Husain Sattar – Lessons from a tree
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AI: Transcript ©
When you spend time with the
people who do the dhikr of Allah Subhanahu
Wa Ta'ala,
then
you become privy to their insights
concerning the world around them.
And
they, subhanallah,
see the whole world
as a reminder
of Allah
or as a reminder of his deen.
And when you sit with them,
because they see everything
as a manifestation of Allah
you begin to learn how to use the
world as a mechanism to remind you of
Allah In other words and what basically the
world then becomes like a dasbih.
Now, you know, when we want to be
reminded to do the dhikr of Allah, we
keep in our a lot of people in
their pockets, they keep a dasbih
And that desfir has 33
beads or, you know, a 100 beads and
33, 33, 34.
And people use this as a means to
remind themselves to do the dhikr of Allah.
But the reality is that the entire creation
is a big despot.
And when a person interacts with that creation,
it should remind them
to remember Allah
We were once sitting with Sheikh Zulfiqar who,
obviously, you're aware of my Sheikh,
and
myself,
my wife,
and I think maybe it was the 2
of us or maybe it was one other
person. 3 of us were sitting.
And Sheikh Zulfiqar
was talking to us
about
a tree
and all of the signs of of Allah
subhanahu wa ta'ala that a believer can take
from the tree
and all of the signs of the deen
that a believer can take from the tree.
And I remember it was a very long
list. And, you know, I made the mistake
of not having a pen and paper at
that time when he was speaking,
but it was a very long list.
And
afterwards,
I was just scrambling to jot down some
of the points that he made.
And some of them I had written
down and I have written in front of
me, and so I'll share those with you.
But
the way that they look at Allah's creation
is so different than the way that the
average person looks at Allah's creation. We drive
by thousands of trees and don't think once.
They drive by one tree and think a
1000 times.
It's a big difference. We drive by a
1000 trees
and don't think once.
They pass by one tree and they think
a 1000 times.
So he was talking about
learning to read the signs of Allah Subhanahu
Wa Ta'ala and how the universe is a
reminder of Allah Subhanahu Wa Ta'ala
and how even just a tree, a simple
tree, would be an example of that.
So he said that one of the things
about the tree,
which is very interesting about the tree,
is that the tree takes from the ground
and it gives to other people.
A tree
takes from the ground
a limited amount,
and then it gives to other people.
And this is exactly the way the believer
should be.
They should take from the ground. They should
take from whatever they have available to them.
And they should their primary focus is to
give to other people.
Now a believer,
what they do is whatever resources they have
available to them,
they use it as a means to serve
others.
They are always looking to to give.
And as I mentioned a few days ago,
they will take very little.
So this was one sign that he he
presented and he gave a lot of detail
about, but I remember him saying particularly that
we should be like trees. We should take
from the ground, and we should give to
other people.
Then he was continuing and, subhanallah, the the
points get deeper and deeper. But he said,
another interesting thing about a tree
is that it's one half hidden, one half
visible.
A tree when you look at a tree,
half of the tree is hidden
and the other half of the tree is
visible.
So he said that, in the same way,
the believer
should remain half hidden
and half visible.
What's really going on with the believer should
be hidden. The The vast majority of people
should not know. Our deeds should remain hidden.
We should when we do things, we should
try to keep our deeds hidden. We don't
need the world to appreciate us. We don't
need to show the world what we're doing.
Most part of us is hidden, but there
will be part of us that's visible. We
have to pray in Jannah.
You have to give you have to give
your zakah to somebody. They'll know that you
gave your zakah to somebody. You come into
Etikah, people will see that you came into
Etikah.
So just as a tree is half hidden
and half visible,
the believer should also be half hidden and
half visible.
Then he gave another beautiful example, which
many people make this mistake,
and especially in our youth, we should appreciate.
He said much before the tree becomes visible,
it first establishes its roots.
