
Jump to:
Khutbahs
Only Allah Knows What You Went Through | Khutbah by Dr. Omar Suleiman
When the world falls silent and it feels like no one truly understands the depth of your struggles, remember that your pain is never invisible to Allah.
Even when the strongest hearts feel vulnerable and words fail to explain what you are going through, Allah sees every hidden tear and knows exactly what you have endured.
This moving khutbah serves as a comforting reminder that when human empathy reaches its limits, divine mercy and understanding are infinite.
The du’a discussed in the khutbah:
اللَّهُمَّ اسْتُرْ عَوْرَاتِي وَآمِنْ رَوْعَاتِي
Allahumma’stur ʿawrātī wa āmin rawʿātī
O Allah, conceal my faults and calm my fears.
This transcript was auto-generated using AI and may contain misspellings.
We begin by praising Allah subhanahu wa ta'ala, by bearing witness that none has the right to be worshipped or unconditionally obeyed except for Him, and we bear witness that Muhammad sallallahu alayhi 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 their blessed path until the Day of Judgment. We ask Allah to make us amongst them. Allahumma Ameen.
My brothers and sisters, first and foremost, I convey to you on behalf of the many Muslims that watched from around the world what happened in this community, may Allah subhanahu wa
ta'ala magnify your reward, may Allah subhanahu wa ta'ala have mercy on your shuhada and accept them, may Allah subhanahu wa ta'ala elevate their rank and may Allah 'azzawajal
descend tranquility upon their families, may Allah subhanahu wa ta'ala comfort and calm the fears of anyone that witnessed the crime that took place here and those that feel
the aftereffects and those that spend their nights wondering what if and what if, may Allah subhanahu wa ta'ala make it easy for the children, the parents of the children
of the school, may Allah 'azzawajal bless this community and may Allah subhanahu wa ta'ala protect our ummah, Allahumma Ameen. Whether it is our ummah in Palestine or our ummah
here in San Diego, we are one ummah and we feel each other's pain and when the Messenger of Allah sallallahu alayhi wasallam spoke about the connection of this ummah, he did
not speak about the connection of this ummah as one of knowing about each other. He said we feel each other's pain. When one part of the ummah hurts, the whole body feels that
fever and so we felt that fever but no one felt it the way that you felt it because of your proximity to our shuhada, Ameen. May Allah subhanahu wa ta'ala have mercy on them
all and accept them, Allahumma Ameen. And because this is your masjid, this is your community and so I want to give you a hypothetical scenario that will be a lived reality for many of you
at some point in your lives in the near future where one day you're talking to someone who grew up in this community but maybe was too young to remember what happened and you're
someone like the many that I have heard that knew the people that were martyred, that knew the shuhada very well and you have childhood memories or you have memories of saying salam
at the front door or memories of an act of kindness and you're trying to convey to them what they were like or you're someone that was in the proximity of this attack and you
were this close or perhaps your child was this close. May Allah protect them and you're trying to convey the way that you felt in the moment. You're conveying the attributes
of people and you are conveying the way that moments felt that they haven't lived and you're saying you see this corner and you see this place and I remember when this happened and it's as if I can still feel.
And even though you'll be conveying information, there is a pain or maybe even a good memory that you won't be able to convey. And you'll catch
yourself saying it's as if I can still feel this. And then I want you to think back to what
it was like for the companions of the Messenger of Allah, sallallahu alayhi wasallam, after the death of the Messenger of Allah when they spoke to their children or they spoke to the next generation of tabi'een
and they recalled their most joyful and their most painful memories with the Prophet, sallallahu alayhi wasallam, their scariest moments in the heat of Khandaq or during the massacre in Uhud, their moments
of being forced from their homes and how it must have been like for them to repeat those
stories over and over and over again so that they would be documented as we recite them almost 1,500 years later. We recite them as they were said. But we can never feel
what they felt. And I want you to appreciate that when the companions of the Prophet, sallallahu alayhi wasallam, talked about their most fond moments and their most traumatic moments, they would catch themselves
at times going into the zone that they were in and reminiscing as to what it was like. As to what it was like. And so our mother Aisha, radiyallahu ta'ala anha, when she mentions
a kiss of the Prophet, sallallahu alayhi wasallam, and then suddenly zones out and smiles. Or when she says I remember in Hajj and as the hair of the Prophet, sallallahu alayhi wasallam, was being parted and the oil was put on his
hair and she says it's as if I can see the glistening of the oil in his hair, sallallahu alayhi wasallam, as his hair was parted in Hajj. Reminiscing and she's trying to convey like I'm there right now.
