Adnan Rajeh – My Maxims #02
AI: Summary ©
The speakers emphasize the importance of understanding the meaning of death and preparing for it through understanding the value of life to achieve success. They stress the need to be prepared for it and to focus on the value of life in order to pursue a path of success. The speakers also emphasize the importance of planning for one's life and not feeling sad. The conversation touches on the difficulty of helping people understand their mortality and the importance of learning to live life without suffering. The upcoming events bring people together and encourage them to find their deeds.
AI: Summary ©
He says, indeed, every living soul is going
to taste death.
And indeed, all that happens on the day
of judgment is that you are delivered your
rewards.
Those of you who are who are moved
slightly away from the hellfire and brought closer
to Jannah are the ones who are successful,
are the ones who are triumphant on that
day. And all this holy life is it
is, but an illusion of joy.
Quite frankly, the khutbah today was supposed to
be very different than what I'm going to
talk to you about.
The series of my maxims or the maxims
that I wanna share with you, things that
I think the community should have in common,
a number of
self evident truths or principles or rules that
as a community and society,
as those who speak about Islam, those who
listen to those who speak about Islam, should
agree upon before we begin trying to work
with one another towards goals that we have
not yet defined.
But around 11 o'clock, I found out about
the death of a of a young brother
who I've known since he was a kid,
someone who attends here quite often. Brother
24 years old, dies on the way back
from Toronto in the middle of the night.
Not too long ago, he was giving out
giving out help and support and aid out
in Lebanon to the refugee camps, and did
Omar and came back less than a week
ago and passed away last night.
And even though we have been facing death
for the last 6 months, for over 200
days,
it somehow just doesn't really click in with
us humans until it hits really close to
home. The closer the more it the closer
it is to us, the more it hits
or the harder it hits.
Now it just made me reflect a little
bit on the way here. I just couldn't
find myself being able to talk about anything
else but how little we we take time
to reflect upon the only constant that we
have, the only guarantee that we that we
experience in this in this life as living
things, as living creatures is the fact that
we die.
Difficulty or evil and good is, they're just
there to test you. They're just there to
see how you're going to do, what you're
going to do with it all. And then
you all come back to us
And we never gave eternity to any human
being before you. We speak of the prophet,
alayhis salatu wa sallam.
If you were going to die,
they're going to live forever. If I'm going
to take your life.
Yeah.
I'm not gonna take theirs. Everyone is going
to die.
Death will come to you, will find you.
Even if you're well protected in high castles
where there's nothing that can kill you, death
will find you.
The day when death finally catches up to
them, it comes to them. He'll say,
oh my lord, send me back. May this
time I will do well. I'll do better
than I did the first time around. I'll
perform the good deeds.
No is the answer that he hears.
If the if the answer that he hears
the word that is said, he will find
until the day he is resurrected to meet
his his lord again.
This is a maxim I live by.
That you
you have to understand that death is coming.
You have to be prepared for death. You
have to talk about it often.
Because I talked I've been talking about death
since I was 14, since my Sheikh sat
and poked me in the face and told
me you're going to die. And if you
don't have a plan for your death, it
won't be miserable.
And nothing that you do in this world
will matter, that all the people that you
love will will not love you anymore, and
you'll have nothing to offer anyone that you
wanted to offer in this movie to begin
with. So remember that you're going to die,
and it can happen at any given moment.
And there is no you're not owed by
Allah
some warning sign. You're not owed by Allah
anything. It could just happen at a moment
where you least expect least expect that it
can occur.
Unless we think we're the center of the
universe and somehow our life we have have
to go out with the big bang somehow,
then sometimes we have to live a life
and meet and reach a certain
climax within this within within this world before
we leave. No. You can you can love
a life and just it just ends like
that.
It almost it almost seem meaningless to you,
but it never is. It will almost seem
as if there's no wisdom in it, but
there always is.
The only problem was the lack of of
attention that we had towards this one constant,
this one thing that never goes away.
Everything else is a variable that may or
may not occur except one thing,
that we die. It is not there for
depression. This is my maxim is that we
prepare for death. Think about death often,
and it is not a reason for you
to be depressed or upset.
The only beauty that this life carries is
that it ends.
