Khutba: Contentment and Gratitude

Allah says in His Noble Book: “Say: ‘My slaves who have transgressed against yourselves, do not despair of the mercy of Allah. Verily, Allah forgives all wrong actions. He is the One Who always forgives, the Most Merciful.” Contentment and gratitude to Allah for what He has written and decreed for us is part of the Imam and the acceptance of our condition as slaves in absolute dependence on our Lord. It is of great importance in our existence as Muslims and we should never fail to recognize the gifts and mercy of Allah that we constantly receive. This, however, should not be misinterpreted to the point of confusing us and leading us to adopt an attitude of conformity. It does not mean that we abandon our hopes and aspirations or stop trying to bring about change when we are faced with difficulties or situations that clearly contradict our Deen, or when everything seems to be against us. It does not mean that we gladly accept the status quo, but on the contrary it leads to an increase in our efforts, and to us turning to Allah with more dedication. We do not complain, we do not lose hope, we do not look at life with a defeatist attitude and think that our present determines our future, but we put our trust in the One to Whom all matters belong and Who has the power over all things. Who has promised us that He is with us and watches over us every step of the way, in our darkest and brightest moments, and who never leaves us to our own devices. His Will, His strength and His power cannot be resisted.
Laa ghaliba illa-llah – there is no victor but Allah.
And He is with us, the believers, and our welfare is His business – we are under His ri’aya, His protection, each and every one of us, and our enemies are His enemies.
We should not despair of Allah’s mercy, for despair is nothing but evil opinion of our Lord and bad opinion perpetuates disorder and distress in our lives.
Allah says: “Those who think evil of Allah will suffer, evil will hover over them.”
We must stop thinking that our cause is not possible and that those who oppose us have all the power.
We cannot fall into the weakness of feeling sorry for ourselves and considering ourselves as a persecuted minority, afraid of being blamed or scapegoated for every terrorist act, which has nothing to do with us or Islam.
Let us stop looking for support from others other than Allah, from turning to others other than Allah for help, and go to Him and have a good opinion of Him.
That is the only way to move forward.
One of the Salaf said: “Whenever you are beset by some trial or tribulation, use your good opinion of Allah to lift it up, for that is the shortest (and quickest) way to openness.” He will replace fear with security, and He will make us the owners of the earth, not the victims.
That is His promise to us and Allah’s promise is always true. Allah says: “Allah has promised those of you who believe and act correctly that He will make them successors on earth as He did their ancestors to reaffirm to them the worship practice that they have, which is what He has willed for them, and to exchange their fear for security.”
The Companions went from being victims of persecution in Mecca to, fifteen years later, defeating and conquering the two great empires of the time, the Persian and Byzantine, whose armies were much larger and better equipped.
But they trusted in their Lord and had the best possible opinion of Him, and they never lost confidence, even when their cause seemed impossible and victory seemed distant and improbable.
They were implicitly confident that the outcome of their affair would be good, for the Prophet had told them that their Lord says in a Hadith Qudsi: “I agree with the opinion that my slave has of me. If he thinks his best, that’s what he’ll have, and if he thinks badly then he’ll have that.”
And Allah rewarded the good opinion of the Sahaba with His support, strengthened their arms, filled their hearts with courage and determination, and reinforced their armies with ranks of angels.
And He weakened their enemies and filled their hearts with fear and doubt.
Always holding this good opinion is the secret of existence and the key to success, both in personal life and in that of the Umma as a whole, since there is always a way out, there is always a way forward.
There is no such thing as a hopeless situation.
That is the lesson we learn from Musa, alaihissalam, who found himself along with his people trapped between the sea and Pharaoh’s great army on their heels determined to destroy them. The Banu Israel despaired, fearing the worst, and said, “They will surely overtake us.” However, Musa, alaihissalam, never wavered in his high opinion of Allah.
He said, “Never! My Lord is with me and will guide me.”
