Choosing the Hereafter Over the Fleeting Pleasures of This World

Opening Praise and Salutations

الحمد لله الخالق الوجود من العدم وجاعل النور من الظلام ومخرج الصبر من الألم فنشكره على المصائب كما نشكره على النعم ونصلي ونسلم على رسوله الأكرم ذي الشرف الأسمى والنور الأتم وكمال النبيين والكتاب المحكم سيد ولد آدم الذي بشر به عيسى ابن مريم ودعا بذاته إبراهيم عليه السلام حين كان يرفع قواعد بيت الله المحرم والذي بارك الله به كافة الناس العرب منهم والعجم فسبحان الذي لم يتخذ ولدًا ولم يكن له شريك في الملك ولم يكن له ولي من الذل وكبره تكبيرا — الحمد لله الذي أنزل على عبده الكتاب ولم يجعل له عوجا

O people, Allah says in His Book. I seek refuge in Allah from the accursed Shaytan. In the name of Allah, the Most Gracious, the Most Merciful:

And Rasulullah ﷺ said:

(Sunan al-Tirmidhi, Hadith 2459)

The wise person is the one who holds himself accountable and works for what comes after death, and the incapable one is the one who follows his desires and places empty hopes in Allah — or as he ﷺ said.

Nothing in This World is Permanent

Respected audience, dear brothers and sisters, I would like for you to come to an observation with me. The observation is something which is a proven fact, and that is that nothing in this world has permanence. You take the example of the most beloved being upon the face of this earth, Rasulullah ﷺ, our beloved messenger, the last of the prophets:

(Sunan al-Tirmidhi, Hadith 3615)

"I am the best of the creation from amongst human beings, and I am not arrogant about it." This is what Rasulullah ﷺ said about himself — even he was visited by the angel of death. And when his soul was being taken from the body, what did he say? He said:

"Glory is for Allah. Death indeed is a very painful affair." (Sahih al-Bukhari, Hadith 4449)

So nothing in this world is permanent. The last son alive of Rasulullah ﷺ happened to give away his life in the lap of Rasulullah ﷺ, and what Rasulullah said at that time happened to be a lesson for his entire ummah. He said:

(Sahih al-Bukhari, Hadith 1303)

"The heart is heavy with grief over the departing of my son, and the eyes are becoming teary — they are welling up with tears over grief — but the tongue will only utter what will make Allah happy."

That departing happens to be at times in the form of individuals, and at other times it happens to be in the form of material objects. Every single object that is in our life is not permanent. You take the example of your relationships — no matter how strong they are, how strong of a bond it is, a time will come when you will be forced to depart from those relationships.

Take the example of worldly objects — the example of a car, no matter how dear it is to you, no matter how much care you take of it, a time will come when it will become rusty, and it will start to break apart, and finally it will become trash of no use to us whatsoever.

The Observation of Hatim al-Assam

So a Tabi'i by the name of Hatim al-Assam rahimahullah, who was a student of Shaqeeq al-Balkhi rahimahullah — and Imam Ghazali rahimahullah frequently makes mention of the student and the teacher in his book, Ihya ul-Ulum al-Din — he made a similar observation when he noticed that nothing in this world is permanent, and so that compelled him to say:

He said, "I look towards the creation of Allah," and as was the customary habit of the people of the past — that they would not look towards things on the surface, they would usually take a deeper dive and look into the essence of things.

Abdullah ibn Abbas and the Tafsir of Surah al-Nasr

Here I would like to mention an incident of Abdullah ibn Abbas radiallahu anhu, who is known as the Mufassir of the Ummah of Rasulullah ﷺ. No one before him had similar capabilities when it came to tafsir, and nobody after him. And that was due to the du'a of Rasulullah ﷺ for him, in which Rasulullah ﷺ said:

"O Allah, give him a firm understanding of the Book of Allah." (Sahih al-Bukhari, Hadith 143)

So there is an incident about him — he was a younger sahabi compared to the other major sahaba of Rasulullah ﷺ. He was young in age. He was the son of Abbas radiallahu anhu, and he was the cousin of Rasulullah ﷺ. Once upon a time, he was sitting in a gathering of the major sahaba of Rasulullah ﷺ, and everyone was discussing the tafsir of Surah al-Nasr:

Everyone was giving their tafsir of the surah, and Umar radiallahu anhu had his eyes fixated on Abdullah ibn Abbas radiallahu anhu. He said, "O Abdullah ibn Abbas, what do you have to say about the tafsir of the surah?" Now on the surface, the surah makes no mention about the death of Rasulullah ﷺ. The only thing it mentions is that, "O Muhammad ﷺ, when the help of Allah comes down, and you see that people start to enter the fold of Islam in large numbers — so what do you do, O Muhammad ﷺ?"

