Jump to:
Khutbahs
You're Being Tested AND Trained | Khutbah by Dr. Omar Suleiman
Allah tests His servants in different ways, and what may feel like punishment can often be a path to growth, purification, and deeper faith. In this khutbah, Dr. Omar Suleiman explains how challenges can serve as a form of refinement, drawing you closer to Allah and shaping you into a better believer.
This transcript was auto-generated using AI and may contain misspellings.
We begin by praising Allah and bear witness that none has the right to be worshipped or unconditionally obeyed except for Him. And we bear witness that Muhammad (ﷺ) is His final messenger.
We ask Allah to send His peace and blessings upon him, the prophets and messengers that came before him, his family and companions that served alongside him, and those that follow in his blessed path until the Day of Judgment. And we ask Allah to make us amongst them. Allahumma ameen.
Dear brothers and sisters, Imam Ibn al-Qayyim, rahimahullah ta'ala, he says in his famous collection of al-fawa'id, of sayings of benefit, he says rahimahullah ta'ala,
لما طلب آدم الخلود في الجنة من جانب الشجرة، عوقب بالخروج منها
When Adam (عليه السلام) sought relief, or sought immortality rather, through eating from the forbidden tree, he was punished by being expelled from paradise altogether.
ولما طلب يوسف الخروج من السجن من جهة صاحب الرؤيا، لبث فيه بضع سنين
And when Yusuf (عليه السلام) sought release from prison by asking the man who was on his
way out, the freed prisoner, to mention him in the presence of the king, then he was left to dwell in prison for many years.
Seven years, nine years, up to twelve years according to some of the mufassireen. So I'm going to repeat in English, when Adam (عليه السلام) sought immortality, sought to
live forever in paradise, by eating from the forbidden tree, he was punished by being expelled from paradise altogether.
And when Yusuf (عليه السلام) sought relief from prison by mentioning to the prisoner
on his way out, remember me, mention me to the king, he was left to dwell in prison for many years. Over the past few weeks, we've been talking about how Allah subhanahu wa ta'ala punishes
and how Allah rewards, qadr versus karma as it would be used. The idea of Allah azza wa jal hastening a punishment for someone.
But this saying can feel a little bit unsettling and awkward because these are anbiya we're talking about. These are prophets of Allah that we're talking about. So what do you mean Allah subhanahu wa ta'ala punished Adam (عليه السلام) by expelling him
from paradise? What did Yusuf (عليه السلام) even do in the first place for him to be in prison for so many years? And so I want to break down this statement, bi idhnillahi ta'ala, in different ways.
And subhanAllah, it is such a rich statement as the sayings of Ibn al-Qayyim rahimahullah are in this short book in general that you could spend hours with the single statement.
First and foremost, dear brothers and sisters, start with Adam (عليه السلام) because it's the most obvious of the two stories. And look at the way that shaytan deceives.
Adam (عليه السلام) was given a promise by the devil that let me show you a tree, shajarat
al-khuld, a tree that will allow you to live forever and that will grant you mulk, that will grant you dominion that will not expire, that will grant you possessions that will not expire.
And you think to yourself, subhanAllah, this was already the station in Jannah. This was already the state in paradise that so long as nothing is done, and of course,
when we enter paradise, bi idhnillahi ta'ala, may Allah azza wa jal enter us into it without any form of punishment or any form of accountability. Once we enter paradise, after yawm al-hisab, there is no leaving it.
But in the case of Adam (عليه السلام), he was already living in that situation that shaytan was selling him. So talk about a false advertisement. But shaytan preys on our insecurities.
He preys on the void or the weakness that we might have. You can imagine with Adam (عليه السلام) being the first of humanity, the father of humanity,
that he doesn't have all of the answers as to what's going to happen next. He doesn't know what's coming next. And so there comes the whisper of shaytan. Let me take you to this tree.
If you eat from this tree, you'll live forever here and you will have access to possessions that never expire. That's Adam (عليه السلام). He made a mistake.
