2015 10 02 Friday Khutbah Sheikh Dawood Yasin

The Prophetic Understanding of Bankruptcy

Alhamdulillah, we thank Allah for the blessings that he has bestowed upon us and perhaps at times, as Allah says in the Quran:

That if he were to enumerate the blessings of Allah, we would not be able to enumerate them. And at times I think that there is this blessing — this immense blessing — that we overlook. And that immense blessing that I am talking about here is that Allah, from his infinite mercy, from his infinite wisdom, from his infinite generosity, brought each and every single one of us from a state of non-existence into a state of existence. That Allah himself has created each and every one of us, and not only has he created us, he has created us and given us this gift — he has given us this gift of Islam, he has given us this gift of Iman, he has given us this gift of لا إله إلا الله محمد رسول الله.

So we are not wandering around here trying to figure out: why am I on this earth? What is my purpose here? Where am I going? Should I worship this tree or this cow or this fire or something like that? He is so generous that he gave each and every single one of us that key to his pleasure. اللهم لك الحمد ولك الشكر — we thank Allah for this gift.

I would like to extend my greetings and make du'a for those who have just returned from the Hajj — may Allah give you حج مبرور وسعي مشكور وذنب مغفور, may Allah accept all of your du'as, may Allah accept all that you have asked for, may Allah count us among those people. اللهم آمين.

The Poetry of Imam al-Shafi'i

I want to begin my khutbah with a few lines of Imam al-Shafi'i, the great scholar of our ummah. These lines were shared with me by Imam Zaid Shakir during my time in Damascus as a student with him back in the late 90s. He would often recite these verses, and as I reflect on them now almost 20 years later, it is as if Allah is giving me a deeper understanding and the verses are becoming more real to me. May Allah constantly increase us, ameen.

(Poetry of Imam al-Shafi'i, transmitted by Imam Zaid Shakir)

Imam al-Shafi'i says in these lines of poetry: Verily, Allah has intelligent, discerning servants. We as an ummah — there is no shortage of intelligence in our communities, وماشاءالله — but intelligent, discerning servants, إن شاء الله تعالى, we will return back to this point.

تَلَقُّوا الدُّنْيَا وَخَافُوا الْفِتَنَا — they have divorced themselves from this world, fearing from its tribulations. Tribulations of what? Tribulations that will cause us to be distracted from the reality that this is not our home, that our ultimate home is with Allah. That is what we have been created for, and that is what the Jannah has been created for. And to fulfill its creation, it must be filled with us — may Allah increase us and make us of those people, ameen.

نَظَرُوا فِيهَا فَلَمَّا عَلِمُوا — they looked in this world and when they understood أَنَّهَا لَيْسَتْ لِحَيٍّ وَطَنَا — they understood that this abode is not our place. As we said, it is not our home. And as the Prophet of Islam said:

Be in this world as a stranger or as one who is crossing a path. Because the reality that we are created for is the reality in which Allah said in the Hadith Qudsi:

That Allah said in the Hadith Qudsi: I have prepared for my righteous servants that which no eye has ever seen, which no ear has ever heard, and which has not even been conceived in the consciousness of any of my creation. When we read this commentary with our teachers, they said this is not even from the anbiya — the absolute realities of the Jannah, nor of the mala'ika al-muqarribin — not even that reality. This is what we have been created for. This is our journey, this is our home, this is our destination. May Allah ease that path for us, اللهم آمين.

So when they understood this thing that would distract them from heading to that path — these things that would take them away from the pleasure of Allah — جَعَلُوهَا they made this world as if it were oceans, وَاتَّخَذُوا صَالِحَ الْأَعْمَالِ فِيهَا سُفُنَا — and they made their righteous actions boats, ships in which they crossed these seas.

The Essence of Our Being

The subject of the khutbah I wanted to talk about is the prophetic understanding of bankruptcy. The reality of our being — the essence of our being — and this is a very important point — is that we are spirits. We are arwah, we are souls that are inside of a body. We are not a body that contains a soul. Very big difference here. It may seem subtle, but the reality is different because one of the materialistic views is that this body has a spiritual aspect to it — but that is not the reality. The reality is that I am a soul.

