Reflect & Connect: Surah Insan - Ep.05 - Mufti Azeemuddin Ahmed | 5/6

Opening Supplications

We ask Allah in this final session of Sūrat al-Dahr that He allows us to fully take benefit from the verses that we are covering. We ask Allah to allow us to understand the true purpose of these verses' revelation and what Allah wants from us. We ask Allah that He does not allow our mistakes and our sins to become a means of being deprived from benefiting from His kalām — from His speech. We ask Allah that He allows us all to become amongst those who hear that which we need to hear, be able to implement it and practice it, and inshāAllah propagate it to all others. We ask Allah that whatever situation the ummah is going through, and whatever we are going through in our own lives, that we are able to hear such things that will help us address our own issues as well as the issues of the ummah. Āmīn yā Rabb al-'Ālamīn.

Recap: The Reward of the Believers in Jannah

Allah in the previous verses mentioned the beautiful blessings of Jannah, and after mentioning all sorts of beautiful blessings — including how Allah will give the believers Himself to drink from the beautiful various rivers of Jannah — Allah says in the last āyah where we stopped:

"Indeed all of this shall be for you in reward, for your lifetime striving has been graciously accepted."

So if someone asks you: what keeps you moving? What motivates you? What should be our purpose in life? Where is our mission? This āyah, I think, is a very beautiful mission for all of us — that our mission in life is that I should be able to hear this: that Allah should be telling me this on the Day of Judgment. That this is what you get. Everything you see here — and what you don't see is thousands of times more than what you can see — and it's all for you. Forever. For eternity. For you to enjoy. وَكَانَ سَعْيُكُم مَّشْكُورًا — Allah was watching everything you did. Alhamdulillah. He has graciously accepted it.

You know the sign — and you get an email: acceptance from a college, acceptance from something else, whatever it may be — it makes a person feel so delighted. Alhamdulillah, the work paid off. How people get so excited, so happy that a project of theirs gets completed, a job of theirs gets completed, or their daughter or son or themselves get accepted into a specific type of university, program, or college that they were striving for. It's a sense of accomplishment.

The real sense of accomplishment that all of us inshāAllah will get — and what we should be striving for — is this statement right here, where Allah tells us that everything you have done has been watched, and now weighed, and now appreciated by Allah. And if we don't receive this message, then everything we do has very, very short-lived benefit. The lifespan of it is very short.

The Story of the Sheikh in Baghdad

It was mentioned that when a person in Baghdad built a very big palace — an elderly person, a senior — and he built a huge mansion, which many times we see happening in our lifetime as well. People grow up and live their childhood, their youthful years, and even their 40s and 50s in much simpler types of homes. Towards the end of their life then they say, "Okay, I want to make one big project, I want to make one big massive home."

So it is mentioned that one day a sheikh in Baghdad was gathering, speaking to his students in his dars, and he said, "Dear students, today I have some important news." They said, "What news is this?" He said, "I am here to share with you the news that Malik ul-Mawt has passed away. He's gone." So they were shocked — the news is shocking. But how can this even be true? This makes no sense. But the sheikh said it, so he was trying to teach them a lesson.

He said, "You didn't hear that we got invited to attend a gathering? We were told of a person who is very advanced in his age but decided to build a huge mansion and invited people to come see it. So the only reason he would do something like that," he said, "is he has some insider news that Malik ul-Mawt is dead and he's not going to die — that's why he chose at this age to build something like this. More than likely he means he's going to live here for centuries or more."

The point was to teach a lesson to his own people, his own students, himself — that this is not how it works. This doesn't make sense. The place of everlasting life is the hereafter, and that should be motivating us every single day. Otherwise, why should you stop? Think about that — why should you stop working? For those who say, "I need to just get enough money to build a mansion or get enough money to build this and build that" — mashāAllah, you already have it. Now what?

So this āyah is reminding us that no matter how much you do, it's never sufficient for the hereafter until you actually die and until you're raised up and until this is what you receive in your report card. And we don't know which action of ours will get accepted — that's why you have to keep on trying, keep on trying, and hoping that one day on the Day of Judgment when Allah will look at all of our books of deeds, there will be one thing that Allah likes, and that one thing will maybe become a means of our forgiveness. So a person keeps on trying.

The Story of the Muḥaddith and the Fly

One of the muḥaddithīn — a scholar of hadith — dedicated his entire life to preserving hadith and teaching hadith. What greater blessing is that? When he passed away, someone saw him in a dream and said, "How did you fare with Allah? You spent your entire life with the statements of Rasūlullah ﷺ — teaching them, preserving them." He said, "Allah forgave me, alhamdulillah — but not because of what you think."

He said, "I used to write hadith with a pen — with an ink pen — and you'd have an ink pot and take the pen and dip it into the pot and write. It so happened one day when I was writing that a fly came — a house fly, those annoying things that come around in the summer — a house fly came and it sat on the tip of the pen. I was writing, but it sat there and started drinking from the ink. And at that time, even though I was writing, I stopped. I said there is a creation of Allah that is thirsty and is sitting in my pen drinking from this fountain pen. I stopped writing what I was writing — the hadith or commentary — so that this fly could quench its thirst. And this one action is why Allah forgave me. Everything else I did didn't get accepted. This one made the cut."

SubhanAllah — what will make the cut? None of us know. Sometimes the biggest things in our lives will not make the cut, because the biggest things in our life come with the biggest baggage too. And that baggage brings so many things that can lead us to being insincere, so many things that can lead us to have ulterior motives and intentions. Anything that gets prominence, anything that becomes widely known, anything that you are associated with — it's so easy to have an ulterior motive and intention in that. And when that intention comes in, then everything is gone.

So the idea is that a person needs to constantly be working hard until we receive this message: سَعْيُكُم مَّشْكُورًا — your striving has been graciously accepted. But you do not receive that message over here. You will only receive that message in the hereafter. Hence a believer is always working.

That is why it comes in hadith that even if a person were to know that the Day of Judgment is around the corner and you have a little bit of time — do not waste that time. If you can plant a tree, then go ahead and plant a tree. Even if the Day of Judgment is around the corner, don't worry about it — you're going to plant that tree. From that tree, what will happen? Birds will come and sit on it, fruits will bear, people will take shade from it — so many beautiful things will happen. As a believer we cannot say, "The world is falling apart, I can't do anything."

Current Events: India, Pakistan, and the Ummah

Right now it seems like a lot of things are happening. You just heard there is an escalation between India and Pakistan. Things have escalated in the past couple of hours. And we ask Allah for safety, protection, and amān for the entire region. Muslims on both sides — huge numbers. And definitely the believers — there is not a winning situation here. There is a lot of loss already within just a few hours. Within one hour you already see children have died: an 18-year-old, a 3-year-old, a 15-year-old — within just a few hours.

So a person sees all the other things happening around the world and says, "Oh man, I should give up — what should I do? Let's forget it." That's not the way. Even if the Day of Judgment is around the corner — it's not, but if it were — you have to do something. You can't give up. That means you plant a tree. So imagine now how much work every one of us has to be doing.

In Memoriam: Two Great Scholars

Mawlānā Ghulām Vastānwī rahimahullah, who passed away two days ago on Sunday morning here our time — Sunday night in Gujarat. And last week we had Mawlānā 'Āqil rahimahullah, who had been teaching hadith for 60 years — one of the greatest scholars of hadith in the entire Indo-Pak subcontinent. He was the son-in-law of Sheikh Zakariyyā al-Kandahlawī and the main teacher at Madrasa Mazāhir al-'Ulūm in Saharanpur. He passed away last week. And this week another giant — Mawlānā Ghulām Vastānwī — passed away.

