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Act and Allah Will Unlock Success | Khutbah
In this week's khutbah, Dr. Omar covers how Allah (swt) helps the believer unlock clarity as a result of their sincere struggle. Allah mentions in the Quran 29:69: "And those who strive for Us - We will surely guide them to Our ways. And indeed, Allah is with the doers of good."
Transcript
This transcript was auto-generated using AI and may contain misspellings. We begin by praising Allah Subh'anaHu Wa Ta-A'la. We bear witness that none has the right to be worshipped or unconditionally obeyed, except for him. And we bear witness that Muhammad Sallallahu Alaihi Wasallam is his final messenger. We ask Allah to send his peace and blessings upon him. The prophets and messengers that came before him, his family and companions that served alongside him and those that follow in his blessed path until the day of judgment. And we ask Allah to make us amongst them. Allahumma Ameen. Dear brothers and sisters, as we look to the world today, and we look to the state of the Muslims and how we approach both our individual affairs, as well as our community affairs, there is a mindset of accepted defeat. And what I mean by accepted defeat is that Allah Subh'anaHu Wa Ta-A'la has decreed for us test and trial. And Allah Subh'anaHu Wa Ta-A'la has decreed for us hardship and we accept that hardship. And we do not know when the ease will come, but inshallah Allah will reward us in the hereafter. So when it comes to our individual efforts, we approach the deen with our ibadat and we don't put in our full effort at times because we know at the end of the day, Allah will accept it and Allah will make something happen out of it. And on a community level, a lot of times when we look at the situation as we do with our brothers and sisters in Gaza, may Allah Subh'anaHu Wa Ta-A'la give them victory. Allahumma Ameen. Or we look to the various causes of the ummah. We think to ourselves, well, we're doomed to fail. We're doomed to a bad ending here, but Alhamdulillah we have the akhirah. And one of the things that the sahaba had that was learned from the Prophet Sallallahu Alaihi Wasallam is this idea of victory in this life and the next. That success was meant to come to this ummah in this life and in the next.
And so when you think of a person like Hamza radiAllahu ta'ala Anhu who died in Uhud as a shaheed, Hamza radiAllahu ta'ala Anhu had no doubt in the promise of Allah Subh'anaHu Wa Ta-A'la that Allah Azawajal would give victory to the Prophet Sallallahu Alaihi Wasallam and that Allah Azawajal had promised the Fath of Mecca, had promised the opening of Mecca and that Allah Subh'anaHu Wa Ta-A'la was going to give this ummah what he promised this ummah. But at the end of the day, those shuhada of Uhud, they understood that they had victory in their right, whereas the promise of Allah Subh'anaHu Wa Ta-A'la would continue for this ummah. And so it was truly a nassar or a shahada. It was this idea of victory or martyrdom that at the end of the day, if we die, if we find our martyrdom, if we find that our efforts and in this case, our life comes to an end that alhamdulillah what Allah has promised us is there. But what Allah has promised this ummah is still there as well. How do we come to a mentality of victory, a mentality of victory when it comes to ourselves and a mentality of victory when it comes to our ummah without sacrificing the notion that Allah Subh'anaHu Wa Ta-A'la will capture all good things. When Allah Azzawajal mentions the entrance of the people of Jannah, that verily this is your reward. This Jannah is what has been given to you and all of your efforts have been thoroughly appreciated. One of the beauties of the way that we approach Allah Subh'anaHu Wa Ta-A'la with our individual ibadat and with our community roadmap, with our ummah roadmap is that we know that Allah Azzawajal rewards the efforts.
We will write down everything that they have put forward and the effects, the efforts, things that maybe they did not even know that they were able to impact with. Allah Azzawajal captures every effect, every footstep towards good, every post good that comes after you, that people build upon, every influence of good. We know that the Prophet Sallallahu Alaihi Wasallam taught us, actions are but by intentions. And so, so long as a person intends good, Allah Subh'anaHu Wa Ta-A'la will write down for them good. Whether it materialized in the amal or the outcome, the good deed or the good outcome that they sought. We know that Allah Subh'anaHu Wa Ta-A'la rewards our intentions. And so Allah rewards our intentions. Allah rewards our efforts. Allah rewards our effect, our impact, the things that we cannot capture at all that don't have a tangible number that is attacked to them, any quantifiable good. But on top of that, one of the greatest ways that Allah Subh'anaHu Wa Ta-A'la rewards the believers when they struggle in his path is he gives them clarity. He gives them tawfiq ila al-amal as-salih. He gives them the ability to do good deeds and the ability to figure out the next step. And so when Allah Subh'anaHu Wa Ta-A'la says, that those who strive in our way, we will guide them to our paths. We will guide them to our paths.
