20170310- 2nd Khutba -Imam Mokhtar Maghroui

Khutbah Opening

إِنَّ الْحَمْدَ لِلَّهِ نَحْمَدُهُ وَنَسْتَعِينُهُ وَنَسْتَغْفِرُهُ وَنَسْتَهْدِيهِ وَنَعُوذُ بِاللَّهِ مِنْ شُرُورِ أَنْفُسِنَا وَمِنْ سَيِّئَاتِ أَعْمَالِنَا مَنْ يَهْدِهِ اللَّهُ فَلَا مُضِلَّ لَهُ وَمَنْ يُضْلِلْ فَلَا هَادِيَ لَهُ وَأَشْهَدُ أَنْ لَا إِلَهَ إِلَّا اللَّهُ وَحْدَهُ لَا شَرِيكَ لَهُ وَأَشْهَدُ أَنَّ سَيِّدَنَا وَمَوْلَانَا مُحَمَّدًا عَبْدُهُ وَرَسُولُهُ أَمَّا بَعْدُ

أَيُّهَا النَّاسُ فَإِنَّ أَصْدَقَ الْكَلَامِ كِتَابُ اللَّهِ وَخَيْرَ الْهُدَى هُدَى سَيِّدِنَا وَمَوْلَانَا مُحَمَّدٍ صَلَّى اللَّهُ عَلَيْهِ وَآلِهِ وَسَلَّمَ وَشَرَّ الْأُمُورِ مُحْدَثَاتُهَا وَكُلَّ مُحْدَثَةٍ بِدْعَةٌ وَكُلَّ بِدْعَةٍ ضَلَالَةٌ وَكُلَّ ضَلَالَةٍ فِي النَّارِ

O you who have attained faith, be Allah-conscious, be reverent of Allah in the way it should be — worthy of who He is, worthy of His bounties and favours, worthy of His names and attributes, worthy of His essence. And make sure we do not die except in a state of Islam, in a state of loving surrender to Allah — in our feelings, in our emotions, in our thoughts, in our words, in our deeds, in our agreements and disagreements, in our challenges, in our opportunities, in our actions and in our reactions — that we do all of that in loving surrender to Allah.

And that requires an awareness of Allah. It requires of us as Muslims — as human beings in general, and as Muslims especially, since we do make that choice of being Muslim — that we always continue to be actively minding the fact that we make ourselves aware of Allah in every aspect of our lives.

This World and Its Temptations

This dunya, my dear brothers and sisters — this world in which we are — Allah put us in this world for a divine wisdom. We are in this world, and that is in a sense also a favour from Allah through His divine wisdom. Dunya is not to be disregarded completely. We are in dunya. Allah put us in dunya, in this world, to live in this world. But this world is filled with temptations, trials, tribulations, pain, suffering, hurt, fear, and angst.

This world is meant to be this way.

If we live in this world without something very special to connect us to the other world — to the world of the hereafter, to the world of the malakut, to the world of the ghayb — then we would live this life as though we will never die. We would live this life as though we will never be held responsible after this life. We would live this life — in our actions and reactions, in our personal lives and collective lives, and family lives and political lives and international interactions and personal, individual interactions — we would live as though there is no other world.

And because most of us forget, and most of us don't know, and many of us don't want to know — if we continue to live our lives, especially as this life (as I said and as you know) is filled with — I repeat — fitan, with bala, with temptations, with trial, with tribulations, challenges at all levels of life: psychological, intellectual, economic, political, social, etc. — if we live our lives disconnected from the world of the ghayb, from the world of the malakut, from the world of the hereafter, from life and existence after death, if we do that and we don't connect with the spiritual realm as well — in the context of tawheed of Allah — our lives will be miserable.

Many of us, a lot of us, cannot deal and cannot bear the loads of the challenges that we hear about and sometimes are subjected to directly. We can't deal with that. We're afraid. We're insecure. We have angst. We have even anxieties and more of that — because we disconnect our lives, our hearts, our minds, our regular daily lives from that reality.

Staying Connected to the World of the Unseen

And yet Allah in the Qur'an, in the Sunnah, and in the experiences of the believing men and women — and all that He does to us, allows to us, teaches us — so that we, by His grace, stay connected to the world of the ghayb. In other words, the veil between us and the world of the unseen for some hearts becomes very thin, becomes very transparent. One lives his or her life but as though he or she sees the world of the ghayb.

