Podcast: Play in new window | Download (14.9MB) | Embed
Subscribe: Apple Podcasts | Spotify | Android | Email | Youtube Music | RSS
Auto-generated transcript:
Salam alaikum wa rahmatullahi wa barakatuh. Allah is truly all-knowing, all-aware. As-salamu alaykum. As-salamu alaykum. As-salamu alaykum. As-salamu alaykum. As-salamu alaykum. As-salamu alaykum. That thing is maintained to this day. It’s amazing the millions of pigeons that are here, incredible amount of pigeons, incredible number of pigeons. And then people in there mistakenly, Allah have mercy on them, mistakenly believe that some kind of sadaqah in feeding pigeons. There are people selling grains and people buying grains and throwing it on the floor. And you have these absolute clouds of pigeons descending and eating the grain and drying up. And then of course, there are people like people eat food, they are sitting everywhere eating food. So all that food is dropped on the pigeons. They eat all that. But you don’t see the kind of, you know, pigeon poop that you should really, technically speaking, see in a place like this because of the absolutely peak efficiency of cleaning that happens. Yesterday we were, as I said, in the first floor of Mataaf and we see people
on machines, on scaffolding and so on, cleaning by hand every single ring in the decoration of the ceiling of the Haram. You know, they have all those beautiful Islamic art decorations, which are little rings and circles and squares and all kinds of geometric shapes. All of these are being cleaned by hand. There’s a guy there on the top, way on top, who is polishing the, what looks like metal from below, because he is, by hand literally, he’s spraying something on it and he’s polishing it by hand, way up in the top of the roof. Amazing, the kind of cleaning. And I was thinking to myself that these are not people doing a job. These are people who are doing it, salamu alaykum, bismillah, these are people who are doing it for the barakah and for the blessing and for the reward of the Lord. And I was thinking to myself, these are not people doing a job. Cleaning the house of Allah . These are people, whether they are doing it with awareness or not, they are following the sunnah of Ibraheem . Who Allah commanded to clean their house. These people are doing it. There’s no way that this job can be done by somebody who does not actually have this awareness. This is my gumman, this is my assumption that it’s not a job that’s being done just in the top. Because there’s not a scrap, can you imagine? And people are peeping . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . being done just in the dorm. Because there’s not a scrap. Can you imagine? And people are peeping. Subhanallah, may Allah have mercy on Muslims yesterday. My wife and I were walking up. We are walking up to the harem. We are not even in the, we are not in the mataf. We are not even in the immediate sand of the harem. We are on what used to be a road between the, between our hotel and the hotel opposite. And all these roads have now been closed off. And they have been paved with marble and then made into purely walkways, which is a wonderful thing. So, there’s no cars and buses and stuff. But people walk. But it is still a road. It is actually a road. People are walking up and down that. In the middle of that road, there are these two large, portly gentlemen who are on the floor sleeping. One guy is about to fall asleep. The other guy is fast asleep. Literally on the stone floor, they are fast asleep. Amazing. Allah grant us this. Ability to sleep anywhere. And the people are beating around. They are women and children and peaches.
