Mirza Yawar Baig – Lessons From The Anbiya #74 I Love The Messenger
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Bismillahir Rahmanir Rahim, Alhamdulillahi Rabbil Alameen, wa salatu
wa salamu ala sharafi al-anbiyai wa al
-mursaleen, Muhammadur Rasulullahi sallallahu alaihi wa ala alihi
wa sahbihi wa sallam, tasliman kaseeran kaseera.
My brothers and sisters, from Abadu we come
to the last days of Rasulullah sallallahu alaihi
wa sallam.
These are very, it's a very painful subject
to talk about, but obviously it is a
part of the Seerah, and like the Seerah,
like every part of the Seerah, no matter
how painful or joyous it might be, it
is a place of huge learning, and that
is the whole maqsad, the whole purpose of
the Seerah of Rasulullah sallallahu alaihi wa sallam,
that it is Allah subhanahu wa ta'ala
sent him as a teacher and made his
life, his whole life Allah subhanahu wa ta
'ala made it the means of teaching, He
made it the demonstration of what he wishes,
and if one lives one's life according to
the wish of Allah subhanahu wa ta'ala,
the will of Allah subhanahu wa ta'ala,
then success, final permanent success is guaranteed.
Now Rasulullah sallallahu alaihi wa sallam said in
one Hadith, he said when any calamity befalls
you, think of my death, and that calamity
will seem like nothing.
Subhanallah, this is so so incredibly true, because
there is nothing which is a bigger calamity
and a bigger tragedy than having lost Rasulullah
sallallahu alaihi wa sallam in person, that everyone
after the first generation has faced.
I remember many many years ago, I think
almost maybe 20-25 years ago, I was
in Chicago, and I went with my very
dear friend Raza bhai, Raza Hussain, for Salatul
Fajr, to a mosque, I don't remember which
exact place it was, and immediately after the
Salat, one of the brothers stood up, he
was an Egyptian man, and he narrated this
Hadith, he said when a calamity befalls, think
of the passing away of Rasulullah sallallahu alaihi
wa sallam, and that calamity will seem like
nothing, and then he announced that a plane
which was carrying many tens of Egyptian pilots,
who had come to the United States to
be trained, that plane had crashed, and everybody
on board had died, and I think probably
maybe some people had relatives there, but even
if they didn't, the majority of people in
that mosque were Egyptian people, and of course
it's a tragedy for all of us, and
for everyone.
So he mentioned this Hadith as a way
of coping with that tragedy.
Today we are living in a world which
is seeing tragedy galore, tragedy that we have
never seen before.
As I speak to you today, over 35
,000 innocent people, men, women and children, have
been killed, murdered in Gaza, and the majority
of them, 60-70% of them are
women and children, and it's not to say
that we keep saying these women and children
as if the lives of men are expendable,
and it's okay to kill men, it is
not okay to kill anybody, irrespective of who
they are, whether they are Muslim or not,
it is not okay to kill anybody.
This is the fundamental principle of Islam.
The cardinal sin after shirk, after associating with
Allah subhanahu wa ta'ala, is murder.
And Allah subhanahu wa ta'ala will punish
those who commit murder, no matter who they
are, and no matter how protected they may
be, or they feel they are in this
world, a time will come when they will
stand before Allah subhanahu wa ta'ala.
On this context of Rasulullah sallallahu alaihi wa
sallam passing away, the biggest disaster for the
Muslims was the death of Rasulullah sallallahu alaihi
wa sallam, not only because they were deprived
of the barakah of his company, but because
with his death, Wahy stopped.
The connection, the direct connection, when Allah subhanahu
wa ta'ala spoke to human beings through
his messenger Muhammad sallallahu alaihi wa sallam, that
connection came to an end.
And that connection will never happen again because
Rasulullah sallallahu alaihi wa sallam is the last
and final of the people who received Wahy
from Allah subhanahu wa ta'ala.
He is the last and final messenger, he
is the last and final prophet, he is
the last and final Rasul, he is the
last and final Nabi.
There is another story of Sayyidina Hasan ibn
Ali radiyallahu anhuma and I think it was
also Abdullah ibn Abbas radiyallahu anhuma and one
other young Sahabi.
