Sajid Ahmed Umar – A Life of Dawah- The Story of Azhar Safwan
AI: Summary ©
The story of Subhanab is discussed, including his success in living a healthy and successful life, his ability to be the only person with a special place in the Prophet's teachings, and his importance in teaching others how to die and live in a healthy way. The importance of knowing one's actions and emotions in relationships with Allah is emphasized, and people are encouraged to use their experiences to make the best decision possible.
AI: Summary ©
As-salamu alaykum brothers, wa alaykum as-salamu
alaykum Subhanallah, the closest have asked me to
share a few words and where do you
start when you speak about someone who has
a special place in your heart?
Sincerely I feel that we have said a
temporary goodbye to a brother who manifested several
narrations of the Prophet ﷺ.
I think he was an embodiment of the
hadith, take advantage of five circumstances before another
five overcome you.
He was blessed to do phenomenally well with
his youthfulness, before he aged with his good
health, before he became sick with his wealth,
before he became bedridden and unable to work,
Subhanallah, and also with his free time, but
for him it was alternative time, it wasn't
free time, before he became busy and also
his life before he passed away.
I told my brother just a few days
ago that Allah has made you live 20
years in two years, he's battled with cancer
for almost two years and it literally feels
like he lived through 20 years of Ibadah,
the patience that he manifested, his pleasure with
the decree of Allah, Subhanallah, that he constantly
made apparent and he went through a lot.
Honestly, I would meet him and feel when
he was healthy that this is a man
who teaches us how to die in his
living and then when I used to meet
him during this two-year battle, I found
myself with a man who taught us how
to live in his *, Subhanallah.
This is the reality of our brother Adha.
He was an embodiment of the hadith of
the Prophet ﷺ, religion is a nasiha, for
he endeavored to give the rights to Allah,
the rights to Rasulullah ﷺ, the rights of
the book of Allah, Subhanallah, the rights to
the Imams and the Duat and also to
the masters of the Muslims.
He was a means for many of the
people that you see here, Subhanallah.
You can see all the cameras out live
streaming, they're live streaming to his communities in
Doha, in the east of the globe, in
Sri Lanka and other places because everywhere I
went, Subhanallah, everyone only had the best things
to say about our brother and what was
amazing about him, they would tell me things
that he did and I never knew of.
His ability to be secretive, Subhanallah, is unmatched
and ever since I knew him, he was
a person who always loved to take hold
of the opportunity that Allah ﷻ brought in
his capacity.
Wallahi, my brothers, I know this man to
have given an entire month's salary for a
cause when there was a need and sometimes
I would have to push him back and
say brother Adha, you have a family, you
have other rights and he would say, Ya
Shaykh, when will we get the chance again
and he would say this when he was
absolutely healthy, Subhanallah, Subhanallah, as if he knew
something we didn't know.
Once he told me and I know I'm
one of two people who know this and
I reminded him before he passed away, many
years ago he said to me that Shaykh,
you know, I make dua to Allah that
I die a Shaheed.
Wallahi, he said this, it's beloved to me
to die as a martyr and only one
or two people know this.
This man is the other man who he
told.
Such secretive he was even with this idea
and I said to him, my brother, a
person who dies because of a matter that
is from the Mabtoon, which is internal, like
he did, Allah gives him the status of
Shahada.
But not only did he go through this,
Subhanallah, he bled like a Shaheed bleeds.
Once I met him, Subhanallah, he was coughing
four liters of blood a day because the
cancer caused an artery to erupt.
But when I met him and he was
going through this, he would only say Alhamdulillah.
This was, Subhanallah, the words that Allah subhanahu
wa ta'ala blessed him with.
On the way here, I was telling the
brothers in the car that Wallahi, I miss
my brother, but I feel immense happiness in
my heart.
I cannot explain it.
I don't feel any sadness because look at
the Ummah of Muhammad ﷺ that Allah has
brought.
People who know him and many people who
don't know him, but now they know him,
Subhanallah, because the Prophet ﷺ said, Antum shuhada
'ullah fil ardi, you are the witnesses of
Allah on earth.
Witnesses to Allah's pleasure over the disease.
You've come out in your numbers.
When I see this, I can only feel
happy.
And I also feel happy because I sincerely
feel, as we were driving in the ambulance,
I'm sitting next to a person from the
people of Al-Firdaws.
How can we be sad, Subhanallah?
Wallahi, we cry for ourselves.
We don't cry for our brother because, Subhanallah,
he came to a world that the Prophet
ﷺ described as a prison.
Al-dunya sijnul mu'min.
It is the prison of a believer.
And, Subhanallah, Allah has given him early release,
perhaps for the good behavior, isn't it?
This is what we say, Subhanallah.
Allah has taken him back to him early.
Why live till 72 when you can pass
away at 52 and do 20 years of
ibadah in just two years because of your
sabr and your patience.
Subhanallah, not only him, Allah blessed him with
a family that's been through this journey.
And I know nothing from them except, Alhamdulillah,
look at his son.
17 years old, bearing his father, was such
maturity.
And we washed his father.
We did the ghusl and the kafir this
morning, Subhanallah, and he was phenomenal.
And his young son Ibrahim, he's going to
walk in the footsteps of Abdullah.
On Sunday, I arrived back into the country
and I came to Leicester to see our
brother and I could see the level of
deterioration.
And I said to the family, it's a
matter of days, maybe a day, maybe two,
Subhanallah.
But he was slightly responsive and I said
to my brother, look around you, look at
your son, look at your wife, look at
your life, what do you see?
