Enduring Hardships-Khutbah

[LuCkY]

Khutbah: Enduring Hardship

Royal Holloway College/Friday -11th September 1998

Delivered by Arshad Gamiet

 

A-uthu billahi minash shaytanir rajeem.

Bisillahir rahmanir raheem.

Al hamdu lillahi rabbil 'alameen. Was salaatu was

salaamu 'alaa ashrafil mursaleen. Sayidinaa wa

nabi'na wamoulanaa Muhammadin wa'ala aalihee wa

sahbihee wasallim.

 

 

My Dear Brothers and Sisters, our khutbah today is

about Enduring Hardship.

 

I am sure that each and every one of us has, at some

point in his or her life, been visited by grief,

tragedy, or tremendous loss, emotionally or materially.

It may have been a serious illness or accident or

death of a loved one, or we may have failed an important

examination, or we may have seen a business or

professional career which has grown and prospered over

many years, finally come to disaster.

 

To those who have suffered such a loss, their feelings

are hard to describe adequately. There is a sense of

utter despair, emptiness, and a numbing of the senses.

It can become so intense that one actually questions

the whole purpose and meaning of life. In this country

we have many organisations and charities that offer

professional help like bereavement counselling or advice

on dealing with financial hardship. However, many people

are unable to come to terms with sudden catastrophic

loss, and therefore, we often hear of someone being so

overcome with grief that they have taken leave of their

senses, they suffer prolonged and repeated bouts of deep

depression, a complete change of personality. In extreme

cases, some victims of hardship lose all inclination for

life at all and they commit suicide.

 

How should we Muslims deal with intense personal

suffering and grief? How should we comfort a friend or

relative who is in distress?

 

In Sura Al-Baqara, verses 155-157, Allah subhanallahu

ta'ala reminds us:

 

Be sure We shall test you with something of fear and

hunger; some loss in goods or lives or the fruits (of

your toil) but give glad tidings to those who patiently

persevere. Who say when afflicted with calamity:

"Inna lillahi wa inna ilayhir raji-oon"

 

"To Allah we belong and to Him is our return."

They are those on whom (descend) blessings from Allah

and Mercy and they are the ones that receive guidance.

 

From these verses we can see that in a Muslim's life,

hardship and suffering should never come as a complete

surprise. In fact, Allah promises us some hardship as

a certainty, somewhere during our lifetime. It is a

test of our iman, our faith in Allah, and we should

not despair, because there are lessons to be learnt

from every situation, especially from misfortune.

 

I am reminded of a Turkish proverb which says that

the best teacher is a bad experience. A true believer

should know that during his lifetime, he must expect

to be visited by success and failure, pleasure and pain,

loss and gain. This is the inseparable duality of life.

We cannot value anything without knowing its opposite.

We must accept life as it comes, in the best of times

and the worst of times, with equal grace and forbearance.

 

In our arkaanul Imaan, we say:

 

"Wa bil qadri khairi wash sharr-ree minal laahi ta

'Aalah."

 

" And the consequences of good and evil, come from

Allah"

 

Let us consider Nabi Ayyub's example, which appears in

Sura Al- Anbiyya_h, v. 83 and 84:

 

"And (remember) Ayyub when he cried to his Lord "Truly

distress has seized me but You are the Most Merciful

of those that are merciful."

 

So We listened to him: We removed the distress that

was on him and We restored his people to him and

doubled their number as a Grace from Ourselves and a

thing for commemoration for all who serve Us"

 

Nabi Ayyub was a prosperous man, with faith in Allah,

and he suffered many hardships. His cattle were

destroyed, his servants killed by the sword, and his

family crushed under his roof. But he held fast to

his faith in Allah. As a further calamity he was

covered with ugly sores from head to foot, and his

friends abandoned him. But throughout this ordeal,

his faith, his iman remained rock-solid, unswerving,

undiminished.

 

Because of this, Almighty Allah was pleased with him,

so he was restored to full health. Not only was his

prosperity redoubled, but his family and friends

returned to him, and Allah gave him 7 sons and 3

daughters. He lived to a good old age, and saw four

generations of his descendants before he died.

