Crisis Response
This is the transcription I made of a Nouman Ali Khan’s khutbah. It talks about how to act in times of hardships.
He starts addressing issues about coronavirus and masjids. But at the end, it applies to any hardship we can be passing through.
When going to the masjid causes harm to the community
Obviously everybody has the coronavirus on their minds. People are running into grocery stores and fighting each other over toilet paper and toothbrushes and all kinds of things. Hand sanitizer has become a rare commodity now.
And everybody already knows that things like sporting events or religious ceremonies and things like that, it’s being advised for the larger communities’ health that they should not be held.
And that’s actually something I personally find very convincing and agree with. I want to you know how I arrived at such a decision.
My first inclination is to discuss this with people who know better than I do. And so I did, and discussed and shared what we have in our city and so many other cities.
So I wanted to address what some people might think is the more Islamic approach. So somebody might come out and say “no no no you have to fear only Allah subhana wa ta’ala and you should not be afraid” and “this is a conspiracy of the Kufar”. And all kinds of opinions are thrown. Because the Internet is a crazy place, and not only the internet, the masjid can be a crazy place. Everybody has their own opinion on what to do, and not have any fear or concern, because if Allah is protecting us, nothing is going to happen to us.
All of that is true …Allah gave us these guarantees in the quran: if Allah were to aid you, then there’s no one that can overpower you, there’s absolutely no one or nothing that can ever overpower you.
Tie you camel and then trust Allah
However, on the flip side, Allah Azza WA JAL does teach us a thing or two about caution. And He does teach us that we live in a world in which we have to use common sense. It’s not like Rasul allah saw when he was making hijirah from Makkah to Madinah said “Allah will protect me”, “I’m gonna walk right out the front door and walk right outside of medina”, there had to be a plan and a strategy and escape route and secret passages, secret pathways, and secret timings in order to escape the enemy’s plan.
And at the end of the day what we learn in our religion is we do the best we can, we take whatever precaution we can, and then the protection only comes from Allah. You don’t get to drive into a red light speeding and then say “Allah will protect me”, no, you have to take your precautions, and yes, Allah will protect you.
It’s not just about you
The other thing is if somebody says “I don’t care, I’m coming” or “we have to stick together”, it’s not just about you, it’s not just about a concern for you. You may have, for example, this virus and you’re sitting next to someone whose immune system is very weak. And you didn’t get affected by it, maybe you didn’t even know you had it, and a few days later it emerged that you have it. Because it doesn’t show itself after except after a few days. And you basically cause this person and their family an irreparable harm. So it’s not just even about ourselves, this is a matter of larger responsibility, and that is something our religion does in fact teach.
In times of desperation
As this is a trial that affects virtually hundreds of thousands, if not millions of people around the world, their livelihood is affected, their health… it’s not just their health that may be affected, their sense of safety may be affected, the resources they have access to may get affected. A lot of people depend for their livelihood or for family reasons they have to travel and their travel is affected. So life gets disrupted by these kinds of things, and it can be a very difficult trial. So I’m sure there are people that have had to make many serious changes in their life as a result of what’s going on, you know, border closings and governmental shutdowns, and all kinds of things that are happening.
So as a result of that, I wanted to highlight something that I was thinking about what to give khutbah about today. And I don’t want to give a khutbah about the coronavirus, but what I do want to give a khutbah about is what does Allah say about scenarios in which people feel like the world is closing on them or they don’t know where to go or they feel like they’re completely vulnerable and subject to attack, right?
And one great parallel that I think is worthy of contemplation is what happens after Musah, aaleyhi salam, crosses the water.
So the Israelites have now escaped the Pharaoh, they are now in the desert. And I want you to understand what that scene looks like. These are thousands and thousands of people, men, women, and children that have left their homes behind. So they don’t even have another day worth of clothes, they can’t possibly have days and days and days’ worth of food, they don’t have a lot of food with them. And there are old among them, sick among them, children among them, babies among them, men among them, and women among them. All kinds of people among them. And they are in the desert.
So they actually don’t even have shelter from the Sun. So they’re in the scorching sun, they escaped firawn which is immediate death, but the desert is a kind of death on its own, isn’t it? And that’s where they find themselves in the thousands. And so even if anybody, any one person, is taking a sip of water, 20 people are looking at him desperately. This is the scenario in which we find ourselves.
Allah is describing this scene. And they’re starting to get agitated because, how are they going to survive? And they are going to turn to Musah, aaleyhi salam, and say “we are running out of water”. That’s obviously what’s gonna happen very quickly: “we’re running out of water”.
