The Ultimate Test of Faith | Mufti Abdul Wahab Waheed | Miftaah Circle

Opening

أَمَّا بَعْدُ — Allah says in His Noble Book, after seeking refuge in Allah from the accursed Shaytan:

And the Prophet ﷺ said to Abu Sufyan:

Looking to the Greats

Dear brothers, elders, sisters and youngsters — one of the first few things that we do whenever we start a new task or begin a journey in our life, we oftentimes will look towards those who had founded that institution, that methodology, that organization, to make sure that this new journey of ours that we're attempting to begin is in line with those who initiated it.

We look towards the greats of that niche, of those skill sets — how can I become like them? As I'm doing the same thing as them, how can I earn the status, how can I earn the honor and the prestige that they were given, if I'm in the same field as them? So those who play sports will look at those athletes, those who go into a certain field will look at those who have already come, conquered, and delivered. We will study their lives, we will aim to study their tendencies, their personalities, the do's and don'ts of their life, so we could also apply it within our niche of the skill set that we're attempting to achieve or to honor ourselves through — so that we can also earn that level and that status.

The same is a reality in this beautiful religion. The first identity that we have is a Muslim. The first identity that we're honored with is being Muslim. How do I establish this quality within my life? By becoming the greatest source of honor for me — I study those who initiated this process, I study those who came and gave us the honor of this beautiful religion.

Ibrahim — The Father of Submission

And amongst those great people was Ibrahim ﷺ, and how the Prophet of Allah ﷺ described him — that "I am an accepted supplication of my father Ibrahim ﷺ." He referred to him, or rather Allah referred to him, as: "This religion is the religion of your forefather, this religion is the religion of Ibrahim ﷺ, and he was the one who honored you with the name Muslim." He was the one who honored us with the name of Islam.

Though of course we were given this honor of identifying ourselves to the greatest identity that one could be given — through Ibrahim ﷺ. What was unique about his life, that Allah honored him with the name of Khalil, and honored him with the name of Siddiq, and honored him with the name of Ibrahim — that as a one-man individual he was an entire nation? Allah honored him with these titles. What allowed him to be given such acceptance?

And it all begins on the bedrock foundation — the primary quality that Allah speaks about when He says:

That when Allah says to Ibrahim, "Are you ready to submit?" — submission doesn't come in those things that are extra, submission doesn't come in those things that nobody really counts. Submission comes in those things that are truly difficult. Submission comes in those things that we truly have a sense of attachment to. Submission comes in those things where, when we submit to Allah, there is some type of an effect that takes place.

And when Allah asked him this question, his response was instantaneous — أَسْلَمْتُ لِرَبِّ الْعَالَمِينَ — I submit to the Lord of the heavens and the earth, I submit Ya Rabb. And it wasn't just the words that he said — it was his actions that echoed the same sentiments.

True Submission Has No Conditions

"Submit, O Ibrahim — do you submit?" Because the moment we say we become Muslim, we've also said to Allah that we submit. We have submitted our preferences, we have submitted our desires, we have submitted our children, we have submitted our families — to Your obedience. Submission to Allah is not compartmentalized to those things that we see to be beneficial to us. Submission does not have to be rational to us — submission has to fit within the rationality of our religion. Our rationale has to fit within the submission that we have to Allah.

Because there was nothing that was rational about him leaving his family in a valley. There was nothing that in any way, shape, or form could have been identified as a logical, smart decision. When Allah said to him, "Travel the lands" — when he left Palestine, the land that was filled with gardens and rivers — and Allah said to him, "Now leave, and take your family with Hajar and Ismail, and continue traveling." Where to, O Allah? "I'll let you know."

"O Allah, where is this going to take me?" Allah is saying, "I'll let you know." Where will this take me? "I have decided to move from a community where there was no masjid, to a community where there is a masjid." Where will this take me? "I got you, Ya Allah." "I decided to leave a business that brought me haram income — what would I do next?" "I'll let you know, Ya Allah." "I decided to leave a haram relationship though I was completely immersed within it — what will happen to me next?" "I'll let you know, Ya Allah." "I decided to stop listening to haram and stop looking at haram — it fulfilled my desires. What's next to fill my time?" "I'll let you know. I got your back."

