Nadim Bashir – The Most Crucial Time Of Our Lives
AI: Summary ©
The importance of not rushing to death and focusing on one's control is emphasized, along with the need to be mindful of one's deeds and avoid sinning. The speakers stress the importance of following sh matter's instructions and following desire, as well as fulfilling other people's rights to ensure a good ending. Consistentity in one's deen and avoiding sinning are also emphasized. The importance of protecting people from haunted deities and fulfilling people's rights is also emphasized.
AI: Summary ©
I ask Allah subhanahu wa ta'ala that just
as he has gathered us here today, on
this day of jum'ah. May Allah subhanahu wa
ta'ala gather us
Brothers and sisters, in this last few weeks,
in this community in itself, there's been many
deaths.
And so, baha'lAllah,
every time there's a death that takes place,
every time we pray here,
every time we go to the graveyard,
what happens is that this should be a
moment
for reflection.
A moment
to come back to Allah subhanahu wa ta'ala.
A wake up call, a reminder for all
of us.
Unfortunately, what is happening is that for many
of us, we are becoming desensitized.
We have seen janaza after janaza,
and now these janazas are no longer serving
as a reflection for us. They're not serving
as a wake up call for us.
Brothers and sisters, Allah
has given us this life,
And there is no We all know our
date of birth, but there's not a single
person here who knows their date of death.
SubhanAllah,
we find at the graveyard,
you have 1 person who was sitting all
by themselves,
no health conditions,
and then one issue, and that was the
end of their life.
Then you have a 26 year old young
man from our own community.
A cancer started in his in his knees,
and that became the cause of his death.
It spread throughout his entire body. Then you
have another sister that's there, and all these
stories you hear over and over again. They're
completely fine. One headache. They went to the
hospital, and that led to another issue, and
that was the cause of their death. Brothers
and sisters,
many of us can can begin to believe,
or begin to think I would say, that
when is the time of our death?
We are starting to think that what what
is that time when we will leave this
duniya?
But at the same time, while we're thinking
about when we're going to leave this duniya,
rather what we should be thinking about is,
what have I done for the akhirah? What
have I done for that time of death?
And more importantly, have I done enough
that I am ready to go to Allah
And will I have a khusl khatima?
That is a question we need to ask
ourselves.
Because what we do in this duniya
dictates how we depart from this duniya.
What we do in our life if we
live a righteous life, yes, we're human beings.
Yes, we will slip up. Yes, we will
commit sins. But what we do overall in
our life
dictates
our ending in this life.
And what happens at the ending of this
life
dictates what happens in the grave. And what
happens in the grave will dictate what will
happen for the rest of the of our
journey in the akhirah.
That is why brother and sisters, when we
talk about death, we should not be worried
about when we're gonna go from this duniya
because this is beyond our control.
We learn from the Prophet sallallahu alaihi wa
sallam that we should only be focused
on the things that are within our control
and not beyond our control.
A man came to Prophet shalallahu alaihi wa
sallam and said, When is the day of
judgment?
Now, this is something that's beyond our control.
Only Allah knows
when is the day of judgment.
Only Allah knows. Not even Rasulullah
knows when is the day of judgment. So
when this man is asking the Prophet alaihis
salam, he's telling him that instead of you
worrying about something that's beyond your control, why
don't you focus on something that is within
your control? And that is, have you prepared
for that akhirah?
Have you prepared for that day of judgment?
Likewise, we ask ourselves, when is our day
when we will leave this duniya?
That is beyond our control, rather we should
be focusing on, am I ready to leave
this dunya? And number 2, more importantly,
what can I do in this dunya
to ensure
a hussnul khatima?
A good ending. I want to leave this
duniya on a good note.
You know, subhanAllah, you look at sports athletes,
they always talk about going into the sunset
with a championship.
They always talk about, I want to retire
at a time when I'm at the top
of the world. You see people who always
want to talk about retiring
on a good note. Likewise, we should always
think about I want to go from this
dunya at a time
when I am at a very high level
of my spirituality, my iman. I want to
leave this dunya at a time when Allah
is
most pleased with me, and I want a
hussun
khatima.
So the question is
that do we Are we doing enough to
ensure that hussun khatima?
This is what I wanna talk about today
in my khutbah. And I ask Allah subhanahu
wa ta'ala first of all is, may Allah
grant all of us a hosun khatima.
Because wallahi, we don't realize, brothers and sisters,
that the husl al khatima requires a lot
of hard work on our end.
And that is the time, the time of
death,
when we are about to leave this world.
