Surah Furqan - Ep.7 | Mufti Azeemuddin Ahmed

Opening Du'a

In the name of Allah, the Most Gracious, the Most Merciful. O Allah, send blessings and peace upon our Master Muhammad and upon the family of our Master Muhammad. Blessings and peace be upon you.

O Allah, open my heart and ease my affairs. Release the knot from my tongue so that my words remain. Glory be to You, there is no knowledge for us but what You have taught us.

O Allah, teach us what benefits us and benefit us with what You have taught us. And increase us in knowledge and action. O Allah, enlighten our hearts with Your knowledge. And use our bodies for Your obedience. And guide us to what You love and are pleased with.

The Exam Hall Analogy: Regret on the Day of Judgment

Imagine an exam hall. You're reviewing something. You had memorized last night an answer. And then this question comes up. You hear two guys speaking to each other. And you're like, no, it's not like that. But they're like, no, no, no, trust me, this is what it is. Sure enough, that question comes up. And you leave what you had memorized and prepared throughout the weeks before the exam. And what someone just told you as you entered the exam hall — that's what you wrote. Only to find out what they said was wrong.

That stings you much more. So this is the fact that when a person goes on to the Day of Judgment and he sees he's made a mistake, naturally there's no turning back. It's not an exam of this dunya. It's akhira. It is a major problem. There's no method of recourse. There's no way to try to find any silver lining. There is no silver lining here at all.

So at that time, it's already remorse and sadness. But then when a person realizes that I was on the right path — but someone decided to mislead me. Someone decided to take me the other way when I was already on the right path. That is subhanAllah — that is the really painful part when a person realizes that I was there on the right path. But then unfortunately, as we talked about last week, misery loves company. So they decided to mislead. And this is what exactly is happening in this passage of the Qur'an.

'Uqbah ibn Abi Mu'ayt and Umayyah ibn Khalaf

A person was on the right path. As you remember the story of 'Uqbah ibn Abi Mu'ayt and Umayyah ibn Khalaf. He decided to say the kalimah shahada because he wanted Rasulullah ﷺ to eat at his home. And after he did that, his friend comes and says, "I can't believe it. Sabota. How dare you went against the message. How dare you went against our forefathers. How dare you became a Muslim and turned your back to paganism. Unacceptable."

And he says, "Okay, I was just joking. Just relax. It was just for Muhammad ﷺ to get into my house to eat. Because I didn't want to have to face the repercussion of having a guest walk away from my house without eating." For the Arabs at that time, this was a huge, huge slap in the face — that a guest walk away from your house without eating. Unbelievable. So he didn't want to face that shame from his community.

He may have actually accepted Islam. But Umayyah ibn Khalaf, as you remember from last week, said to him: "No, I don't accept that. I'm not going to let you go so easy. Until you go to where Rasulullah ﷺ is sitting, say I don't believe in you, and spit in his face — I'm not going to let you go." And this individual, just to appease his friend, went ahead and did exactly what Umayyah ibn Khalaf asked him to do. Although he apparently accepted Islam, he went to Dar al-Arqam or Dar al-Nadwa, and he spat in Rasulullah ﷺ's face and said, "I have nothing to do with you."

So this man, who was already on the right path — and on the Day of Judgment, this is what he will realize. So Allah mentions that he will be not chewing his fingernails, not chewing his fingertips — not even one hand — both hands. He will be chewing and biting both of his hands. Something we haven't really seen here in the world. Maybe someone in a mental asylum, possibly. But usually we've never seen this type of scene, where a person is chomping down on his two hands. But this tells you the level of depression, the level of anxiety, the level of stress, and the level of guilt. How did I end up listening to someone?

The Cry of Regret: "If Only I Had Followed the Messenger"

Beloved friends, this is such a powerful ayah for us to reflect the whole hour, if we wanted to. Today, just on this portion of the verse:

"If only I had taken a path to salvation together with the Messenger." If only I did not follow my friend, who misled me, who in reality was my greatest enemy. If only I had decided to stick around with the Prophet ﷺ.

If you remember last week, I mentioned that مَعَ الرَّسُولِ has been mentioned first — "if only I had stayed مَعَ الرَّسُولِ, with the Messenger, سَبِيلًا, on his path." If only I had taken upon myself to stay in the company of the Prophet, and سَبِيلًا — more so his message.

The ulema of tafsir say that how مَعَ الرَّسُولِ has been mentioned first here — that it's more important than anything else — is the individual. More than anything else. Not سَبِيلًا; path comes afterwards. So the madrasah is great, but more important than the madrasah is the teacher. The masjid is great, more important than any place of prayer is the people within it. The school is great, but more important than that are the classmates that you have there. The institution that you are going to, the buildings and all those things are great. Your umrah and hajj is great, but — who are you going with? That makes a difference. Who are the people? Very important.

The Importance of the Right Company in Religious Tourism

People are excited about attending what we call nowadays "religious tourism" all over the world. And subhanAllah, people go, but what do they get when they go there? Besides taking pictures and coming back and posting it somewhere. If you want to get something out of your religious tourism trip — be it to Palestine, be it to anywhere else, including the harameen — unfortunately I have to use this word, but it's become religious tourism as well. It's very important that we are connected with the right people, who will ensure that our umrah trip doesn't just become another vacation, doesn't just become another religious tourism, doesn't become another family trip, vacation, or a business trip. Rather, at every step, we are being guided to what we need to see.

For example, you're in this masjid right now. Many of you have been coming here for 10 years, since the masjid opened. But you might have never had a tour. Honestly, if I were to give you a tour, you would start seeing things in this masjid that you have completely taken for granted, never noticed — attention to detail, just in this prayer hall, of exactly what elements are here. And it would give you an extremely higher level of appreciation for where you're sitting. Even if you come for 10 years, if you don't have someone pointing it out to you, you'll never see it. And you won't understand the depth and the history behind that.

Let's talk about something far more important than that — not the history of calligraphy, but rather the spiritual dimensions of Mecca and Medina. Spiritual dimensions of Baitul Maqdis. Spiritual dimensions of the seat of the Ottoman Empire, Istanbul, or anywhere else where the Muslims ruled. There are so many important aspects where a person can derive lessons and benefit from, if you have a right guide.

