The Sincere Struggle For Allah

Nouman Ali Khan

Date:

Channel: Nouman Ali Khan

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Episode Notes

This Khutbah was recorded in Irving on 03/24/2017.

In this khutbah Nouman Ali Khan focuses on the last ayah of Surah Al-Hajj, where Allah asks us to struggle in a way that is worthy of Him. Even though this seems impossible, Allah makes it easier for us with a reminder that each one of us was carefully chosen to be Muslim because we are capable of things that we are not even aware of.

We learn from the legacy of Ibrahim (AS) that whatever difficulties we face, Allah will make them easy the way He has eased the hardships of Ibrahim, the one prophet whose trials are unparalleled.

As Muslims today, we have become a target, but Allah has chosen us specifically because we are best qualified to withstand these hardships. That is our purpose and the more sincere we are in our struggle for Allah, the more He will ease our burdens.

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Our mission is to spread awareness of the message and divine beauty of Quran across the world. Support our [email protected] that's ba y y i n H dot o RG

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multiball La Ilaha Illa La la la mina Latina Amano Amina Sadie Hart, whatever So Bill Huck, but also the sub mineable. I mean,

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today's hobo is dedicated to the last idea of skeletal Hajj for those of you who would like to read this on your own. It's the 22nd surah of the Quran, and it's the 78th is all the way at the end. And in this ayah, Allah azza wa jal addresses the oma and gives them a mandate to struggle. And he's done this on many different occasions. But in order for you to understand some of the depth and some of the power of what Allah says here, when he says what he do for Allah, haka Jihad II, I'd like to begin this hook by with an analogy.

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You know, many of you have jobs and you remember going for a job interview. And oftentimes you apply for a job hoping that you'll get the job even though your resume is not very impressive. And you go in for the interview, and they start describing to you what the job requires, you have to have knowledge of accounting or management, or maybe it's a tech job. So you have to know this programming language, and that one, or this protocol, etc, etc, etc. And they started listing all of these requirements that you know, and you're sitting there and the interview going, I don't know if they got the wrong resume, because the only technical requirement technical skills I put in is

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Google. And now they're telling me I have to know this programming language and that one, and that one and this much coding experience and management experience. And as the guy is telling you, all these job descriptions, you're sitting there embarrassed, like maybe he should just let me go now instead of humiliating me further, you know, and after he's done describing all of this, and you're clearly not qualified, he turns to you and says, congratulations, you start tomorrow. Your first reaction is shock. How, how did I get picked for this job? I'm not nearly qualified. But the second part of this is even if I did, I did get picked. Even if I am selected for this job. It's no

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congratulations at all tomorrow when I show up for work. I'm not gonna know what to do. They're gonna know that I'm completely and utterly not suitable for this job. It's gonna be humiliating. There's no way I'm going to learn any of this. So a lot as I was telling the beginning of this, I didn't just say what Yeah, he do phila struggle for, you know, with with no goal before you, and struggle for no other reason than Allah Himself, make efforts towards Islam. But that wasn't that wasn't enough. He said, he had he, as is worthy of Him. So let's understand that phrase as worthy of that struggle, or the struggle that is made for him. Think about this when you and I pray when we

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pray, do we pray in the way that Allah deserves? Or when we think about do we thank Allah to the amount that Allah deserves to be thanked? Or when we obey Allah or remember Allah? Do we remember Allah the way he deserves to be remembered, as a matter of fact, no matter how much we do, we can never qualify to the to do justice to his rights. We're always going to fall short. My Salah is never going to be worthy of Allah. Actually, at the end of it all, it's going to have lots of errors. It's going to have lots of shortcomings, my mind will wander, you know, and then Allah azza wa jal only knows if it's good enough. And so we have to beg him at the end of our prayer, Renata

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Campbell, Mina master accept from us, whatever hodgepodge we were able to put together at least hopefully, that's good enough. But there's no way you and I can ever do something that's worthy of Allah Himself. And it's impossible. So how is the law giving us an impossible job description, which I do for law hacker jihadi he struggle with no intention, except a lot alone, like he desert like the struggle is worthy of Him. doing justice to that struggle, there's no way to do justice to that struggle. That is utterly impossible. But now, after I described that, it's utterly impossible. There's one more phrase here before I go on that needs special attention, unless as filler filler,

