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Win Your Quiet Battles Against Your Enemies | Khutbah by Dr. Omar Suleiman
Allah tests His servants in different ways, and what may feel like punishment can often be a path to growth, purification, and deeper faith. In this khutbah, Dr. Omar Suleiman explains how challenges can serve as a form of refinement, drawing you closer to Allah and shaping you into a better believer.
This transcript was auto-generated using AI and may contain misspellings.
We begin by praising Allah subhanahu wa ta'ala and 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 I speak of the shaytan, the devil himself, I want you throughout this entire khutbah to take him as the very real shaytan that he is, but to put under him with every hadith that we will mention all of the smaller shayateen.
So whether it is the shayateen in your own life that poke and pull and try to distract you and delude you away from Allah subhanahu wa ta'ala, whether it is the shayateen that we speak about like the Zionists or the enemies of Islam that seek to infiltrate and seek to degrade and seek to demolish and seek to humiliate.
When I speak of the shaytan, let your mind cover this entire category and try to deduce some of the lessons that Allah subhanahu wa ta'ala gives us about a very particular element of his existence, which is how much gravity you should actually pay to it.
How much should you actually consider the shaytan in the equation of existence?
And it's incredible that the Qur'an warns so much about his impact while belittling his existence simultaneously as if to tell you he is very real.
Do not follow the footsteps of the shaytan. He is a clear enemy to you.
But as Allah subhanahu wa ta'ala speaks about him for the very real creature that he is and the very real impact that he can have, Allah subhanahu wa ta'ala also says,
that my slaves, my servants, you have no power over them except for those who follow you willingly.
Now, I want you to think about the subtlety of his penetration though.
When you think of an enemy at war with another, you think of huge sparks, you think of loud voices, you think of blood, sweat and tears, you think of violent clashes.
It provokes an imagery when you think of a battlefield and two that are at war with one another. But pay attention to these three hadith. I'll share them insha'Allah ta'ala and I want you to just reflect for a bit and then we'll come back to this topic, bi'idhnillah ta'ala.
The first hadith is the authentic hadith in Sahih Muslim from Jabir (رضي الله عنه). He says that the Messenger of Allah (ﷺ) said,
When a man enters into his home and he remembers Allah as he enters into his home and as he sits down to have his meal.
The shaytan says to his minions, he's talking to his minions. That's the implication of the hadith. You have no home here and you have no food here.
Allah has been remembered. We're already excluded from the equation. We've been deleted from the algorithm of this man and the Prophet (ﷺ) says on the other hand,
When he enters into his home and he doesn't remember Allah subhanahu wa ta'ala, When he entered into the house or when he began his food at that point, The shaytan says to all of his minions,
You have found tonight a place to stay and if he forgot Allah before he ate then a place to eat. So think about the algorithm now being corrupted. So he gets in there. He penetrates. He's in your house. He's sitting at the table with you.
In the Riyad al-Salihin, there is a narration and there's a weakness in the sanad. It's in Abu Dawud and Ahmad, but it gives a supporting story to this example that the Prophet (ﷺ) is mentioned.
Umayyah ibn Makhshi (رضي الله عنه) says, That there is a man that was eating with the Prophet (ﷺ) and he ate and he did not say, Bismillah until,
He got to the very end of his meal and there was just one more bite that was left. And as he was about to take that bite, he said,
In the name of Allah, in the beginning and in the end. So the Prophet (ﷺ) started to laugh when he did that. The very last bite of his food and he said,
The shaytan was eating that meal with him the entire time. And then when he remembered Allah subhanahu wa ta'ala, the shaytan vomited what was in his stomach. You don't see this.
But imagine the imagery of someone coming into your house and sitting at the table and enjoying your food with you. And then you said, Bismillah at the very end. And there is a creature there that vomits the food that he ate with you.
I want you to pay attention to these two ahadith again. Think of the imagery of, A main enemy, someone that plots on you your entire existence to try to pull you down.
But he doesn't wait for major life events to try to get in there. He actually tries to infiltrate your routine.
He tries to get you when you are not thinking, when you're not paying attention, when you're doom scrolling, when you are engaging in brain rot, when you're just going with the flow and continuing throughout your day.
And you forgot to immunize yourself with Allah subhanahu wa ta'ala and with the truth. He finds that subtle opening and now he has space. So he infiltrates your routine.
And a lot of times when we think about the shaytan and we think about an enemy, we only think about him once a sin is being committed, when the sin is present.
But as the ulema mention, it's a very minor technical detail that we don't have time to cover in this khutbah. That the shaytan's entrance is not necessarily in the presence of sin. It's in the absence of Allah subhanahu wa ta'ala's mention.
So he penetrates in ghaflah, in heedlessness, not in sin. Sin is after you're already done. Sin is when he's already had his fill, when he's already got your mind, when he's already got your heart.
The problem is when you lost the quiet war, when you lost the quiet battle. So when the loud battle started, you were already 10 steps behind. You were already on the back foot.
