Tranquility through Adversity - Shaykh Ahsan Hanif

Tranquility Through Adversity

إِنَّ الْحَمْدَ لِلَّهِ تَعَالَى نَحْمَدُهُ وَنَسْتَعِينُهُ وَنَسْتَغْفِرُهُ وَنَعُوذُ بِاللَّهِ مِنْ شُرُورِ أَنْفُسِنَا وَمِنْ سَيِّئَاتِ أَعْمَالِنَا مَنْ يَهْدِهِ اللَّهُ فَلَا مُضِلَّ لَهُ وَمَنْ يُضْلِلْهُ فَلَا هَادِيَ لَهُ وَأَشْهَدُ أَنْ لَا إِلَهَ إِلَّا اللَّهُ وَحْدَهُ لَا شَرِيكَ لَهُ وَأَشْهَدُ أَنَّ مُحَمَّدًا عَبْدُهُ وَرَسُولُهُ

أَمَّا بَعْدُ، فَإِنَّ أَصْدَقَ الْحَدِيثِ كِتَابُ اللَّهِ تَعَالَى وَخَيْرَ الْهُدَى هُدَى مُحَمَّدٍ صَلَّى اللَّهُ عَلَيْهِ وَسَلَّمَ وَشَرَّ الْأُمُورِ مُحْدَثَاتُهَا وَكُلَّ مُحْدَثَةٍ بِدْعَةٌ وَكُلَّ بِدْعَةٍ ضَلَالَةٌ وَكُلَّ ضَلَالَةٍ فِي النَّارِ

The Universal Search for Tranquility

Something which is a common pursuit between all people — Muslims, non-Muslims, the old, the young, the rich and the poor alike — is tranquility in this life: to seek peace and contentment within your heart, to seek happiness and tranquility. It is something which everyone is searching for. In fact, if you were to look throughout history, even towards the ancient Greeks and the early Chinese philosophers, you would see that they would often speak about this concept of happiness and tranquility. And when you fast forward thousands of years later to today, the self-help industry is a multi-billion dollar industry because people are seeking throughout the world that concept of help, that concept of tranquility, of happiness and joy.

As Muslims, we know that part of attaining that tranquility — and a major stepping stone to attaining that tranquility — is our belief in Allah and our remembrance of Him, as Allah tells us in the Quran:

Those who believe and their hearts have tranquility because of their remembrance of Allah — and indeed, through the remembrance of Allah do the hearts gain tranquility.

It is something which is a pursuit that all of us seek. We all want that peace, contentment and tranquility in this lifetime. But how do we attain that tranquility in times of difficulty and adversity? When we look around us throughout the world, there is not a single moment's peace and quiet. There isn't something which on the horizon seems to be a set of circumstances that are just easy and quiet and comfortable, so that we may attain that tranquility.

But herein lies the problem as well, because our concept of tranquility and happiness and contentment in life is that there must be a set of ideal and perfect circumstances in order for us to be able to feel that tranquility. That's what we think, that's how we conceive the concept of tranquility — everything must be going well, our personal life must be okay, our family life must be good, we mustn't have any problems in any issue within our lives, in our communities, in the ummah in general — and then we are able to attain that level of tranquility.

As-Sakinah in the Quran: Six Mentions, Four Stories

But actually, when we look through the Quran, the opposite is the truth. Six times in the Quran, Allah mentions the word for tranquility — As-Sakinah. Six times in the Quran this concept is mentioned, and those six verses pertain to four stories, to four events that took place. Each one of those four events, and each one of those six circumstances in which the word sakinah and tranquility is mentioned in the Quran, do not actually point to issues of comfort and issues of enjoying life. Rather, it is the opposite. When Allah mentions tranquility in the Quran — As-Sakinah — He mentions it in the context of difficulty and adversity, of hardship, of trial and tribulation.

