Footprints in the Sand: Lessons from the Pious | Muftī Azeemuddin Ahmed | 03/10

Introduction: Footprints in the Sand

In the name of Allah, the Most Gracious, the Most Merciful. Peace and blessings be upon our Master Muhammad and his family.

My Lord, open my heart and ease my affairs. And free me from the tongue of the transgressor. 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 — from speech, action, intention, and guidance. You have power over all things.

So, dear brothers, if you are joining us here for the first time, this is Footprints in the Sand. We go over stories of the pious predecessors. And it's very normal — it can be expected — that when you want to achieve, when you want to arrive at a destination, you look at the people who prior to you walked the path. And just follow the footsteps and it becomes easy. Instead of trying to create your own path.

So the idea is we're all trying to reach Allah. We're all trying to reach Allah, especially now, alhamdulillah, Allah has brought us here in these final days of Ramadan. What better way to do it than finding out what the successful predecessors did — and following their footsteps.

Why We Look to Those Who Have Passed

So who are our predecessors? There are many, but the ones who came recently — our teachers, our grand teachers, our great grand teachers. I thought we'd share some stories of them because, alhamdulillah, if you're here studying and benefiting, or praying salah, or listening to khutbahs, or attending i'tikaf from the various scholars who speak from this platform — we have all, in one way or the other, become students of this lineage. And it's good to know who the genuine seniors are.

One day, one well-known brother in the country came and told me — he was saying, you know, I am looking at all the various efforts and movements the various young scholars are doing. And he was speaking about the ulama who graduated from the madrasas. And he named a few and said, we're so impressed at what work these scholars are doing across the country in this past decade or so.

And I said, you have a very valid point. However, if you were to see their teachers, and their teachers' teachers, that would have been another whole thing. SubhanAllah — what we are doing, or what they are doing, is absolutely nothing compared to the pious predecessors. Not to belittle what we're doing or anyone else is doing, but I want you to always keep your focus on the ones prior, as we have been taught:

Follow the ones who have already passed away. Because so long as someone is alive, you can never be too sure whether they will fall into a fitnah.

As long as someone is alive, they can fall into some trial, tribulation, or scandal. They can fall off the deen. Because you don't know until your last breath comes what state you're going to be in.

So this is why, when you want to keep your ideal, it's better to keep as your ideal — who? People who have passed away. Because just in case the person you keep as your ideal gets into some issue, then you're always going to say, "I thought my shaykh was like this. I thought my scholar was like this. Islam is just a fraud." But who told you to make him your muqtada?

Our number one is Rasulullah ﷺ. Did he do anything that you have a problem with? Did the sahaba do anything you have a problem with? Did the tabi'un do anything you have a problem with? You're having an issue with somebody from this day and age — that's why you should remember this statement. You take advice from the people around you, you listen, you benefit from the lectures and talks. But when it comes to the ideal, do not make someone ideal who is still around. Because everyone is a human. Mistakes will happen, or misconceptions will happen, or false accusations will happen. And that may end up putting a wall and a barrier between you and your ability to reach Allah if you have made one central person your go-to.

The Wisdom of Looking Backward

So that's an important point before we get into this. Sometimes people say, why are you so archaic? Why are you so traditional, always looking backwards? Look forward. This is the reason: because we don't know what will happen today — how can I expect what will happen tomorrow? A very strange era we're living in.

But when you look at people who died on iman — to our knowledge, alhamdulillah — you read their stories, you get inspired. No one can come and mess with your mind about that. So that is why it is a common practice of our scholars to always read the books of our pious predecessors — ta'leem — and reflect.

I used to think about this. Haji Farooq rahimahullah from South Africa, and other great ulama I used to visit when we were studying there — great scholars — they'd be reading from a book. And I'd say, man, I'm a madrasa student. I don't want to read a book. I can read a book myself. I want to sit here and listen to you directly. But you understand the wisdom of these hazarat — I'm only slowly understanding some of it.