I was mentioning to some of the brothers over the past summer, when I had a chance to visit Turkey — not my first, not my second, I've gone before. But this time, alhamdulillah, I had the company of my murabbi, my teacher, my sheikh, with me. And in each place that we visited, it was something I not only benefited from — for example, visiting Jalaluddin Rumi's grave and his whole mazar and his place of rest. Because I was in the right company of the people who could allow me to see and focus on the spiritual dimensions of that place, it was powerful.

At the same time, I was just thinking — if I didn't have someone like him, and another knowledgeable scholar who was with me from Turkey, local — how I would have completely missed the whole point. And like hundreds and thousands who come every week visiting these places, they walk away thinking that they have visited something and are so inspired by their tour, but they've completely missed the point. You're not here to come look at what others are doing. You're not here to come look at the various things that are there for sale. You're not here to, alhamdulillah, listen to the music that's being played near his grave.

You're here to genuinely focus on Allah's mercy that is descending on His pious people. Whether they're alive or they're dead, Allah's mercy is attached to His pious righteous people. Who thinks along those lines? That when you're visiting a place where a waliullah is resting, there are angels present, there is a rahmah of Allah there. And when you come there — these are things you can't see with your eyes, you can't feel with your hands, you cannot taste, you cannot smell — but your heart needs to know how to interact with that. You need a guide for that who is well-versed in the metaphysics and who can guide you to be able to see what no one else can see. And so it's so important to have, in every field, the expert of that field.

Applying This Ayah to Our Era

And so on the Day of Judgment, what a person will be thinking at that time will be: I wish I was with the Rasul ﷺ. So the scholars of tafsir are saying — yes, how do we apply this ayah to our era? Yes, we don't have the Prophet of Allah with us. But if a person doesn't follow the deen now, he's not going to be sad that why didn't he go shake hands with the Prophet ﷺ — the Prophet ﷺ was never here for him to shake his hands. But what he is going to feel guilty about is: why did he not connect himself with those who are connected with the connected ones, who are connected back to the Prophet ﷺ? The awliya are right around us. But if a person decides to turn his back to that and go find someone who is famous only — someone who's got a lot of likes online, a lot of views online — and focus his whole deen on a popularity contest, whoever is more famous, that's where I'm going to take my deen — then on the Day of Judgment he'll suffer. Honestly, he'll suffer. Because he's made a major mistake.

The Fitna of Online Influencers and Commercialized Deen

We've talked about this before and I'm talking about it again because it is spread across our whole community. We have a very big fitna of influencers. And the youth and the young adults are very well aware of this. They are hired to obviously promote a certain shoe brand, they're hired to promote a certain cupcake, they're hired to promote clothing and so forth. But when influencers start taking on a particular part of the deen, that's where it becomes scary. That when deen becomes a commodity that you market, deen becomes a commodity that you sell, deen becomes a commodity that you simply attract people to in order to get more purchases and more customers — and you use influencers through that — that's very scary.

What is, for you and I as married men — and hopefully soon-to-be married other men who are of that age — what does a wife mean to us? What is imra'ah? What is our 'awrah? In Urdu we say aurat. In Arabic 'awrah means satr — something which is protected. This is something very private to us. This is our prized gift of Allah that we are supposed to put anything and everything in order to protect her. That's what the Prophet ﷺ said:

(Sunan Abu Dawud, Hadith 4772; Sunan al-Tirmidhi, Hadith 1421)

Whoever gets killed protecting his home — he's a martyr. Do you know that? If you get killed protecting your house, someone's attacking your home, you're trying to protect your wife, you're trying to protect your kids, you die — you die as a martyr. Because the protection of our home and those who live in our home is something extremely important in our deen.

So someone as valuable as someone's wife — imagine someone who's trying to speak about Islam, throws hadith out there, Qur'anic verses out there, dresses in the so-called sunnah. But then in order to get likes — because that's what the people want — you have your nicely, beautifully dressed wife with all her makeup, and now you're sitting there making every single day short clips of romantic back-and-forth between you and her. For the world to see. Because that's what gets the likes. The type of stuff that should happen behind closed doors. But subhanAllah, we've lost our wits that we've brought it out onto the social media world. 700,000 views, a million views, 3 million views.

I want the adults to understand, who don't — who've been safe from this fitnah — that imagine every single day, husband and wife sitting there putting on makeup, putting on different special types of clothes, writing out a whole script: "How are we going to act romantic today? How are we going to act funny today?" Set up the camera, set up a crew, and then post it on there. And then at the end, promote a certain XYZ product. "Islamic product." Take these Arabic classes. Donate to this masjid. Go on for umrah. XYZ. This is what's happening — the whole deen has become commercialized.

And the thing is, those who are doing it — may Allah guide them. But the rest of us — what's happened to us? Have we lost our wits? Why is it that we fall for these type of things? And we press click, "let's watch this one, let's watch this one." And at the end, actually think that the product that they're promoting is something worthy. In your heart you'd say, "This is the last thing I should go towards" — if it's been promoted by someone who is using deen to sell a product.

Remember this: Islamic garb has become a bait. The tasbih is a bait. This is a whole phenomenon. We know of some of the biggest swindlers in our community and beyond. Some of the biggest scam artists out there — what do they use? They've used a beard. They've used a thobe. They've used a topi to run Ponzi schemes in the millions. They've done it not once, they've done it multiple times. Because average people say, "Oh, this guy has a beard, he prays in the front row, he sits in the tafsir, he sits in dars — he must be a legit guy."

There are loads of people across the globe who use certain types of fake personas and fake characters to be able to sell a product, to be able to gain investments — Allah forbid — or to be able to get loans. All sorts of things. We have to be aware of falling into that trap.

We have to understand that Rasulullah ﷺ said: "du'at 'ala abwabi jahannam" — that towards the end of times there will be people who will be du'at, there will be callers, there will be inviters, there will be da'i — plural du'at — there will be inviters at the doors of Jahannam. They will never tell you, "I'm inviting you to Jahannam." They will be inviting towards a new type of deen. They'll be inviting to a whole new type of deen that has nothing to do with our Nabi ﷺ. Nothing to do with Allah and His Rasul. But it pays them well. It suits them well.

I remember some of our mashayikh — they get upset. They say someone has nur on his face. He said, "Who are you to even be able to see someone's got nur? Have you got something?" Nur is not putting on Vaseline or a fairness cream on your face. Nur is completely something at the next level that a person has to have nur to be able to see that. That is not cream on the face. That is not a special lens or a special filter on Instagram that makes it nur.

