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

I request everyone, inshAllah, to come move forward please. There's a lot of extra gaps. We just prayed salah, alhamdulillah, shoulder to shoulder.

We're blessed to be able to do that. So let's all 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, and if we've 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 tremendous benefit based on the level of etiquette we show 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 these secrets, understand the meanings and secrets of the Quran. We're here to rejuvenate ourselves. We're here to find solutions to our problems, answers to our questions. And turn to Allah at this moment, and 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 azza wa jal to accept that du'a on our behalf for all of us. Ameen wa bil alameen.

Dear brothers and sisters and dear listeners, dear students. Assalamu alaykum wa rahmatullahi wa barakatuh.

Recap: The Second Story of Surah Al-Kahf

So alhamdulillah, last week we covered quite a bit of ground. We covered the entire ruku' and we could spend another couple of weeks just going back on those verses. We won't be doing that. We'll move on to the next ruku' today. Just wanted to recap the aspect of that.

This is the second of the four stories of Surah Al-Kahf. And this was very clearly mentioned here. Very clearly, it explicitly spoke 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 gonna spend my evening hours with this individual or not based on how much they have — then we're gonna be in big trouble.

Because the people of deen, more often than not, they have less. In one hadith that 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. The way you keep people who are sick and who've got some illness 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 ﷺ's life, it just wasn't present. And he said:

Poverty and the People of Knowledge

There is a poet who says:

This is from the famous book by Shaykh 'Abd al-Fattah Abu Ghuddah, rahimahullah — one of the great scholars of this past century — titled Safahat min Sabr al-'Ulama' (Pages from the Patience and Endurance of Scholars in Seeking Knowledge). If you ever want to get inspired — all the madrasa 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.

So in there, there's one section of a poem where he says: Poverty was asked, "Where do you reside? Where do you live?" It was 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 looks at a righteous person, and says, "He doesn't have much — look at the car he's driving, subhanAllah." A very old, 30-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 to spend time with? Our children — who would they like to spend time with? Let's think. That's a fitnah, there you go.

This was the same fitnah from the time of the Prophet ﷺ. They said, in Surah Al-Zukhruf:

Why wasn't the Qur'an revealed on a noble, powerful, rich man from one of the two towns — meaning Ta'if or Makkah? Why wasn't the Qur'an revealed on someone who had gardens? And what else?

He should have an angel bodyguard. He should have angels with him. And he should have plantations and gardens. And he should have just plenty to share — for him to enjoy and to share. So the fact that Muhammad ﷺ doesn't have any of that. Instead:

He's walking around in the marketplace just 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. "You are following but a bewitched man." This cannot be a prophet. Why — specifically in these verses of Surah Al-Furqan in the end of the 18th Juz — why are they calling him a bewitched individual? Because the fact that he doesn't have tons of money, he doesn't have guards, and he says he's a prophet. Well, if you're a prophet, it doesn't look like you're a VIP.

The True VIPs: The Hidden Awliya'

Look at the system today too. People say, who's a VIP? You go into Masjid al-Haram, you go to Masjid al-Nabawi al-Sharif, 'ala sahibihi al-salatu wa al-salam, and you see sometimes there are the worldly VIPs coming — 50 guards, 100 guards, police, the soldiers in their red hats coming through with huge guns, and everything is closed off. And you say, "Who's there?" The real who's-who is the guy right next to you, whom you don't even turn around to say salam to. You don't even offer him a cup of zamzam.

The person next to him — he's the special person. The ones who no one says salam to, the ones who no one will open a door to, the one who, if they ask for your daughter's hand in marriage, no one will be willing to give their daughter to. 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.

If they take Allah's name and swear that something will happen, Allah will ensure it happens. (Sahih Muslim, Hadith 2622)

But who are they? They are hidden people. They are people who are pushed away from 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 out 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 today as well. Who should we follow? Who should we emulate? When you're looking at a scholar, the first question now is: 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 are judged based on followership.

So that's the fitnah. The greatest ulama — the YouTube world will never know them. Hidden gems, the awliya'. But no one will know them because they don't have a video, they don't have an audio clip, they don't have pictures. Unknown. And there are many who will have huge followings. And Nabi ﷺ interestingly said, in the gist of the hadith:

One of the things I fear most for my ummah is a hypocrite with a learned tongue. (Musnad Ahmad, Hadith 143)

One of the things I'm most afraid of for my ummah — he said — is a munafiq, a hypocrite, 'alim al-lisan, who's got 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.

