Living As A Stranger In Difficult Times

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All praise belongs to Allah the Most High, the Most Merciful, we thank him and we seek His help and aid and asked him to forgive us and protect us from the evil of ourselves in the sense that we commit. Indeed, whomsoever Allah guides, no one can lead us astray and whomsoever are likely to stray, no one can guide and I bear witness, there is no one worthy of worship except Allah alone. And then Mohammed sallallahu alayhi wa sallam this slave and messenger. The best of speech is the book of Allah and the best of guidance is the guidance of Muhammad sallallahu alayhi wa sallam. And the words of religious matters are those that are innovated, and every religious innovation is a bit

every bit as misguidance every misguidance would be in Hellfire

Ubud.

The Prophet sallallahu alayhi wa alayhi wa sallam said in a very prophetic statement,

but the Islamic horiba was to come up with a horiba photo ballyhoura

he said they slammed started as a stranger.

And it will come back as it started will return as it started a stranger.

So good news, marvelous news to the strangers.

And this is a such a prophetic statement because it is a statement that you can see its fulfillment, the Prophet sallallahu wasallam spoke about what is going to happen in the future, predicted it. And you look at our Muslim history and what we are facing and we're going through today and you see the fulfillment of what the prophet sallallahu wasallam had said. So what did he mean by that Hadith?

Let's consider how Islam started.

He said all the price lamps started as a stranger, stranger in belief. Stranger in practice, the prophets of the law, you see them with few Muslims around him in Mecca. The beliefs that they espoused, and had seemed strange to the people around them. Sometimes they had to hide these beliefs, the practices that they had seemed strange to the people around them, and sometimes they had to hide these practices.

They were maligned, rumors spread about them, they were attacked. There were few among many who either did not understand them or did not want to understand them.

As a very small minority, they were strangers.

And the Prophet sallallahu Sallam said that this is going to go away. As Islam progressed and gained strength, more and more people believed and more and more people adopted it, and was no longer a stranger in Medina no longer a stranger in Mecca, no longer a stranger in Arabia and it's spread and continue to spread it he said that it is going to come back to the same state where it was a stranger

and the

This could be in complete reference to the last days.

But in partial fulfillment, we will find it in our days

where Islam will be a stranger in some places. Sometimes when it comes to the beliefs and when it comes to the practices,

you will find it today, brothers and sisters.

That is when a person especially lives in a non Muslim country, and people don't understand what Islam is, or have the wrong ideas about it. And this Firstly, a man or woman wants to practice their Islam want to say that I'm Muslim, they'll encounter this horrible feeling as if he or she is a stranger.

But even within the Muslim community, even within a Muslim society and a Muslim country,

you will you'll find that there is a strangeness

in belief

that how many people in fact actually know what Islam stands for?

How many people actually have to hate of Allah subhana wa Taala versus *can him how many people in fact, adopt the son of the Prophet sallallahu wasallam versus those who don't? How many people

want to adopt a god oriented life and Islam oriented life

versus those who don't.

Some people will go to university, and they will find that they are alone in a sea of atheism,

or agnosticism,

or apathy about religion or hostility towards religion. So when they say that I am Muslim, I want to practice Islam, I want to pray, there is pressure there.

There is tension, there is friction.

When a person says in his life in his own Muslim family in his own Muslim community, I want to stay away from the harem, and just commit myself to the halala.

Or even Furthermore, I want to stay from what is suspicious with the shabbiha I want to stay away from that and only commit myself to the highlights. You'll find people looking at him strangely.

This is they will say this is the world today. People lie and cheat. How come on you're not lying and cheating.

People, all of them do these things. How come you're not are you better than all of them?

When he says that,

I don't want to believe what everybody else believes if it's wrong.

I don't want to adopt this rant, or this style.

Or adopt this phrase from popular culture just because everybody else is doing it. Because I know it is wrong in Islam. He'll stand as a stranger alone.

So there is this partial horiba

that Muslims can feel.

And that is why the Prophet sallallahu alayhi wa sallam says portobella hora. So if you find yourself in that situation, expect great reward from Allah subhana wa dinela. Why? Because you're holding on to Islam, despite pressure

despite resistance,

despite people telling you that this doesn't work anymore, or you're foolish to hold on to it, or you're losing when you hold onto it.

You still hold on to it. And there will be times where we will feel

that it's as if you are holding on to a hot burning coal. That's what the prophet sallallahu wasallam said. Yeah, Tiana sees a man on the akuna fee is sorbitol v him Allah Dini, he can copy the URL and jump, there will come a time when people

those among them who are patient and holding on to their religion will be like people who are grabbing their hand, a burning coal.

