Servitude to Allah (SWT) | Mufti Abdul Rahman Waheed | Mercy to Mankind 2023

Servitude to Allah

بسم الله الرحمن الرحيم. نحمده ونصلي على رسوله الكريم. أما بعد.

Allah says in His noble Book, after seeking refuge in Allah from the accursed Shaytan:

Say: Indeed my prayer, my sacrifice, my living and my dying are for Allah, Lord of all the worlds. He has no partner. And this is what I have been commanded, and I am the first of the Muslims.

And on the authority of Anas ibn Malik, may Allah be pleased with him, who said: The Messenger of Allah ﷺ said:

(Jami' al-Tirmidhi, Hadith 2142)

"When Allah intends good for a servant, He puts him to use." It was said: "How does He put him to use, O Messenger of Allah?" He said: "He grants him the tawfiq to do a righteous deed before his death."

The Greatest Honor: Being Called a Servant of Allah

Brothers and sisters in Islam, in this world people from different professions take honor and pride in different achievements and accomplishments. Those of us who watch football — many years after a player has retired, when he gets the knock on his door and it's the Hall of Fame knock — those videos can make a grown man cry. The person starts crying so much: "I made it to the Hall of Fame!" And all he's getting is this jacket and this name — he's a Hall of Famer. And all these different things that give a person happiness and joy and honor: "I've accomplished this, I have achieved this."

For a believer, the greatest accomplishment and the greatest mark of honor is manifested and conveyed to us in the message of this great scholar, Qadi Iyad, rahmatullahi alayh. And he says in a poem:

He says: that thing that gives me the greatest happiness and greatest sense of joy — such joy that I could start flying and reach the stars — is the fact, O Allah, that you have called me يَا عَبْدِي — "O My servant" — يَا عِبَادِي — "O My servants." And that you have made the Prophet Muhammad ﷺ as my Prophet. These two things give me the greatest sense of joy and happiness.

When the angels come to Allah at the time of 'Asr or at the time of Fajr — as mentioned in a hadith in Sahih al-Bukhari — Allah asks them: كَيْفَ تَرَكْتُمْ عِبَادِي؟ "How did you leave My servants? How did you leave My slaves?" The fact that the number one thing that gives me happiness and joy is that, O Allah, You think that I am deserving of being called Your slave — يَا عِبَادِي — and that You have made the Prophet Muhammad ﷺ as my Prophet. These two things give me the greatest sense of joy and happiness.

And then the poet says:

If Allah, when you make Him angry, is so gracious to you — is so benevolent and so generous with you — then how would Allah be when you serve Him? How would Allah be?

Right now, all of us know how many sins we have committed in our lives. Despite that, Allah is honoring us and gifting us the ability to sit in this gathering and have our sins forgiven. Allah gave us so many things despite the fact that we keep doing things that disobey Him. مَنْ كَانَ فِي سَخَطِهِ مُحْسِنًا — that is why I am saying the greatest honor is that we are the servants and slaves of Allah. The One who is so generous when someone disobeys Him — how will He be when someone obeys Him?

It comes in a hadith Qudsi:

He says: "You have seen how I treat those who turn away from Me — with generosity, with forgiveness — then just imagine for one second how My treatment will be for those who come towards Me."

So our greatest honor is the fact that we are the servants of Allah. And today the topic that was given to me was the worship of the Prophet ﷺ. This was his greatest honor. The mark of accomplishment for us is that we are the abd of Allah.

How Do I Know If I Am His 'Abd?

How do I know if I am His abd? Three things:

These three things — complete love, complete obedience, and complete sincerity — if they are found in a person, then they are indeed deserving of the title of being the servant of Allah. In my mind, all three things were found in the worship of the Prophet ﷺ.

