Surah Anbiya - Ep.10 | Mufti Azeemuddin Ahmed

Opening Du'a and Intentions

Let's move up, make sure that there's no gaps. We ask Allah to make our coming here tonight and our listening online a means of immense barakah and khair and aafiyah from all directions for all of us in our deen and our dunya and our akhira. May Allah make our coming here a means of us getting attached to the Qur'an.

I ask Allah that He grant all of us a true muhabba and love for the Qur'an and allow us to every day, through the barakah of reciting the Qur'an, contemplating the Qur'an, allow us to keep getting closer to Allah subhanahu wa ta'ala. And as always, we should make a niyyah that whatever we hear, we will insha'Allah practice on it immediately and we will share it with others as well. If we have intention of practicing, then insha'Allah we'll get the tawfiq to practice.

If we don't have the intention from the get-go, we simply listen for the sake of listening, then we won't get the tawfiq for it. If we want the tawfiq from Allah subhanahu wa ta'ala to be able to practice on it, then that should be our key thing. That, ya Allah, I'm listening with a niyyah of practice.

And then ask Allah for help for it. That, ya Allah, you brought me all the way here, don't let me go empty-handed. If you brought me here, then I want you to let me leave with this situation of my heart that I am absolutely making a firm resolve to be able to do that.

Now when a person makes intention, what happens next is sometimes not in our hands. But as long as a person is seriously sincere in his intention, even if they are not able to do what they are intending to do, Allah will give them the reward for it. That's why making a strong niyyah is always the smartest and the best way to go.

Because even if you don't end up doing it, you will still get — insha'Allah — a reward for it, if you're sincere in your intention. And also the second thing is we should always make this du'a: ya Allah, whatever situation I'm going through in my life, allow the dars to become a means of answering those difficulties of my life and removal of issues. And may it become, insha'Allah, an answer from Allah subhanahu wa ta'ala to our specific situations we're dealing with, ameen.

Recap: Stories of Sulaiman and Ayyub

So last week we did cover the story of Sulaiman alayhi salam and after that Ayyub alayhi salam. And now here you have the story of Yunus alayhi salam. And we may have read the ayah and translated it, but this is an ayah that many of us know as the du'a of Yunus, or as in the subcontinent they call it ayat kareemah.

That's what it's called — ayat kareemah, the noble ayah. Within the subcontinent people call this ayat kareemah, and they're referring to this verse.

So it's a really powerful verse because it is showing us how, through the barakah of du'a, a person can get out of the most difficult type of situation that they may find themselves in. And then Zakariyya alayhi salam's story begins after that.

The Story of Yunus (Dhul-Nun)

Allah azza wa jal mentions first of all regarding Yunus alayhi salam — and mention also the tiding of Yunus, the man of the whale. Behold, he went away from his people out of anger without our leave, without our permission. For he thought that we would never constrain him.

Then he called out in repentance within the veils of darkness. What was the du'a?

"There is no god but You. Subhanak — highly exalted are You. Indeed I was of the wrongdoers." That's all he said, again and again. And then in response to that Allah azza wa jal says:

"Indeed we answered him and delivered him. We delivered him from great anguish. And even so do we ever deliver the believers." This is like the highlight of this whole section — and so do we ever deliver the believers. And that's the exciting part. Because this is a message for all of us that this is not a story specific to Yunus alayhi salam. Anyone.

The Story of Zakariyya

"And mention the tiding of Zakariyya as well. Behold, he called upon his Lord: My Lord, leave me not alone — fardan, childless — and you are the best of inheritors. So we answered him. And we granted him Yahya." Thus Allah azza wa jal said, "We set his wife aright for him." So there are multiple meanings. One of the meanings mentioned here is that she was barren, and then Allah azza wa jal miraculously granted her the ability to bear a child.

As to all these prophets, they were indeed hastening to exceed one another in doing good works.

"And they would call upon us with raghab — hope in our mercy — and rahab — fear and reverent awe — that what if we don't fulfill the rights of Allah, what will happen? And they were humble before us." All these prophets.

The Story of Maryam and the Unity of the Prophets

And then also mentioned moreover the story of Maryam — she who safeguarded her chastity. Then we breathed into her womb of our life-giving spirit. Thus we made her and her son a profound sign for all the people of the world.

Indeed we said to all the prophets, this faith community of yours is one community. Every prophet was told that those who believe in your message, they are one ummah. And Allah is the Lord for all of you. So I am your Lord, so worship me alone.

However, what happened? The succeeding generations who came after the prophet left — they divided their faith amongst themselves. And they changed things around. And some left the deen, or many left the deen.

Allah says, "All of you are going to return to us for judgment." Final judgment — who was on the right path, who was not — will be made by Allah subhanahu wa ta'ala.

So whoever does any act of righteousness and is a believer — two things: amal as-salihah and to have iman.

Then Allah says, "His effort will never be kufraan." There will never be a misappreciation or underappreciation of anyone's efforts. Kufraan is when you're in denial that someone did something — it's like your check doesn't get cashed, it gets bounced. So there you go, Allah says, no, that's never going to happen. Anyone does any good deed, there's no concept of that reward not being given to them in full. Why? "Indeed, We Ourselves Shall Write It Down For Him." So there's no such thing as, I do something and I don't get it.

That can happen in this dunya — you're not sure if people will appreciate. It's true, right? People don't appreciate many times what you do. That's just how it works. But with Allah azza wa jal, that's not the case. Every single thing that a person does is appreciated. And that's why the best and smartest way to lead our life is that a person should never be expecting or hoping for appreciation from any makhluq. And always should have this set — that appreciation, the final day, is going to come from Allah azza wa jal when He is going to appreciate me.

The reality is, if your good deed is seriously a good deed, the world cannot appreciate you. Because a good deed is such that its reward will remain forever. And the gift card someone gives you, thank you card, cake, this, that, whatever — where's all that? That's gone in five seconds. True appreciation for your good deeds has to be done only by Allah subhanahu wa ta'ala. If you did it for Him, He's the only one who can truly pay you.

One nice explanation someone mentioned was: one SubhanAllah — the reward of one SubhanAllah is one tree in Jannah. And not any small tree. It's such an amazing tree that from one end to the other, a fast-paced horse is going to be running for hundreds of years to cover the shade of that one tree. And that's going to come through one SubhanAllah. So that type of tree cannot even exist on this world. Which tree is there in this world where you can have a fast-paced horse running for hundreds of years to go from one end of the shade to the other? Is that possible? There's no place on this earth to do that. It might take one month, two months, three months, four months, that's it. How do you get hundreds of years? That's the reward of one SubhanAllah.

