How to be a Brave Muslim?

[- Qatada -]

Asalaam alaikum Warahmatulah Wabarakatuh.

How to be a Brave Muslim?



They were in awe of the size and strength of the enemy.

"Whoever kills Jalut [Goliath], I will let him marry my daughter and he will be my partner in the rule of the kingdom."

Then, to everyone's surprise, a youth stepped forward. A roar of laughter echoed from the enemy's side, and even Talut's own men shook their heads.


The young man was Dawud [David], from the city of Bethlehem.

Talut was impressed by the youth's courage, he said: "I admire your courage, but you're no match for that mighty warrior. Let the strong men come forward." Dawud, however had already decided and was willing to meet the challenge. The previous day he had killed a lion which had threatened his father's sheep, and on another occasion he had killed a bear.

When Goliath set eyes on the lean young man who looked like a boy, he laughed loudly and roared: "Are you out to play war with one of your playmates, or are you tired of your life? I will simply cut off your head with one swipe of my sword!"


Dawud shouted back: "You may have armor, shield, and sword, but I face you in the name of Allah, the Lord of the Israelites, Whose laws you have mocked. Today you will see that it is not the sword that kills but the will and power of Allah!"

Dawud picked up three smooth pebbles on the spot from the stream. He took his sling and placed in it a pebble from his pouch. He swung and aimed it at Goliath.


The pebble shot from the sling with the speed of an arrow and hit Goliath's head with force. Blood gushed out, and Goliath thumped to the ground, lifeless. All this, before he had a chance to draw his sword. His army fled.

[Qisaas-ul-Anbiya (Stories of the Prophets) by Ibn Katheer].


So they routed them by Allah's Leave and Dawud killed Goliath, and Allah gave him (Dawud) the kingdom and wisdom, and taught him of that which He willed.

And if Allah did not check one set of people by means of another, the earth would indeed be full of mischief. But Allah is full of Bounty to the Alamin (mankind, jinns and all that exist).

(Quran al-Baqarah 2:251).

Why do people Fear?


Fear from Ignorance; Most people fear things because they don't know what they're facing, they're scared of the consequences of facing it since its unknown.

When you see a scary character in a movie. They show a dark shadow, or a quick glance of the thing, and suddenly move the camera away again. This makes you fear because you're not aware of that thing and what it's going to do to you. [This is why people fear Jinn, or Death etc.]


Answer;The Muslim knows that everything is in Allah's Hands, the Muslim knows that Allah has granted the most honor/strength to the human race (even more than Jinn!), and more than them - to His believers/followers.

The Muslim knows that Allah has destined death, and this death will signify their return to Him. So the Muslim doesn't fear anything in the world; he doesn't fear Jinn, Animals, People, Death, because they are controlled by Him, so the slave only fears Allah because he is unaware of what Allah will do with him - making the believer firmer in His religion, and the product of this fear is strength in this world, and reward due to His Generosity for His obedient slaves.



This is why He, the Powerful says;

That is only Satan who frightens [you] of his supporters. So fear them not, but fear Me, if you are [indeed] believers.

(Quran 3:175)

Power comes from Allah alone, Really it does.



Prophet Hud said to his people;

..scheme (your worst) against me, all of you, and give me no respite. "I put my trust in Allah, My Lord and your Lord!

There is not a moving creature, but He has grasp of its fore-lock. Verily, it is my Lord that is on a straight Path.

[Quran Hud 11:55-56]

He dared his people - the people of 'Aad - to plot against him and do whatever harm they could!



But who were the people of 'Aad?

As for A'ad, they were arrogant in the land without right, and they said: Who is mightier than us in power? Could they not see that Allah Who created them, He was mightier than them in power? And they denied Our revelations.

[Quran Fussilat 41:15]

It is said that the people of 'Aad could drill through mountains with manual tools and their own bare hands!


So imagine, Prophet Hud dared the strongest nation in the world to attack him in any way possible; "give me no respite". Imagine this, when you know that your people hate you so bad and want to get rid of you.