But he said: that's what I'm afraid of most — that you will fall for such people who know how to speak, who know how to carve their words, who know how to construct their sentences:

Verily, some speech has a magical effect. (Sahih al-Bukhari, Hadith 5146)

There are some types of speech that the Prophet ﷺ said bewitch you — sihran — they have a magical effect in the way they grab your attention, and they get your focus, 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. But the fact that there are some speeches like that, some types of words like that, that can have a magical effect on a person.

Isn't this interesting, my beloved friends? The Prophet ﷺ is saying: the thing I fear the most for my ummah is a hypocrite who knows how to talk.

There will be callers at the gates of Hell. (Sahih al-Bukhari, Hadith 7084; Sahih Muslim, Hadith 1847)

He said that towards the end of times there will be du'at — this is a word many of you know, du'at, da'i, plural of da'i, inviters — but he said they will be inviting at the doors of hellfire. It seems 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 is absolutely a wrong way of putting someone on a pedestal or bringing them down. This cannot be the criteria. So long as we keep dunya as a criteria, material things as a criteria, we will suffer.

The Tarbiyah of the Sahaba Regarding Dunya

So Nabi ﷺ made tarbiyah of his Sahaba on this aspect — to make them genuinely not fall for dunya. To make it hayyin, to make it zalil to them. This is like what we give the example of toilet paper — you use it and you throw it. You don't become excited, and you don't feel you are now 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'. Dunya is 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 this.

So Nabi ﷺ made this mizaj and tarbiyah of the Sahaba. One day he was wearing a nice robe — someone had gifted him a new one. He's wearing it, mashAllah. Imagine the Prophet ﷺ's beautiful countenance, the Prophet ﷺ's beautiful personality, now adorned with a new pair of clothing. SubhanAllah, how beautiful it must have been. So when he walked into the masjid, the companions marveled and looked at him, saying, "MashAllah, ya Rasulullah." They were looking at his clothes.

Immediately, Rasulullah ﷺ realized this is a distraction. I don't want you to be attracted because this is dunya. Alhamdulillah, I got a new clothing today — maybe you don't have it. So now you shouldn't be thinking, "Oh man, when am I going to get my new robe? When am I going to get my new pair of clothing?" Automatically you don't want to start belittling what you have.

So what happens? Immediately he turns the attention to Jannah. And he said — referring to Sa'd radiAllahu 'anhu, who had already become a shaheed and was in Jannah based on what Rasulullah ﷺ was saying — he said: "Do you have any idea? The handkerchief of Sa'd radiAllahu 'anhu in Jannah is far superior than whatever you can imagine. Forget about this clothing. Just the handkerchief is more valuable than everything. So 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 the 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 Nabi ﷺ is making of his Sahaba. And that's a 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. It should be something unnoticeable. We need to learn how to make tasamuh, taghaful — act like we don't see things. Everything should be the same. All cars are the same for us. Whatever yours is, it's the best for you — be most grateful for that. But walking out, if a person says, "Oh, look at this one — this is $30,000 more than mine, this has 100 more horsepower than mine," you will never be happy with what you have.

So we have to train ourselves to say this is just a vehicle — what you call it — to move from point A to point B. And I'll tell you the secret, subhanAllah. I've had the experience of driving in some extremely expensive cars in some of my travels. And after 2 or 3 hours at the end of the weekend, I'm thinking subhanAllah: if I close my eyes in here, I would have no idea whether I'm in a $30,000 car or a $300,000 car. What was the point of all this? Literally, this is all in the mind. This whole logo, this name — $50,000 for this brand, $50,000 for that — subhanAllah. So much of it is about status, the fake status that we create associated with names.

And so if you leave all of that, you close your eyes and sit in it, you'll realize that so many of those things you may be finding in something you are driving every day yourself, without that fancy name. The dunya right now is all artificial. We're in virtual reality right now. Everything is moving towards that. Someone was telling me — I met a perfumer recently — he was telling me they have special perfumes. People like perfumes. And he said some bottles, maybe 12-ounce bottles, based on specific conditions or restrictions, can be bought and sold for $40,000, $35,000. One bottle. And how much does it cost to make? Nothing — not even a thousandth of that. But as a perfumer he was telling me, "Whatever I sell, if I were to really sell with minimum profit, people will actually say what I'm selling is fake. They'll walk away from me. I have to sell at an inflated price just for people to believe this stuff is good." There you go — right there. That's all in the mind. This fake, inflated world that we're living in.

And so Nabi ﷺ is training his Sahaba not to fall for this stuff. Let's share with you some examples of Rasulullah ﷺ's Sahaba — graduates of his madrasah — and what happened to them.

The Description of 'Ali by Dharar ibn Damrah

One of them is mentioned regarding Mu'awiyah radiAllahu 'anhu. He says to Dharar ibn Damrah: "Sif li 'Aliyyan" — describe to me 'Ali radiAllahu 'anhu.

