2015-01-30 - Friday Prayer - Sheikh Khalil Abdul Rashid

The Reality That Awaits Us

When we wake up in the morning, we will dress ourselves, but we will not remove our clothes in the evening. Some of us will dress ourselves in the morning, but the ḥāsild — the janāzah worker, the person who washes the dead bodies — will remove our clothes in the evening.

Some of us will have breakfast in the morning, but for the evening all we will receive is a slight taste of moist hands and moist fingers being rubbed and moved over our lips as the washer washes our face. Some of us will retire for the evening and sleep and say good night and kiss our beloved wife or our beloved husband good night and kiss our children good night and close our eyes — and we will not wake up. This is the reality of what faces us, though we are ever forgetful of these moments.

This time will come, but we tend to forget about it.

The Breaking News of the Ṣaḥābah

There was a ṣaḥābī during the time of the Prophet ﷺ in the Meccan period who was doing some minor construction, minor work on his home, and he was in the process of digging. He woke up that morning and he went outside and, as was the norm, he ran across a friend of his who was another follower of the Prophet ﷺ and he asked that particular ṣaḥābī: is there anything new? Is there anything new regarding the revelation of the Qur'an?

You know how we wake up in the morning and we turn on CNN, MSNBC, we look at the New York Times to see what the breaking news is. What's going on in the world? There was no CNN back then, there was no radio. If you want to know what was going on in the world, what was going on in the community, you ask somebody. And what was new back then, the latest technology, the latest event, was the revelation of the Qur'an.

So as was normal, the ṣaḥābī woke up and left the house and walked to another ṣaḥābī: is there anything new? What's the latest news? What's the breaking news from the revelation, the khabar, the waḥy of Allah? Is there any updates?

And the ṣaḥābī said yes. There's a new story — front page, cutting edge, brand new breaking news. Allah has just informed us:

The reckoning, the ḥisāb, the accounting of people is ever drawing near. It is approaching, it is coming close.

The Blizzard and the Ḥisāb

A few weeks ago, I have relatives that live in New York City. All over the news was the impending blizzard — the worst blizzard in history coming to the northeast. 6,000 flights shutting down, 10,000 flights shutting down. Imam Zaid Shakir just left from his community a few days ago. His flight was from Dallas to Connecticut, and the next day Connecticut was shut down because of the blizzard.

Hours upon hours of news coverage — the blizzard is coming, electricity will be out. We want to warn people, go out and prepare and go out and get your water and your devices and buy your food and take provisions. Be careful, don't go outside. Going out in the streets was banned in four or five different states — in New York City and New Jersey and Connecticut. Nobody in the streets. We don't want to lose lives — be prepared, this blizzard is coming. Everybody rushing, the shelves empty, preparing for the blizzard. Everybody got ready for the blizzard, and it came and it went.

So now the latest news is: here comes the ḥisāb. The ḥisāb is coming. It's not like some of us will be affected and others not — no. The ḥisāb is approaching for everyone.

But unlike the blizzard, which people prepared for and talked about, unlike that event — people are in a state of ghaflah; they don't care about it. They are in a state of ghaflah, heedlessness.

The Two Types of Ghaflah

Ghaflah in its original form, in its basic form, is an inner state. It's a state of the mind and the consciousness and the qalb. Ghaflah starts internally. Inside of these people, they have no concern about it. They are not focused on it. And then, externally, their bodies turn away from it.

So cognitively, intellectually, rationally speaking, they are not concerned about it. Their qalb, their mind, their consciousness and their heart are not oriented towards this impending, coming moment of ḥisāb. And because internally they are not focused on it, externally their bodies turn away from it. The qalb is turned, and so the body turns. The body exhibits a type of behavior that does not show that the person is being mindful of this impending ḥisāb.

That's the news. That's the breaking cover story. The ṣaḥābī who received that news went back home, took his shovel and his pickaxe and all those tools, and put them away and gave up on his construction project.

There are two kinds of ghaflah. The first is ghaflah which is for the world — that is where the person is heedless and unconcerned about their consequences and the fact that there is a ḥisāb. So they are in a state of ghaflah internally. Their eye is on the world and on amassing and gathering the world. And because their eye — both their physical eye and their spiritual eye, the eye of the qalb — are oriented towards the world, they are buried in their vision of something that is outside of the world. That is ghaflah. So internally and externally they work in and for the world.

There is another type of ghaflah which is radically different from the first. That is not a ghaflah that is for the world. That is a type of ghaflah away from the world. That is the person who exists in the world, lives in the world, functions in the world, but knows that he or she is not a person of the world. They are not to exist here permanently. And so they are in ghaflah about this world because they are constantly in shahādah — in the witnessing of Allah, even through witnessing events of the world.

