The Greatest Treasure | Mufti Abdul Rahman Waheed

The Greatest Treasure — The Sweetness of Iman

(Sunan al-Tirmidhī, Hadith 3334; also referenced by Ibn Kathīr in his tafsīr of Quran 83:14)

The Final Days of the Prophet ﷺ and Abu Bakr Leading Salah

My dear brothers and sisters and friends — it was a Thursday Maghrib Salah that the Prophet ﷺ led Salah, and after leading the Salah he was walking back to his house. He was already feeling very sick and he couldn't make it back to his house. His house was so close to the Masjid — if we've gone to Madina Munawwara, Masjid Nabawi, Rawdhul Jannah — his house is right next to the Masjid, like literally you just walk there. But he was so sick that he fell unconscious walking back to his house.

Then he tried to get up and lead the Isha Salah, but he again fell unconscious and couldn't lead it. At that point he told the people around him to make Abu Bakr رضي الله عنه lead Salah. And for the next — Friday, Saturday, Sunday, Monday morning — 17 Salahs — he did not lead. Abu Bakr رضي الله عنه led in front of him while he was in the room.

Now why am I telling you this? The first Salah, which was Isha on Thursday, the Prophet ﷺ heard the voice of Umar ibn al-Khattab going up to lead Salah and he didn't like it. He said — I'll omit the Arabic just for the sake of time — he said: I said to you that Abu Bakr should lead Salah, and as long as Abu Bakr رضي الله عنه is alive, no one can lead Salah in front of him. So right away Umar ibn al-Khattab was told to come back, and Abu Bakr رضي الله عنه was put forward and he led Salah.

Afterwards the Prophet ﷺ asked: "What made you people — I told you to make him lead Salah — what made you make someone else lead Salah?" And Aisha رضي الله عنها, who is the daughter of Abu Bakr رضي الله عنه, said: "It was my idea." Why? She said to the Prophet ﷺ: "I know my father — you know your friend — his heart is extremely soft, and he cries a lot when he recites Quran." Imagine in this situation, when for the last 10 years in Madina Munawwara, every single time it was Salah time, the Sahaba would sit down, look towards the house of the Prophet ﷺ, and he would come and lead Salah. So it's the first time ever that this burden is going to be placed on this man's shoulders. He was carrying those emotions, and then naturally when he recites Quran he cries anyway. So imagine how difficult it was going to be for him.

Broken Hearts and the Ease of Turning to Allah

I never understood — you know, when non-Muslims come to the Masjid intending to accept Islam, how many times in my life have I seen this — a person walks into the Masjid, prays Jummah, sits in the back, and then after Jummah Salah he comes up and does Shahada. He talks about the Deen, and he says:

He recites the Kalima — and many times you will see that this person, as he's reciting the Kalima, starts to cry. Have you seen that before? A convert just starts crying, just breaks down. And I never understood it — it's Ashhadu an la ilaha illa Allah wa ashhadu anna Muhammadan Rasool Allah — there's nothing emotional about it on the surface. It's a Kalima — of course there is a lot of emotion in it — but for us it's just the Kalima, right? So what makes this person cry, even though he doesn't understand Arabic properly right now? It's because of where he comes from. His heart is so broken. He gave up so much in that moment. He just starts crying.

The first time I ever cried reciting the Kalima was after my brother passed away — because your heart is so broken and you're saying Allah's name and it just makes you cry. Say la ilaha illa Allah — you just break down. The first Salah I prayed after my brother passed away was Asr Salah. Asr Salah is a silent Salah — there's no person leading, no beautiful voice — it's just you and Allah. Because of the condition that you're in, you just break down even though no one is around you, no one is listening.

So imagine we can maintain that. Allah says in Hadith Qudsi: "If you want to find Me, find Me near the people who have broken hearts" — because for them it's so easy to turn to Allah.

The Greatest Treasure — Tears in Front of Allah

Allama Rumi says: the greatest treasure on this earth is the ability to shed tears in front of Allah. It is the greatest treasure.

And Thabit al-Bunani says something interesting. He says: "Wallahi, I know when my Du'a is being accepted." Can any one of us say that? So powerful. He says: "I know when my Du'a is being accepted." When? He says: "When these three things are happening — when they come to my body — I know my Du'a is being accepted: when I get goosebumps, when my heart starts trembling, and tears start flowing from my eyes. At that point I know my Du'a is being accepted."