"That you glorify your Lord, and you seek repentance, you do istighfar." So Umar radiallahu anhu asked Abdullah ibn Abbas radiallahu anhu, "What is your opinion about it, O Abdullah ibn Abbas?" He said — as was the habit of the sahaba, they were very humble — "The sahaba are doing the tafsir of it." He said, "No, O the one who dives into the deepest depths of the ocean, I want you to take a deep dive and tell me about the tafsir of this surah, the essence of this surah." And he quietly replied: in this surah, we are given the news of the death of Rasulullah ﷺ.

So while the rest of mankind was rejoicing when Fath al-Makkah happened — and the city of Makkah, which happened to be the center of the mushrikeen, the very city which exiled Rasulullah ﷺ once upon a time, and now the time had arrived and the sahaba of Rasulullah ﷺ, and Rasulullah himself, was entering victorious — everyone was rejoicing. But at the same time, the people who had a firm understanding of the Qur'an were deeply saddened, because they knew that the time for the departure of Rasulullah ﷺ had arrived.

So the point I was making was that the people of the past would not usually look towards things on the surface — they would usually take a deeper dive and get into the essence of things.

Departing from Everything Beloved

So the Tabi'i says:

"I looked towards the creation of Allah, and I found that each and every single individual is forced to depart from his mahbub — his beloved things." And whether those beloved things happen to be in the form of relationships that we have — the siblings, the wife, the husband, the people who are very dear to us — a time will come that we usually mentally prepare ourselves for: that a time will come when the most beloved people in your life, you will be forced to carry their janazah on your shoulders, and you will take them to their destination, which happens to be a 6×2 or 6×3 grave, and that is where we lay them down.

Now I want you to take a second and ponder with me — what is the criteria of relationships that we have set for ourselves in this worldly life? Because here we are relying upon our beloved ones. If you find yourself stuck in a situation, you know that you have backup, and you can quickly call your brother or your friends, and you know that they will take you out of that tight situation. But what will happen when you will be laid into the confinements of the grave? The relationships that we had in this worldly life — will they be of any use or avail?

That's something that we need to think about. Have you ever seen the example of a son who went to lay his father into the grave and took some bedding with him, or a soft mattress with him, so that his father can rest comfortably in his grave? Have you ever seen something like that happen? Or anyone putting their son into the grave and placing their device with them so that they can stream YouTube in the grave? Even saying it out loud sounds ridiculous. Nothing like that ever happens.

Do you think that you can rely upon these relationships on that day, when you will be laid into the confinements of your grave? That's a question that we need to ask ourselves. So are we actually investing in the things which will come in handy?

The Incident of Abu Dharr al-Ghaffari

There is a famous incident of Abu Dharr al-Ghaffari radiallahu anhu. He had made a pact with his servant: "Whenever I ask you to spend in the path of Allah, spend from that which is the best — the best of which is in my possession." So once it happened that the servant was compelled to spend on behalf of the sahabi, and instead of taking the best, he took the second best. So the sahabi was naturally disappointed, and he said to him, "Shall I not tell you about the day on which I will be truly in dire need — and that is the day when the spending of the best of the things I have in this worldly life will come in handy for me?"

So we need to ponder for a second about the criteria of relationship, and the criteria of love that we have set for ourselves in this worldly life. Do we think that this happens to be a worthwhile investment?

The Hadith of the Three Companions in the Grave

And that brings us to the hadith of Rasulullah ﷺ:

(Sahih al-Bukhari, Hadith 6514; Sahih Muslim, Hadith 2960)

"When the son of Adam passes away, he is accompanied by three things." And the first of those things happens to be his ahal — the people that we were just discussing. So these people, what will they do? They want to make sure that they can, as quickly as possible, make the necessary arrangements for your funeral. They will bathe you, they will shroud you in your coffin, and then they want to quickly take you to your grave. They don't want to wait any longer. If it happens to be more than two days, people start to get tired and they want to get over with this stage. So what do they do? They carry you over to your grave.

