Iqbal Gora – A Quality That Will Net You Ten Distinct Rewards From Your Creator
AI: Summary ©
The speaker discusses the characteristics of Islam, including the pursuit of the straight path, consistency, and the use of the word "verbal" to describe actions. They stress the difficulty of achieving these goals and the need for individuals to consider their circumstances and decide their actions accordingly. The importance of praying for the five-day daily prayers of Sh consequence, doing the obligation of fasting, and reciting the Quran for deeds is emphasized, along with the importance of not being one of those who have a heart disease and finding blessings in life.
AI: Summary ©
Allah subhanahu wa ta'ala tells us in the
Quran
about a particular quality,
that if a person possesses this particular quality,
it would net a person no less than
10 distinct rewards.
It would net a person no less than
10 distinct rewards from Allah subhanahu wa ta'ala.
Allah subhanahu wa ta'ala says in the Quran
regarding the person that gets this reward. He
says about them,
In these verses, Allah Subhanahu Wa Ta'ala mentions
all of these rewards for again the person
that possesses this unique quality or trait. He
says about them that the nazalu alayhim al
malaija,
the angels will descend upon them. As we
know when a person is passing away, as
Allah Subhanahu Wa Ta'ala says in
Allah tells us in the
Quran that when the soul has reached the
collarbone or the throat, the soul is in
the throat.
And you're waiting around staring on at this
person, wa'antumhayna
idintangdhun.
And you are waiting for this person, there's
nothing you can do at this person at
this time to help this individual.
Allah
says,
we are nearer to them, meaning the angels,
although you cannot see them.
So angels will descend upon a soul when
a person is passing away, and they will
tell this particular soul. They
will
say, Oh, oh tranquil soul, oh peaceful soul,
Come out to the mercy of Allah Subha
Ta'ala and his pleasure. And in another narration
it says,
Ohruji
That it will be said to this person
that come out and be praised and come
out in a state in which you are
going to get provision
and you are going to be in a
state of rest and with your Lord who
is not angry. So that the nazalu alayhim
wal malaika.
Not only this, Allah subhanahu wa ta'ala says
and he goes on to say about this
person again who possesses this quality.
These angels they will tell them that do
not fear, meaning what? All of us have
a natural fear of death and these angels
will tell you don't fear as to what
is coming in the grave or on Qiyama
or in Jannah that do not have any
fear, we are going to absolve you of
any of this, they are going to give
you that sense of contentment.
Allah takhafu walataazanu
and at the same time do not grieve
because many of us we may not fear
dying ourself but we might have children, we
might fear that if we pass away what
will happen to them? The angels will tell
you, walatahzanoo,
do not grieve about what is happening, what
you have left behind, do not feel saddened
we will take care of your descendants
after you are gone.
And be given glad tidings of Jannah
that you are promised and this glad tiding
will be given to you at the moment
of death in the grave and when you
are
when you are resurrected.
Thereafter, Allah Subhanahu Wa Ta'ala does not stop
there.
He says,
We will be your protectors in his dunya
that nobody can harm you. As in Nabi
Surah alaihi mentioned in the hadith Qudsi where
Allah subhanahu wa ta'ala himself says,
Whoever harms one of my close friends, I
will wage war on them. The angels will
protect you from committing any haram as well.
That
not only this,
they will assist you in the as well,
they will be a companion for you. And
one of those things about the grave is
that it is lonely, and we should make
the dua,
wakhshana fyaqudurila
that oh Allah you alleviate our loneliness in
that grave when we are by ourselves in
that darkness when it is squeezing us. So
in that moment the angel will be a
companion for you in that moment as well.
Not only that, when you are resurrected
they will be a companion with you. Not
only that, they will be a companion with
you when you are crossing the bridge of
Al Sirat up until you enter Jannah. These
angels will be beside you if you possess
this particular
quality.
