Benefiting Others | Mufti Abdul Wahab Waheed

Opening

Allah says in His noble Book:

And Allah says in another place:

And the Prophet ﷺ said to Abu Sufyan:

The Minority Mindset

Brothers, sisters, youngsters, and friends — a lot of times when we are in a minority, the goal becomes: how can we become the majority? How can we learn how to gain more people within our audience? How can we try to bring more people into our circles? And by doing so, the hope is if we add more people, if we add more resources, if we add more partners and supporters, our work will become easier — and through which we can spread the deen of Allah.

However, that was never the goal of any prophet that has come. That was never the goal of any type of system that Allah has sent us with. Rather, Allah speaks about:

As for the foam that is on top of the sea — it is very apparent, it is very present — but as the waves come and take the water back, the foam also withers away and it's gone. There is no presence of it anymore. However, وَأَمَّا مَا يَنفَعُ النَّاسَ فَيَمْكُثُ فِي الْأَرْضِ — that which benefits people will always remain on the earth.

The Best of People

What does it mean that something benefits people? In reference to the hadith of the Prophet ﷺ:

(Al-Mu'jam al-Awsat, al-Tabarani; also recorded in other collections — see al-Albani's Silsilah al-Sahihah, Hadith 906)

The best of people are the ones that bring the most benefit to people. It doesn't say the best of people are the ones who bring benefit to the most people. The best of people are the ones who bring the most benefit to people.

And in the commentary of this hadith, Imam Suyuti rahimullah says: this refers to whoever is in your surroundings — you can bring the most benefit to them. As we're leaving today's event, the goal is not to spread ourselves necessarily. The goal is: whoever we do know, whoever is within our circle — how can we allow them to grow with us? The goal is not to go wide. The goal is to go deeper.

وَأَمَّا مَا يَنفَعُ النَّاسَ — how can we benefit the people that are directly surrounding us?

How can we help our own families and our own friends and our community members? Because when we leave these gatherings we can have one of two reactions: how can I save the world — which everyone feels — and number two: what can I do for myself and the people that are the closest to me? Because the Prophet ﷺ was first commanded, when he became a غَرِيب:

To first speak to his own family, to first speak to those who are already close to him — and it starts with that. So the goal is not necessarily to grow in number, because we will always be a minority. This is the system that Allah put in place. Allah says:

If He wanted, He could have guided everyone — He could have given everyone guidance and given everyone هِدَايَة. And some people would say, "But why not?" Well — we're not that important that we can ask Allah "why not." I was telling one of our classes: it's like I'm sitting at a table with Elon Musk or Jeff Bezos, right? You just got in — just got in on that table — and you're sitting there and they're making a decision and you're like, "Mmm... sir, I think we should do it this way." And Elon's going to look at that person and say, "Well, who are you? You can just leave." Not that important, right?

Why do we think we have the right to ask Allah why, in regards to the decisions that Allah has made? We're allowed to connect with Allah and ask for clarity. We're allowed to ask for ثَبَات. We don't have the precedent from any of our prophets that they ever asked Allah "why." They asked Allah "when" —

They asked Allah "how" —

But they never asked Allah "why" — because that is only for Allah to tell us. Allah refers to this concept — no one can ever ask Him — and everyone else is always asked about what they do.

The Example of Ibrahim and Makkah

So going back to how we started — the goal is never to become a majority. The goal is: whoever is with us, we can have an impact on people all around us. And a few examples of this, and inshallah we'll call it a night.

Ibrahim ﷺ entered a community in Makkah al-Mukarramah but there was no one there — it was an empty land. They say that wherever there's a great economy you should move there, wherever there's opportunity you should move there. But we say that a city is not made based upon opportunity of economic growth or educational growth — a city is grown based on whether there is an opportunity to connect to Allah.

Ibrahim ﷺ came to this city where there was no human being — مِنْ غَيْرِ ذِي زَرْعٍ — there was absolutely no sign of life. It was like the Mars of that time. But when he came, he upheld only one thing:

Submit yourself — and he responded with absolute submission. That same land, which was not able to hold any form of life, has become the greatest city in the world for us. It wasn't because there were a lot of people working there. It was because one family had dedicated themselves, committed themselves, submitted to Allah. There wasn't an entire community submitting to Allah — it was one family that made a commitment to submit to Allah.