It’s very different from nowadays when you and I travel and, well, at the end we’re out of snacks, we’re out of chips. Okay, stop over at the next gas station, we take these… the access to food or access to drink as something for granted. They couldn’t do that. They can’t do that. They can say “oh wait, I left my favorite juice back in Egypt”. I can’t do that. They can’t turn back, that’s gone forever. Now, so in that scenario Musa al-salaam had to speak to all of them. Now they’re at unrest and nobody’s sure what to do. And Musah, aaleyhi salam, basically has to give them a khutbah. He has to give them a talk in that emergency state. And that conversation is brief, it is in surah Ibraheem. But it’s really beautiful because it’s not just about what he said, but that Allah considered that conversation so timeless. And what they needed to hear. And these are the Muslims of that time.
So what Allah says or on the tongue of Musa, aaleyhi salam,…
وَإِذْ قَالَ مُوسَىٰ لِقَوْمِهِ اذْكُرُوا نِعْمَةَ اللَّـهِ عَلَيْكُمْ إِذْ أَنجَاكُم مِّنْ آلِ فِرْعَوْنَ يَسُومُونَكُمْ سُوءَ الْعَذَابِ وَيُذَبِّحُونَ أَبْنَاءَكُمْ وَيَسْتَحْيُونَ نِسَاءَكُمْ ۚ وَفِي ذَٰلِكُم بَلَاءٌ مِّن رَّبِّكُمْ عَظِيمٌ ٌ
Musa, aaleyhi salam, says to his people, mention Allah’s favor on you. When he just rescued you from the dynasty of the Pharaohs, they were humiliating you with the worst kinds of punishments, they were slaughtering their sons, they were letting your women live. And in all of that, in that rescue there was a great blessing of Allah for you. And in that trial there was a great trial for you, so this بَلَاءٌ – bala’ – means two things: blessing and trial.
So Allah allowing you to escape is an incredible blessing, because nobody gets to escape the Pharaoh, not in the thousands. You can’t just decide one day “we’re no longer slaves and we’re gonna walk out of here”, nobody gets to do that. Armies don’t mess with the Pharaohs armies, and you people walked out of slavery.
Well they had the power to kill your children.
A family would die to defend their own child, a mom would run in front of a moving car, to not let the car hit her child …natural instinct. You’ve seen videos of animals, when the lion comes after one of the small bulls and the other animals that are no match for the lion herd together they’ll defend their young. It’s nature, that they will defend their young. You’ll see a bird fighting against a snake that’s trying to eat eggs, right? And the Pharaoh had so much power over the Israelites that he was killing their children in front of them and they couldn’t fight back. Like, that’s how suppressed they were. That’s all powerless they were.
So when Musa, aaleyhi salam, says “Allah let you escaped that. Forget escaping, you didn’t even have the power to defend your own children. You didn’t even have the power to stop that from happening, and He allowed you to leave to get away from that. What a huge gift that is!”, here, they are thinking about the problem, what’s at hand, the beaming sun, the lack of water, the crying babies, the sick. That’s what they’re thinking about. And Musa, aaleyhi salam, starts his conversation with “Actually, you had a much bigger problem, and it was impossible to escape”. And he is not just saying “look at the bright side and be grateful”, obviously gratitude is immediately intended here, but the other intent is, “if Allah can bring you out of one impossible situation, why all of a sudden should we even entertain the thought that Allah would abandon us now? How can you even think that? Look at what Allah just did for you. He did this for you and then He forgot about you in the desert? Is that what you’re thinking? He brought you through all of this only to leave you at this stage? So have good opinion of Allah. And the way to have good opinion of Allah is to think back in all the impossible situations that Allah pulled you and me out of. How impossible they seemed at the time, how they seemed like the worst disaster and catastrophe at the time, and Allah pulled us out of it. He brought us out over and over again”. And He’s reminding all of them of it.
God has made an announcement
Then he says to them, and this is one of my favorite ayat about gratitude and how the Quran looks at gratitude:
وَإِذْ تَأَذَّنَ رَبُّكُمْ لَئِن شَكَرْتُمْ لَأَزِيدَنَّكُمْ
When your Master had made a decree, when He made a pronouncement,
تَأَذَّنَ – ta’adhdhan.
Now, the word ta’adhdhan is interesting here. You could say very little and get a point across. So you could say لَئِن شَكَرْتُمْ لَأَزِيدَنَّكُمْ or “Allah have said if you’re grateful I will give you more and more”. Easy.
But the word ta’adhdhana is placed by the perfect wisdom of Allah. Ta’adhdhana comes from Adhan. Adhan is also the call to prayer. It’s an announcement. Adhan is called an announcement because it goes in the udhun, and goes in the ear. Ta’adhdhana means when somebody opens up their ears and all else becomes muted.