That they say: I could be a big hazarat in your eyes, a big shaykh. But in my opinion, this one I'm reading is much greater than me. I am prone to tens of mistakes — you can see right through me. Right now I'm standing in front of you. You can see all my mistakes, from yesterday, today, tomorrow. This person is gone. The ability for you to benefit from his works — from his words — is probably greater than you just listening to me. So this is why they used to always do ta'leem of their teachers' books.

Second thing: many times people say, "Man, why are you always speaking about your elders, your shuyukh, your teachers? Why are you so impressed?" All of us are impressed by somebody — remember that. Nobody here can say they're not impressed by someone. It's now your choice who you want to get impressed with.

When you're impressed, you speak about it. You say, "Why are you always talking about your father? Why are you always talking about your mother?" You go ahead and speak about your father and your mother. Alhamdulillah, I love my parents and I'm so impressed with them — they've done so much for me. That's why I speak about them. I'm not telling you to speak about my mom and dad. You speak about your mom and dad. If you have a problem because of your relationship with your parents and you don't want to speak about them, don't come between me and my parents.

Because sometimes people don't have that relationship with their parents, so they cannot connect when someone else speaks about theirs. I'm sorry that you can't connect with that — but that's another story for another day. Right now, if someone is sharing about their dad or their mom — a good point, that she was like this or he was like that — take from there what you can. Instead of saying, "I don't want to hear it because you're speaking about your parents."

Same thing now when it comes to our mashayikh and our ulema. Whether you are a Syrian scholar, a Ugandan scholar, a South Asian scholar, an Egyptian scholar, or some other scholar — and you're speaking about your heritage and lineage — it doesn't have to be your teacher. But if there's something beneficial that you're hearing, bismillah, take it and implement it in your life.

And don't become allergic. This allergic reaction is all shaitani. Some scholar from any part of the world says, "My ustad said this" — and it doesn't go against the Shari'ah — why are you and I ever being allergic to this? "Whenever you see him, he's talking about his shaykh. Whenever you see him, he's talking about his elders." This, I had this too when I was 14, 15 years old. I didn't understand it. That's why I'm sharing it with you now — with baseera, with foresight.

This is shaytan. Stopping you from benefiting from something great, in the name of: "Oh, you know, why are you speaking about him?" Who cares?

Look at what is being said, not at who is saying it.

You don't like the word maulana? Remove it. You don't like the word hazrat? Remove it. You don't like the word Shaykhul Hadith? Remove it. Just look at what is being said instead of getting allergic. People get allergic to the word mufti, maulana, Shaykhul Hadith, hazratul ala. I don't know why. But if you get allergic — no problem — just focus on what the maghz is, what is being said.

I'm sharing these things because they are very common objections in the minds of people. And hopefully, even if you don't have this objection, alhamdulillah, you can help others who go through this crisis.

The maqsad — the purpose — is that shaytan wants to destroy your opportunity to help yourself. That is why when you see a door that's open for your benefit, he will say, "No, there's something wrong with that door. Don't go there." What does he actually want? He wants you to sit there and rot in your own poor self. He wants you to stay disconnected from someone who can get you out of that mess. That's what shaytan wants: stay in the ditch till death comes to you. Anyone who comes to give you a hand — "Oh, your hand is not nice. Your hand is not clean. You don't have nice gloves. You don't smell nicely." But he's getting you out of the ditch, man. Stop saying all these things.

That's what shaytan will do. He will make your mind think about all sorts of negative things about someone who is trying to help you. So if you have evil thoughts about someone who is assisting and helping you — or about their elders and teachers — understand that these thoughts are coming from shaytan to destroy your ability to help yourself and to get helped. So don't fall for this.

Tajdeed: Revival, Not Reform

We live in a time when many people say, "Leave the old talks. Stop speaking about the past. Stop speaking about old elder scholars of the past era. We need to get with the times." That same person — or the same future generation — will one day say, "The Prophet is 1,500 years old. Why do you keep talking about the Prophet? Talk about what the New York Times bestseller has to say."

No. I'm sorry, my friend. We are not reformists. Our deen was never corrupted to need someone's reform. Absolutely not. We have a word called tajdeed — which means bringing it back, renewing it. Jadeed. But it's not something new. It's a revival. What we do is bring out the original color.