1. Complete Love for Allah

Number one: complete love for Allah. Complete love. That is why the Salaf, when they would pray tahajjud all night — Malik ibn Dinar is praying all night in front of Allah, worshipping Him. At Fajr time he says:

"O Allah, I did not worship You the way You deserve to be worshipped." And he says, after worshipping Allah all night:

He says: "O Allah, this is not the worship of the one who wants Jannah. But O Allah, through Your mercy grant me freedom from Jahannam." Even though he worshipped Allah all night, he is saying: "O Allah, this is not the way a person who desires Jannah should be worshipping You. Just out of Your mercy, grant me freedom from Jahannam."

So number one is love. Out of love for Allah, a person can now struggle and strive in His sake and for His ibadah. الْقَلْبُ الْمُحِبُّ — a person who has love for Allah يُحِبُّ النَّصَبَ إِلَيْهِ — loves to strive and struggle for Him. Loves it. No problem. The more struggle he goes through, the more the person loves Allah.

That is why the Prophet ﷺ would struggle and strive so much for Allah at night that his feet would get swollen — because it was out of love for Him. أَنْسَانِي حُبُّهُ وَجَعَهُ — "The love for Him has made me forget the pain that I'm facing and experiencing while I'm worshipping Him."

When Bilal was asked how he coped with the difficulty and pain when he was dragged through the streets of Makkah, he said:

He says: "These two emotions were mixed — one was the pain that I was suffering, and the other was the sweetness of worshipping Him. When these two things were mixed internally, the joy and the sweetness of worshipping Him outweighed and overpowered the pain that I was suffering. So it was easy to be patient."

So a person who has love — it's easy to struggle and strive for Allah. That is why the Sahaba, who saw the worship of the Prophet ﷺ — what does Allama Iqbal say about them? He says about the Sahaba: these were people, during their struggle — not a struggle for dunya, not a struggle at the loss of loved ones — their struggle as they leave their homes and they're in the path of Allah, far away from their homes, in the middle of the desert or in the middle of lands where they know nobody. Allama Iqbal says: these were people that even in that moment, in that struggle, they stopped and they said Allahu Akbar, remembering Allah. He says they found so much happiness lowering their head in front of Allah beneath the shade of swords. They lowered their heads in front of Allah beneath the shade of swords. Allah elevated their heads till the Day of Judgment. Allah honored them because they lowered their heads in front of Allah during hard times, during difficult times. It was out of love for Allah that they were able to do this.

2. How Much Time Are You Giving Him?

The next thing that makes us deserving of the title of abd is: exactly how much time am I giving Him? Of all the things we heard in the last 24 hours — at the end of the day, before the Prophet ﷺ set foot on the Battle of Badr, he cried all night. It was through those tears that Allah decided there would be victory. The day before Badr, the Prophet ﷺ was asking: should we do this? Should we not do this? And he was reassured that we should do this. The night of Badr he was crying in front of Allah. And the day of Badr, he was telling people: "This is going to be the gravesite of that person" — with so much confidence.

It's like a basketball player who practices the same move over and over and over again. It doesn't matter if there are 3 seconds left on the shot clock. When Michael Jordan was asked how he shot that shot, he said: "I practiced this millions of times. It was as if I was still practicing it. The moment was not big enough."

This is how the Prophet ﷺ — the whole night worshipping Allah, worshipping Allah, showing Allah: "O Allah, I am Your abd, I am Your servant."

"O Allah, be enough for me, because I am completely dependent on You. I have nothing else and I have nobody else but You." And so as he is showing this to Allah, Allah inspires him and gives him this confidence — that the next morning when he wakes up, he is saying: "This is the gravesite of that person, and this is the gravesite of that person," before the battle even begins.

So the second thing — what makes us deserving of being abd — is: how much time have I allocated for this? From the two resources Allah has given me: one is my time, and the second is my wealth. The Prophet's ﷺ worship was his entire life. His entire night was serving Allah. If not his entire night, the majority of his night. And his entire day was in service to mankind. His service to mankind was a proof of how much he loved mankind. And his worship of Allah at night was a proof of how much he loved Allah. And both of these combined make ibadah — there are two branches of ibadah: worship of Allah, and service to mankind.