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which is without getting into a lengthy conversation essentially suggests that when you make efforts for Islam, when you try to leave, for example, disobedience of Allah, you want to get away from harm, no matter how tempting it is, no matter how strong that pole is, maybe you're making a lot of money, but it's money from not halaal sources. And it's really hard to quit because you have a house to pay for children's education. There's so many things tied to it. So it's so tempting to hold on. Maybe one of these young men or women are in a relationship and they're tempted, and they're being pulled into that relationship constant and they can't get out of it. They're they're struggling to

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get out of it and coming back into the obedience of Allah is a very difficult, very difficult struggle for them. Because your thought is constantly pulling out them constantly pulling away at them. And even if they get away momentarily, the struggle comes back again. You know, it is it is important to note when these kinds of things

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happen, that the pressure your family will put on you, or some somebody will come and try to give you a reminder don't do this, or somebody else will try to say, Hey, man, I'm your friend, I mean, well for you, you shouldn't be doing this. But when we try to put pressure on each other to do the right thing, none of that pressure is going to be good enough. It's not going to be good enough. When a human being is going to fall before the loss of shaitan. When a human being is going to stop struggling for Allah, then the only thing that can save them is their relationship with Allah. That's the only thing. You cannot become a better Muslim for your parents. You can become a better

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person because of your community. You can't, they can help. But until you decide that you're doing this only and only and only for Allah, that struggle will not last. It's impossible. It has to be sincere. The only way to know that is inside of yourself inside of myself. outside of ourselves, we can show to each other what we are but the reality inside only Allah knows what Jackie do fella he haka jihadi he, once he describes that we are utterly unqualified, obviously, because of this impossible job description. He then gives the explanation of why we've been chosen. He says, Who wants to back home. The easy translation of words, the back home is in fact, he's the one he has

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selected you. He has chosen you. But the Arabic word here for choosing or HD bar, that the word that's selected here by Allah is very special. If you say the word str, which is also a word for choice, then it comes from the word hate, meaning you prefer something or something is you make a better choice. That's it.

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You can say it's the stuff up or estefy in the Arabic language, which comes from software purity. When you make a choice, you don't have to explain anybody to anybody else. Why you made that choice. For example, when you go shopping, and you buy like a blue shirt, you don't owe somebody a scientific explanation. Why did you pick the blue shirt? Why didn't you get the white shirt does this defies purely your choice. There's no rationale necessary. But when you say HD Ba, which is the word Allah chose here, when he described that he chose you and me to be Muslim. That word actually comes from Jabu Jabu in Arabic In old Arabic actually get the verb used to be used for tax

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collection. Back in the day, the people who made enough money owed taxes. Obviously, even now, you have to be above a certain level minimum income before you're qualified to be to be selected for tax collection. hdbuzz actually means to make a choice based on qualifications. So in other words, you know, when you get hired for a job, or if you're fixing your car, or you're you're tightening a screw or something, and you pick the right tool for that job, you just did HD ba because if you pick any other tool, it doesn't do the job. When you make the right choice for the right job. That is called HDR. In other words, what I'm trying to tell you and what I'm trying to remind myself of is

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that when Allah honored you and me to be Muslim, the fact that you and I c'est la ilaha illa, Allah, the fact that you and I have have the gift of saying Mohammed Rasulullah sallallahu alayhi wa sallam is actually a very precise choice from Allah, of you and me, there were plenty of other human beings available before Allah on this planet and Allah chose precisely you need to be Muslim for a task that he has. Because he bi is done for a particular purpose for a task. So now you are we aren't just chosen to be Muslim. We're chosen to be Muslim because we have a mission in front of us. And that mission he already describes, is you have to struggle for Allah as is worthy of the struggle

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that should be made for him. Which Who am I and then he's done he adds finally now that I realize I've been chosen, even though I've been chosen I I'm still thinking this is too hard of a job. How am I going to do this? Fine. A lot of see something in me I don't even see it in myself. I don't even see what's so special about me. Why did I get chosen? You know, there's so many better people out there. But Allah is and this is too hard. Anyway, Islam is way too hard. The what Allah is asking of me is too much. I can't do it. And what are the next words from Allah himself? Why am I a config demon heritage? He did not place for you in the religion, any difficulty any discomfort, any

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tightness whatsoever? In other words, this is a law himself telling you relax, I'll make it easy. Don't you worry about that. You're the right man for the job. You're the right woman for the job. You were the one chosen for this time this day in this age. You know, when you look around now, you see that Muslims are were the target of media attention, political craziness. I traveled to England all the time. But this last time I traveled, I got exhaustively questioned. What are you doing here?

