Hamzah Wald Maqbul – Riyd alSlihn The Virtues of Walking to Salt Ribat 11292018
AI: Summary ©
AI: Transcript ©
Say that Abu Huraira, the author of the
author who narrates with the prophet
said, it's a chapter with regards to the
virtue of walking
to the masajid.
The virtue of walking to the masajid. It's
in Abu Hurairah radiallahu alaihi wasallam who narrates
at the prophet sallallahu alaihi wasallam said,
whoever goes in the, goes to the masjid
or returns,
from the masjid, Allah ta'ala has prepared for
such a person,
the Tahrik of both the noon and the
zai, Nuzula.
And
a
Nuzul
here,
It is the reception that a lot that
that that a
host prepares for the guest,
in order to honor in order to honor
them.
That
the prophet
said, whoever goes to the masjid or,
comes back,
Allah that was prepared for that person,
when they're going or when they're coming.
The reception of
a host
who prepares honor for a guest,
every time that person goes or returns from
the
Masjid.
It's a Hadith of Bukhari Muslim, and it's
also narrated by Imam,
Ahmed,
So,
the sheikh, he
writes in the
is the
hadith collection that was read in the
Haditha collection that was read in the Madars,
in the Darsh Mazami before,
the
Mishkato Masabi came.
So you have
now the way the Darshan is is that
so the
is a collection of
a hadith.
So you have to first of all, when
the
you
have to,
be able to differentiate between 2 books that
have the same name.
One is written by Qadir Iyad, which is
a,
a dictionary of the terms that come in
3 books, the Sahihain Bukhari Muslim and the
Muwata. The the the terms like, all the
words that are there, he gathered them together,
put them in alphabetical order, and then, explains
the usages of them, in the Hadith of
the prophet
So it's a dictionary, but it's a dictionary
prepared
specifically for what?
For,
reading hadith.
The other
is a collection of hadith.
And so what happened is that even though
the the the Indian subcontinent is now the
center for the study of the hadith of
the messenger of Allah sallallahu alaihi wa sallam,
in in the world.
And this is not an exaggeration.
In fact, I don't see any other place
that's even close to it.
There are many great,
no doubt, in many parts of the world,
but the the sheer pro proliferation of the
knowledge of hadith is not there in any
other part of the world like it is
in the Indian subcontinent.
That
that old school,
Madrasa curriculum,
which
was studied either institutionally or individually that you
read one book after the other, but the
curriculum is there.
Originally, the reading of hadith was done for
Tabaruk. It was done just for Baraka at
the end of a person's study of
the the like
logic, Arabic, grammar, rhetoric, etcetera.
And and,
then reading and
the other funun, in Ulun.
And so the
was like a survey of a hadith that
a person should know.
Then what happened was,
after,
the compilation and bringing of the
to,
the Indian subcontinent
because it was similar to the but
it had more hadiths in it, and it
was sorted.
It was presented in it,
a a format that's more,
useful for the student of knowledge.
If you read the book, you'll see that
every chapter
by topic heading is then sorted into 3,
into 3 different, sub chapters. The first sub
chapter is those hadith that are there from
that that are narrated by Bukhari and or
Muslim.
And then the second sub chapter is the
other hadith of prophet
from that are narrated in the other books.
And then the 3rd subchapter are,
those,
ahadith that are narrated from, for example, the
Athar, the companions, and the,
and the, Tabi'in,
or those hadith that were not
narrated in the original
original book because, Mishkat Al Masabi itself is
a addition to an older original book,
which is called the Masabi Sunnah of Imam
Bavari.
So at any rate, this mishkatul Masabi will
replace
the
it will replace
the, the
the the.
And then afterward, when the senate of the,
of the Suhasitha come to the Indian subcontinent,
from,
through Shawwalullah
from Hejaz.
When that happens, then at that
time, the,
the Mishkatul Masabi will be read as a
preparation for,
for, reading the the the the the Sahi
Sita, which is a much more intense,
reading of a hadith than used to happen
previously.
So at any rate, this, Sheikh Ahmed Dean
Hirode,
commenter on what? On the.
It's a book that's not read anymore.
Right? This is why, for example by the
way, what I'm mentioning, this is actually relevant
to what Laravel Assen, how? Darul Qasim bachelor's
degree program. Do you read the the,
Sehasata?
No. You read Mishkaatul Masabi. Traditionally, before,
after reading
the,
after reading the, after reading the,
you're considered an alum. You received the of
of being an alim. When brings
the the the son of the hadith to
the Indian subcontinent,
then what will happen is the students will
finish their studies
Lila to read the the dora hadith, the
the the 6 books, Sahasita.
After Deoband opens its
madrasa, it combines between these two things and
and and makes them into, like, one program.
Otherwise, even when you're in the the the,
when you're in the army,
to this day, the mishkati year, which is
the 7th year out of 8 years, it's
the it's called
meaning what? Like, you're about you're almost done.
Right? You're almost done. But you're not actually
done. You have to do another year afterward.
But the the name of the year is
still
is still based on the old system.
At any rate, so the sheikh, Ahmadine, he
mentions what is the what is the munasaba?
What is the the connection between
walking to and from the masjid
and Allah Taal preparing the,
preparing in Jannah, the reception that a host
prepares for the guest.