And so, with a stroke of his staff, the way was opened and the waters of the sea parted, his people were saved and his enemies drowned. That is the lesson we learn from the Prophet himself, sallallaahu ‘alayhi wa sallam, when his enemies had followed him to Zawr’s cave and it seemed impossible that they would not see or capture him, since they were standing a few meters away. Abu Bakr, his companion in the cave, said: “I said to the Prophet while we were in the cave, ‘If one of them had looked down under his feet, he would have seen us.’ He replied: “What is your opinion, Abu Bakr, of two when Allah is the Third?” He had absolute confidence in their Lord who would keep them safe, and indeed that is the essence and reality of good opinion: to be certain that Allah will keep His promise to each of us and to all Muslims, that He will answer our duas, that He will accept our good deeds and our tawba for wrong deeds, that He only submits us to what is best for us at any given moment and that He has the best outcome prepared for us. Therefore, forget what you believe to be shortcomings, forget about your own inability and the seeming impossibility of the situation you are in, and simply do what Allah commands you to do and leave what He commands you to abandon. If we do that, we will draw closer to Him and our trust in Him and our good opinion of Him will grow. And with every step we take, He will take ten steps toward us. And those commands of Allah that seemed impossible to implement will come to seem possible and even easy, and we will be able to establish the Deen in its entirety. That is His promise and guarantee. Allah says in His Noble Book, which translates as “You will not see any imperfection in the creation of the Merciful.” An essential part of having a good opinion of Allah is to have a good opinion of His creation and, in particular, of those on whom He has conferred the greatest honour: the believers, the Muslims. The Muslim should always see and seek the best in his brothers. He should assume the best of another Muslim man or woman, not the worst, in a given situation, no matter how bad what he sees him or her do or hear him say appear on the surface. Umar ibn al-Khattab said: “Do not have a bad opinion of any word that comes out of the mouth of a Muslim if you can find some way to interpret it positively.” And even when his action is patently wrong, he should still look for excuses for him. Ibn Sirin said: “If you hear anything about your brother, make some kind of excuse for him. If you can’t find an excuse, then say, “Maybe I have an excuse I don’t know.” Because none of us knows what is in the heart of another human being or what led him to do what he did. And our knowledge, in most cases, is very limited, and the Deen is broad, not narrow. Al-Aswad Muawiya, in his good opinion of the Muslims, considered himself below all of them. He was reported to have said, “Each and every one of my brothers is better than me.” “How is that?” they asked him. “Everyone sees me as better than they do,” he replied, “and whoever considers me above himself is better than me.” Of course, having a good opinion does not mean accepting actions that are obviously wrong, and even more so when these are not done in privacy, but are committed openly and affect third parties. In these cases there are obligations with which we have to comply. Beware of bad opinions, because there are few things more destructive. It divides a community and erodes trust and goodwill, replacing them with suspicion and open enmity. The social fabric of any society is torn apart and it is precisely this, the brotherhood and the strength of the bonds between us, that we have to take care of most eagerly. One has only to look at what happened in al-Madina al-Munawara, after the hypocrites spread the lies about Sayyidatina Aisha, may Allah be pleased with her. Before long, the brotherhood that ‘Aws and Khazraj felt between them through Islam was eroded and their pre-Islamic enmity had resurfaced. But they did not come to arms, and Allah sent down the ayas at Surat Nur by exonerating Sayyidatana Aisha and rebuking Muslims for their bad opinion, saying: “Why, when you heard it, as believing men and women, did you not think well of yourselves and say, ‘This is clearly a lie’?” This should always be our first reaction when we see or hear something bad from our Muslim brothers. We must maintain our good opinion of them and always look for excuses for them, and protect them when they are being slandered. And if we don’t have anything good to say, then we must remain silent. Therein lies our own protection. We ask Allah to give us a good opinion of each of us and a good opinion of Him. We ask Him to unify our hearts and support us with His help. We ask Him to forgive us, to overlook our wrongdoings and to guide us through the Sirat al-Mustaqim. And we ask you to give the promised victory to your Deen. Jutba of April 10, 2015, Seville Hafith Abdellah Castiñeira