A Warning on Guarding the Gaze

Boys looking at a girl's videos. Girls staring at young men's videos. Everyone, subhanAllah, is thinking that I'm getting the deen. Honestly, this is a subhanAllah tangent. But let me tell you one thing: one very big problem we have across the globe — the LGBTQ fitnah. Do not think that this is not completely seeped into our environment. It has. And there are people who have been suffering from this quietly before, and there are people who have been suffering from it more openly now.

There was an instance, just to tell you how Iblis plays tricks with us. There was an instance many years ago where I noticed one person was falling into this trap. And you know, this is something that — subhanAllah — a thousand years ago, Imam Ghazali rahmatullahi alayh wrote about. And I'm sure people wrote about it before him as well. That a person should not stare at someone else. He didn't say just don't stare at the opposite gender. He said, any beautiful face — do not stare at them. This is in بداية الهداية as well.

So I remember one time, when I noticed something between one individual and another, I said, "I see you staring too much. This is not good." And a person says, "No, no, it's not." I explained to him, "Listen, you don't understand what you're going through. I know from an external point, as an expert in dealing with these things — these are all the symptoms, and this is what this is. Stop it." So the response I got, subhanAllah — of how تَلْبِيسُ إِبْلِيسَ, how Iblis plays with people — was: "SubhanAllah, there's nur on their face, and by staring at him, I feel my iman increases. And simply calmly looking at the way that person performs salah, it reminds me of the way the sahaba used to pray salah. That's why I want to sit down for minutes, and tens of minutes, staring at someone performing salah."

Look at the way shaitan plays, subhanAllah. That I'm going to stare and look at someone who is absolutely not permissible. And look at how shaitan presented it — "This salah reminds me of the salah of the sahaba." Allahu Akbar. This is what we talk about when a person says, "I'm very attracted to the beautiful words of this female speaker," or "the beautiful hadith that this very young, attractive, charismatic speaker presents." So people are focusing on the picture, focusing on the live stream, focusing on the video, and shaitan genuinely is telling them — and they're actually genuinely falling for it — what are they falling for? They're enjoying something. They think that they're enjoying the dars. Wallahi al-azim, they don't understand what's happening. They're having a lustful attraction without them even realizing it. So instead of every second getting closer to Allah, they're getting closer to shaitan.

Honestly, maybe you've never heard me or anyone else speaking on this topic, but this is what's happening. We're in the thick of it, we're in the battlefield. We deal with this every day. That's why there's a separate field in itself. And there are doctors of this field. Imam Ghazali mentions: do not even look at a rida, do not even look at the garment, the shawl of a lady. If she's walking, or she leaves her shawl somewhere — do not look at the back. These are not perverted ulema of today who've got nothing better to do than think about this and speak about these things. These are the same Ghazalis that we're all excited about. Well, why don't you read this section? Open up Ihya al-Uloom, read the whole section he has on guarding the gaze.

No one wants to speak about it. This is the big herd of elephants in the room. This is the biggest issue of our time — guarding the gaze. Guarding the gaze was a problem, but now we've brought it into Islamic environments, where boys and girls are mixing together, men and women are mixing together — conferences, meetings, and so forth. And a person is constantly being told, "subhanAllah, we have to look at the greater cause."

Forget about that. What our asatidh have told us. Our asatidh have told us — forget about how many people get guided from your talks and your programs. They don't care about that number. You have to worry about your own self. If I as a speaker am speaking, and Allah forbid I am attracted to one sister sitting in front of me — you can walk away saying, "Shaykh, we made tawbah. What a beautiful, powerful talk." But subhanAllah, I am walking back to my home in the wrath of Allah. Because my eyes fell upon someone attractive sitting right in front. And that scene I can't forget. SubhanAllah, I go back in the wrath of Allah. How is this worth it? That is stupidity — that a person ruins his akhira and his dunya in the name of spreading Islam.

The Statement of Mawlana Yusuf Binnori rahmatullahi alayh

I want to read to you Mawlana Yusuf Binnori rahmatullahi alayh's statement. He is the rector and the founder of the Binnori Town Madrasa in Karachi, very famous — where many of my teachers graduated from: Mawlana Shabbir Sahib, Mawlana Alauddin rahmatullahi alayh, Hazrat Mufti Radha taught there for many, many years. Many senior ulama of Pakistan graduated from there. He said — listen to this:

"We Muslims are not tasked by Allah the Exalted to make people into Muslims by whatever means possible. Yes, we are definitely tasked to exert ourselves in conveying the religious message through all lawful means and resources available to us. Islam has instructed us on the honorable ways and etiquettes of preaching, wherever we are commanded to spread the message. It is our responsibility to convey the message while adhering to those boundaries of etiquettes and methodology. If through lawful means and etiquettes of preaching, we are able to guide a single person to commit to the deen, then our preaching is successful. However, if we manage to attract a hundred followers by adopting forbidden means, such success holds no value in the sight of Allah. Preaching that violates the commands of religion is not calling to the religion, but to something else."

SubhanAllah — this is something which I heard. Very important advice. From my own principal, when Mawlana Shabbir Sahib — I had asked him many years ago regarding marketing and different tactics that people use. I asked him, "Hazrat, what do you say about this?" And this is exactly what he told me — the same thing, repeating — because Mawlana Binnori was his ustad. And he said the same thing: that you need to make sure that you stay within the boundaries, because Allah has not made you responsible for guiding the whole ummah. Allah has made you responsible for guiding yourself. That's the most important thing. If you guide yourself and others come with you, great. If not, you're wasting your time.

This idea of تَلْبِيسُ إِبْلِيسَ — where today, shaitan is confusing people, thinking that in the name of deen, what's going on? The same people who are on the right path, but because they're misled by someone online or someone in person — on the Day of Judgment, these people will be crying tears of blood. That, wallah, we were on the right path. But someone said, "Come over here, come, come, come." And we just — because everyone else was going — we went. And now we have to pay the price on the Day of Judgment. May Allah never make us from amongst those people who will be biting our hands and crying, "Ya Allah, what did we do?"

The Command to Be with the Truthful

And what did we talk about today? That find the path of Allah — you will find today, it's still alive:

"O believers, fear Allah and stay with the truthful ones." I was asked this past weekend — I was traveling in the Bay Area, and I had a chance to speak to many students in different universities and masajid and so forth. So many of the students say, "Where do we start?" And I said, this is the ayah you've got to start with.