And the thing that’s being announced overtakes. So if you’re having multiple conversations and one voice overpowers all others, and kind of drowns out all the other voices, that’s an Adhan. That’s why it’s supposed to be louder than any other conversation. That’s what an announcement is, right? So ta’adhdhana actually suggests there are lots of thoughts in my head, there are lots of thoughts I’m hearing, or lots of words that I’m hearing, even having conversations with myself, but this decree of Allah, this pronouncement of Allah needs the ears, need to tune everything else out and hear this. As if until you get rid of all other thoughts and just hear this on its own you will not appreciate what’s being said. This is one of those things that requires a singular mind where everything else has to be erased.
So it’s
تَأَذَّنَ رَبُّكُمْ – ta’adhdhana rabbukum,
When your master made a pronouncement
And of course, when Musa, aaleyhi salam, was speaking they know that he’s speaking on behalf of Allah. He doesn’t have to mention that “Allah is telling me”, “Allah is telling me”, “Allah is telling me to tell you”. But he mentions rabbukum anyway.
As if to suggest … you know, I’m working with kids all the time, and if one of them is speaking louder than the others, nobody’s paying attention. But if I try to chime in and say “hey, everybody listen up” (banging (on) the desk with his hand) and hopefully most of them hear my voice and say “ok ok I gotta stop, I gotta listen because there’s an authority”. When a teacher is in the classroom, when he raises his voice, everybody else’s voice goes down a little bit. When you hear that your Master made a pronouncement, then everything else gets put on hold.
What Rabb means?
And the word Ar-Rabb is important here too because Allah being a Rabb means that He’s our provider, He’s our caretaker, He’s our protector, He’s our nourisher.
My preferred translation of the word Rabb in English is nurturing master. It’s not just someone who owns you, it’s someone who feeds you, and takes care of you, and protects you. All of that stuff is included inside the word Rabb.
So here you are feeling like, where’s our nurturing gonna come from? Where’s our protection gonna come from? And Allah says we’ll listen to the one that gives you protection and nurturing and has authority over you.
The kind of authority He has over you and me we don’t even have over our own bodies.
Even if you were to be the least bit grateful…
– وَإِذْ تَأَذَّنَ رَبُّكُمْ – wa’id ta’adhdhana rabbukum.
He says
لَئِن شَكَرْتُمْ لَأَزِيدَنَّكُمْ
Even if you were to be… It’s hard to translate this, but I’ve had to add more English words to get the point across. Even if you were to be the least bit grateful, like, Allah is not in this ayah talking about us being grateful continuously and throughout our lives. Actually, that would have been in the present tense form. Here it is لَئِن شَكَرْتُمْ , it’s “even if at one instant you have shown me gratitude, real gratitude, you’re truly grateful for whatever Allah has given you. You’re truly grateful for it. And you don’t turn to Allah and think, where are you? Why aren’t you helping me? You could be doing better for me. If you can develop the sense of finding something to be grateful for”…
Now, another question arises. These people are in the desert, they’re still hot, they’re still sweating as Musa, aaleyhi salam, is talking to them. So when he says “if you were even the least bit grateful”, they could look around and say “grateful for what? What do you want me to be grateful for?” When you look around the only things you can see are things to complain about, things to not be grateful for. So what are you being grateful for?
The previous ayah that I referred you to has the key to that question, has the answer to that question.
If you and I can think about the times that Allah has come through for us in impossible situations, then first of all you’re grateful for what happened in the past. But more than anything else, you’re grateful for the fact that you have someone on your side, someone watching over you, that does that for you time and again. His presence, His existence in your life is what you’re grateful for. Even if you can’t see anything positive around you, zero positives around you. The fact that Allah in the unseen is your Rabb, and He’s been your Rabb, He’s been taking care of you, that eman is actually the number one thing to be grateful for. He’s there. I’m not alone in this. I’m not insecure in this. I will take whatever precautions I can. But Allah will take care.
And
وَإِذْ تَأَذَّنَ رَبُّكُمْ لَئِن شَكَرْتُمْ لَأَزِيدَنَّكُمْ –
If you could show me the least bit of gratitude, think back and remain positive about the presence of Allah in your life.
What does Allah say?
لَأَزِيدَنَّكُمْ –
The most comprehensive brief words in the Quran. He says, I will absolutely absolutely absolutely, there’s three absolutely, here the lam is lam at-tawkid, the noon is noon thaqilah, that means is twice the emphasis. So the way I translate this is going to be clunky English, it’s gonna be, I will absolutely, for sure, definitely, increase you.
So He says that three times over, and the present tense form is suggesting it’s going to go on forever.
So notice the contrast, you were grateful for a little bit, for like a moment, you showed one instance of gratitude, Allah responded with continuously giving you more and more and more and more and more – لَأَزِيدَنَّكُمْ.
I will increase you …in what?
