Footprints in the Sand: Lessons from the Pious | Muftī Azeemuddin Ahmed | 03/13

Footprints in the Sand: Lessons from the Pious

Please come forward, come close together. We are speaking about the adherence to the sunnah of our mashayikh. And yesterday also in our candlelight conversation with Mufti Azaz, we discussed some beautiful stories on how our teachers and our elders have always given so much importance to implementing the sunnah in their lives.

Stories of Shaykh al-Hind

The Visit to the Sick

We were speaking about Shaykh al-Hind yesterday. The last story we talked about was how he would take a fruit — the new fruit of the season — and present it, smell it, put it on his forehead, thank Allah for it, and then give it to a young child. And this was the sunnah of the Prophet ﷺ — how did he handle the first fruit of the season?

The next story: Miyan Asghar Hussain narrates that Shaykh al-Hind heard he was sick and came to visit him. He shook his hands and turned around to leave. He retorted, "Was this the only day you could find to act upon the hadith?" Shaykh al-Hind smiled and narrated the hadith:

"The visit to the sick should be the duration between two milkings." (Sunan al-Tirmidhī, Hadith 969)

SubhanAllah. Allahumma salli ala Muhammad. What is happening? Shaykh al-Hind is coming to say salam to him because he is sick. And the honor of having such a great scholar coming to your house to visit you — but then he says salam, "How are you?" One minute. And then he is leaving.

So he says — he knew why he is leaving, because he also knew that this is the sunnah of the Prophet ﷺ to keep the visits to the sick short. So he is telling him, "Did you only find today to implement that hadith? Why do you have to follow the hadith today? How about you just sit with me for some extra time?" Instead of saying no, "I came, I sat with you a few minutes and I'm gone now, because I enjoy your company."

So then he smiled and he said, the hadith is: the visit to the sick should be the duration between two milkings. When you milk an animal and then do the second round, that duration is just too short. Similarly, we do not want to inconvenience the sick person. And the point of visiting the sick is to bring happiness to them.

So when a person visits them and now they have to serve us food, their family is burdened with serving, making chai and tea — the poor sick guy hasn't had anything to eat for the past 12 hours, 48 hours, but now the family is all day just serving outsiders. So that's where we have to start thinking: Am I actually becoming a burden for the family? Or am I becoming helpful? What I could do is go buy groceries, ready-made items, dry goods — drop them off at the house. Alhamdulillah, that way I'm actually helping them.

And I would love to visit, but I know it probably would be a source of inconvenience. So my du'as are for the sick person. Make du'a, send a voice note of du'a. The power of du'a, my dear brothers.

This du'a — all of us have inshAllah memorized it:

Read it seven times and just leave a voice message to that person. It's powerful. Just by your conviction that, "Ya Allah, Your Nabi ﷺ said whoever recites this du'a seven times on a sick person, Allah will most definitely cure him from everything besides death." So it's gotta be true. Reading it with that conviction, you will see — subhanAllah — that person will immediately feel the difference.

Qurbani in Malta Prison

Eid al-Adha came upon Shaykh al-Hind while he was a political prisoner of the British. He was detained all the way in Malta, far away from India, where Muslim detainees were under constant surveillance and strictly banned from carrying out their religious duties. This was the old Guantanamo — Malta under British rule.

Now, sacrificing an animal on Eid al-Adha is not even mandatory upon a traveler. When you're in Hajj, you don't sacrifice for Eid al-Adha — you do damm for your damm al-tamattu', damm al-shukr, thanking Allah for allowing you to do Hajj. But Shaykh al-Hind was not to be deterred by any of that. He protested with the warden to be provided with a sacrificial animal. SubhanAllah — this is under British rule. He's telling the warden, "I want an animal." I'm sure they were never even served meat. Now he's saying, "I want a full animal for me to slaughter for Eid al-Adha."

In India, Shaykh al-Hind had sacrificed many animals every year and was very passionate about upholding the sunnah. It is said that anything that comes from the heart never goes unheard. Whatever intention you have in your heart, it never goes unheard. Allah is listening.

