Surah Ta-Ha - Ep.12 | Mufti Azeemuddin Ahmed

Surah Ta-Ha – Episode 12

Come close together, as much as possible. Sisters also, try your best to sit as close as possible. Try not to have any gaps in between. Let us sit with talab, sit with the intention of benefiting tremendously.

And let us turn to Allah, asking Allah to put immense benefit in our sitting here. And allow our sitting here to become a means of our hidayah and guidance — to be able to hear that which we all need in our lives, insha'Allah. Let us take a moment to make this du'a.

The Blessings Upon Bani Israel — Man and Salwa

Allah, in this new story, mentions the blessings upon Bani Israel by saving them from the enemy Fir'aun. And how He had promised them that they would receive the Torah. And He continued to provide them not only spiritual sustenance, but also physical sustenance — for the stomach, for the body — by sending down man' and salwa for free.

Free food, every single day. And not only one course — multi-course, which included dessert. But it's interesting. The Bani Israel habit — and we all have the habit — is that no matter what is given to us, we're always ready to complain. So even though it was for free, without any effort, literally just descending upon them without any work, they said: we want to change the menu. Can we have onions? Can we have some vegetables?

This reminds us of our own discussions at home. Or maybe in the madrasa. Or wherever the youth are. Or wherever anyone — not just youth, anyone who hasn't worked on their nafs — is that whatever is given to them, instead of being thankful and grateful for what Allah, or our parents, or our community, or our madrasa is giving us to eat, a person begins to wish for different things. And the grass is always greener on the other side. We're never happy with what a person is given.

This is a certain type of attitude, a certain type of temperament. And if you don't fix that early on, you'll suffer for the rest of your life. Many times this is what we learn from our teachers — when you go to study in a certain madrasa, you'll always find that certain places have some strengths and some weaknesses. But if you have a habit of focusing on the weaknesses, and you say — as Mawlana Choksi Sahib would say — "Thamma khaira, thamma khaira, waha chai, waha chai" — "over there is better, over there is good" — if you have this habit of always looking on the other side, you will only keep jumping fences all your life. Before you can graze: oh, let me jump over there a little bit. And you won't be able to get anything, because you're always focusing on the weaknesses of where you are and the strengths of somewhere else.

Instead of focusing on the strengths of where Allah has blessed you and the weaknesses of every other place. Why is that important? Because you need to be content with where you are to fully benefit from where you are at.

This starts off in school. Then it moves on all the way to your marriage. If everyone focuses on the weaknesses of their spouse and the strengths of other people out there, then they will never be happy in their marriage. The way to go about it is focusing on the strengths of your spouse and thinking about the weaknesses of anyone else whom shaytan may bring in front of you — saying, "Oh, this would have been a good person to marry," or "Look at how nice their life is." Who becomes unhappy with their marriage? It's the one who keeps focusing on the weaknesses of their spouse or the issues in their marriage, instead of focusing on the beautiful strengths that they have.

So this is a type of crooked mizaj and temperament. It is a disease of the soul where a person does not concentrate and focus on the blessings at hand and is always looking at the blessings of other situations. It is a pessimistic attitude.

So for students who are studying in an institution — this starts off from right now. Focus on the strengths and the blessings that Allah is giving you. We're not in Jannah. If everything were perfect, that means you died, the Day of Judgment is over, and your soul is in paradise — and that has not happened, by the way. So it's not possible that every single thing will be the way you want it to be. There have to be issues. If there are no issues, as I said, you're not living in this world. But we need to know how to navigate around those issues, and the way to handle it is to focus on the blessings and not dwell on the weaknesses.

So Bani Israel — we talk about, "Oh, Bani Israel was like this" — but how are we any different? As the Qur'an says:

The Qur'an, Surah Al-Baqarah, mentions that they wanted vegetables — they wanted onions, basal and baqal and qitha — they wanted cucumber.

The Spiritual Importance of Pure Food

Students will say, "Oh brother, I don't like this burger. I want healthy food. I don't want to eat fast food." Okay, we'll get you some nice daal chawal, or some meat and gravy. And then they won't eat the food. But where did they go? "I went out to eat some fries and get a burger." This is something I've been noticing for over a decade. The issue is not with the food — the issue is with the mizaj, the tarbiyah, and the nafs.

SubhanAllah — whatever is given to you for free, a person doesn't value. Or if a person gets something for a cheap price, they don't value it. What they want is to go eat out. Take that same food, put it outside, and say, "Pay $15." Your mom's vegetables, your mom's daal — put it on a plate, put it out in a restaurant and charge $15 — you see how nice it starts tasting all of a sudden. The problem is not with the food, the problem is with ourselves.

Previously people would say that whatever food is outside is manhoos — it has the germs of the marketplace. It is not pure, it's not clean — not only in terms of external hygiene, but definitely no spiritual hygiene at all. You have people who are not Muslims, people who are not in tahara, who are not in a state of purity, who are surrounded with filth and sins. They've got music playing, they've got all sorts of different things happening, and they're cooking. And obviously not even external hygiene either, because there's no sense of making food tayyib and clean. It's just another customer.

