Talking to Youth about DEATH

Bismillah Alhamdulillah wa salatu salam ala, thank you very much for inviting me back here. It's always a pleasure to be with mass, whether it's in Queens or Brooklyn. And when Queens reached out to me, and I was like, we got to do something from Brooklyn as well. So hamdulillah a lot of you, you know, New Yorkers don't have a very good sense of geography. Mallesh, right, one of the guys, you know, because we live, we're up in Utica. Okay. And that one, you know, brother Yousef might well bless them. When they first came, he's like, what's that like, an hour and a half, like, bro, hour and a half doesn't even get you out of the city, or like four hours, five hours north. So we're

up there by Syracuse. But it's always a pleasure to connect, especially, you know, the the OMA and our little online America and our little little on that New York and whoever that we have. And this is a beautiful thing, obviously, the youth center Youth Center Dawa. This is something that I believe in 100%. And so I'm always happy to come down and share some time, I was asked to talk about death.

Sorry to be a killjoy, but I mean, it is really important, right about your last breath. And in order to make it on time, to the talk tonight, I mean, see if that can bear witness as to how fast I was driving. But, um, being in the car is something that actually is a really good sort of entry point for when we're thinking about death, because it's something that when you're in the car, especially if you happen to be going 70 or 80, or 90, on 87. Anyway, you know, just one small thing can happen, that could change the course of your life, right?

One small bump, or somebody pulls out in front of you.

The car is a is a, it's a vehicle of violence, or potentially a machine of violence, right? Whether you're driving or whether you're walking down the street, right here, how many cars, somebody just takes their mind off, what they're doing for one second goes down and check their phone, they cross over the line, they hop over the curb. And that can be the end for you.

And so, imagine that scenario, imagine that is you, you know, you're just walking down the street, or you're in the car, and then all of a sudden, it's blackout, you wake up, and you're in a some sort of hospital room, you hear the beeping noise, you hear, you know, you hear people shuffling around.

And you look around and you see your family members, you see your mother and your father, you see people care about you. But you see somebody else in the room with you that you've never seen before.

Somebody that isn't of this world,

somebody that when you put two and two together, you realize it's the Angel of Death, and it's your time.

Now at this point, and it's a point that every single one of us is going to reach whether it's now whether it's 10 minutes from now, whether it's 10 years from now, whether it's a few decades from now.

This is what your life has been leading up to the entire time whether you realize that or not. Because that angel was sent for one reason, and for one reason only. And that's to remove the soul from your body.

And it can happen the easy way, or it can happen the hard way.

And the Prophet SAW I said, um, he told us for the person who spends their life purifying their soul, he compared the soul, leaving the body to water being poured out of a glass. It's how easy it comes, it's ready. This is the moment you've all been waiting for. This is what you've been preparing for your whole life. And so now there's that recognition, you're locked in, ah, this is what it's all about. And it's easy.

And for that soul, it gets better. So that book, that soul comes out and the Prophet Sawyer said and he described it, he said it was like something beautiful to look at something beautiful to even to smell it had a pleasant smell to it like a scent to it. And that Angel of Death is going to take that soul of yours. And we're assuming right now that it's a good soul because you're all here on a Friday night.

And it's going to take it up through the heavens. And as this angel takes it up through the heavens, imagine all the other inhabitants of the you know, the seven heavens, all the angels, right? It's almost like the turning to look

this beautiful soul, this fragrant soul. Everybody wants to be near it. It's like, you know, some sort of celebrity walks in the room. Everybody turns their head. Everybody wants to get a selfie every wants to get close a psycho angels with the good soul, the pure soul.

And everybody's giving salaam so the soul has been taken up, up, up, up up all the way until it's shown at spot, the spot that it's going to actually get to enjoy in paradise.

And then after that the soul is brought down and it's put back into the body but you're not in the hospital room anymore. You're at the graveyard. You're at the cemetery. Your family and your friends are

And they're crying, they're sobbing, they've got flowers, they've got your your casket.

And that's the rest of your life.

In that grave, we'll talk about that more in a second. But that was all assuming that we're good souls.

There's another scenario. And it's not that pretty.

For the person who spent their time in this world, neglecting their soul, the soul is rusted, a soul that's atrophied, a soul that's covered with black.

From its sort of transgressions.

That's all soul doesn't wanna come out of the body.

And the Prophet sallallahu Sallam told us how the angel goes about extracting that body and he compared it to yours ever seen a fishing line? With like, the hook part, you see how the hook has like a shank? What's the shank, therefore, the shank is for? If the fish bites down on the hook, right? It can come out, because the shank basically goes the opposite direction of what you're pulling. So probably something compared to pulling out a wretched soul a sinful soul, to basically like, imagine the angel desktop, this rope.

And the rope has the shanks, just like a hook. And at the end of that rope is your soul.

And he has to pull and pull and pull the souls hiding, it doesn't want to come out.

And as he's forcing it out, it's it's tearing, it's ripping, it's cutting, it's burning, it's hurting

until the soul finally comes out because the angel doesn't fail.

But when the soul comes out, it's completely the opposite of the previous scenario that the soul is disgusting. It's putrid, smells bad, it looks filthy.