So the whole world cannot even accommodate the reward of one SubhanAllah. So how do we expect the world to pay us for ten years, twenty years, thirty years of sincere effort that you do towards your spouse, towards your children, towards your family, towards your community, towards people in need, or whoever it may be? It cannot — the world cannot. So let's stop expecting rewards from the people of this world. Because there's no such thing that they have — they don't have the ability to even do that.

Deeper Lessons from the Story of Yunus

Going back to the original ayah here of Yunus alayhi salam. This is an amazing verse in the Qur'an where Allah subhanahu wa ta'ala is speaking about the story of Yunus alayhi salam. You see, the stories of the Qur'an don't have too many details — unnecessary details. Why? Because we don't want you to get so focused on the details that you miss the whole point. And when something is so detailed, then a person thinks that it's not possible or not likely that the entire incident with all its details will happen again.

You share a story and you say, then this happened and that — this guy was wearing this color jacket, he had this color shoes, he had this in his hand. You go to so much detail. But now, if you want people to take a lesson from that, to say, will this happen again? When they hear all those details, they'll say, oh man, probably with all those details, it's not going to happen again to that degree. But when you remove the details, then you focus on the crux of the story to say, yeah, like that, it probably definitely could happen again.

So here, like once again, like all the other stories, not much detail is mentioned. Noon — a huge whale. The man of the whale. So he's got this nisba now, this connection. Because he was swallowed by this whale, he's been called the man of the whale.

Izzahaba mughadhiban — when he left his nation angry. So he told his nation that I've been inviting you for so long — make tawbah, repent, repent. And they kept on saying, no, nothing will happen. Eventually he came and told them: on such and such day, the adab of Allah is going to come. I'm telling you. Such day, such time, adab of Allah is going to come.

Well now, if there's going to be a planned demolition of a building, you're not going to sit there. You're going to move. So he left. He said, okay, this place is going to get carpet bombed by Allah azza wa jal. I better leave. And he was saying, shame on you all, you just don't listen. I've been telling you for so long to repent, listen to me, you don't want to listen.

The king got the news of what Yunus alayhi salam said — that such and such day, time, the adab is going to come. He gathered his people and said, listen, please. This is not a joke. He's serious, this punishment will come. We have to repent. Let's all get out of the city.

So they all go out of the city. And as they go out, they see the dark clouds coming in. And they see athar and signs of the impending doom. When they looked at all of that, they repented to Allah quickly and said, Allah, please forgive us. And they made a firm resolve amongst themselves not to disobey Allah again.

So Allah azza wa jal did something which He usually doesn't do — He allowed them to be saved from this punishment, even though they had begun to see the athar and the signs of the punishment.

That is Ayah 98 of Surah Yunus. There isn't a nation who believes after having seen a punishment and then that belief will benefit them, except for the nation of Yunus. Usually, if you have faith after seeing the punishment of Allah, that means it's too late — except for the nation of Yunus. Lamma amanu — when they affirmed their belief in Allah — kashafna anhum adhab al-khizyi — We removed from them the punishment of disgrace in this world. And we gave them some time to live and to reflect and to repent and to lead a life of obedience.

The Contrast with Fir'aun

Just within the same page, the previous page, Allah speaks about Fir'aun. And He says:

"And We took Bani Israel over the sea. Fir'aun and his army followed in suit, out of arrogance and out of defiance." They started following Musa alayhi salam and the nation right into the sea, which had become obviously dry for them. "Until — when the land mass turned back into its original sea form and the massive waves began to overtake Fir'aun and his army — he said, amantu — I have become a believer. And I proclaim there is none worthy of worship except for that being upon whom Bani Israel has already believed. And I am from amongst the Muslims."

Three times in one breath. Allah azza wa jal says:

"Now? Now you're going to accept Islam now? And you were disobedient previously, your whole life? And you were from amongst those who sow corruption on earth?" It's not like you were a weak Muslim — you were the worst person. And now you're trying to make tawbah?

In some narrations it mentions that Jibreel alayhi salam took a fistful of mud and shoved it down his throat to just shut him up. And then Allah azza wa jal says:

"Today, not only are we not going to accept what you said — we are going to preserve your body." Allah is telling us in the Qur'an, thousands of years ago, that we're going to preserve the Pharaoh's body — "so that this body can become a sign for those who will come after you. Amazing, isn't it? And indeed many — katheer, remember I said wherever katheer comes in the Qur'an, almost always it comes in a negative connotation. Majority is used in a negative connotation; minority is used in a positive connotation. Again, katheer — majority of people are absolutely heedless from our signs." That's where majority is going. Majority doesn't listen. Majority doesn't take a lesson.

So Yunus alayhi salam's situation is mentioned here — that his nation was a unique situation where Allah azza wa jal allowed them to gain forgiveness even after this. Allah knows best, but it's possible that one of the reasons is because Yunus alayhi salam left before the time he was allowed to come. He made a mistake. He said, I was informed the punishment is going to come, so why should I wait around? Let me just leave. And now Allah subhanahu wa ta'ala gave them hidayah. Now he's waiting — day one, day two, day three. The time is supposed to come for the adab. "I told them, been telling them — I cannot believe this, it didn't come. So now how can I even go show my face there?" Because he doesn't know what's going on, right? But what are they going to say? "Where's that adab? You said it's coming exactly at this time. Where is it now?" So what does he do? He leaves. He said, now I can't even go back to town.

A Lesson for Those Who Invite to Allah

You learn here, SubhanAllah, from the story, a lesson for du'at — that no matter how seemingly a person is distant from Allah, you never know who's going to accept Islam. Just never know. If Abu Sufyan could accept Islam, if Ikramah ibn Abi Jahl could accept Islam, if Wahshi could accept Islam — Allahu Akbar. Who's left? If Allah subhanahu wa ta'ala wants to give hidayah, He can give it to anyone. Anyone.

When you hear news like this online, you see about people — some of these guys who were behind making Islamophobic videos, movies, cartoons, against Rasulullah sallallahu alayhi wasallam, depicting Rasulullah sallallahu alayhi wasallam, causing such an uproar in the world — those very same people, Allah subhanahu wa ta'ala guided them to Islam. Because of them, so much corruption happened. And now Allah decided to give them hidayah. Who would have ever thought such people, even in the modern times, would get Islam, would get the tawfiq?

And then people coming from Muslim homes, coming from the family of scholars, coming from the family of the people, khuddam of the deen, who did the work of deen — unfortunately leaving Islam. It's pretty amazing how Allah shows how He doesn't need anyone. No one can claim that they are doing a favor to Islam — that my father was like this, my grandfather was like this, we did so much work. In one instance, Allah can snatch away iman. We're seeing it every day here.

