Transcript
This transcript was auto-generated using AI and may contain misspellings. Abdullah ibn Shaddad, rahimahullah, he narrates that one day I came to Salatul Fajr, and I came very late, so I was in the very back rows of the salah. And it was during the khilafah of Umar ibn al-Khattab, radiyallahu ta'ala anhu. So he walks into the masjid of the Prophet, sallallahu alayhi wa sallam, to pray behind Umar ibn al-Khattab, radiyallahu ta'ala anhu. And he said, I came late, so presumably in the second rak'ah, all the way in the back row. And he said Sayyidina Umar, radiyallahu ta'ala anhu, was reciting Surah Yusuf that day. And he said that he started to recite, that verily I complain of my grief and of my sadness only to Allah. And he said he started to cry so loud that I could hear him all the way from the back rows. SubhanAllah, no speaker system, no nothing. I could hear him weeping all the way from the back rows. And he would try to collect himself and recite it again. And then he would cry again, radiyallahu ta'ala anhu. And he would try again and he'd cry again, radiyallahu ta'ala anhu. Now subhanAllah, if you prayed behind the imam and the imam started to weep in an unusual way, you know, it's very possible that afterwards you'd come up to him and just put your hand, tap him on the back and say, you know, may Allah make it easy, I hope everything's okay. Or is everything okay, you might be concerned. But the norm of the companions was to have this type of a relationship with the Qur'an. And I want you to ask yourself, what do you think Umar, radiyallahu ta'ala anhu, was crying about? Was he crying about Ya'qub, alayhis salaam, the pain of Jacob with his son Joseph, with Yusuf, alayhis salaam, and just the moments of Surah Yusuf that are so personal? Was he crying because he was thinking about something with the Prophet, salallahu alayhi wasalam?
Was he perhaps still grieving the death of the Prophet, salallahu alayhi wasalam? And we know that he always was grieving the death of the Prophet, salallahu alayhi wasalam, all the way up until his own death. Did something happen to Umar, radiyallahu ta'ala anhu, to where that ayah was hitting him in a particular way? Did one of his children become sick? Was he dealing with a hardship that no one knew about? The answer is, it could be any of them. And it could be all of them. Because that was their relationship with the Qur'an. Now how many of you, and I just want to see a show of hands, I actually want this to, insha'Allah ta'ala, be an exercise for us. How many of you have found comfort in Surah Yusuf during a hard time in your life? Surah Yusuf in particular. Very good. How many of you have found it in another surah? In particular. Can anyone tell me that surah? Any surah in particular that has appealed to you? Surat al-Duha. Very good. Anyone else want to say another surah? Yes? Can you repeat? Al-Taghabun. Masha'Allah. What else? Surah? Al-Zumar. Masha'Allah. So, many surahs. I can see them coming, alright? We'll finish all the surahs in the Qur'an. And that's actually a good thing. That's the point. Different surahs will speak to you at a different point in your life. Now, a question that I get asked. And it's an interesting question. And I want to unpack it a bit, insha'Allah. Does the Qur'an cure depression? You know, right now we live in a world where mental health has been put front and center. Especially in the wake of a pandemic. And these questions about mental health and depression and emptiness and grief. And it forces us to really dig deep and to look for solutions. And may Allah make it easy for everyone who has been struggling in whatever way they have been. Allahumma ameen.
And the question will be about the Qur'an in specific. The relationship of the Qur'an to depression, to sadness, to grief. And everything that comes under that category of sadness. And I want to unpack this a bit from the perspective of our deen. And it's very important for us to say and to acknowledge from the very start. That as Muslims, our solutions to these problems are going to be unique. Because our belief system is so unique. We believe in something very different. And so it's very hard for us to relate this to someone who doesn't believe like we believe. We believe that everything good comes from Allah subhanahu wa ta'ala. We believe that everything that will give us salvation in this life and in the next. Is found in some way grounded within this notion of tawheed. Within this notion of the oneness of God. We believe that in the messenger sallallahu alayhi wasallam is qudwatun hasana. Is an excellent example in every single matter of our lives. And so the way we approach this question necessarily has to be different from the way that someone else approaches this question. So let's start with a rule. There is a difference between prevention and restoration. Prevention and restoration. Meaning something that protects one from falling into difficulty. And something that cures you once you have fallen into difficulty. Prevention versus restoration. And we can say without a doubt that the Qur'an is a means of prevention. From many of the hardships that come in our lives and the things that ail us in our lives. Many of them the Qur'an is a prevention. And to not have the Qur'an in your heart is a source of sadness, is a source of emptiness. If you don't have the Qur'an in your heart. And we know this from the prophet sallallahu alayhi wasallam.