At night, the Prophet ﷺ would worship Allah all night until his feet would get swollen — but he was the best one to walk on the face of the earth. But when he would get up for Fajr salah, if he heard a child cry, he would make it short — because to him, this was out of mercy for the people behind him.

So how much time have I taken out from my day to be called abd of Allah — to even be categorized as this? The Prophet ﷺ gave his entire life and entire wealth for us. Today, before we leave, we should all decide that 10% of my wealth — bare minimum, baseline — is for Allah. And 10% of my day, if we want to be the abd of Allah — and that is the honor of a believer — 10% of my time is for Allah.

The 2.5 Hours: Allocating Your Time for Allah

So if you have 24 hours, what is 10%? Almost 2.5 hours. And we are going to split this into 3 portions — and this is all the Prophetic worship.

First Third: Ibadah

The first portion is in ibadah. And ibadah consists of four things:

Number 1: Nawafil. Ibn al-Qayyim, rahmatullahi alayh, says the Prophet ﷺ during the day would pray 40 rakaats of nawafil and sunnah prayers — 40. When the Prophet was told "I love you, O Prophet of Allah," what did he say?

(Sahih Muslim, Hadith 489)

"Help me to help you by doing more sajda." Words and statements are good, but do more sajda. Show Allah that you are His abd. Show Allah.

Number 2: Dhikr. Remembering Allah. Some Sahaba say: "We would sit in one gathering and we would hear the Prophet ﷺ repeating Astaghfirullah more than 100 times." How about us?

Number 3: Du'a. Daily supplication.

Number 4: Tilawah of the Quran.

That is one third — 2.5 hours — with one third of our time being spent here.

Second Third: Learning About Allah and the Deen

The second third is spent in learning about Allah and learning about our deen. Use whatever resources you have, whichever communities you are from. If there is a book that a scholar has recommended, read it. If there is a scholar in your community, spend time with them. And if you have none of the above, then yes, it is okay to watch a lecture online — but watch it actively and not passively. Take a notebook, a paper, sit down with adab, and learn about something. Even if you do that, it is sufficient.

Third Third: Service to Mankind

And the third — this is the Prophet's ﷺ worship — the third was service to mankind. Serving people, benefiting others. Now, serving your wife doesn't count, nor does serving your parents count. You know why? That is fard. You have to do that. This is extra.

How do I serve, Shaykh? What do I do? You don't need to be given a position in the masjid to serve the masjid. You can walk in and vacuum the masjid. You can fix the shoes at the shoe shelf. You can pick up something from outside the masjid. Whatever it takes.

The Importance of Having a Wird — A Routine

One of the scholars says:

A person who does not have a routine — time and money allocated for Allah — then Allah will not inspire this person's heart with good things. لَا وَارِدَ لَهُ — this person's heart will be locked. The love of Allah will not enter the heart of this person. The love of the Prophet ﷺ will not enter this person. مَنْ لَا وِرْدَ لَهُ لَا وَارِدَ لَهُ. Take out time and allocate these things.

And how do we take out time? There is a person who goes to a restaurant — and all of you from out of state, most of the restaurants in Dearborn are great — so a person who goes to a restaurant and sits there and orders food. There are two ways of taking food back for someone you love. Say it is your mother, or your father, or your wife. One is you order food, and whatever is left over you put it together and you bring it back and say: "I love you, I brought some food back for you." But there is another way: once you sit down at the table, at that moment when you are ordering food for yourself, you also order food to take away — you have it sectioned away already, and you say "this is to carry out" — and then you bring that for your loved one. Which one is better? The second one. So you section your time and your wealth out ahead of time.

