Surah Al-Kahf | Part 10 Ayahs 45-49 | Mufti Azeemuddin Ahmed | Weekly Tafsir

Surah Al-Kahf | Part 10 | Ayahs 45–49

I request everyone, inshallah, to come move forward, please. There's a lot of extra gaps. We just prayed salat, alhamdulillah, shoulder-to-shoulder. We're blessed to be able to do that.

So let's also sit in the gathering just like we would usually sit — unless we need the support of the wall, then you can move. Use the walls up front here. As well, all those brothers and sisters listening at home — may Allah make it easy for us to listen with the proper etiquette. The more etiquette we show when we're listening — if we have just performed our Isha at home, we're in the state of wudu, we can sit down and not be on our other devices and phones, and sit down and listen attentively inshallah — there'll be a tremendous benefit based on the level of etiquette we show to the kalam of Allah subhanahu wa ta'ala, to the words of Allah subhanahu wa ta'ala.

Let's all renew our niyyah that we're here to benefit ourselves. We're here to gain closeness to Allah subhanahu wa ta'ala. We're here to gain and understand the meanings and secrets of the Quran. We're here to rejuvenate ourselves, we're here to find solutions to our problems and answers to our questions. And turn to Allah at this moment — say: Allah, inspire the speaker to share that which I need to hear most today in my life, and allow me to find the answers to the issues that I'm going through. And we ask Allah as well to accept that du'a on our behalf for all of us.

Alhamdulillah. Respected brothers and sisters and dear listeners — assalamu alaykum. Alhamdulillah, last week we covered quite a bit of ground. We covered the entire ruku' and — you know — we could spend another couple of weeks just going back on those verses, and we won't be doing that. We'll move on to the next ruku' today.

Recap: Faith vs. Materialism — The Central Theme of Surah Al-Kahf

I just want to recap one aspect of this. This is the second of the four stories of Surah Al-Kahf, and this was very clearly, explicitly speaking about the faith versus materialism topic and theme of Surah Al-Kahf — and how over-reliance on means is the new-age polytheism. This is the shirk of today, the shirk of then and the shirk of today — where people rely tremendously upon the means of this world, upon material things, and they judge people, they size people up based on how much they have and what they own and things of that sort. And this makes a person turn away from Allah subhanahu wa ta'ala many times.

Because Allah's system is such that, more often than not, you see the one whom Allah gives deen to — He chooses to test him by not giving him too much dunya in this world. So if we want to keep dunya and the presence of material things as the objective and as the way we size people up — to see whether I'm going to spend my evening hours with this individual or not based on how much they have — then we're going to be in big trouble. Because the people of deen, more often than not, they have less.

In one hadith it is mentioned that Allah subhanahu wa ta'ala keeps away His friends, His chosen servants, from dunya the way you keep your sick people away from cold water — so that their fever or sickness does not increase. Allah subhanahu wa ta'ala keeps His awliya, His chosen ones, away from the dunya like that. So even if they have material things, it never enters their heart — they're never in love with it. That's for sure. But even beyond that, just the mere presence of it — you'll see Rasulullah's ﷺ life. It just wasn't present. And he said:

The people who go through the most difficulty are the Prophets. (Sunan al-Tirmidhī, Hadith 2398)

The Poverty of the Scholars

There is a poet who says — it's a long poem — in Sifat al-Safwah and Subul al-Hudā wa-l-Rashād, or rather the book Safahāt min Sabr al-'Ulama — by Sheikh 'Abd al-Fattāh Abū Ghuddah, rahimahullah — a great, famous book by one of the great scholars of this past century. The chapters and pages on the stories of the patience and endurance of scholars in seeking knowledge. So that's — if you ever want to get inspired — all the madrasah students know that's a go-to book when you're feeling down, you don't want to study. You go pick up that book and you get inspired.

In there there's one section of a poem where he says:

Poverty was asked: where do you reside? He said: I live in the turbans of the jurists. Meaning, traditionally speaking, this is just how the system has been — that Allah subhanahu wa ta'ala has given knowledge to certain people and has given wealth to certain people, and there are few who have both.

So what happens — this is a fitnah. How is it a fitnah? Because a person looks at a scholar, or a person looks at a righteous person — he says he doesn't have much. Look at the car — SubhanAllah — a very old, thirty-year-old car breaking down every now and then. And he says, "But they say he's pious, he's righteous, he's knowledgeable." Then there's another person who doesn't have any of that knowledge or righteousness or piety, but has something much, much more glamorous. Now, where does the heart incline? Where do you want to spend your time? Whose children would you like your children to spend time with? That's a fitnah. Right there. And this was the same fitnah from the time of the Prophet ﷺ.

The Quraysh's Objection in Surah Al-Zukhruf and Surah Al-Furqan

They said — and this is in the Quran — in Surah Al-Zukhruf:

"Why was the Quran not revealed upon a noble, powerful, rich man from one of the two towns?" — meaning Taif or Makkah. Why wasn't the Quran revealed on someone who had gardens? And in Surah Al-Furqan — at the end of the 18th juz' — what is the issue over there? Why are they calling him a bewitched individual?

He should have an angel as a bodyguard. He should have angels with him, and he should have plantations and gardens, and he should have plenty to share — for him to enjoy and to share. So the fact that Muhammad ﷺ doesn't have any of that — instead, يَمْشِي فِي الْأَسْوَاقِ — he's walking around in the marketplace like us. He needs food as well. He needs to do business. He needs to go about the normal way of things just to be able to make ends meet. Therefore: innaka latabba'u illa rajulan mashura — "You are following but a bewitched man." This cannot be a Prophet. Why? Because he doesn't have tons of money. He doesn't have guards.

