#057 When You Trust Allah In Your Difficulty
We have to have a closeness to Allah that when He plans something for you and me, even when it's painful, He doesn't do it for anything except love.
That Allah loves His slaves, that He loves what is best for them.
He loves us more than we could ever love ourselves.
He cares more for us than we can ever care for ourselves.
He provides us more than we could ever provide for ourselves.
When we forget that, when we forget that, guidance goes away.
Allah says in Surah at-Taghabun;
[64:11] وَمَن يُؤْمِنۢ بِٱللَّهِ يَهْدِ قَلْبَهُۥ ۚ:
Whatever calamity strikes you, it comes from Allah. It came by Allah's permission. And whoever can have Iman and Allah at that time, (You have Iman and Allah anyway, you believe in one God, but when you're in a difficulty, that's when you start questioning why is Allah doing this right?)
That's the time when Allah puts the words وَمَن يُؤْمِنۢ بِٱللَّهِ :
Whoever can truly believe in Allah, then, (Yeah you always say Allah is Ar-Rahman, but do you really feel Allah is Ar-Rahman right now?)
“Nah right now He's probably 'zuntiqom'.”
“Right now He's probably the One who takes Revenge.”
“Right now He's probably Jabbar, not Ar-Rahman.”
Let's see your Iman went away. Your Iman in Ar-Rahman went away when you were in difficulty.
Allah says if you can have Iman, in ar-Rahman at that time, the best of Allah's names, the best of what is Allah is to you, what He described Himself to you, at that moment, then what gift will Allah give you?
And this is the conclusion to my khutbah.
What is that Allah will give you?
I want health
I want recovery
I want a job
I want money
I want a better family situation
I want Escape (some people just want to escape)
I just want this other person to stop hurting me
I want people to stop talking about me
...whatever it is, there's something that's bothering you and it's eating away at you. And if you think if that problem went away, you would have peace.
That every one of us has some problem that keeps us up at night, we're thinking about it saying, "Man, if that went away, I'd be alright."
Guess what? When that one goes away, there's gonna be another one.
And when that one goes away, there's going to be another one. And when the other one comes, you're like the last one was easier.
"Dude where did this come from? This is way a bigger problem."
What does Allah give you when you can trust Him?
He doesn't end your problems.
This life, problems will not go away.
If problems were gonna go away, they would have gone away for Yakub a.s a lot sooner than for you and me.
If no problems would have come because we have imaan, then Maryam should not have had problems. Rasulullah s.a.w should not have had problems.
You study the people that are closest to Allah and all you're studying are problems. Really big ones. Their entire life.
That's all you're studying.
You're just learning about one problem to the next to the next to the next to the next. That's all you're learning.
Yusuf a.s, a great profound messenger of Allah, I mean from childhood there are problems. From childhood there are problems.
I keep asking that question: What is it that Allah has given you, what do you get when you completely put your trust in Allah in the middle in the thick of a difficulty, when everybody else is telling you; on the one hand people are telling you Allah is angry at you, that's why this is happening.
“Allah hates you, that's why this is happening.”
On the other hand you start thinking, “Allah is punishing me, that's why this is happening.”
At that moment when you can have the best impression of Allah and maintain your love and reliance and bond with Allah, that Allah has not let you go. He hasn't.
What does he give you?
يَهْدِ قَلْبَهُۥ : He guides this person's heart. He gives their heart guidance.
I can guarantee you, when your problem goes away; if it's a money problem, if money comes in, if it's a health problem and health comes back, if it's a family problem, the family problem goes away, none of the good things in this life are worth anything compared to that one gift.
That one gift is يَهْدِ قَلْبَهُۥ : He'll guide his heart.
Your heart will be at peace.
No matter what is happening in life, there's still a smile on your face. And people are looking at you and saying, "Why are you smiling? Why are you okay? Look at what's happened to you? Look at what's going on?"
"Yeah it's okay, it's fine, it's cool." [ustadh pointing index finger to the sky, meaning, Allah is there]
When you can develop that, there are people that will have all the money in the world and they still can't sleep.
There are going to be people that have everything you ever imagined will bring happiness, they have it and they don't have peace.
They are not happy with themselves, they drown themselves in drugs and alcohol, to escape reality. They can't face reality.
And other people watch videos about how amazing their crib is, and how sweet their ride is. And they're looking at that and saying, "I want that."
[28:79] يَـٰلَيْتَ لَنَا مِثْلَ مَآ أُوتِىَ قَـٰرُونُ :I wish we had what Karoon has.
Man that's some boss life.
And yet on the other hand, all Allah will give you, if you can turn to Him, He'll give you the one thing. That no amount of money, no amount of popularity, no amount of people not arguing or people liking you, people appreciating you, none of that will give you what this one gift that can only be given by Allah:
يَهْدِ قَلْبَهُۥ : Allah will guide his heart. Allah will guide this person's heart; this is The Ultimate Gift of Iman.
This is The Ultimate Gift of mussiba.
So now let me conclude. I started this khutbah talking about difficult situations.
People are stuck, you're stuck, I'm stuck, in some situations we don't see a way out.
Those difficult situations are actually Allah's way of giving us the most valuable gift we could ever earn; His way of guiding our hearts.
If we can just use those situations to find Allah, in those situations, to talk to Allah in those situations and you don't have to know Arabic to do that.
You don't have to know a lot of Quran to do that.
You just turn to Allah and you say, "Ya Allah you are the best of planners. Ya Allah nobody loves me like You do. Nobody cares for me like You do. I know this situation is best for me, guide me. I need your guidance."
There is no way that you will turn to Allah genuinely asking Him for guidance, and He will turn you away.
You will ask Allah for a car, He may not give you.
You can ask Allah for a house, He may not give you.
You might ask Allah to cure your disease, he might not; maybe He will, maybe He won't, because He knows what's better for you.
But one thing guaranteed, He will give you when you ask Him sincerely is His guidance. That He will give you.
And when He gives you that, everything else is solved. Everything else is taken care of.
May Allah make us people who truly genuinely beg for His guidance and may Allah make all of our difficulties, all of the challenges we have in our life, a means by which we draw closer and closer to Him and earn His priceless guidance.