Johari Abdul-Malik – The Gift That Keeps On Giving
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Allah, wa'hduhu laa shariqala wa'ashadu anam, Muhammad and
Abduhu,
wannabeahuarussullahu
salahu
alayhi wa'alalahu alayhi wa'alalahu alayhi wa'alalameen
praising Allah
and thanking Allah
for providing us with
the gift
of the Qur'an
and the sunnah of the Prophet
that we
might be guided to things
which are beyond
our comprehension.
Well, alhamdulillah,
right now we are experiencing
a lot of
extraordinary weather.
And there are many people who would want
to know
what is going to be the forecast.
What's it going to be like tomorrow or
the next day?
This is the kind of relationship that the
companions of the Prophet
that they had with the Quran.
When they saw the Quran
as a means of forecasting
for them
what was going to be the future of
their events.
Walhamdulillah.
The human being has been created by Allah,
aksani taqweem, in the best mode.
We are.
But if you were to evaluate
the human being's capacity,
you would discover that
if you are listening,
there are certain sounds which you cannot hear.
But if a dog was here, the dog
could hear
sounds outside of the range of our hearing.
There
are animals that at night,
when we look out we can't see, but
Allah has given them
in their sight.
And with the use of radar and other
things we now know that they can see
and perceive things in the dark.
The human beings' eyes only can see the
colors in the visible spectrum,
but there are animals which can perceive outside
of the visual spectrum.
So in our sight and in our hearing,
it becomes obvious that the human beings,
faculties are limited.
But with the gift of the Quran,
Allah informs us about
those things that are around us,
those things that are before us,
and walhamdulillah,
the things behind us.
I say that to you today,
to say that there are many people
who would like to know what is going
to happen,
not only in this life,
but what will happen in the next life.
In fact,
there are even institutes now, when they are
studying at NIH and other places,
can we prolong
human life to be longer?
And we know, walhamdulillahi
Allah has informed us in the Quran,
Faqoolunafsilda
ikatul mawd
Every soul is going to
taste
death.
Now I love, Sheikh Abu Nudi, he said
the other day, he said, you know,
this is not the same thing as dying.
When you are
traveling on the highway and you hit a
piece of black ice,
and your car begins
to swerve out of control,
and you have that feeling, your blood pressure
goes up up, and your heart rate accelerates,
and you say, you know what, I'm afraid
I might die.
How cool is it there? It could come
out.
Maybe had a taste.
Maybe there's some fire.
And I got too close to the fire,
and I feel the fire is close to
me. He said, that's
we're afraid of it because we know that
if we
got
caught by that, then it would mean dents.
And in between that, we
wrestle with the issues in our lives, how
to figure out, how to prioritize,
how to get the things that we need
that
have. All of us running, trying to get
something in this life
Until
we are not visiting the grave, not you
go by on, after Jormu, or maybe one
day you go to the cemetery that had
a jenaza, you go and visit. That's not
the visit that the Quran is talking about.
It is talking about now, not tasting, but
being
in the state where you are visiting your
maqam. You are staying there until the day
of judgment.
And when you're in that place, then you
begin to have yakin,
assertitude
about your affair.
Maybe sometimes there are people that make investments.
And you wonder, is this a good investment
I'm making?
I spend money for an education, or I
invest in a condo, or I buy a
house or car. Is it a good investment?
So I don't know, I have to wait
and see what happens.
But then,
when you are the visitor in your grave,
then everything becomes clear about
how the priorities of your investment are going.
And so in that I'm reminded
to remind you
that Allah tells us that every human being
will have nothing
except what they earn.
Nothing except
those efforts that you made with the niyyah
to do it for Allah,
those are the things that you will keep.
So, walhamdulillah,
I reminded to you today 3 things.
According to Abu Hurayrah
and he said that Rasool
said that when a human being dies, all
of their deeds end,
except 3.
Maybe I'm going in reverse.
A righteous child.
A righteous child, walhamdulillah,
not only do they make dua for you,
but they continue the legacy of uprightness, walhamdulillah,
from what you shared with them.
2,
knowledge and benefits.
I wanna take a minute and digress about
knowledge and benefits because I think as an
ummah, sometimes
maybe we watch Fox News too much.
We start thinking of ourselves
as what we see in the media.
There is among those who say La Illaha
illallah
Muhammadan Rasoolallah
a high
trust factor.
A high trust factor.
Do you know they study different populations of
people to see how they could advance?
They found in America today, the Korean,
very high trust factor.
This is why the Korean can come and
open a business and other Korean business people
will support them so that they can be
successful.
They found
Latinos have a very high trust factor. Not
as much as the Koreans, but they have
a high trust factor.
Just so you know, African Americans have very
low trust factor. They don't trust each other.
No surprise, right?
But
Muslims
invented
a knowledge
that continues to benefit
the world
because we had a high trust index
during the time of the prophet
and onward.
We call it today
the
check.
Somebody says, Yafi,
just write me a check. I don't want
to walk around with cash.
Muslims invented
the the institute of the check.
So if you were traveling
from,
Timbuktu
to China,
you could just have a check
sukuk from
1 Muslim, and when you get to China
you just give them the paper and they
say, oh that's the authentically
the hand or the print of so and
so. SubhanAllah, buy what you need.
This is our invention.
Today, walhamdulillahi daa,
these inventions,
many of them we're not benefiting from them.
One of those financial
investments
that comes out
of this notion of our trust in relationship
is something called
wakaf.
It is something that we create.
And
And I wish I had more time, but
Allah structured
it this way through his messenger
to keep the khutbah short.
But if you look around the world today,
I want you to know that we started
the institution
of 'aqaf.
Because
in this hadith, the prophet
talks about a kind of sadaqah,
sadaqa jariyah,
that continues
to provide
benefit
after we're dead.
Right now,
I can tell you
the
oldest university
on earth
was started as
a walk
In Morocco,
all the morocans are like, yes.
In Morocco,
Karaween,
it is from
a waq
started by a woman.
Well, hamdulillah, then
continue to operate and operate and operate, providing
knowledge for people,
not by collecting donations,
but by someone setting forward something. SubhanAllah,
you know, I wish I could have been
there with that woman
at that time
to say,
can I just put just maybe few dirham
in that investment?
So when Allah raised me on the day
of judgment, subhanAllah, I would have mountains
of gold,
from my investment I made
in Qawra'il.
Today, you know, the largest
endowment
of any university?
Harvard.
Harvard University, number 1.
Where did they learn the idea of aqah?
From us.
My advice to you today, walhamdulillah, is a
very simple one.
We need to re embrace our traditions,
that we might benefit,
our future generations will benefit.
And walhamdulillah,
when Allah raises on the day of judgment,
that we will benefit.
That Allah will reward us with the reward
of his jannah,
firdos a'la.
Why? Because
maybe I would be dead, I don't know.
Between now and the day of judgement, I
don't know, maybe a 1000 years, 10000 years,
I'm on those beds.
But at the end of that, subhanallah, whatever
little I did in life,
then Allah closed my book.
And then my sadaqah jariyah
begins to draw
dividends.
I ask Allah
to accept all of our efforts.
InshaAllah. Among those 3,
that we might receive the benefit of it,
walhamdulillah,
on the day when there's no shade except
the shade which comes from the Arsha'u'llah.
You know,
maybe because school is out today and I
see a lot of young people,
there is always
the encouragement,
walhamdulillah,
there's always the encouragement
in the deen of
Islam
for what people call
deferred
gratification.
Deferred,
Mohammed, deferred gratification.
Maybe
I would like
to buy something today,
but if I invested, inshaAllah,
in 5 or 10 years, it will have
more value.
Maybe
if I study today, and I do my
homework, and I prepare myself, alhamdulillah,
in 10 or 15 years I will become
a very successful person
with degrees
and
experience, alhamdulillah,
and I can be rich in this life.
Maybe from what I learned in my sacrifice
studying late at night,
while other people are either sleeping or playing.
I will learn a skill. Maybe I'll become
a lawyer or a doctor. I will save
lives or protect people from harassment.
But in order to achieve that,
I have to defer
my gratification.
I'm fasting today so that Allah will reward
me in the future.
I'm giving sadaqah today, so Allah reward me
in the future.
I'm staying away from romantic relations until I
get married, so Allah will reward me in
the future.
This is the nature of how Allah has
created this, that the muslim should be well
practiced
at deferring
our gratification.
Walhamdulillah,
I'm reminded
from the example of Rasulullah
about deferred
gratification.
And that is a reminder that
maybe for us,
the
generation that
was here when Darahedra didn't exist,
They remember going back 1983,
Dar Hijra was just
a mastrid in the parking lot. Little house.
Can you imagine
in
19 83, everyone
could sit
in for
one prayer,
in the house, in the parking lot.
You say, what? Yes.
1983,
you could have Jumwa
in the original Donahuegra house.
Everybody
makes it to Jumwa,
and you only need one prayer for the
whole northern Virginia.
He said, well that's impossible, I can't believe
that.
Well, alhamdulillah,
the generation of those people,
most of them were students.
Then they sacrificed and they made efforts and
some of them they are still with us
and some of them they have passed away.
But they were working
not for what they could get now
but what would be their deferred gratification
from Allah if they built a house for
Allah.
Can you imagine what, hamdulillah,
that this generation that has established
this masjid,
they are not like
the tabein,
and the tabe tabein, and the tabe tabein.
The prophet
compares
the sahaba, they were the best generation. Why?
They were in Badr, they were in Uhud,
they went through difficulties,
they went from nothing
to alhamdulillah,
to see Islam expand.
But we are warned that the generation after
them, they're a little weaker.
And the generation after them, they're a little
weaker.
Now you might not believe this,
but maybe some of you would. I don't
mean this to be a bad person.
There
are many churches in America today.
They were built
by money that was raised
from their congregations.
Right now,
many churches are being sold.
Sold.
Because
the generation which is attending that church is
not giving enough to maintain it.
So the church is sold.
Can you imagine one day,
somebody says, oh,
the
generations that came after us, they were not
supporting
the house of Allah, maybe they moved to
some other area,
so we have to close the masjid.
It's going to become Walmart.
It has a big parking lot, it has
a big open space, we'll put some grocery
or something.
Cannot imagine
that. How do you secure that
for the future?
The simple answer
is we need to move the masjid to
a place
where its funding
comes
from aqaaf.
Where the masjid has
its investment,
that alhamdulillahi
ban always will pay to keep the masjid
light, to keep the water, to pay the
imam, to take care of the social service.
So that the expansion and other work can
be done by the zakan that he will
give, but alhamdulillahi,
then the masjids will rely
on what we send forward for the future.
Then when we meet Allah
maybe
we will have an investment
that while we were
dead,
it was continuing to pay dividends
for us.
This Sunday night,
Dal Hijra will hold
its annual fundraising dinner
for us to experiment,
Not not the way we do now.
You donate $1 in
the sadaqah today,
and Friday
they pay the staff.
You put dollar in, next time they help
the social service.
You put a dollar in, next time they
help.
This one is different.
Most of us, we live our lives like
that. You get paid, you pay your bills,
that's it khalas.
Maybe you have some small thing left.
We want to now create
a habit within this community,
that we would defer our gratification
so that in
100 years, 1000 years,
like Qur'an,
the masjid will continue to operate and flourish.
So today, alhamdulillah,
after salal, I'm going to ask you to
buy a ticket.
Small
investment,
big dividend.
And I'm going to tell you
an amazing story. Because many of us, we
think, you know, it's the rich people who
they can really make difference.
And me, I'm just, you know, miskeen. I
can't do much.
But I read an article, subhanAllah.
I read an article in Huffington Post
about
a janitor.
Now you probably can't get lower
in the pay scale than a janitor.
They sweep up, they mop up, they take
out the garbage.
Janitor.
They said this janitor,
this janitor
like to make small
investments
with
his extra money.
And he would do that?
He's saving his khair.
The
article said he died, he was 92
years old.
And when they looked at his waseer,
he said I want to donate my will,
I want to donate
my savings
to build a hospital
and library.
People said, you know,
poor janitor like this, right?
What can he do?
They said his portfolio
was $6,000,000
He started when he was young.
He started small, he just kept investing, investing.
And he's not doing it for himself, he
lives simple. The article said he lives simple
because he was thinking about
his deferred gratification.
He lived a normal life,
but walhamdulillah,
his interest is
how can he continue to bring benefit
long after he's dead.
We ask Allah
to give us the will to live like
that.
That Allah will take our investments, alhamdulillah,
our hasanat, and multiply them.
That they would give us, alhamdulillah,
the reward of mentions in Allah's jannah.
We ask Allah's mercy and peace, walhamdulillah,
on those who are having difficulties
in our society and around the world.
Allahummahedeenifimanhadayth.
Waafinifimanafayth.
Wa'tawalanaifiman
O Allah, guide us among those whom You
have guided.
O Allah, take us as a friend among
those whom You have taken as a friend.
You Allah, protect us among those whom You
have protected.
You Allah pride for us, insha'Allah, provisions, You
Allah,
that we might maintain ourselves and our families,
You Allah.
O Allah, cause us to live lives of
benefit, You Allah.
O Allah, we ask, walhamdulillah,
those who are suffering under oppression, You Allah.
O Allah, that we will be part of
their solution, You Allah, and not part of
their problem.
O Allah, help us,
to be among those who help.
O Allah, we pray for your mercy and
your peace, you Allah, on your prophet Muhammad
and on his family and on his companions,
and all of the NBI, and those who
followed the way of your haqq, you Allah,
until the day of judgment,
Ami.