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Bismillahi r-Rahmani r-Rahim, Alhamdulillahi Rabbil ‘Alameen. Was-salatu was-salamu ala ashrafil anbiya wal mursaleen Muhammadin Rasulullah ﷺ, wa ala alihi wa sahbihi wa sallam. Tasleeman kaseeran kaseera. Fama ba’du.
My brothers and sisters, we were talking about our core faith which begins with belief in Al-Ghaib. Al-Ghaib is the unperceivable. As I mentioned yesterday, it’s not just the unseen, but it is the unperceivable—something which cannot be perceived in any way, either directly or using any kind of technology. That is Al-Ghaib.
So, for example, things which are: this is on a side note, if you think about it, there were things which were al-ghaib in the ghaib for the Sahaba. Ridwanullahi ar-Rahman ar-Rahim. But today we see them. For example, all the ayat relating to embryology, the development of the embryo and so on. The Sahaba didn’t see that, right? For them it was, “Allah is saying this,” so I believe it. There was no means of seeing it because the microscopes had not been invented. So nobody in the world knew it—I mean, not only Sahaba. But the Quran came with these things. Today, we know this is true. We are not trying to prove the Qur’an right; the Qur’an is a sign of Allah. But we know because of technology, which again comes from Allah, we are able to see actually that these things are there. So therefore, even that is not alive. Similarly, things that today we may not know, but maybe coming generations, Allah will give them the knowledge and they will develop the technology and they will find out those things, they will see it—all of those therefore are not in Al-Ghaib, even though we don’t know it today.
Al-Ghaib is that which is completely and totally impossible for any human being to know either today or tomorrow or day after or any time. As I mentioned, one of the simplest is the situation in the grave.
For example, Nabi Sallallahu Alaihi Wasallam said: in the grave, we ask Allah to save us from the punishment of the grave and to make the grave for us, the place of rest and one of the gardens of Jannah insha’Allah for us, for all the Muslims. But from the punishment of the grave, Nabi Sallallahu Alaihi Wasallam mentioned how there will be fire and so on and so on, different things. Now if you go and dig up somebody’s grave, there is no fire there. There. If you put some sensors in the grave, you’re not going to see any fire. The question and answer, the question and answer with the angels—you can’t put a microphone in the grave and say, “Let me listen to what they’re saying.” No, it doesn’t work. It’s a different world altogether. So also the world of the Akhirah, all of this is in Al-Ghaib and we believe it because Rasulullah ﷺ told us. We believe it because this is from Allah Allah Subh’anaHu Wa Ta-A’la. And that is why the knowledge of Wahi, the knowledge of revelation, is so important because these are not things that we can discover by ourselves. Yet they are critically important.
See, there are things which we cannot discover. For example, I mean, I’m sure most likely it is unlikely that any of us will go to the moon, right? Or to Mars. So you might say, well, okay, if I don’t know what’s on Mars, what does it matter? It really doesn’t matter. Now, in one manner of speaking, we should know; it’s a good thing to have knowledge. But it’s not critical knowledge. If somebody lives and dies without knowing that there is even a planet called Mars, it doesn’t matter. It doesn’t affect him in any way. But if somebody is living and dying without knowing that there is Akhira, then it’s a major calamity. Because we will see Akhira. We won’t go to Mars, but we will see Akhira. We will be in the Akhira. We will be before Allahﷻ. So we should know what is it that will help me when I am standing before Allahﷻ, right?
For example, Allahﷻ said, one of the seven people who will be shaded under the shade of the arsh of Allah: one of them is youth who worshipped Allahﷻ in their youth. Young people who worshipped Allahﷻ in their youth and who were connected to the Prophet. May Allah bless Ahmad and our brothers here. Young people, mashallah, they come for Salatul Fajr in the masjid. May Allah bless you. I’m not praising you to your face. I’m saying this as a matter of appreciation. And insha’Allah, bashara, that if you continue like this, and may Allah give you istiqamat, then you can look forward to being shaded under the shade of Allahﷻ when there is no shade except His shade. And Nabi SAW used to make this dua: “Allahumma zillani tahta arshuk yawma la zilla illa zilluk.” O Allah, give me the shade of Your arsh under Your arsh on the day when there is no shade except Your shade.
