Khutba on Himma

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الحمد لله، الحمد لله الذي جعل بحسن الظن به النصرَ والرحمة، وجعل بحسن الظن بخلقه الألفة والمحبة، نحمده تعالى ونستعينه، ونشكره تعالى ونستغفره ونستغيثه، نعوذ بالله من شرور أنفسنا ومن سيئات أعمالنا، من يهد الله فهو المهتد ومن يضلل فلن تجد له وليا مرشدا، ونشهد أن لا إله إلا الله وحده لا شريك له، له الملك و له الحمد، يحيي ويميت، بيده الخير، وهو على كل شيء قدير،  ونشهد أن سيدنا و مولانا محمداً عبده ورسوله، وحبيبه وصفيه، بلغ الرسالة وأدى الأمانة ونصح الأمة، النبي الأمي الذي أرسله الله بالهدى والدين الحق، بشيرا ونذيرا بين يدي الساعة، صلى الله عليه وسلم وعلى آله وأصحابه ومن تبعهم بإحسان إلى يوم الدين. أما بعد! فيا عباد الله اتقوا الله حق تقاته ولا تموتن إلا وأنتم مسلمون. يأيها الذين ءامنوا اتقوا الله وقولوا قولا سديدا يصلح لكم أعمالكم ويغفر لكم ذنوبكم. ومن يطع الله ورسوله فقد فاز فوزا عظيما. اتقوا الله فيما أمر وانتهوا عما نها عنه وزجر.

Last week we talked about kasal – laziness, inertia, lack of action, letting things happen and letting events pass you by instead of getting up off your behind and doing what needs to be done. This characteristic, which afflicts so many in the present age, is rooted in despair, a lack of hope and a weakness of aspiration, a fatalism and belief in the inevitability and inescapability of our position and predicament. We are where we deserve to be and we should accept it, for that is our lot in life and that is what we have brought down upon ourselves. Does not Allah say, 

ظَهَرَ الْفَسَادُ فِي الْبَرِّ وَالْبَحْرِ بِمَا كَسَبَتْ أَيْدِي النَّاسِ

the translation of which is, “Corruption has appeared in both land and sea because of what people’s own hands have wrought” Yes, He does, but that does not mean we must remain in the mud and squalour and live in the sties with the pigs, content with the conditions around us. For Allah continues in the same aya,

لِيُذِيقَهُمْ بَعْضَ الَّذِي عَمِلُوا لَعَلَّهُمْ يَرْجِعُونَ

the translation of which is, “so that they may taste something of what they have done so that hopefully they will turn back.” so that hopefully they will return to Us. Every difficulty we face, every trial we undergo is a test, not a final outcome, The outcome is is in the Hands of Allah, and if we put our trust in Him, He will prepare the best possible outcome for us. We can never feel down, never lose hope and never accept the status quo unless that status quo is one which is pleasing to Allah, and the present status quo is clearly not pleasing to Him. No matter what you have done, no one who truly believes in Allah and His Messenger is a lost cause. No matter what circumstances you find yourselves, no matter how much money you owe and how many mouths you have to feed, no matter how trapped you feel in your day-to-day existence, no one’s life is a dead end. Your past does not have determine your present and your present does not have to determine your future, for all of that is in the Hands of Allah alone, and it is according to your expectation of Him that you shall receive. Allah says in a hadith qudsi,

أنا عند ظن عبدي بي إن ظن خيرا فله وإن ظن شرا فله

“I am according to My slave’s opinion of Me. If he thinks good then he will have it, and if he thinks bad then he will have it.” Thinking good of Allah means having high aspiration, believing that His plan for you is one which culminates in success in this world and the Next. There is a wonderful example of this in the Seera of our noble Messenger. There was one point when the enemies of Islam decided to attack the Prophet in Medina, and so they gathered an army of at least 10 thousand men and laid siege to the city. In response, the Muslims, who numbered less than a third their enemies, dug a trench to protect the city from the invaders and keep the enemy at bay. This siege continued for almost a month and the Muslims were running so low on food that they were close to starving. The Prophet himself had to tie a rock to his stomach to lessen the feeling of its emptiness, and yet never did he despair or think that the situation was getting away from him. Rather, he took hold of the pickaxe when the Muslims were struggled to smash a particular boulder that was hindering the building of the trench and struck it, saying, 

