Rasul Suluki – Focusing on the Hereafter

How I cringe

every week.

We ask Allah

to

help us.

I was going to,

you know, you're always figuring what to say,

what could be a benefit.

And,

I probably mentioned it many times that

my work has been in the prison.

And,

I've worked with people on death row and

people who will never come out of jail.

And, the prison was a maximum security prison.

And so,

I would always get asked this question,

even by some of the chaplains that were

in other prisons.

They would say, what do you tell them?

You know?

What is it you tell a man that

will never get out again?

And, I found that

it's really no different

from what I would tell you.

No difference.

Because

the only reason

a lot of people

are able to function in this outer world

is that they're really focused on dunya.

The next dunya thing they're going to try

to acquire or get or person or whatever

the case may be.

And even though they have all of this

at their disposal,

you find that there's tremendous depression

all throughout the land.

I think they said this 21,000,000

people per year that have had

a depressed

depression episode.

And, I think it's probably less than the

prison,

because they've confined themselves to the fact that

this is where I am.

But, more importantly,

it's to focus them and to focus us

on the hereafter.

It's the only thing that makes sense.

And it's the only thing that can make

whatever we're dealing within our personal lives make

sense.

If it's not that we're focused on the

fact that we have to return to Allah

we will get lost in all of these

little trials and tribulations

that we're facing,

the disappointments,

the things that don't work out for us.

And so, a man doing

life in prison,

he's not looking for parole. There's no parole.

The only thing that

would change

is maybe illness

that he gets to go maybe to the

hospital or something. But, basically, there's

nothing in the dunya

to really

focus on.

Some people can focus on the fact that

I'm going back to court, and I'm hoping

to get some kind of reduction or something

like that. But when there's no parole,

and there's no chance of getting out,

one has to focus on what?

The same thing that we should focus on

every day, and that is we are returning

to Allah

And how do I want this day

to account for where I'm going?

And so

I found that

it's sad to say,

I think I might have told this story.

But I was looking at a man. He

was in a cell,

and the cell has what they call a

sally port, a little door that they put

the food in. And so they wouldn't open

the door because he was

confined.

So I'm looking through there.

He was someone that had multiple

brain surgeries,

And, they finally told him that

he was gonna die. He was from Lebanon.

And, I'm looking through the cell. There's nothing

in there.

Just him, a concrete slab, and a mattress

on top of it.

And I said to him, I said,

you know,

it sounds strange, you know, how are things?

You know?

And, I mean, how are you making out?

And he said, Imam, he said,

they told me they're not going to give

me a compassionate

release.

And, you know, I said, oh, I'm sorry

to hear that.

He

said,

But, Imam,

I'm happy.

He said, I'm

really I'm I'm I'm fine.

I don't have

any problem with what they you know, what

I've been denied or anything like that.

And I'm looking at this man that has

nothing in the room,

and he's saying he's content with what Allah

has given him.

Now here's what's crazy.

I leave the institution,

and somebody's explaining to me the difficulties they

have in their life right now.

I said,

he's a man with nothing.

He's in confinement.

He's told that he's not he's gonna die

in jail. He's not gonna be allowed to

go home, and he's saying, I'm content.

And here, I'm talking to somebody who has

some kind

of difficulty that they think is difficulty,

and complaining about their life.

And I'm saying,

the difference

is the focus.

He's focused on where he's going,

and this person is focused on where they

are.

And so, if we are going to make

this kind of progress,

it is by focusing on where we're going.

And, this

is the example that we should derive from

these gatherings and being in the presence of

people

that are

directed towards the hereafter.

May Allah

direct us in that way, and so that

we can overcome

whatever is in this life, and that he

bless us to really

reap the benefits of

both in this life and the next.