Yasir Qadhi – Wisdoms of the Ramadan #21 Harsh Reality Of Death
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The speakers emphasize the importance of not denying the inevitable ending, which is death, and the need to realize it. They stress the importance of the Quran's purpose of deeing and preparing for death, rather than just running away from it. The speakers also emphasize the benefits of thinking of death in a different way, including personal growth and real-life. The speakers stress the importance of not carrying grudges and leaving legacy for future generations.
AI: Summary ©
Today's Quranic wisdom, Surat Azumar
verse 30.
Surat Azumar verse 30.
You shall die, You Rasulullah,
and they shall die as well.
The reality
of death,
which of course the Quran has so many
verses about.
And by the way, on a personal, you
know, anagrah Subhanahu Wa'ala's Qadr, when I listed
30 maxims for this month,
this ayah was not on the list.
And for whatever reason, after asr today, I
was looking and I was researching. I said,
you know, I want to change. I wanna
add this ayah. So I reshuffled and I
added this ayah literally today.
And right now, our brother just informed me
that brother Uthman who used to pray with
us, he just passed away in a car
accident, today, Innalillahihuwun lai rajir'oon.
And in these last few months, we have
lost a number of our young men suddenly.
And of course, the reality of death is
always
surrounding us. So today's khatira is going to
be a reminder
based upon not just surat alzumr, but the
reality
of the one thing that no human being
can deny.
Because
people can deny everything. They can deny God,
they can deny the day of judgment, they
can deny prophets,
but they cannot deny
the inevitable ending, which is death.
That is the one thing that nobody can
deny the reality of.
And this is where religion and deen and
religiosity
comes in.
And this is one of the main
incentives, if not the main incentive,
for us to think long and hard about
what we are doing here. Because for how
long shall we run away? Allah says in
the Quran, Afaraaita
imataanahum
sineen.
Even if we gave them years to enjoy,
thummajaahumma
kanuyu a'dun.
Then what was promised is going to come
to them, ma akhnaanhu
ma kanuyu mata'oon.
All of their fun and games, it will
be of no benefit to them.
How long shall you run away?
The pangs of death are going to come,
and that's what you used to be running
away from and denying. You never thought it
would happen to you. You never thought you
would be on that end, but there you
are.
We know this reality
aladhiqalaqalmawtawal
hayata. He is the one who created the
cycle of life and death.
There is no exception.
And
you shall get your own deeds returned to
you on the Day of Judgment.
Wamajaalnali
bashariminqablikalkhuld.
We didn't give eternal life to anybody before
you.
Afa'immita
fahumul kalidoon.
If you are going to die, You Rasulullah,
do they think they're going to live? Notice,
the Quran actually links the reality of death
to the death of the one person whom
Allah
said, If anybody would have been given long
life, it would have been
you. But 3 times in the Quran,
3 times, Allah subhanahu wa ta'ala
explicitly
reminds us that even the nabi, the rasool,
the mustafa, the adid, the mujtaba
Sallallahu alaihi wasallam,
even he is not going to live forever.
Afa'imitafahumalkhalidoon,
if you are going to die, are they
gonna live forever? Innaqamayit,
when this ayah came down, the sahaba could
not imagine a world without the Prophet, salallahu
alayhi
wasalam. When these verses came down, they were
recited, but not fully comprehended.
Why? We know why, oh, brothers and sisters.
We never think about death. We never think
about it for ourselves. We never think about
it for our loved ones. We never, until
they're no longer with us, until they are
not there, then death comes to us. Otherwise,
before that happens, we are in a state
of rafla.
And the purpose of these verses, the purpose
of our religion
is to remove that ghafla.
It is to remove that heedlessness from us
because
we cannot change
death,
but we can change our lives to prepare
for death.
We cannot change death, and nobody knows when
death will come.
Allah says in the Quran,
walakuntifibruujimushayyada
Wherever you are, death will come to you.
Even if you lock yourself up in fortified
houses, even if you are put in the
most safe place, you cannot protect yourself from
the malakul mu't. We know this. We know
it because since we were born up until
now, we have lost family, we have lost
friends, we have lost acquaintances.
Not a day goes by except that people
die in this world. This is the reality,
and a time will come when I will
also go and you will also go. Such
is this reality. So the purpose of the
Quran, the purpose of religion, the purpose of
deen is not to run away from death,
but to prepare for it. It is not
to ignore death, but so that we contemplate
it, not so that we become depressed and
morose, but rather that we live more productive
lives, so that our lives become eternal.