He was forgiven for that mistake. He sincerely repented. He was forgiven. And he lived with the consequence that was always decreed for a greater purpose. That's Adam (عليه السلام).
But Ibn al-Qayyim rahimahullah, the point that he's making here is not about sin in the way that we usually talk about it in terms of consequence. And that's why he's bringing Yusuf (عليه السلام) here.
Adam (عليه السلام) reached for the tree with his hands. Yusuf (عليه السلام), slightly perhaps with his heart, reached for help from someone else.
And Allah subhanahu wa ta'ala wanted to teach Yusuf (عليه السلام) a lesson, not from a place of punishment for a direct sin that he committed, but from something else altogether. That what do you reach for?
What is your heart inclined towards? What are you looking for? Who do you turn to with the insecurities that you have inside? And how do you purify your heart so that it's only for Allah subhanahu wa ta'ala when you
seek betterment in this life or elevation in the next? Imam Ahmad rahimahullah ta'ala, he has a narration in Kitab al-Zuhd, in the book of Asceticism. And the hadith that is mentioned is narrated in almost every book of tafsir.
However, the sanad, the chain, is not established. But the meaning is established and it's a plentiful narration. I want you to pay attention to the backstory that he gives. He says that Imam al-Hasan al-Basri rahimahullah said,
ذُكِرَ لَنَا أَنَّ النَّبِيَّ ﷺ قَالَ رَحِمَ اللَّهُ يُوسُفَ لَوْلَا كَلِمَتُهُ مَا لَبِثَ فِي السِّجْنِ طُولَ مَا لَبِثَ That the Prophet (ﷺ), that we were told that the Prophet (ﷺ)
said, may Allah have mercy on Yusuf, had he not said that word to the prisoner on his way out. What did he say? اذْكُرْنِي عِنْدَ رَبِّكَ Mention me to the king, mention me to your master, meaning the king.
Had he not said that word to him, he would not have stayed in prison for as long as he stayed. And in al-Zuhd, Imam Ahmad says that when al-Hasan al-Basri narrated this narration,
he started to cry. And he said نَحْنُ إِذَا نَزَلَ بِنَا أَمْرٌ فَزِعْنَا إِلَى النَّاسِ We are a people that when something happens to us, we immediately run towards people.
When we are struck by something in this world, our first instinct, and that's the point, our first instinct is to find a human being that can help us out in this situation.
In Ruh al-Ma'ani, al-Imam al-Alusi, he has a narration from Anas ibn Malik (رضي الله عنه) that says قِيلَ أَوْحَى اللَّهُ إِلَى يُوسُفَ That Allah said to Yusuf (عليه السلام)
مَنْ أَنْقَذَكَ مِنَ الْقَتْلِ إِذْ هَمَّ إِخْوَتُكَ بِكَ Who is the one that saved you from being killed when your brothers plotted against you? قَالَ أَنْتَ يَا رَبِّ He said, You, O my Lord.
قَالَ فَمَنْ أَنْقَذَكَ مِنَ الْجُبِّ And who saved you from the well? قَالَ أَنْتَ يَا رَبِّ He said, and You, O my Lord. قَالَ فَمَنْ صَرَفَ عَنْكَ كَيْدَ امْرَأَةِ الْعَزِيزِ
And who is the one that averted from you the plot of the wife of al-Aziz? He said, أَنْتَ يَا رَبِّ, You, O my Lord. قَالَ فَلِمَ ذَكَرْتَ الْمَخْلُوقَ وَلَمْ تَذْكُرْنِي
So Allah said to him, so why did you mention the creation instead of Me in this situation? Is Yusuf (عليه السلام) sinful? No. Pay attention dear brothers and sisters.
The higher the station of a person, the more subtle the correction becomes. The more the details start to be highlighted in that person's life.
