Lessons from Ibrahim's Tests and Legacy

Who can tell me the very first time Ibrahim's name is mentioned in the Quran when you're reading from front to back? We have a lot of Hifadh here, mashallah. What's the first time you hear about Ibrahim? You're right there. An ayah or two, a herda. قبلها بآيتين It's verse 124. You're at 126. Verse 124 of Surah Al-Baqarah. وَإِذِ بِتَلَىٰ إِبْرَاهِيمَ رَبُّهُ بِكَلِمَاتٍ فَأَتَمَّهُنْ When Allah subhanahu wa ta'ala tested Ibrahim alayhi salam, Ibtala, tested Ibrahim alayhi salam with some words. And he perfected those words, alayhi salam. But it's very interesting subhanAllah that the first mention of Ibrahim alayhi salam is test. The very first way that Allah brings Ibrahim into the story of the Quran is test. Ibtila. And the way it ends, the last mention of Ibrahim, that this is indeed in the first scripture, Suhuf Ibrahim and Musa in Surah Al-A'la, that this is in the suhuf, in the scriptures of Ibrahim and Musa, that Allah has given you a consistent covenant. Why do I start with this? Can anyone tell me what that means? وَإِذَا ابْتَلَىٰ إِبْرَاهِيمَ رَبُّهُ بِكَلِمَاتٍ What did Allah test him with? If we're gonna go till 10, 30, 11, y'all are gonna have to interact with me, alright? Yeah, what did he test him with? Faith. Can you be more specific? So is Allah Azawajal talking about the ibtila of his father throwing him into a fire? Is he talking about the ibtila of his son? But he says بِكَلِمَاتٍ He tested him with words. The scholars of Tafsir mention, and this is narrated from Ibn Abbas ﷺ, that the kalimat is the ahd, the covenant itself. Now I want to explain why this is so important. Because many times when we think of tests, we immediately think of a circumstance that resembles tests to us. So we think of poverty, we think of oppression, we think of... difficulty. We think of Ayyubo alayhi salam. We think of Yusuf alayhi salam at the bottom of the well. And Allah subhanahu wa ta'ala mentions that we test you with sharr and with khayr, with hardship and with ease, fitna. But it is at the end of the day, nablookum. We're testing you with hardship and we're testing you with ease and both of them are equally a test. As Abdurrahman bin Awif radiallahu ta'ala anhu said, butina bil dharra fasabarna wa butina bil sarra falam nastir. That we were tested with hardship and we were patient, but we were tested with ease and we were not patient. So you think of test in terms of circumstance. But the greatest test that Allah subhanahu wa ta'ala refers to is the test of Al-Ahad, the test of the covenant. The test of La ilaha illallah and what it entails in the first place. خُذُوا مَا آتَيْنَاكُمْ بِقُوَّةٍ Take what we have given you with strength. Hold on to the test. And so SubhanAllah, you'll find that Qatada Rahimahullah says Al-Kalimat, the words are 30 covenants, 30 tests that Allah Subhanahu Wa Ta'ala gave to Ibrahim A.S. And they are encompassed in the last verses or in the verses in Surah Al-Ahzab. إِنَّ الْمُسْلِمِينَ وَالْمُسْلِمَاتِ وَالْمُؤْمِنِينَ وَالْمُؤْمِنَاتِ وَالْقَانِتِينَ وَالْقَانِتَاتِ I don't know the verse number, so someone will have to find those verse numbers. We'll do this that way inshallah. Someone can find me those verse numbers inshallah. So you have those 10 qualities that are mentioned in Surah Al-Ahzab. And then he says, قَدْ أَفْلَحَ الْمُؤْمِنُونَ The 10 qualities in Surah Al-Mu'minun, starting off Surah Al-Mu'minun. And then finally, in Surah Al-Ma'arij, إِلَّا الْمُصَلِّينَ الَّذِينَ هُمْ عَلَى صَلَاتِهِمْ دَائِمُونَ Those who are consistent with their prayer. The 10 verses in Surah Al-Ma'arij, in the middle of Surah Al-Ma'arij. He says that they're encompassed within these 30 qualities. The point is that Allah gave Ibrahim a task. He gave him a task of prayer. He gave him a regimen of fasting. He gave him a regimen of honoring his trust. He gave him all sorts of standards of character, of akhlaq that Ibrahim had to cling on to. The fall of Bani Israel is not because of a difficulty or a circumstance. The fall of Bani Israel Is the refusal to abide by the Ahd, the refusal to abide by the covenant, the praise of Ibrahim alayhi salam who is the father of the nations, Abu al-anbiya The father, the literal grandfather of Isra'il Alayhi Salaam, right? The success of Ibrahim Alayhi Salaam is in his ability and his sincerity in holding on to the Ahad, holding on to the covenant. وَإِذَا بِتَلَىٰ إِبْرَاهِيمَ رَبُّهُ بِكَلِمَاتٍ فَأَتَمَّهُمْ Right? So it starts off from this place, holding on to the Ahad, holding on to the covenant. Then you start to break down what that looks like. First and foremost, that idea of Ibrahim as a father of the prophets أبو الأنبياء What does that mean? There is an element of lineage that is certainly encompassed in that idea of being a father of the prophets But it's deeper than that The Prophet ﷺ said إِنَّمَا أَنَا لَكُمْ بِمَنْزِلَةِ الْوَالِدِ I am to you like a father أُعَلِّمُكُمْ I teach you I teach you So the greatest duty of a father, or what's being implied of a father here, is the idea of being a shepherd. And the Prophet ﷺ said, كلكم راع وكلكم مسؤول عن رعيتي Every single one of you is a shepherd. And every one of you is responsible for their flock. I want us to break this down, because I don't want you to feel disconnected even from that lofty concept of being أبو الأنبياء, the father of the prophets. There is actually an implication that is directly relevant to you. The Prophet Sallallahu Alaihi Wasallam said, I am to you like a father in that I teach you. And all of the prophets were shepherds. And the greatest duty of a father is to be a shepherd. And all of you are shepherds. And there's something that is deeply profound about this. That the greatest right that your flock has upon you is that you teach them how to worship Allah Subh'anaHu Wa Ta-A'la. that you guard the covenant amongst them. That if you were, as a parent, to give your children the best education in the world, but you don't teach them how to pray, you have utterly failed as a parent, even if they are the wealthiest and most successful people in the world in terms of their material success. Because your first responsibility was to teach them Islam, and was to show them Islam, and to demonstrate that patiently with your flock. But the Prophet said every single one of you is a shepherd Even if you are not a parent you all have a flock and subhanAllah There's something deeply profound here that the transfer of ilm the transfer of knowledge From one person to another is literally the way that the religion survives Even in the darkest of eras and what we are learning here from the Prophets that even under Dhulm, even under oppression and difficult circumstances Ilm should be maintained, clarity should be maintained Jahal, ignorance should not prevail to where clarity is lost because that clarity is where the light is maintained the light of knowledge is maintained that once again will break through and give birth to the next episode of this Ummah You can't lose that. SubhanAllah, if you read about the way that the enslaved in this country used to transfer Surah Al-Fatiha, transfer pages of the Quran to one another, how they secretly practiced Islam on these lands. It's hard for us to imagine. You talk about Islamophobia now, realize in the same places that you are living right now, there were people that were tortured, literally, by slave owners. if they said La ilaha illallah and if they verbalized the Quran. In the same places, you talk about the darkest phase of Islamophobia, go back 300 years, right? Don't start now after the 9-11 era. No, no, go back 300 years. But what has to be maintained with the flock is al-Hilm, is knowledge. That is the greatest responsibility of the shepherd to a flock and all of us are shepherds in some way. So you even connect to Ibrahim. At that level that Ibrahim saw his greatest responsibility to maintain clarity with his children and that's why Allah mentions to us Ibrahim and his parting words with his children and then his son with his son and Yaqub his grandson with his son. أَمْ كُنْتُمْ شُهَدَاءَ إِذْ حَضْرَ يَعْقُوبَ الْمَوْتِ إِذْ قَالَ لِي بَنِيهِ مَا تَعْبُدُونَ مِن بَعْدِي What are you going to worship after me? What are you going to worship after me? What are you going to worship after me? What are you going to worship after me? The transfer of that clarity. Why? Because sometimes a Nassr, Sometimes victory is delayed, but clarity can't wait. Dar al-Arqam has to exist in Mecca, not in Medina. There has to be a place where that transfer of knowledge takes place, where