Morad Awad – Words of the Wise
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AI: Transcript ©
We praise Allah
And we send our peace and blessings upon
our noble prophet Muhammad alayhis salatu wassalam.
And I remind myself and yourselves on this
blessed
and glorious day of Yomul Jumu'ah
to fear Allah
As Allah subhanahu wa ta'ala reminds us to
fear him in the Quran.
When he says,
Which translates to
oh you who believe,
fear Allah
subhanahu wa ta'ala and let one prepare
for tomorrow.
And let one look at what they have
prepared
for tomorrow.
Fear Allah.
For indeed Allah knows
what you do and what you are doing.
Brothers and sisters,
one of
the greatest things
that Allah subhanahu wa ta'ala sent down
or allowed for us to benefit from in
this world are the stories of others.
Hence why in the scriptures that Allah
revealed,
we see the stories of the people that
preceded us.
And with the stories before us, we find
energy
and we
get strength to move on and to persevere
by seeing the sacrifices
of those who came before us.
That is why brothers and sisters, the Quran,
the final word of God sent to humanity
and the only unchanged word of
God today
and will remain this way until the day
of judgment.
This book, the holy Quran Allah decreed for
it to have
500 stories in it, more than 500 even.
Why? Because
stories
charge us.
And
Allah
when the Prophet
was going through very difficult times,
Allah subhanahu wa ta'ala did not reveal to
him,
be patient,
stay away,
do this, do not feel this way, do
not act this way. But Allah
revealed to him the surahs
that consist of the stories
of the prophets before him.
And when he read the stories,
Allah subhanahu wa ta'ala told him
Be patient
the way the strong messengers before you
The way they were patient.
And this is why Allah subhanahu wa ta'ala
also said in the Quran,
And we tell you, O Muhammad
and we tell you from the stories of
those who preceded you, meaning prophets and messengers
so that your heart can remain firm.
So not only do we get strength from
it, not only do we learn lessons and
morals from them,
but
Allah makes
our hearts firm
on iman
with the stories of those who preceded us.
And subhanallah
brothers and sisters,
one of the most enlightening things
to me
and my spiritual growth from when when I
started
to practice this beautiful faith, and Allah
transformed my life. The most impactful things on
me were the stories
of the companions of Rasulullah salallahu alaihi wasall.
Because in them I saw so much inspiration.
And without reading the stories of the companions,
it's easy for someone to think that the
companions of
were all one type.
They were the zuhad, the ubad, the ones
who stayed in the masjid.
Right? When you see
a a a shaykh or a scholar pass
by, you get this imagination that
these companions who Allah chose
to be our leaders, to carry the umma
on their backs and to get the reward
of this umma and the dawah of Islam
until the day of judgement. You think that
they're that type but no.
When you read the stories
of the sahaba,
you realize
quickly,
as soon as like after you get 3,
4 sahabis down, you realize
that they were
normal human beings
that had their
own type of orientation, their own kind of
ways. Some were businessmen,
some were military commanders,
some were ascetics. They were just sahideen, you
know. They wanted to avoid the duniya
and and minimalize. They wanted to live a
minimal minimalistic
life.
Some,
they were into traveling the lands and and
and reflecting on Allah
creation. Some would like to travel and give
some
would like to
get to they would travel and listen to
the messenger of Allah sallallahu alaihi wa sallam,
they would write down everything he says, they
would be scribes for the Quran, they would
try and interpret the meanings of the Quran
through the Quran, and with the Quran, and
with the sunnah.
And these are the ulema. You have the
and
the
the scholars of the sahaba.
But were all the sahaba like that?
No, they weren't.
That's not how all of them were.
So with the stories of the sahabah,
we can find ourselves
and we can find an inspiration for us
through their lives and what they did.
And now with the story, inshallah, today I
will share with you
one
A khotba that is not like the khotba
of today.
Unfortunately, you know, our khotba's on Friday became
very long.
Right? And they aren't as They don't have
the mastery
of the khutba'
of the past like the sahaba.
When they spoke, they would spoke, they would
speak with wisdom. Very short words.
But
it would be very elaborate. You could think
of their words for for decades.
You know, that word is the type of
word you wake up a morning 10 years
later and it would still be ringing a
bell in your head. It's that type.
And one of these khutab
is what I'm going to share today by
a noble sahabi whose name was Abu Darda
Abu Darda is
a Zahid
Sahabi.
Someone
who is not
into this duniya. Someone who wanted to live
a minimalistic life.
He didn't wanna get distracted with the pleasures
of this world
from the pleasures of the akhirah.
