Zakariyya Harnekar – Naseehah Hadith contagion and pandemics 21st March 2021
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AI: Transcript ©
Once again. Sorry. I was muted for a
bit.
Yes,
What's
are we doing today?
Last week, we we
discussed from this book again. I think today,
maybe
maybe the last day that I focus on
this compilation of a hadith, and we may
move to something else next week.
But last week, we discussed the idea
of of ease that exists in the sharia,
of ease that exists in deen.
And
that sounds like a little bit
counterintuitive
to us, because,
oftentimes, our exposure to Dean from the time
when we're young is like, it's difficult. You
have to do this. You have to do
that. You can't do this. You can't do
that. And,
sometimes it seems stifling, and at other times,
it feels burdensome
because of,
for for many of us, because of,
you know,
how the deen is presented to us. But
when we study deen,
when we study the Sharia,
and we study the objectives of the Sharia,
and we study all of those things,
we we see the scholars actually saying that
Allah,
not just the scholars. Allah says it in
the Quran, actually, that Allah wants ease for
us. Allah doesn't want difficulty. That the Sharia
is there to bring us ease. The Sharia
is not there to bring us difficulty. The
Quran is there to bring us,
ease. The Quran is not there to burden
us.
We didn't send this Quran to you that
you can dispay or become
miserable or be burdened. Allah says, elsewhere in
the Quran, you read Allah. You read
also. Allah wants ease for you. He doesn't
want difficulty for you.
And so we looked at that aspect of
deen, and the idea that when Allah makes
things easy for you via dispensations,
then
it's actually part of piety
to do those things, to appreciate that, and
to do the lesser thing.
The thing that is less taxing,
out of appreciation for the gift that Allah
gave you, which, again, seems counterintuitive. It it
usually seems
more difficulty,
better.
But the reality is is, that you don't
get rewarded simply for
for voluntarily
taking upon yourself difficult things.
No. If that difficulty doesn't have a a
greater objective,
then you're just being foolish.
If you have no say in the difficulty
that comes upon you, like you are afflicted
by something, then Allah expiates your sins for
that for that difficulty that you undergo, even
though you're doing nothing but having patience.
So those are important,
important things to understand, to shape our our
understanding of Islam.
Islam is not there to make your life
difficult. Quran is not there to make your
life difficult. Sharia is not there to make
your life difficult. In fact, they are all
there to bring
about
ease, to bring about comfort,
and
in
the short term and in the long term,
for the individual and for the society.
That's what we must understand and appreciate
about the Sharia of ours.
What Rasulullah SAW Alaihi Wasallam came to teach
us.
Right? And,
the the discussion after that in the book
has to do with taking medication. And I
don't think I really need to focus on,
on that too much. We already we already,
discussed the idea of
using the means
using whatever means are available to us, whilst
placing our trust in in Allah
So when I get the flu, when I
get sick, when I do any of those
things, I don't have to
not
use the means that are available. No. My
understanding should be that we were made aware
of these means of medication,
by Allah Subhanahu Wa Ta'ala. Allah is the
one that made this knowledge accessible to us.
I'm not trying to go against what Allah
wants.
Allah caused me sickness by me taking medicine.
I'm not going against what Allah wants from
us. No. Allah is the one that made
us aware of this information. He allowed us
to have access to,
the knowledge that enables
medication.
Allah all of it comes from Allah
What Allah does want from us,
is that in addition to using the means,
we recognize that Allah is the cause.
You can
you know, this is something that I that
I think is very important, you know. Even
when we teach our children,
yeah. You're feeling sick, whatever. I'm gonna give
you some,
Bernardo, whatever the case may be.
But,
you know, it's Allah that cures
you. Even if it's a simple thing. With
my little boy, I tried to tell him,
okay. He knocks himself. He gets sore. First
thing he must do is he must lift
his hands. Yeah, Shafi.
And it's it's a small little thing,
but now he knows his his
dependences on Allah
Afterwards, we can go put on a plaster.