I've been sharing about him on my status and in the community groups. For those who didn't hear about him: 7,000 masjids he built — 7,000 masjids. And amongst them, approximately 200 Dār al-'Ulūms, and 2,000 maktabs. One day someone asked him about resting. He passed away at the young age of 60-something. And this was a man who did not have a dollar in his name. He himself talks about how he was a villager, his father was a villager, his grandfather was a farmer in Gujarat — a farmer. He did not have a college education or high school education. He did not have money. He did not have a family business. But Allah used him to establish more than 7,000 masjids and hundreds of Dār al-'Ulūms.

I had the chance to visit his location — called Akal Kua in Gujarat — two years ago, and I saw with my own eyes: he actually not only had a high school and an 'ālim school, but also had an IT school, a law school, and an MBBS university — a medical school, accredited and everything — with hundreds of Muslim students studying there in various colleges. It was basically like a university campus.

For those of us who are from India, you know what type of difficulty Muslim students have when they're trying to get into higher education. But imagine: you could have a girl studying MBBS wearing her niqāb — no problem. You could have a male brother studying MBBS with his beard, topi, and kurta, pray his salah on time, and eat with the madrasa students in the same mess hall. 'Ālim course students, high school students, medical students, engineering students — all eating together, sharing a plate.

I saw the kitchen, I saw the intizām he had made. He had an assembly line — where you have plates, where workers are putting food on the plate and the plate is moving, and then the students come, pick it up, and sit down and eat together. At any given time, for any meal, 15,000 meals are prepared for every slot — lunchtime, dinnertime. They have a roti maker, the atta is being made there — 12,000 to 15,000 fresh rotis coming out on an assembly line, running like a factory. And then the fact that it was a proper accredited medical school, a law school, an engineering school — all this — and a humanitarian organization spending tens of millions of dollars every single year.

And if you were to look at how simple he was — so down to earth — you would never imagine this is the man who is sitting on an effort that kings have not done. People who have billions in their country's coffers haven't done what this simple mawlānā coming from a village did. But he had the du'ā of his parents and the du'ā of his teachers — that's something really important that he stressed upon.

Qāri Siddīq Bandwī rahimahullah was one of his teachers whom he spoke so highly of — and he was also my ustādh's ustādh. Alhamdulillah, I and all my siblings had the honor of meeting him. He tied our turban on our heads after we completed our hifz. We went to India in '93 or '94, went to his town Banda, and there he performed our dastarbandī. He was involved in making the du'ā at the first masjid opening. And he would tell Mawlānā Ghulām: "Just keep your head down, look down, don't look at what people say, and just keep on working." But the du'ā of his teachers and his parents — who were not 'ulamā and who were not wealthy — Allah used him to uplift millions of Indian Muslims from poverty, uplift Indian Muslims from jahāla and ignorance, and become a means of establishing thousands of institutions of knowledge all across the entire subcontinent.

His son was narrating — he gave a speech at the janāzah, which happened yesterday. 100,000 plus people came within hours. And he said, "People used to tell my father to rest — how long, how long?" And my dad would say, "There's no such thing as rest while you're on top of the earth. You work." He said, "Who came up with Saturday and Sunday? Weekend — whose idea is that? That's not our concept. We have no such thing as a weekend. The resting will happen once you go down — once the soul comes out. But in order to have an enjoyable rest in the grave, you have to have seven days a week, 365 days a year of work now."

Is this not happening in the world? Of course it is. Find me a big businessman who doesn't live like this. Find me a big worldly person who doesn't believe in exactly what we're saying. There are thousands of people who are chasing money 7 days a week, 365 days a year for decades. There's never a break. They don't have time for anything. Even if they go to a sports event, it's there to make money, to meet a business partner. So it's very normal for us to see this type of mentality in chasing after the dunya. What we need to see is that type of junūn and craze in the ākhirah — that I have to work for the ākhirah, where I have to wait until Allah tells me, "Your work is appreciated and accepted."

And does anyone know that's happening? No. We don't have access to that. We can't crack the code and get in. So since we don't know, that means every single day we have to be working. And part of that work, brothers, is that spending time with family is also work. Spending time with children is also work. Spending time with parents is also work. Spending time with grandparents is also work. Visiting is also work. A believer is always on call. Wherever he is, whatever he's doing — even if he's going to walk in the park, his goal is that "I'm a dā'ī, I'm going to follow the principles of deen while I'm in the park, and I'm going to become a means of the upliftment of the deen while I'm in the park." Time for salah — I'm going to give the adhān out loud, iqāmah out loud, and pray salah. If there is something that I shouldn't associate myself with, I won't associate myself with it. Wherever he is, he's always a representation of deen — 24/7. He's clocked in.

On the Purpose of Tasbih

That doesn't mean 24/7 you're in the masjid. That doesn't mean 24/7 you have a big tasbih in your hand. You don't even have to have a tasbih in your hand. You can have the tasbih in the heart — that's the main one. The tasbih in the pocket is to remind you to do tasbih by heart. Sometimes we have a big tasbih in our hands; in reality our heart is not even there and it's just a fashion show. People have tasbih around the neck nowadays, tasbih around the hands, tasbih around the arms — and now it's a market of expensive tasbihs. What's the purpose of tasbih? Tasbih is not a fashion statement. Tasbih is not a fashion statement.

I understand — I'm not trying to put down any business, don't get me wrong — but the purpose: if it gets you the motivation to do dhikr, alhamdulillah, fine. But the maqsad is — the word is musabbiḥah mudhakirah — something that reminds you to do tasbih. To make you remember Allah. If the tasbih is there and you hang it in your car and hang it on your kitchen table and hang it everywhere else, but it doesn't remind me to do tasbih in the heart, then it's a waste. And if I don't even have anything in my hand — I just have a few pebbles in my pocket — and every time I go to reach for my phone I touch those pebbles, and I think, "Ah, I'm supposed to remember Allah" — alhamdulillah, that is a successful tasbih. A few pebbles — musabbiḥah mudhakirah — something that reminds you of the remembrance of Allah.

The Legacy of Mawlānā Ghulām Vastānwī

This great scholar left this world at not a very senior age, and subhanAllah — what did he leave? A massive sadaqah jāriyah. Thousands upon thousands — millions, rather — got benefit from him and from the work he started, even though he didn't have the means.

I was speaking last night to some brothers and I was highlighting the fact that anytime we talk about doing something big, every time the first thing we say is, "Brother, how do I fundraise? Can you teach me how to fundraise?" I was trying to express to them that dīnī work doesn't start with fundraising and doesn't start with money. There are way too many people who have lots of money and are not doing anything good for themselves, much less for the ummah. So we should remove this from our mind that in order to do work of deen I need money, or I need some big hi-fi education, or I need to come from a big family.

You could be the most simple of people with the most simple of education, with little or no money. But if Allah accepts you, you will do things that will baffle the world. People with the most amount of means will not be able to accomplish what you will be able to accomplish. So the thing is, we just have to get accepted by Allah. As we would hear in our madrasa from our teachers, they would always say:

قَابِلِيَّة شَرْط نَهِيں، قَبُولِيَّت شَرْط ہے — What is conditional is to be accepted by Allah, not to be capable. You do not have to be capable. You could be blind, deaf, and mute, and you could be slow in many regards — but if Allah accepts you for the service of deen, then you will do things that the most intelligent of people will not be able to do.