Much before the tree becomes visible,
it first establishes
its roots.
Now,
as believers,
what we have to recognize is that
we have to spend a lot of time
developing ourselves
before we take on the responsibility
of
the community or the people around us. Yeni,
we have to establish
deep roots
before we even think about making ourselves visible.
Now you see, in this day and age,
a person learns 5 hadith, and they want
their lecture to be on YouTube.
They will start lecturing to the wall, and
they'll record it, and they'll put it on
YouTube.
The person knows nothing.
They have they have no roots, and they
want to become a big, tall tree.
I think if you look at anybody who's
serious about any aspect of
the the development in this world,
they spend decades developing themselves before they even
sprout a leaf.
For example, somebody wants to become a physician.
They go to school for how long? I
mean, they go to undergrad. Nobody knows who
they are. They go to medical school for
4 years. They work day night. Nobody knows
who they are.
They eventually go to residency. They work day
night. They interact with very few people, and
they're they're always dependent on the person above
them.
You know, after
almost a decade of training, more than a
decade of training,
then eventually, one day, they get to touch
a patient. But look how many routes they
have to lay down before they make themselves
visible and try to benefit a single person.
And if that's the matter of being a
physician of this life,
what about being a physician of the hereafter,
being a physician of the soul?
If we truly desire to benefit people in
being,
then one of the most important things that
we have to do before we try to
make ourselves visible is develop very, very deep
roots.
You don't just become a scholar by reading
5 hadith and memorizing a few lectures on
the Internet.
And then now you want to go and
you wanna give a lecture to your parents,
and then you wanna give a lecture to
your spouse, and then you wanna give a
lecture to your neighbor, and you wanna give
a lecture to the youth group.
You have to develop
very deep roots before you even think about
growing into a tall invisible tree.
So that's a very important aspect of our
development. And again, this is just a sign
from Allah subhanahu wa ta'ala. Every time we
look at a tree, we should think that
this is just what's this is just the
visible of it, what's invisible.
Another important sign of that's seen in a
tree is that the tree stands totally still
despite the varying seasons.
Centuries will pass and a tree stands absolutely
still despite the fact that there sometimes is
a winter and sometimes there's a summer.
So in the same way is the iman
of a true believer.
Sometimes there's winter, sometimes there's summer, sometimes there's
fall, sometimes there's spring, sometimes it's windy, sometimes
it's the it's calm, sometimes it's raining, you
know, spiritually.
But the believer stands totally still.
In fact, if you look at the tree
and you see how look at the piyam
of the tree, how it just stands absolutely
still despite all of these variations that,
that afflict it. In the same way should
our should should be our kliyam when we
stand in prayer.
No, we we'd stand in prayer for 5
minutes. We should be absolutely still while we
stand in our prayer.
So this is another sign present in a
tree that the tree
remains
in its state
despite all of the turmoil. But why? Because
it grew very deep roots.
If there's no roots to the tree, it'll
get uplifted with a simple wind.
But, of course, if there's very deep roots
and the tree is established,
it can withstand many, many, many different seasons.
And that's another reason why we when we
develop ourselves in deen, we don't, you know,
we're not just the it's we're not it's
not just the flavor of the day. We
you really have to develop yourselves in ourselves
in deen. We have to spend time doing
zikr and be consistent and develop very, very
strong very, very strong roots before we actually
expose ourselves to the seasons of this life.
Another beautiful example beautiful example
is that the value of a tree is
based on the fruit that it produces.
The value of a tree
is based on the fruit that it produces.
In the same way, the value of the
believer is based on the deeds that it
produces.
If there's a if there's a barren tree,
it's supposed to produce apples, it doesn't produce
anything, nobody gives it a second look.
If there's a barren believer, it's supposed to
produce good deeds, but doesn't produce good deeds,
nobody will give it a second look.
So the value of the believer is totally
dependent on
the deeds that they produce.