What's cooked at home, with purity, with the cleanliness of the heart, with iman, with dhikr — with our moms and sisters and fathers, and whoever else is cooking, and yourself cooking — is something which is supposed to actually taste so much better. It is. But the issue is not with the food, the issue is the taste buds. If someone says, "I can no longer smell ithar" — it's not that all the ithars of the world have lost their fragrance. We'll say you have COVID. So when a person says home food tastes horrible, mom's food tastes bad, and everything that's given to me on a plate is not good — but everything I pay $20 for in the marketplace tastes good — then you know the issue is with the taste buds.

Believe it or not, it's written in the books of our mashayikh that they were so particular about eating from tayyib sources — meaning homemade, halal. And not just halal, but making sure that from stage one to the plate, it is pure. No doubtful things, no doubtful money, no doubtful hands, no najasa. The more strict you are on this, the next thing will happen. What is the next thing? The purity of the food will dictate how much tawfiq you will get to do good deeds. One leads to the other.

The Qur'an says:

O believers, eat from that which is pure, and do good deeds. The ulama say the Qur'an is such that Allah's words all have a very specific order — why one verse comes before another, or why within a verse there is an order of sentences. It's obviously divine, something special.

There is a 30-volume tafsir — Naẓm al-Durar fī Tanāsub al-Āyāt wa al-Suwar — by Allama al-Biqa'i, rahmatullahi alayh, that focuses on the connection between every single verse of the Qur'an, and tells you all the multitude of reasons why one verse comes where it does, and why there is no switching of one verse with another.

So Allah says: O believers, eat from pure things, and do good deeds. The ulama say one is leading to the other. Eating pure foods — not just halal, not just zabiha, but tayyib — way beyond whatever UK certification symbol is on it. From the farm to the plate, it needs to be pure. No doubtful things, no doubtful money, no doubtful hands, no najasa. The more strict you are on this, the more tawfiq you will get to do good deeds.

The worst type of food a person eats, the more polluted food — the less desire for doing good deeds. And that is why you've heard that the one who eats a morsel of haram, how it will affect the acceptance of his du'as and ibadah for the next 40 days. That doesn't mean his salah has to be repeated. It simply means the soul of that du'a is gone. When a person eats haram or doubtful food, it has an effect on their spirituality where they don't feel like doing ibadah. And if they raise their hands in du'a, they simply do not enjoy it.

Now an average person listening may not understand or appreciate what is being said. But those who are particular know exactly that there is so much truth to this. Those who work on spirituality and who have led a life being careful about what they eat know exactly what I'm talking about — that if they were particular about what they eat, they have a special type of enjoyment in supplication, du'a, and salah that others cannot even fathom. And the one time they end up eating a meal with doubtful food, immediately it hits them. The next salah, they can't concentrate. The next salah, they don't want to sit even for 2 minutes to do du'a or dhikr.

And they themselves have the ability to do self-diagnostics. They think: I usually sit after Dhuhr for 5 minutes to do du'a. I usually sit after Isha for 12 minutes. After Maghrib I sit and do 15 minutes of adhkar. After Fajr I sit for half an hour. Why is it today that I can't sit? Why did I lose my chain of thought during my du'a? Why is it that in sajdah I'm thinking about everything else besides Allah? Their minds immediately go: Where did I have lunch? Whose house did I eat at? What restaurant was it? I've had many young and elderly brothers come up to me and say, "I think that earlier meal we had at some place — there's something doubtful about that." I say, "What happened?" He says, "I could feel it in my salah."

Most people never feel that because they were already in so many layers of darkness. You have to be leading an absolutely pure, clean, tayyib diet — and then even a small mixture of doubtful things will immediately allow you to feel what happened.

A Remarkable Story of Kashf in Children

It is mentioned in the books of one of the ulama that his little kids — the sheikh would come into the masjid to pray and lead and give the dars, and his son, his little nephew, or the children would be outside after salah, playing near the door. One day he went outside and saw his kids there. "Beta, what are you doing?" He saw they had separated the shoes of the people. He said, "What are you all doing?" They said, "We are separating the shoes of the people going to Jannah from the people going to Jahannam." It was a game for them. But he realized what was going on — there was light being exposed in the shoes for them, and darkness being exposed to them. They could just tell: these are shoes of good people, these are shoes of bad people.

That light — how does it come? It's not natural, or rather I should say, it's not normal. But sometimes, before its time, certain things Allah opens up to an extreme level of clarity of the heart. What do you call this? Mukashafa — to open up something. Certain things are unveiled. But the father, the sheikh, knew this was not good for his child to see this. And imagine if the people of the town heard about this. So he went to a sheikh and asked what to do. The sheikh said: go outside to the marketplace, quickly get him a piece of sweet from the marketplace, and just give your kids to eat. Done — that level of extra clarity will go away by simply eating the sweets from the marketplace.

This was way before you had 15 ingredients that none of us can pronounce. Past the first ingredient, we can't even read what it means. Forget understanding — we can't even pronounce the ingredients. Allah knows what we're being fed. And this is a major reason why today we find disinterest in ibadah, in salah, in du'a, in dhikr — because of what we eat.

