at the Conquest of Makkah

We see this with Nabi ﷺ — that one of the greatest things that happened to him, one of the happiest times of his life, was when he was coming back to Makkah during the Fath of Makkah. He had been kicked out of Makkah, and for eight years he spent in Madinah, wishing to come back — his home place, the place of the Ka'bah, the house of Allah. And while coming back to Makkah, riding on his camel, he did not have his chest out showing that he was the victor. Rather, his head was so low that his cheek was touching the hump of the camel — such was the humility of Nabi ﷺ. He realized: it is not because of me. I was kicked out and I could not come back to Makkah if it were not for Allah. The only reason I am in this state is because of Allah.

So just like that, in our condition, whenever we see something good happen to us, we should always realign our focus to show that Allah is the One who gave us this thing.

The Du'a of Hajjatul Wida'

Then we look at the du'a of Nabi ﷺ a few years later, when he performed Hajjatul Wida'. This was the time when Nabi ﷺ was able to perform Hajj safely and securely. Before, at Hudaybiyyah, he had been stopped from performing 'Umrah. Now he had complete control over the Hijaz and the Arabian Peninsula. Hundreds of thousands of sahabah were with him. And yet the du'a he made was:

"I am the lowly and poor person. I am the one calling out to Allah, seeking refuge in Him. I am the one who is acknowledging my sins and my shortcomings in front of Allah. I ask You, I call out to You, the way a beggar begs. And I quiver in front of You the way a disgraced criminal quivers and is scared. And I call on You the way a scared blind man calls out seeking help. O Allah, do not make me wretched and disgraced in my du'a to You, rather be merciful and compassionate."

If we were not given the context of this du'a, we might think it was someone who had lost everything and had nothing left. But this is the du'a of a man who had just conquered Makkah, who is now performing Hajj with hundreds of thousands of sahabah with him, who has conquered the entire Hijaz. This is the du'a of this person — Nabi ﷺ. And this is the way we should also lead our lives: whenever something good happens to us, we are always looking back to Allah.

The Du'a of Bad Conditions

And then, if we look at the other du'a — the du'a when a bad condition comes upon us:

We see both du'as start with الْحَمْدُ لِلَّهِ, showing that whatever condition we are in, we always praise Allah. Because Allah is the One who created that condition, so it must be the best thing for us — whether it is a test or a good condition. We always turn back to Allah and praise Him for whatever He gives us.

And Nabi ﷺ did not say الْحَمْدُ لِلَّهِ عَلَى الْمُصِيبَةِ — "O Allah, I thank You for this difficult condition that You have afflicted me with." Why? Because we never ask, we never invite bad conditions on ourselves. We never ask Allah for trials or tests. Why? Because yes, a trial might allow us to get closer to Allah — but there is also the possibility that we fail that test and actually slip further down.

Do Not Ask for Trials — Ask for 'Afiyah

This is seen in the hadith of Nabi ﷺ, when he heard a man making du'a and the man said:

"O Allah, indeed I ask of You for sabr, patience."

And Nabi ﷺ said:

"You have asked Allah to give you a test. Rather, ask Him for 'afiyah, ask Him for well-being." (Sunan al-Tirmidhi, Hadith 3527)

Because if someone asks for sabr — patience — then obviously there has to be a test for him to be patient about. So we should never ask Allah for difficulty upon us. Rather, we should ask Him for well-being, for comfort, for good health. And yes, if a bad condition comes upon us, then we should have sabr. We should ask Allah that if a test comes, He allows us to pass it. But we should never invite it upon ourselves.

Events in Syria: Joy and Sorrow

Many of us have probably heard the events that have unfolded in the past week in Syria, where they have broken free from the hold of the oppressors. This is very happy news for many of us — we see them being free, we see the mass release of the prisoners, they are able to come home to their families after decades. They are able to pray salah in the masjid. The adhan is being called in masajid where for decades the adhan had not been called out. This is very happy for many of us.

But then there is also the other side — where we hear the accounts, the stories of the prisoners who have been tortured for so long, wrongfully put in prison, abused and persecuted for years. And maybe it makes us lose hope in humanity sometimes. How could another person treat someone like this? How could this go on in the world we live in today?

But then we have to look at the seerah of Nabi ﷺ. Because the seerah of Nabi ﷺ answers everything. Nabi ﷺ was sent as a messenger and as a role model to show us how to live our life from A to Z — whether it is a bad condition or a good condition, what do we do? How do we live our lives?

The Most Tested: The Prophets

If you look at Nabi ﷺ, we all believe that he was the most beloved of people to Allah. But alongside that, Nabi ﷺ was the person who was tested the most. If you look at anyone in this entire world, Nabi ﷺ went through the most tests and trials. This is shown in a hadith where a man came to Nabi ﷺ and asked him:

"O Messenger of Allah, which people will be tested the most, will have the hardest of tests in this dunya?" And Nabi ﷺ replied:

"The Prophets, then those closest to them, then those closest to them." (Sunan Ibn Majah, Hadith 4023)

Those who will be tested the most on this earth are the anbiya' — the prophets and messengers of Allah. Then those who are closest to them, then those closest to them. And we see that Nabi ﷺ was the highest in rank among the prophets — not only the Khatim al-Anbiya', the seal of the prophets, but the leader of all of them. That is why his ummah will be the first to enter jannah. So because Nabi ﷺ was the closest to Allah, he was tested the most.