Our acts of Ibadah,
these are the example that I give is
that our acts of Ibadah, these are potential
energy.
And potential energy needs to be converted into
kinetic energy before you take benefit from it.
You know, potential and kinetic energy from physics
people are now shrieking because they have to
remember what they did in school. You know,
when you take a kid and you draw
the swing back and you hold the swing
before you release it, you've loaded it with
potential energy.
But no child is going to enjoy that
until you let them go. Then you develop
kinetics
based on the based on the potential energy
that you fed into that swing.
So in the same way, our deeds are
potential energy, but we have to convert them
to the kinetics of sadhaka, to the kinetics
of
taking care of others, to the kinetics of
treating people well, having good manners, etcetera. These
are the kinetics and these are the things
that are rewarded in the
But the Muslim is the one who is
who other Muslims are protected from his hands
and his tongue,
Right? So again, what's being judged? It's the
deeds where that that definition of a Muslim
doesn't say the Muslim is the one who
prays, the Muslim is the one who fast.
So many of the hadith that define the
Muslim and the Mu'min, they define the Muslim
and the Mu'min based on the deeds that
they produce.
So
we should make every effort to take the
potential energy that we generate through our acts
of ibadah and to convert them into the
kinetic energy of good deeds.
We are people who serve every single opportunity
we can. We seek to find opportunities to
serve.
We are looking to find opportunities to spend
our wealth. We want opportunities to spend our
wealth to arise in front of us so
that we can have the opportunity to feed
the poor. We can have the opportunity to
help those who are in dire need. We
have the opportunity to clothe the one that
doesn't have clothing. We have the opportunity to
alleviate the
difficulties of of Allah's creation.
And I've stated to you before, I mean,
the greatest example of the ability to take
potential energy and to convert it into kinetics
is the line in the hadith
after the line that describes the month of
Ramadan in 3 phases. Right? We talked about
the fact that the month of Ramadan, the
first of it is Rahma, the second of
it is Maghfirah, and the third of it
is It's going to be an nahr. And
immediately after that line, the next line in
the hadith is that whoever alleviates a difficulty
from somebody in the month of Ramadan,
their neck is freed from the hellfire.
Highlighting that a person who figures out that
the the potential energy of their fast a
person who converts the potential energy of their
fast into the kinetics of of taking
a difficulty from anyone and alleviating it, they
free themselves from the hellfire.
So we seek opportunities. We seek opportunities to
serve. We don't seek opportunities to be served.
And the classic,
idea in our culture is that we should
be served. You know, everything is customer service,
and I'm the customer, and I deserve this,
and I, I, I, I, I. It's all
about me. But we're totally the other way.
We want every opportunity to serve.
We and when we're done serving, we don't
want anyone to thank us. We thank them
for giving us that chance.
When somebody comes to you and you do
them a good deed, you don't say, yeah.
My name is this and this and remember
my name and, you know, I I will
do it for you next time. You say
thank you for creating the opportunity because my
neck was bound to hellfire and there needed
to be somebody who was in in a
in a unfortunate circumstance and because you carried
that burden on your shoulder, I'm able to
free myself.
Allah chose you to undergo some difficulty and
created an opportunity for me. Thank you for
bearing it with patience
because I needed the opportunity more than anyone
in the world.
So we look at our wealth, we look
at our time, we look at our bodily
energy, we look at the intellect that Allah
gave us, and we use it solely to
alleviate the difficulty
of other human beings.
Just as a tree
produces its fruit and the value of the
tree is based on its fruit produced, if
it's very sweet
and good fruit, the tree is very valuable.
And if it is a tree that doesn't
produce anything and is and is barren, then
nobody pays it any attention.
So in the same way, if we are
want to have value on the day of
judgment, it will be based on our deeds.
And we should make an effort to produce
as many deeds as possible.
