By Sheikh Mahir ibn Hamad al-Maeqli – 24 Rabiul Awwal 1438

His Eminence Sheikh Mahir ibn Hamad al-Maeqli –May Allah protect him– delivered this Friday Khutbah titled “The Jurisprudence of ‘Divine’ Trial” in which he talked about trial as one of Allah’s laws. He explained that the people who experienced the hardest trials are Almighty Allah’s prophets then come the most righteous. He also said that the severity of the trial is commensurate with the degree of religious devotion the servant may show. He also pointed out the ways for Muslims to preserve their reward should they experience trial or misfortunes strike. All this is presented through the story of Ghazwat Ahzab (the Battle of the Confederates) which is mentioned in the Holy Qur’an and the Sunnah of the Prophet –May Allah’s Salat and Peace be upon him!

Praise be to Allah! Praise be to Allah, a profuse, noble, and blessed praise, as He loves and pleases! I bear witness that there is no deity except Allah alone with no partner. He is Great in His Lordship, Divinity, Names and Attributes. He is Wise in His Decrees and Rulings. I also bear witness that Muhammad is the Servant and Messenger of Allah; he was tested by good fortunes and he responded by offering thanks and appreciation, and he was also tested by misfortunes and he responded with patience. May Allah send His Salat (Graces, Honours, Mercy), Peace and Blessing upon him, his Family, Companions and the tabi’in who followed in their footsteps in righteousness until the Day of Encounter!

Now then, O Muslims!

Observe true Taqwa (fear of Allah) and cling to the most trustworthy hand-hold of Islam:

“O you who believe [in Mûsa (Moses) (i.e. Jews) and ‘Iesa (Jesus) (i.e. Christians)]! Fear Allâh, and believe too in His Messenger (Muhammad SAW), He will give you a double portion of His Mercy, and He will give you a light by which you shall walk (straight), and He will forgive you. And Allâh is Oft-Forgiving, Most Merciful.” [Al-Hadid: 28]

O Muslim Ummah!

Allah has not meant life on earth to be a permanent sojourn for His servants nor a home of everlasting delights for His true believers; He wanted it to be a home of trials and testing whereby He tests His servants with adversities and calamities.

“and We shall make a trial of you with evil and with good, and to Us you will be returned.” [Al-Anbiya’: 35]

No believer in Allah and the Last Day has ever been able to escape his fair share of trial, as has been told by the Lord of the Heavens and Earth. He –May He be glorified and may His Names be sanctified‒ said:

“Do people think that they will be left alone because they say: “We believe,” and will not be tested. And We indeed tested those who were before them. And Allâh will certainly make (it) known (the truth of) those who are true, and will certainly make (it) known (the falsehood of) those who are liars, (although Allâh knows all that before putting them to test).” [Al-Ankabut: 2-3]

Trial comes in proportion with giving: Sa’d ibn Abi Waqqas –May Allah be pleased with him– reported that he asked the Prophet –May Allah’s Salat and Peace be upon him– “Which people receive the hardest of trials?” “The prophets,” he answered, “followed by the most righteous then the less righteous and so on. A man is tested according to the strength of his faith. If his faith is solid, his testing will be as solid. If, however, his faith is soft, he is tested accordingly. Trials will leave the servant only when he walks on earth without a sin registered against him,” he concluded. This hadith was narrated by Al-Tirmidhi, who described it as “a good, sound hadith.”

That’s why the Prophets ‒Peace be upon them‒ showed the highest degree of endurance and optimism despite the ordeals they had to go through. When tossed into the fire, Allah’s close friend (Khalilu Allah), Prophet Ibrahim ‒Peace be upon him‒ said:

“Hasbuna Allah wa Ni’ma Al-Wakeel “Allâh (Alone) is Sufficient for us, and He is the Best Disposer of affairs (for us)” [Al Imran: 173]

When Musa (Moses), Allah’s Addressee (Kaleemu Allah) –Peace be upon him‒ and his followers were trapped between a merciless enemy and a raging sea, his people said:

“”We are sure to be overtaken.” [Mûsa (Moses)] said: “Nay, verily! With me is my Lord, He will guide me.”” [Al-Shu’ara: 61-62]
Similarly, when Ya’qoub (Jacob) –Peace be upon him– lost the most beloved of his sons, he said:

“”O my sons! Go you and enquire about Yûsuf (Joseph) and his brother, and never give up hope of Allâh’s Mercy. Certainly no one despairs of Allâh’s Mercy, except the people who disbelieve.”” [Yusuf: 87]

As to our Prophet –May Allah’s Salat and Peace be upon him‒ he also suffered a lot from trial: his people harmed him and drove him out of the city (Makkah), and plotted to assassinate him:

“And (remember) when the disbelievers plotted against you (O Muhammad SAW) to imprison you, or to kill you, or to get you out (from your home, i.e. Makkah); they were plotting and Allâh too was planning, and Allâh is the Best of the planners.” [Al-Anfal: 30]

Yet, he was most perseverant and kept his unshakable faith in His Lord. In the Battle of Uhud, one of his incisor teeth was broken and he sustained facial and head wounds. Wiping the flowing blood off his face, he said: “How could the people who harmed their prophet succeed?” They broke one of his incisor teeth, but he is calling them to Allah. [An agreed-upon hadith]

That same day, the Prophet –May Allah’s Salat and Peace be upon him‒ lost many of his Companions, including his uncle Hamza –May Allah please him and be pleased with him– who was dearest and closest to his heart. He found his mutilated body: his torso cut open, his viscera scattered and his nose cut off. His uncle Hamza as well as seventy of the Prophet’s close Companions were buried at the foot of Mount Uhud. The Prophet –May Allah’s Salat and Peace be upon him‒ wished that he had been one of those martyrs on that day.

In Imam Ahmad’s Musnad, with a sound chain of narration, that the Prophet –May Allah’s Salat and Peace be upon him‒ said: “I swear by Allah that I wished I were left with my Companions in the heart of the mountain.”

However, good faith in Allah has soon erased this transient sorrow, and the Prophet –May Allah’s Salat and Peace be upon him‒ came to check on his Companions, allay their losses and show them that he accepted what had happened as decreed by Allah. It was narrated in Imam Ahmad’s Musnad, and in other sources too with a sound chain of narration, that the Prophet –May Allah’s Salat and Peace be upon him‒ when he had finished burying Uhud Martyrs, told his Companions: “Line up so that I may praise my Lord!” So they lined up behind him in rows as he stood there for a long time offering his Lord the praise that He verily deserved.

The Prophet’s supplication included: “O Allah! Verily, all praise is due to You! No one can preclude what You make available. No one can make available what You preclude. No one can guide the one that You lead astray, and no one can lead astray the one that You guide. No one can give what You withhold, and no one can withhold what You give. Nothing can bring closer what You set wide asunder, and no one can set asunder what You wish to bring closer. O Allah! Please bestow upon us from Your Blessings, Compassion, Graces and Favours.”

In the fifth Hijri year, the Confederates mobilized their forces to fight the Prophet –May Allah’s Salat and Peace be upon him. They came from far and wide, but he kept calm, retained his patience and faith in Allah despite the impending doom and gloom. In his Sahih, Al-Bukhari, quoting Al-Baraa’ –May Allah be pleased with him‒ narrated that the Prophet –May Allah’s Salat and Peace be upon him‒ used to move the dirt on the Day of the Trench until his belly was covered in dust. He would say: “I swear to Allah that without Allah we would have never been guided, given charity, or performed our prayers. So please confer tranquillity upon us, and steady our feet when we meet the enemy; our enemies have committed acts of aggression against us; whenever they wanted to spread fitnah, we would refuse” and he raised his voice: “refuse, refuse.”

