The Top 10... | The Best Form of Struggle | The Classroom of the Sahaba

Final Session of Ramadan — The Top 10 Series: The Best Form of Struggle

Assalamu alaykum wa rahmatullahi wa barakatuh, ahlan wa sahlan bikum — welcome everyone to another session, our final session, our final live of the month of Ramadan. Eid is on Thursday, so we had our final moments of the Qur'an session today with Shaykh Abdullah Ibn Fitrah Rahman, and tonight will be the final session for our Top 10 series. Once again, as I say every night, we remind ourselves — may Allah reward you all for joining on a nightly basis and keeping up with all of these different lives that we have, and not only keeping up but being heavily involved and listening and chiming in and giving your input and showing your love and support. It really motivates us to continue doing some of the things that we try our best to do.

Today we are joined by a very special guest, as we are — mashaAllah — on all of our nights. Today we're joined by a Shaykh who is very dear to us, who has been serving in the Chicago community for many years, who's been serving the Muslim community for more than a decade. Alhamdulillah he has accepted our invitation. We were hoping to invite him and alhamdulillah he had his own Taraweeh so he couldn't join us earlier, but tonight his Taraweeh is finished because his Khatam is done. I have with us none other than Shaykh Sa'ad Qadiri.

A Father Praying Behind His Son

Shaykh Sa'ad Qadiri: Alhamdulillah. We did Taraweeh at home this year. Zaid, the eldest, he led, and then Uthman and I prayed behind him, and my wife prayed behind as well.

It's the first time praying behind him because last year he wasn't an adult — he was Islamically only 14 — so I sat behind him with the Mus'haf and I would mark down his mistakes, and every four Raka'at he would turn around and say, "Okay, you have to make sure you revise this, this, this, this," which made it really long because after he was done I had to stand and pray my own Taraweeh. This year I was able to just stand behind him.

You know, I'm a very critical father, so I don't think I've left the opportunity of just appreciating it kicking yet. I messaged his Ustadh today, Mawlana Uthman — I said, "Okay, you know, I found over the last 29 days, I found this to be an issue, so what do you think we should do?" He responded saying, "Just chill out — when I come back we'll talk about it."

Alhamdulillah. You know, we can't take our foot off the gas pedal. We gotta keep moving forward, inshaAllah. Hopefully your son becomes much better than all of us, inshaAllah ta'ala.

Reflections on This Ramadan

Shaykh Sa'ad Qadiri: I actually really enjoyed last year and this year. I like being home — I'm an introvert, people can't tell. I have to put on a certain act when I go out of the house. So it's been wonderful for me. Now to be able to go to the masjid and come back right home was nice. There were fewer online virtual programs and more in-person programs this year, which was nice. But I appreciated praying at home. I appreciated my 12-year-old correcting, because he's about 25 juz through — just putting the burden on him. I appreciated being at home.

SubhanAllah, we play the card that we're dealt, and alhamdulillah Allah makes it enjoyable and beneficial for us. Even though none of us were planning to have it this way — I was mentioning today with some of my students in the masjid — we've lost a lot of great people in the last year, but we've gained a lot of great people. We've gained people that were not coming to the masjid, and now they're coming. People that, through COVID, have turned back to Allah, through the difficulties of the last year, or seeing a video of whoever, and they've decided to take strides in their life to please Allah.

So if you look at it with that perspective, we've also gained many people. This year in our masjid, normally we still have space in the back sufuf, but this year we didn't have space — we had people praying in the gym — and I thought, where are these people coming from? I realized that a lot of people are just so happy to be able to come back to the masjid. They've lost loved ones, and now they want to do good so that it can go to them as sadaqah jariyah. So we've gained a lot in these years. Of course we've lost a lot, but Allah has given us much more than He has taken from us, alhamdulillah.

The Hadith: Afdal al-Jihad — The Best Form of Struggle

Today, like every night, we cover a different hadith that refers to "the best of." Tonight it is afdal al-jihad — the best form of struggle, the best jihad that a believer can take upon themselves:

(Sunan al-Tirmidhi, Hadith 2174; Sunan Ibn Majah, Hadith 4011)

The best — or the greatest — jihad is a truthful statement in front of a tyrant, oppressive ruler. Speaking the truth when it's needed in front of people that need to hear it. Not caving in because of the pressure and because of what is happening around us.

This was not planned per se — we already had these ten hadith planned out before the last ten nights started. But it happens to fall on the night where we see what is happening in our blessed home in Al-Quds and with our brothers and sisters in Palestine. So it just fits perfectly in the right timing.

