Friday Sermon (1150)- Victory is alongside patience and relief is alongside agony

Praise Be to Allah - we praise Him, we seek aid from Him, we seek guidance, and we seek from Him refuge from the evils of ourselves, and our bad deeds. It is He whom Allah guides that is on true guidance; but he whom He leaves astray, for such wilts thou find no protector to lead him to the right way. And I profess that there is no god but Allah alone, & He has no partners. And I admit His lordship, compelling this truth for those who denied Him and disbelieved in Him. And I profess that our master Muhammad, May Allah's Peace & Grace be upon him, is the messenger of Allah, the master of the created and the human race, and I keep professing that for as long as sight can be seen with an eye, for as long as news can be heard with an ear.
  O Allah, our Lord, have peace and blessings upon our master Mohammed, upon his folks, his companions, his descendants, and those who allied with him and followed him until the Day of Judgment. O Allah our Lord, teach us what is useful for us, and let us make use of what Thou hast taught us. O Allah and advance us in knowledge. O Allah show us the righteousness as right as it is, and bless us with following it. O Allah our lord make us amongst those who listen to the Word and follow the best meaning of it, and admit us, by Thy Grace, to the ranks of Thy righteous Servants. O Allah our Lord, lead us out from the depths of darkness and illusion, unto the lights of erudition and knowledge, and from the muddy shallows of lusts unto the heavens of Thy Vicinity. 
The First Sermon:
Sectarian Sedition is the only winning card in our enemies’ hands:
 Dear respected brothers, I always think that the bitter truth is thousands of times better than the comfortable illusion. However, the bitter truth should be a preliminary phase to resolve the problem, not a reinforcement of it. The close (Zionists) and far enemies (the West) are planning to disrupt our Islamic Society, and the only winning card in their hands is using Sectarian Sedition. They want us to be weakened, poor, corrupted, and sink in the mud of civil wars and renounce our religion, as we can see in the neighboring countries. It is enough for anybody to see signs of that by walking in any street in Muslims’ cities or any market, or watching their news to perceive the results of cultural conquer. I swear by God that the cultural conquest is thousands of times more dangerous than any other types of victory. The result of the cultural destruction is the destruction of moral constitution which is intended for our nation:

﴾ You are the ones who love them but they love you not﴿
[Al-Imran, Verse: 119]
 It is an eloquent lesson by the Creator of the Skies and the Earth for this nation which is badly schemed upon by its enemies:

﴾ Mighty indeed were the plots which they made, but their plots were (well) within the sight of God, even though they were such as to remove the mountains from their places﴿
[Ibrahim, Verse: 46]
 The Creator of the Skies and the Earth describes their plot as able to remove the mountains. They plan to impoverish our nation, to mislead it, to corrupt it, to subjugate it, and to exterminate it. There were one million killed in Iraq, one million handicapped and five million homeless and no one in the western world comments on that. God (be He exalted) said:

﴾ Mighty indeed were the plots which they made, but their plots were (well) within the sight of God, even though they were such as to remove the mountains from their places ﴿
[Ibrahim, Verse: 46]
 However, God (be He exalted) demonstrated to us, (the believers), the way of salvation. I’m not raising this issue to increase your troubles, but to seek the way to salvation.
To confront the outside pressure, we have to turn to our interior:
 Do you believe that the solution of all the Islamic world’s problems is in two words as God (be He exalted) said:

﴾ If you remain patient and become pious, not the least harm will their cunning do to you﴿
[Al-Imran, Verse: 120]
 Vanishing the universe is easier for God than not achieving His promises to the believers: ﴾If you remain patient and become pious, not the least harm will their cunning do to you﴿, so disobedience to God along with patience is a way to the grave, whereas obedience to God along with patience is a way to victory. Our religion teaches us the right method of confronting the outside pressures and challenges, which is not by retorting them, which might lead us to losing combats, but rather by reverting to our interior, remedy, refinement and reconciling with God, because we are living a period similar to that lived by the companions of the messenger in Mecca. This is undoubtedly hard to the person’s soul because it leads him to criticize himself. The verse again:
﴾If you remain patient and become pious, not the least harm will their cunning do to you﴿
, it is the core of this sermon and an outstanding landmark for reverting to our interior. Perhaps we can quote from it these facts:
Many of the texts instruct us to revert to our interior by criticizing ourselves, the remedy, rectification and enhancement to confront the outside enemy.