In Jannah you can have whatever it is
that your heart desires. You simply feel as
though you want something and you will get
it immediately.
As it is mentioned the hadith of an
Nabi sua Salaam, the injannah
are things that the eyes has not seen,
the ears have not heard, and the heart
has not even felt or comprehended or conceptualized
that this could be a thing, this will
be given to you just as you desire
when you get to Jannah. Not only that,
In Jannah you simply make dua and it
comes to you. In this life if you
want something you need to make the provision,
you need to make the money, you need
to book your ticket, you need to call
someone to get to the thing, you need
to build it yourself. In Jannah, you simply
make dua and it will appear right in
front of you. Not only that, Allah Subhanahu
Wa Ta'ala says, This
will be an accommodation
from Al Ghafoor and Al Raheem, which shows
us that one of those rewards you will
get from this is the of Allah Subha
Ta'ala, that he will cover up your deeds,
and he will give you that special rahma,
that special mercy afforded to the believers as
it is known in the word or the
name that he has given himself, Al Rahim,
meaning that there's a special mercy granted to
the believer, al Rahman is a general one,
but al Rahim is a special
mercy granted to the believer in the
akhir. So now you're probably wondering what is
this
characteristic
that Allah Subhaana Wa Ta'ala is describing with
all of these ten rewards. Allah Subhaana Wa
Ta'ala predicates all of these rewards by the
statement,
That the one that believes and says,
My Lord is Allah
Then they have Istiqamah.
What is the quality of Istiqamah?
Istiqamah is the pursuit of Asiratul Mustaqeem. In
the Badi how we say Ihdinas Siratul Mustaleem,
O Allah guide us to the straight path.
Al Isti Qama is the pursuit of that.
Meaning you are not wavering from moment to
moment based on your circumstance or situation
that you find yourself in life. But what
you do is you have istiqaamah or steadfastness
is the the pursuit
of the straight path. And as it is
mentioned also in regards to istikama,
that once a man by the name of
Sufyan ibn Abdulaz Taqafi, they came to the
Prophet Sallallahu Alaihi Wasallam and he said,
that teach me something about Islam or tell
me something about Islam that I will not
need to ask anyone else after you have
passed away. It will be enough for me
to have this one statement.
What did An Nabi salawahu alaihi wa sallam
advise? He said, ul amantubillah
thum mastakim.
Say that I I believe in Allah
and then be steadfast. Do not waver. Do
not falter based on the trials and tribulations
of life.
When it comes to this issue of Istiqaamah
as well, it is something which is not
easy. That is why the scholars, they say,
fowgal charama.
That having istiqama or steadfastness or consistency
is above the level of a miracle. We
believe that in Islam the early Muslims, those
that were close to Allah Subha Ta'ala,
from among the prophets they would have more
ajazat or miracles granted to them. But among
the those that were not prophets they would
have another type of miracle known as qawamat.
For example, we know that Khalid ibn Walid
radiAllahu an on one occasion he drank a
vial of poison and he recited a dua,
Bismillahilladillahiadurumashmiin
shayo finarudiwala bis Samah, and he was not
harmed by this. So this is a type
of miracle that a person who was close
to Allah Subha Ta'ala could be afforded. But
the scholars they say that consistency
and being steadfast is so difficult. If you
are granted this, it is above the level
of a miracle being given to you by
Allah Subhanahu Wa Ta'ala. And on the point
of the definition of istillama,
the early Muslims they differ. In fact, the
Khalifa Rashidun,
the 4 rightly guided Khalifa of Islam that
we know, Abu Bakr as Sadeep radiAllahu an,
Umar al Khattab radiAllahu an, Uthman wa Afan
radiAllahu an,
he says that it is Allah dushriqbillahi
shay'ah. It means that you do not associate
any partners with Allah Subhanahu Wa Ta'ala.
