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Bismillāh ar-Raḥmān ar-Raḥīm, Alhamdulillāhi Rabbil ‘Alameen, wa salātu wa salāmum ‘alā ash-shadhab bi-anbiyā’ wal-mursalīn, Muḥammadur Rasūlullāh ﷺ, tas-salēeman kathīran.
I think it was 1997 or ’98; I went to San Francisco to teach a course for AMA International, which is the largest training company in the world.
So, I landed in the afternoon. The course was for the next morning, so I landed in the Marriott in the afternoon, then the whole evening was free. So, I noticed that there was a cinema theatre out on the… across the road from the Marriott, which was a 3D, you know, cinema.
So, I had never seen a… I had never been inside a 3D cinema. So, I thought, let me go. So, I went.
And the movie was *Sharks*. So, you sit in the seat and they give you 3D glasses. So, you wear those and a headset. And literally, it looks as if the shark is coming out at you,
like you are in the sea. Very incredible feeling. It’s a… And if you haven’t seen it for the first time, you should see it. It’s worth it.
So, the whole cinema finished. And after that, I came out to the theatre. And then I realized: the same city, the same street, the same car spot. Part. And I thought to myself that while I was in the movie, I had no awareness of anything around me. Zero. I was literally in the sea with the shark. And that was… I thought to myself that if somebody had… was monitoring my blood pressure, my, you know, brain activity, and so on, heart rate. All of that would have shown movement. You know, the electrical activity in the brain would have spiked, blood pressure would have gone up and down based on what the thing is. But all that was unreal. It was a movie, completely unreal. There was… see. I am sitting comfortably in my seat. But if you monitored my brain, it’s not because I am mad or something. This is the reality. If you did that with anybody in the theatre,
it would show a different picture. Their brain is registering that *that* is real. That is days. Now, you don’t even need to go into a 3D cinema for that. I’m sure with any movie, if the acting is good, it draws you into it. So, if there is a tragedy, you find you are crying. If there is a… if there is something funny happening, you are laughing.
If you monitor your emotions, they are going up and down and, you know, you hate the villain and you think the hero is a great guy and maybe in reality it might be the opposite but that doesn’t matter in the movie and in the movie you know the villain is or the hero is—say Sean Connery
—but you are seeing one muftar and saying, “you know the great mujahid, the great, great Aalim who fought the Italians in Algeria.” It’s not Umrah Muhtar; it’s whichever actor is doing the role, completely real.
But the actual reality is something else.
The reason I’m saying this is because this is the nature of this life; this is the nature of this life. That is why Allah ﷻ said: *Innā lillāhi wa innā ilayhi rāji’un* (inna lillahi wa inna ilayhi rajioon). Truly, the life of this world is nothing but deception.
So, we are sitting here in the masjid trying to remind ourselves about the actual reality. This whole sitting of ours is not real. The actual reality, the curtain will part and we will see the reality when we see Malakul Maath. We will see the reality when we see Malakul Maath. That is when Sayyidina Ali R.A. used to say that the sword will come out of the scabbard. Curtain parts, we see Malakul Maath. Then we have the reality. And the whole point of zikr, the whole point of ṣalāh, the whole point of all the ibādāt is to remind ourselves of that reality while we are still in this imaginary place.
Another point to think about is, to go back to the movie analogy: while you are sitting and watching the movie, I don’t advise you to do it because you will probably face some problems. If you were to shake up the guy next to you and say, “forget this; the actual reality is something else,” what do you think will happen? That’s why I’m saying don’t do it. You will get angry; he will… maybe he’ll slap you or something, or he’ll throw you out of the place; or you want to get out, “go get out, let me enjoy the movie.” Let me enjoy the movie. That’s exactly what happens in this world—that is why people fought the *anbiya*—just think about that. I mean, how many of these are people who kill their *anbiya*? Why would you kill a Rabbi? Why would you kill a Rasūl? Why would you kill somebody who is reminding you about Allah? Why would you get angry and irritated with somebody who is reminding you that one day this will finish and you will meet Allah? What is the problem? Why would you do that? Whoever it is, he didn’t harm you; he didn’t, you know, abuse you; he didn’t beat you up; he didn’t take away something from… nothing.
He is only reminding you of a reality which whether you like it or not, whether I like it or not, we will face. If somebody says, “I will not die,” then this is a case for some psychiatric
So why would you kill them? Because of this: “I am enjoying the movie, you are disturbing me.”
“I am enjoying the movie, you are disturbing me.” They make all these statements and they think it is very cute.
They say, “you only frighten us.”
So my point is, see what Allah ﷻ is. Read the Qur’an, find me one āyah where Allah said, “this is the Day of Judgement will be this beautiful time and you will enjoy yourself and it, you know, all this wonderful.” Did you see that?