Now Mu'awiyah radiAllahu 'anhu, as we know, was on a different side from 'Ali radiAllahu 'anhu after the demise of Rasulullah ﷺ, after the Khulafa' al-Rashidun — they had some misunderstandings and things happened. So Mu'awiyah radiAllahu 'anhu was asking one of the companions: "Sif li 'Aliyyan — describe to me 'Ali radiAllahu 'anhu."

So he doesn't want to, because he's like, they're on opposite sides — I don't want to necessarily praise 'Ali in front of Mu'awiyah. So he says: "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. Mu'awiyah radiAllahu 'anhu says: No, I do not absolve you of this. I demand that you describe to me how 'Ali radiAllahu 'anhu was.

He said: "Amma idhan" — If you're really insisting, then here you go:

He says: He was very far-sighted, very strong physically. When he spoke, he spoke in a decisive manner — each word separately, decisively. When he would pass judgments, he would pass them 'adlan, in the most just manner. And knowledge would literally spurt out of his sides — just flowing out. And he would speak with wisdom from all directions. He would become allergic — yastaw'hihu — to the dunya and the beauty of it. And he would find contentment and happiness in the night and its darkness. Unfortunately today we find happiness in the night for another whole reason — unfortunately, with phones, people are on their devices and doing all kinds of things. But for him, this was the time in the night, in the darkness, where he was with Allah subhanahu wa ta'ala.

He had many tears, extensive pondering. He would wring his hands and speak to himself. He liked such clothing which was harsh and coarse, and such food which was tough to swallow. Wallahi, even though he was Amir al-Mu'minin, he acted as though he was one of us. Whenever we would ask him anything, he would respond to us. He would say salam to us first whenever we came to him. And whenever we invited him over to our home, he would accept our invitation.

Even though we were so close to him and so near to him, we could not speak with him out of awe. And we could not say salam to him first out of his greatness. When he smiled, it would seem as though gems or pearls were dropping from his beautiful lips.

He would honor the people of deen and he would love the poor. The strong would never hope that 'Ali would help them in their falsehood against the poor. And the weak would never lose hope in his justice.

I swear by Allah, I have seen him in certain instances — when the night had placed its curtains down, when even the stars had disappeared — and he would stand in his mihrab, in his niche, in his place of prayer, holding on to his beard. He would be shaking and 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.

And it is as though his voice is still ringing in my ears as he was saying: "O dunya, have you tried to show yourself to me? O dunya, are you trying to create desire in me? Far away from me, far away from me — go! Try deceiving someone else, try deceiving someone else. For I have given you three talaqs — not one talaq, three talaqs. There is no returning to you after these three talaqs. It is final. Nothing after that. Your life, O dunya, is short. And your existence itself, O dunya, is despicable. And the danger you possess is immense. Oh — how little are my provisions, and 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-Suffah.

You see how Allah granted them. 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 that we do not desire from you — we will not try to take it away from you, you take it if you want, I don't want this — I'm here to establish the deen of Allah. Then there will be a different day.

The Khutbah of 'Utbah ibn Ghazwan, Amir of Basra

And one more story I'll share with you. This is a khutbah of 'Utbah ibn Ghazwan radiAllahu 'anhu. He was the amir of Basra — a huge city. He stands up and gives a khutbah. He praised Allah, and then he said:

(Sahih Muslim, Hadith 2967)

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

Then this Sahabi begins to reflect on his time with Rasulullah ﷺ. He says:

(Sahih Muslim, Hadith 2967)

"I remember I was the seventh person with Rasulullah ﷺ. There were only seven of us. We had absolutely no food to eat except for the leaves of a tree — until we got massive blisters in our mouths and tongues from eating leaves. I found a shirt. We didn't even have shirts. So I tore it and took half, and I gave the other half to Sa'd ibn Abi Waqqas radiAllahu 'anhu. We took the shirt and made it into a lower garment. I took half and made it a lower garment for myself, and Sa'd took half and made a lower garment for himself."

(Sahih Muslim, Hadith 2967)

"And today, every one of us is a governor over one of the large cities of the Muslim empire — every one of us is a governor of a large city of the Muslim empire. And I seek refuge in Allah from being honorable in my own eyes and being disgraced in the eyes of Allah."

And he says: "Remember — you will soon have leaders after us 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 Sahaba 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.

