Husain Sattar – A Sense of Entitlement
AI: Summary ©
AI: Transcript ©
So last week I mentioned,
one aspect of the Hajj.
And Hajj is such an event that it
really,
it overcomes you,
if you have the opportunity
to do it, or even if you have
the opportunity to prepare for it.
So this week, actually, I wanted to continue
on that theme.
I realized that obviously
this group is not necessarily preparing to go
for Hajj, but inshallah, each of us will
get the opportunity to go
at least once in our lifetime and hopefully
more frequently than that.
So
what I'm gonna say actually may not necessarily
be pertinent to,
let's say your everyday living right now, but
it'll help you when you're making your preparations
to go for the next Hajj. So basically
some advice that you can take that you
can keep in mind.
Now when you when an individual goes for
the Hajj, obviously,
they make many changes in their life, they
begin to prepare for the Hajj, they begin
to learn the fiqh of the Hajj, they
begin to tie up some of the loose
ends that exist in their life so that
they can come back from the Hajj revived.
And, obviously, Hajj is a revival. So
it's an incredible opportunity for us. But at
the same time, Shepon
recognizes
the power of the event.
And so given that he recognizes the power
of the event, he's also going to try
to make his effort
to derail people from maximizing on that.
Pretty much, Hajj is straightforward.
You just have to do a few things,
and there's not very much required of an
individual. And in fact, some people would say
that Hudge is easy.
And
I talked about this actually
with the group that had, just gone on
the Hajj, that one of the brothers, he
came up and he said, you know, Hajj
seems really easy.
We just have to go from here, and
then we go to Mina, and then we
go to auto we go to,
Arafat, then we go to Musdelifa, then we
go to Mina, then we go to throw
stones at the shaitan.
All this seems so straightforward.
So
I feel bad. That was actually what he
said to me.
But
what he wasn't thinking about perhaps and what
many individuals don't recognize is that although the
events,
the monastic themselves, which is what we call
the individual steps of the Hajj, the monastic,
although the monastic may be straightforward,
the actual difficulty in the Hajj lies in
the attitude of the individual.
And, primarily,
it lies in an issue of
people feeling that they're entitled to something
or that there's some degree of entitlement
within an individual. This is something that creeps
up on an individual.
Now, what I mean by that is that
human beings,
as they move through this Earth,
they begin to feel that they deserve certain
things.
And it exists in all aspects of our
lives.
Sometimes, it exists in our marriage.
We, as husbands,
feel that our wives should treat us a
certain way,
or wives feel that husbands should treat them
a certain way.
Right? Sometimes it exists as being sons or
daughters.
Often people will come up and say, well,
why should I treat my parents well? They
don't treat me well. Right? As if we're
entitled
to some sort of proper treatment or some
special treatment.
And it exists in many, many different aspects
of our life. We expect it from our
job. We expect to be treated a certain
way, and anytime we interact with someone.
Now, unfortunately, what happens is we carry this
feeling
with us
to the Hajj.
And, actually, it's one of the big tests
that exist in the Hajj.
This this concept that this feeling that actually
sneaks in into our
hearts. Now in general, what you should recognize
that this feeling is actually very dangerous,
and it's addressed in the ayah that I
just mentioned at the supreme level, you know,
at the highest level.
Allah
commands
the prophet
to say to the Bani Israel in this
particular ayah
Say to the Bani Israel that are surrounding
you at that period of time
that if you
believe
that
Darul Aqirah, the hereafter
is exclusively for you,
then wish for death if you truly and
honestly believe in this concept.
Now the feeling that had actually arisen within
the Bani Israel at that time or the
notion that had arisen within their minds was
that somehow they deserved Jannah.
That we are a chosen people,
and based on the fact that we are
a chosen people,
automatically
we're entitled to Jannah,
right? So, this was some degree of entitlement
that existed within their minds.
And here, Allah Subhanahu Wa Ta'ala
is laying forth the law
and making it very clear
that these people are not entitled to Jannah,
that there is no such
thing as entitlement to Jannah.
In fact, this even arises
in the Prophet Sallallahu Alaihi Wasallam is dealing
with his companions because, you know, from hadith
that the prophet sallallahu, they were some of
them stated to the companions that none of
you will enter Jannah based on your deeds.
So they were shocked when they heard that.
The how can it be that none of
us will enter Jannah based on our deeds?