that cultivation of the light of ilm, the light of knowledge takes place, so that when the time has come, when light can break through once again, the next episode of the Ummah prevails. It goes on and it goes on and it goes on. Until the day of judgment Allah Subhanahu Wa Ta'ala then praised Ibrahim Alayhi Salam with his Sidq Inna Hu Kana Siddiqan Nabiyya He was a person of truth and he was a prophet The scholars mention that a Siddiq is the highest rank that a person can attain Under a prophet of Allah Subhanahu Wa Ta'ala even higher than the shaheed. It's even higher than a martyr. And a martyr could indeed be a sidiq and a shaheed, right? But a sidiq is not always going to be a shaheed. But a sidiq would always be willing to be a shaheed. And I'll explain to you what that all means. Do you think if Abu Bakr as-Siddiq knew that he was going to suffer the fate of Umar radiallahu ta'ala anhu or Uthman radiallahu ta'ala anhu? or Ali radiAllahu ta'ala anhu in terms of assassination, do you think he would flinch for a moment at that fate? Absolutely not. And so he already attained the maqam. He already attained the rank, even if he did not have to undergo the circumstance. He was already willing to do it in the hijrah with the Prophet sallallahu alayhi wa sallam. He knew the bad intentions that they had for the Prophet sallallahu alayhi wa sallam and that they had for Abu Bakr. radiAllahu ta'ala anhu with him and that they had for Ali radiAllahu anhu when he was in the bed of the Prophet sallallahu alayhi wa sallam after the Prophet sallallahu alayhi wa sallam departed he knows but he had already convinced himself he already arrived at a truthfulness with Allah subhanahu wa ta'ala that not only am I willing to submit to the truth I'm willing to submit to the consequences of the truth as well some of us have not arrived there yet may Allah subhanahu wa ta'ala make us all people of sithq Allahumma ameen But it's one thing to say I submit to the truth. Yeah, I believe Islam is true. But are you willing to submit to the consequences of the truth? And if a person has already developed the resolve that they are willing to submit to the consequences of the truth, then they already attained the reward for those consequences even if they never lived to see those consequences. You think Ibrahim A.S. when he was being thrown into the fire would have changed? I mean knowing that this could indeed burn him? Was Ibrahim given foreknowledge that the fire was not going to burn him? He was willing. حَسْطٌ اللَّهُ نِعْمَ الْوَكِينَ He was willing to go into that fire for the sake of Allah. Therefore he walked away from the fire unscathed by the fire, but fully rewarded for being thrown into the fire. SubhanAllah, when I met Walid Dahduri, may Allah preserve him and preserve the living martyrs of Gaza. Truly, you look at them and you say, SubhanAllah, من أراد أن ينظر إلى شهيدا يمشي على الأرض. This is a walking martyr. And Allah knows best. نحسبه كذلك. But there are people that are alive, but they've already attained the reward of shahada. Even if they're not shahada themselves. People that have been pulled from the rubble, and Allah Subhanahu Wa Ta'ala left them on this earth. They're missing limbs. They've lost all their family members. Perhaps Allah Subhanahu Wa Ta'ala recorded for them the reward of shahadah already, even if they did not yet leave the world as shuhada. Sidq is the greatest rank you can have with Allah subhanahu wa ta'ala. And Abu Bakr radiallahu ta'ala, and who had that because he was willing to affirm the truth as soon as it hit, and he was willing to endure the consequences of the truth, no matter what the consequences were. Most of us make calculations. Is it worth it? Is this worth it? Is it worth it? Is the reward worth the risk? Is the paradise and the promise worth the pain? Most of us make these qisabat, these calculations, when we are confronted by an uncomfortable truth. Think about those words, uncomfortable truth. When we're confronted with an uncomfortable truth about ourselves, or in regards to our circumstances, most of us make a calculation. A siddique. The only calculation that they make is whether or not this is from Allah subhanahu wa ta'ala. And so they rise in their rank with Allah. And so as I said with Ibrahim, you always see a manifestation. First you have Abu Bakr as-Siddiq. The proof that it's the highest maqam is when the Prophet was with Abu Bakr, Umar and Uthman and Uhud and Uhud shook. And the Prophet said, Uthbut ya Uhud, be firm. Oh Uhud, you have upon you a Prophet, a Siddiq wa Shahideen and two martyrs. Ibrahim never changed his resolve. Allah tells us what's the sign of a Siddique Minal mu'mineena rijalun sadaqoo ma'ahadu allaha alayk Faminhum man qadhaa nahbaa wa minhum man yantadhir wa maa badaloo tabadeela This is literally the sign right here Allah says there are people that are truthful to the covenant they've made with Allah Some of them have an opportunity to prove themselves The circumstance presents itself And the response, the appropriate response is immediately there. Some of them are forced to wait and perhaps they never actually are confronted with that circumstance. But, وَمَا بَدَّلُوا تَبْدِيلًا Allah says the sign of a sadiq is they do not, they do not switch in regards to their resolve. Their resolve is maintained. Alright, some of you are thinking, well how in the world do I get that? How do I know? I haven't yet been confronted with an uncomfortable truth. You know where you start? Comfortable truths. Do you actually follow Allah subhanahu wa ta'ala and obey Allah subhanahu wa ta'ala when you're confronted with a comfortable truth? If I can't drag myself to the lowest hanging fruit, the obligations that are immediately available to me and easy for me to commit to, then how in the world am I going to be able to do so when I'm confronted? with a much more difficult haqq, with a much more difficult truth in my life. And then out of the comfortable truth, the somewhat uncomfortable truths. And the more that you get used to abiding by the truth, no matter what the circumstance, the less important the circumstance becomes when you are confronted with a very difficult truth. SubhanAllah, I always tell people, the people of Ghazna didn't figure this out. on October 7th. They've been preparing for this. It takes a certain type of mindset. You know, SubhanAllah, I was talking to a brother about the situation in Palestine. Of course, may Allah make it easy for all of our brothers and sisters there. I mean, if any of you study the politics of the West Bank, it's an apartheid regime, right? You have zones. So you have zone C, certain zones where settlers are more prone to attack those zones. And I was just talking about it, he's like, you know, think about the mindset of someone who starts to build a house in Gaza Or starts to build a house in Zone C, right? While you're building the house, you already know that at any moment this house might get destroyed You have that in your mind as you're building, you put your life savings into it You work 20, 30, 40 years to be able to build a house or purchase an apartment Think about here, the American dream, it's the Palestinian dream You're building your house and you know that at any moment, at the behest of your oppressor, your house might be destroyed. And you're okay with that. You've come to terms with that already. So you talk about like a ta'alluq bi dunya, being attached to this world. You've already developed that regimen, that routine, that resolve. There is something to be said about how Allah subhanahu wa ta'ala did not allow for the prophets to get too comfortable. Which prophet was comfortable? Right? You think it was comfortable to go from Mecca to Medina for the Prophet? A place completely unfamiliar to him and settle over there? You think it's comfortable for Ibrahim to go on this map from Iraq to Palestine to Egypt to Mecca and back? It's not comfortable. Yusuf being taken from the home of his parents, thrown into a well, prison, slavery prison. I mean even though he ended up on a throne, by the time he got on a throne he already had a lot of perspective. That this is temporary. I've been in a comfortable place before and Allah Azawajal just shook me out of it. So why would I delude myself now in thinking that I can find my place in this comfort, right? So as-siddiq, you find the element in it in Abu Bakr radiAllahu ta'ala anhu and then you see it in people who when the truth becomes severe, they don't back off from their resolve. May Allah subhanahu wa ta'ala make us amongst