Establish God’s orders in what you control:
 Dear respected brothers, I present to you a dangerous fact. If you are in a place or a situation that you control or if you are in a place or a situation that you don’t control, what is your attitude as a Muslim? The Muslim’s attitude is to establish God’s orders in what he controls and He will save you in what you don’t control. This is the meaning of God’s (be He exalted) saying:

﴾ Verily, Allah will not change the (good) condition of a people as long as they do not change their state(of goodness) themselves﴿
[Al-Imran, Verse: 120]
 You are requested to establish God’s orders in the area you can control within your capability, and you are not requested to do more beyond this area where you cannot control, and where there might be tyrant powers or malicious enemies. But how can this be achieved?
﴾ Allah burdens not a person beyond his scope﴿
[Al-Baqarah, Verse: 286]
 You control yourself by preventing yourself from lying, betrayal, and straying from the right path. You can also control your house since you are the householder, and if you control your job you should establish God’s orders in it and He will save you in what you don’t control,
﴾ Verily, Allah will not change the (good) condition of a people as long as they do not change their state(of goodness) themselves﴿.
Turning away from God is the reason for our sufferings:

 Dear brothers, if we study the Quranic approach about the antecedent nations’ stories, we find that what the Noble Quran mentioned about the reasons for their extinction and their civilizations’ deaths is not related to cultural failure or the mismanagement and bad investment of the resources, rather it is related to internal failure and problems represented in turning away from God’s (the Great and Almighty) orders. Believe me, I’m not exaggerating, the majority of the detrimental and dangerous diseases that we suffer from are symptoms of one disease which is turning away from God (the Great and Almighty). Yet the people’s refusal of the prophets’ missions is the major reason for what the nation suffers from. Here is a section of a correct Holy Hadith:
((If your ascendants and successors, mankind and jinn, rose in one field and asked me to fulfill their affairs, I would grant them their wishes without diminishing what I have. This is as dipping the needle in the sea - will it decrease anything from it? That is because my granting and taking are but sayings. If someone finds any good he should thank God, but if he finds something else he should blame only himself)).
[Narrated by Muslim and Al-Termithy from Abou Thar Al-Ghifary]
 An accurate, clear, and evident saying: If someone finds any good he should thank God, but if he finds something else he should blame only himself.

The particular success precedes the general success:

 Dear brothers, God (the Great and Almighty) said:

﴾ If you are suffering then surely, they (too) are suffering as you are suffering, but you have a hope from Allah that for which they hope not﴿
[An-Nisa, Verse: 104]
 A third, fourth and fifth time, it is true that the Muslims are suffering now but their disease is curable, whereas the other party’s disease is not:

﴾ So, when they forgot with which they had been reminded, We opened for them the gates of every (pleasant) thing, until in the midst of their enjoyment in that which they were given, all of a sudden, We took them (in punishment), and lo! They were plunged into destruction with deep regrets and sorrows﴿
[Al-An’am, Verse: 44]
 Our leader Omar Ibn Abdul Azziz (mercy be upon him), expressed this truth and said: “The people have afflictions as much as they committed of immorality.” The deterrent punishment does not establish a society but it protects it. It is a clear Islamic vision since part of the verses of regulations and punishments don’t form more than one tenth of the Quran verses, and the remaining part takes care of the positive building up of man.
Most regulations and their complications are always to the advantage of the strong people, and increase the restraints of the powerless people. Violence does not resolve the problems but delays them. The noble verse teaches us that the particular success precedes the general success, so the believer reverts to himself and searches for his reasons for weakness, his breaches, offenses that he committed, and his failure in carrying out his duties. When the believer reverts to himself and calls it to account harshly and reconciles with God, then the nation relief will be granted by God (The Great and Almighty):