And what’s even more incredible is Allah didn’t say increase you in what. He didn’t qualify. He didn’t say I’ll increase you in guidance or I’ll increase you in patience or I’ll increase you in tolerance or increase you in endurance or I will increase you in strength. He didn’t qualify. Why? Because He is telling us the way in which He will give us more cannot be quantified. You cannot limit it to in one thing or the other. He may increase you in money or in health or in safety or in protection or in guidance or in wisdom or in understanding or in forgiveness or… there’s so many things you need increase and I need increase in. And He didn’t want to limit that to in one thing.
So He says لَأَزِيدَنَّكُمْ – I’ll keep on giving more more and more and more and more.
“If you are ungrateful…”
The last point here is, in Arabic when you have the “if” and “then”, “if you do this then I’ll do this”, right? There’s a little bit of a language lesson, but I’ll make it simple to understand. It’s really beautiful.
If you’re grateful then I’ll give you more and more. Simplified. So there’s an “if” and there’s a “then”.
But if you come to the next part of the ayah,
وَلَئِن كَفَرْتُمْ –walain kafartum
“And even if you are ungrateful, if you’re in denial of Allah’s favor”.
Kufr doesn’t just mean to disbelieve in Allah. Kufr here is the antonym, it’s the opposite of shukr. So you can be grateful for something Allah does, that’s called shukran an-n3amah. You could be ungrateful for something Allah has done that’s called kufran An-N3amah. So kufr doesn’t just mean denial, it also means to be ungrateful.
Now, He says, if you’re grateful I’ll give you more and more more, and if you are ungrateful… even if you’re ungrateful… Now, you would expect when He says “if you are ungrateful” then there should be a “then”, right? But the “then” is missing.
The “then” would have been إِنَّ عَذَابِي لَشَدِيدٌ, – “My punishment, for sure is intense” – but actually the ayah says
وَلَئِن كَفَرْتُمْ إِنَّ عَذَابِي لَشَدِيدٌ –
“If you are ungrateful…my punishment, for sure is intense”. But He didn’t make it connect it to ingratitude directly. As if to give us relief and say “no, you should just know that my punishment is intense, but I’m not tying it to your any act of ingratitude. Just because you forgot to be grateful or you are ungrateful, I won’t necessarily immediately punish you with intense punishment. But because you become grateful, next time you’re thinking about becoming ungrateful, know that I can be punishing too”.
But just like there was a there was a knot tied
لَئِن شَكَرْتُمْ – لَأَزِيدَنَّكُمْ –
la’in shakartum laa’zeedannakum – both of them have lam.
Those two lams what they do? They make an “if” and “then”. And they’re locked in with each other.
You want Allah to give you more and more and more, be grateful. That’s the rule. But what about if you’re ungrateful, “then you’re gonna get punished”. No no. Allah says, “and even if you aren’t grateful, just know that I can punish, my punishment is pretty intense, But I’m not telling you that if you are ungrateful then absolutely I will punish you. If you’re ungrateful, then just check yourself and come back to being grateful”.
He didn’t make an “if” and “then” on the end. And that’s yet another thing to be grateful for.
Allah Azza wajjal did not make that correlation. Because the fact of the matter is you and I are ungrateful most of our lives. There’s no way we can actually truly be grateful to Allah for what He’s done for us. We can have moments of gratitude, we can have moments where our heart actually recognizes what Allah has done. We can have moments where we fall in such sincere gratitude towards Him.
People ask me sometimes, why should I pray? I mean, just because Allah’s gonna throw me in Hell if I don’t pray?
Where prayer begin with? Well, once you say Allahu Akbar, and you start the prayer the first thing you’re reciting is Al-Fatiha. And in Al-Fatiha the first thing you’re saying is Alhamdu lillah, isn’t it? Allah is telling you what the prayer is for. If you feel grateful, you will keep praying. Prayer is actually a sign that you recognize Allah’s favors on you. You’re acknowledging Allah’s favours on you. You’re acknowledging how grateful you are and I am. That’s what prayer is. When prayer is getting weaker, actually it’s not necessarily all parts of your eman. You still believe in God. You still believe in the Last Day. You still believe in Heaven, in Hell. What might be becoming weaker is your sense of gratitude. That might actually be becoming weaker.
So this is a time for you and I, we want more, we want more protection, we want more safety, we want our children to be okay, we want our parents to be okay, there are warnings about people of older age that are at higher risk, for example, right? Or children with certain diseases, or people that have immune deficiencies, and things like that. They’re at risk and we have loved ones that are in that state, so we’re scared about that. We’re worried about that for ourselves and our families. This is the time that we want Allah to give us more and more and more, so this is the time where as a spiritual exercise for all the families that are listening to this, myself included, that we sit with our children, we sit with our families, and we kind of talk about what is it that we are to be grateful for, what is Allah done for us. And recount not just the things you see, look back and recount what are the times that Allah did this and this and this and how Allah brought this out.”