Safi Khan – Soul Food A Journey to Allah 12
AI: Summary ©
The importance of individual journeys to Allah is discussed, including the need for mindful behavior and trustworthiness. The speakers emphasize the importance of not cutting oneself off from Allah's guidance and not wanting to be mindful of one's own actions. The speakers also discuss the importance of pursuing one's own avenues to strengthen and strengthen one's faith. The importance of not apologizing for past mistakes and not caring about one's success is emphasized.
AI: Summary ©
Alright.
We're gonna go ahead and,
get started
with our session tonight.
Everybody.
Welcome home.
Welcome to Roots.
We are
going to be continuing on with our
journey to Allah series, the series in which
we are
going over the,
importance of everyone's individual
journeys to Allah, their relationship with Allah, how
they are
getting to Allah
in their own unique ways, and
also the advices of the people who are,
you know,
pious
and scholarly and people who are close to
Allah
and we take their advices and we learn
from them. And so, you know, we ask
Allah
to give us,
closeness to him.
And, you know, as we've been doing for
the past
month
month now over a month at this point,
we've been, you know, starting and ending all
of our sessions with
reflections and duas for Palestine,
for Gaza. And so, today, we'll be,
exactly along that tradition where we will end
with a dua for our brothers and sisters
in Palestine.
So
we are, Insha'Allah, beginning today's conversation
with a really incredible,
incredible statement of the prophet Sallallahu Alaihi Wasallam.
And the prophet Sallallahu
Alaihi Wasallam one time he mentioned very famously
and, you know, this is something that's very
profound when you kind of really look into
it and think about it and what it
can do for a believer, how it changes
their perspective about their their journey to Allah,
their relationship with Allah,
because this hadith that we're gonna be talking
about today
really particularly
appeals to a human being's
weaknesses.
And what I mean by that is that
it really gives us hope
as people who are flawed,
people who are mistaken,
that, you know, we as human beings who
have such a potential to make mistakes,
that Allah
is that much more merciful and that much
more powerful than however great our mistakes are.
And so we're gonna discuss this today
in
the the session tonight.
So, ibn Rajab, he begins by saying
that
it's possible
that a person
can traverse and travel the straight path that
in the beginning of his life
and then
deviate from it and travel one of the
paths of Shaitan,
and hence, he or she will be cut
off from Allah. Now what I mean by
that specifically, and this is really interesting here.
He this is why the English translation doesn't
really do much justice to the Arabic, but
what I wanted to mention here is this.
What Ibn Rajab is saying here is that
a person
can be a person who is pious their
entire life or seemingly pious their entire life.
And they seemingly to the public, they do
everything that a pious person should do. They're
praying. Right? They're giving charity. They're being kind
to other people. They're being considerate to other
people. They're being good to their neighbors, etcetera.
But
they may deviate from that and then traverse
along the path of shaitan. What does that
mean? That a person can begin their life
in a means of getting closer to Allah,
but through their life, what happens is that
they begin
to deviate. What's the word deviate mean? We
talked about this last week, actually. That famous
dua that we talked about,
where Allah, he tells people to say, oh,
our lord, do not allow our hearts
to deviate.
Tuzig, by the way, means to, like, slowly
but surely move away from something. Right? So
when we understand this kind of, you know,
terminology, we understand that our journeys to Allah,
our relationship with Allah doesn't just sour overnight.
People who turn away from God, they don't
just turn away from God overnight. It happens
gradually. It's a gradual process, and that's what
Shaitan wants, by the way. Shaitan is extremely
tactical.
He's a he he's a master at almost
allowing a person to slowly but surely move
away from Allah. And that's, by the way,
you know, why
majority of people, when they grow further and
further from God, they don't just do it
in in in the blink of an eye.
They do it over a period of time.
They lose that closeness to Allah that they
once had. I remember I was,
literally, I kid you not. I was sitting
after soul food,
one evening,
And there was a person who came up
to me,
and she was telling me privately after the
session was over, she just began that conversation
with, I don't know what happened.
She began the conversation with that. She said,
I don't know what happened. And I said,
what do you mean? Like, what do you
can you elaborate a little bit? And she
said, I used to love
my prayer. I used to love it. I
used to really enjoy praying. I used to
relish those moments where I would be 1
on 1 with Allah.
And I said, okay. And so what happened?
And she said, well,
gradually,
slowly, I began to
lose touch with my prayer. I used to
kind of, like, prioritize other things over it.
I used to almost, like, justify why certain
things were more important than it. Yeah. I
can always get back to that prayer. I
can always make it up, etcetera, etcetera. And
she said over the span of, like, a
few months,
I completely
didn't recognize myself when I looked in the
mirror.
I was a person who used to love
prayer.
And now, you know, in a matter of
months, I barely prayed anymore.
And even more sad somehow this, like, really
broke me, she was like, I grew up
memorizing Quran. Like, that was, like, a part
of our family. She was like, my mother
and my father, they were, like, hafad, and
they used to memorize Quran. And so, obviously,
kinda like following that tradition, I was also
a person who memorized Quran when I was
younger. And she said, there was something in
my life where, like, I started to kind
of, like, prioritize other things over it. And
so now she goes, I have no recollection
of Quran anymore.
Like, if you were to tell me, like,
10 years ago, like, hey. What aya is
this? I should, like, I'd be able to
do it right then and there. But now
if you tell me, like, an aya, I
wouldn't even know the difference between that and
something else in
the Quran. And she began crying in my
in my office. I remember speaking to her
about this. And she said, how did it
get how how did it get to this?
