What Are You Most Afraid Of? A Wake Up Call Amidst Collapse

What Are You Most Afraid Of? A Wake-Up Call Amidst Collapse

Rabbil 'alameen. We remind ourselves and one another of the taqwa of Allah, as He has commanded us with the truth.

Something Better Awaits

In situations where Allah tests us with something that is entirely out of our circumstance, and in that process, if we are patient, Allah will give us something better. And I want you to think about this idea of better.

The hereafter is better. What is beyond is better. What Allah has promised is better.

And in these two situations, the Prophet ﷺ said in the authentic hadith:

Whoever leaves something for the sake of Allah, Allah will give them something better than that which they left. (Musnad Ahmad, Hadith 23074)

And he said ﷺ, as taught in the famous story of Umm Salama رضي الله تعالى عنها, when her husband was killed, he taught the du'a:

"O Allah, compensate me for my loss and replace it with something better." The same words are used — خَيْرًا مِنْهُ, خَيْرًا مِنْهَا — something better will be given when you either do something for the sake of Allah or you bear something for the sake of Allah. (Sahih Muslim, Hadith 918)

And this helps us to actually start off the conversation about loss and sacrifice before we even get to what we're afraid of and what we fear. Because we have to ask ourselves what we are pursuing in the first place.

In one situation, you give up something willingly for the sake of Allah. In another situation, Allah takes something away from you by His qadr, by His divine decree. But the idea here is that whether you give up something that is good for Allah, or Allah takes something from you that you perceive as good and you are patient for His sake — He will always give you something better.

This is where your tawakkul comes into play. This is where your trust in Allah comes into play. And it's no secret that in some of our lifetimes, this feels like the most testing and trying time for the ummah in our lives.

It feels like we are certainly in those days of Allah, in those periods where Allah is subjecting us as an ummah to a difficult trial — where some will pass and some will fail — and we ask Allah to make us amongst those who succeed. Allahumma ameen.

What Do You Fear More?

But there is another manifestation of this attitude. You see, just as we're taught that on an individual level, sabr and shukr — patience and gratitude — emanate from the exact same place, so too does what we see as reward and what we fear as loss.

What do I mean by that? If you're willing to give up something for the sake of Allah, knowing that He will give you better, then what do you fear other than Allah? You enjoy the things that Allah takes away from you that are of good, but you know He'll give you better. Likewise, fear is natural. You fear persecution. You fear being targeted. You fear being surveilled. You fear physical punishment. You fear financial loss. All of these are natural fears, and Allah does not tell you to relinquish these fears — just as Allah does not tell you to stop pursuing the things that you know to be good for yourself. But Allah commands you to put those fears into perspective and to act from a place of principle.

And so the other manifestation of this entire attitude is that when you fear Allah more than you fear something else, then Allah will protect you from all that you fear. When you fear Allah more than you fear anything else, Allah will protect you from everything that you fear. Meaning what?

Whoever is mindful of Allah — whoever fears Allah — and fear is a small word here, it is undoubtedly a small word, but just to capture the idea of awe of Allah and being mindful of Allah — whoever fears Allah, Allah will always make a way out for them. From what? From the thing that they would otherwise be seeking protection from. Allah will make a way out for them, and Allah will provide for them.

And so if you fear Allah more than you fear loss, Allah will not just protect you from His punishment — He'll protect you from the loss that you fear as well.

Comfort Is Overrated

Now what does this mean? Just like in the first scenario that we started this khutbah off with — that means that sometimes you're going to be very uncomfortable in this dunya. And sometimes that's a choice that you make, to be uncomfortable. Because comfort is overrated. Comfort is overrated. People think that comfort is everything. People think that comfort brings happiness. And Allah promises you that when you forsake comfort — you just came out of a month-long exercise of Ramadan, where you forsake comfort for His sake — that He'll give you something better than comfort. And you know what that is? It's clarity.

It's clarity. See, there's the tangible reward — you give up something from this dunya, Allah will give you something in the akhirah in return. But there's clarity that comes as well, in the peace of comfort. And with that clarity comes true inner peace. Comes peace of mind. You can live with yourself. You know why you're here. You know what you're doing. You can bear what's ahead. You might be uncomfortable, but you're uncomfortable on purpose. And you're uncomfortable with purpose. And you embrace that discomfort.

Alhamdulillah for a deen that gives us a reason to be uncomfortable. Alhamdulillah. Alhamdulillah for what Allah has given us of His promise — so that we know that whatever is in front of us that threatens us, we have His promise to look forward to and to see us through that.

Internal Decay vs. External Threats

And so here's the thing. When it comes to fear, the question is not what you fear. The question is what you fear more. As a community, Allah constantly tells us in the Quran to fear internal decay more than external threats. We're always so worried about the big bad enemy.

