Safi Khan – Soul Food For College Students Dear Beloved Son #10
AI: Summary ©
AI: Transcript ©
Alhamdulillah, inshallah everyone's having a good semester, whether
you're in school or at work or whatever
it may be, inshallah ta'ala.
So, we are going to continue on.
This chapter that we're going to be beginning
today is a little bit longer, but, alhamdulillah,
we're going to kind of go through it
in a very, very kind of, you know,
brisk pace, inshallah, so that we don't get
too caught up in the tangents, but inshallah
we're going to try to make some meaning
out of each and every single line that
we're going to be reading today.
So, the theme that I want everyone to
kind of throw their minds around for today's
class is the theme of temporary nature of
this life, okay?
The theme of temporary nature of this life,
and today's entire session, by the way, is
summarizing, when I was going through my notes,
I was thinking about this very beautiful statement
of the Prophet, salallahu alayhi wa sallam, and,
you know, a lot of times the idea
of mortality and death and the finite nature
of our lives, it makes us think a
lot about the idea of our own mortality,
right?
Like, when are we going to pass away?
What's it going to be like when we
do pass away?
What's the hereafter going to be like?
And the human mind is always very intrigued
by things that we can't see, or the
concepts of our lives that we have yet
to experience or approach.
And so there was a companion of the
Prophet, salallahu alayhi wa sallam, who came up
to the Prophet and he said, Ya Rasulullah,
you know, when will the last hour be?
When will the last hour take place?
And the Prophet, salallahu alayhi wa sallam, he
responded in a very beautifully wise manner.
He said, what are you doing to prepare
for it?
This is the summary of today's session, inshallah,
is that, yes, although we have this concept
of life coming to an end, and we
know that life is going to come to
an end at a certain point, but what
are we doing to prepare for it?
That's going to be the question, inshallah, that
we're going to try to answer in today's
conversation.
So he begins by saying, plant resolution in
your spirit.
He says, plant your resolution, your hopes, your
aspirations.
Oh, Samia, Samia, Samia, Samia, I think the
speakers are still on.
Can you turn the speakers off, please?
So he says, plant your resolution in your
spirit.
Plant your aspirations in your spirit.
Everything that you hope for, plant it in
your ruh, he mentions.
What does this mean?
Any time that you have a chance to
aspire for something in your life, you have
goals you set in your life, you have
things that you want to reach and achieve
in your life, he says, plant those dreams
within your soul.
And I'll translate this in a very easy
way to kind of comprehend and wrap our
minds around.
He's mentioning that anything that's good that you
aspire for in your life should begin internally
and not externally.
Whatever you want to do in your life,
whether it be dunya or akhiri.
When it comes to dunya, you have aspirations
and goals in school and career and work
and social lives and whatnot.
And in the akhira, you also have goals,
you have jannah, you have the pleasure of
Allah subhanahu wa ta'ala, you have eternal
happiness and contentment and pleasure.
All of these things, Imam Ghazali, he is
saying that plant those aspirations within your soul.
Because if you plant these resolutions in your
external self, what's going to happen is you'll
always be putting aspirations into a temporary state.
Everything on the external, when you think about
it, is temporary.
But what is internal is something that can
inshallah, inshallah, reach the next levels, right?
Because your ruh, your soul, your spirit, this
is something that yearns to connect with Allah
subhanahu wa ta'ala.
So whenever you have goals and dreams, you
want to make sure that the internals are
purified before the externals are purified.
We talked about this in the past couple
of chapters, right?
When we have goals, if we're doing it
for any purpose of temporary nature, we want
the approval of other people.
We want those followers, we want the attention,
we like the praise and the glitz and
the glamour.
All of those things will come and go,
right?
I mean subhanallah, when you talk about social
media specifically, right?
People who are aspiring and nowadays everything is
kind of launched off of this idea of
being successful in the public realm, right?
Social media, you have to get followers, you
have to make sure that you build your
brand up and all these different things.
But the reality is once you reach 5
,000, what are you going to want?
10,000.
Once you reach 10,000, you're going to
want 20,000.
Once you reach 20,000, you want to
get to 50,000.
Once you get to 50,000, you want
to get to six figures followers, right?
I mean all of these different litmuses of
success are always going to seem minuscule, right?
Because you always look at the greater thing.
The Prophet ﷺ, he said that the son
of Adam, Bani Adam, right?
If they had one entire mountain of gold
in front of them, they would enjoy it
for a period of time until they ask
themselves what it would be like to have
two of them, right?
And how true is that when it comes
to the different things that we aspire for
in our lives?
Anybody in here made like a big purchase
yet in your life, something expensive, right?
Guarantee you the glitz of that purchase lasted
for a little bit of time and then
sure enough, sooner rather than later, it became
very normal for you, right?
The car that you bought, the phone that
you bought, the device that you bought that
was so expensive, you saved up so much
money for.
After a few months, Alhamdulillah, you know it
might last for a few months, it may
even last half a year.
But then the newer model comes out and
all of a sudden, all you can think
about is upgrading.
Apple like makes millions off of this, right?
You know, you save up for the 15
and all of a sudden, the 16, right?
And then after the 16 is over, then
the 17.
Everyone just looks lame after one year, right?
And this is what happens when a person
puts their aspirations into something that is extremely
temporary.
Because those aspirations of temporary nature will always,
always expire.
They always have an expiration date.
So Imam Al-Ghazali, he says, put your
himmah, himmata fil roohi.
Put your himmah, your desires, your wants, your
goals, your aspirations.
Make sure you start them internally.
Because when you have dreams and they begin
with Allah subhanahu wa ta'ala, you are
rooting your dreams in something that does not
have a temporary nature.
Your motivation will last a lot longer.
How many of us, raise of hands, we
have a difficult time motivating ourselves?
Raise of hands.
Everybody goes through it.
Everybody goes through it.
Anybody in the dunya has experienced this experience.
We have motivation for a certain day or
a certain week and then the next week
it falls off.
I don't have any desire to get up
and continue to go to class or continue
to go to work and put in another
assignment or put in another application.
We lose that drive after a while.
So Imam Al-Ghazali, he is saying, if
you want any substance in your life, root
all of those dreams in something that is
greater than anything in this dunya.
Root it in something that is divine.
And then he says, and place defeat.
Place defeat in your own self.
And the nafs is temporary.
The nafs wants everything quickly.