them. Allahumma ameen. But it's just like how the Prophet taught us that whoever is not grateful for the small things You don't suddenly become grateful for big things If you don't know how to thank Allah for small things in life You don't suddenly become a grateful person when a big blessing is bestowed upon you If you don't know how to thank people you don't know how to thank Allah ومن لم يصبر بالقليل Or on the short term, whoever is not patient with small difficulties is not going to suddenly become patient when big difficulties strike them, right? You get impatient when you're waiting for something at a restaurant. You get impatient in traffic. You get impatient with a flat tire. You get impatient with someone saying something to you that's a little bit offensive. You don't suddenly develop this great patience and resolve in the face of a tyrant. It's something you work on. So you think of Ahlul Ghazal, for example, they've learned to become patients with certain difficulties in life, things that you and I take for granted. And so when things really become difficult upon them, they've already built something with Allah Subh'anaHu Wa Ta-A'la. What does that look like with Sidq? Again, it looks like accepting the truth as it hits you, especially the comfortable ones, and then building upon that, building, building, building a relationship with the truth. So that no matter how difficult it becomes, you always abide by it no matter what the situation. That's why another thing that the scholars mentioned, SubhanAllah, you see the Prophet Sallallahu Alaihi Wasallam mentioned that a Shafir on the Day of Judgment, Allah Azawajal will not allow a vulgar liar to be an intercessor on the Day of Judgment. Why? You can't be a truthful person with your deeds if you're not even truthful with your speech. How can you be a Sadiq with your Amal? A truthful person with your deeds if you have become accustomed to lying in your speech. And so the first thing it starts with is صدق بالقول truthfulness with your speech. I hate lying. The Prophet ﷺ hated lying. Right? I'm not going to lie. No matter what. When do you lie usually? You lie because the truth is inconvenient to speak. So I need to make up a story quick. I need to say things a little bit differently. What is that showing you already? You don't want to suffer the consequences of the truth. You know, so what do we say to our kids? Like, look, just tell me how it is in the first place. You're going to get punished either way. But if you say it how it is in the beginning, right, your punishment will be less. That's parenting. At least I think that's good parenting, right? That's what you say to your kids. Like, look, just tell me what it is now. It's going to be a less severe punishment. But if you lie to me, and then I catch you lying, the punishment is going to be five times worse. So get used to just saying it. I messed up. Be sadiq. Be truthful with your speech. Don't make stuff up. And if you're truthful with your speech, because you're willing to encounter the circumstances, the consequences of the truth of your speech, you'll be willing to do so with your actions as well. And so Ibrahim A.S. is as-siddiq. Siddiq al-Nabi And the greatest person of this Ummah, Abu Bakr is Siddiq He's known by his Sidq, his truthfulness and his willingness to abide by the truth as soon as it comes to him دون تردد ولا شك No hesitation, no doubt, immediate affirmation of the truth and immediately willing to suffer the consequences of the truth And then you have the miracles So Abu Bakr can't become Ibrahim. Ibrahim is a prophet of Allah. He's greater than Abu Bakr. We can't become a Khalil, but we can become a Wali. You can't have the miracle of a prophet, but you can have miracles in your life that are based in the same Taqwa, the same piety that those prophets had. There's a man in our Ummah who's the Ibrahim of this Ummah. Does anyone know his name? His name is Abu Muslim Al-Khawlani radiAllahu ta'ala anhu And I can't go into his full biography right now Where are the Yemenis in this place? Where is Ahlul-Yaman? Alright, like if you were to do a study of how the Prophet Sallallahu Alaihi Wasallam used to inquire or give not just the bushra of the people of Yemen the glad tidings of the people of Yemen but specific people the Prophet Sallallahu Alaihi Wasallam told the Sahaba, you will meet from Yemen Uwais Al Qarni radiAllahu ta'ala Anhu and Abu Muslim Al Khawlani are two examples. Abu Muslim Al Khawlani radiAllahu ta'ala Anhu became Muslim in Yemen. And I want you to think about this concept. Yemen embraced Islam, but many people didn't catch the Prophet salallahu alayhi wa sallam alive. And think about how devastating that is. Mu'adh ibn Jabir radiAllahu ta'ala Anhu shows up, Wow, this religion is beautiful. I want to go meet the Prophet salallahu alayhi wa sallam. You make your way to Medina, he just died a week ago. Sallallahu alayhi wasallam. He just died a month ago. Alayhi salatu wasallam. That's gonna sting. That stings hard, right? Abu Muslehman Khawlani radiallahu ta'ala anhu was one of those people who embraced Islam in the time of the Prophet salallahu alayhi wasallam and then made the intention to go and be with the Prophet salallahu alayhi wasallam in Medina. There was a false prophet in Yemen, Aswad al-Ansi. And he knew about the righteousness of Abu Muslim and he wanted to deter people. So what did he do? He kindled the fire and he wanted to throw Abu Muslim into that fire, right? And his name was actually Abdullah Abu Muslim Al-Khawlani. It's a long story as to how he got that name. But he wanted to throw him into that fire to make an example out of him to the believer. Sound familiar? It's always the case. Try to make an example out of them and you end up being made the example. Happens every time. Right? So he kindles the fire. Abu Muslim is completely unfaced. He's a new Muslim. You talk about someone who just embraces Islam but already has the faith that you're just like, where did you get that from? That's something Allah puts in the heart of a person. That's why Iman is not something that you just read out of a book. Allah Azawajal reads your heart and puts it in there sometimes, quickly. Someone becomes Muslim and they have a zeal like Bilal radiAllahu ta'ala anhu. So in any case, he starts the fire. Abu Muslum is unfazed. He's making his dhikr like Ibrahim A.S. He's thrown into the fire. Then he walks out the fire, completely unburnt, unscathed. And Aswad Al-Ansi looks at him and he doesn't make tawbah. Like you ever thought to yourself, why didn't the father of Ibrahim A.S. go, oh wow, I really messed up. I threw my son into a fire and he just walked out of it. Maybe I should think about what he's been saying to me. Absolutely not. So what happens to Al-Aswad Al-Ansi? He walked out of the fire. He immediately goes to his advisors and he says, what is it that I'm supposed to do now? What do I do? And they said, إِنَّمْ تَفْنِي هَذَا عَنكَ فَيُفْسِدُ عَلَيْكَ تَبَعَكَ If you don't get rid of him quickly, he's going to corrupt all of your followers. Get him out of here. Abu Musul wanted to go to Medina anyway. He said, I know just the place. I'm out. And he made his way from Yemen to Al-Medina. He arrives in Medina, the Prophet's son passed away. So he missed being a Sahabi. He's a Taveri, like Uwais Al Qarni radiAllahu ta'ala Anhu. Umar ibn Khattab radiAllahu ta'ala Anhu, he asks about him. Then he meets him and he starts to ask him. He says, have you heard about a man in Yemen that was thrown into a fire and it didn't burn? And Abu Muslim in his humility and his... Like he doesn't like boast and say, yeah, that was me. He starts saying, yeah, I heard about him. What was his name? His name was Abdullah. He starts kind of like trying to distance himself from that miracle because he doesn't want to be put in a pedestal in Medina. And Umar radiAllahu ta'ala says, Alhamdulillah, Allah allowed me to meet, did not let me die until I met a person from this ummah whom he worked a miracle for like Ibrahim a.s. I got to meet the Ibrahim of this ummah. So yes, miracles happen. But they happen out of the same place of faith. that constructed these prophets in the first place. Was it as big of a fire? No. Did Abu Muslim then turn around and claim prophethood? No. Did he start to make certain? No, absolutely not. This is what happens when you assert yourself and affirm the truth. Abu Muslim was a Siddiq. He didn't flinch at the fire. Therefore Allah gave him something truly special in those moments. And so you have Abu Bakr manifesting the Sidq. You have Abu