Kamil Ahmad – Thabat – Remaining Firm till the End
AI: Summary ©
The importance of guidance and guidance in Islam is crucial, as Allah Subhanahu wa dissents with fundamentalists and highlights the need for guidance and personhood. The speaker emphasizes the importance of guidance for personal growth and the importance of staying firm and steadfast on guidance until the end of one's life. The speaker also reminds listeners to be mindful of their actions and not allow their hearts to go astray.AI: Transcript ©
The blessings of Allah subhanahu wa ta'ala upon
us
are many and countless.
But the one greatest
blessing of Allah
is the blessing
of being rightly guided,
the blessing
of hidayah.
And so,
when you have recently been guided by Allah
subhanahu wa ta'ala,
Whether from Kufr to Islam
or
from a life of heedlessness
to a life
of being a committed and practicing Muslim.
You know what this blessing means
and you cherish it,
and you value it.
But as time goes by,
that initial feeling,
it gradually
starts to fade away.
And so our iman goes down.
And
we don't feel the same pleasure
in hibada
that we once used to.
And then we start looking around us
And we say,
look at all these other people
who are enjoying themselves.
Why am I missing out?
Islam
gives me flexibility.
Let me enjoy this, let me enjoy that.
And then we start believing
what people started saying about us
when we started to change
that this person is an extremist,
this person is a fundamentalist.
And so in this way,
in this way,
we no longer value and cherish
that initial
Hidayah of Allah Subhanahu Wa Ta'ala.
That initial feeling that we had when Allah
Subhanahu Wa Ta'ala
had guided us.
And so my dear brothers and sisters,
if you find yourself
starting to drift away,
you need
to sound
the alarm bells.
And so you need to realize
the danger
that this path can lead to.
That shaitaan,
he doesn't come to us once.
He doesn't tell us
to leave practicing islam altogether.
Especially when he when he finds us being
committed and strong,
but rather he takes his time.
He knows our weak
points,
and he knows
that it's only a matter of time.
And so he goes through these baby steps.
And he goes with you gradually.
And so his end goal
is 1 and the same,
to drag you with him
to the hellfire
as he promised Allah subhanahu wa ta'ala
the day
Allah cursed him.
And Allah
gives us
one such example
of a man
who was committed,
a man who Allah subhanahu wa ta'ala had
gifted even with knowledge of his deen,
and how shaitan
dragged him.
Allah subhanahu wa ta'ala tells us,
And tell them the story.
Tell them the story
of the one who we had blessed him
with our ayaat.
Allah had blessed him with the knowledge of
the scripture.
But he abandoned it, he threw it behind
his back.
And so Shaitan came behind him.
He started chasing after him.
And so he was from among those who
are deviant.
This is the story of a man from
Bani Israel
who lived in the time of Musa alaihis
salam.
His name was Balam
ibn Baura,
and he was one of the scholars of
Bani Israel.
But he started
to chase after his desires,
And he would not
act by the knowledge that Allah Subhanahu Wa
Ta'ala
had blessed him with.
And And so this is what Allah Subhanahu
Wa Ta'ala,
he tells us about him.
Allah Subhanahu Wa Ta'ala continues,
If we had willed,
we could have elevated him
with what we had gifted him with,
but instead
he clung to the ground.
He clung on to the ground meaning
this worldly life.
And that is how Allah subhanahu wa ta'ala
describes
holding on to the dunya
by referring to the earth
because it is this earth that Allah created
us from.
And Allah subhanahu wa ta'ala created us from
2 things.
A body which was created from this earth.
And so you could do everything you want
to satisfy it. What are you satisfying?
Something which is created from this earth. And
Allah subhanahu wa ta'ala created us from a
soul
and this soul came from Him.
And so if you want,
you can elevate your soul
by nourishing it instead of your body.
The point here is Allah subhanahu wa ta'ala
tells us that he clung on to the
ground.
And notice here how Allah subhanahu wa ta'ala
mentions twice
that it was He
who chose this path,
not Allah subhanahu
Allah
subhanahu
wa
ta'ala. Allah says that he could have elevated
him
with this knowledge
but instead he chose
to hold on to the dunya. And before
that what did Allah say?
