Shaykh Dr Muhammad Said Ramadan al-Buti

The Friday sermon delivered at the Umayyad mosque, Damascus, on the 3rd

Jumada al-’ula 1431 (after Hejira) which corresponds to the 16th April 2010 (CE).

Praised be God. Praised be God. Praised be God; a praise commensurate to His

bounties and equivalent to His plentiful blessings. O our Lord, for you is praise

befitting Your sublime essence and Your majestic Dominion. Transcendent are

You; O God I am unable to enumerate Your exaltations, for You are as You exalt

Yourself. I testify that there is no deity except God alone, who has no partner, and

I testify that Muhammad is His slave, His Messenger, and His pure and intimate

friend; the best Prophet God sent. God sent him to the whole world as a bearer

of glad tidings and as a warner. O God send your mercy, peace, and blessings

upon our master Muhammad1 and upon the family of our master Muhammad;

continuous peace and blessings that last until the Day of Judgement.

I exhort you, O Muslims, and my wrongful self, to fear2 God, the Exalted.

O slaves of God, God the Sublime and Magnificent described the state of some of

His slaves in His exact exposition, “Whenever you suffer distress at sea, all

those you call for help fail you, save He, yet when He brings you safely to

land you turn away. Indeed man is ungrateful. Are you confident that He

will not cause a slope of the land to engulf you or let loose a storm upon

you? Then you shall find no protector. Or are you confident that He will

not send you back a second time and send against you a violent wind and

drown you for your disbelief and you will have no argument against Us.”3

1. An invocation that is recited each time the name of the Prophet Muhammad is mentioned.

2. The Arabic term “taqwa” is often translated as fear or piety. It is a concept that may be defined as

following the commands of God and avoiding His prohibitions with reverence and awe for the

majesty of God. Taqwa gives rise to the protection of God.

3. A translation of the meaning of a verse from the Qur'an: chapter no 17: verse no. 67-69: i.e. Q

(17:67-69).

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Some slaves of God, the Sublime and Magnificent, describe their state using this

eloquent speech. When calamity takes them by surprise the trial appears to them

as if it emerged out of its own accord and when it passes only then they will

change from being in a precarious state to one of safety. One of them may be

tested with poverty such that he only sees the calamity as this state that has taken

him by surprise and due to it he feels injury and suffering. He imagines that when

this state passes he will ease into safety and tranquillity.

And perhaps he has been tested by an illness and he becomes fixated that the

affliction only springs from this state that distresses him, from this illness that

befalls his being. When he is healed and freed from its torments and agonies then

he will be able to secure well-being and a comfortable life for himself.

And perhaps an enemy has confronted him, depriving him of his peace and

security. He holds to the notion that the distress is due to the one who confronts

him. When the enemy comes to an end and the enmity recedes then he will return

to a state of security and peace; assuming that the tribulation will leave him and

that he will now live in a fortress of peace.

However this depiction is an incorrect depiction. The declaration of God, the

Transcendent and Exalted, informs us of the gravity of this mistake, which many

people are prone to make.

The calamity is not the unsettling of the sea and you being threatened with

drowning such that if you find yourself on dry land you imagine that the

tribulation has passed and that the danger has passed you by. No, the affliction

descends upon you from a divine height and does not emanate from the natural

world. It is God who wishes to tests you with poverty. He may try you with

wealth; wealth is a greater affliction than the poverty you suffered from. God is

the one who tests you with illness, that deprives you of comfort and peace.

Perhaps God, the Sublime and Magnificent, will heal you and from this healing

that you enjoy springs overflowing tribulation and greater calamity.

Yes, this is the meaning of the speech of God, the Sublime and Magnificent, “Are

you confident that He will not cause a slope of the and to engulf you or let

looses a storm upon you? Then you shall find no protector.”4 And this the

same meaning that the divine declaration diverts our attention to when He says,

4. Q (17: 68)

Seeking Refuge in God During Difficulty and Ease Dr al-Buti

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“Are you confident that He who is in the sky [ie His dominion] will not

cause the earth to seek beneath you and then to quake. Or are you

confident that He who is in the sky [ie His dominion] will not send against

you a sandy whirlwind? You will come to know how terrible was my

warning.”5

How often man imagines that the earth is a cradle that God, the Sublime and

Magnificent, has made as a cause of felicity, peace and comfort and made it a

treasure trove of all his wishes. Yet he forgets that this God, Who has truly made

a cradle from this earth, if He wishes, may make it the your means of destruction.

From the earth He has made empty mouths that will swallow you up, nay,

swallow a nation in one fell swoop. Listen o slaves of God to the declaration of

God, the Magnificent and Sublime, and how He makes known to us the variousif

this adjective is allowed- destroyers of His slaves that He has destroyed. He

destroyed them using many means that we consider to be causes of felicity. He

destroyed some of them using water which God has made the secret of life, “We

made from water every living thing”6. God, the Sublime and Magnificent,

destroyed many nations with gentle breezes of air that are the sources of life’s

rejuvenation and continuity. God, the Transcendent and Sublime, destroyed

peoples by means of this earth, which He has made a cradle for mankind; not like

the cradle that the mother prepares for the child. “Each of them we seized for

his wrongdoing; on some we sent a sandy whirlwind; others were seized by

the Cry. Some we caused the earth to swallow and some We drowned. It

was not for God to wrong them, by they wronged themselves.”7

Have you perceived the instructive meaning drawn to our attention by this

declaration of God? He says to us all, o slaves of God, fear the One who sends

the calamity upon you whenever He wishes and delights you blessing whenever

He so desires. Do not make your fear of the spectre of calamity itself. The

calamity is a pawn from amongst the pawns of God, the Magnificent and Mighty.

