Sheikh Uthman Hadi - Do Resilience and Resistance Go Hand in Hand? - Sheikh Uthman Hadi

Episode Date: April 4, 2026

Today, I want to explore a profound question that resonates deeply within our lives as Muslims: Do resilience and resistance go hand in hand? In a world filled with challenges, understanding the relationship between these two concepts can empower us to navigate our trials with strength and purpose.Become a supporter of this podcast: https://www.spreaker.com/podcast/sheikh-uthman-hadi--6689369/support.https://sheikhuthmanhadi.beam.lyhttps://open.spotify.com/user/315hadqmwxllibu6ubi5us2cbn2y?si=572b4d8898284e9ehttps://open.spotify.com/show/3MQHfrpjj3XXcqoPbN5Dl8?si=v6YQ42kpSx-VONBFhT3CzA

Bismillah, Rihman, and al-Hamdullih, Rabe al-Alami, Rāsa'Aulah, and al-Alihi, and Aishabi, and Ais, Aishe, and Aishe, my brothers and sisters, I pray that everyone is doing well, and I ask Allah,

to forgive us for our sins and our shortcomings and grant us his special mercy, not only in this life, and mainly in the next. My brothers and sisters, al-hhhah, Rabe'Aam. Yesterday we spoke about, in the Juma Qutba,

we spoke about hardships and tests, and these hardships and these hardships And, you know, I spoke about a couple of ayas from the Quran specifically. The main one was do they think that they can, do you think that they believe and they will not be tested, right? You think that they say that, hey, we believe and they will not be tested. So specifically, we went over tests and how these things go hand in hand when it comes to, if you're going to believe, you're going to be tested. Right. And I also quoted the ayah from Surahaj, in which Allah, Sufana-hu-ta-ta-da says that if they are content, you know, if Allah sui-sa-a-hares grants them something good, they believe and they believe and they also quote.

they're content, but when he afflicts a hardship upon them, then that is when they relapsing disbelief, and that is the biggest and clearest loss. So today I want to address another question for us all, and that is, does resilience and resistance go hand in hand, right? It's a common question you'll get. And I want to begin by defining the terms, right? Specifically, if you think about resistance, right? I want to think about actually, sorry, let's start with resilience.

resilience is the ability to recover from difficulties to bounce back after facing adversities and is about maintaining that hope and that strength in the face of those challenges and when it comes to resistance right resistance is the act of standing firm against oppression injustice and adversity and it involves pushing back against forces that seek to harm or diminish us. So at first glance, these concepts actually seem very distinct. They seem very, they seem as if they are the same, right? But I want to go into a deeper and closer examination upon these two subjects. So you find that they are actually intricately linked together. And when it comes to resilience, it often requires a means and an element of resistance. And

when it comes to resistance can be a manifestation of resilience. So it's both double-sided here. They both need each other and you need each other in order for this to be able to function. This is where I want to give the example of the Prophet of Allah a.u'll a Hew'sle. And specifically I'm giving this example because it's more relatable to all of us. And that is exactly why we think about how the journey of the Prophet of Allahaulah Heweslam is a powerful testimony and is of a powerful testament to the interplay of resilience and resistance. When you think about it, the Prophet of Allah al-a-Hewis-Salam received the received the first revelation and he faced immediate apposion or you know oppression or from the Quraysh

tribe in Mecca right because he didn't believe what they believed in any longer and they sought to silence his message and they honestly they sought to silence him and his message entirely right which if you think about the today in the time in which we are in now what do you have to have this is a question I'm asking all of us to give a to a question in the time you have to have Do you need to have resilience or resistance? Okay? Okay, resistance. Yes, that's good.

We need to have resistance against the injustice and the things that are happening in this time. Yes, okay? And do we need to have resilience? Resilience to bounce back from those challenges that we're going through, those adversities, yes. And this is exactly why I would like to mention those two. When it comes to the context, right? The Prophet of Allah-Hareem Salih B'Sem exemplified resistance by standing firm in his faith, despite the threats and the persecution he faced,

no matter what it was. He still stood tall in his faith, and he still had a wavering commitment to his faith because he believed in the message, right? And also this brings us to what we spoke about yesterday when it comes to your amen. You'll also be tested in your iman as well. And also, he continued to preach the message of Islam.

He didn't stop because they said, stop. He didn't stop because they continue, persecuting him. They didn't, he didn't stop because they were going to harm him or they were going to, you know, do whatever to him, but rather he continued on. And when it comes to that resistance alone was enough, right? That resistance alone was not enough. Sorry, I meant, was, was not enough. But it was not enough just to have resistance because you resist, but are you going to be able to actually bounce back? And this is where it comes to where I mentioned as well, when it comes to resilience, resilience. And the Prophet of Allaha He waslam also, demonstrated remarkable resilience. And after being forced to leave Mecca, he established a new community in Medina. And that transition was not merely about survival, but rather it was about building a foundation for the future of this religion of Islam. And it was also about his ability to adapt, to find strength in a new environment, and to continue his mission, even though you have all these different things happening to you and the persecution and the things that were said to you and the