But it still has to go through the same journey. So the angel takes it up to the heavens, and it's complete opposite with the reaction of the people, the angels in the in the seven heavens, before everybody is trying to crowd around you and see you and get close to you and give slaps you. Everyone's turning away, everyone's disgusted. Everyone's horrified.

How could a person do this themselves? How could they let it let it get this bad? Eric, I see like some of these people on like reality shows like Hoarders. Like how can you let it get this bad or completely abandoned something? And then someone comes decades later? It's like, really? Yeah, well, it happens one day at a time. It happens one decision at a time. And your soul is no different. Some of us we laugh at these people like these hoarders, but our souls are no better than the state of their residences.

And so then the angel comes down and brings that soul down and returns it to the body. And at that point,

you're going to be returned to your body in the grave.

And you're going to have to wait.

And we know how waiting is difficult already here in this world. Imagine how hard waiting is in the next world.

And it's doubly hard for the person with the soul who's neglected their soul as Allah subhanaw taala said about how to Cobham and the second person is a failure. The person who let it go this long

waiting in their graves. And a grave is not a fun place to be. The grave is made tight.

Anybody claustrophobic in here.

I am legit claustrophobic. I cannot stand like being wrapped up like even a sleeping bag is like a little too much for me. Like I can't. I usually got like unzips the sleeping bag all the way. So it's kind of a blanket, right? Imagine and it's horrifying for me to imagine the state of somebody who's let their soul go that bed in the grave. And the prophesied said I'm told us that it's going to make me tight. Like an iron cage, closing around you squeezing you

in the grave, you actually get to see the spot that you're going to end up for eternity. And in this case, the soul that we're talking about the sinful soul, the wretched soul, the putrid soul, it's not a pretty sight to see. It's hellfire.

And all the different tournaments and all different punishments and all different consequences that you deserve. That you know, deep down he deserved. No one's doing you wrong.

And so anticipation. Anticipation is the worst. You guys were young, ever do something. And then like your parents found out

and the anticipation of what your parents are going to do to you is almost worse than the thing that your parents do to you. I remember oh man. It's so funny. Me and my sister only have one sister. She actually lives in Harlem.

We were one day, and how old was I? We weren't very old. We might have been like 789 10 and we first learned curse words. And we thought it was so cool and

So what we decided to do, we had a piece paper, my sister was better writing me I was younger. We would write all the curse words we knew on a piece of paper. What could go wrong, right? Horrible idea. We're giggling like fools in the room. My dad hears us. He comes in what's on that paper?

And we just run.

Cuz we know we're in for it. And sure enough, my dad grabs the paper. And I'm just sitting upstairs and I'm just like, The anticipation is the worst. You know what's coming, you don't know what's coming. But you know, something is coming in, it's bad.

Well, imagine you're that soul on the grave.

And you haven't felt the fire yet.

You haven't tasted the lashes, right? Or all these sorts of other punishments that await you, but you can see it.

And you've got a long, long time to think about.

It's why the province I said, I'm told us that the inhabitants of the grave, they're going to call out and ask the law sponsor Allah to delay it, the Day of Judgment, keep it away. No matter how painful it is to be in this grave right now, it's going to only get worse.

And we would rather that we just stay here and deal with this.

The person who spent their lifetime try sincerely, to benefit themselves to purify their soul, they're in a completely different situation.

The person has space.

Like imagine a king bed all to yourself. Right? No noise there's nobody bothering you, your little sister, your little brother. Right? No noise.

And better than that. You get to see your spot that awaits you in paradise. All the relatives that have passed away before you all the people that you want to be close to

your spot saved for you waiting for you. That's why the people paradise in the grave they call out to LA spawn Tata, bring it closer, come on, let's go. They a judgment, let's roll. No matter how terrifying it is to go through the day of judgment. At least they know that once they come out on the other side, they've got something wait.

Once the Day of Judgment happens, and we'll just go into this very briefly, because that's not the main point tonight.

Most of the judgment happens. This is one of the last sort of ways in which you can see how these two different types of people are treated so differently.

You the person who spent their lives trying sincerely trying to purify them so

Allah is found out describes the angels as leading them to the gates of paradise.

And they're met with readings of Salaam. Like imagine, again, just we give examples just to make it sort of imaginable. Like imagine you get to a hotel room, okay. And it's like, you got a nametag all set out for you. You got everything in its proper place. Every single thing has been prepared for you. The person's waiting for you the moment you step in the door. They say welcome, we've been expecting you. We've got everything taken care of breakfast, it'll be in your room, whatever. That's the type of greeting that the people of paradise have to look forward to the angels reading you at the gates.

You've been forgiven? What achievement? What an accomplishment. Forget money forget SATs forget college forget careers. What an achievement. On that day for the angels to greet you. They see you coming from far away. They say Hey, you made it you've been forgiven.

Whereas the people on the other hand, unfortunately, they're going to be driven like cattle. Ever see somebody drive a herd of cattle? Probably not in New York City, I hope not at least.

They're all ahead. And usually the person behind has to resort to violence whips, things like this prods, push the person forward, they don't want to go.