They went to meet this lady who used
to work in the household of Rasulullah sallallahu
alaihi wa sallam.
And so they went to meet her and
give salam to her and so on.
And she, among her duties, she used to
also cook food for Rasulullah sallallahu alaihi wa
sallam and his family.
So they went there and then they said
to her, our mother, can you please cook
for us something that Rasulullah sallallahu alaihi wa
sallam used to eat and used to cook
for him.
So she laughed and she said, you can't
eat what I used to cook for him
and what he ate.
They said, why?
She said, because you have become too soft.
Now imagine she is talking to the grandson
of Rasulullah sallallahu alaihi wa sallam in those
days, what would she say if somebody like
me and you went to her today?
They were soft and what about us?
Anyway, so they persisted.
So she took some barley, coarse barley, like
barley meal.
She took some sheep fat, she put the
barley meal in a pan on the fire.
She put some sheep fat into that, she
put some salt, she fried the whole thing
and she said this is what she used
to eat.
This is a kind of very rough bread
with just salt in it.
And she said eat this, this is what
she used to eat.
And this is the passing away of Rasulullah
sallallahu alaihi wa sallam is amazing.
Subhanallah, it's something that we should try to
reflect on this and say, and it's easy
to say.
Let me tell you a couple of other
things as well.
There was a young man who was passing
by after Rasulullah sallallahu alaihi wa sallam passed
away.
There was a young man who was passing
by and he saw a group of the
Sahaba of Rasulullah sallallahu alaihi wa sallam.
Among whom was Abu Sayyid al-Khudri radiallahu
anhu and others.
So this young guy, he had never seen
Rasulullah sallallahu alaihi wa sallam.
He was from the Tabayyun.
So he was born after Rasulullah sallallahu alaihi
wa sallam passed away.
So he was passing by this group and
he made salam and he said, I wish
I was like you.
I wish I was born earlier and I
wish I had seen and had the company
of Rasulullah sallallahu alaihi wa sallam.
So Abu Sayyid al-Khudri radiallahu anhu called
him and made him sit down and he
said, Thank Allah subhanahu wa ta'ala for
what He has given you.
And don't ask for and don't yearn for
something which Allah chose, did not choose for
you.
He said, because among those who saw Rasulullah
sallallahu alaihi wa sallam and who had the
opportunity of being in his company were also
Abu Jahl and Abu Lahab.
And Abu Lahab was his uncle, was his
blood relative.
Today people talk with great pride and Alhamdulillah,
this is good Allah has given this as
ni'mah.
It's not pride as in something that is
achieved by the individual but Allah has given
them as ni'mah.
And if they get their ni'mah with iman,
that's the key, the key is with iman,
then it's good.
Because Abu Talib and Abu Lahab were both
blood relatives of Rasulullah sallallahu alaihi wa sallam.
Today somebody calls himself, especially in our part
of the world, India, Pakistan and so on,
I am a Sayyid, I am from the
family of Rasulullah sallallahu alaihi wa sallam.
Actually if you trace it back, Allah knows
best.
But anyway, there was no doubt with regard
to Abu Lahab and Abu Jahl.
These people were the people in whose veins
the same blood flowed, that flowed in the
veins of Rasulullah sallallahu alaihi wa sallam.
Yet, both of them did not believe in
Rasulullah sallallahu alaihi wa sallam.
And Allah subhanahu wa ta'ala with respect
to Abu Lahab, Allah subhanahu wa ta'ala
promised him Jahannam and revealed a surah in
describing him and his wife.
And of course, Abu Talib has done the
same thing.
We know that Rasulullah sallallahu alaihi wa sallam
said that he never accepted Islam and therefore
he will not have Jahannam.
This is something very important for us to
think about and say, today I am here,
what am I getting from the life of
Rasulullah sallallahu alaihi wa sallam?
Now that he has passed away, what must
I do?
How do I maintain that connection?
