Reality of the Dunya - Semir Said

Opening — Khutbah al-Hajah

Alhamdulillah, we praise Him, ask for His help, and ask for His forgiveness. And we seek refuge in Allah from the evil of our souls and from the evil of our deeds. Whom Allah guides, no one is misguided, and whom He misguides, no one is guided.

And I bear witness that there is no god but Allah, alone, with no partner. And I bear witness that Muhammad is His servant and Messenger.

The Meaning of Dunya

What is the Islamic stance towards this dunya? The word dunya comes from the word dunu, which means something low, something with very low value.

Allah says in Surah al-Hadid:

Allah in this ayah is telling us what this dunya is about, what this world is about. He says:

• لَعِبٌ — it is play
• وَلَهْوٌ — and idle talk
• وَزِينَةٌ — and beauty
• وَتَفَاخُرٌ بَيْنَكُمْ — and boasting between yourselves
• وَتَكَاثُرٌ فِي الْأَمْوَالِ وَالْأَوْلَادِ — and increase in wealth and money and children

And at the end of the ayah, Allah says: وَمَا الْحَيَاةُ الدُّنْيَا إِلَّا مَتَاعُ الْغُرُورِ — and what is this life but the enjoyment of delusion.

The Wing of a Fly

In a hadith collected by Imam al-Tirmidhi, the Prophet says: if this dunya was worth in the eyes of Allah the wing of a fly — the wing of a fly — if it was that much worth, the Prophet says that Allah would not have allowed a kafir or a non-Muslim to drink from water. The fact that we see the situation today in the world shows us that it is below that in the eyes of Allah. This dunya is not even worth the wing of a fly.

(Jami' al-Tirmidhi, Hadith 2320)

Be in This World as a Stranger

So what is our stance as Muslims towards this? How should we be in this dunya? Rasulullah says in a hadith collected by Imam al-Bukhari:

Be in this world as if you are a stranger or someone who is just passing by, someone who is just passing through.

Now, if someone is travelling and he knows that he is going to stay in one place for a short period of time because his final destination is somewhere else — logically speaking, will this person start to settle down? Will he start to make a business? Will he start to build a mansion for himself? No, it doesn't make sense, because he knows that his final destination is somewhere else. He is not going to stay; it's only for a short period of time.

Ibn Umar, the son of Umar ibn al-Khattab, used to say: if you go to sleep at night, do not expect to wake up in the morning, and if you wake up in the morning, do not expect to see the night. This is how Ibn Umar is telling us to prepare ourselves — that yes, it is good to do the things that we do in this dunya and make as much use and advantage of the things that we have, but he is telling us: always have the akhira as your goal.

The True and Eternal Life

Allah says in Surah al-'Ankabut:

And this dunya, this worldly life, is not but diversion and amusement. And indeed the hereafter is the true and the eternal and the complete life. وَإِنَّ الدَّارَ الْآخِرَةَ لَهِيَ الْحَيَوَانُ — the hereafter is the true eternal life. This dunya is nothing but amusement and delusion.

This, my brothers and sisters, is the truth of this dunya. This is what the dunya is. And unfortunately, most of us we strive and struggle for this dunya.

Do Not Forget Your Portion of This World

By saying so, I do not mean, my brothers and sisters, that we should completely denounce this world and reject everything in it and live in a cave somewhere in a mountain. This is not the case, because Allah says in Surah al-Qasas:

And do not forget your portion or your share of this world. And He says in Surah al-Baqarah:

And from them are those who say: oh our Lord, give us in this dunya good and in the akhirah good as well. So there is some khair, some benefit, that we can have in this world. But the issue is, once we start to make this dunya our end goal and our main aim in life — that's where we are going wrong, my brothers and sisters.

Our main aim and our goal should be the akhirah, and whatever we have in this dunya should be the means that we use in order to get to our goal in the akhirah. So as we can see from these ayat and this hadith, this world is a stepping stone, a means for us to attain what we want in the akhirah. But like I said, my brothers and sisters, this dunya is a delusion — we can easily be fooled by it, because once we consume too much it becomes our main focus and we lose sight of the akhirah and we lose sight of our main goal, which is to please Allah and ultimately be successful in the akhirah and be granted Jannat al-Firdaws, insha'Allah.

I say what you hear, and I ask Allah for forgiveness for me and for you and for the Muslims from every sin, so ask His forgiveness — He is the Forgiving, the Merciful.

Second Khutbah — The Prophet's Attitude Towards the Dunya

Alhamdulillah wa kafa, wa salatu wa salamu 'ala nabiyyihil mustafa, nabiyyina Muhammadin ibn Abdillah, wa 'ala alihi wa sahbihi wa man wala. Amma ba'd.

So what was the Prophet's attitude towards this dunya? What was his manhaj with regards to this dunya? In a hadith collected by Imam al-Tirmidhi and Imam Ahmad, the Prophet says:

(Jami' al-Tirmidhi, Hadith 2377; Musnad Ahmad, Hadith 3709)

What have I to do with this world? The likeness of myself and this world is that of a rider travelling on a summer day — he finds a tree in the middle of the desert, he finds a tree, and he rests in its shade for a short period of time, and then he gets up and leaves the tree behind him. This is the example of him and the dunya: a short period of time. He makes use of what he can from this world — there was shade on the tree, he took a short break in that shade — and then after a short period of time he gets up and carries on with his travel to the final destination. This is the manhaj of Rasulullah ﷺ.