And this is when Allah says:

When Allah in the Aalam al-Arwah — when Allah gathered all of the souls in the abode of the spirits — he asked: "Am I not your Lord?" And he did not address our physical being, and he did not address our intellect, our rational being. He addressed our souls. That is the essence of our being. We are souls inside of a body.

So when your Lord drew from the children of Adam all of their progeny, their descendants, and then they all testified — أَلَسْتُ بِرَبِّكُمْ — "Am I not your Lord?" — and they all replied and said, "Yes."

The Three Dimensions: Islam, Iman, and Ihsan

So this is what I want to talk about here — that there are three aspects to our being, as we know in the Hadith of Jibril. The Prophet of Islam addressed these three things. We know the hadith when Jibril, peace be upon him, came to the Prophet of Islam:

(Sahih Muslim, Hadith 8)

He asked him about three things: he asked him about Islam, he asked him about Iman, and he asked him about Ihsan.

So if we look at Islam — and the Prophet of Islam said what is it — it is to bear witness: أَنْ لَا إِلَهَ إِلَّا اللَّهُ وَأَنَّ مُحَمَّدًا رَسُولُ اللَّهِ — to bear witness that there is no god worthy of worship but Allah and that the Prophet of Islam is his final messenger and servant. This is a physical action — you will say your shahada in front of yourself as a convert, I will say my shahada in front of people. This is a physical action brought amongst people. And then there is the salat — a physical action, no one can argue this, it has a spiritual dimension to it obviously. The zakat — you pay your zakat to others. The fasting — a physical action. The Hajj — it is about a physical submission to Allah.

The state of Islam — through these physical actions, through the mercy of Allah — is that by doing these we are placed in a state of safety and security by Allah, and this is how we attain his protection. May Allah increase that, اللهم آمين.

It is interesting here — perhaps you have heard this before — but the meaning of taqwa speaks to this point. Taqwa is a difficult word to translate because it is not just "to fear Allah." It has a deeper meaning. Taqwa is from the root word وَقَى يَقِي — it actually means to ward off a blow, to shield yourself from a strike. So what is the connection between taqwa and God-fearingness in our actions? The connection is that through our actions, we ward off the displeasure and the punishment of Allah. Through these physical acts we ward off the displeasure and the punishment of Allah. This is the blessing of guidance. And as I said, Allah has blessed us with Islam and he has placed us in his safety and his protection. And as I started off with, we are not trying to figure out our way in this world — it is a blessing of what Allah has given us, this Islam.

There is a hadith in which the Prophet of Islam is reported to have said that Allah gives this dunya — this lower world if you will — to those that he loves and those that he doesn't love, but he only gives the akhira to those that he loves. May Allah make us of those people. So therefore there is no safety, there is no protection, there is no security except through Allah's pleasure. And to understand this and internalize it is the path that we will follow to ensure that we remain distant from the punishment of Allah. Through the Prophet of Islam, he has put the key in our hearts and he sent a guide to show us the door — and that key, in the life of that guide, is the way in which we will use that key at that door to unlock his pleasure.

The Prophetic Understanding of Bankruptcy

So how do we understand this then? We have Muslims that are praying, and Muslims that are fasting, and Muslims that are giving zakat, and Muslims that are making du'a... and and and and. But yet what is our state? Our state — I feel — is that we must realize that it's not just about doing these deeds. And that is why I said that there is a physical aspect to us, there is a rational aspect to us — this is the Iman in which we believe — and then there is the spiritual aspect of it, which is Ihsan. The reality is that the Islam cannot be divorced from the Ihsan, the Iman cannot be divorced from the Ihsan. If so, then we just have this robotic, habitual action that we are going through each time, divorced of the spiritual connections and realities that will bring the pleasure of Allah.

