The Benefits of Trials

The Weight on the Believer's Heart

A person that believes in Allah and His Messenger for the past two weeks has felt an inexplicable weight on their heart. They felt this pain inside of them when we see the difficulty and the tragedy that befalls our brothers and sisters worldwide — and specifically, more recently, our brothers and sisters in Palestine, and even as recent as this morning at Al-Aqsa, the sacred masjid in Al-Quds in Jerusalem. May Allah Ta'ala uplift them from their oppressors. Ameen.

This is something of a proof of belief, though. The Prophet Muhammad ﷺ taught us that when the believer sees that the ummah is going through a challenge or difficulty, part of the hidden benefit in even the most tragic of circumstances is that the believer can look within themselves. And if they feel a sense of sensitivity, of pain, then they know that this is a sign of belief being strong in their heart.

Whereas Allah in the Qur'an, He describes to us the hypocrites — and when He talks about the hypocrites of Medina, He described that when the Muslims were being tested or tried or put through tribulation, they didn't feel anything. They didn't feel a single ounce of pain in their chest.

The reality is that when we feel these moments, the heart of the believer begins to feel sadness, and then when it's put through enough time, the person's heart and their mind start to ask a very difficult and very critical question: Why is this happening? Why does this happen?

In fact, this question is so challenging to the heart of anyone with Iman that even the people who have identified as enemies of the Palestinians are actually saying this. If you look online on Twitter and social media, they're actually saying, "Why would your God do this to you? Why would your God put you through such difficulty?" And when a believer hears this, when a Muslim hears this, the natural consequence is they start to think to themselves: "I don't know. That's a really good question."

Why would Allah put people who are praying in a masjid through such difficulty? Why would Allah allow for Muslims around the world to gather and raise their hands in the sky and cry with tears from their eyes saying, "O Allah, help us," and the next day we wake up and more bombs are being dropped, more orphans are being created, more families are being separated? Why? And this is something that can actually really tear apart the faith of a person, to the point where they come to their own realization and say, "I don't know if I can believe in this. I don't know if this makes sense to me."

One of the greatest arguments that people have about leaving religion is pain and suffering in the world. How could God exist if all this is happening? But what we fail to realize when we struggle with that question is that Allah beautifully already taught us the answer to why this stuff exists. Allah told us in the Qur'an that this will happen. It's not a question of if — it's a matter of when.

The Divine Wisdom Behind the Test

And when it happens, there is a supreme divine wisdom that only Allah is 100% aware of as to why it's occurring. But there are ways in which believers can process the pain that they see. In the ayah that was quoted in the Arabic part of the khutbah, it comes from the 29th chapter of the Qur'an, Surah Al-Ankabut, translated as "The Spider."

Allah asks a very interesting question: "Do people really think — is it really the case — that everybody thinks that they will be able to make a claim that they believe?" آمَنَّا — "We believe, we are believers" — وَهُمْ لَا يُفْتَنُونَ — "and they'll never be tested?" Allah is asking us to think critically about something.

Do you think that a statement, a proclamation, is going to save you from the difficulties that are part and parcel of this life? Does it make sense logically that a person can utter one word, and all of a sudden any challenge that they would have would disappear simply because they said one thing? Does that sound like it makes sense? Allah tells us no, that's not the case.

And then He continues and tells us why these tests happen, why they occur:

Allah says: "Without a doubt, We also tested people before you." You're not special in this regard. We're not targeting you. You don't have to think to yourself that no one's been through this before. In fact, when you look at Muslim history — the history of the anbiya, the history of the salihin and the companions of these prophets — you'll see that the tests they went through were not only present, but in some ways even greater.

And so while we're not saying to diminish the test of any one person, what we're saying is, سُبْحَانَ اللَّه, when you see the pain that you're going through and you look back and see that others went through that pain, there is a therapeutic element to that experience — to know that you're not alone. Because being alone, being left alone, is part of the misery.

A Lesson from Al-Quds: "Don't Forget About Us"

We visit Al-Quds, الحمد لله, every year. May Allah Ta'ala allow us all to pray at Masjid Al-Aqsa just like this — say ameen. It is an unreal, beautiful experience. You can't compare it to anything else.

When we go there and visit with Shaykh Abdul Nasser and myself and the group that we take, we always make it a point to talk to the locals — to talk to the Palestinians, the people in Jerusalem. We learn from them, we talk and hear from them, from their own mouths. So we have conversations with everybody: young, old, man, woman, everybody.

And سُبْحَانَ اللَّه, we ask them, "We are Muslims from America," and they are so happy. They say, أهلاً، أهلاً — أهلاً وسهلاً — that famous Palestinian phrase, almost like their motto: "Welcome, welcome! Come, come, come!" At the end of our conversation, after they've served us knafeh and tea and ma'moul and everything, do you know what we ask them? We say, "Do you have anything that we can help you with? Is there anything we can do? Do you want us to fundraise? Anything we can do?"

Do you know what they tell us, brothers and sisters? The first thing they say: "Don't forget about us." They say, "We feel forgotten. We feel like the forgotten people of the ummah, that nobody remembers us. Nobody plans to visit Jerusalem. Nobody comes to pray at Al-Aqsa. People are planning their trips — of course, Mecca, Medina, of course. But then after Mecca and Medina, it's vacation everywhere else. And they say: what about us? Are we not your brothers and sisters?"

And so you look and you see that the people being tested — سُبْحَانَ اللَّه — everywhere, when you find that their tests are happening, they don't want to be left alone. They're not saying that their tests are gone. They know — the Palestinian people know — that they are being tested. But when we ask them, "What do you want?" they say: "We want your company. We want to know that you're there with us. We want to be able to see and look around and know that the Muslims have not forgotten about us. Because we're here doing what we have to do. But will you remember us?"

