Taimiyyah Zubair – Developing The Habits Of Jannah
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So, inshallah, my talk is going to be
about
the habits of the people of paradise.
In the Quran, Allah
tells us about the condition of the people
of Jannah,
that how they will be enjoying the food,
the drinks,
and, you know, the various types of rewards
that
Allah has prepared for them.
And this is something that Allah mentions in
great detail in many surahs of the Quran.
But
Allah subhanahu wa ta'ala doesn't just tell us
about the rewards that he has prepared
for certain people.
Allah subhanahu wa ta'ala also describes to us
who these people used to be in the
world,
what kind of actions they used to do
in the world,
what kind of habits they had,
what kind of faith they had, what they
believed in,
how they used their money,
how they used their time,
what they did in the day, what they
did in the night.
Allah
mentions,
he describes the state of their heart when
when they're doing good.
So inshallah, in the next little while that
I have with you, I want to talk
about one such passage in the Quran
where Allah Subhanahu Wa Ta'ala describes to us
the people of
paradise.
And this passage is from Suratul Insan.
And the reason why I chose this Surah
is because
of two reasons, actually.
One is that the prophet sallallahu alaihi wa
sallam used to recite this surah in fajr
prayer
every Friday.
And this shows us how necessary it is
for us to take the message,
the the hope that the Surah gives us.
The second reason is that in the Surah,
Allah Subhanahu Wa Ta'ala describes the people of
paradise
and also the rewards that the people of
paradise will enjoy.
And in the Surah,
jahannam,
hellfire,
and its punishment is mentioned
only once.
Only once.
The entire surah
is about the reward
of paradise and the people of paradise.
So in the Surah, Allah subhanahu wa ta'ala
tells us in verse number 5,
Allah subhanahu wa ta'ala tells us about who
the people of paradise
are. He tells us that they are abrar,
that they are his righteous
slaves.
Now the people of paradise could be could
be, you know, praised in many different ways.
They could be described as believers.
Right? They could be described as the people
of,
the people who are conscious of Allah,
the people who are afraid of Allah. I
mean, there's so many different ways that the
people of paradise can be described. And they're
actually
these descriptions, we find them in the Quran.
Right? But here,
Allah Subhanahu Wa Ta'ala calls them
That the righteous,
the slaves of Allah, will drink from a
cup of wine whose mixture is of kafoor.
Now the read of my talk about why
the people of paradise are called Abra.
And the reason is
that abrar
are people who are dutiful,
people who do bir, people who who who
who do righteous actions.
So the reason why they're called the dutiful
slaves of Allah
is
because they are dutiful. They are obedient
to Allah.
This is how they lived their lives.
A life of devotion,
of dutifulness,
of faithfulness,
of commitment
to Allah
Another reason is
because abraar
are people who are
beautiful to others, as in they are good
to others.
So they are those who are good to
their parents and also to their children. You
may have heard of the term,
right? Being good to your parents.
So are who?
Those who are good to their parents and
also to their children, meaning those who are
closest to them.
And the prophet sallallahu alaihi wa sallam told
us
that righteousness is.
It is good character.
Sometimes we think that righteousness is just about,
you know, praying a lot of salah,
or it is making a lot of or
it is, you know, memorizing the Quran and
reciting the Quran. And all of that is
part of righteousness.
But righteousness is not limited to,
you know, rituals or acts of worship.
Righteousness
also includes
your character,
your care for other people. The way that
you treat them, the way that you speak
to them, the way that you interact with
them,
especially those who are closest to
you. We learn in a hadith that when
the prophet sallallahu alaihi wasallam was asked
that which deeds
certainly lead to paradise,
he replied,
You must be good in your speech,
and you must
generously give food to others. Meaning, if you
wanna make it to paradise, then you better
correct, you better improve the way that you
speak to other people.
Now the thing is it's very easy to
speak nicely to strangers.
Please, thank you. I'm so sorry. You didn't
have to do that. Right? We know how
how to be polite and courteous
to strangers,
right, or to people who are distant from
us.
But who is it
that receives our real version?
Who is it? It is our parents.
