Before we go into defining As-Sakeenah as Muslims we read the Quran and we read the Sunnah and we are astonished by a lot of the things we go through.
Tell me what makes Ibraheem who is a young boy, a young man, what gives him the courage to demolish, to destroy the idols that his people used to worship and when they come to him and say: “who did this? SubhanAllah, Ibrahim (peace be upon him) has the courage to say: “It’s their chief, the big one, ask him! Or ask them and they will tell you.
How did Ibrahim (peace be upon him) find the courage to leave his wife, Hager and his infant child, Ismail (peace be upon them) who was his only child after reaching the age of 80, it was a miracle from Allah and a gift, he left them stranded in a valley with no humans, no trees or plants, no water, he left them in the desert and he walked away, Hager said: “who are you leaving us for? Did Allah order you to do this?” Without looking back he said: “yes” she said: “go! Allah would not leave us”.
Where did he get this courage from? Now, Ibrahim (may Allah be pleased with him) we are told in the Quran that he saw in a dream that he is slaughtering his son, Ismail, and we now that the vision (and we that the visions of messengers of Allah are revelations) so he goes to his son, who was 14 or 15 years old, his only son, his first born, he goes to him and says: “My son I saw in this dream that I slaughter you” what do you think?
How did he even attempt to do such a thing?
(May Allah have his blessings upon him) which is stranger and more astonishing is the answer and the reply of Ismail: he did not say: “come on father this is just a dream from Sheitan, don’t listen to your dreams, you want to kill me? You want to kill me because of a dream? No, Ismail, who was a prophet and a Messenger himself said: “Father, do what you are told you will find me not patient, you will find me with the grace of Allah, being patient, because on my one I cannot be patient, if Allah does not guide me I cannot be guided, I need Allah.
What gave them this power to say such a thing? Look at another Messenger, look at Yusuf; he tolerates the betrayal of his siblings, of his own flesh and blood when they threw him in the well. He tolerated being enslaved, being humiliated, being imprison and why was he imprisoned? Because he would not accept sin. All of this humiliation is not happening to anyone of us, is happening to a prophet, the son of a prophet, the son of a prophet, the son of a prophet.
When the Prophet Muhammad (salla Allahu alaihi wa sallam) was asked: Who is among the best? Who is among the most honorable? He said: Yusuf, the son of Jacob, the son of Isaac, the son of Ibrahim, all prophets of Allah (peace be upon them all) and when the messenger came and said: “Yusuf come and meet the king, after he interpreted the dream” if anyone of us was approached with such a request we would definitely immediately gone out of prison after spending so many years, not Yusuf , he had something in him that made him calm and said to the messenger: “Go back to the king and let him investigate my innocence among the woman.
it’s all in the Quran, this is what we read, but we should not read it, or recite it just for the fun of it, or just for seeking the baraka, we should learn from it, we should make it our guide that we follow and we would never go astray by following it.
If you look at Musa (Peace be upon him), Prophet Moses, after freeing Egypt and working for 10 years, being married to the daughter of his boss, he fulfilled his contract for 10 years, he wanted to go back to Egypt, he travels alone with his wife, not accompanied by any guards, or any escort, in the middle of the night, when it’s cold, and you are lonely and you leave your wife because you saw a glimpse of light, you wanted to go and some of that glimpse of fire so that you and your wife would be able to worm yourself a bit, who would do this among us? Leave the wife? Well some of us would leave the wife definitely, but these are not among the best of husbands, but those who love their wives, would dare to leave their wives in that situation: desert, cold, night, lonely? Yet he goes there and SubhanAllah something extraordinary happens, Allah the Almighty himself speaks to him. When a dignitary speaks to us, when someone powerful and rich speaks to us we may lose our concentration, Allah the Almighty is speaking to him, yet he stands still and he accepts and talks back to the Almighty Allah.
Sekeenah is mentioned 5 times in the Holy Quran:
Sura Al-Baqarah 248( Translation of the meaning ): “And their Prophet (Samuel) said to them: Verily! The sign of His Kingdom is that there shall come to you At-Tabut (a wooden box), wherein is Seekinah (peace and reassurance) from your Lord and a remnant of that which Musa (Moses) and Harun (Aaron) left behind, carried by the angels. Verily, in this is a sign for you if you are indeed believers.”
Surat at-Tawba( Translation of the meaning): 26 “Then Allah did send down His Sikeenah on the Messenger and on the believers and sent down forces (angels) which you saw not, and punished the disbelievers. Such is the recompense of disbelievers.