Another beautiful story, Abu Bakr and Umar r
.a went to meet Um Ayman, the only
person in the life of Rasulullah sallallahu alaihi
wa sallam, who was with him from his
birth to his death, who saw the Prophet
sallallahu alaihi wa sallam as a newborn baby
and who saw him when he passed away
was Um Ayman r.a, who later married
Zaid bin Haritha r.a. So she was
with Rasulullah sallallahu alaihi wa sallam throughout his
entire life.
So after Rasulullah sallallahu alaihi wa sallam passed
away, Abu Bakr and Umar r.a went
to meet Um Ayman.
This is again on a side note, this
is one of the qualities of our akhlaq,
qualities of our behaviour, that we maintain ties
with those who were the friends of our
elders, especially friends of our parents, but also
others, our teachers and friends of our elders.
You maintain ties with them after they have
passed away.
This is a very important part of akhlaq
and it is something to be taught to
our children.
So they went to meet her and when
she saw them and she met them, she
had tears in her eyes.
So they said to her, inna lillahi wa
inna lillahi ajoon, are you weeping because of
the passing away of Rasulullah sallallahu alaihi wa
sallam?
They said, you know, this is something which
all of us are, for us it is
the greatest tragedy, but this is from Allah
subhanahu wa ta'ala and this is for
all of us.
So she said, no, I am not weeping
for the passing away, or rather I am
sad about that also, but she said, I
am weeping because the connection we had with
Allah subhanahu wa ta'ala has been severed,
has been, the window of the heavens has
shut.
Wahi has stopped.
Now these are people who truly appreciated that,
obviously they saw it, I mean, we didn't
see it, but we have it, Alhamdulillah, thanks
to the fact that Allah subhanahu wa ta
'ala preserved the Quran al-Karim, and thanks
to those who engaged in the job of
preserving the Quran al-Karim, the Sahaba, Rizwanullahi
alaihim ajmain, may Allah be pleased with all
of them, who recorded it, who recorded the
teachings, the meaning of it and the tafsir
of it, which was both the hadith and
the seerah of Rasulullah sallallahu alaihi wa sallam.
They recorded it, they kept it, so that
it is there with us today.
So let us think and reflect on these
things, they are very important.
Now to continue with the story of the
last days, in the month of Safar, the
beginning of the end commenced.
Rasulullah sallallahu alaihi wa sallam had received many
ayats and indications that he would die like
other messengers before him, and he was prepared
and waiting for the day.
Allah subhanahu wa ta'ala, for example, Allah
said, innaka mayyitoon wa innahum mayyitoon In Surah
Az-Zumar, Allah said, barely you and Muhammad
sallallahu alaihi wa sallam will die, and barely
they too, meaning his opponents, they will also
die.
And then Allah subhanahu wa ta'ala said,
wa ma ja'alna li basharin min qablikal
khunda, afa imitta fahumul khalidoon kullu nafsin za
'iqatul mawt, wa nabluukum bil sharri wal khayri
fitna, wa ilayna turja'oon Allah said, and
we did not grant to any human being
immortality before you, O Muhammad sallallahu alaihi wa
sallam, then if you die, would they live
forever?
Meaning these people, they think as if they
are living in this life, as if they
are going to stay forever.
He said, even you will die.
So what do they think will happen to
them?
Everyone is going to taste death, and we
shall make a trial of you with evil
and with good, and to us you will
be returned.
This is a message for all of us
to say, that both good and evil are
trials.
It is very common when things are going
well.
People say, this is from the fadal of
Allah.
Alhamdulillah, it is a fadal of Allah.
But also do remember that this is also
a trial.
For example, one of the most severe trials
is the trial of wealth and power.
There is truly probably nothing that is more
severe than that.
Allah gives in the hands of an individual
the power to do things on a very
large scale, thanks to the fact that he
has wealth and he has power.
So it is, you know, especially when today,
when people criticize rulers, and I am not
saying that the rulers that we have today
are not to be criticized.
May Allah protect us from people like that.
They are well worth criticizing and so on.
But before we go into that issue of
criticizing, first of all, there is no point
in criticizing them because they don't care about
your opinion.
But apart from that, it is very salutary
to put yourself in their position and say,
what would I have done if I was
so and so.
This really opens your eyes.
What would you have done if you were
that person?
Today you are criticizing this one and that
one and saying, you know, why does he
do this or that.
