Beyond Worldly Success: Preparing For The Hereafter's True Graduation

The Graduation of the Hereafter

We are thankful for the blessings that Allah gives us, that a student of theirs, a son or daughter of theirs, got a chance to go study something, and successfully complete with a certificate. And this is something that's applauded, that's something that is something that we should celebrate, most definitely. Thank Allah for it.

From amongst all of these graduations that are happening, the final, final graduation is yet to come. And that is the graduation and the certificate ceremony on the Day of Judgment. And each one of us needs to remind ourselves and ask this question — I as an adult, I as a parent, as well I ask for my children, and I ask this for maybe a young graduating student today, for myself — that this graduation that I just had, or I'm going to have, from whatever program, how is this helping to prepare me for the graduation ceremony of the Day of Judgment? Has that taken multiple steps? Have I taken strides and successful strides towards that graduation ceremony of the Akhirah?

Where Allah says:

The one who is going to be given his book of deeds in his right hand, he is going to have a very easy reckoning.

The one who is given his book of deeds behind his back — he is going to be begging to die. The biggest blessing he could get is death. The biggest blessing he could ask for, the biggest favor he could ask for from Allah is death. Because وَيَصْلَىٰ سَعِيرًا — he is not going to get death. Instead he is going to enter into the blazing fire of hell. And when he gets there, he realizes that this is never going to end.

خَالِدِينَ فِيهَا أَبَدًا — this just simply does not end, doesn't get cooled, it just completely increases in intensity.

The Deception of Material Success

Allah says:

This person used to be really happy in his family. Allah says this because we judge many times success based on our levels of happiness. Our levels of happiness mean, "I'm successful — why? Don't you see a big smile on my face? Look at my beautiful mansion behind me, my beautiful cars in front of me, my bank balances and my IPO stocks going really well today and yesterday." Great! SubhanAllah, so I'm happy, hence I'm successful.

Allah says: this person received his book of deeds behind his back, who's headed towards hellfire, who's begging to die — he used to actually be haughty, arrogant, and happy in his life.

He thought nothing is going to happen — because based on, "look at my trajectory, I'm getting whatever I want in the world. My children all graduate from the best universities. I'm able to get the best job. My children got the best internships. I was able to have the fanciest wedding. Every single desire of mine, every materialistic desire is being fulfilled. So this trajectory — I am on a trajectory of success in this world, and if there's a hereafter, then there as well. Because based on what's happening here, more than likely the next world will also continue on the same system."

This is erroneous thinking. He thought he's never going to go back to Allah. This is it.

"This is just one worldly life we have. We live and we die and we're not gonna be resurrected." That is the mindset of a materialistic person, a disbeliever, who thinks this is the end all. The dunya is the end all. SubhanAllah.

Allah says:

He didn't realize that Allah had a watchful eye over him. Allah was glancing and gazing at him. Allah was carefully watching every move of his. And Allah says, now is the shock time.

Receiving the Book of Deeds in the Right Hand

In another place, Allah says that a person who receives his book of deeds in his right hand —

The one who received his book of deeds in his right hand on that graduation ceremony, he's gonna be going to his family, friends, and others on the Day of Judgment. And he will say, هَاؤُمُ — "come, come, come! Read, look. Look what I got. Look at my certificate." Just like a person today is so excited to show, "I graduated — or my son or daughter graduated from such and such school." Now they have the party inside, the graduation party, and all the certificates on the table. Outside of the banquet hall, or outside of the dinner hall, everyone is going to come see that, "MashaAllah, your son, your daughter graduated from this place. Wow."

There's this excitement — which is fine. It's fine as long as this graduation is preparing for the Akhirah graduation. That's the key thing. No one is saying — I started off by saying — we should rejoice, we should be happy, we should be grateful to Allah for pre-K graduation to law school graduation, to anything else in between. But the key thing is that graduation has to be taking us in the proper trajectory so that in the Akhirah, you and your son, you and your daughter, you and your spouse, and all of us can be more elated than we ever were in this world. Because we have realized that we've received now the ultimate certificate after which there is no failure. It is not even possible to fail.

There's no concept of failure after this. It doesn't work like this in this dunya. After every graduation, there's another imtihan. Even if a person becomes a lawyer, becomes a physician — what happens? You still have your annual exams, or semi-annual exams, or your quarterly exams, or you have your certification that happens every 5 to 10 years to pass the boards. And we know — brothers sitting here know — how much even as a 60-year-old, I get du'a requests like you have from a 15-year-old: "Sheikh, my boards are coming in 6 months, please make du'a. I'm so worried." What happens? It's this part of the dunya. There's no such thing as a final test. There's always a test. And if it's not a written test, your spouse is your test. Your mom and dad are your test. Your children are your test. Every left turn, right turn you take outside is a test. Everywhere you're being invited to look at haram, to invest in haram, invited to partake from haram — that is a test. So this dunya is filled with tests.

