Winter in Islam: The Spring of a Believer

Khutbah Opening

I seek refuge in Allah from the evil of our souls and from the evil of our deeds. Whomsoever Allah guides, none can misguide him, and whosoever He misguides, none can guide him. And we bear witness that there is no god but Allah, alone, with no partner.

And we bear witness that Muhammad is His servant and Messenger. He has sent him with the truth as a bearer of glad tidings and a warner before the Hour. Whosoever obeys Allah and His Messenger has indeed been rightly guided. And whosoever disobeys them, none can harm him but himself, and none can harm Allah at all.

Allah, the Exalted, says in the Glorious Qur'an, after I seek refuge in Allah from the accursed Satan, In the name of Allah, the Merciful, the Compassionate:

O ye who believe! Fear Allah and speak the truth.

O ye people! I advise you to fear Allah and to listen and to obey. For Allah, the Exalted, says:

And obey Allah and obey the Messenger.

Winter Is the Spring of the Believer

The Messenger of Allah, peace and blessings be upon him, said:

Winter is the spring of the believer. (Jami' al-Tirmidhi; also narrated in Sunan al-Bayhaqi and Sunan al-Daraqutni)

And the Messenger of Allah, peace and blessings be upon him, also said:

The cold spoils of war — fasting in winter. (Jami' al-Tirmidhi; also narrated in Sunan al-Bayhaqi and Sunan al-Daraqutni)

Allah's Creation: A World of Contrasts

My dear brothers and sisters in Islam, when we look at how Allah, the Exalted, talked about His creation and His signs, we see that amongst everything that Allah, the Exalted, told us about — whether it was about the creations of the skies and the earth, or the creations of humanity, or the creations of jinn — one of the specific qualities of how Allah, the Exalted, talks about His creation in the Qur'an is that He brings this spectrum aspect, this aspect of contrast.

Allah, the Exalted, invites us to ponder over the contrast, or the alternate understandings, of the land and the sea. Allah, the Exalted, talks about all of the different fruits. He says that He has created these fruits, but it's not just that His creation is all one — it's not that everything is the same. There's this alternate variety: there are pomegranates, there's olives, there's date trees.

When you look at science in accordance to Islam, science is all about how we can observe the different signs of Allah subhanahu wa ta'ala. So this changing of theories actually takes us closer to Allah, because we realize that even though we try to explain the universe as much as we can, we can never come up with explaining the perfection of Allah subhanahu wa ta'ala and His creation.

Now, amongst the spectrum of Allah subhanahu wa ta'ala's creations — when He talks about the night and the day, when He talks about different fruits, when He talks about land and the sea — Allah subhanahu wa ta'ala also talks about the changes of weather. He talks about different seasons. Allah subhanahu wa ta'ala talked about how the Quraysh would alternate their journeys based upon the seasons. He says:

Allah subhanahu wa ta'ala talks about the seasons. When He talks about the night and the day, and the sun and the moon, all of them alternate in this concept of a system where we have summer, where we have winter, where we have spring, and where we have fall.

The Toughness of Winter — and How the Prophet ﷺ Reframed It

Now the beauty of this is that when we are walking or driving through this icy weather and all this snow to come to the masjid for Jumu'ah, a lot of us look at the winter time as something that is tough. It's a season where people have to really work hard. If you've lived in Detroit or Chicago, you understand how the winter time is not easy — it's a very tough season. People are not able to get up for work. It's very hard to wake up. It's very hard to make wudu. It's hard to pray. You have to get your car started up and running 20 minutes before you leave. You have to take off all the snow off of your car. You have to make sure you're cognizant of everyone around you as you drive. All of these different things make us think that winter is a season of toughness.

The Prophet ﷺ described winter not as a season of it being tough upon us, but as a season of getting closer to Allah easily. The Prophet ﷺ once said:

Winter is the spring of a believer.

