Attaining the Ultimate Goal Jannah - Hafiz Saim | Islamic Reminder | Jummah Khutbah

Opening — The Khutbah Begins

Amma ba'd. Allah has said in the Noble Qur'an — after seeking refuge from Shaytan the accursed:

And the Prophet ﷺ said — and this is a hadith qudsi — that Allah said:

And then Allah says — recite if you wish:

The Blessing of Jumu'ah

My dear respected brothers and sisters and elders, it is a great blessing of Allah that He has allowed us to come here in His masjid — which is the house of Allah — and He has allowed us to come here to fulfill our obligation which is Salatul Jumu'ah. Allah has made this fard upon us in the Qur'an, and Allah is the one who is giving us the tawfiq to allow us to come here and pray this Salat. It's only from the tawfiq of Allah, and it's such a great thing because it comes in the hadith of Rasulullah ﷺ:

(Sahih Muslim, Book 2, Hadith 574)

That the five daily prayers, from one Jumu'ah to the next Jumu'ah, and from one Ramadan to the next Ramadan — all these are a means of expiation, of forgiveness of sins, of whatever came in between. So inshallah, us coming here and sitting, sacrificing some time out of our lives in order to worship Allah, in order to fulfill the purpose of our life — not only is Allah being grateful to us for this, He is making it a means of forgiving all our sins from the previous Jumu'ah. So it's a great blessing of Allah that He has allowed us to come here and pray Salatul Jumu'ah.

Praising Allah — The Starting Point

On top of this, Allah has given us uncountable blessings. And whenever we start any talk, we should start off with talking about the greatness of Allah, because Allah Himself started the Qur'an with:

All praise and thanks is due to Allah, the Lord of the worlds. And it comes in a hadith of Rasulullah ﷺ:

(Sunan Ibn Majah, Hadith 1894; Abu Dawud, Hadith 4840)

That every matter of importance that is not started with the praise of Allah is deficient. So every time we start, we should start talking about the greatness of Allah and praise Allah.

Allah has given us an uncountable number of blessings, because He says in the Qur'an:

If you were to try to count the blessings of Allah, you would not be able to count them. We can go on for days and days — our entire lives just counting the blessings of Allah — but we cannot count them. Just start off with our own bodies, how Allah has given us health. You go to the hospital and you'll see millions and millions of different sicknesses — that's why it takes so long for a person to become a doctor, because they have to study all these different illnesses and how they can get better. The fact that Allah is keeping us healthy and for the most part we don't have any of these illnesses — such a great blessing of Allah. We could be afflicted with any of these sicknesses at any time but Allah is protecting us from this.

That is why Imam Shafi'i rahimahullah said:

That good health is a crown on the head of the healthy people that only the sick can see. So we should thank Allah for our good health and all the different blessings that He has given us.

The Greatest Blessing: Iman and True Success

But my dear brothers and sisters and elders, the greatest blessing Allah has given us is the blessing of Iman. Without this blessing we would not be able to get any success in this life and the hereafter. Allah tells us the definition of success — everybody has different definitions of success — but Allah tells us the true definition. He says:

The person who has been taken away from the Fire and entered into Jannah — that person has indeed gained success. So this is true success, and the only way we can get away from Jahannam and be entered into Jannah is with Iman. This is a blessing that Allah has granted every single one of us without us deserving it. We all know that we didn't do anything to deserve this Iman, but Allah has specifically chosen us, and so we should constantly thank Allah over and over again.

And what is the benefit of thanking Allah? He says:

If you thank Me then I will increase you in your blessings. We should constantly thank Allah for this Iman that He has given us. And relating to the topic — Allah has made the only key to Jannah the words لَا إِلَٰهَ إِلَّا اللَّهُ مُحَمَّدٌ رَسُولُ اللَّهِ — which we all have.

