Footprints in the Sand: Lessons from the Pious | Muftī Azeemuddin Ahmed | 02/19

Opening Invocation

In the name of Allah, the Most Gracious, the Most Merciful. O Allah, send blessings and peace upon our Master Muhammad, and upon the family of our Master Muhammad, and bless and send peace upon the Lord of the month of Sadr, and the secret of my affair, and release the knot from my tongue, so that my speech may be understood. You are the All-Knowing, the All-Wise.

O Allah, teach us what benefits us, and benefit us with what You have taught us, and increase us in knowledge and action. O Allah, enlighten our hearts with Your knowledge, and use our bodies for Your obedience. And guide us to what You love and are pleased with, through speech, deed, action, intention, and guidance. Verily, You are the All-Knowing, the All-Wise.

Respected beloved brothers and sisters, dear listeners, As-salamu alaykum wa rahmatullahi wa barakatuhu. Today is our first session of our post-Asr gathering, after the recitation of Surah Al-Kahf.

Alhamdulillah, we're going to have a few minutes — 20 minutes or so — to go over some stories of the pious predecessors, and some lessons from their life. And insha'Allah, as we get closer to Iftar, insha'Allah we'll break for some dhikr and du'a, bi-idhni Allahi ta'ala. I've kept the title of it general, so it gives us the flexibility to cover different topics, different things.

Hopefully every single session, we pray, the purpose of it is to be inspiring. And insha'Allah, if we all sit with a very good, lofty intention and sincere desire, Allah, based on our humility in front of Him, and based on our sincerity of intention, based on the cleanliness of our desire and need, insha'Allah, Allah will inspire all of us to benefit hopefully tremendously. Today I'm reading from a section of Imam Bukhari's Kitab al-Riqaq, and it's actually a commentary of it.

Just a little bit about Imam Bukhari we'll read, and then insha'Allah just listening to his story as well. So this is a book — it's called Kitab al-Riqaq, which is a section from Sahih al-Bukhari on those ahadith that soften the heart.

A Brief Biography of Imam Bukhari

Abu Abdullah Muhammad, who was the son of Ismail, who was the son of Ibrahim, the son of Mughaira, al-Bukhari, rahimahullah — who was known as ameerul mu'mineen fil hadith, the leader of the believers in hadith. His physical description has been given as: he had a slim build and was of medium height. He was blessed with qualities of abstinence and piety from an early age.

He inherited a large sum of wealth from his father, which he subsequently spent in the path of Allah on other scholars and students. His diet was minimal. He was very intelligent and knowledgeable. His memory was unparalleled. At the age of 16, he had memorized all the books of Abdullah ibn Mubarak and Waqia, rahimahullah. He was born on the 13th of Shawwal, 194 Hijri, after Jumu'ah salah in Bukhara.

His Blindness at Birth — and His Mother's Du'a

Imam Bukhari was born blind. His mother was a very pious and ardent worshiper who constantly supplicated for her son. One day she saw Ibrahim (alayhis salam) in a dream, who told her: "On account of your constant crying and supplicating for your son, Allah will cure his blindness." When she awoke in the morning, she discovered that her son had been cured and was able to see again.

So this right here — this is sufficient for today. Don't you think so?

Imam Bukhari's name — there is not a single person who is listening here who hasn't heard his name. All of us know him. We all would think of his Sahih. But to think about so many things we learned: the fact that how wealthy he was, inherited from his father, but he gave it all to students of knowledge. The fact that his diet was always minimal — like how we today in Ramadan think about this, much less than this throughout the entire year.

The more we starve the nafs, the stronger our soul becomes. The more we starve the nafs, the stronger the soul becomes. So alhamdulillah, these ulema had this habit of really strengthening their soul by lots of dhikr, and then a decrease in nutrition for the nafs.

And very intelligent, knowledgeable. At the age of 16, memorized all the books — all the books of hadith of Abdullah ibn Mubarak. How is this possible? When Allah wants to do some work, Allah will create people for it. Is this possible today? Most definitely it's possible today. It's very possible for Allah to create such people who will do outstanding tasks, that will be mind-boggling for other people. Like, how is that possible? How is that humanly possible? You're right — it's not humanly possible. It's a karama, it's the mu'jizah of Rasulullah ﷺ, the karama of the righteous people. That being from the ummah of Rasulullah ﷺ, Allah will allow such outstanding, amazing things to happen.