His bravery and trust in Allah is at such a high level, that he is telling them that you can kill me right now as I say this, yet you can't do anything except if Allah has already willed it.

So when Our decree issued, We saved Hud and those who believed with him, by (special) Grace from Ourselves: We saved them from a severe penalty. [Hud 11:58]


[A Powerful wind] Which Allah imposed on them ['Aad] for seven nights and eight days in succession, so that you could see men lying overthrown, as if they were hollow trunks of date palms! Do you see any remnants of them?) [Quran al Haaqah 69: 7-8]

So these people weren't lying, they really were the strongest people in the world and since history.

When they were destroyed, they were like tree trunks in size and height. That's MASSIVE, they were a real Super Power! Yet Allah saved His Messenger and the weak ones with him, because they feared Allah.



So know, No matter who scares you, Allah is the One with who all strength lies. Don’t we say “Lahawla wa la quwatta illa billah”? [There is no Strength or Power except with Allah.]?

We need to ponder at these statements of dhikr [remembrance] we recite, since they strengthen us in our belief of Allah's power, and what He can do for us, since we are honored enough to be His friends [awliya'].




A New Personal Perception of Makkan Qur'an

We need to have a new perception of the Qur'an, especially the Makkan surahs [chapters]. So when we see Allah telling His Messenger to fear Allah, and to not obey the disbelievers and hypocrites [Surah Ahzab 33: 1] - we need to realise that Allah is telling us to fear Him and to ignore the whisperings of those who attempt to throw fear into the hearts of the believers. We need to look at the stories of the Prophets and relate their lives to what we're facing in the world today,

Is not Allah sufficient for His Servant?

And [yet], they threaten you with those other than Him.

[Qur’an (Surah Zumar 39:36)]

Don't people threaten you with torture, or beating you up?

No-one can harm you, because no-one can touch you except if Allah wants it to happen. Isn't belief in destiny a pillar of our faith? So ask Him for protection and for Him to aid you against those who attempt to harm you.


hasbun Allahu wa ni'mal wakeel... Allah is sufficient for us, and the best one to get rid of our problems..






The Law of Attraction - You will get whatever you want.


Whatever you aspire to - you will get that. Why? Because your mind will always be attracted to it, so you will try to get to that target by any means.


Let me give you a good example;

Remember them famous people who were normal, and suddenly *BOOM* made a business which earned them millions of money? They only reached that level because money was always on their mind - so they strived for it. This money continued to increase so long as they persisted in trying to get more.

BUT, then they lost all that money. Why did they lose it? It's because they began to fear that they would lose it, that occupied their minds all the time - so their mind was attracted to that, causing them to actually lose the money they earned.

Once they lost all the money, they still had money on their mind, so they worked hard to get alot of money again. This attraction to money made them strive for it again, until they again became millionaires all over again.

Doesn't the Muslim do that for Jannah (Paradise)? The Money is Jannah, and the plan to get there is through being Brave through hard times.

If you keep Allah's pleasure in your mind always, the law of attraction to Him will make you strive to do that through any means possible, and that striving requires Bravery. You're blinded by Allah's promise so the obstacles seem insignificant.








So how do we actually get Brave?


Imagine a scenario of you confronting that thing which you fear most;



Emotion Control


Facing Fears;

When you approach something that you’re scared of - face that fear. There is something in your chest which will quiver and shake, your heart will beat really fast and your blood rushes to your head.

Keep firm - focused, take a deep intake of air through your nose, breathe out through the mouth and repeat, control and relax yourself so the shaking stops. Continuously tell yourself; “It's all okay inshaa' Allah" to reassure yourself.This type of deep controlled breathing will never make you stressed.


If the fear doesn't stop, turn your imagination away and think about a good thought instead, of a memory which pleases you to help your body relax. Think of Allah, how nothing can harm you except if He had already willed it, how He is the Protector of the believers, that He is Merciful and Appreciative. If He did destine that you get harmed for His sake – you will only get stronger than before and be rewarded for that. Your desire of attraction to Allah should make any harms seem insignificant.