Surat at-Tawba (Translation of the meaning): 40 “ If you help him not (it does not matter), for Allah did indeed help him when the disbelievers drove him out the second of two; when they were in the cave, and he said to his companion Be not sad surely Allah is with us.” Then Allah sent down His Sakeenah upon him, and strengthened him with forces which you saw not and made the word of those who disbelieved the lowermost, while the Word of Allah that became the uppermost, and Allah is All-Mighty, All-Wise”
Surat al-Fath (Translation of the meaning): 4 “He it is Who sent down As-Sakeenah into the hearts of the believers that they may grow more in Faith along with their Faith and to Allah belong the soldiers of the heavens and the earth and Allah is ever All-Knower, All-Wise”
Surat-al Fath (Translation of the meaning): 18 “Indeed, Allah was pleased with the believers when they gave their Bai’ah to you under the tree he know what was in their hearts, and He sent down As-Sakeenah upon them, and He rewarded them with a near victory”
Do Muslims get doubts? There are people who are faced with doubts in Islam and this is normal, the companions of the Prophet (salla Allahu alaihi wa sallam) went to the Prophet and said: “O, Prophet of Allah, we find things in our hearts that were thrown from the sky and fallen on the ground is better than talking about it, we cannot even talk about it, so the Prophet (salla Allahu alaihi wa sallam) said: “Did you find it?” By Allah this is the clear faith, I am getting doubts about my religion and you are telling me that this is clear faith. Because you are said and depressed by these thoughts and you find it impossible to talk about, this is a clear sign that you have faith in you and that is why Ibn Abbas (may Allah be pleased with him) was approached by some of his companions and some of them said: “Ibn Abbas, the Jews and the Christians mock about us, they ridicule of prayers and they say: you Muslims have whispers of Sheitan when you pray, but we Jews and Christians do not have this when we pray, we do not have any whispering of Sheitan.
“Ibn Abbas (may Allah be pleased with him) said: “that’s true, his companions were shocked. How can Muslims get whispers in their prayer and the Jews and Christians don’t ?. He said: “what would Sheitan do with an empty hart?”
If I was a burglar, I am a thief and there is the house of a rich person and the house of a poor person, which one should I go to? Definitely to the rich person because I would find something to steal and that is way Sheitan is coming to you to steal from your prayer and the more you fight him the more Allah will reward you for this because you have the reward of praying and the reward of fighting him. We need not to be delusioned.
A lot of this Muslims nowadays need the Sekeenah. It was reported that a man was a friend of an epidemic, this are old tells, no one can be a friend of an epidemic, but this is what they say and he met him once and told him: where are you going? So he said: “I am going to that village over there, I was instructed to kill 500 of them with the epidemic, this is my job, a month later the man hears the man hears that 5000 died so he meets the epidemic again and says: “listen last time you dropped a 0, you told me to kill 500, but 5000 died, he said: yes, I killed 500, but delusion, fear killed the 4.500 remaining.
Muslims need the Sekeenah, so that they are not delusioned, they are not fooled by what Sheitan casts into their heads, we need the sekeenah in time of happiness, sometimes when we are joyful, we are happy, we make bad things, bad judgments, bad actions that do not fit a Muslim. Even when you are happy you have the Sekeenah that calms you down, does not make you do like the hooligans, for example, if you are supporting a football team and they win the hooligans go and they break windows, they party, they do things that are not in accordance with Islam.
We have to have the Sekeenah in time of sadness, because if a woman husbands dies she starts slapping her face, tearing her clothes, saying things and the angels say “amen, amen” she says: “May Allah curse me, May Allah make me die before him” and the angels say “amen, amen” no, you have to have the Sekeenah even in times sorrow, when there is a calamity, when you are sick, when there is a problem, when there is a agony, when you are in pain, you always remember that this is from Allah, this is because of my sins, so this calms you down and you accept whatever Allah has to bring upon you
Sekeenah in the Sunnah is mentioned in a number of places, such Hajj, if you see Hajj and you see these people 1.5 million in a very small area and they all want to go from A to B to C in just 3 days and everybody wants to be the first and I could care less if you are a Muslim, if you are a women, if you are an elderly I just smack you in the face and I am ahead of you.
Allah says in Surat al-Fath (Translation of the meaning): 4 “He it is Who sent down As-Sakeenah into the hearts of the believers that they may grow more in Faith along with their Faith and to Allah belongs the soldiers of the heavens and the earth and Allah is ever All-Knower, All-Wise”.
Allah also says in Surat-al Fath (Translation of the meaning): 18 “Indeed, Allah was pleased with the believers when they gave their Bai’ah to you under the tree he know what was in their hearts, and He sent down As-Sakeenah upon them, and He rewarded them with a near victory”.
This was in the year the Prophet (salla Allahu alaihi wa sallam) went for Umrah and he went with few of his companions, light arms, daggers, small swords, nothing else, no airplanes, no tanks, he just went to perform Umrah and they prevented him and they insisted that he signs a treaty which by he is to go back to Medina and come back next year and it had conditions that made some of the companions shocked.