Our ustad, Mawlana Sheikh Sahib, would say: people would say 1.2 billion, 1.3 billion. He would say: you have a check — a check with a billion dollars written there, one with nine zeros. And imagine someone gives you this check. You grab it, you're so happy, you go home. Later on you open the envelope and you see one small mistake — the number one is missing. He says: you can have nine zeros or twelve zeros or six zeros — it means zero. Nothing. He says: 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 azza wa jal will come to our assistance when we show Allah that, 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 we must tell ourselves: I'm going to take Akhirah over dunya. The ajila — the coming reward — over the 'ajila — 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 with the rest of the world.

What is the rest of the world doing? They are worshipping materialism. They are worshipping material things. Every new gadget that comes around, every new technology that comes around — that's their khuda. That's what they love. That's what they're amazed with. SubhanAllah. We cannot become like that.

I was reflecting this past weekend on the difference between nature — which is amazing — and technological advancements. When you go to nature, when you see nature, be it the Grand Canyon, be it the Pacific, be it any other 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 You, O 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 heard someone, when they see the latest new gadget or latest new invention, start praising Allah? If anything, it adds to the ghaflah and heedlessness on their heart, and they become even further from Allah subhanahu wa ta'ala. The little bandwidth they had with Allah also gets cut short because of this new latest technological item that has come into the home. It's supposed to make our life easier, but it has actually created much more barriers between us and Allah.

Am I not right on this? How often do you hear someone who has created the latest watch or latest gadget say, "Man, amazing how Allah gave the brains to such engineers to make this — how great, how smart, how amazing, how powerful Allah must be that this small tiny creation could build this." That doesn't happen. So technology, if you see it, believe it or not, is actually a very powerful tool in creating ghaflah and heedlessness in our hearts. There is nothing wrong with it — but unfortunately, like the dunya, you just have to make sure it doesn't enter the heart. As long as we can ensure that, there's nothing wrong with it. But that's the key thing. Let us make it serve us, and let's not serve it.

The Next Ruku': Ayahs 45–49 — Parables of the Dunya and the Day of Judgment

So this next ruku' is the continuation of this theme. Allah azza wa jal says:

Ayah 45: The Parable of the Dunya

Allah azza wa jal continues the same description of the dunya but with another parable. He says: "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 briefly mingle with it and glow lush. Then they become dry stalks that the winds utterly scatter. For Allah alone holds invincible power over all things."

So in this section, the Qur'an is giving an example of how fani and how short-lived this dunya is. The Qur'an says that dunya is like water. What is the situation with water? That 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 for long. Before we know it, we lose all of it.

So the Qur'an is saying: when this water comes down, it mixes with the soil in the ground, vegetation starts growing — plants, leaves, flowers, all sorts of things — and then اخْتَلَطَ, they mingle with it. So when you have a very lush garden, or a rainforest, what do you see? Branches of various trees intersecting with one another, because it becomes very bushy — all the trees are together next to each other, thick and dense. Due to the lushness of the jungle and the garden, 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. Before you know it, we're complaining about the cold, then before you know it, subhanAllah, Ramadan will be over, we're in summer again. Those huge, massive farmlands we saw — six-foot-long corn stalks, three-foot-long wheat and soybeans in our state, in our nearby states — what happens now? Open field. Complete open field. Everything dried up before you know it. October, November — finish. Everything is gone. Where did it go?

Allah azza wa jal says: they become dry stalks, and now, like the storms we had this past week, winds come and scatter it all over. And you wonder — where did it go?

So on one hand there is the fire bolt 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. And we ask Allah azza wa jal to make their suffering a means of their hidayah and guidance. 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 everyone will have a natural disaster to speak about that happened in their area. Natural disasters will become that common — from the hadith of the Prophet ﷺ. So we won't even know which earthquake, which tsunami, which storm, when you say those words. That is exactly what is happening. Regions that never were warm have become warm.

Allah says: chaos has become apparent all over, on the oceans and on the earth, because of what the people are doing. When we have our sin — subhanAllah — we polluted the earth with our sin. And then we took that pollution to the cruise ships and polluted the oceans. Then we took it to the jets and polluted the sky. Now they're taking it to space and will pollute that place as well. Everywhere, the ma'asi of Allah — disobedience of Allah — of all forms, unfortunately, spreading across the globe. And this disobedience of Allah will obviously bring about natural disasters as well. Nas'alAllah al-'afiyah — we ask Allah for protection.

So the Qur'an is saying that this example — without requiring any supernatural punishment — is simply the change of the seasons. Every season gives you moments to reflect on how greenery turns into a vast, open, dry piece of land. Done. Ask yourself: where did the crops go? Where did the greenery, the roses, the tulips all go? That's exactly how my life will end, and your life will end one day. One day we'll be in fall, and we'll never have a spring again. That's it. We'll be in the middle of winter, and there will be no spring. That's it. That's how we'll end our life. So the Qur'an wants us to focus on that.

