Omar Suleiman – A Dua Away #05 It Ok To Ask Allah To Live Longer
AI: Summary ©
The speaker discusses the signs of the day of judgment, including the prevalence of people walking past graves and materialism. The Prophet's desire to increase the lifespan of a young man voyen for profit is emphasized, along with the importance of du mortality and fit prep for preventing suffering and loss. The Prophet's teachings about death and desire for life are also discussed, with a focus on the importance of long lifecycle of believers versus long lifecycle of disbelievers.AI: Transcript ©
One of the signs that the prophet sallallahu
alaihi wa sallam mentioned of the day of
judgment is the prevalence of people that would
walk past graves and say,
I wish I was in his spot.
On the other hand, another sign of the
day of judgment
is the increase of materialism, where you'll have
people that are clinging on to every single
desire in life because they don't believe in
anything after it.
For the believer, both living and dying are
for
Allah And the abode of this world and
the abode of the hereafter
are both places in which you hope to
be in a state that is pleasing to
Allah Subhanahu Wa Ta'ala.
So remember the prophet Sallallahu Alaihi Wasallam walking
in on Aisha radiAllahu ta'ala Anha while she
was making du'a.
In this narration, the Prophet SallAllahu Alaihi Wasallam
walks in on Habibah radiAllahu ta'ala Anha as
she is making du'a.
And in this situation, the Prophet SallAllahu Alaihi
Wasallam hears a specific du'a from her
and suggest to her something else. So Habiba
RadiAllahu
was making the following du'a. She said that
I was saying
O Allah, allow me to live a long
life alongside
my husband Rasulullah Sallallahu Alaihi Wasallam,
and to have my father Abu Shufyan,
and to have my brother Muawiyah.
Basically,
allow me to live long with them, allow
them to have a long life as well,
allow us to enjoy each other's company for
a long time on this earth. Now the
prophet SallAllahu Alaihi Wasallam, he says to her,
you have asked from Allah Subhanahu Wa Ta'ala
about durations of life that are already set
and the length of days that are already
allotted,
and sustenance the share of which has already
been fixed.
And Allah Subhanahu Wa Ta'ala would not do
anything earlier before its due time
nor would He delay anything beyond its time.
And then He said,
Had you asked Allah Subhanahu Wa Ta'ala instead
to protect you from the punishment of the
grave and from the punishment of the fire,
that would have been better for you. Now
pause, ibn al Jazir Rahimullah points out something
here that prophet SallAllahu Alaihi Wasallam is not
saying that there's anything
wrong with the dua of Habib radiAllahu ta'ala
Anha. But the Prophet SallAllahu Alaihi Wasallam was
noting that what would be better is that
you exert yourself, that you push yourself
to make du'a for the protection of the
grave and the protection from the fire.
Now here's the question. Is it okay to
ask Allah Subhanahu Wa Ta'ala to just increase
your life? Is it okay to ask Allah
Subhanahu Wa Ta'ala to increase the life of
someone else? Al Imam Bukhari Rahimullah
in his book Al Adil al Mufrad,
in that collection, not Sahih al Bukhari, in
that collection,
he has a chapter which is called Bad
mandiyaabitoolil
Umar, the chapter of the one who makes
du'a for a long life. And he includes
in it a narration
that has a weakness in it, but he
wants to make the point that it is
indeed permissible.
And the narration is from Qaysh
that she reported that the Prophet
responded to her making a dua.
And he said to her salallahu alayhi wasalam,
taalaamruha
that her life has been extended
by virtue of that which she said.
And they said, meaning the narrators,
that we do not know of any woman
that lived longer than her. Meaning it was
an accepted du'a for Allah Subhanahu Wa Ta'ala
to increase her life. Now that narration has
some weakness in it, but you have the
most famous narration of a du'a for long
life and what a beneficial life it was,
the du'a of the Prophet SallAllahu Alaihi Wasallam
for Anas ibn Malik radiAllahu ta'ala Anhu to
live a long life. And it's when his
mother, Umsudayim radiAllahu ta'ala Anha brought him
to the Prophet SallAllahu Alaihi Wasallam
and asked the Prophet SallAllahu Alaihi Wasallam to
make dua for him. And the Prophet SallAllahu
Alaihi Wasallam said, Allahumma
akhfirmalahu wawaladahu
wa altal hayatahu
wakhfirlahu.
Oh Allah,
increase his wealth, increase his children,
and elongate his life,
and forgive him for his sins. So, SubhanAllah,
it's a comprehensive du'a. So give him wealth,
give him children, give him a long life,
and then forgive him for all of his
sins. Anas radiAllahu ta'ala Anhu
was the last major companion of the Prophet
sallAllahu 'alhi wa sallam to pass away. He
lived over a 100 years, He had more
children and grandchildren than could be counted. He
became extremely wealthy and was generous with that
wealth, and hence you have the Prophet
explicitly saying, oh, Allah, increase the lifespan of
someone.
Now here's the thing, the Prophet
knows that he's making du'a for the increase
of the lifespan
of a young man in righteousness as well.
What did Anas do with that long life?
Was it a long life for the sake
of having a long life?