We are okay being the only ones doing something good. We don't mind — rather, it gives us a sense of responsibility that if no one else is doing it, then I definitely cannot leave the work that I am doing. We tell our students all the time that the way that we should be committing ourselves to this work is as if all the other ships have already been burnt and we are the only ship in the ocean that can save the world and save ourselves. We don't need other people to be doing this work. We don't need other people to be dressed a certain way for us to feel like we can have an impact — because having numbers has never directly resulted in having an impact.

The Lesson of Hunayn

There was one time in the Prophet's seerah where Muslims were more in number than the non-Muslims — in the Battle of Hunayn.

The sahabah, when they went into that battle, actually believed that because they were more in number it was going to be easy for them to walk out with a victory. But it became the most difficult battle for them — because they started to think that due to our numbers, our resources, our academic resources, our ability of thinking for ourselves, our family — that we can now do something. Whatever we have with us, even if we didn't have it, Allah could still use us. Now if we do have it, it should be easier for us to commit ourselves to Allah. Only one battle — and it became the most difficult battle. Numbers have never resulted in direct impact in people's lives.

One family came, and due to their sacrifice they were able to structure Makkah al-Mukarramah as we see it today. And it was the entire family that committed to it — it wasn't one individual. Everyone in that family had committed to submitting themselves to Allah: from Ibrahim in dropping off his family, but primarily Hajar — for accepting this command of Allah to be left alone in the middle of a desert without any source of help and relief, with a child who is a toddler in need of nourishment. And she said: if this is Allah's command then Allah will never waste us. And then she went — rather than complaining to anyone, she did what we are supposed to do best. She complained to Allah and she made an effort to take from the treasures of Allah.

When we are less in number, it's easier for us to understand that we are not the ones doing it — it's Allah's doings. In Badr, it was easy for the sahabah to know that angels came down because they couldn't in any way, shape, or form themselves win that battle. It's easy for a person to understand that this work is not happening because of us. This work is happening despite us being a part of it. We are not the foundational elements that allow this work to take place. Allah can replace us tomorrow and it will never harm the deen of Allah.

If Allah wants, tomorrow He can replace all of us and fill this room with better people than us — and Allah's deen will not be harmed.

The Lesson of Sa'i

Hajar said: if you're leaving me here, I'll complain to Allah. And she did something that we call sa'i. Everyone know what sa'i means? الصَّفَا وَالْمَرْوَة — how many times did she go from الصَّفَا to الْمَرْوَة? Seven times, right.

Some people when they go for umrah — hopefully not hajj, but umrah — they end up doing it 14 times, right. There is an opinion about that, but you know, all the people that follow that madhab — they ignore that opinion fully. But what happens is they end up saying that الصَّفَا to الْمَرْوَة is what? Once. Who's done sa'i before? Raise your hand. Sa'i is really difficult — like really hard. I take a break after every one and I'm like 19 years old, so you can imagine. But it's tough. Sa'i is tough. But she's going seven times from الصَّفَا to الْمَرْوَة. Why would you go seven times? Was one not enough for Allah? Like after one run like that — that's a long run — Allah could have said, "Hey, I got you. I'll take care of you." But she continued.

And hence it is called sa'i. The definition of sa'i is: to continue making the exact same efforts regardless of whether the results are shown or not — until you see the result. That is the definition of sa'i. That, "Ya Allah, I will not stop doing what I am doing" —

Until we see our result. And our result, dear friends, can never be seen in this world. Our results are reserved for us in the akhirah. So our sa'i continues.

When did she stop running, by the way? She saw her result — which was? Zamzam. When she saw her result she didn't keep running. She stopped, because her sa'i had now been completed.

When a person starts going to school — go to college, undergrad, go to grad school — they go to whichever program they're going to, then they start working, and after a few years they get promotions. They continue the sa'i until they finally retire. And what happens when they retire? They chill. Because the results they were hoping for, they have now achieved — successful career, beautiful home, have a family. Now their sa'i is done.