It's still there. It's a sensory memory. Something I can feel. Or Sa'd ibn Abi Waqas, radiyallahu ta'ala anhu, when he was ill and the Prophet, sallallahu alayhi wasallam, visited him and he thought he was going
to die before the Prophet, sallallahu alayhi wasallam. He had an illness that seemed to be the end. And it was around the time of Fath Mecca. He didn't know if he was going to live long enough to see the
completion of that migration back to Mecca and back to Medina again. And the Prophet, sallallahu alayhi wasallam, puts his hand on Sa'd, radiyallahu ta'ala anhu, and starts to make du'a for him. And he says I can still feel the coolness of the hand of the Messenger of Allah, sallallahu alayhi wasallam, when he
was touching me. Like while he's telling you the story he's saying I still feel the coolness of his hand, sallallahu alayhi wasallam. Those are the beautiful moments that Allah 'azzawajal embeds in us that it's
hard to speak about. Because at the end of the day you're the only one that sensed it. And so some of you might be holding on to a hug from one of the shuhada or someone that
you love or holding on to a moment in the past. And you remember how it felt. But then there's also the trauma of it. And you'll find many of those who witnessed Uhud with
the Prophet, sallallahu alayhi wasallam, speaking of it in that way. Abdullah ibn Mas'ud, radiyallahu ta'ala anhu, in the hadith he says, ka'anni anzuru ila wajhi al-Nabi, sallallahu alayhi wasallam. It's as if I'm looking
at him right now at his face. Wa huwa yamsahu al-dam. And he's wiping the blood off of his face. And he's saying Allahumma ighfir li qawmi fa innahum la ya'lamun. Oh Allah forgive my
people, they don't know any better. It's as if I'm looking at him right now wiping the blood off of his face. Sahl ibn Sa'd, may Allah subhanahu wa ta'ala be pleased with him, he says, I remember in Uhud, I can tell you when the Prophet, sallallahu alayhi wasallam, was wounded, where
he was wounded, who was washing the wound, who was drying the wound, everything. And he says that Fatima, radiyallahu ta'ala anha, was wiping the blood off of the Prophet, sallallahu alayhi wasallam.
Ali, radiyallahu ta'ala anhu, was providing the water. And then as she would wipe the blood off of the face of the Prophet, sallallahu alayhi wasallam, was washing his wounds and Ali, radiyallahu
ta'ala anhu, was providing the water when the blood kept on flowing. When she starts looking for any type of burnt or dried material to try to stop the blood from flowing from the face and the body of the Messenger of Allah, sallallahu alayhi wasallam. These were lived moments. And every single
one of us can look back at our lives and we have these moments where we felt something
that we can't necessarily convey. Allah 'azzawajal mentions this when he talks about Khandaq, the way people felt in the trench. And Allah subhanahu wa ta'ala says that when the eyes
were propped up, they were so afraid looking at every single corner, monitoring the trench, one thing goes wrong and there's a genocide in Medina. And Allah says, and your hearts
reached your throats. Who knows that about people? Allah 'azzawajal knows your pain better than you knew your pain. Allah 'azzawajal knows your feelings better than you know your own
feelings. Allah subhanahu wa ta'ala gives context to those feelings in a way that sometimes you can't even, because you can't get past the feeling itself to even start to process. Allah 'azzawajal tells you what you felt and tells you how to process it. And Allah says
when that moment happened, and who is he talking about? He's talking about the sahabah of the Prophet, sallallahu alayhi wasallam, and he's conveying to us how it felt when they were in those moments where perhaps a generation after would say, we wish we were there with
the Prophet, sallallahu alayhi wasallam, and some of the sahabah would say, you have no idea what you're talking about. Hudhayfah ibn al-Yaman, radiyallahu ta'ala anhu, the furthest person from hypocrisy, saying we were so afraid at some point that when the Prophet, sallallahu
alayhi wasallam, asked for a volunteer to go and to disguise themselves and listen to what Abu Sufyan was planning against the Muslims, that no one, I mean these are the best people
that ever walked the face of the earth, but at that moment there was so much happening that no one stepped forward. No one stepped forward in that moment. So he's saying it's
very easy for you to say I would have done this and I would have done that, but you don't know what we were feeling in those moments. You don't know what we were actually going through in those moments. And Allah subhanahu wa ta'ala says, the believers were tested
there. The hypocrites had their doubts and when Allah mentions the dhann that they had in Allah 'azzawajal, that perhaps there were some bad assumptions, some doubts that they