Now all of these things are from Al-Ghaib. And that is why belief motivates and belief drives and belief is the light on the path in the cold dark night and belief is hope and belief is faith in Allah Subh’anaHu Wa Ta-A’la.
That is the reason why belief is so important. With this faith in Allah, because sometimes may Allah save us from these things. Sometimes in life you are faced with situations where you are completely helpless. You want to do something, you cannot do it. But if you have faith in Allah Subh’anaHu Wa Ta-A’la, then Allah gives you the strength to face that. Right now as I speak, we are seeing people in the world who are in that situation. But we are also seeing those people—when reporters go and ask, “How are you?” They say, “Alhamdulillah.” The reporter is saying, “You have no bread to eat. There is no water to drink. There are no hospitals here. Everything has been bombed and destroyed.” So Alhamdulillah, Allah is there. Because this world is temporary. So whatever is there or not there, it will end. Even if I had everything, it will end. Right? So to keep the thing in its place. Therefore, belief also implies courage and focus and persistence and fortitude and sabr. It all comes from belief. And that’s the reason why belief is so important. With belief comes forgiveness from Allahﷻ.
But with demands for certainty is accounting and punishment. Think about this. Allahﷻ told us stories in the Quran which give us this impression: with belief, when we believe in Allah Subh’anaHu Wa Ta-A’la and we say, “I don’t need—for me—the word of the Nabi Alayhi Salaam is certainty. The Quran is certainty. I don’t need a certainty over that.” Like the people of Isa Alayhi Salaam, his Hawariyin, his disciples, they said, “Ya Allah, send us ma’idah min as-sama’; send us a dastarkhan; send us a sufra, all laid with food from heaven,” so that we may believe in you more. Where is the more? Allahﷻ the reply is what Allah said: “I will send it but after that if you don’t believe, I will punish you worse than I have punished anybody, the most severe punishment.” Other thing like this for example Saleh, his people demanded a proof evidence and they said, “What that evidence?” They said the evidence should be that a pregnant camel, female camel must come out of this rock. Allah gave them. And after that, finished. Wiped out. Because they didn’t believe, they harmed that camel. And Allahﷻ destroyed them.
Similarly, Fir’aun, Allahﷻ, he says:
إِنِّي تُبْتُ الْعَانِ—I make tawbah today, now.
أَمَنْتُ بِرَبِّ مُوسَىٰ وَحَارُونَ—I believe and I bring faith in the Rabb of Musa and Harun.
So Allahﷻ says, “I’ll land now when you are drowning.” I remind myself in you that the door of Tawbah is open until we see Malakul Maut. And that is the reason why it is so important to continuously make Tawbah all the time. And that’s why the beautiful ayat in Surah Al-Anfal, ayat number 33, I remember that ayat, where Allah specifically mentioned, Allah said that Allah will not punish them as long as you are among them, and then He said Allah will not punish them as long as they make tawbah, as long as they make istighfar. So tawbah prevents the azab of Allah from coming. It cools down the anger of Allah because of our actions. We invite the anger of Allah; so let us also do something in terms of cooling down of that anger, right?
So, making istighfar and tawbah is very, very critically important and we, I remind myself and you, that we need to keep doing that, doing that all the time, right? So the—let me read that.
“Allah will not give them azaab when you are with them, when you are among them. And Allah will not give them azaab, Allah will not punish them as long as they keep making istighfar.” So, Allah is specifying and telling us how we can avoid punishment. So, I remind myself and you, let us take advantage. The whole point of learning is that we have—we take advantage.
Now, all the prophets, they all had belief, not certainty. They all had belief, but they didn’t have certainty. And that’s why belief is superior to certainty. Ibrahim, for example, sitting in the cup of the trebuchet. He is tied up, he is sitting in the cup of the trebuchet. He is about to be fired and thrown into the fire. At that point, does he know that he will be saved? He doesn’t know. He is a human being. He doesn’t have ilm ul ghaib. He has no idea. He is there. So if somebody went and asked him, “What do you think will happen?” He said, “What will I think? I mean, this is here. I’ll be thrown into the fire. I hope Allah will save me otherwise I’ll burn.”