We need to make sure right now that we focus on finding Ahlullah, Awliyaullah — friends of Allah — such that you say, "If I hold on to this person, I'll be guided to Jannah." And I have mentioned it for the past few weeks: we have, alhamdulillah, some elders and scholars coming, first time to the United States — from amongst them, one is coming all the way from Kashmir, one of the most senior ulema of Kashmir, and one of the most senior ulema of South Africa. Both have spent decades and decades in the service of the greats and the giants. One of them is a direct student of Sheikh Zakariyya al-Kandhlawi rahimahullah. And one is a student of Mufti Mahmood al-Hasan al-Gangohi rahimahullah.

So Mawlana Ibrahim Pandor and Mawlana Rahmatullah Qasmi — they will be here this weekend in Chicago. Right now they're in New York, then they will be coming to Atlanta, then from Atlanta to Chicago, then from Chicago insha'Allah they'll be moving on to Baltimore. So benefit from them whichever city you're in. And if you are listening and you have the ability to come to Chicago, please come — fly in and visit. It'll be well worth your time to have even one hour, half an hour, in the company of the pious.

As we have heard from our elders — a person can sit there and try things out on his own, but if you sit in the company of the ahlullah, literally within 30 minutes, such a level of transfer of spirituality happens that on your own you might take years to get that. Think about it simply: you're stuck on some technical thing of a program. You try the book, Googling, YouTubing — and then you have a person who is an engineer of that IT program, or that database, or whatever the case may be. Within 20 minutes, he can fix your problem and tell you exactly how to take care of it. Because he's an expert. Similarly, when it comes to spirituality, we need the company of ahlullah.

"If Only I Had Not Taken Such a One as My Intimate Friend"

"Woe is me — if only I did not take such a one who disbelieved for an intimate friend." Make sure you watch who you befriend. It's so sad. Because people are following the deen — all of a sudden. I know certain people, for example, who knew no Alif Ba Ta, nothing. They ended up — some students went and grabbed them, brought them here, sat them down one-on-one, taught them Alif Ba Ta, taught them tajwid classes, taught them so much, until such a great level. And then what happened? They ended up meeting someone somewhere. All of a sudden, someone said, "Brother, all those people — they're kafir. All of these people are grave worshippers." And this simple, innocent person — he won't talk. What happened? He ended up being misled by one unfortunate individual.

You think losing $500,000 is a big problem? It is a big problem. But losing your deen is by far a bigger problem. Losing all your hard-earned 401k to a scammer is bad. But losing your deen when you had it, and turning 180 degrees right before you leave this world — that is the worst possible thing. The only one who can save us is Allah.

"Ya Allah, please do not allow me to fall as a victim to people who are misguiding the ummah." This is not some conspiracy theory. This is what Rasulullah ﷺ already has warned us — forewarned us — that before the Day of Judgment, this is going to only increase. He said — and you've heard me say this before — that the thing that he fears for us more than Dajjal is a hypocrite who's got a very wise, sweet tongue — very knowledgeable tongue. Meaning he's a hypocrite, but he knows how to talk. He knows how to mislead people. Nabi ﷺ said, "I fear for you more than Dajjal." Why? Allahu Akbar. Because how many people are going to see Dajjal? Insha'Allah none of us, bi-idhnillah ta'ala. It's coming for a select group of people at the end of times — the highest of all tests. But people like this are going to exist for hundreds of years.

There's always going to be people who are very eloquent, who can quote Qur'an and hadith left and right. Have you ever come across a Qadiani? Have you come across a Shia in school, college? I ask college students — you've come across Shias, you've come across Qadianis — they know more verses than probably anyone sitting here. More verses of the Qur'an than anyone sitting here, memorized. They'll pull out Bukhari for you. And you're sitting there stunned: "Oh my God, I don't know what to do." That's how it is. Do not get impressed by someone who just pulls out Bukhari and the Qur'an. Allah has given you brains. And more important, Allah has given you a heart. Ask yourself: am I being misled?

The Importance of Having a Spiritual GP

This is where having a GP is important. Do not let every single new person who comes be someone you take your deen from. You have one GP — a general practitioner who knows you, your father, your grandfather. He's been seeing all of you. This is exactly how it's supposed to be. You should have one alim and one scholar. And if the scholar has no time to give you advice because he's not approachable, then move on. Find someone who can actually listen to you, who knows your problems, knows your issues, can guide you on your fiqh issues, aqeedah issues, marriage issues, divorce issues, investment issues. And when he doesn't know an answer, you trust that person to give you a referral. From all the specialists out there, he'll say: "This is the person I trust — you go to him." That's exactly what your general practitioner will do.

So in the matters of deen as well — it's very important that we don't just sit there looking online for answers. It's just like asking all our physicians — is it a smart idea to go get medical advice online? No one is going to say yes. In fact, some people are going to go even more sick from it and then come running. The deen is going to be a big problem if we go online searching for answers. So go in person. Find someone that is approachable, that can guide you.

And my beloved brothers, when it comes to fiqh — which is our deen 24x7 — how should I meet my wife? How should I raise my children? How should I earn? All of that is fiqh. There is no such thing as "fiqh doesn't apply here." Someone who says that is truly an ignorant man. Even when you die, it applies. How you're lowered into the grave, it applies. How you throw mud on your body, it applies. What du'a to read at the end, it applies. Even the way your inheritance is distributed after you're dead — that's fiqh. So when you take fiqh from someone, please take it from someone who has actually studied and is an expert in that.

Every scholar is not an expert in fiqh. And within fiqh you have so many different things. Can you go to a podiatrist and ask him to take a look at your eye? Can you go to an ophthalmologist and ask him to look at your nose? You don't do that. There are certain ulema who focus in finance. There are certain ulema who focus in inheritance. There are certain ulema who focus in zakat. There are certain ulema who focus in ibadat. There are certain ulema who focus on the masa'il of women. Find out who has a specific background and experience dealing with those issues. Otherwise, write your question to a reputable darul ifta'. Alhamdulillah, we have multiple in the city and across the country and across the globe in English. They have experts in the darul ifta' for all fields.

I want all of us to start moving towards actually gaining our answers to our questions through reputable sources, instead of just listening to something online. And how do we judge authenticity? By how many views it has. That's wrong. Please walk away from that mentality.