The Salaf used to do this. One of the Salaf, Qurrah ibn Murra, rahmatullahi alayh, was sitting down and he was crying so much. Someone came to him and said: "What happened? أَجَاءَ دَاعِي أَهْلِكَ؟ Did someone come to you informing you of a loved one who has passed away?" He says: بَلْ هُوَ أَشَدُّ مِنْ ذَلِكَ — "It is something far greater than that, far more alarming than that." They said: "أَوَجَعٌ يُؤْلِمُكَ؟ Is it some pain that you are suffering, some difficulty that you are going through?" He said: "Something worse than that." They said: "What is it, Shaykh?" He said: "It was my time at night when nobody was around me — بَابِي مُغْلَقٌ وَسِتْرِي مُسْبَلٌ — the door was locked and the curtain was down — and it was my time to recite a few pages of the Quran. And I forgot to do it. I missed out." That is bothering him and that is making him cry.

This is a sign of an abd of Allah — that they first allocate, and when they miss it, it bothers them. It makes them feel really miserable.

One of the Salaf was asked about this ayah:

"Those who are forgetful and neglectful of their salah." He said: "You know what this means? It means that person — when he prays salah early, it doesn't make this person feel good. And when this person prays salah late, it doesn't bother this person." This is a person who is not abd of Allah. It should make you feel good that "I prayed on time," and it should make you feel bad that you prayed late. This is a sign of abd of Allah. So we take our time, allocate it ahead of time.

The Greatest Gift: Being Accepted by Allah

And finally, the greatest gift Allah gives to a person who continuously shows Allah: "O Allah, I deserve to be here."

A player — I take my kids to hockey — and we see people who take their children for sports. They take them, they spend money on them, they buy all this equipment. All of this for so many years with their own money: "Did you go to basketball practice? All the time." Baseball is worse — five days of practice and one day of games. Every single evening they have been taken to sports, and all their life the parents are paying and paying. And then, after all this struggle — why are they doing all this? Because they want to get accepted by a team. They want to be drafted. And on the night of the draft, you see all these young men crying in tears — because now they are accepted by a team. Now, after all these years of spending and working and struggling, the team that has accepted this person: they are going to pay for his shoes, they are going to pay for the uniform, they are going to pay for coaching, they are going to pay for the gym time. No longer do I have to pay for it.

Brothers and sisters, all our life we are bowing our heads in front of Allah — like the Prophet ﷺ — showing Allah how much we love Him and how much we need Him and how much we know that there is nobody that can solve our matters except for Him. There is no one that can cure us except for Him. There is no one that can give us except for Him. There is nobody that can take from us except for Him. And we are doing this all our life until — until Allah says: "I have accepted you."

How He said to Musa alayhissalam: "O Musa, I have accepted you." And now when Allah accepts somebody, all those sins that we struggle with — Allah makes it easy for us to leave. All those bad habits — Allah makes it easy for us to leave. All those good things we wanted to do — Allah makes it easy for us to develop. That is why the Prophet ﷺ says:

(Jami' al-Tirmidhi, Hadith 2142)

When Allah wants good for somebody, He uses that person. And when he was asked what this usage means, it means that Allah gives him the tawfiq to do something good before they die. And one of the Salaf wrote under this hadith:

A person who wishes to die with the kalima — then before they start any act, see if you have permission to do that. Before you do something, ask: Is Allah allowing me to do this? Am I allowed to look at her? Am I allowed to eat this? Am I allowed to be here? Am I allowed to say this? Am I allowed to hear this? A person before any act — if he thinks: "Am I given permission and allowed to do this?" — مَنْ أَرَادَ أَنْ يُخْتَمَ لَهُ بِالتَّوْحِيدِ — you want to die with the kalima? Then before you do any act, as an abd of Allah, see if you are allowed to be there. If you are not allowed to be there and you hesitate — that means you are deserving to be the abd of Allah.

And all that we do — the gift of it, at the end of the day, is that we become His, and Allah decides to accept us. And then He grants us these gifts that we are so desirous of and are waiting for.

That is why one of the poets says:

"I lie at Your door, with a broken heart, shattered. Why should I remain this way? Change my heart — let me become Yours. This is all I ask. This is the only wish: change my heart."