Podcast: Play in new window | Download (12.9MB) | Embed
Subscribe: Apple Podcasts | Spotify | Android | Email | Youtube Music | RSS
Auto-generated transcript:
Bismillah ar-Rahman ar-Rahim. Alhamdulillahi Rabbil ‘Alameen. Wa salatu wa salamu ala ash-sharafi al-anbiya wal-mursaleen Muhammadur Rasulullah ﷺ, wa ala alihi wa sahbihi wa sallam. Tasliman kathiran kathira.
My brothers and sisters, roughly 4,000 years ago lived a man and then his family. And they lived in such a wonderful and strange way.
And they did such wonderful and strange things that today we read the stories and you wonder what was it that moved him? Why did he do what he did?
Among the things that he did was that he took his wife and newborn baby all the way from Palestine to a barren valley in the desert, in the Hejaz.
Later on came to be called Bakka, then Makka, and left them there. Not a bit of grass, no cultivation, no trees, no water, no food, nothing.
He gave her a bag of dates and a bag of water, and left them and went away.
Then several years later, maybe 8 years later or 10 years later, he came back to visit them. So for 8, 10 years, he just left them there and went away, and then 8, 10 years later he comes back.
And then what does he do? He talks to his little son who has grown up now. Now maybe he is 10 years old. And he tells him, “I have seen in my dream that I am slaughtering you, I am sacrificing you to Allah.”
For 10 years. As far as the baby is concerned, a newborn baby, he is seeing his father for the first time.
So he comes and he tells him, “I have seen in my dream that I am slaughtering you for the sake of Allah. Sacrificing you in the path of Allah.”
Like you sacrifice a sheep or something, I am sacrificing you.
And then he tells the son, “Look, what do you see?”
And the son also is another peculiar human being. He doesn’t say, “Look where? Here, there, behind my back, in my pocket. What do you mean?” Therefore, look. Where? Look where? Look at what? What will I see? He doesn’t say, “Look.” He doesn’t ask all these questions.
He says, “O my father, do what you have been commanded.” So, Insha’Allah, you will find me among the people who have submitted. Ajeeb. Conversation between an 8 year old or 9 year old or 10 year old boy and his father who by that time is almost 100 years old.
Very. He is a peculiar kind of person. The mother, when he leaves her there with the infant baby and is going away,
she doesn’t scream and cry and, you know, hold on to his clothes, hold on to his hand and, no, no, don’t leave us here. No, nothing. First, she says, natural response when somebody is leaving you and going away. She says, “Where are you going?”
There’s no hysteria. There’s no fear. There’s no… She’s asking. She’s asking a question. “Where are you going?” He does not reply.
She does not ask him the same question again. She says, “Has your Rabb commanded you to do this?”
So, your Rabb means her Rabb also. Has your Rabb commanded you to do this? He nods his head. He doesn’t even say yes or no. He just nods his head. Because he is operating according to a command. A command that he has been given. He’s not doing anything on his own.
Not replying is not because he doesn’t want to reply. Not because he doesn’t love his wife anymore. He left them there to die. No.
He’s operating according to a command that he has been given.
So, she says, “Have you… Is this the command of your Rabb?” He just nods his head. She says, “Go.”
Go.
Our Rabb will not allow us to perish.
Huh?
Ajeeb.
What kind of man is this? What kind of woman is that? What kind of child is that?
What kind of behavior is this?
Even if you have been given a command, you prayed for God knows decades to have a child. You get a child. And then when you get this child, the child is still an infant nursing. You are commanded to take this child and mother and leave them in a place where if you look at the circumstances, it is certain death.
There is no chance of survival. There is no chance of survival at all. There is certain death and it’s a bad death because there is death in a slow and painful and torturous way. It’s not at least, you know, go shoot them, slit their throat, slaughter them, kill them. No. Leave them there. How long will they take to die? We don’t know. Imagine what, what, under normal circumstances, what will happen? What, even if some wild animal does not come and kill you, food will run out. What food? What food? You got a bunch of dates. How long is that going to last? Water will run out.
And then what happens? Three days without water, you are dead. You get dementia.
Your body functions.
Multi-organ failure. And you die.
The world circumstances, science, technology, whatever you want to call it. If you look at this incident from that perspective, it is certain death.
He does it.
She also understands. She’s not a foolish woman. She understands what is going on. She doesn’t say, “What kind of thing is this?”
Command from your Rabb, what command is this? Right?
This command makes no sense. I mean, what command is this? Ask your Rabb again. You really mean this? I should do this?
Nothing.
Samayna wa ta’an.
Whether we like it or not, we obey. Whether we understand it or not, we obey. Whether it makes sense or not, we obey. Whether it is logical or not, we obey.
Right?
And all that I’m telling you, this is not mythology. This is not some story. This, you know, this is history. This is actually recorded history. These things happened.
