 وحاجه قومه قال أتحال وقد هدان ولا أخاف ما تشركون به إلا يشاء ربي شيئا وسع ربي كل شيء علما أفلا تتذكرون الحمد لله رب العالمين والصلاة والسلام على رسول الله صلى الله عليه وسلم أم أبعز السلام عليكم ورحمة الله وبركاته أنا أمتعه في الشيخ محمد يمهنبو خفضه الله و تعالى how you doing today الحمد لله very well جزاك الله خيرا لدينا موضوع لتتحدث اليوم الذي يشاهده why are muslims suffering و كما always on the hot seat I like to start on a macro level and talk about the concept of suffering in general so why does suffering exist in this world so one of the most comprehensive ayat in which Allah is describes the existence of suffering and the cause of it is the ayah in which Allah said corruption has appeared on earth and at sea by what the hands of men have earned so that they may taste some of what they have done so that they may return I return to Allah and repentance so in this ayah we actually have two things we have the mention of the corruption and the evil which causes suffering on the earth and we have the reason or the wisdom behind it so Allah said that the cause of it and remember that there is a the cause of it is the actions of human beings so here we have a cause and we have the one who ultimately is in control of that cause and brings it into effect the one in control of that cause and who brings it into effect is Allah سبحانه وتعالى however Allah سبحانه وتعالى places on this earth aspect which are causes or means by which things happen for example the rain falling down when the rain falls there is a means by which that happens there is a process scientifically by which that happens but the one causing that process is Allah سبحانه وتعالى similarly here Allah tells us that the evil which causes the suffering on this earth is the cause of that is people it's human beings but the one who is in control of that is Allah سبحانه وتعالى and here the most important thing is that Allah سبحانه وتعالى tells us the wisdom and remember that Allah سبحانه وتعالى and we should start with this as a principle in fact if we start with two fundamental principles because just as you like to start with the general question I think I like to start with a couple of principles the first is that Allah سبحانه وتعالى is the creator of everything and the one who decrees everything ذلكم الله ربكم لا إله إلا هو خالق كل شيء في عبده Allah سبحانه وتعالى is your lord the one that there is no god worthy of worship but him the creator of everything so worship him and Allah سبحانه وتعالى said ومن شره Allah سبحانه وتعالى said من شره ما خلق from the evil of what he created so that's what we have to establish is that Allah سبحانه وتعالى is the one creating and controlling everything that happens in this universe but these causes here which we're talking about are the things which Allah سبحانه وتعالى made the reasons why things happen and the second principle we want to start with is that the wisdom of Allah سبحانه وتعالى that everything happens for an infinite wisdom and Allah سبحانه وتعالى said حكمة بالغة فما تغني النظر Allah سبحانه وتعالى said infinite wisdom an immeasurable wisdom yet the warnings did not benefit them so here when we establish that Allah سبحانه وتعالى has a wisdom for things here the wisdom that Allah سبحانه وتعالى mentioned is so that we may taste some of what we have done in reality human beings don't taste the evil of everything that they have done if there was there would not be anything good left on the earth but human beings simply are given a taste of some of what will come to them if they do not turn in repentance to Allah سبحانه وتعالى لعلهم يرجعون so that they may return back to Allah سبحانه وتعالى that's one of the most comprehensive ayat كل نفس ذائقات الموت ونبلوكم بالشري والخير فتنة وإلينا ترجعون الله سبحانه وتعالى said every soul will taste death and we test you with evil and good as a trial and notice that Allah سبحانه وتعالى mentioned evil and good here he didn't just mention the good we test you with evil and good as a trial and to us you will be returned and notice that this life is a test and a trial and a place where tests happen and tests necessitate difficulties and hardship and suffering and problems as a means to test and to make known those who believe from those who don't so that would be my overview I think that's a very good overview and it would be easier to accept your concept there if it was what I could see happening in reality so what I mean by that is that we know that if it's the case that this suffering happens as a result of our sins we know that the non-Muslims are sinning far worse than us they don't even believe in Allah yet when we look around the world it's often the Muslim nations and the Muslims that are suffering even more than the non-Muslims so how does that fit into your paradigm that you just explained now so here there are two answers to this first of all as a group of as a collective group of Muslims we have strayed very far away from the teachings of Islam that we were given and if you remember that if we said that this is a way that Allah bring us back to Him then this Muslim nation in its current state is in desperate need of being brought back to Allah and from the wisdom of that is that necessitates that they would suffer and in order that they would take this lesson and would come back to Allah سبحانه وتعالى because the reality is that they have strayed very far away from the commands that Allah has given as an Ummah collectively and remember that Allah has said in Surat Al-Anfal beware of a trial that will not afflict only the wrongdoers among you that there are some things that happen because of the sins that exist within the nation or the people as a whole everybody becomes affected by them and also the concept which the Prophet سبحانه وتعالى mentioned in authentic Hadith in which he said about the severity of a person's trials إنه he said that عظم البلا ما عظم he said صلى الله عليه وسلم عظم الجزا ما عظم البلا that the severity of a person's the severity of a person's trial or the greatness of a person's trial will be accompanied by the greatness of their reward and we know the Prophet سبحانه وتعالى he said in the Hadith of Aisha رضي الله عنها لا تصيب المؤمن شوكة فما فوقها إلا قص الله به من قضيئته