Preparing for the Next Life (with British Sign Language) - Shaykh Zakaullah Saleem

Opening — Khutbah al-Hajah

Amma ba'd: Indeed, the most truthful of speech is the speech of Allah, and the best of guidance is the guidance of Muhammad ﷺ. The worst of matters are newly invented ones, and every newly invented matter is an innovation, and every innovation is misguidance, and every misguidance is in the Fire.

Preparing for the Next Life

My dear respected brothers and sisters in Islam, Allah says in Surah al-Hashr:

O you who believed, fear Allah — and every single soul should see what it has sent forth for tomorrow. Tomorrow is the day when we are going to stand before Allah, and that tomorrow will start as soon as we take the final breath in this dunya, as soon as we taste death and we leave this dunya, that tomorrow will begin.

Each one of us needs to hold ourselves to account with regards to our preparation for the next life. As Sayyiduna Umar ibn al-Khattab رضي الله عنه used to say:

"Hold yourselves to an account before you are held to an account" — before you are held to an account before Allah Dhul Jalal Ikram on the Day of Judgment.

Reviewing Our Priorities

In order for each one of us to hold ourselves to an account, we need to look into our priorities in this dunya, in this life. When it comes to our priorities, each one of us needs to review them. Is our priority the next life — the Hereafter, the Akhirah, pleasing Allah Dhul Jalal Ikram and Jannatul Firdaus — or is our priority this dunya?

Rasulullah ﷺ has said in a hadith reported by Imam al-Tirmidhi:

(Sunan al-Tirmidhi, Hadith 2465)

Whoever makes the Akhirah — the next life — his main goal and his focus, Allah places richness in his heart and fills his heart with richness, even if he has very little of the wealth of this dunya. He will feel that he is the richest person on this earth.

As Rasulullah ﷺ said in another hadith:

(Sunan al-Tirmidhi, Hadith 2305)

Be content, satisfied, happy, and pleased with what Allah has decreed for you, and if you do so, you will be the richest amongst the people.

And another hadith of the Prophet ﷺ says:

Richness is not by accumulating a lot of wealth of this dunya; rather, the richness is the richness of the heart.

For the One Who Makes the Akhirah His Goal

So Rasulullah ﷺ says: whoever makes the Akhirah his main goal and concern — Allah fills his heart with richness, and Allah organizes and puts his affairs together, so it is very easy for him to deal with the matters of the dunya one after the other. And the dunya itself will come towards him even if he does not run after it and does not seek it actively. His main goal is the Akhirah and the next life.

For the One Who Makes the Dunya His Goal

And within the same hadith, the Prophet ﷺ said: whoever makes the dunya his main goal, his focus — all he knows is about dunya; he wakes up in the morning thinking about dunya, running after dunya, and his main concern is the dunya; he does not think about the Akhirah and does not make any preparation for his next life, for his grave, for standing before Allah on the Day of Judgment — Allah will place poverty right in front of his eyes. Meaning, he will continue running after the dunya, and he may be able to accumulate a lot of wealth, yet he will consider himself amongst the poor, because his heart is never satisfied.

As Rasulullah ﷺ says:

If the child of Adam is given two full valleys of wealth, he will run after a third one, because he will see that two are not enough for him. The belly of the child of Adam cannot be filled except with the mud of the grave.

Allah says in Surah al-Takathur:

Your zeal and your desire for accumulating the wealth of this dunya and gathering the dunya has distracted you from your main focus and goal — until you visit the graves, you visit the cemeteries. Yet you do not take any lesson that those who are buried in those graves were on this earth like you are on this earth, and they were running after the dunya, but when they left the dunya they went empty handed.

Whoever makes the dunya his main focus and goal — Allah will place poverty right in front of his eyes. All he sees is poverty. It is not enough, it is never enough for him. Rather, he will continue running after the dunya. And Allah will disorganize his affairs — his affairs will be scattered. He will continue dealing with his problems and difficulties in this dunya, dealing with his issues one after another. By the time he deals with the first problem, the second one is waiting; he starts dealing with the second problem, then the third one is waiting. And like this, he continues living the life of this dunya, dealing with his problems one after the other — because this is a punishment for him from Allah.

And then he ﷺ says: as for the dunya after which he runs and spends his days and nights — he will be given from the dunya only whatever Allah had decreed for him when he was in the womb of his mother.

The Harvest of the Next Life Versus the Harvest of This World

Allah says in the Quran:

Whoever intends the harvest of the next life — We increase for him in his harvest. Meaning, you perform one single good deed and you will be rewarded a minimum of ten times on the Day of Judgment. This is what Allah says: "We increase for him his harvest."

And whoever intends the harvest of this dunya — he wants to get the results of his efforts within this dunya, and all his efforts are for the dunya only — Allah says: whoever intends the harvest of the dunya, We give him some of it. Not everything that he has planned for. It is a reality — you may plan, you may have a big plan for the dunya, that I am going to expand my business over the next 5–10 years like this. And very few people achieve those plans and those goals. There are hurdles, there are problems, there are issues. And those who run after the dunya make big goals, they have big goals to achieve. But Allah says: We give them and We allow them to achieve some of it — not all of it. And in return they will have no share in the Akhirah. Na'udhu billahi min dhalik. This is a punishment from Allah.

The Dunya Is a Means, Not the End

So my dear brothers and sisters in Islam, as Muslims we need to make the Akhirah our end goal, our main focus, our main concern. As for this dunya — this dunya is just a means. The wealth of the dunya and whatever Allah has blessed us with in this dunya, we should utilize it in order to achieve our main goal and in order to please Allah. Your life, your time, your wealth, your skills, your qualifications — whatever Allah has blessed you with — utilize it in order to please Allah, in order to prepare for your next life.

The Du'a of Those Who Seek the Dunya Alone

Allah says in Surah al-Baqarah: amongst the people are many who say, "O Allah, give us dunya" — whenever they raise their hands they ask for the dunya: "O Allah, increase my wealth, increase my business, give me more and more and more." Whatever they ask, they ask about the dunya. Allah says: if this is the case for such people —

For them there is no share in the next life.

The Du'a of the Believers

And then Allah says: and amongst the people are those who say —

O Allah, grant us good in this dunya and grant us good in the next life and save us from the punishment of the Fire. This is what Rasulullah ﷺ used to say, and that is why the Prophet ﷺ used to repeat this du'a very often.

In another du'a, the Prophet ﷺ used to say:

O Allah, do not make the dunya my biggest concern. O Allah, do not make the dunya my biggest concern. Each one of us needs to ask ourselves: is the Akhirah our main concern, or is the dunya our main concern? And this is what Umar ibn al-Khattab said: "Hold yourself to an account before you are held to an account before Allah Dhul Jalal Ikram."

Closing Du'a

May Allah give us tawfiq and ability to make the Akhirah our main goal and focus, and may Allah grant us good in this dunya and grant us good in the next life, and may Allah save us from the punishment of the Fire. Indeed He is All-Hearing, Most Generous, Most Responsive.