And on the other hand, people who are hardcore anti-Islam, Islamophobic, who caused so much harm — Allah chooses to give them hidayah, and everyone sitting on the sidelines says, "Whoa, whoa, whoa — what happened over here?" And then they want to ask for a fatwa. "Is this person's Islam valid? Not valid? How is it possible? Makes no sense. He's like this, he's like that." You can't say anything. Allah subhanahu wa ta'ala gives hidayah to whoever He wants. You have no option. You should simply say, "Ya Allah, please don't deprive me." That's all. I want to make sure myself and my generations remain firm.

So that's one thing we learned from this story — that as a da'i, someone who is inviting, we should never give up on anyone. Anytime Allah subhanahu wa ta'ala can open up the doors of hidayah for anyone.

A Lesson Against Haste

Also, we learn the fact that a person should not be hasty in anything. A person needs to wait and exercise ta'anni. That's why it says:

(Sunan al-Tirmidhi, Hadith 2012)

"Doing things with slow deliberation and thinking it out properly — this is a gift that Allah gives, ta'anni. Doing things slowly with deliberate thinking and deliberation, this is a gift from Allah. And doing things hastily — this is from Shaytan." As you know, the etiquette with Allah is: good things get attributed to Allah, and evil things get attributed to Shaytan. Everything comes from Allah, but attribution of this goes towards Shaytan.

So when we are supposed to make a decision, we should think things out. It shouldn't happen that our decision is done so hastily, especially in matters of dunya, that we end up having to pay the price. When it comes to, say, brother you want to pray salah — then of course, there's no, "okay let me think about it." When there's an opportunity to do the khidmah of deen, opportunity given for Allah's path, whatever the case may be — then be quick. Because if that niyyah comes to you, you don't know how long that intention will last. Shaytan may come and whisper in our ear, and we give up.

So for example, marriage — that's something a person should think about. Shouldn't say, no, this is how old I am, that's it, anyone who comes my way, even if it makes sense or not, I'm going to get married to them. No. Ask the people whose marriages are falling apart — they'll tell you, please, better to stay unmarried than to suffer like how I am. So a person needs to do mashwara, do istikhara, think things out properly — will there be a match, no match, what are the ideals of the deen, are they matching, etc. — before we just jump to things of that sort. Big things like this, don't make hasty decisions. You don't know what's going to happen. Allah azza wa jal will change things. What you say is not 100% taqdeer that must follow what you say. Anything may happen, as you see in this case over here.

Yunus in the Belly of the Whale

Okay, then when he left, what happened? He went and he realized that these people are not going to get punished. He moved, he went onto a boat — as famously all of us are aware of, as mentioned in the books of hadith — that then the waves started coming, and it got very choppy, and a storm hit the sea, and the boat was about to get capsized. And he said — in some narrations it's mentioned — "I will jump off this boat. I think I made a mistake. Maybe this is happening because of that." He said, "No, no, no — of course not. You're a pious person, why would you — we're not going to allow you to do that." Someone needs to leave. He said, "Okay fine, let's just draw lots." So then they drew lots, and the first time Yunus alayhi salam's name came. Okay, then they drew a second time — again his name came. The third time, again his name came. He said, "Okay, what can we say? We've tried to save you, but the sea was like, you've got to go." So then they removed him from the boat, and that was all planned from Allah azza wa jal.

You see, you just don't know — when someone gets fired, what's Allah's plan? When someone gets divorced, what is Allah planning? When someone gets shifted out, what's Allah planning? When someone gets deported, what's Allah planning? Whatever the case may be — it seems like, how could there be anything good come out of this? You're in the midst of an ocean, and it's stormy weather, choppy waves, and you're being thrown off a boat. What aspect of this seems positive? Where's the silver lining in this type of scenario? But it was pure silver — not just lining, all of it pure silver. There's a big whale, with his wide mouth open, right there waiting, just waiting to receive him. And he didn't go into the bottom of the ocean and drown. But Allah azza wa jal had this whole intizam, this whole preparation made — that this whale is waiting for you to go in. And so as soon as he jumped off, the whale swallows him.

Allah azza wa jal says, "The big whale swallowed him." Then Allah says, "If Yunus alayhi salam was not from amongst those who would do abundant tasbeeh, he would have stayed inside the stomach of this animal, of this whale, ila yawmi yub'athun — till the Day of Judgment when everyone will be raised." Allah says, it is this tasbeeh which saved him. Otherwise, he would stay in that situation until the people are raised up on the Day of Judgment.

Then Allah azza wa jal says, "Then we pulled him out — we made that whale spit him out. And he was sick. And we prepared for his rejuvenation of his health — we had a tree that was giving him much-needed nutrition right there on the beach or wherever he landed. And then we sent him to a nation that was a hundred thousand or more. They all ended up accepting Islam, became believers. And we gave them a chance to live and enjoy for some time." Okay, so that's a mention in Surah as-Saffat.

So what do we learn from here is that if it weren't for his tasbeeh, Allah says, "I wouldn't let him go out." And this is a ma'sum prophet. So we're learning — the lesson is for you and I — we're not ma'sum, we're not even mahfuz. Meaning mahfuz — someone who is protected from committing sin although he could do it, but usually he doesn't. Ma'sum is — no, he's not going to commit any sin. So we're neither ma'sum nor are we mahfuz. We commit left and right every day, all sorts of mistakes.

So now when this is our situation, imagine how important it is for a person to do tasbeeh. What is this story telling us? That there is probably no situation that is more precarious, more challenging, more difficult, more worrisome, than the situation of Yunus alayhi salam — being thrown off the boat on a dark night, in the depths of the dark ocean, inside the dark linings of the stomach of this whale. And that's what Allah says, this is فِي ظُلُمَاتٍ ثَلَاثٍ — multiple layers of darkness.

He called out to Allah: la ilaha illa anta. First, the aspect of Tawheed. That aspect is very important — that in order to gain the closeness of Allah subhanahu wa ta'ala and gain His attention, a person needs to ensure that they are strong in their Tawheed. Say: "Ya Allah, I'm not turning to anyone besides You. You are the ultimate source of all good, and You are the only one who can remove my difficulty."

Allah says in the 20th Juz: "Is there anyone besides Allah? Who is the one who responds to the supplication?" Mudtarr — what is mudtarr? Mudtarr is the one who is in such a difficult situation that he's given up on everyone else and everyone else has given up on him. He's absolutely in a very tight spot, in a very difficult situation. He needs the assistance of someone and no one is willing to give it to him. That's mudtarr. Majbur — he's just forced by his circumstances to give up. But this person doesn't give up. He's like, I knocked this door, this door, this door, this door. Now let me just knock on the door of Allah subhanahu wa ta'ala.

