Why Do Bad Things Happen -Nouman Ali Khan

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Introduction: 

In today’s Kutubah in sha Allah, I just want to share with you something about a very heavy concept in our deen, something that is talked about a lot in the Qur’an, and unfortunately, at least in my own observation (Allah knows best), the average Muslim is very confused about this issue that has to do with our faith. The subject of the kutubah today is “why bad things happen?”

 If we don’t understand this properly as a matter of faith, then sometimes we can we say things to other people that really hurt them. For instance, I met with a few relatives and we were talking about our late grand mother; she had some difficulty before she passed away and one of the cousins in the family thinks she had these difficulties because when she was younger she used to be really mean to some other aunt or somebody and that’s why Allah put her through this at the end of her life. It’s very hurtful to say such things first of all, and to say Allah is punishing them, especially someone who has already passed away! And actually I came to realize that we say these kind of things to each other all the time – “you know why this is happening to you, because Allah is very angry with you” –  parents use this against their children; husbands and wives use this against each other! These are matters of Iman, so we have to really properly understand.

Some calamities may happen to us as individuals and there are also problems and calamities at a level of entire cities and towns, eg. A flood comes or an earth quake or war breaks out between nations or civil war breaks out.

I want to start at the individual level, and probably in this khutbah we’ll just get to talk only about the individual level.

The concept of Al museebah

- There are dozens of ayahs in the Qur’an on the concept of ‘Al Museebah’. ‘Museebah’ comes from the Arabic verb ‘asaabah’ , which means ‘to hit a target’.  

- So ‘museebah’ is something that hit you and hit you exactly where it was supposed to hit you. So the first thing that we learn when Allah (swt) uses this word to describe what happens to us, is that as far as His Qadar is concerned, His planning is concerned, this was like an arrow that was shot and it was supposed to hit you exactly when and where and how and how deep and how badly – it was all decided, it is perfect hit.

-  And we don’t say ‘museeb’, we say ‘museebah’, meaning ‘every single issue’ (not just one particular issue). For instance there was a brother I met who had as issue with his passport, as a result of which he lost his passport, as a result of that he lost his job and as a result of that he got into arguments with his wife and he blames the passport company “they cost me my passport, they cost me my marriage , they cost me my job, they cost me everything!” – even we do that sometimes, we tie all the events together and say all of it is because of one thing!  But Allah (swt) is calling each and every difficulty as an Individual one – they are not a result of each other, they are a result of Allah’s allowance.

- Allah (swt) allows every single one of those events to happen. There are people that go through exactly the same situations as you but the same things don’t happen – the chain of events doesn’t happen, Allah decrees something else for them. So the first thing to note about museebah – its specific, its targeted to you.

 Out of the dozens of ayahs, the two ayahs that we sure never ever forget about the word museebah are:

1) Walanabluwannakum bishay-in mina alkhawfiwaljooAAi wanaqsin mina al-amwali wal-anfusiwaththamarati wabashshiri assabireen 

                          

And We will surely test you with something of fear and hunger and a loss of wealth and lives and fruits, but give good tidings to the patient,

 

  In other words, congratulate the people who have sabr.

What strange language Allah (swt) uses! When you and I have difficulty, we are supposed to have sabr. Now you tell me, if we find someone in a situation where they are supposed to have sabr; you don’t go up to them and say “congratulations!”; it doesn’t make any sense! When there is a happy occasion, then you congratulate each other. But look at the language of Allah (swt) – wa bashirri sabireen; congratulate the people who have sabr. Subhan Allah! Why?

 This is because for a believer the attitude is entirely different. Maybe the entire ordeal you are going through, the goal of it all was one thing -   so you could have sabr. We think the goal was the thing you were going to get in dunya, but maybe to Allah, the real goal was you were going to learn sabr – that is a bigger goal than anything else. Subhan Allah! And if you got that goal, you should be congratulated.

So we have goals in our head that we think we want to accomplish, we have enough things in our heart we want to accomplish, and Allah says there is something much more valuable in your heart, if you can accomplish that , you don’t realize what its worth! And I will tell you what its worth, its worth congratulations.

2) And immediately after this congratulation, Allah says

Allatheena itha asabat-hummuseebatun qaloo inna lillahi wa-innailayhi rajiAAoon

Who, when disaster strikes them, say, "Indeed we belong to Allah , and indeed to Him we will return."

Whom should you congratulate? These people when a specific calamity hits them, the first thing that comes out of their mouth, the immediate response that comes out, is

“no doubt! We belong to Allah and no doubt about it, We are only going to be returned to HIM!” – meaning we are going to be returned to our Owner. The ayah teaches us that when a calamity strikes us, this response should be like an immediate reflex. Why is this statement important when something difficult happens? We have to think about the hikmah (wisdom) behind it.

IF the first thing you say is this (inna lillahi wa inna liahi rajoon) when you hear a bad news, then you have to understand there is a real gift in it for you. This is because, when Allah says  “congratulate the believers”, it is a Direct command to the Prophet (saw) to congratulate the believers. After learning this, may Allah make us among the people who will be congratulated by the prophet (saw) on the day of judgement.  