The only value this life has is that
it ends. If it didn't end, then what
would it matter?
If nothing if life didn't end, then what
would it matter if you paid today or
tomorrow. If you planned today or tomorrow, you're
not gonna die, but you're gonna die later.
There's no something that doesn't end doesn't have
worse yet for us because we haven't
evolved we haven't evolved spiritually to see the
worth of life even to men. Just like
we have not evolved spiritually to see the
worth of pleasure without your being pain.
That's why we live this life, so we
can start understanding that, look, there's a lot
of beauty and there's a lot of ugliness.
There's a lot of good and there's a
bad. You have to see the difference. If
it in this life, if all you got
is the good, if all you got is
the ease, you don't value it.
Use it well because you don't because of
the way we function, we have to have
comparisons. We have to see
sweetness is only enjoyable because there is sourness
and salt.
That's that's the only reason that they exist
to begin with. And the moment that that
doesn't exist there, we don't have the ability
to comprehend it as human beings. We just
don't. It's just how we are.
But we're here for that reason. So that
we can appreciate so we can appreciate
what Allah subhanahu wa ta'ala has waiting for
us. The beauty of this life is that
it ends. So when you think about death
often and you and you reflect it upon
death often, it's not to make you feel
sad all the time or for you to
be depressed. No. It's to actually get you
up so you can go and do something
with the time that you have.
When he said, alayhis salatu wa sama, said,
na'aleen yutalib said, in either way, it's it's
it's valuable.
The thing I the 2 things I fear
most for you are 2 things.
Following your rims and desires and then having
meaning not not not comprehending that you're going
to die. Feeling that you're gonna live forever.
Feeling like you're going to live forever and
and functioning that way.
As for following the your whims and desires,
it will take you away from the way
of
Allah As for
it makes you forget
And indeed,
has moved and is coming towards you. And
duniya is on the move and is leaving
leaving you.
And each of the duniya and akhil have
people who belong to them. So but be
amongst those who belong to not to Duniya.
Today,
you get to perform deeds and you're not
gonna be held accountable, but on day of
judgment and the opposite. You're held accountable and
there is no way for you to do
anything.
You would see it to sweep, procrastination
is a strong
and mighty tool of Shaitan. He has often
eluded people with it. He has often misguided
people with you can do it later. You
have time. You're young. You can you have
time that you don't. You don't have time.
No. You have now. You
have now.
Tomorrow is just a hope.
Tomorrow is hope hopeful. I hope I hope
there's tomorrow. I don't know if it's theirs
tomorrow. None of us can none of us
are are certain that we'll walk out of
this place. May Allah grant you long lives
with good health. Say I mean and good
deeds.
But none of us can say that with
certainty.
What you have in your life is the
moment that you're living. The past is gone.
You can't change it. You can maybe do
a stefar and ask a lot to forgive
you and build on it, but you can't
change it. And what's coming is just just
a it's a possibility. It's a percentage.
It's a probability. That's all. The only thing
you have is today.
You would say,
3 things make me laugh and 3 things
make me cry.
So three things make me laugh and three
things make me cry.
What makes me laugh is someone who is
looking forward to years upon years upon years
planning out his leisure. He doesn't know that
death is waiting for him, the next step.
That there's right in front of him just
waiting for him to take the next step
so that because that's the last step he
has. To take the, like, the next breath
because that's the last breath he has
and he is thinking about years to come.
See none of what I'm saying here is
to tell you not to plan for your
future. No. You plan for it because Allah
Subhanahu Wa Ta'ala wants you to plan for
it because your future is supposed to be
an act of worship for Allah.
Your your life is there to
is is utilized for for the sake of
Allah. So you plan it. So you get
ajur for doing that. You plan out how
you're gonna take care of your children, what
you're going to do with the wealth that
you have, how you're going to strengthen your
own status so you can use it for
the sake of Allah. That's how you plan
that out, but you don't know how long
you're here. So you accept that any moment
this may end and you're prepared for it.
The person who doesn't think like that is
the one who does who's in trouble.
Someone who's who's oblivion.
But there's someone who is not oblivion about
him.
There is someone who is is counting moments
and counting steps.
And
someone who is laughing,
laughing full laugh.
No with no recollection,
with no care whether Allah subhanahu wa ta'ala
is satisfied with him or or unsatisfied.
