Importance of Reflecting - Shaykh Yousaf Jahangir

The Importance of Reflecting — At-Tafakkur

I start off by thanking Allah for protecting us throughout this pandemic. May He cure our sick, may He have mercy upon our deceased, and may He make easy the affairs of all those that have been affected by it.

And I thank Allah for blessing us with this opportunity to gather in His worship. As we know, this opportunity was taken away from all of us for many months. And one of the greatest calamities to come from this pandemic is that somehow people have become used to living without the worship of Allah in their lives. And somehow they have become used to living without the masajid and frequenting the masajid. May Allah protect us.

Our Responsibilities as Believers

We find, my brothers and sisters, as believers, we have many responsibilities. And one of the greatest responsibilities that we all carry is the responsibility to check the status of our iman. And it is also our responsibility to constantly fight our nafs and our egos and our desires. That concept which is known as mujāhadat al-nafs — constantly struggling and striving against our own souls.

And we are to tame our souls in such a way that whatever happens in our lives, any incident that takes place in our personal lives up until global pandemics, then we have a responsibility to draw benefit from that. And we have a responsibility to learn the lessons that Allah is trying to teach us through these tests and trials and these signs, these ayat that He sends us. And we are to get to a stage in our iman where we use even our senses to get closer to Allah — from that which we see, from that which we hear. These are all ayat, verses and signs that Allah sends us as a reminder to get close to Him.

The Ibadah of At-Tafakkur

One of the ways that we do this is by pondering and reflecting and contemplating — at-tafakkur. And this ibadah of at-tafakkur, of contemplating and pondering, is one of great importance. And if we use this ibadah correctly, it increases our iman.

In one place in the Qur'an, Allah speaks about the people of paradise, at the end of Surah Ali Imran, and He says:

Those people of paradise are from those people that dedicated their entire lives to Allah's worship — whilst they were standing, whilst they were sitting, whilst they were lying down. Their entire life was focused and devoted to Allah's worship and His pleasure.

How did they achieve such an amazing devotion? The next part of the verse tells us: because they would contemplate and they would ponder and they would reflect over the creation of the heavens and the earth. And once they would do this, they would come to a conclusion, as the next part of the verse tells us: "O our Lord, it is not possible that You would create everything in existence out of falsehood, without any reason, without any purpose. So glory be to You and protect us from the fire of hell."

The Trick of Shaytan — Heedlessness

We find the lack of contemplation in our lives is one of the many tricks of the Shaytan, so that we may lose focus and so that we may lose sight of our vision to enter into Jannah, so that we may forget the importance of Allah's worship in our lives. As Allah says:

"And how many verses and signs are sent to them throughout the heavens and throughout the earth, but they pass by them and they are heedless because they do not contemplate."

Lack of Contemplation — A Punishment for Arrogance

And we find the lack of contemplation is from the punishments of Allah in this life. As we know from the fruits of our deen, it benefits us in this life and it protects us in this life as well as the next. And when we do that which Allah tells us to stay away from, then this causes us sorrow and misery in our personal lives. And lack of contemplation is one of the punishments of Allah for being arrogant and prideful and turning away from His remembrance. As He tells us:

"Surely, I will turn away those who are arrogant from My signs."

In explaining this, al-Imam Hasan al-Basri, one of the greatest scholars of the Salaf, he said this verse means:

"That I will prevent them from pondering and reflecting over this affair."

The Fruits of Pondering and Reflecting

So when we ponder and reflect over a blessing, something which is good in our lives, this helps us in our relationship with Allah because it increases us in Allah's remembrance and in being grateful and expressing shukr and thanks to Him. And this is one of the ways that we preserve those blessings and we increase in those blessings.

And when we ponder and reflect over something which we may think is negative and bad, we look for the solutions in the problem. We understand that we are being cleansed from our sins and our mistakes. We find ways to better the situation. And we understand that there are many people that are in a worse situation than what I am currently in — and even that causes us to be grateful to Allah, because it could always be worse. And we understand that never ever does Allah test us beyond our ability. These are all conclusions that we come to when we ponder and reflect on Allah's favours and blessings and the tests and trials that we have upon us.