The Ghareeb and the ʿĀbir al-Sabīl

That is the meaning of the Prophet's ﷺ advice to us about how to exist in the world. He said:

Be in this world like you are a ghareeb — a stranger — or be in this world like you are an ʿābir al-sabīl — a traveler passing through.

Two very different paradigms. Two very different modes or examples. Two very different options.

The Ghareeb — The Stranger with a Layover

The ghareeb, in general terms, in literal Arabic terms, is the person who travels and then has a layover. In modern dialogue, it's somebody who's a traveler with a stop. That layover could be a few hours, it could be a few days, it could be a few months — or in our case, it's a few years. In some people's cases, a few breaths.

Embedded in that idea of ghareeb — that idea of traveling, going through a town but then having to stop for a moment — is that the ghareeb never takes his eyes away from the final destination. Imagine yourselves as travelers in an airport. You've got a layover, a connecting flight. You're going from Dallas to New York and you've got a layover in Chicago. You arrive at your gate and you know you've got to get to the other gate.

You might have a layover of five or six hours. You realize your flight's delayed, or you've got a long layover, so you decide to sit down for a moment. You decide perhaps to get a bite to eat, maybe to purchase something, a gift. You might do things that, outwardly, to an observer, your behavior resembles the identical behavior of someone who is not a traveler. The non-traveler sits down and has a meal — you're in the layover area, in transit, and you sit down and have a meal. You go out and purchase something — the person who's not a traveler goes out and purchases. Externally, behaviorally, it is identical. But internally, there is a radical difference.

You're eating, you're dining, you're shopping, you're walking, you're resting, you're talking on the phone, even sleeping — all of your external behaviors are imbued and infused with the idea and the remembrance and the awareness that you are traveling. Your purchases don't take you away from the idea that you're a traveler, that you've got to get to your destination. That is the ghareeb. The ghareeb takes a break and does the external behaviors of somebody who's not traveling. But still, internally, their eyes are on the prize, their eyes are on the destination. Internally, they have never left traveling, even though physically their body has stopped traveling.

The ʿĀbir al-Sabīl — The Direct Traveler

The ʿābir al-sabīl, the other option the Prophet ﷺ mentioned, is different. The ʿābir al-sabīl is the person who takes the direct flight. They don't have a layover. They don't have a stop. They don't even choose a layover as an option. From the very beginning, they're moving. And they don't stop doing anything. If they eat and they drink, or they go to the restaurant, or they purchase — it's in travel, it's en route. They don't stop.

That's the ʿābir al-sabīl. They are so focused on traveling that their body doesn't stop traveling. If they want to eat, they have to eat and move. If they want to read, they have to read and move. Their qalb and their mind are so focused on traveling that their body continues to travel as well. Their purchasing is different. The way they function is different. Their body completely conforms to that mode of traveling.

So the Prophet ﷺ gave us two paradigms, two options. There are those that can exist in the world saying: I'm on a direct flight to the Ākhirah — anybody who wants to talk to me has to deal with me on those terms. Or there's the other example — still traveling, but taking a break. Yet even externally, there is some resemblance, and internally they never lose sight.

The Culture of Heedlessness Today

Brothers and sisters, we live in a time where everything that is thrown at us — whether it's from social media, whether it's the culture, the lifestyle, even our lifestyle particularly in this country — there is a lifestyle and a culture of leisure in and of itself. It's very different than what the ʿulamāʾ of the past and even the Muslims of the past had to deal with.

We live in a culture where the lifestyle is that of taking a break, even from working for the world. And now we've got people being attached to the virtuality of dunyā — a virtual world. So we've got to detach from that virtual world and then detach from the actual world to be aware of the spiritual world. And so ghaflah — heedlessness, being unaware and unmindful of the fact that we are in a journey, where we are journeying to — all of that has deleterious and harmful consequences.

And the way to get out of that, the way to break that mold, the way to change that mindset is to constantly remember the concept of ḥisāb. That's why it's inserted in the āyah:

That's what people have forgotten — the ḥisāb part, the questioning part. The fact that everything we do during our journey, we will be asked about it. There is an interrogation that is there. Allah did not say, for example, اقْتَرَبَ لِلنَّاسِ عَذَابُهُمْ — the punishment is coming — or the anger of Allah is coming. He said the ḥisāb. That is the most significant part. And if we rectify our behavior in accordance with being mindful of the ḥisāb moment, then that will cause us to reform our actions, and most importantly, reform our relationship with the world.

Because the problem is not that we exist in the world. The problem is with the relationship that we cultivate, the relationship that we establish with the world. And the relationship that we've established with the world is one where we deal with the world and deal with the resources of the world like there is no accountability for those actions.