Here we made the Hijra, and then we
made all these sacrifices. We gave up our
homes. We gave up our families. We fought
when we were called to fight upon. We
we fought when we were called to fight
for the cause of Islam, etcetera. And now
we're being told that our deeds will not
enter us into Jannah.
And then the prophet then the prophet
explained that
it is only through the mercy of Allah
that someone will enter Jannah.
Meaning, even your deeds, right, on some sort
of scale or balance do not entitle an
individual to go into Jannah. And then the
Sahaba actually put the question back to the
prophet and said,
even you. Is it true that even your
own deeds will not entitle you to go
into Jannah? And then the prophet replied in
the affirmative that, yes, it's only the mercy
of Allah
that will even place me into Jannah.
So
here is just another example
of this whole concept of of a saliq,
somebody who's sincere in their pursuit of Allah
subhanahu wa ta'ala recognizing
that at no moment did they deserve anything.
So we read it, we don't deserve anything.
Everything is Allah's mercy.
The whole earth was created through Allah's mercy,
and everything we do is through the mercy
of Allah Subhanahu Wa Ta'ala. So there is
no expectation. There's nothing we deserve. We simply
are beggars.
We're absolutely
poor and Allah
is absolutely
wealthy.
And you can't
stand in front of Allah
and claim to have anything
that would allow you or allow you to
deserve
to enter Jannah.
So this is a concept that has to
exist within a human being. And when this
concept exists within a human being, 2 things
happen. Number 1, they become very humble because
they don't expect, for example, that somebody should
not somebody should hold the door for them
when they enter into the home or somebody
should make sure that their food is warm
before it's placed on the table or somebody
should make sure that this particular item is
cooked for them on this particular day,
Right? So it makes an individual very humble
and it makes them very much at peace
with their surroundings and themselves. So that's the
first benefit of recognizing that you don't deserve
anything or we don't deserve anything.
So that and the second
the second benefit
of of recognizing this
is that then you become very dependent on
Allah Subhanahu Wa Ta'ala because you recognize that
every single moment is a new opportunity.
If an individual looks back and says, well,
wait a minute, I pray that the Hajjid
prayer, so Allah should enter me into Jannah,
it's going to be very hard for them
to continue to excel.
But if they look back and say, No,
wait a minute, everything I do Allah subhanahu
wa ta'ala can take away at any moment
and everything I've done is only because Allah
subhanahu wa ta'ala permitted it, then they're going
to strive at the next moment in order
to achieve
the most they can for that particular moment.
So, this is very important. And I'll tell
you, it totally comes to a head at
the Hajj.
Because what happens at the Hajj
and when you're making this when you're making
this trip, you need to keep this in
mind, is that people pay a set amount
of money.
And that's just gonna happen. That's invariable. That's
part of the Hajj in this day and
age. It's not like it used to be
where you simply just packed up your camel
and you just went. Right? The way the
Hajj is set up now is that you
have to pay some amount of money to
some agent.
Alright? And then you get to go to
the Hajj. And in return, you're supposed to
receive a, b, and c. But the problem
is is that people pay that money and
they get so caught up in getting
exactly what they expected that they deserve to
do to that money.
Now in any normal circumstance, that's that's fine.
For example, you go to buy a car,
they tell you that the car has this
feature, this feature, this feature. They tell you
you gotta pay $30,000 and you're gonna get
this kind of car. It's totally fine. And
it totally you have all the right in
the world to say, I paid you this
much. I deserve this much. In any other
normal transaction,
that would be okay. But in the Hajj,
it becomes very problematic.
Because what happens is, invariably,
nobody will be able to give you what
they try. Everybody makes a everybody makes their
best assessment of what they can give. And
you can ask anybody who goes on the
hudges. They'll all tell you the same thing.
Well, we didn't get this and we didn't
get this or we didn't get that or
we didn't get this. It's just not possible.
That's the way the hudges by design. It's
not possible to receive every single thing that
you
are
paying
for. So, really what an individual has to
say is I'm paying my, let's say, $5,000
and I'm just paying this for the opportunity
to go for the Hajj. If Allah opens
the door for anything else for me, that's
fine, But this $5,000 was cheap because the
opportunity to renew myself was worth 1,000,000 or
1,000,000,000 or 1,000,000,000,000 or 1,000,000,000,000 depending on how
you recognize it.