The nafs wants everything that is a quick
dose of gratification.
Quick dose of gratification.
We want things fast.
I'm hungry.
I want to satiate that hunger right now.
I want that new piece of merchandise.
I want it now.
I want to upgrade to that new phone.
I want it now.
And again, Imam Al-Ghazali, he is saying,
that the reality of your life is you're
going to have W's and you're going to
have L's.
You're going to take L's through your life
and it's natural.
Everybody takes L's in their life.
And he says, whenever you take an L
in your life, blame yourself first before you
blame anything else.
Usually, the cause of our failures are most
likely going to be rooted within ourselves.
في النفس.
Within your own self.
It's because you had a certain weakness as
a human being.
Allah subhanahu wa ta'ala mentions this several
times in the Qur'an.
لقد خلقنا الإنسان في كبد You have been
created into this idea of testing and trials.
You're going to go through trials in your
life because you are a human being.
When it comes to making sure that your
aspirations are set in the right way, always
look positively towards Allah subhanahu wa ta'ala.
And whenever you have weaknesses, know that that
weakness comes from you.
Have you guys ever heard, subhanallah, I always
remember this.
When I was growing up and I would
hear the Imams in my community give lectures
and talks and classes, they would always say,
whatever good was said, I asked Allah subhanahu
wa ta'ala to accept it.
It was from Allah subhanahu wa ta'ala.
And whatever was said that was a mistake,
it came from me and Shaitaan.
I always grew up wondering what that statement
meant.
I always grew up thinking, what does that
mean?
Everything good that was said, it came from
Allah.
And everything bad that was said or whatever
mistake was mentioned, that was from me and
Shaitaan.
Why would you be so quick to blame
yourself about something?
But subhanallah, that statement is so beautiful.
Because everything that's good that happens in your
life, you actually attribute it to Allah.
If it wasn't for Allah, I wouldn't have
had that in my life.
And every moment of weakness that you have
or every trial that you have, you're used
to kind of pointing the finger at yourself
before you point the finger at anyone else.
Because the nafs wants to point the finger
outwards.
Yeah, I didn't get that job because that
person.
That relationship broke apart because of that person.
This happened to me because of that person.
It's so easy to just say like, you
know what?
Yeah, just cast the blame outwardly.
Cast the blame towards those other than you.
But Imam Ghazali, he's saying, get used to
thinking about what you could have done better.
Get used to understanding that you yourself have
weaknesses.
Allah subhanahu wa ta'ala created you in
a weak state.
You do have weaknesses in your life.
Don't automatically assume that everything that's good that
happened in your life is because you're this
amazing person.
No, no, no.
There are so many moments in which you
slip up each and every single day.
It's a miracle, subhanallah, that good things happen
to us despite the amount of mistakes that
we make in our lives.
Ever think about that?
How many of us have ever had that
feeling that I don't deserve something?
I don't deserve this, right?
Something that's so beautiful that happened and I
experienced in my lifetime.
There's no way I deserve this moment.
There's no way I deserve this person in
my life.
There's no way I deserve this experience, right?
Why did it happen to you?
The nafs wants to say, no, man, you
deserve this.
You worked hard, subhanallah.
And it's so funny how modern day kind
of self-motivation and all these different things,
they tell you, yeah, you deserve everything that
happens to you.
Everything that's good, you worked for it.
Aren't there things that Allah subhanahu wa ta
'ala gave us that we absolutely know that
we did not deserve?
You went to Umrah when you were 13,
habibi, come on.
What did you do to deserve Umrah at
13 versus like a 60-year-old abd,
a servant of Allah subhanahu wa ta'ala,
who worshipped Allah each and every single day
and evening but they never were able to
save up enough money to go to Umrah?
You had some 12-year-old kid that
played like Minecraft for the past six years
religiously.
And all of a sudden your parents were
like, come on, kid, let's go to Umrah
one year.
You know, like, you didn't deserve that.
But Allah subhanahu wa ta'ala allowed you
to experience it, right?
These are just mere proofs that Allah ta
'ala gives you things in your life that
are very much pure blessings, right?
So he says, place defeat in your nafs.
And then he says, والموت في البدن And
he says, and place death in your physical
body.
Know that your body, everybody has different layers
to who they are, by the way.
You have such a, human beings are complex
creations of Allah subhanahu wa ta'ala.
Your body, in and of itself, the physical
part of you, is destined to have a
finite ending.
It will not be forever.
You know, subhanAllah, sometimes when you wake up
and you look in the mirror, and you
think to yourself, like, you know, this is
who I am.
Whatever I see is what I am.
But the reality is, the physical appearance that
you see in front of you, right?
MashaAllah, the beautiful hair, and the eyes, and
the line-up on the sides, right?
You know, all these things you see are
just temporary.
One day that line-up is going to
look terrible.
One day, the vela, watercolor hijab is not
going to look so good, right?
You're going to have those moments where you're
like, man, this looked so much better on
me like five years ago.
Why do I look like this now?
Well, the reality is, everything about your physical
self is going to end, right?
SubhanAllah, you know, my mother, you know, it
kind of hit me.
I don't really look, I don't, you know,
subhanAllah.
Sometimes we have, like, Roots videos made by
the media department, mashaAllah.
But I never watch those things ever because
I'm like, you know, I get to experience
it with you guys in class every Thursday.
So one of the, you know, subhanAllah, who
watches those videos religiously actually is my own
mother, which is really embarrassing.
She's like my biggest fan, by the way.
She's like, oh, I love this video.
She's the first one to comment on everything,
you know.
And so it just makes me feel like
a kid.
I'm like, yeah, this is great.
But then one time I remember my mom,
I was with her at, you know, her
home, and we were having dinner together, and
it was a little family gathering.
And she hugged me, and she looks at
me.
She's a little shorter than me.
She looks at me, and she looks up
at me, and she starts, like, kind of
playing with my beard a little bit.
I'm like, what are you doing?
And she goes, you have so many white
hairs.
And I'm like, well, I never look at
my face like that.
So I looked in the mirror.
And I'm like, oh, my God, this two
-and-a-half-year-old destroyed my age.
And so it was so interesting.
And then at that moment, I looked at
my beard.
I'm like, wow, she's right.
And at that moment, I kind of, like,
picked it apart.
I was like, wow, I do have a
lot of white hair.
But the reality is, subhanallah, if I close
my eyes, I can tell you guys right
now, I can picture myself back in high
school.