الله أكبر أوتيت مفاتيح فارس، أوتيت مفاتح الروم

“Allah is great. I have been given the keys to Persia and the keys to the Byzantine empire.” The hypocrites saw this and laughed among themselves and said to one another, “Hah! None of us are able to even go out to go to the toilet, and yet this man is telling us we will conquer the kingdoms of Chosroes and Caesar.” Their aspirations were limited to emptying their bowels and look where they ended up, whereas the aspirations of our Messenger went far beyond the situation at hand and right to the heart of the matter which was the promise of Allah. And that meant not just victory in that battle, but victory over all the surrounding lands and empires. And that promise did indeed come to pass. When it comes to the deen of Allah and the success of His people, the Muslim with intellect never thinks small, He thinks big. The Prophet said,

إذا سألتم الله فاسألوه الفردوس

“When you ask Allah for something, ask Him for Firdaws.” In other words, always seek the best and highest possible outcome. And Ibn al-Qayyim said,

النفوس الشريفة لا ترضى من الأشياء إلا بأعلاها وأفضلها وأحمدها عاقبة، والنفوس الدنيئة تحوم حول الدناءات، وتقع عليها كما يقع الذباب على الأقذار

“Noble selves are only content with the highest of things and the best of them, those whose outcome is most praiseworthy, while base and low selves swarm around what is low and unworthy and settle on them like flies on rubbish and filth.” If your expectations and your aspirations are low, then so too will be your life and everything in it and that applies to this world and the Next. Umar said,

لا تصغُرنَّ همَّتُكم؛ فإني لم أرَ أقعدَ عن المكرُمات من صغر الهِمَم

“Do not have low aspirations, for those whom I see failing to get the good things are those whose aspirations are low.” To have high hopes of his Lord is the way of the mumin. No barrier is too large to remove, no circumstances too difficult to overcome, no wrong action too heinous to be forgiven. There is always a way out and always a way back. Allah says in the Quran,

قُلْ يَا عِبَادِيَ الَّذِينَ أَسْرَفُوا عَلَى أَنْفُسِهِمْ لاَ تَقْنَطُوا مِن رَّحْمَةِ اللهِ إِنَّ اللهَ يَغْفِرُ الذُّنُوبَ جَمِيعًا إِنَّهُ هُوَ الْغَفُورُ الرَّحِيم

the translation of which is, “Say: ‘My slaves, you who have transgressed against yourselves, do not despair of the mercy of Allah. Truly Allah forgives all wrong actions. He is the Ever-Forgiving, the Most Merciful.’” And He says in a hadith qudsi,

يا ابن آدم إنك ما دعوتني ورجوتني غفرت لك ما كان منك ولا أبالي ، يا ابن آدم لو بلغت ذنوبك عنان السماء ثم استغفرتني غفرت لك ، يا ابن آدم لو أتيتني بقراب الأرض خطايا ثم لقيتني لا تشرك بي شيئـًا لأتيتك بقرابها مغفرة

“O son of Adam, as long as you call on Me and put your hope in Me, I will forgive you – whatever you have done does not concern Me. O son of Adam, even if your wrong actions were to have piled as far as the clouds, if you were to ask my forgiveness I would forgive you. O son of Adam, if you were to come to Me with a container the size of the earth full of wrong actions, and then meet with Me without associating any others with Me, I would come to you with a container the same size full of forgiveness.” All that is required is that you have high hopes and ask Him for what you need. And with that combination, no situation is ever untenable. The Prophet said,

من لزم الاستغفار جعل الله له من كل هم فرجًا، ومن كل ضيق مخرجًا ورزقه من حيث لا يحتسب

“If you are constant in seeking forgiveness of Allah, He will give you relief from every worry, a way out of every predicament and provision from where you least expect it.” And one of the Salaf said,

