Moutasem al-Hameedy – Al Amanah as a Way of Life
AI: Summary ©
The speaker discusses the importance of fearing one's supposed death and the need for forgiveness. They stress the need for forgiveness and fulfilling God's promises in order to fulfill personal boundaries and fulfill God's promises. The speaker also emphasizes the importance of trusting God's creation and fulfilling God's promises in order to fulfill personal boundaries. The importance of fulfilling God's promises and trusting God's guidance is also emphasized.
AI: Summary ©
Alhamdulillah, we praise Him, ask for His help,
and ask for His forgiveness.
We seek refuge in Allah from the evils
of our souls and the evils of our
deeds.
Whom Allah guides, none can misguide him, and
whom He misguides, none can guide him.
I bear witness that there is no god
but Allah, alone, with no partner.
I bear witness that Muhammad is His servant
and His Messenger, peace and blessings be upon
him and his family.
O you who have believed, fear Allah as
He should be feared, and do not die
except as Muslims.
O you who have believed, fear your Lord,
who created you from one soul, and created
from it a wife, and spread among them
many men and women.
And fear Allah in Whom you ask for
help and mercy.
Indeed, Allah is ever watching over you.
O you who have believed, fear Allah and
say the right words.
He will amend for you your deeds and
forgive you your sins.
And whoever obeys Allah and His Messenger has
certainly attained a great success.
All praise is due to Allah.
We praise Him, we seek His aid, and
we ask for His forgiveness.
We seek refuge in Allah from the evils
of ourselves and the evil consequences of our
actions.
Whomsoever Allah guides, none can lead astray, and
whomsoever Allah leaves to go astray, none can
guide.
I testify that there is none worthy of
our worship and devotion but the Almighty Allah,
alone.
And I testify that Muhammad ﷺ is Allah's
servant and Messenger.
O you who believe, fear Allah as He
should be feared, and die not except in
a state of submission to your Lord.
O mankind, be dutiful to your Lord, who
created you from a single person, and from
Him He created His wife, and from them
both He created many men and women.
And fear Allah through whom you demand your
mutual rights, and observe the rights of your
kin.
Surely Allah is ever and all-watcher over
you.
O you who believe, keep your duty to
Allah and fear Him and speak the truth.
He will direct you to righteous deeds and
will forgive your sins.
And whoever obeys Allah and His Messenger has
indeed attained a great achievement.
The best words are the divine words of
Allah, and the best guidance is that of
Prophet Muhammad ﷺ.
And the worst things in the religion are
the newly invented matters, for all the newly
invented matters in religion are heretical innovation and
bid'ah, and every bid'ah is misguidance.
A central feature of human life is a
concept that is only discussed thoroughly, deeply, and
adequately in the Qur'an and in the
wise words of our Prophet Muhammad ﷺ.
And this central concept, you will never find
it treated well, recognized, or given justice in
any other way of life.
It's actually downplayed by other religions and other
ideologies and ways of life, and this compromises
the quality, and it negatively affects the quality
of the human condition.
And this is a concept that is called
in the Qur'an and in the Sunnah
of the Prophet ﷺ as Al-Amanah.
The Prophet ﷺ, as Anas ibn Malik said,
مَا خَطَبَنَا رَسُولُ اللهِ ﷺ إِلَّا قَالَ لَا
إِيمَانَ لِمَنْ لَا أَمَانَةَ لَهِ وَلَا دِينَ لِمَنْ
لَا عَهْدَ لَهِ Anas ibn Malik, the great
companion, who was the servant, the personal assistant
of the Prophet ﷺ, he said, the Prophet
ﷺ, every time he gave us a speech,
every time he spoke to us in public,
he gave a khutbah, he said this statement,
There is no Iman in the person who
has no Amanah, and there is no Deen,
meaning no religion, no religiosity, in the person
who does not fulfill their promise and their
trust.
And the Prophet ﷺ also said in the
hadith, that it was reported by Abu Hurairah,
that the Prophet ﷺ mentioned Al-Amanah and
Al-Rahim.
On the Day of Judgment, on the Sirat,
the bridge that is set over the Hellfire,
and this is the last stage on the
Day of Judgment before entering Jannah, that's the
last stage, that's the last trial for the
believers, to go and cross over the bridge,
when the disbelievers will fall in the Hellfire,
and the sinners among the believers will also
be pulled into the Hellfire, to get their
due punishment before they are released.
So the Prophet ﷺ says two things, Al
-Amanah and Al-Rahim, the rights of your
kin, your blood relations, they will be brought,
one on the right of the bridge and
one on the left side of the Sirat,
and in the two sides of the bridge
there are hooks that pull people down into
the Hellfire, and they pull people that they
are commanded to pull down.
