الحمد لله، الحمد لله الذي جعل بحسن الظن به النصرَ والرحمة، وجعل بحسن الظن بخلقه الألفة والمحبة، نحمده تعالى ونستعينه، ونشكره تعالى ونستغفره ونستغيثه، نعوذ بالله من شرور أنفسنا ومن سيئات أعمالنا، من يهد الله فهو المهتد ومن يضلل فلن تجد له وليا مرشدا، ونشهد أن لا إله إلا الله وحده لا شريك له، له الملك و له الحمد، يحيي ويميت، بيده الخير، وهو على كل شيء قدير،  ونشهد أن سيدنا و مولانا محمداً عبده ورسوله، وحبيبه وصفيه، بلغ الرسالة وأدى الأمانة ونصح الأمة، النبي الأمي الذي أرسله الله بالهدى والدين الحق، بشيرا ونذيرا بين يدي الساعة، صلى الله عليه وسلم وعلى آله وأصحابه ومن تبعهم بإحسان إلى يوم الدين.

أما بعد! فيا عباد الله اتقوا الله حق تقاته ولا تموتن إلا وأنتم مسلمون. يأيها الذين ءامنوا اتقوا الله وقولوا قولا سديدا يصلح لكم أعمالكم ويغفر لكم ذنوبكم. ومن يطع 

الله ورسوله فقد فاز فوزا عظيما. اتقوا الله فيما أمر وانتهوا عما نها عنه وزجر.

قال الله عز وجل في كتابه العزيز: قُلْ يَا عِبَادِيَ الَّذِينَ أَسْرَفُوا عَلَى أَنْفُسِهِمْ لَا تَقْنَطُوا مِنْ رَحْمَةِ اللَّهِ إِنَّ اللَّهَ يَغْفِرُ الذُّنُوبَ جَمِيعًا إِنَّهُ هُوَ الْغَفُورُ الرَّحِيمُ

 

Allah says in His mighty Book, the translation of which is, “Say: ‘My slaves, you who have transgressed against yourselves, do not despair of the mercy of Allah. Truly Allah forgives all wrong actions. He is the Ever-Forgiving, the Most Merciful.’”

Muslims of Syria, Muslims of Libya, Muslims of Egypt, Muslims of Cape Town, Muslims of the world, wherever you find yourself, do not despair of the mercy of Allah. His help is at hand if you but turn to Him and place your reliance in Him alone. He is and will always be enough for you and He alone will extricate you from your present predicament. 

wa laa ghaliba illa-l-lah - there is no conqueror except Allah. So sweep aside your depression, rid yourselves of your victim mentality, your view of yourselves as a wronged, oppressed majority or a persecuted minority, stop looking to everyone and everything other than Him for relief, and have a good opinion of your Lord. For you may be powerless and lack the capacity to do anything, human beings may have been created weak, but your Lord is not. There is nothing that is beyond Him and there is no one who can stand in the face of His Power. If the early Muslim community were to have only considered what lay within their own capacities as human beings, Islam would never have spread beyond the boundaries of Arabia and the two great empires of Byzantium and Persia would never have been conquered.  But they did not, they realised that Allah does not make anything He has required them to do impossible, that Allah’s promise is always true. And Allah says,

 

وَعَدَ اللَّهُ الَّذِينَ آَمَنُوا مِنْكُمْ وَعَمِلُوا الصَّالِحَاتِ لَيَسْتَخْلِفَنَّهُمْ فِي الْأَرْضِ كَمَا اسْتَخْلَفَ الَّذِينَ مِنْ قَبْلِهِمْ وَلَيُمَكِّنَنَّ لَهُمْ دِينَهُمُ الَّذِي ارْتَضَى لَهُمْ وَلَيُبَدِّلَنَّهُمْ مِنْ بَعْدِ خَوْفِهِمْ أَمْنًا