There's only one place after which there's no test, and that is the graduation ceremony of the Akhirah. When a person receives that, Allah says:

He'll be telling people, "I was preparing, man. I was preparing. I had conviction — I'm going to come face to face with Allah. Alhamdulillah. I prepared. I prepared to meet Allah. I had conviction that I'm going to come face to face with Allah Azza wa Jal. And He's gonna ask me, what did you do? Your book of deeds is in the right hand, good deeds in the right hand, book of sins on the left hand."

And there will be the blazing fire of Jahannam in front. And it'll be between me and Allah. No translator between us and Allah. No translator — direct. No lawyer, no intermediate person. Just you and Allah, myself and Allah Azza wa Jal. No wife. Sometimes when you go in the passport line, you go as a family. You have somebody there with you. This is no family, nothing. Don't bring your dad, don't bring your mom, don't bring your wife, don't bring your husband, don't bring your kids. "All my children, alhamdulillah, are Huffaz — stay back." This is you. Don't talk about your kids right now. "My wife is Tahajjud-guzar" — I don't want to hear it. "My husband, MashaAllah, is an Imam" — I don't want to hear it. "My parents were MashaAllah great Awliya" — we don't care about that. Right now it's you and Allah Azza wa Jal. One on one. Let's talk about what have you done. Let's talk about what did you do and what did you not do.

Preparing for the Meeting with Allah

There were people who were preparing for that. Allah Azza wa Jal says they will say:

Allahu Akbar. Allah Azza wa Jal said: now it's a time for you to enjoy and relax. Now it's a time for you to sit, eat, and drink, and enjoy what has been prepared for you because of the effort that you have done in the past.

"I had conviction that I'm gonna come to this day. That's why I prepared." So now he's got the happy life. There are some people who party before the exam, the night of the exam, and then they cry on the exam day. And there are others who cried the night of the exam, and then they party after the exam. They're so happy — alhamdulillah, they did so well. Why? Because they were not smiling and joking and laughing the night of the exam — they were preparing.

So there are two types of people. The first type of person — إِنَّهُ كَانَ فِي أَهْلِهِ مَسْرُورًا — he was enjoying life and happy and arrogant in this dunya, because he was measuring his Ukhrawi and hereafter success based on his material success of this world. And the other individual — he didn't. He was scared. He said, "Brother, I don't have time to even speak about these things. I am worried about the one-on-one interview with Allah that's gonna happen. And even before that, the interview with Munkar and Nakir in the grave. I'm worried about the first night of the grave."

You're talking about other things? SubhanAllah — like people say that. If you had a huge exam, and you are at one of the coffee shops at 1 o'clock, anyone would say, "What are you talking about? You have tomorrow morning this huge exam, how are you here?" Same thing — the one who knows he's got an exam by Munkar and Nakir, any night, could be tonight, could be tomorrow — any night we're gonna be called, it'll be our first night in the grave, one on one with Munkar and Nakir. The one who has that awareness, the one who's thinking about it, he simply cannot lead a life of ghaflah and heedlessness.

Every moment of every happiness in this world, he's always reflecting: what will I do? That's why one of the companions of the Prophet ﷺ — when he's at the first night of his marriage — it was asked: SubhanAllah, he did not spend the night with his spouse, what happened? He said, "When I saw the beauty of how my wife was brought to me, I was reminded of Jannah. When I took a hot bath, it reminded me of the hot water of Jahannam. And I just stood up to pray my Qiyam ul-Layl — I forgot everything, just forgot. Because my mind just shifted to the Day of Judgment."

This is a person — it doesn't have to be the first night of a marriage — but generally speaking, at least in the house of Allah, at least once a week, twice a week, should you and I not be reflecting on that day? Should you and I not be reflecting about our first night in the grave?

So Allah Azza wa Jal says, this person, because he was preparing to meet Allah:

Allahu Akbar. Now it's a time for you to enjoy and relax. Now it's a time for you to sit, eat, and drink, and enjoy what has been prepared for you because of the effort that you have done in the past.

A Season of Graduations — and a Call to Reflect

Beloved brothers and sisters, as these graduations are happening — at the height of our graduation season — even here at Darussalam, alhamdulillah, we have our Hifz graduation tomorrow, we have our one-year graduation, the Tanweer program, tomorrow. On Sunday, we have our Khatm al-Bukhari and graduation from the Alim program.

All of us need to be reflecting — here or there, wherever you are — how does this graduation help prepare me for the ultimate award ceremony of the Akhirah? This dunya is a place where you can buy certificates. You can really go around and get things that you don't deserve. This is the dunya. It's all sorts of oppression, dhulm, khidaa, deception. But in the Akhirah, there is no concept of that.