It is in those circumstances — when you as an individual in your own life are going through difficulty with your family, with your children, with your health, you have financial difficulties and money issues, or the ummah as a whole, the society, the community is going through a series of difficult circumstances — it is at those times that the people who remain steadfast upon the path to Allah, their iman in Allah increases. That is when Allah gives them sakinah. He gives them tranquility. And what is the tranquility that Allah gives to them? He gives them peace in their heart that allows them to remain steadfast upon their path to Allah. That sakinah is that even in the most difficult of times, in the most turbulent of circumstances, they see clearly the path that will bring them success, because Allah has placed that clear insight within their hearts. They know what they need to do.

And that is why, when you look throughout the Quran and Sunnah generally, the stories of the prophets of Allah — Allah gave to His prophets sakinah even when the world around them was in turmoil. They knew the path that they had to tread upon. They knew the path that would take them to Allah. So Allah gives us these four stories in the Quran; in each one of them He mentions the word sakinah, and each one of them is a story of difficulty and trial and tumult.

The First Story: Dawud and Jalut (David and Goliath)

The first of them is mentioned in Surah Al-Baqarah — the story of Dawud and Jalut, David and Goliath. After the time of Musa, peace be upon him, there came a period of time for Bani Isra'il when they were persecuted and oppressed. Many of their number were killed by an enemy that had overpowered them, and that enemy had imprisoned many of their number, and he had tortured and oppressed them and taken from them their valuables, their lands and their possessions.

So they came to a prophet that Allah had given to them at that time, and they asked from that prophet that he appoint for them a king — a leader, a general — that would lead them in warfare, that would go against their enemy, that would take them out of this difficult circumstance. These are people who are not just sitting at home doing nothing. They are not people who are enjoying life, living in comfort, living in luxury. Rather they are going through oppression and difficulty and trial.

So they asked this prophet to appoint for them a king, and he says to them that indeed Allah has chosen for your king a man by the name of Talut. This man Talut was a soldier in the army of Bani Isra'il. He wasn't from the nobility of Bani Isra'il, he wasn't from the echelons of Bani Isra'il. He was a soldier, and he was chosen to be their king. And then the prophet tells them — as Allah mentions in Surah Al-Baqarah — what the sign of his kingdom is, the sign of his leadership:

That indeed from the signs of his kingdom is that they will come back to you — the chest in which there is tranquility from your Lord. He will bring to you those lost possessions that those enemies took from you, the things that they took from the remnants of Musa, peace be upon him, and those things that they stole from you, he will bring them back, and within that there will be sakinah for you.

And if you were to read on in this story — of how Dawud, peace be upon him, who is also just a soldier in the army, goes and faces Goliath with all of his might and strength and army, and he overpowers him by the will of Allah — because he knew that in this most difficult of circumstances, he, a soldier, had clear insight, clear vision, because Allah had placed sakinah in his heart. He knew what he had to do, and so he followed those footsteps in a way that was pleasing to Allah, and Allah gave him victory.

Difficult circumstances — it is in those times that Allah gives sakinah. This is a concept that you find throughout the stories of the prophets, even when Allah doesn't use the word sakinah explicitly. If you were to look at the story of Ya'qub and Yusuf, peace be upon them, the story of Musa and all of his trials, the story of Ibrahim and the many challenges that were placed before him — in each and every single circumstance these prophets have something in common, and that is that Allah gave them tranquility. But that tranquility doesn't come through ease. It doesn't come through comfort. It comes when times are hard and difficult. It comes when you have to put in the extra hard work. It comes at times when you are forced to go back to Allah — you are driven back to Allah, to make du'a to Allah, to trust in Allah, to have certainty in Allah's promise, to give more sadaqah, to pray, you increase your level of ibadah and closeness to Allah — and then Allah causes His tranquility to descend upon you.

The Second Story: The Hijra — The Migration of the Prophet

The second story that Allah mentions sakinah in the Quran is concerning our Prophet, peace be upon him, and the story of the Hijra, the migration. This was a pivotal moment in our history. So pivotal and important was this event that when many years later Umar, may Allah be pleased with him, came to set the calendar for the Muslims, he chose the Hijra, the migration, as the starting point of the Muslim calendar — the Islamic calendar.