I can.
I can guarantee you, even y'all who
are, like, in your late teens or early
20s, mid-20s, whatever it may be, you
can close your eyes.
And you can imagine what life was like
when you were, like, 17 or 16.
Guarantee it.
You can.
You can picture what it was like.
It seems, you know, subhanallah, like, not too
long ago, but in reality, six years have
passed by.
Seven years have passed by.
For some of us, eight to 10 years
will pass by very soon, right?
My wife and I were talking just the
other day.
Like, we're like, how long have you been
married again?
Like, it's been a minute, mashallah, right?
Alhamdulillah.
And I looked at a picture of when
we first met each other.
We were, like, 19.
And now it's been 12 years, 11 years
later.
And we look at pictures of ourselves and
we're like, wow, this is insane.
We were children.
No wonder my parents said, no way, right?
In the beginning, alhamdulillah, right?
Eventually they gave in.
So, you know, time is just such an
interesting thing.
And this is why Allah subhanahu wa ta
'ala says, وَالْعَصْرِ إِنَّ الْإِنسَانَ لَفِي خُسْرٍ Right?
By time, Allah subhanahu wa ta'ala swears.
وَالْعَصْرِ Right?
عصر, by the way, doesn't just mean time.
And there's a beautiful kind of tie into
the word عصر.
Because normally in Arabic, the word for time
is زمان.
But عصر is used in this surah.
Why?
Because the word عصر, just like the prayer,
it actually, it's noted because عصر means time
that is declining.
So عصر is prayed in the day in
which the day is going away and maghrib
is coming up, right?
So عصر means time that's declining, time that's
going away.
Allah says, وَالْعَصْرِ إِنَّ الْإِنسَانَ لَفِي خُسْرٍ Verily,
all of mankind is engrossed in the loss
of time.
There's nobody who on earth can say that
they're given more hours in a day than
another person.
It doesn't matter if your net worth is
a million dollars or your net worth is
five dollars.
Everybody is given the exact same amount of
time.
The question is, what do you do with
it?
One person's ten minutes can be extremely valuable
and one person's fourteen hours can be absolutely
nothing.
What are you going to do with it?
And so then Imam Al-Ghazali, he says,
For your true destination is the grave.
لِيَنَّ مَنْزِلَكَ الْقَبْرُ Know that your true destination
is the grave.
This is the reality.
One day you are going to pass and
people are going to put you in your
grave and this is your ultimate destination.
Don't get too attached to this world.
Prophet Isa there was a statement that was
attributed to Isa ibn Maryam, Jesus, where he
once said that this dunya, this life is
like a bridge.
So pass through it and do not reside
on it.
Pass by it, do not reside on it.
How ridiculous would it be if you saw
a person who basically was crossing a bridge
and all of a sudden in the middle
of the bridge they stop, they set up
camp, they put together a nice little tent,
they start living on the bridge.
When you could say, no, no, just cross
the bridge and get to the other side
and there's actually flat and solid land over
there.
Why are you putting yourself in a permanent
manner on something that is so temporary?
So Prophet Isa he said, don't get too
attached to this idea that, wow, this bridge
that I'm on right now, it's so nice.
It's like going to a hotel room.
Going to a hotel room while you're out
of town for two to three days and
you start putting up pictures on the walls,
right?
You get like insurance for the hotel room.
No, no, no, you're only here for three
days.
What are you doing?
Your actual home is somewhere else.
So Imam Ghazali, he says, know that your
true destination is Al-Qabr.
And then he says something very powerful.
He says, and the people of the grave.
He says, the people of the grave are
waiting for you.
They are waiting for you at every single
moment.
The people who have passed by, they're waiting
for you.
Some of the scholars, they say that this
means that Allah subhanahu wa ta'ala will
not allow the Day of Judgment to begin
until everyone has been taken, every soul has
passed away.
And so the people of the grave, the
people who have passed on before us, are
just waiting for Allah subhanahu wa ta'ala
to call back everybody until the Day of
Judgment so that the Day of Judgment can
begin.
Because the Day of Judgment cannot begin until
Allah subhanahu wa ta'ala has called us
all.
But he tries to kind of give this
really interesting imagery by saying that the people
of the grave, they're all waiting for us.
They're all waiting for us.
They're like, what's taking you so long?
What's taking you so long?
This is the life that Allah subhanahu wa
ta'ala has given us.
So don't treat that dunya that you're living
in with such permanent nature.
And so he says, He says, take care
of yourself.
Beware.
And he says, beware again.
Lest you arrive without provision for the journey.
What journey is this?
The journey of death.
The journey of death.
Imam Ghazali, rahimahullah, actually the same author who
wrote this book that we're reading right now,
he said at one point that upon the
passing of any individual, there is about three
things that they have to think about.
Because death, he describes it and defines it
as a journey from this dunya towards the
creator.
That's it.
He says that's what death actually is.
Death is not the end of a person's
life.
Death is another leg on the journey of
your life.
We're convincing ourselves sometimes that when I pass
away, it's all said and done.
It's over.
Imam Ghazali actually says that no, it's just
another part of your journey.
It's like you finishing one part of the
road trip, but then now you go onto
the other highway, you merge into the other
highway towards your actual destination.
He says that's what death actually is.
And he goes, death is like a journey
that you take to like a royal king,
like a high court.
And when you go to a high court,
there are three things that you have to
think about.
Number one is provisions for the road.
Number two is cutting off ties that basically
hold you back from continuing your journey.
You can't leave on a journey if you're
obsessed with where you're at.
You guys understand that?
If I want to go out of town
tomorrow, I can't be like, oh, but please,
I don't want to leave my home.
It's so comfortable.
I have to get out of bed.
I'm going to miss my flight.
I have to be able to pack my
bags and leave the house and head towards
the airport if I want to make any
sort of meaningful moves in my journey.
So he says the second thing is that
you have to sever the ties that are
holding you back.
And the third thing, he says, is a
gift that you provide the one who's hosting
you when you arrive.
The first thing he mentions, though, is the
provisions for the road.
And this is what he mentions here in
this book.
He says, take care, beware, lest you arrive
without provisions for your journey.
And in his other piece of writing that
he wrote, he said, what's the provision for
the road to meet Allah?
He says that provision is your taqwa, your
taqwa.
What does the word taqwa mean, y'all?
It means the mindfulness and the consciousness of
Allah subhanahu wa ta'ala.