Why We Must Focus on Jannah

Now I wanted to talk more about Jannah, because we live in a material society. We live in this Dunya. And what is Dunya in terms of the Arabic language? It comes from the word Dunu, which means that which is closest to you. So the Dunya is the thing that we see all the time. We are constantly surrounded by the Dunya — not only that, we are constantly talking about the Dunya, constantly making an effort for the Dunya, always hearing about the Dunya, always looking at the Dunya. And so the Dunya has entered into our hearts. What happens as a result is that we start forgetting about those things that are of the غَيْب — those things which we cannot see — which are for example Allah, the Hereafter, Jannah and Jahannam. All these different things we start to forget about because we are too busy with the Dunya.

So it is very, very important for us to constantly take time out of our lives to remind ourselves about the reality of this life and to remind ourselves about our true purpose and our true destination. Specifically I wanted to talk more about Jannah, because a lot of times we find ourselves living in this life and thinking that we are going to live here forever, and we are trying to make so much effort to make this life the best life. But we don't realize that this is not the true life. This is what Allah calls in the Qur'an:

It's just a joke. The real life is:

The real life is the life of the hereafter. So we have to set our sights towards Jannah — that is our true abode, that is where we came from, that is where we inshallah have to return to. The more we talk about Jannah and the more we hear about Jannah, the more it will become a reality in our hearts. Right now, unfortunately, it is not a real thing to us. We are not actually working towards Jannah — it's just a fairy tale to us that we think about once in a while. We have to build the reality of it into our lives so that we can constantly make an effort, and in every single action that we do we will always be thinking: inshallah, hopefully I will do this good deed and it will gain me a higher rank in Jannah.

The Description of Jannah

This is why we need to talk more about Jannah. I just want to talk a little bit about the description of Jannah. The time isn't too much so I won't go into too much detail, but Allah has filled the Qur'an with so many ayat about the beautiful qualities of Jannah. And even the ahadith of Rasulullah ﷺ — to the extent that ulama have written entire books, thick 500-page books, just about Jannah, just about different things about Jannah. Every single thing you could possibly imagine — the doors, the sand of Jannah, the pebbles of Jannah, the rivers of Jannah — every single aspect of Jannah Rasulullah ﷺ talked about. Why? Because even if you recite the Qur'an, you won't pass a few pages except that Allah is talking about Jannah — you constantly hear جَنَّاتٌ تَجْرِي مِن تَحْتِهَا الْأَنْهَارُ — constantly talking about Jannah. So we can keep on reminding ourselves what our true abode is.

Before starting with the description I just want to mention the hadith qudsi mentioned earlier — that Allah has prepared for His pious slaves that which no eye has ever seen, no ear has ever heard, and no heart has ever even thought of — that which has not even come to a person's heart, where the person cannot even imagine — Allah has prepared that for the people of Jannah. So anything that's mentioned right now, that Allah mentioned in the Qur'an — in reality He just mentioned it so we can understand it — but in reality we can't truly understand the greatness of Jannah. Obviously we need to have some sort of examples; that's why Allah gave us examples in the Qur'an.

Familiarity with Your Home in Jannah

When you first enter into Jannah — you know, when you walk into your house or when you're going towards your house, you have a certain familiarity with the roads around your house and you know exactly how to get there, especially if you've been living there for a long time. You don't need a GPS, you can get there automatically. Same thing with Jannah. Allah says in the Qur'an:

That He will enter them into Jannah, and He has made Jannah familiar — He has made them acquainted with it already. It comes in the tafsir of this ayah that when a person enters into Jannah, he will already know the way to his house. He won't need a GPS or anything like that. He already knows the way to his house as if he's been living there forever.

The Palaces of Jannah

He will go and see his house, and obviously the palaces and the houses are also described in great detail. I won't go into too much detail, but some descriptions that are mentioned:

(Sahih Muslim, Book 40, Hadith 6791)

That there will be such rooms that you will be able to see from the outside to the inside and from the inside to the outside. And the dust, the dirt of it will be made from saffron, and the mortar will be made from musk, and the bricks of it will be made from gold and silver. These are things which you can't even imagine. Sometimes we hear about things like, oh, the prince of such-and-such an Arab country has a toilet made of gold or something like that, and we're amazed — wow, a toilet made of gold! But imagine entire houses, entire palaces made of gold and silver. These are things that Allah has prepared for us in Jannah.