So imagine brothers and sisters holding on to that piece of burning coal in your hand, and it's burning your skin, and then it's burning your flesh and it's reaching the bone and yet you're refusing to let go.

And all of your body's reacting and telling you just let go because then you will let go of that pain.

It will go away. That is if you stopped dressing this way, if you stopped acting this way, if you stopped praying this way, if you start demanding that you love, live a proper life, the pressure will just go away. Just stop it be like everybody else.

You have this person who says No, I will not be like anybody else but I will hold on to what Allah revealed. At times it will feel like you're holding on to something that is burning.

That's why the Prophet says

Glad tidings to them.

And one of the rewards that they will receive

is explained in another Hadith of the Prophet sallallahu alayhi wa sallam. When he says,

In the meanwhile I am a sub, they will come after you you speak into the harbor, they will come after you days of patience.

The law Amelia tamasic, Aegina, Bhima and tamale here Johansson I mean comb

called amin, homi, rasulillah, kala belvin. Comb, it says, during those days of patience, the one who will be holding on to what you are holding on today, speaking to the Sahaba, the one who will be holding on to their Islam will have the reward or 50. among you. 50 is the harbor he's holding, say.

So they said the Prophet of Allah they sought clarification, then you mean 50 of them, or 50 of us, it says no 50 of you.

So they have said that because at those times, they will not find helpers and aides

to promote the truth, they will be alone. And because they are alone, when they hold on to Islam, or that specific act in Islam, Allah will reward them as if he has rewarded 50 of the Sahaba. This of course, does not mean that will they will become better than the Sahaba, of course, because haba has the virtue of being with the Prophet sallallahu alayhi wa sallam and nothing matches that. But in that particular act in that particular choice, they will have the reward of 50 of the Sahaba.

But this horrible that we find ourselves in,

in different parts of the world today,

when it comes to Islamic Relief, and Islamic practice,

should not make us desperate,

should not

propel us to lose hope,

as one of the other might have said, and has written something that we really have to listen to. He said when Muslims encounter and this has been written hundreds of years ago.

It says when Muslims sometimes encounter calamities and difficulties, and they find the atrocities that had been committed against Islam and Muslims, they start crying and wailing, and saying what had happened to Islam, what had happened to Muslims, they become despondent and desperate and very sad. And he said, This is not what they were commanded to do, or how they were supposed to react.

He said, instead, they have to realize that everything that had happened to them is because of their own faults, and because of their own sense. And that the key for transformation is in with their own hands. You go back to a man in Allah subhanho wa Taala. And you have to look good on him, and you fix yourselves and you move forward.

And you do not, don't look back, and you don't like that. Don't let that or those events, shake your trust in Allah subhana wa tada or in the future, you change your reality. So this is horrible, that we're talking about Islam being a stranger, it's not supposed to be a permanent one. If we endure it, we're not enduring it because it's going to be a permanent one. We're enduring it because we want to change it.

And whenever a slump experiences such horrible at any place, or any time, a loss of Hannah or Donna will send them people who will teach people about their religion. And then this practice of Islam and belief will be revived. And Islam will no longer be in hold by in that place. And at that time anymore, then it may experience another horrible, but that also will be cancelled. So if we experiencing difficulties today's and we're feeling like we are strangers, and there is pressure on us,

the key to that is not to become desperate and give up. The key to that to solving it is not imitating everybody else.

Because brothers and sisters, people in general are imitators of each other.

The population of this world they just imitate whatever is popular, they imitate whatever brand, whatever fashion, whatever phrase, whatever, whatever is in Vogue, they just imitate that's what we do. And if you decide to be a man or a woman of principle, and you say I don't want to imitate the foolish

want to be a follower. I would rather be a leader, leader in virtue rather than a follower and vice.

And that is the definition of the hora because they asked him What are those? What about your Prophet, Prophet of Allah? Who are those? What are the color? Lavina? Yes, una

una either for suddenness is that these are the people the horrible the strangers who are upright and virtuous when people around them are

corrupt. And you also you can read it as people who reform when people around them are corrupt.

So you see how they stand apart on principle,

stand apart because of their Eman. And they have here two options. Either that they can be a pride in themselves virtuous and themselves, even if the entire society around them is corrupt. Even if they start suggesting to them No, stop doing what you're doing, they resist all of that and they decide I will hold on to the rope of Allah.

I will hold on to the Quran and the sooner that is the first option. The second option, the better option is that they reform society around them.