So until they see the result of that sa'i, they won't stop working. If we don't have a sa'i, they were running in circles — يَتِيهُونَ فِي الْأَرْضِ. Our sa'i is Hajar's sa'i — to uphold the commandments of Allah. Our commandment is not to get stuck in a small town somewhere — you just keep running. That's not our responsibility. Our responsibility is our day-to-day commandments. We uphold them. This is our sa'i, and we will not stop until we see our results, regardless of whether others are doing it or not.

Sufyan al-Thawri says this is the defining concept of a غَرِيب — that he or she will continue their efforts and their sa'i without compromise, until they see their desired results. When they see it, they may stop — but we can't see it in this world. Our result is for the akhira.

So when we leave, we don't need more numbers. This hall is already full. We don't need a bigger hall. Every time we leave an event we say, "Okay, next time when I come it's gonna be bigger." No. We don't need a bigger event. What we need is every single one of us — including myself — to work on ourselves, to work on our deen and our own deen, to build our own sa'i, to make more of an effort on our own lives.

Acceptance Is Based on Effort

Acceptance in the eyes of Allah is not based upon ability. So what is it based upon then? Effort. The more effort we make, the more acceptance we have.

Allah says: whosoever makes a consolidated effort, We will show them their results. Acceptance in the eyes of Allah is contingent upon how much effort we make — and the more effort there is, the more reward there is.

The Prophet ﷺ says: whosoever recites the Qur'an fluently —

They will be given the ranking of being with the elite angels. And then he mentioned:

(Sahih al-Bukhari, Hadith 4937; Sahih Muslim, Hadith 798)

Whosoever struggles to recite it — has a difficult time putting the letters together and putting the words together, they never learnt it as children, now they're much older, it's harder to read, it's harder to even ask someone to teach you, it's become more challenging — this person, the Prophet ﷺ says, gets double the reward. Why do they get double the reward? Did they have more output? They had more output of effort — not more output of how much they read. They just made more of an effort. And this is the way Allah's acceptance enters into ourselves and into our families and into our homes.

The Greatest Charity

The Prophet ﷺ was asked: what is the greatest charity? أَيُّ صَدَقَةٍ أَفْضَلُ؟ What is the greatest form of charity? So one could say the greatest form of charity is the most charity that a person gives. Another could say the greatest form of charity is the one that helps an orphan or the one that helps a masjid. The Prophet ﷺ responded with a very overarching response — that could be extremely inclusive but also very specific. He said:

(Sahih al-Bukhari, Hadith 1419; Sahih Muslim, Hadith 1032)

The best charity is the hardest charity to give — when a person is extremely healthy, so he or she has no fear of death, so now it's harder to give. But they are also شَحِيح — which means they have a sense of love for the money; they like it. Money is something that we're allowed to like — it's not something we're not allowed to like. So they're healthy, they like the money, and then the Prophet ﷺ says: تَخْشَى الْفَقْرَ — he or she thinks, "If I spend this I'll become poor, and if I keep it I might become rich." And in this moment of conflict, they still give the money. This is the greatest charity.

The Greatest Optional Prayer

What is the greatest optional prayer to pray for a believer? Tahajjud. Why is tahajjud the source of the greatest reward for an optional prayer? Because it is the hardest one to do. The harder the عَمَل is, the more reward we get.

It is not the same for someone to be غَرِيب in America in comparison to our countries that some of our parents come from. Like, being who we are in Pakistan or in Palestine or in Syria or in Egypt is not the same as being that way here. It's harder to do it over here — it's much, much, much more difficult. But with that difficulty, there is a definite given that there is more reward, because that is the rule of Allah.

This is why Ibn al-Qayyim says: more important than having consistency in your actions is to have consistency in your system of belief — consistency in your principles, consistency in your values. He says: whoever lives for the akhira — now they may falter, their actions may waver — but they love the akhira. أَرَادَ الْآخِرَةَ وَسَعَى لَهَا سَعْيَهَا — the same word comes up again — makes a continuous effort. Allah says that person's effort is rewarded.

The Only System That Is Not Result-Driven

That's why I mentioned this before as well — there is only one system in this world that is not result-driven. You guys are studying as college students. A lot of us, if you fail a class and you go to your teacher and say, "Professor, you know, I made a lot of effort — I really tried, I mean I can show you my hours" — the professor is going to say, "I tried hard not to fail you, but you still failed."