الَّذِي لَيْسَ فِي جَوْفِهِ شَيْءٌ مِّنَ الْقُرْآنِ كَالْبَيْتِ الْخَرَبِ The prophet sallallahu alayhi wasallam said the one who doesn't have anything of the Qur'an in their heart is like a destroyed house. It's like a destroyed house. And so if you go to a destroyed house and you try to fix one wall or put up one stick. You're still dealing with a house that is destroyed. The Qur'an is the source of our collectiveness, of our togetherness in the first place. It's the first foundation of that. And so the Qur'an is a source of fulfillment. The Qur'an is a source of meaning. And certainly much of what can cause sadness and emptiness is a lack of clarity and a lack of purpose. And the Qur'an gives a strong sense of clarity and a strong sense of purpose to us. A strong sense of fulfillment. And so at that level the Qur'an is a foundation for meaning. And meaning is a foundation for happiness. Let's start with that. Then you go to the question of restoration. A cure. Allah Subh'anaHu Wa Ta-A'la describes the Qur'an as a cure for that which is in the chest. So the Qur'an is a cure. Now, is the Qur'an a cure for a physical illness? If a person is physically sick, is the Qur'an part of a cure for that person? Yes. Reading Qur'an on a person, part of ruqya, it's part of a cure. The Prophet SallAllahu Alaihi Wasallam even allowed for Sa'd Ibn Abi Waqas SallAllahu Alaihi Wasallam to read Surah Al-Fatiha upon a non-Muslim chief. And it cured him from a physical perspective. Now here's where it becomes a very important question as well. Because there's a difference between saying that the Qur'an is the cure, a cure, and being dismissive of other ways in which we also strengthen ourselves. Is it impermissible to take medicine while you read the Qur'an on yourself as you're physically curing yourself? No.
So there's a difference between saying to someone that the Qur'an is a cure, read Qur'an on yourself, drink from this water, read the ruqya on yourself, and just do that, and don't take any medicine, don't do anything else, don't do anything else for your physical health, and dismissing the Qur'an altogether. The Qur'an is shifa'un limaa fissudur. The Qur'an is a cure for what is in the chest. Now we are made up of so many different beings, right? In the sense that we have a physical perspective, a mental perspective, a spiritual perspective, an emotional perspective, a physiological perspective. All of these things are to be taken into consideration, and the Prophet ﷺ said to give everything its right, to give your body its right, and to give all of these different parts of yourself their right. And so that's why the ulema mention Ibn al-Qayyim rahimahullah ta'ala approaches this in the same way from a physical perspective. The Prophet ﷺ saying to a woman who was complaining of sadness to use talbina, which is boiled barley. And he said ﷺ that it does away with some of your grief. So a prophetic medicine without any of the side effects and things of that sort, meaning that it establishes a permissibility, it establishes the permissibility of other methods. This is not an open door by the way for all of the anti-depressants that are out there, and the quick over-diagnosis that also exists within this field. Okay, this is to say that Islam acknowledges and is not dismissive of the fact that there are other ways that we all keep our hearts healthy, that we keep our moods up, that we keep ourselves emotionally engaged. So if someone tells you read surat al-duha and take a walk and talk to this person, all of that is fine. But for the Muslim, the Qur'an is fundamentally part of that alleviation.
You understand the Qur'an is fundamentally part of that process at the prevention level and at the restoration level. And to neglect it is only to your own detriment. So no, you don't come, you know, someone comes to you and says that, you know, I'm feeling this, and you neglect everything and say just read surat al-duha and it will go away tomorrow. No, but you also look towards the Qur'an as a means of that elevation, as a means of that alleviation of a person. And that's fundamental to us. And I actually want you, subhanAllah, to think about this powerful du'a from the Prophet ﷺ. And Ramadan is a time to memorize du'a. As Shaykh Yasir has been doing every day after salat al-asr, going over some of the du'as from the sunnah, some of the supplications from the Prophet Muhammad, peace and blessings be upon him. You can go to the yaqeen website and you'll see Shaykh Tahir Wyatt authored du'as for hardship, du'as for hardship. And you'll find many of those du'as that are meant to alleviate hardship. And this particular one is a profound one that I want us to pay attention to the wording of. The Prophet ﷺ said, no one says this du'a except that Allah ﷻ turns their ghamm, turns their hardship, their distress into farha, into a sense of happiness. So Allah ﷻ changes their condition as a result of this du'a. And he taught the sahaba to say this du'a frequently. And the du'a is as follows, and you can find it in multiple variations with slight wording. And that's okay, slight changes. Allahumma inni abduk, can you repeat after me? Allahumma inni abduk, ibnu abdik, ibnu amatik, nasiyati biyadik, maadhin fiyah hukmuk, adlun fiyah qadha'uk. So I'll cover the first part of this.