Right? And when you become a parent, it
is your children.
Not all parents are nice and compassionate and
kind and, you know, respectful towards their towards
their children.
So
is what? It is bid. It is righteousness.
So
are who?
Those who are good to their parents, who
are good to their children.
And this is how and this is the
explanation that Abdullah ibn Ummah
gave.
Another reason why the people of paradise are
called Abra
is because
they would remove
harm from others.
And this is what Al Hasan al Basri
explained.
Because bir, kindness,
is not just about, you know, doing good
when you go for umrah.
Kindness is that if you see that someone
is struggling with something and you can easily
alleviate their suffering, you go ahead and do
that.
You don't have to wait for a giant
opportunity to be able to give $50,000
in charity. No.
Bid can also mean
that you remove something that is annoying, that
could possib that that could possibly, you know,
be harmful for for people. You move that
from their way.
And the prophet sallallahu alaihi wa sallam mentioned
that he saw a man in Jannah.
The prophet sallallahu alaihi wa sallam said that
he saw a man
roaming around in paradise.
Why was this man admitted into paradise?
Because he saw
a tree
that was in the way of people.
You know, sometimes it happens that that that
a tree grows in a particular direction.
And so the way that it was growing,
the way that its branches were,
it was a cause of inconvenience to people.
Like people had to, you know, put their
things down, you know, walk across carefully.
Their clothes would get tangled into it. So
what did this man do? He said, oh,
this is bothering people. Let me remove it
from their way.
And he he cut that tree.
He removed it from the way of the
people so that it it wouldn't harm people.
And Allah
submitted this person into
paradise because of this.
So
are who? Generally, when we think about the
people of paradise, we think, oh, there are
those who pray the Hajj with every single
night. Right? Or there are those who have
memorized the whole Quran. Or there are those
who are fasting all the time. Or there
are those who are going for umrah for
Hajj all of the time.
From this, we learned that abroad, the people
of paradise, the righteous are who?
Those who seize any opportunity
to bring benefit to others, whether it means
speaking to them in a good way
or it means removing something harmful
from them.
So
Allah describes the abra, about how they will
drink
from the springs of paradise, and how that,
you know, how how how those drinks will
be, their fragrance, their aroma, their flavor.
And Allah Subhanahu Wa Ta'ala mentions
that These drinks, alright, the spring
that they will drink from, the people of
paradise will be able to cause it to
gush forth
in abundance,
meaning wherever
they will want that drink, they will they
will be able to access it.
They will be able to cause it to
gush forth in whatever amount, in whatever direction,
and whenever, wherever that they desire.
What's the connection over here?
Are people who are bringing benefit to others.
So
right? He will
give them so much joy and satisfaction
in paradise.
In the world, the abroad used to give
to others.
So in Jannah, the abroad
will
be receiving
the the gifts, the favors from Allah Subhanahu
Wa Ta'ala.
Furthermore, Allah Subhanahu Wa Ta'ala says that they
are people
who There are those who fulfill their vows.
And what is?
Is interpreted as whatever Allah
has obligated on them.
So whatever Allah obligated on them, in terms
of, you know, what the are,
they fulfill those.
And nadir also means
a commitment or an ab or a vow,
alright, that you make.
That that something that is not mandatory on
you, but you voluntarily
commit to do it.
Alright?
So
meaning when they make good promises,
when they make good commitments, meaning commitments to
do something good, what do they do? They
fulfill those commitments.
Whether it is that they make these commitments
with Allah
or they make these commitments with people.
Like, for example, the volunteers that we just
saw being appreciated.
Right? Volunteering means what?
This is not a job.
Right?
Volunteering means there's no there isn't necessarily a
contract.
Right? It's just out of your goodwill
and your faithfulness to Allah
because of which you come forward, you bring
your time, your services,
your work, your effort. Why? For the sake
of Allah
So those who fulfill their commitments,
their reward is paradise.
And they fear a day whose evil will
be wide
spread. Subhanallah.
They are people who fulfill
their duty to Allah, their commitments with peep
with others,
yet they are afraid of Allah.
They are afraid of the day of judgment.