Now a person might say that as a
Muslim this is something far fetched, far removed
from what I would do that I might
sin but I don't associate partners with Allah
Subhanahu Wa Ta'ala. There's another manner in which
a person may be able to do this,
in fact more than 1, and we'll mention
both of them. One of them is that
a person they may take their desire as
a God besides Allah Subhanahu Wa Ta'ala. As
he mentions in the Quran,
Have you seen the one that takes his
desire as his God? Allah Subhanahu Wa Ta'ala
tells you for example to pray 5 times
a day including salatul fajr, you say I
want to sleep. You You have taken your
desire beside a God from Allah Subhanahu Wa
Ta'ala. Allah Subhanahu Wa Ta'ala tells you to
lower your gaze, you don't lower your gaze.
You have taken your own desire as a
God besides Allah Subhanahu Wa Ta'ala. Allah Subhanahu
Wa Ta'ala tells you to fast the month
of Ramadan. You don't fast, you take your
hunger as a God besides Allah Subhanahu
Wa Ta'ala. So the point being is that
istikaama means that once you say, once you
say in the moment where you decide to
be Muslim, the moment in your life where
you decide this is for me and you
say la ilaha illallah then you have istiqaama
and you don't falter and your prime goal
is pleasing Allah Subhanahu Wa Ta'ala irrespective of
it going against your own desire or anything
to that effect.
Umar Radi Lawan
on the other hand, he says
that is
antastakeem
alilamruwan
nahi. Istahaal istikaama upon the commands and prohibitions.
Now this generally speaking a person could say
that this I could perhaps do, but the
problem becomes when your circumstance changes
and that is when you need to look
at yourself. For example, in the month of
Ramadan it was easy for a person to
be in the masjid and be generally righteous.
Now Ramadan has ended. Now it's summer. So
now you might say that it's over, now
it's time for partying and having fun and
being distant and not praying and things of
that nature until next Ramadan. So the point
being is that once your circumstance changes you
need to ask yourself do I have Istiqaamah
or not? Another example could be that you
might
find it easy to worship Allah Subhanahu Wa
Ta'ala because everybody is generally righteous so you
just fit alongside with them. Now let's say
you change your group of friends and those
people might be people distant from Allah Subhanahu
Wa Ta'ala but we might be Muslim or
in fact we might not even be Muslim.
And the time of prayer comes, are you
going to have Istiqaamah then? Are you going
to be steadfast then? And that is a
test for you to ask yourself that do
you actually have Istiqaamah or not? And again
if you have this then you'll be from
those that are given these 10 great rewards
mentioned in the Quran. Another example of this
could be that the morality of society could
change. 10 years ago was different than what
it is today as all of us are
aware of. And if a person says that
I'm going to have istikam on the deen
of Allah
irrespective of how society changes or how government
changes and the idea of their morality, then
again you need to ask yourself am I
able to have Istiqaamah
despite all of these challenges and everything being
against the teachings of Islam?
The Prophet Sallallahu Alaihi Wasallam in fact mentions
in a hadith
where he says
that,
that there are 3 people that are saved,
And in this particular narration,
he mentions 3 individuals, all of them they
have istiqaama
irrespective of their circumstance.
The first one,
says, he says a person
that has,
a person that they are moderate whether they
are whether they are rich or whether they
are poor. Because when a person is rich
or poor, sometimes your circumstance or your thought
changes. For example, when you are poor you
might say that I don't want to spend
because it might take away from my money
despite the fact that we know in Islam
that
or in the other narration that your money
does not decrease with charity. So a person
might, think that in this circumstance I need
to safeguard this money, because of the fact
that I'm poor, and you might not have
istifaam in giving zakat and charity in this
regard. Likewise, a person might have a lot
of money, and on occasion of having a
lot of money, they feel as though they
are favored. They feel as though Allah Subhanahu
Wa Ta'ala gave them more, and this could
become a sense of arrogance. In fact, there
are many verses in the Quran which talk
about this, that despite the fact that you
might be poor, this is not a sign
of Allah Subhana wa Ta'ala loving you or
hating you. So
this is something we need to understand as
well.