﴾ If you remain patient and become pious, not the least harm will their cunning do to you﴿
[Al-Imran, Verse: 120]
Man should have great patience and reconciliation with God:
 Patience is the endurance of the difficulties and rigorous follow-up in carrying out the duties, no matter how severe the conditions were, because patience is the half way point to the success and the second half comes from the enemy mistakes:

﴾ Then, verily, your Lord- for those who emigrated after they had been put to trials and thereafter strove hard and fought and were patient, verily, your Lord afterward is, Oft-Forgiving, Most Merciful﴿
[An-Nahl, Verse: 110]
 Dear brothers, if you are pious and patient this will be an internal immunity from being affected by the bad ambient circumstances. Since the continuous tribulations restrain the rise of the human soul, there should definitely be great patience and great reconciliation with God.

Refining the soul and rising is the base of resolving problems:
 Dear brothers, the refining, raising and improving of the soul have different aspects, such as: adherence to worship performing, resistance of whims, cooperation, condolence, sacrifice, and altruism. The Muslim individual cannot always keep away from the public situation of the society because this avoidance is exhausting and costly. Because living at a time when the earned living comes through forbidden ways and few people can follow the permitted ways in earning their living, their principles will be always under trial and this might cause problems between them and the closest people to them.
 We are in urgent need of knowing the borderlines between the close and the far, the difficult and the easy, what we can change and we cannot, and what we possess and we don’t, to minimize the possibility of mistakes, the conflict and useless dispute. We are also in urgent need to save effort and time, so when we know the dead end we proceed in the open way, and when we know the forbidden things we avoid them and do the right things. These are facts that should be taken into consideration, as the verse says:

﴾ Verily, along with the hardship is relief﴿
[Ash-Sharh, Verse: 6]
 I swear by God, if there weren’t any verse in the Quran but this one it would be enough:
﴾ Verily, along with the hardship is relief﴿
  This is good news for believers that there must be an end for their afflictions no matter how long they might last, and that the expected dawn is always in the dark:

No matter how long the night will last. definitely the dawn will emerge.
No matter how long the age will be, staying in the grave is inevitable.
* * *
Success is with patience and relief is with afflictions:
 Dear brothers, success is with patience and relief is with affliction, and surely inside any hardship there is relief and its solution key. There are always suitable solutions for the crises that we suffer from if there is a wise brain of an engineer, a skillful knife of a surgeon, and a burning heart of a mother. With these, all our problems will be solved:

﴾ Verily, along with the hardship is relief﴿
[Ash-Sharh, Verse: 6]
 The Noble Companions of the Prophet were linguists and they confirmed that the repetition had rules, so if the definite noun repeats that means the same thing, but if the indefinite noun repeats that means the second is different from the first,
﴾ Verily, along with the hardship is relief. Verily, along with the hardship is relief. ﴿
 The hardship is definite and was repeated twice but the relief is indefinite so the first one is different than the second one. The two have different meanings, and for that reason Ibn Abbas said: “A hardship will never defeat two reliefs”. In that verse there is a wonderful sign that there is always a relief inside the hardship but it comes after the hardship to assure us. The hardship holds inside itself the seeds of relief, so no one should lose hope unless he is desperate of God’s Mercy, and desperation is disbelief.

The greatest danger that afflicts the nation is its internal defeat:
1. The wrong bringing-up of the individual:

 Dear brothers, consecutive calamities and pains results in a culture called by scholars the desperation culture, frustration culture or dead-end culture. And this is more dangerous than our enemies, because the most dangerous thing the nation suffers from is the internal defeat.

