Imam Ahmed (Rah)'s Son, comes to him, says
When Does this hardship stop?
When do we breathe? when do we relax?
When do we get a break?
Imam Ahmed (Rah) says what to his son....
the number one ingredient!
When we ourselves go through this life
as individuals or as a community through hardships, the number one ingredient;
the number one component of patience is paradise.
And this is throughout the Quran and the Sunnah.
And I'll even share with you some things that are very known to you.
The stories that I'll share with you
in the next few minutes are probably known to most of you.
And you've heard the many times the focus on the familiar components.
Number one, the Hadith of the Prophet (pbuh), where he said
to the woman that was grieving; patience is at the first strike.
What does that look like as a community?
When a community is hit hard;
What it looks like is Uhud.
When the prophe (pbuh) is still covered in blood,
He almost died.
He lost his uncle.
He lost some of his most beloved companions.
And the believers have tasted worldly
defeat for the first time in the context of battle.
And of course, it was because of those that disobeyed the prophet (pbuh),
came down from the mountain of the archers and
left them vulnerable from the back after they had initial victory.
So that's another part of this.
But is when my loved ones are still out there
and the blood is still fresh and I can see them mutilating their bodies.
And I hate to be vivid and vulgar, but let's let's be honest;
What are we seeing right now with our
brothers and sisters in Gaza and in so many other parts of the world.
Just,
you know, things that break the heart.....
that we have now retreated
to the mountains and we are looking at the battlefield when these disgusting
actions are taking place, when these people who have no moral fiber
are pouring wine on dead corpses and mutilating our loved ones,
even though the previous battle, despite us being the persecuted ones,
we let their prisoners go for teaching people how to read,
showed them benevolence and generosity that was unheard of in the Arab world.
But now this is what they're doing to us.
And when Abu Suffian calls out to the prophet (pbuh), Abu bakr and Omar (ra)....
May Hubal (a god worshipped in pre-Islamic Arabia) be exalted.
He exalts the idol.
We've just been struck.
Does the prophet (pbuh), Abu Bakr and Omar (ra) need time
to process what has happened so that they can respond?
No, immediately;
God is greater than Hubal, more exalted than your idol.
But Abu Sufian says, wait a minute, this is our victory parade.
He says we have Uzza means another idol and you have no Uzza.
What's the answer?
Right away; God is our protector.
You have no protector. Wait a minute.
This is our victory parade.
You're supposed to be hurt right now.
You're supposed to be confused and lost.
And so he shouts out what?
The day of Uhud and for the day of Badr.
We got revenge on you.
We win.
What's the response from the prophet (pbuh)?
Your dead ones are in the fire.
Our dead ones are in paradise.
Think about that.
first strike for a community and how the community responds
of the prophet (pbuh) with the first strike of patience
And it revolves around what? Jannah / paradise.
How consistent is this in the discourse of the prophet (pbuh); when he walks
by in his most painful moments in Mecca,
where they are persecuting the weakest among the believers,
Sumayyah (Ra),
a black woman who had no tribe to protect her,
who had no wealth to protect her, who was being punished cruelly
by the pharaoh of that society, Abu Jahl, and Sumayyah (Ra),
She's going through that. And Yasir, as he's going through that and
as Amar is going through that and the worst types of torture,
disgusting things and the prophet (pbuh) can't physically do anything.
He's.... he's unable. We're stuck.
We're under persecution.
And the only sentence,
the prophet (pbuh)... by the way, he loves us more than we love ourselves.
The prophet (pbuh) saw people in pain and
he saw animals in pain and it broke his heart; peace be upon him,
It made him cry
and it led him to do things, (pbu), to offer recourse,
he saw the woman on the enemy side that was killed unjustly.
And the prophet (pbuh) stops his army and demands justice
for the woman on the other side, an unknown woman from the enemy side.
How about Sumayyah; watching Sumayyah be tortured?
And the prophet (pbuh) says, be patient, oh family of Yasir.
You have an appointment in Paradise.
Paradise is waiting for you.
Jannah is waiting for you. It's waiting for you.
And Asiya (A.S) was being tortured.
The wife of the pharaoh himself as he was
torturing his wife Asiya (A.S) and she looked up to the sky.
She didn't have the prophet (pbuh) to say to her, your place is in paradise.
Be patient, oh Asiya, Your place is in paradise.
But what was the first thing that came to her mind?
Oh Allah, All this
just build me a house with You in paradise.
And Allah showed her home in paradise as she left this world.
Those who say that our Lord is Allah
and then they are firm, the angels come down to them.
Do not fear.
Remember, we seek refuge in Allah from grief and anxiety.
Don't be afraid. Don't grieve and don't be afraid.
