Emulating The Date Palm: Qualities Of A Steadfast Muslim

The Muslim and the Date Palm Tree

As-salamu alaykum wa rahmatullahi wa barakatuhu. In the name of Allah, the Most Beneficent, the Most Merciful. My dear respected brothers and sisters, Allah Azza wa Jal has placed us in this earth for His worship.

And that is our sole purpose in this life. That we find the different ways and we study the different ways to be obedient to Allah Azza wa Jal. And through that we look at the hadith, we look at the Sahaba, and we find the different examples and the different comparisons that they set forth of how we can be better believers.

How we can further fulfill this role that Allah Azza wa Jal has given us as Muslims. And how we can fit that perfect picture of a Muslim, and become that perfect Muslim.

The Hadith of the Date Palm Tree

On one occasion, Nabi ﷺ was sitting with the Sahaba, and he asked them — he told them that amongst the trees:

(Sahih al-Bukhari, Hadith 61; Sahih Muslim, Book 44, Hadith 2811)

"From amongst the trees, there is a tree that its leaves do not fall. And it is an example of a Muslim. So tell me, what is this tree?"

So the Sahaba began to think about the different trees in the area. They began to think of this tree, that tree, and so on and so forth. And Abdullah ibn Umar, رضي الله عنه, was sitting amongst them. He thought to himself that this must be the date tree, the palm tree. But he felt a bit shy, because there were other Sahaba of the ranks of Abu Bakr, رضي الله عنه, and Umar, رضي الله عنه, sitting amongst him. So he felt shy, and he didn't want to speak while they were quiet. So he decided not to say anything.

Eventually, the Sahaba asked Nabi ﷺ, "What is this tree?" And Nabi ﷺ said:

"This is the date palm tree."

And soon after, Abdullah ibn Umar, رضي الله عنه, was sitting with his father, Umar, رضي الله عنه, and he told him that he had known exactly which tree Nabi ﷺ was speaking of. But he didn't want to speak up, because he felt shy — there were other greater Sahaba in front of him.

And from this, one thing that we learn — as Umar, رضي الله عنه, as soon as he heard this, the first thing he said was, "Oh my dear boy, if you had said this, this would have made me more proud than anything else that you could have ever done."

The Lesson: Never Be Shy in Seeking Knowledge

So the first thing that we learn from this hadith is that whenever it comes to ilm, whenever it comes to seeking knowledge, we should never feel shy to ask. The one who feels shy to ask, the one who feels shy to continue to learn, he will never learn more. So whenever we get a chance, we should always continue to ask. And we should continue to seek more knowledge.

The Quranic Parable in Surah Ibrahim

But the parable that Nabi ﷺ set forth here was not just from the hadith — this is something that comes in the Quran as well. Allah Azza wa Jal says in Surah Ibrahim:

"Do you not see how Allah Azza wa Jal compares a good word to a good tree? That its roots are firm, and its branches reach the sky. Always yielding its fruit in every season, by the will of its Lord. And Allah Azza wa Jal sets forth examples for the people, so perhaps they will be mindful."

And this comparison of a date palm tree and a Muslim is something that the scholars derive many, many different examples from.

The Qualities of the Date Palm and the Believer

1. Firmly Rooted — أَصْلُهَا ثَابِتٌ

The first of them is أَصْلُهَا ثَابِتٌ — that its roots are firm.

Nabi ﷺ mentions that as the Day of Qiyamah comes closer, the fitan will be more and more extreme. In one hadith:

(Sunan Abu Dawud, Hadith 4259; Sunan al-Tirmidhi, Hadith 2196)

"Most definitely, before the Hour comes, there will be trials and tribulations like a black night." This will be such that you won't be able to tell the difference between what is right and between what is wrong. There will be such fitan, such calamities, that you will be confused. Someone will say, "Oh, I'm doing this, no one is getting hurt, what's wrong with this?" But if you look at Islam and you look at the deen of Allah Azza wa Jal, then you will find that this is something which is not allowed.

And these days will be such that someone in the morning may be a believer, and in the evening may be a disbeliever. In the evening there may be a believer, and the next morning there may be a disbeliever. And these trials will be such that only a true Muslim will stay firm.

So the first example of the date palm tree — أَصْلُهَا ثَابِتٌ — its roots are firmly rooted in the ground. No matter what storm is going through the area, no matter how harsh the winds, whatever is happening outside, the date palm tree always stays strong. It always remains firm, just like the Muslim. No matter what difficulties it's facing, no matter what different fitan, what different trials are going on around the Muslim, the Muslim is always going to remain strong.

