Nouman Ali Khan – Falling Into Darkness on Judgment Day
AI: Summary ©
AI: Transcript ©
How does someone end up taking the most
priceless treasure that they can have in this
life, our faith, and end up squandering it
and losing it? You kept putting yourselves in
situations
where your faith gets tested.
Try to understand what that means. You kept
putting yourself in environments where you knew it
was bad for you, but you said, No,
I can handle it. I got this. I
got this.
You kept surrounding yourselves with friends that would
do bad things, say bad things,
see bad things, go to bad places, but
you said, I'm not like them, I'm just
trying to help them.
The intention of today's Khubba is to actually
share with you part of just one ayah
that belongs to Surat Al Khadeed.
But in order to share some lessons from
this ayah with you, I'd like to, you
know, give you some context.
This ayah belongs to the very middle of
Surat Al Khadeed. And in the very middle
of Surat Al Khadeed, Allah paints a scene
of judgment day.
Judgment day is something that Allah talks about
in many places in the Quran. And usually
when He talks about it, He talks about
people that are heading towards Jannah, the believers,
And people that are heading towards the hellfire,
the disbelievers.
But this passage in particular is unique because
Allah instead of comparing believers to disbelievers,
He compares believers to hypocrites. Allahumma lataja alaminhum.
May Allah not make us from them. But
Allah instead of comparing those who have faith
as opposed to those who have no faith,
is actually comparing people who have faith as
opposed to people who thought they have faith,
or pretended to have faith, or their faith
was there but is of no value to
Allah on the day of judgment. This is
the munafiq. May Allah not make us from
them. But this this is why this passage
is of particular importance
because it tells us many things about how
not to end up on that in that
scene on judgment day.
To summarize what's going on in this passage,
Allah says that on the day of judgment
believers
when they
stand, the Prophet will be able to see
them.
Meaning
The Messenger can see the entire ummah, and
will not be believing men and women.
Their light is going to be coming out
from right in front of them and from
their right.
What that means is, we have light coming
from our hearts, from our chest, and we
have lights coming out of our hands.
Why is that important? Because your iman and
my iman, if it's sincere. If my faith
is sincere to Allah, and my belief was
strong, it actually turns into light on judgment
day.
And what I that faith made me act
in a certain way. Those actions that I
took turn into light on judgment day, the
actions of my hand.
So you have 2 torches
on judgment day. The day of judgment is
dark. It's this long walk to jannah,
and you're gonna need light to get there.
Some people are going to have exhaustive light.
Their light is so stretched that the Prophet
would describe that it could go from one
city to another.
It's that big of a light.
Other people have such weak light, they still
have it, but it's so weak, they can
barely see the next step that they're taking.
So there are people with different capacities of
light, and they are now making their way,
and Allah has congratulated them because they at
least have light as opposed to people who
have no light. They don't have any chance
of getting to Jannah.
They can't see a path.
And so Allah says, (QS.
3) Congratulations to all of you of gardens
at the bottoms of which rivers are flowing,
it's right ahead of you. Keep walking, keep
going, keep going.
But then in the next ayah, Allah describes
a group of people that also get up
on judgment day,
and they notice they have no light, and
they're in the middle of the dark.
And they see far ahead, and they see,
you know, if you can imagine this scene,
there's complete pitch black darkness,
and there's a group of people that seem
to have some torches with them. You don't
even see them. You just see some lights
flickering.
So you realize, I need to I better
catch up with them because those lights are
getting dimmer.
So these hypocrites wake up in this dark
scene
on judgment day, and they try to run
and catch up to the believers
because they have no light of their own.
They wake up and they're in shock that
they have nothing that can aid them. So,
The day on which hypocritical men and women
are going to say to those who believed,
wait for Us, hold on, look back towards
Us, we could get some of Your light.
Ikhtibas literally means, you know, in old days
you have these torches with fires on top,
and you can take your wood, and you
can kinda light up your own torch. So
they figured we can go borrow some of
your light, it won't take anything away from
yours.
Hold on a second, help us out here.
And then a voice is heard,
Go back behind yourselves, go turn back.
Find some light.
We're not gonna help.
A day of judgment the day of judgment
is the day on which a mother doesn't
care about her child. The
the day on which, you know, father and
son, and brother and sister, this is all
these relationship
All relationships are cut.
So who's gonna care about who? I just
need to get to my jannah, mind your
own business. I'm not even turning back. Go
back and find some light yourself. And the
idea of going back actually is sarcasm also.
Go back to this world. Cause on judgement
day, you if you don't come on judgement
day with light, you can't get any. The
only way to gain that light was in
this world.
So now they still try to catch up
because they don't wanna hear it. Right? So
they're still trying to catch up. And as
they get closer and closer to the believers,
A massive gigantic wall
is dropped between them,
which happens to have a door. And the
door, inshallah, will maybe some other time we'll
talk about. But Allah says, A massive giant
wall is dropped between these 2 groups. So
even if they were gonna try to catch
up, now they can't.
