fbpixel

Take 30 seconds to give for 30 days.

Juz 21: Why Are Humans So Weak? | Sh. Mikaeel Ahmed Smith

How can I remember Allah in times of both safety and danger? How can recognizing my weakness and vulnerability make me a stronger believer?

Join Sh. Mikaeel Ahmed Smith with hosts Dr. Omar Suleiman and Sh. Abdullah Oduro as they reflect on Juz 21 of the Qur'an, discussing thanking God for our blessings, asking God for help, weakness and vulnerability in humans, and why we need God.

✨Test your knowledge of the Qur'an✨

In which surah does Allah promise the Prophet ﷺ a return to Makkah?
A. Al Fath
B. Al Qasas
C. Ar Rum

Chapters:

0:00 - Highlights
📌 1:03 - Today's trivia
2:23 - Introduction

📌 4:18 - Dr. Omar Suleiman reflects on the line of reasoning about Allah in Juz 20 and 21
6:39 - Those that diminished God by giving Him partners
8:03 - Allah gives provisions to whom He wills
9:28 - The connection of gratitude for blessings

📌 10:30 - Sh. Abdullah Oduro reflects on calling to Allah in times of hardship and ease
11:40 - Our natural disposition (fitrah)
12:40 - The response of travellers through calamity
15:23 - Those that are ungrateful in their safety

📌 17:26 - Sh. Mikaeel Ahmed Smith reflects on our need of God
18:55 - The signs of God through creation
20:58 - Recognizing our weakness as humans

📌 23:43 - Reflections
24:03 - The contradition between seeking help without serving God
25:11 - The difficulty of remembering Allah in times of ease
26:02 - Dhikr and du'a as means to be consistently grateful
27:50 - Recognizing your vulnerability even at your strongest
28:50 - Breaking down before God

Download the latest Qur'an 30 for 30 eBook: Qur’an 30 for 30: Thematic Tafsir.

Explore the daily juz questions and answers in the Qur'an 30 for 30 Season 5 Trivia.