"Who is the one who will respond to the call of the one who is in need, when he chooses to call Him?" Allah says, "My name is Mujib du'a al-mudtarrin — I am the one who responds to the calls of those who are in difficult circumstances. But you have to press the button — idha da'a — you have to press the button. If you don't press the button, don't expect answers." That's what idha da'a means — when you supplicate to Him.

The Story of the Traveler and the Highway Robber

You probably heard the story that's mentioned in the books in relation to this verse. Of a person who was traveling via a very desolate route. And a taxi — a mule driver — said that he would take him wherever he needed to go. He knew the famous route to get to the destination. But that driver said, "No, I'll take you another route." He said, "Okay, fine." As he was going the other route, that driver was a highway robber. He was planning to attack him. And that's exactly what happened. When they got to a desolate place on this route, he told him to get off the mule and said, "Okay, I'm going to take all your goods, and I'm going to kill you." And looking all around, he sees a bunch of other dead bodies — this guy had made this his job.

So he begged him. He said, "Don't kill me." He said, "No, I'm going to kill you." He said, "Okay, if you've really decided to kill me, then let me at least pray two raka'at salah." So in his two raka'at salah, he was so scared he didn't know what to say. "What should I read? Imagine you have a person waiting right behind you to kill you." So in that situation, this ayah just came to his mind. That's why you should memorize this — this is the 20th Juz, first page of the 20th Juz — Ayah number 62 of Surah an-Naml, which is Surah number 27. Alhamdulillah, we covered Surah an-Naml last year, so we covered this story there as well.

He began to recite this ayah. And the guy behind him says, "Hurry up, hurry up — your salah can't help you. All these other people here, they all asked for the same thing. Had it never helped them, it won't help you." You'll see stuff like this. People will tell you — when you try to come close to the deen, your own friends, your own relatives will say stuff like this. "If you want to pray, then pray — what's the use? Try whatever du'a you want. How is that going to help? Sadaqah, du'a, all these things — this is your false, useless belief in the charms of all this stuff. You think du'a is something that's going to help you? A'mal is going to help you? Going to the masjid is going to help you? Main thing is that you use the means. And you lost out on that. Why are you wasting your time on ibadah, on sadaqah, on salah?"

So there's this huge push all around us — within our own circles, within our own relatives — a push against a'mal, a push against using good deeds to get to where you need to get to. Everyone says 100% focus on means and divorce ourselves from a'mal. Deen doesn't teach us to divorce ourselves from either of the two. We use the means while we also have our attention on Allah only. Saying that means can't get me anywhere — only Allah does.

So at that time you have to remain firm and say, "It will help." And if it doesn't help, that doesn't mean Allah is not there listening to me — it means Allah has something greater in mind for me. That's what you're going to answer. "Who said it doesn't help? Who said it didn't help these people?" Allah had written shahada for all of them. And for their soul, before you decapitated them or killed them, as you were doing that, their soul was already reaching Jannah.

That's how we should respond. When someone says, "Oh, someone did that, it didn't help them. Someone went to the masjid, it didn't help them. Someone went out, did i'tikaf, it didn't help them." So you say, "Who said it didn't help them?" As soon as a person does a'mal, he's already successful. Success doesn't mean you get what you're asking for. Success doesn't mean you get what you want. Success means: are you leading a life in the way Allah wants you to lead? That's all.

I remember one day I was with some brothers — we were out in the path of Allah azza wa jal. We went to a masjid. It was a rough part of town. We arrived back at that masjid around 12:30. And it was really, as I said, a rough part of town. I don't want to be sticking around there. People are walking towards me and stuff like that. We're knocking on the masjid to get inside. No one's opening the door. Gate's locked. No one's opening. And I'm like, okay, I think we need to leave. I genuinely was getting scared. It's like, let's go from here.

And one of the elder da'i brothers — mashaAllah, whose yaqeen on Allah azza wa jal is next level — he said, "Where are you going?" I said, "It's not opening. Let's get out of here. Let's go 30 miles away to the markaz or whatever." He says, "No, no, no, no." He literally — subhanAllah — he opened up the door, put his musalla down. He's going to pray two raka'at. I was like, "Are you crazy? We're going to get shot over here. Like, what are you doing?" So he put — I'm telling you — he put his musalla down. He didn't even say Allahu Akbar. All of a sudden, someone came out and opened the door from inside the masjid. And I felt so bad myself. I was like, subhanAllah — like seriously, we're so weak, right? We're so weak. You look at these situations and you just get so scared. That should have been the real response — "We're in the path of Allah. We need to turn to Allah. That's why we came here — to learn how to turn to Allah azza wa jal in every situation and not just run away from whatever we need to. Let's do our job. This is where we're supposed to spend the night."

Without knocking on the door of Allah, subhanAllah, how is that going to work? So that is — he didn't say, "Oh really, this du'a didn't work for the rest of the people, I'm not going to read it." Because we're all surrounded by people who carry these negative ideas, thoughts about Allah. They create ill feelings about Allah: "What's Allah going to do? My grandparents were like this — they prayed, but unfortunately they passed away too from cancer." How is that meaning Allah didn't respond to you? What is that supposed to mean? Every Nabi passed away. Every Nabi suffered. Every Nabi went through so much difficulty. We talked about that last week. Going through difficulty, having a hard time, not getting what you want, does not mean your du'a is not being accepted. It's just that Allah subhanahu wa ta'ala has a different way of giving you.

So as he's in salah, all of a sudden he sees from his peripheral vision that there's someone coming — a knight coming. And he comes, and with his dagger or spear, he stabs this guy and decapitates the highway robber's head. And as he's leaving, the man finishes up his salah quickly and tries to run after this knight to see who he is. He runs after him, and he says, "I am an angel from the fourth heaven. When you were reading these du'as, the signal was going up — your voice was going up. And there were so many who were waiting to respond. But we had to take permission first — you can't just come like that. But Allah azza wa jal, when He gave the permission, then I was able to come to help." And that angel said, "I am the angel of يُجِيبُ الْمُضْطَرَّ — the one who responds to the call of the one who has found all doors closed, who was absolutely in a situation where he thought it's all over right now. And then in that situation, he turned to Allah, and Allah turns things around." SubhanAllah.

The Three Elements of the Du'a of Yunus

So Yunus alayhi salam is going through that situation. He's now doing tasbeeh. One point here — فَظَنَّ أَن لَّن نَّقْدِرَ عَلَيْهِ — he thought. Some people make a very wrong translation of this, thinking it means "he thought that we would never catch hold of him." That is absolutely incorrect to translate it like that. Because qadara yaqdir means here to constrain and to make things difficult — just as Allah subhanahu wa ta'ala says:

"Allah expands the sustenance for whoever He wishes — wa yaqdir." That's what it means here. That Yunus alayhi salam thought Allah will not constrain him, that it's okay he ran away before permission — nothing will happen. So he kept on going onto the boat and so on. And eventually, if he was informed that no, Allah doesn't like this — the pious people, the awliya and pious people, especially the prophets, when they make mistakes, their correction comes immediately and swiftly. Because if a prophet is not corrected, what will happen? It will mislead the rest of the people.