Look at the system today. When people say "who's a VIP" — and you go into Masjid al-Haram, you go to Masjid al-Nabawi, and sometimes there are dunya-VIPs coming — fifty guards, a hundred guards, police, armies, soldiers in their red hats coming through, huge guns — and everything's closed off. And you say, "Who's there?" And the real "who's who" is the guy right next to you who you don't even turn around to say salaam to. You don't even offer him a cup of zamzam. That person right next to him — he's the special person. The ones who no one says salaam to. The ones who no one will open a door for. The one who, if they ask for your daughter's hand in marriage, no one will be willing to give their daughter. If they intercede on someone's behalf, no one will accept their intercession.

This is exactly what the Prophet ﷺ said. These are the awliya. These are the atqiya. These are the akhfiya — the hidden, pious, righteous individuals.

(Sahih Muslim, Hadith 2622)

They are pushed away from the doors. When they are present, they are never recognized. When they are absent, they are never missed. Unknown amongst people, but very well known in the heavens. That's the VIP. But our mind doesn't go to that, does it? Our mind goes to the VIP that the world makes it to be — the one with the limousine, the one with the bodyguards, the one with the full protocol.

So this is the fitnah that you and I live in today as well. Who should we follow? Who should we emulate? When you're looking at a scholar — first question: how many followers does he have on social media? How many views does his video have? This is nowadays how we judge people — their knowledge and taqwa based on followership. The greatest ulama may never be known to the YouTube world — hidden gems. No video, no audio clip, no pictures — unknown. And there are many who will have huge followings.

Interestingly, the Prophet ﷺ said — in the gist of the hadith:

(Musnad Ahmad, Hadith 143)

One of the things I am most afraid of for my ummah is a munafiq — a hypocrite — haleem al-lisan — who has a sweet tongue, who knows how to speak. A hypocrite who knows how to talk. Because what happens — he knows how to sway the crowds. He knows how to sway the people. May Allah protect all of us from becoming such hypocrites and from becoming entrapped by such hypocrites. And he also said:

(Sahih al-Bukhari, Hadith 5146)

There are some types of speech — the Prophet ﷺ said — that bewitch you, sihr — they have a magical effect in the way they grab your attention and they make you think in a certain manner very different from what you were thinking before. So it could mean good and it could mean bad — more than likely the context here is more negative.

And he said:

(Sahih al-Bukhari, Hadith 3606; Sahih Muslim, Hadith 1847)

Towards the end of times there will be du'at — da'i, plural of da'i, inviters — but he said 'ala abwabi jahannam: they will be inviting at the doors of hellfire. They seem like they're inviting towards Allah, but if you accept their invitation, you're going towards hell. So the fitnah lies today as well — that we cannot size up the people of knowledge, the people of taqwa, the people of tahara — the people whom we want to follow — based on how much they have, how much they own, what type of clothing they have, what type of car they drive, where they live. This absolutely cannot be the criteria.

The Prophet's ﷺ Tarbiyah of the Sahabah Regarding Dunya

So as long as we keep dunya as a criterion — material things as a criterion — we will suffer. Nabi ﷺ made tarbiyah of his Sahabah on this aspect — to genuinely not fall for dunya, to make it hayyin, to make it dhalil to them. They said this is like toilet paper — you use it and you throw it. You don't become excited, and you don't feel you are superior to someone else because you were able to bring a cart full of toilet paper home. That's what dunya is — dunya is mata', use and throw. There's nothing wrong with using it. Thank Allah that you have it. But do not allow it to enter the heart. This is the hardest thing — we're all struggling with it.

Nabi ﷺ made this mizaj and tarbiyah of the Sahabah. One day he's wearing a new robe — someone had gifted it to him. He was wearing it, mashallah. Imagine the Prophet ﷺ with his beautiful countenance and personality, now adorned with a new piece of clothing — subhanAllah, how beautiful it must have been. So when he walked into the masjid the companions were marveling, looking at his clothes. Immediately Rasulullah ﷺ — what happens? He doesn't get happy that they like how he's dressed. He immediately realizes: this is a distraction. I don't want you to be attracted to this dunya. Alhamdulillah, I got new clothing today — maybe you don't have it. So now you shouldn't be thinking: oh, when am I going to get my new robe? Automatically, you don't want to start belittling what you have — maybe it's tattered and torn clothing that the Sahabi is wearing, and they're looking at the Prophet's ﷺ clothing. We don't want any de-appreciation for what you have. So immediately he turns their attention to Jannah.

He said: "Do you have any idea — the handkerchief of Sa'd ibn Abi Waqqas radiyallahu anhu in Jannah is far superior than whatever you can imagine. Forget about this clothing — just the handkerchief is more valuable than everything. You're all going to get there. You're going to get your dunya over there. Do not become distracted even for a moment. Forget about looking at what Romans and Persians have — don't even look at what your Nabi is wearing and become attracted by that cloth." SubhanAllah — that's the training that the Prophet ﷺ is making of the Sahabah, and that's the training we must make of ourselves and of our children. Anytime there is a noticing of some dunya, we have to correct that — do not allow the dunya to come into the heart.

We need to learn how to make the sound of the ahwal — act like we don't see things. Everything should be the same — all cars are the same for us. When you walk in, whatever yours is — best, mashallah, be most grateful for that. But when you walk out, if a person says, "Oh, look at this one — this is $30,000 more than mine, this has a hundred more horsepower than mine" — you will never be happy with what you have. We have to train ourselves to say: this is just a vehicle to move from point A to point B.

