Imaan – A Spiritual Light | Mufti Abdul Wahab Waheed

The Need for Spiritual Light

Dear brothers and sisters and friends, it is pretty much impossible to find any form of progress in a room that is dark. So for example, if you wanted to fix your bed or if you really wanted to walk from one side of the room to the next side of the room, or if you wanted to start writing something in your book, or you're really feeling like you wanted to study in the middle of the night — you opened up your notebook or your textbook and you were trying to read — no progress can take place without light. Light creates the ability to be able to progress at a physical level, and if there's no light, things become much more difficult.

It takes you much longer — though we can do it. Sometimes in the middle of the night you gotta go use the washroom, you trip over two, three things, but you make it there, slowly but surely. But if there was light, it would be much easier because now you can just smooth your track and get to where you wanna get to without hurtling over certain things in the room.

Similarly, for us youngsters — and for everyone actually — there's also something called spiritual light. There's also something called iman that Allah has blessed every single one of us with. And iman is very powerful. Iman is also an inner light — it's an inner light which creates inner beauty which embodies within every single one of us, and it allows us to be the person that we are.

And without this light, it becomes rather very difficult to progress at any emotional or spiritual level, because we are missing out on that light that allows us to pray, that allows us to be respectful to our parents, that allows us to be conducive in our environments towards growing people around us. It limits us at every level. And the only way we can progress at a spiritual level is if we understand the beauty of that iman and if we understand the purpose of that level of faith that Allah has given us.

And as youngsters — I'm fairly young as well, perhaps not as young as all of you, but I still consider myself to be 18 years old, so alhamdulillah I think I fit in. I'm not 18, by the way, I think I'm 18, right. But the point of the matter is: if a person doesn't have physical light, they can't move across a room. If we don't understand the need of spiritual light, then how is it possible for us to get through high school and college without having to go through certain bumps and bruises?

Though those bumps and bruises will come regardless, that spiritual light of ours will allow us to mitigate and get through it without falling down and not being able to get back up. And that spiritual light, my dear friends, brothers and sisters, is what we call iman. Iman is the focal point of allowing ourselves to grow in the eyes of Allah.

The Story of Mahmood and Ayaz: Protecting What Is Precious

As you're going through your school or whatever it may be, it is pivotal for us to understand that this relationship with Allah needs to grow. This relationship with Allah needs to be protected — like a jewel. A jewel, if the value of a jewel is understood, then at every level we will protect the jewel.

There's a story about a king and his minister — or his wazir, as they call it in Urdu. His name was Mahmood. Does anyone know who Mahmood and Ayaz were? Mahmood was the king — his name was Mahmood al-Ghaznawi. And he had this wazir, his name was Ayaz.

Ayaz was an outsider who came into this government, and the king liked him because of his loyalty and made him the treasurer of the kingdom. Being the treasurer is a pretty big deal. After making him the treasurer, the family became somewhat jealous. Obviously in every society there's a sense of nepotism and so on and so forth. So they kept telling the king, "Why is it so that you have made this person the treasurer? We don't even know who he is. He's a random person who just appeared and has become the treasurer." And they kept telling the king that they couldn't trust this person.

So one day they came to the king and said, "This person that you've made the treasurer, Ayaz — we don't trust him. He has this closet in his room and he goes in there every morning, and we don't know why, because he's the only one that has a key to this closet. We are certain that he hides the gold and the treasures of your kingdom, that he steals it and puts it there — otherwise why would he be the only one with a key?"

So the king comes to Ayaz and says, "Do you have this closet that you go into every morning and only you have the key for?" He says, "Yes." The king says, "Well, can I see the key?" Ayaz says, "If you want, you can go ahead and open the closet." And Ayaz gives the key to the king, and the king goes ahead and opens the closet. And when he opens the closet, he sees a mirror and a pair of old, shabby, patched-up, torn clothes.

And the king says, "Oh Ayaz, why do you have these clothes hanging in this closet with the mirror? What's the purpose of hiding this? Why would you hide something like this? You should have just thrown it away. You have much more now. You are the treasurer of my kingdom. You are the third person in line in this kingdom. Why would you keep these clothes?"

And Ayaz looks back at the king and he says, "Oh king, every single morning I wake up and I go into this closet and I put these clothes on. And I look in the mirror and I say to myself: 'Ayaz, once upon a time you walked into the kingdom like this poor person. You were wearing these clothes on your back. And today, the robes that you wear, the honor that you have, everything you possess was given to you because of Mahmood, who is your king. So remain loyal to him. And don't become a person who is unfaithful.' And it reminds me and it fortifies my loyalty to you. Hence, I wear it every morning."