A person also, they could be in a
situation in which they might be poor and
might get angry at Allah Subhanahu Wa Ta'ala.
Do you have istiram ala'a. Or a person
might have a lot of money and they
become arrogant and think they are self sufficient
and have everything the world has to offer
and they are favored again as we have
mentioned. Do you have istikamah then as well?
The other one mentioned in this hadith wherein
the prophet salawat al salam says, talaf mumunjiat,
3 people are saved. He mentions a person
who was khashiatullah
tisili walalaniyah.
A person who fears Allah Subha Ta'ala in
private just as he does in public, and
in public just as he does in private.
A lot of people, they have a certain
and with our inner circle we are even
more different and with our self that is
where the true test lies. That are you
the same in public as you are with
your family? As in Nabi Sa'aslami says in
the hadith,
The best of you are those that are
best to their families, and I'm the best
to my family. Are you the same in
private when nobody else is looking, and you
have the opportunity to do whatever Haram you
want, and nobody is seeing you but Allah
Did your istikama remain then or was it
lost when you became in that certain circumstance
or situation?
And the third one here mentioned by the
Prophet Sallallahu Alaihi Wasallam, he says a person
they have Al Adil Filagaddaburirdu.
A person that they are just when they
are angry or they are happy. When you
are angry or you're happy you try to
enact justice.
An example of a person not doing this
and this is very common, is that a
person might for example have somebody who wronged
them. And on account of the fact that
they wronged them, they take revenge. And they
go above and beyond what the person did
to them in the 1st place. And you
don't have justice in a circumstance.
An extremely common example of this is if
a person were to get divorced,
and this is something which the majority of
people will become spiteful in this situation. Because
of the fact that they found themselves now
here, despite the fact that Allah Subhanahu Wa'ala
says, walatansawal
faddla baynaqum. Do not forget the good you
had between yourselves in all of these years
before. Now all of a sudden you find
yourself here and this person became your worst
enemy. That not only do you take revenge
but you become a person that is spiteful
and you're not just because of your anger
in this circumstance. Do you have Istukaamah there
or not? And that is the question to
ask yourself.
The third example here is the example or
the definition of Istilama
given by Uthman Murafan
where he says it is to have Ikhlas
or sincerity of Allah Subhanahu
Wa Ta'ala in terms of your worshiping of
Him. Because if Shaytan cannot get you to
not come to the Masjid or not worship
here, the next step you will take is
try to change your intention. And that is
why in the Quran when Allah Subhanahu Wa
Ta'ala discusses Shaitan and when he was booted
out from Jannah, when he was removed from
Jannah, he said,
He felt deceived and cheated that he was
removed from Jannah. So what he said is
I'm going to beautify things on the earth
for mankind
and I'm going to deceive and misguide them
except for whom?
Except for my slave the one that has
Ikhlas and that is the definition given by
our Uthman Wa Affal radiAllahu an.
Ani radiAllahu ani says that
that my slave cannot come to me
better in a closer way, but if you
want to attain nearness to Allah Subhanahu Wa
Ta'ala, the best way you can do this
is by doing those things he made an
obligation upon you. So So that is the
point here that once Ramadan ended at the
very least make sure you do your obligation.
That is part of Bish Jafama and that
is the prime and and main point here.
A person they might say, let's say for
example, on the point of just simply only
doing the obligation.
Let's say your son or your child, they
came to you and they said that I
only want to perform the Farud,
obligations.
I don't want to fast the 6 days
of Shawwal. I don't want to pray any
sunnah. I'm just gonna do the Farud. What
would your response be? Think about it for
a second. You'll probably try to tell them
that you should try to do extra, and
you try to encourage them that, no, you
need to do more. Listen to this interesting
story in regards to the fact that Islam
is actually quite easy. Once a man came
to the prophet sallallahu alaihi wa sallam with
his hadith and bukhari.