It is an amazing event. The Prophet, peace be upon him — if you think about this event — he and his few followers are being persecuted, they're being tortured, and now they're being forced into exile. They're being made to leave their homeland, leave behind their wealth and their property, and many of them leave behind even members of their own families, to leave Mecca and travel to Medina.

The Prophet, peace be upon him, doesn't say to them, "Let's stick together." He doesn't say, "Let's all leave together at once because there will be safety in numbers." Rather, he does the opposite. He tells them all to go and leave in secret. So one person leaves at night, and this family leaves quietly in the morning, and someone else pretends that they're going on a journey but instead they leave and they go to Medina. And the Prophet, peace be upon him, remains behind with very few followers — Abu Bakr, may Allah be pleased with him, and his family, Ali, may Allah be pleased with him — a few people are left behind in Mecca.

And the Meccans are not stupid — they know what's going on. They know that these Muslims are seeking asylum in Medina. They know that they've left. They know that the Prophet, peace be upon him, is also planning to leave, and that is why they plot to assassinate him.

But look at the sakinah that Allah places in his heart — the sakinah in the heart of the Prophet, peace be upon him — that despite all of these events going on around him on a daily basis, living in fear for your life, the Prophet, peace be upon him, remains calm and collected. He goes to the house of Abu Bakr, may Allah be pleased with him, after Allah gives him permission to migrate, and they leave together. And then they go to a cave and they stay there hidden for three nights. When the bounty hunters of Quraysh come and they are searching the area around Mecca seeking the Prophet, peace be upon him, they come to the mouth of the cave. We all know the story — what does Abu Bakr say? Doesn't Abu Bakr say: "O Messenger of Allah, they only need to look down at the mouth of the cave and they will see us hiding within it"?

And the Prophet, peace be upon him, has sakinah from Allah. When the two of them were hiding in the cave and Abu Bakr, may Allah be pleased with him, said what he said, the Prophet, peace be upon him, replied: "Don't despair, for indeed Allah is with us." And that is when Allah says in the Quran — that is when Allah caused His tranquility to descend upon him — in the most difficult circumstance, when he is fearing for his life, when death is imminent, when the stakes are so high, because if the Prophet, peace be upon him, were to die there, that is the end of Islam. It is at that point that the Prophet, peace be upon him, remains calm, he knows what he has to do, he stays steadfast trusting in Allah, and so Allah descends His tranquility upon him.

The Third Story: The Treaty of Hudaybiyyah

In another circumstance in the Quran, Allah tells us about the Treaty of Hudaybiyyah — the third story that is mentioned concerning sakinah. The Treaty of Hudaybiyyah is a treaty that takes place in the sixth year of the Hijra, meaning for some 19-odd years of prophethood of Islam, the Muslims and the Quraysh have been engaged in constant warfare, in battle. They've been fighting and killing for 19-odd years — persecution, torture, and difficulty. And now the Prophet, peace be upon him, decides that they will go for Umrah.

Where are they going for Umrah? In the heart of the lion's mouth, so to speak — in the city of Mecca, where the archenemy has all power. And because they are going for Umrah, they are going in the garments of ihram, so they're not in body armor, they're not dressed for warfare, they don't have their shields on them, they didn't take their weapons with them, because they're not going to fight and for war. They are going to perform Umrah — to worship Allah, pilgrimage.

So the Prophet, peace be upon him, despite all of these circumstances around him, despite how many times the Quraysh have come to kill the Prophet, peace be upon him, and to destroy Islam and the Muslims, despite all of these years of history, Allah places sakinah in his heart:

It is Allah who placed sakinah — tranquility — in the hearts of the believers, so they would increase in faith with the faith that they already had.

They leave — all of them, 1,400 — trusting in the Prophet, peace be upon him. They leave from Medina and they go towards Mecca, but they are stopped in a place called Hudaybiyyah. And now a series of circumstances will come to test the faith of the mu'mineen, the companions — to test them and to try them, to see if this sakinah is upon them.