What happens with many people is that
they get very comfortable because of the good
deeds they have done in the past.
Like, for example, a person thinks that, yeah,
I recited the whole Quran with my Quran
teacher when I was 15 years old,
and I am done with my recitation of
the Quran.
Now
I'm, you know, more focused on other things.
So they think that they no longer have
to recite the Quran, because they have done
that in their life
already. Some people think that, you know, just
because they have gone for umrah, they have
gone for Hajj. They gave sadaqa in Ramadan.
Now they are done with that good deed.
And when we look at good deeds like
this, that, okay, I'm done my part.
I no longer have to do it, I'm
I'm satisfied with what I have done,
then this is where growth stops.
But when a person is afraid of the
day of judgment,
when a person has fear of Allah in
their heart,
when they think about standing before Allah,
they think about the sins that they have
committed and are and are committing,
then what happens? There's that this fear
drives them to keep increasing in good deeds.
Allah
tells us in
about
That those who do what they're doing of
good deeds,
but while they're doing them, their hearts are
trembling with the fear of Allah.
Why are they trembling with the fear of
Allah? Because they know that one day they
are going to stand before Allah.
And that standing before Allah frightens them. That
if Allah were to ask me about my
sins, what could I say? How how could
I defend myself?
How could I justify
any of these deeds?
So Allah subhanahu wa ta'ala tells us about
such people
that These are the people
who excel in good deeds,
who rush in good deeds.
So the people of paradise
are those who are not settled
with what they have already done.
Abra, the righteous, are not
satisfied with whatever that they accomplished 5 years
ago or 10 years ago.
They're eager to do more.
So what do they do? Allah
tells us about another
habit of theirs.
That they give food to others
in spite of love for it.
And who is it that they give food
to? Meskeen, the one in need. Yateem, the
orphan child.
Asid, the prisoner.
They give food.
Now
giving food, yes, this is something amazing. But
Allah
mentions another detail over here.
And this means 2 things.
It means that they give food
because of his love.
Meaning out of love for Allah.
So on the one hand, they are afraid
of Allah.
But on the other hand, they they also
love Allah.
And out of that love that they have
for Allah subhanahu wa ta'ala,
they give food to others.
They they spend on others.
Because the one whom you love,
you want to please them.
Right? You you want to draw close to
them.
So the abra,
what is their concern? They wanna draw closer
to Allah
So they're always eager to find out, what
can I do that will draw me close
to Allah? What can I do that will
bring me
Allah's approval?
And of those deeds is what? It is
to give food to other people.
And giving food is something that you can
do at any time, anywhere. As long as
there's people around you, you can do that.
You don't have to be in a poor
country.
Alright? You don't have to be in a
place where everyone is hungry or everyone is
fasting.
No.
Giving food to others, it could even be
your own family. It could even be your
own children.
It could be your neighbors.
It could be anybody.
Giving food to others is something that is
rewardable.
So
they give it out of love for Allah.
Another interpretation of this is that they give
food to others
in spite of their love
for that food.
And this is some and this is where
it becomes very relevant to us.
Think about it.
You go,
you know, you go get that piece of
cheesecake that you've been craving all week.
Alright?
And you go get it, and you bring
it home, and you're like, I'm just gonna
sit down, relax, and enjoy it. Actually, forget
about cheesecake. Ice cream. Ice cream. Alright? Dairy
Queen. Okay. Let's say you get that ice
cream, and you say, I'm just gonna sit
down, and I'm gonna enjoy it. And what
happens?
Your sister, your brother, your spouse, your child,
somebody or the other comes,
alright, and they're just staring at you.
They're looking at you.
You have been craving this ice cream for
an entire week. You're rewarding yourself over here.
Right? And you want to enjoy it, especially
the last little bit where all the fudge
is.
Right?
That's what you've been waiting for.
And what happens, you're they're looking at you,
so you're like, wanna bite? Wanna have some?
And they're like, yeah. Sure. And they take
it.
And before you know it, they finish it.
This is
giving food to others in spite of love
for it. That even though you want it
yourself,
but you give it to others.
You you have shahua. You have that desire
for it, but you give it to someone
else.