that no believer is touched by even the prick of a thorn except that Allah سبحانه وتعالى will remove some of their sins thereby and when we talked about this Hadith about the severity of a person's reward going along with the severity of the or the greatness of the reward that they get with the greatness of the punishment and the statement وَإِذَا حَبَّ اللَّهُ قَوْمَنِبْتَلَاهُمْ when Allah loves the people he tests them and the Hadith is the Hadith of Anas Ibn Malik and it's the Sunnah Ibn Maja and others and Tirmidhi and others so here we see that Allah عز و جل sometimes tests a people because he loves them and he wishes to erase the sins that they have so that doesn't so that's something that could be quite difficult to understand on one hand we're saying that Allah tests people because they're sinning against him and disobeying him and on the other hand we're saying that Allah tests people because he loves them does he love the sinners? so here first of all what we need here is we need to distinguish between these two cases that Allah عز و جل tested some people when we know that those people were not tested because of their sins for example the prophets the prophets were a people that had no major sins that were at the highest level of Allah's love for them and their love of Allah and were a people whose even minor sins were accidental mistakes and not deliberate attempts to disobey Allah سبحانه وتعالى and yet none were tested greater than the prophets and the messengers so here we have to separate these two things and say that it may be that Allah عز و جل tests a person because of his love for them otherwise there is no justification for the testing of the prophets and the messengers since they were the least of the people in sin yet they were the greatest of the people in tests and trials and that reminds you of a hadith that a man will be brought on the day of judgment and he will be he will be from the from the from the kufar who were given the most blessings in this dunya and he will be dipped into the fire and then it will be said to him did you ever know any blessings and he will say I didn't know of any so from this what we can understand is that the reverse of that being true that a person comes and they were from the greatest of people in suffering in this world and what happened was that that person might be taken and Allah سبحانه وتعالى dips them into paradise and says did you know any suffering and they said I did not know any of any suffering so when that is the case we can hear distinguish between two things Allah سبحانه وتعالى testing a person because of his love for them in order to raise their rank and in order to erase whatever sins they might have and to raise their rank and that comes back to the hadith that we mentioned that a believer is not touched by the likes of a shoka of a a thorn except that Allah erases some of their sins through it and the cause of the existence of problems and suffering in this world being the hands of men even the prophets and the messengers the suffering and the difficulties that he went with even when you look at those and you trace it back you're still talking about the acts of people that cause suffering to other people but the difference is how a person responds to that so this is where some of the scholars said that if a person is responding in a positive way and that calamity is bringing them nearer to Allah then this is closer that this is a way that Allah is so and if it's the case that a person is behaving and it's distancing them from Allah and it's making them doubt Allah and question Allah then this is closer to being a punishment through which they are told to come back to Allah سبحانه وتعالى but the reality is the issue is like all issues relating to Qadr it is more complicated than that it's more it's more complex and most people apart from the prophets and the messengers are a mix of both in reality every believer has a share of Allah's love there is no believer that Allah has no love for but they also have sins and mistakes and so when we bring these and balance these two things together we see that these two things are not actually separate they actually come together in the sense that Allah loves a person and wants to erase their sins and wants to raise their rank and at the same time a person has sins and mistakes that have brought about the calamities and likewise the other people around them like in the Hadith of Zainab when she said وفين الصالحون will we be destroyed when there are righteous people among us and the prophet said he said yes if the corruption in the society increases so I think when we look at these from two separate angles we can reconcile between the two and see that in many you do get cases where it's nothing but punishment because that person has no love Allah has no love for them at all like the most you know wicked of people and you have a case where it is purely it means to raise their rank like the prophets and the messengers but the average person lies in between that so both of those causes come into effect so you mentioned the Hadith there that talks about that some people could suffer as a result not necessarily through their own sins or the Muslims at large that brings me on to my next question how is that fair and just of Allah to do doesn't Allah say that nobody will bear a burden for someone else you have countries now that are going through a lot of suffering are we saying that there's not one righteous person in there why is he suffering because of results of someone else's sins so here we have two we have an ayah we have a Hadith which explains this very very well we have an ayah in which Allah said be aware of a trial that will come that will not only afflict the wrongdoers among you so this tells us that there are some things that if the situation reaches such a level of corruption that the punishment may descend upon everyone the righteous and the wicked however we have a Hadith which explains this and this Hadith is the Hadith of Aisha رضي الله عنها and it's actually an issue that Aisha raised that same issue that you're raising now because the Prophet SAW mentioned about a people who would go out an army that would go