Don't look back
There are moments when life feels as though it is holding its breath. A door opens, a warning is delivered, a night is chosen, and a family must leave before the city wakes. At that moment, the difference between safety and ruin is whether they walk through the door or whether fear persuades them to turn back.
For years, Lūt (ʿalayhi al-Salām) stood almost alone before a community whose desires had become their identity and culture. He called them to Allah, to honour the home, to the protection of the family, and to free themselves from the grip of appetite. Yet the more he did, the bolder they became. Then came the final hour. The angels arrived in the form of guests. Men rushed towards the house of Lūt, drunk with desire.
At that moment, the command arrived: leave by night, walk away from what Allah has condemned. Now, Lūt and his family had to walk and not look back.
The angels said to him:
فَأَسْرِ بِأَهْلِكَ بِقِطْعٍ مِنَ اللَّيْلِ وَاتَّبِعْ أَدْبَارَهُمْ وَلَا يَلْتَفِتْ مِنْكُمْ أَحَدٌ وَامْضُوا حَيْثُ تُؤْمَرُونَ وَقَضَيْنَا إِلَيْهِ ذَلِكَ الْأَمْرَ أَنَّ دَابِرَ هَؤُلَاءِ مَقْطُوعٌ مُصْبِحِينَ
So travel with your family during a portion of the night, and follow behind them. Let none of you look back, and proceed where you are commanded. And We decreed to him that the last remnant of those people would be cut off by morning.” [1]
These verses from Surat al-Hijr contain a set of principles for every muslih who wants to lead his family, community, or Ummah out of despair and paralysis. What follows is a manual for hope and movement in moments of widespread fear, or the rescue protocol of the muslih.
Five movements of the muslih
“Travel with your family during a portion of the night”
Allah commanded His prophet to leave by night — away from the eyes of his people — so that his departure would not be exposed or sabotaged.
Lūt (ʿalayhi al-Salām) was commanded to move with caution, to choose the right time, and to protect the path of deliverance from those who were determined to resist the command of Allah.
This was not unique to Lūt. It appears as a recurring pattern in the lives of the prophets. When the moment came for Mūsā (ʿalayhi al-Salām) to lead Banī Isrā’īl out of the grip of Pharaoh, Allah did not command him to announce his departure, but to move by night:
وَأَوْحَيْنَا إِلَىٰ مُوسَىٰ أَنْ أَسْرِ بِعِبَادِي إِنَّكُم مُّتَّبَعُونَ
And We inspired Moses, saying, ‘Leave with My servants at night, for you will surely be pursued.’” [2]
The same wisdom appears in the Hijrah of our Prophet Muhammad ﷺ. He did not leave Makkah in a public procession, nor did he expose the hour, the route, or the details of his migration to everyone. The matter was kept within a very small circle, with Abu Bakr and his household entrusted with key parts of the plan.
In this lies a lesson for scholars, callers, reformers, and anyone seeking to serve the causes of justice in hostile or highly scrutinised environments. Ikhlās must be joined with wisdom of movement.
Today, many will announce intentions before they have built capacity and publish plans before they have secured them. Some projects die because they were spoken about too early, just as some efforts are sabotaged because the wrong ears heard them before the right foundations were laid.
“And follow behind them”
Lūt (ʿalayhi al-Salām) was commanded to place himself behind his family as they fled through the night, watching over them, guarding their rear, ensuring that fear did not swallow their steps and that no one was left exposed on the road out of a condemned city.
Women fleeing from a terrifying place need a protective presence behind them. Had their father walked far ahead, their pace may have weakened, fear may have intensified, and the loneliness of the road may have tempted them to turn around.
Ibn Kathīr (rahīmahullah) said,
وَهَكَذَا كَانَ رَسُولُ اللَّهِ ﷺ يَمْشِي فِي الْغَزْوِ إِنَّمَا يَكُونُ سَاقَةً، يُزْجِي الضَّعِيفَ، وَيَحْمِلُ الْمُنْقَطِعَ
Likewise, the Messenger of Allah ﷺ would walk at the rear during military expeditions, urging on the weak and carrying the one who had become unable to continue.” [3]
In this lies another Qur’ānic principle for the Ummah during moments of fear. Muslims need scholars, callers, teachers, parents, community leaders, and people of influence who stand behind them when the pressure rises: when Gaza is being buried beneath rubble, when masājid are attacked, when Muslims are made to feel as strangers to where they live, when employees fear speaking about Palestine at work, when students are silenced on campus, and when the media turns Muslim grief into something suspicious.
The role of knowledge is to steady the Ummah in those moments: to give people language when they are intimidated into silence, solutions when they are made to feel alone, clarity when propaganda clouds the air, and īmān when despair begins to creep in.
