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Practicing Detachment: A Daily Guide to Freeing Your Heart for Allah | Khutbah by Dr. Omar Suleiman
Dr. Omar Suleiman explores how to love your blessings without being imprisoned by them, and how to practice detachment daily using dhikr, gaining perspective, and being disciplined with your dunya.
This transcript was auto-generated using AI and may contain misspellings.
We begin by praising Allah Subhanahu wa Ta'ala By bearing witness that none has the right to be worshipped or unconditionally obeyed except for Him And we bear witness that Muhammad (ﷺ) is His final messenger
We ask Allah to send His peace and blessings upon him, the prophets and messengers that came before him His family and companions that served alongside him and those that follow in his blessed path until the Day of Judgment And we ask Allah to make us amongst them. Allahumma ameen
Dear brothers and sisters When we talk about the subject of detachment Detaching from the place that you are presently in in a way that is healthy
That you don't lose where you are in the present But you always have your eye and your heart towards the future
We learned this methodology from the Prophet (ﷺ) in every minor and major detail and I want to go back to a
Very common hadith that's cited where a man comes to the Prophet (ﷺ) and says Mata sa'a? Oh messenger of Allah When is the hour? And the Prophet (ﷺ) responds with ma'adatta laha
What have you prepared for the hour? Instead of asking when the hour is, Ask yourself what you have prepared for the hour when it comes. And the reason why I start with the most commonly cited hadith in this regard
Is because if you were to take this hadith and extract from it a methodology beyond that which relates to Specifically the Day of Judgment, you'll find that the Prophet (ﷺ)
had this mindset with everything that he did in life, 'alayhi salatu wassalam, and So for example when it comes to the salah
as the Imam Ibn al-Qayyim rahimahullah says that the salah of a person of ihsan, the salah of a person of excellence and tuqbal ala Allah bi qalbika qabla badanak That you approach Allah with your heart before your body
That before you actually arrived to the place of your prayer, you were already Emotionally and spiritually there. Your heart arrived to the musalla before your body even got there When it comes to salatul jum'ah
Leave behind everything else of your trade. If you were on your phone Until the very last moment of the adhan, then it's very unlikely that you're spiritually able to engage the khutbah because you're still
spiritually, emotionally, mentally back at work or whatever it is that you were doing. If You're on the phone right now, the validity of your jum'ah is in question by the way So there's a different category there, but the first person that I'm speaking about
You actually have to worry about how long it takes to disconnect. So not only are you not present in jum'ah You're still present at what you left behind. And Allah Subhanahu wa Ta'ala reverses that and says
Approach jum'ah, approach the prayer in the masjid and leave behind everything else physically, emotionally financially, put it all behind you and Focus on where you are at. So arriving to a place
Spiritually before you physically get there. If you forget everything else that I'm going to say, remember this inshallah to ask yourself Do I arrive at a place spiritually before I physically get there whether it is my salah?
Whether it is my grave, whether it is the Day of Judgment, or if I am young today Have I spiritually already arrived at old age? And if I am in health today?
Have I spiritually already arrived at sickness? And if I have money today, have I spiritually already arrived in poverty? What do I mean by that?
Have I prepared myself and rehearsed the scenario of where I will be in the future? so many times that when it comes it's actually natural and
The entire time I'm connected to Allah Subhanahu wa Ta'ala, not another circumstance in place of the circumstance by the way Because the circumstance that you fear might never come. You might never experience sickness. Allah might take your life suddenly
You might never experience poverty. Allah Subhanahu wa Ta'ala might take you while you're wealthy You might never experience persecution. Allah Subhanahu wa Ta'ala might take you from this world while you're still safe and living a life of privilege
But you've put yourself in the circumstance in a way that you connect to Allah if that time were to come so that if that Time comes, Allah will find your heart Consistently connected to Him. The pulse of your spirituality has not changed
You're already settled in the moment before it arrived So let's walk this back a bit inshallah to Adam the furthest place away from us right now in terms of a meeting, at least by our calculations, is the Day of Judgment and
The Prophet (ﷺ) is telling you to rehearse that moment over and over and over again in your life So that you can spiritually arrive there before you physically get there what if you rolled that back and
Someone says mata khuruj ad-dajjal when is the dajjal coming out and You ask yourself right away No, ma a'dadta lahu What did I prepare for it? when is
Civil war going to come. I'm not preaching civil war from the minbar by the way But you know We all talk about like collapse of societies and everything breaking down and like things getting really difficult for us and at some point in the NASA idha
ra'aw al-munkar, you know as the Prophet (ﷺ) said when people see an evil and they don't change it awshaka an ya'ummahum Allah bi'iqabihi It might be that the punishment extends to everybody else because they didn't change the evil that was in their midst
So if things were to break down because of the failure of the world To stop the most evil genocide that is playing out on our screens and we were to find ourselves in an adverse situation Ma a'dadta lahu? What have you prepared for it?
