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The Blessing You Won't Forget Next Time | Khutbah
When we temporarily lose a blessing that we took for granted, it gives us a chance to make permanent adjustments in life to our attitudes. And that, in of itself, is a great blessing.
Transcript
This transcript was auto-generated using AI and may contain misspellings. Dear brothers and sisters, as things are getting back to normal now for so many, I want us to reflect a little bit further on the discussion that we had last week in the wake of what so many of us encountered of an uncomfortable deprivation. A deprivation of power, a deprivation of water, an uncomfortable deprivation that ushered in some unexpected blessings for us to think about how we come together as neighbors, how we come together as communities, so that we can take care of each other and take care of those who were not taken care of prior to what had happened. And obviously, the jokes about the Dallas weather, you know, one week it's snow and it's, you know, one degree, the next week it's 75 degrees, and things have gotten back to normal. And of course we know that there are still many people in our own city that still don't have water, especially again the refugees and some of the low-income complexes that still don't have access to water, even at this point. And I wanted us to think about how we take this lesson with us and we propel ourselves forward from now towards Ramadan. Ramadan is only a month and a half away. Allahumma balighna Ramadan. May Allah Subhanahu wa ta'ala allow us to witness it and to be forgiven through it and to be made more grateful and patient through it and to get closer to Allah Subhanahu wa ta'ala through it. Allahumma ameen. And I was looking at a few of these narrations and one of them is a very beautiful one where the Prophet Sallallahu Alaihi Wasallam expresses how one of the greatest blessings we have in our lives is the way that we go through this cycle in which temporary deprivation of a blessing can lead to permanent changes in our lives to where we appreciate those blessings more. And this is a narration that Abu Umama radiAllahu ta'ala narrates from the Prophet Sallallahu Alaihi Wasallam.
It's in a Tirmidhi. Imam Suyuti considers it authentic and while some scholars say the chain is weak, they say the meaning is correct. That the Prophet Sallallahu Alaihi Wasallam said, that my Lord offered me or presented me the entire valley of Mecca to be turned into gold. Now we know as we spoke about when Umar radiAllahu ta'ala saw the Prophet Sallallahu Alaihi Wasallam and the way that he lives, it made him cry. The Prophet Sallallahu Alaihi Wasallam continued to maintain poverty even after he was at the height of his power, complete poverty. And the Sahaba felt like they wanted to do more for the Prophet Sallallahu Alaihi Wasallam. Here we also have of course where Allah presented the Prophet Sallallahu Alaihi Wasallam an opportunity at the end of his life to live much longer. But the Prophet Sallallahu Alaihi Wasallam chose Ar-Rafiq Al-A'la. He chose the highest companionship. And in this situation the Prophet Sallallahu Alaihi Wasallam is saying, not only did you feel like you want to present me more, you want to build a palace and you feel like I should eat better and live better. My Lord presented me Mecca, the entire valley of Mecca in dhahab, in gold. But I responded and I said, laa yaa rab wa laakin ashbaAAu yaawman wa ajooAAu yaawma. But I said to my Lord, no my Lord, I would rather that I am nourished one day and hungry another day. I'm fed one day and I am hungry another day. fa-eethaa jooAAtu ta-dhaaAAtu ee-layka wa-dhaa-kaar-tu-ka wa-eethaa sha-baAAtu sha-kaar-tu-ka wa-ha-mit-tu-ka. I said to my Lord, that way when I am hungry, I will humble myself to you. And I'll remember you as a hungry man. And when I am nourished, I will be grateful to you and increase my praise of you. And so it's healthy for me spiritually and it's good for us to go through that cycle
where sometimes we have easy access to that blessings and sometimes we don't have such easy access to that blessing. And of course this is one of the blessings of Ramadan as Imam bin Rajab rahimahullah ta'ala mentioned. He said that some of the Salaf were asked in the Ta'if al-Ma'arif, he said some of the Salaf, the pious predecessors were asked, why was fasting legislated? And they responded and they said, liyadhooq al-ghanee taAAma al-jooAAu so that the person who is wealthy, the person who easily has access to food will taste hunger. Will taste hunger. So that's the first thing. They'll experience what it's like to be hungry. And the second part of this, fa laa yansal jaAA'i and they won't forget the hungry. And so it's twofold. On one hand, you won't forget the blessing next time you have it. And the second benefit is that you won't forget those who still don't have the blessing. Okay, again, the first one is that you won't forget the blessing because you've tasted what it was like to be away from it. How good were your faucets this week? How did it feel to have access to your clean water? What was it like when your power came back on? What was it like when your water came back on? And for those who still don't have it, may Allah subhanahu wa ta'ala facilitate it for you. Allahumma ameen. And facilitate it for all of those that don't have access to clean water. Wherever they are. But what did it feel like to have all of that? Like, whew, alhamdulillah, this is amazing. Right? So you take advantage of that blessing, and you take advantage of the moment that you were deprived from it to appreciate it more. That's the first thing. You won't forget the blessing next time. The second thing is that you won't forget those who don't have the blessing next time. And that's a profound experience. Two of those things, or both of those things, are deeply tied to our taqwa of Allah subhanahu wa ta'ala, our consciousness of Allah subhanahu wa ta'ala.