The Danger of Being Buried by the World

This is why Allah mentions that the activity of being in the world — of gathering wealth, accumulating resources, building, constructing, elevating, enhancing, improving, reforming — that tafākhur, that action of constantly innovating and building, which is a good thing, but there is a bad side to it:

It causes a state of ghaflah, it causes you to forget, it causes you to be distracted. So the paradox is: we must work in the world, but the danger of working in the world is that the more we dig in — using the metaphor of the ṣaḥābī — the more that we ourselves are being buried by the world. And so we must recognize that paradox. We must dig in the world without being buried by it.

And the only thing that wakes you up, that jump-starts your spiritual consciousness, is when you are reminded by death — whether it's passing by the graveyard, or hearing the sirens of an ambulance, or having a near-death experience. That shakes you. Then you realize that through digging in the world: oh my — there's this thing called a qabr as well. What am I doing for that? I'm investing in one place, but what have I invested in the other?

The Sight of Jahannam and the Ḥisāb of Blessing

At the end of the sūrah, Allah talks about the arrival of the Day of Judgement and the presence of the Hellfire. He says that you will all see it. At that moment, Abu Hurayrah, may Allah be pleased with him, said: don't imagine that Jahannam is red. He said, on the contrary, it is blacker and darker than tar and coal. It's something you've never imagined. Imagine seeing black fire — the sight alone, forget the heat, would render us in a state of trauma we could never imagine.

So that point of realization — when the Hellfire is there, when the Ākhirah is there, when that moment of truth comes and all of the balance sheet of our aʿmāl are revealed to us — then:

The ḥisāb will come, but the ḥisāb will come first for the naʿīm — the good things. What did you do with your food? Forget the ḥarām — the ḥisāb will be on the good things. How did you spend your money? How did you honor your clothes? How did you treat your wife and your children? All of the naʿīm, all of the blessings that Allah has given us — there will be ḥisāb for that.

And so, given the fact that the first part of the ḥisāb has to do with blessings, if we honor the blessings Allah gave us — if when a blessing came, we were mindful of who it came from; when we had a blessing, we were mindful of how to use it — then we function and act like a traveler, like a ghareeb, or like an ʿābir al-sabīl.

The Ḥisāb for Cold Water — Ibn ʿAbbās

They asked Ibn ʿAbbās: this notion of ḥisāb for naʿīm — what does that mean? Ibn ʿAbbās said: it's ḥisāb for things like الْمَاءُ الْبَارِدُ — cold water. He said, you take a bottle of water and you drink it and it's so refreshing. Even in the winter, there's ḥisāb for that. When you drank it, did you say بِسْمِ اللهِ? Did you remember the Creator of water? And when you finished, did you say الْحَمْدُ لِلَّهِ?

The Story of the Man, the Well, and the Dog

Mālik in his Muwaṭṭaʾ relates the story of a man who was so thirsty, and he came across a well. He looked in the well and he saw there was water down there. So he climbs into the well, takes a drink, and quenches his thirst. He comes out of the well, and there before him is a dog — a thirsty dog. And he sees the thirst of that dog. And he understands the meaning of the water, because he just was thirsty like that dog and he took a drink.

So he climbs back down, takes his shoe, uses his shoe as a cup, scoops water up, takes his shoe with the water inside, puts it in his mouth to hold it, to secure it, and he begins to climb back up out of the well with his shoe secured in his mouth and the water inside of the shoe. He comes out of the well, takes the shoe out of his mouth, approaches the dog. How many of us would just walk by the dog? How many of us would say: it's just a filthy animal? He approaches the dog and helps the animal drink the water out of the shoe.

The Prophet ﷺ, who was narrating and explaining this event, says that Allah praised that servant. Imagine that — it's a ḥadīth ṣaḥīḥ. Allah praised that ʿabd. Sometimes, on occasion, Allah praises His servants:

Allah says in the Qur'an: what an excellent servant. Sometimes He praises His servants. He thanks the ʿabd and says: on this day, I have forgiven him.

This is how the body reforms its relationship with the niʿmah of Allah. And when we reform our relationship with the world, then that slowly but surely reduces, inshallah, our ḥisāb for using the world.

May Allah reform us. May Allah bless us to be rid of the evil and the sickness of ghaflah. May Allah inspire us to be like the ghareeb or the ʿābir al-sabīl. Āmīn yā Rabb, āmīn.

الحمد لله رب العالمين، والصلاة والسلام على سيدنا محمد وعلى آله وصحبه أجمعين.

أوصي وأوصيكم بتقوى الله. قال تعالى:

عباد الله، اتقوا الله.