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Do Not Curse Time: What A New Year Really Means | Khutbah
Dr. Omar Suleiman discusses the seriousness of cursing time. As we move towards the new year, develop the habit of creating opportunities to better your afterlife and help others regarding their worldly life and the afterlife.
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Transcript
This transcript was auto-generated using AI and may contain misspellings. Dear brothers and sisters, because it's cold, I'll make it very short insha'Allah ta'ala. It should be very obvious that there is no religious significance to the new year switching from December 31st to January 1st. In fact, that's not just true for the Gregorian calendar. Even from a hijri perspective, with our own hijri calendar, there is no established practice of marking the new year in a way that represents a change in any way whatsoever, except that it allows us to date our events in accordance with the momentous occasion of the hijrah. But anything that would cause us to reflect on the change of time and why we are still here and what we need to be doing is good for us insha'Allah ta'ala to take time and to actually think about what it means to still be here on January 1st, 2021. And subhanAllah there's this interesting hadith which I've never seen cited so many times in one period of time as I have in the last week. And it matches with also an unprecedented time where I cannot remember in my lifetime a single year that was cursed as much as 2020. That people would curse the year, people would say we're ready for it to go, people would say all of these things about what the year was like and then attribute a curse to the year. And I wanted to talk about this hadith and what it means and what it doesn't mean and then what the new year means and what it doesn't mean for us. And that is the hadith that we find in Bukhari and Muslim where the Prophet ﷺ said, qalAllahu ta'ala yu'dheen al-ayyubni adama yasubbu al-dahr wa ana al-dahr biyadayil amr wa uqallibu al-layla wa al-nahar. Allah subhanahu wa ta'ala says that the child of Adam insults me. Now, atha is a tough word
here to translate because there is no darr and there is no naqs with Allah subhanahu wa ta'ala. La yadurruhu shay'a, nothing hurts him and nothing depletes him or takes away from him or causes anything of him or what he possesses to become deficient. So it is an insult. The child of Adam insults me. He curses time and I am time because in my hands is all things. I switch, I alternate the day and the night. And another hadith the Prophet ﷺ said la tasubbu al-dahr, do not curse time for Allah is time. And another hadith the Prophet ﷺ said la yaqul ahadukum ya khaybat al-dahr. No one of you should say what a horrible time this was or how horrible time is. Fa inna allaha huwa al-dahr. For verily Allah is time. So what does this mean for us? Okay. Now there is a context just like with everything else in jahiliyya and the days of ignorance where they attributed power to all sorts of things. Everything but Allah subhanahu wa ta'ala. Attributed power to the stars, attributed power to the idols, attributed power to the time, attributed power to animals, attributed power to all sorts of things. They would curse time in the days of ignorance. And it is just really interesting to see how prominent it became, how popular it became to curse time in 2020. Right? But they would say ya khaybat al-dahr, tabban al-dahr. They would say may time perish. How horrible is time, how miserable is time. And there were certain implications to that. So I wanted to talk about what it means and what it doesn't mean. Now obviously Allah subhanahu wa ta'ala in this hadith qudsi, Allah describes what he means when he says I am time. It's not one of the names of Allah to call upon him as time. It is immediately explained that what that means is that Allah is the one who
controls time. Allah is the one who switches the night and the day. Allah is the one who switches the weeks and the months and the years. It is Allah himself who does that. So what is permissible, what is prohibited, and what is in the realm of shirk, in the realm of actually attributing a deity besides Allah subhanahu wa ta'ala, attributing a deity to Allah subhanahu wa ta'ala in regards to this hadith. From a permissible standpoint, I just want to go through the very technical first. It is okay and it is natural to describe a time period as being a difficult time period. So it's okay to say that this was a difficult year. It was a difficult year. It was a hard year for us. That is wasf not sab. That's a description, wasf, and not sab, not cursing the year. To say it was a difficult year is truth. I think that all of us, may Allah subhanahu wa ta'ala make it easy, and we don't know what still awaits us in the time to come. We don't know how long of it that we will be here to witness of 2021. Maybe 2021 will make us feel like we missed 2020. You never know. We don't know what's left. We don't know what's to come, and we don't know how much of it we'll be around for. But to say it was a hard year is permissible as wasf, as a description. We find it in the story of Yusuf alayhi salam, sab'a shidad, seven difficult years. We find it in Lut alayhi salam, saying yawmun aseeb, it's a dark day. To describe the day, to describe the week, to describe the month, to describe the year as being difficult is fine. It's natural. It's how we interact with things and how we experience things. That is okay. The haram part, where it becomes prohibited, which is the second degree of this, is when you curse it, and you know Allah is in charge. So you're
not saying that time determines or decrees, but as you insult and curse time, you are in reality insulting the one who created time. And so it's, you know, one of the examples that some of the scholars give is that if you go to someone's house and you eat their food and you insult the food, who are you really insulting? You're insulting the one who prepared the food. You're insulting the one who made the food. And that's bad adab with Allah subhanahu wa ta'ala. We are a people that try to elevate our standards and adab in our mannerisms with Allah first. How we talk about God should be different. How we talk to God should be different. So we have a certain adab with Allah subhanahu wa ta'ala, and that is something that transcends all the different spheres, right? That's something that's highlighted and prominent in Islamic tradition, that we have adab with Allah subhanahu wa ta'ala, that we hold sacred. And so, al-khayru kulluhu biyadayku wa sh-sharru laisa ilayk. All good is in your hands and evil is not to be attributed to you, O Allah. And so out of adab to Allah subhanahu wa ta'ala, we don't curse time because we know that Allah is the one who is in charge of time. And nothing that happened within that time, through that time, during that time, is anything except that it was decreed and that there is a greater wisdom and a purpose and something that we can grow and benefit from. And so, la tasubbu al-dahr. Don't curse time because Allah is time. Allah is the one who controls. Al-layl wal-nahar, who alternates night and day. And of course, shirk, which is the highest level, and this is what was prominent in jahiliyyah, was to actually attribute the dahr to make time itself the fa'al, to make time itself the doer, to suggest that time was not just the time in which evil was prominent, but that time itself was the cause of evil or