And then He says: "For Allah alone holds invincible power over all things." This is Allah azza wa jal, who is capable of bringing your life to an end. In Surah Al-Mu'minun, Allah says:

Indeed, We are capable of bringing an end to it. That Allah who is all-capable, all-powerful — who brought you and I from non-existence into existence — don't we love stories of rags to riches? Oh, they had nothing and now they have everything. Well, that story didn't stop there. There's also riches to rags too. Just in case we forgot — it works the other way around as well. And that works 100%. When we leave this world, all of us are going to go in rags. Kafan is a rag. No matter how rich we are, when we go into the ground, it's all going to be rag. Before we're even buried, people are fighting over the assets — that's happening every day, unfortunately. So Allah is capable of bringing a dead end to everything.

Ayah 46: Wealth, Children, and the Abiding Good Deeds

Now, the previous person who owned a garden — what was he arrogant over? He said:

He was arrogant over the fact that he had more money than his brother or friend. He had invested it in big places. And number two, he was excited and arrogant about: "I've got a bigger gang. I have a bigger group of friends. Look at you — who are your friends? Where's your group?" So Allah now mentions in this next ayah the two biggest things that people strive for: al-mal wa al-banun — money and sons, wealth and children. They are the adornments of this fleeting life.

What is زِينَة? Beauty — it's like the icing on the cake. That's not the cake itself. The Qur'an is saying: mal and children — this is not the real life. This is just the external aspect of life. This is not the daruriyyat, the necessities of life. If you have it, sure. If you don't have it, no problem. Whatever situation you're in, it's good for you. Zinah tells us it is not daruriyy — it is not from the necessities of life.

Everyone has a certain amount of wealth. Not everyone has children. And not everyone has sons. But everyone has a certain amount of wealth — that's why the ulama say wealth has been mentioned first. So the Qur'an 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. And He grants whoever He wants, boys. And if Allah wishes, He may give you both boys and girls. And if He wishes, He may make a person barren — without any children. Indeed, Allah is all-knowing. He knows exactly what He's doing, why He's doing it, and to whom He's doing it. He is Qadir — capable of changing anything He wants, at any time.

So if a person understands this ayah, then he sees something to reflect on. Not having children at times is actually a huge blessing. If you ask someone who has disobedient children — those children who 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 —

This is the du'a: "O Allah, I seek refuge in You from a child that will become a burden and trial for me."

— that individual 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 extremely handicapped, and within a few weeks or months of birth they pass away, or for 20–30 years they're in a vegetative state? For the one who has such a child — that is 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 offer 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.

Similarly, someone who has daughters says, "Oh, I wish I had sons." That's obviously a natural desire — that's what's mentioned here. But a person needs to look at those who have sons: is every father who has sons happy with his sons? Are they doing enough khidmah of the parents? And every mother blessed with daughters — we have to think about this: women are ostracized, divorced, pushed out, oppressed by their in-laws. Astaghfirullah al-'azim. My blood boils saying this. This is happening as we speak in many parts of the world — a woman is oppressed, beaten, ostracized, and abused. Why? Because she is giving birth to daughters.

This type of Jahili-era thinking still thrives in our areas — back home in the Indo-Pak subcontinent especially. When a person has a daughter, he's worried about getting her married. There is the whole concept of jahiz overseas — it's a huge 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 boy who gives the dowry — the gift — to the bride. But it's the flip side: 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.

There are fathers who have actually killed themselves after the birth of daughters because they can't see the day where they'll have to tell their daughter: "I don't know how I can get you married because I don't have that money." This is the oppression that is taking place now, in this day and age. And I don't know, maybe even in this country as well. But we must speak against this type of nonsense. And that's why you boys here — you have to make sure when you're getting married that you are very strict on this. The greatest gift that 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 that's why a wedding itself — ulama are very strict on it in many parts of the world — to end this type of nonsense. Maybe they're not giving you things directly, but the wedding cost is now outrageous: $30,000, $40,000, $50,000. And the girl's side feels obliged — they're going to open up 5 or 6 credit cards, take loans from people. Because why? I have to get my daughter married. This is haram, this is zulm, this is wrong — not part of our deen. Why are we forcing people into debt?

The greatest gift is your daughter. All this israf — it's because of culture. We have to break this culture. We have become so focused on culture and left the actual deen. What is part of the deen: the husband gives the mahr — the dowry — and the boy's side provides the walimah. There's no feeding required from the girl's side at all. That's why some people have come up with an interesting way: get married after 'Asr, the husband and wife ride together until Isha, and then after Isha they have the walimah. Done. For the walimah to take place, the marriage does not even need to be consummated — the husband and wife simply need to have been in seclusion for some time. That's all.

