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Alhamdulillah, my dear brothers and sisters, we heard the story of Ahnab bin Khayz, Rahmatullah Ali, may Allah be pleased with him, and his humility and his figure. The main thing is this, his figure, his concern, the deep concern that he had for himself and his connection and his position with Allah. We live in a life with concerns. There is nobody on the face of the planet who lives or who lived or who will come in the future to live until the Day of Judgment. Whether it is the Ambiya’ alayhi was-salam himself, whether it is the Rasul Muhammad sallallahu alaihi was-salam himself, or whether it is the worst of the people, everyone had concerns. There is no intelligent human being who can say that I have no concern. If you have no concern, you have no brain. As simple as that. You have no clue. You don’t know where you are. You are in some kind of, you know, God knows what. Everybody has concerns. The question is what are those concerns? What am I worried about? What am I concerned about? The game that shaitan plays and has played and is so successful is that he has flipped the things that we should be concerned about and replaced them with things that Allah has guaranteed. Allah said, don’t worry. Allah said, do not worry. Not your problem. I will take care of this. And shaitan said, no, no, no, hold on a second. Forget about that. This is what you should be concerned about. And things where Allah subhanahu wa ta’ala said, look out for that. Allah said, oh, you believe save yourselves and your ahlikum, your entire families from the fire. Allah did not say save yourself from hunger. Allah did not say save yourself from poverty. Allah did not say save yourself from poverty. Allah did not say save yourself from hunger. Allah did not say save yourself from poverty. Allah did not say save yourself from sickness. Allah said save yourself from the fire. So you say, okay, so I will do that. But what about hunger? What about poverty? Allah subhanahu wa ta’ala said this. He clearly mentioned this. Allah said, we feed you. Allah is the razaq. Allah is the razaq. And he feeds you with his power. I ask myself and you, what are we more concerned about? Our status in this dunya or our status with Allah? Our position in this dunya or our position with Allah? Our position with Allah? I’m not saying forget this. It’s a question of which has priority. Which comes first? If somebody suddenly asks us a question, I’m not talking about in the majlis like this where you have been primed to give the right answer. I’m talking about just out of the blue. You are at your workplace or somewhere you’re playing a game. Somebody stops you and says, name your three top concerns. Name your three top objectives. How many of us will say genuinely with that feeling and only we know the truth and only Allah knows the truth? How many of us will say that Allah must forgive me when I meet Him? Jannah is the result of that. We don’t talk about Jannah. That Allah must forgive me when I meet Him. How many of us will say that? I’m not saying we don’t believe. I’m saying top of the line, top of the line concern. We talk about careers. We talk about money. We talk about political ups and downs in society. We talk, do we have the forgiveness of Allah, the Rida of Allah as a top concern? I’m only saying top three. This should be the number one concern and frankly the only concern. Allah promised us food. Allah promised us our lifespan. Nobody can change that. Allah did not promise us Jannah. I remind myself in you. Allah did not promise Jannah to me. Allah did not promise Jannah to you. Even the ones who Allah promised Jannah to, the first of the human beings after the Ambiya’ alayhimu s-salam, even he said, he said, I wish I was a blade of grass. I would dry up and blow away in the wind. So the question I want to ask myself and you is when we search and I’m not saying if we search, we need to search. If I search for myself in the Quran, where will I find myself? As I mentioned, Allah did not mention me by name. Allah did not mention to you by name. Allah mentioned people with certain qualities. Some of the ayahs I mentioned to you, they are not the only ayahs. Search for yourself. I was searching for myself. And then if I find myself in a place which is good, alhamdulillah, we ask Allah subhanahu wa ta’ala for istiqamat, for steadfastness to remain there. Because the key is to live by that and to die by that. It’s not just enough to say, oh today alhamdulillah I’m good. Today I’m good, tomorrow I might not be good. I remind myself and you that Allah subhanahu wa ta’ala gave something in our control and Allah did not give some other things in our control. Everything to do with this dunya Allah did not give in our control. Allah told us ways, work hard, do this, do that, alhamdulillah. But Allah did not guarantee us anything. If I say hard work gets you results, I can also show you many people who work very hard and they get nothing. But you should work hard because that’s the right thing to do. What else do you do? But with the akhirah, Allah subhanahu wa ta’ala gave us a clean slate, He gave us a pen in our hand. Allah said write what you want, whatever you want. Write your own destiny in the akhirah. And you know what that means. It is not just writing on a plate. Writing means live your life like that and you get it. So the choice is intellectually speaking and no brainer, do you want this or do you want that. But the test is to live the kind of life which will take us to jannah. Because on the day of judgment it is our actions, it’s our body which will speak, not our tongues. Because Allah subhanahu wa ta’ala said Allah subhanahu wa ta’ala said that day, this day we shall seal up their mouths and their hands will speak to us and their legs will bear witness to what they used to do. As I mentioned, la quba’i thik. Imagine your hand speaking to you and telling the story of what you and I made the hand to do. And if that’s not a good story, then the time to make a step forward is now and the time to stop doing that is now. If it’s a good story, we ask Allah for His taqamat. I present sisters, we have the hadith narrated by Sawban radi al-anhu in Ibn Majah where Rasulullah sallallahu alaihi wa sallam said which means, I certainly know people of my Ummah who will come on the day of judgment with good deeds like the mountains of Tihama, but Allah will make them like scattered dust. And Tawman radi al-anhu asked him, he said, Rasulullah, please describe them to us and tell us more so that we will not become like them unknowingly. And he said, sallallahu alaihi wa sallam, they are your brothers from your race, worshipping at night as you do, but they will be people who when they are alone, they transgress their sacred limits of Allah. Committing sins in secret, committing sins when we think that nobody is watching, we forget that Allah is watching. Waho maa kum aina maa kuntum, waho khal, He is with you wherever you are. Committing sins in secret. This is what we need to fear because nothing can be hidden from Allah sallallahu alaihi wa sallam, who is seeing and hearing and He knows alimun bizaati al-sudoor. He is the one who has the right that we should be the most shy from to commit anything wrong. That awareness is the greatest protection from sin. A shayar came to Imam Muhammad bin Hamal al-Hanthalli alaihi and he, I don’t remember the full poem that he recited, but the first line of that, he said, why are you doing this? He said, what will you do when Allah asks you about what you used to do in solitude by yourself? They see Imam Muhammad wept and wept and wept and his students thought he was going to die. He wept so much they thought he will die. He asked Allah sallallahu alaihi wa sallam to make us among those about whom he said, Those about whom he said, We have the ayah from surah Fusilat where Allah sallallahu alaihi wa sallam said, Very little those who say our Rab, Jalla jalaluhu is Allah alone and then istiqaam. The key thing is that, Key is to remain firm on that and who remain firm and steadfast on them, Angels will descend at the time of their death saying, do not fear, do not grieve, do not be sad, but receive the glad tidings of Jannah which you have been promised. We are your friends and we were your awliya, we were your protectors and you help us in this dunya and we will continue with you into the akhirah and there you will receive whatever you desire. And this bashara, this good news is the nuzul, it is the welcome from your Rab, Jalla jalaluhu. We ask Allah sallallahu alaihi wa sallam to enable us to live our lives where we will insha’Allah be among those who will be given the glad tidings of Jannah at the time of death itself. The key is istiqaamat and we ask Allah sallallahu alaihi wa sallam to give us istiqaamat we ask Allah sallallahu alaihi wa sallam to grant us khusnu al khatima, we ask Allah sallallahu alaihi wa sallam to keep us in a state where He is pleased with us and to take us in a state when He is pleased with us.
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