Maybe you and I don't get corrected. SubhanAllah. Our Qari Sahib from Madinah al-Munawwarah who was visiting us last week was here. So many students and teachers wanted to recite. Some students recited to him — he didn't say anything, just said "jalasa, next." And then the teachers came, and of course he was very strict and said this. So some students who had no understanding, they thought, "Oh subhanAllah, all of our Qur'an is better than all our teachers. Because he didn't correct us — he said mashaAllah, jalasa, go." But when the teacher came, "oh my God, sliced him up in half. Man, I don't even know — maybe we should switch roles." You know? He's not even going to correct you. It's just like, "okay, we don't have time for this, that's why he's not even correcting you. Go — please, mashaAllah, may Allah give you hidayah, move on." But the ones where he feels like, okay, there's something I can do to maybe correct it — you're close enough for a correction. And the fact that you're a teacher, and your Qur'an's correction is more important than anyone else's — that's why he gives more attention, and he's swift in his correction.

So prophets, when they make mistakes, the correction, as I said, comes immediately. And they're not allowed to continue on the path of making mistakes, while human beings — the rest of us — so many times, we're living in absolute sin. No lightning bolt is striking us. No massive lion is waiting to eat us up. No massive whale is waiting to swallow us. What is that? Because we're not making mistakes? No, because subhanAllah, we don't have the status of the prophets. Allah azza wa jal allows a person, saying, "You should realize yourself that you're making mistakes. When you turn back to me in humbleness, then I'll give you what you want."

The Three Keys: Tawheed, Tasbeeh, and I'tiraf

So Tawheed — la ilaha illa ant. That's the first thing he said. None worthy of worship besides Allah. Ya Allah, Tawheed. Then number two, Tasbeeh — subhanak. You're glorifying Allah. You're saying Allah is above and beyond any and all blemishes, any and all faults. Everything in this dunya is flawed. The only thing that's not flawed is the one who created all of this — Allah subhanahu wa ta'ala. The biggest flaw is fana — the fact that there is an ending. That's a flaw. The most beautiful car — what will happen? It will eventually perish. The most beautiful home — it will eventually perish. The only being that will remain forever is Allah. So Allah is above and beyond any and all blemishes.

And the third thing, after Tawheed, after Tasbeeh — inni kuntu minal-zalimin — making iqrar and acknowledging our mistake. Allah wants to hear this. Allah wants to hear us say, "I'm sorry, I messed up. I'm horrible." This is something that should flow off of our tongue.

Allah says, "You are in need of Allah. You are faqeer. I'm not faqeer — you are faqeer. And Allah is Al-Ghani, the one who doesn't need anyone, and Al-Hamid, worthy of all praise."

Remember we spoke about this a couple of weeks ago as well — the big issue of atheism, agnosticism, all of this stuff is stemming from what? What condition of the heart creates this? "I don't need Allah." Arrogance — right? Arrogance. Remember that? It says, "No, I don't need to humble myself in front of anyone." So these arrogant people will say, "Why is Allah praising Himself in the Qur'an? Why does Allah need us to praise Him? Why does He need us to do that?" He doesn't need anything. You need to simply thank Allah that you even exist and that He's allowing you to not choke right now, to not lose your balance and fall down. You thank Allah for that. Instead of saying, "Why did Allah azza wa jal mention this in the Qur'an?" It's pretty scary.

This is happening so much more often now — where people start criticizing and critiquing the Qur'an. And it's just the nur of the heart switched off. People were born Muslims, I'm saying. It just gets switched off. And once it gets switched off, all the talks in the world can't convince them. All you've got to do for them is make du'a that Allah puts the nur back into their heart.

And if you know any such person — one who is now arguing about the Qur'an, about deen, about Allah's existence, about Nabi sallallahu alayhi wasallam, about Islam's moral code — such people, we should make du'a for them. And we should ask them: "Hey, while you continue to read every single book written by an atheist, an ex-Muslim, all these forums where ex-Muslims are trying to find faults in the Qur'an — I'm just telling you to make this part of your daily regimen: supplicate and say, 'O God, if You exist and if You are true, then guide me to You.' And be sincere in that."

I actually know someone, alhamdulillah, who was guided just like this — who was Muslim, then left Islam, and then I said, "Don't worry about whether you believe He exists. Just say: 'If You exist, guide me.'" And then Allah azza wa jal accepted his du'a, his sincerity — because he was humble. And then Allah put the nur back, just like that. Just like it disappeared, it came back. You know, just like it disappeared — it literally disappeared overnight sometimes. It just goes. You wake up and you're like nothing makes sense to me anymore. That's how bad it is, that's how crazy it is.

And the hadiths are here — what the hadith talks about: a person going to bed as a believer and waking up as a disbeliever. And where is it happening? It's happening in the wildest places. Recently there was a person apparently who came over here and met one of our students — born Muslim, raised Muslim — and he told one of our students, "I'm no longer Muslim. I'm atheist." He's trying to come here to debate people. And ajeeb — he said, you know when he left Islam? He said when he went for Umrah. When he went for Umrah. So anytime, anywhere, a person can get infected. They can get infected at university, they can get infected at Umrah, they can get infected in the masjid. Ajeeb.

One father told me his son who left Islam — I said, "Well, what was the problem?" He said, "Well, he was in i'tikaf — sunnah i'tikaf — and he wanted to take a shower. And he was told, 'Brother, there's no shower available,' or 'You should take a shower only on Jumu'ah,' or whatever." He said that ticked him off so bad and — khalas — done with Islam. Till now, it's been 5-6 years. It's weird — this is just a random excuse. Is this really something to push you off the boat? No, it's not. But then Shaytan is khabis, mal'un — may Allah protect us from his filth and his waswas. He takes something like this and just creates a stubbornness within a person. Stubbornness is another big problem. Arrogance and stubbornness — horrible traits. Don't be arrogant, don't be stubborn.

The Du'a of the Prophet at the Conquest of Makkah

So he's like, this stubbornness — these types of things end up becoming blown out of proportion. And the harm that it causes is sometimes irreparable. May Allah protect us. These things I'm telling you are happening every day, every week. I get new stories.

So what did we say? Inni kuntu minal-zalimin — it requires humility and humbleness from a human being. Now, you have the du'a of Rasulullah sallallahu alayhi wasallam. What is he saying?