Imagine someone going to their boss and saying, "Boss, I know I had to get my tasks done, but I really tried hard — I couldn't, I had an event to go to, but I tried hard." The boss is going to say, "Well, I tried hard not to fire you, but you're fired." Because every system in this world — be it our own parents — is reciprocal to some extent. The only system in this world that is not result-driven is the system of Allah. It is effort-driven.

So when we leave this room, we are not necessarily looking for results within our lives — because that can be subjective for each of us. We are looking: is there an increase in effort to please Allah? Effort can never be subjective. It's harder to wake up for tahajjud, so the reward is more. It's more difficult to dress a certain way in America, so the reward is more. So when you stand for salah on campus and are praying when people are watching you — it is more difficult. So you stand knowing, "Well, it's okay, I get more reward for it than a person doing it somewhere else." When you're standing and people are looking at you and glaring at you — "Well, I get more reward for it." Because wherever there is more effort, there is more reward.

And again — the goal is not to get more people. The goal is to understand that Allah doesn't need us. If we are already here, it is enough to change everyone — if we can commit to it. Allah says:

How many small groups of people — how many of these examples do we have where there were less in number, but Allah still used them to get rid of بَاطِل and to get rid of that which is false?

We don't need equal light to remove equal darkness. This entire room could be dark, and if there is only one window that can bring in light, that light is enough to get rid of all the darkness — it can dispel all the darkness. Even one window is enough. And the opposite is not true. This entire room is full of light — you can have as many windows as you want from the outside bringing in the darkness, but it won't get rid of the light. That is the beauty of حَقّ — it is نُور, it is light. We don't need to remove all the bad that we have — we just have to add some more good, and allow that good to be so effective and powerful that it in itself will become a source to get rid of the bad.

Nurturing the Noor Within

When a person doesn't understand or doesn't see the value in eating organic — when they eat organic they actually don't enjoy it as much, because their body isn't used to it. They want to go eat their own food. One of my brothers — he has a lot of money — he brought organic milk in the house. He's like, "I got you guys, I know you guys need some help, I'll sponsor the milk." So he brings organic milk. He bought it a week ago — it's still sitting the same way. None of us can drink it because we're not used to that taste. We want our vitamin D milk — however unhealthy it is, that's the only chai that we like, has vitamin D milk inside of it — because we're not used to that purity.

Similarly, if we don't allow the نُور to come in and then continue making an effort — we don't worship Allah for a feeling. We worship Allah because it is a necessary obligation for us. Feeling or not, we still do it. We don't worship Allah for a high — "You know, that high is going to come, and when I reach that high all of this will become easy." It's always going to be hard. It's always going to be hard. Because when something becomes easy, you start the next thing. Then you start the next one. Tahajjud becomes easy — you start fasting. Fasting becomes easy — you start praying tahajjud. They both become easy — you start giving charity. You always find something in your life that you are having a difficult time adding. You work on it until you add that skill.

You guys know LeBron James? 10 years ago — did he have a jump shot? No — he was worse than Westbrook. He had no jump shot. But he worked on his craft and added something new, because he knew that as he grows older, certain things will become harder to do. And now he's still moving. If we don't keep adding different layers to our game of spirituality, then slowly we'll start losing everything. We have to keep adding.

They say that the source of regression is complacency. Imam al-Shafi'i says: the purest element in this world is water — but even if water stops moving, that same water, which is supposed to purify us, now makes us impure, because it stops flowing. When the heart of a human being stops continuously growing in the commandments of Allah, it becomes stagnant. And they always say this in business: stagnancy kills.

We have to keep moving forward — adding more in our life. Not adding more people — adding more effort within ourselves. We don't want to leave thinking that tomorrow we will not be غَرِيب. We will always be غَرِيب. But we just become comfortable with that. What we want to leave saying is: how can more people become غَرِيب like me? Not, "How can I become like them?" This is a غُرْبَة which I enjoy. How can more people enjoy this غُرْبَة? How can more people want to feel what I am feeling?

But if you don't believe that you have something valuable — why would you want to give it to anyone else? When someone receives a gift and they want to tell the world about it, it's because it's something very special and they want to tell everyone. Well, we have something that we should feel like it's almost impossible not to tell people about — we have deen.