Because there is no one better than:

There is no one better to take care of us than the One who truly loves us — more than our mothers — and there is no one better that can take care of us, like our mothers who love us, who is truly capable like Allah, Whose love is more than our mothers' and Whose capability is more than all of us combined. Why would He waste us when we leave something for Him?

Whoever Leaves Something for Allah

(Musnad Ahmad, reported by Abu Qatadah al-Ansari)

When the Prophet of Allah ﷺ says: "Whosoever leaves something" — Allah is Jawad, Allah is Kareem, Allah is the Most Generous, Allah is the Most Appreciative. If a person leaves something for his own friend or sibling, there is an understood compensation — in the sense of "you do this for me, I'll do this for you." If we leave something for someone who is more generous, we expect more from them in return. Allah is the Most Generous, the Most Appreciative.

He ﷺ says: "Whosoever leaves something for Allah, due to their submission to Allah's commandments, Allah will always replace that with that which is far better." مِمَّا هُوَ خَيْرٌ مِنْهُ — for those who speak Arabic know the meaning of khayrun — it doesn't mean that which is more, it means that which is better. And the metric of "better" cannot be identified and calculated by a numerical value of numbers — it can only be identified through what we feel and experience in this world, but ultimately in the akhira.

Leaving the Family in the Valley

His family was with him and he was told, "Leave the family." You left our garden and you moved to a desert. Allah described it Himself:

A valley that had absolutely no life — a lifeless place. No birds flying above, no cattle grazing the land, no greenery, no rivers, no water. There was nothing that was present in this land except Hajar and Ismail. And Allah says, "Leave them here."

One would say — but what is rational about me leaving something which brings me happiness? What's rational about it is that it brings Allah's pleasure. What's rational about it is that it takes away from the akhira that I'm truly aspiring to protect and preserve.

Blessings Are Trusts from Allah

So Allah tells Ibrahim, "Let the family stay here." He was told not to say much — just leave. And everyone knows that in the point of the highest emotion, the best thing to do is just don't speak, because it will force you to cry, it will make you break, it will create emotions within you that are hiding within your heart and force them to come out.

So Hajar rushes behind Ibrahim ﷺ and she finally says to him, after following him for three miles: "Oh my beloved husband, Allahu amaraka — was this the command of Allah?" And Ibrahim ﷺ says, "Yes, this was Allah's command." Then she says, "Then Allah will never waste us. If this is Allah's command, then we aren't worried — because if Allah is with us here, even in this barren land, Allah will make it a garden for us."

After 70 years of making du'a for a child, Allah blesses him with a child. We make du'a for years — for marriage, for children, for financial growth, for promotions. As believers, the moment we are given them, it was given by He who can take it from us. So the only way to truly be grateful to Him is to submit to Allah in the commandments that have to do with that blessing.

How do I raise the children that I sought from Allah? The way Allah taught us to raise them. How do I deal with the money that Allah gave me? The way that Allah and the Prophet ﷺ taught me to use and to earn that money. The one who gave us the blessing is ultimately the one who can truly take it back.

Hence when someone leaves the world, the statement that is taught to us is:

This is also recited in other difficulties and other challenges — we can say إِنَّا لِلَّهِ وَإِنَّا إِلَيْهِ رَاجِعُونَ for anything which is difficult. But this specific du'a is only taught to us to recite when a loved one passes away, when Allah takes someone from our life. And it's such a profound statement.

I lost my younger brother 3 years ago, and when my older brother came — as I was in a state of complete denial — he grabbed me by the collar and he said, "Don't you know what the Prophet ﷺ taught us to say? لِلَّهِ مَا أَعْطَىٰ وَلِلَّهِ مَا أَخَذَ — for Allah is what He gave, for Allah is what He takes. Your brother never belonged to you in the first place. He belonged to Allah. It was never ours to begin with."

