Abu Taymiyyah – 2 Lessons From When Ustaadh Crashed Into A Reindeer Friday Sermon Ustaadh London
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My dear respected brothers and sisters,
today I want to share 2 lessons
from an incident
involving a collision
with a reindeer the other day,
when I was driving back from
the University of East Anglia, which is based
in Norwich.
As I left the university, my brothers and
my sisters, heading towards where I live, the
city of Lestar,
I drove
into a reindeer,
and I ended up killing it.
My brothers and my sisters,
as soon as I hit this reindeer,
I thought I was a dead man.
Later on when I had discussions with brothers,
they told me that they came to know
about
drivers
who had collided with reindeers,
and they ended up taking their lives.
I took 2 lessons away from this my
brothers and my sisters.
The first lesson that I took away from
this
is how close death is to every single
one of us.
As Hassan al Basir Rahmatullahahi
mentioned
Today you're walking on the face of this
Earth, brothers and sisters,
and tomorrow
we will be buried underground.
Some of us, we might be living lives
where
we think that we have maybe what 50,
60 years ahead of ourselves.
Little do we know
that when the Angel of death is sent,
you are just another name on the list.
The Angel of Death will not send us
a WhatsApp message
telling us to get ready.
We will not get a DM on Instagram,
nor will we receive a Snapchat.
It comes to you
unexpectedly.
We will not have
a reminder, brothers and sisters.
So the question that we all have to
ask ourselves,
what have we prepared for tomorrow, brothers and
sisters?
A lot of us,
we've become so intoxicated
by the glitters and the glamours of this
world from the moment we wake up.
We are only thinking about
how to increase the numbers on our bank
account.
Some of us are thinking about
the degree
that I have maybe been studying for the
last couple of months, how can I finish
it?
Not that I'm saying that we shouldn't work
or we shouldn't pursue an education, I am
not saying that at all. I am somebody
who went to Loughborough University to study civil
engineering.
However,
if our priorities are not set straight my
brothers and my sisters,
we will be from amongst the khasirun,
those who are at loss.
How many of us, my brothers and my
sisters, have we come across
individuals who kept on saying,
I will and I shall,
I will repent, insha'Allah.
Whenever we are advised,
it falls on deaf ears.
Insha'Allah, Insha'Allah.
How many brothers and sisters that we know
had this kind of attitude to life,
this attitude with Allah
my brothers and my sisters,
they went to sleep and they never woke
up.
Come,
bin shaqhs my brothers and my sisters,
I will and I shall. He goes to
sleep and he never wakes up,
right?
Like I
said, we are living these lives as if
we have maybe another 40, 50 years
to go.
I'll share a story with you guys inshaAllah
ta'ala.
Many many years ago, maybe over
15, 16, maybe even 17 years ago,
I was walking down 7 Sisters Road.
At the time I was with my younger
brother and we ran into
our uncle
who is still alive today. I believe he
has surpassed 70 years of age.
At the time my brothers and my sisters,
some whiskers began to appear on my face.
I didn't have a beard as I have
today.
However,
it began to appear, and I was just
growing it because my mother said, If you
shave your beard, I'm kicking you out of
the house. So I said, No problem, Oya.
I'll keep it.
As we approached him, he looked at me
and he said, Muhammad,
why are you trying to become all righteous
now? You have
your whole life ahead of you.
And I wasn't doing it because the Prophet
sallallahu alaihi wa sallam used to have a
beard.
Right? This is what he said to me,
You have your whole life
ahead of you.
Right? This is what we hear all the
time, Yolo, sah, you only live once. So
enjoy it.
Right? We commit that haram telling ourselves Yes,
I have time.
That uncle of mine is still alive my
brothers and my sisters.
However,
my younger brother who was with me on
that day, on 7 Sisters Road in Finsbury
Park,
is no longer walking on the face of
this earth.
He was stabbed in the neck while he
was only 22 years of age.
22 years of age, brothers and sisters.
Couple of months went past, brothers and sisters,
I lost another cousin to a car crash.
He was only 24.