The Ummah is exhausted by leaders who only appear after the public mood becomes safe, until comedians, celebrities, liberals decide that a cause has become safe enough to support, despite our gratitude to them. Leaders cannot limit their advice to self-help and universally agreed-upon advice, while tiptoeing around the truth, calculating the cost to their access, platforms, sponsorships, travel arrangements, reputations, and comfortable circles. Furthermore, they should never place themselves in a position where the masses must drag them into activism and courageous relevance through comments, pressure, disappointment, and public disassociation. Leadership loses all of its authority when it has to be chased into duty.
Lūt (ʿalayhi al-Salām) walked behind his family, because whenever one of them weakened and felt the urge to look back, they would see the face of a prophet. Likewise, whenever the Ummah is tested, whenever hearts grow tired, and whenever people begin to look back in doubt, fear, or hesitation, they must find behind them the faces of scholars, parents, educators, activists, and anyone who has built a brand on the back of Islam, without waiting for others to pave the way.
Allah says,
كُنتُمْ خَيْرَ أُمَّةٍ أُخْرِجَتْ لِلنَّاسِ تَأْمُرُونَ بِالْمَعْرُوفِ وَتَنْهَوْنَ عَنِ الْمُنكَرِ وَتُؤْمِنُونَ بِاللَّهِ
You are the best nation ever raised for humanity: you encourage good, forbid evil, and believe in Allah.” [4]
Our khayriyyah — distinction and moral excellence as an Ummah — comes from this responsibility, that we are supposed to be absorbing the shocks of the road, carrying the burden of the hour, and refusing to outsource courage to others.
“Let none of you look back”
Ibn Kathīr said,
وَلَا يَلْتَفِتْ مِنْكُمْ أَحَدٌ أَيْ إِذَا سَمِعْتُمُ الصَّيْحَةَ بِالْقَوْمِ، فَلَا تَلْتَفِتُوا إِلَيْهِمْ، وَذَرُوهُمْ فِيمَا حَلَّ بِهِمْ مِنَ الْعَذَابِ، وَالنَّكَالِ، وَامْضُوا حَيْثُ تُؤْمَرُونَ، كَأَنَّهُ كَانَ مَعَهُمْ مَنْ يَهْدِيهِمُ السَّبِيلَ
“Let none of you look back” means: when you hear the blast striking the people, do not turn towards them. Leave them to the punishment and humiliation that has descended upon them, and continue moving in the direction you have been commanded. It is as though someone was with them, guiding them along the path.” [5]
So do not turn towards the scream. Do not stare at the ruins. Do not live in the past. One of the greatest obstacles of the Ummah, particularly in times of fear, is the habit of looking back.
In a hadīth that gathers the entire discipline of recovery and strength, the Prophet ﷺ said:
احرِصْ على ما يَنفَعُكَ، واستَعِنْ باللهِ ولا تَعجِزْ، وإن أصابَكَ شَيءٌ فلا تَقُلْ: لو أنِّي فعَلتُ كان كَذا وكَذا، ولَكِن قُلْ: قدَرُ اللهِ وما شاءَ فعَلَ؛ فإنَّ (لو) تَفتَحُ عَمَلَ الشَّيطانِ
Be keen for what benefits you, seek help from Allah, and do not become helpless. If something happens to you, do not say, ‘If only I had done such and such, then such and such would have happened.’ Rather say, ‘Allah decreed, and whatever He willed, He did’, for ‘if only’ opens the door to the work of Shaytān.” [6]
The phrase لو (“if only) is one of the greatest trap doors to looking back.
There are people who spend their lives explaining why they cannot move:
- “My past ruined me.”
- “My school failed me.”
- “My parents did not support me.”
- “I come from an abusive relationship.”
- “My circumstances were against me.”
- “My upbringing was difficult.”
- “My community ignored me.”
Whilst some of those statements will be painfully true, it becomes a problem when you make that truth a wall between you and your future, living your life in an endless argument with yesterday, and allowing a poor decision that you or somebody else made to become the ceiling of your life. Modern culture is obsessed with naming every wound, encouraging people to build an entire identity around injury, where protecting the wound is more important than pursuing the cure.
“Let none of you look back” is an instruction that carries a whole philosophy of rescue.
- Do not look back at the broken home you may have come from.
- Do not look back at the foolish decision that you or others made.
- Do not look back at a betrayal that you’ve both promised to recover from.
- Do not look back at the careless label that was put on you by a careless adult.
- Do not look back at those who doubt a decision that members of this Ummah may have made for its rescue…
…because you are still being called forward.
The task of a parent, educator, and scholar is to become a doorway to hope, to stand behind the Ummah as individuals and communities, saying: keep moving, irrespective of the shootings, the genocides, the anti-Islam marches, or your personal challenge in life; keep moving, even as your hand shakes. Allah has not finished with you.