 

the translation of which is, “Allah has promised those of you who have iman and do right actions that He will make them successors in the land as He made those before them successors and will firmly establish for them their deen with which He is pleased and give them, in place of their fear, security.”  They trusted that Allah would grant them khilafate as He promised them and establish their deen firmly in the lands. They had no doubt in their upcoming victory. They had high expectations of Allah and maintained a good opinion of Him, knowing that in that trust and good opinion lay their path to victory. Allah says in a hadith qudsi narrated by the Prophet,

أنا عند ظن عبدي بي

 

“I am as My slave expects Me to be.” So if you have a low opinion of Allah and do expect that He will answer you when you call on Him or that He will grant you victory and success, you will remain downtrodden, persecuted and oppressed. But if your opinion of Him is high, He will raise you up. Do not be like the tribe of Israel who lost hope in the Mercy of their Lord when the armies of Pharaoh were almost upon them, saying, 

إِنَّا لَمُدْرَكُونَ

 

the translation of which is, ‘We shall surely be overtaken.’ But rather be like their Prophet Musa who replied,

كَلَّا إِنَّ مَعِيَ رَبِّي سَيَهْدِينِ

 

the translation of which is, “Never, my Lord is with me and He will guide me.” For it was because of his good opinion and absolute trust in his Lord, that what seemed impossible  was made possible and Allah split the sea in two, saved his people and drowned his enemies.

Be like our own Prophet when he was hiding in the cave of Thawr and Quraysh had tracked him to the entrance of the cave and were standing mere metres away. Abu Bakr, his companion in the cave narrates the story,

 

قلت للنبي صلى الله عليه وسلم وأنا في الغار: لو أن أحدهم نظر تحت قدميه لأبصرنا، فقال: {ما ظنك يا أبا بكر باثنين الله ثالثهما}

 

“I said to the Prophet while we were in the cave, ‘If one of them were to but look downwards under his feet, he would see us!’ He replied, ‘What is your opinion, Abu Bakr, of two when Allah is their third.’” He had absolute trust that Allah would veil them from the eyes of their enemies.

To have a good opinion of Allah means to have absolute trust in Him, to have certainty that He will answer your duas when you call on Him, that He will forgive you when you ask forgiveness of Him and and that He will grant you ease when you are in difficulty.

But such good opinion of Allah does not develop in a vacuum - one cannot spend one’s life unrepentantly engaging in wrong action and disobeying one’s Lord and then expect His Mercy and acceptance. The heart and the body are inextricably linked. You must fully turn to Him for Him to turn to you. 

إِنَّ اللَّهَ لَا يُغَيِّرُ مَا بِقَوْمٍ حَتَّى يُغَيِّرُوا مَا بِأَنْفُسِهِمْ

 

  the translation of which is, “Allah never changes a people's situation until they change what is in themselves.” Good opinion and right action go hand in hand - without one the other is simply an empty lie. Allah says:

 

إِنَّ الَّذِينَ ءَامَنُواْ وَالَّذِينَ هَاجَرُواْ وَجَاهَدُواْ فِي سَبِيلِ اللَّهِ أُوْلَئِكَ يَرجُونَ رَحمَتَ اللَّه

 

the translation of which is, “Those who believe and make hijra and do jihad in the Way of Allah, it is those who expect the mercy of Allah.” In other words, it is only those who believe AND act rightly who truly feel hope for the mercy of Allah. Others are just lying to themselves - theirs is but a false hope, they do not truly believe that it will come and instead look elsewhere for it. 

This relationship between good opinion and right action is one hundred percent reciprocal - the more right action a person does, the better his opinion of his Lord, and the better his opinion of his Lord, the more right action he does. Abu Hurayra narrated that the Prophet said, 

حُسنُ الظن بالله مِن حُسنِ العبادة

 

“A good opinion of Allah comes from worshipping Him well.” And Hasan al-Basri said,

 

إن المؤمنَ أحسنَ الظنَّ بربه فأحسن العمل، وإن الفاجرَ أساءَ الظنَّ بربه فأساء العمل

 

“A believer has a good opinion of his Lord and as a result does good actions, while a degenerate has a bad opinion of his Lord and as a result does bad actions.” 