Allah does not change the condition of a people until they change the condition of themselves.

The Prophet ﷺ made three du'as that Allah accepted — two of three. Allah gave the Prophet ﷺ the assurance that He will protect us from being wiped out by an external enemy. The Zionists will never wipe out every Muslim on the face of this earth. They won't even wipe out the Palestinians, bi'idhnillahi ta'ala. So we're protected from an external enemy. We will incur heavy losses, but this ummah will not disappear from the face of the earth at the hands of an enemy. The Prophet ﷺ made du'a that Allah will protect this ummah from a famine or a plague that wipes us out — we will never be wiped out as an ummah from a plague or from a famine.

But the third thing:

That their misfortune is not found amongst themselves — meaning that they don't succumb to internal wounds. (Sahih Muslim, Hadith 2890)

Allah did not grant the Prophet ﷺ that du'a. That's on you, that's on me, that's on us.

And so as angry as we are about the bombs that are falling on our brothers and sisters, and those that are paying for the bombs — let's face it, there are over 50 Muslim nations right in that region and beyond, and it's on all of them as well, every single one of their political leaderships. Everyone bears a responsibility here. That's just a sober political analysis. The impotence of all of those nations is a shame on the entire ummah.

But let's also come back to us. How much do we fear our external threats more than our internal decay as a community? Even here, even in our masajid, even amongst ourselves. We have to ask ourselves that — because once a community starts being targeted, once a masjid comes under attack, we have to ask ourselves: what about all of us amongst each other?

Which Fear Weighs Heavier?

Do we fear loss of dunya more or do we fear loss of deen more? Everyone fears the loss of something. We fear the loss of this world. We fear the loss of our financial possessions. We fear the loss of our safety. But do you fear the loss of your deeds in the hereafter? Do you fear the loss of your safety in the hereafter? It's also a question that you have to ask yourself.

Do you fear losing acceptance from the people more, or losing acceptance from Allah? Doesn't Allah use the word khawf?

They don't fear the blame of the blamer. So whose acceptance do you fear losing more — the people's, or Allah's? No one wants to be humiliated.

"We seek refuge in You from humiliation in this world and from punishment in the hereafter." But when those two things are at tension, which fear overtakes the other?

Do you fear being lonely here? Or do you fear more being left out of the gatherings of the righteous in the akhirah? May Allah not exclude us from those gatherings. You have to ask yourself. No one wants to be lonely. But if I have to suffer with some loneliness here, and then not be thrown to the Hawiya once I go into my grave and cast away from the righteous — I'll take it. Because I fear that more, being left out of that gathering more.

And lastly, dear brothers and sisters — when it comes to these fears — do you fear more being asked for your support of Gaza here? Or do you fear meeting Allah on the Day of Judgment and being asked why you didn't support Gaza more over there? That's a question we have to ask ourselves. In this time where every single instrument of the state is cracking down on support for our brothers and sisters in Palestine — you can be quiet. You can say: I can't do it, we have to back off now. Are you more afraid of that? Or are you more afraid of Allah confronting you on the Day of Judgment with those people standing on the other side of you? May Allah protect us from that moment.

When those fears come into tension with one another, you have to ask yourself: which one weighs heavier? What are you more afraid of?

The Du'a of the Prophet ﷺ at the End of Every Gathering

I want to give you some perspective on this du'a from the Prophet ﷺ. Ibn Umar رضي الله تعالى عنهما describes — and I'm going to run through this a little bit quickly for the sake of time — he says:

The Prophet ﷺ would not get up from a gathering with his companions until he made this du'a for them. (Sunan al-Tirmidhi, Hadith 3502)

It's a beautiful idea even, that the Prophet ﷺ was making this du'a for his companions. When Ibn Umar رضي الله عنهما stresses that this was a regular practice of the Prophet ﷺ, I want you to think about that. That means that we're coming out of the Battle of Badr. We're coming out of the Battle of Uhud. We're coming out of the Khandaq. We're coming out of Hadithatul Ifk, the slander of our mother Aisha رضي الله تعالى عنها. We're coming out of Hudaybiyyah and the disappointment. We're coming out of all of these different things. And the Prophet ﷺ reminds us with this du'a.

And there are different variations of it — so if a word sounds different, it is still probably authentic in the other variation that you heard. The Prophet ﷺ would say:

"O Allah, apportion us enough of Your khashya — enough fear of You — that would put a barrier between us and disobedience of You. And from Your obedience, apportion that which would cause us to arrive at Your Jannah. And from Your certainty, that which will lighten for us the tragedies of this world."