How did it become like that? And so
I had to have a whole conversation with
her about how quite literally just what we're
talking about right now is, you know, a
lot
does not become unfamiliar with a person over,
like, a 24 hour period.
It's almost like, you know,
Right? Like, whatever your whatever your own actions
have dictated. Right? Your own hands have done
this. You've almost, like, kind of gradually moved
away from Allah. So ibn Rajab, he says
that it's very possible that a person began
their journey upon the path to Allah,
but
they deviated away from it, and they chose
shaitan. And again, like, some some scholars, like,
they they they're really intense in their words.
Right? They're like, you chose shaitan over Allah.
Like, no one no one actively chooses shaitan
over Allah. Right? If I were to ever
ask somebody, like, hey. Do you love shaitan?
Like,
nobody in their right mind would ever say
yes, but sometimes
actions actually teach us more about who we
are and who who we align with than
what we actually verbally say. Right? Like, in
a moment in which we choose, like, to
watch something on our phone while the time
of, like,
goes by,
we're not saying that, oh, I choose shaitan
over Allah, but you're quite literally choosing to
do something in negligence of your relationship with
God. Right? So you don't have to verbally
say it. It just kind of happens. Right?
And that's how it kind of sneaks up
on you. You don't realize it happening to
you. And so he says, hence, he or
she is cut off from Allah. And I'd
like to amend that statement, by the way.
He's not cut off from Allah rather they
cut themselves off from Allah.
They did
it. Allah will never cut himself off from
anybody.
Allah will never completely shut the door on
a person. That doesn't happen. We don't believe
our faith,
in our faith tradition that that's possible.
We don't ever say that Allah Subhanahu Wa
Ta'ala completely shuts the door on a human
being.
Because as long as that person's breathing,
as long as that person's
able to live and exist,
we know that there's a possibility
that Allah can guide
them. Every waking moment that you are alive,
every morning that you wake up, every evening
that you go to sleep and you're able
to breathe and and and and and and
and exist,
it's a means of Allah Ta'ala telling you
that continue on.
Right? Because if Allah
wanted to cut your deeds off right then
and there, you would be gone. You would
have passed away. So every waking moment of
existence is Allah
saying that there's still time. Come right back.
Come right back. Right? Don't don't don't cut
yourself off. Don't shut me out. And so
ibn Rajab, he says, a person can be
upon that path in the beginning of his
life and then somehow, someway lose Allah along
the way and they die in that state
and they cut themselves off from Allah Subhanahu
Wa Ta'ala.
And so then he quotes this extremely famous
hadith of the prophet which insha'Allah we're gonna
go over today. And this is going to
be the focus point of today's conversation insha'Allah.
So I'm going to actually pull it up
for you guys so everyone can see it.
This hadith, the prophet sallallahu alaihi wasallam is
incredible. So this hadith, it
is on the screen right now if you
guys can see it.
The Hadith itself is an extremely extremely beautiful
Hadith, and it's collected
in the 40 Hadith of Imam Nawi.
So this Hadith right here, it reads right?
I'm sorry. It's a little bit small, but
hopefully, I can kind of share it with
you guys. So this hadith is narrated by
a person by the name of, Abdul Rahman,
Abdullah ibn Mas'arul radiallahu anhu. He's a very
famous companion of the prophet
And he says and you guys can kind
of read along with the English here.
He says that the prophet
he mentions and by the way, he begins
by stating this hadith. He says, Qala Rasulullah
Sallallahu Alaihi wasalam wahu wasadiqu
al Masduku.
Meaning that the prophet was
the truthful one and he was trusted. Anyone
kind of find, like, a really interesting nuance
here? What does it mean when a person
says that they are trustworthy, but they're also
trusted?
Like, they're truthful and they're also believed. What
does that mean?
What's special about that description? Those two things.
They are truthful and they're also believed. What
does that mean? What why is that special,
Timur?
Okay. Their influence is very powerful, possibly. Possibly.
Okay. Anybody else wanna take a shot at
this?
Yeah.
Yeah.
And I'm gonna just throw it out to
you guys. Not everyone who's truthful is trusted,
and not everyone who's trusted is truthful.
Right? Just because you're one doesn't mean the
other is necessarily true.
So when Abdullah ibn Masurid, he describes the
prophet
as wasad he's.
He's not just the truthful.
He's also trusted.
Right? It's a very special combination. It's like
when you say it's like when you say
about Allah,
Alhamdulillah.
Right? Alhamdulillahirrubilalamin
Al Rahman Al Rahim. Right? He's one that's
praiseworthy.
He's worth all the praise that he receives.
He's also merciful.
The names of Allah Subhanahu Wa Ta'ala are
not just coincidental,
guys. They are very specific, and they're specific
to him. Right? And so when Abdullah ibn
Musuri, he said that the prophet is both
truthful and trusted,
it means that he has transcended
many layers of of of of of of,
you know, just praise that other people don't
normally have. Right? Some people may be truthful,
but no one trusts them. Right? I mean,
as to why, but, you know, maybe they're
not spread maybe they're not speaking the truth
in the most beautiful way.
Maybe what they're saying is true, but how
they're saying it is completely not not not
not in a good manner. And then certain
people who are trusted
may not be truthful. I mean, look look
at it right now. You guys are witnessing
right now all over the news. Right? How
many how many,
like, news stations and and and and and
and companies are out there running propaganda and
certain people will swear by those things. And
you know for a fact that those are,
like, the lying teeth of Shaiban.
Right? You're like, there's no way that this
is possibly believable for people. But then you
have people who are like, no. No. No.