The Lesson of Du'a and Certainty in Allah

Moving on to the fact that he was born blind — and that blindness is one of those things. If our mothers at home, our sisters, our fathers and husbands, wherever they may be, just focus on this one story. That whatever problem I'm going through in my life, and you're going through in your life — you say, this is a very big problem, I don't know how to solve it. Usually what is it? Marital issues are a big thing. We're getting so many phone calls into the office as well, in Ramadan. Lots of people trying to figure things out. People worried about their disobedient son, disobedient daughter. People worried about their broken relationships with their uncles and aunts. People worried about their loss of finances and business not going well. These are big things in people's lives.

You might be able to convince somebody that you can solve it. But subhanAllah — blindness at birth? Where are we thinking that that's going to get solved? Like today, if you tell somebody who has stage 4 cancer that, subhanAllah, through du'a and dhikr, this can be cured — people will laugh at you. People say, yeah, I think I know. Go back to the masjid where you came from.

But this is the idea here — the believer himself has thrown in the towel. That's why we've been treated by Allah the way we are. It wasn't enough that we had enough Muslim countries being bombed, destroyed, civil wars and such. Now we see, subhanAllah, another country being targeted. And they're saying that this is the build-up that has not been happening in that region since 2002, 2003, since the start of the Iraq war. So Allah khair karein. We don't know what the future holds, subhanAllah. The situation is very dire for the ummah right now.

And the solution — as much as we want to say, let's focus on the means and stop focusing on prayers, let's do the big thing — the problem is that is good advice for someone who all he does is pray. He spends 3, 4, 5, 6 hours making du'a and after that doesn't do anything. Then you can tell him, brother, you have to tie the camel, you have to use the means, etc. But let's find that person right now — who amongst us here, all the thousands and hundreds of people of our community — find me one person, one lady, one old man, one old lady, one young person, who sits there and says, you know what, I actually make du'a 4 hours a day. I make du'a 6 hours a day. Find me one person. I want to see this individual.

We know the situation. But subhanAllah, du'a is something we're all struggling to do. 10 minutes, 5 minutes. So what did this lady do? This mother — she cried. She cried a lot and made du'a. And that's it.

And someone would say, oh no, this was some type of — she thought he was blind, but he wasn't blind. People say this. They say, no, this is actually a medicine, they have this explanation for this. Always wanting to give some explanation. Somehow or the other, the yaqeen that Allah does without means should be removed from the heart. This is what you're doing. When every time you have an answer, what are you doing? You are destroying your young son's or daughter's yaqeen. Make your children believe in miracles. Make your children believe in the power of Allah. But you can't make them believe if you don't believe yourself.

This is how people say, we came from monkeys. No, we came from Adam. No, no, the science says like this. The idea is — if you say, no, this doesn't make sense to me — Mawlana Ilyas, who came here the other day, he mentioned this very beautiful ayah:

The idea is that Allah, if Allah wants good for you, He expands your chest for iman — that iman and Islam start making sense to you. We didn't come from apes, we came from humans. I'm content with this. Bring any proof you want — I don't need to look at this. Can Allah cure a person born with blindness at childbirth? And can Allah cure a so-called incurable disease? Yeah, of course. I have complete conviction. You don't need to convince me, and you don't need to try to bring anything else to convince me the other way.

When Allah gives you sukoon in your heart, Islam makes sense. Iman makes sense. The miracles of the prophets make sense. While the person right next to you is going to be elbowing you, saying, what? You crazy? Are you seriously going to believe in this? But you are feeling very content. You hear a story of a voice coming from a cloud. You hear miracles of the prophets — somewhere a tree coming and saying shahada. You don't get shocked by this. Because Allah has given you this sense of contentment with Iman and Islam.

Like Abu Bakr Siddiq radiyallahu anhu, at the time of Mi'raj. The kuffar came to him and said, hey, you heard this? There's a guy who claims he went to Aqsa, and he's going to claim to have gone to the heavens. He said, who's making this claim? They said, that's your friend Muhammad sallallahu alayhi wa sallam. He said, he made this claim? He said, yes. If he said it, then no questions asked. If he said it, whatever he says I have to believe in. As outlandish as you may make it seem to me, if he said it, it has to be true. You know why? Because I believe in greater things. You think it's tough to go between Isha and Fajr to Aqsa and the heavens and come back? You think that's tough? Well, guess what — every single day he says he receives an angel. And he talks about the God that we've never seen, and the world that we've never seen, and akhirah and paradise. We believe in all of that. If we believe in all of that, why is it hard for us to believe this?

