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How Can Allah Help You Feel Safe? | Attaching to Allah - Episode 3

We will be afraid. Allah promises that we will be tested with fear—from circumstances, from people, from many other things in life. But He also promises us safety. Through praying, fasting, giving da’wah, and making du’a, we can feel safe in the knowledge that we are in the Hands of the Ultimate Protector.

Tune in with Dr. Omar Suleiman, Ustadha Sarah Sultan and guests for episode 3 of Attaching to Allah, Yaqeen Institute's 2022 Dhul Hijjah Series.

Download the full list of du'as from the series.

Transcript

This transcript was auto-generated using AI and may contain misspellings.
But in a lot of these other situations and these other countries where kids are just, I mean, you continue to destabilize them and they don't have any weight of recourse other than, you know, they pray to Allah and you can see the sincerity of their prayers. Their prayer is just, that's what they have, that's what they're relying on. So if you look at the story of Ibrahim A'islam, it's tyrant to tyrant to tyrant. He's never really safe, right? He deals with his father, a tyrant, right? His father says, like, if you don't get out of my face, I'm going to stone you. His father is the one who suggests the punishment, right? And subhanAllah, I mean, imagine how hurtful that was to him, right? But again, it's a tyrant. He has to deal with Nimrod, right? Another tyrant in Iraq who says, you know,
that I give life and I give death. How? Just, I mean, with absolutely no hesitation brings forth a man who was sentenced to death and frees him and brings forth a completely innocent man and kills him and says, see, I give life and I give death. He has to deal with that guy, right? And he has to stand in front of him and give da'wah. He has to deal with the king of Egypt, right? Who's known to take the husbands of beautiful women and dispose of them and then take the women for himself. And this is coming out of an experience, a traumatic experience, and he's with Sarah and this seems to be the fate and subhanAllah, he's saved from that. There's something very interesting here because it almost becomes counterintuitive. Allah is protecting Ibrahim because of his da'wah. And a lot of times we might think that, you know, if I'm too visibly Muslim, if I pray in public, if I act to Muslim, if I am to Muslim, then I'm compromising my safety. And so we relinquish those things. And Allah says in the Quran, يَا أَيُّهَا الرَّسُولُ بَلِّغْ مَا أُنزِيَ إِلَيْكَ مَن رَبِّكَ O Messenger of Allah, convey what your Lord has given to you. وَإِلَّمْ تَفْعَلْ فَمَا بَلَّغْتَ رِسَالَةً If you don't do so, then you have not conveyed the message. وَاللَّهُ يَعْصِمُكَ مِنَ النَّاسِ And Allah will actually protect you from the people. So Allah connects the Prophet SallAllahu Alaihi Wasallam doing da'wah with protection, right? That this actually becomes a means of protection for you. Can any of you recall a time where you felt unsafe and then you summoned that courage and that tawakkul, that trust in Allah Subh'anaHu Wa Ta-A'la, you felt that mercy, that sakinah come down upon you? I'm just thinking back to my school days as a teenager and being in an environment where practicing your values is very difficult. And in that moment, you just have to trust that your values are going to guide you through whatever it is that you don't even know.
When I had certain of my friends that come to me at the end and be like, seeing your values, the way you held on to them, that made us not want to be bad around you. And to know that when I think back, thinking about all the things I was around and thinking that SubhanAllah, Allah Subh'anaHu Wa Ta-A'la protected me from those things, it only makes sense for it to come back to those values, if that makes sense. So I think for me, it was a very difficult time. So I think for me, it was always like, how does it make sense that I came out of this clean? It's like a really bad accident. You're like, how did I come out of this clean? And so, and to see that, and not only did I come out of this clean, but somehow it had an impact on other people. So for me, it was just like holding on to those values through school and those teenage days around different friends and whatnot. That's very profound. I mean, I imagine obviously, our sisters usually bear the brunt of this more so than anyone else, right? SubhanAllah. Any of the brothers, any of you have a moment where like you felt fear and then suddenly a moment of calmness, you know, when it came to your Islam, or you were in a place, any moment where you felt fear and just safety came into a sense of tranquility? I know I have. I mean, I grew up in DC. So every time you get pulled over by a police officer, you know, and then you're the triple, like you're black, male and Muslim. And so, you know, there's, as you grew up, you know, you're accustomed to how to interact with the police, but you still never feel, you know, you never feel safe. You always feel, you know, they can, you know, pull the gun on you and, you know, you're not safe. And so, you know, you're not