You know what was so beautiful about this? He's not talking to people like you and I who have a roof over our heads, and heaters, and all of that. He's talking to Sahabah who didn't have any ventilation systems, who didn't have any insulation, who didn't have heating systems. For us, when we make our bread and butter, we work on a laptop screen from 9 to 5. The Sahabah didn't have laptops or technology — they earned their living by actually going out and doing physical work. So when you look at the winter time, it was so tough for them. But the Prophet ﷺ said, "No, I understand your toughness, I understand how hard it is for you, but I want you to look at it with this light:"

Winter is the spring of a believer. (Jami' al-Tirmidhi; also narrated in Sunan al-Bayhaqi and Sunan al-Daraqutni)

Why Winter Is the Believer's Spring: Short Days and Long Nights

In Sunan al-Bayhaqi and also in Sunan al-Daraqutni, the Prophet ﷺ mentions this hadith and there is an addition. He talks about why winter is like the spring for a believer. He says: when you look at winter, the days are short and the nights are long. And so when the days are short, it is the best time to fast. And when the nights are long, it is the best time to sleep as much as you can, but also have the opportunity to wake up for tahajjud.

Ibn Rajab al-Hanbali, rahimahullah, when he talks about this in his book, he says that just like for cows and cattle, the springtime is when they can go out, the pastures are all green, it is easy for them to eat, it is easy for them to graze — just like that, for a mu'min, for a believing man or woman, if you want to strengthen your connection with Allah, winter time is the time for you. Because the days are short, it is easy for us to fast — subhanAllah, it's Fajr, then it's Jumu'ah, and in a couple of hours it's Maghrib. So easy to fast. And the nights are so long — you can sleep five or six hours and still wake up and catch the last third of the night. That was the beauty the Prophet ﷺ was pointing to.

Winter as the Cold Spoils of War

And that is why the Prophet ﷺ, speaking to the Sahabah, said:

The cold spoils of war — fasting in winter.

Why did the Prophet ﷺ say spoils of war? Remember, he's talking to Sahabah who knew the value of spoils of war. Imagine a group of people who spend so much effort preparing themselves for battle. You're in the thick of battle — all of a sudden you're fighting somebody, somebody injures you, you fall down, then you get up, and you're using all of your efforts to swing your sword and to protect yourself with your shield. There's so much trauma around you: a person next to you is dying, another is injured, another is calling upon Allah, an enemy you're trying to overcome. There are so many things happening in battle, and then all of a sudden the battle finishes and the spoils of war come.

The Sahabah understood the spoils of war. So the Prophet ﷺ, with his mercy and his emotional intelligence, said: "Look, winter is like the spoils of war." And the beauty of this is that when he talked about the spoils of war, he never said anfal — anfal means spoils of war that come with qital, that come with fighting. He used the word ghanima — الْغَنِيمَةُ الْبَارِدَةُ — those spoils of war that come without any fighting, without any tiredness, without any form of effort. Like in the scenario of surrounding a group of people who then surrender — there was no fighting, no bloodshed. The spoils of war that you have so much value for come so easily.

The Prophet ﷺ said that that is winter time — because this is an opportunity for you to get closer to Allah subhanahu wa ta'ala so easily. Just like those spoils of war that come without any form of fighting, any form of tiredness, and any form of effort. That was the beauty of winter.

Two Lessons from These Two Ahadith

Lesson One: Change Your Worldview — Look Through the Lens of Allah

The Prophet ﷺ talked about the winter time to a community that understood winter to be so tough. Their bread and butter was made by going outside. Imagine it's so freezing cold — they're not able to work. If they have diseases, nobody can get the medicine because they can't go out. These people don't even have insulation in their homes. The Sahabah, radiyallahu anhum — it was actually so beautiful — to conserve energy and for heat, they would actually huddle with their families. All the Sahabah would cuddle with their spouses, and this was a sign of showing affection and emotion. That was the toughness of winter for them.

The Prophet ﷺ came to them and said: "Don't look at it that way. Look at it through the lens of Islam. It's not just about the toughness that you experience in this dunya, but it's about the connection with Allah subhanahu wa ta'ala that you can receive."