So when that attitude comes into a person,
then and only then will they be able
to see succeed in the Hajj.
And I'll tell you that someone asked Sheikh
Zulfikar,
one of the people actually
I asked I met someone who met Sheikh
Zulfikar.
So I said that, you know, the Hajj
is just coming up in a couple of
days. So did he give you any advice?
What did he tell you? Did he say
anything special about the Hajj? He said, yes.
Actually, he told me one thing about the
Hajj. So I said, okay. What was that?
He said that
if you wanna succeed in the Hajj,
right, if you wanna succeed in the Hajj,
there's one thing you have to remember.
And that is is that you are the
least deserving person to be there.
If you remember that you're the least deserving
person to be there and you can get
that concept in your mind, then your Hajj
will be okay.
Now, then you apply it and you start
thinking it. I don't know if how many
of you have gone for Hajj, but you'll
see it. For example, when you go from
for Hajj,
everybody is bumping into everybody. Okay? For example,
you're trying to make your tawaf.
Right, and everybody is knocking the person next
to them, everybody is crushing them, everybody is
trying to protect themselves, everybody is sort of
out for themselves trying to get around the
Galva 7 times and it's very crowded.
Now, what ends up happening is that people
start bumping you, people start you get jabbed
with an elbow, you get stepped on, your
your feet get stepped on, and then you
start thinking, well, why did he do that?
Or why did he bump me like that?
Or what kind of Muslim is that? He
stepped on me. Doesn't he have any manners?
Or look at these Turkish Muslims, they just
talk they they're so loud in there. They
go during the during the that nobody else
can concentrate. Don't they have any don't they
have any concern for their brothers? So these
attitudes start this attitude and these notions begin
to pop up in a person's mind, and
what should be going through our minds is,
wow,
people are stepping on me and they're elbowing
me, but actually they should have just picked
me up and thrown me out of the
masjid because I don't even deserve to be
here. If they knew the number of sins
that I performed,
they wouldn't even smile at me, let alone
raise their eyes towards me.
That's the attitude that should be going through
our minds that, subhanallah,
such a despicable human being
could be brought into that place by Allah
to be purified. It's a miracle that these
individuals don't just smell the stench of my
bad deeds and throw me out of the
masjid.
That is the attitude that you have to
have that I am the least deserving to
be there and only and only then will
you begin to succeed. Because otherwise, every problem
will become a difficulty.
Right?
When it becomes difficult in for example, you're
going on some kind of 24 hour bus
ride, which happens in the Hajj. Right? You
get into a bus, you expect the ride
to take 4 hours, it ends up taking
24 hours. Either you can sit there and
start saying, well, this took 24 hours and
now begin complaining about how the driver was
bad or how the cops in Saudi Arabia
are bad because they create all these weird
checkpoints
or how all these people are bad because
they don't, they, you know, they weren't careful
about the way they were driving or we
can begin to create a 1,000 excuses why
it took 24 hours
or instead you can sit back and say,
SubhanAllah,
it took 24 hours for me to get
from this point to this point, but I
if I would have traveled my whole lifetime
to try to get here, I wouldn't have
got here, but Allah allowed me to do
it in only 24 hours. So, subhanallah, and
be thankful to Allah
because we were the least deserving people to
be there. And that is such a difficult
attitude such a difficult attitude to get into
one's heart that
it it that actually where the challenge of
the Hajj lies.
Now, you I saw so many times and
on so many different occasions,
not people, just myself,
you know, you begin to see this thing
within yourself as well that, okay, wait a
minute, we were supposed to get this, how
come we didn't get this, right? And then
in particular, people would be carrying the list
of things that we're supposed to get with
them and checking in each stage that they
they did they receive this and did they
receive that? And then that creates a very,
very difficult scenario to benefit. What ends up
happening is that then individuals begin to talk
bad between themselves about their trip, and then
they basically are complaining about the trip. And
then what ends up happening is the next
step is that all the barakah of the
trip gets cut off.
So we have to be very particularly careful.
1, on the trip of Hajj. But 2,
just on the trip of life.
Look, if you are walking, let's say you're
walking, right?