Muslim manifesting the Mu'jiza. You have all of these different stories of Awliya. And it's no coincidence that when Allah subhanahu wa ta'ala tested Imam al-Bukhari, rahimahullah ta'ala, with blindness, and his mother made dua that Allah subhanahu wa ta'ala would cure him, that Allah subhanahu wa ta'ala sent to his mother in a dream. Ibrahim to give her the Bushra, to give her the glad tidings that your son has been cured. So many wisdoms that come out of that. One of them he's Ismail, Muhammad ibn Ismail. Another one is that you know Ibrahim was the child that was cast aside. Many of the scholars say what comfort that Ibrahim is the one who cares for the children that die. As miscarriages or they die in their young age that the Prophet SallAllahu Alaihi Wasallam mentioned Ibrahim is caring for them in Jannah Ibrahim was once that person that child that was thrown into a fire and Ibrahim A.S. was commanded to sacrifice a child And Ibrahim A.S. did not think that he would have any children and Allah Subh'anaHu Wa Ta-A'la literally gave him nations from his loins And here there is that beautiful element of hope in dua that is there in every single situation. What is the thing that you can walk away from with Ibrahim A.S. in every single one of these situations? That of the greatest lessons that we learned from him is that if a person has sithq in their ibadah, if a person is truthful in their worship of Allah Subh'anaHu Wa Ta-A'la, then that will inherently yield a good opinion in their trust in Allah Subh'anaHu Wa Ta-A'la. I want you to think about this. Have you ever seen, I'm being completely real here now and I hope I'm wording it correctly. Have you ever seen a person who is dedicated to the Quran, who lives their life in ibadah, losing hope in their dua? I don't see it. In fact, the people of Gaza, it's the strangest thing by the way, subhanAllah. You meet the people of Gaza, they have not questioned Allah's decree in regards to them. People question Allah's decree in regards to them. Because you're not living what they're living. They're in a different mindset. They're in a different frame. They see their... very existence differently connected to that. The truer you are to Allah's word, the more trust you have in your dua to Allah subhanahu wa ta'ala. It's like you make that dua and then you just simply pass it up. And you know that Allah subhanahu wa ta'ala does not let the hands of the believers go up and then come back empty handed. Allah Azawajal does not do that to the believers. And so what you find with Ibrahim alayhi salam, Is that every single dark moment in his life, he makes the most hopeful duas. Here he is in a fire and his own existence is at risk. And he says, He asks Allah SWT not just to preserve his own existence, but the existence that will be after him. Here he is at the Ka'bah and his own child is about to go and he's making dua for All of his descendants to be people who established the prayer and amongst those descendants to be the greatest prophet of all to come. In the darkest moments, he makes the most hopeful dua. That is the manifestation. Like you ever think about it, what did that look like for Ibrahim A.S. where Allah A.S. says that it increased him in iman. زاده الإيمان وقالوا حسبنا الله ونعم الوكيل That there's an increase of faith and they say حسبنا الله ونعم الوكيل What did the increase of faith, what that means necessarily by the way is that Ibrahim came out of the fire with more faith in Allah than before the fire. What is the increase in faith look like in Ibrahim's life? Complete tasdik, complete certitude that Allah will not let me down and subhanAllah every single place like that's something that's contagious That's something that's taught. That's something that's learned. We don't have access to all the conversations of Ya'qub, alayhi salam, telling his son Yusuf, alayhi salam, about his grandfather. Like, think about it. Can you imagine Ya'qub saying to Yusuf, you know that your grandfather was thrown into a fire by his father? Really? Why would his own father throw him into a fire? You know his people all wanted to kill him? You know that he had absolutely no one? with him except for his wife Sara? Like imagine a young Yusuf talking to his dad, tell me about grandpa, tell me about our grandfather being thrown into a fire and how that felt and what dua that he made. Yusuf alayhi salam at that point doesn't know that one day he's gonna be at the bottom of a well, soon. What does it look like for Yusuf alayhi salam to draw upon those lessons in those moments? And to manifest Hasbunallah wa ni'mal wakil. You don't think Yusuf A.S. manifested a version of Hasbunallah wa ni'mal wakil while he was in the well? See, Allah subhanahu wa ta'ala inspired Adam a.s. at the moment of his khuruj minal jannah, at the moment of his descent from paradise. You don't think Allah subhanahu wa ta'ala inspired the prophets with the right words to say in the moments where they sought his pleasure despite their difficult circumstances that were inflicted upon them with nothing that they did for themselves or to themselves? Of course, the Prophet even mentions on the Day of Judgment, Allah is going to give me the words to say. And I don't know what those words are right now. But some Muhammad, some praise of him that I would have never praised him with before. Allah is going to give me the words to say. You don't think Yusuf alayhi salam at the bottom of the well manifested something that he was drawing from the strength of his great-grandfather Ibrahim alayhi salam in the bottom of that firing, in the middle of it all? You don't think as Yusuf is dealing with his own tyrant, he's not thinking about his grandfather. The point is, dear brothers and sisters, that's what is being taught here. It's not just the words. It's not just that Yaqub said to his son, say this and say that. It's that Allah will do for you what he did for him. So long as you stay upon that trust and that tawakkul of Allah. I'm gonna give you one more, inshallah ta'ala, ayah in this regard and then we'll... I want to move on to something that's very very specific to the situation that we're in right now and build upon this It's a situation of Masrook ibn Al-Adla who says I was reading to Ibn Mas'ud radiAllahu ta'ala Anhum And I was reading the verse Inna Ibrahima kana Ummah Verily Ibrahim alayhi salam was a Ummah. He was a nation Qanitan Lillah, devout, Hanifa, a monotheist Walam yakumina al-mushrikeena He was not from the disbelievers And as I was reading this to Ibn Mas'ud, Ibn Mas'ud responded and he said, إِنَّ مُعَاذٍ كَانَ أُمَّةً Verily Mu'adh ibn Jabal was an Ummah. So Masrook said, I read it again and he said it again, إِنَّ مُعَاذٍ كَانَ أُمَّةً Mu'adh ibn Jabal was an Ummah. And so Masrook said, I asked him, has the verse changed? Like is something different here? And he said, no. He said, do you know what an Ummah is? So by the way, at some point, literally, Ibrahim was an Ummah, you know how? When the Prophet said that he said to Sarah, Ya Sarah, there is no one on the face of the earth except for you and I who worships Allah. Like, whoa! That's mind-blowing. Imagine that? Imagine that conversation between a husband and wife? No one on the face of the earth worships Allah except for you and I. Incredible so at some point literally he is the Ummah the only Ummah on earth is Ibrahim and his wife And of course Lut is Nafl Right who believes in him as a young man and then has his own mission ahead of him But beyond that Ibn Mas'ud says by the way, you know what an Ummah is? He said an Ummah is the one who teaches the people good Again, Abu al-Anbiya, the father of the prophets, don't distance yourself from him. Do you teach people good? Are you maintaining clarity? You start asking yourself, what's the point in this moment? Do you know how many people, when I think of the casualty count of Gaza, do you know how many people have been saved from the fire because of the people of Gaza? Saved from the eternal fire? Those horrific images of people that we see burning in Rafah. Fariheenah bima aatahum Allahumma an fadli And they are in gardens of paradise now And they would never want to come back to this earth For anything that you could offer them Except to sacrifice for the sake of Allah again Do you know how many people have been saved from the hellfire By witnessing the people of Ghazal? You know how many people have embraced Islam And for that will have their salvation in the hereafter? Why? We've got to manifest this stuff We've got to teach this stuff Which teaches people goodness