Do you already have in your mind and in your heart and in your spirituality? What you would do? Have you arrived to that place spiritually before it physically arrived while asking Allah Subhanahu wa Ta'ala for protection
that is true for every single one of the adverse signs of the Day of Judgment and You have to approach it that way. Imam Ahmad rahimahullah He was asked by a person, "Ad-dajjal yahudi am kafir?"
Like are they gonna be claiming to be Muslim or are they gonna be outright kafir? You know what he said to him? He said, "Do you know the du'a when you enter into the masjid?" And The man said no. He said, "Learn that first."
Focus on learning the du'a to enter into the masjid before you try to come to some, you know, Super convoluted answer about something in the future that you're never really gonna be able to diagnose, right?
Like before you get to these forecasts and these things that have no benefit to you. What have you prepared for that moment? what have you prepared for every single thing that you read about and
Attached yourself to a version of yourself that you want to be should that moment arrive in your lifetime. That's the question It's always
Spiritually transcending the physical moment and being there. You know what that looked like in the time of the Prophet (ﷺ)? It looked like Abu Bakr as-Siddiq (رضي الله عنه) for months
Before the Prophet (ﷺ) comes to him and tells him that he's going to be his companion on the hijrah Abu Bakr (رضي الله عنه) had these two camels to the side
That he nurtured, that he took care of so that when the moment comes, if it comes, that the Prophet (ﷺ) Asks me for a sohbah, for his companionship on the journey, I'm ready to go
He's already played out the hijrah in his mind so many times. He's rehearsed it To where the response came natural
How many of those companions of the Prophet (ﷺ) that found themselves in the battlefield of Uhud Had already played that exact scenario out a million times before they actually found themselves there?
You think they just rise to the moment in the moment? They arrived at the moment well before they physically got there It's spiritually putting yourself there before you actually get there. The scholars mentioned that that is of two types
one of them are the inevitable natural progressions in life and So who are the most successful young people throughout history by the way?
The most successful young people are those that transcended their youth and already went ahead of their years. They actually say "ahead of your years" and planned in reverse So I'm physically
13 or 14 or 15 or 16 but I'm spiritually and mentally already in my 30s and I'm looking back at how I need to craft a physical life to arrive at the spiritual place
I want to be when I get to that place. There's a natural progression, things that are inevitable in the cycle of life unless something tragic happens, and then there are the what-ifs and For the what-ifs, the believer prepares themselves
emotionally, spiritually for worst-case scenarios Because the worst thing that can happen to you if you prepare yourself for a worst-case scenario is
That something of a lesser severity comes of that and you rise with ihsan to that occasion because you already prepared for way worse than that
So in my mind, I'm already preparing for a moment in which I have no money to my name So if Allah tests me with half of my wealth With 75% of my wealth
I've already prepared myself mentally, emotionally, spiritually for what it would look like to have no wealth whatsoever I've already told myself what I'm going to say. I've already asked Allah Subhanahu wa Ta'ala for the firmness in that situation
I'm not attached to a particular circumstance When it comes to people in our lives May Allah Subhanahu wa Ta'ala protect our loved ones. May Allah preserve our families
Think about the people of Gaza and the scenarios that they've had to play in their minds over and over and over again. As Hurt and as painful as it is for them to lose their loved ones
You think that not each and every single one of them has already played out that scenario in their minds? That Allah Azawajal may test me with this. I might find myself in this situation. So yes, it's gonna shock
Because experiencing is not the same as preparing but at the end of the day, I Have attached myself to Allah Subhanahu wa Ta'ala and not put myself in a situation
to where I take too much comfort in this dunya or find my stability in the matters of this world. I approach life like a stranger
Where I see it as a place that is inherently unstable That is predictably unpredictable It's meant to be deceiving
It's meant to be uncomfortable. Things are going to happen in my life. Let me spiritually put myself ahead without divorcing the moment that I am in And that's the thing about the Prophet (ﷺ)
He was still physically present He was still emotionally present But he was spiritually transcendent, 'alayhi salatu wasalam, and already looking towards the future all the time Already looking towards that moment with Allah Subhanahu wa Ta'ala
No one can read about the Prophet (ﷺ) With his family and with his companions and say that the Prophet (ﷺ) was unhealthily detached How do you achieve that?
perspective by practicing daily detachment in A way that is healthy. You know how you practice daily detachment dear brothers and sisters? You give of your money regularly
You are used to the visual of your bank account going from this number to that number fee sabilillah You're used to it. You do it all the time
Voluntarily and so if the moment comes to where you're shocked and that number decreases Without you having prepared for it, you're already used to seeing that number go down You learn to detach from the people around you how?