Understanding Jihad in Our Time

Shaykh Sa'ad Qadiri: You know, the reality is that first of all, we're very fortunate. The reason I feel very fortunate is we don't have that opportunity across the world — we don't have that opportunity for jihad in the traditional sense. We're not living in an era in which we have a Muslim ruler. We're not living under an Islamic government that can say, "Now we have to pick up arms to go and defend the Muslim lands."

People sometimes cringe at the word jihad. There are two J-words in Islam — there's jihad and there's jinn. You say either one of those two and someone's going to freak out. In Madrassa, I remember I had a roommate who would say, "Don't say the J-word," and he would call them "Joes."

Understand that when Rasulullah ﷺ became the amir of Madinat al-Munawwarah — and obviously the amir of all the believers, the Prophet of Allah ﷺ — it wasn't in the position merely as the spiritual head. It was also the political leader, the social leader. He was everything in one. So when people try to say, "Well, Jesus turned the other cheek" — you can't turn the other cheek when you're responsible for the entire community. You cannot absolve their right from them by just turning the other cheek. You have to defend them. You have to make sure that you're guarding the boundaries, upholding the law within the lands — because if not, you will be overrun.

The West even celebrates Salah al-Din. Everyone wants to claim Salah al-Din al-Ayyubi, rahmatullahi alayh. Well, what was he doing? He wasn't just sitting down writing. He was out on the frontiers. And his engagement in jihad, the way it's supposed to be, is why the world celebrates him today.

So the reason I'm saying we're fortunate is because we could have potentially been completely bereft of any interaction with jihad in this era. Some of our elders went to Bosnia — that's not there anymore. Some of our elders went to Afghanistan when they fought the Soviets — that's not there anymore. At least Rasulullah ﷺ provided for us a type of jihad that we can engage in.

The Command to Speak Truth — Even When Bitter

In the hadith of Abu Dharr رضي الله عنه, he says:

(Musannaf Ibn Abi Shaybah; Musnad of Imam Ahmad, Hadith 21348)

"My Khalil — the Prophet ﷺ — advised me with seven things." Among them: he commanded Abu Dharr رضي الله عنه to speak the truth even if it is bitter, and not to fear, in relation to Allah, the reproach of the one who blames.

These last two points — speaking the truth even when it's bitter, and not fearing the blame of others when establishing the deen — this concept of speaking the truth is within the Qur'an as well. Even against ourselves. It's not an easy thing. And so how can we do it today?

The time is clearly here where people are hiding their deen. There are so-called "reformists" trying to recreate the deen rather than just speaking the truth and accepting the deen for what it is. The opportunity to speak the truth does come about — it may not be in the face of a tyrannical ruler per se — but the opportunity to speak the truth in the face of trolls, haters, and people who may have the ability to take revenge on you is going to be there. People will find it everywhere.

They'll find it in colleges, when a professor is saying things about Islam that are not true — to stand up in front of that professor who obviously has more knowledge than we do, but to defend even with limited academic ammunition at that moment. To go to town hall meetings and speak up. To do all these various things. It may not be sultan al-ja'ir in the classical sense, but those are the people who, at that moment, have a position and the ability to degrade us verbally or in the eye of the public. And so at that moment, that becomes our jihad. We have to speak the truth. And it's hard. No one says it's going to be easy. That is doing tasdiq of our deen, of our iman, at that moment. May Allah make it easy for us, ameen.

Speaking Against Falsehood — The Qur'anic Command

Allah has still allowed us to take part in this beautiful matter of struggle — and how? By speaking the truth. It may not be in front of a tyrannical ruler, but it may be in front of a tyrannical idea, an ideology, an agenda. Speaking forward in front of them is a sign that I am still set on my beliefs. And staying silent is, in many ways, showing that perhaps I have caved in for my beliefs — that I'm turning over and letting falsehood walk right over me.

This is something that used to happen in the past. Allah says in the Qur'an:

"Become Jewish or become Christian and you will be guided." And:

They will never be happy with you, no matter how much you do, until you follow their religion. And Allah's response?

Say: "Rather, the religion of Ibrahim, the upright." The deen of all the prophets is Islam. So to speak up against falsehood is a very strong sign of our iman — it means there's something still there.

The Quality of Ghayrah — A Sense of Honor for the Deen

They say one of the greatest qualities a person can have for his family is the quality of غَيْرَة — ghayrah. In English it's very difficult to translate — honor, protective jealousy, a deep sense of respect. For example, if someone says something about my mother, about my wife, about my children, there's a sense of ghayrah, that deep feeling of protectiveness. There has to be a sense of ghayrah for the deen. Like, falsehood would automatically disappear when truth comes.