And I'll tell you the secret — I tell the kids, subhanAllah — I have had the experience of driving in some extremely expensive cars during some of my travels. And after two or three hours, at the end of the ride — subhanAllah — if I closed my eyes I would have no idea whether I was in a $30,000 car or a $300,000 car. What was the point of all of this? So much of it is all about status — the fake status that we create ourselves, associated with names and logos. And if you leave all of that, close your eyes and sit in it, you'll realize so many of those things — subhanAllah — you may be finding the same thing in something you are driving every day without that fancy name. So much of the dunya right now is artificial — virtual reality, really. This is also how it is — that "if I have this, if I own this, I'll become happy." But as someone who's been through that, I'm telling you it's so fake, so artificial.

I met a perfumer recently. He was telling me they have special perfumes — people like perfumes — and you can go order whatever you want. And he said some of these twelve-ounce bottles, based on specific conditions, people buy and sell them for $35,000–$40,000 a bottle. He told me: how much does it cost to make? Much, much less. Not even a fraction of that. But he was telling me — as a perfumer himself — he said, "Whatever I sell, if I were to sell it at a reasonable profit, people will actually say what I'm selling is fake and walk away from me. I have to sell it at an inflated price just for people to believe that the stuff is good." There you go — right there — that's all in the mind. That's the inflated fake world we're living in. And Nabi ﷺ is training his Sahabah not to fall for this stuff.

Graduates of the Madrasa of the Prophet ﷺ

Let's share with you some examples of graduates of Rasulullah's ﷺ madrasa — what happened to them.

One of them is the description of Ali ibn Abi Talib radiyallahu anhu as narrated by Dirar ibn Damra to Muawiyah radiyallahu anhu. As we know, Muawiyah radiyallahu anhu was on a different side from Ali radiyallahu anhu after the demise of Rasulullah ﷺ — after the Khulafa' al-Rashidun — they had some misunderstandings and things happened. So Muawiyah radiyallahu anhu was asking Dirar ibn Damra to describe Ali radiyallahu anhu to him. Dirar didn't want to, because they were on opposite sides — he didn't want to necessarily praise Ali in front of Muawiyah. So he says: aw ta'feeni — "Can you please absolve me of this? I don't want to do this." He says: bal sifhu — "No, I'm telling you, describe him to me. I want to know how Ali was." He said awa ta'feeni again. Muawiyah radiyallahu anhu says: la — "No. I do not absolve you of this. I demand that you describe to me how Ali radiyallahu anhu was."

He said: amma idhan — "If you're really insisting on me describing Ali — then here you go:"

"He was, by Allah, very farsighted, physically very strong. When he spoke, he spoke decisively — each word separately, in a decisive manner. When he passed judgments, he passed them with the utmost justice. Knowledge would literally spurt out of his sides — just flowing with knowledge. And he would speak with wisdom from all directions. He would become wahshi — panicked, anxious — from the dunya and its beauty. And he would find contentment and happiness in the night and its darkness. By Allah, he had many tears, extensive pondering. He would wring his hands and speak to himself, address himself. He would like clothing that was coarse and rough, and food that was tough to swallow. By Allah, he acted as though he was one of us — whenever we would ask him anything, he would respond to us. He would be the first to say salaam when we came to him. And whenever we invited him to our home, he would accept our invitation."

Then Dirar said: "Even though we were so close to him and so near to him, we could not speak with him out of awe — we could not say salaam to him first out of his greatness. And when he smiled, it would seem as gems or pearls were dropping from his beautiful lips. He would honor the people of deen. He would love the poor. The strong would never have hope that Ali would help him against the poor in his falsehood. And the weak would never give up and lose hope in his justice."

Then Dirar said: "I swear by Allah, I bear witness — I saw him in certain instances when the night had placed its curtains down, the stars had even disappeared, and he would stand in his mihrab, in his place of prayer, holding on to his beard, trembling the way a person who has been bitten by a scorpion trembles. And he would begin to cry the way a grieving person cries out."

And it is as though his voice is still ringing in my ears as he was saying:

"O dunya! O dunya! Get away from me! Have you shown yourself to me? Are you trying to create desire in me? Far away! Far away! Go deceive someone else! Go deceive someone else! For I have given you three talaqs — not one — three talaqs. There is no returning back after three talaqs. Your span, O dunya, is short. Your life is despicable. And the danger you possess is immense. Ah — how little are my provisions, how far is the journey, and how challenging is the path towards the Akhirah!"

SubhanAllah. This is your fourth Khalifa. This is the son-in-law of Rasulullah ﷺ. The first young person to accept Islam. And this is the tarbiyah Rasulullah ﷺ had given him — the graduate of Madrasa al-Suffa. You see how Allah, subhanAllah, granted them that. My beloved friends — I speak to myself and all of you — we can never rule the world until we learn how to put the world under our feet. As long as we desire it, others will continue to win over us. The day we say, "We do not desire from you — you take it if you want. I don't want this. I'm here to establish the deen of Allah subhanahu wa ta'ala" — then there'll be a different day.

The Khutbah of 'Utban ibn Ghazwan

And one more story I'll share with you. This is a khutbah of 'Utban ibn Ghazwan radiyallahu anhu. He was the ameer of Basra — a huge city. He stands up and gives a khutbah. He praises Allah and then he said:

"O people — the dunya has announced that it's coming to an end, and it is turning its back towards us. And the only amount of dunya left is like the few drops of water left in a cup or a container that a person tries to shake out — that's how much is left of the dunya. And indeed, you are soon all going to be moving towards the next world — the one that has no ending. So make sure when you're going that you make your move in a manner that is not going to be of harm to you."