This relaxed and focused mindset clears your mind, allowing you to make a proper decision as to what you should do to make the situation in your favour. This mind - which is focused on Allah - will remove any feelings of pain since focusing your innerself on something of a Greater purpose removes/reduces any sense of pain. Your feelings and emotions shouldn’t stress you out, rather – you should show them emotions that you’re the one in control. Tense yourself and then relax if you have to, and that will prevent the emotions from trying to release themselves through you.



The final result should be of you;

Being in control of your own body, with a rush of energy [adrenaline] pumped around your body (Adrenaline High) -

ready to react to anything in a logical way - whilst you're aware of what you're doing.

What you shouldn't be like;

Your body shaking/trembling out of fear, whilst in a worried state, and you telling yourself "i don't know what to do" repeatedly, without achieving any useful results out of the situation, and probably getting harmed as a result (i.e. further fear, stress, or even being tormented by what triggered the fear). Without finding a way out of the hardship.

Once you feel you’ve reached a level higher than before in bravery – where you’re in total control of yourself, you can leave the scene feeling thankful to Allah, with more trust/certainty [yaqeen] in Him. This bravery has raised you to the next level, giving you a further confidence boost for the future, and a stronger trust and reliance in Allah if you were ever to face another fear.






The 2 Types of Bravery;

Sometimes leaving the situation alone is bravery; [i.e. you’re capable of responding, but you don’t because it’s not necessary and will cause more problems.] This Bravery makes you stronger in patience, even though you had the strength to face it. This is the bravery if patience and control.


Sometimes, facing the opposition is Bravery: In this stage, you will have to work gradually in stages to gain higher levels of confidence. The best method is through life experiences, so whenever you fear anything, you face it without running away from it, whilst placing your trust in Allah. This will increase your confidence in facing the fears (instead of wastefully complaining about them), and this should be repeated every so often throughout your life [with old and new fear experiences] - so that you can overcome them and they become normal for you to get involved with in your daily life. These stages might involve you controlling yourself, then walking away in a calm and controlled way. Next time, you can stand and face the fear for abit longer than the last time. And the final time you might be able to look at your fear in the eyes and show that i'm not scared at all of you.


If you ever become afraid, then ask yourself why other people can face such an obstacle with ease, so why should you put limits on yourself against that same thing which others find normal? This feeling of jealousy should make you overcome your fear so that you yourself are strong enough to face it, just like others can. Think of positive thoughts through this experience instead of negative ones, because fear only results from misunderstood thoughts. This is really important because if you let your fears take over your mind, your stress levels rise, your mind isn’t clear, and you don’t know what to do - since one side of your body wants to run away whilst the other isn't sure how to react. By relaxing like normal, you are thinking logically and step by step for the solution to your problem = a quicker, and logical way out from the hardship.

Intellectual Control


Your VISION: David VS Goliath KO!

So if you fear to face a bully, then when you’re ‘in the moment of fear’, imagine a flashback of Prophet Dawud [David] KO’ing (Knocking Out) the giant Jalut [Goliath] with a slingshot, simply because he had trust in Allah’s promise of support.

Imagine that KO moment, and believe that Allah will support you just like that! You just need to get the slingshot and throw - then placing your trust in Him, Allah will help you because He cares for His friends.

That should be a sudden Bravery boost!




Control your Mind, don’t let it control you.

Once you learn your best method of controlling mind and emotions, you can use this mind control to allow yourself to advance in further levels of confidence. Remember; Control your Mind, don’t let it control you. Further levels of confidence might include the ability to reply back to someone who insults you (practise can include you breaking the shyness of you talking - to yourself in the mirror.)

Each fear that you overcome = a level higher in Bravery + confidence + Increased trust in Allah. It is best to work on yourself in gradual stages - through old and new experiences - because it then has the most long term effectiveness.


This is why you’ll notice that in the life of Allah’s Messenger Muhammad (sal Allah ‘alaihi wasalam), the major battles were according to different levels.