My father would use an example that Haji Abdul Hafiz, rahimahullah, gave him. He said: look, whenever truth comes, falsehood cannot remain in front of it. So for example, if I'm lying to everyone and no one knows — I can lie. But if someone who knows the truth walks in, I can't lie anymore, because now the truth is present. When truth comes, falsehood would naturally vanish.

My father asked Haji Sahib, rahimahullah: "Well, there's so much haq happening in the world — why is batil still there? Why can't we repel this falsehood in a beautiful manner?" And he gave this example:

Imagine someone draws a picture of a lion — just draws it on paper. A toddler, 2-3 years old, will look at it and know immediately it doesn't matter how good of an artist you are — the child notices it's a picture, it's not real. This kid will rip that paper up. He'll smack that screen if you're using a phone or a TV.

The second thing you can do is buy a stuffed animal — a stuffed lion. You show a kid, he might be scared in the beginning, but after a little while he'll notice it's not real. It has no life. It can't do him any harm. Now he starts smacking that stuffed lion and throwing it around.

The third is imagine it's not a stuffed animal but a carved sculpture of a lion — made out of rock, shaped to look like a real lion. I was driving once on a side road in Michigan and I thought there was a bear. I doubled up like — is this a bear? I looked two or three times and then I noticed it wasn't a bear — it was just a sculpture of a bear. It got me the first time and the second time as well, at night. So a sculpture can startle you, but after a little while you know it's not real.

When a real lion comes — sab ki hawa nikal jaati hai — everyone's gone. So Haji Sahib said to my father: right now, we're like a drawing of a lion, like a sculpture of a lion, like a stuffed animal lion. We're just acting like lions. But when haq truly comes into our hearts — and we propel that feeling to motivate us to do more good on the outside — then we will become true lions. And whenever batil is around us, it will not be able to stand. People won't be able to lie in front of us, people won't be able to do ghiba in front of us, people won't be able to speak haram in front of us — because now we are lions.

So what we have to do is not just speak about it, but bring that change of iman into our lives. Our duas will have more power. Our a'mal are what make the dua powerful. So we change our a'mal.

The Warning of the Prophet ﷺ — The Disease of Wahan

The Prophet ﷺ said to the Sahabah:

(Sunan Abu Dawud, Hadith 4297)

"A time will come very soon when nations will jump upon you and gang up upon you, like how a hungry person turns towards his plate of food."

The Sahabah asked: "Ya Rasulullah, will people gang up upon us? Will it be because we are few in number?"

The Prophet ﷺ said no. "That day you will be many — great numbers." They couldn't think of any other reason how people could gang up upon the Muslims. It must be because they're very few in number. There's no other rational reason. The Prophet ﷺ said no — that day you will be so many in number, you won't be outnumbered.

So what's the problem? He ﷺ said: the problem is that the quality of wahan will enter into your hearts. The Sahabah asked, "Ya Rasulullah, what is wahan?" And he said:

(Sunan Abu Dawud, Hadith 4297)

Love of the dunya and hatred of death. The reason why people will jump on you is not because you are less in number. It's because you left the path of your Habib ﷺ — and that is to love the akhirah and to have a detachment from the dunya. We've done the opposite. We have such love for this dunya and we dislike the akhirah, and because of that we become ineffective. We're there, but we're ineffective.

You don't need a big team to pull off an event — you need a good team. Sometimes having more volunteers is not always the best thing. Having the right people is what we need. So sharing these things on our posts, crying about it, making dua for these people, tearing up when we see their videos — and then changing our lives because of it — that is what will matter.

Allah has given us an opportunity to see these videos of these youngsters — I stand corrected — becoming shuhada in the middle of the masjid. Then you see pictures of people walking 7-8 hours to pray in that same masjid. If we were living there, would we be amongst those people? I don't know. Because do we really love the akhirah that much?

The Jews used to also say they loved the akhirah. Do we want to meet Allah so much? Allah said:

"Wish for death if you are truthful. But they will never wish for it because of what their hands have put forth." They want to live for as long as they can.

Beyond Symbols — Changing Our Hearts

When I think of this hadith, the thoughts that stroll through my mind: number one, of course, speak about these things — don't be shy. But it's not enough to just wear a band on our hand or a hair tie. If we feel like wearing a band can bring a change, imagine if that same thing happens in our hearts. That that band lives in our heart. Now I have to bleed and I have to cry for these people by changing my heart — not just changing my clothes. That's being sympathetic. Being empathetic means doing much more than what everyone else is already doing — changing our lives.