And I'm going to tell you a few things today — to remind many of you about them, and for some maybe it is new — and we should remember these more often. There is a lot more to be said, and that is, I repeat, the grace of Allah to help us stay connected with that world of the ghayb. The veil between which and ourselves — for those whose hearts do not strive to connect with Allah — that veil is extremely thick, and that world for some hearts doesn't even exist. Even those who may say لَا إِلَهَ إِلَّا اللَّهُ but whose lives are so intertwined with the material dense world that they have lost connectedness in this world with the world to come — and consequently they behave in ways that are very, very hurtful to themselves, that only contribute to the misery in their lives and in human lives.

The Angels Who Are Always With Us

And therefore Allah tells us — for example, to connect us with that world — to always be aware of it: there are always two angels always with you, wherever you go, كِرَامًا كَاتِبِينَ. Always, wherever you go — that unseen is so close to you. Wherever you go, ibad of Allah, servants of Allah, of nur that human nature does not have, is not programmed by Allah to perceive them with the naked eye — unless Allah does a miracle, a karama, to some ibad who would be able — and this has happened — would be able to perceive the malaika and see them in some dimension. Wherever you go, كِرَامًا كَاتِبِينَ يَعْلَمُونَ مَا تَفْعَلُونَ, and they know what you do.

Rasulullah ﷺ tells us also that Allah has these malaika everywhere in space-time — there are so many of them, everywhere — such that each square centimetre of space-time is occupied by an angel in sujood to Allah, in dhikr of Allah. As he ﷺ says:

(Referenced in Sunan al-Tirmidhī and Musnad Aḥmad)

Because there are such angels everywhere. There are angels, he says ﷺ:

(Sahih al-Bukhārī, Hadith 6408; Sahih Muslim, Hadith 2689)

Even there are angels who roam space-time of earth to look for those who are in dhikr of Allah, those who are in circles of dhikr of Allah. And they look for where they are, and when they find them, they surround them and are in their company.

Sending Salah Upon the Prophet ﷺ

It is a fact to know — and to know this — that every time you say:

— in one of the forms of salah ala nabi — and you say it and you mean it, especially, that Allah has created specific angels whose task is to communicate that to Rasulullah ﷺ in the realm of the hereafter, in the realm of the barzakh — the dimension of after death, before resurrection. They are there, and they sometimes mention the person who sent salam to Rasulullah ﷺ by name and the name of the parents, and Rasulullah ﷺ is made to know that and responds and sends salam back to you. And sometimes, in some texts, he says your name, son of so-and-so, your mother's or father's name: as-salam.

He tells us ﷺ that after he dies he is still connected to us — by the permission of Allah, by the creative act of Allah. He said ﷺ: "My life is good for you and my death is good for you."

Ya Rasulullah, how could your death be good for us? Your living — we know, we understand. How could your death be good for us? We don't want you to die. Stay with us. But he is bashar — he has to go.

"My dying is good for you also in this way," he says ﷺ: "Show me your deeds, what you do — the Ummah of Muhammad ﷺ. Your deeds are exposed to me, in the manner and modality that Allah wills and wants it to be. Your deeds are exposed to me, ya Ummah of Muhammad."

The relationship stays connected to that other world. It's so close:

(Musnad Aḥmad, Hadith 14080; referenced by al-Haythamī in Majma' al-Zawā'id)

And if I know of what is exposed to me of your doings, of your deeds — what you do in this world, Muslims — if it is good, I thank Allah. Look at this relationship — it's there. And if what I receive is bad, I ask Allah to forgive you.

Now the point here — using this text as well — is as a means by which we see how Allah gives us so many means to keep us connected to the other world. Even through the grace of Rasulullah ﷺ, his rahma continues to be expressed even after he dies — where he is in the realm of the barzakh ﷺ, living in a dimension beyond this one, in a life beyond this one.

The Reality of the Grave

Allah is the ultimate absolute Creator, absolute Knower — He creates as He wills, He creates the laws in nature as He wills. And we only know and are used to the laws of nature and experience them in this three-dimensional reality. Jannah, barzakh — are not just three-dimensional realities. Allah knows how many dimensions they are. But they are universes, an existence beyond these three dimensions, and the laws of those dimensions are different than the laws of these dimensions.

He knows. He is close. He tells us that even when we all die, when we are buried — look, this connectedness with the hereafter, with the after-world — stay connected. Look how it helps. When you go to the grave site of a deceased beloved one and you send to them salam:

— "Oh my mother" — may Allah grant rahmah to the mother of our dear beloved Sheikh Ramadan, hafidhahullah, who passed away earlier today — Allahumma rahimna, Allahumma rahimna, Allahumma ja'alna 'indaka min al-mukramatil muqarrabin fi jannat al-na'im, ameen.