Because here's the point, death is not the
end. Death is the beginning of our real
life. Death is the beginning, the segue into
the eternal life, and that life is the
real life. The life ahead, that is the
real life.
The real
hayat. Hayawan here means the real hayat. The
real hayat is the darul akhira. So the
purpose of reminding ourselves of death, and of
reminding the Prophet salallahu alaihi wa sallam, and
through him all of us, that we shall
die, it is so that we can live
our lives in a more productive manner. When
we think of death, when we contemplate death,
all of a sudden our perspective changes.
1st and foremost,
the pettiness of this world
ceases to bother us. So what these grudges
you have and some nuisance and irritation that
happen, you're gonna forget it. The other person's
gonna forget it. Life is gonna go on.
So the problems of this world, you know,
the anxieties we have, all of a sudden
you put them in perspective. A 100 years
from now, I'm not gonna be here. Nobody
will remember these pains and sufferings. So you
start thinking in a different manner. You start
thinking of the eternal life. Secondly,
you start thinking of leaving your legacy. Rather
than worrying about what you accumulate,
rather than having the biggest houses and the
fanciest cars and this and that, you start
thinking, what will I leave behind?
And you start thinking, what will my children
think of me when I'm gone, my grandchildren?
What will happen to the people that I
knew, the memories they have of me? You
start thinking of leaving an actual legacy that
shall flourish, not material possessions,
not your clothes and what you own, because
that's gonna go. But what will remain? How
you impacted other people's lives. The smile you
put on a child's face, the sadaqa jariyah
that you did. So when you think of
death, you live life in a very different
manner. And of course, most importantly,
when you start thinking of death, then your
connection with Allah becomes so strong because you
realize
Allah is the one who's gonna take you
away. You will return back to Allah, thummaturaduna
ila alimal ghaybi was Shahadah You're gonna go
to the world of the unseen,
and the only way you will be protected
in that world is if you have a
connection with the protector and the mawla. So
when you start thinking of death, it's not
that you go down morose and morbid and
depression. No. You start becoming a very different
optimistic person. Why? Because you look forward to
the real life, and this dunya becomes a
segue. It becomes a channel. While you're here,
you will benefit the maximum you can. You
will be the most ethical. You will be
the best you can, and that is why
death even makes you a better human being.
Thinking about death, even if you don't you
know the people that don't believe in religion,
they also have meditation classes. And one of
them, they actually have classes where they don't
believe in an akhirah, but even they are
taught what are the benefits of contemplating your
finite life. And of those benefits, you live
a peaceful life. Of those benefits, you don't
carry grudges. Of those benefits,
experiences mean more to you than possessions.
Experiences, doing something, helping people, it mean means
more to you than acquiring wealth. If non
Muslims who don't believe in God understand the
benefits of thinking about death, how much more
so for us as Muslims? That's why Allah
reminds us constantly in the Quran about the
reality of death. Oh, Muslims, death is inevitable.
Death is without a doubt going to come
to me and you. And for some of
us, our brother that just passed away, this
was his last Ramadan. He began praying here
with us, and he didn't even make it
to Eid. May Allah forgive him and all
of those whom we've lost
in the last few years. But brothers and
sisters, we don't know which Ramadan will be
our last Ramadan. We don't know which of
these lai'ali will be the last lai'ali of
Laylatul
Qadr. That's opportunity we have. So when we
think about this, what happens is we live
life to the max.
This is the Islamic spirit. When we think
about death,
life becomes meaningful in the sense we wanna
do something productive. We wanna leave the maximum
maximum sadaqah and the maximum legacy that we
can. So our wisdom for today,
You Rasulullah,
if you're going to die, so are they.
Inaka mayytun wa innahum mayytun
kulloomanalayha
fan.
Every single soul walking on earth is going
to perish. Wayabaqa wajhurabikaduljalaliwalikram.
Only Allah and Allah's waj will remain.
So, oh, you and I who are going
to perish, make your finite
perishable existence
the maximum you can so that when you
enter aalimul ghayb and you enter the eternal
world, that is where you shall live your
real life based upon how you live this
temporary life. And inshallah will continue tomorrow. Assalamu
Alaikum Warahmatullahi wa barakatuh.
Shahuuramawwalalalalati