So, forget about your own inadequacies, forget about your own powerlessness and the apparent helplessness of the situation in which you find yourself, and put your trust in One   who has never let His Awliya down, One whose help is always close at hand, One who has promised the believers victory and whose promise is never broken. Allah says,

 

إِنَّا لَنَنْصُرُ رُسُلَنَا وَالَّذِينَ آَمَنُوا فِي الْحَيَاةِ الدُّنْيَا

 

the translation of which is, “We will grant victory to Our Messengers and those who believe in the life of this world.” And He says, 

إِنَّ اللَّهَ لَا يُخْلِفُ الْمِيعَادَ

 

the translation of which is, “Allah will not break His promise.” Hold firm to one of the final pieces of advice given to us by our Messenger and you will be safe:

 

لا يموتَنَّ أحدُكم إلاَّ وهو يُحسنُ الظنَّ بربه، ويرجو رحمةَ الله

 

“Let no one among you die without having a good opinion of his Lord and without expecting the Mercy of Allah.”

 

أقول قولي هذا وأستغفر الله لي ولكم ولسائر المسلمين من كل ذنب فاستغفروه إنه هو الغفور الرَّحيم.الحمد لله الحمد لله رب العالمين، وأشهد أن لا إله إلا الله وحده لا شريك له وأشهد أن محمداً عبده ورسوله، صلى الله وسلم وبارك عليه وعلى آله وصحبه، والتابعين وتابعي التابعين ومن تبعهم بإحسان إلى يوم الدين.

أما بعد! فيأيها الذين ءامنوا اتقوا الله ما استطعتم واسمعوا وأطيعوا وأنفقوا خيرا لأنفسكم. يا عباد الله أوصيكم وإياي بتقوى الله وطاعته وأحذركم وإياي عن معصيته ومخالفته. 

 

A person’s good opinion must not be limited to his Lord, but must be extended to His creation, and first and foremost to his fellow Muslims, for that good opinion is the glue that holds families and societies together. And that means that he must always assume the best of his brother, regardless of what he sees him do or hears him say, unless it is clearly a major wrong action. Umar ibn al-Khattab said,

 

لا تظنَنَّ بكلمةٍ خرجتْ من مسلمٍ شرا وأنت تجدُ لها في الخير محملا

 

“Do not think bad a word that comes out of a fellow Muslim’s mouth when you can find a way to interpret it favourably.”

And even if you see him doing something that is clearly bad, you should still look for excuses for him. Ibn Sirin said,

 

إذا بلغَكَ عن أخيك شيءٌ فالتمِسْ له عُذرا، فإن لم تجدْ فقل: لعلَّ له عُذرا لا أعرِفُه

 

“If you hear something about your brother, make some sort of excuse for him. If you are unable to find an excuse, then say to yourself, “Perhaps he has an excuse that I do not know about.” 

It is related that Abu Ishaq ash-Shirazi, the fourth-century Baghdadi shaykh, had a very valuable turban that he would wear, worth twenty dinars. One day, he took off the turban  to do wudu and while he was doing his wudu, a man came and stole it, leaving an old tattered turban in its place. When Abu Ishaq finished his wudu, he took the turban that he found and did not notice that it was any different until one of his students asked him about it while he was teaching. So he replied, “Perhaps the one who took only did so because he was in need of it.”