Each one of us has scars, but do not hand them the pen to write the rest of your life. Yes, the past must teach you, but it is not allowed to command you. Learn from the past, but after that comes the more important question: where are we heading?
“Proceed where you are commanded”
There was a specific destination that the Prophet of Allah, Lūt (ʿalayhi al-Salām), was commanded to move toward.
Every glance backwards delays the journey. The ruins behind you must lose their authority over you, because Allah has opened a road ahead.
“Proceed where you are commanded” — here come the makers of events: people who plan, who do not rush to speak about an event before its picture has become clear to them, who do not get lost in endless commentary, analysis, blame and “what ifs” about the genocide in Palestine or any arena of crisis. They guard the Ummah from behind, steady its steps, and do not allow the arguments raging within the Ummah over a theoretical matter to distract them from achieving their objectives.
- Lūt (ʿalayhi al-Salām) was saved because he refused to look back, despite the betrayal that had entered his own home, yet he proceeded where he was commanded.
- Nūh (ʿalayhi al-Salām) was saved because he refused to look back at the mockery of his people, but built the Ark, plank by plank, and proceeded where he was commanded.
- Mūsā (ʿalayhi al-Salām) was saved because he refused to look back when Pharaoh’s army closed in behind him, but walked towards the sea and proceeded where he was commanded.
- Our Prophet ﷺ left Makkah despite the depth of his love for it. A beloved chapter had closed, and a greater one was waiting; so he proceeded where he was commanded.
- Ibrāhīm (ʿalayhi al-Salām) refused to remain imprisoned by his father’s rejection, or at the instruction to sacrifice his son, or to leave his family alone in the desert of Makkah, and proceeded to where he was commanded. His philosophy in life was “Indeed, I am migrating to my Lord.” In a state of forward-facing submission, he kept moving. [7]
This is true even of nations. Communities that keep staring at the wreckage struggle to rebuild from it. Japan, after the devastation of the atomic bombs, chose to begin again from ruins, until it became one of the great industrial powers of the modern world. Germany, after the Second World War, faced a land of rubble, humiliation, and defeat, yet it too chose reconstruction over paralysis. The same can be said of Gaza. They are refusing to sit upon their wreckage, refusing ruin as their final address. With whatever little remains in their hands, they rebuild, and whilst their bodies still bleed, they continue to move. No amount of killing can defeat a community that lives by the rule of “proceed where you have been commanded.”
Stephen Covey once said that your greatest work is ahead of you. In Qur’ānic language, the meaning is far higher: the greatest work that Allah has written for you lies in the direction of His command. Keep moving towards it.
“Is the morning not near?”
After the four commands given to Prophet Lūt (ʿalayhi al-Salām), Allah gave him the news that every oppressed heart longs to hear: the oppressors had an appointment with defeat, and after a long night of oppression, the announcement that morning was already on its way:
وَقَضَيْنَا إِلَيْهِ ذَلِكَ الْأَمْرَ أَنَّ دَابِرَ هَؤُلَاءِ مَقْطُوعٌ مُصْبِحِينَ
And We decreed to him that the root of those people would be cut off by morning.” [8]
Every oppressor has a morning, and every pharaoh has a sea somewhere in his path.
Allah says,
إِنَّ مَوْعِدَهُمُ الصُّبْحُ ۚ أَلَيْسَ الصُّبْحُ بِقَرِيبٍ
Indeed, their appointed time is the morning. Is the morning not near? [9]
What a verse for the exhausted heart. But the crucial lesson is how this good news was only given after four instructions. In other words, the purpose of the reassurance is only to strengthen movement, not to replace it or suspend duty. Do not let your longing for their downfall distract you from your own responsibility.
So we too await the morning, but we await it in motion, while engaged in our assignment, remaining among the most charitable communities in the UK, renewing our pledge to Allah to become better servants of His, making peace within our families, serving Muslim and non-Muslim communities here at home, raising righteous and aware children who know their Lord and understand the hopes, needs, wounds, and enemies of their Ummah, and searching, each of us, for our Islamic life calling — that project for the Hereafter which may define the next thirty years of our lives.
These are the five movements of the muslih:
- move wisely;
- guard from the rear;
- refuse to look back;
- proceed towards Allah’s command;
- and await the dawn with unshakable certainty.
Source: Islam21c
Notes
[1] al-Qur’ān, 15:65
[2] al-Qur’ān, 26:52
[3] Tafsīr Ibn Kathīr
[4] al-Qur’ān, 3:110
[5] Tafsīr Ibn Kathīr
[6] Muslim
[7] al-Qur’ān, 29:26
[8] al-Qur’ān, 15:66
[9] al-Qur’ān, 11:81