As the wall is dropped, Allah says,
The side they can no longer see. The
hidden side of it. That's got mercy, and
love, and care in it.
And right behind it,
approaching them, right approaching them is punishment. So
not only were they in the dark, now
there's a massive wall, you got nowhere to
go, and when you look back there's punishment
coming at you. They're about to be crushed.
So these hypocrites, may Allah not make us
from them, become desperate.
So they call out and they say,
Didn't We used to be with You?
Weren't We with You? So they're asking for
the people of the other side.
Apparently, the door can be opened from the
other side. Open up guys. Come on. We
used to be with You. And so a
desperate call is made.
This is important before we go any further.
This is actually the reason I chose these
ayat for today's Khutba. This wording.
Weren't we with you?
The idea is that these people on judgement
day that are standing on the wrong side
of the wall,
that are in desperate situation, that have no
light of themselves,
actually assumed that they belonged among the believing
community. They were very confident about that. So
much so that they're citing it even on
judgment day, We used to be among you.
We prayed with you, we did business with
you, we were friends with you, we were
family with you, we were cousins with you,
we went to the same college, university. We're
we're all the same, guys.
How are we separated today? Why is this
separation happening today?
And from the other side, this time, now
that they feel safe. You know once the
wall is dropped,
not only do these people get overly terrified,
the people on the other side feel far
more secure. So they're not in a rush
anymore cause now it's totally safe.
So now they take their time
and actually answer them and say, Well, here's
why you're not with us today.
Here's why you're not with us today.
You know the first thing the people of
heaven told
them was you have to go get some
of your own light. Find
some light on your own. Go back and
get it. Apparently you don't have any light.
And then they're in shock, We used to
be with you, we should've had light just
like you have light
so now the people of Jannah are going
to describe
how these people who used to have light
they used to have light, they used to
have faith how did they lose it?
How did they end up bankrupt on judgment
day? And this ayah is particularly profound because
then it will give us an insight into
how does someone lose their iman.
How does someone end up taking the most
priceless treasure that they can have in this
life, our our faith, And end up squandering
it and losing
it. There's a it doesn't happen overnight. It
doesn't just you don't just lose your iman.
It's a process. And that process has been
described in these timeless words.
Of course you used to be with us.
Walakin nakum fatantum anfusakum.
However, you put yourselves I'll do a rough
translation first, then I'll explain. Number 1, you
put yourselves in fitna, you put yourselves in
trial.
Fatana in Arabic actually means to put something
to the test. Fatana is also used when
you when you test the purity of gold,
and you melt it, and impurities come out
like it gold doesn't go through an easy
test, it goes through a painful burning test.
The idea
of there are many lessons associated with it,
but for the purposes of this khutbah, I'll
highlight one of them. You kept putting yourselves
in situations
where your faith gets tested.
Try to understand what that means. You kept
putting yourself in environments where you knew it
was bad for you, but you said, No.
I can handle it. I got this. I
got this.
You kept surrounding yourselves with friends that would
do bad things, say bad things, see bad
things, go to bad places, but you said,
I'm not like them, I'm just trying to
help them. And you kept going back into
those environments.
You kept getting into gatherings, and places, and
situations.
You put you kept putting yourselves in those
places
assuming that it will not have any effect
on you. It'll affect everyone else, so it
won't affect you.
You know the first step wasn't that these
people just became disbelievers, it was actually bad
company.
They put themselves in questionable circumstances.
And they assume that it's not going to
have an effect. You know, when you are
you know, I'll give you a silly example
but it'll get the point across. If people
do a lot of cooking at home, especially
if you're a desi household. You do a
lot of cooking at home, the home smells
like a lot of masala.
But if you live there, you don't smell
it. When somebody else walks in, especially if
an Arab walks into your house, they feel
like they're in some contaminated zone. It hits
them really hard. But a couple of hours
later, they're like, it's just oxygen now. You
understand?
When you first put yourself in a bad
environment, you might feel it.
You might feel, This isn't good. This is
this gonna mess me up. I don't think
I should be here. Your heart will feel
uncomfortable.
But if you keep putting yourself in that
again,
guess what? It doesn't bother you anymore. Somebody
who smells, you know, stands next to a
smoker for the first time is coughing,
and their eyes are burning. But if they
start smoking themselves, a year later, that just
becomes their
oxygen. They can't even breathe normally without smoking.
It changes them all together.
The first problem was you put yourselves, you
surrounded yourselves in a bad environment.
What was the second problem?
The second problem was wa talabastum.
You kept procrastinating.
Now what does that mean? That means you
realized it's bad, and you also realized in
your own conscience I should change, but you
told yourself,
I'll change pretty soon, inshaAllah.
I'm gonna change. I know I have to
change. I know this is bad. Just one
more week, and I'm gonna be a different
person.
Man, just this semester I got these messed
up friends right now, and I can't really
make them upset, so I'm gonna keep hanging
out with them. But next semester I'm totally
doing a different schedule, I'm not gonna be
around these guys anymore.
But just let me just write out this
semester.