So Badr was a smaller battle in comparison to Uhud, and Uhud was smaller in comparison to Ahzab, with each battle getting more severe, since the enemy got stronger each time. But each experience of the Muslims made them a level higher in bravery and firmer in their trust in Allah - than the previous time, due to continuous experiences of facing & overcoming fear.


This continuous increase in trust in Allah, and experience made them the final winner – since their bravery was for the greater cause of good - built on a solid foundation.





Physical Control


Don't make excuses for yourself!

The Golden Rule of being Brave -; If you think too long into whether you should face that fear and go ahead, or stay safe. Then you'll simply make excuses for yourself, and most likely choose the more weaker approach.

Remember the story of the companion of Allah's Messenger (sal Allah alaihi wasalam), Ka'b ibn Malik? He always planned to go to the Battle of Tabuk, but the more he delayed his trip, the more he made excuses for himself to stay at home, and in the end he regretted that...

That's why you'll see in many cases that alot of the intellectual people are the last to get involved in any action activity which involves risks. Why? Because they'll make the most excuses for themselves. Another group will get angry and emotional, and harm themselves & others without knowledge or understanding of what he's doing.

Whereas someone whose knowledge isn't just intellectual, but balanced with actions in life, does get involved, and is fully aware of what he does. No Messenger of Allah came to people to give them knowledge only, but every Messenger was ordered to make their people do Actions!, based on knowledge.


So the final word; you should think of the benefits you are going to bring, you should take precautions, but then you should move ahead without changing your decision.






Get Outer Strength;


Do Physical Exercise; It's important to be Brave on the inside, but this needs to be shown externally too.

So imagine you see a fierce dog; you don't tremble or shake, you can control your breathing, even though the adrenaline is pumping around your body fast. This will be enough to allow you to think logically, but will it be of any use if you can't react physically in the right way?

Rather, you will need this inner bravery to have control over your own body inside, but you will also need outer bravery [i.e. muscle, stamina, skills etc] if you chose to really face this fear through fight or running away.


This is why it becomes necessary to learn different skills, alot of people learn Martial Arts - so they know how to use their body as a weapon in an emergency. Being strong outwardly, aswell as inwardly will make you a strong force to be reckoned with. Some people recommend Grappling over martial arts and say that its more powerful and effective.





Reliance on Allah for your New-Found Bravery

This is necessary in any type of Bravery and Confidence. Why? Because excessive bravery can lead to arrogance if it isn’t controlled, and gradually fools a person into thinking that they are undefeatable. When a person reaches this stage, they oppress others, and they continue to do so until Allah removes their strength so they become destroyed totally, or partially. Where’s your strength now? Weren’t you born weak, unable to even survive the first moments of life except because of others? Won’t you go old so your strength won’t benefit you? So why the arrogance?

On the other side of the scale, trust in Allah is required so that you have the confidence to become brave, in a controlled manner – so you are brave for justice, and not for evil. Your trust in Allah encourages you to reach newer heights of bravery, yet it keeps you humble as a slave of Allah who depends on Him for any strength and support.

So always ask Allah for bravery, so that you can do good for His sake, through which He will give you even more good in both lives – for using His gift in the right way that He wanted of you.





A Noble Bravery:


Fighting Desires = Strength.

Fighting your desires makes you believe in yourself more because you feel you can control yourself. This controlling of yourself will give you a previous experience of self-control, and this will enhance your control of emotions, including fear, desire etc. Having control of your desires is a sign that you can’t be tempted, which means that you will be stronger and braver through moments of fear, as well as moments of desire and attraction.

So you’re the one in power of yourself (with the tawfeeq (strength/ability) from Allah) instead of being threatened or tempted by others. Doesn’t this then make you that powerful character you’ve always wanted to be?