Imagine you have a gold-plated chandelier or a gold-plated watch. Does anyone say, "It's gotten old, let me put on some new paint"? No. What you do is put on the polish so that old original color shines again. You see in the Haram — they're always polishing the chandeliers, all the light fixtures, for that beautiful original color to come out. That's called tajdeed.

Our deen has tajdeed. What is tajdeed? Going back to the original. The original flavor of Masjid an-Nabawi from the time of the Prophet ﷺ must come out. The original flavor of Abu Bakr as-Siddiq, Umar al-Khattab, Uthman, Ali, radiyallahu anhum, and the rest — Fatima, Khadija, and everyone else. For that flavor to come out. Alhamdulillah, then we're on the right track. But if we have every flavor and every taste and every smell, but it's not the flavor of Medina of that time — then we have a problem.

That's why, for the protection of this ummah — since no prophet is coming — Allah has already sent mujaddideen in every era, in all different parts of the world. Their job, according to the hadith — مَنْ يُجَدِّدُ لَهَا دِينَهَا — they bring a revival to the deen of Allah, meaning they realign it back to where it started. Like you have a realignment of your tires and your wheels — you're not bringing something new, you just need to realign it. Similarly, this deen and the Muslims need to be realigned with the original deen that was sent with Rasulullah ﷺ.

So who are the golden standard? The sahaba. But then there are people who followed their footsteps throughout the eras — the 6th century, 8th century, 10th century, 12th century, and so on. By studying their lives as well, we see that there has always been a group of people in every era who have been following in the footsteps of the sahaba. Yes, they can't be at that level because they don't have the ability to see the Prophet ﷺ. But they tried their level best to follow the spirit and the law — the spirit of the sahaba, radiyallahu anhum — all the way until the era of colonial, undivided India, the subcontinent, where so much mayhem and suffering was happening against the deen, against the citizens, both Muslim and non-Muslim. Islam was being destroyed. Lives were being lost. Christianity was being forced down people's throats.

The Birth of a Movement

From amongst the biggest oppression happening right now — what is the biggest zulm that the whole world is caught up in? The addiction to watching haram. I could speak every single day for the rest of my life on it. Because that is the number one most potent, most harmful, most destructive drug unleashed on humanity — at a colossal scale that no heroin, crack, cocaine, or marijuana can match — in terms of the number of victims it has already claimed in this world. It's really mind-boggling.

This is the reason why we have lost our humanity and lost our manliness. People who smoke all day or drink all day — these people watch haram all night. You can't do anything. You can't stand up. You can't stand up to protect your family. You can't stand up to protect yourself. You have no self-esteem, nothing, when a person falls into this horrible black hole. And it is one of the most pervasive things all over the globe. We'll have the candlelight conversations insha'Allah starting from tonight, and this will come up every day in some way or the other.

So this is why we need to understand that, at that time of colonial oppression, Allah selected a group of ulama. And that group of ulama, Allah used to create a revival in the ummah — not in the subcontinent only. It started off in the subcontinent, but it went across the entire globe. It was a time of utmost decay. Anyone who chose to speak up was being killed. Thousands of people were being imprisoned.

Physical struggle was failing, wasn't working. And then the ulama were inspired — we need to do something. If we die, is that the worst thing, brothers? What's the worst thing? You're losing your iman and your deen. There's nothing worse than that. So if we're going to lose our iman and deen, what are we going to do about this? Let's not act on josh and hamasa — excitement and hype. Let's be smart.

What do we need to do? We need to first work on our educational system. Because anyone who goes through that system is becoming a Frankenstein. What was being taught in the syllabus? What types of things were being introduced in the 1850s and prior to that to turn them against Islam? So the ulama said: we have to create our own educational system. And we have to create our own spiritual system. Not only education — education is A to Z — so that once you come here, you don't need to go anywhere else. You study whatever you need to in order to survive in the world, succeed in deen and dunya. But ideally, you have your own alternative system.

Because the mind is the most valuable real estate — the mind and the heart. If you put someone 8 hours a day for 14 to 18 years in a school that has a very clear agenda to turn them away from their deen, what are you going to do at home in 2 hours with the kid before he goes to sleep? That's not going to help when he's been indoctrinated in a certain manner.