When Allah talks about charity in the Quran He says:

That they give charity from that which We have given them. Imagine someone coming to me and giving me $1,000, and then saying, "Just hold it for me — I'll come back later and take it back." He comes back to me a week later and says, "Can I get $100 back?" And if I hesitate and have this sense of "no, this is mine" — that man will say to me, "Brother, I told you to hold it for me. It wasn't yours." That's exactly what Allah is saying — that I just gave it to you as amanah. It was never ours to begin with. So when this concept is clear to us — that it was given by Him, it can be taken by Him — in the span in between, let me use it the way He taught me to use it.

The Space vs. The State of the Heart

So Allah tells Ibrahim, "Let your family go." He leaves the family, and everyone knows that in the point of highest emotion the best thing to do is just don't speak, because it will create emotions within you that are hiding within your heart.

She returns and she does the unthinkable — she continues. This child is with her. She's not coming to her in-laws, to her family — she's coming to nobody. But she has Allah with her. And those men — مَنْ فَقَدَ اللَّهَ فَقَدَ كُلَّ شَيْءٍ، وَمَنْ وَجَدَ اللَّهَ وَجَدَ كُلَّ شَيْءٍ — whoever has lost Allah's support has lost everything; whoever has found Allah has found everything.

Allama Iqbal — the great poet of the subcontinent — used to say:

He would say: "I was unable to secure the blessing of peace anywhere in this world — I couldn't find it. And I traveled. O Allah, I know that there is nothing within me, my life and my blessings, that gave me this feeling — I was able to experience it because I submitted to You. After submitting to You, I felt like I was the king of the world."

Imam al-Shafi'i rahimullah would say:

"When we are people of contentment with the decree of Allah, then us and the kings of the world are equal."

She continues to run from Safa to Marwah, Safa to Marwah — which we call Sa'i. Sa'i by definition is to do the same thing over and over again until we see the results that we were seeking. If she had yet to see Zamzam, she continued going back and forth. Finally, after all 7 times — and when we go for Umrah and Hajj we walk where she walked and we run where she ran — no one was watching but Allah. That's all we need. There was no bookkeeper documenting where she ran and walked, but Allah loved her act of obedience so much — though she wasn't a prophet — that our entire Hajj is dependent upon following her footsteps. Not simply doing what she did — doing it how she did it, that we have to run where she ran and walk where she walked.

No one was watching but Allah. This is called submission — knowing that if I submit myself to Allah, He'll take care of me.

The Miracle of Zamzam

After the end of the 7th run, she sees water sprouting from the earth — which we know as Zamzam — because she went and said "Zamzam," which literally means "stop, take it easy — I need to figure out how to collect you." And the water was given to her not because she simply sat there. Because when we submit, it doesn't mean that we don't use the resources around us. When we submit, it doesn't mean that we sit back and just make du'a. When we submit, we also make an effort — we also try, we do our part — and then through that submission and our effort, Allah gives us miracles.

Allah could have given her water through the rain clouds. Allah could have given her water through someone coming as a traveler. Allah gave her water through a miracle — because when we submit ourselves to Allah, we don't need resources that everyone else has. We need the source of the resources, and the source is Allah.

He is not the resource — He is the source of the resource. And when we have Him, He can give it to us in many different ways. The packaging doesn't matter, as long as we earn what we had asked for and Allah gives it to us in different packages.

That same land that was known as وَادٍ غَيْرِ ذِي زَرْعٍ is now the most beloved land to every single one of us. Not a single heart in here is not attached to Mecca al-Mukarramah. It was a city that had no life — now it is a city that is a source of life for all of us. The landscape didn't change — it's still a desert. The infrastructure didn't change. What changed? That family that had come there had dedicated their life to submit to Allah, and that submission became the cause of the honor of the city and the honor of those that lived there.

The house that we live in is not required to change — the people in the house are required to change. And then the impact of the house also changes. It's directly connected to the inhabitants of the home. Hence we're told that whoever recites Ayat al-Kursi, their home is filled with protection — it's not because they had the best lock and the best alarm system. It's because they recited Ayat al-Kursi. Submission creates every sense of comfort for us.