Now does anyone stay behind so that they can answer the questions of Munkar and Nakir on your behalf? They are the two angels that will come into the grave and question us. In this worldly life, if you ever come into contact with some questioning, your father will step forward, or they will try to arrange a lawyer for you so that he can answer the questions on your behalf. But will we have anyone on that day to answer the questions on our behalf?

They will start asking you:

(Sahih al-Bukhari, Hadith 1374; Sahih Muslim, Hadith 2870)

"What did you say about Rasulullah ﷺ?" It's very easy for us to answer now: "I am a Muhammadi, I am an ummati of Rasulullah ﷺ." But on that day, only the people who lived their life a hundred percent — not half-half, not a quarter, but a hundred percent — according to the sunnahs of Rasulullah ﷺ, will be able to answer. And remember, you will be the only one answering — no one will answer on your behalf.

The hadith specifically states:

(Sahih al-Bukhari, Hadith 1374)

That the person who has been laid into the confinement of the grave can hear the receding footsteps of the people who have put him into the grave. Nobody is staying — everyone else is going. He can even hear them talking and discussing him, and then the angels come and they start questioning.

Choosing the Permanent Khalil

So the Tabi'i says — when he looks towards the creation of Allah:

"I looked towards the creation of Allah, and I found that each and every single individual is forced to depart from his mahbub — his beloved things." Be those beloved things in the form of the human beings that we have in our life, or in the form of the material objects that we accumulate in our life.

For a second I want you to ponder about the most beloved thing you had in your life, but a time will come — or the time has probably come — when you were forced to depart from that beloved thing. Sometimes with your free will, at other times you are forced to depart from it. So he says, "I thought — what is a worthwhile investment? Because we spend our entire life trying to invest in the things which will not help you at all on the Day of Judgment, they will not help you at all in the confinements of the grave. So I chose for myself a friend, a mahbub, which will never depart from me. That Khalil will never let go of me."

And then he furthermore clarifies and says that he found that to be in the form of two things:

Number one — his relationship with Allah. And SubhanAllah, let's think about it for a second. We talk about Allah at all times, and we remember Him at all times. But have we ever thought about the essence of a relationship with Allah? The beauty of it. As the poet says:

"It is my deepest desire, it is my wish that You can become sweet with me — and my entire life can be as bitter as it can get, I have no concern about the rest of my life. The only thing I desire is that, O Allah, You become sweet with me. And I wish that You would become happy with me, You would become pleased with me — and then the rest of the creation of Allah can remain angry, I have no concern whatsoever. And I wish that I can take my relationship with You, O Allah, to a higher level — even if it happens to come at the expense of my other relationships, I want to nurture my relationship with Allah. And then: O Allah, if I was able to acquire even a little portion of Your love, then everything else does not matter to me — the other loves of this world, the other love of this life — it does not matter to me. Why? Because every single thing in this world will turn to dust — it has no permanence whatsoever."

As Allah says: "We have created you from dust, and you will return back to dust one day — there will be no existence of you left whatsoever. And then وَمِنْهَا نُخْرِجُكُمْ تَارَةً أُخْرَىٰ — a day will come when Allah will once again resurrect you from the very dust."

The Two Permanent Investments

To furthermore clarify the saying of the Tabi'i, he said that he found permanence in two things:

Number one — in his relationship with Allah.
Number two — in the form of the good deeds that he accumulates in this life.

And then Allah mentioned in the Qur'an:

"Whoever in this worldly life happens to be a believer, and then adds good deeds to that — adds good deeds to his column — Allah in this ayah mentions that the goodness of those good deeds will not be confined to his life in the Hereafter." Because that's the concept we have when it comes to good deeds. That is why we have the Ramadan type of mentality — that the moment the month of Ramadan comes, we try to accumulate as many good deeds as possible. And then the moment the month of Ramadan finishes, we think: okay, the opportunity is over as well for me to accumulate, and then I can go on living my life as it is.