Then this Sahabi begins to reflect on his time with Rasulullah ﷺ. He says: "I remember — I was a seventh person with Rasulullah ﷺ. There were only seven of us. We had absolutely no food to eat except the leaves of a tree —

— until we got massive blisters in our mouths and tongues because of eating leaves. He says: 'Then I found one shirt. I tore it in half — I took half and gave it to Sa'd ibn Malik radiyallahu anhu. We had no garments, so we took the shirt and made it into a lower garment. I took half and made a lower garment for myself, and Sa'd ibn Malik took the other half and made a lower garment for himself. Fama asbaha al-yawma minna ahad illa asbaha ameera 'ala misr min al-amsar — and today, every one of us is a governor over one of the large cities of the Muslim Empire. And I seek refuge in Allah from being honorable in my own eyes while being disgraced in the eyes of Allah.'"

And then he says: "Remember — we don't know what is going to come after us. You will eventually have leaders that you will be tested with who, unfortunately, are not going to be good."

My beloved brothers and sisters and dear listeners — these stories are not just a few random incidents that happened during the time of Rasulullah ﷺ. This was the key factor that led to the success of the Sahabah in such a short period of time. And that's where we're lacking. That's why we keep on boasting over our numbers, but our numbers mean nothing to anyone in the world. Someone said: the ummah today is like a check with a billion or a million written there — one followed by many zeros. When they give you the check, you grab it, go home so happy, open up the envelope, and you see — oh, one small mistake: the number one is missing. You've got nine zeros or twelve zeros or six zeros — it means zero. The ummah today is boasting the numbers, but they do not have the one — Allah — with them. That's why no one cares about us. Our blood means nothing, our honor means nothing, our homes mean nothing, our say means nothing. Because we've lost Allah.

So instead of focusing on our growth in numbers, we need to start focusing on our growth in our relationship with Allah subhanahu wa ta'ala. And Allah will come to our assistance when we show Allah: "Ya Allah, we prefer the Akhirah over the dunya." That is what's going to set us apart from the rest. This is the crux of Surah Al-Kahf. And this is what you and I will need if we want to succeed in the upcoming years — that we must have self-control and tell ourselves: I'm going to take Akhirah over dunya, ajil over 'ajila. I'm going to take what's going to come afterwards over what's now. And if we can do that, then inshallah we will succeed. And if we can't do that, then we will follow the rest of the world — worshipping materialism, worshipping material things. Every new gadget that comes around, every new technology — that's their huda, that's what they love, that's what they're amazed with. We cannot become like that.

I was reflecting this past weekend on the difference between nature and technological advancements. And we were thinking — subhanAllah — when you go to nature, when you see nature — be it the Grand Canyon, the Pacific, a mountain range or ocean of this world — what happens? We say subhanAllah, this is amazing, this is gorgeous, this is beautiful. How amazing Allah is that He made this. Nature creates an appreciation of Allah. Nature forces you to say:

Glory be to Allah — You have not created this in vain. And the opposite is technology. When we see technology, we start marveling. But how often have you seen someone, when they see the latest new gadget, start praising Allah? If anything, it adds to the ghafla and heedlessness in their heart and they become even further from Allah subhanahu wa ta'ala. The little time and bandwidth they had with Allah — that also gets cut short because of this new latest technological item. It's supposed to make our life easier, but it has actually created much more further barriers between us and Allah. How often do you hear someone who sees the latest watch or gadget say, "Man — amazing, how Allah gave the brains to such engineers to make this"? That doesn't happen. So technology, if we see it — believe it or not — is actually a very powerful tool in creating ghafla and heedlessness in our hearts. There's nothing wrong with it — just like dunya, nothing wrong with it. You just have to make sure that dunya doesn't enter the heart. Similarly, technology cannot enter the heart. Let us make it serve us, and let's not serve it.

Ayah 45 — The Parable of the Life of This World

Hence, set forth for them the parable of the life of this world: it is like water that We send down from the sky, then the plants of the earth mingle with it and grow lush. Then they become dry stalks that the winds utterly scatter. For Allah alone holds invincible power over all things.

In this section, the Quran is giving an example of how fani and how short-lived this dunya is. The Quran says dunya is like water. What is the situation with water? It comes and goes. Water doesn't stay. When it rains it pours, they say — but still, it doesn't stick around. It's gone. So similarly, dunya may come in huge amounts to a person, but it does not stick with him long enough at all. Before we know it, we lose all of it.

So the Quran is saying — when this water comes down, it mixes with the soil in the ground. Vegetation starts growing — plants, leaves, flowers, all sorts of stuff. And they mingle with it. So when you have a very lush garden or a rainforest — what do you see? Branches and trees intersecting with one another because it becomes very bushy. All the trees are together, next to each other — very thick and dense due to the lushness of the jungle and the garden, and due to the excess of the rain. Everything is mingling with one another. How long does that last? It doesn't last long. How quickly the summer went by. And how quickly — before you know it — it's Ramadan, it's summer again, before you know it just like this past summer flew by.

And those huge massive farmlands we saw — six-foot-long cornstalks, three-foot-long wheat and soybeans in our state, in our nearby states — what happens right now? Complete open field. Everything dried up. Before you know it, October, November — finish. Everything's gone. Where did it go? Allah says they become dry stalks. And now, like the storms we had this past week, winds come and scatter it all over — and you want to say: where did it go?