I buried both of them with my own
two hands.
Couple of months go by, I get a
phone call when I was in front of
the Kaaba.
Your cousin,
who's only 18 years of age, was stabbed
in the chest.
The reason why I'm mentioning this, my brothers
and my sisters, isn't for you to feel
sorry for me.
The way these brothers passed away is just
a means. However their time was up.
Their time was up.
This is the reality brothers and sisters that
we have to face up to, that we
have to be ready for.
We don't have, and only Allah
knows best.
Right?
Some of us may think we have what,
50, 60, 70 years of age,
and it deludes us,
right? This is why the Messenger sallallahu alaihi
wa sallam would say,
Akhthiro
min dhikri hadimilladdhat.
Be somebody who
constantly remembers
and thinks about that which will destroy
all of your pleasures.
And that is what Al Maut.
The Messenger sallallahu alaihi wa sallam once upon
a time used to prohibit
his companions from going to the graves.
And then he said,
I initially
prohibited you, right? Now I say to you
go visit the graves.
Why? What is the hikmah behind it? What's
the ta'aleel?
It will cause you to remember the Hereafter.
In another narration we are told,
It will cause you to overlook the pleasures
of this world.
I was with a brother
whose mother recently passed away and he was
going through a lot.
Someone who he himself told me,
I was chasing after money.
Endowed in haram.
However,
I don't care about money anymore.
I have lost my mother.
Look at life brothers and sisters,
this is what death does to an individual.
When you go to that grave and you're
standing above this hole,
and you know that you're going to be
in the ground
6 feet down at any
moment,
it could be me,
it could be you tomorrow.
You could have probably been maybe praying my
janazah or receiving a message on WhatsApp, so
and so who gives da'wah has passed away.
And that's not far away brothers and sisters,
it's not far fetched.
I stopped for a moment,
and he really really made me think guys,
after I smashed into that rindya.
That could have really taken my life.
There's a lot of people who have been
passing around passing away around me brothers and
sisters.
Really makes you think the state that you
are in, what are we actually working for,
what do we have
prepared
for our meeting with Allah Subhanahu Wa Ta'ala.
Allah
tells in the Quran,
When death comes to them, they will begin
to make a wish guys.
They will begin to wish,
You Allah, take me back.
You Allah, one more chance.
However, it's a little too late brothers and
sisters.
It is a little too late.
We have to think about today brothers and
sisters, not which I will do tomorrow.
We oppress and we wrong people.
We may take from their wealth unjustly.
We may speak about their honors unjustly.
But we take it extremely lightly because I
have time.
Look at this hadith of the Prophet Sallallahu
Alaihi wa Sallam when he said,
Whoever has wronged his brother or oppressed him
in any way, whether you may have spoken
about his honor, or you took from his
wealth unjustly,
oppressively.
Let him seek forgiveness today.
Not when we go for hajj, we send
around
WhatsApp messages that are very generalized
in the phrases and words that we are
using.
If if I oppressed you, then forgive me.
If,
when you clearly know that you oppressed them,
and you've wronged them.
If
I did so and so, forgive me. Or
right to the beginning of Ramadan we send
around these messages, right?
Or just before we go for umrah,
the prophet sallallahu alaihi wasallam is saying
Before
there comes that day when your pounds and
your dollars and euros,
the dinar and the dirham was the currencies
that were used before, will be of no
benefit.
You had righteous deeds, right? You worked so
hard,
you strived.
However, you see the month of Ramadan of
2,015
will be taken from you.
Your hajj that you carried out in 2,009
will be taken from you because of you
oppressing that individual.
You didn't have any good deeds,
the person that you oppressed, he had bad
deeds.
He committed sins, it will be uplifted from
him and placed on your scale of bad
deeds, brothers and sisters.
You know Ibn Nutayr Ahmadullayr was asked about
a woman who prays in the night and
fast in the day, and she also has
Quran.
She always reads the book of Allah
However, the problem that she has is, she's
always slandering
and speaking about others. You know what he
said?