So we should take inspiration from Mawlānā Ghulām Vastānwī and make niyyah: "Yā Allāh, the remainder of my life — allow me every moment and every breath, weekdays, weekends, holidays, and working days — to always make every single moment of mine super efficient and super beneficial for the ummah." Starting off with niyyah for myself — that I help myself by helping the ummah.

And we should all also make du'ā that Allah accept the khidmat of these two great giants.

The Du'ā When Fitna Descends

It's interesting — the du'ā of the Prophet ﷺ:

"O Allāh, when You choose to put the ummah into fitna, then pull me back safe, without being touched by fitna."

Just think about it — what happened today with the attack. This is not a small thing. Since the time you were born, when is the last time you saw something like this — what happened between India and Pakistan right now, for which we've been making du'ā for the past week because we were expecting something like this to escalate? Now you see these two giants — Allah took them away, one a week before, one two days before. It's something to think about. This is a bigger problem for those who are alive.

That's why the du'ā when you lose someone — especially giants like this: "Yā Allāh, please do not deprive us of their reward, and do not put us into test after their passing." Because these giants — the du'ās they made at night — we have no idea how it was helping us and helping the Muslims across the globe. And when you have such people pass away who made such levels of du'ā — you think about it — if someone has got 200-plus dorms and 7,000 masjids, imagine how many people, how many spiritual children they have. Which bank account can calculate this? And you know that Allah would not allow him to do this type of work without tahajjud. You know that Allah would not allow him to do this type of work without making du'ā every night. So imagine what type of du'ā he must have been making.

These 'ulamā — both of them — and all those who have passed away in different regions of the world, which I'm not even aware of because we're losing people left and right every single day: the passing away of these 'ulamā seriously should become a very serious wake-up call for all of us. Because what we're losing is not just giants of libraries and 'ilm — we're losing the du'ā that they made for all of us, for the ummah. And for each one that is lost, how many footsteps can be filled? We can't fill them. This whole room cannot fill up even one. We need many, many, many more rooms.

The Prophet ﷺ himself said: the death of a scholar leaves behind such a gap that an entire tribe cannot fill it up. A true scholar — an entire tribe cannot fill it up.

So you have these sad things. But if I just sit there and get depressed — what is this going to help? Not going to help them, not going to help me, not going to help the ummah. We have to take the news of what's happening right now — the worsening crisis in Gaza, lā ilāha illallāh — and channel this stress, anxiety, frustration, sadness, anger — whatever you call it — all in a direction that's positive. Otherwise we're not helping them, and we're not helping ourselves.

This is very important. When you have wind turbines, or electricity created through huge dams — the power of wind, the power of water — is something amazing. You can do a lot of beneficial things from it. Similarly, this sadness — I'm feeling a lot of stress personally, and I'm sure all of you are feeling it too — but we have to channel it in the right direction. If I just sit there and drink three extra cups of coffee, that's not going to help. If I use that to binge eat, that's not going to help. If I use that to just go to sleep, that's not going to help. We have to take this and push it towards the musalla.

This is the time for us to have extended hours in the masjid. I remember when I spoke to one of my asātidha two years ago about the hālāt, he told me, "This bloodshed will come to India and Pakistan. Don't talk about the Mahdī — the hālāt will get worse." He told me that. He said, "This Mahdī you're talking about — no, it's still yet to come. You'll see this bloodshed coming to the Indo-Pak area." And I was like, "What?" But subhanAllah, I see that now.

May Allah really make things easy. But what should we do? Everyone here, I think, has relatives in both countries. We have to channel our direction towards the houses of Allah — in those cities, in those countries, and over here as well. The masjids need to have their people taking turns and saying, "Ab masjid ko ābād karein" — let's populate the masājid and turn to Allah. And if we use this stress and anxiety to just go to a coffee shop and drink another extra cup of tea — kuch fāydā nahīn — that's no benefit. Not benefiting anyone.

So this is an inspiration we should take from Mawlānā Ghulām Vastānwī inshāAllah. Allah will create more like him. Allah is the caretaker of the ummah — none of us can take care of the ummah.

And one of the statements I read about a scholar — a tābi'ī — was to this effect: "We show sadness over the passing away of scholars throughout all time, not just now. But do not show that level of sadness to make it seem that Allah cannot bring the deen back without that person." Because Allah does not need any scholar. Allah does not need any one individual. We're very sad at the loss of these great giants. But this is Allah's deen. Just like Allah brought these people 60 years ago — why not? Why can't Allah create another:

This is Allah's deen. We just have to get accepted. We cannot turn this into a sad crying time and say it's done, we can't do anything. Let's channel this towards the musalla.

Qiyām al-Layl: The Family That Stood Guard All Night

I want all of us to make niyyah within our homes. Abū Hurayrah r.a. mentioned in a hadith in Ṣaḥīḥ al-Bukhārī — Abū Hurayrah r.a. hosted some guests. The Sahābī who was staying at Abū Hurayrah's house says: "I was there at the home — husband, wife, and child. I saw all three of them took turns the entire night for qiyām al-layl. They divided it up."

Even regarding Mawlānā Ilyās rahimahullah — Mawlānā Ilyās Kandahlawī — it's mentioned that in his own house that is what he would do: they would have shifts — who's going to be awake at what time.

This is the time for us to stand guard. Where do you stand guard? Where do you stand for help? On the musalla. I say this because I am in need. Most of what I'm saying — may Allah awaken me and awaken all of us to really start focusing on standing up in tahajjud, in qiyām al-layl. Now, when we need it. If we don't, then there will be no bigger loser than us. The tsunami has begun on the other end of the world and it is coming. You and I have an option to watch and to prepare. If after seeing everything that's happening we don't wake up — then who literally is a bigger fool than us?

Look at the beautiful streets we have. Look at the blooming flowers. Look what beautiful weather we had. Look at the clean neighborhoods and the parks. Look at the amān — the peace and security — you and I are enjoying in this beautiful place. It doesn't take more than a few seconds for all of it to be destroyed, as you see the videos coming in from Pakistan right now. SubhanAllah — in the middle of the night my own classmates are there, sending me pictures from their cars while driving in the middle of the night. SubhanAllah — whole places, masjids blowing up. Within one second, amān can go. Peace can go.

So who is the only one who truly has control over everything? Allah. And this is where we as a community — whoever is listening to me, wherever you may be — start making ābādī of the masjid after 'Ishā, before Fajr. Let's start doing that. And the sisters — the women — I ask Allah to inspire you to do ābādī at home: at night let's wake up, or before we go to bed let's start doing it.

Just think — any mother here, or any lady whose mother is sick in the hospital: you think she's going to sleep all night while her mother is in the ICU? Sisters of our community: if your mother or father is very sick, or your husband, or your son, or your daughter were to be sick — you couldn't fall asleep at night. That's the same fikr we need to have. The ummah is in the ICU right now. The ummah is in the ICU. And we really need people to stand up and help. And it starts off with this.

The True Purpose of Dhikr

Some of my close friends have said to me, "Kuch aur batāiye — don't tell me about spirituality, tell me something else. Don't tell me about dhikr." And then they quote Allāmah Iqbāl and call me names. I said, "Listen, brother — you need to understand the concept of what Allāmah Iqbāl is speaking about and what we are speaking about here."