What was the result?
What should have been the result?
Which I mentioned to you. But what was the result?
The result was Allah subhanahu wa ta’ala said, Allah subhanahu wa ta’ala caused this incident of this lady, where Allah gave her the highest of darjah, our mother Hajar alayhi salam, and her little son. Allah subhanahu wa ta’ala caused their coming to that place, the means and the reason for settling that whole place and making it one of the greatest cities of the world. And as far as we are concerned, the number one city of the world.
Allah subhanahu wa ta’ala started a source of water in a place where there was no water. And that water continues to this day. And the number of people who drink that water is perhaps more than any other water source on the face of the earth.
Daily consumption from one well. You’re not talking about the ocean. You’re not talking about the Amazon. Or you’re not talking about the Mississippi. Or, you know, major river systems. No. Nile. You’re talking about one well.
Can you believe it? One well, for God’s sake.
And the number of people who are drinking that water on a daily basis for 4,000 years.
And they will drink till Allah wishes this to happen.
Living, I mean, we just go there, we drink the water, we throw the cup. No, you must think about this. What are you drinking?
And Allah subhanahu wa ta’ala then,
took all the actual actions of these people and they did the action for a reason. Our mother, Hajar alayhi salam,
she went between, she ran between, walked between Safa and Marwa for a reason. To see whether, you know, any human beings, any habitation, whatever, what is happening here, I mean, this valley, I can’t see around me, let me climb to this hill. See there, look, look there. Then come back, check on my chest, go to the other hill, look there. She did it for a reason.
Allah subhanahu wa ta’ala liked that so much that he made that the reason why we do it. We do it because she did it. We don’t go in search of anyone, we don’t go in search of anyone, we go in search of the mountain. We go there. I must just wait and drink, mashallah.
Allah subhanahu wa ta’ala made that an act of
Ibadah. He made that one of the Manasik of Hajj, one of the rituals of Hajj, the greatest Ibadah, after which we ask Allahﷻ to grant that to all the people who have done Hajj: complete freedom from sin. So, that ritual was performed for a specific reason; Allah made this into an act of Ibadah which frees you from sin.
Zamzam was drunk because they needed water. Allah subhanahu wa ta’ala made Zamzam Shifa. Rasulullah s.a.w. said Zamzam is food.
And then Allah subhanahu wa ta’ala caused Ibrahim s.a.w. and Ismail s.a.w. to build His house, the first house of Ibadah of Allah subhanahu wa ta’ala on the face of the planet. We talk about historic things to do: the First House.
And then Allah subhanahu wa ta’ala created the rituals for that house. What is to be done in that house? You make Tawaf for this house. The only place. The Kaaba is a Masjid. But this is a Masjid where you can’t make Tawaf. You can’t say “I’ll go around and around.” No, that’s not Ibadah. The Kaaba is a Masjid, but in that Masjid, the Ibadah is to go around it. To walk around the Masjid. So you walk around anti-clockwise seven times.
Ibrahim s.a.w.’s place of standing, Allah made that a place of Ibadah. And He called it one of His signs. All the stuff I’m telling you is in the Quran. Imagine the honor.
And then, the daughter of the sheep. Ibrahim s.a.w. was told in his dream that he was sacrificing his son. Of course, Allah subhanahu wa ta’ala changed that and sent a sheep for this. That became an act of Ibadah—an act of Ibadah of such importance that Rasulullah s.a.w. said, “The one who can do the Qurbani, the Udhiya; the one who can do the Qurbani and does not do it, let him not come with us to the place of Salah, of Salatul Eid.” To that extent, it is important. He can do it and he can’t do it? He says, get out. Don’t pray with us.
All of this points to what? My idea of saying all this is because we are coming close to the days of Hajj, InshaAllah. May Allah accept the Hajj of all those who are going, InshaAllah. All this points to one single fact: How do you decide? How do you decide to live your life according to what Allah s.w.t. commanded or according to what you wish to do? Do you want to live life according to how Allah wants you to live, or do you want to live according to how you want to live? InshaAllah, with Allah s.w.t., we will talk more about this, but today for now, this is enough: this is a decision that we all have to make. Throughout our lives, there is nothing new in life; everything has been done before by someone else. So when we come to any decision point, we must ask ourselves: Am I going to decide according to what Allah s.w.t. commanded me, or am I going to decide according to whatever I feel like? That’s it. And then the doors will open, those paths will open. Then you will see whatever you have to see.
We ask Allah s.w.t. to help us to live a life which is according to how He wants us to live—according to His wish, according to His desire. We ask Allah s.w.t. to guide us on that path and to give us istiqamat and steadfastness on that path, to keep us on that path leading to His mercy and to His forgiveness. Wa sallallahu ala nabiyyil kareem wa ala alihi wa sahbihi ajma’in wa rahmatullahi wa barakatuh. Al Fatiha.