Among them was Omar (may Allah be pleased with him) and this conditions, some of them, one of the conditions stated that if some of the pagans embraced Islam and wanted to migrate to Medina, the prophet should not accept them, he should reject them and send them back, but if the opposite happens, if one of the Muslims rejected Islam and wanted to go to Mecca, they would keep him.
Omar could not swallow this. He said this is not acceptable. He went to the Prophet (salla Allahu alaihi wa sallam) aren’t you on the right path? He said: “yes”, aren’t you the Prophet of Allah, he said: “yes” so why are we being humiliated in Allah’s religion if we are on the right path. The Prophet (salla Allahu alaihi wa sallam) said: “Omar, I am Allah’s servant and messenger and he will not betray me, he will not make me go astray, so believe in that. He did not take quite well, he went to Abu Bakr and said the same thing to Abu Bakr, aren’t we on the right path?
Aren’t they on kurf and disbelief?
Why are we being humiliated in our religion and Abu Bakr said exactly the same thing and he grabbed Omar and he shook him and told him: “Omar, watch out, follow his footsteps, otherwise you will be doomed and you will lose. Omar, years after he said: whenever I remember this I free slaves, I give charity, I offer prayers, I fast, so Allah will forgive the sins I have done on that occasion.
And finally, Allah sais in the same surah,
surah Al-Fath(Translation of the meaning): 26 “While the Unbelievers got up in their hearts heat and cant – the heat and cant of Ignorance,- God sent down His Sekeenah to his Messenger and to the Believers, and made them stick close to the command of self-restraint; and well were they entitled to it and worthy of it. And God has full knowledge of all things.”
When those who disbelieved had put into their hearts chauvinism – the chauvinism of the time of ignorance. But Allah sent down His tranquility upon His Messenger and upon the believers and imposed upon them the word of righteousness and they were more deserving of it and worthy of it. And ever is Allah, of all things, Knowing.
When those who disbelief, the pagans of Makkah have put in their hearts pride and arrogance, they would not reject anyone coming from Arabia, from the pagans to perform Umrah, but when it came to the Prophet (salla Allahu alaihi wa sallam) it was their pride in their hearts, the time of ignorance. Then Allah sent down his Sekeenah and that is why the Prophet (salla Allahu alaihi wa sallam) accepted that. And that is why Abu Bakr (may Allah be pleased with him) and the rest of his companions accepted this, only few who could not tolerate this, not out of ignorance, but out of love for Islam.
These are the 6 verses that have the word sekkenah, but what is the meaning of Sekeenah?
Sekeenah is tranquility, is it peace and calmness, it is the belief in Allah that makes you calm down when your hart is filled with fear and it’s trembling out of distress. Once you have this Sekeenah in you, you are not bothered, you are not changed, you are not provoked and intimidated. This transense on your actions, on the things you say and how you behave and belief, Sekeenah acts also opposite to arrogance. An arrogant person does not have Sekeenah.
The Prophet (salla Allahu alaihi wa sallam) says that arrogance and pride are with those who have camels and horses and sekeenah is with those that have sheep, what those that mean? If you own camels and horses and you are always with your livestock and you are happy with it, and you are taking care of it you tend to get some of the characteristics of this animals, which is pride, arrogance, so you always humiliate people, you always disrespect people and this is found in some of the Beduins who are not fine toning their characteristics with Islam, with the Quran and the Sunnah. While those who take care of sheep, subhanAllah, because sheep is quiet and calm, they also get this sekeenah into them.
This sekeenah is what we need now, that makes us calm and focused, in time of stress, in time of calamities. The Sekeenah is not something we earn; it is a gift from Allah.
One would argue and say: “ok, what about some of them who are not Muslim but they are patient when calamity strikes, well this is not sekeenah, this is patience, this is something that they train themselves to attain, but you do not know what is in their hearts. A lot of the people tend to be calm in peaceful when they engage themselves in sin. When someone says “I listen to soft music before I sleep and I feel nice and calm, but if I don’t I feel agitated”. This is not sekeenah, because it is not gained and obtained through lawful means. It’s not from Allah, it’s temporary, you may feel good for a while, but after the effect is gone you back to square 1.
Where and how do you get this Tranquility? We need this Sekeenah with our children, with our spouses.
How do we treat our children? Unfortunately in a very bad manner, we don’t use the sekeenah with them. If they do something wrong let’s break a leg, let’s break an arm, do anything. Whenever my child does something I am agitated, I’m angry, I shout “Why did you do this?”. This is not the sekeenah, this is not the doing of the Prophet (salla Allahu alaihi wa sallam).