And that was his orientation. So
at the time of Umar ibn Khattab And
by the way, Abu Darda was an extremely
knowledgeable sahabi, one of the most knowledgeable as
well, and he was very wise.
So Umar ibn Khattab
during his khilafa he saw Abu Darda as
someone who is fit
to be the leader
of or the governor of a particular land.
So Amr ibn Khattab
approached Abu Darda
and he told him,
I want you to be the governor of
Sham,
and I want to send you to Damascus.
Fa'aba, he rejected. He said,
forgive
me, but I'm not into governance.
You see the type of life that I'm
going to live.
You see the type of life
that I live, You know I don't want
this.
He insisted on him. He told him, No,
please. I really want you.
And then
and he kept asking him days after days
until Abu Darda said, You know what? I
don't mind. I'll be the governor. But with
one condition. He said, What? He said, That
I call them to the Quran,
and that I call them to the sunnah
and the guidance of Muhammad
Meaning call to that which is good and
forbid that which is evil. And I lead
their salas.
I go out He wanted to go out
himself as the governor,
and he wanted to call the people to
good walk in the streets, and he wanted
to see the people, what they're doing, and
call them to good and forbid them from
evil. And he himself wanted to lead them
in salah.
So he told him, I don't wanna be
your typical
amir, your typical governor.
Umar
said, I agree.
Abu Darda
went to Damascus.
And as as he entered Damascus,
he noticed that the people
were very into the dunya.
As you know, the lavish of this world,
oh, it was there.
Imagine the spoils of Rome,
this a century
long civilization
that just ended.
Right?
And then all of the wealth and inheritance,
all everything
went to the muslimeen
after and was justly distributed amongst the people.
So the people
had a lot of wealth.
They bought land,
they built houses,
they started to get into this this lifestyles
that were completely
alien to Abu Darda and the way he
lived.
So Abu Darda saw them in the state
and he gathered the people in the masjid.
And he said, O people, I want to
give you
a khutba, and they all gathered.
And they he stood on the minbar to
give them a that day.
And I will say the which is very
short in Arabic,
and then I will translate it into English,
insha Allah.
He said,
He said, O people of Damascus,
you are
our brothers in Nadeem.
And you are
our neighbors
in where we live.
And you are our allies in war.
Oh people of Dimashq,
what is it that is preventing you from
loving me
and listening to my advice to you
when I do not want anything from you?
For indeed my advice is for you
and my sustenance is not upon you. Meaning
you don't have to spend on me.
Why do I see
your
your
scholars
leaving you?
And I see
the ignorant amongst you left alone to remain
in ignorance
and not being taught.
And I see you
approaching
what or approaching and striving for
what Allah
already promised you.
Yet you leave
what Allah
ordered you and commanded you to do?
Why do I see you
gathering
much more food than what you can eat,
and you build a lot more than what
you can live in,
And you have hopes
that are bigger than anything you can ever
aspire for or accomplish.
People before you have gathered a
lot more than you
And it wasn't but
a moment.
It wasn't but a short period of time
in history
before everything they gathered
went to demise.
And their hopes
were destroyed,
and the homes that they built for themselves
became their own graves.
This is o people of Damascus.
This is o
people of Damascus.
They filled the earth
with wealth and with children.
Who will buy
everything I had left behind for 2 dirhams
from me right now?
Said, none of you ever gathered what I
had gathered.
Who will leave? Who will buy everything
'ad left behind for 2 dirhams?
All the people in the masjid began
to cry
until
their crying was heard from outside of the
masjid.
And this is all Abu Darda
had to tell the people of Damascus
before their hearts were softened,
before their ways changed.
And during his governance,
it was a transformational
period for the people of Damascus.
That's when iman began to sprout.
Abu Darda would walk the streets, and he
would check on the people, and he would
ask them how they're doing.
And insha'Allah, the second hutba maybe I'll share
a story
of
you know, another story of Abu Darda
as he was walking in the streets of
Damascus. We ask Allah
to forgive us and to have mercy on
us.
I remind you once again brothers and sisters
to fear Allah
on this blessed day of Yomuljumah.
Let us fear Allah and reflect
on what Abu Darda radiAllahu ta'ala anhu reminded
us of.
What is it that we're running after in
this dunya?
What is it that we're striving so much
for? What is it?
Is it what Allah already wrote for us?
Is it what Allah subhanahu wa ta'ala What
is our heart connected to?
Abu Darda
saw the people's hearts connected to the world.
Obviously our bodies are going to work,
are going to try and and attain wealth,
are going to strive for the highest positions
in our jobs, are going to try and
be the best at what we do, the
best salesperson offer the best products
because this is what muslims should do.