And he mentions the the Munasaba, the connection
between the 2 of them is that you're
going to the house of Allah Ta'ala. And
it's a custom of the, it's a custom
of the Arabs and it's a custom of
the people of honor
that when you go and visit somebody, when
you're their guest,
they prepare they prepare,
Ikram for you. They prepare,
hospitality
for you. And so that's something that happens
every time you visit the house of Allah
Ta'ala.
And so some of it, obviously, it's in
Jannah, but some of it filters down or
or, descends down from that realm into this
realm as well in ways that sometimes we
see and sometimes in ways that we don't.
And some small portion of it that we
get in this world, we get, and the
greater portion of it is going to be,
manifested
on the day of judgment.
Themselves in their own house.
Meaning what? It's a sunnah when you go
to the masjid to to make wudu at
home.
It's a sunnah dua to make the wudu
at home. Oftentimes, people will want to make
wudu at the masjid, and that's fine if
you have to. But the the superior the
superior,
practices to make your wudu from home before
you go. So as to not use the
resources of the masjid and not burden the
masjid through,
you know, in order to
basically carry the burden of your,
of your worship.
But more
more important than that, if walking to the
masjid is an act of worship
and it is a sunnah to be on
wudu,
for your acts of worship. It's sunnah to
be in a pure state. Why? Because the
heart is more,
open to receiving
the faith from Allah
receiving the, the
the the the the out flowing of divine
grace.
If walking is a a a act of
worship, walking to the master is an act
of worship,
and
it is a sunnah to be on during
acts of worship. Not just because it's a
sunnah, but because when you're in,
that barakah and the unwire and the light
of that act of worship that comes on
your heart, it's,
unimpeded.
The heart can absorb more of it. Then
it makes sense that while you're doing that,
you would want
to be on you would want to be
on wudu when you're actually coming to the
Masjid. You're actually missing out on, some of
the barakat of that that act of worship.
But we don't think of these things as
act acts of worship anymore. Right? We think
of them as a means to the end,
but the hadith of the
would indicate that this is also an act
ritual act of worship, the coming and going
to the to the masjid. So the messenger
said, whoever
purifies themselves, meaning makes wudu or makes ghusl
from their own home.
And then that person proceeds to a house
from the houses of Allah Ta'ala in order
to,
fulfill a
a a farida, a,
an obligation from the obligations that Allah imposed
upon him.
That person, every one of their footfalls,
will be like this. That one foot will
move and a sin will be forgiven and
another foot will move and the rank of
the slave will go up.
One foot will move and a sin will
be forgiven and another foot will move and
the rank of the slave will increase.
This is, unfortunately, a
a a an act of worship that we're
from, we're deprived of in this place.
Why? Because we don't have Masajid,
close to our homes and we don't go
there to pray 5 times a day. And
those who do oftentimes, the massages are so
far away that we will
go in,
in, like, cars,
to the to and from the masjid.
And there's no comparison,
between walking
and between,
driving in a car. Obviously, driving the car,
there's some in it. There's some benefit in
it. But we'll see later on that even
going on, mounted, like, on horseback or on
a donkey or something like that, even that
the messenger of Allah says you cannot compare
that to walking.
The
walking itself is a ritual it's a ritual
act. This is a difference of opinion from
the ulama that the person
who makes a vow, another that I will
go to Hajj walking.
Is this vow
binding on them or not? What is do
you remember the Hanafi,
Maslah?
Yeah. So the the idea is in the
Maliki School, it's actually binding. And so what
why is this issue,
relevant? The reason the issue is relevant is
this, is that when you make another a
vow,
the only
the only matter that the another that the
vow to Allah is binding is if the
vow is to do something, which is a
recommended act of worship. There's 5 five possibilities.
Right? It can be haram. If you make
a vow to do haram, it's it's an
obligation. It's wajib. It's far for you to
break that vow and to fast it 3
days or to give the kafara for those
3 days. If it's magru, it's the same
thing.
If you make a vow to do something
that's permissible,
this is not an act of worship. The
prophet forbid. This is a hadith of the
prophet that a man, for example,
vowed that he would fast and stand and,
be unshaded.
And so the prophet,
told his companions, tell him to go and
sit in the sit in the shade
and sit down in the shade and let
him finish his task. Meaning what? The the
two things, the sitting is permissible. It's not
an act standing is not an act of
worship.
And, being in the sun is permissible. Being
in the shade is permissible. Right? Being under
the sun is not an act of worship,
but fasting is an act of worship. And
so the prophet said that let him keep
like, let him, sit in the shade and
let him continue fasting.
So the idea that the the the would
say that a person who,
makes a vow to walk to Hajj that's
binding indicates that walking, is an act of
worship in this in this case, and Allah
knows best. In fact, so much so that
some people make vows, and they're not able
to fulfill them,
at one time. Like, if a person is
not in in good enough shape to to
be able to walk the entire way to
Hajj, the say that they can walk,
and then the rest of the way that
they ride, they can come back and make
up the rest of the walking separately because
it would you know, because the haddah is
involved with somebody who make up some people
who make a vow and then they don't
fulfill it. But the idea is what is
that that that walking itself is in? An
act of, it's an act of worship.
And that's also indicated by this hadith of,
of of one step
being a for forgiveness for a sin and
another step being a,
being an increase in daraja with Allah
So from this, we should we should take
we should take heed of something.
That instead of building these, like,
colossal,
these colossal and palatial that
are essentially megachurches. They're Muslim megachurches. You go
there once a week. You have a little
song and dance, a little entertainment, and then
you come back.