What I take from this story is something very simple. If this is the type of relationship that a person has with his king in this world, what type of relationship should we have with Allah? Every single morning when I'm able to wake up — still have my parents around me, be blessed with siblings, be blessed with the ability of going to school, be blessed with the ability of having friends and having the ability of just interacting with one another, which is one of the greatest qualities of a human being.

We are insan. Insan comes from the root letters of uns, which means we interact with one another. It's a natural, innate feature of human beings that we are able to communicate with one another. We have all of this. What if Allah one day said, "You know what, I don't want you to have this anymore"? The whole world could get together and try to give it to us, but they won't be able to. The whole world will try to give back something that Allah took back, but no one can give it to you.

The Hadith of Ibn Abbas: Protect Allah, and Allah Will Protect You

The Prophet ﷺ one day sat with a young boy — his name was Abdullah ibn Abbas. One of the greatest scholars among the Companions. The Prophet ﷺ was sitting with him on the back of his camel, and he looks back at this eight-year-old boy and says, "Oh my beloved son, I want to teach you a few things. If you take care of these few things, know that Allah will always take care of you."

What are those few things? The first:

Translation: "Take care of the commandments of Allah, and Allah will take care of you."
(Sunan al-Tirmidhi, Hadith 2516)

And for us, my friends, the commandments of Allah begin with Salat. Salat is the nucleus of our relationship with Allah. In any relationship, the focal point is loyalty and trust — they say once you lose trust, you can never fully gain it back. The focal point of our relationship with Allah, where our trust is built, is in Salat. It allows us to communicate with Allah at every level.

Then the Prophet ﷺ tells him the second point:

Translation: "When you want to ask for something, ask Allah."
(Sunan al-Tirmidhi, Hadith 2516)

My father, Allah bless him — one of the things both of our parents taught us is: whenever you need something, first ask Allah, then ask me. Because naturally as a kid, you always want to ask your parents first. And my father would always say, "Did you ask Allah yet?" First ask Allah, then ask me.

Du'a: Speaking to Allah

For all of us — what is one of the strongest ways to build our relationship with Allah? First, Salat. And the second is Du'a. Du'a is us speaking to Allah. Salat is Allah speaking to us — because in Salat, we are reciting the Quran. But in Du'a, we are speaking to Allah and communicating with Him directly.

And let me tell you something — Du'a doesn't mean that you have to ask Allah for something. That's not all that Du'a means. I have used Du'a at low points of my life for something very different. It wasn't to ask Allah for something.

To share a quick personal story — we were five brothers, alhamdulillah. My younger brother was 22 years old. Last October 5th, 2020, about a year and three months ago, he was driving on a 30 miles per hour road, and he got hit head-on, passed away, left this world, and became shaheed. He was really close to me specifically — I was number four, he was number five.

Siblings are unique. And if you don't have siblings, you have your friends — they're similar. Though you get in fights with siblings over the most petty and mundane things, they're still your siblings. To say that it was a shock would be, for lack of any better word, devastating. At 22 years old, he had just come back from ten years of studies, and finally we were able to get together. And Allah took him.

And I always say, based on that experience: first impressions are not the lasting impression. The most important impression you have with someone is the last impression. So rather than always trying to make a first impression, have a good last impression. When you leave your house in the morning to go to school, that may be your last impression with your parents, with your siblings, with your friends. So let's not make it weird to say salam to people. Let's not make it strange just to say, "How are you doing?" and showing love to one another. It's something that should be normalized in our communities — not just through social media and texting, but in person, where you can actually feel the love from a person.

Nonetheless, one of the things that helped me personally at that time was the concept of making Du'a — not asking Allah for anything, but rather just speaking to Allah. What does speaking to Allah mean? Literally, Allah becomes your therapist. Just saying, "Ya Allah, I don't know why or how you did this, whatever the purpose was, it's hard. Allow me to get through this. Ya Allah, this is something that You know why it happened. You are the ultimate wise King of this world." And just letting your heart pour out to Allah. It allows that relationship to feel so real.

Sometimes we don't identify Allah's relationship with us because it doesn't feel real yet. And one of the ways to make it real is to talk to Allah. Who was the prophet who was taken away from his father at a very young age and was thrown into a well? Yusuf, peace be upon him. Yusuf was taken away at a very young age from his father Yaqub, and Allah tells us that Yaqub cried so much he went blind. And when people would ask him, "What's going on? Why are you crying so much?" he would say:

"I only complain of my suffering and my grief to Allah."

I always say — make a list of things that you don't want to be doing on your last day on earth. And make a list of things that you do want to be doing on your last day. Naturally, slowly but surely, the things that you don't want to be doing will weather away, and the things that you do want to do will stick. It'll happen naturally. But it all comes down to:

"Protect the commandments of Allah, and Allah will protect you." (Sunan al-Tirmidhi, Hadith 2516)

Building a relationship with Allah. There is no one in this world who is too far from Allah to build a relationship with Him. There is no one sitting here who is too far from Allah. Every single one of us has something unique that Allah ultimately loves. And because of that love, the moment we speak to Him, He is there to answer us.