We do not know what is in the hearts of other people nor the circumstances in which they find themselves, so automatically assume the best and not the worst. And, similarly, our own knowledge of what is right and what is wrong is severely limited - the deen is broad and not narrow. Just because you have never seen something done nor heard of it does not make it wrong. So, beware of disapproving of others simply because they do something differently to you, and always assume that what they are doing is right and correct unless you have definitive evidence to the contrary. And even if you do have definitive evidence that what someone is doing is wrong, you must only form a bad opinion of the action and not the man since, for all you know, that one wrong action you witnessed may be far outweighed in the eyes of Allah by his many other good actions, and he may have a high station with his Lord. Indeed, the best way for a Muslim to go through life is to think that every other Muslim he meets is better than himself. It is narrated that Muawiya al-Aswad said,

 

إخوانِي كلُّهم خيرٌ مني، قيل وكيف ذلك؟ قال: كلُّهم يرى لي الفضلَ عليه ومَن فَضَّلَني على نفسه فهو خير مني

 

“Every single one of my brothers is better than me.” “How is that?” he was asked. “They all see me as being better than them,” he replied, “And anyone who thinks me better than him is himself better than me.”

Sometimes these negative thoughts about others come into your head unbidden. When that happens you should make dua that they be rewarded with good. For that is sure to anger Shaytan and will give him second thoughts about filling your head with bad opinion again.

Bad opinion swiftly destroys the social fabric of a community until all that is left is  division and mistrust, since it inevitably leads to snooping and spying and thence to backbiting and slander. Allah says,

 

يَاأَيُّهَا الَّذِينَ آمَنُوا اجْتَنِبُوا كَثِيرًا مِنْ الظَّنِّ إِنَّ بَعْضَ الظَّنِّ إِثْمٌ وَلَا تَجَسَّسُوا وَلَا يَغْتَبْ بَعْضُكُمْ بَعْضًا أَيُحِبُّ أَحَدُكُمْ أَنْ يَأْكُلَ لَحْمَ أَخِيهِ مَيْتًا فَكَرِهْتُمُوهُ

 

the translation of which is, “You who believe! avoid most suspicion (opinion). Indeed some suspicion is a crime. And do not spy and do not backbite one another. Would any of you like to eat his brother's dead flesh? No, you would hate it.” It is by bad opinion that lies and slander are able to get a foothold in society and spread with the speed that they do. If Muslims were but to assume the best of their brethren they would never accept any malicious rumours about them as being true. And this is confirmed by Allah when He talks about the slander of adultery that the hypocrites directed against Aisha and that was doing the rounds in Madina. Allah says in surat an-Nur,

 

لَوْلَا إِذْ سَمِعْتُمُوهُ ظَنَّ الْمُؤْمِنُونَ وَالْمُؤْمِنَاتُ بِأَنْفُسِهِمْ خَيْرًا وَقَالُوا هَذَا إِفْكٌ مُبِينٌ

 

the translation of which is, “Why, when you heard it, did you not, as believing men and women, think well of yourselves and say, ‘This is clearly a lie’.”

So, Muslims, have a good opinion of your brothers and sisters and always seek excuses for them. Speak well of them and never speak badly of them. And remember that what you see in them is a reflection of what is in yourself, so if all you see of your fellow Muslims is bad, then the fault lies in you and not them. You must be like the faqir who entered the mosque and gave salams to the Shaykh and his students who were sitting there.  They said nothing in response. But despite it being obligatory in the deen to return the salaam, the faqir did not think badly of them, but rather straight away thought the fault must lie with him, so he began to weep and asked them to forgive him whatever transgressions he had committed. That is husn adh-dhann - that is the essence of good opinion.

We ask Allah to give us a good opinion of one another and a good opinion of Him. We ask Him to unify our hearts and support us with His help. We ask Him to forgive us, overlook our wrong actions and guide us along the Sirat al-Mustaqim. And we ask Him to give the promised victory to His deen.

 

إِنَّ اللهَ وَمَلَائِكَتَهُ يُصَلُّونَ عَلَى النَّبِيِّ، يَا أَيُهَا الذِينَ آمَنُواْ صَلُّواْ عَلَيْهِ وَسَلِّمُواْ تَسْلِيماً. اللَّهُمَّ صَلِّ وَسَلِّمْ وَبَارِكْ عَلَيْهِ وَعَلَى آلِهِ وَصَحْبِهِ  أَجْمَعِينَ. 