I cannot over-highlight the importance of staying away from processed foods — not only for the physical health, which is obvious, but the spiritual health as well. If you can't understand 80% of the ingredients, leave it. If the first three ingredients have sugar, leave it. All of those things apply not only to the physical body — they apply to the spiritual soul as well. The more wholesome food that we eat, the more we will be able to worship Allah.

So if you were to try, from this week until next tafsir, to say: this one week I am going to stay away from eating out, or stay away from eating something cooked by someone who is not a Muslim or a muttaqi, or stay away from processed food — if you just do that for one week, you will come back next week and tell me how you feel. Within one week, you will gain such a level of clarity in your spirit and soul that you will be able to enjoy ibadah like you haven't been able to before. This is guaranteed. Now take that for the next week, and the third week, and the fourth week — do a full 40 days on this. Where are you going to be?

Our ustad, Mawlana Shabbir Sahib, is so particular — even when he travels, even in Umrah and Hajj. Everything, while he's even in Umrah and Hajj, is home-cooked from one of his students, or someone he knows. And if that's not available, he will not eat. Almost all the time I've seen him in the Haram — besides the day of Eid — he is fasting. Almost every day he fasts there. And whatever does he break his fast on? Dates, kajur, zamzam, and whatever someone brings in a tiffin from home. Even if it's egg and roti, that's all it is. He says: if I've come all the way here, I'm going to be extra particular about what I'm eating — not eating anything in any restaurant or any hotel.

Am I saying all of you can do that immediately today? No. But my point is — if you want to know how a certain basketball player reached his amazing, record-breaking stats, he wasn't doing what I was doing. He was spending his time in a different manner to reach where he is. So when I share a full-on athlete's training routine, it's not to say, "Let's all do that right now." It's to inspire you that if you aspire to become like him, you have to also put in the effort like him, and make the decisions like him.

So if we want to become spiritually strong, we also have to learn how to make certain decisions. And it starts off with being happy with man and salwa — whatever Allah sends down to you from your mom and dad, from your spouse, what you have at home. Be happy and content with that. Have the attitude of appreciation instead of always being unhappy with what is presented and saying, "I want something different." This is a very big spiritual disease, which I pray to Allah that He cures me of, cures all of you of, and makes us amongst the most grateful servants of His, and makes us amongst those who only eat tayyib and halal food, and may He allow us to enjoy the benefit of that.

The next ayah says: Kulu min tayyibat — "Eat of the wholesome foods." There you go. This is the connection. Man and salwa — Allah is saying: listen, man and salwa is tayyib. It's coming from that paradise. It's coming from Me. What could you possibly get more wholesome than this? And if I chose it for you, it's the best food — stop asking to change the menu.

Eat what has been given because you don't live to eat. You eat to survive. That's it. We are not living simply to eat. So this is the mizaj and temperament that we have to have.

Mawlana Choksi Sahib would say: Yeh insaan ko dekho — look at this human being. All of the different types of exclusive foods, beautiful multi-course meals, the expensive $300 chef's menu at some restaurant, the hours and hours of preparation for a pasta or a special dish or a bread, whatever. He said: all it is, at the end of the day, is to take grains and present them in different manners. At the end of the day it's grains that came from the earth, and it's going to go back into the earth after it goes through your body. That's it. Different sophisticated ways of presenting grain — whether it's corn, wheat, or barley. Think about it. That's the haqiqa of it. The idea is just simply to take care of your body.

The Hadith on Eating Little

The Prophet ﷺ said:

(Sunan al-Tirmidhi, Hadith 2380; also reported in Sunan Ibn Majah, Hadith 3349)

It is sufficient — luqaymat, a diminutive form — a few small morsels are sufficient for the son of Adam, by which he can keep his back straight. The Prophet ﷺ showed us that you can conquer the world while eating very little. And actually, in reality, those who do great things in life are the ones who are particular about this.

There is one poem in Ma'alim Irshadiyya that mentions: Hunger was asked, ayna taskun? — "Where do you live, O Hunger?" And hunger responded: fi 'ama'im al-fuqaha' — "I reside in the turbans of the jurists." What does that mean? The true ulama of the past did not have the means to provide for themselves, and they lived on very meager means. So remaining hungry was a norm. Yet they wrote 500, 100, 50-volume books, and they taught thousands and thousands of students while barely having a few means of sustenance.

So the ulama have talked a lot about this and have written multiple pages and books on the topic — that the ilm that a person gains through hunger, that ilm a person will never be able to get through a full, satiated stomach. It seems counter-intuitive, but this deen is a whole different ballgame. We're talking about the nur from Allah. The nur from Allah that comes into a person does not come through thiql — spiritual heaviness. Spiritual heaviness comes with eating impure food.

You know, you say: "I feel hollow, I just don't feel like doing anything, I'm down, I'm depressed, I don't want to leave the home, I don't want to go to the masjid." This is called thiql. Where does the thiql come from? It comes from the wrong diet. Not even overeating — eating the wrong things.

Some little kids don't eat much but they are very thiql. Their soul is very heavy. They don't like to read Qur'an. They don't like to go to the masjid. And they're skinny — they don't even have an appetite. But why are they like that? One big reason is because whatever they do eat is not pure, and does not have a good effect on them.