Or some say that what this means is,
in spite of its shortage.
Because when food is not enough,
right, when you're hungry and others are also
hungry,
at that time, what do you do? Do
you just care about yourself, or do you
also care about those in need?
So the people of paradise
abroad,
what is their habit? That they give to
others.
And especially, they give it to who?
The
one in need.
The person who is not able to fulfill
all of their needs.
Yateem, the child
who doesn't have a father to provide for
him or her. And Asid, a prisoner who's
not able to go out and get food
themselves.
And food is one of the most basic
human necessities. Right?
SubhanAllah.
And so we see that where giving food
to others is such a huge virtue,
preventing
food from others is a is a huge
crime.
We learn about the people of *.
The people of Jahannam, they will be asked
that how is it that you ended up
in Jahannam?
How?
And they will say,
among their crimes was what?
We would not feed
those in need.
Even though we had the capacity, we had
the ability, but we did not give food
to others.
So giving food to others is is one
of the qualities of of the people of
paradise.
And we see that it is actually one
of the best deeds near Allah. When the
prophet sallallahu alaihi wasallam was asked
that,
which deeds are the best? He mentioned several
good deeds.
And among them he said that you satisfy
the hunger of a Muslim.
That he's hungry, she's hungry, and you feed
them to their fill.
In another hadith, we learned
about the the homes that Allah Subhanahu Wa
Ta'ala has prepared for the people of paradise.
And when the prophet sallallahu alaihi wasallam described
their beauty,
a man asked that who are they for?
And the prophet sallallahu alaihi wasallam mentioned,
these houses are for people who are good
in their speech,
who give food to others, who pray in
the night when people are sleeping.
So giving food to others, it is something
that leads people to paradise. The prophet sallallahu
alaihi wasallam also said
that, The best of you are those who
give food to others.
And giving food to others, this is not
restricted to Muslims.
This is not even restricted to human beings,
in fact.
In a hadith, we learned about how a
man came to prophet sallallahu alaihi wasallam and
mentioned that when he, you know, when he,
collects water for his camels,
and his camels are about to drink the
water,
there are some other camels belonging to other
people who also come and and drink from
there.
So the man said that I just let
those thirsty camels drink from that water, but
do I get any reward? And the prophet
said that, yes.
There is reward
for feeding every living creature.
So the people of paradise
are those who give food to others.
And when they give food,
they say something in their hearts. What is
it that they say? They say,
We only feed you for the sake of
Allah.
We do not want from you any kind
of compensation
nor any kind of gratitude.
We feed you. Why? For the sake of
Allah. Meaning, we want the reward for this
from Allah subhanahu wa ta'ala.
From you,
we don't want 2 things.
What are these 2 things?
Some kind of reward that you that you
reciprocate the favor.
Today I feed you, tomorrow you feed me.
And sometimes this happens, especially in Ramadan, that
when you give food to your you know,
when you share some food with your neighbors,
your Muslim neighbors, you take some for them,
and you expect that, you know, tomorrow maybe
they'll they'll send me pakoras.
Right? Or some other kind of snack that,
you know, the auntie is very good at
preparing. No.
When you give something for the sake of
Allah, you don't expect a payment from people.
You don't expect that they will reciprocate the
favor somehow, that they will now do something
in return.
Sometimes we expect jazaa in some other kind
of way.
Like, for example,
you share food with with your neighbor, and
now you expect
that,
you know, on on garbage day when when
the when the when the garbage is collected,
your neighbors should put your garbage bin, you
know, back back at your garage door or
something.
Because I'm always doing so much for them,
they should also do something for me. No.
You don't
expect any reciprocation
from people
when you do when when you do them
a favor.
All of your reward, you expect from who?
From Allah subhanahu wa ta'ala.
So
and you don't even expect any shukur from
from them. Meaning, any verbal gratitude that they
come and thank you,
they, you know, call you and they thank
you and they praise the food that you
prepared.
No.
If it happens without your intention, that is
different.
Right? That you send food in your Tupperware,
and when they return the Tupperware, they fill
it with food. Did you demand that? No,
you didn't.