By neglecting them? No, detachment is not neglect. They have rights upon you that Allah Subhanahu wa Ta'ala has assigned You love them fully You maintain Ihsan, excellence towards them for the sake of Allah Subhanahu wa Ta'ala
You know how you detach from them? What Aisha (رضي الله عنها) said that that man (ﷺ) that beautiful pure perfect man 'alayhi salatu was salam who was so
attentive to the moment that he was in that he would drink from the same part of the glass that Aisha (رضي الله عنها) drank from, but when the call of salah was made ka anahu la ya'rifuna
It was as if he didn't even know who we were anymore Think about how profound that is. He knew the place that I put my mouth on the glass a moment ago
But when Allah Azza wa Jal called him, ka anahu la ya'rifuna, it was as if he didn't know us anymore Not that he was neglectful But I have to go to salah
You're already practicing a daily sense of full detachment. You don't do that If when you go to your salah you're carrying a million things and then you're Deliberating a million things in salah and then getting right back to it after salah. Doesn't work that way
You're practicing it on a regular basis And so every single day with your dhikr, with your remembrance of Allah Subhanahu wa Ta'ala With your exposing yourself
To those whom the dunya has betrayed so that it doesn't betray you It's one of the things that the scholars of suluk mention That if you surround yourself with people
Who were not deluded by this world in the first place or the world betrayed them? Then you're less likely to be betrayed by it. Think of it this way It's like if you knew a friend or you knew someone That stabs people in the back and you already know four people
That have been let down by that person. When you're with that person It doesn't matter how charming that person is going to be. You spend time with the four people that that person has sold out I already know who you are
And so when you're around people who have not been deluded by this dunya or who have been betrayed by its promise Then you're less likely to be betrayed by it
You're less likely to be deluded by it yourself, and that's one of the benefits of constant accompanying of the poor, constant accompanying of the oppressed, constant accompanying of the betrayed, constant accompanying of the sick. How am I going to ever be betrayed by the promise of health if I'm always around sick people? How am I going to think that I'm always going to live in safety and ease if I'm around people that have been betrayed by that promise?
How will I be deluded by my money if I'm around people that are poor all the time? It's good for your heart. It's good for your mind. It keeps you calibrated. It reminds you who this dunya is, who this world is all the time
So that it never betrays you again. I know who you are. I know what you're putting forward
Likewise dear brothers and sisters, when you look at the lives of the companions of the Prophet (ﷺ) and the way that they lived their lives in this regard
They trained themselves on a daily basis to transcend their circumstances
Do positive circumstances affect me in a disproportionate way? Do negative circumstances affect me in a disproportionate way? SubhanAllah there's a very powerful statement from Imam Hassan al-Basri, rahimahullah ta'ala
He says, wallahi, I'm going to have to read it in full because every single sentence is so beautiful
He said, wallahi, laqad adraktu aqwaman wa sahiptu tawa'ifa minhum ma kanu yafrahoona bishay'in minad dunya idha aqbalat wa la yahzanuna ala shay'in minha idha adbarat
He said, I swear by Allah, I have known people. The implication is that he's talking about the sahaba because he is a tabi' He's talking about the companions or those who are the most righteous of the tabi'in
I have met people and kept company with groups amongst them who neither rejoiced when things of the world came to them nor grieved when things of the world left them
By the way, he's talking about unhealthy happiness and unhealthy grief Of course we're happy when good things happen to us, we're sad when bad things happen to us
But he's saying that they were not handcuffed by the circumstance of joy or handcuffed by the circumstance of grief
He said, I met these people myself, wama yubaloonaha ashraqatid dunya am gharabat And they would not, I'm sorry, before he said that, he said, wakanat ladayhim ahwana minat turabi allathee taseeroona alayhi
The whole world was worth less to them than the dirt that you walk on They saw the whole world with everything that it has as less than the dirt that you walk on
And he continues to say, wama yubaloonaha ashraqatid dunya am gharabat They would not mind if the dunya set upon them or if it rose upon them
They saw sunrise and sunset as the exact same way And he continues to say, and this is a very long narration
waitha aqbalahumul laylu qamu ala atrafihim yaftarishoona wajoohahum tajree dumoo'hum ala khudoodihim
He said, and when the night would come upon them, they would present themselves to the night They would set their feet and then they would place their faces in the dirt
And their eyes would flow with tears until it came down their cheeks yonajoona mawlahum fee fakkir qaabihim waitha amilu hasanatan sarrathum wa sa'alullaha an yaqbalaha
That they were people that would call upon Allah Subhanahu Wa Ta'ala to save them And if they did something good, then they would spend their time asking Allah Subhanahu Wa Ta'ala to accept it waitha amilu sayyi'a sa'athum
And if they committed a sin, then it grieved them By the way, Subhanallah, Saeed ibn Masayyib rahimahullah He mentioned something to the effect that you should strive to get to a point that nothing pleases you more than Allah Subhanahu Wa Ta'ala
