And We Threaten Them, but It Increases Them Not Except in Great Transgression (Sermon)

And We Threaten Them, but It Increases Them Not Except in Great Transgression

The First Sermon

After the opening praise, the sermon begins from the fact that Allah commanded His Prophet ﷺ to remind and warn by the Qur’an, and made the stories of past nations a lesson for reminder, not entertainment or mere historical knowledge: “But remind by the Qur’an whoever fears My threat” (Qaf 50:45); “There was certainly in their stories a lesson for those of understanding” (Yusuf 12:111); “And will [any] be destroyed except the defiantly disobedient people?” (al-Ahqaf 46:35).

No punishment without prior warning

The preacher sets out a law that never failed in a single nation: no town was ever destroyed until a warner had reached it and it had been given respite, and it was seized only after persistence. Even the people of the Fire will admit this. “And never would We punish until We sent a messenger” (al-Isra 17:15); “And We did not destroy any city except that it had warners, as a reminder; and never have We been unjust” (al-Shu’ara 26:208–209); when each group is cast into Hell its keepers ask, “Did there not come to you a warner?” and they reply, “Yes, a warner had come to us, but we denied” (al-Mulk 67:8–9); and messengers were sent “so that mankind will have no argument against Allah after the messengers” (al-Nisa 4:165). Two hadiths agreed upon by al-Bukhari and Muslim confirm this: that no one loves excuse more than Allah, and for that reason He sent bringers of good tidings and warners (from al-Mughirah ibn Shu’bah), and that no one is more patient with hurtful words than Allah, for people ascribe a son to Him while He still grants them well-being and provision (from Abu Musa al-Ash’ari).

The procession of warned nations

The sermon then walks through the Qur’anic record of nations that were warned and given time:

• The people of Noah received the longest respite humanity has known, nine hundred and fifty years of calling by night and day, privately and publicly, each call offering forgiveness, rain, wealth and children (al-‘Ankabut 29:14; Nuh 71:5–7, 10–12), yet “they put their fingers in their ears, covered themselves with their garments, persisted, and were arrogant with [great] arrogance.”
• ‘Ad, the people of Hud, were warned, hastened the punishment themselves, and when it came they took it for rain: “This is a cloud bringing us rain!” Rather, it was “a wind, within it a painful punishment” (al-Ahqaf 46:21, 24). They boasted, “Who is greater than us in strength?” (Fussilat 41:15). Whoever’s insight is closed sees the warning as a blessing.
• Thamud, the people of Salih, were even given a fixed term they could count themselves: “Enjoy yourselves in your homes for three days. That is a promise not to be denied” (Hud 11:65). They did not repent, because “they preferred blindness over guidance” (Fussilat 41:17; see also al-Naml 27:46).
• The people of Lot are the most striking case: after being warned, their eyes were obliterated that very night, a physical sign that fell upon themselves, yet they were not deterred until the punishment overtook them in the morning (al-Qamar 54:36–38; al-Hijr 15:72–73; al-‘Ankabut 29:29). The problem, the preacher stresses, is never a shortage of evidence but persistence.
• Pharaoh and his chiefs were first addressed with “gentle speech” (Ta-Ha 20:44), then afflicted with years of drought and shortage of fruit (al-A’raf 7:130), then with successive “distinct signs” (al-A’raf 7:133); each time affliction struck they made promises and broke them. When drowning overtook Pharaoh he declared faith, and it was not accepted: “Now? And you had disobeyed [Him] before and were of the corrupters?” (Yunus 10:90–91), because faith at the moment of beholding the punishment is not accepted.
• Midian, the people of Shu’ayb, were not only warned; Shu’ayb reminded them of the fate of nations close to them in time and place, “And the people of Lot are not from you far away” (Hud 11:89), so that they might learn from others before becoming a lesson for others.
• Abraham shows the utmost gentleness in warning: he called his father four times with “O my father,” declared that he feared for him rather than feared him (Maryam 19:43, 45), and when threatened with stoning replied with peace and a promise to seek forgiveness (Maryam 19:47). There was no shortcoming in conveying the message or in its manner.

This is not a matter of one or two nations but a general divine law illustrated by many parables: the people of the Sabbath, the people of the town, Qarun, the owner of the two gardens and the secure, contented town (al-Nahl 16:112). “And for how many a city did I prolong enjoyment while it was committing wrong. Then I seized it, and to Me is the [final] destination” (al-Hajj 22:48; see also al-Furqan 25:39). “For indeed, it is not eyes that are blinded, but blinded are the hearts which are within the breasts” (al-Hajj 22:46).