Wallahi
likes Fox News 100% Sahi. It's amazing. Right?
Like and you over here, like, no way.
These people are, like, literally, Shaytan's best friends.
Like, what are you talking about, man? And
so you realize that those two things are
not always mutually exclusive. Right? And so he
says,
So the prophet was both truthful, and he
was believed.
And he says this and by the way,
one of the reasons why
Abdullah ibn Mas'ud, he began this hadith with
that particular description of the prophet was because
what the hadith is about is extremely unbelievable.
I want you guys to think about what
unbelievable means. I know, like, when we think
about unbilled the word unbelievable, we think, like,
amazing. Right? But when you actually hear the
word unbelievable, what does it actually mean? It
means that it's hard to believe. Right? So
when Abdul ibn Mas'r, he says, trust me.
The one who said this is both truthful,
and he's, like, widely trusted by the people
who he talks to. So whatever you hear
that I'm about to narrate to you that
he said, it's 100% true. It's 100% authentic
because it's sometimes unbelievable for the average person
to comprehend it. And so he says,
the the prophet he mentioned, he says,
He says that,
verily,
the creation of every one of you is
brought together
in his mother's womb,
for 40 days.
40 days.
Right? So for 40
days,
he
says.
And for the 4th for the first 40
days,
you are something that is described as
nutfa. Nutfa is like literally like a drop.
Like a drop. Quite literally like a drop
of existence, and that's it. You're no more
than that. Okay?
And then he says,
after that,
and then you become something called the alaq.
Alak literally means, like, a clot of, like,
cells.
Right? Like, you're not really, like, a formed
shape yet. You're just kind of like this
clotted group of cells that are, like, clumped
together. You're more than just like a drop
of of of liquid, but now but but
you're, like, in the middle here. You're something
called the ala. Right? And by the way,
there's, like, a famous Surah where we hear
that word. Right?
Allah created you from this idea of Alak.
That's like clotted group of cells. That's all
you were at one point. Right? It really
humbles the person to think about that. Right?
Like, we're, like, grown people.
Some of us have salary. Some of us
don't. We all make dua for those who
don't. Right? May Allah relieve you from inflation.
And so, like, you realize, like, how how
how humbling that statement is.
That you were something called nutzfa for 40
days and then adak for 40 days. And
that's what you were, man. You were this,
like, helpless little thing. Right?
You could not do anything on your own.
You had no autonomy whatsoever.
And then the prophet,
he says,
He says, and then you were something called.
Basically means like a,
like almost like an embryo.
You, like, start to become like that weird
little, like, picture you see in bio class.
Right? Like that thing that looks like a
whale slash like a little mole rat. Right?
Like, you're you don't look anything like you
do right now.
So that's what you look like. You know?
So Hanala, you know what's crazy?
When when my wife and I were,
we were expecting or she was expecting and
I was just kinda like the I was
like the line backer, she
was the quarterback. And I was just kinda
like witnessing it. Right? Because mothers, masha'Allah, I
always believe there's that mothers will always have
this, like, incredible tie to their child no
matter what. That's why, like, your mom can
yell at you, like, all night, and the
next morning you're, like, wiping, like, the sniffles
and cheers off your face and going to
go eat, like, your breakfast with her. But
your dad does it one time. You don't
wanna talk to that dude for, like, a
whole 48 hours. Right? You're like, yeah. Me
and my dad had problems. Right? Like, but
the mom, she like, she grills you to
death, and the next morning you're like, mom,
I love you. Can I have breakfast now?
Right? Like, it's just like this natural feeling
that you have. It's so true. Right? Like,
I remember this going growing up as a
as a kid, I was like, man, me
and my mom used to go to battle
sometimes. Like, quite literally Lord of the Rings
style. Right? Like, the horns will be blown,
you know, everybody else in the house would
get out of the way. It's me and
my mom. Right? I was also the only
son, so like, I was always like her
like little like punching bag. Right? Because she
can't she can't do something with the girls.
Right? And so, but but I remember all
the time after like, we would like get
into like arguments or like, she would like,
you know, put me in time or whatever
it was, I used to always go back
to her, and it was fascinating to me.
But when it comes to, like, a father,
your dad yells at you one time, you're
like, yeah, me and him, we all are
talking terms right now. Right? Like, it's always
that weird
concept. That's why mother,
man, like, there's just kind of like divine
just tie that kids have to their moms.
Right? And that's why, like, you have these
ahadith. Right? That, you know,
Jannah is at the feet of your mother.
Right? You'll never be able to pay your
mother back for whatever she did for you.
Right? And so he says that, you know,
you were
that you were this embryo. Right? I remember
subhanAllah, and I was going back to the
story when, you know, my wife was expecting,
you know, and we were expecting our daughter.
The first ultrasound
that we went to where she was, like,
somewhat of like an image. Right? I was
looking at her and I was like, somehow,
like, this is going to, like, and and
for a moment, and I know you studied
this in, like, class and school and whatnot,
but when you see an actual human being,
right,
you see an actual human being
that's like just
it's they're they're there, and you know what's
even more incredible is that, when the doctor
or the nurse, they kind of run the
the the the little kind of ultrasound, you
know,
gear over the heart,
and it registers the heartbeat.
It's something that quite literally is like the
size of, like, maybe like this, but it
has a heartbeat in it. And you think
how incredible.
How can you deny Allah's blessings in your
life? Right? And so he says that
And then Allah, what he does is that
he sends one of his malaikah
He sends one of his angels. And
he sends one of his angels and quite
literally,
he
blows
into the soul.
Okay? But he basically blows the the the
into this embryo.