This is more important than any other dars of tafsir — this point I'm telling you: stop taking the deen from online sources, just randomly from anyone who's famous. You're going to destroy your deen. You're going to destroy your akhira. This is why I went off on this whole topic. Because this is what the Qur'an is speaking about. People not having the right guide and having wrong friends is the reason why a person will suffer the most on the Day of Judgment. May Allah protect us.

Three Qualities of a Good Friend

What type of friend should we look for? The Prophet ﷺ said three qualities in one hadith:

(Al-Mu'jam al-Kabir, al-Tabarani; reported with similar wording in various collections of hadith)

Number one: When you see them, you remember Allah. Just by looking at them, you should remember Allah. That's what a friend should be — not the quality of your shaykh only, of course the quality of a shaykh has to be that, but the friend also should be such that if you look at him, you remember Allah.

Number two: When he speaks, your knowledge increases. When he speaks, your knowledge increases.

Number three: When you look at his actions, you remember the Akhira. You remember Allah when you look at his actions. Let me give you an example of this. I was in India 15 years ago, and I was in jamaat, and there was a tall, mashallah, amazing brother with me. He was a doctor — a third-year medical student, maybe. I asked him, "How did you end up here, what's going on?" He told me that the year was ending, and the examiners were coming from a different state. The night before, all the medical students got together and they said, "We have to chip in money to buy gifts for the examiner." He said, "What? I studied the whole year, and you're expecting me to chip in to a gift fund? I'm not going to cheat my way, I'm not going to bribe." They said, "Listen, if you don't pay him, he's not going to pass you." He said, "I don't care. I'm a man of principle, I can't do that."

So he didn't make the payment. The exam happened. And literally, since he didn't pay, the examiner failed him. They made him repeat the entire year. He said, "I had some time, so I came out in jamaat." When you look at an action like that — what does this tell you? His action reminds you of akhira. Why would someone else do that? For 5,000 or 10,000 rupees, you give up a whole year? But you know this man believes in akhira. He doesn't just say it. He walks the walk. This man really believes in akhira. And he says, "I'm not going to give one penny of rishwa, a bribe. I don't care however much I have to be harmed, I'm not going to do it."

These are the people that when you look at their actions, your mind goes to akhira. These are the people we need to be surrounding ourselves with. Let's look at our set of friends. Ask ourselves: do they have these three qualities? Do they remind you of Allah? Do their actions remind you of akhira? When they speak, does your knowledge increase? If they do, alhamdulillah. And if they don't, you've got to move on.

(Sunan Abu Dawud, Hadith 4833; Sunan al-Tirmidhi, Hadith 2378)

"A man follows the deen of his friend. So make sure each and every one of you is careful about who he befriends." If we can just walk away with this piece of advice of Rasulullah ﷺ, we're set. Because our friends are the ones who are going to pull us in one direction or the other. Not ourselves — we're all very weak. We go with the flow. If the flow is a deeni flow, alhamdulillah, we'll be in good shape.

I ask Allah to allow all of us to make the correct decision today — that we search and seek out good friends. And leave toxic friends. Those of you who have kids — search for good girls for your little girls, good boys for your little boys. We cannot just do this for our kids. We have to do this for ourselves. For our wives. For our husbands. Think about which person in the community is a good influence. Invite them over. Allow those interactions to happen on a repeated basis in a pleasant manner, so that the good of each other begins to rub upon one another.

It's the toughest thing for us to do — what 'Uqbah ibn Abi Mu'ayt was not able to do — which is to tell someone, "No, thank you. I'm done. I'm done with your mashwaras. I'm done with your two-cent opinions. Because you're giving me your well-wishing advice based on your perspective. My vision of the world is different from yours. Your opinions are harmful from my point of view. And every single time you keep on pushing your opinions, you're not realizing that you're destroying my akhira." We have to be able to part ways if necessary. Until we don't do that, we're not moving forward.

Being Led Away from the Remembrance

"Very truly this man has led me away from the remembrance — after the remembrance had come to me." That's the saddest part. The Qur'an was in my home. Risalah was in my home. Knowledge was in my home. Everything — I had deen in my house. And this person came along and said, "This is messed up."

So it's very important — you have people out there who deny hadith. Then you have people out there who deny the importance of following a specific school of thought. You have people out there who deny the role that the Fuqaha have played. It just takes one wrong meeting and you can be gone. Then you have of course people out there who don't believe Allah exists as well. So if you sit around too many such people at social gatherings, and you're sitting there sipping your coffee and tea listening to them — and they're very vocal, and you don't have answers — eventually you can be misled.

But if you are confused, ask. Did we ever tell you to remain uneducated? We beg you to come take classes. We beg you to come learn. In class, you have full authority to go back and forth. This is a community dars of tafsir. If you really want to learn, you have to enroll in class. We don't want you to remain ignorant. So if you are confused, and you've been led to confusion by someone out there — please ask. Come say, "I'm confused. This is what I was told. These are all the proofs. This is the fatwa I was shown. This is the book I was given. How do I answer that?" And insha'Allah, someone here will be able to guide you and answer the questions.

Shaytan: The Eternal Backstabber

"For Shaytan has ever been deserting of humankind indeed." خَذُولًا means to backstab you. Shaytan, his job is to be a backstabber. Allah says in Surah Ibrahim:

Shaytan will say — when the decision will be made of who's going to Jannah and who's going to Jahannam — Shaytan will give a bayan, a khutbah: "Indeed, Allah promised you a true promise. And I also promised you — but I broke my promise. I broke it. And I did not have any power over you. Except that I invited you, and you chose to accept my invitation. I never put a gun to your head. I put waswasa, whispered. I sent different little shaytans in the form of human beings to pull you in this direction and that direction. I sent pop-ups, websites, apps, text messages of all different sorts to your phone. You don't have to click any of that. You don't have to watch any of that. You don't have to read any of that. I never forced you. You decided to pick up your hand and press something. You decided to pick up a certain book and read it. You decided to attend a certain event. So do not blame me. Blame yourself." And he will say: "I cannot help you, and you are not going to be able to help me either. Indeed, I have distanced myself from all the friendship and allegiance you had shown me in the dunya. I've got nothing to do with you. Indeed, the oppressors will have a very painful torment."