First of all, we are doing that without
knowledge.
We don't know what are all the problems
that that person faces.
We don't know, you know, all the things
that motivate him or what he is forced
by.
But apart from that, if I was a
king, if you were a king, or whatever
ruler in whichever shape or form, what would
you do?
What would you do?
What would I do?
So it is very important to keep this
in mind that goodness, so-called goodness, what
we think is goodness, because before Allah subhanahu
wa ta'ala the only goodness is piety,
is taqwa.
Everything else is a test.
Taqwa is the only thing which is, if
Allah gives you and we ask Allah to
give it to us, this is something which
is the true ni'mah from Allah subhanahu wa
ta'ala, the true blessing.
Everything else is a test and poverty is
a test and wealth is a test and
sickness is a test and health is a
test and strength is a test and weakness
is a test and age is a test,
being old is a test and being young
is a test, everything is a test.
So in this case as well, the wealth
is a test.
Allah is saying this, we will test you
with both, we will test you with evil
and we will test you with good.
And remember that the return is to us
and this is the anchor, this is what
keeps us in check, to remember that one
day there is a return to Allah subhanahu
wa ta'ala.
Nobody but nobody will escape that return.
Then Allah subhanahu wa ta'ala said, Allah
subhanahu wa ta'ala said, Allah
subhanahu wa ta'ala said in these ayatul
surah tul al imran, Muhammad sallallahu alaihi wa
sallam is no more than a messenger, and
indeed many messengers have passed by before him.
If he dies or is killed, will you
then turn back on your heels?
Meaning, will you leave Islam, will you become
disbelievers?
And he who turns back on his heels,
not the least harm will he do to
Allah.
And Allah will give reward to those who
are grateful.
And no person can ever die except by
Allah's leave.
Nobody can die without the permission of Allah.
And at an appointed time.
And whoever desires a reward in this world,
we shall give it to him.
And whoever desires a reward in the hereafter,
we shall give it to him.
And we shall reward the grateful.
And then of course Allah subhanahu wa ta
'ala said, sallallahu
alaihi wa sallam, Allah said, when the help
of Allah comes to you, Muhammad sallallahu alaihi
wa sallam, against your enemies, and this is
referring to the conquest of Mecca, when the
help of Allah comes to you, and you
are victorious, and you see that the people
enter Allah subhanahu wa ta'ala's religion, which
is Islam, in crowds.
Then what must you do?
Then glorify the praises of your Rabb, and
ask for forgiveness.
Seek forgiveness, ask forgiveness.
Verily, He Jalla Jalaluhu is the one who
accepts repentance and forgives.
This is a beautiful Surah also to reflect
on the importance of Niyah, on the importance
of looking at Deen in the true perspective.
Because if you think about this, and say,
here I have worked all my life, and
finally I get success.
And I am working for the sake of
Allah.
This is not building a business, this is
calling people to Islam, and finally after going
through innumerable difficulties, and trials, and tribulations, and
tortures, and so on, eventually, finally, I am
successful, and Allah has given me success, and
then what must I do?
Allah said, Ok, I understand this.
Glorify Allah subhanahu wa ta'ala, make tazbih
of Allah.
Seek forgiveness?
For what?
What did I do wrong?
Why should I seek forgiveness?
This is where shaitan comes in.
This is where shaitan comes in.
And may Allah protect us.
We see this all the time, right?
One person accepts Islam, immediately you make a
video, you put it on Facebook, you put
here, there, Oh, fantastic, wow, wow, they have
accepted Islam.
And Tom, Tommy, Mustafa, Oh, we get at
least, you know, every month one or two,
people accept Islam in our masjid.
Allah is not talking about one or two,
Allah is saying, Allah is saying, يَذْخُرُنَ فِي
دِينِ اللَّهِ أَفْوَاجًۭا People will enter into Islam
in hujoom, in crowds, in armies.
Right?
Now, we have to understand this, that what
is Allah asking us or ordering us to
seek forgiveness for?
Allah is saying, the forgiveness is for the
danger of kibr, arrogance, and for the danger
of becoming a partner with Allah subhanahu wa
ta'ala, committing shirk by putting yourself as
a partner with Allah subhanahu wa ta'ala.