And it could happen at any time while
we are in our weakest time,
the most vulnerable time.
We're going through a lot of pain at
that time.
That is the time
that shaitan comes with his full might.
Think about you are the most weakest in
that situation,
and shaitan is trying all his might.
Shaitan is at the dry is in the
driver's seat. Shaitan has an advantage over here,
and he's trying to deviate this person at
the most crucial time in their life, brothers
and sisters. Wallahi, there are different tests in
our life, but this test at the time
of our death to ensure that we remain
steadfast upon our deen Is wallahi the most
important test? Yes. The most important test of
the akhirah
is in the qabr, in the grave when
we'll be asked those three questions. But when
we leave this dunya, when we are weak,
and shaitan is using his power and his
strength, that is the most crucial time in
our life. And we have to ensure
that we do whatever we can to remain
steadfast, and we we have a hosul khatima.
First of all is, we all know that
in the Quran,
shaitan has made a promise. He has taken
an oath that he will deviate, and he
will do everything that he can to deviate
mankind.
Generally in life, shaytan will always try to
come and deviate us. Even,
subhanallah, there are times when shaitan will try
to even come and put something good in
our mind, but he never has the He
never has the sincerity or the care for
us. Why? Because of our father. He believes
that it was because of our father, Adam
alaihis salam. Because of whom he was dismissed
from Jannah, and now in order to get
even with Adam alaihis salam, he has made
us, the children of Adam, his primary tar
target. He has made an an oath to
Allah subhanahu wa ta'ala.
And then he says, What
to Allah?
I will sit on their right side, their
left side, in front of them, behind them.
I will attack them 247.
Brothers and sisters, we are a target for
shaitan.
We don't realize this. We go about our
life, but we have to understand that shaitaan
never cares for us, and he wants to
he wants us to fail miserably.
But not only that, but especially at the
time of our death. Imam Ahmed It
is mentioned about him. First of all is,
when you say the word Imam Ahmad ibnhamal
Rahmatullahi 'alai, what a great scholar. What a
great imam. Someone that so many people learn
from him. Until today there are so many
thousands and millions of people who are following
the understanding, and they're funding them They are
following the methodology
and the madhav of Imam Ahmad, alhamdulillah.
A man and his spirituality
Imagine imagine his spirituality.
Many of us do not even get even
close to him, but look at his understanding,
and look at his awareness.
At the time of his death,
his son is saying that my father is
losing his consciousness
and then he's regaining his consciousness.
He's saying that, right there, my father's head
is in my lap.
And that time, he says, I had a
piece of cloth. I was ready for him
that whenever he would die, I would make
sure that I close his eyelids. I close
his jaw and I make sure that I
tie his beard. He says that at that
time, there were times when he would say,
No. No. No.
Now imagine if there's a person at the
time of their death and they keep on
saying, No. No. No.
Any person there will become confused of what's
going on.
So this happened not once, but 3 times.
3 times.
After that, when Imam Ahmed Alhamdulillahi
was able to regain his consciousness,
and he was able to communicate with his
son, his son said, You Baba, why? What
is this that you did? This is something
that I've never seen you doing. No. No.
No. And you did this not once but
three times.
He said
that, At this time, shaitan is coming to
me over and over again.
And he's trying to deceive me at this
time.
And what is he telling Imam Ahmad? He's
telling He says, Ahmad,
you have escaped
my grip.
You have escaped my grip. And he's telling
shaitan, No. I have not escaped your grip
yet. Till the time comes that I do
not actually depart from this dunya, I have
not escaped your grip. And he keeps on
saying, no. No. No. That this is the
time when Shaytan comes and he tries his
might to deceive people.
Imam al Qurtubi rahmatullahi
a very well known scholar who has written
one of the most prolific tafasir
in the Islamic library, tafsir al Khortubi.
He says about his teacher.
He talks about his teacher
who went. So this teacher of Imam al
Qurtubi
is telling his student
that, I went to my brother's My teacher's
brother. Okay? So the teacher is telling his
student that I went to my teacher's brother.
And at that time,
something similar happened at that time too. The
people came to him. He's at the end
of his life. And he's saying And their
people are telling him
that, Say,
And they're just reciting
As we all know, it's part of our
deen. That when someone is in that situation,
you should not try to force them to
recite,
But
rather the people around them, they do what
we call in Arabic,
That you keep on saying, la ilaha illa
Allah. Aashudu al lahi illa Allah. The person
listening,
insha Allah hearing, he will also recite, la
ilaha illa Allah. You should not be forcing
anyone. So people came to him and they're
reciting la ilaha illallah. Now imagine a great
scholar, a great sheikh.