Do you know what he did in Badr? It comes in the Qur'an:

When the two armies came face to face — the kuffar and the Muslims in Badr — Shaytan was standing there the whole time. He's the one who brought them out. He ran back with his heels, backward. And he said, "I have nothing to do with you all. I absolve myself from all of you. Indeed, I see what you all don't see." He could see the angels — 3,000 or 5,000 angels coming down. Allahu Akbar, what a scene. When one tiny part of a wing of one angel is sufficient to cause havoc throughout all the galaxies — imagine thousands of angels descending. "Indeed, I see what you don't see. Indeed, I fear Allah. And Allah is severe in giving His punishment."

Just think about it — Shaytan actually saw the angels, 3,000 or 5,000, and he even said, "I fear Allah." It's mentioned in the Qur'an. And he himself is saying, "Allah is severe in giving His punishment." But he didn't change. This is a shaytani habit — that a person looks at something and yet he denies it. For one minute he says, "tawbah, tawbah, tawbah, astaghfirullah." And then as soon as that difficulty goes away, we go right back to ourselves. When Allah removes the financial, emotional, or physical difficulty in our life, we forget the tawbah and the thousand promises we made with Allah. And we act like nothing happened. Back to our old self. This is shaytani sifat.

So Allah is saying: وَكَانَ الشَّيْطَٰنُ لِلْإِنسَٰنِ خَذُولًا — Shaytan is a backstabber. His job is to desert people on the Day of Judgment. And this is what all of our shaytani friends are going to do — they are not going to come and help us.

The Complaint of the Prophet ﷺ Regarding the Qur'an

Allah mentions after this that on the Day of Judgment, the Prophet ﷺ will say:

"O my Lord, indeed my people have taken this Qur'an as a thing to be shunned." مَهْجُورًا. Very sad ayah. This is what Rasulullah ﷺ either said before he passed away in this dunya in front of the kuffar — "Ya Allah, this is what's happening today, that these kuffar and my nation, Quraysh, are not accepting my message." That's one opinion. Another opinion is that this will be what Rasulullah ﷺ will be saying on the Day of Judgment — regarding not just the kuffar of Makkah, but anyone who shunned the Qur'an.

Now, what does it mean to shun the Qur'an? To shun the Qur'an is to obviously not believe in it. But to shun the Qur'an is also to say we believe in the Qur'an, but not to recite it. Or to recite it, but not often enough. Some have said the one who does not do at least two khatms in a year has shunned the Qur'an. At least two revisions a year — that is the least we should do, to read through the entire Qur'an minimum twice a year. If not, we're shunning the Qur'an.

Some have said it's not just about reading the Qur'an, even twice or thrice a year or more — it's about understanding the meanings. If a person didn't care about attending one dars of tafsir in his entire life, never picked up a tafsir or tarjumah and read — then he's shunned the Qur'an. He's said, "I don't care."

Imagine your spouse gives you a list and says, "Please, on the way back home, can you stop by the store?" And you come home and say, "Oh, I'm sorry, I just ignored your text." How's that going to feel? Imagine your boss: "You saw the email I sent you on Monday?" "I never got around to opening it." So the Qur'an is not about reading only. It's not about understanding only. It's not about reciting it to others. It's about implementation. And if a person doesn't implement the Qur'an, then he is also included in هِجْرَان. And this is something where we have to all ask Allah for protection.

I remember one day I went to a liquor store next to a masjid — liquor, cigarettes, and lottery. Three things. Busy, packed. When he saw me, the brother knew where I came from. So I said, "Bismillah, Assalamu Alaikum." I started speaking in Arabic. He completed every verse I started. I started some hadith of the Prophet ﷺ — he completed it. In the middle, one lottery ticket — one Qur'anic verse — another hadith — just like that. He said, "I close at 2 a.m. If I come to the masjid, that's when I close." Inna lillahi wa inna ilayhi raji'un. It's not sufficient that a person knows and memorizes things. It's about implementation. That's the key thing.

Imagine you have a sign that says: "High voltage wires. Death imminent if you cross this point." And you, mashallah, read it to your kids, translate it, explain it. And then you move forward and you die. That's exactly what's going to happen. You read the sign, you translated it, you explained it to your kids. But if you don't follow it, how is that going to help? So the Qur'an is not about reading only. It's not about understanding only. It's about implementation.

Three Commitments Regarding the Qur'an

Let us make niyyah. What can we do right now? How do you become a student of the Qur'an?

Number one: Make sure we start reading every single day. Find a tilawat partner. Even if you're a hafidh al-Qur'an, find someone who can listen to your daur, or you can read with, every single day. Because our lifestyle is so fast-paced — and it's nothing to be proud about. It just creates ghafla, heedlessness within us. This is why we should immediately get someone — for ourselves, for our wives, for our children — to have someone to read Qur'an with. If you say, "I don't know how to read" — well, this is the right time. If we don't start now, when? Read al-nazra, read tajwid, alif, ba, ta — no problem. Don't feel shy. You're reading one-on-one. Get started with that.

Number two: Make a point, a commitment, that you will insha'Allah cover to cover — read or listen to the tarjumah and the basic tafsir of the entire Qur'an. This should be the least we can do. That every single day I'll spend some time either listening to the tarjumah and tafsir of the Qur'an or reading. And insha'Allah, in 5, 6, 7, 10, 12 years, we'll get there.

Number three: Tell yourself that when a Qur'anic verse is going to be brought in front of me, I will say:

"I hear and I obey." If I cannot because my nafs is too strong, at least I will not give an excuse. I'll say, "Ya Allah, I know I'm wrong. What the Qur'an says is right. I know You want me to do this. I know that what this person has brought as a verse of the Qur'an against me is correct. Ya Allah, give me the tawfiq and the willpower to listen." But I am not going to become like one of those who acts like I'm right all the time and the Qur'an must be molded according to my life. Let's acknowledge that we're sinful, that we have a big nafs, and we have bad habits that are hard to break. And one day, hopefully soon, we'll change. Insha'Allah — even with that level of honesty with ourselves and humility, we hope Allah will forgive us.

So these three things: reading the Qur'anic text itself; the translation and tafsir; and a commitment to implement the Qur'an in our lives. I ask Allah to make this a reality for all of us, insha'Allah.