Right? Instead of doing that, the the method
of the Muslims is what? Is to pray
5 times a day, that people should have
musalah, small musalah. I'm not sure the mega
church model.
Right? People say, okay. We'll just go to
the message for Jumuah.
That's fine. You have your Jama and Masajid.
They're already built in most places in America.
Stop wasting your money on these,
ogre like,
institutions
that are oftentimes
mismanaged and then disproportionately concentrate
the,
authority in the community in the hands of
people because of their wealth.
Instead of instead of, funding those,
those institutions,
start making small mussalas in different places.
It's easier for zoning.
How many people like, if we open the
mussalah in our, what, our square block, the
area bounded by
Addison and,
North Avenue and, Fullerton
and and,
villa,
how many people would come for salaf?
Maximum, 30, 40? 30, 30. Yeah. Right? All
you do is buy 2 lots, one next
to each other. That's enough parking to get
zoning. Nobody's gonna crowd out the Masjid Assurant
on Tuesday.
Close it for Jamah. People can go to
IFS. People can go to, Dar es Sala,
and people go to Albania, you know, for
for Jamah.
But those small places that that people go
5 times a day, that is a vehicle
for
like, I would say 80% of the 80%
of the the spiritual,
progress that a person makes through Islam.
Again, can't look at Islam only through the
prism of the law. Islam is more than
fiqh.
The fiqh is there to vouchsafe the benefit
of the,
of the acts of worship.
The benefits are in the spiritual realm. It's
not legal that some court is gonna hand
you write you a check or something like
that. Oh, you prayed correctly. No? And the
hereafter,
you know, there may be some transactionality
with regards to your deeds like that, but
the bulk of your reward is still gonna
come
to the the spirituality. That a man may
pray 5 times a day and another man
may pray 5 times a day, and the
one who's praying 5 times a day,
in the Masjid, they did the same amount
of work or, you know, marginally more work.
Instead of praying in their, like, you know,
in their own home, they walk, like, you
know, a street over and pray a a
street over, and how much more reward do
they get?
But look at how the dean follows with
these things. Right? Because form follows function. Yeah.
They're trying to fit the deen into your
life or you're trying to fit your life
into the deen.
Form follows function. If there's a masala in
every neighborhood,
then what's gonna happen? People, Muslims will live
within walking distance of each other.
Right now, we're spread apart.
That's why the hearts are scattered. The minds
are scattered. There's no, political there's no political
clout. There's no economic clout. I mean, the
worldly people, if you tell them about,
about spiritual benefit, they're like, yeah, whatever pie
in the sky in July. But at least
they understand your dollars and cents. They understand
votes. They understand, you know, people,
2 Muslim sisters, got elected to congress. Give
them,
give them tophic to do what's best and
guide them to do what's best and, give
them the courage to do what's best,
and, give them the toffee to make toba
from whatever wrong things that they they they,
ideas that they may have had in the
past like everybody does.
But, like, you know, people get happy as
if, like,
is now relevant
because 2 Muslim sisters got elected to congress.
That's great. If we actually lived in the
same place, 2 Muslim sisters would have been
elected to congress from, like, the seventies.
Why did the Klan do you know why
the Klan exists?
Because black people kept winning elections in the
South.
In order to scatter them, in order to
make them flee to the north and to
this, you know, to the different directions, in
order to break their unity, the the clan
came together to scare them. Now if the
clan came together to scare Muslims,
I don't think it would go down as
well.
And even, masha Allah, our African American brothers
and sisters have learned the lesson,
that they,
that they're no longer scared of that anymore.
However,
you know, the the the point is this
is that if you live together, fine. If
you don't believe in the spirituality, you don't
believe in the in the,
you know, in in the in the the
newer of these acts, at least it should
be common sense to you that economically and
politically,
there's benefit in it. And,
I I say, that
the economic and political benefit has no benefit
in it until it's coupled
with the with the with the Nurani and
Rouhani and with the the
the the illuminated and spiritual nature of,
of of righteousness.
So these are things people should think about.
I mean, these are not just good. People
are like, oh, look. Great. You get reward
for walking to the masjid. You know? I'm
a little busy right now for reward. No.
This is like they're
this is the these are the the stones
the the the bricks that through which the
edifice of Islam are built. If you're not
gonna invest in them,
don't wonder why, you know, you know, oh,
look. We believe in Allah and the help
of Allah is not coming. How come whatever
the Muslims are doing so we must be
backwards. We must be stupid people. And, you
know, if we just built another factory or
had more money, we'd somehow be on top.
That's not how that's not how it works.
There's an entire system. It should be clear
to people that not following that system, not
following the the those plans,
that are laid out, by Allah
that they have very practical practical,
impact both in,
in the spiritual realm as well as in
in the material.
Narrates
that a
man from the Ansar,
May Allah be pleased with them.
He said he said that I didn't know
anyone whose house was further from the Masjid
than his.
It's just I mean, it's pretty far away.
It's pretty far away. Imagine, like, you can
see from the the distance from Puba
to the Masjid of the prophet sallallahu alaihi
wa sallam.
Right? So it's like it's it's it's like
miles.
He said, I knew I didn't know anybody
whose house was further from the mustard.
He would never miss a prayer.
And,
literally, the the word of the hadith is
that the prayer would never miss him.