This embryo is no longer just kinda like
this clotted group of cells. You're like a
you you you have a soul now. And
by the way, that's the sign of life.
Right?
Because souls, we believe as Muslims that their
physical body is not just what makes you
who you are,
and it will never be. Because you know
that after you pass away,
your soul continues on in its journey to
Allah. Right? Yes. Your physical body may now
be, you know, it may not exist anymore
in this dunya,
but you are continuing on with your journey.
You're not stopping here. And this is why
when we look at Palestine, we look at
Gaza, and we see the tragedy going on
over there and we see and it's difficult
and overwhelming to even speak about it. You
see the carnage.
You see the bodies. I mean, people are
posting about it left and right. You see
videos and images that sometimes your heart wants
to, like, just gloss over because you don't
have the heart to look at it.
But as a Muslim, you understand that that
vessel,
right, that body
is not really them anymore.
Right? That's not
they're not there anymore.
They're in fact on their journey to Allah
in another form.
They're on their journey to Allah to Allah
in another form. So it gives you solace
and consolation as a as a Muslim.
And so he says that
this angel,
this angel blows into this body
a
soul.
And this thing becomes an actual person.
Okay.
And this angel is commanded by Allah
to now give this person, this new human
being,
Kalimat al Arba,
4 things that will be decided for them.
Can you guys imagine that? Like, when you're
in your embryo stage in your life,
that's when this angel
literally is commanded by Allah
to decide
all of the things that will happen in
your life.
So, like, what your career is gonna be.
You can tell your parents that you you
weren't destined to be a doctor from embryo
stage one day. Like, mom, I can't do
anything about this now. Right? Like, Jibril, it's
all him. Right? Like
so he says that he determines Allah determines
4 things.
He Allah decides for this person
their sustenance,
their risk.
You know, their whether they will have certain
provisions or not. Right? Whether they'll be a
person who has provisions or a person who
may be deprived of certain provisions in their
life. And then he says,
and Allah will decide for the for this
person
their lifespan,
how long they'll live. How incredible is that?
Isn't it incredible to think that Allah Ta'ala
has already decided for you how long you
are to live?
You may not know it, and there's wisdom
behind that.
You have no idea how long you will
live in your life. But Allah told
that angel to
already
decide how long your lifespan will be from
that moment on. You could live for 15
years.
You could live for 40 years. You could
live for 12 years. You could live for
80. You could live for 90. Allahu Alem.
Allah knows best. Right? So
and their deeds.
Their deeds, what they'll do in their life.
Right? Will the will they be a person
who does righteous deeds, or will they be
a person who struggles with certain things? How
many of you guys, you you know what
this you know, one of my teachers, he
taught us this that,
This is the part of the hadith that
teaches us that
anybody in here feel like they struggle with
something particularly in their life that they just
can't get over. It's just a lifelong thing.
You've accepted at this point. Right? You're, like,
sleeping? It's a lifelong thing. No matter how
hard I try, I just oversleep.
I just
it's a battle. Right? Laziness is a battle
for me. For some people, like, the battle
for their their their life is, like, their
ability or their ability or inability to hold
their tongue.
They gotta get that last word in. Right?
We're talking about this earlier today with with
some of our staff.
You know, like, we we have to get
that last kind of, like, dig in before
we let that argument go.
Have you ever wondered, like, why do I
struggle with that?
Like, I don't know. It's almost like this,
like, animal. Right? I can't, like, I can't,
like, leash it. I can't, like, get I
can't hold it back.
Sometimes Allah Subhanahu Wa Ta'ala writes down for
people certain that they will struggle with.
The person sitting next to you may never
have
an issue backbiting,
but that is one of your biggest challenges
in life.
The person across from you may never have
any trouble with oversleeping,
but you, for the life of you, can't
wake up for fidget.
Right? I mean, these are things, so how
did Allah like, you know and you think
about it. Why are certain things easier for
for certain people and harder for other people?
Right?
Like, why is charity so easy for certain
people? Y'all ever y'all ever met, like, a
friend who's, like, the most, like, loose *
friend of all time? Like, they just give
as much as they want. They don't care.
But you, like, $5, you're, like, doing, like,
the whole, like, Zach Galifianakis
math GIF in your head?
You're like, oh, okay. So 599 minus 3.
Okay. Now I'm at, like, a grand total
of 13.55
in my bank account, my ACH deposits are
like, you're doing this entire math question in
your head, but that person next to you,
they're just giving money like it's nothing. And
you ask yourself, like, you Allah, why isn't
it easy for me to do this? Why
is it so easy for that person to
do this? And the answer
is.
The deeds that Allah
has decreed for you, certain things are easy
for certain people and difficult for other people.
Right?
And then he says,
he says whether that person will be
happy or that person will be
unhappy.
Okay?
Like, if that person will be happy in
their life and happy and sadness in here,
it means, like, whether this person will be
content
and they will grow closer to Allah with
that contentment or whether they will never be
satisfied with Allah Ta'ala in their life. We
ask Allah
to allow us to be
people who are happy and content with Allah
Ta'ala.
And then he continues, and this is the
the the the crux of the hadith right
here. So after he take after the prophet
teaches us this, he almost amazes the reader
by sharing with them
the incredible nature of who you are, like
your identity. You know, like, the identity crisis?
Like, this is this is the answer right
here.
Like, whenever somebody asks you, like, who you
are, I'm like, when I read this hadith,
I'm like, man, I'm just a creation of
God.
That's it. You know? Like, whether I'm like
an extrovert or an introvert or like a
passive aggressive person or this, I'm like, man,
I'm just a creation of Allah.