Allah had blessed him with knowledge of the
scripture,
but he turned away from it.
It is not Allah subhanahu wa ta'ala
who causes us to go astray,
but it is We who choose that path.
When they go astray,
when they went astray, then Allah caused their
hearts to go astray.
Allah subhanahu wa ta'ala says here,
But he clung onto the ground
and chose
to follow
his whims
and his desires.
Allah subhanahu wa ta'ala goes on.
His example is that of a dog.
If you chase after it,
he's still gonna let his tongue loose
and pant.
And if you leave him,
he's still gonna
do that.
Allah says
that is the example
of a people
who disbelieve in the ayaat of Allah.
And so tell the stories.
Allah is commanding His Messenger sallallahu alaihi wa
sallam
to narrate these stories
so that perhaps
people will
ponder and people will reflect
and think.
And so look at how Allah subhanahu wa
ta'ala
compares this man
to a dog whose only concern
is to quench its thirst
and to satisfy his hunger,
which is why you find
that it always lets his tongue out
sniffing and licking on whatever it comes across.
Likewise,
this man,
his only concern
is to satisfy his base desires.
Whether he finds it or not,
whether you come after him and remind him
to stop,
Whether you admonish him and remind him or
you leave him as he is,
he's gonna be the same.
And so that's because
he has allowed shaitan
to overpower him
And so
he's made up his mind
and no reminder
will benefit him.
And so my dear brothers and sisters,
this is the end result
of those who Allah guided,
and they did not value this guidance.
Instead,
they turned back
and they preferred
to live
a life
in which they would only satisfy
their desires.
And this is not the only example that
we have,
nor will it be the last.
In fact,
in the best of eras, in the best
of times,
and with the best of human beings,
Rasulullah Sallallahu Alaihi Wasallam.
We have such examples.
We have the one example
of the wife
of Habibah radiAllahu anha.
The husband of Habibah.
They traveled
all the way to Abyssinia,
the first migration.
And there after some time, her husband,
he apostates,
he leaves Islam.
And she comes
and ends up marrying the Prophet sallallahu alaihi
wa sallam.
We have the other example
of that man who was fighting in one
of the battles,
and he was
showing his strength and his bravery
and his skills.
He was killing and slaying anyone who came
in his path.
When the sahaba saw him,
they said, This is a man from the
people of Jannah.
The Prophet sallallahu alaihi wasallam,
he heard them and he said, no.
He is in the hellfire.
They were shocked.
One of them they said,
I'm gonna follow him
to see what happens.
So he went
and he followed him
until he saw
that he was hit by the enemy
and he fell to the ground,
and he sustained such an injury
that he couldn't bear the pain.
And so he took his sword
and he leaned against it, and he committed
suicide.
This Sahabi came back to the Prophet sallallahu
alaihi wa sallam
and he said, I bear witness that you
are indeed the Messenger of Allah.
The Prophet sallallahu alaihi wa sallam said,
why? He told him what he saw.
The Prophet sallallahu alaihi wa sallam then said,
one of you, he may do
the deeds of the people of Jannah in
what appears to be
that he is a person from the people
of Jannah. However,
he is from the people of the hellfire
and vice versa.
A person may do what appears to the
people to be
the deeds of the people of hellfire,
but he is from the people of Jannah.
Staying firm
upon the deen of Allah
and upon this guidance
from the beginning all the way until the
end
is something difficult.
And it's something rare that you find someone
remaining firm and steadfast,
constant,
until the day that he meets Allah subhanahu
wa ta'ala.
Especially
in this day and age,
when we are exposed
to what we are exposed to,
of all kinds of fitan,
and trials and tests and temptations.
The Prophet sallallahu alaihi wasallam
spoke about this time
when he said,
Ahead of you are times.
Times of fitna.
Like the dark night,
due to its uncertainty,
due to how unclear things are.
The Prophet sallallahu alaihi wasallam says,
In these days,
a man, he will wake up in the
morning as a believer
and go to sleep at night as a
disbeliever.
And he'll get up
as a disbeliever,
but by the end of the night he'll
be a believer.
And the Prophet sallallahu alaihi wasallam
also foretold of this time
when he said
When he sallallahu alaihi wasallam said,
That there will come a time for the
people.