I don't care how much our parents love us, how much our siblings love us — if we are disloyal and disrespectful, sooner or later what's going to happen? Your parents may say, "Find your own way." But Allah's relationship with us is the only relationship which is non-reciprocal. It doesn't matter what we do — Allah still loves us. It doesn't matter how many times we've turned away — Allah still loves us. This is why Allah says:

"When My servants ask you concerning Me — indeed I am near."

No one should be sitting here saying, "Well, I haven't prayed in so long," or "I have so many other struggles." If someone doesn't have a struggle, that means they're not human — they must be angels. We all have struggles. Regardless of what it may be, we all have our inner struggle with our relationship with Allah, our relationship with deen. But know that as we move forward, we cultivate that relationship regardless of how people look at us, what they think of us, or how popular something may be.

People Are Mines: The Value of Iman

Who makes things go viral? People, right? We are the asset that allows things to go viral. I remember there was a time when this thing called the bottle flip became viral — you flip your water bottle and it lands upright. People make even the strangest things go viral. So do we think it's not possible for us to make Salat on campus go viral? Is it not possible for us to make good things go viral? If praying on campus is strange, then sign us up — it's okay. We don't mind being that stranger.

If being respectful to parents is strange, then we are strange. In a society where everyone is allowed to say whatever they want to whoever they want, the one relationship that remains extremely, extremely sanctified is our relationship with our parents. And if that's considered weird, then it's okay. It's okay to close your mouth and control your tongue when it comes to parents. There's nothing wrong with that.

So we can make things go viral. If choosing to dress in a certain way, or choosing to speak in a certain way, or choosing to pray in a certain way, or choosing to be with certain people at school — if that's strange but makes Allah happy, then it's worth it. And Allah will give us both:

"Our Lord, give us good in this world and good in the Hereafter." (Quran 2:201) Allah will give us good in school and Allah will give us good in the akhirah as well.

So going back to that initial point — the moment we identify one variable in our life that is Allah, Allah will continue giving us. It's a spring that continues to give. But we have to at least identify that it exists.

The Prophet ﷺ says:

"People are like mines [of gold and silver]." (Sahih Muslim, Hadith 2638; Sahih al-Bukhari, Hadith 3493)

People are mines — like gold mines and silver mines. Why are people like mines? Because, like a mine, people are very valuable. People have a lot to offer. But the challenge is that you need to identify that it's there. In the Arab countries, for the longest time, people were sitting on an ocean of oil beneath them and they never realized it. So the first step is the realization that there is something within me that I can offer. And everyone has something.

We all have value to offer one another. And our value stems not from our education, not from our family, not from our wealth. Our value stems from our iman. Because once upon a time there was a man by the name of Bilal, and he used to be a slave. But because Allah gave him iman, Allah gave him value. Value comes from iman. Value comes from our relationship with Allah.

The second reason the Prophet ﷺ uses this comparison is because, like a mine, it takes time to extract. It takes time to bring it out, to refine it, to make it such that people can benefit from it. And how can we make it such that people can benefit from it? By making sure that our link with Allah is strong. We're like mines — everyone has something to offer.

It's okay if people don't accept us for a certain reason. It's okay if something looks a little different. At the end of the day, the idea is not just to get accepted in the eyes of people. The idea is to make sure we are accepted in the eyes of Allah.

The Seven Under the Shade: Use Your Youth

The Prophet ﷺ says that there are seven people who will be under the shade of Allah on the Day of Judgment. On that Day, the sun will be closer to us than our arm's length — really, really close — and naturally you're going to sweat. You will require shade. Only seven types of people will be given shade. And amongst them, the first and the strongest:

"A young person who grew up in the worship of Allah." (Sahih al-Bukhari, Hadith 660; Sahih Muslim, Hadith 1031)

Someone who grew up and used their youth in the obedience of Allah. And obedience of Allah doesn't mean that we leave everything we're doing — we stop playing sports, we stop playing video games. There's nothing wrong with that. Deen doesn't tell us to remove things. Deen tells us just to add things. So if you have a portfolio, a resume, and it's a good resume, you don't have to take anything out — you just have to add. Add something to it.

So prior to tonight, if Salat wasn't a priority, let's make it a priority. شَابٌّ نَشَأَ فِي عِبَادَةِ اللَّهِ. And if we ever miss — and this is for me as well, because sometimes we miss Salat — if we ever miss, just make it up as soon as you can. Don't allow Shaytan to say to you, "You already missed it, what's the point of praying?" If you miss, pray before you go to sleep. As long as you pray, Allah will, hopefully, allow us to be forgiven for that.