Transcript

This transcript was auto-generated using AI and may contain misspellings.
After he has caused us to die, as I say, the cousin of death is sleep. And to him, we will finally return. You're waking up in the morning, thinking about the end of times, knowing that this life is temporary. What are you going to do today? It's beneficial. So just pondering over those verses, you know, Allahumma anta sahimu fissafar, as you meant to, you know, Allah, you are my companion in traveling, you know. So just pondering over what we say in and of itself, that is something that can increase our iman, i.e. our awareness of the one that is the creator and then one that is great and our weakness, you know, our weakness and the fact that we are fabled, that we are weak and we don't have control over anything. You know what's crazy, Sheikh, is also on the plane example, because like all my, all my amtha, like I could write like a book on the parables of the planes, because like I've got so many reflections on planes, man. So it's one thing that I think about too, you know how they talk about like death being the ultimate equalizer, like at the end of the day, you all end up in the same grave? Yeah, yeah. If the turbulence starts and if that plane's going down, it doesn't matter what class of the plane you're in. Allah, no, Allah, Allah, Allah. There's no difference between first business or economy, you're all going down. And if you're in a ship, it doesn't matter what part of the ship you're on, if the ship sinks, you all go down, you all drown. Right, you know the whole story about the Titanic, unlike the way that the upper deck and the lower deck and subhanAllah, where you were in terms of the cabins, at the end of the day, when Titanic sinks, everyone sinks with it. So there's a level of recognizing your vulnerability, even when you think you're at your strongest. So can you still recognize how poor you really are, even when you're at your richest? Can you still recognize how much in need of Allah you are, even when you feel the most independent? You know, and Sheikh, I think people, we have to shift the narrative here. Like the breaking down before God is such a freeing feeling. You can, the world will either break you and you will humble yourself before it, or you will humble yourself before God. So I mean, those moments when you,
when the world feels like it's breaking you, those are the critical moments that we all turn back to Allah, use that moment. Your heart feels weak, you feel broken, that's your golden hour right there. That's a blessed moment to just raise your hands and because you're not always there. You know, there's times we're waiting for the, you know, we're in the last 10 nights now, right? So there's times when you're waiting for the 27th night, it's gonna hit me, I'm gonna feel broken. Maybe not, maybe it's the 22nd, but you get a moment where you feel really like, ah, you're looking at what's going on around the world and it's tearing up our hearts and you're just lifting up your hands, wherever that moment touches you. And this is my advice to myself and everyone. Whenever that moment comes that breaks you, that's a gift from Allah. Yep. Absolutely. That's a gift, that's a gift. We could go all night, man, but we literally need people to go all night. It's the 21st night, inshallah ta'ala. So we need everyone to make du'a. JazakAllah khair for the beautiful reflections may Allah Azawajal accept from you. May Allah accept from everyone inshallah in these last 10. And again, a reminder, please keep us in your du'a inshallah ta'ala. And also please bid the night ta'ala. Make sure that you click the link below. We'll see you all tomorrow, inshallah. Assalamualaikum warahmatullahi wabarakatuh. Assalamualaikum warahmatullahi wabarakatuh. Assalamualaikum warahmatullahi wabarakatuh. As we move between two weak phases, our reality is weakness. The appearance or illusion of strength should not delude you and make you forget that you are utterly in need of God in every moment. Now reflect on this. Why is Allah Subh'anaHu Wa Ta-A'la telling me about myself? Because the thing that needed to be broken in the thing that needed to be broken
within the hearts of the people of Mecca was arrogance. And they needed to realize what they were. So Allah Subh'anaHu Wa Ta-A'la is saying to them, look at who you are. The amazing thing, brothers and sisters, about the book of Allah is the more you read it, the more it tells you about you. It makes you reflect on who you are. It forces you to question through different rhetorical means. It's beautiful. So Allah Subh'anaHu Wa Ta-A'la then says, yakhluku ma yasha wa huwa al-'alimu al-qadir. He creates whatever He wants. He is all-knowing and He is all-powerful. Now, without getting too technical, there are different ways to recite this. And Arabic is such a beautiful language that a slight vowel change can change the meaning greatly. There's another way to recite this in which the Arabic word for weakness is a word that doesn't speak about physical weakness per se, but intellectual weakness, psychological, mental. And what that would mean from that perspective is that we're weak mentally as children. We need to be taught. We need to be reassured. We need so much mentally. Then we go through a phase where, you know, our aql, our intellect is strong, but the reality is that time is going to come when we will be weak again. And you'll say, I don't remember that. And your son will be saying, dad, I told you yesterday. Why is Allah reminding us of this? He's reminding us of this so that we contemplate our own mortality, weakness, and realize that no matter how strong you think you are, there's a time coming when you will return back to your previous state of weakness. May Allah allow us to, in these blessed nights,
