Navaid Aziz – The Best Advice You Can Ever Receive
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AI: Transcript ©
Allah Subhanahu Wa Salamat
My dear brothers and sisters, there was a
scholar in Morocco
by the name of Abu al Assim al
Qasim ibn Yusuf As Sabdi.
And he wrote a letter to Shaykh ul
Islam, ibn Sayyidi
and he asked him 4 questions.
He asked him,
what is the best advice that you can
give me for my dunya and akhirah?
He asked him, what is the best deed
to do after the obligatory
deeds?
He asked him, what is the best job
that I can do, that Allah
will be pleased with me and will increase
my risk?
And then he asked him, what books can
I read to continue my pursuit of Islamic
knowledge? And keep in mind, this is a
sheikh, you know, in his own right, he's
a scholar of hadith.
And subhanAllah, Ibn Taymiyarahimullah,
he wrote back a letter and this letter
became known as Al Wasiyatul Surah
and he starts off by answering the first
question and just remember these 4 questions because
they'll be the crux of our khutbah
so question number 1 was
what is the best advice you can give
me for my Dunya and Aqirah? And look
at what Ibn Taymiyaratimullah
starts off his letter with, he says the
best advice for your Dunya and Aqirah
is the advice of Allah Subhanahu Wa Ta'ala
and His Messenger Sallallahu Alaihi Wasallam And I
found this to be a beautiful response
because when we look at our own epistemology,
when we look at how do we know
things?
Often times we would think, you know, the
Sheikh may quote another scholar, he may quote
another hadith, he may quote something else, but
he builds a general framework
That our knowledge comes from Allah Subhanahu Wa
Ta'ala, and His Messenger Sallallahu Alaihi Wasallam.
That knowledge is what Allah said, what His
Messenger sallallahu alaihi wa sallam said, and what
the companions
agreed upon. That is what knowledge is in
our deen. So then Ibn Taymiyarahimullah, he goes
on to explain what is the advice of
Allah Subhanahu Wa Ta'ala and His Messenger sallallahu
alaihi wa sallam.
That indeed We have advised
the nations before you, and you as well,
to have the taqwa of Allah
That is the verse that he quotes. And
then he quotes the advice that the prophet
Sallallahu alaihi wa sallam gave to Mu'adhib bin
Jabal radiAllahu ta'ala Anhu. And I think it's
important to contextualize this very briefly.
So Mu'adhib bin Jabal radiAllahu anhu, the prophet
Sallallahu alaihi wa sallam describes him as the
most knowledgeable
of this ummah
with regards to halal and haram.
Abdullah ibn Mas'ud radiAllahu ta'ala anhu, he likens
Mu'adh ibn Jabal to the likes of Ibrahim
alaihi salam. In the sense that he was
an ummah all by himself.
And this was who the Prophet sallallahu alaihi
wa sallam chose to represent him in the
land of
Yemen.
Now I want you to think about this,
Mu'adhib bin Jabbal radiAllahu ta'ala anhu, he knows
that perhaps he may never see the Prophet
sallallahu alaihi wa sallam again after this. That
was the likelihood.
So whatever advice the Prophet sallallahu alaihi wa
sallam gives, Mu'adhib bin Jabal radiAllahu anhu, is
a farewell advice. That whatever advice I am
giving you should suffice you for the rest
of your life. It should suffice you as
a leader, it should suffice you in interacting
with the people of Yemen, and it would
suffice you in your meeting with Allah Subhanahu
Wa Ta'ala. Perhaps the most important thing. So
the advice the prophet Sallallahu Alaihi Wasallam gives
him is,
Have taqwa of Allah
wherever you are.
And follow-up a bad deed with a good
one, and it will wipe it out. And
treat people with the best of manners. And
this is going to be the crux of
our khutbah today, my dear brothers and sisters.
That the best advice you will ever receive
in your whole entire life is to have
the taqwa of Allah subhanahu wa ta'ala. And
that is why taqwa is repeated so often.
Ibn Taymiyyah
he goes on to explain in al Wasi'at
Surah
that taqwa has two meanings, a general meaning
and a specific meaning.