All these things. Right? I'm at ihi waajanihi.
Right? You know, shaktiun, amsarid, and all these
different things like Allah. Allah is the one
that decides that stuff. Right? So, like, I
don't I don't mind not knowing who I
am sometimes. I'm just happy that I'm a
creation of Allah. That's it. I know that
I know Allah. I know that I have
a relationship with Allah, and that's all that
I need to be satisfied in my life.
And so then after that he says,
he says
and
by Allah besides whom there is no one
worthy of worship
He says,
He says here something really scary.
He says
that
by Allah
one of you
works or does the deeds of the people
of paradise
until there until there is nothing that remains
between that person and hellfire
except an arm span.
And then all of a sudden, they begin
doing the deeds of a person of Jannah
and because
they end with that,
and they will enter paradise.
This hadith, by the way, is incredible
because it teaches you a couple things.
That the first thing it teaches you
is
and by the way, there's commentary on this
where the scholars they mentioned that
the person that's been talked about in this
hadith,
it could be possible that they were upon
a certain path for, like, 70 years.
Like, they were doing something for 70 years.
They were either, like, on the path of
paradise for 70 years or, like, the path
of, like, Shaifani for 70 years. And then
all of a sudden their last years, they
change.
And just before the time of death
for him,
it was written that
they will change their actions.
And so
they will now become upon the path that
they ended.
And then he mentions here that this is
where the prophet he mentioned here,
That a person's actions are dependent upon their,
what's kawatin?
Their end.
It's not always about how you start.
You know that hadith of prophet sallallahu alaihi
wa sallam we have that says
Right? Everyone's familiar with that hadith that all
actions are dependent upon their intentions,
and intentions are always usually in the beginning.
Right? Like, before you do a certain deed,
you intend certain things. Right?
I'm stepping up to pray today. My intention
is to please a lot, not anybody else.
So that's my intention in the beginning. But
what about people
who may have stepped up to that prayer
rug and said, man,
a part of me really loves when people
call me religious.
A part of me really enjoys when people
call me pious.
A part of me loves when somebody sees
me put that $20 bill in the sadaqa
box.
A part of me loves the praise that
I receive
when I do something good.
What about what about us? What about those
people?
This is where the prophet says.
Actions are dependent upon their ending, not just
by their beginning.
Because imagine a person could have started off
on the on on a great foot, on
the right foot, and they completely ended the
opposite of that. They started strong, but they
finished terribly.
And a person could have started terribly,
but finished beautifully in front of Allah Subhanahu
Wa Ta'ala.
That used to like abuse the prophet SAWS
in Makkah before he left for Medina.
You know what you call them now?
You call
them
Think about that statement.
You know Hind?
There's a woman by the name of Hind
bin Utbah.
She was a wife of a person by
the name of Abu Sufyan.
Abu Sufyan was, like, one of the head
chiefs of the Quraish.
Hind, to jog y'all's memory, if you guys
remember, there's that famous battle of
Uhud. Right? The the battle of Badr was
the one where, like, the angels descended upon.
Right? And they they ended upon.
Right? And they came and saved the believers
on that day when they were outnumbered 313
to 1,000.
The battle of Uhud was that battle in
which the Muslims were actually, like, super confident.
They went in super confident,
but ended up the battle of Uhud was
a loss for the Muslims. Why? Because there
were a few misunderstandings and this caused the
Muslims to completely be, like, harmed in that
battle. In fact, the prophet in that battle
was harmed himself. And not only that, a
lot of his closest friends died that day.
Right? Musa'aabi bin Umer RadiAllahu
An. Hamza bin Abdul Mutlarab, the prophet sallallahu
alaihi wasalam's uncle.
Hind Radiallahu Anha. We call her Radiallahu Anha
now. Hind was the one who orchestrated the
assassination of Hamza Radhi Allahu Anha.
She's the one who hired
a slave by the name of Washi
to go and quite literally kill Hamza because
she knew that that would cause the prophet
pain.
I want you to think about that.
Like, there's, like, a certain level of, like,
pure, like you know, there there's a certain
level of evil that it takes to, like,
not only wanna harm a person that you
dislike,
but to know that if I harm someone
that they love, it'll hurt them even more.
Right?
Like, you know, it's like the whole mentality
of, like, you can hurt me if you
want to, but if you hurt somebody that
I love, I'm gonna get even more hurt.
Right? You can say whatever you want to
me, but if you, like, slander my friend
or my family member, I'll be even more
upset by that.
And so she orchestrated this entire plan to
kill Hamza,
and Hamza was killed in the most brutal
way.
And when, you know and Hind, you know,
like and somehow I always think about this
stuff.
When
if there were certain people like Hind in
our communities nowadays,
we would just write them off as, like,
evil people.
Like, look at all the stuff she's done,
man.
Look at all the bad stuff that she
did.
Look at all the terrible stuff that he
did. There is no way that this person
will be ever will ever be able to
come back to Allah. Look at what they've
done. They drink.
They never pray. They smoke.
They have, like, you know, relationships and this
and that and all that stuff. You know
how many people that this person has been
with, etcetera, and this is common rhetoric that
goes around the community, by the way.
Oh, that person does this and that. Like,
like, how do you ever expect them to
ever come to, like, a halakkah like this,
man?
And there have been people in communities, by
the way, that have been completely turned off
by that rhetoric.
They wanna go closer to Allah, but by
the way that people talk to them, they
never wanna foot in a place like this
ever again.
I had a friend in my life one
time.