So one is the bolt of fire that came and destroyed the garden — that we discussed last week — a supernatural disaster. And unfortunately we have our fellow citizens suffering in Kentucky. May Allah make it easy for them. SubhanAllah, it's devastating to see what they're going through right now. And we ask Allah to make their suffering a means of their hidayah, a means of their guidance. And may Allah bring ease for them in this world and the next as well. Ameen.

And we're seeing so many more natural disasters — and that's of course one of the signs of the Hour, be it global warming or whatever else from an external aspect. But we also know from the Hadith that as we go towards the end of times, a person will wake up in the morning and each person will have a natural disaster to speak about that happened in their area. Everyone will be saying what happened in their own region — natural disasters will become that common. From the Hadith of the Prophet ﷺ. And so when you say "earthquake," you say which one. When you say "tsunami," you say which one. When you say "storm," you say which one. That is exactly what's happening. Regions that never even got warm have become warm.

Allah says: chaos and corruption has become apparent all over — on the oceans, on the earth — because of what the people are doing. We polluted the earth with our sins. And then we took that pollution to the cruise ships and we polluted the oceans. Then we took that pollution to the jets and we're polluting the sky. Now they're taking that pollution to space and they'll pollute that place as well. Everywhere the ma'asi — the disobedience of Allah — of all forms is unfortunately spreading across the globe. So this disobedience of Allah is going to obviously bring about natural disasters as well. Lots of stuff will happen as we move forward in this world.

So the Quran is saying that example of the bolt of fire that comes and destroys a garden — that requires a punishment. But then you have this example — which doesn't require a punishment — this is called the change of seasons. Every season you have a moment to reflect, many moments to reflect, of how greenery turns into a vast open dry piece of plot. Ask yourself: where do the crops go? Where did the greenery, the roses, the tulips all go? That is exactly how my life will end and your life will end. One day we're going to be in fall. We're not going to ever have a spring again. That's it. We're going to be in the middle of the winter and there'll be no spring. That's how we're going to end our life. So the Quran wants us to focus on that.

And then it says: wa kana Allahu 'ala kulli shay'in muqtadira — for Allah alone holds invincible power over all things. This is Allah who is capable of destroying your life and bringing it to an end. In Surah Al-Mu'minun, Allah says:

Indeed, We are capable of bringing an end to your dunya. That Allah — all-capable, all-powerful — bringing you and I from non-existence into existence. We love stories of rags to riches. "Oh my God, he had nothing and now he has everything!" Well, guess what? That story didn't stop there. It's also riches to rags — just in case we forgot. It works the other way around too, and it works a hundred percent when we leave this world. All of us are going to go in rags. The kafan is a rag — no matter how rich we are, when we go into the ground, it's all going to be rags. Before we're even buried, people are fighting over the assets. That's happening every day, unfortunately.

Ayah 46 — Wealth and Children: The Adornments of This Life

The previous person who owned the garden — what was he arrogant over? He said: أَنَا أَكْثَرُ مِنكَ مَالًا وَأَعَزُّ نَفَرًا — "I have more money than you, and I have a bigger gang." He was arrogant over having more money and being invested in big places, and number two — excited and arrogant about having a bigger group of friends. So Allah now mentions in this next ayah the two biggest things that people strive for — al-mal wal-banun — money and sons. Wealth and children. They are the adornments of this fleeting life of this world.

What does zina mean? It means beauty. It's an additional external thing. It's like the icing on the cake — that's not the cake itself. And all the kids like to eat the icing rather than the actual cake sometimes. But that's not the cake. The Quran is saying: man and children — this is not the real life. This is just the external aspect of life. This is not the daruriyyat of life. This is not the necessities of life. If you have it, sure. If you don't have it — no problem. Whatever situation you're in is good for you. Zina — what does that tell us? That it is not a daruriyyat. It is just the external aspect of life. Not everyone has children, not everyone has sons, but everyone has a certain amount of wealth.

So the Quran is basically saying: this is not worthy of you losing your deen after wealth and children. It's just not worth it. People love to have children — obviously, it's a blessing — but let's also remember the Quranic verse:

To Allah belongs the dominion of the heavens and the earth. Allah creates whatever He wants. He grants whoever He wants girls. He grants whoever He wants boys. And if Allah wishes, He may give you boys and girls. And if He wishes, He may make a person barren — without any children. Indeed, Allah is all-knowledgeable — He knows exactly what He is doing and why He is doing it, and to whom He is doing it. Qadeer — capable of changing anything He wants anytime.

So if a person understands this ayah, he sees something to reflect on. Not having children at times is actually a huge blessing. If you asked someone who has disobedient children — children that are making him cry every day, making him feel like he wishes he were dead — Allah protect you and I from having such children. Say ameen.

O Allah, I seek refuge in You from a child who will become a test for me.

So if you ask that individual, he will say: "I wish I didn't have children." And what if a person who doesn't have children sees someone who has children that are severely handicapped, and within a few years — or a few weeks — of birth they pass away, or for twenty to thirty years they're in a vegetative state? For the one who has it — that's his ticket to Jannah. The one who doesn't have children should look at that and say: what if Allah had given me a child like that — would I be able to make sabr and khidmah like this? So not having children could be the greatest blessing for the one who doesn't have it. And having it could be the greatest blessing for the one who has it.

The Virtue of Daughters in Islam

Similarly, someone who has daughters — he might say: "I wish I had sons." That's a natural desire, and that's what's mentioned here. But what a person needs to look at is — are all fathers who have sons happy with their sons? Are they doing enough khidmah of the parents? Are they happy? Every mother who has been blessed with daughters — this is the reality of life. Overseas, women are ostracized, they're divorced, they're pushed out, they're oppressed by their in-laws. Astaghfirullah al-'adheem — my blood boils saying this — this is happening now, as we speak, in many parts of the world. A woman is oppressed, is beaten up, is ostracized, is abused — because she's giving birth to daughters. This type of jahili era is still thriving — in our areas back home in the subcontinent especially, and probably elsewhere as well.