And Allah is surely with the good doers. And the ulama mention there are many ayaat to this effect. This idea that those who strive Allah unlocks for them, not just the reward Allah Subh'anaHu Wa Ta-A'la unlocks for them the pathways to greater rewards in this life and in the next as Allah Subh'anaHu Wa Ta-A'la says, that verily those who are guided, Allah will increase them in guidance and Allah Subh'anaHu Wa Ta-A'la will grant them their taqwa. How do we understand this ayah? How do we understand this idea of a person who struggles in the way of Allah Subh'anaHu Wa Ta-A'la and Allah Azawajal opens up doors for them, opens up tawfiq for them. I want you to think about someone who pursues success in this life. And there's always, when you read stories of success, this obsession that a person has with their craft and with figuring out where they need to go. And they say you knock on every single door until you figure it out and you keep on striving and striving and striving. If you want it bad enough, you'll figure out how to get it. Now for a dunya we pursuit, for a worldly pursuit, you are relegated to worldly means. You're stuck in your worldly means. So you have to think about what's the next material way to try to get this material outcome. But you keep on striving and striving and striving until you figure it out. But you knock on every single door until you get there because you are that strongly attached to success for the believers. This is one of the richest ayat of the Quran because as the scholars mentioned,
it is both a tawfiq ila al-amil as-salih being guided to righteous deeds as well as an outcome of righteousness. Al-Imam al-Qurtubi rahimahullah, he records in his tafsir, first and foremost, the athar that this idea of guidance is built upon a foundation of pursuit. And he starts with the athar man amila bima alima allamahu allahu ma lam ya'lam. Whoever acts in accordance with what they know, Allah will teach them what they don't yet know. Whoever acts in accordance with what they know, Allah will teach them what they don't yet know. What that means is that when Allah subhanahu wa ta'ala puts forth something in front of you that you know is good and you act in accordance with that good, that that doesn't just unlock sincerity and reward. It unlocks clarity and creativity. It unlocks the next step of the journey. And so if a person is pursuing ilm and they're acting upon that ilm as they're pursuing it, Allah subhanahu wa ta'ala will unlock for them the next step in their journey of ilm. And if a person is pursuing a da'wah and they're pursuing that da'wah with everything that Allah subhanahu wa ta'ala has given them to do da'wah with, Allah subhanahu wa ta'ala will unlock the next step in their da'wah. But there is a next step that happens that is directly due to your willingness to act upon that which is right. Your willingness to pursue everything that is in front of you, your willingness to put everything behind the efforts that have been given to you. And as the Prophet sallallahu alaihi wasallam said, innama al ilmu bith ta'allum wa innama al hilmu bith tahallum wa man yata harra al khaira yu'qa wa man yataqis sharra yuqa. The Prophet sallallahu alaihi wasallam said, knowledge is through seeking knowledge.