Yesterday I came across fish — subhanAllah, it looked beautiful. Big nice salmon. Right in front of it, printed, it says: "Artificially colored." Artificially colored salmon. What are we eating? How is anything good going to come out of this?

So Allah asks us:

Eat wholesome foods which We have given you, but do not transgress in it. Similar to the ayah of the 18th juz I mentioned earlier:

Eat good and practice good. You can see here: eat good and don't transgress. Meaning if you eat good food, it will help you not become a transgressor. And don't transgress also means: don't usurp this halal food. If you take halal food and steal pure wheat, that becomes haram. Also, by eating halal food, you will be safe from becoming a transgressor. Allah says: otherwise My punishment will befall you, and whoever My wrath befalls has truly fallen from My grace — فَقَدْ هَوَى.

Pleasing Allah vs. Pleasing People

So instead of focusing on what people will say, let us think about what Allah will say — and Allah doesn't just say, Allah does. Allah says in the Qur'an, in the last ayat of Surah Al-Ghashiyah:

Indeed to Us is their return, and then indeed upon Us is their accounting. Allah says in so many places in the Qur'an: فَنُنَبِّئُكُم بِمَا كُنتُمْ تَعْمَلُونَ — "We will inform you of what you used to do." Informing doesn't just mean, "Hey, by the way, this is what you did." Informing means: this is what you did, hence this is why you're going to be punished in this manner.

So our continuous thought process should be: How am I doing in the sight of Allah? That's not what society thinks about today. The purpose of a marriage — the israf and extravagance that happens in a marriage — what is it based on? A man doesn't have the means, he'll take credit card loans, he will borrow money, in order to throw a lavish party he cannot afford — all so that people can say, "MashaAllah, that was an amazing wedding." By the way, in your wedding, the guests are already thinking about where else they're invited this weekend. I swear, the next day I'm not going to remember what you ate at a wedding I attended. And I'm sure there are thousands of other people like that too. But in your mind is: if I don't spend X amount of money, what are people going to say? Instead of: what is Allah going to say?

Allah says in the Qur'an:

He knows even one millisecond of misuse of the eye. Who, when the partition was removed, looked on the other side. Who locked eyes with whom. Who locked into someone else's dress. All of that is being counted and watched. How do you think Allah is not aware of what's happening when we remove the partition — and say, "Now it's the post-halal wedding"?

You see, people who are not connected to the masjid, people who don't pray, people who eat haram, people who don't have any concept of deen — they do that, they have bigger issues. They need to first get their fard salah down. They have to make sure they stop earning haram. But those who are the masjid-going crowd — fard salah, sunnah, witr, nafl, Ishraq, hifz class, boys and girls in a hifz class, son and daughter in the alim program — and then they do things like this? There is a serious problem. Because the root cause of this is: we are trying to fit in. We care about what society says more than what Allah says. We care about not falling from the esteem of the fusaq and fujar, instead of falling from the esteem of Allah.

That is a disease we must address. Because if you go down that line, we don't know when we're going to stop. And that's what the Prophet ﷺ said — to the gist of what he said — the biggest fool, the biggest loser, is the one who ruins his akhira for someone else's dunya. The one who ruins his hereafter to please someone else in this dunya loses his own akhira. Not only do you have to pay the band — none of your guests are going to pay for the band, none of the guests are going to pay for the singers and the dancers, none of them are going to pay for all the other haram that happens there. You have to pay the bill — not only in the dunya, you also have to pay the bill in the qabar. No one's going to come pay for it for you. No one's going to say, "Let's split it 50-50. I'll burn half the years in hell for you." That's not going to happen. Every man for himself.

You cannot change the world, but you can definitely say: I'm not going to pay the bill for this in the dunya nor in the qabar. If I'm paying the bill, then I must make sure that no haram happens. Because for every single thing, Allah is going to hold me accountable.

Is this something complicated? If you come to salah, you put your head down five times a day in front of Allah — how can we expect barakah to come in our wedding if haram is happening there? By just starting your gathering with some recitation of the Qur'an and thinking that barakah is going to come — who are we fooling?

That's why the ulama have written: the one who says Bismillah and drinks wine becomes a kafir, a disbeliever. The one who performs salah intentionally without wudu leaves the fold of Islam. Because this is making fun of the deen. Similarly, a person who tries to whitewash or "Islamic-wash" their wedding by throwing in a Qur'an recitation there, or by inviting scholars so that people think, "MashaAllah, what an Islamic wedding" — that's why it's written in the books of fiqh that a scholar should never be present at any wedding in which haram is taking place. His presence is a stamp of approval. A qadi, a judge, a mufti of the town — and even a student of knowledge — should be far away, because their presence allows people to think this type of behavior is acceptable.

Beloved brothers and sisters who attend the masajid, who call yourselves traditional Muslims, practicing Muslims, religious-minded — please ensure that our gatherings also have 100% halal. Not 30%, not 50%. This is a big deception of Shaytan, and it is our job to work on this.

