Aqeel Mahmood – The Importance of Knowledge
AI: Summary ©
AI: Transcript ©
Muhammad in
his book that one of the companions said
that one day
the messenger of Allah Sallallahu Alaihi Wasallam
went to
the graveyard in the city of Madinah with
some of his companions.
They went to pray the prayer
over one of the men of the Ansar.
When they went to the graveyard,
the grave hadn't been dug yet.
So the messenger of Allah alayhisratu wasallam
he sat down
and the companions
sat around him
and he had a stick in his hand
and he was hitting the stick
on the ground
and then he looked towards the heavens
and he looked towards the earth and he
did this three times.
And then he said to the companions
3 times he said seek refuge in Allah
from the punishments of the grave.
And the companions,
they were sitting there and the companion who
was narrating this hadith he said we were
sitting down as if there were birds on
our heads.
Meaning we were waiting for the messenger of
Allah alaihis salatu wa sallam
to say something. We were attentive, we were
alert
that if a bird was to sit on
our heads we wouldn't even move.
And that we would be so still that
a bird would think we were statues. That's
how still they were.
That's how
attentive they were to listen to the commands
and the words of the messenger of Allah
sallallahu alaihi wasallam.
So he said to him he said to
them,
See refuge in Allah from the punishments of
the grave. And he said this three times.
And then he himself said,
I seek refuge in Allah from the punishments
of the grave. And he said this three
times. And this shows us brothers and sisters
that when we give advice to others, we
should make sure that we give advice and
we take on this advice first and foremost
upon ourselves before we give it to anybody
else. And we act upon this piece of
advice. So we ask Allah subhanahu wa ta'ala
that he protects us from the punishments of
the grave.
The messenger of Allah sallallahu alaihi wa sallam
he then continued
and he said that when a believing slave
is about to meet his lord, when death
is about to come to him, 2 beautiful
angels with light on their faces descend from
the heavens and they sit an eye distance
away from that believer whose soul is about
to be taken away.
And they come with furnishings. They come with
clothing from paradise and they come with perfume
from paradise.
And then the angel of death comes and
sits right on top of that believing slave
whose soul is going to be taken away.
And when he sits down
to take the soul of this believing slave
he says, oh good soul, oh beautiful soul,
come out to the forgiveness and the pleasure
of Allah Subhanahu Wa Ta'ala.
And then the messenger of Allah sallallahu alaihi
wa sallam he said that the soul comes
out of the body just like water comes
out from a vessel.
It pours out. You know when you turn
a glass over and there's water in it,
the glass you know the water in the
glass it comes out easily. It pours out.
There's no difficulty in that water coming out
of that glass.
Likewise,
the soul of the believer when the angel
of death takes it, it pours out. It
comes out easily.
And then the angel of death
within the blinking of an eye, it passes
the soul passes between the angel of death
to the 2 angels who are waiting. And
they take the soul
and they cover it with the coverings and
the clothing of paradise
and they perfume it with the perfumes of
paradise.
And then they start to take this soul
up into the heavens.
And all the angels
they see this soul and they can smell
this beautiful soul. And they want this soul
to go up into the heavens next to
them. They want to be associated with this
soul because it was a believing slave of
Allah subhanahu wa ta'ala. They want to be
associated with it. You know sometimes we look
up to certain people.
Certain maybe maybe even celebrities.
People we look up to. People we want
to be close to and so we want
to be close to them. We may meet
them and we we may want to walk
with them. We may want to talk with
them. We may want to tell other people
that I met such and such a person.
I spoke to such and such a person.
I called such and such a person. I'm
in contact with them. I met him. I
shook his hand. And so we're happy when
we meet someone that we respect. The angels
themselves want to be associated with the believing
slaves, SubhanAllah.
This is the honor of the believing slave.
And the angels
when they carry the soul up towards the
heavens, the angels around
the soul they'll say who is this beautiful
soul? What is this beautiful soul? And the
2 angels they will say this is so
and so, son of so and so. And
they'll use the best of names that this
soul was known by in this world. The
best of names as a source of honor
for this beautiful soul, as a source of
honor for this believing slave of Allah subhanahu
wa ta'ala.
And this day will be taken up to
the first heaven
and then a permission will be asked from
this first heaven, from the angel guarding the
first heaven that that heaven be opened up
for them. And then that soul will be
taken
by that angel to the next heaven. And
the same thing will happen until they reach
the highest heaven, until they reach the 7th
heaven.