What the hadith means is that Al-Amanah
and Al-Rahim are the ones who give
the hooks, the command to pull people down
into the Hellfire.
So those who don't observe the Amanah and
don't observe the Rahim, these are the people
who will be pulled into the Hellfire by
these hooks.
And the Prophet ﷺ also tells us in
the hadith that this Amanah is a feature
of our creation.
We humans, we are created with this sense
of Amanah, we usually translate it as trust,
but it's more than that.
The Prophet ﷺ says in the hadith, إِنَّ
الْأَمَانَةَ نَزَلَتْ فِي جَذْرِ قُلُوبِ الرِّجَالِ as in
the hadith of Hudhaifah رضي الله عنه إِنَّ
الْأَمَانَةَ نَزَلَتْ فِي جَذْرِ قُلُوبِ الرِّجَالِ فَنَزَلَ الْقُرْآنِ
فَعَلِمُوا مِنَ الْقُرْآنِ وَعَلِمُوا مِنَ السُّنَّةِ The Prophet
ﷺ says that Al-Amanah was sent down
in the roots of the hearts of people,
meaning that we were created with this natural
sense of Amanah, this trust, this responsibility, this
truthfulness, this sense of dutifulness to fulfill the
duties and the agreements and the trust.
It was sent and it was planted in
the seed of the hearts of humans.
And then the Qur'an was sent down.
So people, meaning the believers here, they learned
from the Qur'an based on this sense
of Amanah.
And then they learned the Sunnah of the
Prophet ﷺ, showing us that the foundation for
learning the words of Allah and the guidance
of the Prophet ﷺ is established on this
platform of Al-Amanah and the trust, which
is decent human nature.
And this Amanah runs throughout our life.
This is the foundation for what Allah is
going to ask us about as the Prophet
ﷺ mentioned.
That's the trust, that's the contract between us
and Allah.
That's the Amanah.
That is the Amanah.
The Prophet ﷺ when he says, لَا تَزُولُ
قَدَمَا عَبْدٍ يَوْمَ الْقِيَامَةِ حَتَّى يُسْأَلَ عَنْ أَرْبَعٍ
That the feet of son of Adam would
not move forward on the day of judgment
until he, she is questioned about four things.
عن عُمُرِهِ فِي مَا أَفْنَاهُ وَعَنْ شَبَابِهِ فِي
مَا أَبْلَاهُ وَعَنْ مَالِهِ مِنْ أَيْنَ أَكْتَسَبَهُ وَفِي
مَا أَنْفَقَهُ About his life.
What did he spend it in?
About his youth.
What did he do with it?
About his wealth.
Where did he get it from and how
did he spend it?
And these are just the primary questions because
there is a whole slew of questions about
everything in your life.
Allah says, وَقِفُوهُمْ إِنَّهُمْ مَسْؤُولُونَ And stand them.
Make them stand for account because they will
be questioned.
They will be asked.
Allah will ask you about everything.
Everything He gave you.
The visible and the invisible.
What you recognize and what you don't recognize.
Allah will ask you about everything He gave
you.
And some of the companions said, أَحْدِثُ لِكُلِّ
نِعْمَةٍ طَاعَةٍ Establish or pay for every blessing
from Allah.
Offer an act of obedience.
An act of nearness to Allah.
Ingratitude.
We can't thank Allah.
We can't fulfill what Allah truly deserves.
So Allah is gonna ask us about every
blessing.
Everything.
And that's the amanah.
Because our existence in this life is a
contract.
You know, we love to talk about as
humans, we talk about the social contract.
And what is the social contract?
It's an unspoken, implied, embedded set of rules
that govern how we deal with each other.
What are your rights in society?
You have the right to be treated well,
to be respected.
Your privacy is respected.
That's part of the social contract.
We agree on this.
Life itself, being brought into this life is
a contract.
You are bound by a contract with Allah
subhanahu wa ta'ala when you were brought
into this life.
And that is what?
To use everything Allah gave you, including your
life, your time in this world, everything that
you are given by Allah, and you are
given everything by Allah.
Using this to serve Allah, to worship Allah,
to please Allah, and to never use whatever
He gave you in a way that displeases
Him.
What does this leave?
What does this leave?
Nothing.
Nothing in your life.
That's the contract.
That's the divine contract that we all have.
And we signed up to that contract because
Allah mentions this in the Quran.