We can do whatever,
but
you must never forget Allah in the equation.
And so I thought we read,
some ideas.
So so number 1, we know that taking
the means doesn't
taking the means doesn't contradict
our idea of.
No.
That's at all.
Just like taking precautions
wasn't against Tawakkul, so too, as taking medication
and things like that, or even precautionary medication
like vaccinations doesn't go against our idea of
Tawakkul.
We know that you can never escape the
Qadr of Allah. No matter what action you
undertake, that action is part of the Qadr
of Allah. It's part of Takdir. It's part
of destiny.
So our understanding is no matter what, you
can never run away from destiny.
Right? We are not like those who
who
tell the people, the Muslims, at the time
of the battle of Og,
that, you know,
had they not gone out,
They would not have died. No. They have
been killed.
They said,
you know, if they remained there with us,
instead of going out to fight, if they
remained there, they wouldn't have died, no, they'd
been killed. No. No. No.
We our understanding is like Allah explains after
that.
Even if they had stayed at home,
if death was prescribed for them, they would
have presented themselves at the place of death,
at the time
of death. Right? Like, we have that story
of Suleyman alaihis salam. Somebody was
I think it was Suleyman alaihis salam. He
ordered the wind to take him to some
faraway place, and then the angel of death
was waiting for him there.
And then he said the angel of death
told him, you know,
I myself was confused, because I was I
was,
commanded to take your soul at, you know,
some faraway place, but I found a moment
before that you were elsewhere.
And so you thought you were running away
from death, but you were actually running to
the place that your soul was supposed to
be taken at.
So that's our understanding. There is no fleeing
from the victory of Allah.
We don't even attempt to do that. We
don't even think to do that. Ours is
the mindset of
we're simply doing what we're doing, because we
think that pleasing to Allah Subhanahu Wa Ta'ala.
As for the outcomes,
we leave that all to Allah.
Whether the outcomes are seemingly good or seemingly
bad, it doesn't matter.
The outcome is what Allah wanted the outcome
to be.
My responsibility is simply to respond to that
in the correct manner,
either with gratitude
or with patience.
If I'm expressing either gratitude or patience, then
I'm doing what is pleasing to Allah again.
And the outcome of my actions now,
that's fine, whatever they are.
But when those outcomes or consequences come, then
again,
the question is not what those consequences are.
The question is, how do I respond to
them? Will I be patient? Will I be
grateful?
If my response was one of those 2,
then that in that,
you know, cycle of of of actions and
responses,
I've been successful.
But that's it.
That's it. I wanted to mention some hadith
about this idea.
That as Muslims,
yes, we take physical means,
but we also take spiritual means.
There also means
there also means,
but we never ever forget to take these
spiritual means. I wanted to read some of
these hadith. Because, you know, in this discourse,
in this,
you know, encouragement to take the physical means,
The encouragement is not to become solely focused
on the material. No.
We must remember
that the main component of us transcends the
material. Our spiritual
heart, all of those elements of us, they
transcend the material.
It transcends the material.
Even our Haqqal,
and we must remind ourselves of that. Our
objective,
our goal in this life is to know
Allah
and to devote ourselves to him. Right? So
we read some of these hadith.
Rasulullah sallallahu alaihi wa sallam said to his
uncle, Akhiriduaa
bilafiya.
Akhir, we know from kathir, to do something
abundantly.
So
actually,
make a lot of
Dua. Pray profusely
for Afiyyah. What's Afiyyah?
Afiyyah is ease. Afiyyah is comfort. Afiyyah is
good health. Afiyyah is like the most
encompassing word that you can use for,
you know, for a good state.
So what is Rasool Allah sallallahu alaihi wa
sallam's
advice? He said, don't want hardship. Don't bring
hardship upon yourself. Make dua ask
Allah
abundantly
to give you ease and comfort and and
good health and all of those things.