That the prayer would never miss him. He
would never miss a prayer. The
is meaning that the prayer would never miss
him. And this is this even this
this,
even the wording shows other with
Right? Because we think we're doing something, but
really it's a it's a manifestation
of,
and his grace on us. So even the
wording has has has, with Allah
Everything okay, Kit?
Okay. Go ahead and turn it off then.
Or turn it on turn it on the
absolute lowest setting instead of turning it off.
Otherwise, it's gonna become, like, 30 degrees here.
The heating just turned on today.
A little bit of good news for everybody.
There was a clerical error and the heat
was supposed to be turned on a long
time ago, and so finally they said okay.
I said I need it on in time
for class on Thursday. They said that,
they said, okay. We'll give you a window
from 8 to 4. So I was here,
like, 8 at 8 in the morning, and
our good, friend who turned on the heat
came out, like, 3:40.
And, yes, if you were wondering, it was
cold. So, the heater's on. Now we have
to turn it off because it's too loud.
So at any rate, so he says he
said that he so he's
he said that that prayer would never miss
him. And it was said to him someone
said to him, if you purchased a a
hamar, if you purchased a a donkey.
Right? Like, you know, a Mercedes or a
BMW or a Tesla.
These are our modern donkeys,
Masha'Allah.
So if anyone's proud of their donkey, then
what does that mean about them?
At any rate, he says that if you
purchased a donkey that you could ride
in the darkness and,
for for is like the the the pitch
blackness. Obviously, there's no street lights in Madinah
Manawara.
There's no even light inside the Masjid until
like the 8th 7th or 8th year after
hijrah. So most of the life of the
prophet
there was no light in the masjid.
And so anyone's been out in the Badia
before during,
during the night time, you'll know depending on
what part of the lunar month it is,
it's very different. When the moon is out,
there's so much light outside that you actually
cast a shadow in the moonlight.
So that can be
your your your like, you know, your like
little pet project that on the night of
a full moon, go out somewhere like, you
know, in the middle of nowhere,
and go see that. We'll look at your
shadow in the moonlight.
Do you know where the moon rises from?
Do you know where the sun rises from?
Where does the sun rise from?
Which from the east. Do you know where
the moon rises from?
West.
No. You just made that up. Who knows
where the moon rises from?
East. It rises from the east as well.
Yeah.
So,
so yeah. So you
see the moon when it's out, there's so
much light that you actually cast a shadow
in the moonlight.
That's why like
the nights of the full moon were like
particularly vulnerable for attack in the old days.
Because it's dark
dark enough that you can move around in
in silence and in in in the shadows,
but light enough that you can actually still
do things. Whereas, if it's a dark part
of the night with no moon, it's like
you're floating around in space. Completely,
the stars don't produce enough light to see
anything. And I've I've gotten lost in the
before in the dark part of the night,
it's scary.
It's really scary.
Because you could wander, and all four directions
look exactly the same. You could wander around,
sometimes even though it's frustrating not knowing where
you are,
it's better just to sit down because if
you keep wandering thinking you know where you're
going, you could end up so far away
that when
the dawn breaks, you have no idea where
you are, and you have no idea how
to get back.
And that's very dangerous. So I mean these
are I mean this Obviously in Madirah Manawah
because it's contained in a valley, you're never
gonna go that far, but you know,
it still could be problematic at any rate.
You may not like be so bad as
to die, but you could really,
you could stray for
you could stray a lot. She says, yeah.
What's what's the Badia?
Badia is the open desert.
Yeah. Where the where the bedrooms, where the
nomads live.
The Badia is the the homeland of the
Badia. The of
the of the of the Bedouans, yeah.
So
it says that you can why don't you
purchase a donkey? You can buy a Tesla.
And that you can ride it in the
darkness of the night, and you can ride
it in the
the heat when the ground becomes hot. So
for those of you who have been to
Hajj al Umrah before,
you know in the midday when you go
for zohr or whatever, can you walk on
the can you walk
on the the the the tiles that are
even slightly dark during the daytime?
No. He's you start dancing on the on
the tiles in front of the masala haram,
and everyone's like looking at you funny. Right?
So so he said that you save your
feet from the from the heat of
the
midday,
by riding on a donkey.
And so look at his response, you gotta
love the Sahaba Radhiallahu Anhu.
Radhi Allahu Anhu
is like very justified for them.
So he says what? He's like, yeah it's
really hard and you know because I'm praying
so Allah owes me, right? No.
That's kind of our bratty
attitude to that. You have to love the
sahaba radiAllahu alhamd.
He says that, he says that, It wouldn't
make me more happy
if my house was right next to the
masjid.
Why? Because I wish for
my walking to be written for me. My
walking to the Masjid and walking back from
the Masjid to my family, I wish for
it to be written for me as reward.
And the messenger of Allah sallallahu alaihi wa
sallam,
he heard that and he says that Allah
ta'ala has gathered and vouchsafed for you all
of that reward.
This is a year to love the sahabah
radiAllahu alaihi wa hoonam.