Setting the Standard for Non-Muslim Guests

Sometimes a person may say: "I have a lot of non-Muslim colleagues, and in order to accommodate them, I have to do certain things." But if you want to have a powerful effect on someone, then when you bring them to your event, do it in the manner you do things. For example — if you call a Caucasian colleague, do you think he's really excited about eating a burger or steak at your wedding? Or does he ask: "Can I have some of that biryani? I love those little triangle things — samosas?" That's what he's going to say. He will want desi food because he's excited. He's thinking: I'm coming to an Indian-Pakistani wedding, I want to see things the way you all do. I don't want you to copy my wedding. I want your ethnic foods.

So culturally, you say: "This is how we Indians do things, this is how we Pakistanis do things." Similarly, you have to say: "This is how we Muslims do things. We start off the wedding with Asr Salah or Maghrib Salah. We end it with Isha Salah. We have a tilawa of the Qur'an. We have a scholar share some words. We have a beautiful nasheed. We talk about the rights of the wife and the husband. And then — alhamdulillah — the women have a lot of fun on their side, the men have a lot of fun on their side. The only ones who are mixing today are the husband and wife — the bride and the groom. Besides that, no one else. They go home in their own cars."

You think non-Muslims don't have problems with people being attracted to their wives? Of course they do. They know about all these issues of infidelity. But then you say: "This is how we do it. This is when our women are dressed at their peak — this is absolutely the wrong moment for anyone besides the husband or the father to see their daughter or their wife." So this is how we have this event. You think they're not going to appreciate that? I guarantee a non-Muslim would say: "SubhanAllah, that's beautiful, man."

When the non-Muslims or converts come here, what do they love? They love the fact that we're sitting on the ground listening like this. They're shocked. They say: "Man, we don't see this stuff in our churches. This is beautiful." The simple act of sitting on the floor and eating, and sometimes practicing the sunnah of eating from one plate — that's a sunnah of the Prophet ﷺ, to eat together — for moms and dads, for husbands and wives, for children and parents, for Muslim brothers and sisters to share a plate. When a non-Muslim sees that, he is taken aback by the beauty.

Malcolm X wrote about this in his autobiography — he was moved by what he saw in Hajj. What moved him was not the fact that the people in Hajj in the 1960s were doing Hajj the way non-Muslims were living their life. No, then he would not have been affected. What affected him was what he saw was completely different from what he had seen growing up. And that hit his heart. And that turned his heart.

And so the non-Muslims of today, or the not-so-practicing Muslims of today, they need to see true Islam. They need to see true Sunnah. Just like the prisoners of war during the time of the Prophet ﷺ — they were accepting Islam even while tied to the pillar in Masjid al-Nabawi. When Sunnah was practiced in the masjid, even POWs accepted Islam. And when deen is not practiced in the masjid, our own children leave Islam. Their moms and dads have gone to the masjid for the past 20 years, but today the kids are leaving Islam.

There was an article I came across: so many allied forces who were fighting in Afghanistan were captured, and such a large number of them accepted Islam. And people were asking: how many Muslims who have stayed in captivity in the hands of non-Muslims have accepted Christianity or any other religion? That's the beauty of it. Anytime you practice the deen, even the enemy will say: you are upon the truth. So we as Muslims have oppressed the non-Muslims the most — because we have not portrayed to them the real, true sunnah life. If we did, we wouldn't be able to handle the crowd of new Muslims.

So let us make niyyah now that we will lead a life of Sunnah — not only in the masjid, but more importantly outside as well. In our interactions at work, with our neighbors, and in all our events, we will present such a beautiful version of Sunnah and Islam that anyone who comes says: "MashaAllah, this is beautiful. This is beautiful."

The simplicity in nikah — the youth who are listening to me, especially 18-19 year olds, you have time to change. By the time you get married, you can tell your parents: "This is what I want. I'll pay for it, fine, no problem. But I want a simple nikah. I want people to accept Islam at my marriage. I want my non-Muslim colleagues to show up at my marriage and say: 'You know what, this is beautiful, because of the way you all do things.'" What an amazing niyyah — that at my wedding, people accept Islam. What an amazing gift. How blessed is that gathering.

I was overseas recently, and I was shocked. They told me: for weddings, people come, and they eat, and they eat, and then they criticize and go home. I said: Where is the bayan? Where is the qira'? Where is the nasheed? What is the program? Nothing. You come, you eat, and then you criticize — that's part of the culture. This wasn't like that, this wasn't good, that wasn't good. Astaghfirullah al-'azim. What a bleak, manhoos environment where this is the norm. There's no talk of deen — you have 100, 200, 1,000, 2,000 people coming. What an amazing opportunity to give them some guidance. But instead, the opposite is happening.

The Prophet ﷺ Never Found Fault in Food

(Sahih al-Bukhari, Hadith 3563; Sahih Muslim, Hadith 2064)

The Prophet ﷺ never, ever found fault in food. If he enjoyed it, he ate it. If he didn't like it, he would leave it. How can we go to a nine-course waleema food meal and then afterwards make fun of it and find fault in it? Very sad.