وَإِذْ أَخَذَ رَبُّكَ مِن بَنِي آدَمَ مِن ظُهُورِهِمْ
ذُرِّيَّتَهُمْ وَأَشْهَدَهُمْ عَلَىٰ أَنفُسِهِمْ أَلَسْتُ بِرَبِّكُمْ قَالُوا
بَلَا شَهِدْنَا And your Lord brought the progeny,
the descendants, the children of Adam from His
back.
All of us.
All of us.
Allah brought us in the form of small
creatures.
And Allah made us witness against ourselves.
Allah said, Am I not your Lord?
Am I not your God?
Am I not the one who deserves your
worship and devotion?
And what did we say?
Bala.
Indeed.
That's the contract between us and Allah.
So that's the main feature of our life.
And it runs through everything.
So let's look at aspects where this amanah
plays out.
So we understand it.
So we understand how it plays out in
our life.
So hopefully we become more mindful of it.
Because the Prophet ﷺ as we mentioned says,
The one who has no amanah, meaning does
not have a sense of amanah, does not
fulfill that trust and that contract, and that
beautifulness and that obligation, has no iman, no
faith.
You can pretend to be a religious person.
As a man, you can pray at the
masjid, you can grow your beard.
You can have all of the external features
of a righteous person.
But if you have no amanah in your
heart, then you have no iman.
And those external features will not benefit you.
Because they are without a foundation.
So the first amanah that we have to
fulfill is the amanah of Allah.
And that's what the Prophet ﷺ referred to
when he said, Indeed the amanah was sent
down into the hearts of every human being.
Which is Allah's right.
That we are here in this life on
a mission and on contract.
To worship Allah and serve Him.
And that our life is about Allah.
First and foremost.
What about my future?
What about my achievements?
What about my career?
What about my leisure and my vacations?
And my enjoyments?
These are features of life.
Secondary features of life.
They are not what you're here for.
And if you give your life to your
career, as your main focus, or even to
your family which is a trust, and an
amanah and a responsibility that Allah gave you,
which you should fulfill.
But if you make it your main goal
in this life, or anything else, your wealth,
your well-being, your social status, or any
of the things that we humans covet and
love, if you make those the main feature
in your life, then you are stealing from
Allah.
You are denying Allah His amanah and His
trust.
You're taking what belongs to Allah, you're giving
it to yourself.
And that's theft.
So you're here for Allah.
That's the amanah of Allah.
Then Allah laid out these obligations.
That we worship Him alone.
That our life is about Him.
That we love Him the most.
And He put that love in our hearts.
That we get to know Him.
We get to recognize Him for who He
is.
And then our hearts move towards Him with
love and with fear.
And then He becomes all what matters in
our life.
Then His divine beauty and wisdom starts to
color our life.
Starts to inform everything in our life.
Starts to inspire every aspect of our being.
We become people for Allah.
And then we fulfill His obligations.
That translates in what?
In observing the five daily prayers.
The fast of Ramadan.
The giving of zakah.
The performing of hajj and pilgrimage when we
are able to.
Fulfilling the rest of obligations.
Abstaining from everything that He says is haram
for you.
And not finding excuses to commit those.
And that means we prioritize Allah and His
command.
And that covers every area in our life.
And that leads us to take other aspects
of where this amanah plays out.
After Allah becomes number one in your life
and you have fulfilled His rights, now it's
time you have an amanah with yourself.
To take care of who you are.
And the best way to take care of
who you are is by fulfilling Allah's commands.
That's why Allah subhanahu wa ta'ala refers
to people who sin.
Because when you sin, you are destroying yourself.
When you disobey Allah, you are putting yourself
at a disadvantage.
You're exposing yourself to Allah's punishment.
You're causing harm and injury to your heart,
and your soul, and yourself.
That's why Allah refers to those people, وَمِنْهُمْ
ظَالِمٌ لِّنَفْسِهِ Allah says, the one who sins,
the one who goes against the commands of
Allah, is called what?
An oppressor of himself.
Someone who's wronged himself or herself.
The moment you disobey Allah, you have wronged
yourself.
So you have destroyed, you have not fulfilled
the amanah that you have to yourself.
Yourself has rights on you.
So you take care of yourself for the
sake of Allah subhanahu wa ta'ala.
And everything, every sin, every violation, is a
violation of your own self.
And it brings harm to yourself.
Even if in the short term, it might
bring some joy, and some fake happiness.
So those who waste their time, for example,
when I speak to the youth here, take
this opportunity to speak to the youth.