had in Allah subhanahu wa ta'ala, the primary interpretation of that are the hypocrites that were trying to sow doubt amongst the believers in their moments of vulnerability and say see, see what your prophet got you into, sallallahu alayhi wasallam, you see how
desperate you are, similar to those who said as they reached the sea and the army of Fir'awn was behind Musa, alayhi assalam, and his people, right? See what you got us into Musa, see
what Musa, alayhi assalam, got us into, now we're about to be massacred by Fir'awn and his army. So those that were sowing doubt actively, but then the mufassirun don't say it, but there
is no contradiction as well between those that started to feel a certain way like what's going to happen here, they didn't vocalize or verbalize any types of doubts about Allah subhanahu wa ta'ala or say something negative, but the believers were tested in those moments
because you can't miss anything here or else the stakes are too high. And it's in those moments that the Prophet, sallallahu alayhi wasallam, taught them a du'a, which is so deeply profound
because it is comprehensive and it covers our vulnerabilities that only Allah subhanahu wa ta'ala sees. He said to them, sallallahu alayhi wasallam, to the companions when they came to the Messenger
of Allah, sallallahu alayhi wasallam, and they told him how they were feeling. He said, say, Allahumma astur awratina wa amin rawatina. Allahumma astur awratina wa amin rawatina.
Allahumma astur awratina wa amin rawatina. It's actually part of our morning and evening
du'a, adhkar. Allahumma astur awrati wa amin rawati. Allahumma astur awratina means, oh
Allah, cover our vulnerabilities. What's very interesting about this, by the way, is that your awrah can mean many different things here. When you say Allahumma astur awrati,
my vulnerability, it could be cover my shame because your shame makes you vulnerable. There's something about you you don't want people to know and you want the sitr of Allah subhanahu
wa ta'ala, you want Allah 'azzawajal to cover you up. And so there's something about you that's perhaps shameful or there's a weakness that you don't want to be exploited. There's something you would not like to be made public. There is perhaps an awrah that you don't want your enemy to be able to use against you.
So this can be very encompassing at a deeply personal level because our sins make us vulnerable, our shame makes us vulnerable.
Or there are weaknesses perhaps that we have that other people don't know about us that we're not proud of. And you say Allahumma astur awrati, oh Allah protect that.
But it's so comprehensive in its meaning, it also carries the meaning of feeling exposed in terms of your security. Because Allahumma astur awratina in this context also meant that if we failed to man or failed to guard a particular part of the ditch
because you had these hungry enemies of God that were looking for a spot, just looking for a little creek so that they could get in there.
And they could harm the believers. That at the end of the day everything that is human is going to have some level of imperfection.
Maybe we're not ready so oh Allah protect us from our vulnerabilities, from those openings, those weaknesses that could be exploited as a community in these moments.
Because no matter how much security you put in a masjid, no matter how much you do, no matter what you build,
it's still going to be human and it will only be protective to the extent that al-Hafidh, subhanahu wa ta'ala, allows it to be protective.
So Allahumma astur awratina, cover those vulnerabilities, those weaknesses that I have inside of me that could be exploited.
And that we have as a community that could be exploited. And so you're channeling those vulnerabilities to Allah, wa amin rawatina, and settle our fears.
Wa amin rawatina speaks to the rawa'a, something that you feel inside. See one of these things is a material opening.
The other one speaks to the drive of your emotions. Which can greatly alter how you act in a scenario. Subhanallah what legends we have that have been made and formed in this day and age in Gaza.
And now even in the story of our brother Amin, rahimahullah ta'ala. And now even in the story of our brother Amin rahimahullah ta'ala.
These are legends. The emotion that kicked in, that's divine. That protective sense, that's divine. When Allah 'azza wa jal puts that inside of you, that's divine.
And so when you say Allahumma astur 'awrati wa amin rawa'ati. You're asking Allah 'azza wa jal to cover those vulnerabilities.
And to settle you, and to calm you in those moments that are so deeply consequential. I want you to think about this, dear brothers and sisters.
In the moments that we live in today. We all have 'awrah and we all have rawa'a. We all have these things. Different layers, different levels.
And you know what's incredible? The Prophet, may Allah's peace and blessings be upon him, he didn't say to the companions, "Ma lakum?" What's wrong with you all? Do you have doubt in me? What's wrong with you all? Don't you know?