We're at the Jalsa this weekend, so Mawlana
Musa,
he said, he gave the
he mentioned the story of,
I believe it's Usman bin, or Usman bin
that he was a a a close relative
of
of the the the chief of Quraysh in
his time,
Al Walid ibn Muhira,
who was who was, one of the
the the the leaders of the the Mustahziyin
from the mushrikeen of Quresh, the worst of
the mushrikeen of Quresh that were the harshest
with the messenger of Allah sallallahu alaihi wa
sallam. And since he was a close relative
of his,
he gave him protection, tribal protection. That despite
him being Muslim, no one could touch him,
otherwise he would be messing with
And so
when Uthman bin Madron, who was a very
pious person and a person who's
known for his
like really intense
struggle against his own nafs.
When he realized that I'm the only one
who has protection, everyone else is, you know,
in the way of harm. He also did
some of this from the common sense of
iman as well, is that you don't enjoy
while your brothers are suffering.
And so he told Walid bin Muhirah that
I return your protection to you. Whatever the
rest of the people are going through, I'm
with them.
And so what happened was a man picked
a fight with him, and he put out
one of his eyes.
And says to him, he says, of he
says, I'm in the protection of Allah He
says, what kind of protection is this
that Allah gave you, that your one eye
has been put out? He says, when you're
in my protection, both eyes were fine. Says,
now that that that that you're under the
supposedly under the protection of Allah, one of
your eyes is put out. And so look
at look at you know because every person
has a logic. Right? This
Mushidic and kafir
worshiper of wood and stone,
he has his logic. And then, what
kind of jawab that he gave to him,
what kind of response he gave to him.
He
said that, If my
if you knew
what my,
what the eye that got put out,
the
joy will
experience when I meet Allah ta'ala, then the
left eye would wish to be have the
same treatment as well.
Which
amongst a number of other things like being
very epic, you know, it's like being OG
without getting a tattoo.
You know, it's
above that it put out it put to
shame,
these people who consider themselves to be the
tough guys and the people of virtue
in Jahiliyyah,
it shut them up.
So that's why we say after
their names and not ours.
Insha'Allah, Allah Ta'ala say it after ours, but
it's gonna be from from his father if
it happens. It's not it's not it's not
anything that we earned. Even if we've got
to that point, we would have not known
to be like that except for because of
them.
And it's easy to, rip something off.
It's very difficult to, you know, do it
in the first place.
So,
Sinajabi bin Abdullahi, may Allah be pleased with
both of them. He narrates
that
that the
Messenger of Allah Subhana Wa Salam,
he
said
that
a piece of land or opening of land
opened up
around the Masjid. So Banu
Banu Salama is a clan of the Ansar
from Khazraj,
from Banu Najjar.
They wish to
move closer to the masjid.
And,
lest a person forget, Barun Najjar from
the
clan of the Ansara, the closest in relation,
they're the relatives of the prophet
through his great grandmother.
So they're actually they're related to the messenger
of
Allah as well. He said that they they
wish to move to that, to that area
closer to the masjid.
And this
reached the Messenger of Allah Sallallahu Alaihi Wasallam,
and
he said
to them,
it has reached me that you wish to
move closer to the masjid.
They said, indeed, oh Messenger of Allah,
we wanted that.
And so
the Messenger of Allah salallahu alaihi wa sallam
said,
O, stay in your places,
and every one of your footsteps will be
recorded as reward for you. Stay in your
places and every one of your footsteps will
be
recorded as a reward for you.
Alright? So it's a
but the the the the the the harsharth
is
right? You you you, stay in your places,
right, in in in in
in in that if you stay in your
places,
your every foot step will be written as
written and recorded, and rewarded,
rewarded,
thereafter.
So he's saying stay in your places, your
your,
your your foot falls and your footsteps and
and your, what you call footprints will be
recorded. And so they said after that,
they said that it doesn't it says after
you said this,
we're we're no longer it no longer pleases
us to change our places.
To change our places. This hadith is narrated
by
as well. So the question is
what?
So
the question is that,
so
the question is what? Is it better to
move closer to the masjid or to stay
far away and keep coming and going? And
the answer is,
if you know you're not gonna go if
you're far away, it's better to move closer.
The Messenger of Allah SallAllahu Alaihi Wasallam said
this to Banu Salamah because he knew that
these people are gonna keep it real.
And there's
a benefit and
a benefit and a reason for him wanting
them to stay where they are.
If people started moving closer, then it would
have caused fights, it would have caused issues.
And Allahu'alaam, there's many hikmah's and and them
staying where they are.
But, if there's a hikmah staying where you
are, and you know you're gonna still have
the have the the courage, and the hima,
and the motivation to keep coming,
then keep doing that, and you'll get even
more reward because of the difficulty,
and, that that you undertake in coming, and
because of the
the the footfalls each being recorded as a
separate good deed.
If those two conditions aren't in place, then
it's better to move closer.
It's better to move closer, and Allah knows
best.
Of
you.
He
narrates that the messenger of Allah said,
indeed,
the one who will have the greatest reward
in a prayer is the one who came
from the farthest,
walking.
But the one who walked from the the
the farthest.
And he goes he he continues. He says,
and the one who
waits,
from one prayer to the other prayer,
from the the the ending of one prayer
until the other prayer, and then praise it
with the imam, that person receives more reward
than the one who,
prays it and then,
sleeps,
in the middle. Or,
sleeps meaning what?
Takes rest or or does something else in
the middle. Meaning what? That waiting in the
Masjid for the prayer also is itself an
act of worship.
Waiting in the Masjid,
populating the Masjid, being in the Masjid itself
is an act of worship. And this is
something I found very interesting.