There is a hadith in which the Prophet, peace be upon him, talks about this reality. And it is not just about our actions — and that is what Imam al-Shafi'i was talking about, learning from the prophetic tradition, learning from the guidance of the Prophet, peace be upon him. But the Prophet, peace be upon him, is constantly guiding us away from this dunya to the reality of the akhira. Listen to this hadith:

The Prophet, peace be upon him, is sitting with the Sahaba and he asked them: "What is bankruptcy? Do you know what bankruptcy is?" And the Sahaba replied:

The Sahaba responded saying: "Ya Rasulallah, the bankrupt one amongst us is the one who has no dirham — he has no wealth — and he has no mata', he has no goods to sell in which he can acquire wealth." And the Prophet, peace be upon him, said:

(Sahih Muslim, Hadith 2581)

The bankrupt one of my ummah is the one who comes on Yawm al-Qiyamah with his salat and his zakat and his fasting — and in another narration he says he has mountains of prayer, he has mountains of zakat, he has mountains of fasting — but yet he comes on that day and he has insulted this person, and he has slandered this person, and he has consumed the wealth of this person, and he has shed the blood of this person, and he has struck this person. Then he is seated before Allah and this one is given from his good deeds and this one is given from his good deeds — and if all of his good deeds are exhausted before the rights of those he has oppressed have been fulfilled, then their sins are taken from them and cast onto his scale, and then he is flung into the hellfire. وَالْعِيَاذُ بِاللَّهِ.

It is more than just our salat as an action. It is more than just our fasting as an action. It is more than just writing a cheque for that zakat as an action. It is more than just performing the Hajj as an action.

We were having a discussion — I was with a friend last week. May Allah accept from those that passed away in the Hajj. And we were perplexed. He said: how is it that in the state of ihram you cannot pull a flower, you cannot break a branch from a tree, you cannot harm an insect — but yet people are stampeded upon to the point of death? When one is in ihram... how? As a Muslim, how? — if we then separate, as I said, that we are just there to perform these acts and we have divorced ourselves from the Ihsan.

Ihsan is a beautiful word. It means to beautify something in Arabic. So we are beautifying these actions with this spiritual relationship and understanding with Allah, to present them to Allah. So they are not accompanied with realities such as this — that I am coming to Allah with all of these things and now I don't know if I will meet Allah, if I don't make tawbah every day of my life, because I have slandered this person or insulted that person, and my actions will be taken from me.

And we can sit here and think, "Well I haven't shed the blood of a Muslim." But we have to think as Muslims: am I complicit in this? If I work for some sort of technology company or some sort of engineering company that is manufacturing drone technology, that is manufacturing some type of technology that is weaponized and taking the lives of innocent people — am I complicit in that? Or Muslims that were a part of perhaps the 2008 crash, in which people knew the game that was being played — a friend of mine's sister who spent 42 years as a public school teacher had her entire wealth removed from her life without even a sorry. If we are involved in that, then how do we understand the reality of this hadith — "they have eaten the wealth of this one, they have shed the blood of this one"?

As Muslims, this is why I read the poetry of Imam al-Shafi'i — إِنَّ لِلَّهِ عِبَادًا فُطَنَا. Yes, we are intelligent and we can reach the top ranks of those companies and even be the CEOs. But he says: intelligent, discerning servants. This is what we must be — intelligent, discerning servants — that I can walk away from that reality because I understand that the house and the car and the status and all of those things in this world, if they become a hint of that reality, then they will be a punishment for me on Yawm al-Qiyamah, regardless of how good it looks and feels in this world. May Allah wake us up to those realities, اللهم آمين.

So as I said, this is the reality of ensuring that our spiritual being — our essence, our realities — always accompany our physical actions. If not, then we may become bankrupt as is described by the Prophet, peace be upon him.