The Ultimate Test — The Command to Slaughter

He came back years later — they say about 7 years later:

He comes back all these years later — and I'm paraphrasing and just summarizing the story so we understand the idea of submission — and he is told 3 nights in a row that he is slaughtering his son. Once again, a person who doesn't truly understand the love that Allah has for us would say, "What a radical statement." Allah says to us in the Quran:

He says: "If I was to tell you — hypothetically, of course — to go and fight, to leave your homes and abandon everything, very few would do it. But those who would do it would be better" — i.e., every command of Allah is filled with wisdom, hence He is Al-Hakeem.

The Conversation Between Father and Son

Ibrahim ﷺ comes to his son and says:

"Oh my son, I saw in my dream that I was slaughtering you." Imagine coming to your son and saying that. And no one will ever ask us to slaughter our children — but we will have moments that we come to our children and say: "I realize that I give more importance to you getting an A in school than you praying Fajr with me." Where our importance lies is where our children's importance will lie. Where our honor lies is where our children will seek honor.

Why do children wish to become someone or something? Because the parents honored those types of people. Why did we — we're five brothers — why did we want to become scholars? Because we saw our father constantly honoring scholars. So when we were growing up, we would see this physician father of ours — who has everything that he would desire — sitting in front of scholars who hardly have anything. That's something that we want to become, because our parents are honoring them. The honor that we show our children is what will ultimately give them honor in this life.

He said, "I saw that I was slaughtering you." The son said:

"Don't sweat it — take care of it." You know, when we raise our children in an environment where they should become engineers or physicians, and we finally tell them, they say, "Don't sweat it — that's what I'm going to do anyway. That was my plan this entire time." When we raise our children to become a specific type of person, or to do something specific, when we finally tell them: "Yeah, that's what I thought the whole time anyway. I had no other plans."

So this child was raised by a single mother with such a mentality that when Allah's command comes — "That's what I was built for, that's what I was created for." And how the mothers of the shuhada of Uhud — when they were presented with their children who had become shaheed — Umm Ammarah would say:

"This is what I raised him for — to earn that shahada and to earn Allah's pleasure."

And that son wasn't asked merely as a formality — because if he had said no, Ibrahim wouldn't have done it. He was asked because he was also a part of this reward. And hence the Ka'ba was not built by Ibrahim alone — it was also Ismail. That 7-year-old kid was a part of it. There is no one who is insignificant due to their age — a person is insignificant because of the lack of obedience they have. Even a child that is 7 years old who has obedience becomes significant in the eyes of Allah.

The Reward of Submission

Ibrahim goes and attempts to slaughter him. The story continues — and at the end, Allah honors Ibrahim with his son, honors Ibrahim with Ishaq, and honors Ibrahim with an entire Ummah. Not only his Ummah, but the Ummah of the Prophet ﷺ is also an extension of his Ummah.

This was by no other quality — it occurred and took place only through his ability to submit to Allah in the places and in the moments where it was difficult. And we understand that after the month of Ramadan, things become easy for us that are haram, and things that are good become difficult for us. And the next month will be the month of Ibrahim ﷺ — in Dhul-Hijjah. And we realize that submitting in the moments that are difficult are the sources of the greatest reward and create the greatest impact in our lives.

The space of Gaza and Palestine — it's rubble, rocks, people being killed in a genocide taking place in front of our own eyes. But when we hear those children speak, and we speak to those brave men and women that went there to visit, to serve those hospitals, and we ask them, "What was the feeling of the people like?" — they say nothing but contentment and faith. Because a state has very little to do with the space. It has to do with the amal of a person, what they do to please Allah.

Closing Du'a

May Allah make us amongst those that can honor our families, honor our children, honor our homes through the submission that we have to the commandments of Allah. The reality of life is that we all submit to someone. Lucky and fortunate are those who submit to our Creator. May Allah make us amongst those. May Allah make us among those who submit to Allah.