out to destroy the Ka'bah and the army as they are traveling to destroy the Ka'bah they would be destroyed they would swallow them up and they would be sunk into the earth Aisha رضي الله عنها she said إن الطريقة قادي يجمع الناس the road will likely have many different people on the same road generally when the armies go you'd have people buying and selling to the soldiers you'd have people who were just walking on the same road you'd have people who were crossing the path so she said you'd have people together so how can it be that all of them will be sunk in the road when some of them are just crossing the road to go to somewhere else قال نعم the Prophet SAW said yes and then he said the different people that would be on the road he mentioned that there were people who would come with المستبصر the one who really knows what they're doing they can clearly see what they're doing the one that was being forced along they were a slave they were being dragged by the army and it was not their choice to be and the person who was just a traveler on the road who was cut off just trying to get maybe charity or get some way to reach their home then the Prophet SAW said يهلكون مهلك واحدا they will all be destroyed with a single destruction but then he said ويصطورون مصاد رشة يبعثهم الله but when they are raised on the day of judgment each one of them will be raised in a totally different way الله will raise them according to their intentions so here we see that generally the case is that the punishment falls upon the wrongdoer but if it's the case that a punishment is so great that it affects more than just the wrongdoers then on the day of judgment الله will resurrect people according to their intention and he will not resurrect the one that was simply crossing the road the same way that he will resurrect the one that is going with the intention of destroying the Kaaba rather each one will be resurrected according to their intention now here I think it's very important very important that we bear in mind the temporary nature of this life because many of these arguments that come forward about suffering are within a context that this life is your goal and your only the only thing that you're here for and whatever you get in this life that's all you're going to get and when you think of it like that it's impossible to contextualize suffering you can't possibly put suffering into context if you are thinking of this life as the end game whereas when you see that there is a life which is to come and that this life is so insignificant or what they went through in this life then you see that the important thing is what happens to you يوم القيامة and that if there are things that happen to people in this world that deny or that cause them to be denied opportunities الله سبحانه وتعالى will make that just and will make it fair يوم القيامة and will balance it out يوم القيامة okay how would you respond to someone who says that the mass suffering that the Muslims are currently undertaking across the world is an indication that Islam cannot be the true religion because Allah simply wouldn't do this to the people he loves even with regards to the benefit in the hereafter and contextualizing suffering with the أخرا still to do this a loving God would he really do this to the people that he loves so I think here again we need to go back to some key principles first of all we look at the prophets and the messengers here we have a people that it is guaranteed cast iron guarantee and you and I both agree as does everyone watching this at home agrees that those people were beloved to Allah even those from for example from Ahl Kitab and you look at the example of Musa you look at the example of Isa all of us agree unanimously that those were righteous people and yet they صفت أيوب صفت to the extent that he said me and my family have been touched by an affliction يعقوب صفت until the point where he said إنما أشك بثي وحزني إلى الله I only complained my grief and sorrow to Allah Youness called out لا إله إلا أنت سبحانك إن كنت من الظالمين الله سبحانه وتعالى وكذلك ننجي المؤمنين الله عز وجل من المؤمنين أن يولس Our messenger Muhammad صلى الله عليه وسلم أكثر than any of the other prophets and messengers he suffered more than any of them and yet these are all people that Allah عز وجل loves the thing that people have to understand is that when it comes to the decree of Allah there is a difference between what Allah decrees and what Allah loves Allah عز وجل He only loves that which is good and he only loves for good to happen and good to be done but Allah عز وجل decrees for many things to happen that he doesn't love for a wisdom that remains with him شيخ رسام التيمير رحم الله تعالى said something very profound about this which I believe is relevant and important for people to understand he said and I'll just paraphrase what he said is that just as you recognize that Allah's attributes are perfect but you don't understand the way those attributes work likewise you recognize that his wisdom is perfect even if you don't understand all of the the details of a particular event and why that wisdom exists so for example we accept that Allah is that Allah عز وجل hears everything and sees everything but we don't understand how Allah hears and sees everything for us we can't comprehend how it is that Allah عز وجل can see everything because our sight is limited we can't comprehend how it is that Allah hears everything because if we hear 2, 3, 4 different voices they become all mixed up and we get confused and we can't concentrate so how is it that Allah can hear billions upon billions upon billions and voices all simultaneously are not confused yet we recognize that it's true the same thing you can't distinguish between that and Allah's wisdom then if you recognize that Allah has infinite wisdom حكمة ونبالغة فما تغني النظر infinite and immeasurable wisdom the details of that wisdom you can't fully have in every event now that doesn't mean because one person doesn't understand the wisdom the other one doesn't will explain a wisdom behind things and sometimes you won't understand a wisdom when it happens to you but you'll understand that wisdom many years later so for example somebody gets into a