Zakariyya Harnekar – Jumuah Talk Only – Masjidus Sunni – 18 Oct 2024
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I seek refuge with Allah from Satan the
accursed.
In the name of Allah, Most Gracious, Most
Merciful.
All praise is due to Allah, Lord of
the worlds.
And peace and blessings be upon His noble
Messenger, and upon his family and all his
companions.
My Lord, expand my heart and ease my
affairs, and make my tongue pure, so that
it may understand what I say.
O Allah, make our deeds purely for Your
Face, and do not make them a fortune
for others.
And O Allah, send blessings upon our Master,
our Prophet, and our Master Muhammad, and upon
his family and all his companions.
And all praise is due to Allah, Lord
of the worlds.
And peace and blessings be upon you.
When we say alhamdulillah at once, we are
proclaiming that Allah subhanahu wa ta'ala is
in and of himself worthy of praise.
Not on account of having done anything to
us, or for us, or anything like that.
Simply because He is the one who is
attributed with His qualities, He is worthy of
praise.
And over and above that, in addition to
that, Allah subhanahu wa ta'ala manifests His
perfect qualities by giving us goodness upon goodness
upon goodness.
And as such, He becomes worthy of our
gratitude in addition to praise.
I'd like to give an example of a
nice car, maybe a Bugatti, drives past here,
and you say, wow!
Amazed at the excellence of this piece of
equipment.
وَلِلَّهِ الْمَثَلُ الْأَعْلَىٰ This is not an example
for Allah subhanahu wa ta'ala, but that
car didn't do anything for you, you praised
it on account of what you saw in
it of excellence.
You might not ever get to touch it,
look inside, smell the leather, let alone drive
it.
But you saw it as worthy of a
type of praise.
So Allah subhanahu wa ta'ala is worthy
of praise because He is Him.
And in addition to that, He is worthy
of gratitude because of the ihsan that He
does to us always.
And in every single circumstance that Allah subhanahu
wa ta'ala puts us in, there is
an opportunity for goodness.
And so that's why as believers we say
الحمد لله على كل حال Praise and thanks
is due to Allah subhanahu wa ta'ala.
All praise and all thanks is due to
Allah subhanahu wa ta'ala in every single
state that we find ourselves in.
Thereafter we send salawat and salam upon our
beloved Nabi Muhammad sallallahu alayhi wa sallam.
Allahumma salli ala Sayyidina Muhammad wa ala aali
Sayyidina Muhammad kama sallayta ala Sayyidina Ibrahim wa
ala aali Sayyidina Ibrahim fil alamina innaka hamidun
majeed We send these prayers of peace and
of blessings and of mercy upon our beloved
Nabi Muhammad sallallahu alayhi wa sallam for it
is through his every action, his every statement,
his every state, and his every approval that
Allah subhanahu wa ta'ala taught us how
to be in this life such that we
can attain the best of this life and
the next.
The way of Rasulullah sallallahu alayhi wa sallam
is not a way of compromising the dunya
for the akhira.
It's not a way of compromising the dunya
for the akhira.
It is the way to attain the best
of the dunya and the best of the
akhira.
And there is no better way than his
way sallallahu alayhi wa sallam.
And I think it's important to open with
this, to expound in it a little bit.
And to start with a hadith of Rasulullah
sallallahu alayhi wa sallam that many of you
might have heard time and time again, wherein
Rasulullah sallallahu alayhi wa sallam tells us ajaban
li amril mu'min How amazing are the affairs
of a believer.
inna amrahu kullahu lahu khair.
Indeed all of his affairs are good for
him wa laysa dhalika li ahadin illa lil
mu'min.
And that virtue belongs to none other than
the believer.
How amazing are the affairs of a believer.
All of his affairs are good for him.
All of the affairs of a believer are
good for him.