So this is what they started off with — an educational system, a spiritual system, and a complete ecosystem. Delhi was ransacked and destroyed — it was the center of ilm before. So a nearby small village by the name of Deoband — a very small village — that's where the ulama said, "We've got to start. Put up our tent." How did they put up the tent? They didn't even put up a tent. Teacher and student started their one-man madrasah. This was no house. It was literally a pomegranate tree — one teacher and one student. That's it. That's a start.

You want to change the world? It starts off with you and me. That's the beginning of this powerful ecosystem — this tahrik, this tajdidi revivalist movement — that spread across the globe. And today you are sitting in one of them. A tiny droplet of that ocean.

The Secret Sauce of Their Success

So how does that success come? How do you have thousands of madrasas and masjids across the entire globe — non-for-profits, humanitarian organizations, so much khair happening in all continents of the world — that came from there?

That's the secret sauce. And this book talks about the secret sauce. It's called Fathers and Sons of the Ummah, which I've been reading in this post-Asr session for the past ten days or more. The idea is that the reason for the success is not because they got some large stashes of money delivered to them by some foreign power, or some large cache of arms, or some crazy political power. They had none of that. It's just simple people. Why did Allah take so much work from them?

Allah takes the work. We can't do anything ourselves. Allah is the one who takes the work from us. And it is these qualities that he lists in this letter — this is actually a letter he's writing. What is it? It is:

Number one, adherence to the sunnah. Number two, salah. Number three, zakat. Number four, fasting in Ramadan. Number five, hajj. And number six, taqwa.

These are the qualities they had to the highest level possible for that age, for that era. And that's the reason why Allah took so much work from them. And that's the reason the sahaba — why did Allah take work from them? Because of their sifat, their attributes. If you bring those qualities in, you'll also be successful. So the idea is, we're not just randomly boasting: "My ustad was like this, my shaykh was like this." Brother, this is what they had. Just be inspired and try to bring it into your life. That's it. We're not just randomly speaking about our teachers. We're speaking about them hoping that we become like that.

Chapter Two: Adherence to the Sunnah

So as we sit here, understand that all the stories we speak about are of your great grand teachers. Through them, Allah has brought us this deen. I'm going to read just a section, insha'Allah.

Chapter two: Adherence to the Sunnah of the Prophet ﷺ.

Allah says in the Qur'an:

"Say, if you love Allah, then follow me. And Allah will love you. And will forgive you your sins. Allah is forgiving and merciful."

According to the various narrations in Durr al-Manthur — which is a book of tafsir — the reason for the revelation of this ayah was that many people claimed to love Allah. Allah responded with the criterion that no one can love Allah until they follow the sunnah of the Prophet ﷺ.

It is easy to make claims that you love someone. But there has to be proof in the pudding. If someone says, "Have you opened up my heart and seen whether I love Allah?" — we don't need to do surgery here. All we have to see is: is your life on the sunnah or not? Wallahi, is my life on the sunnah or not? How passionate am I? A simple miswak. A simple, small sunnah. Forget about everything else. Did my Prophet ﷺ do it? He passed away doing it — that was the last thing he did. All day, all night, he had it with him. He would use the miswak constantly.

That's sufficient. I love my Allah, hence I have to love my Nabi, and I have to not just love my Nabi — I have to follow his sunnah. So if a person criticizes the miswak, makes fun of it, and says things that are inappropriate about it — then that's the end of the story. You can claim all you want, put up big "Allahu Akbar" signs on your house. It means nothing. Because Allah Himself is saying: you must follow, not just love — you must follow my Nabi if you claim to love me.

Ibn Umar, radiyallahu anhu, narrates from the Prophet ﷺ:

"No one's faith can be complete until his desire is subservient to what I have brought." (Arba'een an-Nawawiyyah, Hadith 41; also recorded in Kitab al-Hujjah)

So it's not only about what you do — you have to desire what I told you to desire. Every single one of your ambitions — look at this, a very tough question here. What is your goal for your daughter, your son? What are your 30-year goals, 20-year goals, 10-year goals? What's the ideal spouse you want for yourself? What is the ideal son-in-law or daughter-in-law you're looking for? Take all that and now present it to the Prophet ﷺ. He's not here, so you present it to his sunnah. What does the sunnah say? Great — check mark, good job. Or X.

