Salah Mahmoud – Whos your Friend
AI: Summary ©
AI: Transcript ©
My dear brothers and sisters,
in October
2016,
a very
heartbreaking
incident happened in one of the communities I
was serving in New York City.
A 20 year old
young bright man
lost his life.
After he graduated from high school,
he was admitted
to his dream college to become an engineer.
And as many of our youth
when they start the college life,
they go completely off the track from the
dean and from all the manners and the
akhlaq.
He took that route, that path.
He was just trying to fit in.
When you talk to them and say, why
are you doing that? Why are you doing
that? I'm just trying to fit in.
I'm trying to fit in within the crowd.
I don't want to be that, you know,
the awkward, the stranger,
the weird guy that nobody want to hang
with me, hang out with me.
So he started to change slowly slowly.
Started changing
and that led him to the path of
drugs
and ultimately
the drugs killed him.
He lost his life
and he lost his dreams and
everything he was planning for.
So many people attended the Janazah in the
masjid.
SubhanAllah.
It was really shocking to everyone. People really,
really did love him
and his father, of course.
So during the Janazah,
everyone is crying. Everyone is really sad. Everyone
is really shocked
that a young man just lost his life
like that.
I prayed, I lead the janaza,
and after the janaza,
and this is what I usually used to
do,
uncover the face of the Mayyid,
so that everyone including myself to be reminded.
Yes. That should be enough reminder to all
of us,
especially for the young man,
especially to his friends.
His friends were looking at his face and
they were crying so much. He was just
with them last night.
Brothers and sisters,
there are a few reflections that I want
to share with you
from the janaza, from the story of that
young man. May Allah, subhanahu wa ta'ala, show
her his soul with mercy. The
reflections and the things that I said to
myself
during the janaza,
I said that subhanAllah look at this young
man who lost his life.
Death does not discriminate
based on age, race or color.
You're young, you're old, you're a man, you're
a woman, you're going to depart, you're going
to live this world. SubhanAllah.
And brothers and sisters, when we talk about
death,
a lot of people say look at the
imams. They make people hate their life and
they want people to be miserable.
Wallahi, if you look at death from a
very positive perspective, you're not going to say
that.
Death should always always remind you of Allah
subhanahu wa ta'ala. Death should actually
put you on the track all the time.
Whether we accept it or not, whether we
liked or not, we all gonna go one
day.
One day we're gonna leave this world. Nobody
can really deny that. Matter of fact,
we die within ourselves
every single day.
Death is a process.
It's part of being a human being that
a lot of things die without within us.
Like what? Like look at the cells.
Look at the blood cells. Look at the
skin that we call dead skin. Every day
death happens within yourself. Look at the nature.
What happens during the fall that is about
to start?
You see that you know, the leaves they
are green turn to yellow
and then eventually they fall and they're gone.
Similarly
human beings,
so
we should always constantly remind ourselves
that death is happening. Not to make ourselves,
you know, miserable or sad, but to put
ourselves into check.
Right? Go sometimes, you visit the cemetery and
this is something that I use personally used
to do.
Go just randomly. Go visit, you know, the
cemetery
and take lessons and reminders from dear brothers
and sisters.
If death is not enough reminder for us,
wallahi, what else is going to remind us?
SubhanAllah.
We have to be fully aware of that.
Death reminds us of Allah subhanahu wa ta'ala
at the end of this world also. Right?
And we're not saying think constantly and everyday
about death and forget life.
Please remember this.
Please study this with your children. Very important.
When it comes to this world, work and
be as successful as you can.
Live in this world as if you are
going to live until the day of judgment
till forever.
Be successful Muslim. Nobody can really say don't
do that. But when it comes to
when it comes to
for then
try to tell yourself that I might die
tomorrow. Matter of fact, I might die today.
And this will give you positive energy, and
it will make you successful in both dunya
and the hereafter. This is the first lesson.
The first reminder, first reflection that I wanted
to share with you from the story of
that young man who lost his life. Number
1, death does not discriminate based on race,
color,
or religion, or anything.
And everybody is going.
Allah subhanahu wa ta'ala said to the prophet
You are going to die and they're going
to die as well. This is reality brothers
and sisters. We all know it, but we
always have to remind ourselves. That's number 1.
During the Janazah,
and this is the second reminder and the
second reflection that I wanted to share with
you,
during the Janaza,
I looked at the faces of his friends.
They were crying really, really, really hard.
So I look at their faces
and they do not Most of them, they
do not look right to me. There is
something wrong with them.
Those were not the kind of friends that
anyone would really want to hang out with
or be around. SubhanAllah.
One of them was crying
extremely hard.
So I told him brother,
he doesn't need your tears now. He just
need one thing from you. Make dua for
him.
He said
I don't know what to say.