"Oh Allah, You know my inner life and my outer life. Nothing from my affairs is hidden from You. And I am the one who is in need, the poor, the one beseeching help, the fearful, the worried, the one confessing and acknowledging his sins. I ask You the way a beggar asks. And I beseech You for Your help the way a disgraced sinner and criminal begs for help. And I call out to You the way a trembling, scared, blind man who is lost calls out for help — the calling out of a man whose neck is bowed in front of You, whose body is trembling out of humility in front of You, whose tears are rolling down in front of You, whose nose is pressed to the ground humbling himself in front of You. Oh Allah, do not make me deprived and do not make me wretched in this du'a. O the best of those who are asked and the best of those who give."

This du'a was made at the time of the conquest of Makkah — the happiest, most joyous occasion of his life probably, right? Entering as a victor into Makkah. But look at the level of humility. Could you ever in a hundred years guess that this du'a was made at that time — when everything is going the way you would ever want, and the world is at your feet, and people now realize they were wrong and are begging for their lives to be spared? And now he makes this du'a. Look at the humility. What sin is he speaking about? What sinful, disgraced criminal is he? But look at the humility that is just pouring out from Rasulullah sallallahu alayhi wasallam's tongue and from his heart.

When you read that, you realize the biggest sin for us probably is the fact that we're not even humble. Like we make so many mistakes and we really have the audacity to walk around like we own the place. And imagine how upsetting that is. When you know someone — your son, daughter, or someone else — makes a mistake and they just walk right by you. That audacity makes you more upset than the mistake that they did. Imagine, subhanAllah, if you look at ourselves — with what audacity we all lead our lives every day? Where is the humility and humbleness in front of Allah? Where is the genuine feeling of appreciation: "Allah, I can't believe I haven't been destroyed yet — I've been burnt to death by some natural disaster because of the way I have sinned." These words are for myself first and foremost.

And for all of us to reflect and to think that we have really disobeyed Allah. Because sometimes a person thinks, "Yeah, I'm pretty good. I don't need to really humble myself. I'll just ask Allah for things. What do I need to sit there and really humble myself and say, Allah, I'm this sinner and that sinner? I'm not that bad — I haven't really killed anyone." SubhanAllah — what did Nabi sallallahu alayhi wasallam do? But look — if you know who you're dealing with, if you know who Allah is, you'll realize that a million years' worth of sajdah is nothing.

That's why it comes in hadith — on the Day of Judgment, when a man will see Allah's greatness, will see his Jannah, will see his Jahannam, will see His Throne — if a man were to have worshipped Allah in the state of sujood for his entire life, from the time he was born until the time of his death — the Prophet sallallahu alayhi wasallam said:

(Referenced in various compilations of hadith on the Day of Judgment; see Sunan Ibn Majah, Hadith 4338)

"That on the Day of Judgment, a person will regard even that action as insignificant." This is not going to help me today. So now let's take our own lives — how does that line up with 70 years of sajdah? Not even a millionth of that. So how can a person feel content that he has done something? We should simply be thankful that Allah is allowing us to even sit here, allowing us to even hear or share these words. And then say: "Allah, I know this — there's nothing new — but I kept on sitting, I've been sitting, and You have been continuously being forbearing and patient with me. And for that I can't thank you enough. But now I beg You that I am going to acknowledge — I am a sinner. I am a disgraced sinner. I am a runaway slave who has decided to come back."

And the biggest thing is: I haven't even recognized how weak I am, how sinful I am. I haven't recognized how many rights of Yours I have usurped. I haven't recognized the level of audacity and arrogance with which I have led my life. When a person is reminded about akhira, when a person is reminded about Allah, and he thinks and brings in as a proof something about, "Oh I have this appointment, I have this dunya thing." What are we talking about? Like seriously, you have Allah's command waiting for it to be fulfilled. And then a person keeps on bringing in: my relatives, my family, my dunya, my dunya, my things. This is the audacity — that a person eats Allah's rizq, walks on Allah's earth, enjoys Allah's sun, enjoys the rivers and the oceans that have been created by Allah. Every single thing, top to bottom — we are dripping, drowning in Allah's blessings. And then حَيَّ عَلَى الصَّلَاةِ، حَيَّ عَلَى الْفَلَاحِ is called out — and a person says, "I don't have time for that." So this is what Allah wants to hear from us: Tawheed, Tasbeeh, and I'tiraf — the oneness of Allah, glorifying Allah, and then lastly, acknowledging our own mistakes.

The Promise: Allah Delivers the Believers

When a person does that, what will happen?

"We answered him, eventually. And we delivered him from the great anguish. What could be greater anguish than this? Three layers of darkness. And even so do we ever deliver the believers." This ayah gives us hope. This ayah is telling us — that's why Nabi sallallahu alayhi wasallam has mentioned in hadith, that whoever is going through a difficulty should hold on to this du'a.

This is one of the famous du'as narrated from Rasulullah sallallahu alayhi wasallam — "O the All-Living, O the Self-Subsisting, the one who runs the universe — I beg You in the name of Your mercy."

So, if you remember last week, I talked about how the du'a of Ayyub alayhi salam and the du'a of Yunus alayhi salam — we're not even saying much. We're just saying we're sinful. We're not saying give me this, give me this, give me this. What we're basically saying is that whatever difficulty I'm going through, it's because of my sins. And so I don't have the guts to ask You for anything right now. I'm just asking You to forgive me for the mistakes I have made. And if I can get that record cleared, then everything else will happen.

It's like something that's trapped in and doesn't allow the water to flow when you have a pipe blocked. What do you need to do? You don't keep on just pouring things in there. You need to remove that gunk. Our sins are that gunk which doesn't allow the blessings of Allah to come upon us. When you remove that gunk, you don't need to do anything after that — it'll be free-flowing. But we need to focus on removal of that gunk. And that's what this du'a and the previous du'a was teaching us.

"Ya Allah, You are the Most Merciful — I'm in trouble, I'm in trouble." So here: blaming ourselves for our problems. Yes. Don't blame other people for our issues — blame ourselves. All the time. Remember we said that one of the Tabi'een — he would come home and find his children or his spouse disobedient to him, and immediately he would think about his actions: "Which sunnah or mustahab act did I leave out today because of which Allah is punishing me?" And then he'd go outside and grab his camel, and if the camel was not listening and was becoming stubborn, again he would say: "Which order of Allah did I mistakenly leave out, which Allah is now giving me a taste of my own medicine about?"

So that's how the pious are — that when they have problems in their lives, they don't blame other people. They start always taking the blame themselves. They say, "My relationship with Allah subhanahu wa ta'ala is probably messed up. That's why this is happening." This is a very important point I'm making here. Imagine if all of us were to start thinking: "My relationship with my spouse is messed up probably because my relationship with Allah is weak." Yeah, we have problems, we're fighting, we're talking, there's a... Okay — to how many hours do you spend screaming at each other, hours with lawyers, hours with in-laws? Out of all those hours, how many minutes are we on the musalla? If you say zero minutes — I barely even pray fard — then how can you not realize that what you're going through is a punishment for these mistakes? If someone says, "How do I know it's a punishment?" Well, if it's not taking you to the musalla and making you cry, you know it is a problem.