He was not known to be, like, the
most reputable person ever, but there was one
day where he really wanted to just kinda,
like, rediscover his Islam. And so he walked
into a masjid, and, you know, for some
reason, Muslims who speak, like, other languages other
than English think that they're, like, the most,
like, invincible human beings of all time that
no one on the no one else in
the world knows Arabic or like Urdu. So
they just start talking about people in their
native tongue thinking that no one's gonna know
what they talk about. And he said, I
walked into the Masjid that day, and I
heard 2 uncles in the corner telling tell
like, talking to themselves, like, oh, there he's
there there's that guy.
Like, keep your family away from him.
And he said the the the the the
desire that I had to pray Maghrib that
day immediately, like, left my heart.
Can you imagine, like, the conversation Allah will
have with those 2 people on the day
of judgment?
You prevented one of my musalin to stop
prayer.
You prevented one of them from praying.
This is the stuff that affects people's,
like, relationship with God.
And so
later on when the prophet,
he came back to Mecca, years later after
Medina,
And Hind,
you don't think that she knew that, like,
she had a target on her back?
Like, now there's, like, 10,000 plus Muslims. They
march back to Mecca. Like, don't you think
that, like, she
knows common social culture?
Everyone's gonna talk bad about me. Everyone knows
that I was just, like, evil people. The
I was evil person before and all these
different things, and so she, like, hid. She
went into hiding,
and she waited for 3 days. The narration
mentions that she waited for 3 days, and
she was, like, waiting for, like, this, like,
massive, like, fight to break out in Mecca
between the Muslims and the Quraysh, and it
just never happened.
It's never took place.
And so she said that she went out
into the middle of, like, the courtyard.
She walked straight into the middle of, like,
the Haram, like, where the Kaaba was.
And she was like, where's where's Mohammed? Where's
Mohammed? And she was by the way, she
was like she was, like, completely cloaked, so
no one knew that it was him.
So she, like, kind of, like, pulled somebody
aside, and she said, hey. Where's Mohammed?
And they told her they said he's, you
know, probably near the Kaaba. That's where he
always is. Right? You think about it. Right?
Can you imagine, like, if if somebody wants
to find where you are, imagine, like, the
stereotype being like, oh, yeah. He's probably at
Kaleb.
Oh, she's probably at roots. You know? Like,
I don't know. Like, she you probably won't
find her in, like, a lot of but
you'll you'll find her at roots. She'll she'll
she's there on Thursdays.
Is it, like, such an honor, man? Isn't
that crazy, like, to think about, like, oh,
yeah. Like, I know that girl. She's there
on Mondays. She's there on Thursdays. She's always
there. What, like, a beautiful stereotype. I wanna
be stereotyped like that. Right?
And so she's she finds out that the
prophet is, you know, he he he the
guy's, like, yeah. I don't know where he
is, but if if anywhere you try your
luck at near the Kaaba, that's where he
probably is.
And she goes there and lo and behold,
she the prophet,
she he's praying.
And when she sees him, alisaat al salam,
she goes up to him and she says,
fa wallahi.
She goes,
I swear by God.
If you were to ask me who is
the most hated person to me,
like, a few years ago, I would say
Muhammad.
But if you were to ask me right
now who's the most beloved person to me
in my life right now, I would say
Muhammad sallallahu alaihi wasallam.
And she became Muslim right there.
Can you guys imagine?
Can you guys imagine how Allah turns people's
hearts closer to him?
You can never write anyone off. Look at
Omar Ibn Khattab
wanted to kill the prophet sallallahu alaihi wasallam.
You forget that. Right?
We forget that. Follow like, forget about not
following the sunnah. Right?
Forget about, like, not reading your sunnah prayer
after your fard salah. This man quite literally
wanted to assassinate the prophet,
and
he
became
such a Muslim
that the prophet said that
if Umar walks down a street, Shaitan takes
a different route.
That was the same man who wanted to
kill the prophet one day in his life.
So you think that anyone's beyond the possibility
of being guided towards Allah? Absolutely not.
And so understand,
actions depend upon their ending.
And so
one of the scholars he says, so now
knowing this,
a person cannot look to his present deeds
and feel assured
because it could be that it changes
throughout his life.
So no one should just be like, oh,
yeah. You know what? Like, I pray now,
so I'm always gonna be praying.
Oh, I'm fasting now, so I'm always gonna
fast. Oh, you know what? Like, I'm I'm
this way now, so I'm always gonna be
this way.
And this goes towards people who are actually
close to Allah right now.
No one should just assume that because they
pray today that they'll always pray forever.
That's why the best type of people
are people who when people, like, praise them,
like, oh, you know, you're always you're always
doing incredible things. Right? Like, you're always out
there, like, volunteering.
You're always out there donating. You're always out
there doing incredible things. The best type of
people are, like, the people who downplay their
good deeds. Yeah. Yeah. Yeah. I'm just, you
know, I'm just doing things.
The worst type of person is, like, oh,
yeah. Mashallah, you're always volunteering. Like, yeah, man.
Like, 80 hours
80 hours a week. You know? More than
people work full time. Just have the masjid.
I'm a masjid guy.
You know? Like, those people who relish being
praised
relish being praised. Prophet Yaqub alaihis salam used
to say that the sincerity of a person
should be judged
by if they conceal
their good deeds the same way they conceal
their sins.
The same way.
Do you put the same work into concealing
your good deeds
from the eyes of people the same way
that you conceal your sins?
Because if you did that, you would not
have to worry about insincerity.
The sincerity check comes in when always people
love the fact that they they're known to
do certain things. Oh, yeah. Like, I'm like
the Avant guy.