Today, no matter what you fail, there's a retake. There's another opportunity. But the Akhirah — there are no retakes. There are no other opportunities. That is the najah — laysa ba'dahu khasarah. If a person gets najah and success, there is no concept of failure. And if there's khasarah, if there's failure — laysa ba'dahu najah — there's no concept of any level of success.

My honorable friends — as Muharram, the new year, is around the corner — one whole Islamic year has come to an end. The season of Ramadan came to an end. The season of Hajj came to an end. And we're all getting older. The strands of hair slowly are turning white. Our backache is starting, knee ache is starting, and various other things happening. Children that were just in our hands yesterday, SubhanAllah, are now getting married, are now graduating. We're all getting closer to our death. And SubhanAllah, every moment should be a moment of reflection. How am I preparing to meet Allah? What have I done to ensure that the Day of Judgment will be the happiest occasion for all of us?

The Remedy: Dhikr and Connecting the Heart to Allah

My beloved brothers, ghaflah needs to come out of our life. Heedlessness needs to come out. Whatever moment of happiness it is, connect it with the remembrance of Allah. The remembrance of Allah is what makes you and I grounded. Making sure that every single day we recite the Qur'an. I'm saying something basic, but this is it. The solution is in the basics.

Why is there so much concern and worry? Everywhere you look, it is a sad story. It's so hard not to fall into depression when you listen to people's stories. Non-stop, if you had an opportunity to hear from 1 AM to 1 AM, every single day you would just hear sad stories. But I thought you have this beautiful car, I thought you have this beautiful home, I thought you have this beautiful wife, I thought you have these children. What's going on? Sad stories. What's the solution?

The heart is disconnected from Allah.

The heart that does not have Allah in it can never truly attain happiness. This smile that you have — it's a fake smile. We know how to fake it, we know how to dress up. Husband and wife fighting till they get into the car to go to a wedding, yes? And then they go to the wedding like Mr. and Mrs. Perfect. Mr. and Mrs. Universe walk into the wedding hall — when they are literally, SubhanAllah, maybe even in a physical altercation, just going at each other. But you should see, when you look at them: "Oh my God, what a beautiful couple, happily ever after." No, they're not. They're scratching each other, they're hitting each other. But you fake it.

This is the dunya — it's a place of faking. This whole Instagram and online world — what is it? It's all fake stuff. The content creators are leading horrible lives, but they create this fake personality online which people fall for it. But all of that fakeness will come to an end. The veil will be removed soon.

We need to make sure that when the veil is removed, alhamdulillah, we're standing clothed. When the veil is removed, we're not naked. We have something we stand on. And that is our personal relationship with Allah.

A lot of people say, "I have a personal relationship with Allah." The proof is in the pudding. What is the proof? It is the closeness to the sunnah of the Prophet ﷺ. The closer my life is to Rasulullah ﷺ's life — in mu'ashara, in akhlaq, in aqaid, in mu'amalat, in ibadat, in all the branches of deen, including character with my spouse, with my children, with my parents — then I can say that yes, inshallah, I hope I have some expectations.

But internally, your inner self, your voice says, "MashaAllah, you're pious, you're God-fearing. Look at how much Tahajjud you prayed. Look at how much Sadaqa you gave." But on the other hand, my children are sick of me. My spouse is sick of me. My parents are sick of me. Everyone is waiting for me to leave. My friends, the proof is not in the pudding. These people are gonna testify against us. So it is not just about our personal ibadah. Our financial dealings have to be correct. Our dealings with our children have to be correct.

A Call to Sort Our Affairs Before the Day of Judgment

Now that the summer is here, kids are coming back from university, college, high school. We're spending a lot of time under one roof. This is the time for us to work on those relationships at home. Personal relationship with Allah is super important, but it gets manifested in our akhlaq with one another. I encourage myself and all of us to ensure that this summer is a memorable summer for our family. That we spend quality time. And if there are issues — who doesn't have issues? — address them like mature people. Address them like God-fearing people. We need to sort stuff out here before we face our own reckoning.

Imagine you have your own kids, you have your parents, and you have a spouse in front of you on the Day of Judgment in front of Allah. Forget about the disgrace of this dunya. What's gonna happen on the Day of Judgment when all our secrets are gonna come out? It's not worth it. It's absolutely such a disgrace after which there's no honor. We have to sort these things out in this dunya. Sort it out.