And so you have to resort to some sort of force to get them to go. That's how the angels are going to be with the wicked Day of Judgment,

pushing them fourth product and forth until they get to hellfire. And even the angels can't even stand to look at them because of how ugly their sin is of kofler of denial of ingratitude of all these things.

The dunya is so tricky, and deceptive because

we get caught up in thinking that it's about the dunya we get caught up in thinking it's about, again, the careers or the family even the children marriage. Hey, who is not marriage, I hope may Allah grant every single one of your wretched spouse and me. But it's even not about that.

The reason you're here is to die.

Yeah, we'll talk the reason you're here is to die. But not just to die. It's to die. Well, it's to die right is to die with the pleasure of your Lords panel data to die. Having demonstrated imagine your life as a portrait

have a portfolio or a body of work, that you will have demonstrated by the time that you get to the very end,

that you put it to use that you are ready.

It's sad, you know, someone who's a convert, and all my family are not Muslims.

Most people in America, they're not ready for death. And I like to talk about.

And so a lot of people, when they get closer relative gets close, they do anything they can, to start from talking about, almost like they're in denial, almost like we can't say.

This is the most real thing that exists, your depth.

And the biggest accomplishment is to die well, is to die prepared, is to have spent your life getting ready for this moment. You have that portfolio. So when the angel shows up and you recognize

it's time

that you're not afraid of what's going to happen,

that you know, which side are going to come out, that you anticipate and you're ready for your soul to be taken. And it's something that it's something that you're prepared for this dunya everything that we love in it, you could call it a side quest, right? Don't get lost in the side quest. Don't forget the main reason that you're here. There's a lot of poetry in English. It says every man is guilty of the good he did not do. Obviously, that applies to women to

a lot of times we think, Well, I'm not like some crazy, I'm not like out partying and drinking or I'm not, you know, killing anybody or stealing anything. It's like, how bad can you be? Right?

But the prophecies that I'm told us and Allah subhanaw taala told us that it's not that simple. It's not just about not doing big things. This is something real life. If you don't actively take care of your soul, your soul is going to deteriorate and deteriorate and deteriorate bit by bit. So slowly that you might not even know this until it's too late.

Here's another exercise you can use to check where you're at.

Imagine, because maybe, you know the soul is kind of an abstract thing. You see the angel of death?

And like, okay, he's going to take my soul. What does that supposed to mean? Imagine the angel of death in an alternative universe. Match the Angel of Death looks through your phone.

And that's going to decide where you go.

your browsing history, your messages,

last watched videos.

Everybody take account of yourself? Are you ready to die?

She's like,

are you ready to have the Angel of Death? Look through your phone?

If the answer's no, we need a little bit of urgency. We need a little bit of urgency. We have to stay focused on why we're here.

If you're not happy with your portfolio, if you're not happy with your body of work, if you wouldn't be happy for the Angel of Death to look through your phone, right now, everything I mean everything.

It's not all lost. Because the beauty of our deen is that no matter how many steps you take away from Allah is bound to audit, it only takes one step to turn around.

One sincere act of repentance can start you over again, hit the reset button, start you with a completely clean slate.

There's examples from the Companions where that happened.

For those of us who are granted beyond this day,

we need to make sure that we have that sense of urgency and we gotta get to work. We can't get distracted by the side quests. We got to keep our eyes on the prize. And remember that we're here in preparation for this thing that's going to happen to us whether we like it or not, at a time that we can't even pretend that we know.

And so you have to look and move through your life like an opportunist. But all those things that present themselves to you to do it could be something as simple as holding a door open for somebody saying hello to somebody. I doubt every single one. I go. No everybody else right before you leave today. Just go up to a sister that okay, I'm talking to sisters, the sisters, not brothers brothers did not go up to the sister. Go to assist that you haven't seen before and introduce yourself, say you exchanged names, right? Get to know each other and brothers do it amongst yourselves as well. All right.

Think about your parents when you get home. What's one small little thing you can do? Even if it's just you need anything?

Maybe you've never even said that to your parents. Maybe your parents looked at you like what the heck's wrong with you? What do you mean? But this is something small you can do. Do you need anything? As I said, Well, matter of fact Yeah, then you can help them

or something, find something to do these opportunities are literally just like a video game. You know, life is like a video game, I was giving you these opportunities just all throughout the day one here, one here, somebody has a problem over here, somebody has a problem here. All opportunities for you to just wipe a little bit of dust off your heart, wipe a little bit of rust off your heart.

And you'll find that it's actually kind of addicting in a good way. Once you start to see the world through this lens, and you start to play the game.

You'll find it feels amazing, and it feels great. Now you're going around trying to like collect coins, you're like picking up all these opportunities that present themselves to eat.

But you've got to get in the game. You got to realize that you're in your game if you want to play the game.

So on the day of astronaut, the prophesy said I'm promised that those who fast are going to have their past sins of the previous year forgiven we asked the last round, to make a sincere and to give forgive us our sins and to make us people of repentance and to make us people with mercy. And to make us people who have the right amount, the right amount of urgency when it comes to what we're doing here in this dunya got a call from Allah hotel Allah Allah