That wasn't the moment that the Prophet, may Allah's peace and blessings be upon him, was going to do that. Instead he gave them a du'a. He gave them a way to channel what they were feeling to their relationship with Allah, subhanahu wa ta'ala.
So that it could actually become a means of betterment and building. And not a means of distancing and doubt and despair. The Prophet, may Allah's peace and blessings be upon him, is a true leader. The Messenger of Allah, may Allah's peace and blessings be upon him, knows how to act in those moments.
And he knows how to tell them to act. And it is after they made that du'a that Allah 'azza wa jal flipped the entirety of the battle. Allah, subhanahu wa ta'ala, yuthabbitu alladhina amanu.
Bil qawli al-thabit fil hayati ad-dunya wa fil akhirah. Allah is the one who gives tathbeet. He's the one who gives firmness. Allah is the one who settles the heart and he settles the feet. The feet are not settled if the heart is not settled.
Our ranks are not going to be close if our hearts are shattered. Allah, subhanahu wa ta'ala, knows us better than we know ourselves.
And Allah 'azza wa jal can give us what no human being can give us. And so whether it is the modern-day scenes of David and Goliath,
where the child in Gaza is David standing in front of the most powerful army in the world, unafraid, unwilling to move. That doesn't mean that there isn't something going on.
That doesn't mean, subhanallah, one of the most powerful images that we grew up seeing was the image of Fares Udah, rahimahullah ta'ala, the child in front of the tank.
In his heart and in his mind, when he stands in front of the tank, and that was one of the most formative images of what is taking place.
You don't know if there was some level of what's going to happen here and what's going to happen there, but what you do know is that the belief in Allah, subhanahu wa ta'ala, the trust in Allah, subhanahu wa ta'ala, overcame the other emotions.
Because as human beings, we're not ever going to have perfect emotions. Allah made us this way, but it's that the trust overcomes the fear.
It's that the courage overcomes the insecurity. It's that the spirit of sacrifice overcomes the spirit of self-preservation. That doesn't mean those things don't still exist inside of you.
They do, they all do, to all of us, to a certain extent. But Allah, subhanahu wa ta'ala, pushes us over and pushes us through.
And only He knows how to do that with us because only He knows us that way. You could spend your whole life with a person, and there are certain things you will never know about that person,
that Allah 'azza wa jal knows about that person. You could be married to them, you could be their sibling, you could be their best friend, and there's something that if you talk long enough, you'll say, "Hmm, I didn't expect that."
And even if you talk forever, there are certain things that will be unspoken that Allah knows is in the heart, and Allah knows is in the mind. Allah knows our pain in ways that nobody else knows our pain.
And so when Ya'qub, alayhi salam, think about how lonely he felt. He's talking to his sons, and his sons don't get it. His sons are the ones that caused him that pain. And he's saying,
"I complain of my hurt, I complain of my grief, I complain of my distress only to Allah, subhanahu wa ta'ala, and I know of Allah what you don't know." His sons are saying, "Just get over it, man. It's over. Yusuf is gone.
What is it with you?" And then that behavior becomes a culture, right? Where even when he says, "I can smell Yusuf, alayhi salam," the sensory part of that, the feeling that a parent has for their child, "I can smell him from far away."
Even the wives of his sons, his daughters-in-law, are saying, "Come on now, just move on. Like you're acting crazy." Allah knows. Allah 'azza wa jal sees. Allah, subhanahu wa ta'ala, hears.
Allah, subhanahu wa ta'ala, sustains. Allah, subhanahu wa ta'ala, makes steadfast. Allah, subhanahu wa ta'ala, strengthens. He knows you like nobody else knows you. He witnesses you like nobody else witnesses you.
But he can affirm you in a way that no human being can affirm you. And I want to end with this concept of the notion of shahada. The witness. And I'm sure you've been talking about this idea of our shuhada.
May Allah 'azza wa jal accept them as such. In so many ways. That when our Prophet, peace be upon him, tells us about the shuhada, when they feel what they feel.
You see, all three of them have heard, have seen people who were martyred. Have read the same narrations that you read now.
But when they feel it, they wish they could come back and tell you what it's really like. It's like when the 'ulama mentioned the man who was killed in Surah Yasin. He says, "Ya layta qawmi ya'lamun."
"If only my people knew." He told them. He was the one telling them about Jannah. He was the one telling them about the forgiveness of Allah. But when you really feel it. When you really see it. "If only I could go back and convey to them." And so the shuhada have that wish.