things that were done to you. And I actually want to shift this over to a battle back in his time, right? And do you all know the battle this is? It's just a question. No, not the battle of the hood. No, when I got to talk about the battle of the battle in here, we're going to speak about. No, the battle of Badr. Now, I want you to think about this. I want you to consider the battle of Badr, right? It was a pivotal moment in Islamic history. By the way, thank you for your answers. Hamdi that they were great. The Muslims were vastly outnumbered, yet they still stood their ground against the Quraysh. The battle was not just a fight for survival, but it was a powerful act of resilience against oppression. And the Muslims led by the Prophet of Allah al-Aha-hu-Slam demonstrated

resilience by refusing to back down in the face of overwhelming odds. And the victory in Budr, and the victory at Budr was not merely just about the military efforts, because they were outnumbered. They were outnumbered. But not only did they have three main efforts, they had resistance, they had resilience and they had reliance. These are the three things I want to mention here. The resistance was resisting, the oppression was resisting what they were fighting against them with. And the resilience was to get back up even if they lost.

Even if they had lost the little battles here and there, they still got back up and they continued to fight. And the reliance is on Allah, Sufano, Hewetana, Hella. Having tawakul on Allah, having reliance upon Allah, remembering Allah suhpani and Hei-a-ta-a-a-ha-a-ha. trusting Allah, which is why the Prophet of Allah, Heu's al-haha-u-sadlam says, trust Allah, but still tie your camel, right? You're going to tie your camel, but also remember, trust Allah as well,

even if you say, oh, man, I don't want my home to be burglarized. I don't want to be harmed. If I go out to this place or I go to this place or if I go to the mashtun, who knows, they may do this, you have that trust in Allah, and you're still going to tie your camel, you're not going to say, you know what, I'm just going to leave my car doors open. I'm going to go ahead and leave my doors to my house open. My keys outside, hey, it's all right.

I trust Allah. You still have to tie your own camera. and you still have to be among those who tie their camel and trust in Allah. It's double-sided here, right? So we think about those two sides again of that reliance. And when it comes to this, it was actually a testimony of the strength of their imman and the power of their resilience, right? So when you think about the Prophet of Allah, Allah, al-a-Hewazel, what is one of the things

that he taught the companions? He taught the companions that true victory, not only, you know, lies not only in defeating the enemy, but also in maintaining faith and hope and reliance upon Allah supranahua but still doing your part but mainly reliance upon Allah if I were to say oh you know I lost the camel or I lost you know back in that time you know if you lost the camel you know it was a very big thing if you lost the camel you say oh no I lost my camel

you're not going to say oh well it'll come back I trust Allah it will come back you go search for it right if you lose now in the time we are in now if you lose your car keys you're not just going to sit down and be like they're just going to come to me They're just going to come to me. I trust Allah, Safana Hewata. You're actually going to go look for them. You're going to go try and find them while still trusting in Allah. You're not going to get upset with the decree of Allah,

which also brings me to that point as well. When it comes to Tuakul, a lot of us think in trusting Allah as in, you just trust Allah. I know Allah is going to handle this. He's going to bring good about it. All right, that's it's it. But specifically, there's two trusts that you have to have here. There's a trust of his decree,

and there's a trust in what he has already decreed to happen, right? What's already happened. So if you know, oh, such and such situations happening in my life, you have to have to walkul and trust in Allah, Sufanahu, Tallah, knowing that I know the situation is going to come out right. And you have to have to walkul in the decree, which is to come. And you say, I know, inshallah, something better is going to come if Allah, Sufana Huitata wills. So this is also something else that they had in their lives. And this is exactly why when it comes to this fear and when it comes to patience, they have patience in their lives as well, even in those times. And when it comes to that resilience is not only just required in the face of the external challenges,

but also in our private and personal lives, sorry, I can get it out. We think about it. Not only is it that each one of us are going to face these trials, but it's how we handle those trials as well. When it comes to a loss of a family member, it comes to a loss of something valuable to us, how are we going to handle it? When it comes to illness, how are we going to handle it? It comes to hardship overall. How are we going to handle that hardship? And this is exactly why there are two ayas specifically I want to mention.

But when it comes to patience, what does Allah supranahua-ta-a-safeak about patience? What does he say? He says, bismmillahehram and rahman andraim. He says, seek help your patience and prayer. Patience, one of the first things he mentions. When it comes to another ayah, Allah, Allah, saitha-ahua-a-a-ha-Mintends in the Quran. He says, and we will surely test you with something of fear and hunger

and a loss of wealth and lives and fruit. but give good good or give glad good tidings to the patient, right? So my brothers and sisters, as well as during these points in time, we're going

to be tested, right? We're going to be tested with something that's not going to be something that's easy sometimes. And this is why I mentioned as well in our personal lives. I didn't just mention in our lives out in public and the things that we do. But sometimes it's always going to, it's going to be ours as well. And it might not be the external