2. Leaves That Do Not Fall — Taqwa That Remains

Nabi ﷺ said: لَا يَسْقُطُ وَرَقُهَا — its leaves will not fall.

Now if any of us have ever traveled to the Middle East and seen these huge date palm trees — whether we go in the summer or in the winter, we'll always find that they have leaves. And these are the same trees. It's not like one tree falls in the summer and another tree replaces it in the winter. Rather, these are the same trees, and the ones which had leaves in the summer — those are the same leaves which continue until the winter.

So just like that, a believer will always have its leaves of taqwa. Whatever test it's going through, its leaves of taqwa will remain.

Allah Azza wa Jal says in Surah al-Baqarah:

"And We will certainly test you with something of fear, and hunger, and loss in wealth, and in yourselves, and in your fruits. And give glad tidings to those who are patient." You will be tested. But it is on you — will you be like a date palm tree, or will you be like some other tree that will fall?

Whatever the date palm tree is going through, its leaves always stay up there. So just like that, a believer — whatever it is going through, whatever trials Allah has made it face — the believer will always remain strong upon his patience. He will never give up. He will never say that this trial is too much for me. Rather he will always stay firm, and his leaves will always remain.

3. Fruit in Every Season — تُؤْتِي أُكُلَهَا كُلَّ حِينٍ

تُؤْتِي أُكُلَهَا كُلَّ حِينٍ بِإِذْنِ رَبِّهَا — its fruits are always there to eat in every season.

And these dates — they don't only last on top of the tree. Even after they're taken off from the tree, even after they're in your living room, they sit there for years and years, months and months, and nothing happens to them. And in the hadith, Nabi ﷺ mentioned so many benefits — from amongst them the ajwa dates. Whoever eats seven ajwa dates every morning, that person is protected from any poison and any sihr from that day. And that's just one of so many different examples, so many different ahadith, where Nabi ﷺ mentioned the benefits that can be derived from the dates.

And just like that, a believer — when you have a believer, you leave him in a town where it's just him, he'll slowly begin to have an effect on everyone else. He'll start with the person next to him, and then next to him, and next to him, and so on and so forth. Whether it be mentally, physically, or spiritually. A believer is always ready to help those who are around him. Even when the conditions are going against the believer, when it is only one believer amongst many, many disbelievers, you will find that this believer will go beyond his means. He would go as far as he can so that he can benefit as many people as possible.

4. The Heart of the Palm — Spirituality Within

Another example is the center of the tree — they call it the heart of the palm. Now this is a vegetable, some people eat it. But beyond that, it is the core of the tree. And this is such that without it, the date palm is not able to survive. The date palm will eventually die out.

And just like that, the Muslims also have something in their center. They have their heart. They have their spirituality. And that is what fires them. That is what pushes them forward. That even when they have nothing, when all the means have closed, when all the doors have closed, you will find the believers pushing forward for no reason other than they have belief in Allah Azza wa Jal. When all the asbab are not there, when you see you have nothing in your bank account, you still push forward, you still give some sort of sadaqa, because you have belief in Allah.

I was once speaking to a doctor a few weeks ago, and he mentioned how he works in the ER department where there are a lot of addicts, a lot of people who are addicted to drugs who would come in. And one thing he noticed in all of these individuals is that they're missing something within them. Even those who are Hindus, those who are Christians, they still have something — some sort of belief. But those individuals who have nothing, those atheists who have nothing to believe in — when they go to the doctor, the doctor can see that these individuals had nothing. They felt empty inside. So they started to look around, they started to find other means of fulfilling that spirituality, other means of filling their inside, and they ended up in a bad situation.

So just like that, the Muslims — we have something. We have Allah Azza wa Jal, we have our spirituality. And that is why we must be on top of our dhikr, we must be on top of our duas. When all the doors are closed, we can turn to Allah Azza wa Jal, we can raise our hands, we can make dua, we can do dhikr.

The Parable of the Evil Tree — The Disbeliever

And Allah Azza wa Jal doesn't stop at the parable of the good tree. He also explains the disbeliever:

"The parable of an evil word is of an evil tree, uprooted from the earth, having no stability."

Outwardly, you may have two trees that look exactly the same. But the second you bring in a professional, the second you look closer at that tree, you will find that there's hollow — there's nothing inside. When you push it, it will easily fall. And that's someone who doesn't have كَلِمَةً طَيِّبَةً — someone who doesn't have firm belief in the kalima, لَا إِلٰهَ إِلَّا اللهُ مُحَمَّدٌ رَسُولُ اللهِ. They may seem strong, they may seem like they're pushing forward. But if you start to question them, if you start to push them a little bit, then you'll find that truly there's nothing inside.