The Power of Sincere Intention

It's true, right? How many times you and I have felt that? You're just thinking of something. Yesterday I went to pray namaz in one masjid before my bayan after Taraweeh. I went to give a talk and I prayed my two rakat in one side hall. Finished salam. Another brother was praying too. He looked around, he looked at me, and said, "Allahu Akbar." I said, "What happened?" He said, "Wallahi, you have no idea. I heard you were coming and I wanted to say I really wanted to meet you. It's been over a year, I have to talk to you about something. But I said, where am I going to be able to find you? You're going to be in the front, then you're going to leave, and I'm not going to get a chance. What is the chance that we're sitting here?" And then we spoke for 15 minutes before the bayan started. Alhamdulillah.

What is it? If a person has the intention, your intention will pull someone over there. You're going somewhere else, and you end up somewhere else. Then after that, subhanAllah, I was coming back at 12 o'clock, feeling hungry. I said, let me grab something — I don't know what's going to be open next to the masjid. There happened to be a store. I said, let me see if it's open. I go inside, it was open, but there's a group of people sitting there eating. I realized that the hunger did not bring me into that restaurant — it was the person who was sitting there. He needed to talk to me. And subhanAllah, we spoke.

I have seen this in my own life — literally when I go travel, even locally or out of town, I end up going to a program to give a talk and I think, "I wonder why I came to this masjid." People say, "Really, you went all the way to that masjid? There are not many people who come there." But then a brother will come and speak to you with such desire and such sincerity, and ask for help on something: "Can I give you a ride to the next masjid? I really need to speak to you." Then it clicks. I didn't come here because I wanted to — this man is the reason why I'm here. He spoke to Allah and said, "Ya Allah, I need something." And Allah will make the sky go down and the earth go up in order to fulfill a person's need.

This is the power, my beloved friends, of intentions that come with sincerity. This is real. They say, "We don't walk — we are carried." We do not walk ourselves; instead we are being led. So you and I, we are being led by the intentions, many times, of other people.

So imagine if you and I make this intention: "Ya Allah, I need something." Constantly, many questions come about — how do I find a mentor? How do I find a good spouse? How do I find...? These questions come every day. It will come through the power of your du'a. Right now, Friday, as I'm speaking — make du'a in your heart right now. Ya Allah, this is my need. You don't have to raise your hand to make du'a. As I'm speaking and you're listening, you can continue to make du'a in your heart. This is the mubarak, blessed time between Asr and Maghrib — and this final Jumu'ah, more than likely, of Ramadan. Oh Allah, these are my needs. The more sincere we are in our needs, Allah — jalla jalaluhu — will make amazing things happen.

So now he's sitting there inside the jail on an island called Malta, off of Italy — in the middle of nowhere. Go check it on the map. And that's also approximately 180 years ago. He wanted this animal. The warden and other jail officials were so impressed, they bought him a sacrificial animal for seven dinars, which the sheikh most happily paid for. The sunnah of Ibrahim (peace be upon him) — and the warden brought it. Because he said, "If you're asking, we'll make it happen."

The sunnah of Ibrahim (peace be upon him) was most likely revived for the first time in this land since the downfall of the Arabian Empire. He's sitting on the island of Malta since the fall of the Arabian Empire — no one has ever done this sunnah. So I want to do this sunnah and receive the reward of whoever revives a sunnah at a time of the corruption of the ummah. Allah will give him — in one narration — the reward of one shaheed. In another narration, one hundred shuhada'.

We might be dying at our home, peacefully, surrounded by our kids. However, inshAllah, you'll get the reward of a hundred shuhada' if you made an effort to revive a sunnah when no one else is doing it. There are so many sunnahs you could do.

Hastening in Good Deeds: The Sunnah of Marriage

One sunnah, for example: when a proposal is set, the sunnah is — do not delay. The Nabi ﷺ brought it with three things. When the salah time is ready and the jama'ah is ready, start. Number two, when the janaza is ready, the body is there — quick, move it, don't keep it in the wake. And number three, when the proposal is set, do not delay the marriage.

