Sikander Hashmi – Thank & Remember KMA Friday Message
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AI: Transcript ©
For the brothers who are coming in, we
have space in the corridor here as well
if you like to fill that up.
Respected elders, dear brothers and sisters,
my young friends,
I'd like to start off
by asking you to think for a moment,
to think
about all the people who have helped you,
to think about all the people who have
supported you,
who have looked out for you
in any way
since the day you were born,
since the moment you were born,
the doctors,
the nurses,
your parents,
of course,
siblings,
relatives,
teachers,
neighbors,
strangers.
The list would be endless if we sat
here to and started counting and naming
every single person who did an act of
kindness for you
and that took care of you, helped you
in some way. The list would be endless.
The reality is, my brothers and sisters,
that none of us
none of us could have
even made it
a few days
to our first birthday
if it wasn't
for others being kind to us.
Today, my brothers and sisters, I want to
explore
thankfulness and remembrance.
The greatest bestower of mercy and kindness upon
us
is Allah
who has showered us with so many blessings
and so many favors
that we could never ever be truly
grateful
in the way that we should be.
We could never truly appreciate all of his
gifts,
and we can certainly never enumerate them all.
Allah
tells us,
tells
us.
Oh, humanity,
oh, people,
remember
Allah's favors upon you.
I am number 3 of Surah Fatir.
And at the end of Surah Al Duha,
Allah
says to the prophet
and by extension to us,
and proclaim
proclaim, talk about, share the blessings
of your lord.
You see, my brothers and sisters,
if we don't remember,
we can end up forgetting.
And once we forget,
that can lead us to deny,
to the denial of blessings and favors of
Allah
which is
a serious form
of disrespect
as Allah
says, Surah
Al
Rahman, Then which of your lords' favors
will you both humans and jinns
deny?
And this question actually is repeated 31 times.
How many times?
31 times in Surah Al Rahman.
8 times
after the reminders
of the favors of Allah
7 times
in the passages that talk about the punishment
of the deniers of the day of judgment,
which is the number of gates
of *,
And 8 times
in each
of the 2 following passages
that talk about Jannah, which
has
8 gates.
So in total, 31 times, Allah
says and asks
Now remembering the favors of Allah
and talking about them
and being grateful to Allah
this is paramount.
But we're also taught
to show gratefulness to other people as well.
As Muslims, as the of Rasulullah
our manners
should be the best
because the prophet said, I have been sent
to perfect good character.
I have been sent to perfect
good character, and
indeed
had the best
character.
The most greatest character was that of Rasulullah
We have been taught to care about people,
to care about their feelings,
to be humble
in dealing with people.
Being indifferent
towards people
is not how Rasulullah
was. It is not an Islamic teaching
to be indifferent towards
others.
So I want to highlight an important aspect
of gratefulness,
which is giving thanks to people,
to give thanks to others.
This is an important teaching, my brothers and
sisters. It is important for the one who
is thanked,
for the receiver of the thanks,
because when someone appreciates you and someone says
good words to you,
you feel motivated.
You feel good. This is not something that
should be sought. So get this right. We
don't do good deeds so that people can
thank us.
But when we do a good action and
someone thanks us, it motivates us to do
more good.
It gives us
a boost in our morale.
It gives strength,
and it is good for the one who
gives thanks as well.
Because
Rasulullah said as related by Abu Horeya that
that he has not thanked Allah who has
not thanked people
as related by Abu Dawood and others.
Imam Abu Suleiman Al Khattabi Rahimahullah,
great
10th century scholar, he explains this concept.
He says, number 1, the person who is
ungrateful to people,
the person who is ungrateful for people, for
the good things that they do for him
or her,
will also be ungrateful
for the good
done
to him or her by Allah subhanahu wa
ta'ala.
And this is the predominant interpretation
because it's about building an attitude of gratefulness.
A person who is not going to be
grateful to the people around them, eventually, they're
going stop being grateful to Allah
as well. Or they're not going to be
as grateful as they should be to Allah
And another interpretation, another understanding he gives is
that Allah Almighty
does not accept thanks
for his blessings
unless
the servant, the slave of Allah also thanks
people for the good things that they do
for him for him or her. The prophet
said that whoever does you a favor,
then reciprocate.
Whoever does you a favor,
reciprocate.
Return the kindness.
And if you cannot find anything with which
to reciprocate, so maybe the favor is too
big or maybe you don't have anything. You're
not able to reciprocate. You are not able
to do the same
good. Then pray for them until you think
that you have reciprocated them.
Then do what?
Pray for them. Make dua for them until
you feel that you have reciprocated
the act of kindness,
related by Abu Dawood.
Uslamatul
Musayd
said that the messenger of Allah sallallahu alaihi
wasallam said,
whoever has a favor
done for him or her and says
to the one who did it,
has done enough
to thank that person.
Whoever
has a favor done for them and says
to the one who did it,
has done enough
to thank that person because they are making
a du'a.