To convey to those that they left behind. That not only are we okay. We're doing much better than what we were doing when we were in the life of this world. That what Allah 'azza wa jal has given to us. Instead of fear,
we're in joy. We're happy. We're pleased. Don't give up. Don't lose heart. Keep going. If only you could see. If only you could hear. If only you could feel. And so the shuhada, they witness.
That generosity of Allah, subhanahu wa ta'ala. And because they are now witnesses to it. They wish that they could tell you what they are witnessing. You bear witness to their sacrifice. You are witnesses of the shuhada.
Because antum shuhada'u Allahi fil ard. You witness it. You knew them. You saw them. We're all witnesses to the stories that we either are part of. Or that we heard from other people of the character of these three men.
We're witnesses. So you are witnesses of the witnesses. And everything else on the Day of Judgment. See on the Day of Judgment when Allah 'azza wa jal calls forth.
Those that were killed and those that killed. You are the courtroom. You fill the courtroom. Each and every single one of you fills the courtroom.
And testifies. And not only that. The earth itself bears witness. The walls bear witness. Everything that Allah 'azza wa jal has put around that seemed to be inanimate.
And unobservant. Is actually bearing witness on the Day of Judgment. But Allah 'azza wa jal is ash-shahid.
He's the witness of it all. Allah, ash-shahid, is the witness of what you say to yourself. He is ar-raqib because he observes, subhanahu wa ta'ala.
But not just in the place of holding you accountable. But not just in the place of holding you accountable. But also of keeping you firm. Keeping you witnessed. Letting you know that he sees you. That he hears you. That he knows what you're feeling.
And that he knows what to prescribe for you. Subhanahu wa ta'ala. May Allah Subhanahu wa ta'ala, ash-shaheed. May Allah Subhanahu wa ta'ala accept your shahada.
May Allah Subhanahu wa ta'ala allow us all to be amongst those that are witnessed in a way that is pleasing to Him. May Allah Subhanahu wa ta'ala make our best moments the last moments.
May Allah Subhanahu wa ta'ala cover our vulnerabilities. And may Allah Subhanahu wa ta'ala settle our fears. Allahumma astaghfiru awratina wa a'miru raw'atina. Allahumma ameen. Aqoolu qawli haza wa astaghfiru Allaha wa alaikum wa nisaa'ilun mursaleen. Fa astaghfiru inna hu al-ghafuru ar-raheem.
Al-hamdu lillahi wa as-salatu wa as-salamu ala rasulillahi wa ala alihi wa sahbihi wa man wala.
Allahumma ighfir al-mu'minina wa al-mu'minat wa al-muslimina wa al-muslimat, al-ahya'i minhum wa al-amwat. Innaka samee'un qareebun mujeebu ad-du'a. Allahumma ighfir lana wa irhamna wa a'fu anna wa la tu'azzibna. Rabbana zalamna anfusana wa in lam taghfir lana wa tarhamna.
Lanakuna lana mina al-khasiseen. Allahumma ighfir lana wa irhamna wa a'fu anna wa in kunta tuhibbu al-'afwa fa'fu anna. Allahumma ighfir li waliday-na. Rabbir hamhuma kama rabbayani sagheera. Rabbana hab lana min azwajina wa dhurriyyatina qurrata a'yunin. Wa ja'alna li al-muttaqina imama.
Allahumma insur ikhwanana al-mustad'afina fi masharika al-ardi wa gharibaha. Allahumma insur hum fi filastin wa fi as-sudan wa fi kulli makan. Allahumma alayyka bi a'daa'ika a'da ad-deen.
Bi hurmat Muhammad al-Mustafa wa bi sirri Surat al-Fatihah.
For more information, visit www.yaqeeninstitute.org



































































































































































































































































































