Between Sulaymān and Ayyūb: Those Granted the World, Those Denied It, and the Oft-Returning

Occasion: Transcription of a Fajr khatira delivered on 14 May 2024 Source: A transcription of a video khatira by Dr. Ahmed Abouseif — Watch the original video on YouTube

Allah welcome you with the verses we heard in the Fajr prayer, which brought together Sulaymān and Ayyūb, peace be upon them both. What are the contrasts between them, and what are the points they share?

The contrast: who was granted the world and who was denied it

We are speaking of a prophet for whom Allah subjected the universe, nearly in all its features, even the jinn, and for whom He subjected the wind. Glory be to the All-Creating! Then a moment comes upon him: ﴿وَلَقَدْ فَتَنَّا سُلَيْمَانَ وَأَلْقَيْنَا عَلَىٰ كُرْسِيِّهِ جَسَدًا﴾ (And We certainly tested Sulaymān and placed on his throne a body)^[1]. And you hear wondrous stories about this, but the closer view to the correct one, and Allah the Exalted knows best, is that Sulaymān, peace be upon him, once neglected the time of performing an act of worship, so the price was that he sacrificed a part of what he owned for the sake of Allah. And His words ﴿فَطَفِقَ مَسْحًا بِالسُّوقِ وَالْأَعْنَاقِ﴾ (and he began to stroke their legs and necks)^[2] involve no departure from the text; he slaughtered, gave in charity, gave, and fed.

As for Ayyūb, upon our Prophet and upon him be prayers and peace, his trial was illness, and in illness there is incapacity. And the hardest incapacity is the incapacity of the body while the aspiration is sound and the heart is well; we ask Allah to keep people safe from it. That your heart should be energetic, strong and ambitious, wanting to set out across all horizons, and your body cannot do it. Men of manly spirit especially feel shame, the man who cannot rise from his bed to carry out what he wants. And I single out the people of da'wah, because they do not travel the earth to gain wealth, but they ache for every moment that passes them by in which they do not win more men; for their loss is the loss of people. They ache over their sitting still, unjustified in their own view, except that it is the will of Allah, blessed and exalted, and so they submit.

So look at the contrast between one who was granted the whole world and one who was denied it in a moment in one aspect of life. You find the sick man in his bed, denied the whole world, and his highest ambition at times is to enter the bathroom and come out without a word. And among the important lessons in the matter of illness is the correcting of the courses of a person's inner ambition: what do you want from the world? Money, running about, status, and influence here and there? No, correct the course. The ambition of the sick person is only that the pain leave him. And when he returns to walking on his own foot, he says: Praise be to Allah, I can move my hand. And perhaps the sick man feels his skin: I can still touch my body, I am still alive! Glory be to Allah.

The common thread: the one who turns back

Between this power and influence and these positions and commanding and forbidding and dominance, and the incapacity on the field of the bed, the common thread remains: ﴿إِنَّهُ أَوَّابٌ﴾ (indeed, he was one who constantly turned back to Allah)^[3]. In every condition of the servant, if he turns back to Allah, Allah sets his affair right. So Sulaymān did not remain in heedlessness, if this interpretation is sound; it was only a moment of remembrance that was absent from the tongue because of preoccupation with the world or something else. And with Ayyūb, peace be upon him, a moment of distance from the field of work. And I do not think that the pain of Ayyūb's body hurt him as much as the pain of being unable to reach people to convey the word of Allah, blessed and exalted. Those are the aspirations of men.