Three Things That Equal the Whole World

In another hadith collected by Imam al-Bukhari, the Prophet ﷺ says:

(Jami' al-Tirmidhi, Hadith 2346; classified as sahih)

Whoever amongst you begins the day secure in his home, his body in a state of well-being, and with him is his provision for the day — it is as if the whole world was bestowed upon him.

Three things the Prophet ﷺ mentions in this hadith. Whoever amongst you begins the day:

• Secure in his home
• His body in a state of well-being
• And with him is his provision for the day

It is as if the whole world has been bestowed upon this person. Not for his lifetime — for the day. These three things the Prophet ﷺ mentions — security and safety, health, and wealth — are the very things that everyone asks for in this world, be it a Muslim or a non-Muslim. Safety from harm, health from any illnesses, and wealth enough to live and support ourselves. These are the three main things that any human being would ask for in life.

With regards to wealth in this context, the Prophet ﷺ mentions something very unusual — he says if the person has enough for the day, not for his entire life, then it is as if he has earned the equivalent of the whole world. Now what is wealth? What can we learn from this? This hadith teaches us that wealth is not materialistic — it doesn't mean money. Wealth, my brothers and sisters, is either something that you eat up and use, or you pass away and you leave it behind for your offspring to share as inheritance, or it is something that you put forward for the akhira — something that you spend for the sake of Allah and you will find it in the akhira, insha'Allah. This is wealth.

And listen to this, my brothers and sisters: whoever considers his true richness and wealth to be in his earnings, he will forever be poor. And whoever considers his true richness and wealth to be in his heart — in what he believes, in his iman — he will always and forever remain rich.

Umar Visits the Prophet ﷺ

In a hadith in Sahih Muslim, Umar one day visits Rasulullah ﷺ and knocks on the door. Rasulullah ﷺ asks who it is and he says: it's Umar ibn al-Khattab. Rasulullah ﷺ asks him to come in.

Umar comes in and he sees the state of Rasulullah ﷺ — a very simple home, very simple — and he finds Rasulullah ﷺ lying on a mat, very rough. When Rasulullah ﷺ gets up, Umar sees that the mat has left marks on the side of his body, because it was so rough. When Umar sees the state of Rasulullah ﷺ, he starts to cry.

Our Prophet ﷺ asks: "Oh Umar, why are you crying?" Umar says: "Ya Rasulullah, why shouldn't I cry? Kisra and Qaysar — the kings of Rome and Persia — they are turning around in silk beds and gold and all types of luxury, and you, oh Rasulullah, you have a rough mat like this that leaves marks on your body. Why should I not cry, oh Rasulullah, when I see something like this?"

And listen to the response of Rasulullah ﷺ. He says:

(Sahih Muslim, Hadith 1479)

"Oh Ibn al-Khattab, are you not satisfied that for us is the akhira and for them is this dunya?" It's a simple thing — yes, it is rough, it is tough, it's a struggle — but it's for a short period, and then we have the eternal life, the true life in the akhira, insha'Allah.

This, my brothers and sisters, is our dear and beloved Prophet ﷺ, and this is his manhaj, and this is what he believed with regards to the dunya. And yet, unfortunately, we see many of us turn around and turn our backs towards Rasulullah ﷺ and his manhaj and his sunnah and teachings, and instead we focus on these worldly simple matters that will finish with this dunya.

Ramadan — A Month of Opportunity

Now, brothers and sisters, this Ramadan is for us a chance. Many of us or many people were here last Ramadan, and this year in Ramadan they are not here. We still have the chance now. We are still in this month, and this month of Ramadan is a month of mercy, a month of opportunities, a month of forgiveness, and a month of saving from the hellfire — as Rasulullah ﷺ mentioned in the hadith. He says every night Allah saves people from the hellfire, and this is every single night in the month of Ramadan. And we ask Allah azza wa jalla that He allows us to be one of them.

And as Rasulullah ﷺ also mentioned in another hadith, whoever fasts the month of Ramadan in hope for Allah azza wa jalla to give him mercy, forgiveness, and acceptance of his worship:

(Sahih al-Bukhari, Hadith 38; Sahih Muslim, Hadith 760)

His previous sins will all be forgiven. So it's a month of opportunities, my brothers and sisters — a month of forgiveness. This is our chance to get our priorities right, to turn around for the better, insha'Allah.

And we ask Allah to forgive our sins and shortcomings, and we ask Him to guide us all to the straight path, and give us the tawfiq and the ability to learn from the sunnah of His beloved Prophet Muhammad ibn Abdillah صلى الله عليه وآله وسلم.

Closing — Salah 'ala al-Nabi and Final Du'a

فَاذْكُرُوا اللَّهَ الْعَظِيمَ يَذْكُرْكُمْ، وَاشْكُرُوهُ عَلَى نِعَمِهِ يَزِدْكُمْ، وَالذِّكْرُ اللَّهِ أَكْبَرُ، وَاللَّهُ يَعْلَمُ مَا تَصْنَعُونَ. وَأَقِيمُوا الصَّلَاةَ.