When you waste your time doing bad things,
consuming harmful substances, or engaging in haram relationships,
or spending your time watching stuff that is
haram for you, that is harmful to your
morality, to your heart and to your soul,
or engaging in social practices that are considered
to be a violation, haram relationships, or even
wasting your time playing video games, and spending
your time watching stuff on social media that
doesn't really bring you closer to Allah.
You are wronging yourself.
You are harming yourself.
You are oppressing yourself.
ظالم لنفسه That's with yourself.
And now with others.
Part of your amanah with Allah, amanah to
other people.
Amanah to other people, the Prophet sallallahu alayhi
wa sallam said in the authentic hadith, مَا
مِنْ عَبْدٍ يَسْتَرْعِيهِ اللَّهُ رَعِيَّةً يَمُوتُ يَوْمَ يَمُوتُ
وَهُوَ غَشٌ لَهُمْ إِلَّا حَرَّمَ اللَّهُ عَلِيهِ الْجَنَّةِ
There's no person that Allah gives them a
duty to take care of some of the
servants of Allah.
We call it in English, responsibility.
Why?
Because the English language emphasizes position and power
in this sense.
We call it leadership.
We call it responsibility.
We call it power.
But the Arabic language and the prophetic words
are what?
يَسْتَرْعِيهِ اللَّهُ رَعِيَّةً رَعِيَّة And we'll come to
the word رَعِيَّة and رِعَاية.
So whoever Allah gives the duty to take
care of people and He shortschange them, He
doesn't give them what they truly deserve, does
not fulfill that place or that responsibility that
Allah gave him towards these people.
When this person dies, they will never find
the smell of Jannah.
They will never enter Jannah.
That's the amanah.
Our social interactions are based on this.
The sense of trust, the sense of contract,
the sense of obligation, the sense of responsibility.
And it starts with what?
Starts at home.
The other hadith that we all know, كُلُّكُمْ
رَاعٍ وَكُلُّكُمْ مَسْؤُولٌ عَنْ رَعِيَّةِهِ The same word
رَاعٍ كُلُّكُمْ Each one is رَاعٍ which we
use for a shepherd.
كُلُّكُمْ رَاعٍ وَكُلُّكُمْ مَسْؤُولٌ عَنْ رَعِيَّةِهِ Each one
of you is رَاعٍ.
We translate it as a leader, responsible, person
in a position of authority.
That's what the English language prefers.
In the Arabic language رَاعٍ is what?
It comes from رِعَاية.
What does رِعَاية mean?
رِعَاية means to be very considerate.
It means to take special and meticulous care
of someone.
Paying attention to their needs, to the nuances
of their situation.
يَرْعَى رِعَاية It's used mainly with a mother
looking after her children.
It's used as well with a father looking
after their dependents, paying attention to their needs
and their sensitivities.
That's رِعَاية.
Completely different mindset.
Each one of you is رَاعٍ and you
are responsible.
مسؤولٌ You're gonna be asked.
You'll be questioned.
You'll have to answer to how you fulfilled
this position of رِعَاية or this duty of
رِعَاية.
فَالرَّجُلُ رَاعٍ فِى بَيْتِهِ وَهُو مَسْؤُولٌ عَنْ رَعِيَّةِهِ
The man is responsible in his household and
he will be.
He is رَاعِي.
He's supposed to take care of them.
And now when we take that, then we
translate the قَوَامَة of the man in the
house.
We translate it as authority, right?
Patriarchy and so on and so forth, right?
Where in Islam, it is what?
A position of responsibility and taking care.
And then we try to relate to Islam
through a language that is foreign to Islam
and it has its own baggage with it.
That's one of the problems where we try
to relate to Islam through a different language.
And then the wife, the woman is responsible
in her house.
She has a responsibility to take care of
her house, take care of her children, take
care of her husband.
Pay attention to their needs and be responsive
and be caring.
And everyone is responsible.
Meaning even in personal interactions, you have a
responsibility to people.
Let's say someone's privacy is your responsibility not
to violate it.
When you do a transaction with people, that's
responsibility as well.
You are supposed to be truthful, honest in
that interaction.
The Prophet ﷺ says, أَلْبَيِّعَانِ بِالْخَيَارِ مَا لَمْ
يَتَفَرَّقَ فَإِن صَدَقَ وَبَيَّنَ بُورِكَ لَهُمَا فِي بَيْعِهِمَا
وَإِن كَذَبَ وَكَتَمَ مُحِيقَتْ بَرَكَةُ بَيْعِهِمَا In transaction,
when you sell people, you're supposed to be
what?
Honest, truthful, and you're supposed to reveal everything.
That kind of contract is a responsibility.