The general meaning of taqwa is the entirety
of the deen. Everything that we know of
Islam is taqwa.
And then he says the specific meaning of
taqwa
is that which will create a barrier between
you and the anger of Allah subhanahu wa
ta'ala.
So you live your whole entire life thinking
what I am doing, will that create a
barrier between me and Allah subhanahu wa ta'ala?
Or will that break that barrier?
And this is why, my dear brothers and
sisters, if you look at the essence of
Islam,
Islam is a religion of action, without a
shadow of a doubt.
But righteous actions cannot take place up and
until the heart is righteous, up until the
mind is righteous, up until the nafs is
righteous.
And this is why as much work as
we do physically, there needs to be just
as much work internally.
And if you do not rectify
the heart, the actions will not become rectified.
And this is why the prophet, sallallahu alaihi
wa sallam, he reminds us that there is
a morsel of flesh in the body.
If it is rectified, the whole body will
rectify
it. But if it is not rectified, the
whole body will be corrupt. Indeed, it is
the heart.
So now when immin Taymiyyah
he gives this advice of have taq of
having taqwa of Allah subhanahu wa ta'ala,
he's reminding us all that let us develop
this framework as much as we possibly can.
Ask yourself a simple question
multiple times throughout the day.
The action that I'm currently doing,
will it put a barrier between me and
the anger of Allah subhanahu wa ta'ala?
And then throughout of the day, ask ourselves
this question,
what actions can I do to put a
barrier between myself and the anger of Allah
subhanahu wa ta'ala?
And the more frequently a person does this,
the more they will be able to align
their path to that which is pleasing to
Allah subhanahu wa ta'ala, with that which is
pleasing to Allah subhanahu
wa ta'ala.
Then the prophet, salallahu alaihi wa sallam, he
tells Mu'adh ibn Jabal, follow-up a bad deed
with a good one so that it may
wipe it out.
Ibn Taymiyyah
he says that there's 4 things
that will wipe out the sins of a
person. There are 4 things that will wipe
out the sins of a person.
They are tawba,
they are istighfar
without tawba,
they are the kafarat,
and then the patience
in times of tribulation,
patience in times of tribulation.
Let us go through these. He mentions, number
1, as tawba.
Tawba, my dear brothers and sisters, generally speaking,
is to turn back to Allah subhanahu wa
ta'ala. But in this specific context,
it refers to 5 or 6 things.
Number 1, to sincerely
repent to Allah subhanahu wa ta'ala.
Number 2, to give up the sin immediately.
As soon as you learn what you're doing
is sinful, you give up that sin immediately.
Number 3, you make the intention to never
return to that sin again.
Number 4,
you feel remorse and regret in your heart.
And this is the most important of them.
In fact, the prophet sallallahu alaihi wa sallam,
he tells us,
that to feel remorse and regret, that is
the essence of tawba with and of itself.
And then last but not least, you do
it in its appropriate time, before the soul
reaches his throat prior to death or before
the sun rises from the west.
The scholars mention a sixth condition
that if you had violated someone's rights, meaning
another human being, then you have to return
their rights to them. Let us go through
these 1 by 1.
Sincerity
is at the top of all affairs.
Meaning, if things are not done for the
sake of Allah subhanahu wa ta'ala, not only
will they not be accepted by Allah subhanahu
wa ta'ala, but there will be no sustainability
either.
A sign of sincerity is that you're asking
Allah subhanahu wa ta'ala for forgiveness
and to give you tawfiq for tawba, and
to cleanse you of all of your sins,
and seeing how you are in private in
comparison to how you are in public. The
person that is sincere in their tawba will
strive their utmost best to be better in
private than they are in public.
Number 2 is to give up the sin
immediately.
Oftentimes, people think that they always have time.
Right? Oftentimes, people think, I always have more
time. The younger you are, the more delusional
you become with regards to time, subhanAllah.
But just today, for those of you that
follow hockey, we know that those 2 young
hockey players, they passed away. They were in
peak health, they were in the peak of
their ages, in their early in their twenties
and early thirties, yet Allah subhanahu wa ta'ala
had decreed they were going to pass away.