But a believer — there's something there. There is still the heart of the palm, there is still that spirituality, there is still something inside which is pushing the believer to do dhikr, pushing the believer to pray their salah, pushing the believer to come to the masjid.

"Allah Azza wa Jal keeps the believers firm with the stable word in the worldly life and in the Hereafter. And Allah Azza wa Jal lets the unjust, the oppressors, go astray. And Allah Azza wa Jal does whatever He wills."

A New Year — A New You

Now, my dear brothers, as this new year comes upon us, a lot of the time people make new year resolutions — they say that in this new year, I'm going to lose this many pounds, I'm going to start this business, I'm going to do this, I'm going to do that. But many times we tend to forget about our deen. How far do we want to improve? How far do we want to go forward in our deen in this next year?

When Ramadan comes along, will we be starting our first Quran of the year? Or will we have 2, 3, 4 Qurans done before that? Will it be our first time praying our sunnah salah when Ramadan comes? Or will we be praying 12, 14 rakat of sunnah every single day until Ramadan?

My dear brothers, the new year should be a new us. That if we were doing this many salawat, if we were doing this many istighfar before the year started, then after the year begins we should be doing double, we should be doing triple that amount. We should set our goals high, we should set our goals lofty. We would want to become like that date palm tree that Nabi ﷺ mentioned — that palm tree which is firmly rooted, that palm tree which, no matter what is going on around it, will always push forward, will always stand tall, will always benefit others.

Every Part of the Palm Tree Is Beneficial

There are so many other examples, so many other things that the scholars derive from this. Every single part of a palm tree is beneficial. You can use the leaves, you can use the bark, you can use the heart, you can use the dates. So many parts — even within the date, you can use the date seed. There are so many medicinal practices, so many medicinal benefits from the date palm and from the date seed.

That's how beneficial a Muslim should be. Whatever situation a Muslim is in, whatever a Muslim is doing, he will always benefit those who are around him. Whether he wants to benefit or he doesn't want to benefit — whether he's sleeping in a corner, or sitting down making dua, or doing active da'wah — people can look at the Muslim and they can derive some sort of benefit. SubhanAllah, that person is sleeping, just like Nabi ﷺ — he's following the sunnah. That person is doing dhikr — we should also do dhikr. That person is calling towards Allah — maybe we should learn something from him.

The tree also helps those around it. One tree, if it's standing alone, will only feed itself. But if you have a bunch of trees in one area, then it shares nutrients, it shares with the other trees which are around it, and it helps those other trees grow. So just like that, a Muslim — if you put him in a Muslim country, if you put him in an area with a lot of Muslims, then they come together and they grow stronger. But if you put him in an area with no Muslims at all, he will still benefit. He will come and he will reach out to the non-Muslims and he will make them Muslim. And that is the proof, those are the qualities of a believer. The believers are always pushing forward, always trying to be firm, be steadfast in their deen. And they're always trying to make Allah happy.

Let Your Iman Grow This Year

Just like the date tree, when you plant it, it is nothing. It is small. But we slowly improve — we do more dua, we pray more salah, we do more adhkar. And we find that slowly, slowly, as time goes on, we will become closer to Allah Azza wa Jal. Just as time goes on and you water the tree and you allow the tree to grow, so too we allow our iman to grow.

So we should make this year a year of growth. That this year, our iman will double what it was last year. Our iman will triple what it was last year. We will find scholars, we will find people of the deen, and we will become close to them. We will find individuals who are following the sunnah, and we will make them our friends. We will find ourselves in places where the Muslims are. We will find ourselves sitting in the first saf. We will find ourselves waiting for salah after salah.

Instead of saying, "Oh, I have to go pray salah," now we will say, "Yes, we have to go pray salah." We will say, "Yes, I have to go do dhikr." We will say, "Yes, it's time to go make dua. It's time to go talk to Allah."

My dear brothers, Nabi ﷺ set forth that example of a date palm tree so we can listen, so we can aim to become like that tree. So I ask that Allah Azza wa Jal gives us all the ability to become like that date palm tree. And we ask that Allah Azza wa Jal allows us to improve as this new year comes. And we ask that Allah makes us from amongst the sabireen, from amongst the shakireen, from amongst those who are close to Him.

أَقُولُ قَوْلِي هَذَا وَأَسْتَغْفِرُ اللهَ لِي وَلَكُمْ وَلِسَائِرِ الْمُسْلِمِينَ فَاسْتَغْفِرُوهُ إِنَّهُ هُوَ الْغَفُورُ الرَّحِيمُ

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