When I talk about dhikr — and honestly this is very much connected to the verses I'm going to cover today — the dhikr that we speak about, the dhikr that we emphasize — for myself and for all of us — the purpose of it is not for us to sit for 10-12 hours and do dhikr and say, "Bhai jo ho rahā hone do — who cares, let the world fall apart, I'm just doing my dhikr." That's what for example Allāmah Iqbāl and others spoke against.

What the dhikr we're speaking about is this: just do that amount of dhikr so that you stay away from haram. That's what we're talking about here. Stay away from haram — haram watching, haram listening, haram eating, haram income, haram expenses, haram in our dressing, haram in our living. Then we cannot expect the help of Allah to come while we are involved in haram. Why are we involved in haram? Because Allah is not in the heart. Allah is on the tongue — not in the heart. That's what the dhikr is for.

I don't know what people think about dhikr — like, "Oh my God, how much dhikr are you going to do?" No, bhai — all we're trying to say is: can we find in this whole room not a single one of us involved in any type of haram? Can we find one row in this entire community — one row in any masjid — where you have 30 people who can bear witness: "By Allāh, I am not involved in any haram of any sort in any aspect of my life"? If you cannot find 30 people in one masjid, how are we going to get the thousands needed to attract Allah's help?

That's what I'm trying to say. The purpose of dhikr of Allah, the purpose of qiyām al-layl, the purpose of tahajjud, the purpose of fasting nawāfil fasts — is to give us the spiritual energy to cut out haram in our life, bring sunnah into our life, and then we will start seeing what we need to see.

Why does a person eat vitamins? Imagine someone gives you antibiotics and painkillers and vitamins. You say, "Alhamdulillah, I don't need this extra stuff — I'm just gonna eat my bowl of cereal." What will you tell them? The purpose of giving you medication is not that it's nafil — that you should just eat your normal 2,000-calorie diet and not these extra things. No — this is medicine. This is just to get you healthy, to keep you healthy. That's what we're talking about. Our dhikr right now is like an antibiotic. Our dhikr right now is like a vitamin — to get us to the spiritual state we need to be able to figure out how to get out of this mess.

How can we say, "Give me a solution that's not spiritual"? There is no solution. I'm sorry — there is no solution. The ummah has all the means of this world but doesn't know how to use those means because they are not connected with Allah. The Day of Judgment is not front and center — that's why we're suffering. I ask Allah to grant us true fahm and understanding to all of us and our loved ones, and allow us to be able to implement what has been said so far.

Quranic Reflection: Verse by Verse

The Quran Revealed in Succession

Allah says:

"O Prophet ﷺ, indeed it is We who have sent down the Quran to you in succession of revelations."

Meaning this Quran that has come — it's come in order. Look at literally today's āyah that I'm reading. It was so beneficial for me as I was preparing, because I'm going through my own state of just trying to understand what's happening in the world. And subhanAllah it's so beautiful that the Quran has not been revealed in one go — one shot. Because guess what — we all have different emotions. Yesterday was a different emotion. Today is a different emotion. Tomorrow is a different emotion. Every day you'll go through different things in your life, and you need something in the Quran to address that day.

Your daughter is getting married tonight — tomorrow your son has his 'aqīqah. These are different occasions. You're opening up a new store on Friday. Then you've got the suffering of the ummah. Then you've got something else going on — good and bad. How are we supposed to understand the happenings of our world and come up with a proper worldview? Open up the Book of Allah. And the Book of Allah will give you something for your situation.

That's why it says the Quran was revealed in succession of revelations — not in one go — because each day what the Sahābah needed to hear, or even what the Prophet ﷺ needed to hear, was different. If the Prophet ﷺ had changes in his feelings and emotions — and Allah is consoling him in so many other verses, telling him, "Do not be sad, do not be grieved, I know you're suffering, I know you're going through a lot of stress" — then how about you and I? How can we say we're not going to go through this? We're going to go through this. It's part of life. But that's why you have the Quran.

And so Allah says إِنَّا نَحْنُ — We are the ones. This Quran is not coming from the Prophet ﷺ because the Prophet ﷺ is human. As free of sin as he is and as special as he is, at the end of the day he's still human. The Quran, if it's supposed to have the solution to the entire world forever — at all times, in all stages of life — this has to be coming from none but the Creator of the human being and the Creator of this world. And that of course is only Allah. Hence Allah is emphasizing the fact that the Quran came from Him, and that the solutions you are looking for are found in here and nowhere else.

Be Patient and Persevere in Da'wah

"So be patient, O Rasūlullāh, with your Lord's decree to convey His message, and nor shall you obey the dictates of anyone amongst them who is utterly sinful or unbelieving."

Allah is telling the Prophet ﷺ that what you're going through in da'wah is going to be hard. It's going to require ṣabr. Nabī ﷺ is being told: you have to have ṣabr in practicing the deen. Remember — three types of ṣabr: number one is to do all that which you're supposed to do — you have to have ṣabr in that, to do all the good deeds. Number two is to stay away from all the bad deeds. And number three is to have ṣabr in the face of calamities and difficulties.

The Prophet ﷺ — and by virtue of him, all of us — are being told: you have to be patient with your Lord's decree. Whatever He has asked you to do — and the main thing that the Prophet ﷺ had to do was to give da'wah:

To recite the āyāt to them, to purify the hearts of the believers, to teach them the Quran and the injunctions of the Quran, and to teach the wisdom of the Quran and the Sunnah — this is what you have to do. وَلَا تُطِعْ — and O Rasūlullāh, you're going to have people who stand up and give opinions against you, giving opinions on how you should change things, how you should water down things, make things more accessible, blend it, bend it, do all these things. Do not obey any of them — any sinful, disbelieving ingrate. Do not listen to them.

SubhanAllah — the message of course is to us. When you stand up to do the work of deen, you will definitely get pushback all the time. I was telling this to our first-year students today: when you go back to your communities and you want to start doing a ḥalqah, you want to start doing a dars, you want to say, "I want to start up some little summer program" — as much as these innocent young boys and girls who are graduating this year inshāAllah, I told them: I don't want you to be shocked when you go back to your community and say, "I'm back, I'm ready to start a ḥalqah!" and they say, "Yeah, it's okay." "What do you mean 'it's okay'? I'm not even asking you money for it! I'm not asking you anything!" "No no, the masjid — we don't have space for this. We don't want to keep the lights on between Maghrib and 'Ishā." The type of pushback that you'll get from the community when you want to do something for the deen — that's how it is. And you just can't give up.

Alhamdulillah, we all have our own living rooms. You live in an apartment, you live in a single-family home — you don't need the masjid to do your dars. Do it in your house. No problem. It's okay. Just do it. Do whatever it takes. But when you're committed to it, you've got to be patient. These obstacles will come. And do not obey people who try to bring changes.

Ṣabr Coupled With Dhikr

Now — this is the connection I want you to make. Look at فَاصْبِرْ and what comes after that:

"But remember with praise the name of your Lord in the early morning and in the late afternoon."

MashāAllah — Dr. Nabulusī, whose tafsīr I used for our dars here, put such a beautiful connection here, recoding from scholars of the past: deen is not about just giving up. Deen is not about giving up only. You have a heart and a mind — you can't just keep on emptying things. You have to fill it up with something. It's not just: "This is haram — okay." Then what should I do? You have to give an alternative.