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I got a question. Like, why are you here that's never happened before. So most things are becoming tougher and tougher for Muslims. They are in many many ways, but that's

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It's okay. You know what a lot chose you and me to be born in this generation in this day and age, knowing full well, these are the trials we're going to have. And the best people qualified to struggle in these trials are the Muslims alive today. That's the choice of Allah. That's why here, that's why you and I are taking a breath right now, if we didn't have a purpose for us, because he only creates for purpose calaca sumati. While our bubble has

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Masako, he created the skies in the earth with precise purpose and molded you. So he molded you and me and put us in this position, because we have a purpose to serve. And then even though that's a challenging purpose, Allah Himself gives the orientation and says, I'm not going to make it any hard for you. It's not going to be difficult at all. I'll take you back to the analogy I gave you in the beginning. There's that job interview, and the guy gave you an impossible job description. And you're sitting there thinking, there's no way I'll get hired. And then he hires you.

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And your first thought is, I'm not qualified. And he says, relax, I know what I'm doing. I've been hiring for a long time, I see something in you even if you don't think you know, you'll learn pretty quickly. You know, I know talent when I see it. So he's encouraging you. And he's acknowledging you in a way that you didn't even think you saw in yourself. The other thing that's happening here is every Muslim is supposed to see value in themselves. No believer can think that they're useless before Allah, that they're pointless that they are meaningless before Allah, they're worthless. They are worthy of Allah. They're worthy because Allah made a special choice of them, a special choice of

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them. And it's not going to be hard whatsoever. So now I take a breath of relief. Okay.

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It's not gonna be hard. He says, relax, and let me tell you something. You're not the first one to have this job. Many have been given this job before you. So he makes reference to the fact that this religion isn't just a new religion. It's a legacy. And whose legacy does he mentioned? In that same idea as the ayah continues? What are they considered him in Herat, meloetta, abiko, Ebrahim. You are the continuation of the legacy of your father Ibrahim. He reminds us of which Prophet Ibrahim alayhis salam. If you think about Ibrahim alayhi salam, the last thing that comes on your mind is easy. He has to leave his family in the middle of a desert and walk away. That's not easy. Before

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that, as a young man, he has to challenge his father and the entire community. That's not easy. He has to be thrown into a hot Riku and

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throw burn him alive, he has to be thrown into a fire because he believes in Islam. That doesn't sound like easy. When he gets finally he gets older. And now his son is old enough that he can run around Bella Bella mahasaya he gets old enough to run around with his son. He sees a dream that he's slaughtering his son. over and over and over again. He gets trials and challenges that no human being has ever faced. Allah has never asked a human being to abandon their family. Allah has never asked a human being to jump into a fire. Allah has never asked a human being to slaughter their own child. He's been asked to do things that nobody was ever asked the hardest tests you can think of.

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This is even described in the Quran. What is the Vitara? Ibrahim araku? Whenever Ibrahim was especially Ibrahim was tested, like nobody else by his master, does this this ask? They're like Ibrahim alayhis salam had the hardest, hardest hardest tests and align this ayah when he told you and me by the way, relax. It's gonna be easy. Islam's gonna be no problem. By the way, you're on the same track as your Father, Ibrahim. That's not very comforting.