And this is because of the concept of jahez — dowry in reverse — overseas. It's a great zulm in which the girl not only has to leave her parents and go get married to a stranger, but on top of that, the girl's parents have to give huge, ridiculous amounts of money to the boy's side. SubhanAllah — it's supposed to be the opposite. The husband is supposed to give the wife a gift — the mahr. But it's been flipped. The girl is leaving her home, and on top of that she has to take with her money that her father doesn't earn in five years. This is why there's such a musibah. Because of these cultural shackles — the father, as soon as his daughter is born, is not looking at that cute smile thinking "my daughter is going to be such a loving, caring daughter." He's thinking about twenty years from now: "I've got to get her married. How am I going to give her two to three lakh rupees?" There are fathers who have actually taken their own lives after the birth of daughters because they couldn't see how they would ever get their daughters married with such financial burdens.

This is the oppression that is taking place now in this day and age, and we must speak against this type of nonsense. That's why you boys here — you have to make sure when you're getting married that you are very strict on this and say: the greatest gift anyone can give me is their daughter. There is absolutely no reason for me to be taking any monetary gifts from the girl's side. And a wedding itself — we must be very strict on simplifying it in many parts of the world to rid ourselves of this type of nonsense. Because the girl's side feels obliged: "We're giving our daughter to this family, so we have to spend $50,000 on a wedding." They don't have $50,000. They're going to open up five or six credit cards, take loans from people. This is haram. This is zulm. This is wrong. This is not part of our deen.

The greatest gift is your daughter. All the rest — why all of this? It's because of culture. We have to break this culture. There are so many cultural things we have to break that have harmed us in so many ways. One of those is the demand of huge amounts of gifts from the wife's side, and in America — extravagant wedding parties. As the boy's side, we should never demand clothing sets for all the women, jewelry sets for all the women, fancy things. None of this is part of the deen. What is part of the deen is that the husband gives the dowry, and the boy's side provides the waleemah. And there doesn't have to be extravagance in the waleemah either. The feeding is supposed to come from the boy's side — not from the girl's side at all.

That's why some people have come up with an interesting way — to get married after Asr, and then the husband and wife simply ride together until Isha or whatever, and after Isha they have the waleemah. Note that for the waleemah to take place, the marriage does not need to be consummated — the husband and wife simply need to have been in seclusion for some time. So if you want — for those who have come from out of town — make it a waleemah. Save the expenses from the girl's side. Save people's plane tickets, hotels, flights. Make it simple. One weekend, you have everything together, and make it as cost-efficient as possible — and inshallah, you'll have barakah in the home.

What did Rasulullah ﷺ say? The nikah that has the most barakah is:

The one that is the least expensive. (Musnad Ahmad, Hadith 24529; also reported in Sunan al-Bayhaqi)

The one that has the least expense is going to have the most barakah. It's like we just become blind when we read this hadith. "No, we want barakah" — so how are you going to get barakah by throwing a party for 2,000 people? You want to feed 5,000 or 10,000 poor people? There are so many poor people outside — give them food. That's awesome. But keep the expenses of the wedding less.

So why would anyone not desire daughters? What did Nabi ﷺ say about having daughters?

(Sahih al-Bukhari, Hadith 1418; Sahih Muslim, Hadith 2629)

He said — and he started with three daughters, then brought it down to two daughters — whoever takes care of two daughters, raises them properly, gives them the proper tarbiyah, and weds them in a proper place, he said: "I will be with him in Jannah" — and he indicated with his fingers together. The Sahabah then said: "We wished we had asked him just for one daughter as well." Do you see this reward? There's no such hadith on the virtue of sons — because people already have that in their mindset. But there are so many hadith on the virtue of raising daughters, to change this mindset.

What did the ulema say? Sometimes a person who has a daughter doesn't realize that Allah may give him a son-in-law who will honor him and love him more than his son would ever do. And then Allah will grant him a grandson who will serve him and serve the deen more than his son would ever do. So we need to learn how to think: whatever Allah has given me — be happy with that. And look and expect for khair and goodness in that.

And the happiness that a daughter gives to parents — ask the fathers who are sitting here who have daughters, compared to their sons. May Allah grant me the ability, and all of you sons, to have the qualities that our sisters have — say ameen. And to serve our parents the way our sisters do. It's just amazing — they are two different makhluq. SubhanAllah. So why would a person not desire that?

Al-Baqiyat al-Salihat — The Everlasting Good Deeds

Then the Quran says: all of this zina — the righteous good deeds, al-baqiyat al-salihat, the abiding good deeds of righteousness — are far better in reward with your Lord in the Hereafter, and far more excellent in fulfillment of every hope in this life.

SubhanAllah. Whatever dunya is — it's going to come to an end. What Allah is saying is going to stay. Baqiyat means that which is going to stay forever. This is a description of good deeds — those good deeds that are going to remain forever. And note: sins are going to stay forever too — we don't want that. Sins will also stay forever and they'll be punished in hellfire. But the doer of good deeds — those good deeds will remain forever. They are far better with the One Who is the most important in our life — Allah. In the books of Allah there is nothing far superior to everlasting good deeds — khayrun amala.

And if you've got hopes in life — "I wish I had this, I wish I had that" — there is nothing that is going to help you fulfill your hope better than good deeds. When you do good deeds, all your hopes will get fulfilled through good deeds. Your ambitions, your dreams will get fulfilled — not through material things.

