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Assuming the Best of Allah | Daily Reminders
When hardship strikes, how do we respond to the challenges? Do we fully feel content that Allah’s choices for us are better than what we would choose for ourselves? Sh. Mohammad Elshinawy reminds us of the prophetic way of responding to challenges and assuming the best of Allah.
Transcript
This transcript was auto-generated using AI and may contain misspellings. As-salamu alaikum everyone. Bismillah, wassalatu wassalamu ala rasulillah. I pray you're well, you and your loved ones, and gaining nearness to Allah, getting closer to Allah with every brand new day, and preparing for your best Ramadan ever that will surpass all your previous Ramadans, inshaAllah. I wanted to reflect for these few moments on the reality of assuming the best of Allah. What does that mean? I mean for sure it includes assuming that Allah is powerful enough to protect us from anything, and that Allah is certainly capable of curing us if sickness were to befall us from anything, even if medicine has not yet discovered a cure for it. But assuming the best of Allah should never be extended or misunderstood to include that Allah will make our life in this world a paradise on earth. That was never the intended meaning, and should never be conflated with assuming the best of Allah. We assume the best of Allah that Allah will respond to our du'a, subhanahu wa ta'ala. Allah is certainly capable of all things. This is part of assuming the best of Allah, and so we seek Him for our desires. But after the fact, meaning after something takes place, contrary to what we would have preferred, contrary to what we would have desired, assuming the best of Allah then still stands, but in a different form, in the form of contentment. That's why the Prophet ﷺ said, وَأَسْأَلُكَ الرِّضَىٰ بَعْدَ الْقَضَىٰ And I ask you for contentment after your decision has come to pass, after destiny unveils itself. Because everyone's a swimmer on the shore, and everybody can claim to be satisfied with God as their Lord and Master. But when the event strikes, those who assume the best of Allah are those who say to themselves, from within, Allah's choice for me is better than my choice for myself. I prefer His wisdom over my wisdom. I don't want it any other way, especially that
has come to pass already and I can't do anything about it. That is when challenges, adversities become a rahma, become a mercy for this ummah. How we respond to them. So if you know someone who got sick, or you yourself get sick, or someone who's adversely affected perhaps financially or otherwise through this crisis, assuming the best of Allah then is that this is the best choice for them. The best decision for them if they receive it correctly, and we receive the news about their difficulty correctly. You know, though there may be some pretty significant differences between COVID-19 and the plague, without downplaying of course the severity of what we're in whatsoever, especially for those at risk like the elderly, those with chronic illnesses, and our healthcare warriors out there on the front lines. But though there are some significant differences apparently, people may not treat it that way. And they may treat it like the world has gone dark and we're in the midst of a plague, and since people will look at it like that anyway, let me talk about the plague for a second. Even if things may Allah forbid were to hit the fan if you will, and the world goes dark and the plague has befallen us, we would still find in the companions, in the sahaba of the Prophet ﷺ, shining stars of examples to walk us through that darkness. You know Mu'adh ibn Jabal, may Allah be pleased with him, when the plague befell them in Ash-Sham, he watched every single one of his family members die in front of him in a very short period of time. And then when he succumbed to the plague as he was dying, he said amazing words. You can't fake it at that hour. He said as he was dying, O Allah, you know that I feared you for my entire life and now I have locked all my ambitions on you. Meaning this could here be, since you've chosen this for me, your greatest gift for me ever, that you've taken me at this very high rank.
Now Allah is combining for him the reward of shahada, he noticed it, he saw it, though it could be seen as his darkest hour, he saw it as an hour to aspire in it for an even higher rank with Allah. And then he said, O Allah, you know that I did not want to stay in this world to plant its trees and for its flowing rivers. Instead I wanted to stay here because of the long hot summer days that I could fast and standing up in the night prayers and crowding the scholars at the circles of sacred knowledge. And then he said something amazing when he got choked up with his death. He said, O Allah, choke as you wish. Go ahead and do it. Choke. I swear by your might, you know that I love you. Meaning no matter what you do to me, I will forever love you. I will not waver in my love for you. I will not assume anything but the best of you. May Allah Azza wa Jal make us through the ups and downs of our life, people that never waver in our good assumptions of Allah and when Allah chooses for us, may we thank him 10 times more than the times we get to choose for ourselves because his choice is better than our choice and his mercy for us is greater than our mercy for ourselves. May Allah fill us with that understanding and the insight to pierce through our problems and shatter them and arrive at him safely. Allahumma ameen.
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