Even if this society is corrupt and people around are

they're not content to leave it the way it is. And they deliver the message of Islam

in whole and in detail, and they fix everybody that they come in contact with. And this is the way to remove the orba with the prophets of Allah Allah you it was synonomous spoke about a whole lot of stuff a lot of

stuff.

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One of the Allah also wrote hundreds of years ago on this, he wrote before millions of people decided to leave to non Muslim lands and inhabit them.

He said that Allah subhana wa Taala grants, virtue and honor and respect to those who uphold his religion. He says, even if they were to find themselves, in non Muslim lands, as individuals and as group, if they hold on to their religion, he said that they will earn the respect of the non Muslims, and they will honor them, they will see in them that honor, and they will honor them more than they will honor the Muslim who is not holding to their Islam.

That is, if you have two communities or two individuals on average, and they are inhabiting non Muslim lands, he is saying that the non Muslims will recognize who is holding on to the truth and who is not. And they will honor this person more than the other person. And he says if that person or if that community find that they are being assaulted, and condemned, and harassed, it is because of their own sense because they are not really holding on to Islam. Because if they do a lot is their protector. Allah says, Yeah, you are never you have Buccola, who are many comunal momineen his old Prophet, Allah is sufficient for you, and is sufficient for those who follow you.

What is it sufficient, sufficient and protection, sufficient in planning for you sufficient in guidance sufficient in everything? So it says if they are holding on to it, then Allah will protect them? Now Someone may say,

won't they receive some harm or they experience some harm? And he says, Yes, every single human being will face harm on this earth, Muslim or non Muslim, this is the destiny of this world. Or, if you're a human being, you will face harm and evil. But he says the difference here between those who have a man and those not is that those who have a man will experience less of that harm, and more of a less compensation. Those who do not have a man will experience more of that harm, and less of a loss compensation. And he says look at the Prophet Muhammad sallallahu alayhi wa sallam, and the Muslims. He says he was harmed in Mecca, right?

And the Muslims were also harmed in Mecca. Right? He said, But while also they were being harmed, Allah was also protecting them in Mecca itself. The province all of them had protectors, right? Though he was alone, but he had protectors.

And for the Muslims, Allah first gave them refuge in that habit, shabby Senia didn t and the king himself accepted Islam and he said you will free in my land, worship as you wish.

When did he say that when they expressed their Islam fully and completely without compromise.

And then he said then Allah gave them Medina and that is more honor and more protection.

And he saved the Prophet sallallahu Sallam from Mecca, and the plots of Mecca. And he said he kept adding them in honor and empower and protection while his enemies on the other hand

They were being downgraded constantly.

They're losing power, losing his team losing followers losing wealth constantly. And he says, and while Muslims are facing all of that every pain that they go through, they will receive its reward in the hereafter and what makes them also taste of the sweetness of a man? What makes this suffering minute and simple.

The kuffar don't have that.

So he's saying in other words, don't think or don't expect that if you compromise your faith or leave it,

that Allah subhana wa Taala is going to grant you success, you will be tested even further and further. And more and more.

Even if you are met immediately with some constant constellation with some favorable comments or attitudes, but eventually you will receive more of the tests of Allah subhana wa Tada. Yet if you follow the path of Allah on the path of his prophet Sall, Allahu Allah, you are you are setting them, and you hold on to it, even though you may be alone, or among few in your society or country and community. After that initial test, Allah subhana wa Taala will show you the respect and the honor that belongs to the believers and to the Muslims. And that is the choice that we have brothers and sisters.

Now to combat this horrible, we have to combat it, as we endure it, we have to combat it on two levels, we have to end it through two things.

First, is that through belief through through knowledge.

There has come a time during Muslim times where people did not know that alcohol was Haram.

Or that very basic things in Islam were wrong.

So on average, we need to increase all of our understandings of Islam.

and move on. From the slam of habit and inheritance to the Islam of conviction from the Islam of either to the Islam of conviction, Islam vida is I inherited my Islam, this is the way we practiced it, and will just continue doing whatever I was taught to do. That's it.

The problem with that is that when you're challenged, and you're constantly going to be challenged, when you're living in a non Muslim country, you won't know how to respond. Internally, not even verbally, internally, you're struggling with that and you will know how to respond because you don't understand the arguments that you find in the Quran. And the arguments that you find in the student and the proofs of the Quran and the Sunnah. So we need to go back on a societal communal level, and all of us our average understanding of Islam needs to grow. And it's time to know what our true hate is, what * is, what sooner is what bid is, we need to know all of that.