Scholars don't become scholars by sitting in a room and saying, Allahumma allimni, rabbi zidni ilma, alone without actually pursuing it. They pursue and they pursue and they pursue and when they learn, they act and Allah subhanahu wa ta'ala opens their hearts to where they have the fiqh in their hearts, the understanding to where they are opened up to a greater possibility in their ilm. wa innama al hilmu bith tahallum, patience is through learning patience. If you see someone who has good akhlaq, if you see someone who has good character, it's not a person who just made du'a for that to happen. It's a person who acted upon the ahadith of the Prophet sallallahu alaihi wasallam about al adab al akhlaq and Allah subhanahu wa ta'ala opened up the door for them to the next element of that. They mastered it and the Prophet sallallahu alaihi wasallam is saying, wa man yata harra al khaira yu'qa. A person who seeks to pursue some sort of good, Allah will unlock that good for them and whoever seeks to avoid evil, Allah will protect them from that evil. And so there is an element here of belief in the next step being directly tied to how you act in this current moment. What you know that Allah has given you, how do you do with that? And then you ask Allah subhanahu wa ta'ala to open up the possibilities to that which is even more and that is going from al hidayah ila rushd, going from simply being guided to, you know, in terms of your knowledge to being guided in terms of your actions. As the ulema mentioned about al rashidun, about those who are guided, that al hidayah is guidance fil ilm, is to be guided in regards to your knowledge. wa al rushd, hidayatun fil amal, to be guided to that next level is to be guided in regards to your deeds, that Allah subhanahu wa ta'ala opens up to you the next deed that is pleasing
to him. Allah subhanahu wa ta'ala unlocks the ability. Allah azawajal unlocks the understanding and you find that Allah subhanahu wa ta'ala also in the community sense, gives you a sense of victory. And when you look at someone like Umar ibn al-Khattab radiyaAllahu ta'ala anhu, al khulafa al rashidun, the guided khulafa, and Umar radiyaAllahu ta'ala anhu's ability to discern al farooq, the one who is able to see al haq wal batil, truth and falsehood and discern. And you see the genius that he brought to his khulafa, the genius that he brought to systemizing good in this world. A lot of that was Allah subhanahu wa ta'ala unlocking in the heart and the mind of Umar and in the efforts of Umar radiyaAllahu ta'ala anhu, that next step to improvise, to be creative, to do amazing things for this ummah because whatever Allah subhanahu wa ta'ala put in front of him of khair, he applied it to the best of his ability. He's that person that's knocking on the door and that has a stubbornness to get it right, has a stubbornness to make sure that he does not miss out on those things that Allah subhanahu wa ta'ala has promised. You see this in his grandson Umar ibn Abdul Aziz radiyaAllahu ta'ala as well. Improvise amazing things for this ummah. Did not have a defeated mindset when he inherited brokenness, when he saw all of the injustice and he was able to do so much and he commented on this idea of knowledge, of this idea of al ilm, of this idea of being led to the next thing. And he said, rahimahullah ta'ala innama qassaran bina anil ilmi awa an ilmi ma jahilna taqseeruna fil amali bima alimna. He said what has caused us to miss out on much of the good in regards to what is to come was our refusal to act upon the good that we knew.
It's when we fail to act upon the good that we knew, but when we acted upon the good that we knew what taqullaha wa yu'allimukumullah. Be mindful of Allah and Allah subhanahu wa ta'ala will teach you. Allah azawajal will guide you. Dear brothers and sisters, when we look at the world today and we look at those who have held down the ground, who have held down the fort in regards to all sorts of khair, the first way that the Prophet Sallallahu Alaihi Wasallam described, at-ta'if al-mansura, those people that are successful and those people that have been granted victory. They have clarity. They have clarity. They have victory upon the truth. And one of the reasons why they have victory upon the truth is because they are absolutely undeterred. They're absolutely undeterred by those who betray them and those who are in front of them. They remain steadfast upon the truth knocking upon every door to them. Victory is always imminent. Success is imminent. They believe that they will win and 50, you know, half of winning is believing that you will win. They believe that they will win and that allows them to stay the course and they're never intimidated by what is ahead of them because they understand that they are struggling for the sake of Allah Subh'anaHu Wa Ta-A'la. So Allah Azawajal opens up doors for them. You know, one of the beautiful narrations, when you look at the battle of Qadisiyah, when he sees the elephants that are coming from the Persians, I mean, this is a difficult obstacle. Many people look at that and they say, run elephants. There's no way that we can face these elements that will stomp on us. And he said, they have elephants. We'll make elephants.
They have elephants. We'll make elephants. We'll turn our camels into elephants. We'll figure it out. We'll stay the course and Allah Subh'anaHu Wa Ta-A'la opens up victory for them. And that is the case for the Muslims that they look at the world around them and they don't just say, you know what? InshaAllah khair. They exert themselves to the extreme in regards to their sincerity with Allah Subh'anaHu Wa Ta-A'la. They think about it constantly. What can I do with what Allah has given me to bring about goodness in this ummah? How can I use the position that Allah has given me to be a source of victory to this ummah? How can I be a source of justice in a world full of injustice? And they understand, and SubhanAllah as the end of this ayah goes, Allah Azawajal says, and Allah is surely with the good doers. With victory and support, his aid comes to those types of people who are sincere, who are dedicated, who keep knocking on every single door, who exert themselves, who do not let obstacles in the way make them think in a defeated way that we're done. They know that Allah Subh'anaHu Wa Ta-A'la is with them. They're narrated in both ways. There are people that sit around and say, look, the ummah is done. InshaAllah we'll get Jannah somehow. InshaAllah things will be okay after. And the Prophet Sallallahu Alaihi Wasallam says, whoever says that people have no hope is the most hopeless of them all, or he's the one that's making them hopeless.