The first of those tests is that the Prophet, peace be upon him, sends Uthman, may Allah be pleased with him, to go to Mecca as his ambassador — to go and speak to the leaders of Quraysh, to convince them that the Muslims haven't come to fight or to cause trouble, but that they've come to take the right that all of the Arabs had — all of them shared from all of the tribes of Arabia — and that is that if they wanted to come and perform pilgrimage, they would be allowed free access in peace to come and to perform Umrah or Hajj.

So Uthman, may Allah be pleased with him, leaves and goes to the city of Mecca. And as he's there speaking to the people of Mecca and to the chieftains, the leaders of Mecca, a rumor reaches the Muslims in Hudaybiyyah — and that rumor is that Uthman, may Allah be pleased with him, was killed. He was murdered. Even though he went as an ambassador of peace, he went there to negotiate, and messengers of peace are not killed by any country or any king — he was assassinated, he was killed, murdered in cold blood.

So the Prophet, peace be upon him — the Muslims are in the garments of ihram, and if any of you have been for Umrah or Hajj you know how difficult that is. It's difficult enough when you fly on a six-hour flight from London to Jeddah. Imagine traveling for weeks on end from Medina to Mecca by foot or on donkey or horse. They're dressed in ihram, they're not ready for battle. But the Prophet, peace be upon him, sits under the shade of a tree and takes from each one of those 1,400-odd companions a pledge of allegiance that they would go and avenge the death of Uthman, may Allah be pleased with him. They would avenge his death — even though they're not ready for war, they are outnumbered, they don't have weapons, they don't have armor, they haven't come with their shields, they don't have the mindset of war. But still they will go and they will fight.

And that is when Allah says: "Indeed Allah is pleased with those believers who gave you that pledge of allegiance under the shade of the tree, and Allah knows what is in their hearts." And that is when Allah's tranquility descended upon them — even in the most trying of circumstances, in the most difficult of situations. When a person's iman is strong, when they're not moved and shaken by the events that take place around them, that is when Allah's sakinah comes, and it is something which increases at those times.

So the Prophet, peace be upon him, later learns that Uthman, may Allah be pleased with him, wasn't assassinated, wasn't killed. And Uthman, may Allah be pleased with him, returns to Hudaybiyyah to the Muslims, and with him are two men of Quraysh who will come to sign a treaty of peace with the Muslims, to negotiate terms of peace with the Prophet, peace be upon him.

So the Prophet, peace be upon him, begins this negotiation. And as we all know, that treaty that was signed between the Muslims and the Quraysh was heavily in the favor of Quraysh. There wasn't a single point that was in the favor of the Muslims. In fact, the Quraysh made it so difficult because they didn't want a single point of the treaty to be signed, they didn't want these points to be accepted. But the Prophet, peace be upon him, said to his companions: "So long as they don't ask for anything haram, anything displeasing to Allah, I will agree to all of their points."

So the Prophet, peace be upon him, agreed. They said: "The Muslims must return back to Medina — for the first time, you're not allowed to come and perform Umrah. Go home." The Prophet, peace be upon him, agreed. "Next year you come back and we'll empty out the city of Mecca, and you come and you perform your Umrah." The Muslims agreed. "If someone leaves the city of Mecca as a Muslim seeking refuge and asylum in Medina, you must return him — you're not allowed to give him asylum." The Muslims agreed. "But if someone leaves Medina and comes to Mecca fleeing from the Muslims, doesn't want Islam anymore, you must leave him be and allow him to remain in Mecca." The Muslims agreed. Every single point, the Prophet, peace be upon him, agrees to.

And then even when it comes to writing the treaty — and Ali, may Allah be pleased with him, is transcribing it, writing it down — he begins with بِسْمِ اللَّهِ الرَّحْمَٰنِ الرَّحِيمِ, "In the name of Allah, Most Gracious, Most Merciful." The Quraysh — the two men of Quraysh who are standing in Hudaybiyyah, against 1,400 Muslims, vastly outnumbered — said: "We don't accept Ar-Rahman Ar-Rahim. We don't know these names. Rather, write Bismillah — 'In Your name, O Allah.'" The Prophet, peace be upon him, agrees.