This person came to An Nabi Salam Fa
Irulaws, meaning that he had disheveled hair. He
was a person that was not, from the
city, he was a person from the outskirts
and did not have the mannerisms of the
city folk. He came to the Prophet Sallallahu
Alaihi Wasallam and he said that what does
Islam demand of me? The Prophet Sallallahu Alaihi
Wasallam he said for you to pray the
5 daily prayers daytime and nighttime as we
know. This man he said
anything else? And the base salawasal responds by
saying, No unless you want to do so
voluntarily.
This man he says, what else do I
need to do? The Prophet said, you need
to fast the month of Ramadan. This man
he said, halalalayagayru,
anything else? Again the Prophet salam responds by
saying, No, unless you want to do so
voluntarily.
Again, this mani asked, what else does Islam
require of me? The prophet says,
it requires that you give zakat, 2.5 percent
zakatul mal, as we know. This man he
said,
anything else, I need to give more charity?
The prophet says
la illa inta dawwara, no unless you want
to do so voluntarily.
This man after saying all of this he
says wallahi laaazeel alahaala wala anqus I'm not
going to do anything more or less. What
was the response of the Prophet Sallallahu Alaihi
Wasallam? He said Aflaq in Sadaq. You will
be successful
if you are truthful. And this shows us
that Islam is not something which is hard.
You need to do the obligations.
But when it comes to doing extra, there's
a particular reason for it. And that is
the fact that Allah Subhanahu Wa Ta'ala
loves this. As it is mentioned in the
hadith Qudsi
that
that that my slave does not continue to
do surpriogatory
or extra deeds except that I start to
love him and his dua will become accepted
and the people in the land or on
earth will love will love him as well
Because Allah Subhanahu Wa Ta'ala will announce to
the angels, I love this person. And the
angels will announce to the other angels in
the sky that Allah loves this person. And
you will gain acceptance on the earth and
people will love him as well. And on
top of this, you're seeing, Allah will be
your seeing, Allah will be your walking, Allah
will be what is meant by this is
that you will only do things for the
sake of Allah Subhanahu Wa Ta'ala. You will
love him so much that when you look,
you will only look at what pleases him.
When you walk, you will only walk to
what pleases him. And that is one of
the advantages of what happens when a person
becomes one that does extra. That is the
first point, Allah Subhanahu Wa Ta'ala will start
to love you and you will start to
love him as well. The second advantage to
doing extra deeds,
the second reason why you should do extra
is because of the fact that in Ramadan
many of us might not have lowered our
gaze, many of might have many of us
might have sworn, many of us might have
spoken ill of others, many of us might
have taken the rights of others, many of
us might have lied or cheated or done
other things which are haram and is pleasing
to Allah Subhanahu Wa Ta'ala and in the
Quran Allah Subhanahu Wa Ta'ala says
that
from his mercy is that your good deeds,
he'll eradicate and cover up your bad deeds.
This is the reason why we should try
to do as much as we can, which
is extra.
Now on the point of Istifama,
how do we gain Istifama?
What are things that we should do to
gain Istifama?
In one hadith, and before this we mentioned
this hadith. Think about it for a second.
Would you be able to fast 365 days
a year? Would you be able to perform
50 prayers in a single day? None of
us would be able to do this. And
in fact, even after the end of Ramadan,
many of us we feel burnt out. We
want to enjoy and not be as religious
and relax a little bit with the good
weather. The Prophet Sallallahu Alaihi Wasallam tells us
in a hadith that in deen ayusun
walayushadadeen
ahadun illaqulaba
That Islam is easy and no one overburdens
himself with a religion except that it overtakes
him. He will not be able to continue
in this way. So the way that we
get istiramah is very simple.