So he makes this connection: ṣabr and dhikr together. If you just tell people to have ṣabr, you will lose your mind. You can't handle it. "Just do ṣabr?" "What do you mean? How can I do it? How much can I stay calm? How much can I remain firm?" It's very taxing. Ṣabr is very taxing. Stay away from this, do ṣabr against haram — but I need an alternative. And subhanAllah, he says that alternative is: what is it? Dhikr of Allah.

That frustration you have of not being able to do haram, the sadness and anxiety of suffering some setback in your life — loss of wealth, loss of family, loss of health — how do you make up for that? You make up for it through dhikr. Kind of like what I was saying earlier: take the stress, take the worry, and hit the prayer mat. That's subhanAllah the beautiful teachings of the Quran — that you cannot just keep on telling people to do ṣabr, they'll burn out. The way you have a soft landing, and the way you bring calmness into your life, is through dhikr.

And so with everything we're going through — stressful lives right now — if we want to bring some calmness to our nerves, we need to do dhikr. Without that... I just heard the sad story of someone who lost their child. Even if he's 70 years old, he's your child. Someone lost their son, and subhanAllah due to the sadness of it his mother also passed away. And now the father is in depression and needs to be fed, even though he's healthy — but depression: he doesn't eat, doesn't do anything. What's the solution for this?

This depression is becoming so much more common in our community because of what's going on in life, all the stressful things. But it's really also because of phones — constantly live streaming every misery in our hands. In one second. People used to find out that their father or mother died like a week later through a letter. Two weeks later they didn't even know. Now it's all live video. People are video-calling, live streaming graves — I don't understand this. What do you think of live video of a grave? I find that quite offensive. Live streaming the burial — if it's family that's up to you, I don't know if you think that's good — but subhanAllah, it's a strange thing.

A Note on Graves and Burials

And while I'm at it let me just say one thing: dear friends, the graveyard — especially at the time of burial — is a very emotional place. And hence our deen has prohibited at the time of burial for women to be with men. This is absolutely inappropriate and prohibited.

Nabī ﷺ had initially prohibited women from going to the graveyard at all. Then, through revelation, the Prophet ﷺ changed it and said, "Okay, now you can go — I had stopped you from going, now you can go visit." But the rule still stands that they should be going at a different time — they should go after the menfolk have left. That is why — think about why — women, for hundreds and hundreds of years, were not allowed to be in front of the Prophet ﷺ at Masjid al-Nabawī. If you allow women to stand in front of the Prophet ﷺ — women are much more emotional — subhanAllah, there is a ḥikmah there. Women saying salām from the side, not from the front.

So the thing is: at the graveyard, it's inappropriate. Women are very emotional — the mom, the dad, the sister, the daughter, the sister-in-law, the mother-in-law. And many times, because of not even following the rules of ḥijāb consistently, and especially when you're not in your right frame of mind, the ḥijāb is not being worn properly. And now you have a bunch of other strange men — non-related men. This is a very special moment. He or she is going to get questioned in the grave. The last thing we want is something against the sharī'ah to be happening there in the final moments. Why don't we let him rest in peace without this type of mixing happening?

I cannot say this at the time of a burial, so I don't say it naturally — because of course emotions are very raw. But I'm saying it now. Pass this message on. We're seeing a huge increase. Before, this did not used to happen like this. But nowadays things are changing, and since no one is speaking against it, the new generation thinks it's completely fine. It's not fine. Sisters should wait — after the burial is done, then the sisters can come. And you should not put your womenfolk through seeing the deceased being lowered into the grave — this is too much for them. Allah made them different.

So this was just a side point I wanted to mention. SubhanAllah — when we only say ṣabr, ṣabr and we don't couple it with dhikr, people will lose their mind. That's why people who have lost family members, or are going through depression — what should we instruct them? Instruct them to do dhikr of Allah. SubhanAllah — of course in a nice manner. I remember one time someone's father passed away, and that same day there was a sīrah program happening. I told them, "Come to the program." And because of their respect for me, they came — otherwise most people would think: "Astaghfirullāh, shame on you, his father passed away overseas and you're telling him to come to a program?" I said, "Just come. You're sitting at home. What are you going to be doing? You're just going to cry. Come, and Allah will allow you to hear something beneficial that will give you some strength." SubhanAllah — that person came and afterwards sent a message about how much they appreciated that advice.

People mourn differently. But however you mourn — remember, ṣabr needs to be coupled with dhikr. If you're mourning with people who don't do dhikr, who don't pray, and they're just sitting there talking about the deceased person, you're not going to feel any better. This is a very delicate time. You have to fill up the hollowness in your heart. The hollowness of losing a loved one needs to be filled up with the remembrance of Allah. There is nothing in this world that can be a better balm for the heart than the dhikr of Allah. And hence Allah says:

Allah didn't say الْقُلُوبُ تَطْمَئِنُّ بِذِكْرِ اللَّهِ — "The hearts get contentment with the remembrance of Allah." If Allah had said it that way, that would leave the door open for the hearts to get contentment with dhikr of Allah and many other things. But by Allah saying أَلَا — listen — and then bringing بِذِكْرِ اللَّهِ first, it means: only through the remembrance of Allah تَطْمَئِنُّ الْقُلُوبُ will the hearts gain contentment. And the Quran has to be true. There is no drug out there, no wealth, no amount of prosperity that can make you feel happy and content. It's a mirage.

That's why people — money is a drug. Just like a guy who gets high doesn't stop and tries the next drug — either the same one until he's maxed out, and then he'll try something of higher strength — same thing with money. You wonder why after a person has got a hundred million he's still going crazy? Because money is a drug. And once a person is intoxicated with it, he feels he cannot have calmness, his fingers are not going to relax, he's going to get twitchy unless he's making more money. Seriously — that's what it is. It's a drug. And you never get enough of it — you're always feeling hollowness and emptiness. The only thing that will give us this calmness is the remembrance of Allah.

And you've tried it. If you've cried in front of Allah for an hour, half an hour — whether things went wrong in your life or things went good in your life — how do you feel when you stand up? You feel like literally a mountain has been lifted off your chest. When you sit quietly, shut the phone, sit in a corner, and just do tasbih after Fajr, after 'Ishā — when people are chit-chatting in the lobby and you're sitting there doing the dhikr of Allah — you will walk away so much more relaxed than anyone else.

This is what we need. The ummah needs to do ṣabr — but understand that through ṣabr you also have to do dhikr. And we tell our children — boys, girls — "This is haram, you can't do this, you can't do that." We can't just keep on telling people what they can't do. You have to replace it with something. Because now you said, "You can't do that," but what am I supposed to do? I have a big gaping hole in my heart. You have to fill it up with the remembrance of Allah.

I know it might seem a little difficult, but we have to start working on that. We have to get our children and ourselves habitual of the remembrance of Allah. Dear fathers and mothers — if we want our children to be something, we have to lead by example. When we sit in the car or wherever we are, start the dhikr of Allah. Let our children witness us doing the dhikr of Allah. They have to see it. They can't only see dad and mom work very hard and be very efficient with their spending. They also have to see that mom and dad make lots of du'ā, mom and dad make lots of dhikr, mom and dad are always reading Quran. If our young generation sees it, they will inshāAllah realize the power of it.

