When the World Sleeps | Mufti Abdul Rahman Waheed | The Guardian of the Heart Conference

When the World Sleeps

We praise and bless His Noble Messenger. After that, Allah, the Exalted, said in the Book of Al-Aziz, after I seek refuge with Allah from the accursed Satan, In the name of Allah, the Most Gracious, the Most Merciful:

He went out to his people from the sanctuary and revealed to them: glorify Allah morning and evening.

And he, peace and blessings be upon him, said:

(Sunan al-Tirmidhī, Hadith 2465)

My dear friends, brothers, sisters in Islam, I will just leave you with the most important quality to be someone who can be among those who guard their hearts. And it's very simple.

Shaykh Idrees, my student who was speaking — may Allah bless him — I kind of disagree with some of the things he said. I'll tell you what my teacher used to say.

My teacher used to say that in this world, you have to try really, really, really, really hard to pass an exam. You have to make a lot of efforts. But in the exam with Allah, you have to try really, really, really hard to fail. You actually have to make an effort to fail that exam. Because Allah has made it so easy for us to succeed, so easy for us to pass. The exam of this world, you have to try really hard to pass. The exam of Allah, you have to try really, really hard to fail.

And so this is something that, if we can master this — these are two moments of our day. If we can master these two moments, the rest of it will be in the hands of Allah.

The Importance of the Night

Before Surah Al-Muddathir was revealed — in which Allah instructed the Prophet on what to do during the day as a Nabi — Allah revealed Surah Al-Muzzammil. Why? Because the way we end our day is the most important part of our day.

All of us are worried about how our last moments of life are going to be. We look at the people in Gaza — this is husnul khātimah. Literally, collectively and individually, the world is seeing a spectacle of husnul khātimah. People who are dying a beautiful death. It doesn't matter how disfigured they are, or how their bodies are — this is a death that we all envy.

When I was in New Zealand many years ago when the shooter came in and shot up the Muslims who were praying Jumu'ah salah, the people who had family members who passed away were not the ones who felt guilty or needed to be comforted. The people who were standing in the masjid but at that moment subconsciously escaped the masjid — and they weren't shaheed — they were the ones that needed to be comforted. Because they said, "Why was I not blessed with shahādah? What did I do wrong?" They had survivor's guilt, and we had to comfort them.

So the scholars say something so beautiful. They say: we all can plan and make du'ā for a beautiful death. But if you want to see in your own life whether you're going to have a beautiful death, then see how you sleep at night. Because sleep is a sibling of death.

When you wake up in the morning, you say:

Our soul left our body while we were sleeping. So when our soul is leaving our body at night, what were you doing in those few moments before you went to sleep? Were you on your phone? Did you forgive? Were you saying the name of Allah? Did you tell people you love them? Did you pray your salah? What were you doing? This will tell you how you will leave this world.

كَمَا تَعِيشُونَ تَمُوتُونَ — As you live, so shall you die.

So we need to fix that. We're not talking about the whole day right now. We're talking about just those last moments.

A Lesson from the People of Mecca

Look at the community today, brothers and sisters. When this verse was revealed in Mecca, Allah was highlighting a bad quality of the mushrikīn in Mecca. They had numerous bad qualities, but Allah highlighted one to wake us up today:

The people of Mecca are those who are arrogant and entitled, and those who stay up at night and gossip. They sleep late. They chill. Ya Allah — they worship idols, they do all sorts of horrible things. Of all the characteristics that they have, Allah, You chose to highlight this quality. Why? Because it was to wake the ummah up. Don't do that. Nights are for Me. Protect your night. This is when shaytān will come.

So today after our program, what are we going to do at night time? One time Sufyān saw people eating a big meal — right after 'Isha. And he looked at them and said: "You have no intention to wake up for tahajjud. The night that Allah has given you, you have no intention to do anything in that night."

Most of the ummah — shaytān first attacks them in their nights. How you sleep at night. That's why in the verse I recited in front of you:

Specifically, these two moments were instructed by Zakariyyā, peace be upon him, to his people: be aware of Allah in these two moments. Whatever happens — no compromise, non-negotiable. The first moment is the night, before you sleep.

Getting Closer to Allah

A person who guards his night before they sleep — Allah gives them a beautiful gift in the form of waking up for tahajjud.

A person who wants to get closer to Allah — we all say, "I want to get closer to Allah." Getting closer to Allah is a destination, it's a journey. I'm coming here from Detroit to St. Louis, I'm looking at the screen, you can see the plane coming closer and closer to St. Louis. Similarly, it's a measurable thing. How far am I from Allah? Very easy, just measure it. What's the measure that I'm close to somebody? The number one measurable to see how close or far you are from somebody is how much you enjoy speaking to them.