That's what this hadith means. You cannot be a believer until you present your portfolio in front of the sunnah. And if the sunnah approves of it, then you're a believer. And if the sunnah does not approve of it, then you are claiming to be a believer — but true iman has not entered your heart. Does that make sense? So it's a very deep question.

I'tikaf: The Real Conversation

I'tikaf, my beloved brothers — is this what it is? It's about these deep, tough conversations we have to have with ourselves. It should make us bleed. Our heart should bleed. Our eyes should tear up. We should feel genuinely almost a whole level of shock. "What have I — I'm 50, I'm 60, I'm 65, I'm 70, I'm 30, I'm 20 — what am I doing with my life?" Then that's called an i'tikaf. It's a shock and awe, where you sit there and say: what have I been thinking all my life?

There is a deen that I think I live by — maybe it's the deen of the culture, of Instagram and whatever else is out there. Or the deen of my cousins and my community. But there's a deen of Allah and His Rasul. How does my life match up with that? And it's honestly very unnerving. And no one can do this besides yourself. I have to do this with myself, you have to do this with yourself. The person that can be hardest on you is who? Yourself. Because no one knows you the way you know yourself. That real talk has to happen.

Insha'Allah, these programs are here to facilitate it. Simply reciting Qur'an blindly while being involved in loads of sins may not be efficient and helpful. Because if just reading Qur'an would help, we would all be in a much better shape today. We've all read Qur'an. We all read Qur'an — we're here. So you cannot just say, "I read the Qur'an." There needs to be a sense of multiple layers of deep reflection.

Think about what a therapist does. The therapist doesn't even use his hands. He speaks. And the job is for the client to listen to what the therapist is saying, allow it to sink in, soak in, and use that to change his mental processes — the way he approaches life. These sessions that happen post-Fajr, post-Zuhr, post-Asr, post-Tarawih — they're therapeutic sessions. You can take from them oceans of spirituality and knowledge if you want to. And you can take nothing from them if you don't want to. It's all up to you. The ball is in your court.

How open-minded you are when you come and sit — with the attitude of: "Ya Allah, I need to understand what's happening, and I want to reflect on what's being said — not as if it's being said to the crowd, but as if it's being said for me." I guarantee you, in 9 or 10 days, however many days Allah wills for us — if we attend even half a session a day, 3 of the 6 or whatever we can — insha'Allah, with this intention, our i'tikaf truly will hit the spot. And we'll come out completely different.

The Hadith of Abu Darda

Abu Darda, radiyallahu anhu, says the Prophet ﷺ instructed:

"Follow me in good deeds, in taqwa, in humility, and in subjugating the self."

Look at this hadith, brothers. Follow me in good deeds, taqwa — God-consciousness — humility, and subjugating the self. What does that mean? Taking your nafs and saying: done. Your kingship is over. Your kingdom is over. Now it is the kingdom of Allah and His Rasul. Whatever they ask you to do — that's what you better do.

So this i'tikaf — Allah make it easy for us to truly squash our nafs. Our biggest enemy is not outside. Our biggest enemy is inside ourselves. Once we can conquer this nafs — I have my biggest enemy right here, inside me. Nobody can harm me as much as my nafs can harm me. Wallahi. May Allah allow us to understand this. Nobody can harm us as much as our own nafs can harm us. Not shaytan. Not your ex. Not a thief. Not any country out there. No one can harm you the way you and I can get harmed by our own nafs.

May Allah allow these last nights and days — wherever we are in the world — to awaken us to this reality. And allow us to genuinely gain Allah's protection against this horrible evil enemy. May Allah allow us to see its deceptive methods, learn its patterns, and then forever be saved from its attacks. Allahumma ameen.

Insha'Allah, we can all proceed downstairs for iftar. We have about 5 minutes — a very powerful time for du'a. Please, insha'Allah, join us wherever you are — at home or here. And let's quietly proceed while making dhikr insha'Allah. JazakAllah khair.