And that is the reality of this life,
my dear brothers and sisters. None of us
know when we're going to pass away, so
to think, oh, I can perform tawbah and
give up sins later on in my life,
that later on is not confirmed for you.
In fact, it is a blessing from Allah
subhanahu wa ta'ala that if you commit a
sin, and Allah subhanahu wa ta'ala doesn't hold
you accountable immediately, meaning He doesn't cause you
to die upon that sin, it is a
sign that Allah subhanahu wa ta'ala wanted good
for you, and thus He gave you time
to perform tawba. For when Allah subhanahu wa
ta'ala does not want good for people, He
allows them to die upon the sins that
they commit. So if Allah subhanahu wa ta'ala
gave you life, it's because He wanted something
good for you, it is for you to
give up your sin, and to turn back
to Allah subhanahu wa ta'ala.
Number 3. It's not just enough to give
up the sin,
but you have to make the intention
that you're not going to return to that
sin either. And this is going to be
difficult,
particularly when we talk about substance abuse.
Whether we're talking about cigarettes, whether we're talking
about alcohol, whether we're talking about marijuana, whether
we're talking about other narcotics as well, or
we may be even talking about other addictions
that we have as well. May Allah subhanahu
wa ta'ala make things easy for us and
our brothers and sisters that are struggling.
Now in this situation, does a person make
the intention that I'm not going to return
back to it? Even though he knows that
there's a likelihood
that he will? And the answer is 100%
yes.
Even if you know for a fact that
you will go back, make the intention.
Make the intention that I'm giving this up
permanently right now, even if you go back,
because with that intention you continue to seek
Allah subhanahu wa ta'ala's help. But if you
have the defeatist mindset that I can never
give up this sin, you basically said that
the influence of shaitan over you is greater
than the influence of the Quran and the
sunnah. It is greater than your iman. It
is greater than your aspiration for jannah. It
is greater than your fear of the alfir,
and we can never allow that to happen.
So even if you struggle, make that intention
that you will not return back to it.
Then the next point was to feel remorse
and regret.
And perhaps this is even more difficult than
the previous one Because we live in a
day and age where we're constantly exposed to
the haram. We're always seeing things that desensitized
our hearts to those things that Allah subhanahu
wa ta'ala has prohibited.
Whether you're watching a movie, whether you're watching
a TV show, whether you're even listening to
the radio now, subhanAllah, there are always things
that are infiltrating our minds and infiltrating our
hearts.
That is why the best thing that you
can do for the sake of your heart
is to monitor everything that goes through your
ears, everything that goes through your eyes, everything
that your mind thinks about. And if you're
able to purify and to protect those things,
the sensitivity of the heart will be there.
Meaning that when it sins against Allah Subhanahu
wa ta'ala, recognizing that Allah Subhanahu wa ta'ala
has given me so much, how dare I
sin against Allah Subhanahu Wa Ta'ala, your heart
will stay in a good position.
But if you see the haram around you,
and you're not able to counter it, you're
not able to speak out against it, and
you're seeing it so much and experiencing it
so much that your heart has even stopped
hating it because it became too difficult for
your heart, then know that Tawba becomes even
more difficult.
Because how are you supposed to feel remorse
and regret with something that you're constantly engaged
in? So in order to retain the sensitivity
of the heart, you need to monitor everything
that is infiltrating your eyes and your ears
and your thoughts.
And the next point is to do it
before
death, to do it before the rising of
the sun from the west.
And this again, my dear brothers and sisters,
is a sign that, subhanAllah,
none of us know when our appointed time
will come. The intelligent person is the one
that frequently makes tawba, that increases in their
tawba. And when they do so, they are
from the intelligent and they are preparing for
their meeting with Allah subhanahu wa ta'ala.
And then last, is that if you've taken
the rights of someone, you return their rights
to the people. So you took someone's property,
you gave it back to them. You speak
ill of someone,
try your utmost best to apologize to them.
If you're unable to apologize, speak good of
them. If you're unable to speak good of
them in a similar gathering, then seek forgiveness
for them and give salakah on their behalf,
and that is how you return the rights
of the people.