I saw this in
Pakistan. I never really
saw this before,
anywhere else. Not necessarily because it's not there,
but because I just didn't have experience about
it.
Which is what? Which is that people would
prefer
to stay within Thee, within the 4 walls
of the masjid. What was
my own disposition? Right? Like you see these
kids are all fidgety and flighty, and they're
kind of like whatever, and go to the
bathroom in the middle of the dust, and
it kinda, like, gives you a little bit
of, like, relaxation from the boredom. And then,
like, you know, you're waiting for the break,
and you're waiting to bolt out and, you
know, go out and get a snack or
whatever, which is fine also.
That happens sometimes like it becomes too heavy
on a person.
But I saw in Ramadan when staying in
the khanqah of my sheikh, that, you know,
after Maghrib, before the taweeh, they would delay
the isha a little bit. So you get
a chance to walk around and and, you
know, kinda digest the food a little bit.
And so,
I saw that
a number of the
brothers would go out for a walk, and
a number of them would say, I wanna
stay inside the khankhai, and they'll just walk
back and forth. Why? You don't wanna leave
the
the 4 walls of the place that has
barakah in it.
And so this is another understanding. So if
you leave, it's not like you're doing any
haram or anything wrong, it's permissible.
But the one who has the himma, and
the one who wishes for
those anwar,
and for
those blessings, and for that
spiritual assistance from Allah
they'll
stay there.
Just sitting there in and of itself is
an act of worship.
And so a person should, you know, understand
that that way
you know, this is a prophetic methodology. Rasul
didn't tell people, do this just because.
Rather he would describe the words of different
deeds.
Why? Because a human being is not irrational,
human being will do good deeds because they
know there's reward in them. So he describes
the different marathat, the different levels, that the
person who
waits from one prayer to the next,
that person will get even more reward than
the one who prays in them, after that
goes
to sleep.
And,
so this even Allah
It also means like for example the person
who prays
in the beginning time of Isha
or Fajr or whatever, just gets it out
of the way and then goes to sleep.
That person
will
will receive less reward than the one who
prays with the imam in the jama'ah. So
this is also the meaning of it.
1,
he narrates that the Prophet sallallahu alaihi wa
sallam said, Give glad tidings to those people
who are habitual and walking
in the darkness to the masjid. That they
will have a complete light and a perfect
light
on the day of judgment.
And so,
what does this mean?
What does this mean? Like I mentioned, I
mean in the old days, people didn't have
street lights, and it's scary.
You've spent any time in Raiwan?
Or you've gone on like one of the
hard jamats in the villages?
No. They probably send you all the nice
cushy places,
and green tea and everything. Right? Yeah. Yeah.
So
when you go out when you go out
in in what? In the in the in
the in the absolute dark part of the
night to isha
or to fajr,
it's dangerous.
It's actually dangerous, you have to walk slowly.
I don't know if people who haven't lived
in the village, alhamdulillahi had that. From the
father of Allah ta'ala, experienced living in the
village both in Mauritania and in
actually the village was an upgrade compared to
Mauritania, that was the badia. Buxton was the
village. It's dangerous, especially when it rains. You
could slip, you could fall. If you drop
something, you're not gonna find it again. Right?
Sometimes you step in something, your will go
so deep into the
into the mud,
your sandal, for those of us who are
less indigally inclined in our linguistical
prowess.
Your chapel goes so deep into the mud,
if you instinctively pull your foot up, which
is what you do. Sometimes it takes like,
you know, you do these things from muscle
memory, Takes you a second to realize something
was wrong. You pull your foot up, you
realize Jabal isn't there. It's like 2, 2,
2 and a half feet in the mud.
What are you gonna do? Sometimes, just to
reach in there, you're just gonna get yourself
stuck even worse.
And there's nothing worse than like,
not nothing worse. You know what's worse than
getting stuck in the mud on the way
to the salat and you can't even make
the salat?
And if you walk back to wash the
mud off, you know, you're going to miss
the salat, but you can't walk into the
masjid. So you actually woke up to go
to the salat, and you're gonna miss it
now.
What's worse than that is what? It's like
getting stuck on the way to the bathroom.
Now you have to go to the bathroom
and you're stuck. Right? People haven't been through
these experiences yet.
You know,
Masha Allah, even our quote unquote, the soof
is like handed to us on a plate,
you know, like, okay I'm gonna be Sufi
now, so I go and buy my Juba
online,
you know, for $300
and it's fitted, and I get my, $200
tasbi
because, you know, we can't get caught without
the the best. And, you know, I ordered
my, like, whatever coffee and the coffees have,
like, one real Sufi sounding names and, you
know, and, like, the Instagram look spiritual looking
filter and stuff. What is that?
What are you gonna do with I mean,
those things are fine, but, like, if that's
all you ever experienced then, man, you need
to, like,
you need to like I don't know what
you need to do. You need to do
something that's you're not doing right now because
you're not gonna get it from there. Whereas
this is just like going to Fajr
will teach you like, you know, 70 lessons
about spirituality.
And so this is the messenger of Allah
says that, that
This is it man. Everything, anything there's like
even a amount of hairogen, like, oh man,
it's difficult man. Right? Whereas like, man, like
people
people like go out and they're they're like,
you have to make dua Allah, get me
to the masjid because stuff could go wrong.
You slip and fall, you know, mashallah, when
someone like Imran Faasim slips and falls, it's
funny When someone like me slips and falls,
like you break bones.