Or did we as an ummah benefit from
that long life because all of the narrations
that we learn about the Prophet SallAllahu Alaihi
Wasallam through the mouth of that young man
who lived to be over a 100 years
old, radiAllahu ta'ala Anhu. So we shouldn't pursue
long life for the sake of long life,
nor is it particularly beneficial to just ask
Allah Subhanahu Wa Ta'ala to live for many
years on this Earth. Now the question becomes
here, what distinguishes
the love for a long life of a
believer
from the love for a long life of
a disbeliever or someone who wants to get
every desire fulfilled in this life
from someone who wants to do every deed
possible to please Allah
and elevate themselves in the next life. The
difference is Allah Subhanahu Wa Ta'ala drives the
desire to live and drives the desire to
die if that is most beneficial.
So let's get to that for a moment.
The Prophet SallAllahu Alaihi Wasallam said in an
authentic Hadith, la yatamannaahadukumalmoot
No one of you should actually wish for
death.
And no one should make du'a
to die
before Allah Subhanahu Wa Ta'ala
has decreed for it to come to them.
Why?
Because He said SallAllahu Alaihi Wasallam
that the believer can no longer do good
deeds when they die and a believer's life
is not increased except that it gives them
the opportunity
to do more good. And so does the
believer wish for death?
No. You think about, subhanAllah, that hadith where
the Prophet
is presented the case of a man who
dies, shahid,
1 year before his best friend, 1 year
before his companion who dies after him and
not shahid,
yet his rank is increased.
Why was that? Because he had another year
to worship and please Allah Subhanahu Wa Ta'ala.
And so the scholars mentioned that we are
not a people who hate this life. We
see life as an opportunity
to please Allah Subhanahu Wa Ta'ala,
not ourselves, and that should be encompassed in
any du'a that we make to Allah Subhanahu
Wa Ta'ala
for a longer life. Now there are also
duas for a quick death, but you have
to pay attention to what those duas are.
There are duas in which you ask Allah
Subhanahu Wa Ta'ala
to take you
if it is best for you because of
something terrible that's going to happen. So the
prophet SallAllahu Alaihi Wasallam said in authentic hadith,
Allaha minyasaluka
fayalal khayratwatarkalmunqaratwahubbalmasakeen
wa'idha arata finnaasi fitna faqbidni
ilayk ghayramaftun
Oh Allah, I ask You for the ability
to do good deeds, to leave off evil,
to love the poor. And if You intend
for the people a fitna, if you intend
for the people tribulation,
then take me back to you without being
tried. Now this type of fitna that the
Prophet is referring to is not the type
of fitna that is simply severe hardship. It's
the type of fitna
that potentially compromises your deen. And that's why
in some narrations the Prophet
specifically said, fitnatin
mudillah.
A fitna that leads me astray. A fitna
that causes me to steer away from my
Deen. And this is what the scholars mentioned
that Mariam alayhi salaam
was doing when she made du'a to Allah
Subh'anaHu Wa Ta A'la
I wish I would have died before this
because she was afraid that what was going
to happen to her as a result of
that child was going to be a fitnah
for her and her deen instead it was
a means by which she was elevated. And
so the type of fitnah
that would actually make you want to ask
Allah Subhanahu Wa Ta'ala to die is the
one in which you fear that your deen
is going to be impacted. So does the
believer love life or does the believer love
death? The believer loves Allah Subhanahu Wa Ta'ala
and the believer accepts whatever Allah Subhanahu Wa
Ta'ala sends to them as an opportunity
to please Him. So if that is a
longer life in which we could do good
deeds like sadaqa and salah, charity and pray
and do good for the world around us,
alhamdulillah.
And if that is an opportunity of shahada,
of martyrdom that Allah Subhanahu Wa Ta'ala sends
to us, Alhamdulillah.
And if Allah Subhanahu Wa Ta'ala takes me
at this point because He knows that I'm
at my peak, Alhamdulillah.
And if Allah Subhanahu Wa Ta'ala knows that
something else is going to happen that might
steer me away, Alhamdulillah.
And that's why, by the way, when you
look at righteous people that passed away in
a young age, a lot of times we
say, Oh wow, if that person would have
lived a few more years, Right? What would
they have done?
You don't know, Allah Subhanahu Wa Ta'ala does.
So alhamdulillah
for the one who decrees
just the right time for us to come
into this Earth
and just the right time for us to
leave. At the end of the day, the
believers' love for life is rooted
in their wanting to do more good deeds
to please Allah SWT.
And their love for death
is rooted in their wanting to meet Allah
SWT,
not because they love death itself. And at
the end of the day, we want Allah
Subhanahu Wa Ta'ala to take us at the
time that is best for us. And the
Prophet SallAllahu Alaihi Wasallam said in such a
comprehensive hadith
that let not one of you wish for
death, but if a person is going to
make du'a for death, then let them say,
Allahumma akhini maqana til hayatuhayranli,
watawafani
idhaqana tilwafatu
hayranli.
O Allah,
let me live as long as life is
better for me and let me die when
death is better for me. At the end
of the day, you trust Allah
with the timing because just like Allah
knows the reality about something you're asking Him
for, Allah knows the reality of you if
you were to live another day or die
tomorrow.
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