How often does He make from this pawn a cause of blessing and a means of

felicity. Yes, this is what the declaration of God, the Transcendent and Exalted,

informs us.

5. Q (67: 16-17)

6. Q (21:30)

7. Q (29: 40)

Seeking Refuge in God During Difficulty and Ease Dr al-Buti

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If only mankind was aware of this divine enlightenment then his imagination and

conscious feelings will always be directed towards God, the Exalted and

Transcendent. He would confront a calamity seeking refuge in God, the

Transcendent and Sublime and he would ask Him with the humility of his

servitude to make this calamity distant from him and asking God for well-being in

the manner of the Messenger of God, May God send his peace and blessings

upon him, who asked, “Your well-being encompasses me.”

When the calamity passes, he remains seeking refuge in God, the Sublime and

Magnificent, because he knows that the hour in which he enjoys a comfortable

life, the hour in which he delights in well-being and health, perhaps will turn.

Change in an instant to a cause of misery, to a cause of a hard life and agonising

torments which have no limit. Hence he is always seeking refuge in God. Seeking

refuge in God during difficulty and asking Him to cast out this difficulty. Seeking

refuge in God during ease; asking Him, the Sublime and Magnificent, to remain in

this ease and asking God, the Sublime and Magnificent, to not transform his ease

into difficulty. He remembers the counsel of Abd-Allah bin Abbas that the

Messenger of God advised him with, “Get to know God in ease and He will know

you in difficulty.”

O slaves of God, this is the state of many of us. They seek refuge in God, the

Sublime and Magnificent, during difficulty fleeing from it. Until he breathes a

deep sigh as the calamity passes and he forgets God whom he was seeking refuge

in. The difficulty vanishes and with it the seeking refuge in God.

How often we have seen peoples tested with poverty after wealth or tested with

illness and well-being and when one of them knock on the doors of the righteous

asking each one of them, “Do you know a supplication that if I were to use it to

ask God to relieve this difficulty, that I suffer from, He would relieve it from

me?” When he comes to know a formula from amongst the formulae of

supplications he begins to repeat it as if he were a child memorising his

homework. God honours him with well-being after sickness and God honours

him with wealth after poverty. He forgets what he used to do because his seeking

refuge was only in fear in of the calamity, itself, and not in fear of the Sender of it

and He is God, the Transcendent and Exalted.

Seeking Refuge in God During Difficulty and Ease Dr al-Buti

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Slaves of God, I am astonished in front of the scene of a child who does not

perceive and conversely I see the examples of those whom God has bestowed

intelligence and experience of life and I find that this child is closer to

understanding and certitude than many of our examples. The father carries his

child between his arms and embraces him and the son, the child is reassured that

he is guarded under the care of his father and his father overlooks a cliff edge.

The child does not look at this bottomless edge unless he is clinging to his father,

until he is adhering to his father. He is in the breast of his father and the arms of

his father encompass him. Yes, he knows that he is guarded by the care of his

father but he sees that tribulation is close at hand. He knows that the source of his

security is his father and the source of his misery and danger that may encircle him

is the turning away of his father from him. Hence he remains clinging to his

father; he remains in every state adhering to the chest of his father. This is the

state of this child. As for the man from our previous examples, as for the

intelligent one who knows the secrets of life, should he not have even more

reason to know this reality?

We all, o brothers, look down upon calamities with vision and inner sight. They

are close to all of us. We see them at hand and know that they are on the brink of

befalling us. We know- or it is necessary that we know- that the source of these

calamities is our Master and our Creator. The source of tests is God, the Mighty

and Magnificent. Is he not the one who says, “And We test you with evil and

with good as a trial. And to Us you shall be returned.”8

We know this reality, so why do we not do what this child does? Why do we not

cling to the mercy of God and His loving kindness? Why do we not persist

seeking refuge in God, the Mighty and Magnificent, during ease just as we seek

refuge in Him during difficulty? Why is our affair not like the affair of this child?

Nay why do we not learn from this child when he seeks refuge in his father and

when he gazes with his two eyes turning aside in fear as if he is saying to his

father, ‘O father do not abandon me. O father do not leave me because of the

imminent danger I see around me’ yet he is in a state of security and he is in a

state of peace. Where are we, o slaves of God, with regards to discerning this

8. Q (21:35)

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expression of the relationship between slaves and our Lord and our Master, the

Transcendent and Exalted?

One of us flees to God when an adversity encircles him; poverty, illness or a

threatening enemy. When God, the Sublime and Magnificent, answers his prayer

and relieves his agony you look at him and he has returned to his heedlessness,

returned to his concerns and lower world. It as if the affliction has ceased and it is

impossible for it to return; as if the compassionate hand that rescued him from

poverty and illness is not able to return and afflict him with an evil from that

distress that previously struck him. This is the condition of a group of people and

God, the Sublime and Magnificent, has described them as you have heard. I will

return and remind myself and remind you of the divine eloquent elucidation

expressing this meaning, may it make us rise to the instructio