Because he's been me through my da'wah
journey a long time, listening to my lectures,
facilitating my own da'wah programs in different
countries, Subhanallah, many don't know this.
And he would hear me say that ultimately,
it's about what you want to see the
day you're on your deathbed.
That's what matters.
When you're on your deathbed and you look
at your wife, what do you want to
see?
When you look at your children, what do
you want to see?
When you look at your relationship with Allah,
what do you want?
That's the only thing that will matter.
Nothing matters in that state except the matters
of the akhirah.
You're not thinking about who owes you money
or, you know, the damp that needs fixing
at home or the, you know, renovation that
is pending.
You don't think of these things.
He's not thinking of these things.
And I would ask him many times, what
are you thinking about?
Thinking about the dunya and he would just
shake his head.
And I said to him, my brother, what
do you see?
His son was there before his cousin, you
were with your cousin, right Abdullah?
I said, what do you see?
Hafiz and Imam, strong Imam as well, Allahu
Akbar.
And he leads a salah a day in
Leicester, even though there are new residents here.
And I know the father's journey making muhafiz
as well.
You look at his wife, phenomenal patience, honestly,
you know, you feel broken, but you get
inspiration from him, from his son, from his
wife.
They are inspiring you because they are in
it, but with absolute patience, was being pleased
with the decree of Allah.
So Allah, he could only speak a little
but what I heard come out from him
was Alhamdulillah, Alhamdulillah, Alhamdulillah.
I just see that which is pleasing to
me.
We cry for ourselves, we don't cry for
him.
But it's a lesson for us, my dear
brothers and elders in Islam, that what we
witness today, we will go through it.
Someone else will be putting us down into
the grave and somebody else will be turning
our body to face the Qibla.
And then a group of people will be
filling the grave.
How do we want to enter the grave?
Because I sincerely believe Allah is going to
give him a grave that is a garden
from the gardens of Jannah, for his service
to the dawah.
I called him a Harun of the Ummah
of Muhammad ﷺ.
Musa had a Harun.
The Prophet ﷺ described Ali ibn Abi Talib
as the Harun of the Rasul ﷺ.
This man was a Harun of the dua
in the dawah.
There's many of the famous duas we love
listening to and following online.
This man was a means in their dawah
journey, including mine.
Many of the big conferences that we've seen,
this man was the means, subhanallah, a huge
means.
And he was a means of building a
team around him, subhanallah, that inspired them to
become legacy leavers.
He moved from Qatar to the UK, as
we all think about the future of our
families.
And when he found a way, he didn't
keep it to himself.
He brought his brothers from Doha.
Al-Hazim here, we have the brothers here,
subhanallah.
I met them in Doha and now I
see them around him.
And I would say to him, subhanallah, Allah
brought you here and put you through this
journey and brought your sahaba, subhanallah, for they
were around him in the service of the
family.
Once he was in Birmingham for months, right?
Every day you were driving out with the
family, subhanallah, Allahu Akbar.
Honestly, I only feel happiness, brothers and elders
in Islam.
You know, I spoke at one of the
conferences a couple weeks ago in London.
And I mentioned to the audience, where in
the Qur'an did Allah guarantee us life?
We've only been guaranteed death.
We need to shift our paradigms.
Because when death happens, we get surprised.
But why are you getting surprised?
Isn't death the default?
Allah promised you death, He didn't promise you
life.
He didn't promise us life.
Which means whenever we wake up and have
life, we should wake up realizing we are
on borrowed time.
We should be surprised that we are alive.
And make use of it, because it's borrowed
time.
Like the people of Gaza, you see them
pleased with the decree of Allah, even when
18 family members pass away at the same
time.
A baby is carried for nine months and
lives for nine seconds.
But they say, alhamdulillah, why?
Because they live the reality that death is
guaranteed, not life.
So death is normal.
When we live, we should be surprised.
So may Allah make these moments, moments for
us to wake up.
Let us not be like those who Ali
radiallahu anhu described, he said that people are
asleep and when they pass away, they wake
up.
Subhanallah.
The people of Gaza, brother Azhar and other
phenomenal servants of Allah, subhanallah, they teach us
and remind us that sometimes you wake up
in the dunya and you sleep in the
akhirah.
And sometimes you sleep in the dunya and
you wake up in the akhirah.
That is the reality of life.
May Allah subhanahu wa ta'ala bless you
all, reward you all in full the rewards
of attending the janazah.
May Allah bless our brother and may Allah
shower upon his family a great patience as
we will make a dua inshallah and as
you depart, ask Allah to have mercy on
him and to grant him steadfastness to answer
the questions of the grave.
This is the guidance of the Prophet ﷺ.
The best thing we can do for him
now, the best thing we can do for
him now is to ask Allah to have
mercy on him and to assist him in
answering the questions of the grave.
Because when our footsteps disappear, Allah is going
to release the soul from its holding place
and it's going to arrive here and the
angels are going to arrive to ask him
the question, who is your lord?
And what is your religion?
And who is your messenger?
And by Allah, he's a man who I
believe inshallah will answer the question.
You cannot guarantee answering these questions.
This is the only exam we have the
questions to, but there's no guarantee you'll answer
the questions.
Hmm?
But my brother used to always say, He
practiced his whole life to answer these questions
by saying, I'm pleased with Allah as my
lord and Islam as my religion and Muhammad
ﷺ as his Rasul.
May Allah accept from us our deeds and
have mercy on the deceased and grant beautiful
patience to the family.