Landmarks from Sūrat al-ʿAnkabūt: Trial, Toil, and Patience with Parents

Occasion: Transcription of a Fajr khatira delivered at Dar al-Hadith, New Jersey, on September 11, 2024 Source: A transcription of a video khatira by Dr. Ahmed Abouseif — Watch the original video on YouTube

Prayers and peace be upon the servant of Allah and His Messenger, our master and our Prophet Muhammad, and upon his family and Companions, with abundant peace.

O Allah, we ask You for the good of this day, the good of what is in it and the good of what comes after it, and we seek refuge in You, our Lord, from the evil of this day, the evil of what is in it and the evil of what comes after it. O Allah, set right for us our religion, which is the safeguard of our affairs, set right for us our worldly life, in which is our livelihood, and set right for us our Hereafter, to which is our return. O Allah, make life an increase for us in every good, and make death a relief for us from every evil.O Allah, we ask You for gentleness toward the people of Palestine, O Lord of the worlds. O Allah, make them steadfast, help them, support them with aid from You, and preserve their well-being. O Allah, spare their blood, protect their honor, feed their hungry, and make their hearts firm and strengthen them, O Most Merciful of the merciful.

May Allah, the Most High, welcome you on this blessed day, and we ask Allah, the All-Powerful, to grant us and you a sincerity with which we meet Him, glory be to Him, the Most High.

Trial Is a Fundamental Matter

Whenever we recite verses of Sūrat al-ʿAnkabūt, a number of landmarks and ideas appear to us. The first is that when Allah, glory be to Him, the Most High, spoke about the matter of trial, He spoke about a fundamental matter in life. For trial is in this world, indeed it is a kind of provision, since Allah, the Most High, says: ﴿وَنَبْلُوكُم بِالشَّرِّ وَالْخَيْرِ …﴾ (We test you with evil and with good …) ﴿وَإِلَيْنَا تُرْجَعُونَ﴾ (and to Us you will be returned).^[1] So everything a person is exposed to throughout his life is a kind of trial: either a trial of blessing, which calls for gratitude, or a trial of affliction, which calls for patience from the servant in what the Lord of the worlds, glory be to Him, brings.

Then the Lord of Might, glory be to Him, says: ﴿أَحَسِبَ النَّاسُ أَن يُتْرَكُوا أَن يَقُولُوا آمَنَّا وَهُمْ لَا يُفْتَنُونَ﴾ (Do the people think that they will be left to say, "We believe," and they will not be tried?). What is the significance of this sentence? Its significance is that some people want to come into this world and leave it with no law to bind their movement, no one to question them about their conduct, and no frame of reference from which to draw their deeds and words. And to this one who wants to come into the world with no frame of reference, Allah, Blessed and Most High, says: ﴿يَا أَيُّهَا الَّذِينَ آمَنُوا لَا تُقَدِّمُوا بَيْنَ يَدَيِ اللَّهِ وَرَسُولِهِ وَاتَّقُوا اللَّهَ إِنَّ اللَّهَ سَمِيعٌ عَلِيمٌ﴾ (O you who believe, do not put yourselves forward before Allah and His Messenger, and fear Allah; indeed Allah is All-Hearing, All-Knowing).^[2] And to the one who comes claiming that he came into the world with no watcher and no one to hold him to account, the Lord of Might, glory be to Him, says: ﴿أَفَحَسِبْتُمْ أَنَّمَا خَلَقْنَاكُمْ عَبَثًا وَأَنَّكُمْ إِلَيْنَا لَا تُرْجَعُونَ﴾ (Did you think that We created you in vain and that to Us you would not be returned?).^[3]

And this is illogical talk. Imagine an employee who has newly joined a company, and he goes to the place wanting to move about in his freedom: he sits on whichever chairs he likes, takes whichever desks he likes, uses whatever tools he likes, and wanders all over the place. Then, when he is told: this is your place and this is your work, so be disciplined here and get work done for us, he refuses, and then he comes demanding all his rights after having ruined in this place what he ruined.

Mind, Soul and Body

This system of trial requires aware minds and comprehending souls. We have three constituents in this life for the matter of trial: the mind, the soul and the body.