a car crash or something like that and he says that you know I don't know why this happened to me I was praying I was good I was making du'a to Allah I did my car and then this happened and I can't understand it and then they see within a set number of months that something happened to them because one of the biggest blessings Allah gave them but they couldn't see that at the time until later on so seeing the details of a wisdom behind any particular situation may or may not be possible for you but recognizing that that wisdom exist is an obligation upon every Muslim now we've also said that Allah test people because he loves them and we've also said that the situation of the Muslims today is a situation in which the Muslims are in need of returning to Allah and Allah said Allah will not change the condition of a people until they change what is with themselves the Prophet SAW spoke about how this nation would be at the end of time and he spoke about how the non-Muslims would gather together or around the Muslims like the pray gathers around the game and yet with all of those things he explained that it was not because of the low number of the Muslims but that their deeds were like the form of the sea and if that is said then you can understand that the situation the Muslims are in today is one where collectively as a nation we have strayed from the path of Allah SAW very far and if Allah SAW loves us like we hope that he loves us he'll bring us back for him his sunnah you're not gonna find a difference in the way that Allah deals with people is that Allah brings you back by testing you Allah doesn't bring you back by opening the dunya in fact opening the dunya is something that Allah SAW typically does for the non-Muslims and to the point where Allah SAW talks about how he opens up the dunya for them and then he says Allah SAW said when they forgot what they were reminded of we opened up for them the doors of every good then when they were happy with what they were given we struck them with a calamity suddenly and then they were cut off from all chances to change and all chances to correct themselves so if Allah SAW loves the Muslims surely that necessitates that Allah is the greatest and the greatest and the greatest and the greatest surely that necessitates that Allah brings them back to their deen and Allah brings them back by making them suffer and making them have hardships and difficulties in fact the opposite is true of the people that Allah doesn't love he opens for them the dunya and then Allah SAW takes their souls what is that what is that Allah takes their souls while they are in a state of disbelief so this is actually a blessing for the Muslims that Allah SAW gives them the reminder that brings them back furthermore if we look at the way that Allah SAW dealt with أهل الكتاب why are we told so much about أهل الكتاب in the Qur'an because أهل الكتاب are an example of what we will go through لتتبيعنا سننا من كان قبلكم you're going to follow the ways of the people who came before you that being said أهل الكتاب went through the same things and then straight away from Allah SAW gave them tests and trials in the beginning of صورة الإسراء Allah SAW mentions how that happened to بني إسرائيل ثم رددنا لكم الكررة عليهم وأمددناكم بأموال وبنين وجعلناكم أكثر نفيرة إن أحسنتم أحسنتم لأنفسكم وإن أساءتم فلها Allah SAW mentioned that when we gave you then the chance or we gave you again another opportunity when they lost their enemies went and they destroyed their place of worship then Allah SAW gave them another opportunity and he gave them wealth and he gave them children and he made them strong then again if you are good Allah سبحانه وتعالى will maintain that for you and if you turn away then Allah سبحانه وتعالى will take away from you and Allah said وإن عدتم عدنا فإن عدتم عدنا if you go back to how you were then we will go back to the same thing will happen to you again so this is also the Sunnah of أهل كتاب the same thing that أهل كتاب went through as well so it's not something that we should be surprised by as Muslims but it's something that should make us wake up and turn back to Allah سبحانه وتعالى and one of those ways of waking up and turning back to Allah is as you said stopping and decreasing the number of sins that we do and when I think of sins I'm thinking about drinking alcohol committing Zina I've seen a lot of your lectures and you talk a lot about and worship Allah alone why can't we deal with the sins right now why can't we deal with the sins of Zina and alcohol surely that's the thing that we need to be addressing in order to uplift the suffering that we're currently going through there's no doubt that we need to be addressing all of the sins that are taking place in the Muslim Ummah today but the greatest sin is the one that الله عز وجل said about it إن الله لا يغفر ويغفر ما دون ذلك إليه من يشاء الله does not forgive the partner with him and he forgives anything less than that for whoever he wills so this tells us that the greatest sin and the prophet was asked about the greatest sin and he said that you make a partner with Allah while Allah is the one who created you so here if you look at the way that the Quran deals with this it's incorrect to say that the Quran doesn't deal with sins like alcohol and zina rather if you look at the وصية of in fact I'm going to mention I'm going to bring the whole thing one second because it's better if you look at the وصية of the messenger of Allah صلى الله عليه وسلم which is mentioned in the Quran and that is in the end of Surat Al-An'am it's about ayah number 151 onwards that الله عز وجل said أتلما حرم ربكم عليكم أن لا تشركوا به شيء وبالواليدين إحسانة ولا تقتلوا أولادكم من إملاق نحن نرزوخكم وإياهم ولا تقربوا الفواحش ما ظهر منها وما ضطن ولا تقتلوا النفس التي حرم الله إلا بالحق ذلكم وصاكم به لعلكم تعقلون ولا تقربوا ما لليتيم إلا بالتي هي أحسن حتى يبلغ أشده وأوفوا وأوفوا الكيلة والميزان بالقسط لا نكلف نفسا إلا وصعها وإذا قلتم فعدلوا ولو كان ذا قربا وبعهت الله أوفوا ذلكم وصاكم به لعلكم تذكرون وأن هذا الصرات مستقيما فاتبعوه ولا تتبعوا السبول فتفرق بكم عن سبيل ذلكم وصاكم به لعلكم تتقون هذا هو وصية آخر من المسجد الله صلى الله عليه وسلم التي يتكلم المسجد التي نحن أن نتكلم منها أخبروا وصاكم