Like, there was a there there was a
person who came up to me one time,
well, I and I cannot make this up.
I asked, like, you know, I I I
saw a brother in the masjid. I was
like a new person there, like, I didn't
really, like,
I didn't really I I was visiting from
out of town.
So I asked him, I said, hey, what's
your name? He said, you know, so and
so. I said he said, what's your name?
I said, oh, my name is Safi, and
I'm from Dallas, etcetera, etcetera. I'm like, alright.
So, like, what do you what do you
do? He's like, oh, I give the adhan
here. I'm like, didn't ask.
Like, I I I felt like saying that.
So I'm like, if that's, like, the way
that you, like, wanna like, you you want
people to know, like, that's, like, the way
you wanna toot your own horn, like
like, Habibi, like, allow your adhan to speak
for itself.
Like, don't be the first guy to go
grab the microphone.
Be the person who's shy behind people.
Those are the people that you want
to praise.
The people that never want to be praised.
Like, why was Abu Bakr as Siddiq
the one who the prophet chose
to lead salah that last week of his
life. You all know this?
That the last week of the prophet sallallahu
alaihi
wasallam,
he literally told Aisha radiallahu anha his wife,
the daughter of Abu Bakr,
he said to her I want your dad
to lead
in my place because the prophet was too
weak to lead at that that final stage
of his life. He could not stand in
front of people and lead salah.
He said, I want Abu Bakr to lead.
And you know what Aisha said? She said,
you Rasoolah, you know that my father does
not have the heart to lead in your
place.
You Y'all know some of those people where
like the if the prophet told you to
lead, they'd be like,
it's my time. Right?
You built for this moment. Right? Like, the
guy, like like, takes off his, like, rip
away sweatpants and his thobe. He's ready to
go. Right? Showtime.
Abu Bakr, she goes, you know he does
not wanna lead in your place.
And so when it came time for Abu
Bakr to leave,
Umar Radiallahu Anhi he goes, Abu Bakr go
go man go, the prophet told you to
leave. And Abu Bakr was like shaking. And
Umar turns on, he looked at him, he
was weeping, he was crying.
He goes, I can't.
I can't I can't lead in his place.
Those shoes are too big to fill. I
can't do that.
But that's why the prophet chose him.
That's why the prophet chose him because he
knew
that this man does not seek praise from
people.
That's why he's sincere. He doesn't wanna be
in this position.
Right?
So he says,
a person cannot feel too assured
by his deeds because those deeds could change.
So hence,
this person must always be on their toes.
They must always be on their toes to
make sure that they know that they're
the
this small deal to them. It's a big
deal.
Even if I'm a person who who misses
salah frequently in my life, I don't ever
trivialize it.
This also goes back to the point of
not trivializing your mistakes.
Then, oh, it's not that big of a
deal.
Because when a person says it's not that
big of a deal too many times, they'll
stop caring about it.
They'll miss their prayers and not bat an
eye.
You see those people who, like, they miss
their salah and, like, it bothers them?
It really, like, throws their day off? You
wanna be that type of person. You don't
wanna be a person who trivializes their their
shortcomings so much that they don't even consider
it shortcomings anymore.
Like, oh, yeah. You know, like, yeah. Like,
I I I backbite, but, like, my man,
they deserve it, man. Come on. That person's
an awful person. You know what that is?
That is the reasoning of a person who
has trivialized their own sins.
Yeah. Yeah. I backbite, but that person deserves
it, man. I would say it to his
face.
Y'all heard that one before?
No. No. No. We don't we we never
allow ourselves to do that.
We never allow ourselves to do that. And
so he says continues on, and he says,
he must always pursue those avenues that strengthen
or revive
or keep their faith strong.
They're always looking to get better.
How can you be a person of Jannah?
You're always looking to get better.
You're never satisfied with, like,
where you're at.
A person, like, may have, like, donated, like,
$5 this week, but they're like, you know
what? Like, I could I could do better.
Not to like a toxic degree. Right? Not
to a degree where they're just like this
miserable person who always thinks that, like, they're
they they suck.
No. Their their mentality is like, Yeah, Hamdulillah,
I did what I can, but I know
that there's always something better I can do.
So I always wanna do better.
Think about it guys. This is complete this
is such a key characteristic in Ramadan.
Right? Ramadan, what do people wanna do? It's
not a competition between person x and person
y. It's a competition between person x from
last year and person x this year.
That's what Ramadan is. Ramadan is, I know
that I did this much this past year,
but I wanna beat myself.
I wanna outdo whatever I did last year.
I don't care about x y and z.
I don't care about that person, because that
person's on their own journey to Allah. I
wanna be better than I was last
year. Right? I wanna improve.
And he says that this person must always
stay away from those avenues that weaken
and damage their faith
as he or she does not know what
they may lead him or her to, and
he may end up find he may end
up dying in that wretched state.
Never allow yourself to be a person who,
like, is okay just like
like depleting over time.
Never allow yourself to do that.
And he says, subhanAllah, this is a profound
hadith of prophet sallallahu alaihi wa sallam. Ready
for
The prophet sallallahu alaihi wa sallam one time
he says,
He says, it is only called the heart,
the kalb,
because of how it can change, Like,
the word kalb means something that flips,
that changes
because of of of its kind of always
tossing and turning nature.
And the prophet, he said, the example of
the heart is like a leaf hanging by
the trunk of a tree
that is being blown by the wind.
If that leaf is not tethered to that
to that branch or to that twig, it's
gonna fall off right away.