And if sometimes sorting out means I will simply stay quiet and make sabr for 30 years, 20 years, whatever it is — and it's not gonna get solved — but whatever it is, I want to make sure I do not allow my children, my spouse, my parents to be able to point a finger at me on the Day of Judgment. Because on that day, everyone will be after hasanat. Like we have a lawsuit culture outside — this is gonna be the craziest lawsuit culture on the Day of Judgment. Everyone will be saying, "How can I give a lawsuit against my wife, my husband, my mom?" Yes. This is what the Qur'an says:

A person is going to be running away from his mom, his dad, his wife, his companions, his siblings. Because everyone's gonna get scared that they're gonna get sued. They're gonna remember something I did and said.

"My mom, my dad — ah, you broke my heart that day. You said something." "Ummi, really you cared about me." "Beta, I love you — but today it's about Jannah and Jahannam. I'm sorry. I'm not gonna go to Jahannam if I can get myself into Jannah by just throwing you under the bus." That's the reality.

Friends — the best of friends — will be enemies on that day. All of them will be enemies. Except for those people who led a life of taqwa, who know that they never hurt anybody — even if they got hurt — but they know they led a squeaky clean life. That no one can point fingers at them.

May Allah give you and I that squeaky clean life. So that we are ready to face Munkar and Nakir in the grave, and we are ready to face Allah on the Day of Judgment.

Closing Du'a and Announcements

May Allah grant you and I a life of dhikr, of remembrance of Allah, where we are protected from a life of ghaflah and heedlessness. May Allah allow us to reflect on the graduations that are happening this past month and next month, and allow us to prepare for the ultimate graduation and the certificate ceremony of the Akhirah. May Allah grant you and I — and our children, our parents, and our siblings — the ability to receive our book of deeds in our right hand. And may Allah allow us to graduate with top honors. Allahumma ameen.

I want to remind all of us again that tomorrow morning at 11 AM, we have 35 young boys and girls graduating from our Hifz program of this year. 35. Takbeer! Alhamdulillah. Tomorrow after Zuhr, we have approximately 90 young men and women graduating from our one-year program. Takbeer! This is our 14th batch. The first batch graduated in 2012. MashaAllah. And now we have the class of 2026 — about 90 young men and women from across the country, alhamdulillah, who are graduating.

And last but not least, we have 16 ulama graduating from the seven-year program Sunday after Salatul Zuhr. The final hadith of Sahih al-Bukhari will be taught. InshaAllah. We encourage all of you to please come for these blessed gatherings. Get the barakah.

I just came back from Bukhara after Ramadan. Wallah, if the people of Bukhara and Samarkand would be excited to be part of this — because these type of graduations are not happening there. But we are indebted to them. Because of what their forefathers did, today we have this Khatm al-Bukhari happening here. So Sunday after Salatul Zuhr, the entire community is invited to witness 16 scholars graduating from the seven-year program here. Among the sisters, there are six. And there are ten brothers, alhamdulillah. Their families — we warmly welcome the families who have arrived, the friends who have arrived, alhamdulillah. If you are not able to make it in person, join online. If you can't do that, at least make du'a for the success of it.

I ask Allah to accept the efforts of our volunteers, our patrons, our donors, our well-wishers, those who keep making du'a for the protection and the success of the institutions. May Allah give them the full ajr of everything that is happening here.

There is a list of summer programs that start from next week: Tarbiyah for Tots, Summer Intensive, Arabic Intensive, Summer Camp. We have your whole family covered — ages three and up, alhamdulillah — for adults, working adults, professionals. There are so many different programs that happen every year at Darussalam. Please benefit from this so that it will help us prepare for, inshallah, the final day on the Day of Judgment as well.

Tomorrow will be the Tahfiz graduation for boys and girls. This is the 2026 graduating class, Saturday, June 13th at 11 AM. The keynote speaker is Mufti Zeeshan Ahmed, the resident scholar of Masjid Uthman, with the final recitation ceremony by Qari Muhammad Hamid, instructor of Darussalam Academy. Sunday morning, we have the Khatm al-Bukhari and commencement of the Taqmeel al-Alimiyyah program for both brothers and sisters, with our esteemed guest Sheikh Hashim Ahmed. This is Sunday, June 14th, after Salatul Zuhr. The Darussalam Girls' 8th grade and high school graduation on Saturday, June 13th, at 8:30 AM.

InshaAllah, summer at Darussalam is loaded with many programs for the entire family. We strive to provide a variety of courses that fit your schedules. Our weekly programs will continue: Monday night we have a podcast-style conversation; Tuesday we have our Tafsir; on Thursdays we have the Urdu program covering Imam Tirmidhi's Shama'il Muhammadiyyah; and Saturday mornings there is Team Fajr followed by breakfast. Sisters also have part-time programs which can be found online. And on June 20th, 11 AM to 3 PM, Helping Hands will have a clothing drive at Darussalam. All brothers and sisters are requested to bring their clothes.

And of course, we make du'a for the entire Ummah. May Allah Azza wa Jal ease the suffering.