So imagine someone says, "But I have to wait eight, nine months for all my family to get a visa." And with this administration, we don't know when that's ever going to happen. So now we're gonna just delay it. Everyone — mom and dad — are saying no. But a person says, "No. I am going to do this to revive the sunnah of Rasulullah ﷺ. The proposal is set, why are we going to wait seven, eight months, six months? Absolutely not. We can get it done in a week — for what? We can even do it quicker than that."

That is the adherence to the sunnah that we saw in our Shaykh Yusuf Sahib. I mentioned a story of the same author — the author was writing about his teacher, Shaykh Zakariyya. He himself saw Mawlana Yusuf at an ijtema'. He comes home and tells one of his daughters, "Your nikah is after Asr." She said, "Okay. Nikah to who?" He says, "They know of each other, of course," but he had decided at that moment that he wanted his daughter married that day after Asr, because Mawlana Yusuf was there at the ijtema'.

So she tells her dad, "Ammi is not here — my mom has gone out." He said, "It's okay. She doesn't have to be here." Then she said, "Okay, can you give us a little time so I can get some clothes?" So he said, "What is this? Don't you want to wear clothes? Are you not wearing clothes? What do you mean you need clothes? You have clothes. You have clothes — what do you mean 'I need to go get clothes'?" In one hour, the nikah took place.

Now if you look at this — subhanAllah — honestly, if you look at these people, the lives that they had: wallahi, the lives that these men and women had, compared to the lives that you and I have — the destination wedding after spending $350,000. We can take an oath in the masjid and say that their lives were far more better, more happy, and more fulfilling than any of this stuff. Because in sunnah there is sukoon. In sunnah there is barakah. In sunnah there is happiness. Everything comes through sunnah.

It's beautiful, right? We have to hear these stories to get inspired — that you don't need to sit and plan things out seven, eight, nine months in advance. If you've got something good, alhamdulillah, don't delay. Especially when the Nabi ﷺ gave this example for marriage.

Going Against the Grain: The Real Reward

So now you say, "But no one's doing it. What is my family going to say?" Exactly. When you stand up against the culture and you do a sunnah of the Prophet ﷺ for this very purpose, Allah will give you rewards that are unbelievable.

To sit and do tahajjud for 8 rakat, cry for 20 rakat, and do dhikr, and sit through a long talk, and stay awake drinking coffee after coffee after coffee — honestly is way easier than doing one thing I just said. To follow a sunnah when it's not trending is much harder than being in the masjid. Because guess what? Being in the masjid is trending right now, isn't it? All masjids across the globe — masjids have people that usually, we're never here. Randomly after Asr, we're not here having talks on a random weekday throughout the year. I'm here, you're here, we're here with our bedding, mashAllah. Look at the atmosphere of ruhaniyya and spirituality here — that's all across the majority of masjids.

So right now this is a very trending thing. I'm not saying it's wrong — this is good, this is a mawsim. This is a mawsim of rahmah, a rahmah season. But what I'm saying is: going against the grain is very hard. And that's where the reward lies. That I'm going to follow the sunnah at all cost.

On the 10th of Dhul-Hijjah, Shaykh al-Hind said the takbeer in a loud voice and sacrificed his animal. He showed that where there's a will, there's a way. Even the desirable acts can be carried out in the most inconceivable circumstances.

The Lesson of Surah al-Tawbah: Genuine Effort

This is so true. When we say we can't do it, I'm thinking of my own incidents — you think about your own incidents. When you left out a sunnah, you left out something which was hopefully not fard, but let's even say, for the discussion's sake, you left out fard. Then a person says, "Why did you leave it out, man? It was just too hard. It was not possible." You ask that person: to what degree did you make an effort? To what degree did you plan? To what degree did you ask Allah?