And that’s why the beautiful story which Ibrahim came to him at that time and he said, “Ya Ibrahim, tell me what can I do for you,” he said, “Nothing. Nothing. I don’t ask anything from him now.” This is the issue—the issue is Tawakkul and certainty is at this point; these are the testing points. These testing points. And if for Ibrahim to ask Jibreel to help him would have been completely good—there’s nothing wrong in that—it’s not haram and so on because it’s a face-to-face conversation right? So if I ask you and say, “Can you please get me a glass of water?” You are sitting here, I’m sitting here—no problem. So it’s not like going to a grave and saying, “I don’t have children, give me children.” No—that is haram, that is shirk. But directly faced with nothing yet he didn’t ask. This is the beauty. The beauty is that the connection with Allah Subhanahu Wa Ta’ala is so pure and so strong and even where asking Khairullah for help would have been jais and permissible, Ibrahim A.S does not ask.
So Nabi said Jibreel A.S went to Allah and of course Allah Subhanahu Wa Ta’ala knows—allah does not need someone to tell him—but this is these hadiths when you hear when we say Allah asked this and the angel said this: this is because Allah Subhanahu Wa Ta’ala wants to establish witnesses in favor of that individual on the day of judgment so Allah will ask, “What did he say?” and the angel will say, “He said this.” Allah knows what he said.
So Jibreel goes to Allah Subhanahu Wa Ta’ala: “Ya Rabb, your Khalil, your Nabi, your Rasool is being burnt. When I asked him, ‘Can I help you?’ He says no.” So Allahﷻ says, “You go and ask him; tell him I sent you and I want to know what does he want from me now.” Think about this—do the malaika do anything on their own? Do the angels do anything on their own? No. So even when Jibreel went to him the first time because Allahﷻ sent him, he cannot do. Jibreel SAW the malaika are majboor—they cannot act on their own volition. They do what they have been commanded period it. Ikhtiyar has been given to us and to the jinn. This is what the musibat are asking. We have been given the ikhtiyar. We can choose—I will pray, I will not pray. The malaika pray. They don’t choose, “I will pray.”
So Jibreel comes back to Ibrahim and all of this is happening in—the time has no meaning. It’s not a matter of saying how long did it take, 10 minutes, 5 minutes, 2 minutes, no. Because it’s multi—it’s multi-dimensional travel. It doesn’t operate according to our laws of time and space. So he comes back and he says, “Your Rabb wants to know what you want.” Ibrahim A.S. says, “My Rabb does not need to ask.” He says, “My Rabb does not need to ask.” What does he mean? He says, “I am a slave of Allah.” What do I want? I want whatever my Rabb wants. Period. I have no want of my own. This is the place; this is the level of Ihsan which we all aspire to. May Allah Ta’ala grant us. I am not saying we become like this that we will become Allah. Allah Allah is the one to give even Ibrahim. Allah only gave him this Yaqeen but this is the ultimate meaning of Tawakkul: I want whatever my Rab wants for me. The beauty of that is that then that person is freed from all worry, all sadness, all Huzan, all Khawf, all fear—nothing because whatever situation I might be in, this is what my Rabb wants for me. Alhamdulillah who is my Rabb? He is Rahman and Rahim. No matter the situation whether you may Allah keep us safe from illness and from imprisonment and from trials and tribulations and all of these things—but no matter which situation you are in in a worldly sense, whether that is good or comfortable or with wealth or without wealth or bad, no matter what situation—the person who has the person who is connected with Allah Subhanahu Wa Ta’ala—he says all praise and all thanks to Allah Subhanahu Wa Ta’ala in every condition, right?
So Nuh alayhi salam standing on a ship—complete certainty. “Allah is the one who made me build this ship so is he going to sink it?” So what’s the worry? The point is apply this in your life. Allah is the one who gave us whatever we have; so is he going to destroy that? No. He gave it. Musa A.S. standing on the shore of the Red Sea: his people said, “Oh you have destroyed us.” Musa A.S. has no uncertainty; he is completely certain Allahﷻ will save him. He said, “My Rabi is with me.” Then Allah showed him the way, strike the water and so on, so on. Rasulullah himself at Badr, at Hudaybiyah—complete certainty. They all believed, they did not know for certain, but they believed and they did their best. And the reward of this, the reward insha’Allah one day is for us to see what today we believe unseen. Insha’Allah we will see Allah ask Allah to gather us all together like we are sitting together in Jannatul Firdaus insha’Allah along with all our—you know families—and for Allah to show Himself.