That's the same thing every youngster — and all of us — need to say. That if I believe in all the 99 names and attributes of Allah, if I believe in the power of Allah, if I believe in the unseen Day of Judgment, unseen jannah and jahannam, if I believe in the life of the grave — as a Muslim, obviously you're not a Muslim if you don't — then for someone to say, hey, there was a voice that came out of a grave, there was a fragrance coming out from the soil of someone's grave — what's the big deal about that? Honestly, what's the big deal?

Why are miracles — tayy al-waqt and tayy al-ard, the wrapping up of time, the wrapping up of the land, the ability to do something that takes a long time in a short time, the ability to traverse a long distance in a short period of time — why is this a surprise? This is a surprise for someone who from the very get-go is unsettled with the deen. From the very get-go, he has an issue.

Once I was traveling out of state in Ramadan, and a brother told me, can you speak to my son? 13 years old. I said, okay, what's the problem? He said, you know, he's a good boy, he prays, he fasts also, but now we have soccer practice, so he's not fasting now. But besides that, he's a good boy. I go, what is the issue? No, he just said, you know, I fasted 8 days already, I know what it feels like to not have food. Alhamdulillah — check mark. None. Why do I need to fast now? So we have soccer practice, basketball practice happening, and let me just focus on that.

He said, how do I explain this to him? So I told the father — he was a physician — I said, if someone tells you that they have lower back pain, or a certain area of the back that's hurting, it could be just that you lifted up something heavy, you sprained something. Or it could actually be that you have an advanced form of cancer. But as a physician, especially if it's your son, you're not going to just think, ah, there's probably nothing wrong. You're going to go to the extent to figure out every single test, do it, to make sure he's clear. I said, this statement itself tells me that your son is suffering a major spiritual disease. And it's not something that I can just speak to him over the phone.

This is actually a very serious problem. The foundation is corrupted. This is not:

You have not entered into Islam in totality. It's following the Islam of convenience. When it's convenient to me, I accept it. When it doesn't suit me, I'll find a loophole. That's the general Islam of today — that as long as it's culturally sensitive and it makes sense to me to practice it and to observe it, I'm okay with it. And if it clashes with my culture, with my profession, with my 12, 15, 20 years of knowledge that I gained from university, school, and grade school, then I have to pass on it. I have to say, this can't make sense.

So that is the idea of karamat and miracles and the power of du'a — especially in the month of Ramadan, we have to keep on telling ourselves. When anyone comes and tells you that this situation is very bad, very tough, you have to tell yourself: no, it's tough for you, it's tough for me, it's not tough for Allah. Every single day I have to sit and convince people here, students and others and outsiders. They come and they say, this problem, this matter is too hard. Turn to Allah, turn to Allah. But that one we're not doing. We just want to complain that this situation is too hard. I cannot make it for salah every day. I cannot get my sabaq done every day. I cannot memorize my Qur'an every day. I cannot lead proper tarawih. I cannot give a proper speech. I cannot prepare for the khutbah properly. I cannot stay away from sin properly. Every single issue — these are genuine issues. The solution is with Allah.

So this lady — she made du'a. And it was not, as I said, just some random medical situation that she misread. No. She had a dream of Ibrahim alayhis salam. What is that supposed to mean? That means this is an actual issue. And he came and clearly said that you have cried so much, Allah has cured your son from this.

This is also a reminder to all of us parents — moms and dads — that your tears and your pain will not go to waste.

Many dads are worried about their daughters' marriages falling apart. Many moms are worried about their children's marriages falling apart. And they want to share their sad stories. And now my time is limited. I want to give you a solution. If I had a magic wand, you could tell me the story and I'll press the magic wand and the problem will be solved. I don't have a magic wand. None of us have it. But Allah has the solution.

Done. For every single minute that we speak to a therapist, for every single minute spent speaking to a psychiatrist, for every single minute spent speaking to a doctor — speak ten minutes with Allah. Ten minutes with Allah. And that one minute that we're speaking to those people will end. We don't even need it. Allah will provide the solution. O dear mothers, dear fathers — our tears are not going to go to waste. Allah is looking at it. Just keep at it.