At-Tafakkur in the Life of the Prophet ﷺ

When we look at the important connection that this ibadah had to the life of the Prophet ﷺ — his wife Aisha, may Allah be pleased with her, she was asked by the Tabi'i Ata ibn Abi Rabah: "Tell me something which amazed you about the Messenger of Allah ﷺ." She responded, "Every single thing about the Prophet ﷺ was perfect and amazing. Every aspect of his life was perfect."

SubhanAllah — how many of our wives and our children and our family members would have the same testament for us today.

Then she gives an example pertaining to our topic of at-tafakkur. She said one night the Prophet ﷺ came home and he spent the entire night in the worship of Allah, in praying the night prayer. And he prayed for so long whilst he was standing, he prayed for so long and he cried so much that his beard became wet with tears and his chest became wet with his tears. SubhanAllah — when was the last time that we shed a single tear out of worship, in worshipping our Lord?

Then she continues to say: then he ﷺ went into ruku' and it was very long and again he cried until his beard became wet. Then he went into sajdah and the same thing happened — he extended his sajdah for a very long time and he cried until his beard became wet.

And then she said, "I asked him: why do you do this to yourself? What makes you cry like this? When you are the best of mankind, your previous sins have been forgiven, you are promised the highest status in paradise." The Prophet ﷺ replied: "Should I not be a grateful servant?" Especially that night being a special night, as those verses were revealed to him. He ﷺ was referring to the last ten verses of Surah Ali Imran — about pondering and reflecting and how this takes us to paradise.

As Allah says:

"Surely in the creation of the heavens and the earth and how the night and day interchange, there are signs and verses for those people that ponder and reflect — those that remember Allah whilst they are sitting and standing and laying down, meaning their entire lives are dedicated to Allah's worship — and they ponder and they reflect in the creation of the heavens and the earth. O Allah, it is not possible that You created this in mock and jest, without any purpose, in falsehood. So glory be to You and protect us from the fire of hell."

And it is reported the Prophet ﷺ said about these verses:

(Reported by Ibn Hibban and others — referring to the last ten verses of Surah Ali Imran)

"Woe to he who recites these last ten verses of Surah Ali Imran and he does not ponder and reflect over them."

And as we know, these verses became so important to the Prophet ﷺ that every night when he would awake to pray the night prayer, these were the verses that he would recite.

What Should We Reflect Upon?

In these few moments that we have spent together, we have understood what at-tafakkur is. We've understood what Allah says about it in the Qur'an. We've understood the great emphasis the Prophet ﷺ put upon this amazing act of worship. So then the question arises — what can we ponder and reflect over today? When we walk away from this khutbah, what can we take away? What can we ponder and reflect over?

One of the most important things we are ever going to ponder and reflect over is that this world, my brothers and sisters, is temporary. We are not here forever. We are not promised to be here this evening. However, the actions that we perform in this world, they determine our position and our status in the next world. So it is only befitting that we take our religious responsibilities seriously.

As the Prophet ﷺ said:

(Sahih al-Bukhari, Hadith 893; Sahih Muslim, Hadith 1829)

"Every single one of you is a shepherd and has responsibilities, and every single one of you will be asked about his responsibility."

And we ponder and we reflect and we ask ourselves: am I ready to stand in front of Allah and be questioned about these responsibilities that I have? And what needs to change and what do I need to fix? Is it really befitting and becoming of me to be doing these lowly sins? Is it really that which preoccupies me from my remembrance of Allah and my salah? Is that really of any importance? How much effort am I putting into this dunya — into social media, how many hours am I spending on that which brings me no benefit in this life nor the next? And then we compare that to how much effort we are putting into our worship of Allah, the reason why we have been placed here.

Surely Allah knows best.