Respite even for those who demanded punishment

Even those of Quraysh who openly asked for stones to rain on them were given respite: “But Allah would not punish them while you, [O Muhammad], are among them, and Allah would not punish them while they seek forgiveness” (al-Anfal 8:32–33). And when the angel of the mountains offered, on the day of al-Ta’if, to crush them between the two mountains, the Prophet ﷺ refused, saying he hoped Allah would bring forth from their descendants people who would worship Allah alone without partners (agreed upon, from ‘A’ishah).

If the sinner is not seized at once, that is more dangerous

Someone may say: so-and-so sins and nothing befalls him. The Qur’an answers that delaying punishment despite persistence is not Allah’s approval but respite and gradual entrapment (istidraj): the doors of this world are opened to a person until, when he feels secure and rejoices, he is seized suddenly (al-An’am 6:44; Al ‘Imran 3:178; Ibrahim 14:42). The Prophet ﷺ said that Allah gives the wrongdoer respite until, when He seizes him, He does not let him escape, then recited, “And thus is the seizure of your Lord when He seizes the cities while they are committing wrong. Indeed, His seizure is painful and severe” (Hud 11:102) (agreed upon, from Abu Musa al-Ash’ari). The sermon also cites the hadith that if you see Allah giving a servant what he loves of this world despite his sins, it is only gradual entrapment, attributing it to Ahmad, al-Tabarani and al-Bayhaqi in al-Shu’ab from ‘Uqbah ibn ‘Amir, and noting that it is hasan through supporting reports and was authenticated by al-Albani.

Prosperity is not the measure of approval

Abundance in this world does not indicate Allah’s pleasure; Allah gives the world to those He loves and those He does not, but gives religion only to those He loves (reported by Ahmad from Ibn Mas’ud and authenticated by al-Albani). The true measure is faith and righteous deeds: “And it is not your wealth or your children that bring you nearer to Us in position, but it is [by being] one who has believed and done righteousness” (Saba 34:35–37; see also al-Tawbah 9:55; Ta-Ha 20:131; al-Fajr 89:15–17). The Prophet ﷺ said he did not fear poverty for his Ummah, but feared that the world would be spread out for them as it was for those before them, so that they would compete for it and it would destroy them as it destroyed them (agreed upon, from ‘Amr ibn ‘Awf al-Ansari); and that Allah does not look at our forms and wealth but at our hearts and deeds (reported by Muslim from Abu Hurayrah).

What destroyed the nations before us, the preacher argues, was usually not open denial of Allah but heedlessness: preoccupation, turning away and the passing of time until hearts hardened. “[The time of] their account has approached for the people, while they are in heedlessness turning away” (al-Anbiya 21:1; see also al-Rum 30:7; al-Hadid 57:16; Qaf 50:22). The Prophet ﷺ said that there are two blessings in which many people are cheated: health and free time (reported by al-Bukhari from Ibn ‘Abbas).

When the seizure finally comes after all this, it involves no injustice: a warning conveyed, a respite granted, deeds recorded, then a full recompense. “Indeed, Allah does not wrong the people at all, but it is the people who are wronging themselves” (Yunus 10:44; see also al-Kahf 18:49; al-Anbiya 21:47). In the hadith qudsi reported by Muslim from Abu Dharr, Allah says that He has forbidden injustice for Himself, and that it is only our deeds that He records and then repays, so whoever finds good should praise Allah and whoever finds otherwise should blame only himself.

Afflictions and cosmic signs are warnings

Calamities and cosmic signs are neither random nor pointless; they are a nearer punishment before the greater one, sent in the hope of return. If they do not produce return, they become evidence against the servant rather than for him. “And We send not the signs except as a warning” (al-Isra 17:59); “And We will surely let them taste the nearer punishment short of the greater punishment that perhaps they will return [i.e., repent]” (al-Sajdah 32:21; see also al-Rum 30:41; al-Tawbah 9:126; al-Shura 42:30).

The exception: the people of Jonah

Were this fate inescapable, every nation would have perished. But one people took fright and repented before the punishment descended, and it was lifted from them: “except the people of Jonah? When they believed, We removed from them the punishment of disgrace in worldly life and gave them enjoyment for a time” (Yunus 10:98; al-Saffat 37:147–148). The door was open to all; the others simply did not knock on it.