The Example of Yusuf in Prison

When Yusuf ﷺ went to prison and his two cellmates asked him, "Can you interpret the dream that we just had?" — he could have simply said, "Of course I can. Here is the interpretation of your dream." But he went ahead and took that opportunity for something much more important. He said, "I'll tell you the interpretation later — first let me tell you something more important. Let me tell you how I gained the ability of interpreting dreams."

Someone comes to us and says, "Well, now you're a professor, now you're a physician, now you have this — can you help me with this?" We don't have to wear deen on our sleeve like we're an "ayah Muslim." But now, when someone comes, we have the opportunity of giving them some da'wah — either through our character, through our words, through our honesty. He says:

The guy is like, "I never asked you what your religion is, though." "But I want you to know — because I'm only able to do what I'm doing because of my religion."

When a person sees something as a burden, the increase of it will always bring them more irritation. The more it increases, the more irritated you become, the more annoyed you become. And when someone sees something as a blessing, the increase of it always brings them happiness. So how do we look at deen? If we see it to be a blessing, more worship brings more happiness. If we see it to be a burden, more responsibility makes us more irritated.

There's a time where parents stop having children — if you're the last child, this is the reason why — because by that point they see it to be a burden. Until then, these kids are a blessing: 1, 2, 3, 4... But if you're the last one, that means by that time they realize, "These kids are probably a burden for me and I gotta stop." Because when you stop — you only get irritated by something if it's a burden. If it's a blessing, the more you get, the happier you become.

We don't need more people. The Prophet ﷺ never aimed to have more sahabah — he had a small group. And in the second to last year of his message:

But they never stopped making an effort because they stopped seeing results. Allah is not result-driven in His deen — we don't need to be result-driven in our deen.

Da'wah: Planting Seeds and Watering Them With Du'a

"I'm giving people da'wah, I'm making an effort, but they're not praying salah yet." Well — then perhaps we can make du'a for them. Ibn al-Qayyim rahimullah says: giving da'wah to someone is like planting a seed. But if you don't water that seed, it dies. Similarly, when you give da'wah to someone, you planted a seed — in order for it to be cultivated, you have to cry for them. And he says that is the watering of that seed.

If we're sitting here asking ourselves: when was the last time we cried for someone's deen? We've cried for people's dunya — someone lost a loved one, we cry for them; someone lost their job, we cry for them; someone goes through a hard time, we cry for them. Did we ever cry for our siblings because they stopped praying salah? Did we ever cry for someone because they are doing certain things that make Allah unhappy? Da'wah didn't start by saying things to people — it started by making du'a for people.

كَم مِّن فِئَةٍ قَلِيلَةٍ — small groups, big impact — because they had a sa'i that they were committed to. Badr: 313 people. The kuffar, the non-believers, were a thousand. The impact was still seen — small group, not a big group.

Madinah: The City Transformed by Effort

The Prophet ﷺ came into Madinah al-Munawwarah and the city's name changed — from Yathrib, which means sickness, to Madinah al-Munawwarah, which means "the illuminated city," or Madinah al-Tayyibah, "the pure city." The city's name changed. Did the city's name change because of the infrastructure? Or because of the landscape — now there's more light?

The name of the city didn't change because the city changed. The name of the city changed because the effort that was being made in that city changed. Now, the effort changing made it such that the entire city was full of light. For seven years there was no light in the Prophet's masjid — until Tamim al-Dari came. So the result of the name being "illuminated" had nothing to do with the physical light — it had every single thing to do with the effort that was being made.

So we leave knowing that we are absolutely comfortable being غَرِيب — being whoever we are. But we will continue making our effort. We will not stop because people say things. We will not stop because people don't say things, don't appreciate us. We won't stop because it's getting harder — if we continue, we know there's more reward. We're less in number, but we can have a strong impact all across the world.

There were 50 sahabah sitting in Dar al-Arqam till the fifth year of Prophethood — and then 15 years or so later, there were 120,000 companions. Our responsibility is not to bring the results. Our responsibility is to make the effort.