What do we see? We have a community that finds it very beneficial to send their boys and girls to have their ḥifz. But if we see how much time we as dads and moms are reading Quran ourselves, we may find ourselves in hot water. Our actions are showing that this is not that important — it's a title, get your ḥifz title and move on with life. And obviously then we're having all the problems we're facing in our community.

Our children need to witness: that morning du'ās are happening in our home, evening du'ās are happening in our home, du'ā is happening in our home after salah. We don't rush after salah — after 'Ishā, after Maghrib, don't rush out of the masjid. Relax, wait for 3-4 minutes, complete your dhikr. Nothing is happening — you can wait for 2-3 minutes. Our children should watch that — subhanAllah, "Baba is finishing his adhkār." They should watch at home that their mom doesn't just get off the musalla — she sits and does her adhkār.

And then you say, "Dear son, deen is not about just haram, haram, haram — there are a lot of beautiful things." Once they fall in love with Allah, then you see — my dear friends — you'll have an amazing life. Our job has to be: we and our children falling in love with Allah. Then the desire for haram will also go away.

I see that many times people who raised their children by only saying "this is haram" and not showing the beauty of Islam and the positive aspects of Islam — the results of that are very bad. Multiple people just within this past week — families have reached out to me saying, "My siblings are all pretty much non-Muslims now." Why? They are successful professionals, but completely non-Muslim — every haram under the sun they're involved in, they make fun of the deen. Why? Because they grew up with someone just constantly saying everything is haram, being very harsh with them, being very difficult with them. So if we don't show the jamāl and the beauty of the deen, our children will not fall in love with it. And there's only so much ṣabr they can do — eventually they'll break.

The Jannah of Being Close to Allāh

So the dhikr — throughout morning and evening. Aṣīl — between 'Aṣr and Maghrib, late afternoon. Bukra — before Fajr. Some of the 'ulamā say: when the Prophet ﷺ said "Abū Bakr is in Jannah, 'Umar is in Jannah" — one of the amazing aspects of this — of course we know it is Jannah — but what does fī al-jannah mean? That if you are so closely connected to Allah that while you are physically living in this world, you are actually floating in Jannah. This is something subhanAllah. They say: dunya mein jannah hai — jo usmein dākhil nahīn hogā, ākhirat ke jannah mein bhī dākhil nahīn ho sakegā. What is that Jannah? That is the Jannah of being close with Allah. Jannatu al-qurb — the Jannah of nearness to Allah. Your heart is connected.

And subhanAllah, one of the 'ulamā has said:

"My garden is in my chest. What can my enemies do to me? If they push me away and exile me, my exile is going to be a vacation. If they grab me and imprison me, my imprisonment is not imprisonment — it's khalwa, seclusion with Allah. And if they choose to kill me, then killing me is martyrdom."

Because whatever I need is right here — not even in my pocket. You can steal my wallet, take my phone — but you can't take what's inside my heart. SubhanAllah. So that is called jannatu al-qurb — the Jannah of being close to Allah. This is something we need to taste.

The Sweetness of Īmān

Yes — the word is "taste." Islam is about taste. Dhāqa ṭa'ma al-īmān — that person has tasted the sweetness of īmān:

(Ṣaḥīḥ Muslim, Hadith 34)

"Whoever is absolutely pleased with Allāh being his Lord, and Islām being his religion, and with the Prophet ﷺ being his messenger."

My dear brothers — īmān is not about do's and don'ts only. Īmān is not about halāl and harām only. Īmān is actually about tasting something. The hadith talks about tasting the sweetness of sajdah, tasting the sweetness of seclusion with Allah. So we have to ensure that we and our youth understand that Islam and īmān is something actually sweeter than any sweet out there, more tastier than any burger out there.

What have I done? I've made Islam a group of external symbols — up and down, kiss the ground a few times a day, a quick here and a quick there. And that's my Islam. So it's sha'āir — it's symbols. Part of that is salah — yes. But where is that sweetness in that salah? Where is that quality in that salah?

I remember one of my madrasa mates — may Allah increase all of us in these good qualities. We'd say, "Hey brother, we're going out to eat" or "we want to go somewhere — let's pray namaz quickly and go." And he was a madrasa student, but he would turn around and say, "I can't pray fast. If you want to go, then go. If you have to leave, leave — I'll come with the next rickshaw. Don't tell me to pray salah quickly. I just can't." Like — someone eating a nice big piece of chocolate cake, you say, "What are you doing? This is not some medicine you just gulp down — you enjoy it." If you don't want to enjoy it, then why are you eating it? Take small bites.

SubhanAllah — salah is supposed to be like that for us. We actually take our time and enjoy it. So why don't we enjoy it? Why is salah so quick, quick, quick? It's because we haven't tasted the sweetness of it. And one reason we haven't tasted the sweetness of it is because of haram. The person who is indulged in haram and disobedience of Allah — Allah will not allow him to taste the sweetness of speaking with Him. There is a sweetness of speaking with Allah that you will only get if you first stop warring with Allah. If we stop warring with Allah, then Allah says, "Okay, khalāṣ — I'll let you enjoy the beauty of speaking and communicating with Me." May Allah grant us all this beauty of munājāt — speaking with Allah.

Three Pillars: 'Ilm, Dhikr, and Physical Health

There is 'ilm, there is dhikr, and there is physical health as well. The mind requires knowledge — 'aql requires 'ilm. The heart requires dhikr. And the physical body requires nutrition and good health. We have to work on all three — to become intellectually strong, spiritually strong, and physically strong. If we choose to emphasize one and not the other two, in all cases we will be losers.

Someone who focuses only on knowledge and not spirituality and physical health — you'll be a loser. A person who is focusing only on spirituality and not knowledge or physical health — you'll be a loser. Similarly, someone who focuses only on physical health and not the other two — also a loser. He will not be able to gain what he needs in this dunya or the ākhirah.

Look at how I just said it in simple words: our intellect needs 'ilm, our heart needs dhikr, our body needs health. How comprehensive and holistic is this deen! How can we not sell this to our kids? Tell them, "Beta — show me something as holistic as this. What aspect of existence am I leaving out? What aspect of existence and success — tell me something that MBA is teaching you that Islam hasn't taught you. Tell me something that someone else is saying that's more relevant and more amazing than Islam's message." There isn't anything. But we have to do a good job of presenting our deen properly.

When we hear about children leaving the fold of Islam — there are many reasons — but one of the biggest reasons is that we as educators and parents have not done a good job of presenting Islam to them. Because this doesn't make sense: tell me, honest to God, what have you found better than Islam? Let me see it. What is more logical? What is more spiritually fulfilling? What is more holistically encompassing? Look — if they go become an atheist or anything else, it's such a strange life. The end for everything is a pit. You have the most expensive car or a bicycle — it all goes into a pit called the grave. You are at the top of the world, managing a trillion dollars — you're a president managing all the nuclear warheads — or you are a farmer who has never seen electricity. You're all going to go into the same pit, the same grave. So if at the end it's the same, what's the point of all this?

You lead an oppressive life or you lead a life of one who stands up for justice and gives his life protecting others — the ending is the same. Then what's the point of leading an upright life? This is where Islam comes and says: "No — no one will have the same grave." You could be buried in two plots right next to each other — literally the distance between the heavens and the earth between these two graves. One could be a garden from the gardens of Jannah, one could be a pit from the pits of the Fire. We don't know anything. But our Islam teaches us that there is something called ākhirah. And the journey of the ākhirah begins the day you die — as soon as the soul leaves, the journey of the ākhirah has already begun. So let me see what other interesting philosophy you're bringing. SubhanAllah — there is really literally nothing like it. So we have to do a better job of presenting our deen.