Perhaps Allah Subhanahu Wa Ta'ala
sent her in order for her to work
for others.
So she's doing all of these righteous deeds,
so she can hand it over to the
people that are in need on Your Makhiyama.
Brothers and sisters,
Today we are walking
on the face of this earth and tomorrow
we will be buried under the
earth.
Hold yourself to account before that day comes,
the day of accountability.
Weigh yourself
before your actions await,
right? From the names of the hereafter, my
brothers and my sisters, is
the day of Hasra,
right,
warn them of the day of regret brothers
and sisters. It will be a day of
regret.
This kind of mindset of
we will all become righteous, let me just
enjoy myself one night, one night.
Right?
I've been giving this advice to a lot
of the university students
that I have been lecturing in the last
couple of weeks.
Freshest week, or you are in that university
setting,
and the clubs are swung open for us,
and the shaitan is whispering, you are away
from your family.
You are in a completely different city and
no one knows you
where you live here. So just go and
commit that sin, right?
What did the brothers of Yusuf say? Uqtulu
Yusuf kill him.
What will we do after that?
After that we will all become righteous.
Shaitan sometimes whispers that,
just one night, one night go and enjoy
yourself.
Play around. No one is actually going to
find out about it. Right? This is such
a dangerous
thought process,
a mindset to have. SubhanAllah.
And I will conclude this point with the
following.
Every single Eid,
every Eid brothers and sisters,
I hear about someone who died with alcohol
in his mouth,
or someone who
was blasting music in his car, someone who
was jumping up and down the club, or
doing haram with
whoever it might be.
Every Eid I hear about it. He just
came out the month of Ramadan, Sahib. Shaitan
probably set him one night.
Like I said, you're just another name on
the list for the Angel of Death.
He doesn't discriminate when it comes to age.
He doesn't discriminate.
The second lesson that I want to take
away my brothers and my sisters from this
collision that I had with the reindeer,
which led to the reindeer's death,
is that
at times things happen
which may not necessarily be pleasing to the
eye,
Right?
We think to ourselves that this is the
best thing for me, especially when it comes
to marriage proposals.
It's an example that many of the Shabaab
can relate to. You are trying your utmost
best.
Princess Charming has come along, and you think
there is no one on the face of
this earth
that you will ever find like.
You really want her, but it just doesn't
seem to be happening.
Years go by my brothers and my sisters,
years go by.
And then SubhanAllah,
a wonderful sister comes along
that the mind couldn't imagine.
With qualities that you cannot put into words,
Allahu Akbar. And this is when you say,
if that didn't happen, I wouldn't have this
tray.
After colliding into this rain day, my brothers
and my sisters, and you can see my
car has a huge dent in the front.
I reached my destination in Lesfa City around
2 AM. I was too tired to even
check. I went upstairs and I came back
down,
and I said, you know what? It would
be a good idea to take the car
to the mechanic, right?
My brothers and my sisters, at this moment
in time, the last headache that I need
is to have issues with my car. It
is reaching its expiry date.
I keep telling myself,
if this Toyota Corolla gets me through these
25 universities
that I meant to be lecturing at, wallahi,
this will be a huge accomplishment.
The last thing that I need now is
for something to happen to this car, or
this da'wah mobile, if you wanna call it
that.
I take it to the mechanic, just around
the corner from the house even though I
wasn't planning to do so, and I have
a lecture that same day.
He decides to check the oil
and he looks at me and he says
are you okay in the head?
I said what do you mean? He goes,
your oil is tahtasifr.
It is below 0.
And for those who have experienced with cars,
if you're driving around with no oil in
the tank,
you're asking for trouble.
And he said, your time belt,
right? Your time belt is about to snap,
and if that happens, I've got a headache
guys,
huge headache.
There's another 15 universities to go,
that are in need of these lectures.
So I said to myself, SubhanAllah, a blessing
in disguise.
A blessing in disguise.
How many a time brothers and sisters,
right? Do we find ourselves in these kind
of scenarios?
If that didn't happen, I wouldn't have this
today.
And we hear this sometimes from the atheist,
Sahib.
