Zia Sheikh – Ramadan Reminders Day 14
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AI: Transcript ©
I would like to continue with the theme
that I started yesterday and the issue of
the Munafiqeen and their habits that were mentioned
in Surah At-Tawbah.
Allah SWT, He brings about towards the end
of Surah At-Tawbah or in the last
quarter or so of the Tawbah, the word
Uthar again and again.
And the root letter Uthar, what does Uthar
mean?
Everybody knows?
Uthar?
Excuse right?
In Urdu we say Uthar.
In Arabic Uthar.
And from that you have many many words
that are used again and again.
Okay, so these Munafiqeen, they basically, when the
Prophet SAW was before going to Ghazbat Tabuk,
they were making excuses and when the Prophet
SAW came back, they were making excuses.
So the reason they wanted to stay behind
was that they basically didn't want to go
because it was a very difficult expedition and
they didn't want to deal with the hardship.
Allah SWT disclosed what they were saying amongst
them.
Allah SWT says, The
ones that stayed behind, they became happy at
staying behind and they disliked to go and
strive in the path of Allah SWT and
they also told each other, don't go out
in the heat.
Don't go out in the heat.
Allah SWT responded to that excuse of theirs,
Tell them that the fire of * is
more severe.
Now this is something that we, this is
the lesson we need to learn.
That what kind of excuses we present to
ourselves whenever we want to do something which
is related to the religion.
Getting up for Fajr prayer, it's too cold.
All we need to do is remind ourselves,
The severity of the hellfire is much more
than that.
Going for Dhuhr to the Masjid, oh it's
too hot outside and I'm fasting.
Remind yourself, the fire of * is more
severe.
This statement of Allah SWT is something that
we need to keep in mind at all
times.
And when we look at the balance of
our actions, when it comes to our worldly
deeds, When it comes to maybe going for
work, going to our business, going to an
invitation from somebody, How particular we are in
making sure that we do what we can
in terms of getting there on time.
And we don't delay, and we wear the
nicest clothes, and we're very punctual.
All of these things when it comes to
worldly things.
But when it comes to the spiritual side
of our lives, The Shaytan and our Nafs
basically push us to make excuses.
So we need to respond to our excuses
all the time by reminding ourselves of the
statement of Allah SWT To the Munafiqeen, that
the hellfire is much more severe than the
comfort that you're seeking in your beds, The
comfort that you're seeking in your homes, and
all the rest of it.
This is a very beautiful reminder for ourselves
at all times, When we find that laziness
is setting in, in our actions.
Going on to one of the stories of
Raeesul Munafiqeen, The head of the hypocrites, whose
name was Abdullah ibn Ubayy ibn Saloon.
This person had given the Prophet SAW the
hardest time.
But at the time of his death, his
son had come and requested the Prophet SAW
to give his shirt to him, So that
his shirt could be used as a coffin
for his father.
So the Prophet SAW gave it.
So again, we look at the mercy of
the Prophet SAW, that despite being given such
a hard time, Throughout his life, the Prophet
SAW, he succumbed and he gave him his
shirt.
And then on top of that, when the
time came for his janazah, he set out
to also perform his janazah.
And when he's about to do that, Umar
RA, he stops him for a minute.
He said, Ya Rasulullah, you know what he's
been doing throughout his life.
You know he is a munafiq, you know
he's a hypocrite, you know he's been giving
us so many difficulties.
And he's been putting us so many hurdles
in our life.
So why is it that you are going
to perform the janazah upon him?
The Prophet SAW said, that Allah SWT has
actually given me a choice.
Earlier in the surah, Allah SWT said, Make
istighfar for them or don't make istighfar for
them.
But at the same time he said, If
you are to make istighfar for them 70
times, Allah is not going to forgive them.
So with this, the Prophet SAW said, that
Allah SWT has actually given me a choice,
Whether to make istighfar for them or not.
So therefore, I'm going to pray salatul janazah
upon him.
And then after that, the verse was revealed,
Again, one of those verses, which just happened
to be muafiqat of Umar, Which agreed with
the sentiment of Umar RA, That do not
stand upon the person when any of them
passes away, And don't stand on his grave,
meaning don't perform salatul janazah upon him, And
do not stand on his grave.
So after that, the Prophet SAW was forbidden
from performing salatul janazah upon any of the
munafiqeen.
And he was also told by Allah SWT,
who actually were the munafiqeen.
This was disclosed to the Prophet SAW, which
one of the people were hypocrites in their
midst.
And he didn't tell anybody about this except
for one person, Hudaifah ibn al-Yaman.
Hudaifah ibn al-Yaman was a sahabi, his
nickname is, The keeper of the secret of
the Prophet SAW.
And the Prophet, he disclosed all of the
names of the munafiqeen to him, And he
told him not to tell anyone.
So afterwards, during the course of the life
of the Prophet SAW, It used to just
so happen that whenever any of these people
used to die, The Prophet SAW used to
be busy somewhere else, either on a travel
or something like that.
So the Prophet was never at any of
the janazahs of those people that have been
listed.
And then after the Prophet SAW passed away,
The people used to look to see if
Hudaifah was participating in the janazah or not.
If Hudaifah wasn't participating, Then they used to
realize that this was probably one of the
munafiqeen, This was probably one of the hypocrites.
But I just want you to focus on
one story that I'll finish with.
Umar ibn al-Yaman once came to Hudaifah
and asked him, The Prophet SAW, he disclosed
this list of munafiqeen to you, Why don't
you tell me who they are, so that
we can be aware of these people.
So Hudaifah said, I cannot, because this is
the secret of the Prophet SAW.
And before I finish the story, why did
the Prophet SAW didn't disclose to the people?
This is again something that is true leadership
that is being displayed, That he did not
want to create factions in the midst of
his ummah.
He didn't want to create people splitting up,
And showing that he as a leader was
splitting people up and splitting up the jamaat.
So he disclosed the secret to Hudaifah, But
he told people, he told him not to
tell anybody.
So again we need to learn from this,
That the focus of a community always should
be unity, To try to unite people, not
to split up people, Try to keep as
united as possible.
This is what we learn from what the
Prophet SAW did.
Anyway, Umar ibn al-Yaman approached Hudaifah and
said, Why don't you tell me this list
of munafiqeen?
Hudaifah said, No, I cannot tell you because
it is the secret of the Prophet SAW.
And listen to what Umar ibn al-Yaman
said.
He said, At least tell me one thing.
At least tell me, is my name on
that list or not?
Can you imagine that?
This was the sahabi about whom the Prophet
SAW said, That if there was ever a
prophet to come after me, it would be
Umar.
Verses were revealed in agreement with Umar ibn
al-Yaman.
He was the second khalifa after the Prophet
SAW.
He was one of the 10 who had
been promised Jannah, But he wanted to satisfy
himself by saying, Is my name on that
list or not?
And just think of ourselves, We think that
just because we said La ilaha illallah, We
have the ticket to Jannah, right?
And how much we need to really self
-reflect, And think about where we are in
terms of our iman, In terms of our
a'mal, In terms of the sins that we
commit.
And yet, despite all of those things, We
still think, you know, That we are entering
into paradise without any kind of reckoning.
So this is a huge lesson that we
learn from the statement of Umar ibn al
-Yaman.
I pray that Allah SWT gives us tawfiq
to understand and practice what has been said
and heard.