The first thing you hear from them of a guarantee,
glad tidings of the paradise that you have been promised.
Paradise , it's there for you.
This promise that was given to you.
Allah did not promise you, Allah did not promise you as an individual
that you're going to see perfect justice in your life, in this life.
And sometimes you know how we comfort ourselves.
We think about just, the day of judgment and payback.
Payback, right?
I'm going to see that tyrant on the day of judgment.
And I know the day of judgment is there
and that tyrant will face their consequences.
But just as I take some comfort in knowing
that the tyrants and the wrongdoer and the oppressor will face their
consequences in the hereafter, what am I looking forward to?
The reward after that's for me, that Jannah, if I'm patient.
That paradise, if I'm patient.
Allah promised us that paradise If we are patient.
Allah promised us that paradise if we are steadfast,
over and over again in the biography of the prophet (pbuh).
And sometimes it's not even injustice,
it's when you're at the end of a sickness, it's when it's over.
It's when there is... there doesn't seem to be a way out.
And the answer from the prophet (pbuh) every time is paradise.
The woman who had epilepsy
that comes to the prophet (pbuh) and complained about her condition
and Rasulullah (pbuh) would make dua for healing for people all the time
and he would heal people that seemingly we're not healable.
But with this particular woman,
he says to her, If you want, I will ask Allah (swt) to cure you.
But listen, for you only, this is not for everyone.
But Allah has something for you.
If you are patient, you have paradise waiting for you.
She said, no, no, I'm going to be patient.
Haritha bin Suraqa (ra), the young man who died in badr,
and his mother comes to the battlefield
and Haritha was very close to his mother, extremely close to his mother.
And she says to the prophet (pbuh), oh messenger of Allah,
I need to know where my son is, subhanAllah.
I need to know where he is, not where he is in the battlefield.
If you tell me right now he's in paradise, I'm going to be patient.
If he didn't make it,
if he didn't make it, then I'm going to cry more and more and more and more.
And the prophet (pbuh) tells on Haritha, Jannah is not just one level,
Jannah is multiple levels.
And your son Haritha is Jannah al firdous,
is in the highest level of paradise.
May Allah (swt) grant it to all of us, Allahumma ameen.
She said, in that case, I'm patient, I'm OK.
Imam Ahmmed (Rah)'s son comes to him, says, when does this hardship stop?
When do we breathe? When do we relax?
When do we get a break?
Imam (Ahmed) says what to his son,
The first footstep we take in paradise. That's it.
We'll be good at that point. We'll be good at that point.
Dear brothers and sisters, I'm sharing this particular part because
it is in every part of the Quran and every part of the sunnah
when we comfort ourselves,
when we comfort others, which is even more important than
comforting ourselves to remind about paradise,
to remind about Jannah, and to be certain in Jannah,
not to be, not
to feel like it's guaranteed to you; to be certain that it is there
and to strive towards it and to seek its reward and to seek its bounty.
And if you attach yourself enough to that,
then everything else gets put into perspective.
Allah tells us in surahtul Al-Ghashiyah,
when He's talking about the people as they enter into paradise.
and what does Allah (swt) say?
you know, everyone talks about a need to disconnect, now.
what's a vacation now?
A vacation doesn't really matter as much
about the scenery, as it matters about your phone not being with you now, right?
I just don't want to be bothered.
I want to not have any concerns.
I want to not have any worries.
I want to relax, relax the spirits.
Your sunset and sunrise are beautiful outside your window, too.
You know, I just want to relax.
I want to get a break.
And if you think about a great vacation
that you have as a kid or as an adult, and you knew that two weeks from now,
there's this vacation that we're going to take.
We already booked the tickets.
We've already seen the pictures. We know it's there.
We know the vacation is coming.
Then that gets you through your workload
like, all right, I'm at work really hard for the next few weeks because I know
at the end I'm going to take this amazing vacation.
be patient, paradise has an appointment for you.
It has a slot for you.
It has a spot for you.
And the prophet (pbuh) said Whoever asks Allah
for paradise three times, paradise responds and says,
oh Allah! enter him into paradise.
May Allah (swt) grant it to us, May Allah (swt) grant the best of this life
and the best of the next.
May Allah (swt) protect us from harm in this life and in the next.
May Allah (swt) allow us to always have perspective and patience.
May Allah (swt) make us among the recipients of His promised paradise.
May Allah (swt) grant us paradise with our beloved prophet (pbuh),
and the prophets and the righteous ones that came before us
and that will come after us.
May Allah (swt) gather us all in jannatul firdaus.
May Allah (swt) grant us patience always and grant us perspective always.
May Allah (swt) allow us to act with righteousness in our good times
and our bad times and to seek that which He has promised us of His reward
in our good times and our bad times - Allahhuma Ameen.