Zia Sheikh – Muhasabah
AI: Summary ©
The speakers discuss the meaning of " muhas" in French language and how it relates to deeds. They stress the importance of evaluating oneself and setting boundaries before praying. The speakers also emphasize the importance of fulfilling multiple obligations to avoid sin and pray five times a day for health and productivity. The importance of connections with Allah for better life and a better death experience is emphasized.
AI: Summary ©
This is Imam Zia speaking to you from
the Islamic Center of Irving and what I'd
like to talk to you about is the
issue of muhasabah.
What is muhasabah?
In loose terms, the meaning is evaluation and
just like we have evaluations for ourselves at
work and in our daily life, similarly it's
important to have a constant spiritual evaluation of
ourselves too.
And how do you do that?
First of all, before we get into the
method, let's talk about the saying of Umar
radiya Allah ta'ala anhu who said, حَاسِبُوا
أَنفُسَكُمْ قَبْلَ أَن تُحَاسَبُوا وَزِينُوا أَعْمَالَكُمْ قَبْلَ أَن
تُزَنُوا What does that mean?
Umar radiya Allah ta'ala anhu, he said,
evaluate yourselves before you are evaluated, meaning by
Allah subhana wa ta'ala, and weigh your
deeds before your deeds are weighed, meaning again
by Allah subhana wa ta'ala on the
Day of Judgment.
So how does one evaluate oneself and how
does one weigh one's deeds?
Many people think that Islam and practicing Islam
is very, very difficult and many, many people
because of maybe some hadith that they've heard
or verses that they've heard or talk of
the hellfire or talk of the punishment, they
kind of lose hope about their future with
Allah subhana wa ta'ala.
And what is important to understand is that
Islam is really very, very easy to implement
in one's life.
It's not difficult at all.
On a daily basis, a person simply needs
to do more good deeds than bad deeds.
Very, very simple.
It cannot be much simpler than that.
And that is why this concept of muhasabah
is so important.
A person, he, before going to sleep, thinks
to himself, how many good deeds did I
do?
How many obligations of Allah subhana wa ta
'ala did I fulfill?
How many obligations did I not fulfill?
How many commandments of Allah subhana wa ta
'ala did I break today?
How many sins did I commit today?
How many major sins, how many minor sins?
How many people did I hurt today with
my talk?
How many people did I ridicule today?
How many people did I backbite today?
So when a person does this on a
constant basis, next time he does it, he
will check himself.
He will stop himself and he will prevent
himself from doing that bad deed and falling
into that sin.
And then slowly but surely, he will find
that when he evaluates himself at night before
going to sleep, he will find that his
good deeds are indeed outweighing his bad deeds.
And if a person feels that, for example,
that he didn't pray isha before going to
bed, immediately he will get up and pray
his isha prayer.
And in the morning he will make sure
that he sets his alarm for the fajr
prayer.
And so on.
There are many many hadith that talk about
this concept of kind of doing good deeds
to counter bad deeds.
According to one hadith of the Prophet ﷺ,
Follow up a bad deed with a good
deed and this good deed will delete the
bad deed.
And it's mentioned about the angels that are
writing down our deeds on the right and
left shoulders.
It's mentioned that when a person intends to
do a good deed, the angel writes down
a good deed immediately.
Whatever he intended to do.
And then when the person actually does that
good deed, the angel writes that deed tenfold.
Minimum.
And it can increase depending on the situation,
like in the month of Ramadan or the
place.
Like if a person does it in Makkah
in the Haram, it is multiplied a hundred
thousand times.
So different situations make that deed multiplied many
many times over.
However, in the case of the bad deed,
if a person intends to do a bad
deed, this is not written as a sin
against him.
But when he does the bad deed, he
is the angel who writes the bad deeds.
He is instructed not to write the bad
deed until the person has had an opportunity
to actually make tawbah and repent and ask
Allah for forgiveness for the sin.
So this is actually so important for us
to understand the importance and relevance of the
Salah itself.
Why do we pray five times a day?
There are many many reasons and many many
wisdoms.
And one of them is getting a connection
with Allah and making sure that we are
always aware of Allah.
But one of the most important things is
that when a person prays his five times
daily prayer, then the sins that are committed
in between the prayers, they get deleted and
they get forgiven.
And that's why the Prophet gave an example
to the Sahaba.
And he said that if a person has
a running stream in front of his house
and he bathes in that running stream five
times a day, would there be any kind
of dirt left on his body?
The Sahaba said of course not.
So the Prophet, first of all, he said
it's a running stream.
And a running stream, it has clean, fresh
running water rather than a stationary lake or
a pond which has stationary water which can
become stagnant and smelling and have like algae
all over it.
But the running stream, it is always fresh
water.
So the person is bathing himself in fresh
water five times a day.
So is there going to be any sin
left upon him, any kind of dirt left
upon him?
The Sahaba said there's not going to be
any dirt.
So the Prophet said that this is the
example of the prayer that a person prays.
So if a person, he did commit a
sin, then he prays the next Salat, his
sins will get omitted because of that.
So basically the summary of what I'm trying
to say is that we need to constantly
evaluate ourselves and make sure that we are
doing the obligations and the good deeds that
we are instructed to do.
And slowly but surely, the more we do
the good deeds, the more we develop a
connection with Allah SWT, the more we continue
to evaluate ourselves, we will find that slowly
but surely, those bad deeds are being eliminated
from our life and we are becoming a
better, more pious person, getting closer and closer
to Allah SWT.
And this is the ideal thing that we
are supposed to be doing before we leave
this world, to have this deep connection with
Allah SWT so much so that when the
time comes for our death, we are ready
and willing and eager to meet our Creator.
So this is, in a nutshell, the purpose
of Muhasaba, evaluation for ourselves, so that slowly
but surely, our bad deeds are eliminated from
our lives and the good deeds outweigh the
bad deeds and we do more good deeds
rather than the bad deeds.
I pray that Allah SWT gives me and
you and everyone the Tawfiq to understand and
practice what has been said and heard.
Jazakum Allah Khayran for listening.
Assalamu Alaikum Warahmatullahi Wabarakatuh