Let's not forget that Yusuf (عليه السلام) is the great grandson of Ibrahim (عليه السلام). And Ibrahim (عليه السلام) was put to the test of sacrificing his son Ismail (عليه السلام),
the great uncle of Yusuf (عليه السلام). Why? So that the heart would be freed only for Allah subhanahu wa ta'ala. The higher you elevate or the higher your station,
the more the scrutiny to those details, the attention to those details becomes. And so as the ulama mentioned with Adam (عليه السلام), there's an obvious mistake. There's an obvious need for tawbah.
It is verbal. There's a direct consequence and there's a direct restoration after the consequence. Because the one who repents from a sin is like the one who never sinned at all.
With Yusuf (عليه السلام), there is no verbal correction. There is no punishment, no blame that is given to him as you're reading through the story.
It's silence because Yusuf (عليه السلام) technically did not do anything wrong. But Allah azza wa jal has a different plan in place for him.
It's not a punishment for wrongdoing. It's tarbiyah. Allah raising his servants. I'm going to say that again. It is not a punishment for a wrongdoing.
It's Allah subhanahu wa ta'ala raising a servant. Tarbiyah. The more you open yourself up to Allah subhanahu wa ta'ala with the desire to be made better
and to be made the best version of yourself for Him, the more that those details start to matter. And subhanAllah, two weeks ago we spoke about early consequence in this world.
The young man who gets hit in the face with a wall. And that's a mercy of Allah subhanahu wa ta'ala. It's a means of purifying him from his sins.
And in this situation with Yusuf (عليه السلام), there is a delay of any type of relief. And that is for elevation. This is where you get to refinement.
This is where Allah subhanahu wa ta'ala builds your spiritual muscle of tawakkul, of reliance upon Him altogether. And I give you this example that if you look at someone that's playing street
football or street basketball or whatever it may be. You know, as long as they can get the ball in the goal, then they're good. But when you're trying to train that person to get to a place of professionalism,
then the subtleties all suddenly matter. They're not even observable to the naked eye. Where, you know, you're watching the Arab Cup maybe, where the hips are, where the positioning are, the foot position here, where the field is. To you it just looks like people running around the fields.
But there's a science to it that's not even observable to the naked eye. And that is because they're at a different level. The higher you try to ascend with Allah subhanahu wa ta'ala,
the more that you start paying attention to those levels. And so with Yusuf (عليه السلام), what are the lessons that we can take in this regard?
Yusuf (عليه السلام) sought a permissible sabab, a permissible means for relieving himself. He did nothing wrong.
When we are going through something, we have the ability to seek permissible means to elevate ourselves or to alleviate a situation. We have the ability to do that. But where is the heart attached to?
Is it attached to musabbib al-asbab subhanahu wa ta'ala, the one who makes all means? Or is it attached to the means itself? There's a question of instinct here, that when something happens to you, how quick and how sincere is the du'a?
Sometimes it's not about your heart turning towards sin. It's about how slowly your heart turned towards Him subhanahu wa ta'ala. So how quickly and earnestly and sincerely do you turn towards Allah first to get you out of that situation?
And then you take the asbab, you take the means. Because Allah azza wa jal commanded you to take the means, but you truly believe that relief comes from Him. And what's the connection that the ulama will mention in this regard
between the situation of Adam (عليه السلام) and the situation of Yusuf (عليه السلام)? If a person starts to depend too much even on halal means, and they start to believe their relief is there.
So you look around and you think alhamdulillah, I have safety because I live here. Alhamdulillah, I have money because I have this much money in my account. Alhamdulillah, I don't have to worry about this because I can always call upon this person.
I'm secure from this route, secure from that route, secure from this route. I always have a material solution to a material problem. Pay very close attention to this.
If you start to think that way about halal means and you become a slave to your means, then you could fall to a haram means, a haram sabab, when you believe that you need relief and that's the only way to get yourself out of it.
Do you understand this connection? So you won't be someone who necessarily sins right away, but you might be someone who first and foremost turns to other than Allah subhanahu wa ta'ala
and you believe that it's always going to come from something like this. And so at some point you compromise your principles because you become a slave to means. You become a slave to this and a slave to that.