He mentions the second best thing that you
can do is to make
even if you're not making tawba. And what
he's referring to is those individuals that feel
they cannot give up their sin, they should
not give up on making
In fact, continue to fight your sin and
increase in making istighfar, and this is where
the help of Allah Subhanahu wa ta'ala comes.
If there was only one benefit in continuously
making istighfar, it is to save us from
the punishment of Allah Subhanahu wa ta'ala. When
Allah Subhanahu Wa Ta'ala says, That
Allah Subhanahu Wa Ta'ala will not punish the
people as long as you're amongst them, Oh
Muhammad sallallahu alaihi wa sallam. But then the
person asks, what happens when the Prophet sallallahu
alaihi wa sallam passes away? What do we
do then?
Then Allah subhanahu wa ta'ala continues and says
that Allah subhanahu wa ta'ala will not punish
them as long as they are making their
istighfar.
As long as they continuously seek forgiveness from
Allah subhanahu wa ta'ala.
Number 3, ibn Taymiyyah mentions the kafarat,
those things that will expiate our sins. And
he says that certain sins have certain expiations.
So for example, the individual that has marital
intimacy in the daytime of Ramadan,
they have to free a slave. If they're
unable to, they have to fast for 60
consecutive days. And if they're unable to, then
they have to feed 60 people. So this
is a very specific kafarah for a very
specific sin. And in general, this is for
the major sins.
As for the minor sins, they have a
general kafarah.
And this is where Allah subhanahu wa ta'ala
forgives our sins just through the good deeds
that we do. And this is why it's
so important to be mindful in our actions,
my dear brothers sisters. That when the prophet
sallallahu alaihi wa sallam tells us that the
drops that drop off of us,
when we make wudu, our sins are being
forgiven.
When we go into ruku',
our sins fall off of us just like
the leaves fall off of a tree.
When we walk to the masjid, Allah subhanahu
wa ta'ala is forgiving our sins. From 1
jum'a' to the next, from 5 daily prayers
to the next, from 1 amra to the
next, from 1 hajj to the next, there
is forgiveness of sins. And this is the
generous nature of Allah Subhanahu Wa Ta'ala. And
the prophetessallallahu anaihi wa sallam reminds us of
this because shaitan wants you to think that
Allah Subhanahu Wa Ta'ala will never forgive you
and you're never deserving of his mercy. Yet
Allah Subhanahu Wa Ta'ala constantly reminds you that
he is gafur Rahim. That He is the
pardoning and forgiving and the Most Merciful and
the Most Compassionate.
So who will you believe? Will you believe
Allah Subhanahu Wa Ta'ala and His Messenger Sallallahu
Alaihi Wasallam? Or will you believe the whispers
of shaitan?
It is so important to contour those thoughts
with reminding ourselves of the forgiveness of Allah
subhanahu wa ta'ala. So the more good deeds
you do, then the more your minor sins
will be forgiven. As for the major sins,
if there's a specific kafarah, do that specific
kafarah, and then also make tawbah, and Allah
subhanahu wa ta'ala
will forgive you. And then last but not
least, is patience upon the calamities that we
face. And these can be calamities that we
face as in ummah,
as in what is happening in Ghazan and
Palestine. May Allah subhanahu wa ta'ala help them
and grant them victory, Amin. Or what is
happening in Sudan, what is happening in Afghanistan,
what is happening in Pakistan, what is happening
in Libya, what is happening in Syria, and
all of these catastrophes. These are global ummah
facing catastrophes,
or on an individual level, where you may
lose your job, where your car may get
hit, you may get into an accident.
If a person has the right frame of
mind, then they understand that through every sadness
that they feel, through every anxiety that they
feel, through every pain that they feel, there's
a forgiveness of sins from Allah
subhanahu wa ta'ala.
In it, Allah subhanahu wa ta'ala brings us
closer to him because when the slave is
being tried, they naturally turn to Allah subhanahu
wa ta'ala for help. In it, Allah subhanahu
wa ta'ala instills humility inside of us because
a slave that is being tried can never
be arrogant because they know it is solely
solely Allah subhanahu wa ta'ala that is in
control.
The slave that is being tried is having
the ranks raised in the hereafter,
And that is why Ibn Taymiyyah mentions
this as the 4th
thing. And as long as we keep this
in our lives, my dear brothers and sisters,
this is the pathway to success.