 Dear brothers, this sick status has several reasons, such as the wrong bringing-up of the individual: when the father says in front his sons that we are wiped out, this will lead them to desperation. So, the major reason for this painful internal situation is the wrong bringing-up. The believer should be optimistic and propagate this optimism among the others around him.
2. Dealing with the present situation as it cannot be changed:
 Another reason is dealing with the present situation as it cannot be changed. We have to know that the situation of our enemies has changed; they were the thick stick in the hand of the western world to overpower any country in the Middle East that disobeyed their orders. But now this stick has been broken twice in the years 2006 and 2008 and the situation has changed. When we read our enemy’s newspapers, we found clearly that our enemy’s aim in the past sixty years was to achieve peace, but this aim has changed to be only to survive. Also, in the past, when they were bombarding us we were scared but they weren’t, and we entered the refuges but they didn’t. Now, they bombard and are bombarded; we are scared and they are also scared, and we enter the refuges and they do also. Currently, their aim has changed from achieving peace to being able to survive. Thus, a balance of terror took place. In the past, they were those who started a war and put an end to it after hours as they wanted, but today they start a war, as they are still strong, but they cannot put an end to it. In the first day in Gaza war they bombarded eight hundred targets thinking that this war needed only one day to be finished; however, they could not achieve their aims after twenty-two days. They lost the control of putting an end and the facts were changed. God (The Great and Almighty) said:
﴾ Verily, Pharaoh exalted himself in the land and made its people sects, weakening a group among them: killing their sons, and letting their females live. Verily, he was of the corrupters. And We wished to do a favor to those who were weak in the land, and to make them rulers and to make them inheritors. And to establish them in the land, and We let Pharaoh and Haman and their hosts receive from them that which they feared﴿
[Al-Qasas, Verses: 4-6]
3. Lack of paying attention to the internal factors of the problem:
 Dear respected brothers, one of our numerous problems’ reasons is lack of paying attention to the internal factors of the problem. When we make a contrast between our power and that of our enemy, and who supports us and who supports them, we will find a big difference. But we don’t analyze our mistakes, our remoteness from God, our failure to achieve our duties, and absence of adherence among us. There is a big problem when we don’t pay attention to the internal factors of our problems.
4. One of God’s rules is the alternation of power:
 Also, there is a rule of God’s rules which is represented in the following verse:
﴾ And so are the days, We give to men by turns﴿
[Al-Imran, Verse: 140]
 God (the Great and Almighty) alternates the power between the believers and the unbelievers; it is one of God’s rules. While you are in the hard case when the power is with the unbelievers, you should be patient and strong and don’t let the desperation get to you:

Turn away from your troubles and leave everything to destiny.
Cheer up with quick welfare you will forget the past.
Something might be unpleasant but its outcome is pleasant.
The bottleneck might be tightened and the space might be broadened.
God does what He wants don’t be protesting.
God accustomed you to graces so compare the present with the past. * * *
The righteous gets his strength from God:
 The third verse in this Sermon:

﴾ How often a small group overcame a mighty host by God’s leave? And God is with the patient﴿
[Al-Baqarah, Verse: 249]
 Even if there were a big inequality, if God is with you it does not matter who is against you and if He is against you it does not matter who is with you. God (The Great and Almighty) reminds us of the war of Talut and Jalut and says:

﴾ Then when Talut set out with the army, he said: “Verily, God will try you by a river. So whoever drinks thereof, he is not of me; and whoever tastes it not, he is of me, except him who takes in the hollow of his hand.” Yet, they drank thereof, all, except a few of them. So when he had crossed it, he and those who believed with him, they said: “We have no power this day against Jalut and his hosts”﴿
[Al-Baqarah, Verse: 249]
 When did they become weak? When they disobeyed God’s orders. The one who disobeys will be weakened and the righteous one will be strengthened, or rather God will strengthen him.

 Dear respected brothers, when God (The Great and Almighty) said:

﴾ Truly, God is with the patient﴿
[Al-Baqarah, Verse: 153]
 You have to believe that when God is with you, you are the most powerful person. If God is with you it does not matter who is against you and if He is against you it does not matter who is with you. Rather, God (The Great and Almighty) confirms:
﴾ If there are twenty steadfast persons amongst you, they will overcome two hundred﴿
[Al-Anfal, Verse: 65]
Reconciling with God is the base of our relationships’ remedy:
 Dear respected brothers: these were some of the principles and ideas that we can conclude from our unpleasant state. However, our Prophet (PBUH) said in the Holy Hadith, as if he were among us in each Islamic country:

((The nations are about to band together against you as the eaters gather around the bowl. Someone said: “Is that because we will be few at that time?” He said: “No, rather, you will be numerous but you will be scum as the scum of the flood. God will remove from the hearts of your enemies the fear of you and He will deposit in your hearts the frailty.” Someone said: “O messenger of God, what is the frailty?” He said: “Loving life and hating death.”))
[Abou Da’oud from Thawban]
 Dear respected brothers, we should awake from our nap, we should call ourselves to account before God does so. We should reconcile with God. Temporarily, it is necessary to revert to ourselves to remedy our interiors, in order to hope from God the remedy of our external relationships.

Finally…
 Dear respected brothers: call yourselves to account before God does so, evaluate your deeds before God does so. You should know that the death angel skipped us to other persons and he will skip others to us. You should pay attention. The smart one is he who accuses himself and does the right things for the hereafter; whereas, the helpless one is that who follows his whims and wishes for rescue from God. Thank God.
***

The Second Sermon:
 All praises be to God. I bear witness that there is no god but God alone, Who is the supporter of the virtuous, and I bear witness that our leader Mohammad (PBUH) is the slave and messenger of God, and that he has high moral standards. God's blessing and peace be upon him, and all his family and companions.
The propagation of adultery is the reason for fatal diseases:
 Dear respected brothers, Ibn Majah and Albayhaki narrated from Abdullah Ibn Omar that he said:

(The messenger of God (PBUH) came to us and said: “O emigrant folks, there are five things that if you are afflicted with them, God save you from being stricken by them. These are: if adultery becomes visible, the plague and pains that were not known among your past ancestors will spread.”))
[Ibn Majah from Ibn Omar]
 Doesn’t this happen? These detrimental diseases that the world is suffering from are because of the spread out of adultery. Some statistics estimate that there are 67 million infected people from AIDS disease in the world because of adultery.

((…. if they reduce the weighing)).
[Ibn Majah from Ibn Omar]

 These words include all types of cheating:


((…. if they reduce the weighing, they will be hit by famine and tyranny; if they stop paying Zakat they will be deprived of rain and they will only have rain for the sake of animals; if they breach God’s and His Messenger’s obligations, God will let an outside enemy predominate them and steal some of their resources)).
[Ibn Majah from Ibn Omar]
 In the first Gulf War seven hundred million dollars were moved from the Eastern World to the Western World, and in the second Gulf War double this sum was moved. There is an extortion of the Eastern World that has natural resources known only by God. Therefore:

((…. if they breach God and His Messenger’s obligations, God will let an outside enemy predominate them and steal some of their resources, and if their leaders do not rule by God’s Quran and follow God’s orders then God will let the harm come from inside the nation)).
[Ibn Majah from Ibn Omar]
 This happens in the nearby countries. So the prophet described it as if he were among us.

The Concluding Supplication:
 O God! Guide us to the straightway with other guided people; make us healthy among the ones You keep healthy, take care of us among the ones You take care of. Let what You grant us be blessed, protect us and turn us away from the evil You predetermine. Verily, You predetermine rightly and You can never be predetermined. The one You support cannot be low and the one You antagonize cannot be powerful. O God, you are blessed and exalted, and all praises are for what You predestined. We ask You forgiveness and we turn to You in repentance. O God! Guide us to do good deeds. You are the only one who does that. Guide us to the best morals, You are only who does that. O God! Remedy our faith which protects our life, remedy our life that we exist in, remedy our hereafter that we are going back to, make our life provisions of all goodness and our death a rest from all evils. O our Lord the God of the universe, suffice us with the allowable rather than the forbidden, with Your obedience rather than Your disobedience, and Your grace rather than the others. O God! With Your grace and mercy raise the word of truth and faith, support Islam, strengthen Muslims, support Muslims anywhere in the world, and show us Your might against Your enemies, O God the Most Honorable.
*******

Translation  : Weam Salem
Edited by      : Malak Harbeh- Zeina Al-Abaza