استعمل في كل بلية تطرقك حسن الظن بالله في كشفها فإن ذلك أقرب بك إلى الفرج

“Whenever you are beset by any trial or tribulation, use your good opinion of Allah to lift it, for that is the nearest (and swiftest) way to relief.” Our situation is not hopeless. Weakness and defeat does not have to be our reality. Poverty and helplessness does not have to be our lot. We are not limited by the extent of our own capacity and are not held back by our inadequacy. Do not drown in your own perceived failings. Do not curse yourself and see yourself as an irredeemable sinner. Do not wallow in your wrong actions and allow yourself to feel guilty and unworthy, to feel that you do not merit the help of Allah, to feel that there are others more suited to the task of establishing this deen and doing what needs to be done. Have a high opinion of yourself and have a high opinion of Allah and what He has in store for you. You could be ranked among the saabiqin. Aspire to the highest of heights. Take that step and trust in Allah. He will be with you and will take ten steps towards you. His help will be yours, and the power that is His, the wealth that is His, will be accessible to you. And there is no power and no strength except His. Nothing will stand in your way, because nothing can stand in His way and you are with Him. And He will give you the inspiration as to the best way for you to act and move forward. As Sayyidina Musa said to his people when they despaired of ever escaping the clutches of Pharaoh, with their way forward blocked by the sea, 

إِنَّ مَعِيَ رَبِّي سَيَهْدِينِ

the translation of which is, “My Lord is with me and He will guide me.” And He did guide him, inspiring him to strike the sea with his staff, which caused the seas to part and a path to open in front of them where previously there had seemed to be no path. So we place all of our trust in Allah and ask Him to guide us and show us how best to move forward in these trying and difficult times.  

أقول قولي هذا وأستغفر الله لي ولكم ولسائر المسلمين من كل ذنب فاستغفروه إنه هو الغفور الرَّحيم.

الحمد لله الحمد لله رب العالمين، وأشهد أن لا إله إلا الله وحده لا شريك له وأشهد أن محمداً عبده ورسوله، صلى الله وسلم وبارك عليه وعلى آله وصحبه، والتابعين وتابعي التابعين ومن تبعهم بإحسان إلى يوم الدين.  أما بعد! فيأيها الذين ءامنوا اتقوا الله ما استطعتم واسمعوا وأطيعوا وأنفقوا خيرا لأنفسكم. يا عباد الله أوصيكم وإياي بتقوى الله وطاعته وأحذركم وإياي عن معصيته ومخالفته.

While it is important to go through life with an optimistic outlook and high hopes, and always assume the best and never the worst, it is also important that those hopes are directed in the right direction. In other words, your hopes, whether they be for success in this world or success in the Next are always directed towards Allah. If your hopes are purely dunyawi – if you dream and hope for material success for its own sake, then you are bound to fail, because all things dunyawi are always bound to fail. They are transient, here one day gone the next. They have no more permanence or substance than the froth on the sea which dissolves as soon as you touch it. It is this type of amal/hope that the Messenger of Allah was referring to when he said,

صلاح أول هذه الأمة بالزهد واليقين، ويهلك آخرها بالبخل والأمل

“The first of this umma have been made right by their zuhd and certainty, the last of this umma will be destroyed by their miserliness and false hope.” It is destructive because it is in the nature of the heart to only be able to chase after one thing and we only have one of them. As Allah says,
مَا جَعَلَ اللَّهُ لِرَجُلٍ مِنْ قَلْبَيْنِ فِي جَوْفِهِ

the translation of which is, “Allah has not allotted to any man two hearts within his breast.” And if the heart is occupied with the dunya, it cannot be occupied with Allah. That is why Abu Layth as-Samarqandi says,

فمن أطال آماله عاقبه الله بأربعة أشياء: أن يتكسل عن الطاعات، وأن تكثر همومه في الدنيا، وأن يصبح حريصاً على الدنيا وجمع المال فيها، وأن يقسو قلبه.

“If you place your long-term hopes [in the dunya], Allah will cause four things to happen to you: you will become lax in your worship, you will become weighed down by many worldly concerns, your nature will become one of avarice and your heart will become hardened.” 
Having high hopes for the dunya for the sake of the dunya and not for the sake of Allah is a recipe for ruin. And the same is true of wishful thinking. Now what distinguishes wishful thinking from true hope and aspiration is the steps that take you there. Wishful thinking is to hope that something magically happens without you having to do anything, and without you being prepared to do the work and expend the effort to get yourself there – that you win the lottery, or a prince comes and whisks you off your feet, or that you have this thing or that thing appear in your life in that moment, or that your life is like this or like that, or that the affairs of the umma will be set right by some saviour who is on the point of arrival, and for whom you will sit and wait. Wishful thinking is escapism, pure and simple, it is not living in the present. It is putting your life on hold, or viewing your existence as lacking and that only that scenario you have formed in your head will make it better. That is not high expectation of Allah. High expectation of Allah is trusting that Allah has put you where you are for a reason and is trying you for a reason, and that He will bring you to that situation which is best for you. You hope for success in this world, because that success will strengthen the Muslims and facilitate the success of His deen and thus your own personal success in the Next. That is the himma and the amal that we ask our Lord for and ask that He place in our hearts. That is the hope that will keep despair at bay.
We ask Allah to give the Muslims relief from all their worries, and ease from all their difficulties, and victory against all their enemies. And we ask that He make this victory imminent and bring it at the time that is best for them and which has the greatest and longest-lasting effect.