وَارْضَ اللَّهُمَّ عَنِ الْخُلَفَاءِ الرَّاشِدِينَ أَبِي بَكْرٍ وَعُمَرَ وَعُثْمَانَ وَعَلِيٍّ، وعَنْ عَائِشَةَ وسَائِرِ أَزْوَاجِ النَّبِيِّ صَلَّى اللهُ عَلَيْهِ وَسَلَّمَ، وَعَنْ سَائِرِ الصَّحَابَةِ أَجْمَعِينَ، خُصُوصاً اِلأَنْصَارَ مِنْهُمْ وَالمُهَاجِرِينَ، وَعَنِ التَّابِعِينَ وَتَابِعِي التَّابِعِينَ وَمَنْ تَبِعَهُمْ بِإِحْسَانٍ إِلَى يَوْمِ الدِّينِ.

اللَّهُمَّ اهْدِ وُلَاةَ أُمُورِ المُسْلِمِينَ لِمَا يُرْضِيكَ وَلِاتِّبَاعِ سُنَّةِ نَبِيِّكَ صَلَّى اللهُ عَلَيْهِ وَسَلَّمَ، وَثَبِّتْ أَقْدَامَهُمْ عَلَى الصِّرَاطِ المُسْتَقِيمِ، وَأَصْلِحْهُمْ يَا رَبَّ الْعَالَمِينَ.

اللَّهُمَّ بَارِكْ عَلَى شَيْخِنَا، وَعَلَى أَمِيرِنَا، وَعَلَى جَمِيعِ أُمَرَاءِ وَزُعَمَاءِ المُسْلِمِينَ.  

اللَّهُمَّ بَارِكْ عَلَى المُسْلِمِينَ فِي هَذِهِ المَدِينَةِ، وَوَفِّقْهُمْ لِمَا تُحِبُّهُ وَتَرْضَاهُ يَا أَكْرَمَ الأَكْرَمِينَ. 

اللَّهُمَّ أَعِزَّ الإِسْلَامَ وَالمُسِْلمِينَ (3) وَاخْذُلِ الْكُفْرَ وَالْكَافِرِينَ، وَانْصُرِ المُجَاهِدِينَ فِي سَبِيلِ اللهِ. وَاجْعَلْ كَلِمََتَكَ هِيَ العُلْيَا وَكَلِمَةَ الْكُفْرِ هِيَ السُّفْلَى.

رَبَّنَا ءَاتِنَا فِي الدُّنْيَا حَسَنَةً وَفِي الآخِرَةِ حَسَنَةً وَقَِنَا عَذَابَ النَّارِ. 

اللَّهُمَّ لاَ تَدَعْ فِي مَقَامِنَا هَذَا ذَنْباً إِلاَّ غَفَرْتَهُ، وَلاَ عَيْباً إِلاَّ سَتَرْتَهُ، وَلاَ مَرِيضاً إِلاَّ شَفَيْتَهُ وَعَافَيْتَهُ، وَلاَ مَسْجُوناً إِلاَّ طَلَقْتَ سَرَاحَهُ، وَلاَ مُسَافِراً فِي بَرِّكَ وَبَحْرِكَ إِلاَّ سَلِِمْتَهُ وَغَنِمْتَهُ.

إِنَّ اللهَ يَامُرُ بِالْعَدْلِ وَالإِحْسَانِ وَإِيتَاءِ ذِي الْقُرْبَى، وَيَنْهَى عَنِ الْفَحْشَاءِ وَالمُنكَرِ وَالْبَغْيِ، يَعِظُكُمْ لَعَلَّكُمْ تَذَّكَّرُونَ، وَلَذِكْرُ اللهِ أَكْبَرُ وَاللهُ يَعْلَمُ مَا تَصْنَعُونَ. وَقُومُواْ إِلَى صَلاتِكُمْ يَرْحَمُكُمُ اللهُ.