And then the messenger of Allah sallallahu alaihi
wa sallam,
he said
that once it reaches the highest heaven Allah
Subhanahu Wa Ta'ala will say
record
his deeds, write everything down in Al'iliyun.
And what will make you know what is?
An inscribed register.
An inscribed register. Everything is written down with
Allah Subhanahu Wa Ta'ala.
And then Allah Subhanahu Wa Ta'ala will say
send this soul back down to earth just
like I have promised.
Just like I have promised. What has Allah
subhanhu wa ta'ala promised the slave? What has
Allah subhanhu wa ta'ala promised that will take
place to the slave? What is his promise?
Allah Subhanahu Wa Ta'ala says in the Quran,
From it we have created you. From the
earth we have created you.
And to it you will go back. You
will go back to this earth.
And again from it you will raise up
for a second time. This is the promise
of Allah Subhanahu Wa Ta'ala. So then the
believing slave will go back down into his
grave and will return to its body.
And the messenger of Allah sallallahu alaihi wa
sallam he said and he talked about
how the slave when he's buried Allah subhanahu
wa ta'ala gives him the ability to be
able to hear the footsteps
of those people walking away from the grave
once he's been buried.
Why is he given the ability to be
able to hear those footsteps?
Why isn't he given the ability to be
able to hear their voices
or to hear anything else?
Because
when a slave
is in the grave and he hears the
footsteps
of the people walking away, he knows there
and then that he's on his own.
Nobody else is going to help him.
Nobody else is going to be there for
him.
He hears the footsteps of those people walking
away.
3 things accompany the dead person to the
grave.
2 of those things return and one of
those things stay. The 2 things that return
are his family. His family leave.
You know, they go back to the dunya.
They go back to their worldly affairs. They
carry on with their lives. If he was
married his wife will probably remarry.
This is the nature of life
and his wealth will return.
His wealth isn't going to benefit him anymore.
It's going to be divided and given to
his offspring and given to his family members.
They're going to inherit from his wealth. And
the only thing that's going to stay from
these three things are his good deeds.
And when he's in his grave, when the
soul returns back to the grave,
2 angels come.
2 angels come and they ask this believing
slave 4 questions.
They ask 4 questions.
They say marubuk,
who is your Lord?
And Allah Subhanahu Wa Ta'ala will give the
believing slave the ability to be able to
answer these questions with complete confidence,
with no worry, with no anxiety.
Here he is 6 feet under.
He's in his grave. He's in this small
grave
and the angels are coming to him.
This is an extraordinary event brothers and sisters.
Yet this slave, Allah Subhanahu Wa Ta'ala will
give him the ability to be able to
be firm at this moment in time.
Allah Subhanahu Wa Ta'ala will make firm those
who believe.
With firm words
In this life and in the next life.
And so he will be asked
who is your lord? And he will say
my lord is Allah. And he will be
asked what is your religion? And he will
say my religion is Islam.
And then he will be asked who was
this man that was sent to you? And
he will say this was Muhammad sallallahu alaihi
wa sallam.
And then he'll be asked a 4th question,
an extra question as opposed to those questions
asked to the disbelievers.
He'll be asked,
mother Amrita,
what did you do?
You knew your lord.
You knew your messenger.
You knew your religion.
But what did you do with the knowledge
that you had?
Knowledge isn't enough brothers and sisters.
Many of us, you know, we come to
Khutba's every single week
and we sit here for half an hour
45 minutes and we listen to what the
Khatib is saying and we take on board
what the imam or what the Khatib is
saying. But then when we leave the masjid
it's like as if it doesn't matter anymore.
It's like as if it doesn't have any
importance outside of these walls of the masjid.
We don't seem to realize
that it's not about how much we know
but it's about what we do with the
knowledge that we have.
A person won't enter into Jannah except by
the actions that he did. Allah subhanahu wa
ta'ala says
mankind is at a loss except those who
believe
and they do righteous deeds.
A person won't enter into Jannah simply by
knowing certain things. So he'll be asked what
did you do? And then he'll reply and
he said I read the book of Allah
and I used to act upon it.
And then this slave, this believing slave who
will be asked these questions,
A portal will be opened up to him.
A door will be opened up to him
and he'll be able to see his place
in paradise,
his house in paradise, the gardens of paradise,
his final resting place.