إِنَّ اللهَ وَمَلَائِكَتَهُ يُصَلُّونَ عَلَى النَّبِيِّ، يَا أَيُهَا الذِينَ آمَنُواْ صَلُّواْ عَلَيْهِ وَسَلِّمُواْ تَسْلِيماً. 

اللَّهُمَّ صَلِّ وَسَلِّمْ وَبَارِكْ عَلَيْهِ وَعَلَى آلِهِ وَصَحْبِهِ  أَجْمَعِينَ. وَارْضَ اللَّهُمَّ عَنِ الْخُلَفَاءِ الرَّاشِدِينَ أَبِي بَكْرٍ وَعُمَرَ وَعُثْمَانَ وَعَلِيٍّ، وعن أم المومنين عائشة التي أمرنا الله في سورة النور أن ندافع عنها، وَعَنْ سَائِرِ الصَّحَابَةِ أَجْمَعِينَ، خُصُوصاً اِلأَنْصَارَ مِنْهُمْ وَالمُهَاجِرِينَ، وَعَنِ التَّابِعِينَ وَتَابِعِي التَّابِعِينَ وَمَنْ تَبِعَهُمْ بِإِحْسَانٍ إِلَى يَوْمِ الدِّينِ.

اللَّهُمَّ اهْدِ وُلَاةَ أُمُورِ المُسْلِمِينَ لِمَا يُرْضِيكَ وَلِاتِّبَاعِ سُنَّةِ نَبِيِّكَ صَلَّى اللهُ عَلَيْهِ وَسَلَّمَ، وَثَبِّتْ أَقْدَامَهُمْ عَلَى الصِّرَاطِ المُسْتَقِيمِ، وَأَصْلِحْهُمْ يَا رَبَّ الْعَالَمِينَ. 

اللَّهُمَّ بَارِكْ عَلَى شَيْخِنَا، وَعَلَى أَمِيرِنَا، وَعَلَى جَمِيعِ أُمَرَاءِ وَزُعَمَاءِ المُسْلِمِينَ. 

اللَّهُمَّ بَارِكْ عَلَى المُسْلِمِينَ فِي هَذِهِ المَدِينَةِ، وَوَفِّقْهُمْ لِمَا تُحِبُّهُ وَتَرْضَاهُ يَا أَكْرَمَ الأَكْرَمِينَ. 

اللَّهُمَّ أَعِزَّ الإِسْلَامَ وَالمُسِْلمِينَ، وَاخْذُلِ الْكُفْرَ وَالْكَافِرِينَ، وَانْصُرِ المُجَاهِدِينَ فِي سَبِيلِ اللهِ. وَاجْعَلْ كَلِمََتَكَ هِيَ العُلْيَا وَكَلِمَةَ الْكُفْرِ هِيَ السُّفْلَى. 

رَبَّنَا ءَاتِنَا فِي الدُّنْيَا حَسَنَةً وَفِي الآخِرَةِ حَسَنَةً وَقَِنَا عَذَابَ النَّارِ. 

إِنَّ اللهَ يَامُرُ بِالْعَدْلِ وَالإِحْسَانِ وَإِيتَاءِ ذِي الْقُرْبَى، وَيَنْهَى عَنِ الْفَحْشَاءِ وَالمُنكَرِ وَالْبَغْيِ، يَعِظُكُمْ لَعَلَّكُمْ تَذَّكَّرُونَ، وَلَذِكْرُ اللهِ أَكْبَرُ وَاللهُ يَعْلَمُ مَا تَصْنَعُونَ. وَقُومُواْ إِلَى صَلاتِكُمْ يَرْحَمُكُمُ اللهُ.