Peaches and occasionally cats. They are all, you know, beating around and walking around them. Completely oblivious to the world. And as I said, my wife said, this is tabak kool. I said, smart. Only Muslims can do it. May Allah have mercy on us. There’s nothing good about that. So, please don’t even try putting putting, you know, obstacles in the way of people. Tabak kool or not, it’s definitely not Islamic. But anyway, may Allah have mercy on them and forgive them. And forgive all of us. So, my point I’m making is that all of this that you see here, there’s such a sense of peace. Imagine millions of people come here. There are incidents. And, you know, may Allah have mercy. There are incidents of sometimes stampedes during Hajj. And some people dying because of that. Some people dying because of dehydration, because of the heat. When they are walking from from Arafat to Mina and so forth. Of course, you don’t need to walk. Now they have a train. They used to have, they’ve always had buses. Anyway, long and short of it is, that is it. But you never ever have a riot here. Think about that. Go to one football match and you know what I’m talking about. Right? There’s no rioting. There’s no rioting. There’s no yelling. There’s no screaming. There’s no cursing. There’s no people fighting each other. Although people are, you know, bumping and all of that stuff. I mean, you know, there’s no way it can be reduced. I agree because there are people who join hands and push through the crowd which is obviously highly inadvisable and wrong. But the point is that at the end of that, even with that, even with those people, people might mumble or grumble in their hearts and under their breasts but nobody fights them, nobody curses them, you know, nobody tells them, you’ve got no sense and nothing. There is so much of kindness and there’s so much of, you know, acceptance of one another. I was doing the half and suddenly the Adhan for Asad got called. And I… Now there are chairs. There are folding chairs in the Haram. Thousands of chairs. Thousands of them. It’s not only those how many. Thousands of them which are free. You can just pick it up and swan like, you can even take it home if you like but obviously that’s not meant for that. It’s a Zohar for the Haram. So it’s a free chair. Just pick it up, take it with you, use it and just leave it anywhere. Just leave it by the side of the, by one of the walls or something and somebody else will pick it up and so on. So, all of this is given free. How many? Now unfortunately, I, you know, I’m not sure. Unfortunately, I did not have a chair. So when it was time for Salatul Asad, my knees got locked. So I couldn’t bend down and I needed to take my sandals off because I was standing on a, there was a Musalla there. So I wanted to stand on a Musalla. And next thing I know there’s a guy standing next to me. I literally asked his name. His name was Fahad and he said, Allah grant him the best of the best in this world and the next. I don’t know who the man is. He could be a billionaire. He could be a billionaire. He could own oil wells for all I know. He could be a popper. He could be anybody at all. But nice gentle one in, you know, decent clothes next to me. He saw what’s happening to me. He said, Shaikh, let me help you. He takes my sandals off. The man is sitting on the floor. Sitting on the ground, he takes my sandals off. SubhanAllah, I mean, nothing is, it’s not a go, how can I touch this man’s feet? And that guy is like, oh, I don’t know. He’s an Arab. I am an Indian, quite clearly. Right? He tried to speak to me in Arabic. I, my broken Arabic, I tried to speak to him. And when I finished, I’m SubhanAllah, SubhanAllah. He said, Jai MaashaAllah. Arabic is beautiful. No, it’s not beautiful. I mean, you know, but. Now, there is my complete stranger, right? He doesn’t have to help me. He does not need to help me. I struggle, I struggle. That’s my problem, right? I need to solve my problem without even asking. I would not even do it. I would not even dream of asking. I would not stick my foot to somebody and say, take my sandal off, right? But the man does it. And believe me, this is not something which is unique or it just happened to me. This is something in the Arab, you see it all the time. I remember many years ago, I had, I had completed Hajj. And after Hajj, I was making Thawaf on the top again, in the King Fahd section, I was up there. And I, I was up there. And I had finished my Thawaf and I came, I prayed to Raqat and I just sat there and just thinking and making dhikr. And I saw next to me was this man who looked Sudanese to him, but no, nobody is that big. Somalis and Sudanese are the two tallest people in the world that I have seen. With one difference which is that Somalis all seem to be very slim, very tall, slim and tall. And the Sudanese are very tall and very large. So, they are very big. So, there was this huge Somali, Sudanese man. Again, my assumption is Sudanese, but anyway. So, he was praying and just at his feet, right, was a tiny baby. And this baby was fast asleep. This man finished his, I mean, he was, you know, within like three feet or four feet of me. He finished his Salah and he picks up the baby. Baby is still asleep. He picks up the baby. He comes to me and he says, please take care of this baby. His parents will come. And he walks away. Now, I am absolutely horrified holding this baby in my hands, in my