People are telling people are just reciting La
ilaha illa around him. And what is he
saying in response?
He's saying, No, no, no.
Now imagine, you might be thinking that people
are telling him,
and he's saying no to
After that, he was again to regain his
consciousness. And the
shayta,
not what I was trying to do. He
said, At that time, I had one shaitan
on my right, and one shaitan on my
left. And they both are telling me, Denounce
Allah Subhanahu wa ta'ala. Denounce Allah Subhanahu wa
ta'ala, and you will reach success. And at
that time he keeps on He's trying to
block out all the distraction. He's trying to
block out shaythan at the most crucial time
in his life, and he's saying, no, no,
no. Brothers and sisters, what we have to
realize is that how we spend our life,
if we follow shaitan in our life, we
follow every single desire in our life, then
at that time shaitan will come. And because
we listen to shaitan over and over again,
at that time he will
become
overpowering, and he will he can misguide us.
We can live a life as a Muslim.
We can live our life as a Muslim,
but if we fall into the trap of
shaitaan, and we don't experience a hussul khatima,
we can be doing every good in this
dunya but we could leave this dunya on
a bad note, and that wrong and that
that bad ending,
that bad departure from this duniya, that evil
departure from this duniya can lead us to
the fire of Jahannam. So the question is
that what can we do and what can
we stay away from? What can we stay
away from so that we do not have
a bad ending? The very first thing that
we can do in order to ensure that
we do not have a bad ending, or
a
is to ensure that number 1, when it
comes to our aqeedah, our aqeedah has to
be straight with Allah Subhanahu wa ta'ala. Imam
Ghazali
he
was he was given a letter by a
student of his.
And his student says, You have taught many
things. Can you just give me just few
advices?
Imam Ghazali
gave him 4 advices.
The very first advice I'm not gonna go
to all 4 advices.
But the very first advice that he gave
him is, that you have to make sure
your aqida is in the right place.
Why? Because if our aqida is flawed,
then we might be doing so much good
but there is no benefit to it. Allah
subhanahu wa ta'ala says in Surat Kahf,
You Rasulah sallallahu alaihi wa sallam that tell
these people, You Rasulah,
Should I tell you who's in the worst
situation
when it comes to good deeds?
He says,
They have done a lot, but all the
good they're doing is gone to waste, and
they think that they are doing a lot.
And so the ulama they say, that usually
this happens
with a person who has a flawed mentality,
or flawed aqeedah when it comes to Allah
subhanahu wa ta'ala, and that is why when
it comes to our aqeedah, if our aqeedah
is not correct, wallahi, it will lead us
to do the wrong things. It starts off
with a wrong belief,
and then it leads to wrong actions, and
wrong actions lead to
a So this is the very first thing.
Number 2 is,
the things that can lead us to a
terrible ending is
persistence in sinning.
You see, I did not say just sinning.
Sinning is one thing, but one is to
be persistent in sinning. You sin and you
sin and you sin.
This is a problem. Rasulullah salallahu alaihi wasallam
has told us the problem is not a
person commits a sin. He
says,
Every single human being, they commit sins. But
the best amongst those are those who repent
to Allah
So it's not the sin that's the issue.
It's the persistence
in the sinning. We commit a sin. Instead
of coming closer to Allah, instead of backing
it up with something that is good, we
continue to persist in that sin. And what
happens is,
when we persist in a sin,
that sin becomes our habit. And then, it's
the habit that is in control
and then we become enslaved.
We become a slave of that habit. The
naf says, I need this sin. And we
say, and we go behind that sin. We
have no more control over ourselves.
If this is the situation,
imagine
you're committing that sin, and that is the
time that your death comes, and you're leaving
this dunya while committing a sin. May Allah
subhanahu wa ta'ala protect us. But this is
the problem when we begin to persist in
sinning. It does not matter if it's day
or night, and whatever it may be, we
will keep on committing that sin. So that
is why brothers and sisters, when we commit
a sin, then that is the time we
turn back to Allah. No one needs to
know the sin that we have committed. There
is no need to share that sin with
others, but we need to share and we
need to confess to Allah Subhanahu Wa Ta'ala
and own up to our mistake and our
sin. And we ask Allah Subhanahu Wa Ta'ala
for forgiveness.
The third thing,
I referred to this earlier on, but the
third thing that can lead us to a
su'ul khatima,
a bad ending, an evil departure from this
dunya,
is that we follow every single desire.