The nikah that has the most barakah — what did Rasulullah ﷺ say? The one that is the least expensive:

Verily, the most blessed of marriages is the one that is least burdensome in cost. (Musnad Ahmad, Hadith 24529; Sahih Ibn Hibban, Hadith 4072)

We want barakah. So how are you going to get barakah by throwing a party for two thousand? You want to feed thousands — there are so many poor people outside. Give them food, absolutely. But keep the wedding expenses less.

So why are people so desirous to have boys? Some of you sitting here don't understand that — so I give you that background. When you hear someone say in Urdu: "Aye haif, so un ke phir teesri beti hui" — how sad, she had a third daughter — and you wonder why is that being said — it's that back-home mentality. Having a daughter is being treated as a musibah. This is the type of thinking that must be cut out. You must speak against it when it happens in front of you. Because this is exactly what the Qur'an describes of the people during the time of the Prophet ﷺ:

When they were given a glad tiding of a daughter, their face would turn dark and pale. And they would walk around holding in their grief and their anger. They would hide from the rest of the people — afraid to face them with this glad tiding. Allah says "glad tiding" — because according to Allah, that is a glad tiding. According to you, it's not. He has two options: should he hold her alive while being disgraced in society? Or should he pin her down into the ground and bury her alive? What a horrible judgment they were making.

How are we different from this, when we say the same things today? The Prophet ﷺ said:

Whoever takes care of two daughters until they reach maturity — he and I will come on the Day of Judgment like this, and he joined his fingers together. (Sahih Muslim, Hadith 2631)

He started off mentioning three daughters, then brought it to two. The Sahaba said: "We wished we had asked him about just one daughter as well." Did you see this reward mentioned for sons? There is no such hadith about the virtue of raising sons — because people already have that in their mindset. But there are so many ahadith on the virtue of raising daughters, to change this mindset.

So what did the ulama say? Sometimes a person who has daughters doesn't realize that Allah may give him a son-in-law who will honor him and love him more than his son ever would. And then Allah subhanahu wa ta'ala may grant him a grandson who will serve him and serve the deen more than his son would ever do. So we need to learn: be happy with what Allah has given, and look for khair and goodness in it. And the happiness that a daughter gives to parents — ask the fathers sitting here who have daughters compared to their sons. SubhanAllah. May Allah subhanahu wa ta'ala grant us sons the ability and qualities that our sisters have, and enable us to serve our parents the way our sisters do. Say ameen.

So الْمَالُ وَالْبَنُونَ زِينَةُ الْحَيَاةِ الدُّنْيَا — wealth and children are merely the adornment, the zinah, of this worldly life. And then the Qur'an says: وَالْبَاقِيَاتُ الصَّالِحَاتُ — what is necessary, what is truly important, are the abiding righteous deeds. These are far better in reward with your Lord in the Hereafter, and far more excellent in fulfillment of every hope.

بَاقِيَات — that which will remain forever. This is a description of al-a'mal — the good deeds that are going to remain forever. الصَّالِحَات — and yes, sins will also stay forever, and they'll get punished in hellfire. But we're talking about good deeds that will remain forever — they are far better. Far better with the one who is the most important in our life: Allah. In His record, nothing is superior to everlasting good deeds. خَيْرٌ أَمَلًا — and if you've got hopes in life, there is nothing that is going to help you fulfill your hopes better than good deeds. When you do good deeds, all your hopes will get fulfilled. Isn't that amazing? Through good deeds, your ambitions and dreams will get fulfilled — not through material things.

Ayahs 47–49: The Day of Judgment

Then Allah azza wa jal says this dunya is going to come to an end. And what a day that will be:

"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 happened to the warehouse just recently. That's the dunya. There is nothing more stable than a mountain range — and Allah says: the entire mountain range I'm going to dislodge. There are so many verses about the dislodging of mountains in the Qur'an.

And Allah subhanahu wa ta'ala says: وَتَرَى الْأَرْضَ بَارِزَةً — you shall see the earth laid bare. Because right now the earth is covered with oceans, with trees, with jungles, with springs, deserts, buildings, mountains — all of that. When the Day of Judgment comes, every single thing will be removed. بَارِزَة means something which is apparent, unsheathed, laid out bare. مُبَارَزَة is when two people come for a duel in the open. بَرَاز is when you go out to open, far-away land to relieve yourself. So بَارِزَة — the earth is unsheathed, laid out bare.