Allah says your responsibility is to make sure that the message is delivered. Balagh doesn't just mean you gave the message — there's a difference. If I tell someone, "Can you give this phone to Ahmed?" and he goes and puts it on his chair and says, "What? I gave him the phone" — I go to Ahmed and say, "Where's my phone?" He says, "I never got the phone." But I go to the person and say, "Where's my phone?" He says, "I gave it to him." But did you really give it to him? "No, but I put it on his chair." That's not giving. That's not balagh. Balagh is making sure the person has received the message in a way that they can understand. But you can't force anyone.

Packaging the Deen

I've given this example before as well — why are people having a hard time, perhaps, falling in love with our deen? I use this example: what's the difference between buying something from Marshalls and going to Louis Vuitton or going to Guess? You buy the same sweater, the same watch, the same purse — but the price is very different. It's the same thing though. Same company. One person bought it from Marshalls, the other bought it from Guess. Same sweater. Difference in price — why?

The difference is simply in the way that it's packaged. You walk into Marshalls, they give you a bag for the sweater — you throw the bag out before you get in the car. "Yo, no one needs to know I got it from Marshalls." You go home, your family asks you, "Oh, such a nice purse, such a nice sweater — where did you get it?" "It doesn't matter where I got it from — is it nice or is it not nice?" And then if you go to Guess or Louis Vuitton — they wrap it up and put it in that bag. You look at the bag, you take a picture of the bag before you take a picture of the item, because the packaging is nice. You go home — you can use the item, but you'll never give away the bag. The bag — your mother probably still has that bag to gift to someone else, because the bag looks nice.

My dear friends — deen is the same thing that it was 1,450 years ago. It has not changed. We are responsible to package it in a way — without compromising the product, without compromising the product — and give it to people in a manner that they can fall in love with it, like it was done to us by the people that came before us. If we don't take our time and package it for people and just throw it at them, they'll get rid of it because they don't see it to be valuable.

So our responsibility when we leave is: قَلِيل is equal to impact — as long as there is a consolidated effort of sa'i. May Allah allow us to be amongst those that can continue making effort for this deen. May Allah make us amongst those that realize that deen doesn't need us — we need deen. Allah can use an ant. Allah can use a mosquito. Allah can use a pigeon egg. Allah can use an animal. Allah can use a dog to protect the People of the Cave. Allah can use anything to benefit deen. Allah doesn't need us — but if we're present here, we leave with a responsibility.

Our Homework

We have homework — this is a university, right? Everyone has homework. We respond to Allah on a nightly basis. Our homework is: are we increasing in our effort to bring Allah into our lives and our family's lives?

Don't go wide — go deep within yourself. Make more of an effort.

Three Qualities Beloved to Allah

May Allah allow us to continue making an effort. May Allah allow us to be amongst those that the Prophet ﷺ says have three qualities that are beloved in a person. The first one is:

Allah loves a heart that is grateful. The second one is:

Allah loves a tongue that is moist with Allah's remembrance. And the third one — which is perhaps for our gathering the most important:

(Sunan al-Tirmidhi, Hadith 3383 — narrated as part of a longer hadith)

A body that is able to take a burden and a difficulty to please Allah. It takes a body that believes in reward to wake up for tahajjud. It takes a body that believes in reward to fast in Ramadan — because you're allowing your body to go through difficulty for the sake of Allah. You ever see athletes? They go through everything so they can make a paycheck — but their body goes through everything.

So our body is for Allah — it's Allah's. If we struggle a little bit and our legs hurt a little bit because these guys made me stand for every lecture — it's okay. It's a body. A body that is being used to serve Allah's deen is a body that is beloved to Allah.

So we ask ourselves: Allah has given us talent. Allah has given us youth. Allah has given us ability. Amongst all these things Allah has given me — how much of it is being used to honor the deen of Allah? Where Allah says:

Ibn al-Qayyim says: a person that has not used their talent to bring someone closer to Allah — that talent cannot be defined as a talent. It has to be used to also bring people towards Allah.

Closing

May Allah make us proud. طُوبَى لِلْغُرَبَاء — means we are proud, and our pride is not because of who we are but rather because of what we represent. May Allah make us amongst those that can enter Jannah with ease and عَافِيَة.

That was only 23 minutes, guys — I've always been bad with time.