ما فعلتك حرام for you أنك لا تفعل معه وأنك سيكون جيد وأنك لا تتكلم أطفالك من خلال سوف نتكلم منك ومنهم وانتبعوا لا تتكلم من المسجد مثل زينة ذلك المسجد وذلك المسجد ولا تتكلم من أن الله يجعل أن يتكلم منك حقا هذا هو ما يتكلم أو يتكلم لذلك لذلك يتكلم وانتبعوا لعلكم حتى لم تتكلم غير م Korean وضع وانتبعوا ت هناك still المتكلم الذي تكلم نحو نحو يتكلم وجيب أنك لا تتكلم وانتبعaha وبإمكان إنك سبما حسوس هذا ما نثمث أنك يتكلم لما أنك يصلInsival و this is my straight path so follow it and do not follow the other path so they take you away from his path This is what Allah commands you with so that you may be a people of Taqwa This is the final advice of the Messenger of Allah صلى الله عليه وسلم As Ibn Abbas رضي الله عنهما has said that That is what the Messenger of Allah صلى الله عليه وسلم left you with And if you notice the first thing that is said is a shirk To keep away from making a partner with Allah But nor is it neglected to keep away from zina and killing And all of the other fawahish including alcohol and whatever Which are mentioned in the ayah But the first thing is to sort out a person's heart with Allah صلى الله عليه وسلم Ultimately if our relationship with Allah is broken Our relationship with ourselves in our communities with our families is going to be fundamentally broken So it's not that we sit here telling people that we shouldn't be dealing with Muslims drinking alcohol or we shouldn't be dealing with Muslims committing zina But we shouldn't be neglecting the very first thing that the Prophet صلى الله عليه وسلم Mentioned which is that we don't make a partner with Allah Okay, you've very nicely explained a lot of the wisdoms behind the suffering that exists Particularly for the Muslims At the same time we are working continuously to uplift the suffering To help our brothers and sisters around the world And one of the things we do on a very regular basis Is dua Every single Ramadan The Imam makes dua for almost every single Muslim nation And that is undergoing suffering at that time This has been happening for years and years and years And Allah says in Quran أجيبو دعوة دعي إذا دعان I will answer the call of the caller when he calls We've been calling for years and it's not come yet Why? So let me bring you back again to the story Or the seer of the Prophet صلى الله عليه وسلم You could argue that we as Muslims our dua You know we have موانع Things that stop our dua from being accepted Like the hadith about ثم ذكر رجولا يطيل السفر أشعث أغبار يمدوا يديه إلى السماء يقول يا رب يا رب That this man on a long journey And he's dusty and disheveled And he raises his hands to the sky And he says my lord my lord But his food is haram And his drink is haram And his clothing is haram And he's nourished with haram فأنا يستجابوا لذلك how is Allah gonna answer him You could argue that that is one of the reasons Why we as Muslims Our situation is not being uplifted And we mentioned the ayah إن الله لا يغيروا ما بقوم حتى يغيروا ما بأنفسهم Allah will not change the condition of the people Until they change what is with themselves But I want to take it from a different angle Okay Look at the Prophet صلى الله عليه وسلم The Prophet صلى الله عليه وسلم His dua was أستجاب To the point that you can count the times When Allah didn't give him something You can count them like That he said Allah answered my door Except for one thing that he didn't answer I asked Allah for three things He gave me two of them And he prevented me from one of them The Prophet صلى الله عليه وسلم Was someone whose dua I was answered And yet If you look at his situation For 13 years in Makkah And he was in a state of Being oppressed Being Enduring incredible suffering Along with the Muslims who were there You look at what happened to the family of Yasir When the Prophet صلى الله عليه وسلم Said them صبرًا على Yasir فإن موعدكم الجنة Be patient Or family of Yasir Because your final destination is Jannah And the martyrdom of سمية رضي الله عنها And all of the things that happened to the Muslims In Makkah And yet All that time The Prophet صلى الله عليه وسلم Was making dua In Medina The Prophet صلى الله عليه وسلم Made dua Sometimes the Muslims were victorious Sometimes not And Allah سبحانه وتعالى Told us about this In multiple ayat in the Quran Allah عز وجل أم حسبتهم أن تدخل الجنة و لما يأتيكم مثل الذين خلوا من قبلكم مستتم البأساء والضراء و زلزلوا حتى يقول الرسول والذين آمنوا معه متى نصر الله على إن نصر الله قريب Do you believe that you will enter paradise When they has not yet come to you The likes of what came to the people before you They were touched with such hardship And university And shaken so badly That even their messenger And those who believed along with him Would say when is the help of Allah Going to come Indeed the help of Allah is near Allah عز وجل Said إيمسسكم القرح فقد مسأل قوم قرح مثله و تلك الأيام نداولها بين الناس و ليعلم الله الذين آمنوا و يتأذ منكم شهاداء والله يحلا يحب الظالمين Allah said If you are touched with a wound Then these people have been touched With a wound like yours And in these days We rotate between the people I will give you victory sometimes And sometimes we don't So that Allah may know those who believe I saw that Allah may make known Those who believe May make the people know who those who believe And may take from among you martyrs And Allah does not love the oppressive So what you can take from this Is that Allah سبحانه وتعالى Delayed the answer Of answering of that دعاء of His Prophet صلى الله عليه وسلم For victory Even though That the Prophet صلى الله عليه وسلم Had been making dua for the Muslim Since the first day that he was sent By Allah عز و جل Until The better part of 23 years And Allah سبحانه وتعالى Gave him the victory Right at the very end Of the time of his prophethood إذا جاء نصر الله والفتح That victory came right at the end Certainly after the 10th Yeah After the Hijra You're talking about Somewhere in the region of 20 to 23 Years Before the Prophet صلى الله عليه وسلم Was given that victory And if that's Someone whom Allah عز و جل Loves and answers their dua Then it shows that there are times Your duas may be delayed In being answered for a reason They may be delayed in being answered Because there is a greater wisdom in that Because