You have to know and believe that you're
going somewhere.
Can you imagine if I told you that,
well, tomorrow you guys are actually packing your
bags and you're going to Hogwarts?
And you're like, okay, cool, where am I
going?
Platform 9 3 quarters, what is this?
The place where I'm going doesn't exist.
How can I be ready to go on
a journey where the destination I don't even
believe exists?
So the believer who Allah subhanahu wa ta
'ala calls on that day of their death,
their provisions, their rizq that they will need
to complete this journey is the yaqeen, the
conviction that the destination where Allah subhanahu wa
ta'ala is waiting for you is absolutely
real.
Allah subhanahu wa ta'ala is waiting for
me.
Allah subhanahu wa ta'ala is there at
the end of the road.
I have to believe that he's there.
Your taqwa is something sometimes in this life.
It's hard to enact.
Right.
People tell you, be God conscious, be fearful
of Allah subhanahu wa ta'ala.
Each and every step that you take along
the way.
Make sure you think about Allah in all
of your decisions when it comes to like
taking a job.
Right.
When it comes to making friends with people,
when it comes to marriage, when it comes
to family, any decision you make in your
life, think about Allah subhanahu wa ta'ala
on the way.
That's the taqwa of the dunya.
The taqwa of the time of passing is
to know that Allah subhanahu wa ta'ala
is waiting.
And that will allow a person to be
so excited to meet Allah subhanahu wa ta
'ala.
A person cannot be excited.
A person will dread death if they don't
believe that Allah subhanahu wa ta'ala is
waiting for them on the other side.
Because all they see death is as the
end of their life.
That's it.
What do I have to look forward to?
Everything that I love is here.
I don't look forward to anything after this.
But the taqwa is what will cause a
person to say, I am okay letting go
of everything that I knew here.
I'm now excited to meet Allah subhanahu wa
ta'ala.
I told you guys this story a couple
of weeks ago.
My grandfather, before he passed away, he said,
I'm ready.
I'm ready.
I'm ready to cut off my attachment to
this world, my home, the car, the room
that I sleep in, the bed that I
sleep on.
I'm ready now for the next leg of
my journey.
And I can't begin that journey unless I'm
excited to meet the one who's waiting for
me.
So that's your taqwa.
And so he then quotes a very beautiful
statement of Abu Bakr As-Siddiq.
He says, قَالَ أَبُو بَكْر أَسْسَدِّيقُ رَضِيَ اللَّهُ
عَنْهُ He says, هَذِهِ الْأَجْسَادُ He says, These
bodies are but cages.
The bodies that you have are like cages.
They're just the exterior.
They're not the interior.
What does he say?
He says, It's like the cages of birds.
Or like the stables of animals.
The cages are not who they are.
The cages are what you're used to seeing
on the outside.
So when you have a bird, that bird
is kind of flying around.
They're staying inside of that cage.
That cage is not a part of that
bird.
That cage is just the exterior of what
you're used to seeing of that bird.
Or the stables of the animals.
When a horse is inside of a stable,
you sometimes get mixed up.
You're like, yeah, yeah, the horse is there.
But the horse is actually inside.
And subhanAllah, He says here, So consider for
yourself which you are.
Consider for yourself which one you are.
Are you just a cage?
Or are you the one who exists within
that cage?
Sometimes we convince ourselves, man, like the exterior,
this is me.
My sweatshirt, my drip, you know.
The clothes that I wear, the shoes that
I wear, my job.
This is who I am.
But Imam Ghazali, he says, is that who
you are?
Or is there something more to you?
Is who you are the being on the
inside?
The being on the inside, the internal part
of you.
Is that who you are?
Or is the exterior all there is to
it?
Because on the exterior, anybody can make themselves
look good.
Y'all ever seen people, mashaAllah?
The most, subhanAllah, the most troubling people on
the inside, sometimes may be the most beautiful
on the outside.
Right?
This is a common thing even in Western
society, by the way.
They depict pictures and stories and movies and
TV shows, right?
Sometimes the villain is extremely beautiful.
Right?
The villain has like a dead heart, but
outside, beautiful looking.
Right?
And sometimes the people who are good are
those who have a little bit of like
a raggedy appearance on the outside.
So Imam Ghazali is asking you to do
like a check of yourself.
Who am I?
Who am I?
Am I okay just presenting the exterior shell
of myself to everybody when my interior is
something that I'm not okay with?
I'm extremely embarrassed about who I am on
the inside?
Or is my interior what I really want
people to know of me?
A part of me that maybe everybody doesn't
see.
SubhanAllah, I'll tell you guys something.
Some people's interior is so beautiful that no
matter what the outside looks like, true people
around them will be able to identify them
by the interior.
True people around them.
I don't care about all the glitz and
the glamour, man.
I don't care about the clothes and the
shoes.
I don't care about the job, man.
I don't care about that stuff.
The way this person behaves and carries themselves,
that's actually who they are.
Look at the Prophet ﷺ.
Was not a man of riches.
Was not a man that had the nicest
of animals.
Was not the man who had the nicest
of homes.
In fact, Umar ibn al-Khattab radiAllahu ta
'ala anhu would say, Ya Rasulallah, you sleep
on like a straw mat that is so
flat and uncomfortable that you have to toss
and turn in your sleep every single evening.
When people who are less beloved to Allah
subhanahu wa ta'ala sleep on these comfortable
cushiony beds.
And the Prophet ﷺ he would say, Ya
Umar, wouldn't it be pleasing to us if
we knew that this is the way that
we lived in the dunya and that is
the way that we live in the akhirah.
I'm willing to wait for that.
What did the Prophet ﷺ say at the
death of his companion Mus'ab ibn Umair
radiAllahu ta'ala anhu.
Mus'ab ibn Umair was the companion, the
young sahabi that had all the drip in
the world.
Mecca, oh my gosh.
I mean Musa's shoes are from Samarkand.
Oh my God, he's beautiful.
How does he get this?
This guy's clothes have no tags on them.
But they're all custom made, mashaAllah, right?
And as soon as Mus'ab ibn Umair
accepted La ilaha illallah, his mother cast him
out.
And when Mus'ab ibn Umair passed away,
what was his ending?
His ending was on the battle of Uhud,
the plains of Uhud.
When he passed away radiAllahu ta'ala anhu,
he only had one sheet to cover his
body upon his death.