Personally speaking whenever one of my children does something I do not like, it’s not wrong, but they are too joyful, they are playing, when I am not happy with them, the first thing I say: “Hey did you pray? Did you pray dhuhr?” And the answer is no, go and pray! So it’s becoming like a punishment.
Whenever one of my daughters says: “can you bring me this, can you do this?” I say: “Did you pray?” what this has to do this?
It’s the lack of tranquility, we should be calm, we should understand our children, and we should understand our spouses. If my wife comes with my lunch and I’m hungry and it is tasteless, it’s burned, it’s hard, I do not know if it’s food or not. Tranquility comes, I eat it, 2 or 3 bides, Alhamdulillah, may Allah bless you! Jazak Allah khair, good food. She says: “liar, this is uneatable, how do you say its good food?” Well I appreciate that you spend 2 hours in the kitchen, the results were not that good, but you did the effort, so I appreciated this.
This is the tranquility we need with the spouses. And the women would do the same with her husband. If he is tired, he does what he does and still does not afford to spend some time with her, or with the children, he appreciates his efforts. This is the tranquility we need.
We need the tranquility when we call others to Islam. You cannot call people to Islam and say: “become Muslims, become Muslims”, no, nobody will accept this and you cannot go to somebody who is not practicing, Muslim, but he is not a good Muslim and say: “you are a bad Muslim and you will go to Hell and Allah will punish in the grave and I’ll be watching you and I’ll be laughing, so fear Allah and join me into the peace of humanity” you cannot have people saying this, no one will accept this, you have to have the tranquility in accepting those who have different opinions, who are misguided, be kind, like the Prophet (salla Allahu alaihi wa sallam) was. Do exactly like the Prophet (salla Allahu alaihi wa sallam) did and believe me you will be one of the best dayas ever.
We need to have tranquility in times of distress. This is very important. Muslims nowadays are being manipulated. They are playing with us like puppets. Anything the enemies of Islam would like to do is very easy. They make drawings that are insulting to the Prophet (salla Allahu alaihi wa sallam) what would you do? I am agree, I love the Prophet, I will defend the prophet (salla Allahu alaihi wa sallam), when was the last time you prayed fajr in the masjid? No, no this is regardless, I would like to defend, ok what would you like to do? I am going to have a protest, I am going to attack my neighbor, he is not a Muslim, well he is a Muslim, but he…..aa who cares? I am going to attack him, why are you doing this? For the love of my Prophet (salla Allahu alaihi wa sallam).
Is this Islamic?
People draw things insulting the Prophet, is this good? No, by Allah it is the greatest insults to Muslims and to Islam and to the greatest human, but does it destroy the Prophet’s reputation (salla Allahu alaihi wa sallam), does it hurt him? Do whatever you want to do to our prophet (salla Allahu alaihi wa sallam), you cannot insult him this much. Every single minute around the globe his name is mentioned: Ash hadu anna Muhammadan rasullu Allah in the Adhan. In the U.S.A, in Washington, next the White House, his name is mentioned and you can no stop this. In the East, in the West, in the South, in the North, his name every single minute round the clock it’s being mentioned. So who can insult him? (salla Allahu alaihi wa sallam) No one, so measure your actions in the scale of Sharia , Quran and Sunnah.
To be a criminal is an evil thing, but to think as a criminal to defend Islam is a good thing?. Whenever you want to counter attack a criminal, think like him. If I want to think like the enemies of Islam, how can I attack Islam? Well, make Muslims do things that are not good. So, for example, we read in the newspaper that x, y, z, brought the Quran and put his feet on it. Aw that’s bad, what are you going to do about it? Let’s make a protest, call my friends, call your friends, call the neighborhood, call half a million, let’s protest. As a criminal, as a enemy of Islam, the only thing I have to do is to bring 5 hypocrites for pretenders to be Muslim and put them in the crowd, and the minute they pass a policeman hit the policeman, set fire on a car, brake the windows. Who will be accused of doing this? The Muslims.
So we need tranquility, we need sekeenah. What is the ruling on protest? Scholars have different opinions, some say it’s ok, some say it’s not. I believe that protesting it’s not permissible because it has more harm than good.
Lots of those in the protest say bad things, things that are against Islam, would do things that are against Islam, women and men coming together in the same place, mixing, braking the windows, heating, killing, abusing, defining the laws. This is all not Islamic. We need as sekeenah so that we could be guided in the right path. This does not mean that a Muslim when having the sekeenah is negative, this does not mean that you will be without any jealousy, you see your wife with another men and say: “next time do not do it again in the bedroom, at least do it somewhere else.” What are you doing? This is sekeenah sheikh, I am having the sekeenah, no, and this is not a man.
You have to measure whatever you do with the Quran and Sunnah.Not to be negative and not reacting, but not to go to the extreme in doing things that do not please Allah and Allah knows best.