Just this one more month I'm doing this,
you know. Just this one more weekend, just
this one or two more party,
just 1 or 2 more drinks, that you
keep telling yourself just little bit more, little
bit more, little bit more, and then people
tell my my favorite one, Ramadan is right
around the corner.
It's just 10 more months, 11 more months.
You know.
Once I once Ramadan come, man, I'll be
totally different. I plan to go to Hajj.
Once I go to hajj, oh, you watch,
I'm gonna be a different person.
But until then, you know, just kinda just
make dua' for me.
You didn't wanna make a change today, right
now. You figured, you assumed, not only are
you putting yourselves in a bad environment,
you're not ready to make a transformation right
now. It's too much for you to be
asked.
You'd rather just stick it out. You'd rather
just enjoy a little bit more. This is
what But
you know what? And you assumed, by the
way, this this also has an assumption. The
first assumption was it doesn't affect you. It
doesn't have an impact on you, but it
does. Something really bad becomes normal to you
over time, you get desensitized.
What is the effect of of holding off,
and holding off, and holding off? Actually you
assume that you can put the brakes on
at any time,
and you can walk away from all of
it whenever you want. I'm not addicted.
I don't need this. I'm not hooked on
it. I could just walk away whenever I
feel like. The truth of it is that's
not the case. The longer you stay, the
more addicted you become, and the more completely
immersed. You're completely drowned. And you don't
even know what anymore what it is to
be outside of this environment. And then you
start telling yourself, it's too late for me.
And when that happens,
a guilt sets in. The guilt sets in
that I'm pretty messed up.
Man, I've been doing sins. I've been in
this bad environment.
I should have made tawba a long time
ago, but it's too late for me. And
that bad nobody likes to feel bad.
Nobody likes to feel guilty.
And then shaitaan comes and says, why do
you feel guilty?
You don't have to feel guilty.
The only thing that's making you feel guilty
is this Islam thing.
Islam says, this is haram, and that's haram,
and that's a sin, and that's a sin,
and you can't do this, and you can't
say that, and you can't go there. It
keeps Islam keeps making you feel bad, man.
I want you to feel good.
What how true is Islam anyway?
And now the thoughts start running in this
person's mind, a man or a woman.
Why am I even following Islam?
It seems like it just wants me not
to be happy.
I just wanna live my life, man. I
just wanna be free. I just wanna be
able to do what I want. I just
wanna be able to hang out with my
friends. I'm not so sure about the Quran
anyway. How do we even know there is
a God? How do we even know? What's
this hadith business? How do we even know
it's authentic? And so you have this young
man or woman,
this Zaynab, this Ali, this Fatima, this Abdullah,
this Kareem, these beautiful names, and now they're
starting to ask questions about I'm not so
sure about this Islam.
I don't know. I have doubts. I have
serious doubts. And these are not PhDs in
philosophy, nor do they have exhaustive education in
Islamic history where they studied it and they
started developing doubts. No, no, no. They were
in a bad environment, they didn't change themselves.
That is the process I've I've talked to
a 100 of these people that literally live
this ayah. They live this ayah. And then
they get to a point where they have
doubts.
But their doubts have nothing to do with
logic or reason. As a matter of fact,
when you answer one doubt, they go to
the next doubt. When you answer that one,
they go to the next one. When you
answer that one, you go to the next
one. Then you say, Hold on a second.
So how long ago did you start ending
up in questionable kinds of company, and then
the truth starts coming out?
The very next words are you fell into
doubt.
You started doubting.
You know what doubt will do? It'll let
you off the hook. You'll be able to
say to yourself, Well, it's not really
absolutely the truth anyway, so I shouldn't feel
bad that I don't follow it.
I shouldn't feel bad.
And now once those doubts settle in, and
you hide behind those doubts, and continue to
justify your life of procrastination and putting yourself
in fitna. Once you get to that point,
then 2 things are taken away from you.
The desire for jannah is taken away. The
desire for making Allah happy is taken away.
The desire to have that light that will
make you run and get to that destination,
you don't even have that in this world.
The person who desires to seek that success
with Allah, Allah will give them that in
this world. But that desire is gone now.
You have doubts about it, and the fear
of * is gone.
Those those two things are gone. Your fears
are gone, and your your your hopes and
aspirations in Allah and the akhirah are gone.
The afterlife is nothing to you. The afterlife
means nothing. If somebody even brings up heaven
and *, it's a joke to you.
Well, if you take away heaven and *,
if you take away the motivation to end
up in the reward of Allah, or get
away from the punishment of Allah on judgment
day, well the only motivation you're going to
have left are things that are left in
this world. Isn't it?
You have nothing left in the next life.
So the only thing to look forward to
are stuff that's left in this life.
And this life will be money,
it'll be fame, it'll be leisure, it'll be
pleasure.
You know, it'll be material things.
That's all you ever think about, that's all
you ever care about, that's all you ever
wanna know about, that's the only thing that
ever interests you, that's the only thing you
make efforts towards because you think all of
these things are going to bring you happiness.
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