time was the doer of evil. And that's something that I doubt that many of us do or indicate. May Allah protect us from it all, but that's the worst of it all. So to go back and to say, yes, it was rough. 2020 was rough and we don't know what 2021 holds. But then to reflect on ourselves, both at an individual level and at a societal level, is something we should do inshaAllah ta'ala. The Prophet ﷺ said, la yatamanna yanna ahadukumul mawt. Let not one of you wish for death. Imma muhsinah. It might be that that person is a good doer. Fala'allahu an yazdaadukhayra. And if you're a muhsin, if you're a good doer, then you have more time to do good. Wa imma musian, fala'allahu an yazdaatib. And it might be that that person is doing something wrong, that that person is committing wrong deeds, and so this is a time for them to turn away from those wrong ways. Every day you're here is a moment of reflection. Every week you're here is a moment of reflection. There are so many people, so many people that would have been sitting in this masjid last year at the same time that are not here right now. That's something for us to reflect. Why am I still here? How do I make the most of it? Allah is giving me a chance. Either I'm doing good and I can increase in good, or I'm falling short and I can turn away from those things that are causing me to fall short. But alhamdulillah, I'm here. And so long as I'm here, I'm able to help myself in regards to my afterlife, and I'm able to help others in regards to their worldly lives and their afterlives. Every day is a new opportunity for me to better my afterlife, better my akhira, and an opportunity to help others in regards to their dunya and akhira through khidmah and da'wah. To help others in regards to their worldly lives and in regards to their afterlife. So I'm still here. And that's something that we say alhamdulillah
every moment that we wake up for. Every morning, alhamdulillah all praises be to the one who gave us life after death. And to him is the ultimate return anyway. And so dear brothers and sisters, in conclusion, when we're more vulnerable at an individual level, we're more open to change. That's why for so many of us, our return back to Allah subhanahu wa ta'ala came at our most difficult moments, where we felt broken and hopeless, and the dunya turned its back on us with all of its promises. Everything that we expected to be stable of this dunya turned its back on us. Wa qala al-insanu maa laha. And the ultimate occurrence of the hereafter, the earth starts shaking, you say, what's going on? This was supposed to be stable. So everything we used to count on, things that we considered stable, things we considered untouchable, have betrayed us. And that causes us as individuals to think, well, where do I find stability? Where do I find meaning? Where do I find purpose? As an individual, now that I've become more aware of my mortality, what am I doing in regards to my life that is beyond this mortality of mine? What am I doing with that recognition and realization that things get out of control so quickly? So there's an individual change that comes through vulnerability, and there's a societal change too. When we're more human, when we're more vulnerable, when we're more humbled, we're open to change. We're open to reconstruction. And the status quo has been unacceptable in so many different ways. So many different ways, not just in regards to the pandemic and how we handle the disparity in regards to who has health care and who doesn't. Not in regards to who has access to food and who doesn't. Not in regards to how we have decided as world powers over the
last several years who decides to live with bombs over their head and who decides to live in peace and tranquility. Not in regards to economic inequality, not in regards to police brutality. There were many George Floyds before George Floyd, but it wakes people up out of their complacency and gives them a chance to reflect as a society, as a community, as an individual. How do we embrace the vulnerability to change? Because for so many people, 2019 was worse than you and I's 2020. 2019 in Yemen or Syria or Palestine or in different places was worse than our 2020. And so the status quo is unacceptable. For the people that froze to death in the streets of Dallas, do you remember last year that they were picking up frozen people to death at bus stops, homeless people that froze to death? Your 2020 was not worse than their 2019. It's a time for us to reflect. How do we get better? May Allah Subhanahu wa ta'ala allow us to be better in our individual lives and in our community lives and to do better for our own akhira and for the people around us in regards to their dunya and their akhira. Allahumma ameen. Alhamdulillah, salatu wassalamu ala rasool Allah wa ala alihi wa sahbihi wa man wala. Allahumma khfira al mu'minina wa al mu'minat wa al muslimin wa al muslimat. Al ahya'i minhum wa al amwat. Innaka sami'un qareebun nujeebu da'wat. Allahumma khfira lana wa arhamna wa a'fu anna wa la tu'adhibna. Rabbana zalamna anfusana wa in lam tahfir lana wa tarhamna. Lanakuna minal khasireen. Allahumma khfira lwalideena. Rabbir hamhuma kama rabbuna wa a'fana wa a'fana. Rabbana hablana min azwajina wa dhriyatina wa qurrat a'ayun. Wa ja'anna lil muttaqina imama. Allahumma aslih ahwala ikhwanina al mankoobina fi kulli makan. Allahumma ahliki al dhalimeen wa bi dhalimeen. Wa akhirajna wa ikhwanina min baynihim salimeen. Ibadallah anna Allah ya'mur bil adli wal ihsan wa ita'idil qurba.
Wa yanha'a al fahsha'i wal munkari wal baghi. Ya'idukum la'al lakum tathakkarun. Fathkuru Allah yadhkurukum. Washkuruhu ala ni'ma yazid lakum. Wa ladhikru Allahi akbar. Wallahu ya'nou ma tasna'oon. Wa eqeem al salat.
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