And I give you one more narration in this regard, speaks to his quiet battle. This one's a little different. Nafi' says an authentic narration, (رضي الله عنه), the freed slave of Ibn Umar.
He says that Abdullah ibn Umar (رضي الله عنهما) was praying and he put his shahada finger up, sabbaba, he put his index finger up during his salah and he was paying a lot of attention to it.
And what he means by that is that he wasn't taking these motions without giving them some serious gravity. You know, shahada wa la ilaha illallah, shahada wa anna Muhammadan rasulullah. It can come off as a very small act.
So he said that when I noticed that he was giving attention to that act of pointing the finger and saying shahada wa la ilaha illallah. He said that I heard the Prophet (ﷺ) say,
lahiya ashaddu ala shaytani minal hadid. That this quiet act of bearing witness to the oneness of Allah subhanahu wa ta'ala
and to the messengership of the Prophet (ﷺ) is more difficult on the shaytan than if you had iron. Like if you're pounding him with something or burning him with something or hitting him with something.
It's more difficult when you do this and some of the brothers I know when they do the shahada they're trying to, it's not that. That's not the point. Just like when you go to jamarat, it's not how hard you hit the jamara or if you got a bigger stone, right? Or if you hit a bullseye or not.
It is the diminishing of him. That he can't find space here or here. And when the Prophet (ﷺ) mentions that the day of Arafah is so miserable for him. It's the worst day of the year for him is Arafah. He has it marked on his calendar.
What are they doing in Arafah? It's actually the most serene day of Hajj. People are out making du'a. There's no hustle and bustle. They're in the plain of Arafah making du'a throughout the entire day.
Repeating that affirmation of tawheed over and over and over again and each one of them is a dart, a dart, a dart. He's losing hope. He's getting boxed out of people's lives.
And when you're going through to the jamarat, that's the same thing as when you're saying, Remember I said, shaytan represents the biggest of the shayateen. Now put them all under him.
How do you defeat this enemy? You don't defeat him by yelling at him. You defeat him by deep quiet work.
That boxes him out of every single avenue that he takes advantage of because you're not paying attention.
And in fact, sometimes when you talk about your enemy, you give your enemy too much credence. You give him too much power. The Zionists are the enemies of Allah subhanahu wa ta'ala, but I'm not afraid of them.
We don't believe that they actually have any power. We don't believe that they will succeed. The Islamophobes seem to have a lot of machinery behind them.
But when we talk about building capacity, we can't constantly think about what they represent. We have to think about what Allah 'azza wa jal has given us the potential to build.
And that's why the Prophet (ﷺ) says in an authentic hadith, in Abu Dawud and Ahmad, Abi Malik, he says that there was a man who was riding with the Prophet (ﷺ),
that I was with the Prophet (ﷺ), riding upon his mount and his mount stumbled. So I said, I cursed the devil.
His mount stumbled, like think about your car, takes a little bit of a turn or something. I cursed the shaytan. And the Prophet (ﷺ) said,
Now side note here, by the way, what's the difference between ta'isa shaytan or masabba, cursing the devil?
When you seek refuge in Allah, you're seeking refuge in Allah for yourself from an accursed insignificant devil in the presence of the refuge of Allah subhanahu wa ta'ala.
But when you curse the shaytan, you make him the subject himself, ta'isa shaytan. And you curse him out as if he was actually capable of doing something. The Prophet (ﷺ) said,
When you say that, he gets big, give him a big head. His ego grows. He said, I did that. I did that. I messed him up. I got him off track.
I got them off track. Look at me, right? When shaytan publishes his annual report or all the satanic organizations, look at how many we were able to get down. Look at what we were able to do. I got that. The Prophet (ﷺ) said,
Say instead in the name of Allah. When you say bismillah, then he becomes so small until he becomes the size of a mosquito.
So tiny, so insignificant because you anchored yourself in Allah subhanahu wa ta'ala, in what you have. You did not focus on his machinery.
You focused on what Allah has given you to overcome his machinery. You starve his ego. You belittle his influence. And when you remember Allah subhanahu wa ta'ala and you remember what Allah has given you,
then you starve everything that he has upon you and you make him small.
And that consistency in your tawheed, that consistency in your faith, that consistency in your existence is far more damaging to him than these bursts of zeal.
It's those small words of the dhikr of Allah subhanahu wa ta'ala that put these big barriers for him to where he can't even get in. And that's what drives him crazy.
The people of Gaza, with all the bombs over their heads and without rooftops to cover them anymore and without food to put in their stomachs, when they still stood up to a cruel enemy and said,
hasbunallahu wa ni'mal wakeel. Every time they did that, their enemy felt smaller and smaller and smaller and smaller. Before I came in, subhanAllah, I was just watching the video of 500 new graduates.
Of a hifth, a hifth party, 500 young women in Gaza that just finished their Qur'an. In that genocide, how small are those that sought to oppress them?
