The Protector - Shaykh Aqeel Mahmood

The Protector — Al-Ḥāfiẓ, Al-Muhaymin

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 the most exalted of Prophets and Messengers, our Prophet Muhammad and all his family and companions.

From the names of Allah that He calls Himself in the Quran are some names related to Allah being a guardian, a preserver, and a protector. For example, Allah calls Himself in the Quran Al-Ḥāfiẓ. Allah says:

Verily, my Lord is over all things a Preserver, a Protector, a Guardian.

The word Al-Ḥāfiẓ is also similar in meaning to Al-Ḥāfidh — somebody who protects, somebody who guards, somebody who preserves. And this is why the one who has memorized the Quran is known as Al-Ḥāfidh. Because not only has he memorized the words of the Quran, but he is also preserving the meaning of the Quran in his heart, on his tongue, and with his limbs through his actions.

Also from the names of Allah which carry similar meanings is Al-Muhaymin — the one who protects, the one who guards, the one who oversees everything that takes place under His dominion.

The Prophet's Life: A Living Example of Divine Protection

When we look at the life of the Messenger of Allah, we see examples of how the Prophet and the companions had so much trust and tawakkul in Allah. How they truly understood and realized that there was no one who could give them the protection they needed more so than Allah Himself.

There is only so much a human being can do to protect somebody else — somebody he loves, a loved one, a spouse, a husband, a wife, his or her brother or sister, their children, their parents. There will be instances and times and cases where you won't be there for your loved one when they may need you. There's no chance of a person being with another individual that he loves and wants to care for 24 hours of the day.

When we look at the life of the Messenger of Allah, even from before prophethood, we realize that he was under the guardianship of Allah. Allah was the one who was taking care of him when there was nobody else who could have taken care of him. His father passed away before he was even born. His mother passed away when he was a child. His grandfather passed away when he was also a child, around the age of six years old.

And in the Quran, Allah reminds him of this. In Surah al-Duha, Allah says:

Did He not find you an orphan and give you refuge? And He found you lost and guided you. And He found you poor and made you self-sufficient — gave you wealth, made you rich.

Reminding the Messenger of Allah that there was nobody taking care of him, there was no one who was watching over him, more so than Allah Himself. And in order for him to rely on Allah, Allah made him realize this by causing his own parents to pass away when he was young.

Some may say: if he was the Messenger of Allah, why did Allah cause his parents to die at such a young age? Why didn't his parents see him grow up and take care of him and give him that educational nourishment and that tarbiyah that he so much needed and depended upon if he was going to be the Messenger he was going to be? Because Allah wanted him to realize — He is the one who protects, He is the one who guards. He is the one who truly protects and oversees and preserves the individual more than any human being can possibly do.

The Cave of Thawr: Refuge in Allah

When we look at the life of the Messenger of Allah, we see so many examples of this happening — seeing this in action, Allah being the Protector, the Guardian, the Preserver.

When the Messenger of Allah left Mecca with Abu Bakr (may Allah be pleased with him), it was such a dangerous journey because the Meccans and the Quraysh wanted to kill the Messenger of Allah before he went to Medina. And so they set out in search of him, intending and planning on killing him. And there was no one there to protect him. The whole of the city of Mecca was against the Messenger of Allah. There was no one in the city who would give him protection, which is why he left in the first place.

Him and Abu Bakr (may Allah be pleased with him) they left, and we know the story of how when they left, they entered Ghār Thawr — the Cave of Thawr. And when the two of them were in the cave and were hiding, the Mushrikūn came into the cave and were searching for them.

Abu Bakr (may Allah be pleased with him) said: "O Messenger of Allah, all they have to do is just look down and they will see us, and they will kill us, and we are finished." And so the Messenger of Allah told Abu Bakr (may Allah be pleased with him) — and this shows us the trust that he had in Allah:

What do you think of two people whose third is Allah?

Do not grieve. Verily, Allah is with us.

And this is mentioned in the Quran. Allah mentions these statements — the speech of the Messenger of Allah at this very moment — in the Quran, because of how crucial and important those statements were. How he relied on Allah in a moment when they could have been killed. It could have been the end of their lives.

And so we have to realize and understand and remember that, as the Messenger of Allah told us: if the whole world came together to try to protect us, they won't be able to protect you if Allah had decreed otherwise. And if the whole of the world was to come together to try to harm you, then no harm could come to you if Allah hasn't decreed it. Meaning Allah is the one who is the ultimate protector — the one who takes care of His slaves as long as they remember Him.