There's something so beautiful about this. We go through so many hardships in our lives. We go through times where we're anxious, worried about the future, depressed about the past. There are times where we can't live through our life — we have families to take care of, responsibilities to manage. But little do we realize that that worry, that sadness, that anxiety, that depression comes because we look at the world through the lens of this dunya.

The Prophet ﷺ is teaching us here: there are so many anxieties and worries that you can remove. Don't think about this world through the lens of the dunya — think about it through the lens of Allah. Imagine the next time you looked at something and realized that the person you wanted to marry, you weren't able to marry. Or the job you wanted to get, you couldn't get it. Or the college you wanted to get into, you didn't make it. If we looked at it from the lens of Allah subhanahu wa ta'ala, how would our worldview change? You would look at everything differently. And that's what the Prophet ﷺ is telling us — look at the winter time, even though it's so tough for you, through the lens of how you can connect to your Lord.

Lesson Two: Take Advantage of Tahajjud and Fasting

The second lesson that we can take from these two ahadith is that the Prophet ﷺ gave emphasis on tahajjud — praying at night — and during the day, fasting. To talk about these two concepts in depth would take many different sessions and Jumu'ah khutbahs.

Wathila ibn al-Asqa', radiyallahu anhu, narrated that the Prophet ﷺ said: when a person wakes up for tahajjud — and this is especially meaningful in winter — when there are so many things he could do instead, and he could go back to sleep, but he gets up and begins to make wudu:

As he washes his hands, one of the knots of Shaytan is untied. Then he washes his face, another knot of Shaytan is untied. Then he wipes his head, another knot is untied. Then he washes his feet, another knot is untied. He puts down his sajjada, his prayer mat, and he says Allahu Akbar — Allah subhanahu wa ta'ala mentions this person's name to His angels and says: "O My angels, look at this person. Out of all of the things he could have done, he got up and prayed. Out of all of his tiredness — he has work tomorrow, she has to take care of the family, he has to go to school, she has to go to college — but they woke up and spent a few minutes for Me. I am so happy, O My angels. Let it be known: anything they want, I will give them."

Allah subhanahu wa ta'ala says: after the first third of the night, I descend to the closest heaven to the sky and I say:

"I am the King, I am the King. Ask Me anything, I will give it to you. Ask Me for forgiveness, I will give you forgiveness. Ask Me for what you want of this dunya, I will give you this dunya."

This winter time is an opportunity for that. And in regards to fasting, Allah subhanahu wa ta'ala said that every single reward of the believer he will receive in this world — but in regards to fasting, He said: "I am the One who will reward him for fasting." Such beautiful acts of worship that we can take advantage of in the winter time.

Summary and Call to Action

Two lessons, my dear brothers and sisters in Islam.

Number one, let's rethink how we view the world. Just like how the Prophet ﷺ told the Sahabah, "Don't think about winter through the lens of the dunya — think about winter through the lens of how you can connect to your Lord," let's try to do that with all of the different scenarios in our lives. We will find so much solace in knowing that Allah subhanahu wa ta'ala is there for us.

Number two, the winter time — especially these snowy days, when school is off, everything is work from home, and you can't go to a restaurant because it's icy outside — everyone is together in the home. Take advantage of this and try to start doing worship with your family. From the little age that I have, I have seen that families that come together and worship are the families that are the most united. You're there, your son is there, your daughter is there, your parents are there, your grandparents are there. Come together, fast together on Mondays and Thursdays. Wake each other up for tahajjud. This is the best way that we can get closer to Allah subhanahu wa ta'ala and also closer to our families.

I ask Allah subhanahu wa ta'ala to make us from those who spend our winter times wisely. I ask Allah subhanahu wa ta'ala to make us from those who change our worldview about life and think about Allah subhanahu wa ta'ala. And I ask Allah subhanahu wa ta'ala to make us from those who strengthen our connection with Him and who are a source of success in this dunya and eternal happiness in the Hereafter. Ameen.