Dhul Hijja

Opening Praise and Quranic Oath

Alhamdulillahi Rabbil Alameen, wa ala aqibat lil muttaqeen, wa laa udwana illa ala al-dhalimeen. As-salatu was-salamu ala sayyidina wa nabiyyina Muhammad, wa ala alihi wa sahbihi al-ghurri al-mayameen, wa man tabi'ahum bi ihsanin ila yawm al-deen. Amma ba'ad, fa qid qalallahu tabarak wa ta'ala fi kalamihi al-majeed, wa furqanihi al-hameed:

And the Prophet عليه أفضل الصلاة وأتم التسليم said:

— or as he عليه الصلاة والسلام said. Allah, through His sheer mercy, has granted the Ummah of Rasulullah ﷺ certain times and occasions throughout the year wherein they can earn the mercy and the reward from Allah in a short span of time that took previous nations an entire lifespan to achieve. And this system of tafdeel — the system of giving preference and virtue amongst the creation — is a sunnah of Allah.

The System of Divine Preference (Tafdeel)

That is why we see that from all of the creation of Allah, He has given virtue and preference to the human beings. They are the most noble creation of Allah.

And then from the human beings, the most virtuous and beloved servants of Allah are the Prophets عليهم الصلاة والسلام. They are ma'soom, meaning they are innocent. They have the ability to commit sins, but Allah protects them from committing actual sins. And from all of the Prophets عليهم الصلاة والسلام, we see that there is a system of tafdeel between all of the Prophets even:

So we see that Musa عليه السلام is Kalimullah, Isa عليه السلام is Ruhullah, and so forth. And from all of the Prophets عليهم الصلاة والسلام, we see that Rasulullah ﷺ is the most virtuous Prophet of Allah. He is Habibullah.

And then after the Prophets عليهم الصلاة والسلام, we see that the most virtuous individuals are the companions of Rasulullah ﷺ. And amongst the companions of Rasulullah ﷺ, the most virtuous is Abu Bakr رضي الله عنه. That is why it is the unanimous aqeedah of the Ahlus Sunnah wal Jama'ah that Abu Bakr رضي الله عنه is the most virtuous companion of Rasulullah ﷺ. No individual coming after him can reach the rank and status of Abu Bakr رضي الله عنه.

Likewise, after the era of the Sahaba, no one can reach the status of the Sahaba رضي الله عنهم أجمعين regardless of how pious they may become. They will never reach the status of any companion of Rasulullah ﷺ because the Sahaba enjoy one privilege and one fadila, one virtue, that can never be attained by anyone that did not live in the era of Rasulullah ﷺ. And that is the mubarak sohbah and companionship of Rasulullah ﷺ.

That is why we refer to the companions of Rasulullah ﷺ as the Sahaba — the companions — despite the fact that they had many great achievements, many great qualities, many great actions that they did in their lives. They were great worshippers. They were ascetic servants. They were people who gave immensely for the sake of Allah to the poor and the orphans. They gave a lot of sadaqa. But we do not refer to them as Ubad. We do not refer to them as Musalloon. We do not refer to them as people who would fast throughout the day and pray throughout the night. Rather we refer to them as the Sahaba because this is the one speciality that they had that cannot be achieved by anyone coming after them — and that is the sohbah of Rasulullah ﷺ.

The Virtue of Blessed Times and Places

So just as Allah has kept the system of tafdeel amongst the creation and amongst human beings, Allah has kept the system of tafdeel between times and places. Allah has given virtue to certain places over other places. For example, the most virtuous masjid to pray in is Al-Masjid al-Haram, the Ka'bah. Then the Masjid of Rasulullah ﷺ in Madinah Munawwarah. Then Al-Masjid al-Aqsa in Palestine. And then, according to some scholars, the Masjid of Quba. And then every other masjid that we find in the world.

Likewise, the Ulama mention that the most virtuous piece of land on earth is the land that contains the mubarak body of Rasulullah ﷺ. So just as Allah has given virtue to places over places, likewise Allah has given virtue to certain times over other times. That is why there is a very beautiful hadith narrated by Muhammad bin Maslamah رضي الله عنه, narrated by Imam Tabarani in his Al-Mu'jam al-Kabeer:

(Al-Mu'jam al-Kabeer, Imam al-Tabarani; also narrated in Majma' al-Zawa'id)

So Rasulullah ﷺ says that throughout the year there are certain times when the breeze of the mercy of Allah blows. فَتَعَرَّضُوا لَهَا — make sure that you put yourself in a position to receive the breeze of the mercy of Allah during these mubarak times. Perhaps one breeze of the mercy of Allah will touch you and after that, for the rest of your life, you will never be wretched. You will never be in a state where you are not under the mercy of Allah.

So there are certain times in our lives that can become a turning point — that changes the entire direction of our life and becomes the means of hidayah in our life.

The Story of Shaykh Ibrahim al-Balkhi

It is mentioned regarding Shaykh Ibrahim al-Balkhi who was the king of Balkh at that time. So when Allah wants to show mercy to someone, He can show mercy to him without any prior notice or without any prior cause. Everything is in the hands of Allah. That is why we have to always seek the mercy of Allah.