You ever see — in desi culture, we have like, بات پکی ہو جاتی ہے، پھر اس کے بعد شادی ہوتی ہے. Even in the Arab culture, you have Fātiha, then you have the Katb al-Kitāb. Look at the sisters and brothers' faces at that time. Between Fātiha and Katb al-Kitāb, between بات پکی and nikāh — and sometimes the nikāh is one year later, especially if your wife is back home somewhere — man, you're talking all day. You love talking to her. She's texting you. You see her text on your phone and you enjoy speaking to her. That's a sign you love her, that's a sign you're so close to her.

Is that what we feel with Allah? That right there will tell you how close you are to Allah.

So those who protect their night before sleeping — Allah gifts them with a beautiful thing. The Urdu poet says:

He says: "I enjoy these tears." When you see someone crying, you want to comfort them — but when you see someone crying at tahajjud, you want to become like them. You don't want to comfort them. You're like, "I wish I had those tears." Don't criticize me, don't stop me. He says: when that love of Allah is in someone's heart, why wouldn't that love of Allah wake you up at night? How is it possible that a person knows he or she can be alone with Allah at night, and Allah will not wake that person up? Absolutely will never happen. Even if you come back from a long journey, Allah will wake you up, even if you have no alarm on.

The Nights of the Pious Predecessors

The poet says:

If you want to see the biggest difference between this generation and the previous generation, it is literally the way they treat their nights. A huge difference.

The night at the time of the Prophet, peace and blessings be upon him, after 'Isha was absolute silence — absolute silence. And one or two hours before Fajr, لَهُمْ دَوِيٌّ كَدَوِيِّ النَّحْلِ — you would walk around the streets of Madinah and you would hear the buzzing, like the buzzing of bees. The Prophet, peace and blessings be upon him, would tell people: "I was walking by at night, there was no light, but I knew it was you people because of the way you cry in front of Allah, the way you recite Qur'an in front of Allah — I knew it was you people, O Abu Musa, it was your people."

What was the biggest difference? أَمَا كُنَّا بِجَوْفِ اللَّيْلِ رُهْبَانًا مُصَلِّينَا — Weren't we people that used to sleep early at night, and then wake up early and talk to Allah?

Rābi'ah al-'Adawiyyah: Waking at Dawn

Rābi'ah al-'Adawiyyah — search about her, sisters. She was a great woman. She used to wake up, and the first thing she would say when she woke up — look at the difference. The two moments that we have to fix are the moment before we sleep and the moment when we wake up. That's it.

Today's gathering — we leave from here and we fix those two things. It comes to the hadith: the Prophet, peace and blessings be upon him, said: "I will forgive whatever you do in between those times." Whatever happens in between, leave it to Allah. But do not compromise on this, and shaytān will attack it.

What happens to us — I'm just like you all. I also have my phone. I also sell things online. Especially when sisters are selling — my wife, when she starts selling furniture on Marketplace, you know, you bought the sofa for $3,000 but you get happy when someone buys it for $50. And you go buy something from Amazon and return half the things you buy.

So that phone notification — you wake up in the morning and the Prophet, peace and blessings be upon him, said:

(Sunan al-Tirmidhī, Hadith 2465)

A person who wakes up in the morning and the first thing they think of is something of dunya — Allah does not care about that person. Allah has nothing to do with that person.

You want to hear a hadith that's even scarier than that?

(Sunan al-Tirmidhī, Hadith 2465)

The person who wakes up in the morning and their thoughts are so scattered with the tasks of the day in terms of dunya — تَشَعَّبَتْ بِهِ الْهُمُومُ — so many thoughts on their mind. The Prophet, who is رَحْمَةٌ لِلْعَالَمِينَ, says: Allah does not care in which of dunya's valleys this person dies. How dare this person wake up in the morning with ni'mah and not think of Me. How is it the first thing the person did was check their phone? How is it possible that you woke up with a roof over your head, with the health to walk from your bed, knowing thousands and thousands of people in Gaza don't have that — and you got up complaining to Allah? You got up thinking about something of dunya? Allah doesn't care.

The Dream of the Prophet ﷺ

When they woke up in the morning, brothers and sisters, in the few minutes I have left with you — what did they do? Before they slept at night, they slept with the dhikr of Allah.

