You Will Be Superior If You Are Believers

Occasion: Transcription of a Fajr khatira delivered on 13 October 2025 Source: A transcription of a video khatira by Dr. Ahmed Abouseif — [Watch the original video on YouTube](https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=7-MeBhFDynk)

O Allah, set right for us our religion, our worldly life and our Hereafter; prepare for us right guidance in our affairs; bless us in what You have provided us; and protect us from the punishment of the Fire, O Lord of the worlds.

Fear of Allah is a condition of faith

Yesterday we spoke about the words of Allah, blessed and exalted: ﴿فَلَا تَخَافُوهُمْ وَخَافُونِ إِن كُنتُم مُّؤْمِنِينَ﴾ (So do not fear them, but fear Me, if you are believers).^[1] We said that fear of the Lord of the worlds, glorified be He, is a condition for faith to be realised and for the whole structure of faith to be complete in the souls of the people of Islam; it is not attained unless their fear is of Allah alone. Accordingly, no one on earth fills their eyes with awe, so they fear no one, dread no one, and are terrified of no one.

A pause at "if you are believers"

Such a closing stops us in His words: ﴿إِن كُنتُم مُّؤْمِنِينَ﴾ (if you are believers), as in His words, blessed and exalted: ﴿وَلَا تَهِنُوا وَلَا تَحْزَنُوا وَأَنتُمُ الْأَعْلَوْنَ إِن كُنتُم مُّؤْمِنِينَ﴾ (So do not weaken and do not grieve, and you will be superior, if you are believers).^[2] It is as though the Lord of the worlds, glorified be He, if we wish to connect the two texts, is showing you that whoever fears Allah, Allah raises him; whoever fears Allah, Allah elevates his station and standing; and whoever fears Allah, Allah raises his worth and places all the means within his reach.

Uḥud: a single error

The Lord of Might sends down these verses following the discussion of the Battle of Uḥud in Sūrat Āl ʿImrān, and in the discussion of Uḥud there are very many lessons. To begin with: when the people of faith attached themselves to Allah, blessed and exalted, He gave them the upper hand. And we have often said that a single error can lead to the collapse of an entire society, or to a great obstacle, or to defeat, or to paralysis.

This exists in all our lives. A child of the household, or one member of the family, may stir up a problem with a neighbour; the whole household is excellent, but just one person caused a problem with one of the neighbours, or with an officer, or anything else, and you find the whole household's activity coming to a halt until we settle this problem and get rid of this difficulty. It may even force us to pay money, or to sit in a meeting where we say so-and-so did this and so-and-so did that, and it takes from our minds, our time, our money and our peace of mind; all these things were held up because of the error of one person.

In the nation it may be a thousand or more. When a single error occurred at the Battle of Uḥud, the movement of Islam was held up for that period, the Prophet ﷺ was wounded and his blood flowed, upon him be prayers and peace, and the whole nation was exposed to a kind of psychological defeat because of one thing. In the wake of this, the Lord of the worlds, glorified be He, consoles the believers and comforts them: ﴿وَلَا تَهِنُوا وَلَا تَحْزَنُوا﴾ (So do not weaken and do not grieve); that is, ease your burden on yourselves, for there has been pain enough, ﴿وَأَنتُمُ الْأَعْلَوْنَ إِن كُنتُم مُّؤْمِنِينَ﴾ (and you will be superior, if you are believers).

Referring the matter to each individual's conscience

I see in this text a referral of the matter to each person, a referral of the affair to the conscience of every individual in the nation: ﴿إِن كُنتُم مُّؤْمِنِينَ﴾ (if you are believers); you are free, you deal with the Lord of the worlds, glorified be He, yourself.

The second point is that ﴿إِن كُنتُم مُّؤْمِنِينَ﴾ (if you are believers) is tied to achieving the real goals required of you. What was required of the believers at the Battle of Uḥud? And what is required in every land that has been attacked and wishes to free itself psychologically, physically, economically and politically? What is required is to reach this goal. And how do we reach these goals? First and before anything else: faith taking firm hold of the hearts. Whoever does not believe in a cause does not work for it; whoever does not believe in a cause does not give for it; and whoever does not believe in a cause does not move a single step for its sake.

How do we do that?

What I see, and Allah the Exalted knows best, is that when the Prophet ﷺ spoke of beginning with oneself and then with those one supports, he was also referring the matter of supporting the nation to the work of individuals within the home. Each of us has a son or two whom he brought to the Fajr prayer, for example; he was mindful of his Lord regarding his wife, his children, his family and his religion, feared Allah in his work, perfected it and gave it his effort, and so on. This is the support of faith, the individual support that forms the building blocks of the believing society, until, when the people of faith become many, they are the victors.

Hence, the error that occurred at the Battle of Uḥud did indeed lead to society being held up, but it was not a defeat in the absolute sense; it was not a realised victory yielding its results as at the Battle of Badr, but it was not a defeat.

The point of what I am saying is that the realisation of faith in the hearts of the members of the nation is the direct and primary cause of their empowerment intellectually and economically, their political growth and their movement: ﴿إِن كُنتُم مُّؤْمِنِينَ﴾ (if you are believers); and it is the basic condition for any elevation to be realised within society.

At the individual level

And at the individual level: if you are believers, Allah grants you elevation in your work, you receive a better salary and a better position. If you are believers, Allah, blessed and exalted, sends you better provision. If you are believers, Allah makes people love you. If you are believers, Allah the Exalted blesses you in what is in your hands. If you are believers, you are the superior one, even if you are not so materially; you are superior between yourself and Allah and before yourself, you feel the honour of faith and move within it.

I ask Allah, blessed and exalted, to make faith take firm hold of our hearts, to make us worthy of supporting this religion, and to make us worthy of raising its standing. O Allah, amīn, O Lord of the worlds.

--- ^[1]: Editor's documentation: Āl ʿImrān: 175. ^[2]: Editor's documentation: Āl ʿImrān: 139.