If you pull that sheet too far up,
his feet would be exposed.
If you pull the sheet too far down,
his head would be exposed.
He did not even have one sheet to
his name upon his death that would cover
his entire body.
And this is Mus'ab ibn Umair who
had custom made clothes growing up his entire
life.
And the Prophet ﷺ would say about him,
he is pleasing to Allah subhanahu wa ta
'ala and his Messenger.
So Imam Ghazali says, which of the two
do you want to be?
Do you want to be the pretty, presentable
outside and the ugly inside?
Or do you want to put your focus
on the inside and let the outside kind
of just do its thing?
If it's beautiful, alhamdulillah.
But again, what do we say in the
beginning?
Beauty is temporary.
It's going to go away one day.
It's going to go away one day.
You're not going to be beautiful forever, right?
That beauty will fade away over time.
And so then he says, if you are
of the heavenly birds, he gives the example
of the birds in the cages.
He says, if you are of the heavenly
birds, okay?
If you're of the birds, the example that
I gave, if you are the bird that
wants to soar and you want to meet
Allah subhanahu wa ta'ala, when you hear
the roll of the drum, by the way,
the roll of the drum is being kind
of symbolically placed here as like the blowing
of the trumpet.
When Israfil blows the trumpet and Allah subhanahu
wa ta'ala calls you back to him,
he says, return to your Lord.
ارجع إلى ربك Return to your Lord.
You will fly upwards until you reach the
highest towers of paradise.
As the Messenger of Allah ﷺ said, the
throne of the compassionate, the arsh of Allah
subhanahu wa ta'ala, عرش الرحمن لموت سعد
ابن معاذ The throne of Allah subhanahu wa
ta'ala.
It shook at the death of Sa'ad
ibn Mu'adh.
This is a hadith of the Prophet ﷺ,
by the way.
Who was Sa'ad ibn Mu'adh?
Sa'ad ibn Mu'adh was a companion
of the Prophet ﷺ that passed away after
the battle of the trench in Medina.
His story was incredible.
I don't have all night to actually go
through it, but long story short, Sa'ad
ibn Mu'adh, during the battle of Khandaq,
he basically had a piece of armor that
was missing the chain on his arm.
So his body was covered except his arm.
And ironically, subhanAllah, it was the qadr of
Allah, the decree of Allah subhanahu wa ta
'ala that he would actually be shot in
his arm.
And so after he was shot in his
arm, the arrow pierced in such a way
that it caused tremendous, tremendous damage and fatally
wounded Sa'ad ibn Mu'adh.
And so Sa'ad ibn Mu'adh didn't
pass away immediately as soon as he was
hurt.
It was some time until he was a
couple of days, some of the narrations mentioned.
And subhanAllah, when he was passing away, Sa
'ad ibn Mu'adh, the Prophet ﷺ knew
that he was sick.
So he would go visit him frequently as
Sa'ad ibn Mu'adh's situation was kind
of like, it was getting worse and worse
throughout the time.
And then finally there was a day in
which the Prophet ﷺ knew that I have
a feeling this may be the day.
This may be the day that Allah subhanahu
wa ta'ala calls back Sa'ad ibn
Mu'adh.
So when the Prophet was hurrying to the
home of Sa'ad ibn Mu'adh, to
his mother's home in Medina, the Prophet arrived
in the house and he found that Sa
'ad ibn Mu'adh had passed away.
And the Prophet ﷺ, you know what he
said?
He said, subhanAllah, the angels beat us in
washing his body.
The angels washed his body before we got
a chance to wash his body.
And there's a story, subhanAllah, that after the
janazah of Sa'ad ibn Mu'adh, they
lifted his body up and the companions of
the Prophet ﷺ, they said that this was
the lightest body that we've ever carried.
How is it so light?
You know, when you pick up a coffin
after a person's passed away, there's some heaviness
to it, obviously the body itself and then
whatever the body was buried in.
And the companions, they said, this is the
lightest body we've ever picked up.
And the Prophet ﷺ, he said, it's light
because the angels are so beloved to Sa
'ad ibn Mu'adh that they're actually helping
you carry his body.
That's why you don't feel any weight.
And so when he passed away, the Prophet
ﷺ, he said, that the Arsh of Allah,
the throne of Allah subhanahu wa ta'ala,
it trembled at the passing of Sa'ad
ibn Mu'adh.
What does that mean?
It doesn't mean that Allah's throne was shocked
at the death.
It means that Allah subhanahu wa ta'ala
allowed his own creation, the throne that Allah
subhanahu wa ta'ala created, to be shaken
by the death of such a monumental person.
Can you imagine?
Can you imagine that Allah wrote death in
such a beautiful way for the Sahabi that
his death shook the heavens?
His death shook the heavens.
His destiny was always to be with Allah
subhanahu wa ta'ala.
He didn't belong here.
Sometimes you guys ever think about that?
There are moments where we think to ourselves,
I don't think this person was meant for
the dunya.
When a really pious person passes away, I
don't think they belong here actually.
Their soul was too beautiful to be in
this dunya for too long.
That's why that statement, when a young person
dies, we sometimes say, they were taken too
soon.
You ever heard that before?
They were taken too soon.
I actually don't like that phrase.
Because a person who passes away, even if
it's registered as an early passing to us,
it's a sign from Allah subhanahu wa ta
'ala that Allah missed this individual so much
that they were always destined to be with
Allah subhanahu wa ta'ala sooner than we
are.
Allah is allowing us to continue to live
day after day, year after year in this
dunya.
Why?
Because Allah knows that we need it.
You need another day of salah.
You need another day of dua.
You need another day of dhikr.
You need another day of Quran.
That's why Allah allows you to continue to
live each and every single day.
A believer that Allah subhanahu wa ta'ala
has called up to him, to our minds
and our experience, quote unquote, early, maybe that
person was always destined to be with Allah
subhanahu wa ta'ala earlier than we were.
And so the throne of Allah subhanahu wa
ta'ala, it shook at the death of
Sa'ad ibn Mu'adh.
And so then he says, may Allah subhanahu
wa ta'ala save you if you were
as one of the animals, as Allah subhanahu
wa ta'ala mentions in the Quran, that
they are like cattle.
أُولَٰئِكَ كَالْأَنْعَامِ بَلْهُمْ أَضَلُّوا He says that they're
like cattle.
أُولَٰئِكَ كَالْأَنْعَامِ They're like cattle, like sheep and
cows.