They are making a du'a that Allah
That
Allah
rewards them. That Allah
rewards them, returns goodness to them
of the best type.
Jabbir
also
relates to the prophet
said, whoever is treated well,
let him repay them.
If he cannot find repayment,
let him praise them for that is thanking
them. So in the first hadith, the first
narration, it's returning with du'a,
supplicating for the person who did good. In
the second narration,
it is about praising them,
being a form of thanking them. And he
goes on to say, if he conceals
it, he has been ungrateful to them.
If he conceals it, then he has been
ungrateful to them. So part of gratefulness is
to talk about the good that has been
done.
We learned this from
towards Allah
and from this hadith with regards to others
as well.
So the scholars say that this is general,
right, for Muslims, of course, but also everyone
else
as well. So my brothers and sisters, let
us make a point to be thankful to
others and to express it.
Our parents,
our spouses,
our family friends family members, our friends, our
neighbors, our colleagues, our strangers.
As you know,
yesterday was Remembrance Day in Canada, many other
countries as well.
And the scholarly views
differ
in terms of participation.
Right? Some,
including
Canadians of various diverse backgrounds,
see it in a very negative light as
glorification of war,
a celebration of the end of World War
one that led to the colonization,
particularly of Muslim lands, and so on.
Others say the day has evolved since it
started
and that we should take it as an
opportunity
to thank those who have served our country
many times in peacekeeping
and humanitarian
missions
and that it is not
meant to be or should not be taken
as a sign of approval
of unjust
military missions,
but to honor those who helped make the
country
as safe and as peaceful as it is
today,
Now regardless of where you stand,
we should not shy away
from expressing thanks and compassion
towards those
who have
sacrificed for good causes
in goodness.
And this includes many of the veterans as
well,
many of whom are suffering in old age
and are even living in poverty and are
not well taken care of by the government
and by the country that they served.
We should also show respect for those who
have passed away
regardless of their faith. And this is also
from good prophetic manners.
This is also from good
prophetic
manners. A funeral passed by, and
he stood up,
and he was said to him, it is
a funeral of a Jewish person.
So why, like, why are you standing up?
So the prophet
said that, was
he not a soul?
Was it not a soul of a person
in there whose funeral is going by?
So to offer condolences
on losses, especially your colleagues, your neighbors,
people that you know who are not Muslim,
it is perfectly fine and commendable
to
express
our condolences
and to offer comfort
to them.
But we take care to ensure that we
do not say anything
which may be displeasing to Allah
Now Khadija was
the, of course, the first wife of the
prophet
and he loved her very much.
And she played an instrumental role
in supporting him, salallahu alaihi wasalam, comforting him
when he was granted prophethood.
He lived
for about 13 years after she passed away,
and Rasulullah salallahu alaihi wasalam would remember her
fondly.
Aisha
asked him about her,
and he said,
she believed in me when no one else
did.
She believed in me when no one else
did.
She accepted Islam when people rejected
me. And she helped me and comforted me
when there was no one else to lend
me a helping
hand.
Relates that when the prophet sallallahu alaihi wasallam
was given something,
he would say,
go to such person
for they were a friend of Khadija.
Go to the house of such person, for
they were loved by Khadija.
So Rasulullah
had
so much love and respect for her even
after she passed away
that he would remember her friends
and her relatives
and send gifts to them.
Aisha
says that I heard him mentioning her so
often,
and his lord ordered him to give her
glad tidings of our palace in Jannah, Note
that reeds, the prophet sallallahu alaihi wasallam
would slaughter a sheep and distribute its meat
among her friends.
So the prophet sallallahu alaihi wasallam didn't forget
her.
Right? There's this thinking
that if a woman passes away,
you know, for the husbands,
they move on. They forget easily.
They move on with their lives.
But this was not the case with Rasulullah
He remembered
the love of Khadija radiAllahu anha.
He remembered her sacrifices.
He remembered her support.
He remembered everything about her,
and
he expressed it meaningfully.
He expressed it meaningfully by remembering those
people who were close to her and who
were around her after she had passed away.
So as I say all of this, I
want to take a moment
to express my gratefulness and my thanks
to my parents,
my sisters,
my teachers,
my wife, and my kids,
all of you, every single one of you
for your kindness and continued support
for all of those who are serving our
community,
especially our volunteers,
whether it's the security team who are outside
in any type of weather
or if it's our sisters
who are working
very hard to help other families in our
assistance committee,
brothers as well who are working on that
committee,
the brothers and sisters who are taking care
of this place, cleaning and maintaining it,
those who are teaching,
those who have cooked, those who have contributed,
whoever has helped in any single way, to
all of you, our
say
May Allah
make us those who with perfect character. May
Allah
make us thankful to him and to those
who have done us good. May Allah
increase us in compassion
and mercy and kindness. Ameen.
We have, some, sad news,
a few pieces of sad news, unfortunately.
First of all