The Rivers of Jannah

Constantly whenever we hear in the Qur'an, Allah also always talks about the rivers of Jannah. He says:

Beneath which rivers are flowing — the gardens beneath which rivers are flowing. So what type of rivers are these, and why does Allah mention rivers? First of all, whenever you see any sort of water, it has a beautiful sight. Naturally we have a tendency to see these sights as beautiful. For example, the Chicago skyline — why do people flock from all over to see it? Because you have Lake Michigan, you have the water next to it which enhances the beauty of the skyline itself. Why do people always want a waterfront house? Why is the dream to buy a waterfront house? Because it's a beautiful sight. And recently I experienced this more when I was hiking one time in Colorado. We were hiking in the mountains and the scenery was already beautiful. All of a sudden we came across a clearing and there was a giant lake, and everybody was just shocked — their breath was taken away by how beautiful it was. The scenery was still exactly the same, but the only difference was that we came across a lake. So this water naturally has a beautiful aspect to it, and with that, every single person is drawn towards it. That's one of the reasons why Allah mentioned rivers over and over again — because it's beautiful. And not only that, we will be able to drink from these rivers as well.

Allah mentioned in the Qur'an there will be four types of rivers. He mentioned this in Surah Muhammad:

Rivers from water which will never change. Rivers of milk which will never become expired — today we buy milk and after 10 days it's done, it's going to be sour, but that milk will never become sour, never become expired. Rivers of wine that will be tasteful to the person who drinks it — you know, even alcohol in this world, most of the time it's not even tasty, as people who have drunk alcohol can tell you. Most of the time it's not even tasty; people just drink it because they want to get drunk, they want to get out of their senses. But the wine in the hereafter — it won't have the bad qualities, it will only have the best qualities, and it will be tasty for the person who drinks it.

That brings me to another point. A lot of times in this world Allah has told us to stay away from certain things — for example, relationships before marriage, for example, alcohol. For example, all these different things that Allah has told men to stay away from — silk, gold, all these different things. Allah has told us to stay away from them in this Dunya. But the beauty of it is we have something to look forward to. We have to stay away from these things for the short amount of time that we are in this world — maybe 30, 40, 50, 60, 70, maximum 90, 100 years. You have to stay away from these things for a small amount of time, but in Jannah, everything that we stayed away from in this Dunya we will be able to get in the hereafter. And that's the beauty of it. That's why Allah specifically mentions alcohol — which He has made prohibited — He specifically mentions that we will have that in Jannah. And that's why He mentions specifically silk for men, that everybody will be wearing beautiful clothing made of silk.

So all those things that we feel we want to do in this Dunya — if we just keep in our minds that we're going to get it in the hereafter, forever, and that's going to be forever and ever — then we won't even want to do those things in this life anymore. Because we know that if we do it in this life there's a chance we might not even get it in the hereafter. And if we did do it in this life, we shouldn't feel hopeless — we should make tawbah and turn to Allah, and hopefully He'll grant it to us in the hereafter as well. But we don't want to take that chance. So this is why Allah tells us about all these different things in the Qur'an.

And the last river that Allah tells us about is عَسَلٌ مُّصَفًّى — the purest of all honey. It doesn't have any beeswax inside the honey; it's all completely pure.

Will We Get Bored of Jannah?

There are so many different aspects of Jannah. Unfortunately we're almost out of time so I won't be able to mention everything in too much detail. But I just wanted to mention a few thoughts that come to our minds when we start thinking about Jannah.

One thing we start thinking about is: we're going to be there forever and ever and ever — won't we get bored? It's the same thing over and over. If you go to one restaurant over and over again, after a while you're going to get bored of it, even if it's the best food you've ever tasted in your life. You eat it for a week straight and you're completely tired of it. You can give that example for anything. So won't we get tired of Jannah and won't we want to move on to something else?

No — because the beauty of Jannah is that the blessings of Jannah will always be increasing, more and more and more. So we'll never ever think about getting tired of it, because it'll always get better. So how could you possibly get tired of it?