For some people, a mere worldly or financial trial is enough to break them. You hear about someone, for example, who lost his money in the stock market and ended his life, saying to you: there is nothing more to say about this world. This is a soul that did not take in the concept of trial in life. And here we are speaking about individual trials: one person loses his son or loses such-and-such, and he collapses. And we are speaking, of course, about those who have energy and capacity; as for those who are incapacitated, who have no strength for what they are tried with, their affair is with the Lord of Might, glory be to Him, the Most High.

Someone asked me yesterday in New York after the prayer: what is the ruling on the person who committed suicide because he had no ability to live in any way at all? I said to him: to begin with, the matter of ability and its absence is known only to Allah, glory be to Him, the Most High. The other point is that this is a matter determined by the psychiatrist; so you and I should not sit in the mosque, comfortable, drinking our coffee over a pleasant topic, and say: this man is in the Fire or in Paradise. This is not our business, my dear friend; rather the matter returns to the specialists.

We Were Not Created for Comfort

The point is that trial in life, ﴿أَحَسِبَ النَّاسُ أَن يُتْرَكُوا أَن يَقُولُوا آمَنَّا وَهُمْ لَا يُفْتَنُونَ﴾ (Do the people think that they will be left to say, "We believe," and they will not be tried?), is an illogical matter. We were not created in this life to be in rest, stillness, calm and tranquility; the Lord of Might, glory be to Him, has told us that He created us in this life to endure hardship, or to labor through this toil: ﴿لَقَدْ خَلَقْنَا الْإِنسَانَ فِي كَبَدٍ﴾ (We have certainly created man in hardship),^[4] and He, glory be to Him, said: ﴿يَا أَيُّهَا الْإِنسَانُ إِنَّكَ كَادِحٌ إِلَىٰ رَبِّكَ كَدْحًا فَمُلَاقِيهِ﴾ (O man, you are laboring toward your Lord with great exertion, and you will meet Him).^[5]

The scholars said here that the follow-up with the particle fāʾ indicates sequence and immediate succession: there is no interval of slackness and no interval of rest. Had He said: «إنك كادح إلى ربك كدحًا ثم ملاقيه» (you are laboring toward your Lord with great exertion, and then you will meet Him), we would have had a period of rest, but He said: ﴿فَمُلَاقِيهِ﴾ (and you will meet Him), so the toil, which is hardship and fatigue, remains until the time of meeting Allah, glory be to Him, the Most High. This is the first point.

Between the Individual and the Ummah

What we have spoken about so far is at the level of individual trial, but there is also the level of communal trial. So you see a catastrophe, as is happening now in Palestine of assaults, bombardment and harm; we ask Allah, glory be to Him, the Most High, to have mercy on them, O Lord of the worlds, and to relieve them. These are trials at the level of the individual and trials at the level of the ummah, and in both the servant is being tested. So what do we take away from these words? Patience, endurance, strength, and seeking help from the Lord of Might, glory be to Him, the Most High.

By Allah, other than Whom there is no god, we know of people whom Allah, Blessed and Most High, tried with greater hardship so that He might hear their voice after they had deviated from the path or strayed from it, and they returned. They were famous for their wealth and their trade and had sunk into the world as deeply as one can. You notice and you know that there is good in him: mā shāʾ Allāh, O Allah, bless him, he prays with us and so on, but, glory be to Allah, he sank deeply into the world, and you call to him from time to time and he says: at your service, God willing. Then when he suddenly lost a son, he returned.^[6]

The Counsel Regarding Parents Between Two Verses

The other point, and if the Most Merciful wills we will not take long with you, is in the saying of Allah, Blessed and Most High: ﴿وَوَصَّيْنَا الْإِنسَانَ بِوَالِدَيْهِ حُسْنًا﴾ (And We have enjoined upon man goodness to his parents).^[7] In this sūrah you see that this verse is surrounded by two verses: the verse before it: ﴿وَالَّذِينَ آمَنُوا وَعَمِلُوا الصَّالِحَاتِ لَنُكَفِّرَنَّ عَنْهُمْ سَيِّئَاتِهِمْ وَلَنَجْزِيَنَّهُمْ أَحْسَنَ الَّذِي كَانُوا يَعْمَلُونَ﴾ (And those who believe and do righteous deeds, We will surely remove from them their misdeeds and will surely reward them according to the best of what they used to do), and the verse after it: ﴿وَالَّذِينَ آمَنُوا وَعَمِلُوا الصَّالِحَاتِ لَنُدْخِلَنَّهُمْ فِي الصَّالِحِينَ﴾ (And those who believe and do righteous deeds, We will surely admit them among the righteous).^[8]