Right? You look at all the dinosaur,
dinosaur,
fossils.
Right? The tyrannosaurus rex when he falls,
his neck will break in weird angles and
things like he doesn't get up again. Right?
So people used to do this.
They used to do these things. So the
Messenger of Allah sallallahu alaihi wa sallam, that's
what he's saying is that,
give glad tidings
to those people who are habitual of walking
in
the black part of the night,
that they will have a perfect and complete
light,
for them on the day of judgment. Which
also means what? This is the sign of
kufr,
right?
That's just the the the person of Kufr
will say,
oh my lord, how did you,
raise me? Do you mind shutting the door?
How did you raise me
blind when I used to have sight?
And Allah Ta'ala says,
just like my signs came to you and
you
deliberately ignored them, just like that this day
you're ignored.
So that's one extremes. Kufr is complete blackness
on that day.
Right?
Right? It's a hadith
that that that oppression will be darkness on
the day of judgment. On
the flip side, the person who used to
walk in the black part of the night,
to the masjid, Rasulullah
said, Give them God tidings of
a complete and of a perfect light
on the day of judgment. But it's for
those people who, you know,
fear was all fear and danger is like
just part of the the the deal.
Fear and danger is part of the deal.
And if a little bit of fear, you
know, or a little bit of danger, puts
you out of commission,
you're still Muslim, alhamdulillah.
If you're still praying, there's still khair in
you, but you know, Alhamdulillah, mashallah, you should
know that there's some deficiency there and
that
this is
not
the
complete
deen, this is not the way it was
supposed to be practiced because the people before
us, even these things they used to
put up with quite a bit of grief
and put up with quite a bit of
difficulty.
Which is fine, that's good. There's khair in
that.
The Islam of like comfort is not, I
mean, it's not recognizable
from those people.
Rather
a little bit of that, it actually is
good for you, actually makes you a better
person.
It's actually the person who is able to
manage a little bit of fear, and a
little bit of discomfort, and a little bit
of hardship. They save themselves from a greater
fear, and a greater discomfort, and a greater
hardship.
Because people will people say, oh well, you
know the deen is not supposed to be
haraj, you know. Well, what's haraj? Is haraj
a little bit of haraj or is a
lot a lot of haraj?
Take a little bit and meter doses so
that Allah may spare you from
the greater haddads. These things by the way,
you can't like learn them on your own.
Someone from by the name from India like
asked me, like, a reporter from Bombay asked
me if, like,
through the Internet, like, I work for
for some, what, a publication. So can you
answer these questions? I wanted to to have
an interview, and so I've been putting it
off for a couple of weeks. So today,
I'm waiting for the for the heater guy
to come. So I he said, just record
the answers to the questions and and and
we'll publish. I don't even know if he's
gonna publish it or not. But one of
the questions he asked was, like, what do
you give advice what advice do you give
to people, like, for learning about Islam on
the Internet?
I'm like, don't.
I'm like, go sit in the Masajid and
go visit the Imams, visit the. Obviously, everyone's
gonna claim that they're the best. Right? Except
for me.
I'm you can go to Sheikh Mansur instead.
But,
everyone's gonna claim that they're the best. But
like you know go sit with them and
then like see
what's there, what you learn from one person,
what's more amazing about one person than the
other. Get an orientation about all of those
things. And then afterward if you know who
you're taking from,
then it's good, it's okay if you listen
to a Darsha on YouTube or on like
SoundCloud or, like, write read a paper from
someone, then they're they're, you know, that's fine.
There's nothing wrong with that. But if it's
just you're just gonna take it from from
you to you never gone through any of
these experiences, any of these difficulties before,
then,
you know, you're just going to you have,
like, at the at the click of a
a mouse or I guess no one uses
mouse mouses anymore, mouses
anymore,
you know, you can just something displeases you.
You can shut it off immediately and then
find something that pleases you. What you'll end
up with afterward is some sort of like
aspartame shaykh, which is fine. It's sweet and
it has no calories, it probably gives you
cancer afterward.
So
so you're not gonna learn this stuff from
those from those people.
I mean, it's almost already half hypocritical that
we're just sitting in the darsh reading about
it.
But,
you know, Allah Ta' have mercy on our,
our weakness and then our on
the pitiful state that we're in. And then
we
should know as an abstract concept that these
things are acts of piety.
Maybe Allah Ta'u woulda God save them to
us.
Muslim.
Uh-uh, Sayyid Abu Hurriyahahu
narrates
a
very epic hadith, very high levels of epicness
in this hadith.
If there was a hadith which is like
the
theme hadith of this place, then it would
be this hadith or at least it should
be. That the messenger of Allah
was telling the companions, shall I not tell
you about those things,
That Allah
will forgive
sins because of, and that Allah will raise
ranks because of.
And he said, Indeed, o messenger of Allah.
So what do you think he said?
Instagram,
and Twitter followers,
and Facebook friends.
This stuff is like such a joke. I've
sold who might who might have said anything
to anybody? First of all, I'm not much
I don't have Instagram, and I just don't
mess with that. I didn't mess with any
of this except for, one of my honored
colleagues,
tricked me into it, Allah told him that
it's and forgive him.
But, it's so dumb. I mean, it's so
dumb.
And like, you know it's dumb, and you
fall for it every single time. I'm just,
like, you know, checking and I flip in.