And then another door will be opened up
and he'll see a place in hellfire. And
the angels they'll say to this slave, they'll
say to this believing slave, this is what
Allah subhanahu wa ta'ala has promised you. This
house and this place in paradise is what
Allah Subhanahu Wa Ta'ala has given you because
of your good deeds, because of your righteousness
in this world.
And this is what you've been protected from.
This is what you were saved from. And
then this believing slave,
he'll see something in the distance.
He'll see a man coming towards him,
a handsome and beautiful man.
And this man will come close and he'll
have beautiful clothes
and he'll have a beautiful smell, a beautiful
perfume.
And this man will come close to him
and he'll say glad tidings be to you.
And the man in the grave he'll say
glad tidings be to you also. Who are
you? And this man he'll say I am
your good deeds.
I am your good deeds. So a person's
good deeds will come in the grave in
the form of a beautiful and handsome man
giving pleasure to the person who sees it.
You know when you see something beautiful, when
you see a handsome person, when you see
a good looking brother, when you see a
beautiful, you know, person and he's well dressed
and he smells nice it gives you pleasure.
Likewise in the grave when this handsome man
comes to you you'll feel pleasure, you'll feel
happy and he'll say to you I am
your good deeds.
And then
this soul
in the grave he'll say hasten the hour.
Oh Allah, hasten the hour. I want to
go to this house that you built. I
want to go to my place in paradise.
And then he will be told he will
be told,
sleep like the sleep of a newlywed.
The time hasn't come yet.
And this is something which happens to every
single soul who passes away.
Doesn't matter if you're rich or poor, Muslim
or non Muslim.
The messenger of Allah sallallahu alaihi wa sallam,
he then went on
and then he talked about what happens
to the disbelieving slave.
And he said that 2 angels come with
dark faces.
2 angels come from the heavens and they
sit an eye distance away from the disbelieving
slave.
And the angel of death comes and he
stands by the head of the disbelieving slave.
And then he says to the disbelieving slave
at the time when the
when the soul will be taken out, when
death will come to him, he'll say oh
cursed soul,
oh disgusting soul,
come out to the anger and the wrath
of Allah Subhanahu Wa Ta'ala
And then the soul will be taken out
of the body and it won't come out
like water coming out of a vessel.
The the soul of the disbeliever,
of the sinner, of the disbelieving
slave will come out of the body as
the messenger of Allah subhanahu alaihi wa sallam
described
like wet wool coming off something which has
spikes.
When you take wet wool off something which
is spiky,
does it all come off easily?
No it doesn't.
It tears away
and there's wool still attached to the thorns
and to the spikes.
Why is this the case?
Why is it so difficult for the disbelieving
soul to come out of the of the
body?
Because the soul knows what's awaiting for it.
It knows what's awaiting for him because of
his disobedience to Allah subhanahu wa ta'ala.
And because of its attachment to the dunya,
because it was attached to the world, it
was attached to the desires of this world.
It never paid any attention to worshiping Allah,
to remembering Allah. It was too busy distracted
by this the the desires of this world.
You know, it wouldn't pay any attention to
Allah subhanahu wa ta'ala.
He would put things off. It would delay
things. He wouldn't pray.
He wouldn't make take these things as something
which was important.
And so this soul will be taken and
it will tear away from the body.
And then the angels
who are waiting, they'll take that soul within
the blinking of an eye.
And they'll have furnish or they'll have clothing
from hellfire.
Coarse,
dirty
clothes from hellfire.
And they'll have a stench
from hellfire.
And they'll cover this soul with the stench
and with the clothing of hellfire.
And then this soul will be taken up.
And all the angels won't want anything to
do with this soul. Nobody wants anything to
do with it.
When you see someone who's of a bad
character, you don't want anything to do with
him. You don't want to be anywhere near
him. You want to stay away from him.
When you see someone with a bad attitude,
when you see someone who's known to be
an oppressor, when you see someone who's disliked,
you don't want to hang around with him.
You don't want to be associated with him.
Somebody has a bad smell, you don't want
to be close to him.
This disbelieving slave will have a stench
and the angels won't want anything to do
with look at the dishonor of the disbelieving
slave brothers and sisters.
Look at this dishonor.
Even the angels themselves don't want anything to
do with this as the soul is being
taken up by these 2 angels.
And so they'll go to the first heaven
and they'll ask for me for permission for
this heaven to be opened up to them,
but there won't be any permission allowed for
this soul to be able to go up
to the heavens.