And that virtue does not belong to anyone
other than the believer.
inna asabatuhu sarra'u shakara fa kaana khairan
lahu If affluence, luxury, good times comes his
way, then he shows gratitude for that and
that is good for him.
wa inna asabatuhu sarra'u shakara wa inna
asabatuhu dharra'u sabara fa kaana khairan lahu
And if hardship befalls him, if calamity afflicts
him, sabara He is patient.
He shows sabar.
He doesn't lose hope in Allah subhanahu wa
ta'ala.
He maintains his state with Allah subhanahu wa
ta'ala.
If he has that gratitude, then on account
of that, it is also good for him.
inna asabatuhu dharra'u sabara fa kaana khairan
lahu When he is afflicted with calamity, he
shows patience.
And on account of that, it is also
good for him.
Why I open with this is I don't
know.
You know, we have What happens with time
is that people become accustomed to states and
we become complacent.
And for those of us who are following
as members of the Ummah of Rasulullah sallallahu
alaihi wasallam whose hearts cannot be taken away
from the suffering of this Ummah, then it
was claimed last night and it seems likely
though there has not been an official announcement
yet that the leader of Hamas and one
of the architects behind this war or this
resistance from the Palestinians was killed last night.
And what the enemy would do is they
would use moments like this to dishearten the
believers.
To make you think that all is lost.
That now we have gained victory over you.
But it is not befitting for the believer
to ever give up.
It is not befitting for the believer to
think that on account of an individual, all
is lost.
Allah subhanahu wa ta'ala gives different circumstances.
Sometimes there is a momentary loss.
But the believer always lives to fight another
day.
Even if he loses his own life, then
that generation that he has made tarbiyah of,
that generation that he has nurtured after him,
they will live to fight the fight of
the mu'mineen after him.
And it is an undying fight.
And I want to mention that the very
person that is claimed that was killed, Yahya
Sinwar, may Allah subhanahu wa ta'ala accept
him as a martyr if it is that
he has passed away.
May Allah subhanahu wa ta'ala grant him
that honor.
He has said on numerous occasions, he has
said on numerous occasions to the media, on
public television, and those close to him have
testified, those that I have spoken to, that
he loves what he says.
That the enemy, the Zionist entity, it tries
to threaten us.
It tries to send us messages of warning
and of threat.
But those messages, they don't even strike fear
into the hearts of our children, let alone
the hearts of our leaders.
Because if they want to give us fear
or they want to make us fearful of
death, then we are only fearful of death
on our beds.
We are only fearful of death on our
beds, but we are not fearful for dying
in the way of Allah subhanahu wa ta
'ala.
He says that I would rather, rather than
dying of corona, or dying of some sickness,
or dying of a heart attack, or dying
of some inflammatory disease or anything like that,
I would rather than dying from one of
those causes or being knocked by something in
the road, I would rather die as a
shaheed in the path of Allah subhanahu wa
ta'ala.
So he says that the greatest gift that
this Zionist entity can give me is that
they kill me as a shaheed.
And there is lesson for us in these
words.
That our view as believers, our worldview as
believers is not a hedonistic worldview.
It's not a materialistic worldview.
It's not a worldview of fleeing to the
dunya.
It's not a worldview of the more of
the dunya I have, the more luxury I
have, the more comfort I have, the more
successful I am.
And that equates to how happy Allah subhanahu
wa ta'ala is with me.
No.
The best of people, the best of people,
Rasulullah sallallahu alaihi wa sallam, was, he didn't
have the greatest material means.
He lived with the poor sallallahu alaihi wa
sallam and that's what he loved.
If material affluence and luxury was a sign
of Allah subhanahu wa ta'ala's acceptance, Allah's
happiness with you, or success in any way,
then Rasulullah sallallahu alaihi wa sallam would have
lived the most lavish life.
But that's not the case.
And what happens, and why I think this
message is pertinent for us, is because as
Muslims in...
I'm talking here in Randebosh East.
It's a beautiful place.
Generally we live, we middle class people living
luxurious lives.