Think about something you are good at. Some
people it's easy for them to give charity,
give $10 every Friday. Another person it's hard
for them to give charity but it's easy
for them to fast. Another person it's hard
for them to fast but it's easy for
them to come to the Masjid. Think about
something and do it regularly and that will
become your istillamah. Recite half a page a
day. You don't have to recite the whole
juz. Maybe half a page, a few lines
of the Quran every day. Don't abandon the
Quran, but do it regularly. Allah subhanahu wa
ta'ala would rather have you do this regularly
in this manner than do a whole bunch
in the month of Ramadan and forget about
in the rest of the year. As it
is mentioned in the hadith of the Prophet
Sallallahu Alaihi Wasallam that
the most beloved deeds to Allah Subhanahu Wa
Ta'ala are those that are done regularly
even though they belittle. And one of these
could very certainly be fasting the 6 days
of Shawwal, as we know, when some of
Ramadan
That the person that passed the month of
Ramadan,
and he follows it up with 6 days
of in a month of Shawwal. It is
as if the person has fasted the entire
year, and now we actually comment on this.
He says that from the mercy of Allah
when you do a good deed, he multiplies
it by 10.
Meaning if you fast in the month of
Ramadan, it's as if you've gotten 300 Gideets.
If you pass an additional 6, this multiplies
by another 10 which gives you 360 total,
A lunar calendar year is 354
days. That is the explanation given by Anawi
Rahimullah.
And the final point is that don't be
one that falls off the path of istabaamah.
And there is a particular way in which
this could happen if you don't watch yourself.
It's mentioned in one hadith that a person
could do the deeds of the deeds of
the people of Jannah until until
between them and Jannah is a simple arm's
length, a simple cubit between them and Jannah.
Then he does the deeds of the people
of Jahannam and he becomes one of them
that becomes his ending. And likewise, a person
in reverse could do the people of the
deeds of jahannam.
Between him and jahannam is a simple arms
length. Then he says the shahad at the
end of his life and he becomes of
the people of Jannah. How does a person
get to this level? How does a person
do the good deeds and it is not
accepted at the end of his life? This
happens if there is a disease hidden in
the recesses of your hearts. If you have
for example, kibr, like shaitan,
or you have for example, hasad, envy like
shaitan, pride or envy like shaitan, or you
have deep within your heart, you think ill
of others, or you have within your heart,
urj, beating self, vanity, and glorifying yourself, or
you have within your heart any of the
other diseases of the heart, hatred for others,
and things of this nature, Shaitan will bring
these up in the end portion of your
life and try to push you off the
path of istikhamah.
Because his goal in the Quran as it
is mentioned
as he says, I will misguided all of
them but but a very few of them.
And
we'll conclude with the story. Imam Ahmed Rahimullah,
when he was passing away, his son Abdullah
Rahimullah was with him, and he noted that
his father was falling in and out of
consciousness,
and his father was saying la baaj, la
baad.
He was saying that no, no not yet,
no not yet. And his father uh-uh was
asked
said, Yeah, Ahmed you have escaped me. You
have
escaped me, I have lost you. There's no
chance for me to misguide you again. And
his father was saying, no, not until I
pass away. La hadta amood. Shaitaan will work
with you right until the very end. So
we ask Allah Subhanahu Wa Ta'ala to make
us from those that gets these 10 blessings
mentioned by a person that has ishtiqamah. It's
not easy, but if you get this you
will have all of these blessings. Number 1,
the angels will descend upon you.
They will tell you do not fear, do
not grieve.
You'll be given Jannah, a glad tidings of
what you used to do. These
angels will be your protectors in a dunya
and when you pass away
Do have whatever it is your heart desires
in Jannah and whatever it is that you
call out for
an accommodation from Allah Subha Ta'ala with Rafur
and with Al Raheem. We ask that Allah's
wanted to make us people of istikamah, that
as the summer months come along and as
people become more and more lax in their
religiosity,
they try to keep it the best they
can.