Johari Abdul-Malik – Are You Ready to Die NOW
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Alhamdulillahrubalamin.
Beginning praising Allah
and asking for Allah's mercy and peace to
be upon us and upon his messenger, Muhammad
And to remind
you and I today
from
the word of Allah
And
often
I believe that
they have an expression
in the English language
that familiarity
breeds
contempt.
That when you hear something
too many times or
it becomes your
standard,
that you take it for granted.
And so we will hear these words from
Ali Imran
over
and over again.
The 3rd
Surah
100 and second ayah.
All you who believe,
have taqwa
for Allah
and die
not except in the state of Islam.
Every Jummah on every Jummah, you hear it.
Die not set in the state of being
a Muslim.
Every Jummah,
Allah's
Messenger
example is reminding us,
die not
except in the state
until Muslim.
We take it for granted.
I grew up
I didn't grow up Muslim.
So
when I learned different things about Islam,
was so amazing to me.
And all of the Muslims knew it.
All of the of of the Rasool Salam,
you you know it.
But a lot of times you take it
for granted.
So today, I just want to remind
you and I
about
these very well worn words,
and maybe to help us,
you and I,
We ask Allah's peace and blessings on the
Prophet
and his family and his companions,
and all of the MBA and those who
follow the way of Allah's Haqq until the
day of judgment.
Just just to remind us for a minute.
In the hadith of
the Arba'een of Imam Anaweeh,
and before I say anymore, really,
I believe that
our time,
we need to take a look at
a new for
our time and our place.
Because there are issues that are being presented
today
that did not exist in the time of
imam, and now we but.
Alhama alaik, he reminds us in the
second of this Arba'een, these 40 Hadith,
he says upon the authority of Umar ibn
Khattab, and
we were sitting with the messenger of Allah,
sallallahu
alaihi wasallam, one day and a man appeared
to us
and his garment was exceedingly white,
and his hair was exceedingly dark, and there
were no signs of travel upon him, and
none of us knew him.
And he sat in front of the Rasul
and he rested his knees by his knees
and he placed his hands on his thighs.
And just for you those of you who
love hadith literature,
scholars are still arguing whether his hand was
on the side of Rasoolullah sallallahu alaihi wa
sallam or whether his hand was on his
own side.
As if somehow rather that's really important.
But the man said to Muhammad, sallallahu alaihi
wasallam,
tell me about Islam.
Most of us, subhanAllah,
we would say, oh, that's easy. We know
Islam.
The prophet
replied to him,
Islam is to witness that there is nothing
worthy of worship except Allah and Allah alone,
and to bear witness that Mohammed is his
messenger to establish the prayer, to give,
zakat,
to fast in the month of Ramadan, and
to perform the pilgrimage to the house once
in your life if you're able.
And we are coming upon the period now
of Hajj.
The man replied to Raul Sallallahu Alaihi Wasallam,
you have spoken truthfully.
And
he said, we were surprised that the man
would answer in that way.
And the prophet
said,
the man asked,
well,
tell me about
Iman.
What is faith?
Sheikh Al Hanuti would shoot me if I
if I translated Iman as faith.
So, but what is iman? What is this
relationship with Allah? Rasulullah salallahu alaihi salallam, he
said iman is to believe in Allah,
his angels, his books, his messengers, the last
day and
to believe in the providence,
both the good and the bad of it.
Allah's qadr.
The man replied,
you have spoken truthfully.
So then the man asks,
So
tell me about
excellence.
The prophet said,
excellence, we would call this.
Is to worship Allah as if you see
Allah.
For though you don't see him know that
Allah sees you.
Now, SubhanAllah, I want you to know that
as a person who is coming to Islam,
somebody never heard about Islam, you hear this
And you know that there are people who
are actually trying to be in that state
where
every not just on Sunday if you're a
Christian and not just on Saturday if you're
a Jew, but every minute that you're awake,
alive, you are trying to be in a
state of
where you know that Allah sees you all
the time.
One man, he came to a, Sheikh,
he said, sheikh, I came to you because
I want your permission to do some haram.
The sheikh, he said, no problem.
This haram, you wanna do it? He said,
you can go ahead and do it.
All you have to do is do it
someplace
where Allah can't see you.
Do it with something that doesn't belong to
Allah and do it in a way that
Allah won't know.
He said, okay. That's his saying
that I function in a way that I
know
with a surety.
They have all kind of technology now.
Somebody does drugs.
They take one follicle of your hair and
say, yep.
5 years ago, they used to be doing
cocaine.
You say,
really?
Oh, yeah. They look at your DNA now.
They tell you where you used to live,
what you used to do. You was exposed
to this and that.