And even the poor amongst us are not
suffering the trials that people in those parts
of the world are suffering.
Yes, we must be appreciative for that.
We do not wish it away.
We appreciate the gift that Allah subhanahu wa
ta'ala has given us.
We ask Allah subhanahu wa ta'ala for
aafiyah, for health, for comfort, for all of
those things.
But we never lose track of the fact
that it is our desire that our lives
be sent, our lives be spent, furthering the
cause of Islam.
That our lives be spent and our death
come in the way of serving the cause
of Islam, serving Allah subhanahu wa ta'ala
and the deen of Islam.
If we can't honestly tell ourselves that I
wish to die as a shaheed in the
path of Allah, that I wish for my
life to be spent in the path of
Allah subhanahu wa ta'ala and my death
to come as a shaheed, then our priorities
are off.
Then we're not living the life of a
true Muslim.
Then what has happened to us is that
we have gotten sucked into the world view
of the hedonists of our time.
The hedonists that, you know, the thought leaders
of our time that try to filter into
our minds that we live lives to attain
pleasure.
And so whenever we lose pleasure, we lose
hope, we become mentally fragile, we become, you
know, physically decrepit, we lose all hope.
That's not the mindset of a believer.
That is not the mindset of a believer.
You know, often times, one way that the
zionist entity disheartens us is that they show
us these small seeming losses for us as
believers and they want us to lament over
it and lose heart.
And it often times works, because we start
thinking to ourselves, it's a year on, more
than a year on, I've been making dua,
I've been making dua, we've been having qiyamul
layl, we've been doing this and we've been
doing that, we've been giving charity.
Why doesn't Allah just wipe away the zionist
entity?
Why doesn't Allah just destroy them?
Like Allah subhanahu wa ta'ala sent the
birds to, you know, destroy the army of
Abraha.
Why doesn't Allah just destroy the zionist entity?
And we start doubting and we start getting
negative thoughts and we start becoming complacent and
distant from it.
We start losing fervor and zeal in our
own duas.
We start asking Allah subhanahu wa ta'ala
with lesser intensity.
If that happens, then that's a victory for
our enemy.
But we must never let that happen.
We must never let that happen.
But the reality of the situation is that
Allah subhanahu wa ta'ala's measure of success
for us, is not on account of how
much saytara, how much authority we have in
this world.
Allah subhanahu wa ta'ala's measure of acceptance
of us, is not about how much affluence
we have.
If that were the case, then the disbelievers
would not even have an ounce of affluence.
But rather Allah subhanahu wa ta'ala gives
it to them in abundance.
Sometimes Allah subhanahu wa ta'ala even gives
them saytara over the believers.
Allah gives them authority and makes us subject
to them.
But there is reason for that, there is
wisdom for that.
You see, the problem is that we on
account of our hedonism are internalizing that hedonistic
world view that seeks only to pursue pleasure.
That's imposed upon us by all quarters from
the atheists and the disbelievers that shape the
thought patterns of our world.
They want us to think that.
They want us to think that when you
are losing, there must be something wrong with
your faith.
When you are losing seemingly on the material
front that you must be disheartened in your
faith.
And we fall prey to it at times,
but the reality is that Allah doesn't value
things according to the dunya.
This dunya is not of great worth to
Allah SWT.
What is of worth to Allah SWT?
What is of worth to Allah is virtuous
qualities and at the head of them is
Iman.
What is of value in the sight of
Allah SWT is the reward that Allah SWT
will give us in the Akhirah.