Announcements

If you do not get text messages for the tafsir, please take a picture of the tafsir updates. If you do not receive WhatsApp messages for all our programs, including this weekend's Sheikh Ibrahim Pandor's program and all the other amazing programs, alhamdulillah, that are happening here — please take a quick picture of the WhatsApp group here, insha'Allah, and stay connected. All our YouTube lectures from 2013, alhamdulillah, are available — from 2013 since the masjid opened, 10 years ago. So you can listen as a podcast while you're driving, and stay connected, insha'Allah.

As was announced after Maghrib and after Isha, we have a goal of 25 million dhikr salawat until our Seerah conference, which is two weeks away. And alhamdulillah, Allah every single year has allowed us to outdo our goal. By the will of Allah, all of you will help us outdo our goal. Say insha'Allah. That will happen with you, your spouse, your children, your mom and dad, your grandparents — if everyone takes part. So take a bunch of cards on the way out. And those of us who are listening from out of state, please — you can do your own count, or we can mail you a counter, or we can email you the card and you can print it in your own community.

Go deposit your count online at masjidds.org/salawat and collectively be part of the du'a that will be made, insha'Allah, at the Seerah conference.

You may have heard — this year's Seerah conference is very unique, in that we have a parallel sisters' retreat. From A to Z, the entire Seerah conference — from the opening qira'ah till the final du'a — is going to be led by our female teachers and graduates of our seminary program. So it's an amazing opportunity for the women of our community to come and see live, right in front of them, sisters who spent 5, 6, 8, 10 years studying the deen, presenting on topics relevant to our modern day. The sisters' topic is going to be on Rasulullah ﷺ's eternal mercy — his shari'ah being an eternal mercy. And the brothers' topic is going to be the miraculous mu'jizat and miracles of the Prophet ﷺ, his shari'ah and his deen.

Please spread the word. We are trying to make proper arrangements for Saturday night meals and sleeping arrangements for those coming from out of town. We request everyone to register immediately at masjidds.org. If you're listening from online, please ask your local imam to make announcements in Jumu'ah and try to get a group from your community — men, women, and children — to attend the Seerah conference. There are two Muslim-owned hotels across the street with discounted rates, free babysitting, and a parallel children's program. I expect all of you to become ambassadors of this program: October 13th, 14th, and 15th, insha'Allah.

Our ulema are arriving insha'Allah Saturday after Dhuhr at Masjid al-Uthman, then Saturday after Maghrib at Hantli Masjid, Sunday Fajr here at Darus Salam, and then Sunday Dhuhr at Makki Masjid in Chicago, and Sunday Maghrib again back at Darus Salam. Please, we'd love to see you here.

On the way out, as you enjoy chai and wings, please do take the flyers and the salawat cards with you. There is a donation box for salawat outside. Once you've filled out the card — you, your sons, your daughters, your wives, your kids — please come and put it back in the donation box so we can have a count, insha'Allah. Jazakumullah khayran.

Q&A Highlights

Why does Shaytan remain an enemy of Allah despite knowing His might?

This is a legit question. Because of the stubbornness and the arrogance. We say we believe in the Qur'an and Sunnah — do we not? Of course. But then we fall to our nafs and shaitan. We make so many mistakes. So Shaytan — Iblis — at the end of the day, it's his own nafs. His own ego. "I don't want to humble myself." There are people in a marriage who know they made a mistake. Just say, "I'm sorry." But the ego comes in: "I'd rather go for a divorce than acknowledge I'm wrong." I'd rather suffer financially than acknowledge I'm wrong. So this ego is the worst possible thing. Ana — ego kills a person. And that's what Iblis has.

On Taking Islamic Knowledge Online

The issue is not the online platform itself. It's that you don't know what's online. It's like having a personal financial advisor and then going online to find any ad that says "invest with us." Because you don't know what you're getting yourself into. So the online platform is not the problem. The key is to speak to a reputable scholar who you know personally and who knows you personally — someone you are connected to long term. Ask them for advice on what program online would be good for you.

On Recovering from Ill Treatment by a Teacher of Deen

Our allegiance is with Allah and His Rasul ﷺ and the Sahaba radhiAllahu anhum wa jami'in. I said that last week — no one is infallible. Anyone can make a mistake. That's why you don't have blind trust in anyone. You follow the usool. As long as a person is providing within those boundaries, you take from them. But as soon as someone starts overstepping — like saying, "Oh, I'm your sheikh, so you don't have to observe hijab in front of me" — Allah has given you 'aql. Come on, ask yourself: this doesn't make sense. How can my sheikh abrogate the deen?

Mistakes may happen. There's a lot of all sorts of people everywhere — like someone going to the haram and having their slippers stolen. We don't hate the haram for that. We say, that's just what happened to me, and I have to make sabr. And remember — inside the Ka'bah, there were hundreds of idols. Did Rasulullah ﷺ or anyone leave the Ka'bah because of that? No.

Break the idols, clean up the Ka'bah and move on. So we have to learn how to heal. And we have to explain to people that if a doctor, Allah forbid, scammed you and overcharged you or made you do a test that wasn't necessary, you don't give up on the whole profession. There are bad apples in every profession — and so in the matters of deen, there are also bad apples. Tell them: insha'Allah, you'll get reward for the sabr you're doing. But do not blame the deen for this. These are bad actors, bad apples who have done this.

On Obeying Parents Who Prevent You from Following the Deen

It's not as simple as that. But the Qur'an says:

"If your parents force you to commit shirk, then don't follow them — only in shirk, don't follow them. But in everything else besides shirk, act with them in the best possible manner." So even if our parents were to say, "Don't go here, don't go there, don't do this, don't do that" — we have to have the ability, and I know it's not easy, to still respect and love our parents and follow through what they're asking us to do. If someone who is a scholar says something is fardh or sunnah, don't go say, "So-and-so scholar said this is fardh" — because it's not fardh since a scholar said that. It's fardh because Allah and His Rasul have made it so. Continue to try your best to respect your parents' wishes.

On Designing a Weekly Schedule for Qur'an

Try your best to do something slow — small bites, bite size. Tilawah could be literally just 10 minutes. Use one fardh salah — say Fajr or Isha in the masjid, ideally. Connect it with the salah — after salah, this is the time I'm going to sit and read Qur'an. Similarly with your dhikr after another salah. For memorization, just do one to two lines. That's it. Once you've gotten into the habit, you have so many different apps — Tarteel, and all these different ways. You can do it while you're driving, while you're on the subway. One of our ulema here in Chicagoland memorized the entire Qur'an on the subway going to work. Alhamdulillah. So there are ways to do that.