Ayahs 47–49 — The Day of Judgment

Then Allah says — this dunya is going to come to an end. Beware of the day when We shall move the mountains away. What is more solid than the mountains? Skyscrapers, huge buildings, massive warehouses — look what can happen to them. There's nothing more stable than a mountain range. Allah says: the entire mountain range — I'm going to dislodge. There are so many verses about the dislodging of mountains in the Quran.

And Allah says: wa tara al-arda bariza — you shall see the earth laid bare. Because right now the earth is covered — with oceans, with trees, with jungles, with springs, with deserts, with buildings, mountains — all of that. When the Day of Judgment comes, every single thing will be removed. Bariza means something which is apparent, laid out bare. Mubaraza is when two people come for a duel in the open. Baraz — where you go to open faraway land.

Then We shall gather them all — from the people who died a thousand years ago, five thousand years ago, ten thousand years ago, till the last man or woman to die before the Day of Judgment — Allah will gather them all together. We will not leave out any of them. Mughadara — we use this in modern standard Arabic for the departure of planes. Mughadara is to leave. From here comes the word ghadara — to be deceitful, backstabbing, to leave someone, to forsake someone. Similarly, ghadeer — a pool of water. When it rains, all the water dissipates except for what is left in a ghadeer — a small pool or pond. So ghadara has the meaning of leaving behind. And here: We will not leave behind anyone. Every single one.

The Quran in Surah Al-Qiyamah says:

We will capture every single individual and will be able to line them up by their fingertips. Isn't that amazing? The Quran is speaking about fingertips — speaking of how we recognize people today by fingerprints. Similarly, Allah subhanahu wa ta'ala is saying: We will line up everyone. No soul is going to get left behind.

They will all be arrayed before your Lord in ranks. Ard means to be presented — everyone is being presented to Allah subhanahu wa ta'ala in ranks, in rows. When you have it in rows, you cannot escape. The earth is already laid bare and now everyone is in rows.

Even the angels are descending in an orderly fashion — rows and rows and rows of angels. And Allah will tell all of us: laqad ji'tumuna — very truly, you have come before Us just as We created you the first time. How were we created? We came out single, unclothed, and uncircumcised. That is exactly how everyone will be risen on the Day of Judgment.

'A'ishah radiyallahu anha — when she hears this description — immediately asks Rasulullah ﷺ: "Ya Rasulullah, how will this be possible? If we are unclothed and naked on the Day of Judgment — what will happen to our hijab?" Nabi ﷺ gives a simple answer. He says: "O 'A'ishah, the situation on that day will be much more severe than what you can imagine. No one will have a second to think about who is next to him or her. Never — even if it's a million years long — no one will have the ability to look right and left due to the immense fear."

When someone hears fearful news — they hear about someone who just passed away in their family — if you ask them later on, "Do you remember who was there?" — they cannot recall anything. Out of the shock. So the Day of Judgment will bring so much shock and awe that a person cannot see who is to his right and who is to his left.

All of us will come back to Allah the way He created us. Yet in the dunya you kept on claiming that We would never occasion such an appointment for resurrecting you.

Then the precise Book of Recorded Deeds will be placed. For each person — some will receive it in the right hand, some will receive it in the left hand. The Quran says that whoever receives it in the right hand — he'll be like the one who got a hundred percent on his exams. What will he do? He'll walk around and be saying: "Read my book! Read my book!" So excited to share his success. And the one who received his book of deeds in his left hand behind his back — as a failure — may Allah protect you and I from that — he will be crying and saying: "I swear I wished I had never been given my book. I wish I had never been judged. I wish that my last death was the ultimate death after which there was no resurrection. My wealth has definitely not come to assist me. All the power, strength, and contacts I had in the world — all have perished. Nothing has come to help me today."

So that book will be placed by the angels in the hands of the people. And you shall see the defiant unbelievers terrified of what's inside it. They don't want to open it. They don't know what's inside it. They're scared. And they will be saying: "Woe to us! Destruction! What is with this book? This book has not left out any act of mine — be it small or great. There is no action that has not been recorded in this book." One blink of the eye. One movement of the eye. One movement of the finger. One attachment of the heart. One murmuring under the breath. Every single moment — every reflection, every eye movement, every ear's attention to something we shouldn't have focused on — subhanAllah — every single thing has been recorded.

Just like today's technology. That's why technology is actually a great way to learn about the Akhirah — who said it's not? It is — but we don't think of it like that. We think about the surveillance of Allah. Look at what surveillance we have today. Look at how speech is being recorded. Look at how keypad movements are being recorded. You delete all you want — they're being recorded somewhere else. Someone sitting in another part of the world is able to see what you're typing, what you typed yesterday. They can turn on the mic. They can turn on the camera. All sorts of surveillance is happening now. Movements are being watched and traced and tracked. Why all this? One big reason — if human beings can do this, imagine the Lord of the human beings, what He must be doing.

And just like when the video is presented in court — and Allah forbid someone is caught red-handed and can't say anything — imagine when the reel will play on the Day of Judgment. When the limbs themselves will start speaking. How can you belie them? When the tongue itself will not be allowed to speak, and the body and the skin will speak. The skin will speak. The fingers, the hands, the feet, the ears will speak. The eyes will speak. Allahu Akbar. That is why technology — we can use it to reflect on what is awaiting for us on the Day of Judgment.

