Podcast: Play in new window | Download (10.9MB) | Embed
Subscribe: Apple Podcasts | Spotify | Android | Email | Youtube Music | RSS
Auto-generated transcript:
Bismillāh ar-Raḥmān ar-Raḥīm. Alhamdulillāhi Rabbil-‘Alameen.
Wa salātu wa salāmum ‘alā ash-sharafi al-anbiyā’ wal-mursalīn, Muḥammadin Rasūlullāh ﷺ, wa ‘alā ālihi wa sahbihī sallam. Tasliman kathīran kathīran fa mubādā’. My brothers and sisters, I mention to you and remind myself that we are all the creatures of Allah subḥānahū wa ta’ālā. We are all the slaves of Allah subḥānahū wa ta’ālā.
Whether we accept it or not. If we accept it, then we are obedient slaves. If we don’t accept it, we are disobedient slaves. But the position of being a slave of Allah doesn’t change.
Now we obey Allah subḥānahū wa ta’ālā for four things. One, it’s because we know that Allah subḥānahū wa ta’ālā created us and He loves us. And two, we know that Allah knows best what is good for us. We don’t know, but Allah knows. Number three. Number three, Allah subḥānahū wa ta’ālā ordered us to do what is good for us because He is interested in it for us, not for Himself. Allah does not need anything. And so all of Allah subḥānahū wa ta’ālā’s commands are for our benefit. Number four, because we know that when we meet Him on the Day of Judgment, we will be questioned about whether we obeyed Allah or chose to disobey Him. Now these four things work hand in hand. They are not four independent things. There are four things that work hand in hand and which define our position as the Ibadullāh, the slaves of Allah. It’s very critical to understand that we are Allah subḥānahū wa ta’ālā’s slaves and we have no choice in the matter. We were created by Him. We are sustained by Him. We need Him for every breath we take. He developed us. He sustained us. He supported us. And He gave us whatever we needed, whatever we desired. And He said that He gives us whatever we ask for. And that if you try to count His blessings, you would never be able to count them. وَإِن تَعُدُّوا نِعْمَةَ اللَّهِ لَا تُحْسِبُوهَا (inna taddu ni’mata Allāhi lā tuhsibūha). Allah said if you try to count His blessings, you will never be able to count them. And it is through our gratitude to Allah subḥānahū wa ta’ālā that we must make sure that we obey Him in everything. For example, now, today and tomorrow, I mean, tomorrow and day after, 9th and 10th of Muharram, we will fast. Inshā’allah. And we ask Allah subḥānahū wa ta’ālā, as Prophet Muhammad said, to forgive the sins of one year. All the minor sins of one year. Major sins have to be, specifically, we have to seek forgiveness. Inshā’allah, major sins we don’t do, we should not do. Minor things which happen all the time. Which are also sins. These will be forgiven for a year.
Now, you see this, it’s only, I mean, what does Allah gain from that? Allah does not gain anything anyway. It’s all for our benefit. Alhamdulillah.
So, we obey Allah subḥānahū wa ta’ālā to show our gratitude. Because we are grateful. We do that because we know that our best interest lies in obeying Allah subḥānahū wa ta’ālā. Just think about this. That if you are walking on a path, driving down a road, where you don’t know what is ahead of you, and nobody knows what is ahead of them in their lives. You are on this path and you don’t know what’s ahead of you, but you have with you a guide who knows what is ahead. Who knows the dangers, who knows the benefits, and who is showing you the way, how comforting that would be. That somebody who knows the way is with you. Not only showed you and me the way, Allah subḥānahū wa ta’ālā did not only show us the way by giving us a map, which is His book, but by sending for us a guide to hold us by the hand and to take us with Him through the difficulties of this life on the path of safety to a destination of glory and bliss, which is Jannah. There are two ways of directing somebody. One is to give them instructions, give them a map, tell them, do this, do this. But there is some, obviously, some chance of mistakes in that because you don’t know where you’re going. You’re just following some instruction. The other way is for a person who knows the way, who has been, seen that, to be with you and to take you. And that’s what Allah subḥānahū wa ta’ālā did. He gave us the map and He also gave us the teacher, which is Rasulullah ﷺ. So, why would you not follow? Why would you not follow that guide? Why would we ignore that map and insist on doing things our way, even when our way goes against the way shown to us by the guide? Ask yourself this question. Why would you do that?
Allah has shown us a way. Why would you leave it?
Why would you choose something else?
Because whoever else you do, whoever else you choose to follow, including your own self,
neither that person nor you are guided by Allah. That person is not getting Wahi, you are not getting Wahi. So, when you have the option of following somebody who was guided by Allah subḥānahū wa ta’ālā, who was the recipient of Wahi, the recipient of the direct instruction of Allah subḥānahū wa ta’ālā, and this was given to us free. Nobody is asking for any fees for this. Why would you leave it? And try to invent your own or follow your own? If we did this, if we did this in our lives in a worldly context, you would say this is a sign of insanity, of senility, that you have lost your senses. But we do this in Deen. We do this in the thing which has eternal benefit.