The Family of Yasir

Those closest to Nabi ﷺ were his sahabah, رضي الله عنهم. Especially those who accepted Islam during the Meccan era went through persecution nothing like those who accepted Islam after the hijrah. We see the story of Ammar ibn Yasir, رضي الله عنهم, whose entire family was being persecuted and tortured. Nabi ﷺ walked by and said:

"Have patience, O family of Yasir! Indeed your final abode is jannah." (Mustadrak al-Hakim, Vol. 3, Hadith 383)

You might think this didn't really help them — they were being tortured before and they were still being tortured after. But this was enough for them. Any Muslim who accepted Islam during this time understood they would be persecuted. It didn't matter if they were the richest of people, the highest in rank, from the best families or best tribes — they would be persecuted for accepting Islam. So these glad tidings from Nabi ﷺ were all they needed.

The Most Difficult Time: Ta'if

Once, Aisha, رضي الله عنها, asked Nabi ﷺ — "O Messenger of Allah, what was the most difficult time of your life?" She is asking the person who was tested the most, what was the hardest time? We might think it was when his children passed away — every single one of Nabi ﷺ's children passed away in his lifetime except Fatimah, رضي الله عنها. He buried all of them. Or perhaps it was Uhud — the first loss of the Muslims, where Nabi ﷺ was severely injured, taking a blow to his mouth, and his beloved uncle Hamzah, رضي الله عنه, was not only killed but mutilated by Wahshi under the command of Hind.

But Nabi ﷺ responded that the most difficult time of his life was during Ta'if. And it was not because of the stoning or the physical torture he went through. Rather, it was during this time that the two people who were his rock — the two people who would support him and defend him from all persecution — Khadijah, رضي الله عنها, and Abu Talib — had both passed away. It was called Amul Huzn, the Year of Sorrow.

So Nabi ﷺ fled to Ta'if, seeking its people to accept Islam, to help him spread the message without persecution. But when he went, not only did they not accept Islam — they could have simply sent him on his way — but they tortured him and rejected him to the furthest extent.

The Du'a After Ta'if

If you look at the du'a of Nabi ﷺ after he left Ta'if, you will not find a du'a similar to it in the entire seerah. He was completely broken. He had gone to that place to seek refuge and he was literally stoned and chased out. Objectively the odds at Badr might have been worse — if the Muslims had lost at Badr, Islam would essentially have been finished. But at Badr, Nabi ﷺ had the sahabah with him, they went through it together. At Ta'if, he was all alone, treated in the most horrible manner, chased out of the city. And in his du'a he said:

"O Allah, if You are not angry with me — while I am being stoned, while I am being chased out and disgraced in Ta'if — if You are not angry with me, then I am fine. I don't care. I don't care about the torture. I don't care about this difficulty, them stoning me. The only thing I care about is You being happy with me. It doesn't matter what torture I go through. The pain doesn't matter."

This is the condition of the nafs al-mutma'innah — the heart that is at peace with the decree of Allah. No matter what condition it is in, if Allah has decreed something, it is content with it. Because Allah created that condition, so it is happy with it. This is the condition we must also have in our lives.

Reflecting on Our Own Lives

We see across the entire world similar harm and similar torture going through different places — in Gaza, the genocide that is going on; in Syria, the prisoners, the way they were tortured and the way everyone was going through harms and troubles. But we must also think that insha'Allah we have high hopes that Allah gives them all jannah. He gives them the highest jannah. Because they are fighting and they are being tortured for the sole purpose of upholding the deen of Allah. Why should we expect anything less than jannah for them?

But now we must look at ourselves. How can I sin and expect that same jannah? They are being tortured for the sake of Allah and they are getting jannah — how can I expect that same jannah while I indulge in sin? So for us, we must reflect on ourselves. Our jihad is staying away from sin. How can I stay away from sin? How can I not look at sin, not listen to sin, not walk towards haram? Any type of disobedience to Allah, we must make efforts to cut that out of our lives.

And we must make sure to connect ourselves to Allah — and that is through the masjid. If you read some of the accounts, the male prisoners — if the guards saw them praying salah, they would be tortured. They would be pulled out of their cell and tortured — just for praying salah. And we have the comfort of coming to the masjid and praying salah in safety, going home in safety.

So the least amount of mujahidah that we can do is we can wake up in the morning, brave the cold, and come and pray Fajr salah in the masjid. We must have a firm intention in our hearts that from today, I will leave sin. From today, I will make sure that I pray salah in the masjid — whether it's hot or cold, in any condition, I come and try to pray in the masjid. And I try to connect myself to those who are knowledgeable, connect myself to the deen, and get closer to Allah.

I ask Allah that He gives us all the tawfeeq to put this into practice and He gives solace and comfort to those who are being persecuted across the entire world.

Jazakumullahu khayran. Wa akhiru da'wana anil-hamdulillahi rabbil 'alamin.

Second Khutbah

All praise is due to Allah alone, and peace and blessings be upon the one after whom there is no prophet.

Remember Allah and He will remember you. Be grateful to Him and He will not be ungrateful to you. And establish the prayer.

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