And I was reading that at the time of the Crusaders, there were mothers, fathers, and scholars who fasted for years until that era ended. How many of us will continue fasting after Ramadan? "Ya Allah, I will continue fasting until this siege is over. Ya Allah, I will continue praying Tahajjud until You bring a change. Ya Allah, I will continue giving charity until I see something different. Ya Allah, I will continue doing acts of goodness until this ends." Not just doing A, B, or C for a day and moving on. These mothers and fathers fasted for entire years until the Crusaders were defeated. It took people's fasting. It took people's Tahajjud. It took people's tears. It didn't just take Salah al-Din's charisma and strength.

The Example of Umar — Empathy for the Ummah

Shaykh Sa'ad Qadiri: This is the example of Sayyiduna Umar رضي الله عنه. In the year of the famine, he would not eat. He had the ability to consume what he needed, but he refused. And some of the companions would mention that that year — of drought, when the crops were not growing and the water was withheld — if it had not ended, they thought he would pass away. Because he withheld from himself so much, out of his empathy for the ummah. How can I eat when the ummah is not eating? Because it had not affected Madinat al-Munawwarah the way it had affected the surrounding region.

When people say, "Oh, that's being extreme" — it's not being extreme, unless Umar رضي الله عنه was extreme. And where he is resting today is where all of us wish we could rest.

The Source of Courage — Tawakkul in Allah

SubhanAllah, sometimes when you see the enemies of goodness — the way they speak, even in the way Allah tells us — some of them say that Allah's hand is bound, or they say that Allah is poor and we are rich. They know Allah is listening, yet they have that much audacity to say it. Some people are so firm on falsehood that they could say the worst statements, and they know whoever should not be listening is listening — and they have the audacity and gall to say it.

When it comes to shuja'ah — courage — and the diseases of the heart, one of the realities is that this courage does not live in a vacuum. The courage comes from tawakkul in Allah. If someone wants to be courageous, it doesn't mean they have to build muscles, work out every day, or learn how to fire a weapon. That's not what's going to cause courage. Courage is an internal reality. And the internal reality stems from the fact that a person knows they have support.

Think about it — if you're going to confront someone and you know your brothers are behind you, you're going to be confident. But the moment you feel that no one's there backing you up, you might become timid. The believers are those who know Allah has their back. And if someone feels that Allah does not have their back — game over. That's when the shaja'ah fades away.

How Do You Know Allah Has Your Back?

Shaykh Sa'ad Qadiri: How do I know Allah has my back? I've never gone hungry my entire life. The roof of my home has never caved in. I've gone in the car so many times and no car has run me over. I myself have mental health issues that I deal with — I have anxiety and depression — and yet I continue. Allah has had my back my entire life. I was born in a way where I didn't pass away. My brother-in-law is a physician and told me how many things can go wrong when a person is born — and the fact that it hasn't is clear indication of the miracle and the strength of Allah.

So how do I know Allah has my back from a cognitive perspective? It's just by looking around. Like that Bedouin who sees the footsteps of an animal and knows the animal has passed — I know Allah has my back just by the way He is taking care of me at every moment.

But then it has to go further. As our teachers say, it has to go from naql to 'aql — from the surface to the internal. And so initially it is a matter of reminding ourselves, and then it has to become internalized.

The Role of Dhikr in Building Courage

Allah says in the Qur'an, when addressing the believers going into battle:

"O you who believe, when you meet a force, stand firm, and remember Allah abundantly, so that you may be successful." The means to attaining that thabat, that firmness in the moment, is udhkuru Allaha kathira — abundant dhikr of Allah.

And remember:

"Verily, in the remembrance of Allah do hearts find rest." This is clear in the Qur'an. If we're not reciting حَسْبُنَا اللَّهُ وَنِعْمَ الْوَكِيلُ 100 times a day, not reciting لَا حَوْلَ وَلَا قُوَّةَ إِلَّا بِاللَّهِ regularly — this changes the hal, the state, by Allah. La hawla — from changing a state from negative to positive. Wa la quwwata — to grant the ability to be firm, consistent, and strong. That's from Allah. When students come to me and say, "I have doubts," I say, start with that. Because it starts from the tongue, but it internalizes.

You know, when you're younger, you might say something you don't really believe just to impress someone. But when you get older, you're like, "That actually happened?" — because you said it so much, you believed it. If we say لَا حَوْلَ وَلَا قُوَّةَ إِلَّا بِاللَّهِ, eventually we will believe it and it will internalize.

