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As-saltu wa-s-salmu alaykum wa-rahmatullhi wa-baraktuh. As-saltu wa-s-salm.
Only two relationships which transcend our life into the hereafter. And therefore it is critically important that we fulfill the requirements of these two relationships. The requirement of the relationship with Allahﷻ is to worship only Him and nobody else. And to obey Allahﷻ in everything that He has commanded us. The requirement of Rasulullahﷺ is to obey Him and to follow Him. To make His ita’at and to make His itibah.
I mentioned for yesterday, I said three ayats which define this relationship. And the first of them I mentioned yesterday where Allahﷻ said, لَقَدْ مَنَّ اللَّهُ عَلَى الْمُؤْمِنِينَ إِذْ بَعَسَ فِيهِمْ رَسُولًا مِّنَ نفُسِهِمْ يَتْلُوَا عَلَيْهِمْ آيَاتِهِ وَيُزَكِّيهِمْ بَيُعَلِّمُهُمُ الْكِتَابَ وَالْحِكْمَةَ وَإِنْ كَانُوا مِنْ قَبْلُوا لَفِي ظَلَالٍ مُّبِينٍ And I explained the meaning of this ayah. And how Rasulullah s.a.w. is a ni’mah, is a blessing for us. And how we need to appreciate that. Not just by saying that we appreciate it or by singing some nasheed or something. But by appreciating. Actually implementing that in our lives.
Today we look at the second ayah. Where Allahﷻ said, with respect to Rasulullah s.a.w. لَقَدْ كَانَ لَكُمْ فِي رَسُولِ اللَّهِ أُصْوَةٌ حَسَنًا لِمَنْ كَانَ يَرْجُ اللَّهَ وَالْيَوْمَ الْآخِرَةِ وَذَكَرَ اللَّهَ كَثِيرًا Allahﷻ said, Verily and truly, the best example for you to follow is the life of my Nabi s.a.w. for the one who looks forward to the meeting with Allah and to the Day of Judgment. And who remembers Allahﷻ a great deal.
You see the first ayah which I recited yesterday and today also. This defines the role of the Nabi s.a.w. That he came to inform us about the revelation. يَتْلُوَا لَهِمْ آيَاتِهِ To purify us. وَيُزَكِّهِمْ To teach the Kitab. يَجْوَالِمُوا الْكِتَابِ And hikmah. And his wisdom and how to implement what Allah has ordered us. So this is the definition of the role of the Nabi s.a.w.
In the second ayah, Allahﷻ is connecting us to that. This is his role. So what? So you follow that. Right? This is his role. You have been informed. Therefore, follow it. It’s not just an academic question to say, what is the date of birth or so and so. Something like that. No. This is something which is very, very important. Because it directly relates to us. So Allahﷻ is saying, I sent my Nabi for this purpose. And therefore, what must you do? Follow that. Follow his lead. Follow his teaching. Follow the Rasul a.s. And again, the grammar of the Arabic language, Allahﷻ is reinforcing. Truly and surely. In the life of Rasul a.s. In his Usfahasana. This is the best example for you. And I remind myself when you, Allahﷻ did not restrict any or restrict or did not identify or separate or differentiate any particular aspect of the life of Rasul a.s. He didn’t say his worship, his way of worshipping or his way of his family relations or the way he was as an administrator or as he was as a general in the army or this or that. No. As one of us studied this and that. His group established the life of Rasul a.s. It is the one.