And you eat a piece of gum,
and then you drop the wrap wrapper on
the floor,
we have to think twice when the wrapper
falls on the floor. Sometimes, we don't even
drop it. Sometimes, it's just something falls out
of our pocket by accident and we know
it fell out of our pocket, but we
just keep on walking. But actually we should
be thinking twice, who's my servant that's gonna
go and pick this up? And how on
the day of judgment am I gonna answer
that this person had to pick up my
garbage? Was he my servant? Right? Because what
do we expect? That somebody else is gonna
go and pick up our garbage?
It happens all it happens often. When an
individual gets this attitude that they need to
serve and not be served, then these challenges
begin to arise regularly and you'll see them
arising regularly. Whether it be dropping a wrapper
on the floor by accident as you pull
something out of your pocket, whether it be
parking in the parking lot when we know
that the parking lot is gonna be full
anyway. So, why not park someplace else? Well,
we can why came first so I deserve
to park here. Right? So we have all
these different ways by which we justify what
we're entitled to, but the reality is is
that we're entitled to nothing.
It's Allah's mercy if we can end up
in the Masjid.
Right? And we should be thankful every single
time that we end up in the Masjid.
It's Allah's mercy if we can end up
at the Hajj. It's Allah's mercy that we
even practice the deen. I'll tell you, it's
not uncommon, and you'll meet these people, and
I know them, and I've seen it with
my own eyes that someone will be flying
along, bam, they'll hit some kind of,
stop, and those just go flat on the
floor, and they'll lose what they were practicing
because you never know. You never know when
Allah
will turn one's fate.
It's clear from Hadith where the prophet mentioned
that there will be a person who does
all the deeds of Jannah.
And then right before his death, he's a
hair span according to the Hadith. He's a
hair span away from his death, and then
he does one deed that puts him into
Jannah.
So where is the entitlement there? That's the
attitude of the believer. That's the fear that
exists in the believer that I am not
entitled to anything.
I'm just totally dependent on Allah's mercy. At
any moment, he can do anything he wants
with me and it makes no difference to
him. That's the other thing. It's not like
my mom where if some if I get
hurt, she's gonna care. Allah Subhanahu Wa Ta'ala
doesn't have the need to care for us.
He cares for us out of his mercy.
It doesn't hurt him. See, if I get
hurt, my mom, she feels bad. Inside, she's
gonna feel bad for me. If my child
gets sick, I feel bad for my son
or I feel bad for my daughter. It
hurts me as well and perhaps that's why
I even care because I don't sit and
worry about my generations
500 years down the line. I worry about
the generation before me
probably because I see it directly within before
my own eyes, and that's what hurts
me. But
Allah
is not dependent on our praise.
Allah
is not dependent on us in any way.
It doesn't make any difference to him if
all of creation goes to the hellfire or
if all of creation goes to Jannah. It's
only his mercy that actually
creates that concern within him because he's so
above us and so beyond us. It's like
one time a scholar gave an example
that when you if there's ants in your
home and you spray raid, you don't sit
and feel bad that these many ants died.
You actually are happy. The more that die,
the more that get killed, the cleaner the
kitchen's gonna be. Right? And that's because the
ant compared to you, there's such a huge
difference.
Right? You don't see the ant as you
see yourself or as you see another human
being.
Now, if there's that much difference between us
and ants and we're both living, we're both
created, we both eat, we both reproduce, then
what do you think the difference is between
us and Allah when there is no similarity
between us?
Allah
has absolutely zero similarity with human being.
No no way can you create any similarity
between any aspect of creation.
That's how high Allah
is.
So, how can we sit there and sit
and think, well, I'm automatically
entitled to Jannah.
No one is automatically entitled to Jannah, and
that's the attitude that you have to carry
towards the Hajj. And it's the attitude that
actually have to carry throughout life, but it
really
bring comes out in the Hajj. It really
begins to come out because that's actually where
the vast majority of the American *'s conflict
is. Now you see that there's the Pakistani
*, there's the Indian *, there's the African
*, they spent their whole life saving.
They spent their whole life saving to get
to that place. You put them there, they're
smiling. You can do anything you want to
them after that. Makes no difference. They will
sleep in the street. Doesn't matter, bus we
came to Hajj, alhamdulillah.
Allah brought us to His house Alhamdulillah.