On the other hand, no dear brother or sister in this time, that sincerity breeds clarity, clarity breeds creativity and that Allah Subh'anaHu Wa Ta-A'la will open up pathways for you. If you are sincere with him, if you want to help the cause of Allah Subh'anaHu Wa Ta-A'la, Allah Azawajal will guide you to ways to help the cause of Allah with everything that you're studying, with everything that you're learning. So long as you apply what Allah Subh'anaHu Wa Ta-A'la has shown you of good with absolutely no hesitation, with no If you put khair in front of him, if you put good in front of him, and he knew that it was good, there was absolutely no hesitation towards that good. And that's why Allah Subh'anaHu Wa Ta-A'la kept showing him what the next good was. And dear brothers and sisters, SubhanAllah in this world, in the time that we are in right now, they plan and Allah plans and Allah is the best of planners. I just left the United States and SubhanAllah in the U.S. you have these encampments. Who even thought about the idea of putting a bunch of tents on college campuses over there and making sure that they insist that they push the issue and all the money in the world trying to shut them down, shut them down. They shut it down with force. Another one opens. They shut it down with force. Another one opens. The Islamophobia that was bred after Gaza, after this assault happens and the amount of people that are embracing Islam is like absolutely never before, because at the end of the day, one of the reasons why we believe in our plans is we believe that Allah Subh'anaHu Wa Ta-A'la plans for us when we obey him. And even their plans will backfire and become khair for us as an ummah.
But it comes back to us. How sincere are you? Those who strive in our way, Allah is going to guide you in your path. How do I help the ummah from the comfort of my home? Oh, I'm not a shaykh. Oh, I'm not a da'ee. Oh, I live here. Oh, I live there. Oh, I have this situation. I have that situation. Be stubborn dear brothers and sisters and knocking on those doors of khair and watch what Allah Subh'anaHu Wa Ta-A'la opens for you, but never stop obsessing over how to please Allah Subh'anaHu Wa Ta-A'la with the circumstances that he has given to you. And Allah Azawajal will give you that fatih, will give you that opening to the next thing and teach you what it is that you need to be doing next as a result of you doing what he has already taught you to do. We ask Allah Subh'anaHu Wa Ta-A'la for victory. We ask Allah for success. We ask Allah to forgive us for our shortcomings. Alhamdulillahi Rabbil Alameen. As-salatu was-salamu ala rasoolil kareem wa ala alihi wa sahbihi ajma'een. Allahumma khafir lana warhamna, wa'afu anna wa na tu'adhibna. Rabbana zalamna anfusana wa in lam takfir lana. Allahumma t'alhamna lana koonanna minal khasireen. Allahumma innaka a'afuwan kareemun tuhibbu al'afwa fa'afu anna. Allahumma innaka a'afuwan kareemun tuhibbu al'afwa fa'afu anna. Allahumma khafir li waridina. Rabbil hamhuma kama Rabbuna sighara. Rabbana hablana min azwajina wa dhuriyatina hurrata a'ayum. Waj'alna lil muttaqina imama. Allahumma ansur ikhwanina al-mustadha'afina feemashariqil ardu magharibiha. Allahumma izzal al-islam wa al-muslimeen. Wa adzillal shirka wa al-kadhibeen. Wa damr al-adaa al-deen. Allahumma ahlaki al-dhalimeena bil-dhalimeen. Wa akhirujna wa ikhwanana wa baynihim salimeen.
Allahumma ansur ikhwanina al-mustadha'afina feemshariqil ardu magharibiha. Allahumma aslih ahwala ikhwanina al-mustadha'afina feemshariqil ardu magharibaha. Allahumma ansur ikhwanina al-mustadha'afina feemshariqil ardu magharibaha. Ibadullah. Allah ya'mur bil-adli wal-ihsan wa itadil-qurba wa yanha'an al-fahsha'i wal-munkari wal-baghi. Ya'idukum na'makum tazakkaroon. Fadhkuru Allah yadhkurukum wa shukroohu ala ni'ma yazid lakum. Waladhikru Allahi akbar. Wallahu ya'mu ma tasna'oon. Waqim as-salam.
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