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Because that man did not have easy tests. So how am I supposed to relax now for a second, he told me things are gonna be easy. Now he's kind of telling me and things are gonna be difficult again. But actually, he's not. He's giving the example of Ibrahim alayhis salam for a very beautiful reason. He's giving that example because Allah is saying, If Allah can make jumping into a fire easy, if Allah can make leaving your family in the middle of a desert easy. If a lot can make you the only young man who stands up not only to his father, but to an entire community easy. If Allah can make you stand up to them rude and challenge him directly easy. If Allah can make you take a knife and

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put it on your child's neck before because Allah commanded it. If Allah can make that easy for him, then what is he asking you? He didn't ask that from you. He asked much less from you, you know, is actually all he asked you was to stay away from filthy things and made the good impure things Hello for you and mandated a few solid hearts just do these few good things and stay away from these few bad things. That's it. That's all he asked. So we are being told by the legacy of Ibrahim alayhis salam. No matter what difficulty you have, you will never be

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Be able to compare your difficulty to the difficulty Ibrahim was put in, under his salon, and even a lot can make that easy. So you have no reason to wonder or ever a question that Allah will make ease for you. Mendota amico Brahim. And he is the one who has some maximal muslimeen. And he then he gave us the secret ingredient in me. He is the one who named you, Muslims Mufasa who have looked at this ayah two ways, maybe it's Ibrahim Alayhi Salam who named us Muslims, which is an indication in the Quran, or Allah Himself named us Muslim. Either way, it makes sense because Ibrahim is a messenger of Allah. So even if he named it's actually on behalf of Allah azza wa jal himself. Regardless, what

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does the word Muslim mean? The one who gives up the one who just accepts, it comes from Salima to be to be at peace, to be at ease and calm. And when you say as Lama says, submit actually means to submit calmly, you're you're okay with it. When Allah tells you to do something, you're not agitated about it, you're not like, fine, I'll do it, you're not like that. You're at ease on the inside. And you just willingly submit yourself, if it's a law saying it must be good for me, no matter what my mind says, no matter what my family says, no matter what my friends say, no matter what society says, when a law told me this is better for me, I am at ease. If you can do that, if you can get to

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that point, then you are the legacy of Ibrahim alayhis salam, calling yourself and myself Muslim is easy, being Muslim is not it's a different thing altogether. And it's not even about behavior. It's about something very deep internally, I am completely satisfied with what a lion has messenger command. I'm uncomfortable with it. And I'm at ease with it. And I'm at peace with the fact that I'm obeying the law. I'm not thinking that if I obey Allah, I'm going to miss out on something. Because, you know, he's asking me to stay away from these pleasures, or these opportunities. Because because they're wrong. And if I stay away from them, I'll be the one at loss. No, I'm at ease that there's

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no way anybody ever obeys Allah, and they're at loss. That is never a thought that crosses my mind. That is he named you people, Muslims, the ones who submit completely before Allah, the ones who are at ease, the one who come with comfort before a lot. That's the comfort you and I want to find before Allah. And I sincerely pray that especially our young generation finds that comfort with Allah, that they're not, they're not agitated by the commandments of our Deen, that our young young girls when they're thinking about wearing hijab, they're not annoyed by it, you know? And they're not Why do I have to wear this, or young men aren't agitated by the idea that they have to pray

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early in the morning. I don't have to get up at this time to just pray later. You know, it's so annoying. This, this attitude is actually the antithesis of Islam itself. You can't have that attitude and Islam. So it means you gave it up, you gave up, you accepted it completely. And so alesse has a famous salata at Osaka

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Villa, this is all one ayah from where I started, all of this is just one eye on the last day of sorts of hedge. He says establish the prayer and gives a cut, establish the prayer and gives that God is actually a beautiful expression in the Koran for many things, not just the establishment of prayer, like we're doing in middle accept our prayer. But actually, they're connected to each other. When the prayer and in many ways, I'll just highlight one thing. When you establish the prayer that means you pray together. That's what that means. And when you pray together, you get to know each other. And when you get to know each other, you find the ones among you who have needs you figure

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out who's in need and who's not doing well and who's sick and who's you know, unwell and who's you know, having difficulty in life. And then you find out who should you give the car to. They're connected to each other established prayer and gives a cut because establishing prayer builds the hearts closer to each other before Allah and then you purify your wealth by taking care of those in need among you. For chemo salata Otto Sokka, tasi, moving line, hold on to Allah, that amazing phrase, at the end, hold on to Allah is the last thing I'll explain. And I'm done. When a law says hold on to Allah. disarm actually means to hold on to something that if you let go, you'll die. Hold