بَلْهُمْ أَضَلُّوا I'm going to end with this
inshallah tonight, then we're going to open up
for some Q&A.
This verse is so powerful.
Why?
Because Allah, He gives the analogy of those
who don't want to be with Allah subhanahu
wa ta'ala كَالْأَنْعَامِ They're like animals who
are grazing in the fields, eating as they
please, doing as they please.
They have no concern about Allah subhanahu wa
ta'ala.
They're just living each and every single day
almost like improv, right?
They're eating with no thought about why they're
eating.
They're drinking with no thought about why they're
drinking.
They're doing things with no thought about why
they're doing the things that they're doing.
كَالْأَنْعَامِ They're like animals.
But then He says, بَلْهُمْ أَضَلُّوا That's a
fascinating statement.
But actually, they're worse.
Why are these people worse than animals?
One of the scholars of tafsir, he says,
that at least animals, they answer the call
of their master when they're called.
When the shepherd calls a cow or a
sheep, the animal will follow the voice of
that master.
But these people are so lost.
They're so in love with the dunya that
when their name is called, when they're given
reminders by Allah subhanahu wa ta'ala, they're
like, yeah, I'm good.
I'm good.
Y'all ever think about the idea of
a wake-up call for somebody?
Like this happened to you, man.
Wake up.
Wake up.
You had this happen in your life, man.
If that doesn't change you, what's gonna change
you?
If that moment in your life where Allah
was clearly trying to give you a sign,
if that didn't wake you up, what is
going to wake you up?
So Allah says that these people who are
blind, they're worse than animals because at least
animals who graze day-to-day, when their
shepherd calls them, they'll turn and they'll go
towards their shepherd's call.
But one who's void of Allah, they're just
doing things on a day-to-day basis
and even when Allah calls them, they act
like they can't hear.
They act like they can't see.
They act like they don't know the direction
of what that call is coming from.
May Allah subhanahu wa ta'ala protect us.
And then he says here, they're worse than
animals.
They're worse than animals.
And he says here, because of that, so
do not consider yourself safe from the removal
of the security of your home to the
fire of *.
Can I share one statement to end inshallah
today's session and we'll open up some Q
&A inshallah.
There was a statement by a scholar who
said that it is a crime.
It is a crime for a believer to
go to sleep at night and assume that
they will wake up in the morning.
And it is a crime for a believer
to wake up in the morning and assume
that they will live until the end of
that day.
Don't think that these are automatic default rights
of yours.
Allah azza wa jal can call you up
at any moment.
Don't think that you have some sort of
autonomy in this dunya where, yeah, you know
what, like I'm good, man.
I'm gonna go home and see my family
at the end of this day, man.
It's Thursday, regular Thursday.
I'm gonna go home.
I'm gonna see my parents.
I'm gonna see my siblings.
I'm gonna go see my family.
I'm gonna go back to my room.
Rinse and repeat.
Tomorrow's Juma'ah.
Go to Juma'ah prayer.
See my friends.
Don't think that these are automatic settings in
your software.
They're not.
They're not.
Allah may have given you certain amount of
them in your lifetime.
But who's to say that tonight you're going
to finish with that same exact thing in
your life that you're so used to.
Allah subhanahu wa ta'ala can call your
name before the midnight time hits.
Don't assume that you're going to wake up
the next morning.
So every morning you wake up, you say
Alhamdulillah.
Every night you go to sleep, you end
with Alhamdulillah.
You go home and you hug your parents.
Pray like each prayer is your last.
Give like each moment of giving sadaqa may
be your last.
Look at your friends and say salamu alaykum
to them as though that may be the
last salam you give to your loved one.
Don't automatically assume that I'm going to get
another one of these.
Make dua'a as though it is your
last dua'a that you're going to make
in your life.
I mean if each and every single one
of us, and I'm not saying that you
shouldn't have hope of living and continuing to
do good deeds, but if we each and
every day operate as though this may be
the last chance that Allah gives us, how
beautiful will each one of our deeds be.
How beautiful would each one of our dua
'as be.
How beautiful would each one of our moments
of dhikr of Allah subhanahu wa ta'ala
be.
Treat every single day and every single night
like it may be your last.
You'll go home tonight and you'll hug your
mother and your mothers and be like what's
going on?
What's going on?
But subhanAllah may Allah subhanahu wa ta'ala
protect us from ever being taken away from
our families in a state in which they
are not pleased with us.
Everyone say ameen.
So inshaAllah we will pause there and then
we'll inshaAllah start the last portion of the
chapter inshaAllah next Thursday and then what we'll
do inshaAllah is we'll begin the next chapter
inshaAllah as well halfway through the next session
inshaAllah ta'ala.
So what I'm going to do now is
I'm going to go ahead and open up
the Q&A portal for y'all inshaAllah
and I want everyone to go ahead and
submit their questions bismillah.
It's the regular portal that you guys see
every single week inshaAllah ta'ala.