You're right there. An ayah or two, a herda. قبلها بآيتين It's verse 124. You're at 126. Verse 124 of Surah Al-Baqarah.

وَإِذِ بِتَلَىٰ إِبْرَاهِيمَ رَبُّهُ بِكَلِمَاتٍ فَأَتَمَّهُنْ When Allah subhanahu wa ta'ala tested Ibrahim alayhi salam, Ibtala, tested Ibrahim alayhi salam with some words. And he perfected those words, alayhi salam. But it's very interesting subhanAllah that the first mention of Ibrahim alayhi salam is test. The very first way that Allah brings Ibrahim into the story of the Quran is test.

Ibtila. And the way it ends, the last mention of Ibrahim, that this is indeed in the first scripture, Suhuf Ibrahim and Musa in Surah Al-A'la, that this is in the suhuf, in the scriptures of Ibrahim and Musa, that Allah has given you a consistent covenant. Why do I start with this?

Can anyone tell me what that means? وَإِذَا ابْتَلَىٰ إِبْرَاهِيمَ رَبُّهُ بِكَلِمَاتٍ What did Allah test him with? If we're gonna go till 10, 30, 11, y'all are gonna have to interact with me, alright? Yeah, what did he test him with?

Faith. Can you be more specific? So is Allah Azawajal talking about the ibtila of his father throwing him into a fire? Is he talking about the ibtila of his son?

But he says بِكَلِمَاتٍ He tested him with words. The scholars of Tafsir mention, and this is narrated from Ibn Abbas ﷺ, that the kalimat is the ahd, the covenant itself. Now I want to explain why this is so important. Because many times when we think of tests, we immediately think of a circumstance that resembles tests to us. So we think of poverty, we think of oppression, we think of...

difficulty. We think of Ayyubo alayhi salam. We think of Yusuf alayhi salam at the bottom of the well. And Allah subhanahu wa ta'ala mentions that we test you with sharr and with khayr, with hardship and with ease, fitna. But it is at the end of the day, nablookum.

We're testing you with hardship and we're testing you with ease and both of them are equally a test. As Abdurrahman bin Awif radiallahu ta'ala anhu said, butina bil dharra fasabarna wa butina bil sarra falam nastir. That we were tested with hardship and we were patient, but we were tested with ease and we were not patient. So you think of test in terms of circumstance. But the greatest test that Allah subhanahu wa ta'ala refers to is the test of Al-Ahad, the test of the covenant.

The test of La ilaha illallah and what it entails in the first place. خُذُوا مَا آتَيْنَاكُمْ بِقُوَّةٍ Take what we have given you with strength. Hold on to the test. And so SubhanAllah, you'll find that Qatada Rahimahullah says Al-Kalimat, the words are 30 covenants, 30 tests that Allah Subhanahu Wa Ta'ala gave to Ibrahim A.S. And they are encompassed in the last verses or in the verses in Surah Al-Ahzab.

إِنَّ الْمُسْلِمِينَ وَالْمُسْلِمَاتِ وَالْمُؤْمِنِينَ وَالْمُؤْمِنَاتِ وَالْقَانِتِينَ وَالْقَانِتَاتِ I don't know the verse number, so someone will have to find those verse numbers. We'll do this that way inshallah. Someone can find me those verse numbers inshallah.

So you have those 10 qualities that are mentioned in Surah Al-Ahzab. And then he says, قَدْ أَفْلَحَ الْمُؤْمِنُونَ The 10 qualities in Surah Al-Mu'minun, starting off Surah Al-Mu'minun. And then finally, in Surah Al-Ma'arij, إِلَّا الْمُصَلِّينَ الَّذِينَ هُمْ عَلَى صَلَاتِهِمْ دَائِمُونَ Those who are consistent with their prayer. The 10 verses in Surah Al-Ma'arij, in the middle of Surah Al-Ma'arij. He says that they're encompassed within these 30 qualities.

The point is that Allah gave Ibrahim a task. He gave him a task of prayer. He gave him a regimen of fasting.

He gave him a regimen of honoring his trust. He gave him all sorts of standards of character, of akhlaq that Ibrahim had to cling on to. The fall of Bani Israel is not because of a difficulty or a circumstance. The fall of Bani Israel Is the refusal to abide by the Ahd, the refusal to abide by the covenant, the praise of Ibrahim alayhi salam who is the father of the nations, Abu al-anbiya The father, the literal grandfather of Isra'il Alayhi Salaam, right? The success of Ibrahim Alayhi Salaam is in his ability and his sincerity in holding on to the Ahad, holding on to the covenant.

وَإِذَا بِتَلَىٰ إِبْرَاهِيمَ رَبُّهُ بِكَلِمَاتٍ فَأَتَمَّهُمْ Right? So it starts off from this place, holding on to the Ahad, holding on to the covenant. Then you start to break down what that looks like. First and foremost, that idea of Ibrahim as a father of the prophets أبو الأنبياء What does that mean?

There is an element of lineage that is certainly encompassed in that idea of being a father of the prophets But it's deeper than that The Prophet ﷺ said إِنَّمَا أَنَا لَكُمْ بِمَنْزِلَةِ الْوَالِدِ I am to you like a father أُعَلِّمُكُمْ I teach you I teach you So the greatest duty of a father, or what's being implied of a father here, is the idea of being a shepherd. And the Prophet ﷺ said, كلكم راع وكلكم مسؤول عن رعيتي Every single one of you is a shepherd. And every one of you is responsible for their flock. I want us to break this down, because I don't want you to feel disconnected even from that lofty concept of being أبو الأنبياء, the father of the prophets. There is actually an implication that is directly relevant to you.

The Prophet Sallallahu Alaihi Wasallam said, I am to you like a father in that I teach you. And all of the prophets were shepherds. And the greatest duty of a father is to be a shepherd. And all of you are shepherds.

And there's something that is deeply profound about this. That the greatest right that your flock has upon you is that you teach them how to worship Allah Subh'anaHu Wa Ta-A'la. that you guard the covenant amongst them.

That if you were, as a parent, to give your children the best education in the world, but you don't teach them how to pray, you have utterly failed as a parent, even if they are the wealthiest and most successful people in the world in terms of their material success. Because your first responsibility was to teach them Islam, and was to show them Islam, and to demonstrate that patiently with your flock. But the Prophet said every single one of you is a shepherd Even if you are not a parent you all have a flock and subhanAllah There's something deeply profound here that the transfer of ilm the transfer of knowledge From one person to another is literally the way that the religion survives Even in the darkest of eras and what we are learning here from the Prophets that even under Dhulm, even under oppression and difficult circumstances Ilm should be maintained, clarity should be maintained Jahal, ignorance should not prevail to where clarity is lost because that clarity is where the light is maintained the light of knowledge is maintained that once again will break through and give birth to the next episode of this Ummah You can't lose that. SubhanAllah, if you read about the way that the enslaved in this country used to transfer Surah Al-Fatiha, transfer pages of the Quran to one another, how they secretly practiced Islam on these lands. It's hard for us to imagine.

You talk about Islamophobia now, realize in the same places that you are living right now, there were people that were tortured, literally, by slave owners. if they said La ilaha illallah and if they verbalized the Quran. In the same places, you talk about the darkest phase of Islamophobia, go back 300 years, right? Don't start now after the 9-11 era. No, no, go back 300 years.

But what has to be maintained with the flock is al-Hilm, is knowledge. That is the greatest responsibility of the shepherd to a flock and all of us are shepherds in some way. So you even connect to Ibrahim. At that level that Ibrahim saw his greatest responsibility to maintain clarity with his children and that's why Allah mentions to us Ibrahim and his parting words with his children and then his son with his son and Yaqub his grandson with his son.

أَمْ كُنْتُمْ شُهَدَاءَ إِذْ حَضْرَ يَعْقُوبَ الْمَوْتِ إِذْ قَالَ لِي بَنِيهِ مَا تَعْبُدُونَ مِن بَعْدِي What are you going to worship after me? What are you going to worship after me? What are you going to worship after me? What are you going to worship after me? The transfer of that clarity.