So with those kind of people, their challenge
is different and they have to face their
own challenges and they speak of their own
challenges, but they spent their whole life getting
there that they feel no entitlement. They're just
thankful that Allah gave them the opportunity to
just see the Kaaba with their eyes. They've
never seen it. They heard that there was
this beautiful
structure called the Kaaba and that people they
circle around it and that this is where
Islam was established and where the prophet
originally lived, etcetera. They hear all these stories,
but they had never seen it themselves.
So for them, they just go there and
they just see it and they're just so
happy, so happy that it didn't matter that
they spent their whole life saving
and that they paid whatever amount that they
paid. They throw everything out the window and
they say, Alhamdulillah,
we're here.
The all the time, all the effort, all
the money, etcetera, and we're here. Okay. The
American *, they take 1 paycheck,
2 paychecks maybe, 2, 3 months worth of
effort and all of a sudden
they're asking at that they're they're in front
of the GABA. And in front of the
GABA, they're asking which hotel am I gonna
have? Which side is my room gonna face?
Which kind of bed am I gonna have?
And all these issues begin arising within the
mind of the person because,
again, there's this entitlement like we deserved to
come.
We earned the money. We saved the money.
We paid for the trip. We deserve to
come.
So, the big advice,
this is the biggest advice is that when
an individual
goes for the Hajj,
they should recognize that they're entitled to nothing.
Now, I'm not saying that, okay, well, you
should just, you know, give whatever you want
to whatever agent and it doesn't matter what
they do and then that's it and then
you go for the Hajj. But I'll tell
you where the scrutiny comes, it comes before
you make the trip.
So what you do is you go do
your research,
you ask the different agents what they offer,
you ask the agents how they've done in
the past, you talk to other people
about
what is going to what has occurred in
the past with that group.
Alright? And then once you've done all your
homework,
you commit to the group, and then after
that, you just assume that the only thing
I'm paying for is to get to the
Kaaba. If the person gets me to the
Kaaba and puts me in Arafa on 9th,
done. Khalas. I'm happy. That's it. Anything more?
Alhamdulillah.
Do you have to reduce yourself to that
level? Once you reduce yourself to that level,
then everything above will be a means of
thinking Allah Subhanahu Wa Ta'ala.
And I'll tell you that even if you
do all the research,
it still won't necessarily
give you everything that you're expecting, so that's
why you have to have that attitude. I
mean, it happened in our group as well.
I spent 6 years researching our group. I
checked, I checked, I talked to so many
people, I was regularly checking, and I expected
certain things certain challenges to not arise, certain
challenges to arise, but when we got there,
we had our own set of challenges,
it was going to happen. And actually what
people didn't recognize
was that everybody brought their own challenge with
them.
That's the funny thing, is that when 40
people go on such a journey,
everyone brings their own weaknesses with them. Everybody
brings their own test with them. So when
they come together, if there's one person that's
impatient, when the test comes on that one
person, because it's a group, all 40 have
to go through it.
Alright? If there's another person that gets angry
very easily, when the test comes on that
one person, then all 40 have to handle
it together.
Everybody brought with them their own test.
SubhanAllah. It was just so strange.
We missed we were in Germany for 1
night because we missed our connecting flight. Okay?
The next day, everybody was panicking about how
they're gonna get on that on that flight
because there was no space.
They told us very clearly there's no way
there's gonna be any space. They told us
that this is a standby flight. It's very
unlikely. It's overbooked,
and everybody began to panic. How are they
going to get on their flight? So now
everybody began seeking out their own ways. Right?
This is how it is. On the day
of judgment, it's the same way.
Etcetera.
Right? So everybody began to just get into
their own panic. Now, everybody was worried about,
am I gonna get on the plane? And
everybody was worried about, how am I gonna
guarantee myself that I get on the plane?
Right? Now, what was Ajib is that everybody
went through all of that test, everybody got
tried in their own way, everybody reacted in
their own way, and in the end, every
single person got on the plane. In fact,
when the lady was handing out the standby
passes, before she even handed out the passes,
she just stood and said, all of you
are on the plane.
Before she even handed out the passes.
Now from that actually we learned 2 things.
Number 1, you begin to see what's gonna
happen if that was the state for getting
on one simple plane to get home when
everyone was gonna get home anyway. And when
everybody got home then they recognized that it
wasn't such a big deal that they got
home because they would have gotten there anyway.