Because hidayah, Allah subhanahu wa ta'ala said,
إِنَّكَ لَا تَهْدِي مَنْ أَحْمَدَتَ وَلَاكِنَّ اللَّهَ يَهْدِي
مَنْ يَشَهَدُ Allah said, you cannot give hidayah,
you cannot guide anyone that you love.
Only Allah can guide who He wishes.
And this is a beautiful ayah that came
to comfort Rasulullah sallallahu alaihi wa sallam, especially
with regard to his uncle Abu Talib, who
refused to accept guidance, who refused to accept
Rasulullah sallallahu alaihi wa sallam, even though he
loved him, he loved him, you know, absolutely
beyond anybody's expectation.
The contrast between Abu Lahab and Abu Talib,
Abu Lahab hated Rasulullah sallallahu alaihi wa sallam,
whereas Abu Talib loved Rasulullah sallallahu alaihi wa
sallam, beyond, literally, even more than his own
sons.
Yet, both of them did not accept him
as a Rasul.
And so the ending of both of them
is the same.
There will be, obviously, a difference in the
level of punishment.
And this is for Allah s.w.t.
to decide.
I'm not saying this.
Nabi sallallahu alaihi wa sallam said, man, like
Abu Talib, would get the least of the
punishment.
But he will be in Jahannam.
It's a matter of degree.
What is the least and what is more
if you are in Jahannam.
So the issue to understand here is not
how much punishment they are getting.
The issue here to understand is that it
is to accept Muhammad sallallahu alaihi wa sallam
as the Rasul and to accept his message
as the message from Allah s.w.t.
Now here Allah s.w.t. is telling
us, seek forgiveness because when we get success
in Deen, the tendency with a lot of
us, may Allah protect us from ourselves, is
to ascribe it to ourselves.
And we say, oh, fantastic, see how successful
my dawah is.
Inna lillahi wa inna lillahi ajab.
The dawah of Nuh a.s. after 950
years of preaching was less than 100 people.
So was he successful or unsuccessful?
Seek forgiveness.
So that, to seek forgiveness is the Tawheed
of the heart.
So we don't join ourselves in my effort.
No, it's not my effort.
It can never be my effort.
Because the hearts of people are between the
fingers of Allah s.w.t. And these
terms, fingers of Allah, hand of Allah, biadilahi
khair, in the hand of Allah is khair,
and so forth, is a blessing.
All of these things are to be understood
in the context of the glory and majesty
of Allah s.w.t. There is no
comparison, one is not like the other, it's
not like ours.
So Nabi s.a.w. said, the hearts
are in between the fingers of Allah s
.w.t. They can be turned anytime.
The Qalb can be turned.
And the one who turns the Qalb towards
Hidayah, who gives Hidayah, who actually grants guidance
to a person, is Allah s.w.t.
himself.
Not anybody else.
It is Allah Jalla Jalaluhu Himself.
So to remind yourself when you are successful
in Dawah, that this is happening because of
Allah's mercy on these people and on me.
Allah chose to use me for this.
Allah could have chosen anybody.
Allah could have given them Hidayah without anybody
coming in.
In my life I have seen people who
Allah guided.
There was no other person who came in
between.
Allah did not choose anybody.
Allah gave them guidance for them.
Even some people who came to me and
accepted Islam, I have nothing to do with
it.
I have nothing to do with it.
It is just that Allah s.w.t.
caused me to get them to recite the
Shahada.
But I did not know the person from
a bar of soap before they came to
meet me.
Allah guides.
Allah absolutely guides.
I have told the story of this person
who I had the honor of giving a
Shahada before.
Let me tell it here again.
35,000 feet in the air on Northwest
Airlines.
Northwest Airlines used to be an airline which
I think later on Delta bought it.
It does not exist anymore.
This was in 1998 or something.
I was traveling from Hartford, Connecticut, Bradley International
to Los Angeles.
It was a Friday.
I was dressed something like this.
I was wearing a turban and so on.
This Northwest Airlines, their hub was Detroit.
The flight was from Hartford, Connecticut to Detroit
and from Detroit to LA.