Pleasing Allah Over People — A Hadith

So what is the gist of this ayah? We have to focus on not falling from the esteem of Allah, and not worry about falling from the esteem of the people. Let's share a hadith on this topic to wrap up this beautiful section:

(Sunan al-Tirmidhi, Hadith 2414)

Whoever makes an effort to please Allah, even though it becomes a means of displeasing the people — then Allah will, number one, become pleased with him. Number two, Allah will eventually make all of his actions look beautiful in the eyes of others. And number three, eventually Allah will make everyone who became upset at him happy before he leaves this world. Three things. It's a win-win situation.

On the other hand, whoever makes Allah angry in order to please the people — Allah will become upset and angry at him, and Allah will make all those people who he had pleased eventually angry at him as well, turning their hearts against him. It's a lose-lose situation.

And so the way we should move forward is to focus on one question: What does Allah think of me? That's it. That's the most important question.

The Door of Tawbah

Yet indeed I am most forgiving. Ghaffar is a sifa mubalaghah — a hyperbolic form — meaning extremely forgiving. Liman taba — for the one who repents. Wa amana — and who believes. Wa amila salihan — and does righteous deeds. And then thereafter remains guided.

Sometimes, my dear brothers and sisters, we have the misunderstanding that Allah is going to forgive me so I can do whatever I want. This ayah is saying yes, Allah is most willing to forgive — but liman taba — for the one who repents. If a person does not repent, then we cannot expect to receive forgiveness from Allah. The Prophet ﷺ said that Allah says in a Hadith Qudsi:

(Sunan al-Tirmidhi, Hadith 3540)

If you come to Me with the earth filled with sins, I will forgive all of them for you — and I could care less. Meaning: the one who repents, who comes with years and decades of sin of all sorts, but who is truly apologetic — no matter how horrible those sins may have been, Allah says: I am willing to forgive them. But you have to do tawbah. Without tawbah it's not going to work.

The Conditions of Tawbah

What does tawbah require?

Number one: الإقلاع عن الذنب — immediately leave the sin. You have to leave it right now. You can't say, "I'll try tomorrow." Right now, make the intention: I am going to leave this sin.

Number two: You make niyyah never to go back to it again. Not: "Oh, I'm going to stop it now, I'll go back to it tomorrow." This is what you call making a joke and a mockery with Allah. Don't make a joke.

Allah says in the Qur'an:

Don't be like that lady who used to take yarn and make something, and then at the end of the night she would sit there and unravel everything — whatever she had made, she would untie it all. The people used to say she had lost her mind. Allah says: don't be like that. Once you get into a relationship with Allah of tawbah:

O believers, return to Allah and repent with a complete tawbah — a tawbah in which you do not break that tawbah. Yes, can we slip and fall? Most definitely — we're human beings. But let us not intend to slip and fall. No one burns their hand because they have an extra bottle of burn cream at home. No one cuts themselves with a kitchen knife purposefully because they bought a brand new box of band-aids. Tawbah is a band-aid, tawbah is burn cream — it's available for someone who slipped and fell. Not so that you intentionally sin with the niyyah that you'll do tawbah tomorrow. That is a very big deception of Shaytan.

Number three: Along with that, you seek forgiveness from Allah for it, with nadama — with sadness in your heart. We have to feel remorse. If there is no remorse, then there is a big problem. One hadith mentions: an-nadamu hiya al-tawbah — remorse itself is tawbah. If you simply feel bad about something, mashaAllah, that's tawbah right there. That's a very strong step. To feel guilty about what has happened is itself a beautiful, powerful step towards your tawbah.

Number four: If what you and I have done includes someone else — if you have usurped someone else's right — then you need to seek forgiveness from that individual.

And last but not least — some ulama have added this beautiful point — you have to have an exit strategy from your current lifestyle. If you really mean business — "astaghfirullah, I feel so moved from this talk, I want to change my life" — mashallah. But if you don't have a game plan, then that's just cheap talk. Those are what we call crocodile tears. Just a spur-of-the-moment emotion — an iman rush. None of that stuff really goes anywhere.

In the moment when you are crying, in the moment when you feel moved, you have to sit down and come up with a strategy. How do I actively want to give up this sin I am involved in? Say someone is looking at haram. You cannot just say, "O Allah, please forgive me." What are you going to do today that's different from the last 700 days of your life? You have to write it down clearly: how am I going to get out of this?

If a person is involved in interest — you will never get the tawfiq to get out of it unless we repent. We're not saying step out of the house and sleep on the street today. We're not saying call in to the office tomorrow and fire all your employees and close down the business. We say: make niyyah today that if interest and haram money is in your business or in your home, you say: "Ya Allah, I need to get out of this. I make niyyah right now — and until I don't get out of it, every single night I'm going to pray two rakats of tawbah. And I'm going to ask Allah to allow me to restructure my business and my loan in a manner that I can get out of haram." Now, if a person passes away before he gets out of haram, insha'Allah he will still be forgiven — because he was trying to get out of that mess.

The example of this is like the one who killed 99 people and then killed the 100th — the monk who told him he couldn't be forgiven — and who, on the way to the next town where he was planning to make tawbah, passed away. He hadn't actually fully repented yet. He was on the way. But because he was on the way, Allah forgave him. So the one who comes up with an exit strategy from sin — even if he's not able to be clean and pure right now, in the next couple of months or even couple of years, but he is actively working on a strategy — bi-idhnillah, we hope Allah will raise him amongst those who've been already forgiven.