Allah subhanahu wa ta'ala says
The gates won't be opened up for them.
The gates of heav of the heavens won't
be opened up opened up for them.
And nor will they ever enter into paradise.
Until a camel
enters into the eye of a needle.
Is it possible for a camel to enter
into the eye of a needle?
It's impossible.
Likewise it's impossible for the disbeliever to be
able to enter into Jannah. And then Allah
subhanahu wa ta'ala
will throw the soul back into its body.
It will be flung down.
Thrown down as as it was some as
if it was something insignificant.
As it as if it was like rubbish.
Garbage.
It will be thrown down into the into
the ground.
Allah Subhanahu wa ta'ala he says whoever
disobeys Allah, whoever associates partners with Allah.
Then it's as if he will be flung
from the heavens.
And a bird maybe catches it. A bird
maybe takes it.
Oh a wind will take the soul.
It will take it into another place, into
another land. Meaning it'll be something insignificant.
The soul will go back into the body.
It'll go back into the body
and 2 angels will come.
2 angels will come
and they'll ask certain questions.
And they'll ask 3 questions.
They won't ask 4 questions like the questions
that they'll ask a believer.
They'll ask Marrabook, who is your Lord? And
when he's asked this question he won't be
given the firmness that a believer has been
given.
And he'll
be asked this question, marabuk, who is your
lord? And he won't be able to answer.
He'll be anxious. He'll be afraid. He'll be
confused. He'll be thinking what's going on? He
never believed in Allah. He never believed that
there will be a life after death. He
thought that he'll die and that's it. It's
the end of the world. It's the end
of my life.
Now he's in his grave and he sees
these angels coming up to him asking him
these questions. Marrubuk, who is your lord? And
he'll say,
I don't know.
He's panicking. He doesn't know what to say.
He doesn't know the answer.
Madinuk,
what is your religion?
I don't know.
He won't know the answer.
Who was this man that was sent to
you?
I don't know.
He won't be able to answer.
He won't be able to answer these questions.
He won't be given the firmness that a
believer is given.
And then a portal,
a door will be opened up to his
place in the hellfire.
And it will be said to him, this
is your abode.
This is where you're going to end up.
This is what you have been working towards.
As a reward for what you used to
do in this life.
And then he'll be looking at his at
his place in hellfire.
And he'll say,
please don't let the hour come. I don't
want the hour to come. I don't want
to go to this final abode.
But he won't have a choice.
There will be no option for him.
He won't have any choice
and then an ugly man will come towards
him.
An ugly man will come towards him with
really bad clothes
and a stench coming from him,
and he'll come up to this this believing
slave
and he'll say curse be to you.
And this man will say curse be to
you too. Who are you?
And he'll say I am your bad and
evil deeds.
So a person's evil deeds will come in
the form of a man
when he's in his grave.
A person's evil deeds will come to him
in the form of a man, a displeasant
looking person.
And then
a deaf,
dumb and blind person will come to this
man.
A deaf, dumb and blind blind person will
come to this individual
and he'll carry with him a sledgehammer.
And the messenger of allah salallahu alaihi wa
sallam he said that the sledgehammer,
if it was to strike a mountain
that mountain would crumble.
And this man will come with a sledgehammer
and he'll be deaf, dumb and blind. He
won't be able to speak. He won't be
able to see. He won't be able to
hear. But Allah subhanahu wa ta'ala will order
him
and he'll know what his job is.
He'll know what he needs to do.
And the man
who is being punished, the soul who is
being punished, it won't be able to talk
to this man.
It won't be able to talk to this
man with his sajham. He can't hear anything.
He can't see anything. He can't talk to
him. He can't communicate with him.
And this man who will come with a
sledgehammer,
he'll strike him with a sledgehammer
and he'll be destroyed. He'll crumble.
He'll turn into dust.
And then Allah subhanahu wa ta'ala will create
him a second time.
And then this man will strike him with
the sledgehammer a second time and then he
will scream. And everything in the heavens and
the earth can hear the scream except for
humans and jinn.
And this is the state of the disbeliever
after
death has come to him, after
the angels have taken his soul when he's
in the grave.
We ask Allah subhanahu wa ta'ala that he
protects us from the punishments of the grave.