And then the final example that I could
remember, although he he mentioned many more, is
that when people want to get the fruit
from a tree, they often use sticks
to to to to hit the tree. You
know, a person sees fruit on the tree,
they'll take a stick and throw it at
the tree in order to attain its fruit.
And often a believer will have to be
take the beating of some sticks
despite the fact that,
in order to allow other people to take
benefit from their fruits.
And this is the very classic common thing
as well. You'll see somebody does a good
deed and they say that, you know, I'm
I'm the person that got stepped on. A
nice guy always finishes last.
You know, people treat me this way and,
you know, I'm I'm always being taken advantage
of. And why do I have to be
patient and everybody just takes advantage of me?
But that's just the nature of
being a person of Deen.
You take a lot of hits and you
take that beating and you realize
that that beating is part of your being
close to Allah Subhanahu Wa Ta'ala.
One time somebody came and
the prophet was the most important thing to
him in the world, and he's being criticized
in front of the Messenger.
And it was untrue.
So, he finally responded. And when he responded,
the prophet stood up and left.
So, Abu Bakr alaihi wasallam was concerned that
how come the prophet alaihi wasallam stood up
and left after I responded?
And so then he went to Rasulullah Sallallahu
Alaihi wasallam and he asked the prophet alaihi
wasallam what was the issue? And the prophet
said, when you were quiet, the angels were
defending you.
Until finally, when you said something, the angels
left, so I left as well.
So, this is the nature
of being a person of Deen and having
patience. People will say things, people will will
do things, people will bother you, people will
take advantage of you and push you the
wrong way and rub you the wrong way.
And that's just part part of part of
the, part of how it works. One time,
prophet
received
the spoils from a battle
and when he distributed, he distributed the spoils
and one of the not one of the
companions, but one of the people in that
region
made a comment
that, you know, the prophet didn't distribute this
fair in a fair manner.
And the word somebody somebody said somebody heard
it and said, I'm gonna tell the prophet
sallallahu alaihi wasalam. So, they went and told
the prophet sallallahu alaihi wasalam he was so
hurt.
He was so hurt, and he became very
angry.
And then he said, Musa, alaihis salam, endured
more
from his people, so I will remain patient.
But, you know, I mean, he because of
his being in that position, he had to
take a he took a hit. You know,
he took the criticism of people
when he didn't have to. He was doing
this for the sake of the people. He
he could live his own life and just
be in a corner somewhere and never have
to
expose himself to the criticisms of people and
to the, you know, foolish statements that people
make and the, you know, the disregard that
people have and the fact that people people
don't know how to treat others well. But
the nature of being in a position where
you benefit people is that you're going to
get stepped up. It it happens. It's just
part of it.
And and and that's acceptable
if you realize the reason for which you
do what you do. And I have seen
so many examples, and I don't have time
to go in them. I mean, there are
so many examples that I have seen in
my life where people get stuff done because
they serve.
But that's the nature of the tree as
well. The tree has fruit, and so people
throw sticks at it to get the fruit.
Now, I mean, the tree is getting hit
with sticks,
but people are trying to get the fruit.
It's just part of the process.
So there will be circumstances where a person
who serves will be stepped down, will be
taken advantage of, but the person who serves
can never be taken advantage of because Allah
knows the truth about every circumstance, and the
person expects a reward from Allah and Allah
alone.
Anyway, these are just some of the lessons
that, you know, a believer,
particularly a pious believer,
learns when they
look at the tree. And that's just one
small tree that just happens to we happen
to drive by 100 in a day. And
imagine
how believers interact with the other signs. And
we spent so much time last night talking
about the value of learning how to read
the universe and the value of taking lessons
from the universe and the value of,
of appreciating the creation of Allah
and how it puts us in a constant
state of remembrance.
So, we ask
Allah that he give us a Tawfiq to
be among those who appreciate his signs. And
we ask Allah
that he make us among those who remember
him, whether we're standing, whether we're sitting, or
whether we're lying on our sides.