Preserve your heart. Preserve your heart. Preserve your
heart. Never automatically assume
that you are a person who's safe. Right?
And there are, again, stories just like I
mentioned, the stories of people who turned their
hearts towards Allah after a lifetime's worth of
bad deeds.
There are also stories of people who began
their lives as heroes,
and they ended their lives as villains.
There
are multitudes of stories about this.
I don't have the time today to go
over them, but just look it up. When
you go home, look up the story, the
there's a hadith that the prophet teaches about
a man by the name of Barsisa.
Barsisa was a man who was a pious
person his entire life, and he ended up
being a person who committed adultery,
and he killed
the one who he committed that adultery with,
and he his last deed was actually bowing
down to Shaipan.
It's a it's like a scary hadith of
prophet,
And this was a person who used to
be, like, praising the community. Oh, yeah. Like,
if you have anything, any questions go to
Barsisa.
He and and he ended his life bowing
down to shaitan. Allah protect us. Okay?
And at the very end insha'Allah,
we'll go back to the the the text
of Ibn Rajab. And at the very end,
Ibn Rajab, he says something beautiful and we'll
end with this Insha'Allah.
Ibn Rajab, he says at the very end
right here.
Conversely,
it's possible that a person travel on the
path of shaitan in the beginning of his
life and then good fortune comes his way
and he traverses the straight path and thereby
reaches Allah. And he quotes an ayah in
the Quran where Allah says
that this is the bounty of Allah which
he gives unto people he wills. And so,
you know, the goal here is to always
ask
Allah to allow us to start strong and
to finish strong.
Don't just be people who are like, oh,
Allah, like, allow me to start weak and
finish strong. No. No. Ask Allah to allow
you to start and finish strong. That's the
goal here. Right? And at the very end,
this is a beautiful
poem here.
Many are the people who turn back after
having traveled part of the journey and give
up.
So he's talking about finishing in a way
that is befitting of Allah's majesty.
You don't wanna start a journey towards Allah
Subhanahu Wa Ta'ala and give up halfway through.
You wanna finish that course. Right? Anybody in
here have, like, that that that memory of
being able to start and finish a journey
in their life, whether it's, like, a degree
or whether it's, like, a class or a
job or something that they thought was, like,
impossible,
a task that they thought was impossible,
how amazing does it feel when you have
the ability to say that you did it?
Alhamdulillah, I did it. I finished it. You
know, like, Ramadan.
Ramadan when you know you did Ramadan right
is when you really are able to celebrate
on Eid day with, like, no guilt whatsoever.
You're, like, out there on Eid, like, going
crazy
because you know that, alhamdulillah, you actually went
all out in Ramadan. You know, the people
who have, like, that guilty celebration on Eid
are the people that know that they didn't
give their best foot forward in Ramadan.
They know it.
And so then he says,
at the very end, this is a poem
by the way that was written by a
scholar.
He said, my beloved
my beloved he's talking about he he's talking
about Allah. He says, my beloved,
those who falter in the path across the
desert are many,
but those who reach the end are few.
You ask yourself, are you a person who's
dissatisfied
by being just 1 of 1,000,000,000
who traverse the path,
or do you want to be one of
the few who ends up finishing
the journey and going closer to Allah
towards the end of that journey. We ask
Allah Subhanahu Wa Ta'ala to allow us to
be people who not only start in a
way that is befitting of Allah Subhanahu Wa
Ta'ala's majesty, but we finish in a way
that's also befitting of Allah Subhanahu Wa Ta'ala's
majesty as well. We ask Allah Subhanahu Wa
Ta'ala to allow us to be people who
have beautiful intentions in the beginning
and beautiful deeds at the end. We ask
Allah subhanahu wa ta'ala to allow us to
have the charisma, the willpower, the drive, and
the faith, and the sincerity
to work deeds that are close to Allah
subhanahu wa ta'ala
and finish always in the way that Allah
subhanahu wa ta'ala wants us to end. And
this is why we have that famous dua.
Oh,
turner of hearts.
Allow my heart to be steadfast
upon your deen, You Allah. And we'll end
with a du'a for Palestine. We ask Allah
to relieve the people of Gaza.
We ask Allah Subhanahu Wa Ta'ala to end
the occupation in Palestine.
We ask Allah Subhanahu Wa Ta'ala to allow
all the
shuhada that have been killed, the highest levels
of paradise. We ask Allah Subhanahu Wa Ta'ala
that for every parent who has lost a
child to be reunited with that child in
the highest levels of Jannah. We ask Allah
subhanahu wa ta'ala to replace the homes that
have been taken away from them in the
dunya with palaces in the hereafter.
We ask
Allah to give some sort of peace and
tranquility to the people of Palestine through the
hardships and trials they're going through. We ask
Allah
to serve true justice the way that he
deems fit for the people who have done
this to his worshipers, and we ask Allah
to give us strength, to give us hope
through these times of trials and difficulties, and
we ask Allah
to never allow us to lose sight of
him being the one who truly provides relief
in these difficult dire times.
We ask Allah
to end this difficult trial for the people
of Gaza.
Subhanahu
wa
bihamdik
Insha'Allah,
Isha Salah is in about, like, 7 minutes
or so. So for those of us who
are hanging around, obviously, feel free to pray
Isha and the Masjid over there in a
few minutes, and then Inshallah, the rest of
y'all are free to hang out here as
well.
Everybody. We'll see you all
next Thursday for the next session of Salafood
Salamu Alaikum Warrutullah.
If anybody has any private questions as well,
y'all are more than welcome to, Insha Allah,
ask me, privately after class.