His Upbringing — The Widowed Mother

Regarding his education and upbringing — his father Ismail passed away while he was in his childhood, and his mother then saw to his upbringing. How many mothers will say, in a situation where her husband died, or she was widowed, or divorced, or whatever the case may be — it's all game over. Without a father, how is the tarbiyah going to be?

Or let me put it like this. My husband wants to go out in the path of Allah. My husband wants to sit in the masjid from Asr to Maghrib. Then my children will all go on the street. What? How did we end up from here to there? This is the statement today — that if the husband does something besides the 8-to-5 work, and goes to the masjid, volunteers, sits in i'tikaf, nafil i'tikaf from Asr to Maghrib, does du'a — then the equation becomes: this will equal children becoming gangsters.

Here is a lady, a single mother, raising her child. Her husband has died. And that single child becomes Imam Bukhari. Understand Allah's nizam. Allah will always compensate for your losses. If you do not have your spouse with you — because of divorce, or because of being oppressively divorced, not that you chose it yourself, that it happened against your will, against your desire — or your spouse died, or your spouse is in the path of Allah — then Allah will take care of your needs way better than your own.

I was in India, in jamaat in August. In one masjid we went, and one brother — his name is Yunus — was so poor that they did not have more than one blanket between the husband and wife. The wife is telling the husband, you take the blanket. In Delhi it becomes very cold, and in the outskirts in Mewat where we were, it hits 40 degrees, 35 degrees, in the winter. She says, you take the blanket. He says, no, you take the blanket. Eventually, he says, I'm going to go to the masjid — they'll have chatai, these straw mats. I'll lie down on the straw mat and roll myself up and sleep there in the night. You keep the blanket.

So he went out in the path of Allah, leaving his wife there in this situation, with the kids and whoever else. They're so dirt poor. I was in this masjid where this incident happened. The brother told me that when this lady would wake up — she herself came and told the other sisters — she had no money. But she said: when my husband is out in the path of Allah, I wake up, I go to make wudu, I look at the pot — 500 rupees. When I go to the stove — they don't have stoves there, they cook on the dung of buffalo, they use that as fuel — she goes there, she takes a teapot — 1,000 rupees in there. Just like that, money would be appearing. Just enough for her to purchase all that she needed.

This is something I just saw a few months ago. There are thousands of incidents like this that are happening today. What you need to understand is: you're dealing with Allah. If your spouse is doing the khidmah of deen, Allah is not going to throw you in the street. If your spouse is serving Allah's deen, Allah is not going to make her kids go orphaned and worse. Allah will take care of them — on the condition that we're actually doing the service of deen and khidmah with ikhlas, the way the sahaba did.

Just think about all the stories of the sahaba. How many sahaba do you think sat there together, husband and wife, saying, hey, we have to have iftar together? Do you really think that was the life? Let's have all the fried items, let's have sweets — oh, how are you sitting with the Prophet? Come sit at home with me. Do you seriously think that was the environment of Medina? Or is it that when you go from Maghrib, the Prophet ﷺ might say, there's an expedition that needs to be sent out — who's ready? Go. You send a note home, or maybe on the way out you just send a note that: hey, I'm going. Is there a return ticket? There is no idea. I don't even know if I'm coming back alive. No communication. Nothing.

That sacrifice laid the foundation of this ummah. And that's where today you and I are sitting in this beautiful masjid. If our seniors and our elders did not make sacrifice — O moms, O dads, O husbands, O wives — we would not be sitting in this masjid. This is what Allah will do for you. When you say, I'm ready to serve the deen, Allah will compensate for your losses. You don't have money? Guess what — you won't need it. Allah will take care of you. You don't have your spouse with you? Guess what — Allah will take care of you. You're not very educated in deen or dunya? Don't worry — Allah will take care of you. This is what we learn here.

His Pursuit of Knowledge

It was in his childhood that his mother raised him and instilled in him a great zeal and desire for the acquisition of knowledge and the science of hadith. Imam Bukhari was once asked how old he was when it first occurred to him that he should memorize hadith. He said he was 10 years old. At this young age, he began sitting in the discourses of the scholars of hadith.