recognize our weakness, because that is truly when you knock at the door of the king. Morning. Beautiful. SubhanAllah, I think that it's powerful that there's clearly a theme in this juz. And if I could summarize it, and by the way, that plane example, I give it all the time, because you see Khushu on the plane. Straight up. This is real Khushu. People turn off the movies. People just get right into dua, supplication. But if I could summarize it, one thing that comes to my mind is, you want a God that can save you, but you just don't want to serve him. It's as simple as that. Like when you want to be saved, that's when God comes into the picture. But when you're called to serve, that's where you turn yourself into God. And that's really the reality of, not just the people of Mecca, but people that set up false gods besides Allah Subhanahu wa ta'ala, and then create false religion to basically make themselves God, and to make religion in accordance with their desires. Because at the end of the day, I want to feel like I've got God, like almost like a counselor, and go to him when I need him. But then when I'm called to do any type of ibadah, submit myself, at that point, I don't feel the urgency. And a lot of people are like, why do these difficulties keep coming my way? And if you ask most Muslims, like the sincere question, when do you make du'a more? When the difficulties hit? Or when you're comfortable? That's crazy. We get complacent when we're comfortable. And sometimes the greatest gift is the du'a that comes out of that difficulty. Yeah. You know, Sheikh, that last thing you said, if you ask most Muslims, and we're honest, we have to be honest. This deen is about being true to yourself. If we're honest, you're right. We mostly make, and subhanAllah, if you look at the Sahaba, they used to fear the openings, right? Because the state of hardship, they knew they were able to be sahaba and this and that.
When the ease came, they were like, it's a little harder. So I think that the fitrah is there that it is harder, but the believer checks themselves. It's like, no, when the plane is fine, I'm remembering that Allah is keeping this plane up in the air. You know, I'm focused in my good moments. I'm shakir, because that's what God wants from me. So that's ibadah, I'm grateful. And in those tough moments, I'm patient, but it's still all ibadah. You know what I'm trying to say? Just that not being high here and low here as the verses you were talking about, but having that constant connection with Allah, no matter where it's at, that's the believer. InshaAllah, that's where we strive to be. No, and that's why dhikr and du'a is important. I mean, because pondering over the dhikr, pondering over the du'a. You know, like for instance, in travel, SubhanAllah, dhi sakhar lana hadha. You know, glory to Allah, the one that has subjugated this for us, meaning that he's made it for our service. Sakhar. As Allah says, la yaskhar qawmin min qawmin. It is though you're putting the person below you, i.e. making fun of them. So, wa sakhar lalakum shamsa walqamra da'ibain. He has created and subjugated it for you to serve you. And we're the most noble of creation. So when looking at that, SubhanAllah, traveling, this plane, all of this was here for me to use it in a way that's halal, that's beneficial. Right? Wa inna ilay rabbina liman qaliboon. And verily, we are going to return to our Lord. Even though you're embarking upon this travel and all this is for, you know, Allah subjugated it for you, know that there's a time that's going to end. And it's beautiful. Alhamdulillah, when you wake up, alhamdulillah alladhi ahyana ba'dama amatana wa ilayhi nushur. Glory to Allah, praises to Allah, the one that has given us life after he has caused us to die. As I say, the cousin of death is sleep. And to him, we will finally return. You're waking up in the morning,
thinking about the end of times, knowing that this life is temporary. What are you going to do today? It's beneficial. So just pondering over those verses, you know, allahumma anta sahimu fissafar, as you meant to, you know, Allah, you are my companion in traveling. You know, so just pondering over what we say in and of itself. That is something that it can increase our iman, i.e. our awareness of the one that is the creator and then one that is great and our weakness, you know, our weakness and the fact that we are fabled, that we are weak and we don't have control over anything. You know, it's crazy, Sheikh, also on the plane example, because like all my, I'm sad, like I could write like a book on the parables of planes. Because I've got so many reflections on planes, man. So it's one thing that I think about too. You know how they talk about like death being the ultimate equalizer? Like at the end of the day, you all end up in the same grave. Yeah, yeah. If the turbulence starts, and if that plane's going down, it doesn't matter what class of the plane you're in. Allah, Allah, Allah, Allah, Allah, Allah, Allah, Allah. There's no difference between first business or economy, you're all going down. And if you're in a ship, it doesn't matter what part of the ship you're on. If the ship sinks, you all go down, you all drown. Right, you know the whole story about the Titanic, on like the way that the upper deck and the lower deck and subhanAllah, where you were in terms of the cabins. At the end of the day, when Titanic sinks, everyone sinks with it. So there's a level of recognizing your vulnerability, even when you think you're at your strongest. So can you still recognize how poor you really are, even when you're at your richest? Can you still recognize how much in need of Allah you are, even when you feel the most independent? You know, and Sheikh, I think people, we have to shift the narrative here. Like the breaking down before God is such a freeing feeling. The world will either break you, and you will humble yourself before it, or you will humble yourself before God. So I mean, those moments when you, when the world feels like it's breaking you, those are the critical moments that we all turn back to Allah, use that moment.
Your heart feels weak, you feel broken, that's your golden hour right there. That's a blessed moment to just raise your hands and because you're not always there. You know, there's times we're waiting for the, you know, we're in the last 10 nights now, right? So there's times when you're waiting for the 27th night, it's gonna hit me, I'm gonna feel broken. Maybe not, maybe it's the 22nd, but you get a moment where you feel really like, ah, you're looking at what's going on around the world and it's tearing up our hearts, and you're just lifting up your hands, wherever that moment touches you. And this is my advice to myself and everyone. Whenever that moment comes that breaks you, that's a gift from Allah. Yep. Absolutely. That's a gift, that's a gift. We could go all night, man, but we literally need people to go all night. It's the 21st night, inshallah ta'ala. So we need everyone to make du'a. JazakAllah khair for the beautiful reflections. May Allah Azawajal accept from you. May Allah accept from everyone, inshallah, in these last 10. And again, a reminder, please keep us in your du'a, inshallah ta'ala. And also please bid the night ta'ala. Make sure that you click the link below. We'll see you all tomorrow, inshallah. Assalamualaikum warahmatullahi wabarakatuh. Assalamualaikum warahmatullahi wabarakatuh. Assalamualaikum warahmatullahi wabarakatuh.
Welcome back!
Bookmark content
Download resources easily
Manage your donations
Track your spiritual growth
Khutbahs

Allah

215 items
Present
1 items