And the interesting thing here is that when the Prophet, peace be upon him, asked this question to the Sahaba, they responded in a dunyawi response — they responded in a material response. And that is the prophetic mission and message of the Prophet, peace be upon him: that he is constantly returning us to the akhira. And the Sahaba, رِضْوَانُ اللَّهِ عَلَيْهِمْ, said that the bankrupt one is the one who has no wealth nor any goods to sell. This is a dunyawi response. But the Prophet, peace be upon him, is here to guide us to the akhira, to guide us home. And he changes that entire orientation to say: it is not about this world, it is about the next world. And that is the reality that we should be placing in front of us with all of our decisions that we are making. How is this going to impact my relationship with Allah? How is this going to impact my eternity?

Iman and the Divine Decree

So Alhamdulillah, as we carry forward — there is also within the rational — our mind. In the hadith when it asks about this: what is Iman? أَنْ تُؤْمِنَ بِاللَّهِ وَمَلَائِكَتِهِ وَكُتُبِهِ وَرُسُلِهِ وَالْيَوْمِ الْآخِرِ وَبِالْقَدَرِ خَيْرِهِ وَشَرِّهِ — we all can answer this. Our children can answer this because they studied in the Sunday schools: what is Iman? It is to believe in Allah, and in the angels, and in the books, and in the messengers, and in the Last Day, and in the Qadr of Allah — both its khayr, its good, and that which is perceived as evil.

If we know these things, then when we see the realities of the divine decree of Allah unfolding, then we should have رِضَا بِمَا قَدَّرَ اللَّهُ — we should be pleased with what Allah has decreed. Not that we would find no pain or hardship in these things — no, I'm not saying that — and this is a very high level of Iman. But that is the ultimate reality of where we are trying to get to, because in understanding that, we understand the Irada of Allah: that if something were meant to be different, it would be that thing, but this is the reality that Allah wants, and that Allah only wants good for his servants.

So how do we then reconcile between that? This is our challenge of the times that we are in. May Allah make it easy for us and not make it a challenge that causes us to lose our Iman. I have met many people recently who are talking to me about a spouse or about a child or a friend in college or someone who has stopped believing because they cannot take what is happening in the world around them. If you don't understand your basic tenets of 'aqidah, then I can understand how that will happen. But if you understand عِلْم وَقُدْرَة وَإِرَادَة — and you understand that Allah is Hakeem, that he is Alim, that he is Khabir — if you understand that he is Adil, that he is all-just and infinitely wise, and that these things are happening with his decree — then we find the solace to know that Allah is in control, and I place my trust in him, that he understands this in the totality of its reality.

The Rational Mind and Ihsan

Just in closing — when we talk about the intellect being connected to Ihsan, to that which is beautiful — because when the rational mind is disconnected from this and it is only about the zahir, it is only about the outward manifest realities, then that rational mind will begin to make irrational decisions and then rationalize them. So when someone goes into a school in Peshawar and blows up the children in that school, or when someone goes into a station where Iraqis are looking for honest halal rizq and work and blows them up in a recruiting station, and then justifies that through Islam — that is an irrational mind that has been divorced from the realities of Ihsan.

Because the reality of a mind that is connected with Ihsan is given in the example of Umar ibn al-Khattab, رضي الله عنه. I was reading in the book that Umar, as Amir al-Mu'minin, would seek out the children of Medina and ask them to make du'a for him — because of the du'a being mustajab of the child whose book has not yet been opened with Allah. So you see the two differences there: a heart that is connected to Allah and understands the realities of Ihsan, and understands the realities of having that spiritual relationship with Allah, and then uses this dunya as Imam al-Shafi'i said as a means to draw near to Allah — rather than one that uses it for the displeasure of Allah.

So may Allah connect our actions, may Allah connect our rational minds with that which is beautiful and pleasing to him.

Closing Du'a

Alhamdulillah, in closing — the reality of this is that, as Allah says in the Quran, it will be a day when we stand in front of Allah questioned for everything that we did and did not do, everything that we said and did not say — when every single aspect of our existence is examined by Allah. That those who will have success are those that have come to Allah with an upright heart.

We ask Allah for an upright heart.