And there comes a point in your life where your connections fail you, where your contacts aren't responding to you, where everything that you've put stock in has nothing to avail you in the situation that you are in.
And in that there is no rebuke, there's no condemnation. That's Allah subhanahu wa ta'ala developing a connection for you to Him that allows you to depend solely on Him subhanahu wa ta'ala.
That allows you to reach to a different level that perhaps you would not have been able to reach otherwise. So He wants your heart to arrive to Him before His relief arrives to you. And that's why Allah azza wa jal delays you.
That's why your means start to fail you so that you can truly start to find in your du'a and your connection to Him that that's where all goodness is going to come from in the first place.
Shaytan betrays us with the benefits that Allah azza wa jal gave to us. Who put Adam (عليه السلام) in paradise in the first place? Who put the trees in Jannah in the first place?
Who put the benefits and the values in what is in Jannah in the first place? Likewise, who put us here first? Who gave us something to strive for?
Who is the one that controls us and that oversees us mentally, physically, emotionally, physiologically with all of these small processes? But you start to believe that your happiness is in something else.
You start to believe that your success is in something else. So what does this look like practically? You start preferring something other than what Allah prescribed as a means of your goodness.
And in the worst manifestation of that, it's sin. It's sin. And in the worst manifestation of sin, it's actually turning to other than Allah subhanahu wa ta'ala altogether. May Allah azza wa jal protect us from it altogether. Allahumma ameen.
You stop believing, dear brothers and sisters, that anything can benefit you or harm you except by His permission subhanahu wa ta'ala.
On a practical level, that looks like your daily operation of turning to Allah subhanahu wa ta'ala. When you want that job, when you want that rizq, who do you call upon first? When you want that relief, who do you call upon first?
When you are feeling alone and abandoned, who do you call upon first? What is it that you turn to most earnestly in the first place? And I end subhanAllah with something exceedingly beautiful.
And I caution with this exceedingly beautiful narration because again, it comes in one of the multiple narrations in tafsir. So you don't have to memorize the du'a that I'm going to share with you. Capture the spirit of it.
And if you want to memorize the du'a, not because it's something that's from the Prophet (ﷺ) directly, but because the spirit of it is so beautiful, then you can go back and listen to the khutbah later on and you can memorize it slowly.
But Ibn Abbas (رضي الله عنهما), he says in one of the narrations of tafsir, that جَاءَ جِبْرِيلُ عَلَيْهِ السَّلَامُ إِلَى يُوسُفَ عَلَيْهِ السَّلَامِ That Jibril (عليه السلام) came to Yusuf (عليه السلام) when he was in prison.
And he said to him, يَا يُوسُفُ أَشْتَدَّ عَلَيْكَ الْحَبْسُ Has captivity become too severe for you?
May Allah azza wa jal free all of our Muslim prisoners around the world. Allahumma ameen. May Allah free all of those that are unjustly captured. Allahumma ameen. It's a difficult place to be in. And this is also a reality, by the way, into that window.
Yusuf (عليه السلام) with his taqwa and his beauty, prison was tough for Yusuf (عليه السلام). Prison was tough on Yusuf (عليه السلام). But he said, Prison is more beloved to me than being displeasing to Allah subhanahu wa ta'ala,
than giving in to my desires. But it's tough. It's a human condition. May Allah free all of our prisoners all over the world. Allahumma ameen. So, يَا يُوسُفُ, has prison become very difficult for you? He said, Yes.
So, Jibril (عليه السلام) said,
اللَّهُمَّ اجْعَلْ لِي مِنْ كُلِّ مَا أَهَمَّنِي وَكَرَبَنِي مِنْ أَمْرِ دُنْيَايَ وَآخِرَتِي فَرَجًا وَمَخْرَجًا
وَارْزُقْنِي مِنْ حَيْثُ لَا أَحْتَسِبُ وَاغْفِرْ لِي ذَنْبِي Listen to the end of this du'a, because it's very profound.
These words are so profound. ثَبِّتْ لِي رَجَائِي وَاقْطَعْهُ عَمَّنْ سِوَاكَ My raja'. Let my hope be cut off.