وَحَشَرْنَاهُمْ — and then We shall gather them all: from the people who died a thousand years ago, five thousand years ago, ten thousand years ago, right up to the last man or woman to die before the Day of Judgment. Allah azza wa jal will gather them all together. فَلَمْ نُغَادِرْ مِنْهُمْ أَحَدًا — We will not leave out any one of them.

مُغَادِر — we use this in modern standard Arabic for the departure of planes: مُغَادَرَةُ الطَّائِرَة — the flight is departing. From here comes the word غَدَر — to be deceitful, backstabbing, to forsake someone. Similarly, غَدِير is a pool of water — when water comes in a rain and all the water dissipates and escapes except for what is left in a small pond or pool — that water remained, everything else departed. So غَدَر has the meaning of leaving behind. So فَلَمْ نُغَادِر — We will not leave behind anyone, every single one will be gathered.

The Qur'an, in Surah Al-Qiyamah, says:

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

وَعُرِضُوا عَلَىٰ رَبِّكَ صَفًّا — they will all be arrayed before your Lord in ranks. عَرَض means to be presented — everyone is being presented to Allah subhanahu wa ta'ala in rows. When you have it in rows, you cannot escape. It's all in an orderly fashion. The earth is already laid bare, and now everyone is in rows. And guess who else is coming?

Even the angels are descending in an orderly fashion — rows and rows and rows of angels.

لَقَدْ جِئْتُمُونَا — Allah will tell all of us: "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 — and that is exactly how everyone will be risen on the Day of Judgment. 'Aisha radiAllahu 'anha, when she heard this description, immediately asked Rasulullah ﷺ: "Ya Rasulullah, how will this be possible? What will happen with hijab?" Nabi ﷺ's simple answer: "O Aisha, 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. Even if it is a million years long — no one will have the ability to look right and left due to the immense fear." When someone hears devastating news — like the death of a loved one — if you ask them later who was there, they can't remember anything. The shock erases it. The Day of Judgment will bring such shock and awe that a person cannot see who is to his right or left. All of us will come back to Allah the way He created us.

بَلْ زَعَمْتُمْ أَلَّن نَّجْعَلَ لَكُم مَّوْعِدًا — yet in the life you had alleged that We would never occasion such an appointment for resurrecting you. How dare you — in the dunya you kept on thinking that there was no such thing as a meeting place with your Lord.

وَوُضِعَ الْكِتَابُ — then the precise book of recorded deeds will be placed for each person. Some will receive it in the right hand, some in the left. And the Qur'an says that whoever receives it in the right hand will be like the one who got 100% in his exams. He'll walk around saying:

"Read my book, read my book!" So excited to share his success. And the one who receives his book in his left hand, behind his back — as a failure — may Allah protect you and I from that. He'll be crying and saying:

"I swear I wish I had never been given my book. I wish I never knew what my account was. My wealth definitely has not come to assist me. All the power, strength, and contacts I had in the world have perished. Nothing has come to help me today."

So that book will be placed by the angels in the hands of the people. فَتَرَى الْمُجْرِمِينَ مُشْفِقِينَ مِمَّا فِيهِ — thus you shall see the defiant unbelievers, terrified of what is inside it. They don't want to open it. They don't know what's inside it. They're scared.

وَيَقُولُونَ يَا وَيْلَتَنَا — and they will be saying: "Woe to us! O destruction!" يَا وَيْلَتَنَا means destruction — "Oh destruction, this is your time to come." We're done, it's over.

This ayah is powerful, subhanAllah: مَالِ هَٰذَا الْكِتَابِ لَا يُغَادِرُ صَغِيرَةً وَلَا كَبِيرَةً إِلَّا أَحْصَاهَا — "What is with this book? It has not left out any act of mine, be it small or great!" There is no action that has not been recorded — one blink of the eye, one movement of the finger, one attachment of the heart, one murmuring under the breath of something. Every single moment, reflection, eye movement, and ear attention to something we shouldn't have focused on — subhanAllah — every single thing has been recorded.

Just like today's technology — and that's why technology is a great way to learn about the Akhirah, if we think about it correctly. Who said it's not? Look at what surveillance we have today. Look at how speech is being recorded. How keypad movements are being recorded. How you delete all you want, but it's 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. Movements are being watched, traced, and tracked. Why all this? One big reason: if human beings can do this, imagine what the Lord of human beings must be doing.

And just like when a video is presented in court and someone is caught red-handed — imagine when the full reel plays on the Day of Judgment. When the limbs themselves start speaking. When the tongue itself will not be allowed to speak, and the body and 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 us on the Day of Judgment.