SubhanAllah.
A friend
whom you spent most of your life with
doesn't know how to make dua for you
in your janaza. SubhanAllah.
Is it the kind of friend that you
want to be within this world?
I don't think so.
He doesn't know what to say. I say,
just say, oh Allah. Oh Allah, forgive him,
and they told him couple of dua during
the janaza.
Young people, brothers and sisters,
choose your friend wisely.
Choose your friend wisely.
This young man
lost his life
at the most part because of his friends
and this is happening.
Their brothers and sisters, their parents,
your child is being influenced
by his friends more than you. That is
reality and we all know this.
Right? 40%.
Matter of fact, I would say 60%
of the things that, you know, that changed
and everything happened to him and the decision
that goes back to his friends.
We need to teach our kids how to
choose their friends. We have to be with
them in the process.
And this is this this is your responsibility
as as a parent.
He lost his life because of that. They
took him to the wrong path. Young people,
if you think that your friend is not
going to affect you
and impact you and leave negative or positive
impact,
you are fooling yourself.
You are fooling yourself.
And this is reality. In Arabic we say
what?
Which means that a friend will drag you
to whichever direction he or she is going.
He's going to drag you. Right? If you're
the crowd that you hang, you know, hang
out with, they are if all of them
or majority of them are on drugs, there
is 99%
that you are going to end up being
drugs as well. Otherwise, what is so common
between you? Why would they hang out with
you? Why would you hang out with them?
There has to be something in common. Right?
Choose wisely.
Your religion will be decided based on your
friend.
So be careful when you choose. Choose a
friend who reminds you of Allah subhanahu wa
ta'ala.
Show me your friend, who is your friend,
I will tell you who you are.
We all will hear that all the time.
Young people, be careful.
You need a friend who reminds you of
Allah subhanahu wa ta'ala. You need a friend
who gives you positive energy in this world.
We need a friend
who puts you in a check all the
time when you do something.
The true friend is the one who puts
you in check all the time. When you
do something bad you say be careful. You
are going the wrong direction.
Come back. We don't want the friend who
says, yeah. You're cool. You're good.
You're good. Everybody will like you. No. We
don't want this kind of friend. Be careful.
SubhanAllah.
Your friend is going to have some sort
of shafa'ah for you in the due of
judgment. SubhanAllah.
SubhanAllah. He
says, be friends with the mumineen because they
have some sort of intercession in the day
of judgment. And then remember
he says, Subhanallah, and this is very touching
really. He says,
If you do not find me in Jannah,
ask about me and say, you Allah, Adukha
your servant used to remind us of you.
Take him into Jannah. Forgive his sins. This
is the kind of friend that we want,
brothers and sisters. And this talk is really
for the brothers and sisters, for our younger
sisters, for everyone to myself, choose your friend
wisely. And this is the second reminder. The
second lesson that we learned from the story
of the young man who lost him his
life due to drugs in New York City.
The third reminder I want to share with
myself and the brothers and sisters in the
masjid.
You know nowadays,
when somebody, especially young man,
when they one of our youngsters, when they
pass away,
people usually tend to check their profile in
or, you know, social media.
Right? When people tag and they say,
he passed away. So people want to know
who that person was. Right? We do this
all the time.
So we check
his profile
and I checked his profile. I knew him
personally, but I checked his profile and subhanAllah
in the beginning, it was not the best
profile that you want to meet Allah Subhanahu
Wa Ta'ala with. And this is the lesson
that I wanted to share with you. Your
profile in social media is part of your
record, the day of judgement. So be careful.
It's a reality that we're living right now.
Right? Your social media profile, check it after
you go home. When Allah Subhanahu Wa Ta'ala
resurrected me in the day of judgement, is
it the kind of profile that I want
to show Allah subhanahu wa ta'ala? Think about
it.
I looked at his profile. I went through
his profile. It wasn't the best sharing things
that a muslim young man should not be
sharing.
Even a very any normal, you know, person,
good person wouldn't share. But SubhanAllah,
one of the very last post that he
posted in Facebook. I still have it. I
see it right in front of me here.
He said,
I have never ever found peace in my
life
until I found Islam.
And I will tell you brothers and sisters
why he mentioned that.
He said I've never found peace. Young people
listen to this. This is the message from
a maid, somebody who is in grave right
now sharing this message with you. He's saying
that I have never ever found peace in
my life until I found Islam.
SubhanAllah.
Your social media profile is a record, part
of your record in the day of judgment.
Be careful.
Check it out.
Make sure not to spread rumors without making
without checking it out. Making sure that it's
it's confirmed.
Not to watch anything that Allah subhanahu wa
ta'ala said it's haram.
Not to share anything just like that. Be
careful.