Tell him 3 things made me cry. The
first one is is
the separation of the of the loved ones,
Muhammad
and his and his, and his group.
And what are you going to see once
death begins?
And then standing in front of Allah and
not knowing whether he's gonna go this way
or that way.
Even though we see death occur around us
all the time,
for all ages, even though you've been watching
it for 6 months,
You have to be honest with yourself. Don't
you feel like you're a little bit immune
to it?
It's not gonna be you. You're fine.
You're fine.
Others are dying, but you're okay. You're doing
well.
I have time.
It's not impossible that I die early. Why
would I die early?
Other people, they have other stories, but my
story is maybe different. I have still years.
Why? Why? You know where that comes from?
You know where it comes from? It comes
from a a a little bit of arrogance
inside of us, where we feel we're a
little bit more special than everyone else. So
I'll live. I'll be fine.
Others yeah. I understand. People get sick. People
there are wars. They'll they'll die. That's their
story. And then you'll say
but then on yourself, it's a little little
bit a little bit just feel a little
bit special.
It's it's feeling special at the wrong time
regarding the wrong issue, in the wrong sense.
That's all this is, it's just feeling the
wrong thing. No. No. No.
Prepare yourself for that which is inevitable.
That which you cannot control, that which is
coming to you at any moment.
It can choose you at any moment. You
need stories?
You need stories of people who had heart
attacks in thirties and forties, and people who
just you don't need these stories, you know
that this happens all the time, and I'm
not immune to it, neither are you.
That open Adam, walk. Put your foot on
the ground well. Very soon, this will be
your grave.
Oh, son of Adam,
your only days, every time a day goes,
a part of you goes with it.
From the moment you were born,
your life
has been decreasing.
You're coming closer and closer till the end.
And from the day you were born,
he was in front of you and dunya
is behind you. And you are closer to
that which you are going towards from that
which you are leaving behind.
Brothers and sisters, the point of this is
not to take away from your joy.
It's actually the opposite.
I honestly believe that learning
or understanding death, your own mortality This is
what I work with. I work with death,
that's all I do.
My job is literally speaking to people who
are being told that they're going to die.
There's a word in this world. Once you
hear it, you can never unhear it. And
all it means at the end is death.
And that's what I work with.
And watching people trying to wrap their heads
around their own mortality is is very difficult.
And helping people understand their mortality
and their
2nd decade or 3rd decade or 4th decade
or even before before that
is done an easy task. It reminds me
of how fragile life is,
of how fragile we all are, how quickly
it can all end, and how we're here
for such a such a short period of
time.
Just a moment in the sun. Right? It's
just a moment that Allah subhanahu wa ta'ala
put you, just allowed you to wake up
and look up,
and you smell the flowers, breathe the air,
drink the water, eat the fruit, and just
take a few steps around in this beautiful
creation that he laid out for you. Telling
you that it's going to end.
You don't know when. I'm not giving you
a timing for you to
plan it all out and procrast No. It
could end any moment.
And once it ends,
anything can happen but you go back again.
Anything can occur but you go back and
experience it again. It's a one time deal.
It happens once and that's the end of
it. And you're offered this by Allah Subhanahu
Wa Ta'ala. This aspect understanding of death allows
you to fully experience
and embrace life for what it is.
Ever you you've all heard what what do
you call it? YOLO. You already heard that?
You only live once? Yeah. True. I think
it's more Islamic than any other term we
have. Yes. You only live once. You live
once.
If you only live once, are you gonna
tell them you're gonna spend that time doing
things that are completely useless,
that have no value whatsoever.
Are you gonna live your life with no
function, and no purpose, and no goal, with
not knowing what actually matters and what doesn't?
What's worth your time and focus and what
isn't.
They use this term to get you to
go look at things that are complete, a
waste of your of your breath, Walaiah. A
waste of your focus, a waste of your
energy.
When the beauty that surrounds you is is
going unnoticed.
When the opportunity
of of enjoying what Allah put you here
to enjoy, the people around you, your family,
your parents, your spouse, your siblings, your children,
your friends,
enjoying people, enjoying the relationship you have with
them,
the the the opportunity we have to know
Allah.