"This is a treaty between Muhammad Rasulullah — the Messenger of Allah, peace be upon him — and the representatives of Quraysh." They said: "No, we don't accept that you're the Messenger of Allah. Had we accepted that, we wouldn't be fighting in the first place. Write your name and the name of your father: Muhammad, the son of Abdullah." And again the Prophet, peace be upon him, agrees. Every single point he agrees to. And that is why companions like Umar, may Allah be pleased with him, and others from amongst the companions were so incensed and so upset on that day.

So Allah describes the writing of this treaty and He says in the Quran:

When those people who had disbelief had the rage and anger in their hearts — the anger of Jahiliyyah — they wouldn't even accept the names of Allah, they wouldn't even accept the writing of the title of the Prophet, peace be upon him. The smallest issue they made into a big mountain. But the Prophet, peace be upon him, agreed to everything — and then Allah caused His tranquility to descend upon His messenger and upon the believers.

They signed the treaty, everything was agreed. And a man comes fleeing from Mecca by the name of Abu Jandal — a Muslim, in chains — and he comes seeking asylum and help from the Muslims. But the representative of Quraysh who was leading that delegation happened to be his father. So he said: "He is the first one that I want returned." The Prophet, peace be upon him, tried to convince him otherwise. The man refused, and then when he took possession of his son — who is in chains — he began to beat him in front of all of the Muslims.

The Prophet, peace be upon him, in his heart has sakinah. He knows there is a greater vision. He knows that there is a greater goal. And so the Prophet, peace be upon him, returned with his companions to Medina. When they returned to Medina, Allah opened Surah Al-Fath with the verse:

"Indeed, We have given you a manifest victory." The victory was that now, through these peace terms, the Muslims and the companions would be able to go and give open da'wah. This is the sakinah that Allah placed in his heart — that those 1,400 Muslims that it took 19 years to accumulate, in the space of 2 more years, would swell to 10,000. That is the sakinah that Allah gave to the Muslims at that time.

The Fourth Story: The Battle of Hunayn

The fourth and final time — the fourth story — that Allah mentions sakinah is the Battle of Hunayn, which took place after the conquest of Mecca. The Battle of Hunayn was the first time the Muslim army was the one that had the superior numbers. For the first time in their history, there are more Muslims in the army than the enemy has. They are better equipped because they just conquered the city of Mecca. Thousands of people have accepted Islam. They have the wealth of Mecca and their weaponry and all of the shields and armor that they possessed.

So some of the companions, when they went to the Battle of Hunayn, said on that day: "Today we won't be defeated because we are not few in number." But when the battle started, the Muslims were suffering a defeat. Their rows and their ranks were in disarray. People were fleeing from the battlefield. And that is what Allah describes in the Quran:

"On the day of Hunayn, when you were amazed by your numbers." And that is when the Prophet, peace be upon him, called the Muslims to regroup around him — he called the companions to come back to the battlefield and surround him, to regroup around him. So Allah says:

That is when Allah caused His sakinah to descend upon them — in the most difficult and trying of circumstances.

The Common Thread: Sakinah Comes Through Steadfastness in Adversity

Throughout the Quran, in these four stories, these six times that the word sakinah is mentioned, the one thing that you will find in common is that it is in times of difficulty and adversity, in times of trial and tribulation — when you stay the course and you stay steadfast upon what Allah wants from you, you continue to follow the teachings of the Quran and the example of our Prophet, peace be upon him — it is in those difficult times that Allah causes His sakinah and His tranquility to descend upon you.