The Hadith of the Believer Who Never Loses

(Ṣaḥīḥ Muslim, Hadith 2999)

Nabī ﷺ says: "How surprising and how beautiful is the affair of a believer — in all of his affairs there is good. A believer never loses. If he is blessed with ease and comfort and good conditions, all he has to do is be grateful, and he will get reward for it. And if he is afflicted with difficulty, all he has to do is remain patient — and in this difficulty there will also be goodness for him. And there is nobody who has a life like this besides a believer."

We heard a few days ago: a man entered a masjid in France saying he wanted to become a Muslim and wanted someone to teach him how to pray salah. SubhanAllah — the brother said okay, he taught him how to pray salah, how to raise your hands, how to make takbīr al-ihrām, how to do qiyām, qawmah — and when that brother went into sajdah, the man stabbed him. I'm told 45 times. Now this is a horrific murder. But you tell me — how blessed, how special this man must have been that Allah brought him to the masjid, got him into sajdah, and then made him shahīd while teaching someone Islam. I don't know what could be a more noble death than this. SubhanAllah.

This is the point — the idea is that in that horrific crime that happened, there is unbelievable khayr. If that person had lived another 60 or 100 years, he could probably never have attained this type of death. May Allah grant him Jannah, and may Allah grant safety to our brothers and sisters wherever they are.

Do Dhikr Abundantly

Now the point — how much dhikr? The Quran says:

"O believers, do dhikr abundantly."

All the 'ulamā said — by kasrat do dhikr. Not just a little dhikr. Allah always in the Quran speaks about doing dhikr abundantly. He says even a little dhikr is what a munāfiq does. Allah speaks about the munāfiqūn:

Allah speaks about the munāfiqūn: "When they stand up for salah, they stand up lazily." Look at how we pray — where are our hands in rukū'? In sajdah? SubhanAllah — how is our salah? It's like the army soldier who stands at attention to give a salute — alert, awake, body stiff. That's how salah is supposed to be. The Quran says the one who prays salah lazily — may Allah protect all of us — that is a characteristic of a munāfiq. And then internally: وَلَا يَذْكُرُونَ اللَّهَ إِلَّا قَلِيلًا — "He remembers Allah very little — barely."

Remember I talked about the masbūq before — the one who missed part of his prayer? How many times are we even reading a surah? Especially if we're a masbūq — we missed our prayer — and we just go into rukū' within seconds. Remember I spoke about this before: masbūqs end up praying 3 rak'āts or 2 rak'āts in 30 seconds, everywhere in all the masājid. Just look at it — illā mashāAllah. And if you just ask yourself what you just did — if you're a masbūq, you have to recite Sūrat al-Fātiḥah and you have to recite a surah for at least the first two rak'āts, and for the second two rak'āts — meaning your third or fourth — just Sūrat al-Fātiḥah. But how many times does it happen that a person is still at إِيَّاكَ نَعْبُدُ وَإِيَّاكَ نَسْتَعِينُ and the man is finishing his second sajdah? What is that? It's literally you're wasting your time. Go home then — there is no salah in any madhhab like this.

But this is not one or two people — this is the common pandemic in our communities. And these are the ones who are making the effort to come to the masjid! The ones praying at home — what about their state? So we're seeing our salah — my salah — is that of a munāfiq. Let's be very honest. This is not salah. This is a joke. This is mazāq with Allah. If we didn't read a Sūrah, if we didn't read Sūrat al-Fātiḥah — there is no salah. A person needs to make sure: if you didn't know what you read, repeat it again. But — and I say this carefully — for those of us who might have OCD, please do not keep repeating it. If you are constantly repeating your salah, stop repeating it. As mentioned in the hadith, if you're constantly repeating your wuḍū, stop repeating it. That's not being safe — that's just shayṭān playing tricks with you.

So this is what the Quran says: whenever Allah speaks about dhikr, He says do it abundantly. So let's make niyyah now — 5,000 salawāt, istighfār — the ummah needs some serious dhikr right now. India and Pakistan, Gaza, Sudan, Syria — each one of these hot spots is escalating. They need billions of dhikr. So this should be what I do. I'm sad about it — don't sit there and binge-watch the news right now. I know the majority of the ummah in those regions are going to be glued to the TV. What will happen by watching the TV? Nothing will happen. This is the time for us to say: "Come on, kids — let's do 100,000 istighfār per week from our family for that region." What else can we do?

So this is what the ummah in Pakistan and India has to do, and the ummah over here and all over — not just for that region, but for all the other regions. I encourage all of us to go back home inshāAllah and make some serious intentions — for qiyām al-layl, for dhikr at home, collectively and individually. We really must inshāAllah start taking out some time for this.

Prostration and Exaltation in the Night

"And for a good part of the night therefore bow down before Him in prayer, and highly exalt Him at length in the night — for a long portion of the night."

Allah is telling our Prophet ﷺ: do tasbih and sajdah — otherwise you're not going to be able to do the work you need to do. So if Rasūlullāh ﷺ is being instructed clearly in the Quran to spend a large portion of the night in sajdah and tasbih, the ummah together now must follow in his footsteps.

Those Who Love Only the Fleeting World

"Indeed these disbelievers love the fleeting pleasures of the world, and thus they leave behind them a very weighty day in the hereafter."

Allah in this āyah is mentioning that the reason these disbelievers are making such crazy mistakes — and you could say nowadays making ẓulm on innocent Muslims and many other things — what is the reason? Allah says: because they only love dunya. They have no fikr of ākhirah at all. And when a person does not have fikr of ākhirah, then that's exactly what can happen.

My dear brothers — what is the root cause of all problems in the world? حُبُّ الدُّنْيَا. يُحِبُّونَ الْعَاجِلَةَ — the munāfiqūn and the kuffār, they love only the dunya. They don't realize وَيَذَرُونَ وَرَاءَهُمْ يَوْمًا ثَقِيلًا — a heavy day is coming. We think the stress of this world is a lot — just wait till the Day of Judgment. Allah says: there are only two types of people in this dunya. A person who recognizes Allah and enters Jannah. And a person who doesn't recognize Allah, leads a life of heedlessness, and loses his ākhirah. That's it — two types of people.

Allāh's Power Over His Creation

"We alone have created them and strengthened their physical compositions, and if so We will, We can replace them and their likes entirely."

SubhanAllāh — look at the power of these āyāt of the Quran! MashāAllāh, tabārakallāh — just thinking about it. The power of Allah. Allah says: We alone have created human beings. The worst, the biggest kāfir is the creation of Allah. The biggest ẓālim and the biggest oppressor is the creation of Allah. And Allah says: your physical body — the strength of it, the composition of it, the different organs and the different systems — all have been so meticulously designed. Our students of science could spend hours or days just explaining this āyah: شَدَدْنَا أَسْرَهُمْ. There is so much beauty in the creation of the human being. And Allah says: I'm the one who did that — and guess what? Just like I did that, I can in seconds destroy you and replace you with someone else.

I don't need you to worship Me. I don't need you to do qiyām al-layl. I don't need you to supplicate to Me. I don't need you to praise Me. If you don't do it, I can just destroy you and replace you with someone else. We need Allah. Allah does not need us. We need qiyām al-layl. Allah does not need us. We need tasbih. Allah does not need us. That's why — with every single salah — the Prophet ﷺ said, if you can, make sure you do not leave out this du'ā:

"Yā Allāh, please help me — upon Your remembrance, to thank You, and to worship You properly."