We were talking about the
the journey that the soul takes
once death comes to it and the contrasting
experiences
that the believing soul has as opposed to
the disbelieving soul
And how the believing soul has such a
pleasant journey and a beautiful journey. And how
Allah Subhanahu Wa Ta'ala makes it firm
when the questions are asked to it. And
how the disbelieving
soul
is panicked and it can't answer those questions
when it's in the grave.
Now I want to ask you 2 questions
brothers and sisters and I want you to
think about this.
We have to ask ourselves first and foremost
and I advise and I ask myself before
I ask anybody else.
We have to ask first of all how
is our soul going to be taken away?
In what state are we going to be
in
when our souls are taken away?
Are we going to be from those
whose soul will be taken away just like
water is coming out of a glass
easily and freely with no difficulty?
It'll just pour out of our bodies
or is it going to be snatched out?
Is it going to be ripped out from
the body like wet wool from a spiky
thing? Wet wool from something which has thorns
tearing away from the body?
How is our soul going to come out?
We need to contemplate.
We need to think about this.
And the second question we should ask ourselves,
the second thing that we should be thinking
about,
the second thing we should be pondering
and contemplating
is the questions that we're going to be
asked.
Imagine you had an interview tomorrow
or next week for a job or you
had an exam
and so
someone from that company calls you or your
your teacher
tells you that you have an exam.
And they give you
all the questions that you're going to be
asked.
They'll write all the questions that are going
to come in the exam on the board.
Or he sends you the questions.
The interviewer sends you all the questions you're
going to be asked for on that interview.
You see those questions
you're going to be smiling. You're going to
be laughing.
You're going to think Alhamdulillah. I'm sorted.
I don't need to do anything.
The questions are right there.
That's excellent.
I just need to know the answers and
that's it. Go to the exam. Ace the
exam.
Go to the interview, answer all the questions.
I know what they're going to ask me.
I'll just ace it. No problem. You'll be
happy.
We know the questions we're going to be
asked in the grave.
Yet how many of us
can really and truly
be able to guarantee
that we're able to answer those questions comfortably
and with firmness.
Allah makes firm the words of those who
believe.
And the 4th question, what are we going
to say when the 4th question is asked
to us? What did you do?
You can say whatever you want. You can
talk the talk but did you walk the
walk?
Did you do enough good deeds?
When you leave this Masjid today,
what state are you going to be in?
Are you going to be thinking, yeah that
wasn't, you know, that there's some good pieces
of advice from the khatib. It was nice.
It was a nice little reminder.
I met some good brothers at the Masjid
and I haven't met for a long time.
And then you go back to work, you
go back to school, you go back to
university and you forget about what was mentioned.
And then you don't remember anything. You don't
act upon anything until the following week comes
and the same thing happens again.
When are you going to remember? When are
you going to realize?
How do you know you're going to be
here next week? What guarantee do you have?
When are you going to start acting upon
what you know?
When are you going to start acting upon
the knowledge that you have?
How many of us hear many words of
advice? How many of us have heard this
very same hadith that I mentioned today?
Maybe a lot of you have heard this
hadith before about the journey of the soul.
You've heard this before
but how many of us really understand and
act upon and realize we need to make
sure that we're doing whatever we can so
that when we ask these questions
when we ask these questions we're able to
answer them. 1 of the scholars of the
past
he said that I'm afraid
that I'll be asked
at the end of days once I'm dead,
he said I'll be afraid that I'll be
asked madha alimta.
What did you know?
And then I'll tell them what I knew.
And then he said I'll be afraid that
then that then I'll be asked
What did you do with what you knew?
What did you do with the knowledge that
you had? It's not just enough to know.
The scholars of the past they would say
The tree
the example that was given is like the
tree. And he said
that knowledge is that tree.
Knowledge is that tree.
And actions are the fruit of that tree.
That's the fruit of that tree.
It's not just enough to have knowledge brothers
and sisters. We have to act upon it
so that that knowledge bears fruit in this
life and in the hereafter.
We ask Allah subhanahu wa ta'ala that he
protects us from the punishments of the grave.
InshaAllah, there's going to be a janazah prayer
taking place after the Jum'ah prayer, so advise
the brothers and sisters to stay so that
they can, take that reward.
So will sufufakum, straighten your rose.
Make space for the brothers and sisters who
are still coming in.
Straightening the roses from the perfection of the
prayers, so make sure your rose is straight.
The Jinas and prayers are gonna be taking
place after the sunnah prayers.