While digging the trench for two weeks, exhausted by hunger and lack of sleep, Muslim diggers came across a massive, solid rock that broke their pick axes and fatigued them. Jabir –May Allah be pleased with him– described the disconcerting situation on that day, saying: “We were digging on the Day of the Trench, when we suddenly came across a huge rock. When they told the Prophet –May Allah’s Salat and Peace be upon him‒ about it, he said: “I am coming down.” He stood up with a stone strapped around his belly out of hunger as we had gone hungry for three nights. The Prophet –May Allah’s Salat and Peace be upon him‒ took a pick axe and hit the rock; it was turned into a heap of sand.” [Narrated by Imam Bukhari]

In cold nights, the Confederates assembled over ten thousand soldiers around Al-Madinah Al-Munawwarah. As for the Muslim camp, there were no more than three thousand since Banu Quraidhah (a Jewish tribe) revoked their pledge to the Prophet –May Allah’s Salat and Peace be upon him. Things got worse, and the disconcerting situation became more and more desperate. Fear, mixed with hunger and cold, started to take its toll, and elements of victory seemingly subsided. It was a foreboding hardship, and what a hardship! Describing the situation, Allah ‒Glorified be He‒ said:

“When they came upon you from above you and from below you, and when the eyes grew wild and the hearts reached to the throats, and you were harbouring doubts about Allâh. There, the believers were tried and shaken with a mighty shaking.” [Al-Ahzab: 10-11]

Despite all that, the Prophet –May Allah’s Salat and Peace be upon him– kept assuring his Companions of their Lord’s promise, the lifting of their affliction and the perishing of their enemy.

In al-bayhaqi’s Sunan Kubra, we read that when distress became intense on the Prophet ‒May Allah’s Salat and Peace be upon him‒ and his Companions, many people fell into hypocrisy and said repulsive words. When the Messenger of Allah ‒May Allah’s Salat and Peace be upon him‒ saw the distress and calamity that people were enduring, he began giving them glad tidings and said: “I swear by the One in whose hand [Allah] is my soul that the distress and calamity you are now witnessing will be relieved; for I hope that I will circumambulate the Ancient House safely, and that Allah ‒Glory be to Him‒ will push [to me] the keys of the Ka’bah. Allah will destroy Khosrau and Caesar, and you will spend their treasures in the Cause of Allah.”

Distresses ‒O servants of Allah‒ are never relieved except by believing in the Oneness of Allah (Monotheism). While under siege, the Prophet ‒May Allah’s Salat and Peace be upon him‒ used to say repeatedly: “There is no deity except Allah Alone. He honoured His soldiers, granted victory to His Servant (Prophet Muhammad), and He Alone defeated the clans (the confederates). There is nothing after Him.” [Narrated by Bukhari and Muslim]

However, hypocrites and the evil-hearted across time and space will ever be the same. They spread rumours, false news and disappointment in order to spread fear and weakness among the believers’ ranks. Some of them used to say: Muhammad promises us the treasures of Khosrau and Caesar while every one of us does not feel safe to go away to relieve himself of the necessities of nature!

Moreover, some of them began asking the Prophet ‒May Allah’s Salat and Peace be upon him‒ for permission to go back home, saying:

”Truly, our homes lie open (to the enemy).” And they lay not open. They but wished to flee. [Al-Ahzab: 13]

And when the hypocrites and those in whose hearts is a disease (of doubts) said: “Allâh and His Messenger (SAW) promised us nothing but delusions!” [Al-Ahzab: 12]

However, true believers never lose their connection with their Lord or the trust in their Creator no matter how much they suffer in the cause of Allah. The Companions ‒May Allah please them and be pleased with them‒ put their trust in Allah. They were steadfast and relied on Him, and so they were granted victory.

Sheikh Al-Islam ibn Taymiyyah ‒May Allah bless his soul‒ said: “Allah granted victory to His Servant [Muhammad] and honoured His soldiers in the Ghazwah of Al-Ahzab [the Confederates] without fighting, but with the steadfastness the believers showed in the face of their enemy.”

“And when the believers saw Al­Ahzâb (the Confederates), they said: “This is what Allâh and His Messenger (Muhammad SAW) had promised us, and Allâh and His Messenger (Muhammad SAW) had spoken the truth, and it only added to their faith and to their submissiveness (to Allâh).” [Al-Ahzab: 22]

May Allah bless the Great Qur’an for you and me and may He grant us benefit from the signs and wisdom it contains. I say this and pray Allah to forgive my sins and yours. So pray Him forgiveness, for He is, indeed, Most Forgiving, Most Merciful!