So on a personal level, dear brothers and sisters, with your own journey, with a shaytan that wants to bring you down, we're taught that every time you pray on time, every time you remember Allah subhanahu wa ta'ala with these small words of dhikr,
every time you say bismillah when you start something, every time when you continue to live in accordance with what Allah has given to the Messenger of Allah (ﷺ) to be delivered to you, you've boxed him out.
He's not finding room in your algorithm and he's getting smaller and he's getting more frustrated. But on a practical level, for ourselves, the shaytan himself and everything that comes under him,
stop speaking about your enemy as if he's invincible. Your enemy is not invincible. No enemy that Allah subhanahu wa ta'ala has given you is invincible. Not even the chief enemy of mankind.
Number two, your enemies from human beings and jinn and all over, whether it's personal enemies in your life that seek to slander you and harm you or mess your family up or whatever it may be,
or someone at work that wants to ruin your employment or ruin your trajectory or someone that wants to harm the American Muslim community or the ummah. Kill them with your success.
By letting them know that they can't get you off track. By continuing to move forward. And you know what we also take from this, dear brothers and sisters? When someone is just trying to get you off your message, get you off your track.
Mess with you enough so that you don't do what made you effective in the first place. The last thing I want to say in this regard is that we cannot adopt a mindset of victimhood. We have to have agency.
We have to have a sense of strength and it can't be a superficial strength. A real sense of strength that allows us to take what Allah has given us.
Look around you and build something with the name of Allah subhanahu wa ta'ala for the sake of Allah subhanahu wa ta'ala that no one can overcome. So when we say,
We say it with full hearts, with conviction, with certain minds and with inspired steps. So that your enemies get more and more and more frustrated.
And when you blame your enemies for everything and you become a victim all the time, you also don't take agency for your own mistakes. You can't blame the Zionist for your masjid politics.
You can't blame the Zionist for your family issues or for how you wrong people in your business. You can't blame the Zionist for missing salah.
You can't blame the Zionist for not adopting these very practical and very important obligations from Allah and His Messenger (ﷺ). Can't blame them for everything.
May Allah subhanahu wa ta'ala allow us to galvanize strength for His sake. May Allah subhanahu wa ta'ala allow us to box out all of those who seek to harm us in this life or the next. From the unseen enemies to the seen enemies.
May Allah 'azza wa jal allow us to do the quiet work, the quiet worship that does not give a sabeel, that does not give a path for those who seek to bring us down.
And may Allah subhanahu wa ta'ala protect our brothers and sisters, the oppressed that are in ICE prisons and detention centers.
Here that are being harmed, here that are being targeted, here and our ummah that's being targeted abroad in Palestine, in Sudan, in Yemen, in every single part of the world.
I say this and ask Allah for forgiveness for me and for you and for the Muslim women. So ask forgiveness for us and for the Forgiving One.
Alhamdulillah, wa salatu was salamu ala rasulillah wa ala alihi wa sahbihi wa man wala. Allahumma ghafir lil mu'mineen wa lil mu'minat, wa lil muslimin wa lil muslimat, al ahya'i minhum wa lil amwat. Innaka samee'un qareebun wajeebu da'wat.
Allahumma ghafir lana wa rhamna, wa a'fu anna wa la tu'adhibna. Rabbana zalamna anfusana, wa ilam takfir lana wa tarhamna, lanakoonanna minal khasireen. Allahumma innaka a'fuwun kareemun tuhibbuna a'fuwa fa'afu anna.
Allahumma ghafir li walidina, rabbir hamhuma kama rabbuna sigara. Rabbana hablana min azwajina wa dhuriyatina qurra ta'ayun. Waja'anna lil muttaqina imama. Allahumma ansur ikhwan al mustad'afeena fee mashariq al ardi magharibiha.
Allahumma ansur hum fee Falestin, wa ansur hum fee al Sudan, wa ansur hum fee al Yemen, wa fee kuli makan. Allahumma alika fee a'daika a'da al deen. Allahumma ahlik al dhalimeena bil dhalimeen, wa akhrijna ikhwanna min baynehim salimeen. Ibadullah, allah ya'mur bil adli wal ihsan wa ita'idil qurba,
wa yanha' al fahsha'i wal munkari wal baghi. Ya'idukum li'al likum tadhakkaroon. Fathkurullah yathkurukum, wa shkuruhu alani'maa yazid lakum. Waladhikrullahi akbar, wallahu ya'n wa ma tasna'oon. Wa eqeem al salah.


































































































































































































































































































