Dealing With Worries and Stress

Brother Ahmed opens by naming a struggle every person carries: worry over the past, over present responsibilities, and over a future that hasn't even happened yet. He reminds us this is not a modern problem, even though we often assume earlier generations had it easier. Allah says in Surah al-Balad that He created humankind in constant struggle, so this dunya was never designed to be a place of comfort the way Jannah is. The real question, he explains, is not how to reach a life free of stress, since that life doesn't exist here, but what a believer does with the worry that is bound to come.

He then explains why so many of our usual coping methods fail to bring real relief. Quoting Ibn Hazm al-Andalusi, he notes that everything we chase in the dunya ends one of two ways: we reach it and eventually lose it to death, or we die before ever reaching it, with the sole exception of anything done sincerely for the sake of Allah. He connects this to the human habit of numbing stress through drugs, alcohol, work, forbidden relationships, or screens, pointing to the hadith in which the Prophet ﷺ told a companion that wine is not a medicine but a disease. These outlets, he says, only bury the original stress for a few hours before it returns, usually heavier, and now carrying guilt along with it. From there he offers three practical cures rooted in the Qur'an and Sunnah: returning to the Qur'an, which Ibn al-Qayyim describes as washing away grief and healing anxiety; staying consistent in acts of worship, especially Salah, following the Prophet's ﷺ own habit of turning to prayer whenever he was grieved; and trusting Allah as Al-Wali and Al-Muhaymin, illustrated through the story of Hajar, who found peace in the barren valley near the Ka'ba once she knew Ibrahim's departure was commanded by Allah.

Brother Ahmed closes by reminding the congregation that worry and stress are simply part of living in this dunya, and what matters is not whether we feel it but how we respond to it. He urges us to make the Qur'an part of our daily lives, to stay consistent with our Salah especially in difficult moments, and to remember that we are not the ones in control. Allah is, and He will not neglect those who turn to Him.

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