challenges. Sometimes this might be the internal challenges. that we face whether that be in our homes or whether that's in our communities sometimes there's those internal challenges that we face and that's where we have to have resilience and resistance as well now i want to finish off addressing this question before i give some tips how do resilience and resistance go hand in hand so this is the last question i'd like to ask of this talk inshallah how do these two things go hand in hand right this is this is the this is the question how do they go hand in hand in hand how they go hand in hand okay no answers okay aham d'am d'all that's fine so I'll give you the answer to this the first thing I want to mention is when it comes to

resist when it comes to you know resistance when you resist the challenges that you face you cultivate resilience right so when you resist those challenges that you face you cultivate resilience and each act of resilient strengthens our ability to belt the back from that adversity that we face or whatever those adversities are that we face so something else that's also very much so emphasize as well is to continue your absolute hardest to try your absolute hardest to resist the injustice as going on in our time and our day and age which is why it also moves on to the next point resilience and powers us to resist more effectively and when we are grounded in our amen and we are grounded in our faith and we are grounded in our connection with allah supanah hua ta a la it helps us and it gives us

the ability to be equipped with the strength to endure those challenges and those adversities And it helps us to actually stand up firm against the trials that we seek and that seek to actually overwhelm us. So this is exactly why the first thing I want to mention here. I mentioned something about connections to Allah, Sufanao Tzada. Out of these five things I want to mention, the first of them is to strengthen your amen. It's to strengthen your amen. Regular, you know, your prayers, you know, regulate those prayers that you pray. Ensure you're trying your absolute hardest to make it irregular and the daily habit to pray more,

to worship Allah more, to perform more vicar, to read one Quran, to do more of that which can fortify that imam, which fortifies that shield around you and which it becomes more of resilience with that shield, right? It bounces back. All that negativity that's coming to you, and it also helps you to be more resilient. And the more connected you are with Allah, Supperanahu, T'u, it helps you better in your faith as well.

When it also comes to the second thing I want to mention, that is building a support network around you, whether that is your friends or your family or your loved ones, Those who are going to be around you who you know are going to actually help better you rather than destroy you, right? Which is why the Prophet of Allah a day and Hislam taught us to choose wisely with our friends because we will become among them, right? But in this case, when it comes to supporting your network, the first thing I mentioned is strengthening your imam, strengthening your faith. That's the most important. The second thing that's most important is also to build a support network.

And why is most important? Because if you have a bad support network, then they can end up leading you away. and they can also, you know, instead of helping you resist, they can make you actually go through negativity and they will not foster any resilience in your life. So it's very important, my brothers and sisters, that you also try your absolute hardest to build a support network that's going to help

better your relationship with the loss of final and hotel. Close in on, you know, having a tighter community and help just in case anything happens, as well as also helping you to both resist negativity and foster that resilience. Now, the third thing I would like to mention, when it comes to, I actually want to merge the third thing and the fourth thing together, practicing gratitude and learning from those adversities. So when it comes to reflecting on your blessings in life, it's a very beautiful thing, especially in those times of difficulty for the things that you do have, and especially in the times of ease that we are in right now. Now, when it comes to that gratitude, it has to shift our perspective and it helps us to remain resilient, right, in the face of challenges, in the face of adversity.

And when it comes to that adversity, every test carries a lesson. And every test should be a means of strengthening our gratitude. And we have to embrace those challenges as opportunities for growth. And that mindset helps us to foster resilience in our lives. And it also helps us to foster, you know, closest to Allah, Sufana hoa ta'a. And the final thing I want to mention is Il, right? It's knowledge. And it's very important that you seek Ilm and you seek Naliyadh.

When you understand your faith deeply, it actually helps to equip you with the ability to resist those doubts and those challenges. And that knowledge helps you to empower, to help you to be empowered to actually stand firm in your beliefs. Right. You know what's right and you know what's wrong. You know what to do and you know what not to do. So it's very important as well that we seek in, like we spoke about in previous talks before. So when the brothers and sisters as well, when it comes to these two challenges, right? when it comes to these two things, they go hand in hand because these are actually essential qualities that every Muslim should strive to embody.

And the Prophet's Allah a Allah a He wasselam serves as a guiding life for us, illustrating how these qualities can coexist and strengthen one another. So many brothers and sisters, we ask Allah, Suu'u'u, Tala, to grant us the strength to be resilient in our imman and our faith and to resist the challenges that seek to diminish us. We ask Allah, Sufana'u, how it a to guide us among those to be embodied by these qualities in our faith, and to resist the challenge. our lives and to support one another in our journeys. We ask Allah, Safana, and Goda, to forgive as far as our sins and our shortcomings and grant us his special mercy. Now only, this life, and mainly in the next.

She's a good for my brothers and sisters for coming. I pray this was beneficial. Please forgive me if I said anything wrong. Mishallah, we'll be back again soon. We're a good I want, al-hambhalililu'll be al-a-a-a-a-a-a-a-a-a-a-a-a-a-a-a-a-a-a-a-a-a-a-a-a-a-a-a-a-a-a-a-a-a-a-a-a-a-a-a-a-a-a-a-a-a and so this.