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on tight for asthma, asthma means protection. Yes, the Psalm is to hold on for protection. Like Imagine if you fell off of a boat or a ship or something. And the only thing you're holding on to is the rope or the anchor. If you let go of it, you're done. Allah says hold on to a law for dear life. You know what that means, right? That means if the people around me abandoned me, if the people that were around you that you were practicing been because your friends were religious, and you were in a good environment, now you're in college, and you're the only Muslim they're like, man, my friends aren't there anymore. So I don't feel so inclined towards Islam anymore. I don't really feel like

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praying anymore. I don't really feel like you know, I don't have that connection anymore. No, no, no. Whether people hold on to you or not. Whether the support system is there or not. This is why we're the legacy of Ibrahim alayhis salam

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He Hall he, that young man held on to his religion, and he was the only one holding on to his religion. There was no support around him. His family didn't support him and society didn't support him. He's a one man nation. That's why law calls him and Omar by himself, a nation by himself, and we are His following. You know what that means that we don't make the excuse that the environment around us is bad. And that's why we don't submit to Allah, that our friends are messed up. And that's why we're messed up. That man, you don't know what my crowd is like, Who cares what your crowd is like? You're the legacy of Ibrahim alayhis salam, you're the only light in the middle of

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all the darkness. You don't make the excuses. You're there to get rid of darkness not to be part of it. That's the Yeah, that's your function. And so you hold on to Allah, because everything else will come and go. Everything else will come and go. What Toshi Moo Bella, who am Allah come He is your protective friend. He is your security. He's the one that's gonna guard you for netmail Mola. monazite. What an incredible protection he is, what an amazing protective Guardian he is, and what an amazing aid he is. Now, the last last word of this, even though I told you that's the last thing this is the last thing I promise, it's never gonna see. And that's the end of the surah and the end

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of the ayah. The word underseat Allah describes how what an amazing helper he is. But the word aniseed comes from the Arabic word Nusrah. Some of you are familiar with that john also law he went for the word Nasser in the Arabic language isn't just help. It's actually massive aid. If I help you outside because you have a flat tire, I don't say no, sir Tokai says Attica, I helped you know, sighs like an aid package. Billions of dollars are being given to some country in aid. That's Nusrah a huge army came to help a country that's been invaded. That's no sir. No, sir, is not a small kind of help. Its massive legions of help. It's like when a law will send armies of angels. That's called

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Muslim. That's Muslim. That's the aid of Allah, the massive aid of Allah, Allah saying he received the failed form actually means how amazing is Allah that he's always there ready to aid you in the most massive ways. When you have held on to Allah, you've held on to the strongest possible support you could have that is constant for Nirmal Mola, whenever manasi you have nothing left to worry about. This is the mentality of someone who accepts the legacy of the religion of their father Ibrahim alayhis salam, and when you accept that, then struggling for Allah becomes easy. Then he opens up those doors. Well Johnny do filla Allah azza wa jal says well, Athena tjahaja, phenol under

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the under home sabudana. Those who struggle in our path, we open up our pathways for them, we guide them to our multiple pathways, absolutely. A level making a way out for you. This struggle that I keep referring to is different from each for each one of you. Some of you have struggles inside the family. Some of you have struggles at work or having to do with money. Some of you are struggling with your health. Some of you are struggling with your religion itself, barely holding on to your religion itself, barely holding on to Allah Himself. Some of you are struggling to get away from home. Only Allah knows your secrets. I'm not here to know your secrets. But know one thing when you

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decide to struggle away from the way of shaitaan and towards Allah. Allah is help is constantly there. He does not abandon you. We think he abandons us, Japan comes and tells us You're so messed up alone, doesn't like you, he's gonna burn you in hell, etc, etc. He wants you to lose connection with Allah. And Allah comes along and says no allies there when you turn to him. He's going to be there and he's going to constantly be there to provide a support. May Allah azza wa jal never let us lose hope in our master in our rub. May Allah azza wa jal make our personal struggles in our Deen easy for all of us and make us of those for whom Allah is Nirmal Mola and netland receive

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barakallahu li walakum filco Anil Hakeem when he

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came. Our mission is to spread awareness of the message and divine beauty of Quran across the world. Support our [email protected] that's ba y y i n H dot o RG.