The things of this dunya, even if you make a mistake, even if you make a serious mistake, and you should say maybe you make a bad business decision, you lose a lot of money, still it’s a one-time thing, you lost the money, khalaṣa sabnī, okay, Inshā’allah, this is my life, I have learnt a lesson, I will not do this again, whatever, and you leave it. It doesn’t go beyond this. But with the mistakes and the crimes we commit against ourselves, with respect to the Akhira, they carry on.
They will go with you in your grave, and they will come out with us on the Day of Judgement, and they will stand with us, and they will go with us all the way to Jahannam. May Allah protect us.
So why would we do that?
That is the reason why
we have to
constantly keep reminding ourselves of the Akhira, of the fact that one day this life will end, and we don’t know when that day will come.
The thing with human beings, Allah gave us memories which are not perfect,
so we forget. Now in a way, this is also the Raḥmah of Allāh , because if you remembered every single thing, your life will be impossible to live. Alright? Because every grief, every tragedy, every parting, you will remember in exquisite detail forever. Imagine, you will not be able to survive. So Allah gave us memories which are, imperfect. We forget. But, unfortunately that also refers to, and it also works with the opposite. We also forget the blessings of Allāh . We also forget the lessons we learn from life. So whereas it might be useful to forget tragedies and so on, but if we forget the lessons we learn from life, this is not good.
So we need, let’s think back. We are just like, you know, 2-3 years from the COVID years.
How many of our friends and relatives were with us, who prayed with us, who came to our homes, we went to their homes.
Where are they today?
All gone in the one COVID wave. How many people died?
Nobody expects to die. People died who are, many people I know who died who were perfectly healthy.
Just died.
It’s not because of old age or some disease or something. Nothing. They were fine.
I know some people who literally, I mean they were absolutely fine. They literally got up and dropped.
Literally got up and died.
Sleeping in the night, gone.
And that will happen to me. It will happen to you. It will happen to all of us one day.
The rest is excuses. You know, so and so, he had cancer, he had this. Even if he didn’t have cancer, he would still die. Huh? Doesn’t a cancer patient die? He dies a lot.
When the time comes, he has to go. This we have to remind ourselves again and again and again. Even though we attend so many janazas, we go for one of them, that one. But we forget. So we have to remind ourselves that one day, this is the path that I will go.
I was in Madinah and one of my friends took me into Baki. And as I was walking through, I was thinking to myself that in the same Qabristan, there are the best of humanity and there are the worst of humanity. All the Munafiqun of Madinah, who Allah Subhanahu wa Ta’ala said to the Prophet: “If you ask forgiveness for them 70 times, I will not forgive,” where are they buried? In Baki. Huh? Ubay bin Salul, the chief of the Munafiqun, where is he buried? In Baki.
And where are the best of them? Sayyidatuna Fatimah رضي الله عنها, Sayyiduna Uthman bin Affan رضي الله عنه, and so many Sahaba of the Prophet. Where are they buried? In Baki. So it doesn’t matter where, which place we say, oh I want to be buried; you can be buried inside the Kaaba, it makes no difference. If you died without the correct aqeedah, if you did not believe in Tawheed, if you died with Shirk, and if you lived a life where you disobeyed Allah Subhanahu wa Ta’ala and Allah is displeased with you, it makes no difference where you are buried and who is buried beside you.
Where are you going to, where are you and I going to find neighbors better than the family of Rasulullah ﷺ, the Ahlul Bayt, better than the people who are the Sahaba of Rasulullah ﷺ? We are not going to find neighbors better than that in our Qabristan. But people who have them as neighbors, is it helping them? No. Because each one will go into this earth and each one will stand on the Day of Judgment with his or her own personal actions and personal beliefs. And that is why the aqeedah is so important. If the aqeedah is wrong, everything else is cancelled.
If you have shirk in your aqeedah, if you have bida’at and you have all sorts of superstitions and this and that, actions have no value. So we ask Allah Subhanahu Wa Ta’ala to save us from all forms of shirk and all forms of bida’at and all forms of disobedience and maasiyat. We ask Allah Subhanahu Wa Ta’ala to make us obedient to Him. We ask Allah Subhanahu Wa Ta’ala to keep us in a state where we obey Him and we follow His beloved Messenger Muhammad to the best of our abilities. We ask Allah to cover us in forgiveness. We ask Allah Subhanahu Wa Ta’ala to open the doors of Jannah for us and to shut the doors of Jahannam for us and all our dear ones, those who are with us and those who are gone.
Wa sallallahu ala nabiyyil kareem wa ala alihi wa sahbihi ajma’in bi rahmatullahi wa barakatuh.