The second thing, we need to increase our practice of Islam.

Because knowledge without practice does not work does not produce the effect that we need. It becomes something philosophical,

something academic.

So our practice of Islam, our Salah, our fasting, our zecca, our voluntary acts, they need to increase to solidify our emotion and our Islam.

And the third thing that we need to do

is to increase our relationship with Allah subhanho wa Taala grow closer to him have greater Eman and greater tawakkol on and reliance on him and trust in Him to pan over to Allah trust that when he tells us do this thing, that this is the best thing that is for us. And when he tells us stay away from this thing.

That really this is the best thing for us even though it may be attractive.

And to protect ourselves while we're doing all of this from the fitting of this dunya from the attractive nature of this dunya to only take from it what we need, and leave its temptations away. And in this way, the harbor of Islam will slowly be erased.

And the last thing that I want to say about this notion of Oba

is first there is a

sort of misplaced or a false understanding of what about or being a stranger.

One is when a person adopts an erroneous belief or an erroneous practice

not supported by the Quran or the Sunnah. And when he or she get condemned or criticized for it, they will say Well, it's because I am a very, I'm a stranger, and a time where Islam is not being practiced. That persecution or criticism is just the fulfillment of the Prophet sallallahu Sallam had said and it is not that is a deserved criticism. So before you classify yourself as a variable that you experienced,

Something like this, make sure that you are actually doing or believing what Allah and His Prophet approve of. And also to avoid inflated righteousness.

Right? That it is me who is right, and everybody around me is wrong. Right? I am the one who is good, and everybody around me is misguided. That's an inflated sense of righteousness. Now, um, yes, if you are doing or you want to do something that is right, and you find that everybody around you are not doing it, hold on to what is right, even though they are not.

But don't necessarily believe that you've had become better than everybody else just because of this.

You know, and I know my own sense, and my own fault. She keeps asking Allah subhana wa Taala, for protection and stability on Islam, but without that sense of arrogance, and inflated righteousness, and also that sense of what is not there to create friction,

to create hostility, meaning that I am going to be the Hurry, or I am the Cerebro, or we have a ribbon, everybody else is wrong. So you

seek hostility, seek friction.

Because the more condemnation you receive, the more or the best, the better that you feel. Because why it's the fulfillment of being a hurry, the more condemnation is better. We don't see criticism, we don't see condemnation. We don't seek friction with non Muslims or with Muslims. If you get condemned or attacked, because you're doing something that is right, then you become patient. But don't go on seeking to be attacked, seeking to be criticized, seeking just to stand out for the sake of standing out. That's not it.

So your compass is, I will do what Allah wants, and I will do what his prophets will allow us to send them once. And if people accepted, this should make you happy. And if people rejected and you stand as a stranger, then this also should make you happy in the sense of an hamdulillah that I'm holding on to the truth. And then you proceed to teach it to the people around you and ask Allah Subhana Allah to teach it to everyone around you. So it becomes the common practice, the dominant practice. So really, we are times and places where if you bring the two hate people say this a ship, if you bring the sinner people say it is better. If you bring the right practice, people say it's

Haram. So you have to be patient, also, with yourself and be patient with people who are around you. I'd be very patient with them. Because the objective again is not I want to condemn you. The objective there is, I want you to change so that you can help me reach heaven.

And both of us can help each other when that takes place. And both of us would lose when you don't or I don't.

So ask Allah subhanho wa Taala, the Most Merciful to protect us at these times. And to grant us a strong a man that can withstand the trials and tribulations of these times. Yellow we asked you that you establish a man in our hearts, yellow we asked you that you establish a man and Islam in our hearts, you Allah make us of those who understand their Islam clearly, and practice Islam in their lives, despite the pressure that they may receive. Allah make us of those who teach Islam to other people, your law makers of those who spread Islam in this land and elsewhere. Your law makers of those who hold on to your rope makers of those who hold on to your book under the sun of your

Prophet sallallahu alayhi wa sallam and you Allah, we ask that you have made us among the strangers that you reward us immensely. Allah give us an immense reward and make us of those who hold on to the truth despite the pressure around them. Yeah, Allah we ask you for all the good in this life and in the Hereafter, and we seek your refuge from all evil in this life and in the Hereafter. And we asked you for heaven and everything that brings us near to it. And we seek refuge from Hellfire and everything that brings us near to it. And we asked you for the best that your Prophet sallallahu alayhi wa sallam had asked you for and we seek your protection from what the prophets will allow you

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