One day, it so happened that he was sitting in the discourse of Allama Dakhili, who was one of the senior muhaddithun of Bukhara, and whose discourses were attended by a multitude of people. When he narrated the chain of narration of a hadith in the following manner: Sufyan, from Abu Zubair, from Ibrahim — Imam Bukhari, a young boy, interjected and said: "Sheikh Dakhili, Abu Zubair did not narrate any hadith from Ibrahim." Hearing the voice of Imam Bukhari, Allama Dakhili was slightly annoyed — there was a young boy saying this. However, Imam Bukhari very respectfully asked Allama Dakhili to recheck the chain of narration. When Allama Dakhili went ahead and checked his notes and looked at his resources, he discovered that Imam Bukhari, this young boy, was correct. He asked, "O child, what is the correct chain of narration then?" Imam Bukhari replied: Zubair, from Adi, from Ibrahim — Zubair narrated from Adi, who in turn narrated from Ibrahim. Allama Dakhili acknowledged his error.

Imam Bukhari then began his journey at the age of 16 of seeking knowledge — having already memorized all the hadith of Waqia and Abdullah ibn Mubarak by that time. Now he started his next journey of seeking knowledge and listening to more ahadith and traveling.

Imam Bukhari went to perform Hajj in 210 Hijri — so how old is he? He's 16. At the age of 16, from Bukhara to Mecca — a very far distance he traveled — along with his mother and elder brother Ahmad. After completing Hajj, his mother and brother returned to Bukhara. And Imam Bukhari, at this young tender age of 16, remained in Mecca Mukarrama in order to seek knowledge.

Imam Bukhari said: "I went to Syria, I went to Egypt, I went twice to Jazira, four times to Basra, spent six years in Hijaz, and a number of times I went to Baghdad and Kufa with the muhaddithun — I cannot even count." Now each of these places is hundreds of miles apart. If I were to just stand up and say, this is my bio — you all would be impressed. Oh wow, on a plane. I take a three-hour plane to go to Syria and a two-hour plane to go to Egypt — you say, wow, you studied all over the world. This Imam Bukhari, 1,200 years ago, is traveling like this as a young boy.

The places he went to acquire the knowledge of hadith: Mecca, Medina, Syria, Bukhara, Marwa, Balkh, Herat, Ray, Naysabur, Baghdad, Wasit, Kufa, Egypt, Jazira, Asqalan, and Homs. Imam Bukhari had 1,800 teachers from whom he recorded hadith. And the number of students who benefited directly from Imam Bukhari was approximately 90,000 students.

Again — no Instagram live, no Facebook, no YouTube live. One-on-one. 90,000 students. Look at the population of the ummah then and now — exponentially larger now. What must the entire ummah have been? I don't know — you can search online to see how many Muslims there were in 200 Hijri. But think about what a massive portion 90,000 of that must have been. MashaAllah, he himself benefited them, and they included pioneers of hadith and so forth.

Closing Reflections

So alhamdulillah, we'll stop over here. We'll continue insha'Allah where Allah wills for us from tomorrow. This is the pious predecessors. When you pick up Bukhari — at least may Allah give me tawfiq to sit up straight and read it. Allow me to at least maybe do wudu as I read it. Allow me to at least take notes when I'm listening to a commentary of any hadith of Bukhari. And allow me to at least not say:

"They were men and we are also men. That was their ijtihad, this is my ijtihad." No, my friends — there is a huge difference. Yes, you can become like them. But you and I are nothing. We're not even the dust of their shoes right now. We're so far away. But if we want to become like them, insha'Allah the doors are open. The doors of making du'a to Allah. The doors of sacrifice for the sake of Allah. The doors of seeking knowledge from a very young age. The doors of spending money — look what Imam Bukhari did: spent all the money he inherited from his father on students of knowledge. And alhamdulillah, Allah made him the greatest scholar of hadith that we know.

We ask Allah to allow myself and all of us and our children to follow in the footsteps of the likes of Imam Bukhari. And allow those beautiful traits to be inculcated in us. May Allah allow us to have peace with iman, peace with Islam. Allow us to understand Islam properly. Allow us to fully enter it with totality.

InshAllah, if the brothers can proceed downstairs — we have about seven minutes. We'll insha'Allah do the du'a from here. Downstairs is the sofra, the dastarkhan insha'Allah. The brothers can head out. And as we're making du'a now insha'Allah, we can quietly head downstairs and engage in du'a insha'Allah.