And that's why in a hadith of Rasulullah
S.A.W. Rasulullah S.A.W. tells
us مَنْ جَعَلَ هَمَّهُ هَمَّنْ وَاحِدًا Whomsoever makes
his concern, one concern هَمَّ الْمَعَاد the concern
of the Akhirah the concern of the place
to which he is going to that being
the Akhirah مَنْ جَعَلَ هَمَّهُ هَمَّنْ وَاحِدًا كَفَاهُ
اللَّهُ مَا هَمَّهُ مِنْ أَمْرِ الدُّنْيَا وَالْآخِرَةِ Allah
SWT will suffice him for his needs of
this dunya and the needs of the Akhirah
In another narration Rasulullah S.A.W. says
whoever makes his concern, one concern Allah SWT
will gather for him his affairs جَمَعَ اللَّهُ
شَمْلَهُ Allah SWT will gather for him his
affairs Allah SWT will see to his needs
of this dunya Allah SWT will gather for
him his affairs and Allah SWT will place
his wealth in his heart Allah SWT will
place his wealth in his heart وَجَعَلَ غِنَاهُ
فِي قَلْبِهِ What does that mean?
That Allah SWT will see to his needs
Allah SWT will gather his affairs Meaning when
he doesn't have things of this dunya, it's
not gonna feel as if the whole world
is falling apart When he has and when
he doesn't have he'll have his act in
order, his life will feel together he won't
feel stressed and depressed on account of it
Yes there's clinical depression, we're not talking about
that We're talking about pressures that come upon
people that they find overbearing on account of
material circumstances Allah SWT will gather for him
his affairs and this you find in the
true believers no matter how much difficulty they
are under they still find contentment that Allah
SWT is pleased with them and again because
of the circumstances I want to take lesson
in the likes of our Ghazan brothers What
is that?
Bombs are falling upon them 70% of
the buildings of Gaza are flattened 80%
of the commercial buildings are destroyed According to
the Palestinian Ministry of Health About 42,409
people have been killed About 99,000 and
something injured Many more under the rubble The
eventual death toll is projected to be something
like 180,000 Can you fathom that?
I mean we find it difficult when one
member of our family passes away and sometimes
we struggle to cope But despite that they
are able to say Alhamdulillah and carry on
They are able to say our children have
passed away en masse Alhamdulillah, this is the
test Allah put us in And perhaps Allah
SWT allowed us to witness that only so
that we could learn this is what my
mindset is supposed to be like Not that
you must hope for the test or the
calamity but so that you know we are
able to use the barometer of our minds
to assess is this where I'm at with
the dunya and Allah And we are to
take lessons from that We are to take
lessons from that But sometimes on account of
our valuing of this dunya, we think that
on account of the losses, we are in
problems But Allah SWT caused even the Ummah
in the time of Rasulullah to suffer losses
like in the battle of Uhud Yes, there
was a disobedience to Rasulullah and that brought
the loss But Allah SWT still decreed that
they were to suffer a loss But subsequent
to that, on account of their willingness to
repent and regroup and fight again Allah SWT
spoke to them in words of praise about
that And that's the way of the believer
We do not value the world We do
not value our tests and our trials in
this world the way the hedonists, the way
the liberalists, the way the people that have
nothing more than this dunya value the world
We value the world and our placement in
this world with respect to how Allah perceives
us So our question to ourselves should not
be how much material luxury or success do
I have at any given moment in life
Yes, we can work to better that if
it serves a purpose of maybe looking after
our family or whatever the case may be
or contributing to the Ummah But it's not
an objective in and of itself Rather, the
questions we need to be asking ourselves constantly
is my actions that I am doing and
my states that I am experiencing Are they
states that are pleasing to Allah?
My thoughts that I am thinking Are they
thoughts that are pleasing to Allah?
My actions that I am undertaking Are they
actions that are pleasing to Allah?
If I can say yes, yes, yes to
all of those things Then I know that
Allah subhanahu wa ta'ala is happy with
me and I know that I am heading
on a good way to the good abode
of the Akhirah But if that's not the
case If my concern is not the concern
of the Akhirah What does Rasulullah s.a
.w. say?