But when the hearts
are distracted with that,
from the remembrance of Allah,
from
praying to Allah,
from thanking Allah and being grateful to Allah
subhanahu wa ta'ala, then that is
when it's counterproductive.
That is when we're at loss.
That is when we sell the akhirah
for the dunya.
And what a bad sale that is.
Abu Darda
He would often walk in the streets of
Damascus, and in one instance,
he saw a group of men beating up
one
other
man,
a whole group.
And Abu Darda, he said, Kufaan, what are
you doing? Leave this man alone.
They said,
he did a big big sin.
Yeah. Yeah. Amir. Yeah. And he he did
a huge sin. So we're just, you know,
we're trying
to remind him. You know, you see they
got overzealous. Now they have iman and they
feel like they could impose it on others.
Right?
So they
they were gathered up beating up this one
man. So he said, Kufan, leave him alone.
Do you see if he if he fell
inside a well,
would you take him out?
They said, yes. Of course we will.
So then it doesn't look like you're taking
him out right now
because the man has fallen.
The man has fallen
and you should be helping him up,
not pushing him down. That's what he means.
They said, do you like his sin? Does
this mean you approve of the sin? Does
this mean the sin that he did
is is okay and we won't get punished
for it? He's like, No.
I hate his sin.
But the moment he's not sinning, he's my
brother,
and he has rights over me.
So leave him alone.
And they left him,
and this man
who was the sinner started to cry, and
he announced his tawba in front of everyone.
This was the type
of governors that were appointed
to this ummah, like Abu Darda When
Umar
went to visit him in Damascus,
after years of his governance,
he went to him at night.
He entered,
he said, Yeah Abu Darda. Abu Darda told
him, Come and sit.
And there was no light in the house
even. He sat down.
Umar sat down, Abu Darda sat down, and
they spoke
until afterwards, after fajr.
Umar saw the light. When the light came
out, he saw that there's nothing
in the house.
The mattress Abu Darda slept on
was the cloth they put on the back
of a horse or a mule,
under the saddle.
There's like a That's what he slept on.
And the piece of a thawb was his
blanket, which didn't cover him from the cold
of of Sham, which which gets very cold.
Subhanallah.
And he just had a little bit of
food, a little bit of water.
He didn't want too much from this dunya.
But this is the reality
of those who know what this dunya is
about.
This is the reality
of those who know
what this dunya is truly about.
So when will we
take heed of the reminder of Abu Darda
radhiyallahu ta'ala anhu?
When will we
start
to understand
the value of our time
and how we spend it?
The most intelligent
of human beings are the ones who understand
lesson number 1 in life,
the value of time.
If you understand the value of your time,
the moment you do that's when you start
to go up, That's when you start to
acquire wealth. That's when you start to rise
in positions.
And when a person has no value over
time, that's when they stay down and they
never rise up in life.
And you find that the this
the value of time
is very high for those who understand the
akhira
because they know this moment,
this this world of hours
is but minutes,
hours,
days, weeks, months.
If a minute goes by then part of
me
disappears.
If a day goes by then a part
of my life is gone.
And
a part of the opportunity
to acquire a certain higher level in jannah,
cease to exist
because
my time is going.
I could've said subhanallah
500 times in the 5 minutes. I was
sitting down and doing nothing and saying nothing.
I could've been written from the vakireen.
Allah would've sent down the angels
to record my deeds.
I would have been mentioned in
the amongst the angels by Allah
If I said Allah
Muhammad
10 times.
I could've,
but I wasn't
because those 5 minutes went and I was
just staring,
wasting my time.
Those who understand the akhirah brothers and sisters
are those who understand the value of time.
So if you are not
benefiting yourself
in this duniya with something, whether it's a
job,
or seeking
wealth, or seeking something
that is halal from this dunya,
then fill your time
with what will give you much more benefit
in the
Always use your time wisely. We ask Allah
to make us from those who use their
time wisely. We ask Allah
to give us for the times of heedlessness
that we lived, for the moments where we
did not remember Him properly, for the salah
that we did not have khushur
properly.
We seek Allah
forgiveness
from everything
that brought his displeasure, and we ask Allah
on his blessed day of yomuljumuh
to guide us to an action that attains
his love. And that makes him love us
We
We want to make dua
for
a young boy. He's 8 years old.
His his name is Yusuf,
and he was,
salallahu alaihi wa sallamah, he was diagnosed with
stage 4 cancer.
And we ask Allah subhanahu wa ta'ala
to give him shifa.
We ask Allah subhanahu wa ta'ala to make
his parents patient.
We ask Allah subhanahu wa ta'ala to give
them sabr and patience and atisab.
And we ask Allah subhanahu wa ta'ala to
give him a miraculous healing.