SubhanAllah, there is so much in this part of the du'a — enough yaqeen, enough certainty in Allah, to have perspective when the masa'ib, when the tragedies of this world come to us. That I trust in Your promise, I'm certain in Your plan, I'm certain in Your reward, I'm certain in You, O Allah — that everything that comes to me, if I bear it right, You will not let it go to waste. Alhamdulillah.

And then he ﷺ continued:

So he's asking Allah to maintain for us the blessings of our hearing, the blessings of our sight, the blessings of our strength, the blessings of our health. You're not asking Allah to be sick, you're not asking Allah to be unhealthy — you're asking Allah to maintain those things for you.

And he ﷺ said: "And let our payback be restricted to those who wronged us." SubhanAllah — give us the right portion, because sometimes when we're wronged, we become wrongdoers. Sometimes we become oppressed and then we become oppressors in response. "And give us victory over those who have taken us as enemies, over those who have oppressed us."

And then he ﷺ said — and this is the part I want you to pay closest attention to:

"Don't let our tragedy be in regards to our deen." You know, SubhanAllah, the word musiba is a tragedy.

It's a tragedy. And there is an admission here that we will be struck with masa'ib. Every single person will be struck with a musiba, will be struck with some sort of tragedy. And some of those tragedies will be more jarring than others. You can't buy yourself out of tragedy. You can't have anything to protect yourself from tragedy altogether. It will come to you.

What is the Prophet ﷺ saying here? Even though we seek refuge in Allah from all the masa'ib of this world and the next, the Prophet ﷺ is saying: don't let that musiba be in regards to our deen. Meaning — at the end of the day, don't let that musiba take our religion away with it. As the scholars say in the sharh of this hadith, that it would take our religion away — that we lose some of our religion, that it would cause a deficiency in the good that we continue to do, that it would cause us to withhold our good, or push us towards committing acts of disobedience and sin. So you're going to be struck by something and you should seek refuge in Allah from all tragedy — but the major tragedy is that tragedy.

And he ﷺ said: "And don't let this world be our greatest concern. And do not let the greatest portion of our knowledge be worldly knowledge only. And do not place upon us those who will show us no mercy." Allahumma ameen.

Read every line of this du'a on your own time and compare it to our current circumstances. And SubhanAllah, you will see why the Prophet ﷺ was saying it in every single gathering — or in many gatherings — with his companions, making du'a for them.

Self-Preservation: The Most Hated Behavior

Here's what I want you to take home with this, dear brothers and sisters. One of the most hated behaviors to Allah is the behavior of self-preservation. That's why the Prophet ﷺ used to seek refuge in Allah from الْجُبْنِ وَالْبُخْلِ — from cowardice and stinginess. It's a hated behavior to Allah because it represents the way that you see Him. Even though it affects the way you deal with everyone else, it represents the way that you see His promise, the way that you see His reward.

That tendency to immediately go into self-preservation mode anytime we feel threatened. We're afraid, so everyone: shhh, retreat to your corner. Right now they're just coming for the undocumented immigrants. Oh no, okay now it's green cards — we're still okay, we're naturalized, we're citizens. Okay now it's naturalized citizens — let's move over, we're the born citizens. That attitude is an attitude of self-preservation. Absolutely unacceptable.

Right now they're targeting EPIC — every single one of our masajid right now. It's not oh, it's their masjid. Eventually they're going to come after our masajid too. They're already after our masajid. Because they came after one of us. Isn't the same attitude that we hate about those Muslim countries around Palestine exhibited in our own behavior when we start to act that way? Because every single one of them, if you talk to their leadership, they say: what can we do in the face of all of this? We've got to retreat. Hold our own national interests. How can we be mad at them when we act that way too? Aren't we being hypocritical then?

SubhanAllah, it reminded me of a statement of Imam Ahmed, rahimahullah. Imam Ahmed who refused to be silent in the fitna of his time. Some of even the scholars said to him: Ya Ahmed, khalas, shh, muskut — quiet. Stop speaking. How many times are you going to go to prison? How many times are you going to be beaten? Stop speaking.

You know what he responded? He said:

"If the scholar remains silent out of fear, and the ignorant does not speak out of unawareness, how is the truth going to be known?"

It's the attitude of self-preservation. If the scholar remains silent out of fear, and the ignorant is silent because he doesn't know any better — then how is the truth ever going to reign supreme?

A Wake-Up Call: Renew Your Tawakkul

We have to ask ourselves a question. It's a wake-up call. Everything that's happening around us is a wake-up call. Renew your tawakkul in Allah. Be smart. Be strategic. Be together. Be as a community. Be as an ummah. But trust Allah — not the supports that we have. Trust Allah, the ultimate Supporter, and the One who guarantees victory for the righteous.

May Allah make us amongst them. Allahumma ameen.