Whoever his concern is this dunya Whoever his
concern is this dunya Allah subhanahu wa ta
'ala I left out the last part of
the previous part of this hadith Rasulullah s
.a.w. said Allah will gather his affairs
Allah will place his Allah subhanahu wa ta
'ala will place his wealth in his heart,
he will always be content وَأَتَتْهُ الدُّنْيَا وَهِيَ
رَاغِمَةٌ And Rasulullah s.a.w. says The
dunya will come to him despite it The
dunya will come to it even if it
doesn't want to Even if the dunya doesn't
want to come to him It will come
to him Meaning whatever he needs of this
dunya Allah subhanahu wa ta'ala will provide
it to him On the second part of
this hadith Rasulullah s.a.w. says Whomsoever
His concern is this dunya فَرَّقَ عَلَيْهِ شَمْلَهُ
Allah subhanahu wa ta'ala will scatter his
affairs for him Even though he may be
living in the lap of luxury Things will
seem, feel out of order to him His
mind, his heart will not be gathered وَجَعَلَ
فَقْرَهُ بَيْنَ عَيْنَيْهِ And Allah subhanahu wa ta
'ala will place his poverty between his eyes
What does it mean?
He won't be able to see beyond what
he doesn't have He might have the whole
world of luxury in front of him But
all that he will be able to see
is what he doesn't have He'll have a
nice house, a luxurious house But maybe it's
not in Constantia That's what he will be
thinking Maybe he'll have a car that works
That gets him from A to B Without
causing him any trouble But he will be
thinking No, but it's not the Mercedes that
I wanted The person whose concern is this
dunya Allah subhanahu wa ta'ala says His
affairs will be scattered His poverty will be
placed between his eyes وَلَمْ يَأْتِهِ مِنَ الدُّنْيَا
إِلَّا مَا قُدِّرَ لَهِ And nothing will come
to him from this dunya Except what is
decreed for him Except what is decreed for
him A hadith like this They shape our
mind as believers We do not measure success
We do not measure success In material In
a material way We measure success in relation
to Our relationship with Allah subhanahu wa ta
'ala And our conduct with Allah subhanahu wa
ta'ala If that is in order Even
if bombs are raining down on us Even
if our brethren are being killed As long
as we are undertaking The appropriate action Then
we are successful Then there is only two
outcomes for us There is only victory Or
there is martyrdom But there is no loss
for the believer And so when we hear
these stories That come out and we hear
these things That dishearten us Rather than letting
them dishearten us We should say like the
believer said هَذَا مَا وَعَدَنَ اللَّهُ وَرَسُولُهُ وَصَدَقَ
اللَّهُ وَرَسُولُهُ This is what Allah promised us
And they have proven true in their promise
And this must increase us only in faith
This must increase us in faith And it
must increase us in action You know what
made me so proud This week My child
Who was five years old at school They
were painting a Palestinian flag And then they
had to write Their name on it He's
five years old so the teacher wrote their
name So he told the teacher This was
before last night He told the teacher Can
you write on my flag Yahya Sinwar Can
you write on my flag His name is
Muhammad Yahya You wouldn't get it if you
didn't know that His name is Muhammad Yahya
So he asked the teacher Can you write
on my flag Yahya Sinwar And my message
is That whilst we nurture our own states
Of confidence and of victory If we are
living our lives Good with Allah Then we
must nurture our next generation To be more
detached from this We must nurture our next
generation To not be the ones whose only
hope Is to make dua and to spend
We must nurture our next generation So that
their action Is geared towards gaining victory For
this ummah in every way May Allah accept
us May Allah accept our brethren May Allah
let them never lose heart May Allah grant
them victory May Allah enable us To be
of aid to their victory May Allah never
let us be weak May Allah Gather our
affairs May Allah grant us contentment May Allah
grant us victory In every way May Allah
let the enemy Perish at our hands May
Allah free Majlul Aqsa May Allah relieve our
brethren Of all of their suffering May Allah
make us the ones to carry their burdens
When the moment comes For us to contribute
in meaningful ways And in difficult ways May
Allah let us be ready