Allah سبحانه وتعالى Wishes some people to be taken As martyrs and to be raised in rank In paradise Because Allah سبحانه وتعالى Wishes to test the people If your dua was answered Every single time Instantly that you made dua There would be no test That's the reality of it Add to that All of the problems that exist within The Muslim Ummah today The distance from Allah سبحانه وتعالى The sins The problems that are happening The lack of Religion Of prayer Abandoning of the prayer That's only an extra reason To add to the fact that our dua Is not being answered And then you add to that as well What the Prophet سبحانه وتعالى When corruption and filth Becomes widespread Despite our dua Still the corruption among the Muslims And the evil practices among the Muslims Remain widespread And Allah promised that He will not Change the condition of a people Until they change what is with themselves So when we put all these things together We say that first of all Your dua may be delayed For a wisdom that is with Allah As the Prophet سبحانه وتعالى Was delayed in this until The conquest of Makkah And what we are required is to be Is to be patient الذين إذا أصابتهم مصيبة قالوا إنا لله وإنا إليه راجعون Those people who when they touch By a calamity They say we belong to Indeed we belong to Allah And to him we will return أولئك عليهم صلواتهم من ربهم ورحمه وأولئك هم المحتدون Those are the people who the That Allah سبحانه وتعالى His blessings are upon them That they are the ones Who are rightly guided They are patient When they're when they're Reflected by a trial So ultimately that concept Of patience comes from That delayed happens But also we have yet to Remove the causes Which are blocking our dua From being answered as well So these things come together And provide a comprehensive answer As to why we're still In the same situation But they also tell us That the answer is Not to stop making dua The answer is to continue Making dua To continue being patient And for each individual To strive to remove Whatever they can From the things that are Stopping their dua From being accepted And when that Collective process happens Like it happened To the Sahab رضي الله عنهم In Makkah And more and more became Muslim And then they went to Medina And the situation improved For them That Allah سبحانه وتعالى Will change the condition Of the Muslims But he will only Change that condition When each one of us Strives to correct What they can From the reasons Why our own dua Might not be Accepted Is that really realistic though That are you really going to Get it to a point Where Muslims across the world There's so many of us And there's so many With different All kinds of different sins I mean I'm only really Can control what I do Are you really going to Get it to the point Where the Muslims In totality Are like the Sahab Like you mentioned All upright righteous I seem like An impossibility right now There is nothing that is Difficult for Allah Allah سبحانه وتعالى Is على كل شيء قدير able to do all things What is Is not to worry About what we can't control The concept of Is not to worry About what you can't control The concept is To worry about What I can't control I can't control What someone is Doing on the other side Of the world But I can control What I'm doing And I can Be a person Who goes and tries To make positive changes Around myself My family My neighbors And so on And look at what Al-Ima'an said That this Ummah Will not be The latter part Except by What corrected The former part of it Those Sahaba Looked like It was an impossible task In Makkah You know You're a handful of people You have no power You have no control And you are You are In a state of Extremely being Extremely oppressed And yet Allah سبحانه وتعالى Took them out of that situation By his blessing And his mercy And that can happen To the Muslims today As long as The Muslims follow The same methodology That they followed Which is Which corrects themselves And those around them And works To correct Their family Their friends Their social You know Circle Their neighbors You know Their localities And so on And the more Efforts are made Like that Then Allah سبحانه وتعالى Will bring about For this Ummah Something A situation Which will Correct The situation Or the correct The problems That exist within it It's not an impossibility For Allah سبحانه وتعالى But each one of us needs to Worry about What we can change And not Become defeatist Like the Prophet Said He said Be keen to To do what will benefit you And seek the help of Allah But don't be defeatist Don't say that It will never happen It's never going to change We can never improve The situation And in fact Allah has told us Through the Prophet That this situation will change Because before the end of time We know From the events That will happen before The Qiyama Is that Allah سبحانه وتعالى Will bring about a correction Among the Muslims At the time Of the The Dajjal And the Mahdi And so on So it's not really realistic For us to say That this is never going to change But to simply say That we are going to be judged On our individual Efforts As what we did to help To bring about that change And not On the collective situation Of the Muslims Because as you rightly said We are not going to be carrying The burden of somebody else But my own burden Is what did I do For myself My family My neighbours My friends My social circle My local community To change the situation And then Allah Is the one who Will Guide the Muslims To be able To change the rest Okay In addition to دعا And in addition To correcting ourselves And refraining from sins I have another solution And I'm now talking about the suffering Not necessarily from the natural disasters Like earthquakes But I'm certainly talking about the suffering That comes from The disbelievers And the oppression that's taken place In the Muslim lands Why don't we all Just come together and unite I understand We have differences In certain areas of belief Isn't it time to just Put that to the side Come together As one united body Large in number Isn't Allah going to help us If we're all together Working towards the same cause See here This argument about The Muslims Becoming united This in itself Is correct in a