If that was the state to get on
the plane then what's going to happen on
a day of judgment when hellfire is raised
before people, right, and Jannah is raised before
people and then everybody is freaking out about
which way they're gonna go. So that was
the first thing that started running through my
mind is that if these feelings are starting
to come in me now and I'm starting
to feel this way that how am I
gonna get on this plane? And what's gonna
happen to me on that day?
Right? So the only way to be saved
on that day is the mercy of Allah
Subhanahu Wa Ta'ala. We know very clearly in
Hadith that the vast majority of people will
be running around in a panic.
Such a panic such a panic that they
will begin to say to themselves.
We don't even care whether we're going to
Jannah or Jahannam. We just want the day
of judgment to get started because we can't
stand the waiting.
And it comes in hadith that people will
say this to themselves, that it's just too
much. We can't take this anymore. Just start
the day of judgment, put us put us
in hellfire, it doesn't matter, but just start.
So, they'll go from prophet to prophet to
prophet with that request. Not that we go
to Jannah, but can you beg Allah to
just start the day of judgment because we're
just so panicked about it? So every prophet
will be asked, none of them will be
able to produce,
that at that particular moment, and then the
prophet will be asked at the end, he'll
go into sajdah, and he'll read a certain
hamdah that no one had ever recited before
about Allah
based on that hammed, the day of judgment
will start.
Now that's the issue of getting just the
day of judgment started. Then imagine what's gonna
happen when it starts, you start seeing this
guy gets put into Jahannam and everyone begins
to see that actually there really will be
people placed in Jahannam. And this guy gets
put into jannah and you begin to see
that people really are being placed in jannah
and you begin to see that this person
based on these deeds is being placed here
and pay this person based on these deeds
is playing he's placed here and then you
start running like crazy through your mind your
whole life starting to panic and wonder which
deed is gonna outweigh which deed and where
am I gonna end up. And on that
day, there's not gonna be any backup system.
There won't be any I knew this person
so I got on the plane or I
knew that person so I got on the
plane. That day will be just you and
Allah
But at the same time,
we also know from hadith that there will
be certain groups of people that will be
very peaceful on that day,
very peaceful on that day. In fact, they
will be sitting in the shade of Allah
throne just relaxing,
Saying, oh, we just have to relax here
for a few moments. When Allah decides to
put us into our next phase, he'll put
us into our next phase. And you can
go through hadith and you can read about
those people, but that's the one thing that
started going through my mind during that phase
of the journey.
Then the second thing that actually went through
my mind at that phase of the journey
when everybody was panicking to get on the
plane
was the statement of the prophet where he
said that I will not enter Jannah until
all of my Ummah enters Jannah.
Then and only then will I enter into
Jannah.
Then the power of that statement actually comes
into play where you start thinking, SubhanAllah,
if you know if this is how the
Prophet would have been you know, okay after
everybody gets on the plane then not only
then will I get on the plane. Now
that's a plane, it's just a simplistic thing.
But you think about Jannah and you think
about Jahannam, and our scholars were
so deep in this notion
that when they used to sin, they used
to cry.
And you know what you they used to
say?
They used to say that because of my
sin, I feel bad. I myself deserve to
go to * fire.
But I feel bad now because it's going
to take longer for judgment to occur. So,
I'm now delaying the prophet Sallallahu Alaihi Wasallam
from going into Jannah.
That was the sadness that used to exist.
They used to think about their sins in
that way. That was the attachment
that they had with the prophet Sallallahu Alaihi
Wasallam.
You can only begin to imagine, I mean,
what kind of concern
the Prophet Sallallahu Alaihi Wasallam has for each
of his community
that on that day when every when all
of the purpose of all of creation comes
to a head, right? I mean, the whole
reason why we're existing and that day, if
if it said that we go to Jannah,
you're not gonna look back.
You know, when it said that, okay,
you know,
brother Zayd,
Jannah.
Brother Zayd is not gonna look back and
wonder where his wife and where his family,
where he's going to run straight into Jannah.
On that day he's going to run straight
into Jannah, but you know who's gonna be
looking back is the prophet shalallahu alaihi wasallam.
He's going to sit back and look back
after your son, your daughter, your wife, your
child, you'll be running straight to Jannah.
And 1 by 1, when the names are
called and people are running to Jannah or
people are running to Jahannam, the prophet will
stand there and he will wait and in
any occasion possible, he will make intercession.