The key thing is: don't jump so high that you fall. Start off with 10-minute intervals. Ten minutes for tilawah, ten minutes for memorization, and maybe ten minutes for dhikr and du'a. That's it. That's more than enough. Insha'Allah. But just remain consistent with it. And that's why you should have a spiritual buddy — every single day you text each other: "Hey, are you done?" Have someone that you look up to or don't want to disappoint. Just text each other every single day. "Alhamdulillah, I'm done. I've completed my dhikr, I've completed my a'mal." And so forth.

Closing Du'a

Ya Allah, we ask You to accept this gathering. O Allah, make this gathering a gathering that the angels speak highly of, ya Allah. O Allah, and that You speak highly of in their presence. O Allah, make every single Tuesday night here a night in which millions of angels descend, and millions of angels look forward to participating here. O Allah, allow those angels to be of special mercy that bring down Your happiness here, ya Allah.

O Allah, make this gathering one in which whoever enters is forgiven, whoever stays is forgiven, whoever leaves is forgiven. O Allah, that whoever comes — ya Allah — hears what they need to hear. And whatever they hear, they are enabled to practice. And whatever the speaker says, he is able to practice. O Allah, make it a gathering of tawfiq, make it a gathering of forgiveness, make it a gathering of change, make it a gathering of Your pleasure, make it a gathering filled with blessings and barakah.

O Allah, whatever is shared and said here — allow the benefits of it, the nur of it, O Allah, to be far-reaching across all continents of the world. O Allah, allow the khair and the barakah to reach the entire globe. O Allah, You are Hadi — You are the Guide, You are all capable. Ya Allah, the way You asked Ibrahim a.s. to stand up and make a call at a time when there was not a single person to respond to his call — O Allah, You asked him to invite people to Your home. And O Allah, that call was heard. Millions and billions of people responded to that call, centuries later, ya Allah. O Allah, allow the calls being made from this masjid — O Allah — to ring true throughout the globe.

O Allah, whatever khair and good happens in this masjid, in any of the conferences, in any of the programs — allow it to bring happiness and a smile to the face of the Prophet ﷺ. Allow it to bring joy and happiness to the heart of the Prophet ﷺ. O Allah, allow it to bring nur to the world in a time of darkness. O Allah, allow it to become a means of removing veils of darkness from across the globe. O Allah, allow it to become a means of giving guidance to those who are searching for guidance.

O Allah, all those who are lost and looking for the nur — allow them to find the nur of iman in these duroos and in all the programs of the madrasa and the masjid. O Allah, You are the Guide. We are sinful. All of us are extremely sinful, small, insignificant servants of Yours. O Allah, we ask You to grant us hidayah. O Allah, turn our hearts in the direction that You want them to. O Allah, allow us to befriend such people who will take us to You. Allow us to find such scholars and righteous people in our lives who will hold our hand and take us to You.

O Allah, we ask You to grant us ikhlas and the friendship of sincere people. O Allah, save us from being misled in the matters of deen or in the matters of dunya. O Allah, we ask You to grant us foresight, basira, to be able to distinguish honest people from dishonest people. O Allah, for us to be able to distinguish those who invite towards the party of Allah from those who invite towards the party of shaitan. O Allah, we ask You to allow us to distinguish what is sunnah from what is bid'ah. O Allah, we ask You to grant us steadfastness on the deen which Rasulullah ﷺ left behind. O Allah, save us from any and all types of innovations in the deen.

O Allah, we are living in very challenging times when every single thing seems to be up for discussion. O Allah, we ask You to grant all of us steadfastness in these difficult times, and grant our children steadfastness in these difficult times. Grant us all the strength to follow the true deen, no matter how difficult it may seem, ya Allah. And allow us to see the rewards of it not only in the hereafter, but in this world as well.

O Allah, reward our parents and our teachers for all their efforts. Ya Allah, become pleased with our parents and teachers. And allow us to become a sadaqah jariyah for them. And if we've lost our parents and teachers, we ask You to fill their graves with nur, and become pleased with them, ya Allah.

O Allah, we ask You to fulfill the needs of all those brothers and sisters who are here. O Allah, those who need to get married — make it easy for them to find the best spouse. O Allah, those who are married — make it easy for them to retain and grow their marriage, ya Allah. O Allah, those who do not have children — grant them righteous, pious progeny. Those who have children — make them dutiful servants of Yours, and dutiful children to their parents.

O Allah, remove all discord between husbands and wives, between parents and children. O Allah, bring sunnah into our lives. Bring sunnah into our homes. O Allah, allow us to remove anything contrary to the sunnah from our homes, our events, our lifestyles. O Allah, grant us all halal rizq filled with barakah. Make it easy for us to guard our gazes, our ears, our hands, our feet, and our minds. O Allah, grant us the ability to guard our tongues.

O Allah, whoever is worried about their debts, worried about their jobs, worried about any other aspect of deen or dunya — make it easy for their worries to be removed. And ya Allah, let khair and barakah pile down over them. O Allah, those who have requested du'a for their loved ones who have passed away, or those who are sick — we ask You to grant all those who have passed away Jannat al-Firdaws and sabr al-jameel to their family members. And those who are sick — grant them all shifa' kamila, 'ajila, mustamirra.

O Allah, make this weekend's programs and the honorable arrival of our honorable mashayikh a source of great barakah for this entire country, this city, and all the masajid that our mashayikh are visiting. Allow all of us to take tremendous benefit from these elders. And allow our elders, ya Allah, to visit us time and again, ya Allah.

O Allah, whatever worry and du'a anyone is making here — who is listening here, who is listening afterwards — O Allah, You know what everyone is worried about, what their specific issues are. We ask You, Allah, through the barakah of the pious amongst us — O Allah, the barakah of the elderly and the innocent young ones amongst us — we ask You to fulfill everyone's needs.

O Allah, all the students who are doing khidmah for this tafsir night — even though they have exams tomorrow — we ask You, Allah, to grant them success in their exams, and reward them. Put barakah in their ilm. Put barakah in their amal. Allow all the students who do khidmah, ya Allah, to grow in every sense of the word, ya Allah. And reward them immensely for all that they do for our community and for the masjid, ya Allah.

Ameen. Wassalamu alaikum warahmatullahi wabarakatuh.