Are Hardships My Fault, or a Test from Allah? | Khutbah Highlights | Nouman Ali Khan

in the moral world you missed a Salah you woke up late you didn't pray F and now you're praying at late and then that day you had a job interview and the job interview didn't go well and you're like this is because I miss Salah now the answer to that is it may be and it may not be and there's no way you will ever know there is no way you or anyone else will ever know but the thing that will help you is the thing that will help me is that Allah says I will

be as you assume me to be if you're assuming Allah took Revenge from you and put this on you because you missed fudger then that's who Allah is to you now but the thing here that I wanted to highlight is what is the role of our Iman the fact that we're Believers that we believe in Allah and our ability to deal with calamity and how are we supposed to respond to Calamity as Believers I you know for a lot of people who's and this actually depends on our level of understanding of what it means to

have a relationship with Allah subhah wa tala on the one hand the first thing I'd like to explain to you that the Quran is very wise about is to make a separation between two different kinds of bad situations there's a bad situation that looks like a bad situation that was completely out of your control you could do nothing about it you got stuck in a flood you didn't cause the flood you just happened to be living there there was no way for you to escape or you happen to be traveling you had no idea it

was coming it wasn't on any reports or anything else that's not you that's entirely planned by Allah you had nothing to do with it there was no way you could have gotten out of it this is not the same as someone who reads the news report and says hey there's a there there's a major storm coming please Evacuate the city and it's there's there's a tsunami heading our way and somebody says you know this is a good time to check out the beach and they head towards the beach and then something bad happens to them

they don't get to say what can I say Allah had decided that I was going to run into this H you don't get to say that and Allah is very clear about that he subhah says there's there's not a Calamity that strikes you and there's any manner of calamities that strike you or something that hits you is because of what you earned with your own hands you brought this on yourself now that's if you only thought of it that way that would also be a problem because if you're going down the stairs and you slipped

and you fell then you start thinking to yourself I must have done some sin and that's why Allah made me fall down the stairs this is a sign from Allah that I have committed some evil and Allah is teaching me a lesson by you know breaking my arm on this in the hotel lobby or something you know you start reading into things that happen to you and you start thinking there's some cause and effect and that can go into an extreme so the the the thing that I'd like to highlight here are human beings Believers

in Allah can go into two extremes one extreme is everything happened because of Allah I have nothing to do with it Whatever happened I can't you can't blame me this whatever Calamity strikes to you it comes to you because of Allah's he said that in he said it directly it happens by Allah's permission this was Allah's plan what are you what are you going to do so some student can not study for their exams and not do any of the assignments and get fail and fail and be kicked out of the school and then say

what do you want me to do of Allah they get to blame Allah On The Other Extreme there's the believer who blames everything on himself Allah is doing this to me because I'm a terrible person this happened to me because I'm a horrible human being and then there it doesn't help when other ignorant people around you and sometimes a lot of ignorance comes from your own family they come and tell you you know why this happened to you because you're a bad daughter you know why this happened to you because you're a bad son you

know why this happened to you because you're not good to your in-laws or whatever no I just got in a car accident cuz a truck came and hit me and he crossed a red light not because I argued with you know my wife or something something it's not the reason but other people will come and tell you this is happening to you Allah is doing this to you because of that because of that like they got an email from the that told them that this is the reason why this happened cause and effect so there

are these two extremes that are possible what do the Quran do the Quran in everything gives us balance in everything we understand in life it gives us balance and by the way if you don't have this balance you lose a lot of Peace in life you know it gives another meaning to by remembering Allah hearts become calm if you the the ultimate remembrance of Allah the is actually the book of Allah you know and the Book of Allah clarifies how Allah deals with us in this life so I would argue that if you're just saying