And measure by that His words: ﴿فَأَوْجَسَ فِي نَفْسِهِ خِيفَةً مُّوسَىٰ﴾ (And Mūsā felt within himself a fear)^[4]. What, one wonders, did Mūsā, peace be upon him, fear? This man struck a man and finished him, and he was possessed of strength and awe and had his standing among the people of Egypt at that time. So what does he fear? And Mūsā, peace be upon him, feared, in our view, only a moment passing by in which he cannot influence others, or that people might be tempted by the might of disbelief and its violence and its domination over societies, or that the influence of Pharaoh and those with him in people's hearts and souls might be stronger than his word which he wishes to convey. And this very logic was with the Prophet ﷺ when his Lord, majestic in His loftiness, addressed him: ﴿فَلَعَلَّكَ بَاخِعٌ نَّفْسَكَ عَلَىٰ آثَارِهِمْ إِن لَّمْ يُؤْمِنُوا بِهَٰذَا الْحَدِيثِ﴾ (Perhaps you would consume yourself over their footsteps, if they do not believe in this narration)^[5].

So if we hear this about Sulaymān, and about Ayyūb, and about Muḥammad ﷺ, and about Mūsā, and about ʿĪsā, peace be upon them, how much ought we to regret every moment that passes in our lives without our offering something in it to the Lord of the heavens and the earth, the King, the Bestower, glorified and exalted be He!

The contract of servitude

And giving is an innate disposition in the people of taqwā, and a trait of the people of faith. And know that since we signed this contract with Allah, blessed and exalted, which is «لا إله إلا الله», we have signed the contract of servitude with the Lord of Might, glorified and exalted be He, and the contract of servitude requires that you surrender yourself completely, reserving nothing for yourself, even desire. Can you imagine? Even desire! So it is not to be said: I do as I please, my Lord. And it is related from our Prophet, prayers and peace be upon him, in restricting the matter, that he said: «لا يؤمن أحدكم حتى يكون هواه تبعًا لما جئت به» (None of you truly believes until his desire follows what I have brought); so what your soul inclines to should incline to what the Messenger of Allah ﷺ wants for you, by command of the Lord of Might, glorified and exalted be He.^[6]

So let us make the most of the lifespans in our hands, and let us know that a new day like this one is in the scales of our good deeds, by leave of the Lord of Might, undiminished. And people have levels: among them is the one who goes out in the morning like a laborer, works for some hours, and when he has earned the level of sufficiency leaves the work and says: enough, we want no more than this. And among them is one who works until he reaches the utmost that someone like him in his field reaches. But I, a man in the field of the work of da'wah, there is no limit to ambition, and there is no limit to giving, and there is, by Allah's leave, no limit to reward.

O Allah, we ask You for a good reward and good work in Your way, our Lord. O Allah, carry us on to what You intend, and ease for us the means of obeying You, and make us among Your servants who are successful in this world and in the Hereafter. O Allah, be gentle with Palestine and its people and with every oppressed one in the whole earth. O Allah, protect the blood of the Muslims; O Allah, do not make them an easy morsel in the hand of their enemy, O Most Merciful of the merciful. O Allah, subject to them the means of the heavens and the earth, and ward off from them with Your soldiers which none knows but You, O Most Merciful of the merciful. And may Allah send prayers and abundant peace upon our Prophet Muḥammad and upon his family and companions.

--- ^[1]: Editor's documentation: Sūrat Ṣād, verse 34. The speaker recited it in the prayer, and here mentioned the opening of the verse. ^[2]: Editor's documentation: Sūrat Ṣād, verse 33. ^[3]: Editor's documentation: Sūrat Ṣād, verse 30 regarding Sulaymān, and verse 44 regarding Ayyūb. The speaker referred to the description without quoting the verse. ^[4]: Editor's documentation: Sūrat Ṭā Hā, verse 67. ^[5]: Editor's documentation: Sūrat al-Kahf, verse 6. The speaker limited himself to this portion of the verse, and its remainder is «أَسَفًا» ("in sorrow"). ^[6]: Editor's documentation: The ḥadīth is cited by al-Nawawī in the Forty (no. 41), who said: «حديث حسن صحيح» ("a ḥasan ṣaḥīḥ ḥadīth"), and more than one scholar have judged its chain weak; the speaker related it in meaning without attribution.