Why? Because sometimes a Nassr, Sometimes victory is delayed, but clarity can't wait. Dar al-Arqam has to exist in Mecca, not in Medina. There has to be a place where that transfer of knowledge takes place, where that cultivation of the light of ilm, the light of knowledge takes place, so that when the time has come, when light can break through once again, the next episode of the Ummah prevails. It goes on and it goes on and it goes on.

Until the day of judgment Allah Subhanahu Wa Ta'ala then praised Ibrahim Alayhi Salam with his Sidq Inna Hu Kana Siddiqan Nabiyya He was a person of truth and he was a prophet The scholars mention that a Siddiq is the highest rank that a person can attain Under a prophet of Allah Subhanahu Wa Ta'ala even higher than the shaheed. It's even higher than a martyr. And a martyr could indeed be a sidiq and a shaheed, right? But a sidiq is not always going to be a shaheed.

But a sidiq would always be willing to be a shaheed. And I'll explain to you what that all means. Do you think if Abu Bakr as-Siddiq knew that he was going to suffer the fate of Umar radiallahu ta'ala anhu or Uthman radiallahu ta'ala anhu?

or Ali radiAllahu ta'ala anhu in terms of assassination, do you think he would flinch for a moment at that fate? Absolutely not. And so he already attained the maqam. He already attained the rank, even if he did not have to undergo the circumstance.

He was already willing to do it in the hijrah with the Prophet sallallahu alayhi wa sallam. He knew the bad intentions that they had for the Prophet sallallahu alayhi wa sallam and that they had for Abu Bakr. radiAllahu ta'ala anhu with him and that they had for Ali radiAllahu anhu when he was in the bed of the Prophet sallallahu alayhi wa sallam after the Prophet sallallahu alayhi wa sallam departed he knows but he had already convinced himself he already arrived at a truthfulness with Allah subhanahu wa ta'ala that not only am I willing to submit to the truth I'm willing to submit to the consequences of the truth as well some of us have not arrived there yet may Allah subhanahu wa ta'ala make us all people of sithq Allahumma ameen But it's one thing to say I submit to the truth. Yeah, I believe Islam is true.

But are you willing to submit to the consequences of the truth? And if a person has already developed the resolve that they are willing to submit to the consequences of the truth, then they already attained the reward for those consequences even if they never lived to see those consequences. You think Ibrahim A.S.

when he was being thrown into the fire would have changed? I mean knowing that this could indeed burn him? Was Ibrahim given foreknowledge that the fire was not going to burn him?

He was willing. حَسْطٌ اللَّهُ نِعْمَ الْوَكِينَ He was willing to go into that fire for the sake of Allah. Therefore he walked away from the fire unscathed by the fire, but fully rewarded for being thrown into the fire.

SubhanAllah, when I met Walid Dahduri, may Allah preserve him and preserve the living martyrs of Gaza. Truly, you look at them and you say, SubhanAllah, من أراد أن ينظر إلى شهيدا يمشي على الأرض. This is a walking martyr.

And Allah knows best. نحسبه كذلك. But there are people that are alive, but they've already attained the reward of shahada. Even if they're not shahada themselves.

People that have been pulled from the rubble, and Allah Subhanahu Wa Ta'ala left them on this earth. They're missing limbs. They've lost all their family members. Perhaps Allah Subhanahu Wa Ta'ala recorded for them the reward of shahadah already, even if they did not yet leave the world as shuhada. Sidq is the greatest rank you can have with Allah subhanahu wa ta'ala.

And Abu Bakr radiallahu ta'ala, and who had that because he was willing to affirm the truth as soon as it hit, and he was willing to endure the consequences of the truth, no matter what the consequences were. Most of us make calculations. Is it worth it? Is this worth it? Is it worth it?

Is the reward worth the risk? Is the paradise and the promise worth the pain? Most of us make these qisabat, these calculations, when we are confronted by an uncomfortable truth. Think about those words, uncomfortable truth.

When we're confronted with an uncomfortable truth about ourselves, or in regards to our circumstances, most of us make a calculation. A siddique. The only calculation that they make is whether or not this is from Allah subhanahu wa ta'ala. And so they rise in their rank with Allah.

And so as I said with Ibrahim, you always see a manifestation. First you have Abu Bakr as-Siddiq. The proof that it's the highest maqam is when the Prophet was with Abu Bakr, Umar and Uthman and Uhud and Uhud shook.

And the Prophet said, Uthbut ya Uhud, be firm. Oh Uhud, you have upon you a Prophet, a Siddiq wa Shahideen and two martyrs. Ibrahim never changed his resolve.

Allah tells us what's the sign of a Siddique Minal mu'mineena rijalun sadaqoo ma'ahadu allaha alayk Faminhum man qadhaa nahbaa wa minhum man yantadhir wa maa badaloo tabadeela This is literally the sign right here Allah says there are people that are truthful to the covenant they've made with Allah Some of them have an opportunity to prove themselves The circumstance presents itself And the response, the appropriate response is immediately there. Some of them are forced to wait and perhaps they never actually are confronted with that circumstance. But, وَمَا بَدَّلُوا تَبْدِيلًا Allah says the sign of a sadiq is they do not, they do not switch in regards to their resolve.

Their resolve is maintained. Alright, some of you are thinking, well how in the world do I get that? How do I know? I haven't yet been confronted with an uncomfortable truth.

You know where you start? Comfortable truths. Do you actually follow Allah subhanahu wa ta'ala and obey Allah subhanahu wa ta'ala when you're confronted with a comfortable truth? If I can't drag myself to the lowest hanging fruit, the obligations that are immediately available to me and easy for me to commit to, then how in the world am I going to be able to do so when I'm confronted? with a much more difficult haqq, with a much more difficult truth in my life.

And then out of the comfortable truth, the somewhat uncomfortable truths. And the more that you get used to abiding by the truth, no matter what the circumstance, the less important the circumstance becomes when you are confronted with a very difficult truth. SubhanAllah, I always tell people, the people of Ghazna didn't figure this out. on October 7th.

They've been preparing for this. It takes a certain type of mindset. You know, SubhanAllah, I was talking to a brother about the situation in Palestine.

Of course, may Allah make it easy for all of our brothers and sisters there. I mean, if any of you study the politics of the West Bank, it's an apartheid regime, right? You have zones.

So you have zone C, certain zones where settlers are more prone to attack those zones. And I was just talking about it, he's like, you know, think about the mindset of someone who starts to build a house in Gaza Or starts to build a house in Zone C, right? While you're building the house, you already know that at any moment this house might get destroyed You have that in your mind as you're building, you put your life savings into it You work 20, 30, 40 years to be able to build a house or purchase an apartment Think about here, the American dream, it's the Palestinian dream You're building your house and you know that at any moment, at the behest of your oppressor, your house might be destroyed. And you're okay with that. You've come to terms with that already.

So you talk about like a ta'alluq bi dunya, being attached to this world. You've already developed that regimen, that routine, that resolve. There is something to be said about how Allah subhanahu wa ta'ala did not allow for the prophets to get too comfortable.

Which prophet was comfortable? Right? You think it was comfortable to go from Mecca to Medina for the Prophet? A place completely unfamiliar to him and settle over there?

You think it's comfortable for Ibrahim to go on this map from Iraq to Palestine to Egypt to Mecca and back? It's not comfortable. Yusuf being taken from the home of his parents, thrown into a well, prison, slavery prison.

I mean even though he ended up on a throne, by the time he got on a throne he already had a lot of perspective. That this is temporary. I've been in a comfortable place before and Allah Azawajal just shook me out of it.

So why would I delude myself now in thinking that I can find my place in this comfort, right? So as-siddiq, you find the element in it in Abu Bakr radiAllahu ta'ala anhu and then you see it in people who when the truth becomes severe, they don't back off from their resolve. May Allah subhanahu wa ta'ala make us amongst them.