Did you expect that? No, you didn't.
Or you give food and they call you
and they thank you. Did you expect that?
No, you didn't. But if that happens, alhamdulillah.
However,
we should never
expect from people that they should pay us,
they should compensate us for the favor that
we have done them.
And sometimes what, we make a mistake, and
that mistake is that when when people are
thanking us,
we say things like, just pray for me.
Just make dua for me. Has anyone done
that over here?
Yeah? Like, for example, you know, your neighbor,
your friend, your coworker,
family member, anybody.
Right? They come and they're trying to thank
you and you're like, just make dua for
me.
Okay. 1 of the scholars said that
that whoever
demands from the poor
that they should pray for him in return,
or that they should praise him,
they should thank him somehow,
then this person is not included in the
ayah.
If you ask someone, just pray for me,
then then what are you doing? You're demanding
some kind of reciprocation,
some kind of compensation from them.
That I did you a favor, now you
do a favor for me.
No.
When you do a favor to someone for
the sake of Allah,
then you expect your reward from Allah and
Allah alone.
They say in their hearts,
And this shows us that any deed that
we do, big or small,
any kind of deed, we should do it
only for the sake of Allah.
And they say,
Indeed, we fear from our Lord a day
that is austere
and distressful, a very difficult day.
So Allah
says,
So Allah will protect them from the evil
of that day.
Which day is this? It's the day of
judgment.
They were afraid
of the difficulty, the distress of that day,
and this is why
they tried so hard to protect their intentions.
And they they consistently
strove to do different kinds of things to
please Allah subhanahu wa ta'ala. So what will
happen? Allah subhanahu wa ta'ala will protect them
from the difficulty of that day
and will give them
radiance,
brightness on their faces,
and joy and happiness in their hearts.
Allah
will give them happiness in their hearts and
will make
them beautiful as well.
And Allah
will reward them.
Why?
And this is key,
because they were patient.
And what is it that Allah will reward
them with?
Paradise
and silk.
This ayah shows us that Jannah is a
reward
for
for patience.
And patience is not just in times of
difficulty that you endure,
that you don't quit,
that you bear the hardship,
that you still stick to the truth.
Patience has many different forms.
Patience is required in being dutiful to Allah.
Patience is required
in following the commands of Allah.
Patience is required in praying 5 times a
day.
Patience is required in being good to your
family. Remember,
Abraar? Who are Abraar? Those who are good
to their family.
Right? Their parents and their children. Tell me,
is not needed over there?
Is not needed?
You see, when you're dealing with a stranger,
no matter how rude they are, no matter
how annoying they are, you control yourself.
But when it's your child,
you think that you can say anything.
When it's your sibling, you think that you
can treat them in, you know, however that
you want.
But sabr means
that you control yourself over there and you
say only what is pleasing to Allah.
Is required in doing small acts of kindness.
Is required in fulfilling commitments and promises.
Is required in feeding other people,
especially
when when you have to share what you
want for yourself.
Is required
in continuing to do good without
receiving any kind of compensation from people.
And we learn from this ayah that the
reward for sabr is
jannah.
It is paradise.
May Allah
grant us all the ability to be patient
on righteousness, patient on those things which are
pleasing to him. May Allah
give us the ability to be patient in
fulfilling
our our duty to him,
in in in in in controlling ourselves
when we're dealing with our loved ones. And
may Allah
make us all of the people of paradise.
There's a beautiful hadith that I want to
end with.
The prophet sallallahu alaihi wa sallam mentioned that
there are no people who gather together
to remember Allah,
Whose intention,
whose only intention
when they gather together to remember Allah
is to seek the face of Allah,
to please Allah subhanahu wa ta'ala.
So there's no group people who do this
except
that a caller calls out.
An announcement is made.
That rise from here while you're all forgiven.
You gathered here only for the sake of
Allah, seeking
his face, for no other reason.
When you get up from here, all of
your sins will be forgiven,
and your sins will have been converted into
good deeds.
May Allah
grant us all sincerity in everything that we
do, and may Allah
count us among such people who are forgiven
when they rise
from here.