So when we go through issues at home, domestic issues, etc. — the first thing a person should do, instead of doing a blame game on each other, is to say, "No, this is probably because of my own mistakes. And if I come right, then Allah subhanahu wa ta'ala will make the things at home right." So wa kadhalika nunjil mu'mineen is a message to every one of us — that you may find yourself in the mouth of a whale right now, probably not, but it may seem like that to you.

Practical Prescriptions: Du'a, Istighfar, and Salawat

Hold on to this du'a. Number two is istighfar. Rasulullah sallallahu alayhi wasallam said:

(Sunan Abu Dawud, Hadith 1518)

"Whoever holds on to istighfar, Allah subhanahu wa ta'ala will make an opening, faraj, out of every hamm — every worry, Allah will make a way out. And from every constricted place you find yourself in, Allah will get you an exit. And Allah will provide you from places where you cannot imagine." So if you're having financial issues, or you are suffering from some sort of depression, sadness, or just very worried about a specific situation you're faced with — tons and tons of istighfar.

And the third thing is salawat upon the Prophet sallallahu alayhi wasallam. He said:

(Sunan al-Nasa'i, Hadith 1297)

Whoever does salawat consistently will receive two blessings: your worries will be taken care of, and your sins will be forgiven. So this is something we should make a habit of. لَا إِلَٰهَ إِلَّا أَنتَ سُبْحَانَكَ — a hundred times, five hundred times. It's depending on how bad of a situation you're in. Do it until you feel like your issue has been resolved.

You know, right before today, I always bear bad news — I want to bear some good news also. SubhanAllah. There is a situation I was very perplexed and sad about, of a family falling apart. And subhanAllah, as always — what we've learned from our teachers, what we learned from our tafsir dars — is to tell people that instead of fighting with one another, instead of blaming one another and going on smear campaigns, just turn to Allah. And ask Allah subhanahu wa ta'ala to remove whatever problems you're going through. And with just one amrakun, Allah just makes His irada and everything will sort out. But the thing is, people don't believe the power of du'a. They just don't get it. They don't understand how powerful a'mal are. "No matter what, so-and-so is never going to change." Stop saying that. Your husband or wife, if you're having problems with, or your child having problems with, or your parents having problems with, or your business partner — can you tell me it's a worse situation than what Yunus alayhi salam found himself in? No.

But when you have hope and you make tons and tons of du'a, it may take a year, it may take two years, it may take half a year — whatever it is. But eventually you will see, if Allah wills, things will just miraculously change. And you'll be sitting there scratching your head: "How did this happen?" Just like Yunus alayhi salam — how did I live inside there for so long? There you go. Allah will get you out. And it was very happy to hear the good news of improvement of something which people on both sides said, "No, this will never improve. It's gone. Because he's evil. She's evil." But no one's evil. InshaAllah everyone's good. InshaAllah everyone's got good intentions. But we all have a nafs and a shaytan. So that nafs and shaytan needs to be curbed. And we need Allah's help.

We can't fist-fight Shaytan, right? Even Khabib can't take him on. No one can take him on. That's why Nabi sallallahu alayhi wasallam said:

"The strong person is not the one who just tackles someone to the ground. The strong person is the one who can control himself at the time of anger." What is he controlling? His nafs — and Shaytan. Shaytan comes and puts fire in you. The one who can control himself against the attack of Shaytan — that means he's got the help of Allah. That's why hats off to you. Because you got Allah's help. Otherwise you will never be able to control your anger. When you say:

...to control anger — what are you doing? You're asking Allah's protection from this attack of Shaytan who is making you angry. Because you cannot fight Shaytan yourself. Never. No one can. You can only, as I said, metaphorically speaking, hide behind Allah. That's it. That's what you ask — "A'udhu billah — ya Allah, please give me shelter from this evil creation of Yours."

So if we blame our issues upon Shaytan, and then beg Allah and do a'mal to remove this Shaytan that creates fights between us, the world will be completely different. Your world will be completely different. For all the hours of frustration that have built up in our hearts against someone — against our spouse, against our business partner, against our loved one — just think: they were good for 10 years, man. What happened to them all of a sudden? How do you change overnight like this? Someone who is so close to you, how? Were they seriously such a conniving munafiq for 10 years? No man, I don't think so. Are there some cases like that? Yeah, there are some cases. Which Allah calls شَيَاطِينَ الْإِنسِ وَالْجِنِّ — Allah says there are some shaytans within human beings. So unless this person was a shaytan from the human beings — which only Allah knows, we don't know — most people are not that evil. The ones you and I interact with in our marriages, the ones you interact with in our families — inshaAllah most of them are not that evil. But it's the Shaytan that comes and makes them into this monster. So instead of fighting them, you take Allah's help to fight that Shaytan. And once the Shaytan will get out of that relationship, you will see everything will go back — not even just back to normal — better than what it was.

As the Qur'an says, repel evil with goodness. And then Allah says:

"All of a sudden, the one whom you had massive enmity with — ka'annahu waliyyun hameem — he will become like an absolute friend." Wali is not just a friend — wali is friend, good enough. But Allah added the word Hameem. If you remember Hameem? Hameem — hammam. What is hammam? Bathhouse. Hammam is a place where you get hot water. Hameem is hot water. What is the connection between this friend and hot water? Hameem is hot water — when you take hot water, what happens to your face? Your face becomes red. You get hot. So similarly, this friend doesn't just become a good friend. The one who hated you — when you repel evil with goodness, and you make sabr, and you make du'a — he will become such a friend that if anyone says anything against you or about you that is not right, even in your absence, he will get angry and his face will become red. SubhanAllah. His face will become red in anger to defend your honor. "How dare you attack my friend like this?" And that same guy was once a big enemy. Allah says this in the Qur'an — that's the miracle that Allah does.

Stop hating people. If someone gets divorced, okay, it's not the end of the world. It was never meant to happen. But you cannot sit there and carry this grudge your whole life. If a business partnership didn't work, okay, it's fine. Move on. Just as Yusuf alayhi salam said: "Shaytan came and instigated a fight between my brothers and I" — and leave it at that. Move on. Ask Allah subhanahu wa ta'ala for help. Do whatever du'as you want, but don't harbor grudges against people. This is what we're learning from here.