Someone says — and I'm not saying this is a sign of greatness — that you see the Prophet, peace and blessings be upon him, in your dream. Some people see him, some people don't. One of our mashāyikh was asked: "Give me a wazīfah, a way to see the Prophet in my dream." He said: "Okay. Every time you eat food for the next few days, don't drink water. You're not allowed to drink water. And make sure you put ten times the salt that you're supposed to put."

So this person started putting extra salt, thinking, okay, you really want to see the Prophet in your dream. The shaykh said: you can't drink water. One day, two days, three days. He is literally dying of thirst. He goes to the shaykh and says: "Shaykh, I did exactly what you told me to do, but I haven't seen the Prophet in my dream." The shaykh said: "What have you seen in your dream?" He said: "All I've seen is water, springs — I'm drinking water." The shaykh said: "If you really had that thirst to see the Prophet, you would see him in your dream."

If you slept saying the Prophet's name, صَلَّى اللَّهُ عَلَيْهِ وَسَلَّمَ, if you slept like that — I know people who see him very frequently, because all they do is think about him. And as one of the 'ulamā' says: wallahi, I have never slept in my life except that the Prophet has come in my dream. Every time I sleep, I see my Habīb, صَلَّى اللَّهُ عَلَيْهِ وَسَلَّمَ. Why? Because every time the Prophet was mentioned in front of them:

They would cry out of missing him, and cry out of yearning for him. These are the two tears that they had.

The Du'ā of Rābi'ah al-'Adawiyyah

So they would wake up in the morning — Rābi'ah al-'Adawiyyah wakes up, and right when she wakes up, she says:

She says: "Oh Allah, the stars have faded away, everyone is sleeping, all the doors of all the kings and everybody are closed — but Your door is open. And every lover is alone with their beloved." After that crazy wedding day, with the thousand people who come and nine hundred who criticize the food when they leave, and all the comments about the dress — when they all go back at the end of the day, the husband and wife are alone. The beloved and the lover are alone. And this is a sign — being alone with someone at that hour is a sign of how much you love them. So she is saying: everyone is alone with their beloved. "And oh Allah, I am sitting alone in front of You."

Yahya Ibn Mu'ādh: Speaking to Allah After a Long Journey

Yahyā Ibn Mu'ādh, after a long travel, he gets down, he's extremely tired. You know we travel a lot — how difficult is it to get home and pray salah? It's very difficult after a long journey, even though our journeys are very easy. He says:

He puts his head in sajdah and says: "Oh Allah, how can I be happy when I disobey You?" Then he says: "Oh Allah, but how can I not be happy when I recognize You? You have made me someone who recognizes You. You have put me among those people who believe in You." And he said: "Oh Allah, how can I ask You for something — every time I've asked You and begged You and promised You, 'Oh Allah, if You do this for me, I'll do this for You' — I've always broken my promise." But then: "Oh Allah, how can I not ask when You are Al-Kareem? You love it when I ask You."

Sufyān Ibn 'Uyaynah says: the people of the past never wept out of fear of staying away from Jahannam. But they wept profusely the day they woke up in the morning and they had not spoken to Allah at night. Because they missed that enjoyment. They missed it. Nothing in the day — لَا يَعْدِلُهَا لَذَّةٌ فِي الْيَوْمِ — no taste, no enjoyment in the day can bring that enjoyment they had at night.

So they slept early at night — no gossip, nothing. And they woke up early and they spoke to Allah.

Practical Steps: Guard These Two Moments

So I ask all of you today: before you sleep at night — 99% of our problems are with this phone, 99% of the problems. Put your phone away, give yourself 10–15 minutes without the phone. Lay down, recite Qur'an, recite dhikr, tell your husband how much you love him. Husbands — tell your wife how much you love her. Tell your kids how much you love them. Tell your kids, "I love you." Our kids need that from us. Go to their rooms — this is an ibādah. Lay down with the Sunnah of the Prophet, peace and blessings be upon him, and ask Allah to wake you up for tahajjud.

If you don't wake up for tahajjud, no problem — the moment you wake up, don't check your phone. Give yourself another 10 minutes. Before I check my phone, I am going to thank Allah for everything He has given me. I will say it in English, I will say it in Urdu, I will say it in Arabic. But 10 minutes as I wake up in the morning, I'm going to thank Allah.

Those who can master the 10 minutes before they sleep and the 10 minutes after they wake up will be guardians of the heart.

JazākAllāhu khayran. Assalāmu 'alaykum wa rahmatullāhi wa barakātuh.