If you don’t fear, and you can prevent yourself against evil temptations, an enemy will not know how to overpower you. So no matter what way they try to harm you, you won’t incline towards what they say, and even though they might cause problems for you – they will have a noble respect for you, because you stay firm on what you believe. These type of people are loved by everyone (even held in awe by their enemies) and usually die with respect and an honourable death. This is a characteristic of all the great people throughout history, and the humiliated ones are those who have betrayed for a small gain, and these people are hated by everyone, and they usually have a bad ending in life too.







You Don't Fear Death:

You're always preparing for it, you always have that connection with Allah, and you long to be with Him. So due to His kindness, He treats you how you think of Him.


Abu Hurairah said, Allah's Messenger said, Allah said;

I am as My servant thinks I am [i.e. "I am as My servant expects Me to be"]. I am with him when he makes mention of Me. If he makes mention of Me to himself, I make mention of him to Myself; and if he makes mention of Me in an assembly, I make mention of him in an assemble better than it. And if he draws near to Me an arm's length, I draw near to him a fathom's length. And if he comes to Me walking, I go to him at speed.

[Hadith Qudsi - Sahih al Bukhari]

So you ask Him for that good end, and if you remain sincere to Him, if you remain brave for Him - He grants you that good ending. And He made that easy for this ummah.



10 - The Prophet (peace and blessings of Allaah be upon him) said: “Whoever is killed defending his wealth is a martyr; whoever is killed defending his religion is a martyr; whoever is killed in self-defence is a martyr.” Narrated by al-Tirmidhi, 1421.


Al-Bukhaari (2480) and Muslim (141) narrated that ‘Abd-Allaah ibn ‘Amr (may Allaah be pleased with him) said: I heard the Prophet (peace and blessings of Allaah be upon him) say: “Whoever is killed defending his wealth is a martyr.”



7 – Dying because of being crushed by a falling wall or by drowning, because the Prophet (peace and blessings of Allaah be upon him) said: “The martyrs are five: the one who dies of plague, the one who dies of a stomach disease, the one who drowns, the one who is crushed by a falling wall, and the one who is martyred for the sake of Allaah.” Narrated by al-Bukhaari, 2829; Muslim, 1915.


One of the signs of a good end is dying whilst doing a righteous deed, because the Prophet (peace and blessings of Allaah be upon him) said:
“Whoever says Laa ilaaha ill-Allaah [there is no god but Allah], seeking the Countenance of Allaah thereby, and that is the last of his deeds, will enter Paradise. Whoever gives charity and that is the last of his deeds will enter Paradise.” Narrated by Imam Ahmad, 22813; classed as saheeh by al-Albani in Kitaab al-Janaa’iz, p. 43. See Kitaab al-Janaa’iz by al-Albaani (may Allaah have mercy on him), p. 34. We ask Allaah to grant us a good end.

More: Signs of a Good Ending
The Invincible hero!


We learn from this article that;

1) You can control your body & emotions.

2) You can overcome your fears.

3) You're physically strengthening yourself - for Allah's sake = an act of worship/reward.

4) You put your trust in the All Powerful, Living, who never dies, for your Strength -
So He blesses your efforts to strengthen you in moments when others would flee.

5) You're always aiming higher - with the best examples of Bravery to follow.


6) You're humble, yet powerful and Noble.

7) You oppose oppression, and only use your strength for good.

8) You know where you're heading in life.

9) You don't fear Death.

That makes you the perfect superhero. The only time you lose is when you yourself turn away from these attributes. I.e. you make yourself a coward.

Muslims never lose because of an enemy, but because of their own sins.


So keep yourself attached to Allah, that attraction will keep you brave, and that Bravery will make you the most strongest of people when others flee. And your bravery will bring about Allah's Reward.

Isn't that what you call true success?





Disclaimer: Any confidence you gain comes from Allah, and He can take it from you whenever He wants. So if you ever get arrogant with this new found Bravery and confidence, and start distancing away from the One who gave it you first, then know that He will humiliate you with it, and you will have no helper to earn it back, unless you turn it back to Him and use it for His sake again, through which He will give you goodness in this world and the next inshaa’ Allah.

[bluebell]

:sl:

MashaAllah exellent post!!