And that's the ultimate reason for the legislation of Ramadan. Kutiba alaykum al-siyam kama kutiba ala lathina min qablikum la'allakum tattaqun. So you become more conscious of Allah. And in order to become more conscious of Allah, you become more conscious of the blessings of Allah upon you. So it directs you back to Allah subhanahu wa ta'ala. And you become more conscious of those who don't have those blessings, so readily available to them. And so you're activated towards them. And that also brings you back to Allah subhanahu wa ta'ala. La'allakum tashkurun. Because those are acts of gratitude that bring you back to Allah subhanahu wa ta'ala. And subhanAllah, this is true for the material things and for the things that aren't as easily identifiable. So for example, Allah azawajal says, wa'atasimu bihablillahi jamee'an wa la tafarraqu wadhkuru ni'matallahi alaykum idh kuntum a'da'an fa'allafa bayna qulubikum faasbahtum bini'matihi ikhwanan. Allah reminds the companions. Allah reminds the people. Remember before Islam, you were at each other's throats? You hated each other. You were enemies. And it was by the blessing of Allah subhanahu wa ta'ala that you became brothers. Don't forget that blessing of Allah subhanahu wa ta'ala upon you so that when you start to feel that the shaitan is once again driving those wedges between you as brothers and sisters, you go back, wadhkuru ni'matallahi alaykum. Allah says, remember, go back and actually reflect on those days and remember, what did it feel like? It felt like a good idea to be a little bit more aggressive. It felt like a good idea to increase the conflict. I've got to do this. But Allah says, remember how much that time period actually stunk. You did not like that time period. You hated that. You hated being at each other's throat, the discomfort of having that enmity. Remember the blessing of Allah subhanahu wa ta'ala upon you when he brought you back together.
He brought you together bihablillah with the Quran. So inshaAllah ta'ala as things do resume back to normal bi'ithnillahi ta'ala and they start to bring us back to where some of the social distancing, hopefully bi'ithnillahi ta'ala, we'll start to see a relaxing of some of those restrictions, start to see some of it coming back. Let's remember that blessing of Allah subhanahu wa ta'ala for the things that are easily identifiable like our food and our drink and for the other things that are not as easily identifiable but are also just as important like our relationships with one another and the things that we do to stay close to one another where Allah subhanahu wa ta'ala is the only one who descends that through His rahmah subhanahu wa ta'ala through His mercy. May Allah subhanahu wa ta'ala keep our hearts connected to Him. Keep our hearts connected to each other. May Allah subhanahu wa ta'ala make us amongst those that are grateful to Him and respond with that gratitude, with added prayers, and with added praise. And may Allah subhanahu wa ta'ala make us amongst those that are grateful to Him and that we respond by working acts of gratitude towards those that don't have the same access to those blessings that we so often take for granted. Allahuma Ameen. Aqooloo qawwi hadhaa wa astaghfirullahi wa alaikum wa rasoolil muslimeen fa astaghfiru wa inna huwa al ghafooril raheem. Alhamdulillahi rabbil alameen wa salatu wa salamu ala rasoolihi al kareem wa ala alihi wa sahbihi ajma'een Allahuma khairul mu'mineena wa al mu'minat wa al muslimeena wa al muslimat al ahya'i minhum wa al amwat innaka samee'un qareebun mujeebu da'wat Allahuma khairul lana wa arhamna wa a'fu anna wa la tu'adhibna Rabbana zalamna anfusana wa innam takhfir lana wa tarhamna la nakoonnana minal khasireen Allahuma innaka a'fuun kareem wa jihibul a'fu fa a'fu anna Allahuma khairul walideena rabbil hamdul ma'a kima rabbuna al zighara Rabbana ahablana min azwajina wa dhuriyatina qurrat a'ayun wa ja'alna lilmuttaqina imama Allahuma aslih ahwala ikhwanina almanqoobina fi kulli makan
Allahuma ansir ikhwanina almustadha'afina fi mashariqil ardi magharibiha Allahuma ahlikil zalimina bil zalimin wa akhrijna wa ikhwanina min baynihim salimin Ibadallah anna Allah ya'mur bil adli wal ihsan wa ita'idil qurba wa yanha'an al fahsha'i wal munkari wal baghi Ya'idukum la'alakum tadhakkaroon fathkuruAllaha yadhkurukum
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