So I want everyone to inshaAllah go ahead
and the I believe the presentation is no
let's see one second guys so yeah so
I want everyone to inshaAllah go ahead and
the I think it's slido.com and the
whatchamacallit the it's soul food the code is
soul food so inshaAllah if you guys can
go ahead and do that that would be
great and inshaAllah you guys can submit some
of your questions bismillah ta'ala so you
can see it at the very top okay
yeah so the password is soul food inshaAllah
okay okay I'm going to go ahead and
start answering some of these questions inshaAllah ta
'ala and hopefully we can try to make
some sort of moves inshaAllah into this Q
&A session today so take your time, submit
the questions they're all anonymous inshaAllah so you
won't be able to see anybody else's or
you won't be able to know who asked
that question it's completely private inshaAllah ta'ala
okay alright I'm going to go ahead and
start answering some of these questions okay somebody
asked advice for leaving bad habits and creating
new ones an advice for leaving a bad
habit that I would share with you is
to really number one if you truly truly
believe that it is something that you want
to eliminate from your life then you should
actually make dua to ask Allah subhanahu wa
ta'ala to help you before you actually
make any sort of human human plans to
engage in leaving that bad habit like I
actually subhanAllah and I say this for myself
I question how badly I want something if
I'm actually not even making dua for it
if I want to leave a bad habit
I have to ask Allah subhanahu wa ta
'ala oh Allah help me leave this I
can't make those plans without asking Allah subhanahu
wa ta'ala to help me first okay
so make the plans to leave something and
then inshaAllah ask Allah subhanahu wa ta'ala
to help you leave something and then make
plans to leave it that's the most basic
advice I can give you when it comes
to leaving bad habits okay and again like
I said you actually answered your own question
you know whoever asked this advice for leaving
bad habits and creating new ones creating new
ones is a way to leave bad habits
actually remember I told you guys if a
person wants to leave listening to bad music
you're going to have to fill that void
in some way or somehow some way right
you can't just leave something bad and just
have that be like a blank slate of
time you have to fill that time with
something that will help get your mind off
of that bad habit so start creating new
habits that will help replace the time for
you doing the bad habits of old right
very very good okay alright how to have
tawakkul in Allah when your loved ones are
suffering even though you feel you are able
to when it comes to uncertainties concerning yourself
if you have doubts there's nothing wrong in
having doubts doubts is a part of who
you are as a human being don't burden
yourselves by trying to be perfect people having
tawakkul in Allah means to be able to
allow the love for Allah to overcome your
doubts it doesn't mean to not have doubts
doubts will exist when you're about to take
an exam at 8am in your Monday morning
class and you've studied and you prayed Fajr
are there not moments of doubt before you
walk into that classroom of course there are
does that mean that you don't have tawakkul
in Allah absolutely not doubts are natural they're
normal the litmus of success for a believer
is to ask yourself does my hope in
Allah subhanahu wa ta'ala triumph my doubts
so your hope and your love for Allah
should triumph over any doubt that you have
despite your loved ones even if your loved
ones are suffering even though you feel you
are able to when it comes to uncertainties
concerning yourself you know this is a beautiful
question because it proves that you know you
have a lot of love for people other
than yourself whoever asked this question that when
it comes to myself I can overcome my
uncertainties but when it comes to other people
I have a lot of worry allow your
worry for other people to translate into love
for them allow your worry for other people
to translate into love for them and making
dua for them may Allah subhanahu wa ta
'ala reward you for your kind and generous
heart inshallah ta'ala what do you do
if you have waves of motivation for your
deen and prayers and then lose that motivation
suddenly in a cycle welcome to human being
life bro motivation will come and go and
we talked about it today place your aspirations
and your motivation always tie your intention to
something of divine nature and not dunya-y
nature and understand again motivation will dip motivation
will go up and down the sahaba radiallahu
anhum they asked the prophet salallahu alayhi wa
sallam when we are with you we want
to pray we want to do all the
things that engage in our religion and we
want to become better people that when you
leave us our company we all of a
sudden feel like a dip in our iman
and the prophet salallahu alayhi wa sallam he
said that's normal that's normal could you imagine
if your ramadan vibe was like the rest
of the year what would be so special
about ramadan it wouldn't be it would be
just like every other month isn't it beautiful
to have certain spurts of motivation in your
life at times ramadan you kick it into
sixth gear and the rest of the year
you're kind of working on it but there
are certain times of the year on juma
for example tomorrow y'all gonna come to
the masjid pray juma really feel it feel
the energy and the and the positive vibes
of the people around you alhamdulillah in the
masjid that's supposed to be a thing saturday
is not juma saturday you're not going to
feel the same as you did on friday
but that's natural allow your baseline foundation to
at least fulfill the fard of your deen
that's it and then certain days of the
week go extra go higher do better don't
expect yourself to be at a climactic level
of iman each and every single day of
your life it's not sustainable don't put that
as a standard for yourself okay I'm going
through a few hardships all at once how
do I know if this is a test
from Allah to elevate my ranks or a
punishment for something that I did wrong very
powerful question if the hardship is something that
increases you in your dua and your ibadah
your worship then it is a blessing from
Allah subhanahu wa ta'ala trials and tribulations
are only punishments from Allah subhanahu wa ta
'ala if they take you away from Him
because that's the actual punishment the actual punishment
is a trial that takes you away from
God and not one that brings you closer
to God right that's the way that you
can tell if something is a punishment or
a blessing from Allah subhanahu wa ta'ala
how to get over the worry of financial
problems and worrying about not getting a job
after graduating I felt that one subhanallah
I'm not going to pretend that this is
an easy question to answer because it's not
finances is something that I think that everybody
is concerned about and worried about and how
you're going to take care of yourself and
possibly a family in the future inshallah what
I think is a great motivation for yourself
and a great way to think about your
life is think about what type of life
gives you contentment and don't worry about the
actual number figure think about what type of
life you want to live think about what
type of life will give you happiness in
your life don't think about a dollar figure
I was doing this session with high schoolers
a few weeks ago and I asked them
what's a salary that you'd be happy with
by the way this was y'all like
6 years ago peep yourself from 6 years
ago they were like yeah 120k, 150k somebody
said 300k I was like mashallah may Allah
fulfill your dreams then one person said 70
or 60 I was like this is a
person of dunya this is a person of
akhira mashallah 60, 70 I'm good mashallah don't
worry about a number don't worry about a
number think about what lifestyle you want to
live I want to go and pray isha
in the masjid a few times a week
I want to go and do my fajr
in the masjid a few times a week
I want to make it to juma on
time on Fridays Allah will give you something
in your life that is commensurate to whatever
goals and aspirations that you have with him
Allah subhanahu wa ta'ala will give you
beauty in your life if you put Allah
subhanahu wa ta'ala in your life worrying
about finances is something that's so mashallah bin
nasir one of my teachers and my older
brothers he told me that one thing about