I'm like, this is dumb. Why am I
doing this? And I just, like, stop. But,
like, otherwise, instinctually, you're completely
trained to be so
dumb. Those things are not what he's mentioning,
sallallahu alaihi wa sallam. So they said indeed,
O Messenger of Allah, he said that, isbaahu
wubu you al makarihi
that to paint the wubu on the limbs,
which is itself,
It's the Leel of the Maliki
position of making dalqah of actually having to
rub the limb. Right? Because you don't, you
know, you don't, like, throw paint at the
wall. You actually brush it on. Right? So,
this is painting the, the onto the limbs,
even when
it's difficult,
or when it's in circumstances
that a person would dislike. And so generally
the the
the
the
the commentators will say like, when it's really
cold.
When it's really cold.
And, obviously, if that's origin? Yeah. That's that's
that's what the first meeting usually mentioned by
the by the commentators is is the cold.
Obviously, they lived in the Arabian Peninsula and
we live in Chicago.
You know, we have heated houses and things
like that, but it does get it gets
really cold over here. But there's more there's
the meaning carries more things than that. Right?
What is it? Taking your socks off,
washing your feet in the sink when, you
know, whatever.
You're afraid that gym at work is gonna
shoot laser out lasers out of his eyes
and kill you, or whatever irrational fear people
have, and they will do.
It's okay.
It's okay. You'll survive.
Even if someone gives you a hard time.
You remember that time I went to were
you there when I went to UIC? I
think I think you had already graduated. Abdul
Manan and these guys were all there. When
I went to UIC and the cops, like,
threatened to, like,
arrest me for making.
And then they realize, oh oh, god. This
guy knows English, so we should fight back
off.
But,
you know,
it's happened maybe 2, 3 times in my
life out of, like, a 100 of times
being
in, you know, public places.
One was at UIC.
1 was at O'Hare.
So the guy was cleaning, and I'm like,
you think you think they're gonna accept you
now? You think that they're gonna treat you
as equal now that you masha called out
a man for washing his feet? He's like,
no. It was just that people wash their
face in the basement, so they needed to
be clean. I see you realize that they're
washing their hands off taking crap. Right? I
go, it couldn't be that clean, could it?
I mean, you know what they do inside
the stall. Right?
And
yeah. Anyhow. So whatever.
He says
he says that,
that the first of the the things that
Allah forgives sins
and raise ranks because of is to paint
the wudu on the limbs even when it's
disliked and difficult.
And the second thing he mentions
is many
footfalls
going to the masjid.
And the third thing he mentions is,
waiting from one prayer time to the next
prayer time. He says,
That is ribat. That is,
that is
ribat. That is ribat. Ribat means what?
Ribat and means to make one another firm
linguistically according to Sarf.
And Ribat in the language of the Sharia
means to stand guard
at the fortified borders of
the Muslim lands,
and in a border that faces
an enemy from which danger is expected.
And so the messenger of Allah Sallallahu Alaihi
Wasallam said about that rebat.
He said Sallallahu Alaihi Wasallam
that
one day and one night in that ribaat
is worth more than the entire dunya and
what's in it.
And,
this rebat is then being given mushabaha,
it's being,
it's Rasulullah SAWSAW wasalam saying is, it's also
similar to that as well. That waiting in
the message from one prayer to the other
is, like guaranteeing that you're gonna get the
the the reward and the the barakat and
the and the
of the prayer. You'll get the blessings and
the light indeed, the spirituality of the prayer.
You're not gonna you're not gonna allow the
enemy which is what? The nafs and the
shaitan and the dunya. You're not gonna allow
your enemies too that have an ability to
move in and like destroy your reward. You're
not gonna allow them to do that.
Rather rather, you're gonna stand guard and you're
gonna get the the reward for that. It's
the last ayat
of of of of of of Surat Alimran.
Oh you who believe,
uh-uh, be patient and enjoying one another to
patience and make riabat.
Both the outward rebat that we mentioned first
and the inward one that we mentioned afterward.
Make rebat,
which is the rebat after which rebat is
named.
Right?
That make rebat and fear Allah
so that you may be successful.
And the last
hadith in the chapter, and
said,
who said, if you see a man,
coming back and forth frequenting the masjid,
then bear witness
for him that he has faith.
Why? Because
there's no other reason a person would do
that.
If there's another reason a person would do
that, then maybe, you know, the the the
this
this is not like a blind statement, but
there's a reason in it. Right? Why? There's
no reason to come and go. Right?
Then,
then you bear witness for that person's
iman.
Allah most high, Allah mighty and majestic as
he said,
no one inhabits the houses, the masajid of
Allah ta'ala
except for those who believe in Allah and
believe in the last day.
And so, yeah, there are certain occasions in
which people show up to show
face. Those occasions are different.
Right? So nowadays, it's the the the Ishaq
prayer is like the
the the money prayer at the Masjid. You
know, you wanna show face in the community,
show up for Isha or Jummah. Right? Whereas
during the time of the prophet, people used
to not come for the Munaf 15 used
to sit out Isha, and they used to
sit out,
a fajr. Why?
Because,
because it's there's no light in the masjid,
so no one will know if you're gone.
Mhmm.
But it changes with time.
So the idea is to go to the
masjid when there's no when there's no,
you know, incentive
to do so and there's no harm in
not doing so of this world. This is
a sign this is a sign of iman.
Allah, make us from the people of iman.