Subhan Allah or alhamdulillah and your understanding of what Allah wants you to you know how Allah deals with you is flawed you still might not find peace even though you're inshallah you will if you're sincere but the intent here is to be clear in how Allah deals with us so I'd like to share some things about that with you as far as blaming myself is concerned and you know where do we draw the line between this is from Allah and this is my fault where do you draw that line you know in the physical world

it's very easy to understand what do I mean by the physical world in the physical world if I put instead of putting gasoline in my car I put water in my car and it didn't work then you don't get clearly you don't get to say this was Allah's plan that was you so physically speaking or if you're eating junk food food and you're constantly eating all kinds of sugary foods and then you get a diagnosis for diabetes at the age of 45 then you don't get to say Allah this m has come to me I

don't you know it's a test from Allah no it's a test of your bad appetite you don't eat cucumbers you eat Swiss Rolls or whatever you eat you know you you've been Downing junk and that's why this happened to you you understand so that that in in the physical world the the cause and effect there's an effect it's something that all human beings with common sense understand in the moral world you missed a Salah you woke up late you didn't pray fud and now you're praying at late and then that day you had a job

interview and the job interview didn't go well and you're like this is because I miss Salah now the answer to that is it maybe and it may not be and there's no way you will ever know there is no way you or anyone else will ever know but the thing that will help you is the thing that will help me is that Allah says I will be as you assume me to be if you're assuming Allah took Revenge from you and put this on you because you missed fuder then that's who Allah is to you

now if you assume no this is better this this job I tried my best I did a good job at the interview but this was not a good job for me had been good for me Allah would have let it go Allah Allah would have given me this job if you have that attitude then that is who Allah is to you despite all of your mistakes despite you missing waking up late our job when we make mistakes is to make not wait for Allah's Revenge please understand that our job is not oh I messed up

now Allah is going to get me somehow it's going to happen no no no no no no no that's not what Allah does which is why Allah says whatever Calamity struck you whatever difficulty you find yourselves in a lot of it has to do with what you did yourselves with your own hands you brought this on yourself and even in the spiritual sense sometimes there are difficulties that come on us because of our Deeds if you are for example continuously horrible to your parents and then bad stuff comes to you in your life that probably

there is some connection there is some and then in those kinds of cases what does Allah do he says he pardons a lot too in the physical world if I jump off of a second floor building there are going to be consequences Allah will not say no this time I'll forgive you I won't break your leg no no it's it's going to what's going to happen is going to happen when you put your hand in a fire it is going to burn Allah is not going well you prayed fud this morning so no not for

you it won't burn for you that's not going to happen but when it comes to spiritual consequences he says when you do a sin then Allah says actually Allah lets a lot of it go he doesn't just avenge immediately he doesn't just take you know uh immediate account and then make you suffer in this world because of the mistake you made he doesn't do that that's the nature of Allah with us this is something you have to internalize for yourself I would argue the reason the reason I brought up this particular subject is because um

one of the greatest crimes spiritual crimes that occurs every day in the umah is at the hands of loved ones to loved ones parents spouses husbands we have sometimes the most the worst things to say to our loved ones and sometimes we say those things in the name of Allah Allah will punish you for what you just did there will be Justice on you Allah doesn't Allah will not forgive what you you know and mother can say that to her child wife can say to husband siblings can say to each other like invoking like Allah

is some angry weapon that you can invoke because you're upset Allah must be upset and you can just use Allah like that that's not our place and you know for a lot of people they've heard this kind of thing so many times over and over and over again that they have become far away from Allah himself they heard from their loved ones they heard from their a child heard from his father or his his mother all the time Allah will punish you if you don't pray Allah is going to get you if you don't pray