Ummah is a system in which the poetry and description of the day of judgment in the Quran in many places particularly in Juz Amma but also in many other places the definition of the day of judgment is always very horrific very tremendous very full of turmoil right all kinds of I mean when there is an earthquake when the mountains will move from their places yeah and so on and so on Allahﷻ mentioned all kinds of things that will happen on the day of judgment which will be tremendous which will be terrible so why would anyone look forward to that Allah is saying Yardullaha wa yawm alaq why will why will anyone look forward to a day which is so full of fear and terror and the only answer to that which makes sense to me is the person looking forward to that is assured that he or she will not face that turmoil it’s not happening to you Alhamdulillah Alhamdulillah I am safe who will be safe? the one who has the life of the Rasul as his framework of living in this world so the person who looks forward to that day take the meeting with Allahﷻ for example right it’s not a small thing it’s not something which we say oh this is nice I’ll go meet Allah no the Anbiya feared this meeting because the great scholars of this deen they feared this meeting nobody said this is fine I’ll go no anybody who says things like oh yeah I know I will go I will talk to Allah he’s talking nonsense basically somebody who has no sense and no knowledge of deen people who knew Allahﷻ who were close to Allahﷻ who were chosen by Allahﷻ the Anbiya the prophets and the messengers they were afraid of the meeting with Allahﷻ Allah is saying looking forward how will you look forward to that by obeying the Rasool by implementing his way in our lives
Yesterday I was having a conversation with one of my dear friends and we were talking about two books there’s a book called The Prince by Machiavelli and there’s another book in the Indian culture called Arthashastra by Chanakya these two books are supposed to be the frameworks for governance if you are a ruler you follow this framework for governance but if you read these books you will find that the basic theme that runs through both the books is how can I maximize the benefit for myself irrespective of the cost to anybody else right I must get what I want and you can go to hell basically that’s the principle so protect this, protect that do this, do that have a tremendous Chanakya says the ruler must have an enormous and very effective spy system and if you don’t have that you can’t do anything else he does not say rule in a way where you do not need to spy no, you have a spy system and so on, so on the reason I’m saying that is that how to live in the world in a way which benefits you this is a normal human thing everybody wants to do that nobody says how can I live in a way which will destroy me nobody says that what Islam teaches us is how can I live in this world in a way which not only benefits me but benefits everybody else not benefits me at somebody else’s cost this is not Islam so all these books like this and so on are you know they’re popular but the point is that you must think about this that’s the reason why do we have a world like we have today because people have been reading Machiavelli and Chanakya for too long that’s what they have imbibed create a culture where I must get what I want and everybody else can go to hell this is what is happening today this is unfortunately this is the culture we have globally and may Allah protect us even personally when we deal in our dealings and so on many people have this mindset including in families family can be destroyed no problem my relationships with my blood relations can be destroyed no problem but I must get this house or this piece of land or whatever it is I must get it no matter what happens how destructive how destructive and miserable is that
But this is not what Islam teaches Islam says how can you benefit Islam does not tell you to destroy yourself Islam does not say sacrifice yourself no Islam says how can you benefit but take people with you not at somebody else’s cost how can you benefit and how can everybody else benefit this is Islam very important for us to understand this right in when the Muslims were facing Heraclius in the battle of Yarmouk Heraclius sent four armies the total of the Roman army was six times the size of the Roman army and the size of the Muslim army the Muslim army was commanded by Abu Ubaidah ibn al-Jarrah because Khalid ibn Walid who was the commander Sayyidina Umar ibn al-Khattab who had just come to the Khilafah he demoted Khalid he took away the command from Khalid ibn Walid and gave it to Abu Ubaidah Abu Ubaidah knew that first of all this kind of demotion at a time like this when you are facing the other army would be completely demoralizing for the troops and therefore it was a very bad idea but it was a command from the Khalifa so he cannot go against that so what he did was he told Sayyidina Khalid that this is the command but he said I want you by my side as my advisor so even though you have been demoted he said he is not saying now therefore go and fight as a common soldier no he said you are my advisor you be here with me he put him there then when these they got news that this is what Heraclius has done he sent four armies what Sayyidina Abu Ubaidah ibn al-Jarrah did was he called all the commanders and he said to them I am talking about the Islamic way which is benefit yourself but also others sense of responsibility to everyone so he called all the commanders and he said to them which one of you wants Khalid to be in command so I am in command Khalid is here he said which one of you wants Khalid to be in command and he put up his own hand so now he said which one wants Khalid to be in command obviously people thought how can we say in front of him that we want somebody else it doesn’t look that way they all wanted Khalid bin Wali tried and tested command and never lost a battle in his life how to say that it’s impolite so he said which one wants Khalid to be in command and he put up his hand so then everybody raised their hand we all walked out Alhamdulillah he said you are in command tell us what to do
