#060 When Calamity Strikes...
Lessons From Surah At-Taghabun [64:11]
As-salamu alaykum.
In today’s newsletter, we will delve into verse 64:11 in-depth.
Previously, this verse has been mentioned in newsletters:
#056 When Life Becomes Hard
#057 When You Trust Allah In Your Difficulty
In today’s newsletter, we will take a closer look at that verse.
Here goes…
We are now on the 28th juz' and it's a very difficult juz' to pick an ayah from. But I've picked an ayah from Surah At-Taghabun; an ayah that I still remember when my teacher Dr. Abdul Samee' taught, I sat there crying.
It is the 11th ayah of Surah At-Taghabun, surah number 64 that is:
When Allah says, 'مَا أَصَابَ مِن مُّصِيبَةٍ' (Mā 'Aşāba Min Muşībatin)- no calamity of any sort ever strikes you,' 'مُّصِيبَةٍ' (Muşībatin) is calamity.
But 'أَصَابَ' (Aşāba) in Arabic also means ‘to target’.
Allah is teaching us by use of this word, that nothing ever happens to you that wasn't actually meant for you.
It was specifically targeted to you and that difficulty hit its target. And a 'مُّصِيبَةٍ' (Muşībatin) isn't necessarily a bad thing.
It's something that Allah wanted to have happened to you and Allah lets you know, 'إِلَّا بِإِذْنِ اللَّهِ' ('Illā Bi'idhni Allāhi).
The word 'مَا' (Mā) in the beginning of the ayah is actually a refutation. Don't you ever think that it was anyone other than Allah that put you through what you're going through.
It was always Allah and it is Allah's permission that allowed for what happened to you to happen to you. Good or bad. It was Allah's will directly.
If you're not happy with Allah's will, which is what we call 'ماشاء الله,'(Masha'Allah)- 'whatever Allah wills.'
'رضيت بالله، رضيت بمشيئة الله,' ' I am pleased with the will of Allah, whatever Allah wills.' Whether I'm suffering as a result of it, or whether I'm overjoyed as a result of it, I am pleased with the will of Allah- that is truly accepting that I am slave of Allah and that He is my Master.
Allah says that there is not a single calamity except that it is by Allah's permission. 'وَمَن يُؤْمِن بِاللَّهِ,' (Wa Man Yu'umin Billāhi)- 'and throughout that calamity, whoever can maintain their faith,' that's a conditional statement.
You know why it's a conditional statement? Because when calamity hits, people lose their faith.
That's when you start questioning God. That's when you start questioning, why would Allah do this to me if He loves me and He created me and He wants to take care of me?
What kind of Al-Rahman is this that is putting me through these things? When that happens, then you no longer have faith.
Allah says, 'whoever can maintain their eman during calamity,' 'يَهْدِ قَلْبَهُ' (Yahdi Qalbahu)- 'Allah will give him this one gift, that if you had this gift, you don't need anything else in life.
Allah will give that gift to this person. 'يَهْدِ قَلْبَهُ', (Yahdi Qalbahu)- 'He will guide his heart.'
There is nothing more valuable in this world than Allah guaranteeing someone guidance. There is nothing more valuable. I don't know if I have guidance and you don't know if you have guidance.
But Allah tells us this, you go through hardship and you maintain and strengthen your faith in Allah, and Allah will give you the gift of real eman, of real faith inside of your heart and it won't be just something you say on your tongue.
'يَهْدِ قَلْبَهُ', (Yahdi Qalbahu)- 'He'll guide his heart,' He'll guide his emotions, He'll guide his remembrance. Allah will become your guide in everything you do.
'يَهْدِ قَلْبَهُ' (Yahdi Qalbahu). Allah didn't even say 'يَهْدِه', (Yahdihi)- 'He will guide him.'
He said 'يَهْدِ قَلْبَهُ,' (Yahdi Qalbahu)- 'He will guide his heart'- every beat will be full of guidance. Every beat that heart takes will be with the remembrance of Allah. It's such an amazing thing. It's such an amazing thing!
Everything in this world on the one hand and the guidance of Allah in the heart of the believer. 'يَهْدِ قَلْبَهُ'(Yahdi Qalbahu). And where does someone feel the pain of calamity and sadness?
In their heart.
Where do they feel that?
In their heart.
And Allah will remove it from their heart.
My teacher used to tell us the story of this woman. This married couple who had only one child and they had this child late in life. And on the day of his graduation, the child is graduating from high school, he had a motorcycle and on the way home he got into an accident and died. An 18 year old kid in Pakistan somewhere. This young kid and he died, just like that.
And this kid was their life. He's their joy, he's their pride and it's the day that he graduated. The news comes that he's gone.
And they just go into serious, serious depression and then the father eventually comes to the wife after a few weeks and he tells her, “Allah gave us a toy and He let us play with it for 18 years and it was His, it wasn't ours.”
“And He took back what was His and instead of being grateful that He had us enjoy our lives for 18 years we're being like this. We should be grateful.”
This is real calamity and maintaining your faith. That's maintaining your faith.
Because when calamity hits, you start feeling like Allah owes you something. Allah owes me health. Allah owes me my children. Allah owes me my wife. Allah owes me my happiness. Allah owes me my job.
Allah owes you nothing.
You owe Allah everything. I don't own these fingers. I don't own this face. I don't own a single tooth. I don't own them. These are Allah's gifts and He can take them as He pleases.
And when He does, it is a reminder that it's not yours. That it's not mine.
When He takes anything, and the people who don't really believe that Allah owns everything, they're the ones that lose their faith and say, “It was mine why did He take it? Why did He take it?”
When this faith enters your heart then you will understand the ayahs 'Allah owns everything in the skies and the earth.'
It's so easy to say, right?
It's so easy to say, “Allah owns everything in the skies and the earth.” What does that mean practically for me and you?
It means I own nothing. I don't even own myself.
You know the thing we say to each other, as I close, the thing we say to each other when we die, 'إنا لله وإنا إليه راجعون,' (Innā li Allāhi w innā ilayhi rāji'oon)- 'we belong to Allah and to Him is our return'.
If my entire being belongs to Allah, how is it that any part of me or any gift I have in life can belong to me? If I don't even own myself. This is the realization of iman.
This surah, Surah al-Taghabun, is the surah of the fruits of iman. What are the things that a person internalizes when they really, really, really have iman in Allah, and real faith in Allah?
This is what this surah is about.
This is why this is one of my favorite ayahs of this surah. 'وَمَن يُؤْمِن بِاللَّهِ يَهْدِ قَلْبَهُ' (Wa Man Yu'umin Billāhi Yahdi Qalbahu).
I pray that Allah guides all of our hearts and I conclude with the conclusion of the ayah, 'وَاللَّهُ بِكُلِّ شَيْءٍ عَلِيمٌ,' (Wa Allāhu Bikulli Shay'in`Alīmun)- 'Allah fully knows everything that goes on.'
Allah knows what you're going through it's not like He doesn't know. He's the one that created that situation. He's the one that is testing you with it.
May Allah عز وجل give you strength through your difficult times and may Allah give you the ability to maintain and strengthen your iman in the middle of those insanely difficult trials so that you get the gift that nobody else in the world has like you do, and that is the gift of guidance into your hearts.