In another hadith, Rasulullah salallahu alaihi wa sallam
Rasulullah
said
that there is no prayer
that the Abd, meaning the slave of Allah,
may make that is more beloved to Allah
than saying,
Oh,
Allah, you want me safety and ease and
comfort in this life and the next.
But sometimes we have this idea, we must
want hardship, we must want difficulty to know.
Rasulullah
says, most beloved du'a that you can make
to Allah is, oh, Allah grant me ease
in this dunya and akhir. Grant me comfort
in this dunya and akhir. Grant me safety
in this dunya and akhir.
The important thing is, yes, you want that
ease, but
the the the listener is who do we
seek it from?
We don't just seek it in the means.
We don't just seek it in,
in in in doing more work or in
taking more means. No. We do it by
spiritual means. We direct our request to Allah
subhanahu wa ta'ala.
Right? This Adi teaches us that that that
that all of yours is beloved to Allah,
and Allah is the one that gives more.
Another hadith,
Abu Bakr radiallahu anhu says,
who
and narration,
he calls,
once Abu Bakr radiallahu anhu, you are standing
on the mimba,
on the pulpit. And he said that once
in the 1st year, in the 1st year
of the hijrah,
Rasulullah
Sallallahu Alaihi Wasallam stood on the mimba. Then
Abu Bakr
started to cry.
And Abu Bakr
was a soft hearted man. Allah
grant us soft hearts
like
he's
he started to cry, and then he said,
and I think he just he was crying,
recalling the fact that
the thoughts of the time when he was
with Rasulullah Sallallahu Alaihi Wasallam. Rafael,
He said that Rasulullah salallahu alaihi wa sallam
told the people,
ask Allah for afor walafiya. Ask Allah
for forgiveness, and ask Allah for safety.
I don't like to just translate the word
Afiyya safety. Afiyya means, like, all of those
things. Safety companies, all of those
things.
Because
after a man, a person or after certainty
and conviction, there is nothing better that a
person can be given
than Afiya.
But again, the focus is on what? Where
do you seek that Afiya from? Building fortresses?
Building,
you know, earning having more wealth? No.
The first port of call is to turn
to Allahu Subhanahu
Wa Ta'ala.
And another so these are all important to
us. I mean, what we're learning is make
dua. What dua are we learning to make?
Very simple dua.
Or
you can just say
Allah. Oh, Allah, I'm asking you for Afiyyah.
And another
hadith, another du'a told to us, Rasulullah Sallallahu
Alaihi Wasallam, Rasulullah
Sallallahu Alaihi Wasallam said,
Allah
Oh, Allah, I seek protection
in you from
your favors upon me seizing.
And from the reversal of your of your
granting me safety and and and comfort.
And
from punishment coming from you,
suddenly.
And I see protection you, oh Allah, from
all of your
your anger and your displeasure.
So these are some duas that we learn.
The importance the what I wanted to point
out in reading this hadith today is simply
the fact that despite our encouragement being all
the time to to use the means, use
the means, use the means, we must never
forget that Dua is first.
Allah is first. We take the most direct
means first.
All results,
all effects come from Allah.
Yes. There are material
means that we can use. That's part of
the system, of course, and effect that Allah
created, but we we always take the first
and most direct means
first. And that direct means is just simply
asking Allah,
the one who brings about all if
We should we should never forget that,
in our understanding
of Islam. That it's that easy.
That easy. Then to Allah, ask of him.
Make this your habit. Make this your way
of life. And then Allah
will respond, Allah never ever turns the asking
hand away from him.
Allah never ever ask turns the asking hand
away from him. May Allah, subhanahu wa ta'ala,
guide us and make us a people of
dua, and the people that though we use
all the means in this world,
we don't live oblivious to that means. We
don't expect miracles in every moment,
but we always turn to him first.
Always turn to him first.
I'm gonna see if we if we're gonna
read some Hadith from the last chapter. Otherwise,
I'll send you, another
population of Hadith as we'll take lessons from.