So Allah says: I am most forgiving of all who repent, and who believe, and do righteous deeds. The ulama say here that iman dictates doing righteous deeds. The proof is in the pudding. I say I'm a believer — okay, let's look at the actions. How am I raising my children? What are my priorities with regards to raising my kids? If someone says, "I'm a pakka sacha Musalman — I'm a practicing strong Muslim" — let's look at the kids. Are they praying their salah? Are they staying away from haram? Are they punctual on their sunnah? Do they have a sense of taqwa?

You want to see if the muffin is ready, you put a toothpick inside it. So you can put a toothpick into the kids. You can put a toothpick into the weddings. You can put a toothpick into their source of income. You can put a toothpick into the lifestyle at home. You can put a toothpick into the misuse or correct use of their eyes and ears. What do you fall asleep listening to? Qur'an, or techno music, or rap?

The Danger of Music

The musicians of today are some of the biggest agents of Shaytan. Why wait for Dajjal? Dajjal is already here. All these musicians — and the moms and dads don't even know the lyrics. If you were to read the lyrics of some of the latest music that comes out, you would be shocked. The level of lewdness beyond description — these words are inspired by Iblis himself. I cannot imagine a human being writing something like this. And the Qur'an explains this:

Indeed the shayateen communicate with one another — the human and the jinn shayateen communicate with one another with attractive, deceptive words. Music is attractive. Ghurura — to mislead people. Those lyrics of some of the most famous pop artists and singers are nothing but satanically inspired to mislead billions and millions of people. They have the highest following in the world on social media, and they control the minds of the youth and the adults.

As Imam al-Ghazali mentioned: the heart is like a lake, a pond. The eyes, the ears, the tongue, and the mind — all of these are four small streams that flow into this pond. Whatever you hear, whatever you look at, whatever you speak, and whatever you think leads into this heart. If what you look at, what you think, what you speak, and what you hear is haram, filthy, and dirty, you cannot expect anything but an extremely dirty sewage inside the heart. And when you have a disgusting, dirty sewage inside the heart, you cannot expect good deeds to come out of there. But if what we hear, what we listen to, what we think, and what we speak is pure and clean, then you will have a beautiful fountain — a spring like the melting glaciers — inside your heart, and you can only expect great things coming out of there.

May Allah enable me, enable all of you, and enable our children, our parents, and our siblings, to protect our eyes and our ears, and our minds and our tongues from haram. Say Ameen. And may Allah purify the filth of our hearts. Ameen Ya Rabbil Alameen.

Remaining Guided — ثُمَّ اهْتَدَىٰ

Then Allah says: thumma ihtada — thereafter he remains guided. Meaning it's not sufficient to make tawbah and do righteous deeds. Thumma — then he remains guided till death. Not that you have a few years of excitement in college life and then you take a turn.

College life is a very interesting few years. People go into a josh mode, they get excited, they participate in various Islamic activities. MashaAllah, I've seen amazing changes in college students. The question is: what happens after college, when you get into the workforce? That demographic — the professionals from ages 23 to 40 — the guys who've graduated, got their masters, done their residencies. They're working now, maybe even living independently. They don't have the environment. They're busy with life, earning good money, living in nice places. And they're too big to be under their parents. They feel too busy to be connected to the daily masjid. They may come at the end of a Jumu'ah, and that's about it.

And the problem is — they are the parents of the next generation. Allahu Akbar. When the practicing, masjid-going parents couldn't raise their kids properly — couldn't make them cognizant of Allah — then what do you expect with people whose start is already so messed up? So we have to make an effort on that demographic.

So the youth who are in college life right now — don't think everything is already set. Thumma ihtada — you have to remain firm way beyond college life, until the akhirah. And whatever I'm telling you is for me as well. It's easy to be here today. We don't know where we're going to be tomorrow.

Coming Up Next Week — The Story of Samiri

The story of Samiri is something we will, insha'Allah, get into next week — a very amazing story in which Allah discusses what happened when Musa alayhi as-salam went to receive the message from Allah. He ran ahead of the people, and Allah said: "Look behind — where is everyone?" He said: "They are coming." No, they're not coming. I have put them through a big trial. And Musa alayhi as-salam had to give up that amazing enjoyment of speaking with Allah and run back to take care of his people. Amazing lessons we will cover bi-idhnillahi ta'ala next week.

Questions & Answers

Nasheeds with Background Music

A nasheed with background humming sounds is okay. Not background music.

How to Properly Perform Istikhara

Do a proper wudu. Pray two rakats of Salatul Istikhara — the surah is normal, any surah you want to recite, but make the niyyah of Salatul Istikhara. Then after that, praise Allah, send salutations upon the Prophet ﷺ, and recite the du'a of istikhara:

(Sahih al-Bukhari, Hadith 1166)

A dream is not mandatory or necessary — it has not been mentioned anywhere in the hadith that you must see a dream. Seeing green or white or red — can that mean something? Yes, dreams have meanings. But you don't have to have a dream. You do your istikhara and you start moving forward. If everything falls apart despite trying, then insha'Allah have this hope in Allah that that was not good for you — that's why Allah saved you from it. And if everything automatically starts falling into place, and you feel content and things are falling into place, then you expect that this is what Allah wants for your life.