There will come a time
when those who hold on to their deen,
committed steadfast,
they will be like 1.
They will be like 1 who holds on
to hot coal.
It's not easy.
It's difficult
but they do it and they persist
and they're constant
and they don't give up.
Ibn Rajab,
Rahimahullah
ta'ala, he says,
perhaps a person starts the beginning of his
life
treading
the straight path,
then he deviates from it
towards the end of his life,
treading
some of the paths of shaitan,
cutting off from Allah,
thus
perishing.
And then he mentions the hadith
in which the prophet sallallahu alaihi wa sallam
says,
That one,
he may do the deeds of the people
of Jannah until there's only an arm span
between him and Jannah.
But then
he ends
up doing the deeds of the people of
hellfire.
He turns back towards the end of his
life, and he ends
up in the hellfire.
He goes on to say,
the key is to remain steadfast
upon the straight path
from the beginning of the journey
until the end.
But that is the bounty of Allah.
The gift of Allah that He gifts to
whomever He wills.
He says,
many are those
who turn back
or give up along the way
for the hearts.
The hearts are between 2
of the fingers
of Ar Rahman.
He turns them
as he wishes.
Allah
says that he keeps firm
he keeps firm
the believers
with the firm
word and that is the kalimah of a
tawhid
not only
in this life but
also in the akhirah.
And so my brothers and sisters,
never
for even one second
should we think
that our guidance
is as a result of our own efforts.
Never
should we think for even a split second
that this guidance that Allah has guided us
to,
that we're gonna remain upon it forever.
That we guarantee ourselves that.
But rather we should fear.
We should fear
going astray.
Why?
Because our guidance is not in our hands,
but rather it is in the hands of
Allah subhanahu wa ta'ala.
Why is
it that
17 times every day
we're asking Allah Subhanahu wa ta'ala,
iddeenasurratulmustaqeem.
Guide us o Allah to the straight path.
Or we already guided to Islam?
So what does it mean? It means, O
Allah,
keep us guided.
Don't allow us to go astray.
Keep us guided because
guidance, our guidance is in Your hands.
And we have a beautiful du'a that Allah
teaches us in the Quran.
Oh Allah,
do not allow our hearts to go astray
after You have guided us.
And among those du'as that the Prophet Sallallahu
Alaihi Wasallam
used to make the most
was,
O turner of the hearts.
Allah is the one who turns the hearts
from guidance to misguidance,
from misguidance to guidance.
O Turner of the hearts,
keep our hearts firm upon your deen.
And among the things that the Prophet sallallahu
alaihi wa sallam
used to seek refuge from
was
aljur ba'adalkur
which is
living
a life.
Living a life committed
to the deen, steadfast and firm.
And then after that,
going off path
and straying.
And so my dear brothers and sisters,
we have to remind ourselves constantly
of this huge blessing of Allah
of being rightly guided
in a day and age in which we
are seeing so many people flipping.
One day you see them practicing
and the next day you see them and
you wonder what happened to them.
We need to constantly remind ourselves
that the path ahead,
although it may seem long,
it's very short
compared
to what comes after it.
We need to remind ourselves
of the stories
of those who went
before us.
Those examples that we mentioned,
and that evil end, that evil fate that
they met.
But we should also remind ourselves
of good examples.
The example
of Imam Ahmed ibnhambala
Rahimahu
Ta'ala.
When he was on his deathbed,
and he was coming in and out of
consciousness.
He started saying, not yet. Not yet.
When he came back to his senses, his
companions who were around him, they asked him,
what were you saying?
You were saying not yet. Not yet.
He said, Shaitan came to me
and he said, O Ahmed.
You have won.
You have beat me.
That's it.
Imam Ahmed,
even though he was going through what he
was going through,
the pains of death
and not knowing what's happening,
yet he was conscious of the fact
that it's not over until it's over.
It's not over
until you cross the finish line. And that,
my dear brothers and sisters,
is as Allah subhanahu wa ta'ala says,
and worship Allah. Until when?
Until death.
Until your soul is departing from your body.
We ask Allah
to keep us steadfast and firm upon this
deen. We ask Allah
for a good ending
and not an evil ending.
A long.
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