Allahumma ameen. But it's just like how the Prophet taught us that whoever is not grateful for the small things You don't suddenly become grateful for big things If you don't know how to thank Allah for small things in life You don't suddenly become a grateful person when a big blessing is bestowed upon you If you don't know how to thank people you don't know how to thank Allah ومن لم يصبر بالقليل Or on the short term, whoever is not patient with small difficulties is not going to suddenly become patient when big difficulties strike them, right? You get impatient when you're waiting for something at a restaurant. You get impatient in traffic. You get impatient with a flat tire.

You get impatient with someone saying something to you that's a little bit offensive. You don't suddenly develop this great patience and resolve in the face of a tyrant. It's something you work on.

So you think of Ahlul Ghazal, for example, they've learned to become patients with certain difficulties in life, things that you and I take for granted. And so when things really become difficult upon them, they've already built something with Allah Subh'anaHu Wa Ta-A'la. What does that look like with Sidq? Again, it looks like accepting the truth as it hits you, especially the comfortable ones, and then building upon that, building, building, building a relationship with the truth. So that no matter how difficult it becomes, you always abide by it no matter what the situation.

That's why another thing that the scholars mentioned, SubhanAllah, you see the Prophet Sallallahu Alaihi Wasallam mentioned that a Shafir on the Day of Judgment, Allah Azawajal will not allow a vulgar liar to be an intercessor on the Day of Judgment. Why? You can't be a truthful person with your deeds if you're not even truthful with your speech. How can you be a Sadiq with your Amal?

A truthful person with your deeds if you have become accustomed to lying in your speech. And so the first thing it starts with is صدق بالقول truthfulness with your speech. I hate lying.

The Prophet ﷺ hated lying. Right? I'm not going to lie. No matter what.

When do you lie usually? You lie because the truth is inconvenient to speak. So I need to make up a story quick.

I need to say things a little bit differently. What is that showing you already? You don't want to suffer the consequences of the truth. You know, so what do we say to our kids?

Like, look, just tell me how it is in the first place. You're going to get punished either way. But if you say it how it is in the beginning, right, your punishment will be less. That's parenting. At least I think that's good parenting, right?

That's what you say to your kids. Like, look, just tell me what it is now. It's going to be a less severe punishment.

But if you lie to me, and then I catch you lying, the punishment is going to be five times worse. So get used to just saying it. I messed up.

Be sadiq. Be truthful with your speech. Don't make stuff up. And if you're truthful with your speech, because you're willing to encounter the circumstances, the consequences of the truth of your speech, you'll be willing to do so with your actions as well. And so Ibrahim A.S.

is as-siddiq. Siddiq al-Nabi And the greatest person of this Ummah, Abu Bakr is Siddiq He's known by his Sidq, his truthfulness and his willingness to abide by the truth as soon as it comes to him دون تردد ولا شك No hesitation, no doubt, immediate affirmation of the truth and immediately willing to suffer the consequences of the truth And then you have the miracles So Abu Bakr can't become Ibrahim. Ibrahim is a prophet of Allah. He's greater than Abu Bakr.

We can't become a Khalil, but we can become a Wali. You can't have the miracle of a prophet, but you can have miracles in your life that are based in the same Taqwa, the same piety that those prophets had. There's a man in our Ummah who's the Ibrahim of this Ummah.

Does anyone know his name? His name is Abu Muslim Al-Khawlani radiAllahu ta'ala anhu And I can't go into his full biography right now Where are the Yemenis in this place? Where is Ahlul-Yaman?

Alright, like if you were to do a study of how the Prophet Sallallahu Alaihi Wasallam used to inquire or give not just the bushra of the people of Yemen the glad tidings of the people of Yemen but specific people the Prophet Sallallahu Alaihi Wasallam told the Sahaba, you will meet from Yemen Uwais Al Qarni radiAllahu ta'ala Anhu and Abu Muslim Al Khawlani are two examples. Abu Muslim Al Khawlani radiAllahu ta'ala Anhu became Muslim in Yemen. And I want you to think about this concept. Yemen embraced Islam, but many people didn't catch the Prophet salallahu alayhi wa sallam alive. And think about how devastating that is.

Mu'adh ibn Jabir radiAllahu ta'ala Anhu shows up, Wow, this religion is beautiful. I want to go meet the Prophet salallahu alayhi wa sallam. You make your way to Medina, he just died a week ago.

Sallallahu alayhi wasallam. He just died a month ago. Alayhi salatu wasallam. That's gonna sting. That stings hard, right?

Abu Muslehman Khawlani radiallahu ta'ala anhu was one of those people who embraced Islam in the time of the Prophet salallahu alayhi wasallam and then made the intention to go and be with the Prophet salallahu alayhi wasallam in Medina. There was a false prophet in Yemen, Aswad al-Ansi. And he knew about the righteousness of Abu Muslim and he wanted to deter people. So what did he do?

He kindled the fire and he wanted to throw Abu Muslim into that fire, right? And his name was actually Abdullah Abu Muslim Al-Khawlani. It's a long story as to how he got that name.

But he wanted to throw him into that fire to make an example out of him to the believer. Sound familiar? It's always the case.

Try to make an example out of them and you end up being made the example. Happens every time. Right? So he kindles the fire. Abu Muslim is completely unfaced.

He's a new Muslim. You talk about someone who just embraces Islam but already has the faith that you're just like, where did you get that from? That's something Allah puts in the heart of a person.

That's why Iman is not something that you just read out of a book. Allah Azawajal reads your heart and puts it in there sometimes, quickly. Someone becomes Muslim and they have a zeal like Bilal radiAllahu ta'ala anhu. So in any case, he starts the fire.

Abu Muslum is unfazed. He's making his dhikr like Ibrahim A.S. He's thrown into the fire. Then he walks out the fire, completely unburnt, unscathed. And Aswad Al-Ansi looks at him and he doesn't make tawbah.

Like you ever thought to yourself, why didn't the father of Ibrahim A.S. go, oh wow, I really messed up. I threw my son into a fire and he just walked out of it. Maybe I should think about what he's been saying to me. Absolutely not.

So what happens to Al-Aswad Al-Ansi? He walked out of the fire. He immediately goes to his advisors and he says, what is it that I'm supposed to do now? What do I do? And they said, إِنَّمْ تَفْنِي هَذَا عَنكَ فَيُفْسِدُ عَلَيْكَ تَبَعَكَ If you don't get rid of him quickly, he's going to corrupt all of your followers.

Get him out of here. Abu Musul wanted to go to Medina anyway. He said, I know just the place.

I'm out. And he made his way from Yemen to Al-Medina. He arrives in Medina, the Prophet's son passed away. So he missed being a Sahabi. He's a Taveri, like Uwais Al Qarni radiAllahu ta'ala Anhu.

Umar ibn Khattab radiAllahu ta'ala Anhu, he asks about him. Then he meets him and he starts to ask him. He says, have you heard about a man in Yemen that was thrown into a fire and it didn't burn? And Abu Muslim in his humility and his... Like he doesn't like boast and say, yeah, that was me.

He starts saying, yeah, I heard about him. What was his name? His name was Abdullah. He starts kind of like trying to distance himself from that miracle because he doesn't want to be put in a pedestal in Medina. And Umar radiAllahu ta'ala says, Alhamdulillah, Allah allowed me to meet, did not let me die until I met a person from this ummah whom he worked a miracle for like Ibrahim a.s.

I got to meet the Ibrahim of this ummah. So yes, miracles happen. But they happen out of the same place of faith.

that constructed these prophets in the first place. Was it as big of a fire? No.

Did Abu Muslim then turn around and claim prophethood? No. Did he start to make certain?

No, absolutely not. This is what happens when you assert yourself and affirm the truth. Abu Muslim was a Siddiq.