حَتَّى لَا أَرْجُوَ أَحَدًا غَيْرَكَ May Allah subhanahu wa ta'ala allow us to direct our longing and our hope and our awe
and our fear and our love and all of the most intense emotions that allow us to build the most intense relationship with Him
so that nothing of this world can distract us from Him or take us away from Him or take us to that which is displeasing to Him. May Allah subhanahu wa ta'ala fill our hearts with the love of Him
so that we don't depend on the means that He provides, but we depend on Him subhanahu wa ta'ala, the maker of all means. May Allah subhanahu wa ta'ala allow every hastening and every delay
that He gives to us in this world to be for our benefit and our purification and our elevation. And may Allah subhanahu wa ta'ala make us a people that seek Him before all else and seek Him above all else.
الْحَمْدُ لِلَّهِ وَالصَّلَاةُ وَالسَّلَامُ عَلَى رَسُولِ اللَّهِ وَعَلَى آلِهِ وَصَحْبِهِ وَمَنْ وَالَاهُ
اللَّهُمَّ اغْفِرْ لِلْمُؤْمِنِينَ وَالْمُؤْمِنَاتِ وَالْمُسْلِمِينَ وَالْمُسْلِمَاتِ الْأَحْيَاءِ مِنْهُمْ وَالْأَمْوَاتِ إِنَّكَ سَمِيعٌ قَرِيبٌ مُجِيبُ الدَّعَوَاتِ اللَّهُمَّ اغْفِرْ لَنَا وَارْحَمْنَا وَاعْفُ عَنَّا وَلَا تُؤَاخِذْنَا
رَبَّنَا ظَلَمْنَا أَنفُسَنَا وَإِن لَّمْ تَغْفِرْ لَنَا وَتَرْحَمْنَا لَنَكُونَنَّ مِنَ الْخَاسِرِينَ اللَّهُمَّ إِنَّكَ عَفُوٌّ كَرِيمٌ تُحِبُّ الْعَفْوَ فَاعْفُ عَنَّا اللَّهُمَّ اغْفِرْ لِلْوَالِدَيْنَا رَبِّ ارْحَمْهُمَا كَمَا رَبَّيَانَا صِغَارًا
رَبَّنَا هَبْ لَنَا مِنْ أَزْوَاجِنَا وَذُرِّيَّاتِنَا قُرَّةَ أَعْيُنٍ وَاجْعَلْنَا لِلْمُتَّقِينَ إِمَامًا اللَّهُمَّ انصُرْ إِخْوَانَنَا الْمُسْتَضْعَفِينَ فِي كُلِّ مَكَانٍ اللَّهُمَّ انصُرْهُمْ فِي فِلَسْطِينَ وَفِي السُّودَانِ وَفِي الْيَمَنِ وَفِي كُلِّ مَكَانٍ
اللَّهُمَّ عَلَيْكَ بِأَعْدَائِكَ أَعْدَاءِ الدِّينِ اللَّهُمَّ أَهْلِكِ الظَّالِمِينَ بِالظَّالِمِينَ وَأَخْرِجْنَا وَإِخْوَانَنَا مِنْ بَيْنِهِمْ سَالِمِينَ إِنَّ اللَّهَ يَأْمُرُ بِالْعَدْلِ وَالْإِحْسَانِ وَإِيتَاءِ ذِي الْقُرْبَى وَيَنْهَى عَنِ الْفَحْشَاءِ وَالْمُنكَرِ وَالْبَغْيِ
يَعِظُكُمْ لَعَلَّكُمْ تَذَكَّرُونَ فَاذْكُرُوا اللَّهَ يَذْكُرْكُمْ وَاشْكُرُوهُ عَلَى نِعَمِهِ يَزِدْكُمْ وَلَذِكْرُ اللَّهِ أَكْبَرُ وَاللَّهُ يَعْلَمُ مَا تَصْنَعُونَ وَأَقِيمُوا الصَّلَاةَ