One of many things we can also understand through this world: 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, sound, so many other things that do not have a mass. SubhanAllah. And so now, to understand the weighing of good deeds becomes so much easier. The new inventions of today, in reality, if you think from an Islamic perspective — if you keep the Qur'an and Sunnah in front of you — they can help you and I understand what is awaiting for us in the Akhirah.

وَوَجَدُوا مَا عَمِلُوا حَاضِرًا — they will have found whatever they have done, all of it, present before them. They will find it in front of them. وَلَا يَظْلِمُ رَبُّكَ أَحَدًا — 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 — in the last portion of that beautiful long hadith:

"O My servants, I have forbidden oppression upon Myself, so do not oppress one another... O My servants, it is only your actions that I am recording for you. Whoever finds good, let him praise Allah, and whoever finds other than that, let him blame no one but himself." (Sahih Muslim, Hadith 2577)

The book of deeds has nothing added to it — it is what you did, and that is what is in it. So if you find something good, don't pat yourself on the back — thank Allah for giving you the tawfiq. All of you who made it out today, all of you who are listening online today — subhanAllah, thank Allah for the tawfiq. And if we find something wrong that we have committed, Allah forgive me and forgive you — then don't blame anyone besides ourselves.

Conclusion and Du'a

This is where we conclude this ruku'. We ask Allah subhanahu wa ta'ala to grant you and I the haqiqah of this dunya — allow us to understand the true meaning of this dunya and the true meaning of the Akhirah. Dunya comes from — one of the explanations — دَانِي, meaning lowly, despicable. Dunya is the opposite of 'ulya. 'Ulya means high. Dunya means low. That's it. That's what is called dunya — it is lowly. May Allah subhanahu wa ta'ala enable us to overcome the passion of materialism and remove it from our hearts. Ameen.

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, please put it on the chat if you or your family would like to be a host for a Saturday — this Saturday and the next three Saturdays. If anyone is in the crowd over here, Brother Abdul Mu'izz is there in the back. You can meet him if you would like to host one of the team Fajrs.

What does hosting a team Fajr mean? Besides taking care of the cost of the breakfast — and if you want to bring from home, of course that would be most ideal, to have your whole family involved, men and women and extended family, in bringing a hot breakfast for the musallees — that would be great. If not, we can get it catered. More important than that is 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 Masjid Darussalam for breakfast. Along with breakfast, they're going to get soul food, they're going to get the talk, dhikr, du'a, a powerful talk, and then after that, food. So I request the brothers inshAllah — if we can have someone for this week and the next two weeks — please meet Brother Abdul Mu'izz or put it on the YouTube chat.

The second announcement is that the Winter Intensive is coming up inshAllah in about two weeks — 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, adult schedule, girls' schedule, 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 a special rate link on our website. For those who want to do i'tikaf in the masjid, it will be open for i'tikaf and we'll provide dinner and breakfast inshAllah for those doing i'tikaf — from out of state and locals alike.

Isha will be advanced on those nights — Saturday, Sunday, Monday inshAllah, during that weekend. We'll be praying Isha at the first time as soon as the program finishes at 6:00 or 6:30. So locals, please make note of that. Babysitting is provided off-site, not here. Mothers with young children are more than welcome to come — we have a separate room reserved for you. We have programs for children as young as 6 and above that inshAllah will be taking place here.

I expect all of you, brothers and sisters who are listening, to please become ambassadors of this program. It is a 4-day program focusing on how to build confidence within ourselves and the Muslim community — how to answer tough questions about our deen, 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 from the New York area — with pit stops in New Jersey as well. There are some brothers from Houston trying to bring a bus, and from Dallas as well. If you're from those regions, please contact us and we'll put you in touch with those organizing that. And I ask all of you to please make du'a — it's not easy to do all this work. Please make du'a that Allah removes their hurdles and obstacles 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 issues of faith. May Allah subhanahu wa ta'ala make it a means of hidayah for all of us.

And the 2022 calendars are available in the lobby. Please do pick one up inshAllah and support the printing cost in any way you can. It's a beautiful calendar — take some as gifts for your relatives and friends. For those of you who are not aware, the entire year's schedule is already settled and on there: when the retreat will be, when the summer program starts, when the one-year program starts, when the Winter Intensive is — everything for next year. It also has the Islamic dates as well as the Gregorian dates.

Also, as I mentioned last week, there is a group going out for Umrah inshAllah for six days, coming back on the 4th of January. If there are brothers and sisters who would like to participate in this winter break opportunity — from the 28th of December to the 4th of January — we ask Allah to accept all those who are going. And may He inspire every single one of us to make niyyah inshAllah to go as soon as possible to the blessed lands, and accept our ziyarah.