The Invisible Veil: Umm Jameel and Surah Al-Isra

We know the story of when they were in Makkah and Surah Al-Masad was revealed, cursing Abu Lahab and his wife. And when his wife heard the news — Umm Jameel, the wife of Abu Lahab — she came looking for the Messenger of Allah, who was sitting with Abu Bakr (may Allah be pleased with him). And Abu Bakr saw her coming towards them and said: "I am afraid for your life, O Messenger of Allah. I am afraid of what she might do to you."

And so the Messenger of Allah said to Abu Bakr: "Innahā lan tarānī" — she won't see me. She won't be able to see me. And he recited:

When you recite the Quran, We place between you and those who do not believe in the Last Day a veil, a hidden barrier — something invisible between you.

And when she came forward and started to speak to Abu Bakr (may Allah be pleased with him) about what the Messenger of Allah had done and what he had been saying about her — about Abu Lahab — and she was cursing and angry and spewing all those evil things, after she finished she walked away. And Abu Bakr was surprised and shocked. Not once did she turn to the Messenger of Allah.

And when he asked the Messenger of Allah about this, he told him that verily Allah had made him invisible to her. She could not see him. Because of his trust in Allah, because of him remembering Allah — reciting Quran, remembering the speech of Allah in times of distress, in times of calamity, in times where if we were in similar situations, afraid for our lives, maybe we would think of other things, we would say other things.

How often and how much would we actually think of reciting the Quran if harm was about to befall us? That is something we really have to think about. Consciously — how much are we even remembering Allah in the day and night, on a regular basis, to the extent that if something was to happen to us, if some harm was to befall us, naturally we would remember Allah? Are we at that stage where we are constantly remembering Allah?

The Man Who Raised the Sword

The Messenger of Allah was once travelling with the companions and they were tired, so they rested. All the companions were tired and they fell asleep. And the Messenger of Allah was under a tree, resting.

One of the non-Muslims saw the companions and saw that the Messenger of Allah was there under the tree — exposed, defenseless — and the companions were fast asleep. He made his way through the ranks of the sleeping companions, none of them realizing he was walking past them, all the way to the Messenger of Allah. And he took the sword of the Messenger of Allah. This was his chance to kill the Messenger of Allah with his own sword. No one there to stop him.

And so he raises the sword in front of the Messenger of Allah. And the Messenger of Allah opens his eyes. Imagine waking up and seeing a sword hanging above you. Imagine seeing somebody with a gun pointed towards you as you wake up. You wouldn't know what to say. You wouldn't know how to behave. You'd panic.

And so the Messenger of Allah opens his eyes — and he just lies down calmly. The man is confused. And so he says:

"O Muhammad, who is going to defend you? Who is going to protect you from me?"

And so the Messenger of Allah said: "Allah." And as he said this, the man was paralyzed. The sword fell from his hands. The Messenger of Allah then took the sword himself. The man was on his knees — he could not move. And he raised the sword in front of this man and said:

"Who is going to protect you from me?" And the man replied: "Lā aḥad" — Nobody.

Look at the trust that the Messenger of Allah had in Allah. Those nerves of steel which the Messenger of Allah showed in the face of adversity, in the face of death itself. And he forgave the man and let him go. So on top of this courage and bravery, he also had this mercy.

The Danger of Forgetting Allah: The Story of the Titanic

There are so many examples which are mentioned. But what happens when an individual does not put his trust in Allah? What happens when a person does not believe in Allah as being his protector, his guardian, the one who oversees everything, the one who is Al-Ḥāfiẓ, Al-Muhaymin — the one who records and preserves and keeps everything going? Without Him, nothing happens.

We see examples of those who forgot about Allah. Those who are proud of their achievements — so proud that they would say things and do things to show how proud and mighty and arrogant they had become. And they would even question the power of Allah.

One of those famous stories is when the famous ship, the Titanic, was built. On the day of its launch, making its first voyage on the seas, one of those individuals working for that company said: "Not even God Himself could sink this ship." And we all know the consequences of what happened.

When a person becomes so self-sufficient, he starts to think that everything he is doing is because of his own efforts. And this is the culture we live in today, where we think to ourselves: I am doing everything for myself — how is Allah even involved in my life? What is Allah doing for me? When a person starts to think like this, Allah may cause a punishment to befall him to make him realize, to make him remember, that truly it is Allah who preserves. It is Allah who protects. Without Him, an individual truly has no protection whatsoever.