Returning to the Story of Zakariyya

Similar du'a — Zakariyya alayhi salam made. He didn't have any children. A person may not have any money. A person may not have a spouse. A person may not have a child. All these cases — he just said, "Ya Allah, please don't leave me alone." And Allah subhanahu wa ta'ala says: "There you go, we answered him." Again, istajabnalah is such a powerful word. It keeps on coming on this page — that we immediately answered him. And then Allah subhanahu wa ta'ala says, "We granted him Yahya."

"And We set his wife aright for him." There are two tafsirs here. One tafsir is that aslahna means that although she didn't have children and was barren, Allah subhanahu wa ta'ala made her fertile and able to carry a baby. And another tafsir is that she did not have good character, and due to his du'a, Allah jalla jalaluhu improved and changed her character.

And so Imam Sha'rani rahimahullah mentions:

"I recognize my status in the eyes of Allah by the character of my wife." And he says that maybe Allah subhanahu wa ta'ala, due to his own mistakes sometimes, will make his spouse harsh-tongued and difficult to deal with. But when his relationship with Allah becomes right, then Allah will become pleased with him, and Allah subhanahu wa ta'ala will make his spouse also very kind and nice. So let's think about that as well — for wives who complain about their husbands, or husbands who complain about their wives. Work on our relationship with Allah, and Allah azza wa jal insha'Allah will improve that.

Racing Towards Good Deeds: The Balance of Hope and Fear

All of these prophets were racing towards good deeds. Allah says:

"Run towards the forgiveness of your Lord." So what does that mean? When it comes to good deeds, let's not take our sweet time. If you have an opportunity, jump on that opportunity. Because the time is very little, and we don't know when we're going to be called back. And all of these prophets — although they were prophets — yet look at that: they begged Allah out of fear also, and out of hope. We have to have this balance — both hope in Allah's gifts and treasures in Jannah, but don't become too relaxed. Don't put your guard down and say, "Everything is fine, my name is written already in my palace in Jannah." No — you have to always also have the fear: "What if my deeds don't get accepted? What if I don't have a good ending?" So there's gotta be the balance between hope and fear.

"Whoever is hopeful to meet their Lord, then make sure you start doing good deeds." Don't say, "I want to meet Allah, I'm excited to go to Allah," and you don't do any good deeds to back it up. That makes no sense. If you're really excited — "I love Allah, I want to meet Him" — then our actions need to speak louder than our words. It's nice to be poetic. Sounds cool. But if the actions don't match up, then this is just something random that a person is saying. "And make sure you don't commit any type of shirk."

Then Allah mentions the story of Maryam radiallahu anha, where Allah subhanahu wa ta'ala miraculously granted her Isa alayhi salam. And we will inshaAllah continue the story of Maryam from next week insha'Allah.

Q&A Session

On the Stories of the Qur'an Lacking Details

So what I'm talking about is the story of, for example, the people of the cave or the story of Yunus alayhi salam — Allah subhanahu wa ta'ala gives us the main points to focus on. Yes, if there is a hadith to explain the background context, of course that's there. But exactly what type of whale was it? What was Yunus alayhi salam wearing when he jumped? How many people were on the boat? What ethnicity were the people on the boat? What was his last meal? These are things that have no relevance. It makes the story nice and juicy and interesting, but that will cover up the main focus of the story — which is: no matter what situation you're in, no matter how bad it may be, when you think everything is falling apart, make sure you never give up beseeching Allah's help, asking Allah's help. And Allah will get you out of that mess.

On the Concept of Original Sin

We definitely do consider ourselves as sinners, but we do not consider ourselves to be born with sin. We're born sinless. But every single day, we are making mistakes. So it is incorrect to say Muslims don't think of themselves to be sinful. That is why we have such an abundance of istighfar. Why are we supposed to do istighfar? Why does Nabi sallallahu alayhi wasallam himself say, "I would do more than seventy times istighfar every day?" If the Prophet sallallahu alayhi wasallam is teaching us that he himself is doing istighfar more than seventy times a day — and you can imagine one istighfar of his, the power of that, the quality of that — our seven generations in both directions put together cannot equal to that one istighfar. Imagine him doing istighfar like that every single day. So definitely, this is what we've been taught: that we need to make istighfar part of our daily routine and cultivate humility and humbleness.

On Sins and Their Effects

Question: If a person sins but does not see any effect of it for years, can those sins that happened years ago bring hardship in their life in the future?

If a person repented from those past sins, insha'Allah let's be hopeful that the effect of that will not come. But it may happen. Our goal should be that we keep on repenting regularly, and insha'Allah Allah will protect us from the evil effects of that.

Question: Does Allah remove blessings in a person's life because of a sin they committed? How can one regain the blessings back?

Yes, it is possible that a person gets deprived of blessings. Rasulullah sallallahu alayhi wasallam said, "Indeed a person may get deprived of rizq because of bi dhanbin yusibuhu — because of a sin he has committed." So yes — how do you get blessings back? By continuously repenting from mistakes. Istighfar — make a habit every day, as much istighfar as possible.

On the Du'a Mentioned

The du'a is:

This du'a is also found in both Al-Hizbul A'zam and Munajat Maqbool — the two du'a books that I always promote to all of us to make a habit of reading through. I have a collection of Rasulullah sallallahu alayhi wasallam's du'as — Al-Hizbul A'zam and Munajat Maqbool (Accepted Whispers). You probably have it at your home. It's available in the bookstore. This du'a is found in there as well.

On Taking Photos and Videos During Umrah

Question: What is the proper etiquette of performing Umrah? We see many people taking videos, photos, and going on Facebook Live while visiting Madinah and Makkah.

No — Facebook Live is not the way to perform Umrah or any of these things. It's as if going live on Facebook is one extra rukun of Umrah — if not Facebook Live, then at least a status update. So this is the fitna of the era, unfortunately — we're just following what everyone else is doing. Allah needs to know you came there. Not the world. So I mean, I speak about this usually in the Umrah seminars. All those who are going now, be careful. Just make a habit of resisting it. It's so sad — the adhan gets called in the haram, and all of a sudden you'll see thousands of lights turn on. Everyone's phone comes out and they all start videotaping. When you can actually just go onto YouTube and see some high-quality recording — there's continuous live broadcasting from the haram. You don't need to even waste your phone memory taking that. Who are you going to send it to? You think no one saw the haram before? For what? So those who are going for Umrah, please make a commitment to yourself that you're not going to be taking videos of this stuff. InshaaAllah.

MashaAllah, a lot of questions — but due to the time, let us insha'Allah perform the dhikr and du'a, and come back next week and ask again insha'Allah. We'll try to get through them. And if there are some real serious fiqh questions, we have a Darul Iftaa here, and you can send your questions to the Darul Iftaa at masjidds.org/question. If you've got any major issues that you need the muftis to give their opinion on or a ruling on, please utilize that site.