There are 2 things right now today, brothers
and sisters, that is leading our ummah astray.
Number 1
is desires.
Number 2 is
doubts. Doubts and desires right now are the
2 biggest issues. If you look at every
single sin that is being committed right now,
for the most part, they will fall into
one of these two categories,
shahuat and shubahat.
When a person becomes enslaved once again to
their desires,
then there is no ending, and they will
do whatever they can. And the thing about
shahawat is, brothers and sisters, is that you
will commit a sin, and then you feel
that, okay, this is just one sin, but
that sin leads to another sin. Because a
person gets bored with that one sin, so
they feel like, then now I need to
do something more than just doing this one
sin. So that is why that one sin
leads to another sin, and then it becomes
a snowball,
situation. So that is why these are 3
things that we need to keep in mind.
3 things that can lead us to a
su'ul khatima. Now the next question is, is
there anything that we can do
to make sure that we have a Husun
al Khattima? The answer is yes. A few
things quickly I want to share with you.
Number 1 is
being consistent
with our deen.
Yes, we have sinned. You turn back to
Allah
and you keep on going. Yes, we're human
beings. But as long as overall we live
a religious life, an Islamic life, there's Islam
in our life when it comes to our
family. There's Islam in our life when it
comes to our Ibadah. There's Islam in our
family when it comes to money matters. Today,
subhanAllah, we pick and choose in our deen.
This is not consistency.
There might be people who are praying salat,
but their ibad but their akhlaq is terrible.
Their maamalat is terrible. There are some people
who might be who might be doing good
business, ethical business, but they don't pray salat.
They don't read Quran and so forth. Our
deen is an entire package.
And when Allah subhanahu wa ta'ala says in
the Quran,
When a person says that my Rabb is
Allah and they're consistent
with that, that claim. 1 is to make
a claim, but then you back up that
claim that my rub is Allah with actions.
This is the key thing. Allah says, at
the time of their death, angels will come
down to give them the glad tidings. That
is a sign of hosul khatima. So number
1 is being consistent in our deen. Number
2 is the dhikr of Allah
The dhikr of Allah here does not mean,
subhanallah,
alhamdulillahahu
akbar. Yes. This is one part of dhikr.
But dhikr overall means
that living by the the sunnahs of Rasulullah
Doing things that remind us of Allah subhanahu
wa ta'ala. Can you imagine subhanAllah
a person who reads the dua at every
single moment in their life. When they're wearing
clothes, they're reading the dua. When they're getting
to the car, they're reading dua. This is
all dhikr. When they get off their car,
there's a dua. When they eat, there's a
dua. When they finish eating, when they enter
the house, when they leave the house, when
they enter the restroom, they come out of
the restroom, when they go to meet someone,
they see someone who has, who had a
baby in their family. There are duas, so
many duas.
Think about you're reading duas day and night,
and subhanAllah, during that time. While your tongue,
while our tongue is moist with the dhikr
of Allah Subhanahu Wa Ta'ala, and that is
a time that death comes.
That will be on our that will be
on our tongue at the time of our
death. If Allah and Allah is on our
tongue, then at the time of our death,
Allah and Allah will be on our tongue.
But if duniya
and sinning and all these things on our
is on our tongue, no matter how much
we will say, at the time of my
death, I will say, iliha illallah. When the
time of death comes, who knows what situation?
That is why we need to ensure
our tongues should always be moist with the
dhikr of Allah Subhanahu wa ta'ala. May Allah
Subhanahu wa ta'ala make make us among the
zakiroon.
The third thing that we need to do
is,
continuous
repentance to Allah Subhanahu wa ta'ala.
Think about this, brother and sisters.
Imagine
a person just made tawba to Allah Subhanahu
wa ta'ala.
Imagine a person made sincere tawba, sincere repentance,
and then right after that their death came.
Their their sins are much less
compared to a person
who never takes our time to make tawbah
to Allah
We want our slave. We want to have
less sins as much as we can. And
the only way that can happen is we
continuously
repent to Allah
This is extremely important. Every day take some
time, repent to Allah. We know the sins
that we are committing. Let's repent to Allah.
And that is why, because
in that situation, if the death comes to
us, and we have just repented to Allah,
or we are continuously repenting to Allah
and we are remorseful over our sins, then
Allah
will look at that heart, and He will
look at our niyyah, and he will forgive
us, inshaAllah, as as a result. The last
thing, which is extremely important in order to
ensure that we have a hosunu khatima is
that we fulfill
other people's rights.