That, wait a minute, wait a minute, this
person at least took my name, this person
at least resembled me, this person at least
followed my sunnah, this person at least attended
a certain gathering. He will wait
and make every intercession possible
so much so that even the people in
Jahannam eventually will hopefully be taken out of
Jahannam and placed into Jannah.
Then the prophet will enter into Jannah.
Now, you have to just imagine the concern,
the love that such an individual has for
his community.
So, these are the types of things you
have to recognize. These are the types of
things that come up and had see every
moment in house was actually a learning experience.
People saw this, saw this as a big
headache, our travel agent messed up everything, you
know, he should have gotten these flights like
this and he should have gotten these flights
like this, and everybody starts putting in their
2¢ about how the travel agent messed up
everything. But
actually, these were all lessons that we had
to learn. That group of 40 people or
30 people or 10 people, whoever went on
the Hajj, they had to learn these lessons.
So what was gonna happen? Allah was going
to test them in the way that Allah
wanted to test them in order for them
to learn these lessons. It didn't matter who
the travel agent is, it could have been
the most responsible human being on earth
because we had to learn those lessons. That
was it. That was the way it was
created. That was the way the Hajj was
designed.
So,
everybody has to go through these trials. In
fact, it even comes back into my mind
that Sheikh Zulfikar told me that when his
teacher used to go for the Hajj that
on one occasion now they used to go
for the Hajj in boat by boat, right?
So those boats would take sometimes 3 weeks,
4 weeks to land in Jeddah.
Now, when the boat docks in Jeddah,
his, teacher, his Sheikh used to say that
on one occasion
when our boat docked into Jeddah, they said
they came on the boat and everybody, you
know, like when you get on the plane
and the plane lands even before that fastened
seat belt light comes off, everybody starts getting
out and taking their bags and rushing towards
the door because they just went off that
plane and they've been on there for what,
8 hours? So he said that we when
the person came to greet us from the
land onto the boat,
we all got up ready to leave and
then he made the announcement
that for 3 days and 3 nights no
one can get off this boat.
Why? Because people are bringing disease like the
plague and other types of diseases into Saudi
Arabia. So we need to see if any
diseases on on this boat.
Meaning, you are all just one big petri
dish. Right? If the disease is there, it'll
just kill you all off. And we won't
have to worry about you. And if it's
not there, then you can get off the
boat.
So it was after 3 days, they said
for 3 days, we were looking from the
boat that Jeddah is right there.
And we can't get off the boat because
we're waiting because of the fact that they
need to check us for disease.
Now imagine the difficulties that used to exist
for the Hajj, they will always exist. They
will always exist. That's the way it's designed,
and you have to recognize that that is
part of the journey.
So my big advice to you big, big
advice to you is that, okay, fine. When
you're planning your journey but I'll tell the
number one thing is you will need to
look for your company. It everything is based
on who you're with. So when you're planning
your journey, you have to go and start
analyzing all these things. Like, okay, what is
how much do I have to pay? And
what am I supposed to get? And how
are you gonna organize the package? And then
you talk to everybody and you say, okay,
this brother took you last year, what was
your opinion? You ask somebody else, what was
your opinion? In the end, you're gonna be
able to select out the best. Right? Because
nobody's perfect. Only Allah is perfect, and to
expect anything more is just ridiculous.
So you select out the best. After you
selected out the best, you make your payment
and you say, Alhamdulillah.
That's it. If this individual gets me to
Arafa on 9th and takes me and allows
me to make my tawaf around the Kaaba,
he's done his responsibility and I'm happy. Anything
else is from Allah, anything else is extra.
And then, sit back and try to learn
from each of the events because things will
go wrong. They will definitely go wrong. At
every step, they will go wrong, and they
will go wrong in ways that no one
anticipated.
But every time that happens, it's meant to
teach some lesson
to some reason. Allah willed it. Allah doesn't
will harsh,
severity on his servants for no reason.
Everything occurs for a reason. Everything occurs to
teach us a lesson. So may Allah
give us a Tawfiq
to be regular in the journey to his
home, and may he give us a Tawfiq
to recognize that all of what we have
is based on the mercy of Allah, and
that none of it is based on any
disease, any any deed that we've ever presented
to Allah Subhanahu Wa Ta'ala. May he give
us a tawfiq to be among those who
are able to see not only ourselves go
into Jannah, but our family members and our
community members, and may he make us among
those who often be get an opportunity to
visit his home.