If there's really a God, why is he
allowing all of this evil to take place?
1st and foremost,
as Ibn Taym
Rahmatullah mentioned, that Allah
does not create anything that is purely evil.
Evil is subjective.
Every calamity that you're struck with, or every
difficulty that you go through, you can put
a positive spin in it.
You can see through it, insha'Allah.
Look at the good in that which takes
place
that will help you
mentally in such a good way. SubhanAllah.
Right?
This was one of the points that I've
been discussing with university students. Because Allah
sent down revelation upon Yaqub.
Instructing him, Let
your sons take
Yusuf
They wanted to take him. In order to
get rid of him, they were conspiring
to desert and forsake Yusuf alaihis salatu wasalam.
You may ask yourself the question, why would
Allah allow this to take place, knowing that
Yaqoob will go through so many difficulties? They
envied him, and Allah is Al Aleem, right?
He's all knowing.
In the Quran my brothers and my sisters,
Surat Yusuf,
the two names of Allah
Al Aleem, Al Hakim are mentioned 3 times
in this surah.
Allah is all knowing and he's also what?
Al Hakim, all wise.
Everything happens for a reason my brothers and
my sisters.
I can see here that some
have parents
that come from countries that was struck with
wars.
Sahih.
They may have been thinking to themselves at
a time, why am I going through all
of this?
Isn't that
so? Not realizing, subhanAllah, that Allah
has something better in store for them.
Some people left their homelands.
They ended up going elsewhere because of wars,
and poverty, and famines.
Did you ever think, my brothers and Masada,
or should I say, do you think it
ever crossed the parents minds
that maybe one day their children
would be walking around the streets of London
pursuing an education in one of the universities,
or they would end up somewhere
which would give them maybe better lives. I
know of a Sheikh that was driven out
of one of the African countries, and then
he became a teacher in the Prophet sallallahu
alaihi wa sallam's masjid.
The African is teaching the Arabs,
even though he has all of the odds
stacked up against him.
I've come across parents
who began to wish that they never gave
birth to their children
because of them driving them crazy.
SubhanAllah.
Sometimes you lose a child, which of course
is not easy.
However, it could be that Allah
is protecting you from a similar situation
as the aforementioned.
Wallahi, just the other day, just the other
day. Right?
I seen a mother and it broke my
heart.
She's begging her children to go back into
the house. They were girls running around
Warren Street
Looking to fight another sister
Even though subhanAllah the sister that they're looking
to fight or vice versa,
right?
This girl has a husband
whose mother just passed away. And they're going
around what fighting on the streets of London.
I had to go and stop it.
Imagine that, brother and sister. And the mother
is there. You could see, subhanallah, she's broken.
Maybe what 2 am in the night,
begging her daughters to get back into the
house. And she's what?
Can't do anything about it.
So Allah
at times makes things happen and there is
hikmah in it.
There is this true wisdom.
It is a blessing in disguise, brothers and
sisters.
If you ask me today, what's the best
thing that ever happened to you? You know
what I would say to you? A divorce
in
2015. However, if you ask me then, I
would say to you, this is the worst
thing I'm going through.
If that didn't happen and Allah knows best,
I probably wouldn't be standing here today giving
this khutbah.
I probably wouldn't have gone to Al Madinah.
I spent 6 years there. They were the
most sweetest
days of my life.
It is a blessing in disguise, my brothers
and my sisters, when we go through these
difficulties and hardships.
Always tell yourself, SubhanAllah,
how many times have I been in a
position where I said to myself, if that
didn't happen, I wouldn't have this today.
Everything happens for a reason.
May Allah subhanahu wa ta'ala make us from
amongst the patients.
There are so many lessons in the book
of Allah azza wa jal that we can
take away brothers and sisters. It just requires
us to really take the time out and
to learn.
The depression rates have gone through the roof.
This is why I picked Surat Youssef as
a theme when lecturing at the universities.
We can take out so many benefits that
every individual
from different walks of life can benefit from.
Just open the Quran my brothers and my
sisters.
And
hamza.