And you go and say: as-salamu alaykum, oh mother. As-salamu alaykum, oh father. Rasulullah ﷺ tells us — through the information Allah gives him — that they know, they even hear. Now, "hearing" is different than hearing on the face of the earth, when we live the three-dimensional life. That hearing — Allah knows what it is like, in which way it occurs. The ruh is not bound by space and time, and the ruh is not bound by three-dimensional restrictions. They know, they respond. When we bury them and we leave, they even know and hear our footsteps, the sounds of our footsteps.

Rasulullah ﷺ stands in front of those of the non-believers, the tyrants like Abu Jahl and the others, and he addresses them and speaks to them and says to them: "Did you find what Allah promised to be true? I found what Allah promised to be true." The companion said: Ya Rasulullah ﷺ, you are speaking to people whose bodies have long decayed, have rotted. Ya Rasulullah ﷺ, you do not hear more than they do. Because who makes them hear, in that dimension? Allah says:

You do not make the dead hear — Allah does. إِنَّ اللَّهَ يُسْمِعُ مَن يَشَاءُ — verily Allah makes hear whom He pleases.

And that relationship — that fact that they are there and there is this connectedness with this world — keeps us connected to that world, makes us aware by the grace of Allah that life is true, that existence is true, and therefore we have to be prudent and cautious and aware in our behavior, in our thoughts, in our feelings, lest we believe there is no way to connect with the hereafter.

Do Not Shame Your Deceased Relatives

Even Rasulullah ﷺ says — and this perhaps is new to some of you — in many hadith of Rasulullah ﷺ related by the likes of Imam Ahmad, Abu Dawud, and many more. The experts of hadith say these are authentic texts through the companions like Anas ibn Malik, Abu Hurairah, Jabir ibn Abdullah, Nu'man ibn Bashir, Abu al-Darda', and Abu Ayyub al-Ansari. All of these companions reported that Rasulullah ﷺ said:

(Musnad Aḥmad; referenced by scholars including Ibn al-Qayyim — graded authentic by many hadith specialists)

Don't shame your relatives. Don't shame your fathers and mothers and friends who have passed away before you — believing men and women. Don't shame them with your evil deeds on this earth. Don't scandalize them. Because what we do — now we said of Rasulullah ﷺ, now he said what we do — our relatives, believing men and women, are exposed to that by Allah. They know, they are told, they are informed of the things we do in privacy, alone, or in public, in disobedience of Allah.

And if it is good, your relatives — our relatives — rejoice and they praise Allah. And if it is bad, they are saddened. And maybe sometimes they pray for us, by the grace of Allah, as a shafa'ah — يَسْتَشْفِعُونَ إِلَى اللَّهِ — they seek Allah's forgiveness for us. Don't do that. See that relationship — it's there, it's alive, it's real. We are always connected to that realm.

The True Dream: A Living Link Between the Worlds

Listen to the next one. Rasulullah ﷺ said, in a hadith that many of the ulama related and some experts of hadith said it is sahih — like Ibn al-Qayyim, rahimahullah ta'ala — that two famous companions, Sa'ab ibn Jathamah and 'Awf ibn Malik al-Ansari, radiAllahu ta'ala 'anhuma, were brothers in Islam; they loved one another. And this is after Rasulullah ﷺ passed away.

One of them said to the other — Sa'ab said to the other — look at their connectedness to the other world. He said: "Whoever dies first amongst us, let him come in a dream, in a vision, to the other, and tell him what he encountered." The other companion said: "Yes, that is possible." He would not say yes unless he had information from Rasulullah ﷺ. As the experts of hadith would say, such a statement of a companion can never be a mere opinion. It is ilm al-ghayb. Therefore he must have learned it from Rasulullah ﷺ. So he said: let it be.

Allah willed that the one who died first was Sa'ab. And lo and behold, he sees him in a dream — the other one, 'Awf ibn Malik, sees him in a dream. And in the dream he says to him: "How are you?" He says: "Alhamdulillah — after trials, Allah forgave us." And then he said: "And you should know that everything that is done in my family, I know of it." He said: "Even the cat that died a few days ago."

And then he said in the dream — Sayyiduna 'Awf said — "I saw a mark on his neck, like a spot, a shining dark spot." He said: "What is that?" He said — now this is the spiritual realm — he said: "Oh, these are ten dinars — or ten dirhams, I forgot — ten dinars or ten dirhams that I borrowed from our neighbor, the Jew. And it is still in my house." In other words, he died without having had the time to return it. As a matter of fact, he didn't even use it. He said: "It is hanging in a place, in a bag, in a corner of my house. Please find it and give it back to him." And he said: "My daughter — she will die in six days." They had a young daughter. "Please tell them to take care of her."