Allahumma inni abduk, oh Allah, I am your slave. Ibnu abdik, the son of your slave. Wabnu amatik, the son of your female slave, meaning a woman. The son of a male and a female slave of yours, oh Allah. Nasiyati biyadik, my forelock is in your hands. Maadhin fiyah hukmuk, adlun fiyah qadha'uk. Your judgment concerning me will pass as it has been affirmed, and your decree concerning me is just. Maadhin fiyah hukmuk, adlun fiyah qadha'uk. As'aluka bi kull ismin huwa lak. Can you repeat it after me? As'aluka bi kull ismin huwa lak. Samayta bihi nafsak. Aw anzaltahu fi kitabik. Aw allamtahu ahadan min khalqik. Aw istatharta bihi fi ilmi alghaybi indak. Oh Allah, you're saying, As'aluka bi kull ismin huwa lak, I ask you by every name that belongs to you. Samayta bihi nafsak, that you named yourself with. Aw anzaltahu fi kitabik, or you revealed. Aw allamtahu ahadan min khalqik, or you taught one of your creation. Aw istatharta bihi fi ilmi alghaybi indak, or you kept with you, concealed in the unseen. An taj'alal qur'ana rabi'a qalbi. An taj'alal qur'ana rabi'a qalbi. Wa noora sadri. Wa jalaa huzni. Wa zahaba hammi. I ask you, oh Allah, to make the qur'an the spring of my heart, the light of my chest, the reliever of my grief, and the reliever of my distress.
Grief, huzun, means the grief that comes before. Hamm means the stress, the anxiety of what is to come. The Prophet Sallallahu Alaihi Wasallam taught the sahaba to say this du'a. And what I want you to understand is that the du'a has meaning. It's not just an empty du'a that you just read. No, but the Prophet Sallallahu Alaihi Wasallam is specifically asking Allah to make the qur'an the greatest source of relief in a person's life, the greatest source of cure in a person's life. And I challenge each and every single one of you. It really is a challenge and I'll challenge myself. If the qur'an is part of your daily life, come to me two months later and tell me that your mood has not changed, tell me that your happiness has not increased, tell me that you have not felt a greater connection to Allah Subh'anaHu Wa Ta-A'la and felt more barakah in your day. Again, we don't dismiss the physiological, the emotional, the mental, and so many other things. But we place the qur'an as part of all of that. Because the qur'an forms the foundation of meaning in our hearts. And so every single day, even if it's going to be two pages a day, if you start your day with it, five pages, maybe ten pages, maybe you can start doing a juz every single day. Allah knows best. But if you start your day with it, watch what happens to your life. And you'll find that it transforms it in a way that a house is being built inside of you to the contrast of what the Prophet SallAllahu Alaihi Wasallam described as a destroyed home. And SubhanAllah, I'll also say this in conclusion, that you'll find that when the ulama spoke about the qur'an and different surahs that helped them through their difficult times, the qur'an speaks to every circumstance with both the voice of God as well as the actions of those that are most pleasing to Him. Meaning what? You have Allah Subhanahu Wa Ta'ala's
analysis of every circumstance. Someone who's lost, someone who's going through difficulty, someone who's going through hardship, someone who's at the top, someone who's at the bottom. And it gives you the response of the most beloved people to Him. So none of it is going to be irrelevant to this discussion. So you might find surah Yusuf at one point in your life. You might find surah al-Rahman is what your heart needs in this moment. You might find surah al-Duha. You might connect with parts of the qur'an that you were unfamiliar with. But now because you're reading it regularly bi-idhnillahi ta'ala, you're finding a connection and inshaAllah ta'ala, a means by which the fog clears. Clarity, clarity is so important to a person who needs to proceed through this life. Clarity, the qur'an gives you clarity. And it has miracles embedded within it that no book of science is ever going to be able to capture. May Allah subhanahu wa ta'ala make the qur'an the spring of our hearts, the light of our chests, the reliever of our grief, and the reliever of our distress. Allahumma ameen. Jazakumullahu khair. Wassalamualaikum warahmatullahi wabarakatuh.
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