Arrival of Shaykh Abdullah — The Courage of Hasan al-Basri

If you look at all of the great warriors in our past — Khabib Nurmagomedov's grandfather was a khalifa of Imam Shamil, rahmatullahi alayh. Imam Shamil, Abdul Qadir al-Jaza'iri, Umar al-Mukhtar — where did that strength come from? These were Qur'an teachers. They had the word of Allah on their lips all day long. They internalized it. What is going to happen except that the person becomes brave? Anyone you can name who was a great warrior — what did they do in their free time? They worshipped throughout the night. The Qur'an was their partner. Their lips were constantly wet with dhikr. So it reached their hearts, and those seeds caused bravery to grow.

To speak a word of truth — that's not difficult for such people — because they have no worry. They know Allah is with them.

Hasan al-Basri and Hajjaj ibn Yusuf

Shaykh Abdullah: All those who walked into Hajjaj ibn Yusuf's court — not everybody was brave enough, not everyone had the spiritual backing like Hasan al-Basri, rahmatullahi alayh. When Hajjaj ibn Yusuf called him in, as Hasan al-Basri walked toward the court, he made this du'a:

"O the Guardian of my blessings and my refuge at times of distress, grant me Your pleasure and safety." Hajjaj ibn Yusuf had already made the order to kill this man. But as Hasan al-Basri walked in, Hajjaj froze. His soldiers said, "We were waiting for your signal to kill this man — what happened?" And Hajjaj said, "I can't tell you what happened. It looked like he was walking with angels. I could not raise a hand against this man."

That is the backing of the pious — speaking the truth against tyrants with the support of Allah behind them. And of course, this principle — not being passively silent to injustice — applies to what we are seeing today in Palestine, and to all forms of oppression. Speaking against the government when it's wrong, demanding checks and balance — this is not unacceptable, this is wajib. We cannot live oppressed and accept it. But as was said — we have to have the backup plan, and the backup is Allah.

Truth Starts at Home

Speaking the truth — staying silent is equal to not speaking. Hasan al-Basri, rahimahullah, was once asked: "What is the sign of a wise person?" He said: to speak when he is supposed to speak, and to stay silent when he needs to stay silent. And the opposite is the sign of a foolish person — he speaks when he is not supposed to speak, and he stays silent when he is supposed to speak.

Allah says:

Allah does not like raising one's voice in public — except for one who has been wronged. No one should get loud and rowdy except when they are stepping up to protect those who are being oppressed.

And it's not just about speaking against large-scale tyranny. If we can't speak the truth in our own home — when our children want to do something haram and we say, "It's okay, do whatever you want" — or when our spouses want to do something wrong and we can't speak the truth — then how are we going to speak the truth against a tyrannical leader? It starts in our own home. If we can't speak the truth when we ourselves want to do something wrong and we give ourselves a justification — the truth is the truth. Just like the Prophet ﷺ said that the best jihad is speaking the truth in front of a tyrant leader, the worst form of passivity is staying silent in front of oppression and injustice.

May Allah grant us the ability to speak up and hopefully bring some change into our lives through this. May Allah bless you all.

Closing Reflections — The Blessed Land of Al-Quds

This was our last hadith, and it fell on the perfect day. This was the last hadith we had in the Top 10 series, and it happened to coincide with what is happening in Al-Quds today. I would encourage everyone — I don't know if any other Islamic institution in America or North America has done a video series on the beauty of Al-Quds. Many people have done it on Makkah al-Mukarramah and Madinat al-Munawwarah. We were fortunate to have Mufti Asim Rashid, one of our teachers, record a beautiful series on the history of Al-Quds. The videos are 10 to 12 minutes — a very short series — but he speaks about the virtues, the history, the blessings of this beautiful land. Sometimes our hearts don't beat the same way when people do certain things to Al-Quds because we don't understand what it is — we don't know where it comes from and how much love we're supposed to have for it. So when we listen to that series, hopefully we can build an attachment and an understanding for this beautiful land.

May Allah bless you all. JazakAllah khair for joining us in this blessed month. This blessed month was made memorable despite the struggles. We lost so many people in this year, but we also gained so many people — so many new people have turned towards Allah through this pandemic, so many people have turned back towards the masjid because of this, and so many people have turned towards the deen because of this difficulty. So we lost many people, but we also gained many people.

Right now is the time that we end our month of Ramadan. The Prophet ﷺ said that one of the most blessed nights of the year is the last night of the month of Ramadan — and that is tonight. Imam Shafi'i, rahimahullah, said that there are five greatest nights, and amongst them he places the last night of Ramadan at number three. So we should make sure that we at least spend some time in ibadah tonight.

May Allah reward you all for joining us, for being a part of this journey. Miftah is not our institution — it is your institution. You are the ones pushing it forward and allowing us to do what we can to propel the work of the deen. JazakAllah khair for all your dedication and commitment. We'll see you at Friday Night Live — Eid Mubarak everyone!