way And it has some areas In which people make mistakes So Allah عز وجل Said و أطيع الله و رسوله و لا تنازع ف تفشل و تذهب ريح وكم وصبروا إن الله مع الصابرين Allah said Abay Allah in his messenger And do not differ So you If you do You will fail And your strength will go And be patient Indeed Allah is with those who are patient So here Allah Affirms That if we Are divided And disunited That will cause Our strength to go And it will cause Our us to lose Our What we want for this nation And it will cause us To lose our aims And our goals But when we understand When Allah said About this تنازع This differing Allah عز وجل Mentioned this differing In another آية He said يا أيوهلدين أامن أطيع الله و أطيع رسول و أقول الأمر منكم فإن تنازعت في شيء فردوا إلى الله و الرسول إن كنتم تؤمنون بالله و اليوم الآخر ذلك خير و أحسن و تأويلة And those in authority And if you differ In something To the best of my knowledge The only time that word Is used in two places Once About being united And not differing And here And if you differ In something Return it back To Allah And his messenger So when we combine These two آيات It's the unity Upon the Quran And the sunnah Which will bring strength To the Muslims Because the two Remember the Quran Doesn't contradict itself And here This tenazer Is mentioned in two places It's mentioned once In سورة النساء Once In سورة الالفال If I'm not mistaken In سورة الالفال Allah tells us That this tenazer This argumentation Differing from each other Is going to cause Us to lose Our strength And to fail In our objectives In سورة النساء Allah tells us That this tenazer And this argumentation Has to be brought back To the Quran And the sunnah For us To unite upon anything else Is simply not going to work And Allah Tells us It won't work Allah سبحانه وتعالى Said If you spent everything on the earth To bring their hearts together You would not be able to bring their hearts together But Allah brought their hearts together If you look at the Even the Ansar Among themselves The Aus and the Khazraj Used to be fighting with each other The مهاجرين And the Ansar And all the different tribes What brought them together You can't do it You can't do it You can't do it You can't do it You can't do it You can't do it You can't do it You can't do it You can't do it You can't do it You can't do it You can't do it You can't do it You can't do it You can't do it You can't do it You can't do it You can't do it You can't do it You can't do it You can't do it You can't do it You can't do it You can't do it You can't do it You can't do it You can't do it You can't do it You can't do it You can't do it You can't do it You can't do it You can't do it You can't do it You can't do it You can't do it و بالتأكيد في my company there are non-Muslims there are people who believe all kinds of different things but ultimately we're working towards the same objective we're working towards the benefit of the company as a whole but the dunya is not the same as the religion and Allah Azza wa Jal here he told us it's very specifically that this it has to be brought back to the Kitab and the Sunnah furthermore if that's not enough of an argument the argument that Allah Azza wa Jal told us that we have to bring it back to the Quran and the Sunnah the only way we can unite with each other is to unite with each other upon the Quran and the Sunnah then history is enough of a teacher that if you look at the historical context of Muslims uniting together without that basis of the Quran and the Sunnah it doesn't work it has never worked historically time and time again they have been caused to unite the Muslims but the reality is when those differences are so big and remember those differences are differences in Islam and this is the difference when you mentioned the example of the company the workers are united on the basis of the vision and the mission of the company but here the people of these Muslims who are trying to come together are not united upon the basis of the vision and mission of Islam they actually differ over that core concept and so when you bring people back to the Quran and the Sunnah that is when you are able to build brotherhood between people now that doesn't mean that you sometimes can't but also to be fair that you can't always cooperate with other people that there are many situations in which we can cooperate be it with non-Muslims be it with Muslims that we differ from however the Sharia has very limited examples for that it's not the case and it's a wrong it's a wrong concept to say that they can never ever ever you know you can never ever have a situation where you would need to cooperate with someone who differs on your principles of the Quran and the Sunnah that's not the case and in fact the Prophet ﷺ when he went to Medina the agreement that he made between the people of Medina the agreement that he made in Makkah with Quraish prior to Islam the contract where they came together to support the rights of the weak and the needy and so on this is something possible however this is only ever going to be in a limited context it's only ever going to be for one particular issue or one particular limited context it's never going to be something which is going to completely change the condition of the Muslims because Allah ﷺ said إن الله لا يغير ما بقومين حتى يغير ما بأنفسهم الله will not change the condition of a people until they change what is in themselves so yes if there is let's say for example a famine somewhere it is possible for people to cooperate with each other to relieve that famine who are not together on the same belief or the same principles or perhaps even the same religion but ultimately the situation of the Muslims in the world today across the Ummah of Islam is only going to change as Allah عز و جل told us ولكن الله ألاف بينهم it was Allah who brought them together فردوه إلى الله والرسول return it back to Allah and his messenger and so on that's what's going to bring and like Imam Malik said the latter part of this Ummah will only be corrected by the same thing that corrected the former part on the scale of the Ummah as a whole جزاك الله خيران I just want to close out the episode with some final piece of advice so again we'll start at