بَارَكَ اللَّهُ لِي وَلَكُمْ فِي الْقُرْآنِ وَالسُّنَّةِ وَنَفَعَنِي وَإِيَّاكُمْ بِمَا فِيهِمَا مِنَ الْآيَاتِ وَالْحِكْمَةِ أَقُولُ قَوْلِي هَذَا وَأَسْتَغْفِرُ اللَّهَ لِي وَلَكُمْ وَلِجَمِيعِ الْمُسْلِمِينَ مِنْ كُلِّ ذَنْبٍ فَاسْتَغْفِرُوهُ إِنَّهُ هُوَ الْغَفُورُ الرَّحِيمُ

Second Part of the Khutbah

بِسْمِ اللَّهِ، الْحَمْدُ لِلَّهِ، وَالصَّلَاةُ وَالسَّلَامُ عَلَى رَسُولِ اللَّهِ وَعَلَى آلِهِ وَصَحْبِهِ وَمَنْ وَالَاهُ وَسَلَّمَ تَسْلِيمًا كَثِيرًا، أَمَّا بَعْدُ.

The Prophet, peace be upon him — this is the type of tarbiyah, education and nurturing, that he gave to his companions. That they would understand and realize these concepts. And that's why you see that the companions, may Allah be pleased with them all, they never had a moment of peace. They never had times except that they were always working and busy and going through different types of trials and tribulations — whether in the life of the Prophet, peace be upon him, or after the death of the Messenger of Allah, peace be upon him. But they stayed upon that course and they remained strong in their message and the example that the Prophet, peace be upon him, had given to them.

They were people who were leaders. They were amazing. They were giants in what they did. Because all of those issues that took place in the world around them — no matter if it was a personal issue or something which affected all of them as a community — despite all of that, they were people who were clear and level-headed. They were people who were calm and collected. They were people who always went back to what Allah wanted from them before they thought about anything else. And so Allah always gave them sakinah. Allah gave them tranquility in their hearts.

Some of them — or many of them — were poor, didn't have money, but still they had that tranquility. Some of them had difficulties in terms of their personal lives, with their families, with their children, but still Allah gave them tranquility. And all of them were facing enemies — hypocrites within their folds and enemies from beyond their walls — but still Allah gave them that sakinah.

Because the Prophet, peace be upon him, gave them this understanding: don't expect tranquility from Allah to come to you when everything happens to be well, because it is rare that those perfect set of circumstances will come upon each and every single one of us. It is extremely rare. Rather, the norm is that we're always going through some type of adversity and challenge. But it is through that adversity and challenge, through your iman, that you can still attain that taqwa and that sakinah from Allah.

The Battle of Ahzab: A Living Example of Sakinah

And that's why I want to conclude with an example of how the Prophet, peace be upon him, instilled this within his companions — in the Battle of Ahzab, the Battle of the Trench. When the confederate Arab armies had gathered and surrounded Medina, all of them had come together to destroy Medina. They came to kill the Muslims once and for all. And the Prophet, peace be upon him, when he heard, took the advice of Salman Al-Farisi, may Allah be pleased with him, and for weeks they were digging a trench — deep and wide — that would protect and defend the city of Medina. Because when those enemy armies come to attack Medina, it's not just the men that they will kill, but their womenfolk and their children and their elderly and the sick — all of them will be destroyed within the walls of Medina.

So the Prophet, peace be upon him, was digging. In the hadith of Al-Bara' ibn 'Azib, may Allah be pleased with him, collected in Sahih Al-Bukhari and Sahih Muslim, a companion by the name of 'Amir ibn Al-Akwa', may Allah be pleased with him, began to say poetry. And his poetry shows you how they understood the concept of tranquility — because they had already learned it from the Prophet, peace be upon him. He said:

"O Allah, if it weren't for You, we would never have been guided, nor would we know how to give charity or to pray. So O Allah, cause Your tranquility to descend upon us, and make us firm when we meet our enemy."

This is the poetry that he recited. The Prophet, peace be upon him, didn't tell him to say this — but it was something which was already instilled within the companions. When they're digging and they're suffering from a lack of food and energy and they're thirsty in the desert heat, despite those difficult circumstances, they understood that this is the time when Allah will cause His tranquility to descend upon them.

May Allah make our hearts full of tranquility, and may Allah make our hearts steadfast, and may Allah protect us and our families from trials — the difficulty of those trials and the hardship of those trials — and may Allah shower His mercy upon us, upon our families and upon our children.