It comes in one narration that the Prophet ﷺ used to teach istikhara to his Sahaba the way a surah is taught — meaning everyone should know Salatul Istikhara du'a and make it a regular practice. It's not only for marriage — it is for anything and everything.

There are shorter du'as of istikhara as well, such as:

You are asking Allah to choose for you that which is good, and asking Allah to inspire you with what is good and save you from what is evil. Get books of du'a from the bookstore or online, memorize these small du'as and the du'a of istikhara, and utilize them regularly, insha'Allah.

I Want a Simple Nikah but My Parents Don't Agree

May Allah reward this person and make it easy for this individual. We are all making du'a for you — whoever you may be — that Allah makes your parents and in-laws understand and makes your wedding an amazing source of inspiration for others. Ameen.

You need to turn to Allah. I'm not saying run out of the house or pick a fight — absolutely not. But turn to Allah, give sadaqah, fast. Many boys and girls are also asking: "My mom and dad are saying no to a particular person — should I get married without their permission?" And the answer is: no. Don't get married without the permission of your parents and go against them.

And my answer to the parents: please, please do not bring in cultural biases. The amount of emails and messages scholars receive from boys and girls who want to commit suicide because of their parents not allowing them to marry someone who is a practicing Muslim — simply because they come from a different cultural background — and the amount of Muslim boys and girls who are now continuing their relationship without nikah because their parents are saying no — this is a catastrophe.

My message to the parents who are listening: please do not do this. If they fall into sin because of our mistake, we will share the burden of that sin. So do not bring cultural barriers. If you have a legitimate concern, explain it. But this is not the time to say your son or daughter wants to marry someone who is Muslim and practicing, and you say absolutely not. Because guess what? That son or daughter who comes to you and says, "Please Baba, I want to get married to someone" — you should thank Allah that they were asking. Because a huge number of people don't ask their parents and have already done much, much more than we want to admit.

So if you are lucky to have a son or daughter come and say, "Baba, Ammi, I want to get married to so and so" — thank Allah that you have a child who has some level of taqwa and intention. Because the environment outside is one of zina. The reason a 33 or 36-year-old says "I'm okay, I don't need to get married" is because the opportunities of haram are available every second, and halal has become so much more difficult.

So for parents: please facilitate marriage for your kids. Make it easy. I'm available — if you have an issue, come speak to me or some scholar, and we'll sit down and sort it out. You cannot put your foot down and say, "He speaks Punjabi and we speak Hyderabadi," or "He speaks Saraiki and we speak Farsi." These are not reasons to say no to a marriage anymore. The deen — if deen is found there, that's what we must focus on.

And then for the youth: please do not go against your parents. The purpose of marriage is to join families, not to separate families. When you do something unilaterally, that is exactly what's going to happen — it's going to separate families. SubhanAllah.

Closing Du'a and Announcements

The barakah will come when you attend from the beginning of the talk and come every single week — this is where the barakah will come.

I pray to Allah that whatever I've said — if it was of benefit, indeed it was from Allah — and may He make it easy for me and my family to practice on it. Say Ameen. And may He make it easy for all of you to practice on it and propagate it to others. If any mistakes were done, or if I hurt anyone's feelings, please forgive me for that. I ask Allah for forgiveness for that.

Announcements: This coming weekend at Darussalam, insha'Allah, the Tafheem Program — the weekend program — will be beginning. Please benefit from that. For boys, girls, college students, high school students, and working adults. This is a weekend part-time program, Saturday and Sunday, on-site or online, 10am till Dhuhr. This semester's topics include: the Family of the Prophet ﷺ, the Fiqh of Fasting, Zakat and Hajj, the Sciences of the Qur'an, the Fiqh of Finance, and the Signs of the Hour. Six classes — three on Saturday and three on Sunday, on-site and online for brothers and sisters. Details at masjidds.org.

Sunday school registration is also open and classes will begin this Sunday. Try your best to bring your youth and youngsters to the classes taught by seminary students while you benefit from the Tafheem classes on the weekend.

And alhamdulillah — amazing news: the area around the Ka'bah has been opened up, so after over two years you can actually touch the Ka'bah and kiss the Black Stone. SubhanAllah. This is something that weighed so heavily on so many of us for the past two years — that we were deprived of touching the Ka'bah and kissing the Black Stone. As long as that is open, we should all make niyyah to go visit the blessed cities before things, Allah forbid, change again. There is an Umrah group leaving next Friday, insha'Allah, for the Memorial Day weekend, and groups are also going in November and December. Please make niyyah insha'Allah.

We ask Allah to accept all those who are making intention to join and benefit. And we ask Allah to continue to accept the efforts of our students, our volunteers, our teachers, our patrons and our staff members.

Wa sallallahu ta'ala 'ala khayri khalqihi Muhammad, wa 'ala alihi wa sahbihi ajma'in. Bi rahmatika ya Arham al-Rahimin. Wa alhamdulillahi Rabbil 'Alamin.

Wassalamu alaikum wa rahmatullahi wa barakatuh.