So Allah in this ayah mentions that the goodness of your good deeds and the good effects of that will not be confined to your life in the Hereafter — you will only see the effects of that in this worldly life as well, when Allah mentions فَلَنُحْيِيَنَّهُ حَيَاةً طَيِّبَةً.

But many a time you see people asking the question: "I live my life in accordance to the commandments of Allah, I try to do as much good as I can, then why is my life still full of trouble and worries?" The answer to that is that this world was never meant to be a perfect place. If this world was a perfect place, then there would be no comparison between this world and Jannah and the life Hereafter. This world was meant to be full of troubles and calamities — so that at times we see blessings and we remember Allah, and at other times we see problems, worries, and concerns and we still remember Allah.

And that is what was mentioned in the hadith of Rasulullah ﷺ:

(Sahih Muslim, Hadith 2999)

"Strange indeed is the affair of the believer, because he finds khayr — he finds goodness — in every situation he is in. Whenever a calamity befalls him, he practices sabr and that happens to be an elevation of status in the eyes of Allah. And whenever something good happens to him, he does the shukr of Allah, and that also elevates his status in the eyes of Allah."

So we, as believers and as mu'mineen, need to be happy with the decree of Allah and we need to find the worthwhile investment — the type of investment which is permanent, the one that stays with us forever, the one that will accompany us into the confinements of the grave. And that is what was mentioned in the hadith of Rasulullah ﷺ — that when the angels will come to question you in the grave, the salah that you have been working upon will come to your right side and will say:

"You do not have a direct path towards this individual — I am here for his protection." And similarly all the other a'mal — all the good deeds that you have been accumulating in this worldly life — will surround you from all four sides and will tell the angels, "You can question him from far away; we are here for his protection."

So if we were to make a comparison and if we were to make an observation, we would realize that the worthwhile investment happens to be in the form of a relationship with Allah, and in the form of the a'mal al-hasana that we do in this worldly life.

May Allah give us the proper understanding and give us the tawfiq to invest in the permanent.

أَقُولُ قَوْلِي هَذَا وَأَسْتَغْفِرُ اللَّهَ لِي وَلَكُمْ وَلِسَائِرِ الْمُسْلِمِينَ، فَاسْتَغْفِرُوهُ إِنَّهُ هُوَ الْغَفُورُ الرَّحِيمُ

Announcements

Brothers are requested to please move forward and fill in the gaps. Also, please pass the sadaqa boxes and spend generously in the path of Allah. The hadith of Rasulullah ﷺ mentions:

(Al-Mu'jam al-Awsat of al-Tabarani; also referenced in various hadith collections)

"Sadaqa takes away calamities."

The Divine Reality Workshop will be taking place starting from today, insha'Allah. It will be Friday, Saturday, and Sunday, and it covers atheism — something which is present in each and every single household, and it is a fire spreading everywhere, where everyone is questioning the existence of Allah. For that we need a strong foundational basis when it comes to faith. A lot of times we do say that we are Muslims and we say the kalima لَا إِلَٰهَ إِلَّا اللَّهُ مُحَمَّدٌ رَسُولُ اللَّهِ, but there happen to be doubts. Every single one of us face those doubts, and those are doubts that really need addressing. All brothers are requested to participate, insha'Allah.

Also, the Tafheem Weekend Program for Fall 2022 is open at the Dar-ul-Salam website. There is also a basketball camp taking place at Dar-ul-Salam — a three-day exclusive camp for boys ages 7 to 18. It includes free camp t-shirts, short Islamic talks, an all-star game and award ceremony, and a pizza party. The dates are from August 19th to the 21st. Please register on the website.

Admissions are now open for the Tanweer Intensive Program for boys and girls, and for the Tadris Integrated High School and Alamia Program, and 8th grade Tadris Prep for girls only. Classes start from August 15th, 2022.

We are hiring female HIFZ teachers. We are also hiring male math and science teachers for middle and high school students.

ICNA Relief is having their annual Back to School Drive. You can drop off school supplies that you would like to donate to children in need in the box in the lobby.

Also, the Tuesday Tafseer Program with Mufti Ali Madin is continuing after Maghrib. All brothers are humbly requested to please participate.