Nuruddin and the Protection of the Prophet's Grave

There is a story which is mentioned of an incident which took place in the time of Nuruddin, the predecessor of Salahuddin al-Ayyubi. It is said that when Nuruddin slept one night, he had a dream that two individuals were trying to rob the grave of the Messenger of Allah. And when he woke up, he made wuḍū, he prayed, and he went back to sleep. He had this dream a second time. He woke up, made wuḍū, prayed, and went back to sleep. The third time he had the dream, he could sleep no more.

When he told his advisor, his advisor told him: go to Medina yourself. And so when both of them went to Medina, they carried lots of wealth, lots of money with them, with a plan to give ṣadaqah to the people of Medina. When they arrived in Medina, they were watching and recording every single person who came to collect this charity. Every single person from Medina was told to come and give their name so they could receive some money.

And when everybody was done and Nuruddin could not find those two individuals he had seen in his dream, he asked: is there anybody else? And they said: there are two people who have come from al-Maghrib, from the west, and they have not come because they are people who worship Allah, give charity, are always at al-Baqī — the graveyard of the Muslims — and they are always doing righteous deeds.

So when he called them, he asked them where they were from. And they said: we are from al-Maghrib, from the west. We have come here to perform Ḥajj, and we stayed after Ḥajj because of our closeness to the Prophet. And so when he went to their house and looked under their rug, he noticed a tunnel had been dug from the house all the way to the grave of the Messenger of Allah. And when he interrogated them, they said: we dug this as an order from the Christian ruler who told us to come, and he gave us lots of wealth which we would give in ṣadaqah to hide our actions — until we reached close to the grave, and there was an earthquake. And so we stopped. And that same night, you came.

So Nuruddin was receiving this dream from Allah. As a result of this, the Messenger of Allah, even in his death, his body is being preserved, his body is being protected by Allah.

The point being, brothers and sisters — when a person remembers Allah and trusts Allah and believes in Allah as being his protector, Allah will protect that individual even after his death.

Practical Guidance: Protecting Ourselves and Our Families

Brothers and sisters, we were talking about Allah being the ultimate Protector, the Guardian, the one who preserves, the one who oversees — Allah being Al-Ḥāfiẓ, Al-Muhaymin, the one who protects. There is no greater protector than Allah Himself, and how He protected the Messenger of Allah from harm in Mecca, from those who wanted to harm him, from those who wanted to kill him when he fled Mecca and made the hijrah to Medina.

We know of the recent increase in crime rates. We know that from the signs of the Day of Judgment is that a person will kill another and he won't know why he is killing that person, and the person being killed won't know why he is being killed. And there are some parts of the world where people are involved in crimes to an extent that would shock you at the statistics. There are cases of some places in the world where in a single city there could be three murders, 97 stabbings, 269 knife crimes in a space of two months. And these are statistics for our city — the city of Birmingham, brothers and sisters. These statistics are one week old, and maybe the officers who are here today can tell us those statistics have probably increased over the past week.

So what can an individual do for himself, for his family, from an Islamic perspective, to protect himself and to protect his family members?

First: Tawakkul in Allah

Having tawakkul in Allah.

Second: Keeping the Tongue Moist with the Remembrance of Allah

Remembering Allah and advising our family members to remember Allah. The Messenger of Allah gave us adhkār for the morning, the evening, when we leave our homes, and when we are travelling.

The Messenger of Allah told us: when a person leaves his house and says:

"In the name of Allah, I put my trust in Allah, and there is no power and no might except with Allah" — it will be said: you have been taken care of, you are protected, and you are guided. And then the shayāṭīn will flee from him — they will step aside and move away from him. And other shayāṭīn will say to those shayāṭīn: what are you going to do to a man who has been protected, taken care of, and guided? What are you going to do? How are you going to harm this individual? There is nothing you can do to this man who has remembered Allah as he left his home.

That is just one thing that we can do to make sure that we are protected when we leave the security and safety of our own homes. Remembering and understanding that Allah can protect us at times when nobody else can. Allah will give us and our family members safety and security in times and instances where they won't be able to be there for us, where they won't be able to protect us all the time — 24 hours a day, 7 days a week.

We ask Allah that He forgives those who have been killed and murdered, and that Allah gives them the death of shuhadā. And that Allah protects us and protects our families and protects our communities from evil. Ameen.