Reflection on Islamic New Year

Khutba given on 1/19/2006 in Bellingham:

• If you think back to the time of ‘Umar ibn al-Khattab, I want you to imagine a discussion that he and the other companions were having: the creation of an Islamic Calendar; different companions might have been suggesting various dates to begin the calendar; precedents from other religions, like Christianity, said that they could start with the date of the Prophet’s birth; why not, it was the day that Allah illuminated the earth with a gift to mankind; others might have suggested the day revelation began; the day Allah opened up the heavens to begin a process of bringing down to earth his own words;
• There were so many important dates and events to choose from; so many turning points in history that if the didn’t happen or happened differently, the fate of all of them sitting around would have been changed, in this life and in the hereafter; but the companions sitting around that day chose for the beginning of the Islamic Calendar the most significant event in their lives, the Hijra, and as we are embarking on a new year on the Islamic calendar today or tomorrow, I thought it important in today’s khutba to reflect on that major event in the life of the Prophet (peace be upon him)
• As we all know, the Hijra is the migration that the Prophet and before him, his companions made from Mecca to Medina in the 13th year of Prophethood; many things were going on during this time; the year before was known as the year of sadness, where the Prophet witnessed the death of his beloved wife, Khadijah, and his closest uncle and protector, Abu Talib; the Muslims were still being persecuted in Mecca and it only grew stronger; and with all this happening around them, they were also getting an invitation from the people of Yathrib to come and live there in their city; and this marks the first lesson that we can derive from this story:
• That during the height of pain and suffering, trial and tribulation, Allah provides opportunities for believers to overcome them; however, this does not happen according to the sufferers plans, but according to Allah’s plan, so we have to be patient with Allah’s decree in relation to our affairs; that the things he puts us through are a cleansing process for a better tomorrow where we will be tested with blessings, rather than be tested with trials, and never forget that both are tests; in the trials, it is to see whether we will ask Allah for help; and in blessings, whether we are thankful; and Allah says in the Qur’an:

“did you not think that We would make you believers, and not test you?”

“…and we will test you in your wealth, your family, and yourselves”

• And so the Prophet, taking advantage of the opportunity that Allah had presented, asked his companions to leave Mecca, and he stayed behind with Ali and Abu Bakr; from this situation as described above, a wrong conclusion that people make is that the Prophet “fled” Mecca; this is not the case; he left when Allah gave him permission to leave; but in the meantime, he prepared for his departure:
o He found out the plan of Quresh to kill him
o He asked Abu Bakr to prepare the fastest camels
o He plotted a route so as to maximize on Quresh not finding him
o And he prayed to Allah for help in his journey
• So the lesson we draw from this can be about tawakkul; most think that it means relying on Allah; so some do things haphazardly and say they are relying on Allah, and others do nothing and say they are relying on Allah; neither of which is correct; as the Prophet is reported to have said, “tie your camel, and then rely on Allah” In this example and in many others, the Prophet came up with his best plan and prepared for it, and then relied on Allah for help; so in our own lives we have to do the same; in our own lives, when faced with choices, we should make assessment of the situation, come up with a plan of execution, make sure it is fool-proof to the best of our ability, and then we should rely on Allah for his help by asking him for a successful outcome; we should know that we can plan, but Allah is the best of planner
• Insha Allah in the next khutba I will go over some more lessons we can learn from this important during the life of the Prophet;

• As we are coming to the close of one Islamic year and starting a new one, I think it is important for us to reflect upon the importance of the event that begins the Islamic calendar some 1400 years ago and see what lessons we can draw from it from our own lives;
• And there are many we can draw; two I have mentioned above: the first being that during the height of trials and tribulations, Allah provides opportunities to overcome them and it is a combination of both the intellect and spiritual depth that allows a person to see these opportunities; with intellect, one can spot them and take advantage of them and with spiritual depth, one can carry them out knowing that it was not an opportunity created by us, but by Allah, and we should be humble and thankful; the second is that tawakkul or reliance on Allah means we prepare all aspects of a certain act, and then and only then rely on Allah
• As mentioned earlier, when speaking about the chain of events called the Hijra, we can take many examples too many to explain in this khutba; let me just mention one more before closing; as we know, when the Prophet left Mecca for Yathrib, he took a route south first, and then turned northward to try and throw off the people who would chase him; upon his departure, the Quresh elders promised 100 camels to the person who would capture the Prophet before he got to Medina; one of the people who took up the challenge was Suraqa ibnu Malik; he was an astute rider and tracker and knew he could catch up to Muhammed and Abu Bakr;
• As he began riding toward Medina, the Prophet and Abu Bakr were also riding toward Medina and with the Prophet in front, it was Abu Bakr who first saw Suraqa approaching and gaining on them; He kept looking back at him catching up and then forward to try and warn the Prophet, all the while getting anxious and nervous; the Prophet knew that Abu Bakr was restless, so in a calm voice he told him:

Laa tahzan, innallaha ma’na
Do not be nervous, Allah is with us

• Eventually, Suraqa did catch up to the Prophet and Abu Bakr and at one point, he had the Prophet on the ground with a sword on top of him; confident, Suraqa said: “So Muhammed, what do you say now”; again calm and composed, the Prophet responded: “Allah”; this confused Suraqa and within moments the tables were turned and now Suraqa was on the ground and the Prophet was on top him with a sword; so the Prophet asked Suraqa the same question: what do you say now? And Suraqa did not have an answer; the Prophet let him go and said “O Suraqa, what if I told you that one day you will be wearing the bracelets of Kisra in Persia if you become Muslim?”
• Suraqa did become Muslim and one can take many lessons from this about the Prophet’s kindness, forgiveness, etc. but the one I would like to focus on is how the Prophet made real to someone what was in store for him in the future; or in common language, he gave Suraqa, in this example and to all companions a vision of a greater future than they were currently living in; for people like Abu Bakr, the future they appreciated was in the hereafter, and for people like Suraqa, it was in this life, but in both cases, the Prophet was able to give his companions a vision of a better future that they could rally around;
• So whether you are a person leading a nation, a community, a family, or even individually, what you need to be able to do is to visualize a better future for yourself, your family, your community, your nation, and then work towards that goal; even in the worst of circumstances, one should keep this future in front of them, constantly reminding oneself of it so that it becomes a motivating factor in working toward that final goal;
• And different people have different things that motivate them, but this does not mean that they cannot help in achieving the same final objective; like with the examples of the companions, some had material goals of this life and others had spiritual goals of the hereafter; what we have to figure out is what motivates us to work for Allah and then do it; the spiritual goal might be the better and more noble goal, but this does not diminish the goal that some people might have for good in this life
• Just this last week, on Monday, we celebrated MLK day; in his famous, I have a dream speech, that is what he was doing; he was laying out a future for people in the US, the African Americans in the US that they could all rally around; in the same way, we need to make ourselves leaders in visualizing a goal and then working towards it; if your goal is pleasure of Allah and Jennah, then work towards it; if your goal is to become a doctor, visualize it and work towards; there will be ups and downs, but the visualization will help you to overcome;