Very, very long flight.
Six, seven hours flight.
In Detroit, we also had to change planes.
When I got on to the next plane,
I had a middle seat.
On my left, it was the seats on
the left rather than going on the right
of the aisle but facing the pilot on
the left.
On my left, the window seat, there was
a white American lady.
It was Friday and I pulled out.
These were days before cell phones and what
not and apps.
I had a small Musaf Quran.
I picked it up and I put it
out my case and I was reading.
This lady looks across.
She says, excuse me, what is that?
I said, this is the Quran.
No, no, what language is it?
I said, it's Arabic.
She said, then you can read something for
me.
I said, what's that?
She goes into her handbag and she pulls
out a locket which you wear around your
neck.
This locket had, on one side, it had
Alhamdulillah.
And on the other side, it had Bismillah.
So, she said, what is this?
So, I read it to her.
I said, this is Bismillah.
This is what it means.
This is Alhamdulillah.
This is what it means.
Then I asked her, I said, where did
you get it?
I said, are you Muslim?
She said, no, I'm not Muslim.
I said, where did you get this?
She said, my grandmother had a friend who
was Iranian and he gave it to her.
And my grandmother gave it to me.
So, I said, okay, interesting story.
Anyway, she put it back in her bag
and I continued to read.
I was reading silently.
So, she said, excuse me.
I said, yes.
She says, can you read aloud?
So, I'm sitting up in the air, 35
,000 feet in the air in America.
She wants me to read the Quran aloud.
But people all around me who are not
Muslim.
Anyway, so I started reading aloud.
In a low voice where she could hear
me, not, you know, loudly, but loud enough.
I'm sure people in the jattis, the ones
sitting in the front, could hear me.
Anyway, so I read the surah.
The entire surah finished.
And I shut the Muslim.
She said, that's finished?
I said, yes.
She said, no, but there's more.
I said, yeah, another 15 juz.
So, I explained to her, you know, what
is juz and so on, so on.
So, she said, oh, but it sounds so
beautiful.
I said, alhamdulillah, inshallah.
This is the Kalam of Allah.
This is the word of Allah, speech of
Allah.
And, of course, it sounds beautiful.
Then she says to me, she said, tell
me about Islam.
So, I tell her about Islam.
I tell her about Tawheed, about worshipping only
Allah subhanahu wa ta'ala, about Rasulullah sallallahu
alaihi wa sallam being the last and final
messenger.
Because she was a Christian, I also told
her about Isa alaihi salam and his position
in Islam and how he's revered and how
he's hugely respected, but he's not worshipped and
that fact that Allah subhanahu wa ta'ala
has no partners, he has no relatives, he
has no sons and daughters and what not.
And he doesn't resemble anything in creation.
And I went through the whole nine yards.
And in my heart, I'm saying, ya Allah,
give her hidayat, ya Allah, give her hidayat.
And I don't have the courage to tell
her, you know, why don't you become Muslim.
So, I'm just answering questions, nothing else.
This dawah, it has zero initiative from my
side.
It's all hers.
She's asking me the questions.
So, when all that finished, after a little
while she tells me, so, how does one
become Muslim?
So, I said, you feel in your heart
that there is no one worthy of worship
except Allah subhanahu wa ta'ala.
You believe this, you are sure about it.
And then you say this with your tongue,
there is no one worthy of worship except
Allah and that Muhammad sallallahu alaihi wa sallam
is the messenger of Allah and the last
and final of them and then you say
this in Arabic also, if possible.
So, she said, can I do that?
I said, you want to become Muslim?
She said, yes.
I want to become Muslim.
She said, can I do that?
Can you help me?
I said, of course.
So, 35,000 feet in the air, Northwest
Airlines and at that time I think we
were flying over the Grand Canyon or something
like that.
This lady came into Islam.
She accepted Islam.
And then she said, can you write it
out for me?
So, I wrote out the Shahada for her
in Arabic and then in English.
I said, do you believe that Isa A
.S. is not a son of God?
She said, no, no, he is not a
son of God.
I never believed that.
He was a human being and you know
the people make it up and so on
and so on.
So, we had this whole conversation.
That was that.