Every single one of you sitting here — including me, I'm not going to be humble — we have all experienced at least one moment in our life where we felt it. Think about when that was. What experience am I talking about? Where your body just — maybe it was a recitation, maybe it was the sight of the Ka'bah for the first time, maybe it was the first time you went to Madina, maybe the first time you saw Al-Aqsa, maybe the first time you saw orphans or children in pictures from Syria — but you just felt those goosebumps, your heart stopped for a second, and maybe there were tears swelling up in your eyes. Think about when that moment was.

That moment — it's not something that we are trying to relive every single moment of our life, but we cannot forget about it. It's not practical to have that moment every single time. But the Sahaba did. They had that moment every single time.

The Nature of Human Beings — Getting Used to Things

The nature of human beings is that it doesn't matter how good something is — the more you consume it, the more you get used to it. You become numb to it. Whatever your favorite restaurant is, if you go there every single day for five or six days, a time comes where you kind of get tired of the food. But do you think that's how the Sahaba were with the Prophet ﷺ? Do you think they got used to seeing him?

That actually happens at our level. For example — the first time I saw Khabib when he came here, I was like, okay, wow, mashallah — a little bit starstruck. Maybe 15 minutes later, done, khalas. And I'm wondering why people are taking pictures of this guy. Because you spent so much time with him that you don't have that same awe anymore.

But imagine that happened to us with the Ka'bah — that every time we see the Ka'bah it actually becomes less and less enjoyable. Wouldn't that be a disaster? One of the most therapeutic and spiritual experiences is to go to Mecca for Umrah or Hajj — and if you've seen the Ka'bah before, take your group with you and instead of looking at the Ka'bah, look at the faces of those people who are seeing it for the first time as adults, breaking down. That's iman right there.

Abu Bakr, the Yemeni Delegation, and the Power of the Quran

That's why Aisha رضي الله عنها said Abu Bakr رضي الله عنه should not lead Salah — because his heart is so soft. But the same Abu Bakr رضي الله عنه, whose heart is so soft that he cries so much when reciting Quran — when you study his Khilafah, a group of people from Yemen came to accept Islam. After accepting Islam, he told them to go sit in a corner, and he sent someone to sit with them and teach them Quran — because at that time there was no Miftah, no printed books. The only way to learn knowledge was from a person — مِنْ صُدُورِ الرِّجَال. So imagine — these people had traveled on foot from Yemen all the way to Madina Munawwara, possibly to accept Islam at the hands of the Prophet ﷺ, but they missed him. He had passed away. How heartbroken they were. They had never heard the Quran before. So they sat down, and the moment the reciter started reciting Quran — they just broke down.

Finding Sweetness in Difficulty — Bilal and Urwa ibn al-Zubayr

It's written in the books about Shafiq al-Balkhi that he says: "I saw a person who was amputated from both legs, dragging himself through the middle of the desert going somewhere. I said: 'Where are you going?' — no wheelchair, nothing. He said: 'I'm going to Mecca.' I said: 'How long have you been traveling?' He said: 'Seven years.' I said: 'Isn't that a long journey?' He said: 'The moment I see the Ka'bah, I'll forget about my journey. I'll forget about all my fatigue.'" That's something else — where you actually feel the sweetness in the difficulty you're going through for the sake of Allah.

I was reading that Bilal رضي الله عنه was asked this question: "How were you patient when they were dragging you through the streets of Mecca and putting boulders on you?" He said:

He says: two things got mixed together — one was the sweetness of iman and one was the bitter pain of difficulty. They combined. And when these two things mixed together, the sweetness of iman overpowered the pain of difficulty, and it became so enjoyable that I was patient — no issue at all, no problem.

Urwa ibn al-Zubayr رضي الله عنه — when the illness in his leg grew and it had to be amputated, they told him: "You have to drink something to knock you out." He said: "How can I do that? I cannot live a moment without doing the dhikr of Allah." They said: "If we have to amputate your leg while you're conscious, it will be so painful." You know what he said? "Do it while I'm in sajdah." And they did it.

These are not fairy tales, not superman or batman stories. These are 100% authentic narrations of the great people who came before us. They loved Allah so much. That moment that you just thought about — that you experienced once — that is how they were all the time.