 

This inspiring story of Prophet Ayyub is a wonderful

example to us all. When we encounter sudden hardship,

we should not feel sorry for ourselves, because

self-pity leads us nowhere. We should place our

complete trust in Allah subhanallahu ta'ala, and

have the certainty in heart and mind, that at the

end of our pain and suffering, Allah's love and mercy

will embrace us.

 

To a Believer, good fortune and misfortune are merely

two sides of the same coin of life. Although we do

not welcome hardship, we know that even in the noonday

of life, we live in the shadow of death; in the peak

of our prosperity, we are just a few short paces away

from poverty and in the prime of our good health,

illness lurks in the shadows nearby.

 

A hadith narrated by Abu 'Abbas 'Abdullah, says:

 

"Remember Allah in times of ease, and He will recognise

you in times of distress. What hit you could not have

missed you, what missed you could not have hit you.

Remember that victory comes with patience, relief comes

with affliction and ease comes with hardship".

 

innallaha wa malaaikata yusalluna alan nabi. Ya ay yuhal

latheena amanu sallu alayhi wasalli ma tas leema.

Allahumma salli ala Muhammad, wa ala ali Muhammad, kama

salayta ala Ibrahim, wa ala ali Ibrahim. Allahumma barik

ala Muhammad, kama barakta ala Ibrahim, wa ala ali

ibrahim. Fil ala meen, innaka hameedun majeed.

 

 

SECOND KHUTBAH:

 

Sub' hanallahi wal hamdu lillah, wala hawla wala quwwata

illah billah yu althi yual theem.

 

My dear Brothers and Sisters,

 

 

"verily in the Messenger of Allah we have the finest of

examples"

 

Prophet Muhammad [sallal-lahu 'alayhi wasallam] also

endured much pain and hardship, especially in his youth,

with extraordinary patience and perseverance. He was an

orphan, cared for by milk-mother, grandfather, and

uncles. During the early years of his mission, he was

jeered, taunted, threatened, reviled and persecuted by

his own tribe, the Quraish of Makka. Many of his

followers were killed for their acceptance of Islam. In

the 63 years of our prophet Muhammad's life, he

experienced every human hardship from loss of father,

mother and grandfather to loss of dear friends, personal

wealth and rejection from his tribe. Because of his

unswerving devotion to Allah, he was granted success in

this world, and in the hereafter. History has witnessed

his achievements. Whatever personal grief, suffering or

loss we might encounter in our lifetime, it would be

appropriate to remember Sura Dhuha,-ha. This Sura

addresses Nabi Muhammad directly, but it also applies to

all Muslims indirectly, in all times and all circumstances.

 

Wadh dhuha_

Wal laili idza_ saja_

Ma_ wad da'aka rab buka wa ma_qala_

Wa lal a_khiratu khairul laka minal u_la_

Wa lasaufa yutika rabbuka fatarda_

Alam yajika yatiman fa a_wa_

Wa wajadaka da_lan fahada_

Wa wajadaka a_ilan fa agna_

Fa am mal yatima fala_ taqhar

Wa am mas sa_ila fala_ tanhar

Wa am ma_ bini mati rabbika fahad-dith

 

By the glorious morning light, and by the night when

it is still; Your Lord has not forsaken you, nor is

He displeased. Verily, the hereafter will be much

better for you than the present. Have we not found

you an orphan, and gave you shelter and care? Have

we not found you wandering, and gave you guidance?

Therefore, treat not the orphan with harshness, nor

turn away The petitioner unheard; but the blessings

of your Lord Rehearse and proclaim!.

 

Dear Brothers and Sisters, next time we encounter

grief or hardship, and we feel lonely and depressed,

let us remember this Sura, that offered hope and

reassurance to the greatest of men. It offers the

same hope and reassurance to us also. At the end of

every dark tunnel of despair is the reward of Allah,

Most Gracious, Most Merciful.

 

Let us pray, may Allah give us strength to endure

hardship with patience, and to emerge from all the

trials and tribulations of this life, with our Iman

renewed and our trust in Allah redoubled.

 

Aqeemus salaah!