The Second Sermon

The breadth of mercy: the door remains open

The sermon is not meant to cause despair. The same Allah who gave those nations respite opened the door of repentance and keeps it open for every servant while there is breath in him: “Say, ‘O My servants who have transgressed against themselves [by sinning], do not despair of the mercy of Allah. Indeed, Allah forgives all sins…’ And return [in repentance] to your Lord and submit to Him before the punishment comes upon you” (al-Zumar 39:53–54; see also al-Kahf 18:58). Allah stretches out His hand by night so that the one who sinned by day may repent, and by day so that the one who sinned by night may repent, until the sun rises from the west (reported by Muslim from Abu Musa al-Ash’ari); and He accepts the servant’s repentance as long as the death rattle has not begun (reported by al-Tirmidhi and Ibn Majah from Ibn ‘Umar, graded hasan by al-Albani).

But the respite has an end

This respite does have a limit. When the servant beholds the punishment or death arrives, the door closes and faith no longer avails, which is where Pharaoh and those like him were lost: “But never did their faith benefit them once they saw Our punishment” (Ghafir 40:84–85); “But repentance is not [accepted] of those who [continue to] do evil deeds up until, when death comes to one of them, he says, ‘Indeed, I have repented now’” (al-Nisa 4:18; see also Fatir 35:37). The Prophet ﷺ said that Allah has left no excuse for a man whose life He extends until he reaches sixty years (reported by al-Bukhari from Abu Hurayrah).

A warner has come to us: this week’s earthquake

While speaking of the warnings of past nations, the preacher observes that a warning came to his own listeners that very week: the earth shook beneath them before dawn on Monday, the third of August, waking millions, and then Allah granted safety. The question is what share they took from it. “Say, ‘He is the [one] Able to send upon you affliction from above you or from beneath your feet’” (al-An’am 6:65; see also al-Mulk 67:16; al-Isra 17:59).

The Prophet ﷺ did not treat such signs as ordinary events. When the sun was eclipsed, he rose in alarm, fearing it was the Hour, and led the longest prayer ever seen from him, saying that these signs do not occur for anyone’s death or life, but that Allah frightens His servants by them, so when you see them, hasten to His remembrance, supplication and seeking of forgiveness (agreed upon, from Abu Musa al-Ash’ari); and in another narration, to supplicate, magnify Allah, pray and give charity (agreed upon, from ‘A’ishah). Indeed, when he saw clouds gathering he could not rest, coming and going with his face changed, until rain fell, fearing it might be like the punishment of ‘Ad, who said, “This is a cloud bringing us rain” (reported by Muslim, with its basis in al-Bukhari, from ‘A’ishah), though he was protected from sin.

The Companions and those after them understood it the same way, treating an earthquake as a reproach from Allah requiring repentance and charity. When Madinah shook in the time of ‘Umar, he addressed the people saying they had introduced something new and warning that if it recurred he would leave them (the sermon attributes this to Ibn Abi Shaybah, Ibn Abi al-Dunya in al-‘Uqubat and al-Bayhaqi via Safiyyah bint Abi ‘Ubayd, noting that its routes strengthen one another and that its meaning is established and well known among the early generations). ‘Umar ibn ‘Abd al-‘Aziz wrote to the provinces when the earth trembled that this tremor is something by which Allah reproaches His servants, and ordered people to go out on a set day and give in charity whatever they had (reported by Ibn Abi al-Dunya and al-Bayhaqi, and cited by Ibn al-Qayyim in al-Jawab al-Kafi). Ka’b al-Ahbar is also quoted as saying that the earth quakes when sins are committed upon it, trembling in fear of its Lord (reported by Ibn Abi al-Dunya and al-Bayhaqi).

It does not befit a Muslim, therefore, for his only response to such a sign to be “a tectonic plate moved,” and then to carry on heedless of the message. That is precisely how earlier nations perished: they saw the warnings and paid no attention. The Prophet ﷺ said of the eclipse that it does not happen for anyone’s death or life, but that Allah frightens His servants by it, and then commanded remembrance, supplication, seeking forgiveness, prayer and charity. The preacher urges his listeners to take from the earthquake what the Prophet ﷺ, ‘Umar and ‘Umar ibn ‘Abd al-‘Aziz took, lest they be among those described in the title verse: “And We threaten them, but it increases them not except in great transgression” (al-Isra 17:60), and he repeats the call: “And return [in repentance] to your Lord and submit to Him before the punishment comes upon you; then you will not be helped” (al-Zumar 39:54).

The sermon closes with prayers upon the Prophet ﷺ, supplications for forgiveness, for security in the homelands and for protection from earthquakes, trials and tribulations, asking Allah not to take the people to account for what the foolish among them have done nor to destroy them for their sins, and ends with the verse “Indeed, Allah orders justice and good conduct and giving to relatives and forbids immorality and bad conduct and oppression” (al-Nahl 16:90).