Inna lillahi wa inna ilaihi raji’oon

Now lets go back to the phrase People get mad when they feel they are entitled to something. For instance you just bought a car and immediately it breaks down on the way home, or your phone stops working or the lights don’t turn on, You feel angry because you think YOU own these things and You payed good money for it. The moment you say ‘inna lillahi wa inna ilahi raji’oon”, you are acknowledging and reminding yourself ‘inna lillahi’ – to ALLAH We Belong. SO when we ourselves belong to Allah, we realize we don’t really own anything here, its all a gift from Allah. So if it gets taken away, you are able to accept it and say to yourself “it wasn’t mine anyways”.

When you come to the second part of the statement “wa inna ilahi raji’oon” – “to Allah is our final return”. It makes us realize that whatever problem we are having right now isn’t permanent; whether its money problems or health problems or family problems or emotional problems or physical problems, it doesn’t matter. None of them are permanent because even you and I are not permanent! We have to be returned to Allah ourselves. Forget about the problem, even I and you will leave and will be returned back to Allah. This puts things in prespective. Putting things in prespective helps you worry about what REALLY matters. And what really matters and what the bigger problem is, is that we do not truly acknowledge that we belong to Allah. 

Maybe Sometimes Allah puts us through difficulty, maybe just so that HE can put it back in our hearts that you and I belong to Allah; so that HE can give us the gift of being able to say it not jus with our tongues but also with our hearts – Inna Lillahi wa inna Ilaihi raji’ooh. And that is a gift in and of itself. And if we are able internalize it, it makes sabr easy. And if you and I can have sabr, then the congratulations of the Rasul (saw) is for us.

In the Qur’an, there are two kinds of Ayath (about difficulties)

-  In one kind of ayath Allah mentions -whatever difficulty happens, whether  in the skies or on earth, its already recorded in a book WE have decreed.  Meaning it was the qadar of Allah and it was supposed to happen. For example if some one dies young, you don’t get to say “ he had a whole life ahead of him”, because he didn’t, there is no such thing; it was done and it was decreed- this is how his journey was on this earth. My journey on this earth is already decreed, yours is decreed.

- Second kind of ayah says “no calamity will strike you, except by Allah’s permission”. And look the people of imaan, they say sucha  beautiful thing – “no calamity will hit us, except that Allah has written FOR us”. It is not said “what Allah has written AGAINST us”, but ‘FOR”.   So Allah teaches us even the calamity is written For us, and that is the attitude of a believer with regards to difficulty.

We can't put everything on Allah

- There are many ayahs in the Qur’an which say “What hit them was the evil of what they did” or  “what ever difficulty hit you it was because of what you did”. But Allah never says ‘kul’ or “tell” that it was because of your fault, except in one place is surah Ali Imran. This means when a difficulty befalls someone, we don’t get to tell them “ it was because of your sins”.

-  The only specific instance when Allah (swt) tells the Prophet (saw) to say to the people that the defeat was due to Their Actions, is during the battle of Uhud. This is because the muslims were originally winning the battle of Uhud but some of the archers left their position, which gave the opposition army an advantage. So now they don’t get to blame Allah, they needed to take responsibility for their actions.

- What we are learning from the ayah is that we can’t put everything on Allah. If we speed and get a ticket when dirving, we don’t get to blame Allah.

-  But when things happen to you that are out of your control, then it is from Allah. For instance, A flood is out of your control, somebody else’s car collides into yours is out of your control, you get diagnosed with a genetic disorder is out of your control. But if a disease comes to you because you smoke four packs a day or if you get diabetes due to consuming too much sugar in your diet – these things you cannot put on Allah.

But in either of the above cases (whether the difficulty is from Allah or not), it is a gift from Allah so that you can learn your lesson and move on in life and do better.

SO in conclusion,

1)      Firstly, when difficulty happens, train your heart and train your tongue to say “inna lillahi wa inna ilaihi raji’oon”.

2)      Secondly, don’t say to other people that something bad is happening to them because of Allah. If somehting happens from the ghayb (the unseen world), you don’t get to decide why it happened – Allah never gave its explanation to you, you don’t have that license.

3)      When it comes to ourselves, reflect and decide whether it is from Allah or due to your own actions. If it is from Allah, say “inna lillahi wa inna ilaihi raji’oon”.  When things are within our control, we need to take responsibility; we need to acknowledge that it was because of our own actions.

May Allah make us responsible believers, especially with regards to what we say. May Allah include us among those who are congratulated by His Rasul (SAW) as a sabireen. May Allah make us people of “inna lillahi wa inna ilaihi rajioon” from our tongues and our hearts, whenever any calamity occurs. May Allah make our hearts strong and make us among those who can navigate the tests of this life successfully. May we be among those who meet our lord with light coming from our chests and our right hands on the day of judgement! 

In Summary: