Bilal Philips – The Best in Islam #01 – Age

			Salam aleikum wa rahmatullah wa barakato. I'd like to welcome you dear viewers, to this the first
episode of our series, the best in Islam, in which we'll be looking at what Allah and His Messenger
have declared to be the best in all aspects of life
		

			and human affairs. This is a base on a compilation of Hadith and Quranic verses, which I put
together in a book called The Best In Islam, and we will be following basically an alphabetical
order of matter. In this episode, we will be looking at age. What did Allah and His Messenger have
to say, on age, we have a hadith which has been Narrated by Abu Huraira, in which he quoted the
Prophet sallallahu wasallam as saying pyrocam At one LUCAM Amara, well, AXA Nukem, UCLA aka the best
of you are those who live the longest, and are best in character. This hadith is collected by Achmed
and is declared authentic. Now, the implications of this hadith we hear Hadith. And oftentimes, we
		

			might use them, quote them, without really understanding what is the actual meaning of what is being
said, in this hadith we have two points.
		

			The first point focuses on length of life.
		

			And the second point, deals with good character. Now,
		

			if we look at the issue of the length of life, one would have to say that this is not our choice,
that Allah would make some people's lives long, and some people's lives short, and then declare them
to be the best, because they had a long life or a short life would seem to be unfair, since this is
something beyond our control. However, the point is that when we look at the length of life, and the
time that we had to live,
		

			when a lot speaks about that long life, it is a long life. In good character, it's not just a long
life, meaning simply because you had a long life we live to 110, you are the best? No, because there
are many people who may live to 110, who are evil, very bad people. So the statement of the Prophet
may God's peace and blessings be upon him, is clarified is not left, merely in terms of length of
life, but its length of life, which is filled with good behavior. Why? Because the Prophet may God's
peace and blessings be upon him himself, summarize the essence of the message of Islam in terms of
good behavior, he said, In the Bible, it's too little to me Mama Garimella clock, I was only sent to
		

			perfect for you the highest of moral character traits. So he summarized Islam, all of Islam in
		

			the topic or based on the topic of morality, good character. So, this gives us significance, real
significance to this statement of the Prophet sallallahu wasallam. It stresses for us how important
character is. So if your length of life was only 20 years, but in the five years, or eight years, in
which you are classified as an adult, after puberty, you're classified as an adult
		

			in which your deeds are now recorded, and you're held accountable for them.
		

			You only had eight years, from the time you were 12, to the time you were 20. And you died at the
age of 20.
		

			That eight years out of the 20. So for the person who lives to the age of 80, who has had 68 years
of adult life, his proportion of good of that 68 years,
		

			maybe the last 20 years of it was actually good. So 20 out of 68, is not a very high percentage,
whereas that person who died at the age of 20, he had only eight years, but all of the eight years
were good, then, who had the better life, the young person who died at the age of 20. So this is how
in the end, it is calculated, that long life it is really the, the good part of that long life in
relationship to the life as a whole. Because Allah is not going to reward you for living long,
simply because you live long, because he is the one who determines whether you live long or you live
short, your life is short. So Allah is Most just so we don't need to feel jealous of those who end
		

			up living longer, or who die earlier. All of it is balanced in the scheme of things which Allah has
created for human being in his life. And the biggest emphasis in this statement of the Prophet, may
God's blessing be upon him is about character. So this is what ultimately makes that person the
best. Having lived a long life, but leaving it with good character. This is now stressing the
importance of that which we have control over ourselves, what type of people we are, how we relate
to other human beings, how we relate to the world around us, how we relate to God, because when we
speak about good character, the good character is not just restricted to how we deal with our fellow
		

			human beings. It begins with how we relate to God. If we obey God's commands, then we have good
character with regards to God's commands. With regards to God. If we disobey God, if we worship
others besides God, though, we may be doing the best of things, relative to fellow human beings, we
want to be very charitable, etc. But we don't worship God.
		

			We don't believe in God, we have rejected God, or we worship others. Besides God, all of that is bad
character, which destroys the value of our life, with regards to the life to come.
		

			In the sight of those people in this world, alive may seem to have a lot of value.
		

			But in the sight of God, the value is
		

			minimal. So this encourages us to work on what is essential in our life,
		

			our character, to make ourselves better human beings, to always focus on what is really important
with regards to ourself and our fellow human beings with regards to God, with regards to the
environment in which we live, our character is expressed in all of these various areas. So, looking
back at the statement of the Prophet, may God's peace and blessings be upon him, that the best of us
are those who live the longest, and have good character. This is an encouragement for us to be on
our best behavior as much as we possibly can. And this is the criterion which makes people good in a
variety of different perspectives. Even the Prophet may God's peace and blessings be upon him, had
		

			stressed that if somebody comes and wants to marry your daughter, and they are of good character,
religious, God fearing and have good character, then you should
		

			let them marry you
		

			You should let them marry.
		

			He stressed this issue of good character a person may be religious in the sense that okay, he prays
five times a day. He fasts, Ramadan, he does all the basic things that are required of him. However,
he is not good character. So what does that mean? It means that those religious values are not
impacting on his or her character. We'll be taking a short break here now, and we'll be continuing
after the break with the best in Islam with regards to age.
		

			A Salam alaykum Warahmatullahi Wabarakatuh.
		

			In Buhari there is a narration by Osama bin Zayed right we learn who that once the Prophet
sallallahu alayhi wa sallam, he stood over one of the high buildings of Medina and then said to the
people, do you see what I see? They said no, the Prophet sallallahu sallam said, I see afflictions
falling among your houses as raindrops fall. That's how the parenting challenges of today's sound
like it's a daunting task. With lifestyle changes and more demands on the parents. maintaining a
balance between parenting job and other chores is very stressful. There is a plethora of duties with
very little time devoted to parenting. multitude of studies indicate that kids are involved in
		

			undesirable activities because there is failure to impart moral values to them. What to pre plan to
bring back balance in life and strengthen the family structure. We need focused step by step
guidelines to make sure that our kids grow into determined and not easily distractible, Muslim
Ummah. So me Dr. Kamal guesser, bring you this amazing course. A visionary child, a future
investment for all the parents who can change the world, benefit the society and be on the path of
Jannah This course is designed to bring clarity in the parenting practices so that parents
understand the age appropriate behavior of the child. And yes, using principles from Quran and
		

			Sunnah develop a multi dimensional trivia plan for the child. Remember, women is the art of seeing
what is invisible to others. So don't miss this opportunity to overcome all the roadblocks that you
have. While you're trying to fulfill your responsibility. As mentioned in surah Haim we're still the
sixth Yeah, you in the Xena? Amanu who am fullcycle well actually Canara are believers save yourself
and your families from the hellfire?
		

			Cry they calm. Welcome back to this episode of the best in Islam, where we began looking at age.
What did the Prophet sallahu wa salam have to say about the best with regards to age. And the first
part we looked at age with regards to character
		

			and how having a good character and a long life made one the best, the next Hadith
		

			the prophet is recorded by Jabir ibn Abdullah, as having said pyrocam at walakum Amara, where I
said, Oh, come on Allah, the best of you are those who live the longest and our best in deeds. The
best of you are those who live the longest and are best in deeds.
		

			So, we discussed about the issue of living longest and how that is in the control of Allah subhanaw
taala. So we're not actually rewarded, because we live to the oldest age, since he was the one who
determined it, but to the degree that in that period of time, which he has given us, the proportion
of good that we have done in it is the greatest. So, on one hand,
		

			the best is determined by character. And in this narration
		

			of
		

			Job that have nabbed Allah, companion of the Prophet may God's peace and blessings be upon him, the
best is determined by having done the best deeds. Now there is a relationship between the two,
because a person who has good character should be a person who does good deeds. These two are
inseparable, because to say that a person has good character, but his deeds are bad. That's a
contradiction in terms, how could you possibly have good character and be known for evil deeds, so
the two don't go together. Having good character is what drives a person to do the right thing to do
what is good to do what is best. So this statement of the Prophet may God's peace and blessings be
		

			upon him, encourages us to be engaged in righteous deeds, whatever time he has given us, we should
try to maximize the good that we can do. And we should never consider any good to small Prophet
Muhammad Salah Ahmed said that, that we should not consider any good deed too small not to do, it's
insignificant, it's of no real value. No, every deed has value and what you or I may consider to be
a very small and virtually meaningless deed.
		

			Allah may consider it to be a very great deed, its impact may be tremendous, though you thought or I
thought that it was only something very small. So we don't
		

			gauge deeds. This is a big good deed. Let me do this one. This is a little deed. no point doing
though. No, we tried to do all the good that we can. Because we can never know ultimately, what is
really a big deed.
		

			And what is really a small deal, because many deeds we may consider to be big, Allah considers them
to be small, and many that we consider to be smaller law considers to be big, he has given them
greater impact. So it's not our job, to grade deeds and choose to do them. If we think they're big
enough to earn us a particular reward know, whenever a good deed is presented to us, we should be
the first to do it, we should never, never bypass an opportunity to do good, because ultimately,
		

			our judgment is based on our scale of good deeds, the number of deeds and the value of those deeds,
		

			the greater the chance for us to succeed in the life to come. Similarly, we should try our best
because when the Prophet sallallahu wasallam, may God's peace and blessings be upon him said that
the best of you are those who live the longest, and do the most are the best good deeds, it means
then, that you have also avoided evil deeds, because that is the opposite. You would be the worst if
your deeds were many and evil. So when we're encouraged to seek good, find the good deeds, do them
not consider any
		

			good deed too small to do, where the prophet Muhammad Salem had even said that among the deeds of
faith is removal of harm from the road that we walk in a broken bottle, a stone that somebody makes
chip on a banana peel that somebody may slip on, just removing that, from the way that people walk
is a good deed. And it's a part of our faith. So we should never consider also
		

			any evil deed too small or too insignificant to worry about. This is part of the problem that many
of us get caught up in. We may be doing evil things, but they're small things we consider them to be
small things. And so we figure well, you know, Allah is gonna forgive us no problem. We're doing a
lot of big things. Is that a good things? So the little things, no big deal. But the reality is that
those little things can add up. And the Prophet may God's peace and blessings be upon him, warned us
about this. He said that
		

			Those scorn minor evil deeds.
		

			They're like twigs that people gather, seeking to create a bonfire. They go around
		

			the valley,
		

			gathering twigs here and there. They want to make a bonfire and cook some bread. They don't have
enough. But when they go around the valley and they gather up the little bits and pieces of wood,
twigs, put them together. Now they have a huge bonfire, those little insignificant deeds, which are
evil, now created a huge bonfire. So is the warning
		

			that we should not consider or scorn minor or small, evil deeds, we should try to avoid them as much
as possible. And the Prophet may God's peace and blessings be upon him, had put this together. In
another Hadith Narrated by Abu Bacara in which the Prophet was quoted as saying, credo NASS man Tala
Amaru waha. sunnah Emmylou was Sharon NAS, man Tala Amaru, who Osama who the best of people is he
whose life is long, and his deeds are good. And the worst of people is he whose life is long, and
his deeds are evil. So
		

			the worst of people, and that is the state that we seek to avoid, or those who live long lives, but
their deeds are evil, the product of their faith is a corrupt fruit, it is rotted, so the value of
their life has
		

			been lost.
		

			So this hadith
		

			brings both sides, for us to reflect on.
		

			Striving on one hand, to do as much good as we can. Whenever the opportunity presents itself, we
should also strive to avoid as much evil as we can, no matter how small that evil may appear to us.
So
		

			there are viewers
		

			combining
		

			our initial hadith of Abu Huraira in which the Prophet sallahu wa sallam said that the best of us
are those whose lives are long, and our character is good. Combining that
		

			with good deeds, and avoiding evil deeds. We have a program for life, a program that we should
strive to follow to
		

			guide ourselves with. And it is based on the prophetic guidance
		

			which came in the explanations of the Prophet
		

			may God's peace and blessings be upon him as well as in the verses of the Quran, having good
character. This is the essence of Islam and truly good character should produce good deeds and
should cause one to minimize one's evil deeds. Of course, as human beings, we will all commit some
evil deeds, some wrong some sense, and that is why we have within the scope of Islam repentance, by
which we may remove the consequence of our evil deeds. But our good character is what is going to
keep us on the right path. Keep us in doing as many good deeds as possible. And with that, we'd like
to close this episode of the best in Islam, understanding that the best lies in good character,
		

			good deeds, and avoiding as much evil as we possibly can. And in the next episode, we'll be looking
at the best in Islam with regards to other aspects of human life and human endeavors. Salaam aleikum
wa rahmatullah.
		

			He will work at