He didn't flinch at the fire. Therefore Allah gave him something truly special in those moments. And so you have Abu Bakr manifesting the Sidq. You have Abu Muslim manifesting the Mu'jiza. You have all of these different stories of Awliya.

And it's no coincidence that when Allah subhanahu wa ta'ala tested Imam al-Bukhari, rahimahullah ta'ala, with blindness, and his mother made dua that Allah subhanahu wa ta'ala would cure him, that Allah subhanahu wa ta'ala sent to his mother in a dream. Ibrahim to give her the Bushra, to give her the glad tidings that your son has been cured. So many wisdoms that come out of that. One of them he's Ismail, Muhammad ibn Ismail. Another one is that you know Ibrahim was the child that was cast aside.

Many of the scholars say what comfort that Ibrahim is the one who cares for the children that die. As miscarriages or they die in their young age that the Prophet SallAllahu Alaihi Wasallam mentioned Ibrahim is caring for them in Jannah Ibrahim was once that person that child that was thrown into a fire and Ibrahim A.S. was commanded to sacrifice a child And Ibrahim A.S. did not think that he would have any children and Allah Subh'anaHu Wa Ta-A'la literally gave him nations from his loins And here there is that beautiful element of hope in dua that is there in every single situation. What is the thing that you can walk away from with Ibrahim A.S.

in every single one of these situations? That of the greatest lessons that we learned from him is that if a person has sithq in their ibadah, if a person is truthful in their worship of Allah Subh'anaHu Wa Ta-A'la, then that will inherently yield a good opinion in their trust in Allah Subh'anaHu Wa Ta-A'la. I want you to think about this. Have you ever seen, I'm being completely real here now and I hope I'm wording it correctly. Have you ever seen a person who is dedicated to the Quran, who lives their life in ibadah, losing hope in their dua?

I don't see it. In fact, the people of Gaza, it's the strangest thing by the way, subhanAllah. You meet the people of Gaza, they have not questioned Allah's decree in regards to them.

People question Allah's decree in regards to them. Because you're not living what they're living. They're in a different mindset. They're in a different frame. They see their...

very existence differently connected to that. The truer you are to Allah's word, the more trust you have in your dua to Allah subhanahu wa ta'ala. It's like you make that dua and then you just simply pass it up. And you know that Allah subhanahu wa ta'ala does not let the hands of the believers go up and then come back empty handed.

Allah Azawajal does not do that to the believers. And so what you find with Ibrahim alayhi salam, Is that every single dark moment in his life, he makes the most hopeful duas. Here he is in a fire and his own existence is at risk. And he says, He asks Allah SWT not just to preserve his own existence, but the existence that will be after him. Here he is at the Ka'bah and his own child is about to go and he's making dua for All of his descendants to be people who established the prayer and amongst those descendants to be the greatest prophet of all to come.

In the darkest moments, he makes the most hopeful dua. That is the manifestation. Like you ever think about it, what did that look like for Ibrahim A.S.

where Allah A.S. says that it increased him in iman. زاده الإيمان وقالوا حسبنا الله ونعم الوكيل That there's an increase of faith and they say حسبنا الله ونعم الوكيل What did the increase of faith, what that means necessarily by the way is that Ibrahim came out of the fire with more faith in Allah than before the fire.

What is the increase in faith look like in Ibrahim's life? Complete tasdik, complete certitude that Allah will not let me down and subhanAllah every single place like that's something that's contagious That's something that's taught. That's something that's learned.

We don't have access to all the conversations of Ya'qub, alayhi salam, telling his son Yusuf, alayhi salam, about his grandfather. Like, think about it. Can you imagine Ya'qub saying to Yusuf, you know that your grandfather was thrown into a fire by his father?

Really? Why would his own father throw him into a fire? You know his people all wanted to kill him? You know that he had absolutely no one?

with him except for his wife Sara? Like imagine a young Yusuf talking to his dad, tell me about grandpa, tell me about our grandfather being thrown into a fire and how that felt and what dua that he made. Yusuf alayhi salam at that point doesn't know that one day he's gonna be at the bottom of a well, soon. What does it look like for Yusuf alayhi salam to draw upon those lessons in those moments? And to manifest Hasbunallah wa ni'mal wakil.

You don't think Yusuf A.S. manifested a version of Hasbunallah wa ni'mal wakil while he was in the well? See, Allah subhanahu wa ta'ala inspired Adam a.s. at the moment of his khuruj minal jannah, at the moment of his descent from paradise. You don't think Allah subhanahu wa ta'ala inspired the prophets with the right words to say in the moments where they sought his pleasure despite their difficult circumstances that were inflicted upon them with nothing that they did for themselves or to themselves?

Of course, the Prophet even mentions on the Day of Judgment, Allah is going to give me the words to say. And I don't know what those words are right now. But some Muhammad, some praise of him that I would have never praised him with before.

Allah is going to give me the words to say. You don't think Yusuf alayhi salam at the bottom of the well manifested something that he was drawing from the strength of his great-grandfather Ibrahim alayhi salam in the bottom of that firing, in the middle of it all? You don't think as Yusuf is dealing with his own tyrant, he's not thinking about his grandfather.

The point is, dear brothers and sisters, that's what is being taught here. It's not just the words. It's not just that Yaqub said to his son, say this and say that. It's that Allah will do for you what he did for him.

So long as you stay upon that trust and that tawakkul of Allah. I'm gonna give you one more, inshallah ta'ala, ayah in this regard and then we'll... I want to move on to something that's very very specific to the situation that we're in right now and build upon this It's a situation of Masrook ibn Al-Adla who says I was reading to Ibn Mas'ud radiAllahu ta'ala Anhum And I was reading the verse Inna Ibrahima kana Ummah Verily Ibrahim alayhi salam was a Ummah. He was a nation Qanitan Lillah, devout, Hanifa, a monotheist Walam yakumina al-mushrikeena He was not from the disbelievers And as I was reading this to Ibn Mas'ud, Ibn Mas'ud responded and he said, إِنَّ مُعَاذٍ كَانَ أُمَّةً Verily Mu'adh ibn Jabal was an Ummah. So Masrook said, I read it again and he said it again, إِنَّ مُعَاذٍ كَانَ أُمَّةً Mu'adh ibn Jabal was an Ummah.

And so Masrook said, I asked him, has the verse changed? Like is something different here? And he said, no.

He said, do you know what an Ummah is? So by the way, at some point, literally, Ibrahim was an Ummah, you know how? When the Prophet said that he said to Sarah, Ya Sarah, there is no one on the face of the earth except for you and I who worships Allah. Like, whoa!

That's mind-blowing. Imagine that? Imagine that conversation between a husband and wife? No one on the face of the earth worships Allah except for you and I.

Incredible so at some point literally he is the Ummah the only Ummah on earth is Ibrahim and his wife And of course Lut is Nafl Right who believes in him as a young man and then has his own mission ahead of him But beyond that Ibn Mas'ud says by the way, you know what an Ummah is? He said an Ummah is the one who teaches the people good Again, Abu al-Anbiya, the father of the prophets, don't distance yourself from him. Do you teach people good?

Are you maintaining clarity? You start asking yourself, what's the point in this moment? Do you know how many people, when I think of the casualty count of Gaza, do you know how many people have been saved from the fire because of the people of Gaza? Saved from the eternal fire?

Those horrific images of people that we see burning in Rafah. Fariheenah bima aatahum Allahumma an fadli And they are in gardens of paradise now And they would never want to come back to this earth For anything that you could offer them Except to sacrifice for the sake of Allah again Do you know how many people have been saved from the hellfire By witnessing the people of Ghazal? You know how many people have embraced Islam And for that will have their salvation in the hereafter?

Why? We've got to manifest this stuff We've got to teach this stuff Which teaches people goodness

Transcript for:Lessons from Ibrahim's Tests and Legacy

Transcript for:
Lessons from Ibrahim's Tests and Legacy