When we invite people — "Come for i'tikaf" — the first knee-jerk response is: "I have work," or "I have a wife," or "I have kids." So then we always say, "Brother, are all these people who are sitting here bachelors, or divorced, or childless? What is it supposed to mean?" But that's the knee-jerk response. And I say, "Hold on, hold on. Why don't you say, 'Alright, thank you for reminding me. InshAllah, let me work on it. Yes, I have a wife. Yes, I have kids. Yes, I have a job. Yes, I have school. I have all that stuff. But I'm going to make an intention, and I'm going to ask Allah to facilitate it.'" And honestly, I promise you, I will make du'a after every salah: "Ya Allah, I made niyyah for three days of i'tikaf — make it happen." But I give you my word that I will be sincere in my request from Allah. And if I'm able to make it, you'll see me. And if I'm not able to make it, you'll know I wasn't lying to you — I tried my best.

That's all we're asking. That's all that's asked — that anytime you hear something beneficial, someone asks: who's gonna come for Fajr? Who's gonna make effort to bring people to the masjid? Who's gonna donate or raise money for some cause? And if it hits your heart, say, "I'm ready, inshAllah." Can I do it? No. Does it seem like it's gonna happen? No. Is everything falling apart in my life? Yes. How are you gonna do this? I don't know. But I do know — Allah knows. So I'm gonna ask Allah after every salah, at the time of suhoor and iftar: "Ya Allah, I want to accomplish something. You make it easy for me."

My beloved brothers, I want us to remove from our minds — they say, "Never say never." Similarly, when you're dealing with the matters of deen, let's not say, "This cannot happen. I can't, I'm sorry." No. You don't say that. Say, "InshAllah, I will try. I will try my level best." And when you say trying your level best, that means you make all the means — you utilize all the means. But then the most powerful thing, the cherry on top — or not even the cherry, something way more important than the cherry. Maybe the cheese in the lasagna, or the cheese on the pizza. What kind of pizza is there without cheese? What's the top layer? Du'a.

They say, "I wanna do it, I wanna do it. I did this, this, this, this." They ask, "How much du'a did you make?" None. That means you didn't really do it.

You know where we get this powerful reflection? From Surah al-Tawbah. Allah says, when the munafiqeen were told, "Come, let's go to Tabuk," and they came up with excuses — it's too far, we're not ready, it's the wrong season, it's too hot, the dates are hanging on the trees. "Please forgive us, we tried." This thing, honestly, it should make us cry. Because this is a reflection — at least for me, I'm thinking about myself when I read this ayah. How many times someone said, "Let's do something," and we're like, "Yeah, okay." And then the guy is texting you, calling you, "Let's go!" "I'm not able to make it, I'm sorry, I tried." Allah knows whether you tried or not. Let's not lie about it.

Allah says about these people in the Quran, about the hypocrites:

"If they actually wanted to go out with you, Ya Rasulullah, in the expedition, then the proof would be in the pudding — you would have seen them prepared. You don't have a bag, you don't have a horse, you don't have a camel, you don't have a sword, you don't have anything. And you say, 'I tried, but Allah knows better — I wasn't able to make it.'" How often this happens to us — when we tell other people, "Yeah, I tried but it didn't work out."

The question is: what does it mean to try? Allah says, "If you really wanted to go on an expedition, you would have prepared. Then how come you didn't prepare?" وَلَٰكِن كَرِهَ اللَّهُ انبِعَاثَهُمْ — Allah Himself did not want them to come out. فَثَبَّطَهُمْ — so He made them sit down. He made them sit down in Madinah. "You're a hypocrite — you will always be a hypocrite. I'm not going to let you go out with the Prophet ﷺ and ruin it." وَقِيلَ اقْعُدُوا مَعَ الْقَاعِدِينَ — "Go sit down with all the people who are sitting." The bench warmers — bismillah, you go sit there with the bench warmers. You're not allowed to go.

This is what I mean: you cannot make a move unless Allah wants that move to happen. We're sitting here today because Allah wanted us to be here. We're not sitting here because we're special. We're not sitting here because we're pious. We're here because Allah allowed us to be here. He invited us. So make sure you don't get de-invited. Make sure you don't do any such thing which will upset Allah. He says, "From today, you're gone."