In the second part of the Khutba, I'll
briefly touch upon the last advice that the
prophet
gave, which is having good character with the
people. May Allah
grant us.
My
My dear brothers and sisters, just to do
a quick recap,
we're speaking about Ibn Taymiyyah's book called Al
Wasi at Surah, where a scholar of hadith
from Morocco posed questions to him, and that
very first question was, what is the best
advice that you can give me with regards
to my dunya and akira? And Ibn Tayyarahi
hamallahi responded that the best advice is the
advice of Allah Subhanahu Wa Ta'ala and his
messenger salallahu alaihi wa sallam. And the advice
that he's referring to is having taqwa of
Allah Subhanahu Wa Ta'ala. The prophet salallahu alaihi
wa sallam when he advised Ma'ad ibn Jabal
as a farewell advice, he gave him 3
pieces of advice. To have taqwah of Allah
wherever you are, which is to constantly ask
yourself the question, what I am doing? Is
it putting a barrier between me and the
anger of Allah subhanahu wa ta'ala? And then
what can I do in the future to
put a barrier between myself and Allah subhanahu
wa ta'ala in terms of good deeds? Number
2, to follow-up a bad deed with a
good one. Every time you do a bad
deed, hasten in doing good deeds. From the
best of good deeds is to perform tawba,
then to perform istighfar even if you didn't
do tawba,
and then is to do the kafara, the
general and the specific, and then last but
not least, to be patient in times of
calamity,
which now brings us to the last part,
which is to treat people with the best
of manners. The prophet sallallahu alaihi wa sallam,
he says the individual that strives hard to
perfect their character
will reach the level of the individual that
fasts during the day
and prays during the night. The prophet sallallahu
alaihi wasallam, he was telling his companions
as to how they can own homes in
paradise, and this is just a reminder for
us as well. It is not a reality
for all of us that we may own
a house in this life.
It's just too expensive and not feasible for
everyone. But does that mean we forget about
our real estate in the hereafter? Not at
all. Allah subhanahu wa ta'ala is more generous
and more kind, and that is why he
tells us so many ways as to how
we can build our homes in the hereafter.
The prophet says
that whoever gives up argumentation,
even when they are right, will have a
home in the lowest levels of jannah. The
prophet, sallallahu alaihi wa sallam, tells us that
whoever gives up lying, even while joking, will
have a house in the middle levels of
jannah. And the prophet, sallallahu alaihi wa sallam,
tells us that whoever strives to perfect their
akhlaq will have the highest levels of jannah.
So know that as you strive to perfect
your akhlaq, my dear brothers and sisters, Allah
subhanahu wa ta'ala only increases you in honor
in this life and the next. In this
life, you will become beloved to the people,
and in the hereafter, you will be closer
to Allah subhanahu wa ta'ala and his messenger
sallallahu alaihi wa sallam in rank. May Allah
subhanahu wa ta'ala perfect our akhlaq for us.
My dear brothers and sisters, I want to
conclude
with this very
point.
This concept of akhlaq often gets belittled,
but understand that there's a relationship between the
3rd point and the second point,
and that is that your will truly show
itself in times of calamity.
Is not about when people treat you with
kindness,
that you reciprocate with kindness.
Akhlaq
is when people cut you off, you keep
ties with them. When people don't show you
respect, you continue to respect them. Ibn Taymiyyah
he specifically mentions when people don't share their
knowledge and their wealth with you, you go
out of your way to share your knowledge
and your wealth with those people.
So good akhlaq is not about being good
when people are good to you. Good akhlaq
is being good when people are not good
to you, and that is when our character
needs to shine. Right now, we're about to
disperse from jumah, everyone is going to be
in a hurry. And I get that. We
all have families to get back to, we
all have work to get back to, but
this is when your akhlaq should shine at
its best.
This is when your akhlaq should shine at
its best, when you're in a hurry to
leave.
So keep that as a reminder, my dear
brothers and sisters. May Allah subhanahu wa ta'ala
make us from the.
May Allah subhanahu wa ta'ala make us of
those that perform tawba and increase in their
istighfar