We understand — for example — the weighing of deeds. There's such a long discussion in the books of hadith about how actions are weighed. But now we see in this world there are so many different ways of measuring things. Not everything is on a normal weighing scale. There are ways of measuring light, measuring sound, measuring so many other things that do not have a mass — subhanAllah. And so now, to understand the weighing of good deeds is so much easier. So the new inventions of today — in reality, if you think from an Islamic perspective, keeping the Quran and Sunnah in front of you — they can help you and I understand what is awaiting for us in the Akhirah.

Wa wajadu ma 'amilu hadiran — they will have found whatever they have done, all of it present before them. Wa la yadhlumu rabbuka ahada — and your Lord shall never wrong anyone in the least.

This reminds me of a hadith Qudsi. Nabi ﷺ said Allah subhanahu wa ta'ala says — this is the last portion of the beautiful long hadith:

(Sahih Muslim, Hadith 2577)

"O My servants — indeed I have forbidden dhulm upon Myself and have made it forbidden amongst you, so do not oppress one another... O My servants, indeed it is only your actions that I am gathering and writing. Whoever finds good in his book of deeds — he should thank Allah, praise Allah. And whoever finds anything besides good in his book of deeds — he should not blame anyone besides himself."

What a powerful hadith. The book of deeds — there's nothing added in there. It's what you did that's in here. So if you find something good — don't pat yourself on the back. Thank Allah for giving you the tawfiq. Thank Allah for giving you the tawfiq. All of you who made it out today, all of you who are listening online today — thank Allah for the tawfiq we got today. And subhanAllah, let's not think that we've done something great. And if we find something wrong that we've committed — Allah forgive me and forgive you — then don't blame anyone besides ourselves.

Closing Du'a

This is where we conclude this ruku'. We ask Allah to grant you and I the haqiqa of this dunya — allow us to understand and grant us the true meaning of this dunya and the meaning of the Akhirah.

Dunya comes — from one of the explanations — from dhani, meaning khasis — lowly. Dunya is the opposite of ulya. Ulya means high; dunya means low. That's it. That's what it's called — dunya. It's lowly.

May Allah subhanahu wa ta'ala enable us to overcome the passion of materialism and allow us to remove it from our hearts.

Announcements

A couple of announcements before we do dhikr and du'a.

We have our weekly team Fajr that takes place on Saturdays. All of you are aware. Now we need inshallah a couple of hosts for the next three weeks because the list has come to an end. So if there are brothers here or listening online, if you can put in the chat whether you or your family would like to be a host for this Saturday and the next three Saturdays, that would be great. If anyone in the crowd — Abdul Moiz is in the back — please stand up, Abdul Moiz. So just meet Abdul Moiz if you would like to host one of the team Fajrs.

What does hosting team Fajr mean? Besides taking care of the cost of the breakfast — and if you want to bring from home, that would be most ideal — get the men and women and extended family involved and bring a hot breakfast for the musallis. That would be great for the students and everyone here. If not, we can get it catered. Besides that — more importantly — inviting your family and friends. So you're the host. It's like instead of inviting them to your house for breakfast, you're inviting them to Darussalam for breakfast. Along with breakfast, they're going to get soul food — they're going to get the talk, they're going to get dhikr, they're going to get du'a. So I request the brothers inshallah to meet Abdul Moiz or put it in the YouTube chat so we can take care of that inshallah.

Second announcement: the Winter Intensive is coming up inshallah in about two weeks' time — December 25th to 28th. If you're hearing about it for the first time, please do visit the website. It has the full schedule — the youth schedule, the adult schedule, the girls' schedule, the boys' schedule — all the parallel schedules are on our website. If you're listening from out of state, we have Muslim-owned hotels across the street, and you can get the details and the link for special rates on our website.

For those who want to do i'tikaf in the masjid — the masjid will be open for i'tikaf, and we will provide dinner and breakfast inshallah for those who are doing i'tikaf, from out of state and from locals as well. Isha will be preponed on those nights — Saturday, Sunday, and Monday during that weekend we'll be praying Isha at the early time, as soon as the program finishes at 6 or 6:30. So that schedule is out there — locals, please make note of that.

Babysitting is provided offsite — not here. Mothers with young children, you are more than welcome to come. We have a separate room reserved for you. But there's no set babysitting per se for under 3. We have programs starting from age 6 and above that inshallah will be taking place here for children.

So I expect all of you brothers and sisters who are listening — please become ambassadors of this program. It's a four-day program focusing on how to build confidence within ourselves and the Muslim community, how to answer tough questions about our deen, and how to destroy doubt. The full details are on our website. Don't hesitate to visit and invite your family and friends.

We have a bus that we are trying to fill up from the New York area, and we can make pit stops in New Jersey as well. There are some brothers from Houston trying to bring a bus as well, and some from Dallas. If you're from those regions, please contact us and we'll put you in touch with those who are organizing that. And I ask all of you to please make du'a — it's not easy to do all this work. These brothers in these areas are trying their best. Please make du'a that Allah removes their hurdles and obstacles from their way, and allows this Winter Intensive to be extremely successful in protecting our youth from leaving the fold of Islam, protecting our children, our daughters, our sons, and ourselves from having issues of faith. May Allah subhanahu wa ta'ala make it a means of hidayah for all of us inshallah.

And finally — the 2022 Calendars are available in the lobby. Please do pick one up inshallah and support it — support the printing cost in any way you can. Take some as gifts — take 50, 20, 30, whatever — and donate towards it as much as you can. It's a great gift for your relatives and friends. For those of you who are not aware — the entire year's schedule is in there. When's the retreat, when's the summer program starting, when's the winter program starting, when is the Winter Intensive — everything for next year is already settled and there, so you can plan out all your events. It has both the Islamic dates and the Gregorian dates.