After a little while she tells me, I
am telling you how Allah guides.
No intervention, there is no, zero credit for
me.
So, after a little while she tells me,
she said, you know, this meeting of ours,
this was ordained.
This is not a chance.
So, I said, yes, of course, you are
right.
But I am thinking to myself, yeah, yeah,
yeah, you are from California.
You know, this is like typical Californian stuff.
You know, everything is ordained, everything is some
mysterious link to that.
But of course, we also know that Alhamdulillah,
Allah SWT orders everything.
So, from my angle, but I am saying
from her angle, this was a thought in
my mind, may Allah protect me from myself.
She said, she must have understood, you know,
that I was kind of doubting.
So, she goes back into her handbag and
remember these were the days.
Today we are, everything is paperless.
So, you know, you make a booking, the
thing comes on your phone and there is
a barcode and you scan it and so
on.
In those days, we had actual tickets.
You had this rectangular thing, which was like
a little booklet.
And each sector that you were flying on,
there was a page.
And when you checked in, they would tear
off that page and so on.
So, she pulls out two tickets.
One is a ticket on Delta and the
other is a ticket on Northwest.
She said, I was in Detroit for a
business meeting with my company.
She said, we had a whole team meeting.
So, the whole lot of us, we came
to Detroit.
And she pulled out the Delta ticket.
And she said, see, this is the ticket.
So, I looked at it.
She made me look at it.
So, I looked at the ticket.
It was LA to Detroit and return.
So, I said, you have a return ticket
on Delta.
She said, yes.
So, I said, now how are you on
Northwest Airlines?
She said, that is the story.
I said, okay, so tell me.
She said, our conference finished.
And after our conference finished, I, something in
my heart.
She said, my conference finished and everyone was
leaving and I was supposed to leave with
them.
Yesterday, last night.
She said, something told me in my heart
not to go back.
So, I stayed.
Everyone went.
I stayed.
She said, Detroit is a dead town as
far as I am concerned.
I have nobody there.
I have nothing to do there.
And I am sitting in this hotel.
She said, the company paid for my hotel
until last night.
So, one extra night, I am paying.
And I am sitting here.
And I am thinking to myself, I had
a ticket to return yesterday.
I am sitting in this hotel.
I am paying extra for the hotel.
Why?
But there was this feeling in my heart,
stay here.
Then she says, now, to return the next
day, I look for, I try to, you
know, book.
I try to postpone the same Delta ticket
to the following day.
There is no seat.
I try to find something else on Delta.
She said, Delta is my favorite airline.
I am a frequent flier on Delta.
She said, the only thing I had was
Northwest Airlines.
That was the only thing available.
This particular flight was the only thing available.
And she said, I don't even like Northwest.
I don't fly Northwest.
So, I had to buy that ticket.
I bought the ticket and right now I
am sitting here next to you.
Subhanallah, I tell you, if somebody had told
me this story, I probably would not have
believed it.
But this happened to me and Allah is
witness.
I don't know where that lady is.
This is 1998.
I don't even know if she is alive
or not.
I don't know where she is.
When we landed in LA, she made me
tell her husband, who came to receive her,
all about Islam in the airport, which I
did.
And then I tried to put her in
touch with some of the Muslim brothers in
LA.
And I hope she is alive.
I hope she is well.
I hope she is, you know, she is
well into Islam, Alhamdulillah.
And I made dua for her.
May Allah guide her.
Subhanallah, this is like a miracle.
And Allah guided her and through her Allah
guided me.
I am grateful to her for this experience
in my life, which is unbelievable, subhanallah.
And the reason I mention this many times
is because maybe one day, you know, the
internet today, maybe one day she will see
this.
Or somebody who knows her will see this.
And nothing would give me more happiness than
to get back in touch with her and
to find out how she is doing.
We ask Allah subhanahu wa ta'ala Jalla
Jalaluhu to accept us into Islam and to
keep us in Islam with istiqamah, with firmness,
and to take us in a state where
He is pleased with us.
Wa sallallahu ala nabiyyil kareem wa ala alihi
wa sahbihi ajma'in bi rahmati khaliqatuhu.
Walhamdulillahi Rabbil Alamin.