And we talked about the whole social media
thing. It's part of our world that in
every Khuba we should be talking about because
this is part of our life now. Dear
parents,
try to keep up with technology.
Know what your children are doing. The other
day and I'm a
high school teacher myself.
So I spoke with them, my class, you
know. And they said, you know, we're talking
about Facebook and all of these things. He
said they said, like, you you're an old
man now. We do not use Facebook no
more. We have Instagram and we have Snapchat
and all of these things.
Their parents,
check these things
out. Check these things out. There is no
nothing wrong. You don't have to use it.
But you need to know what your children
are doing online. This is very important. When
your child is taking pictures, when your daughter
is taking pictures day and night, you need
to know where those pictures are going.
You need to see the friends. This is
your responsibility.
We know that you're you're busy. You know
you have a lot of responsibility,
but this is your responsibility.
You hear your kids talking all the time
about the 4th night. You talk about you
talk about Instagram, about Snapchat. Have you checked
these things?
Do you have an account just for the
sake of Allah Subhanahu Wa Ta'ala and to
make sure that you are aware of what
they're doing? Please. If you do not know
what these things are, please. If you have
teenagers,
don't know what are these these things are.
Very important. This is the responsibility.
Lesson number 3, brothers and sisters, your social
media is your record, the day of judgment.
So be careful and make sure to have
it clean and something that will be witnessing
for you, not against you in the day
of judgment.
Brothers and sisters, we're still talking about some
of the lessons that we learned from
a young man who lost his life to
drugs in the in New York City in
2016.
And they said the first thing that
death does not discriminate
based on age, color, race, religion.
Everybody is going to depart this world.
And death should be thought of as something
that gives you positive energy,
not make you sad.
The second reminder that we can learn from
this story is
your friend
is very important in your life and in
the life of your child.
Choose your friend wisely.
Choose a friend of the you know Janazah
who reminds, you know, who makes dua for
you and keeps you your good memories not
the bad ones. A friend who reminds you
of Allah Subhanahu Wa Ta'ala. A friend who
asks you about you in the New Judgment.
Judgment if you're not in Jannah.
The third thing that we learn,
your social media profile is part of your
record in the New Judgment. Do not ignore
that. It's a true world now that we're
living.
I will conclude what happened at the end
of the Janaza.
The father of the maid,
the young man,
he was very old
and that young man was his only child.
He was only hope
for his father.
So his father stood up
in the middle of the masjid
and gave a message that will never ever
leave my mind.
It was a message to everybody,
young and old.
He stood up and said,
young man,
brothers and sisters,
I have lost my child,
my only child.
Brothers and sisters, young people,
and instead of attending his graduation, I end
up attending.
Young people,
if you're doing something right or wrong,
make a u-turn and come back.
Again, brothers and sisters, myself,
everybody,
if you are doing something wrong,
make a u-turn.
You and I know ourselves better than anybody
else.
Allah
says,
You know yourself. You know what are the
things that you do that you should not
be doing.
Stop them. Make a u-turn. Come to Allah
Subhanahu Wa Ta'ala because again
death does not discriminate
based on color, religion, race, or anything.
In one second you're not in this world.
You might wake up and all of a
sudden the 2 angels asking you,
It's just like you're sleeping. You're dreaming the
whole night, and you wake up in the
morning. Right? Death is just gonna be like
this. You feel like you're sleeping and you're
awake now, but the difference is that
it's too late.
It was too late for the young man.
And by the way,
and I will live with this positive note
insha'Allah,
Towards his the end of his life, he
came to the Masjid
and he joined the halaqa, the youth.
His end was amazing, alhamdulillah. The only problem
is that
it was too late for him.
Drugs killed him.
It was too late for him,
but it's never too late for us.
He died,
but he gave us life.
He gave us hope
and he's sending message from his grave
that Islam will give you and your children
and your family peace.
Young people,
this is his message to you.
Be aware of it. If you're doing something
bad,
go back.
Correct yourself.
Dear parents,
be involved into your child children's life. This
is very important. This is your responsibility. Allah
Subhanahu Wa Ta'ala is going to ask you
about this.
Their board members,
brothers and sisters, embrace their own people. Make
them love Masjid of Allah Subhanahu Wa Ta'ala.
Keep them away from politics and all of
these things. Make them come to the Masjid
and love the Masjid.
The Masjid is their final, their last hope.
Wallahi, if they're not in the Masjid, they're
gone outside. That I can tell you from
experience.
If our youth are not in the Masjid,
they're gone outside.
The world is so scary subhanAllah.
We continue making dua to Allah subhanahu wa
ta'ala protect them. We continue making dua to
Allah subhanahu wa ta'ala make them on the
right path.
We continue making to making dua to Allah
subhanahu wa ta'ala to bless them and make
them masajid and the Quran beloved and dear
to their hearts.