And nothing causes you fear more than your own sins You fear nothing more than your sins, you want nothing more than Allah Subhanahu Wa Ta'ala That that's the emotional switch that has to happen So what caused them happiness was when they were able to do good
They felt better when they gave something in sadaqah than when they bought something for themselves They felt better when they spent time fee sabilillah than when they spent time on themselves They enjoyed doing good deeds more than they enjoyed splurging on themselves
And what caused them grief was not when someone else did something to them But when they sinned against themselves and they transgressed against themselves So when they committed a sin, it bothered them wa sa'alullaha an yaqfiraha And they would ask Allah to forgive them
And he said wallahi ma najaw minas sayyi'ati illa btaubatihim ud da'ima So I swear by Allah that they were not safe from their sins Except by the fact that they were always in a state of tawbah Inaba, turn back to Allah Subhanahu Wa Ta'ala
They were turned back to Allah before the sin even happened And so the sin was immediately put into perspective and forgiven
Can you put yourself in a situation to where the world around you happens The circumstances happen But you don't put your hope in those circumstances And you transcend those circumstances by always thinking one step ahead
By always spiritually being at a place that you are not physically at right now Can you get there? And I'll end with two thoughts in this regard Number one, with the Prophet (ﷺ)
And the circumstances that came to him One of the wisdoms that the ulama mention That the scholars mentioned about the Prophet (ﷺ) Not losing Khadijah (رضي الله عنها) and Abu Talib right away
Aamul Huzun, the year of grief came years later Years later than the point of revelation Is that Allah Subhanahu Wa Ta'ala built in the Prophet (ﷺ) The love of the Quran and the love of qiyam
The love of the Quran and the love of that night prayer Simultaneously he's loving Khadijah (رضي الله عنها) He's finding that safety in the physical safety and protection of Abu Talib
But Allah Azawajal was nurturing something else in the messenger of Allah (ﷺ) To when that hit came The Prophet (ﷺ) had something to lean on He didn't have Khadijah anymore He didn't have Abu Talib
But he had a decades worth of learning the Quran and qiyam To immediately take that To be his source of comfort And to spiritually be able to transcend the circumstances He didn't love Khadijah less
Khadijah (رضي الله عنها) would not have complained that the Prophet (ﷺ) is getting so religious and so he's starting to pay less attention to me No, he just loved Allah more Walladheena aamanu ashaddu hubban lillah
The love of Allah becomes more And that love of Allah subsumes everything else and puts everything else in perspective And so you have to nurture those habits To where you can weather those moments
Because you're building into something that's transcendent The last thing that I'll say to you Is the saying of Ali ibn Abu Talib (رضي الله عنه) about az-zuhd, about asceticism Very powerful saying Qala laysa az-zuhd, allatamnika shayya
Wallakinnaha allayamnikaka shayya He said that az-zuhd, asceticism Is not that you own nothing It's that nothing owns you A person can have the whole world in their hands
But it doesn't mean anything to them Except to the extent that it earns them the pleasure of Allah Subhanahu Wa Ta'ala Because they have gotten themselves used to using that for the sake of Allah Subhanahu Wa Ta'ala A person can have all the people around them
And they love those people for the sake of Allah And they're grateful to Allah Subhanahu Wa Ta'ala And they don't love those people any less But they love Allah more because of the presence of those people They say alhamdulillah Allah gave me these people as a gift
I'm pleased And so innalilahima akhada walahuma a'ta So Allah takes a person away To Allah belongs what he took and to Allah belongs what he gave I'm at peace I might be hurt but I'm at peace And I want you to think about this analogy
And I was thinking about Subhanallah If you found yourself in a situation To where you were at a place and let's say that you ran out of time Let's say that you were at like a resort And your checkout time is 12 o'clock
And then the resort said you know what you can stay for another 8 hours Those 8 hours will be more beloved to you than the whole 8 days Because you feel like you got something for free Like this was a gift I didn't even pay for this I just got these 8 hours
You're at a restaurant or you know I guess something that's more relevant to if you're young You're playing a game right You're at a bowling alley and they change the clock And they say I'm going to give you another hour another 30 minutes That 30 minutes that hour you find more joy in it than anything else
Or they're going to bring out a free dessert for you I didn't pay for the dessert You forget that you paid this much money for the whole meal But then that dessert came for free Oh my god I'm so grateful for that extra That's how you should treat every blessing you have in your life right now
We did nothing to deserve it So you look around and say Alhamdulillah everything I have right now is that free dessert That extra time Every day every circumstance should increase you in gratitude
But connect yourself to the bestower of all blessing May Allah Subhanahu Wa Ta'ala make us amongst those that he's pleased with Allahumma ameen
Alhamdulillah
Surah Al-Baqarah
Al-Baqarah


































































































































































































































































