*Al-Haqqa tum al-Haqqa*, *al-Qaariya tum al-Qaariya*, *Iza waq’ati al-waqia*, *Iza zultilatil ardu sirzalaha* and so on and so on. So many things; there’s not one āyah which is saying that the Day of Judgement will be, you know, this absolute party. No. Allah is saying, fear it, fear it, fear it. After that, they say, fear it, fear it, fear it. Allah doesn’t fear. What should I do? I should also fear. I should also fear. Really, we have to ask ourselves: we are supposed to be Muslims. Alhamdulillah, if somebody who is not a Muslim does it, okay, he doesn’t know. We are supposed to know.
We read the Quran every day, alhamdulillah.
So, we have to ask ourselves and say, what is the reality? And when I know that is the reality, how am I preparing for it?
I go into the theatre, I watch this fantastic movie, I’m completely lost for that two hours or three hours, and I come back out and I find out my car has been stolen because I didn’t lock the car. Yeah. The fact that I was enjoying the movie, will it prevent my car from being stolen?
If you did not lock your car, your car will be stolen. The fact that you are in the movie, enjoying the movie doesn’t change that.
I was in Delhi in ’93. I was heading the Inbound Tourism for Carlsen Bagon Leavitts, a big European travel company. So, that’s when they introduced the Shatabdi between Delhi and Agra. So, I remember one of my staff said,
“I said, this train is very nice, air-conditioned and so on.” She said, “you get onto the train and say, platform number 14; you know, 14 which is filthy, dirty, what not, what not.”
That is the whole point is this.
Our reality is that platform number 14.
So if we want—if we believe what Allah has told us, alhamdulillah, we do believe that—then what is the preparation for it?
Sometimes I remind myself: am I smart or was Hassan al-Basri Rahmatullah Ali Wazi smart? Am I smart or was Shaykh Abdul Qadir Jilani smart? Am I smart or was Imam Ahmad bin Hanbal smart? Am I smart or was Imam Abu Hanifa smart? You have to decide, no? Because my life is going in one direction, their life is going in the opposite direction. So somebody is a fool, somebody is smart. Because if you have two opposite things, they won’t… they obviously both are not equal.
So on the one hand, you have people who are… their whole life is to prepare to meet Allah ﷻ. Every single thing they do, everything, every single thing they say is focused only on that. And on the other hand, the complete opposite: we enjoy ourselves whatever. If Allah has given us happiness, Allah ﷻ gave us money; Allah ﷻ gave us some event to be happy about—what do we do? We spend that money to enjoy ourselves by disobeying Allah in as many ways as possible.
*Paise hai, bahut kich khel, khel raha hai*, *toh kaha se batao*, *nahi batao*.
So, we have to use very simple logic.
If you’re looking at two different people and they’ve got two completely opposite ways of life, then one is right, one is wrong, naturally, no?
No, if you say, “well, no, I am smart and I am right and all these other people, they are fools.” *Aapki marzi?* Say it, what does it matter?
So those people are—for the last thousand years, people have been, you know, following them; they have been speaking with them about them with great honor, with great respect. So all those people are wrong. Wrong. They are all wrong. I am the only one who is right.
So seriously, this is something we have to—I remind myself and you—we have to individually convince ourselves and say that the reality is when the movie ends. The reality is when the movie ends. And the smart person is the one who will get out of that movie and go to the reality. Not go physically. Basically, I’m saying: go meaning, remember that, reality while sitting in the movie. That movie has to finish, you have to sit there, but not get so lost in the movie that you forget the reality.
That is the nature of this life.
So we, alhamdulillah, Allah has given us whatever He has given us, alhamdulillah, we thank Allah for it. Nothing wrong to enjoy what Allah has given us in halal ways. Earn halal, spend halal, no problem. Problem. But remember always that this will finish and we don’t know when it will finish. And all the people who we say—I mean Allah protect us from *nifaq*—all the people who we claim that we respect, all the people that we claim were rightly guided and we say “these these are the great ulema of this ummah,” this is the Nabi ﷺ himself, these are the Sahaba of the Nabi ﷻ, and we respect them and we say *radiyallahu anhu* and *radiyallahu anha* and so on,
then the point of all this is that we should follow them. And if you are not following them—we are doing the opposite of what they did—then remember all of that is evidence and witness against us on the Day of Judgment. We ask Allah to… I always make this point: Allah save me from myself. We ask Allah to save us from ourselves, to save us from our own nafs, which is worse than shaitaan.
Shaitaan deceives us. Who deceives shaitaan? His nafs. *Ana khairu minhum*. *Ana khairu minhu*. “I am better than him.” Who is saying that? There is no second shaitaan. He is himself. I am better than him. His own nafs. The nafs is worse than shaitaan. We ask Allah to save us from our own nufus. And we ask Allah to help us to live a life which is obedient to Him, Jalla Jalaluhu, on the way of His Habib, SallAllahu Alaihi Wasallam, the best Sunnah of the Prophet. We ask Allah to do what is pleasing to Him and to save us from what does not please Him. Wa sallallahu ‘ala Nabiyyil Kareem wa ‘ala Alihi wa Sahbihi. Alhamdulillah wa Rahmatullahi wa Barakatuh.