If human beings can do that,
surely Allah
is completely aware of everything that we're doing.
So now, if we function within that light,
how powerful our behavior would be.
But SubhanAllah,
the man,
he asked Rasool Allah Sallallahu Alaihi Wasallam,
when is the hour? Tell me about the
hour.
The prophet
he answered this question different times, different
places, different ways.
But in this instance,
he tells the man that the servant girl
will give birth to her mistress.
And you will see barefoot naked and destitute
shepherds
competing and constructing tall buildings. I'm not gonna
make any commentary. You'd make your own commentary.
And when the man left
the companions of the prophet sallallahu sallam,
Umar asked, he
said, do you know who this man was?
I was still asking, Umar, do you know
who he was?
I said, Allah and his messenger know best,
Umar said.
He said, verily, it was Jibreel who came
to teach you your religion.
My reminder to you
and to myself,
and if you don't think it relates to
you, go and tell it to somebody who's
not here that you think needs to hear
it.
That will to
focus our lives
every minute of every second of every hour
of every day of every year of every
month.
SubhanAllah.
Consume with the idea
that we want to live and die
only
perpetually
in the state of Islam.
There are no vacations.
There are no there are no exceptional times.
Well, right now this is an inconvenient time
can be used to be Muslim.
I'm not gonna say anything right now because
it it wouldn't be politically correct.
Allah reminds
us,
every soul will taste death.
So when you get that taste,
the what what they call in English sometimes
a brush with death.
You're driving down the highway and a car
cuts you off and you swerve.
And you said, man, that could have been
us right there.
Ask yourself the question,
am I in the state of Islam at
that moment?
Now, I'm gonna tell you there's some people,
not you, some people you're in the car
with them, and when that happens,
their their their kalam,
if they died with that on their breath,
that wouldn't be iman speaking, if you know
what I'm talking about.
That when people are experiencing
various things in their lives,
and they especially when you're having difficulty, but
sometimes when everything is really cool.
Sometimes we're not in that state.
None of us knows where we will be
born nor when we will die.
And so our challenge is to live in
a way, subhanAllah,
where if Allah takes our soul right now,
that we will greet the malakal mouth and
we will be happy
to be relieved of the burden of this
life,
that Allah might reward us with the best
in the hereafter.
Perhaps I can
remind you and I
by thinking back, I used to be the
Muslim chaplain at Howard University for many years.
And, you know, I learned something, especially with
people who,
who have grown up Muslim.
We used to have a pro, Hajj program.
We would take young people on Hajj.
And
the first criticism that we got,
is that leadership type people,
brother, I'll be there, would say to us,
why are you taking young people?
You know, they're young. Why you don't take
make a program for all people?
I said, that's your problem.
You see, I I I learned about Islam.
I know,
one of the 7 people who will be
in the shade of the the arsh of
Allah subhanahu wa ta'ala in the day of
judgment. Somebody who they were young,
they embrace Islam and they never wavered.
We have young people who accept in Islam.
We wanna give them the the, the certitude
from that experience of Hajj. When they come
back, they'll be transformed.
A lot of, lot of Muslims, they say,
you know what?
I have a I have some issues that
I'm working on.
When I come back from Hajj,
I'm gonna be different.
Oh, yeah.
You have some Muslim businessmen
in the community.
They can afford to go on Hajj every
year.
They put it off and they put it
off and they put it off because they're
busy making money.
But they when they come back from Hajj,
they say, when I come back from Hajj,
I'm only gonna do clean business.
I'm not gonna do any haram business when
I after I come back. I'm a be
straight.
Oh, there's a lady.
She went on Hajj with us.
SubhanAllah, I'm looking at you, Sadeek. I see
what I'm saying. Years ago, we went on
Hajj. There was a lady who went on
Hajj with us. She wasn't when
she went on Hajj.
So really, somehow or other, the idea that
death is gonna wait for me until I
come back from Hajj.
I have a personal agreement with the medical
amount.
Don't come for me until after I finish
Hajj.
I'm I'm I'm I'm banking.
I'm gonna make it. SubhanAllah. When I come
back, everything will be cool then.
And, well, hamdulillah, many people, they use
this this journey
as a way of justifying
their transformation.
You know, maybe you have friends.
There is a rewire associated with the prophet
and Bza says,
you have the deen of your friends.
So how how can you explain to your
friends
that
I'm a Muslim, I'm a young Muslim, I
drink sometimes, but I don't eat kanzir.
Never.
But little little whatever, sometime, no problem.
See, really?
By the way, I'm I'm as a as
a person who's old enough to know, I'm
telling you,
we have Muslims like this,
and and they are gambling with Allah,
that they will allow they'd be allowed
to perform Hajj so they can clean up
everything
before
that they that they used to do.
SubhanAllah.
It is a transformative
opportunity.
And if you have never made Hajj,
first,
make the Nia. Oh Allah,
every time the season of Hajj come, oh
Allah,
invite me to your house.
Don't ask how.
Just say, you Allah, invite me to your
house.
I want to go for Hajj
because
it is narrated that Rasool Allah
said that Allah will forgive all of your
sins,
the minor
and the major,
if you perform
a perfectly
acceptable Hajj Hajj Mabroor.
I'm inviting you. Alhamdulillah.
Every deed is based on its intention. Make
the intention whether whether you have the money,
whether you have the time, whether you have
the whatever, subhanAllah,
make it.
Allah may open the door
and invite you in.
I I know because
my first Hajj, that's how I went. I
just somebody they just called me and said,
you won't go for Hajj?
I was like,
of course.
They said, you invite. Allah invited you. I'm
like, subhanallah, just like that.
You never know. There's a sister in the
masjid, somebody called and said,
you you you a new Muslim in our
community, go on umro with me.
My family is going. Somebody had a ticket
they can't go. You're in.
SubhanAllah.
But make the niyyah in this season, oh
Allah, open the door, subhanAllah, of your house
to me that you might accept me and
forgive me of my sins.
I wanna tell you a short story about
college student that we knew.
College student.
This college student, he thought he had he
thought he had time, you know.
He could play around
a little bit.
Oh, he goes to Jumah. No doubt.
SubhanAllah.
He prays.
Friday night after the halukkah,
they go hang out a little bit at
the club.
They wind up at maybe some place like
Zaki's at 2 o'clock in the morning.
They said, why go to sleep? We might
have just stay up for still fajr.
We'll work off whatever substance we've been exposed
to. Maybe maybe sometimes, you know, they meet
nice girls somewhere. She not Muslim, so she
don't really know.
Hang out with her for a little while
on the down low. That's what they they
still call it that, on the down low.
Well, I am telling you,
we meet them here
because the parent will come and bring the
child and say, look. My daughter has a
problem.
Can you help us? We need a fatwa
to fix her problem, if you know what
I mean.
Oh, yeah.
But
I
remember
we had
a halakkah every Thursday night, and we would
invite
young students to come. Some of them been
Muslim all their lives. Some of them just
took Shahada.
Imam Saraj was the teacher.
And so one of the students,
he's trying to get his friend out of
Haram.
So Hussein, he says to
him, Imam Suraj,
If someone is a Muslim and they're doing
haram,
are they still a Muslim
while they're in the haram?
They're doing the act of Haram.
Are they Muslim or not?
Imam Suraj's opinion,
he said, when they're in the act of
Haram and they know it's Haram,
if they die like that,
they're not Muslim.
1 or 2 of the students, I think,
if you could if you could see them
conceptually, they fell on the floor.
They they have that they're like, l o
l r o something something on text messaging.
If you could see their their spiritual response,
they were falling on the floor
in agony saying, I want to be left.
If I die in that state,
I'm not a Muslim.
I don't know if it's worth that.
I'm always relying that I can get out
of that state
and be returned to the state of Islam.
But now I'm concerned. My iman has
elevated. I'm concerned
while I'm doing that,
I could die,
not in the state
of Islam.
Well, hamdulillah,
that
that word to those young people
caused them
to take the challenge
on the spot
and commit themselves
that they will never go back to doing
the things that will take them
temporarily
out of the deen of Islam.
Meeting, they knew what he was doing.
But people in the room knew,
that's what he's that's who he's talking about.
Somebody is taking dope.
They getting high.
And
we know who they are. The brother didn't
say full land full land is smoking reefer.
He didn't say that. He said, if someone,
He said, if someone
is doing so and so and they die
in that state, they're driving their car under
the influence of that thing and
and it's all over, what state do they
die in?
But
he had enough
and enough
to say, let me
say this
while the sheikh is here in front of
the student,
that maybe
they might be open to change.
Well, I
believe that statement for those 30 or 50
young people
changed the course of their lives.
It put them
on the I wanna challenge you.
Look at yourself. Look at yourself first. If
you're having those moments where you you step
into the haram zone,
step.
Because you know that Allah sees you even
though you don't see
Allah.
To put yourself in that place where if
there's someone you know who needs your help,
that you're willing to help them with Hikma
and Mawad Hasina,
with wisdom
and with a beautiful speech.
Sometimes we like to fix somebody by just
calling them out. That's what they call it
now. Right? I'm just gonna call them out.
So and so, man, you doing x y
z, I stopped for the law.
And you embarrass him in front of everyone
and they shut down.
But think about yourself first
and out of your
your your love,
compassion,
and and and and and and and and
and and and and and and
and
and and and and and and and and
and and and and and and and and
and and and and and and and and
and and and and and and and and
and and and and and and and and
and and and and and and and and
and and and and and and and and
and and and and and and and and
and and and and and and and and
and and and and
After this salat,
I'm not going back to what I used
to do.
A man called talked to me yesterday. We're
coming from Islamic Center.
He said a man was angry. He pronounced
talaq on his wife. They have 3 kids.
They lived
together 15 years.
He's angry.
He just talat divorce, divorce, divorce.
He was saying that
that that that that talaq is not valid.
He did it out of anger.
But when you're angry, you forget about Allah.
You forget about Allah.
When you get angry, you say things
as if Allah can't hear you when you
get angry.
Well, I I I've made it a habit
for myself.
I I can't remember the last time I
got I was really angry. I get you
get out of control.
I'm afraid
of becoming angry
because I know the consequence of it. I'm
either gonna say something or do something that
I'm gonna regret later.
To remind yourself
every instant,
if you would hold back from that desire,
the companions of the prophet sallallahu alaihi wasallam,
they said, You Rasool Allah.
You told us that if
we have a relationship
with our wife,
that Allah will bless us.
He says, won't Allah punish you
if you do haram with someone that's not
your wife?
Going to punish you for doing the wrong
thing, Allah will reward you for doing the
right thing. When you avoid those things that
take you outside of Islam, think about it
at that moment, Allah is blessing you.
When you was gonna say something to someone
that you shouldn't really be saying and you
hold back, Allah is blessing you.
When there's a temptation, Musa, something come to
you and you say, I'm thinking about this.
And you say, no. I'm gonna go this,
Allah shawls balaka on you.
So don't think I'm
I'm avoiding something that I'm being drawn to
that maybe I like it. Think about that
when I stay away from it, Allah has
given me something better.
We're lying.
If we could adjust
that equation,
put ourselves around believing people,
Muslims
and people of other faiths.
I know somebody's saying, what are you talking
about, ma'am Johari?
You see, when you're around your coworker on
on the job or in school, and they're
Christian or Jew or whatever,
and you start telling them about Islam and
they start telling you about Christianity,
if they catch you
eating during Ramadan or somebody in the job
eating, they'll they'll call them out. I thought
you were a Muslim.
Well, I
so and so is smoking a cigarette in
the in the lobby.
They said, hey, man.
I thought Muslim doesn't do anything that harm
themselves but their own hand.
Well, I hear the journalists on the news
now. They know about Islam. They start critiquing
Muslims
because
we're in a relationship enough. They know what
Islam is. They call you out.
And so being
an environment where people will call you to
what is right,
will
will help you get
to the state where you will only be
able to die
in the state of Islam.
Oh Allah, guide us among those whom you
have guided.
Oh Allah, take us,
as you have taken Ibrahim and those that
you love.
O Allah, we ask, alhamdulillah, that you protect
us and our families, you Allah.
O Allah, help us, alhamdulillah,
that we we might transform
ourselves, alhamdulillah,
to live only in the state of ihsan.
Ikhsirm. You Allah. That you might raise the
status of our iman, You Allah. Oh Allah.
That you would grant us, You Allah. If
no one guide us, You Allah. You will
guide us yourself, You Allah.
We pray
those who are planning to make the journey
for Hajj You Allah. Oh Allah, that you
bless them with Hajj with
them and
return them either safely to us, You Allah,
or grant them the reward of your Jannah
Oh Allah, we ask for those who are
suffering, you Allah, with difficulties
either
here or around the corner or around the
world, you Allah. Oh Allah,
that you might make their way easy. Oh
Allah, that you might open the doors of
hair to them, you Allah. Oh Allah, that
you would forgive us of our sins you
Allah. Help us to set our affairs on
the right way you Allah. Oh Allah, join
us in our love for you and our
love for each other you Allah. For our
love of this deen you Allah. For the
love of the musund, you Allah. Oh, help
us
to put love between the hearts of the
husbands and the wives, you Allah. Oh, Allah.
Put love between the hearts of the parents
and the children, you Allah. Oh, help us,
you allah, to have mercy on our old
people, you allah. Oh, Allah. This they cared
for us when we were little. Oh, Allah.
We ask, that
the doors of the masjid might open, you
allah. And the message of,
will flow through the
You Allah, we ask for your mercy and
your peace on the prophet
and
on his family and on his companions and
all of the MBA, you Allah, and those
who follow the way of your hak, you
Allah, until the day of judgment. Amen.