And this was one of the beautiful traits of the Prophet ﷺ. When he received revelation for the first time and went to his wife Khadija رضي الله عنها, do you remember what she told him when she was trying to reassure him that everything was okay? She said:

"You take care of those people that everyone else forgets. You're there for everybody."

So Allah Ta'ala presents us these tests as an ummah in part because there are moments where we can prove that we are in fact an ummah — that we actually care. That instead of buying ourselves everything we want this month, that Eid, الحمد لله, we load up on gifts and try to get a house before they're all gone, or get that new car — we're going to think deeply about what it means to be an ummah. Maybe it means that instead of buying myself three pairs of shoes, I get myself one and send two to the people of Gaza. Maybe it means instead of having the most luxurious feast for dinner, we cut down on our menu so that we can send some food over to Gaza. Maybe that's what it means.

The Test Reveals the Truth of Our Claim

Allah Ta'ala says: وَلَقَدْ فَتَنَّا الَّذِينَ مِن قَبْلِهِمْ — people were indeed tested before. فَلَيَعْلَمَنَّ اللَّهُ الَّذِينَ صَدَقُوا — why? What's the point? So that Allah can make it abundantly clear — to you and to everybody else — who is telling the truth. What truth? لَا إِلَٰهَ إِلَّا اللَّه.

When we make the statement لَا إِلَٰهَ إِلَّا اللَّه, it is a claim. Allah Ta'ala is telling us that when you get tested, your resolve, your strength, your patience, your determination — whether or not you give up in your du'a or your prayer — all of that is evidence. Did you pass, or did you fail? And if I find myself weakening and giving up and losing hope, then maybe this claim of لَا إِلَٰهَ إِلَّا اللَّه in my life is not as strong as I once thought. Maybe the beard and the kufi and the jubba and the abaya — maybe those things are not as strong as I thought they were in my heart.

وَلَيَعْلَمَنَّ الْكَاذِبِينَ — and We will also make known who is lying.

Brothers and sisters, the Prophet Muhammad ﷺ, when it came to tests and trials, never once promised any person in the ummah that they would never go through them. He never once told us that by being Muslim, you are now free from all difficulties in life. This was never a guarantee. And so we should never think to ourselves — whether on a micro or macro level — "Why us?"

But the Prophet ﷺ said something very powerful:

(Sahih Muslim, Hadith 2999)

"How amazing are the situations of the believer — that every single situation is the best situation for this person. And it is not the case for anybody except someone who has belief. If good things happen — if Allah tests this person with good, because good can also be a test; you can forget about everybody else when Allah gives you the wealth, when Allah gives you the health, when Allah gives you what you ask for — but they remember Allah, then this is good for them. And when they are tested and tried with difficulty, and they are patient — this is what is best for them."

How We Respond Is What Matters

Brothers and sisters, remember that in every test you go through — whether it is in your own life personally, or whether it is something you see on the news universally — the way we respond is ultimately telling us whether or not we have succeeded. The success is not about whether or not the test goes away. If the test stays, that doesn't mean we failed. And if the test goes away, it doesn't mean we succeeded. The failure or the success is purely dependent upon what happens in here — in the heart.

Am I closer to Allah or further away? Have I decided to pray Fajr at the masjid, or am I going to give up and stay at home and maybe not even pray at all? Have I given up my du'as completely, or have I become more firm in my du'as? Have I stopped giving sadaqa because "what's the point," or have I become more generous in my charity? These are the signs of success and failure in the test.

We ask Allah to allow us to pass all of our tests. We ask Allah to give us the tawfiq to always be on the right side of situations in life. We ask Allah to grant patience, strength, and perseverance to the entire ummah no matter where they are.

Second Khutbah

الحمد لله رب العالمين، والصلاة والسلام على أشرف الأنبياء والمرسلين، سيدنا محمد صلى الله عليه وسلم، وعلى آله وأصحابه أجمعين

Brothers and sisters, we don't have much time left in this part of the khutbah, but I wanted to give everyone a little bit of homework: go tonight and read Surah Yusuf, chapter 12 of the Qur'an.

Allah sent this surah down to the Prophet ﷺ literally at the hardest moment of his life — the most difficult time of his life — the year of sadness, the year of grief. Allah sends an entire surah, an entire story of the Prophet Yusuf ﷺ. And Yusuf ﷺ is put through so much difficulty — you can't believe the things he has to go through.

And the interesting thing, سُبْحَانَ اللَّه, is that as he is being put through test after test, he made the right decision every single time. He did the right thing every time — but he still got tested more.

He never made a mistake: "Don't tell your brothers about the dream" — he didn't tell them — they still put him in the well. The woman who tried to seduce him — he didn't fall for it — he still got put in prison. The lessons are amazing. What is Allah teaching us? That your failure and your success are not about whether or not you have tests — but it's how you respond to the test that you have. Knowing that you passed is the reward, and knowing that you failed is the punishment.

Du'a

We ask Allah to protect us. We ask Allah to forgive us. We ask Allah to cure everybody who has illness. We ask Allah to protect everybody from harm and evil. We ask Allah to give victory, patience, courage, and steadfastness to those Muslims all around the world who are struggling and who are being oppressed — including but not limited to our brothers and sisters in Palestine, in Al-Aqsa, in Gaza, and all over the world. We ask Allah to purify our hearts. We ask Allah to keep our families united. We ask Allah to bring our families closer together. We ask Allah to allow us to be a united community — one that supports one another, one that prefers one another over ourselves, and one that will constantly stand with each other.