Whatever Your Soul Desires

And also, Allah is our Creator. Sometimes people think: in Jannah, all these different things Allah has mentioned — I don't really want these things. Some of these things — okay, it's not that big of a deal. Somebody who has never tasted alcohol before, why would they actually even want alcohol? It's not that big of a deal. But Allah is our Creator. He knows us best. So He knows what we will want, and He will give us whatever we want — it's not limited to these things which are mentioned in the Qur'an and Hadith. Rather, Allah has even told us:

Whatever your soul desires, Allah will give it to you. And:

You will get whatever you want in it, and We have more for you as well. Even our will is limited — we don't even know the best thing that we could possibly want. The highest thing we can think of, Allah will give us even higher than that in the hereafter. Allah knows us best. And He also tells us in the Qur'an:

They will never want to leave this place. So why are we thinking about wanting to leave? It doesn't even make sense if you think about it. Why would you want to leave a place in which the blessings are going to increase over and over and over and over again, forever?

Making Jannah a Reality in Our Hearts

So these are things that we should contemplate and always think about in our minds. We should always ponder about Jannah, think about death, think about the hereafter — until it becomes a reality in our hearts. Because right now these things are not a reality in our hearts, and it is evident by the way we are living our lives. So in order for these things to become a reality in our hearts, we have to talk about them over and over again. We have to sit in gatherings in which these things are mentioned — we talk about Jannah, we talk about Jahannam, we talk about death — so they become a reality to us, so they are not fake to us.

And that's how it was for the Sahaba radiallahu anhum. They used to live as if Jannah and Jahannam were in front of their very eyes. It comes in a hadith of Haritha ibn Malik — that Rasulullah ﷺ asked him: "How are you today?" He said, "I am a believer, O Rasulallah." So Rasulullah ﷺ told him: "Are you a true believer?" He said, "Yes, I am a true believer." So he said, "Every statement has a reality, every statement has a proof — what is the proof of your Iman?" He mentioned a bunch of different things, but one of the things he mentioned was:

(Al-Mu'jam al-Kabir of al-Tabarani; also referenced in Shu'ab al-Iman of al-Bayhaqi)

It is as if I am looking at the people of Jannah visiting one another in Jannah. This is the state of their Iman — that at all times it seemed as if they were actually living the reality: "I am going to enter into Jannah." And every action that they did was predicated on this fact: my final destination is Jannah. They weren't worried about this Dunya. They knew that Rasulullah ﷺ told us that this Dunya is not even worth the wing of a mosquito to Allah. They were more concerned about the hereafter. They knew that if I sacrifice my temporary pleasures in this Dunya for a small period of time, then what's to come is going to be way, way better than that.

The Sahabi Who Passed Away Out of Longing for Jannah

And just to wrap up — one last thing to show the level of yaqeen that the Sahaba radiallahu anhum had in Jannah. There was one Sahabi who asked Rasulullah ﷺ about Jannah, and so Rasulullah ﷺ recited some ayat from Surah Al-Insan — and Surah Al-Insan is a surah that talks in great detail about Jannah (and I recommend everybody to read a translation of this surah — it talks in great detail about Jannah, the beauty and the pleasures of Jannah). And so this Sahabi, after hearing these ayat, passed away — he passed away just from hearing the ayat about Jannah, out of longing. And Rasulullah ﷺ said after that: "Go and bury your companion, because his intense longing for Jannah has killed him." That's how real these things were to them.

Conclusion: Building These Realities in Our Hearts

So we have to build this reality in our hearts as well. Jannah and Jahannam have to become real to us. And that will only come if we put ourselves in environments where, alhamdulillah — over here in the Masjid, every single day after Salatul Isha, we have Ta'leem taking place where the ahadith of Rasulullah ﷺ are being mentioned and Rasulullah ﷺ is always telling us about the غَيْب. So we need to put ourselves in gatherings in which this is talked about more, so that it can become a reality in our hearts. And also try to establish these gatherings in our homes as well — try to read the books of ahadith in our homes as well — and we will hear more and more about these things.

May Allah give us all the tawfiq. May Allah grant us all Jannatul Firdaws. And the last of our calls is all praise belongs to Allah, the Lord of all the worlds. Alhamdulillahi Rabbil Alameen.