Allah going to you know Allah is very angry at you cuz you ate that cookie like constantly Allah is angry Allah is angry Allah is angry when that young boy becomes a 16 17 18 years old 18y old he wants nothing to do with Allah and when he hears Allah is merciful and Allah is forgiving he has a hard time believing it cuz that's not what he grew up with he did not grow up with a when Allah with an Allah who is forgiving or an Allah who's merciful as a matter of fact every time

he got in trouble it's because of Allah he got in trouble that's how he got in trouble and then those same parents say we taught this child about Allah from the beginning I don't know why he's running away from Dean yeah but which Allah did you teach him about an angry Allah an Allah that seeks to punish Allah says what's Allah going to get out of punishing you that's what Allah says himself what is he why is he in just the business of coming after you going at you so what happens with people they are

in a difficult situation and what did they do they're constantly thinking Allah is getting them Allah is hurting them Allah is doing this to them you know I was reminded by a colleague of mine I was just when I was coming here to Malaysia out of nowhere this has never happened I developed this crazy bacterial infection thing in my in my tonsils and it swelled up and my half of my neck was completely blocked and I felt like I was drowning in one nostril and I'm still on the plane and I get halfway through to

Abu Dhabi on the way here I run over to a clinic and say you have to you know take these heavy medications I come here they the recommendation is I should go to surgery I like what is going on this is and they even told me this never happens like this is really crazy this is I've never in my entire career of 30 years I've seen like one other case of this and I'm was lying there in the hospital bed waiting for a surgery to take place and I'm thinking and I was reminded by a

colleague this is the best place you could have been like this there's no better place than this hospital bed for you at this moment that is Allah's plan for you here I am thinking I have to cancel this program I can't go over here I can't go over there how are we going to manage this situation that situation that calendar that meeting all this way I came all this way and now look I didn't get to do this that or the other and then all of a sudden just that little reminder you're just like yeah

this is the best place I should be this is this there's no better place because this wasn't planned by me this was planned by Allah this is entirely planned by Allah we have to have a closeness to Allah that when he plans something for you and me even when it's painful he doesn't do it for anything except love that Allah loves his that he loves what is best for them he loves us more than we could ever love ourselves he cares more for us than we can ever care for ourselves he provides us more than

we could ever provide for ourselves when we forget that when we forget that guidance goes away Allah says on the same issue whatever Calamity strikes you it comes from Allah it came by Allah's permission and whoever can have IM in Allah at that time you have IM in Allah anyway you believe in one God but when you're when you're in a difficulty that's when you start questioning why is Allah doing this right that's the time when Allah puts the words whoever can truly believe in Allah then yeah you always say Allah isman do you really

feel Allah is right now now right now he's probably right now he's probably the one who takes Revenge right now it's probably Jabar notman right now that see your IM went away your IM andman went away when you were in difficulty Allah says if you can have IM Inman at that time the best of Allah's names the best of what is Allah is to you what he described himself to you at that moment then what gift will Allah give you and this is the conclusion to my what is it that Allah will give you I

want health I want recovery I want a job I want money I want a better family situation I want Escape some people just want Escape I just want this other person to stop hurting me I want people to stop talking about me whatever it is there's something that's bothering you and it's eating away at you and if you think if that problem went away you would have peace what does Allah give you when you can trust him he doesn't end your problems this life problems will not go away if problems were going to go away

they would have gone away for Yam a lot sooner than for you and me if the pro if no problems would have come because we have IM that should not have had problems should not have had problems you study the people that are closest to Allah and all you're studying are problems really big ones their entire life that's all you're studying you're just learning about one problem to the next to the next to the next to the next that's all you're learning yuam a great profound messenger of Allah and I mean from childhood there are

problems from childhood there are problems so what I keep asking that question what is it that Allah has given you what do you get when you completely put your trust in Allah in the middle in the thick of a difficulty when everybody else is telling you Allah is on the one hand people are telling you Allah is angry at you that's why this is happening Allah hates you that's why this is happening on the other hand you start thinking Allah is punishing me that's why this is happening at that moment when you can have the

best impression of Allah and maintain your love and Reliance and bond with Allah that Allah is has not let you go he hasn't what does he give you he guides this person's heart he gives their heart guidance I can guarantee you when your problem goes away if it's a money problem if money comes in if it's a health problem and health comes back if it's a family problem the family problem goes away none of the good things in this life are worth anything compared to that one gift I hope you guys enjoyed that video clip

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