Wallahi, this is a this is one of
the biggest crisis right now of our Muslim
community.
Many of us think our deen is what?
Going to the masjid, reading Quran, giving sadaqa,
going for umrah. This is what our deen
is. And wallahi, we see so much
happening in the Muslim community.
Just last week, at the same time, I
was standing here on the mimbar, and I
shared with you the khutbah of Rasulullah salallahu
alaihi wa sallam on the day of Arafah.
And he made sure that he highlight this,
that there should be no zulm,
from anyone towards anyone. But yet today we
see in our community
how much lulum is taking place. And what's
shocking is that there is a lot of
lulum taking place within the religious sector of
our community.
What kind of a deen is this?
That I can do whatever I want. When
it comes to our matters of our deen
and our Ibadat, I will do so much.
But when it comes to people, when it
comes to their rights, I don't care about
people's rights. This is not deen, brothers and
sisters. We know about that woman who used
to pray salat and do Ibadat all all
day long. But because of her tongue, because
of her su'ul akhlaq,
because of her bad character, Rasulullah sallallahu alaihi
wa sallam said that this would lead her
to the fire jahannam. So there is not
an explicit hadith, but they are ulama who
say that a person who does continuous zulm
towards other people,
that zulm
will catch up to them at the time
of their death. So we So this is
the key thing is, we make sure that
yes, we're human beings. We may violate someone
else's
rights, but we make sure that we try
do our best to ensure that even if
I've hurt someone, I go back to them,
I seek forgiveness,
and I make sure that my my
dealings with everyone else is fair in this
dunya. If I have wronged anyone,
just remember brother and sisters,
you may have got away in this dunya,
or we may have got away, but wallahi,
no one will escape
the justice of Allah
Wallahi
no one will escape
the justice of Allah
Today, wallahi, we treat people why? Because I'm
in the position of power. We don't realize
that there is another one who has more
power than us. Keep that in mind at
all times. When you do dulm against someone
because you think that you have authority, there
is one who has a greater authority over
us, and that is Allah Subhanahu wa ta'ala.
So I ask Allah Subhanahu wa ta'ala that
he makes us from amongst those who will,
who, who will have ahusun khatima. And may
Allah protect us from a suul khatima
InshaAllah, in this last portion, I just wanna
go through just 3 duas. 3 duas that
we have learned from Rasulullah
to ensure
a hussun khatima. The very first one is
that this is a dua of the prophet
sallallahu alaihi wa sallam.
Rasulullah salallahu alayhi wasalam will make this dua
that, You Allah, I seek refuge in you
from being crushed.
I seek refuge in you, you Allah, from
falling from a height, or drowning,
or being burnt.
Or I seek refuge in you
from
becoming deceived,
and shaitan gaining control over me and confusing
me at the time of my death. And
you Allah, I seek refuge in you. Least
that I die having turn turning my back
while fighting for your sake, and I seek
refuge in you, least I die of a
venomous sting or a bite. So this is
a du'a of the Prophet sallallahu alaihi wa
sallam. Once again, you see in this dua
that the Prophet sallallahu alaihi wa sallam is
making dua that to protect him
from the control
and the grip of shaitan at the time
of our death. May Allah subhan protect us.
Another dua'a of the Prophet sallallahu alaihi wa
sallam, Allahummaja'al
Allahummajaalkhairazamani
akhira. Wakhiraamalikawatima
wakhira a yami yawmaalakaq.
You Allah, let the best of my lifetime
be the end of my lifetime, and let
the best deed be that which is the
end at the time of my death, and
let and and the best of my days
are the days when I meet You, You
Allah. And the 3rd dua of the Prophet
sallallahu alaihi wa sallam, or du'a that we
have learned is Allahumma. If you cannot memorize
any of these du'as, one du'a that you
we can recite every single day. A very
simple du'a.
Simple.
You Allah, I ask you for a good
ending. May Allah subhanahu wa ta'ala grant all
of us a good ending. May
Allah subhanahu wa ta'ala keep us, make us
successful in this duniya, successful in aakhirah. May
Allah subhanahu wa ta'ala make our graves a
garden of paradise. May Allah Subhanahu wa ta'ala
make our last 'amal, our best 'amal. And
may Allah take us at a time when
he is most pleased with us.
Straight lines from the gaps.
Brothers in the, in the back of your
rooms, please come inside.
If someone can please open the back room
door
behind
on the right side in the back there,
and let the brothers please come inside.