safe. And there'll be no recourse. They'll just, you know, walk away. So it's really sad, but you're, you always have your guard and your safety up. And, you know, after, you know, accepted Islam, then you just start making dua, or like you, they take her in the car when they pull you over and you, you know, you really focus because you just, you just really never know. I mean, so it was either that or sometimes, you know, just even random shootings now, you know, we seem to be in that space of time where, you know, random gunfire, drug shootings, whatever the case may be, where you have to just be very cognizant of what you're going on. And I won't even get to the school shootings and safeties and those kinds of things where now you're, you know, you're fearing the safety of your kids and just, you know, any moment. So it just shows you the shortness of, you know, what life has and you're making dua and hoping that Allah is putting you in good places. And that sometimes when you, you know, have a habit of, you know, when you start to come into Islam and you'll go to an event with other Muslims, you'll remove yourself away from people who have presented or put themselves in a difficult situation, or maybe they're the ones who are being targeted. And now that you've removed yourself from those elements or from those individuals, you put yourself around people who are speaking about, you know, Allah and Islam, and now you've protected yourself by just doing that. And so that's where your safety comes and you feel a relief of, you know, Islam is easy, like he said earlier, and let me go that path of, you know, staying around people who are comfortable, being around people who are remembering Allah, and that's helping to protect you. I want to stay with that thought for a moment. You touched on an experience, right? Being a black man in America, period, right? And then being a black Muslim man in America and the fear
that maybe others will not have, right? When they're pulled over by a cop, which actually, to me, I think, you know, allows us to maybe touch on another element of this, which is, do we feel entitled to a sense of safety because of where we live and who we are in one dimension? So for example, you know, mosques get bombed, drones, right, by US presidents, Democrat and Republican. Safety is not an option in places like Palestine, right? But when it happens in a Western country, in a relatively wealthy place, maybe it hurts a little bit more because it's like, wait a minute, I could see myself being that person. How do we reckon with that? Like, how do you deal with that? Because I think those moments where it's almost like, you know, I don't want to call it a hypocrisy. I think it's natural, right? Where like, wait a minute, I can relate to that. And so it hits closer to home. That's what they're saying. It hits closer to home. Has your safety being compromised at any point ever made you think, I need to be activated towards the safety of other people that deserve it just as much as I do? Can any of you like think of an incident, something that happened where, like, wait a minute, you know, people in Syria, people in Yemen, people in Somalia, people? Yeah. I mean, I think about it all the time. I mean, I took government action, politics in college, and I took defense policy courses and worked for government agencies a lot. And you can see the footprint of, you know, U.S. hegemony going into other countries using environmental or other organizations to kind of gain that footprint into a different country. But you can see the effects of either globalization, militarization, or these other industrial complexes and how that's affecting the country.
Or these other industrial complexes and how, of course, they affect them. So the bombs and, you know, whether it's going to other countries, but they're bombing Yemen and kids and, you know, you're blessed. I mean, just to grow up in the U.S., you're blessed. You know, you have the ability to, for the most part, wake up with food, water, shelter, and you're not getting shelled and bombed. You know, my fear is still pretty much in my control. You know, even if I do get pulled over or someone randomly shoots, you know, you still have a sense or feeling of a little bit of control in that situation. Like you can defend yourself, you can arm yourself. But in a lot of these other situations and these other countries where kids are just, I mean, you continue to destabilize them and they don't have any way of recourse other than, you know, they pray to Allah and you can see the sincerity of their prayers. That's what they're relying on, on Allah to really help them. And you always feel, you know, not that you want to be in that situation, but you feel, man, like their prayer is just, that's what they have. That's what they're relying on. They don't know if they're going to live to the next day or the next day, or if they're going to eat the next day. And so when Allah says He feeds a bird and wakes up in the morning and comes back and make sure that it's fed, that you pray and you give du'a for those persons, especially during Ramadan and you're giving your zakat and you're thinking, man, I just hope this is feeding someone that is serving his purpose and that they feel a sense of security and safety and love and that Allah, you know, brought that connection to us between us as Muslims. So I'm going to sort of summarize this. There's something very interesting about the Quranic terminology in this regard. Khawf, fear. And Allah Subh'anaHu Wa Ta-A'la says, Walanabalu annakum bishay'in minal khawfi walju'r That we will test you with something of fear and hunger. And then Allah Subh'anaHu Wa Ta-A'la says,