I am trying to link the presence of the matter of the counsel regarding parents with the matter of trials and patience. You see that patience with parents is among the hardest kinds of trials in a servant's life. Imagine, why? Because when the parents grow old and require care, hardship and patience with them, being patient with them becomes an occupation for the servant, taking him away from his family, his wife, his money, his striving, his work and so on. This is from the standpoint of time. And from the standpoint of physical effort, you see that the effort expended for them is not light, because the needs in old age differ from the needs in youth. You say: the father and mother were only patient with their child when he was small, and his needs, true, are many, but they came with joy and desire for the child's existence and happiness, and the little one's smile lights up the world, the universe and life for you. But when they grow old, you feel… until you see some people making this supplication: "O Lord, give them rest." And the poor man is not praying that our Lord give them rest; he is praying that He give him rest, so he wants to leave life because he has had too much hardship with them, and does not want to take on more patience.

So the matter of ﴿وَوَصَّيْنَا الْإِنسَانَ بِوَالِدَيْهِ حُسْنًا﴾ (And We have enjoined upon man goodness to his parents) comes between two verses that speak of those who believed and did righteous deeds. In the first, Allah, the Most High, says: ﴿لَنُكَفِّرَنَّ عَنْهُمْ سَيِّئَاتِهِمْ﴾ (We will surely remove from them their misdeeds), since the soul is overcome by despair at this present situation and this continuing manner, and we do not know until when this state will continue. Then Allah, the Most High, says: ﴿وَلَنَجْزِيَنَّهُمْ أَحْسَنَ الَّذِي كَانُوا يَعْمَلُونَ﴾ (and will surely reward them according to the best of what they used to do); as though the Lord of Might, glory be to Him, looks at the best smile you gave your father and mother, the best gift you gave them, the best moment in which you eased their grief and relieved them and gave them and granted them from your effort and your patience. Then Allah, Blessed and Most High, says of the outcome: ﴿لَنُدْخِلَنَّهُمْ فِي الصَّالِحِينَ﴾ (We will surely admit them among the righteous), despite the shortcoming that is no doubt possible, because we are human; endurance comes from us and incapacity comes from us. And Allah, Blessed and Most High, knows best.

I ask Allah, the Most High, to bless us and you in this noble day, and to grant us and you lawful, good provision in which there is blessing. May Allah reward you with good, and peace.

--- ^[1]: Editor's documentation: The speaker limited himself to two parts of the verse, which is in Sūrat al-Anbiyāʾ (35); in its full form «فِتْنَةً» comes between the two parts. What precedes «بل هو نوع من الرزق» (indeed it is a kind of provision) is garbled in the transcript, so its wording could not be settled with certainty. ^[2]: Editor's documentation: The verse is in Sūrat al-Ḥujurāt (1); in the transcript it reads «بين الله ورسوله» (between Allah and His Messenger), which is perhaps an abbreviation on his part, and the Qur'anic wording has been given. ^[3]: Editor's documentation: Sūrat al-Muʾminūn (115). The verse of al-ʿAnkabūt that precedes it is verse (2). ^[4]: Editor's documentation: Sūrat al-Balad (4). ^[5]: Editor's documentation: Sūrat al-Inshiqāq (6). What the speaker said before the verse could not be made out in the transcript. ^[6]: Editor's documentation: The phrase after «فجأة» (suddenly) is garbled in the transcript, so it was limited to «عاد» (he returned). ^[7]: Editor's documentation: Sūrat al-ʿAnkabūt (8); the speaker did not recite the remainder of it. ^[8]: Editor's documentation: al-ʿAnkabūt (7) and (9).