Ibn al-Qayyim on the Jannah of This World

(Ibn al-Qayyim, Madārij al-Sālikīn)

Ibn al-Qayyim رحمه الله says: a person who does not enter the Jannah of this world will never enter the Jannah of the Akhira. What does that mean? Not go to Disney World, not Niagara Falls. It means a person who does not feel, does not go through the Jannah of this world — and by that he means Jannatul Iman, the Garden of Iman — that feeling you get when you are close to Allah.

A person once said in a Hadith Qudsi — as written in Ibn Kathir: "O Lord, I have disobeyed You so much in my life, but You never punished me." Allah said: "Yes I do punish you, but you don't realize it." He said: "What do you mean?" Allah said: "Did I not snatch the sweetness and enjoyment out of your ibadah? That is your punishment. Did I not take it from you?" So the punishment is the loss of the taste of iman.

The Root Cause — Sins Darken the Heart

The essence of ibadah — what is the word? Halawa. Halawa means sweetness. That's the essence of ibadah. To feel the sweetness of it, to feel the enjoyment of it. And the person who feels the sweetness will always come back to it.

So how do we get it? If there is food and you can't taste it, there are only two reasons: either something is wrong with the food, or something is wrong with you. You're sick. During COVID, students couldn't smell or taste anything — but then you put food in front of them and they start munching. "How can you taste it if you had COVID? You just said all morning you couldn't taste."

Same with iman. Either there is something wrong with the ibadah, the Quran, the Deen — but there is nothing wrong with that. So what is the conclusion? There is something wrong with me, myself.

And the taste buds of Deen and ibadah — the halawa — is not on the tongue. It's in the heart. And every single time a person commits a sin, one portion of their heart that tastes the enjoyment of Deen becomes dull.

Every time you commit a sin, one dark spot — نُكْتَةٌ سَوْدَاءُ — another dark spot. So now you're praying Salah, you're listening to the Quran, but it's not giving you the same chills. It's not giving the same goosebumps. This is the reality that many of us are living in right now.

How to Regain the Sweetness — Wara' and Hesitation

How can we make ourselves better? One scholar says:

"If you want to actually taste the sweetness of iman and reach its pinnacle, then put between you and your shahwa — your desire for sins — a barrier of iron."

Catch yourself before you commit a sin and ask yourself: is it worth it? Right before — the Prophet ﷺ said that one glance towards someone that you're not supposed to look at is a poisonous arrow of Shaitan. And the one who catches himself or herself — in an authentic narration in al-Hakim — Allah says: for that person who does that out of fear of Me, I will replace in their heart an iman that they could taste the sweetness of deep in their core.

Every single time we disobey our parents, every single time we miss our Salah, every single time we swear — what's going to happen is it's going to take away from the taste of iman that we could have experienced. That would have been the experience of Jannah in this world. So catch yourself before you do that.

There is something called wara'. Wara' means hesitation. Just have this hesitation and ask yourself at that moment: is it worth it? A person can never reach the essence of iman until he or she always hesitates and asks themselves: is this really worth it? Should I really do this? And leaves even things that are permissible out of fear that they may become impermissible.

At nighttime, you start off at 10 or 11 o'clock on YouTube listening to lectures — Miftah Institute, wow amazing — and you know how quickly you end up watching cat videos? That only happens at night. If you do it in the morning, it won't happen. At nighttime, Shaitan is on full guard. That's what our Salaf used to say: be more careful in the hours of night than in the daytime.

Conclusion — Tasting Iman and Becoming Lanterns of Hidayah

If someone takes you to a restaurant and they're paying for it, always order something new on the menu so you can taste it. And if you're paying, order the normal stuff — the stuff you know tastes good. You keep going back to it. Imagine you start tasting that with sajdah. Imagine you start feeling that about coming to the Masjid. The moment you walk into the Masjid you feel that. And inshallah it can happen to all of us, because we've already experienced it before in our lives.

The more we have that level of hesitation — wara' — the more we will start tasting the sweetness of iman. The more we will enjoy the Deen. And the moment a person tastes the enjoyment of the Deen, he or she will always come back for more.

The people sitting in this Masjid right now — we are just a small portion of the community. 99% are outside. If all of us become like that — people who taste the sweetness of iman — inshallah we can pull everyone to the Masjid. Without speaking, without any effort, our hearts will become lanterns of hidayah.

May Allah make us among those who act upon whatever was said, bring it to our lives, and convey it to others.

Jazakallah khair.