of the greatest favors to Quraysh, falya'abudu rabba hadhal bayt allathee ata'amahum minju'in wa amanahum min khawf The one who fed them when they were hungry and gave them security from fear. Ironically, through the du'a of Ibrahim Alayhi Salaam, Allah gave them sustenance and Allah gave them safety. And here they were rejecting the descendant of Ibrahim Alayhi Salaam and running him out and denying him sustenance through the boycott and safety by trying to kill him and eventually running him out, forcing him to migrate SallAllahu Alaihi Wasallam. But Allah says that he will test you with fear and hunger. And Allah says of the greatest favors that he can bestow upon you is safety and sustenance. And what you come away with is this idea that the only real safety net then is the one who provides safety. It's not the people. It's not anything else. And so why would I do what displeases the one who provides actual safety in search of it? It doesn't make sense. So instead I do what is pleasing to him knowing that ultimate safety comes from him. And one of the things that we take from the Prophet SallAllahu Alaihi Wasallam is when he's making du'a, when he's supplicating the night before Badr and you see him crying and you see his desperation, if you don't know any better, you might think he's losing it. You know, we don't know if he, you know, if he's getting desperate now, is there a lack of trust in Allah Subhanahu Wa Ta'ala the way his hands are going up, the way his tears are. But the moment he puts those hands down from that du'a, he's a rock SallAllahu Alaihi Wasallam. Right? He can't be moved. And that's the perfect balance of the believer and what we take from these prophets of Allah that in their moments of fear, they turn to Allah and du'a and then as soon as they said Ameen,
they felt Amn, they felt safety. And that's where the next chapter always reveals itself in the Quran with each one of these prophets. So Sister Sara, fear is a natural human emotion. How important is it for people to manage their fears properly and how does that affect their relationship with Allah Subhanahu Wa Ta'ala? Absolutely. You know, fear is functional, Mashallah. Allah Subhanahu Wa Ta'ala created it within us for a reason, but it can get in the way if it becomes amplified or if it takes us down a path that's displeasing to Allah Subhanahu Wa Ta'ala. And when we choose to follow the standards of other people out of fear of what their reactions or their perceptions will be like, that's when fear can really get in the way of our faith, our relationship with Allah Subhanahu Wa Ta'ala, our identity, all of these different things. And so being able to combat that is really important. If we were to ask, you know, all of us, you know, who do you worship? Who do you prioritize? Is it, you know, do you care more about what this person thinks of you or do you care more about what Allah Subhanahu Wa Ta'ala thinks of you? Everybody will likely answer, I care more about what Allah Subhanahu Wa Ta'ala thinks of me. But a lot of times our actions don't align with that. And Allah Subhanahu Wa Ta'ala reminds us of this where he, you know, he tells us that, you know, do you fear them? But I am, you know, truly, I'm the one who's truly to be feared if you're truly believers. Right? And Ibrahim Alayhi Salaam rebukes his people when he destroys the idols and he tells them, are you taking to worship other than Allah Subhanahu Wa Ta'ala something that can't benefit or harm you? And how often do we tend to do that with the choices that we make where we choose to please the people in our lives? And we're inadvertently almost worshipping them in that
situation where we are prioritizing a standard other than the standard of Allah Subhanahu Wa Ta'ala. So being able to ask ourselves, who, you know, who is going to be able to benefit me? And that is truly Allah Subhanahu Wa Ta'ala. Like I remember Sheikh Abdullah Odurra once mentioned, there's a difference between believing in Allah and believing Allah. Believing, we believe Allah Subhanahu Wa Ta'ala to be our Lord and our creator, but do we believe Allah Subhanahu Wa Ta'ala when he tells us that he's the best of planners? That when we worship him, you know, there's going to be tremendous reward for it. That with hardship comes ease. Do we believe that Allah Subhanahu Wa Ta'ala is truly Al-Muhaimin, our protector? And if we truly believe that, then we're going to be able to overcome our fears and choose his standards and following him rather than following people. If you're benefiting from this content, then please make sure to click subscribe and make sure that you turn on your notifications.
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