money that I never will forget he said
money comes and money goes as much money
you make you'll see it departing from your
bank account as well I remember subhanallah as
I progressed in my life and my career
as I got older and older I found
out that my expenses were getting higher and
higher alhamdulillah we had our daughter, diapers this,
that, medical insurance all these different things and
I went up to shaykh bin nasir I'm
like shaykh it's so interesting man I feel
like alhamdulillah I'm growing in my career but
my expenses are also going crazy and he's
like do you think that Allah subhanahu wa
ta'ala will give you more money and
he won't give you more things to spend
on with more money comes more responsibilities money
is just a means to an end don't
get fixated on money it'll come inshallah what
if you cannot get yourself to do the
bare minimum as a muslim i.e. pray
on time, reading quran, etc if you cannot
get yourself to do the bare minimum ask
yourself what are the symptoms in my life
that are preventing me from doing the bare
minimum are there distractions in my life that
are not allowing me to even do what
is required of me to do are my
friends distracting me is my lifestyle conducive of
meeting the standards of a muslim and do
a little bit of like a diagnosis of
yourself in your own life am I staying
up too late to the point where I
miss my fajr am I getting distracted at
times where I know I should be doing
certain things but I choose things, tv, movies,
music and hangouts over the other things, self
-diagnose break your day down what are you
doing that's preventing you from fulfilling the bare
minimum as a muslim just self-diagnose a
little bit it's important to do at the
end of the day somebody asked is it
haram to take your husband's last name or
is that a difference of opinion Islam actually
has nothing to say about this by the
way in fact Islam does have something to
say about it Islam says that the name
that you're given is actually Izzah, it's honor
so in fact you should actually keep it
you should keep your name honestly you shouldn't
change your name, keep your name obviously unless
your name has something horrible attached to it
it's like some sort of idolatry name or
something like that but keep your name and
again if you don't choose to keep your
name and you choose to take your husband's
name that's also fine there's no Islamic significance
to that but yeah, very good you said
that when someone leaves this world early it
means that maybe Allah subhanahu wa ta'ala
missed them what about non-muslims and atheists
can they also be missed at the end
of the day we don't diagnose everybody the
same we don't diagnose a child and an
elderly person that may have similar symptoms in
the same way a child who has a
cold is much different than a 70 year
old who has a cold just because the
symptoms are similar does not mean the outcome
and the reasoning of their sickness is also
similar right so if a person who is
void of Allah subhanahu wa ta'ala in
their life has a similar outcome as a
person who is a believer don't automatically assume
that the reason is also going to be
the same the examples that we bring up
especially in today's session was to do with
the believers that Allah subhanahu wa ta'ala
calls back early that we have hope that
Allah subhanahu wa ta'ala loves them so
much that Allah subhanahu wa ta'ala called
them up to them for people who have
no concept of Allah subhanahu wa ta'ala
in their life we leave that completely to
Allah subhanahu wa ta'ala we don't ever
ever make any sort of assumption or judgment
about them because at the end of the
day Allah has kept certain people's Iman deep
within their hearts and God forbid that we
accidentally misjudge somebody for being something when they
are not or not being somebody when they
actually are right, so when it comes to
passing judgment on somebody even if they are
not Muslim we reserve ourselves from doing that
why, because we want to keep ourselves safe
from ever passing that type of judgment so
for people who are not Muslim and they
are called up early and they are returned
back to Allah subhanahu wa ta'ala as
early we ask Allah subhanahu wa ta'ala
to do whatever he deems fit in all
of his wisdom bi-idhnillahi ta'ala last
question inshallah because we got a break for
Salat soon one problem I have with Deen
over Dunya is that it's more difficult to
measure my Iman success in the Deen than
it is to measure my Dunya, how do
I measure my Deen, very very good can
I give you a beautiful beautiful solution to
this Deen over Dunya is supposed to be
more difficult to actually measure the success of
because it matters that much more you can
measure the success of the Dunya in very
very quantifiable manner how much money do I
have in my bank how am I growing
in my career what degree did I get
what type of lifestyle am I living, these
are easy ways to determine the measures of
success in the Dunya the measures of success
in the Deen are difficult because they're more
meaningful and if it was so easy to
measure the success of Deen, could you guys
imagine how much anxiety we would have you
missed 2 out of the 5 Salawat today,
60% right like can you imagine like
some sick talk show right like, or game
show no no no, Allah does not give
us that Allah does not give us that,
you're reading Quran, Surah Al-Fatiha or you're
memorizing some Surahs right Alhamdulilah Rabbil Alameen Ar
-Rahman Ar-Raheem and then you mispronounce something
Maliki Yawm Al-Deen and all of a
sudden bad Muslim, right get out of here
guys, 60% this is not what Allah
subhanahu wa ta'ala is, this is not
the way that Allah ta'ala built out
this Deen, right in the Dunya, sometimes the
Dunya is harsh because the Dunya, even if
you are suffering, if you meet the numbers
the people will deem you successful even if
a millionaire is depressed and sad, they will
deem that person successful because what, the numbers
check out the Deen may show that this
person looks like they're struggling, but deep down
MashaAllah they're winning so consider it an honor
and a beauty from Allah subhanahu wa ta
'ala that you're not so easily able to
detect the success of your Deen the success
of your Deen is something that will change
over time it will go from high to
low, low to high, and that's a part
of the blessings of Allah subhanahu wa ta
'ala, don't get so obsessed with measuring success
of Deen get more used to being happy
that Allah allows you to experience those moments,
every prayer that you pray is a successful
moment every moment that you see your parents
is a successful moment, right don't quantifiably, don't
make something quantifiable when it's supposed to be
quality, Deen is not quantifiable, you guys ever
notice that in Deen, Allah ta'ala always
talks about good deeds being weighed and not
counted, why?
never counted, always weighed, the weighing is because
it's not supposed to be quantifiable it's supposed
to be something of heaviness, of quality right,
not something that you can count on your
fingers, we ask Allah subhanahu wa ta'ala
to guide us inshaAllah and we ask Allah
subhanahu wa ta'ala to bless us and
our families and we ask Allah subhanahu wa
ta'ala to make all of our journeys
towards Allah ta'ala something that is blessed
and fruitful and we ask Allah subhanahu wa
ta'ala to protect us from the distractions
of the dunya and we ask Allah subhanahu
wa ta'ala to give us healthy lifestyles
and healthy habits and we ask Allah subhanahu
wa ta'ala to allow us to be
people that are pleasing to Him and we
ask Allah subhanahu wa ta'ala to allow
us to be people who are recognized on
the day of judgment by the Prophet salallahu
alayhi wa sallam and we ask Allah subhanahu
wa ta'ala to forgive us for our
mistakes and elevate us in the ranks of
the dunya and in the hereafter ameen tomorrow
night we actually have a program at Roots
where we're going to be featuring some of
the physicians who are serving in Gaza that's
going to be tomorrow night inshaAllah I personally
will be hosting these doctors here in Roots
and it's going to be inshaAllah right after
Asr which I believe is at 6pm so
inshaAllah we invite you guys to come and
learn, reflect with some of the people who
are on the ground in Gaza helping those
who are being tried and tested so inshaAllah
it's going to be a really beautiful reflective
evening inshaAllah tomorrow evening, hope to see you
guys there inshaAllah