There's no hidden clause.
There is no fine print in Islam.
It's all supposed to be laid out.
That's a sense of responsibility.
That's how we fulfill our interactions in Islam.
أقول قولي هذا وأستغفر الله لي ولكم فاستغفره
الحمد لله رب العالمين والصلاة والسلام على أشرف
المرسلين نبينا محمد وعلى آله وأصحابه أجمعين Connect
all of these things.
Now this amanah, the sense of trust, truthfulness,
dutifulness, that you are accountable for everything.
There are rights.
There's no vacuum.
There's always rights.
When you fulfill those rights to Allah, to
yourself, and to others, your family, and the
members of society, you are truthful to those
contracts.
That's a sign of a healthy heart.
But when someone doesn't have this, does not
fulfill this sense of responsibility within.
Why?
Under the pretext of what?
Freedom.
Or under the pretext of what?
The law doesn't criminalize this.
That's my personal freedom and individuality.
No, these are the laws of humans that
are deficient.
In today's world, if something is not illegal,
you can do it.
You can get away with it.
No, our sense of morality is connected to
Allah, not to human laws.
So every Muslim, every believer, should live their
life from a position of what?
Dutifulness.
Responsibility.
Making sure you don't violate.
Because you can wrong someone and think, oh,
I got away with it.
I'm smart.
I can outsmart them.
I'm stronger than them.
I have more resources.
I'm more intelligent.
And you think you got away with that.
On the day of judgment, you have to
pay for that.
Legally, you might be okay here.
But on the day of judgment, there is
amanah.
You are here in this world.
You deal with Allah, and Allah has rights
on you.
Don't fulfill them or fall short.
You'll be asked about each one of them.
To yourself, you'll be asked about how did
you wrong yourself.
About your spouse, you will be asked.
You say, I'm the man in the house.
I can do it.
You will be asked.
You don't make the right decisions for your
kids, right?
Or you don't fulfill the rights of your
kids by being a real father or a
real mother.
And you think, you know, I can do
whatever I want.
Or I need some time.
I need to do my own thing.
I need to pursue my own things.
And you don't give your kids your rights.
The kids, they're not gonna ask for that.
But Allah is gonna hold you accountable on
the day of judgment.
What did you do?
Why didn't you give them their rights?
Oh, you know, I didn't know.
You should have learned.
You should have studied.
You should have studied.
Treating other people the same thing, you are
responsible before Allah subhanahu wa ta'ala.
And you will be asked.
Your life and every connection, every relationship in
this life falls under the rule of amanah
and trust.
Make sure there is a balance.
Don't break it.
Don't violate the limits.
And if you do that, because if you
violate that, remember, as you're crossing the bridge,
the amanah will be waiting there.
And if you have violated the amanah, have
not fulfilled it, it's gonna send a command
to the hooks.
And one of the hooks might pull you
down to the hellfire.
You can have all of the rationalization, all
of the justification in this world.
But on the day of judgment, only true
justice will be fulfilled.
Then it has the final say.
Because that's the word of Allah subhanahu wa
ta'ala.
We ask Allah subhanahu wa ta'ala to
help us.
Be people who fulfill our sense of amanah,
our responsibility, our contract with Allah, and our
contract with every human being that we fulfill
the trust and we don't wrong other people
including ourselves.
We ask Allah subhanahu wa ta'ala to
help us.
The day we meet him and today we
have a brother who met Allah subhanahu wa
ta'ala, we're gonna pray on him.
So that we ask Allah subhanahu wa ta
'ala to make the day that we leave
this world that we owe no rights to
anyone.
That we have fulfilled the rights of Allah
and the rights of His creation.
And that we come back to Allah with
a clean slate.
And that Allah forgives our sins and our
shortcomings.
ويعز فيه أهل طاعتك ويذل فيه أهل معصيتك
ويعمل فيه بكتابك وسنة نبيك صلى الله عليه
وسلم اللهم كن للمستضعفين من المؤمنين في كل
مكان اللهم انصر عبادك المؤمنين في فلسطين وفي
الشام وفي السودان وفي كشمير وفي الصين وفي
الهند وفي غيرها من بلاد أسقاع الأرض يا
ذا الجلال والإكرام اللهم اغفر لنا ذنوبنا وإسرافنا
وتجاوز عنا برحمتك يا رحم الراحمين بارك الله
لي ولكم في القرآن العظيم ونفعني وإياكم بما
فيه من الآيات والذكر الحكيم سبحان ربك رب
العزة عما يصفون وسلامنا على المرسلين والحمد لله
رب العالمين