Do you know what is the first thing that Khalid bin Waleed said he said return the tax money that we have taken from these people the people they conquered and they taxed them naturally he said return the tax money that we have taken from them it sounds like a crazy thing why would you do that you have legitimately taxed these people you are not storing the money you have legitimately taxed the people why would you return the money why would you return the money so they asked him Khalid bin Waleed said he said we have taxed these people and therefore part of our contract with them is that we will protect them who is he talking about he is talking about the non-Muslims that whole place was Christian he is talking about the non-Muslims he said we conquered these people, we taxed them we have the money and part of the reason why we taxed them is part of the contract is that we will protect them he said now we are in a situation where we are facing four armies he said there is no guarantee that we are going to win this war if we lose the war what happens the enemy will plunder the tax money, he said yes so we have taken this money from these people as part of our contract that we will protect them but we we will not protect them we will not be able to fulfill that contract if we lose the war then this contract will be unfulfilled and we will become thieves before Allah subhanahu wa ta’ala he said return the tax money so we are clear before Allah and if we win the battle we can tax them again if we are running the place then we tax them again if we lose the battle at least we are not going before Allah subhanahu wa ta’ala as thieves who thinks like this this is not Machiavelli this is not Charakiya this is Khalid ibn Walid who is a student of Muhammad Rasulullah sallallahu alayhi wa sallam this is Islam responsibility even to the enemy responsibility even to the people who are not even Muslim we don’t just win by ourselves we win we take people along with us we win others win with us if that is not happening it is not Islam
This was the way of Muhammad sallallahu alayhi wa sallam that’s why Allah subhanahu wa ta’ala said this is the best way for you we imagine if we live like this where we take people along with us where we think about other people’s benefits other people’s problems what a beautiful society we will create for example just now we are potentially right now it’s not there Alhamdulillah we hope it will never happen but potentially there is a shortage of cooking gas right so lot of us are buying electric stoves my question I want to ask all of you and I want to ask everyone who is listening to this podcast how many of you have also bought an electric stove for your servant who cooks in your house how many of you have bought electric stoves for your drivers for the staff who work in your house and if you haven’t bought it tell me why have you not bought it they don’t cook food they don’t need to eat so you are going to have somebody may Allah have mercy on you you are going to have somebody who comes to your house uses your gas because you have gas or uses electric stove in your house because you have that cooks your food for you and she or he goes home hungry and they have no way to cook food in their house or they have to go and hunt for you know dry sticks from somewhere and set up a stove how ugly and terrible is that
So the first thing you do today is buy electric stoves for your servants this is a duty from Allah subhanahu wa ta’ala they cannot afford it you afford it so buy it give it to them it cost them three four thousand rupees the minimum thing which I have checked but for them it’s a big amount of money buy it now this is Islam this is Islam it’s not just language you are sitting happily no Islam is to do for others what you do for yourself look at the person that person is also a human being it doesn’t matter who he is whether he is a Muslim or non-Muslim it doesn’t make any difference they are also human beings now imagine the impact that you will have on their hearts because others are also like this people are not mine but when you give them this is Allah these are Muslims I am working in this house I am getting this because I am working for a Muslim so you have to do this so please understand every aspect every word we speak every action we take has an impact and we want this impact to be the best possible impact because people will see that as the action of a Muslim not your name as a Muslim Muslims do this they speak good and speak bad so make sure that we do something which is correct and which is beneficial for us and for us so please understand we ask Allah to help us to follow the sunnah of Rasulullah as completely as possible in every aspect of our lives and to bless our lives because of this