That's what it takes. Maghrib, you get a phone call — "My sunnah i'tikaf, assalamu alaykum, I have to go." But what happened? Some phone call came. What we don't understand is that we have to connect the dots — where did this phone call come from? Nothing is happening without the will of Allah. Yes, some problem may have happened. But why are you responding in this manner? Why are you giving up? Why are you saying, "Oh, that's it, I gotta break my i'tikaf"? Maybe something we did earlier in the day — maybe we made a comment, maybe we made a suggestion, maybe we looked down upon somebody. And because of that, the consequence comes right back at us, that Allah makes us destroy our own i'tikaf.

This is why we said: make sure we don't do anything to get de-invited. Not only for this year — forever. "Ya Allah, You allowed me to be here. I pray and wish that I am always allowed to be here."

So what we learn from Shaykh al-Hind's story is: no matter what situation you're in, if you genuinely want to stay away from haram and want to practice the sunnah, Allah will make it happen. And if He doesn't make it happen, you will still get the reward.

Jumu'ah: The Last Thread

Shaykh al-Hind and Jumu'ah in Prison

The same Shaykh al-Hind, same Malta, same prison — the very famous story of Jumu'ah. Today, blessed day of Jumu'ah — all of us pray, alhamdulillah. He was far greater a scholar than all of us put together. Far greater in his love for Allah and His Rasul, probably, than all of us put together. Imagine his passion for Jumu'ah Salah, given that this was already his passion for Eid al-Adha Qurbani — even though he was a traveler in prison. So imagine how he burned to pray Jumu'ah.

Every Friday, he would take a bath with the freezing cold water that the wardens would give him. Get ready and try to comb your hair with your hands. You only have one pair of clothes — maximum two. Wash out whatever you can. "And this is my preparation for Jumu'ah." And then he would go to the gate, the cell door, and shake it, shake it. Was the door open? It's locked.

Then he would say, "Ya Allah, I have done every single thing possible in my hands to establish Jumu'ah. I prepared myself, I went to the door, and I tried to open it, but it's locked. Now, with a heavy heart, I'm going to establish Salat al-Dhuhr" — because you cannot pray Jumu'ah on your own, you cannot pray Jumu'ah with just another person.

He did this — he's not a fool, he's not a kid, Shaykh al-Hind — he did this every single Friday, just in case one day the door opens. Or at least Allah knows, honest to God as they say, "I tried. How often did I try? Ya Allah, I tried every Friday. I tried every Friday to establish Jumu'ah. But You had willed it not to happen, so I did Dhuhr. But I never blamed Your taqdeer, I never said, 'Ya Allah, I couldn't establish Jumu'ah because it was not possible.'"

Our Youth and the Crisis of Jumu'ah

Think about how many young men and women today — especially young boys, baligh, mature boys — are attending high schools and colleges for four, five, six years. From the time they reach puberty till they get out of the school education system. And they go to schools and colleges where there's no Jumu'ah. Not one, not two, but six, eight years of no Jumu'ah. Except for Black Friday, Christmas Friday, you know, summer holiday. That's it.

I'm telling you — and what's the excuse? "We don't have Jumu'ah." What is this supposed to mean? The conscience has died. The ghayrat-e-imaniyya has died. How can a Muslim honestly survive missing four years of Jumu'ahs? How can you survive even intentionally missing one? When was the last time you protested? You don't even need to protest — write a letter to the superintendent. Go meet the superintendent of schools.

And I will end with this story, subhanAllah. A young boy who had recently migrated to this country, who couldn't speak very good English, who spoke with an accent — he went with me for a three-day khuruj, three days in the path of Allah. He got moved, motivated. He said, "Oh my God, I need to do something." I said, "What do you want to do?" He said, "In my public school there's no Jumu'ah. I want to establish it." He had come from overseas just a few years ago. I said, "Alhamdulillah, go ahead. I'll help you. Whatever you need."