Because we cannot do the dhikr of Allah without Allah's help and assistance.

A Reminder and a Choice

"Indeed these verses are a reminder and admonition. Whoever so wills may take to his Lord a path to salvation."

All of this — the whole Quran and Sūrat al-Dahr more specifically — Allah says this is all just a reminder. A big day is coming. And that big day starts with the day of your death — that's just around the corner. We can leave this world any day, any night. And man māta faqad qāmat qiyāmatuh — whoever dies, his Day of Judgment has already begun. This is a reminder for people — whoever so wills may take to his Lord a path of salvation.

"Nor do you human beings will anything except that God so wills. Indeed Allāh is ever All-Knowing, All-Wise."

This is 'ajīb — the desire to also do good has to first be coupled with the permission from Allah. And you're sitting here today — you're not sitting here just like that. Most definitely you and I are sitting here because Allah enabled us. And the enabling starts with the desire — the desire to come to the masjid, the desire to sit in a ḥalqah of deen — that desire came from Allah. So we understand how muḥtāj and in need we are of Allah. Even to make niyyah of something good, we have to have Allah's permission. That's how much we need Allah — not just to be able to go to the bathroom without difficulty and drink a glass of water and sleep and wake up — we need Allah's permission to even desire to do good.

So if today I'm listening and I say, "Man — I don't feel the desire to pray hajj. I don't feel the desire to slow down my salah. I don't feel the desire to do dhikr. I don't feel the desire to read Quran. I don't feel the desire to spend time in murāqabah and meditation, thinking about the greatness of Allah." What's the solution? Ask Allah. Ask Allah. Yā Allāh — this is me. I don't feel like it. I don't know why I feel so down, so depressed, so disinterested. Anything about the dunya, I'm all in. Anything about the deen, I fall asleep, I start daydreaming — I'm not interested, I lose focus, I just don't enjoy it. As long as you give me a phone I'll watch it for 12 hours. You tell me to stand on the prayer mat — I just can't.

So who has the solution for this? Allah. That's it. Later — while you're lying in your bed — speak to Allah. Say: "Allāh, please forgive me. Yā Allāh, please give me the tawfīq to stand up. Yā Allāh, give me the strength. Waffiqnī li ḥusni ibādatik — yā Allāh, give me the taqwā to worship you properly." Let's do that today — just make du'ā on the way back home. Wherever you are sitting and listening, just make du'ā to Allah: "Yā Allāh, please allow me — if not now, when? What's tomorrow? When am I going to change? Allow me to seriously spend time in qiyām al-layl, in tahajjud, in slowly performing my salah, in making up my qaḍā salah, in spending time in dhikr."

"Allāh will admit into His mercy whomsoever He so wills. Yet as to the wrongdoers, He has prepared for them a most painful torment."

Allah's raḥmah is the ability to worship Him with ikhlāṣ. If Allah allows you to enter His raḥmah, it means Allah is allowing you and I to stand up in salah in front of Him. Allah is allowing you to sit in this ḥalqah today — most definitely inshāAllah this is a sign of Allah's love for us. We would not be able to sit here for the past weeks listening to the tafsīr of Sūrat al-Dahr if we were not sitting in Allah's mercy.

Before we get to the raḥmah of the ākhirah, we must be in the raḥmah in this dunya. And the raḥmah of Allah in this dunya comes in the form of ṭā'ah and 'ibādah and the remembrance of Allah. And the oppressors who oppress themselves by sinning — Allah says: I have prepared for them a painful torment. So this is what we need to be asking Allah: "Yā Allāh, grant me good hidāyah in this dunya. Allah, guide me to the best in my affairs and protect me from the evil of myself."

Conclusion: End of Sūrat al-Dahr

With that we end — alhamdulillah — the tafsīr of Sūrat al-Dahr. We will start next week inshāAllah: Sūrat al-Mursalāt.

A reminder — as a du'ā we should be reciting for our own affairs — 21 times every single day inshāAllah, or more:

And on behalf of all those who are suffering in the ummah:

If you don't have it you can take a picture of this inshāAllah — recite this also 21 times if possible, on behalf of all those who are suffering in the ummah.

The first 10 and the last 10 āyāt of Sūrat al-Kahf — we are doing that now inshāAllah after Ṣalāt al-'Ishā every single day. For the protection from the fitna of the Dajjāl — and this fitna of today — not to be read only on Jumu'ah but every day. InshāAllah we will be showing that slide after 'Ishā — you can take a picture of it then.

And inshāAllah our local brothers — I encourage you to arrive here at 12:40 on Fridays. We're going to be reading on the mic, from this Friday, the entire Sūrat al-Kahf. So we encourage all of our local brothers and sisters to please show up here at 12:40 — 20 minutes before Ṣalāt al-Jumu'ah. And if you're listening online from whichever part of the world, you can join us inshāAllah.

Announcements

A few programs I wanted to mention: alhamdulillah, the Tanweer students — the one-year boys — this Saturday are sponsoring the breakfast. They are asking all of you to please come. I know Fajr is early at 5 o'clock, but they have nihari and some other things lined up, and they're asking — please, please show up and bring your family and friends to the team Fajr. This week it is being sponsored by Group B, and inshāAllah next week will be Group A.

If you would like to sponsor one of the upcoming weeks, we would like to inshāAllah book it till after Ḥajj — till July. I encourage you, if you have not done so, to take your phone and scan the QR code. We're looking for people inshāAllah to take responsibility — not just of taking care of the expenses, but more importantly of inviting their family and friends to join us for Ṣalāt al-Fajr and a dars followed by a breakfast inshāAllah. We're really hoping we can get about 10 brothers so that for the next two and a half to three months we're set inshāAllah.

I also wanted to announce that our summer programs are just around the corner. The Deen Intensive inshāAllah will be starting soon — you can see details for the Arabic Intensive and the Deen Intensive. Please make note: for out-of-state students, dorms are available for 17+ boys. Local boys and local girls: June 25th to July 18th inshāAllah. The Arabic Intensive will be July 23rd to August 7th. Our one-year program alhamdulillah is about to start August 11th — so please also share the word and encourage our sons and daughters to take a gap year before they move on with their studies inshāAllah.

Every single Thursday alhamdulillah we have a beautiful program called Kalām and Coffee where we discuss issues of 'aqīdah and kalām over coffee. Mawlānā Yūsuf Sulaymān and Mawlānā Muḥammad 'Umar — teachers of Islamic philosophy at Dār al-Salām with Sheikh Taḥsīn — are leading this. It's for brothers ages 18 to 30, every Thursday here in the men's banquet hall.

And these are the sisters' programs from SALAM Collective, happening every week — alhamdulillah on Wednesdays and on Fridays for the sisters as well inshāAllah.

Last but not least is our children's program that will start June 25th — ages 6 through 13, different age groups for boys and girls, summer camp alhamdulillah. It's a very popular program at Dār al-Salām. And then we have the Tarbiyah for Tots for even younger kids — ages 3½ to 5. So do definitely learn about these programs inshāAllah.

JazākumAllāhu khayran. As-salāmu 'alaykum wa raḥmatullāhi wa barakātuh.

InshāAllah we will read the sūrah after 'Ishā. Salām.