Where we get a couple of these breaths.
What? How many months do we live? A
1000 months? If you're lucky? You're really gonna
make it to 82 in a 1000 months?
What is that? 3000 days?
That sounds how little that is? What's 3
what's 3,000 days?
It's nothing will lie.
This is this is April. How many Aprils
are you gonna see? How many or more
Aprils are you going to see? They're not
infinite. It's not that not not that many
of them. Well, not that many of them.
But it's an opportunity to know Allah Subhana
Wa Ta'la.
To open up your eyes and see the
world for what it is and enjoy it,
and enjoy its beauty.
Understanding death does not take away from you
that peace, it actually emphasizes it, It allows
you to fully enjoy what life is. Embrace
the beauty of it because you have such
little time to do it.
So I'm alive? Okay, I let myself well.
I have to love well. I have to
treat people well. I have to work hard.
I have to actually, I have to embrace
life. Sit around and watch from the sidelines
waiting for things to happen.
Distracting myself by things so I don't think
about the reality of where I am and
when I am and how how easy it
is for it all to end.
That's what this is about. That's how we
lived Alaihi Salatu Wasallam.
Everyday,
everyday as if it was his last.
That's how people describe him
When he prayed, he prayed as every prayer
was his last. His interaction with you was
always as if it was his last
because he knew that it it's that easy.
It's that easy for all of it to
end.
And we have to be reminded of that
again,
especially with what we're seeing around us. And
I think with true a true reminder of
death.
I think if we truly remind ourselves of
how fragile life is and how close death
is to us, then we're more likely to
be better people. We're more likely to be
honest.
We're more likely to be committed. We'll have
more grit. We will dedicate more of our
time and our lives to for the sake
of Allah
because that's who you're returning to.
See, what is death? Death is when, okay,
the trial is over, now come and speak
to the boss. Go speak to him. He's
going to * hold you accountable for how
it went. That's how life is.
And it's coming.
It's coming. In a 100 years, no one
in this room will be here. We'll all
be under the ground. We have a whole
new set of people
that quite honestly won't care
about any of us.
They won't care about who you were. They
won't even know your name.
Well, I don't even know you how many
grandparents can you count back?
And if you dropped 1,
end of the world.
I mean, imagine that you're counting your name
back.
I
I have missed Mahmoud. I miss my I
miss no big deal. I just deleted a
human being.
I just deleted a human being from existence
as if he never lived.
Everything about that person is gone because I
just I don't care. I don't care. I
don't I spend zero time thinking about my
great grandfather. Yes. I'm I'm I'm guilty of
that. Maybe you're all better than me and
you think about your answers all the time.
I think about none of them. Never.
Barely my grandfather.
Once every couple of months when I hear
his name, I think, man, I never met
him. I wish I met him. That's it.
Understand how fragile that is. You and I
will be forgotten.
Our names won't matter. It'll be lost in
the history of as if we didn't hear
as if we
so what's what you're going to have with
you in the Qadr is the little d's
that you did, because everyone around you is
gonna forget you, and move on, and then
you're just stuck with what you did.
So make sure what you did
takes care of you and gets you to
the finish line on the day of judgement.
May Allah grant us that ability.
The
in Arabic runs after on Fridays, and the
in English runs on, Sundays after. The will
start next week. It's not gonna start this
week. Next week, the timing is going to
change. That's for those of you who attended
or like children to attend it. It's not
gonna be Saturdays anymore. It's gonna be Friday,
an hour before Maghrib.
I need a day a day off during
the week. So it'll be a Friday, inshallah,
an hour before Maghrib will send out the
posters for you to know. The, IDA courses,
the imamdiwal and academy courses are starting for
this semester. They start early May. We will
share, inshallah, within the groups, the posters, and
the registration links if you're and you want
to learn. This is, this is our 6th
semester. We've been running for 2 full years.
We have taught over, Yani, 35 courses, and
there's over 250 students who are attending these
courses. And you're welcome to, inshallah, and, be
a part of that and learn. And if
you have, you know, especially for high school
students and and university students and young professionals,
everyone's welcome. But then that's kind of the
the age that that we're, we're targeting here
for people to learn their deen, inshaAllah, and
increase in their knowledge.
I hope that was a benefit to you.