So he went straight — next day when he went to school, he went to the principal's office. They said, "Oh, we don't know about this stuff. Jumu'ah? What is that?" After that he said, "Go speak to the superintendent." So he didn't stop. He escalated it. Then he came to me and said, "I need a letter from you, oh Imam." So I wrote a letter and talked about how important Jumu'ah is. I gave it to him. And I found out all the laws that Bill Clinton had passed in his time on the legal right that Muslims have to establish prayer, even in schools. I said, "Let's not use this right now. Let's not start arguing and fighting. Let's try to take it in a nice manner. But in case it hits a wall, then we can pull this out."

SubhanAllah, he comes back to me after two days and says, "She's ready. She's okay. She said, 'I'll give you a spot. I have a question for you and your Imam. I've been in the school district for 30 years. We have thousands of Muslims — or at least hundreds of Muslims — who in 30 years have gone through our four schools. Huge schools, massive schools — three, four thousand students in high school. In 30 years of being in this school, I have never received a request like this. I want to know — I saw your Imam's letter is very strongly worded, that you have to pray Jumu'ah, I get it. But can you please tell me how come in 30 years not a single Muslim has ever asked this?'"

What answer can I say? Should we be protesting against anybody right now? Or should we be protesting against our own nafs and our own evil sins? Whatever we're facing is because of our own actions. When the Muslim youngster and the Muslim community does not care about Jumu'ah, then what's left, man? What's left? That's the last thread. And majority — it's not a stretch — majority of youth don't pray Jumu'ah, because majority of schools don't have it. Whose fault is that? Where's the fikr, where's the concern? That's my point.

The Severe Warning About Missing Jumu'ah

SubhanAllah. So when we don't have Jumu'ah, we're really in a very bad shape. The Nabi ﷺ says — and in the gist of the hadith — the one who misses Jumu'ah multiple times, three times in a row:

"Whoever misses three Jumu'ahs out of negligence, Allah will seal his heart." (Sunan Abī Dāwūd, Hadith 1052; Sunan al-Nasā'ī, Hadith 1369)

تَهَاوُنًا بِهَا — taking it lightly. Not like Shaykh al-Hind, who got locked up somewhere. Taking it lightly. Then the Nabi ﷺ said — and there are two narrations — he may die as a Christian or as a Jew. Or in the second, his heart gets sealed. Whichever it is, the point is these are extremely harsh punishments. That missing Jumu'ah three times, taking it lightly, will seal our hearts — that now the khutbah doesn't make a difference to us, because we've already missed so many Jumu'ahs intentionally, because we didn't think of it as anything.

So anyone who is in that situation — you can make tawbah now. If our sons are missing Jumu'ah, repent today. "Ya Allah, I will never do this." Go pick them up from school and bring them to the local masjid. Establish Jumu'ah in the school, ideally. And if not, take them out. Whatever it is.

And are you telling me — are you suggesting — they don't allow me to take my son out of school, nor do they allow me to establish Jumu'ah in school? What should we do then? Tell me. That's the point. If you have to even ask me this question, there's a problem. You're telling me that going to a public school is worth it while missing four years of Jumu'ah? Then where is your faith? Where is your faith, man? Where's my faith? This is the really painful statement. Why are we even asking this question?

A Call to Action

Establish it. There's no question there. After hearing this hadith, we have Friday — that's what we have. We're going to make niyyah, inshAllah. That we will try our best. Every single young male in our family — we will make arrangements for their Jumu'ah. We will speak to the school districts. We will speak to the school board. We will work on electing Muslims into the school boards as well. But we will speak, be vocal, and we will not accept that Jumu'ah is not happening.

And if that's the case — Allah forbid — then we will say, "I would rather do homeschooling. I'd rather him do Islamic school. I'll let him do anything else. But I will never, while I'm alive as a dad or a mom, watch my son grow up not praying Jumu'ah." Because in the future, it's nothing but horrific.

Let us proceed downstairs, inshAllah. We have about 5 minutes left for du'a.