And he wakes. Now, first of all — the connectedness of the worlds. Sayyiduna 'Awf said: Allahu Akbar — ru'ya of a mu'min is haqq. And Nabi ﷺ said:

(Sahih al-Bukhārī, Hadith 6987; Sahih Muslim, Hadith 2263)

The ru'ya — the vision, the dream — of a mu'min, a Muslim, is a portion of 46 portions of prophethood. Allah gives that to the mu'minoon. Ru'ya haqq — ru'ya al-mu'mini haqq.

So he goes — and even with that, he has to check. He says he goes to visit his family. They receive him well. They complain: why haven't you visited us? He said, and he gave them the usual apologies that we use customarily. He said: "How are you?" They said: "Alhamdulillah." He said: "Tell me what happened in the house since the last time I have not visited you." So they kept saying things. He said: "Tell me more — even other things, details, things you think are not important." He said: "Well, a few days ago, our cat died." He said in his mind: Allahu akbar — this is one.

He went and looked. He found a corner in which the thing he had been told about was. He opened it and found a bag in which there were 10 dirhams. He went to the Jewish neighbor: "How are you? How are you?" He says to him: "Did Sa'ab — did you have anything that Sa'ab owed you?" He said: "Oh, forget it, forget it — it's okay." He says: "No, please tell me." He said: "Oh, Sa'ab was one of the most beautiful companions of the Messenger ﷺ." He says: "Tell me." He said: "Oh, I lent him 10 dirhams a while ago, and he had died." He said: Allahu akbar — this is two. He took the 10 dirhams and said: "Take your money." He said: "My God — these are the same dirhams." In other words, he didn't use them at all. He says: "This is two."

He says: "How is my brother's young daughter?" Oh, she's outside playing. Alhamdulillah. He goes, sees her playing, he touches her — he finds her a little bit feverish. He said to them: "Please take good care of her." He did not say: six days later, she dies.

End of almost the quote of the hadith — sahih in accordance to many ulama.

The Rahmah of Allah: Staying Connected

Now, what is this? The link — the living link — between this world and the hereafter. The rahmah of Allah, so that we do not forget. The rahmah of Allah, so that we — when we are so overwhelmed by the challenges of life, by the pain, by the temptations, the tribulations, the trials — we connect spiritually through this. Now, if we are of those people, through this thin veil with the hereafter, that gives us strength, and that gives us steadfastness, and that increases our faith — our iman — so that we don't think that life is only matter and material things, things I touch, I see, and I hear only with these naked senses. And lest I connect with that world. And this is a rahmah from Allah to help us stay connected in this way.

And there are millions of incidents like that through these 14 centuries. Always Allah, protecting His ibad, giving them strength — those who want to be enlightened and illuminated and helped. But those of us whose hearts are thick and rough and raw and unkind and materialistic — we are deprived of these experiences. And when we are deprived of these experiences, we remain even more remote from Allah when we think we are close. And when others receive help in ways that are like these — spiritual, and saves them and gives them strength — we, some of us, whose hearts are raw and rough and disconnected, are deprived of that and remain miserable because of our arrogance and our delusion: "No, it doesn't exist."

Maybe that's the reason why in these times we do not experience as much of that beyond the veil — because we have chosen to ignore it. When somebody is in front of you but mentally you don't want to see them, mentally you're not ready for that — you don't see them, you see someone else.

May Allah help us connect to Him and to the world that is more real than this world, for us to be at peace in this turbulent world.

Du'a

May Allah remove from our hearts the veil of darkness, the veil of sins, the veil of ignorance, the veil of disbelief, the veil of polytheism, and the veil of turning away from You, O Most Merciful of the Merciful, O Lord of the worlds. May Allah remove from our hearts the veils — all sorts of veils — that obscure our spiritual vision of You and of the reality to which we are all destined. May Allah remove the veil so that we in this dunya — with our souls and spirits and hearts and minds — we know You, we arrive at Your spiritual presence even before ultimate death will have to take us.

May Allah let death be to us, when we die, simply a transition from certainty to more certainty, from knowledge to certitude, from believing to seeing. By Your permission, existence, and generosity, O Most Merciful of the Merciful, O Lord of the worlds. May Allah have mercy on our deaths and heal our wounds and open our hearts to that realm of the beyond.

O servants of Allah, Allah commands justice, kindness, and giving to those near to Him, and forbids immorality, evil, and transgression. He warns you so that you may remember. Stand up for your prayer. May Allah have mercy on you.