the macro level when it might be a kind of a summary of what you've already repeated throughout the episode on a macro general level what kind of advice would you give to the Muslims in general to uplift the suffering from the Ummah first of all I think that we're going to take this from two separate angles the level of the individual towards themselves and then the then what you can do towards other people so first of all for your own self a person needs to realize that if Allah عز و جل mentioned one of the major causes if not the major cause of calamities happening to people is sins then our obligation is to remove ignorance from ourselves and other people and ignorance is what causes us to sin because if we were not ignorant we wouldn't sin ignorance is there is the essence of what causes ignorance about Allah ignorance about the consequences ignorance about يوم القيامة ignorance about the what Allah deserves in terms of worship and obedience so when we know Allah عز و جل as he deserves to be known and we know our religion that reduces the ignorance from ourselves and we can become closer to Allah سبحانه وتعالى this will be our little part to correct the calamities that are happening on a personal level then the next thing is for us to do that by dealing with the people that are closest to us so that could be our family members and I mean how many times have we heard for example the argument that you know the Muslims in this country need to change XYZ and yet that person who makes the argument if they were to look at their own house they would see that those issues haven't been corrected in their own living room so how can we possibly then be complaining that this place or that place hasn't done one, two, three, four, five when in reality that person hasn't began doing it in their own living room then the second aspect is what that person is going to do for those people who are suffering and that is that we are required to do everything permissible that is within our means to relieve the situation of the Muslims wherever they are that could be through صدق that could be through دعاء that could be through physical help where that is possible to do and permitted to do depending on the situation but we are commanded to go it's not for us to sit there and say well I'm busy correcting my family I haven't got time for the people in this country or that country reality is that we have to balance ourselves but if we ignore the need to correct ourselves and our situation we won't actually make an impact on helping those other people so we correct ourselves we correct our families and whatever we have that's within our ability that we can stand يوم القيامة and say oh Allah I did whatever I had the ability to do to help my Muslim brothers and sisters that are suffering in different places and that I was the minimum that someone can do is at least make دعاء for them and again supporting them through reliable charity efforts and so on this is also I think extremely important to begin with from the individual and their families and then their like their responsibility towards people who are suffering elsewhere okay final question now is more talking about an individual what is your advice to an individual who just feels like their life is just one big struggle it's just going from one calamity to another calamity to another calamity and they can't see any light at the end of the tunnel it's just constant suffering so I think there are two very important things here I think first of all we have to remember that this life is a place of tests and trials الله سبحانه وتعالى قلو نفسين ثائقات والموت every soul will taste death ونابلوكم بشاري والخيري فتنة and we're going to test you with evil and with good as a trial وإلينا ترجعون and you're going to be returned to us now a person's the tests and trials that they're going through they're either going to do one of two things either they're going to bring you back to Allah عز و جل or they're going to distance you from Allah سبحانه وتعالى those tests and trials happening you can't change you can't change what Allah has decreed for you but you can either take advantage of them as a way to get nearer to Allah like ayyub did like yunus did like yaqub did or you can distance yourself and make yourself someone who is distanced becoming more and more distant from Allah سبحانه وتعالى ولي عضب الله and that is something which is really the true punishment the true punishment is not really being tested and suffering the true punishment is not using that suffering to get nearer to Allah سبحانه وتعالى and by reading the seerah of the people who came before of the prophets the messengers the imams of Islam who suffered it relieves your suffering because it makes you put it into context and realize that I can get through this ultimately it's also really important to remember that suffering as much as a person is suffering and as great as those calamities are the person is not without blessings and that's why a slave of Allah is always between a sabr or a shukr between patience and gratitude there are always going to be things the fact that you can even think about your suffering and turn to Allah is a huge blessing so there will always be blessings for that person and there will always be things that they need to be patient with so we also need to remember that there is always ease ease always comes that Allah عز وجل said فإن مع الأسر يصرى إن مع الأسر يصرى along with all hardship comes ease along with hardship comes ease and the prophets I said I'm told us that along with the difficulties and the hardships comes ease and along with the suffering comes relief and so on so I think that a person needs to understand that the relief will come they need to take advantage of the situation that they are in right now and to get the most out of it that they can and they need to make to Allah سبحانه وتعالى to relieve that suffering and read the biographies in the books of the people who came before to make that easier to bear yeah it's been a pleasure having you on the show as always I hope إن شاء الله you'll join me again until next time جزاك للخيون for your time today والسلام عليكم ورحمة الله وبركاته وعليم السلام ورحمة الله وبركاته