arms. I said, what kind of thing is, whose baby is this? Where are the parents? The parents are doing Tawaf. Can you imagine this thing? I said, do you know the parents? He said, no. So, they just leave it, leave the baby. Yeah, it’s okay. Have the life, you know. Now, again, this is not something that I am advising anyone to do. Please, I am not advising anyone to do. Please, I am not advising anyone to do. Please, I am not advising anyone to do. This is a completely insane. This parent must be absolutely out of their mind. Anyway, so, the man went. It’s now the baby. By now, this baby being picked up and handled started crying. Now, me and babies, believe me, there is something, there is only living creature on the face of the earth that I fear is a baby. And I have no clue what to do with it, right? Give me a tiger or a lion or an elephant anytime. Babies, no. So, I am there, complete at a loss. Then I noticed there was a group of Turkish ladies who were sitting, chatting. One of them saw me in my plight. She simply got up, came to me and said, give me the baby. I gave it to her. And that woman, I mean, like 10 seconds, the baby was fast asleep again. I don’t know what these women do, you know, they have some magic they do. And so, this baby, she takes the baby there. She sits there with the baby quite happily. Now, I said, I have to see this thing through to its conclusion. So, I am still sitting there. I have got nothing else to do. I just sit there. I am just sitting there, watching to see how this ends. And lo and behold, the parents turn up. And they come, they are looking, you know, here and there. So, I called them. I said, you are looking for the baby? They said, yes. There is the baby with the Turkish lady. Oh, thank you, thank you, thank you. They went, picked up the baby, they went to her. I really wanted to, you know, sort of give them a piece of my mind. Anyway, I said, forget it. I am not here to give anybody my mind. So, I just left them, said, take the baby and go. Once again, I am saying, leave. Do not do any such thing. This is absolute nonsense. Babies can get kidnapped. They do get kidnapped. And then next thing you know, you know, you are in a big mess. And then you doubt, you blame Allah for this because you will say it happened to the House of Allah. The House of Allah also has people who are not there for the sake of Allah. They are there for other nefarious reasons. So, let us not become complacent and let us not, you know, imagine that everybody in the world is an angel. They are not. I wish they were, but they are not. So, that is what the other side is saying. But as you can see, I am not saying that I am not a person who is not a person who is not a person who is not a person who is not a person who is not a person who is not a person who is not a person. Right. Right. Right. Right. Right. Right. Right. Right. Right. Right. Right. Right. Right. Right. Right. Right. Right. Right. Right. Right. Right. Right. Right. Right. Right. Right. Right. Right. Right. Wherever those people, whoever Muslims are, everywhere they gather here, they come here for the sake of Allah . And subhanAllah, if you take the millions of people, the interaction and so on, you ask yourself how is it possible that people can be so peaceful, so considerate, so, you know, respectful for each other, it’s amazing. It’s totally and completely amazing. Economic background, you can see people who just by looking at them, you know this guy is worth a few billion. On the other hand, you look at another person and you say that this person is literally scourging for meals. Absolutely no problem. There are meals, you can give away meals, there are these restaurants here in the Haram, where if you, you can go there and ask them and they will tell you. They have meals that they give to people. So, five riyal, ten riyal and twenty riyal and different… So, twenty riyal has three riyals. So, twenty riyal has chicken and rice and five riyal is a sandwich in a roll and various things. Now, you could go and give say a hundred riyal to the restaurant and the restaurant will give twenty meals to people who need. Right? So, people, they make these things and they are, meal times after Saathu Zohar and after Saathu Nagarip, there are long lines of people there and they are obviously poor people plus they also, the workers who are around, the Haram who are cleaning and everything else, they stand there and they are given these free meals. I would recommend, please do that. That’s a very good way of giving sadakha. But imagine, I was thinking to myself, quite literally, a person could come here and could live for the rest of their lives completely free and get two square meals, maybe even three. In Ramadan, they would get suhoor and iftar for the rest of their lives. And nobody is there to ask the question, who are you, where did you come from, do you really need this meal, are you really poor, not poor, nothing. You stand in the line, they will give you the food. Respectfully, with dignity, you take the food, you eat it and you go home. No questions asked. Alhamdulillah, may Allah Ta’ala protect the Haram Bhaeen Sharifaheen. May Allah Ta’ala reward all those who take care of him in every way possible. May Allah Ta’ala reward all those who come here and may Allah accept their ibadah and accept their dua’s. Wa Salamu Alaikum Wa Rahmatullahi Wa Barakatuh. Ameen. Alhamdulillah, Ya Rabbana.