He was the king of Balkh and he was not a very religious person. He was involved in various types of sin. So one night when he was sleeping in his palace, he could hear some noise on the roof. He went to his roof and he saw a person and he asked him, "What are you doing here?" He said, "I am looking for my donkey." So then Shaykh Ibrahim al-Balkhi said, "If you lost your donkey, why would you be looking for it on the roof of my palace? You should go look for your donkey in the jungle."

So then this person said, "You are even more foolish than me. You want to achieve the love of Allah and the rahma of Allah, but you want to live in such luxury and comfort and in the disobedience of Allah. How is it ever possible for you to attain the love of Allah?" And saying this, he disappeared.

So this statement of this unknown person lingered in the mind of Shaykh Ibrahim al-Balkhi. That very night he left his palace and he dedicated himself to the worship of Allah. And then a time came when the king of another city, who used to be his best friend and they used to go hunting together, went into the jungle to hunt. He could see a man who was very skinny and very frail and weak, with disheveled hair, wearing tattered clothes with many patches, and his eyes were drooping. He looked in a very bad condition.

He went close to him and then he recognized — this is my friend. This is the same person who was a king like me and we used to go hunting together. He was stitching his patched clothes. So he asked him, "What happened to you? Have you gone crazy? You left the entire kingdom of Balkh and this is what you are doing?"

So what Shaykh Ibrahim al-Balkhi did was, he took his needle and he threw it into the water, into the ocean. Then he addressed the fish in the ocean and he said, "O creation of Allah, give me my needle." Hundreds of fish came out of the water, each with a golden needle in its mouth. Then he addressed his friend and said, "Is this the real kingdom, or the kingdom that you have?" He said, "I left the external worldly kingdom and I have attained the spiritual kingdom — and that is the love of Allah."

So that is why it is the saying of the Mashayikh and the Salaf: مَنْ كَانَ لِلَّهِ، كَانَ اللهُ لَهُ — that person who becomes Allah's, Allah becomes his. And when a person becomes Allah's, then the entire unseen universal system works in his favor.

The Days of Dhul Hijja and Eid al-Adha

We are living in the days — inshallah, next Friday will be Eid al-Adha. The difference between the celebrations in Islam and the celebrations of other communities, nations and religions is that our two celebrations are connected with two great acts of worship. We have Eid al-Fitr and Eid al-Adha.

That is why it comes in a narration that when Rasulullah ﷺ came to Madinah, he observed that the Arabs were celebrating two days. He asked them: مَا هَذَانِ الْيَوْمَانِ — "What are these two days?" They said, "These were the days that we were celebrating before Islam." So then Rasulullah ﷺ said:

(Sunan Abi Dawud, Hadith 1134; also in Sunan al-Nasa'i, Hadith 1556)

So Allah has replaced those two days of celebration with two days of celebration that are better — and those two days are Eid al-Fitr and Eid al-Adha. We observe Eid al-Fitr after the completion of fasting in the month of Ramadan — so our celebration is connected with fasting. And Eid al-Adha is connected with the act of qurbani, with the act of sacrificing an animal for the sake of Allah.

The Wisdom Behind Qurbani

So when we are sacrificing an animal, what is the hikmah and what is the wisdom and what is the objective behind this? Every single act in the deen has a certain objective. Now many people can say — what is the reason for slaughtering so many animals on one single day? Thousands and millions and billions of dollars are being spent. So the answer to this has been given by Rasulullah ﷺ himself. When the Sahaba asked:

"What is the reality of this animal sacrifice that we do?" Rasulullah ﷺ said:

"This is the practice and the sunnah of your father Ibrahim عليه السلام" — who was the father of all monotheistic religions. He was not only the biological father of Rasulullah ﷺ — because Rasulullah ﷺ was from the progeny of Ismail عليه السلام who was the son of Ibrahim عليه السلام — rather he was the spiritual father of Rasulullah ﷺ and he is also the spiritual father of every one of us.

So Allah liked the sacrifice of Ibrahim عليه السلام so much that Allah has let this sacrifice live on through the Ummah of Muhammad ﷺ and through the act of Qurbani that we do on Eid al-Adha. So when we are slaughtering the animal on the day of Eid al-Adha, in reality we are slaughtering all of the impermissible animalistic desires that we have in our heart. That is what we are sacrificing.

That is why Allah says in the Quran:

The meat and the blood of the animal does not reach Allah — rather it is the mindset and the mentality of taqwa, obedience and submission to the ahkam of Allah that reaches Allah. So because Allah told us to sacrifice an animal, that is why we are sacrificing an animal. It is the command of Allah. And by doing this we are telling ourselves that we give preference to the command of Allah over impermissible animalistic desires.

So whenever the temptation comes in the heart to commit a sin, a person remembers the command of Allah. When the animalistic desire of ghadab and anger comes in a person's heart and he wants to retaliate against his enemy, we remember the command of Allah. On one side we have our impermissible desires and temptations; on the other side we have the ahkam and the commands of Allah. Through the act of Qurbani we tell ourselves that we give preference to the command of Allah. We prioritize the deen of Allah over all other things.

Hajj: The Manifestation of True Love for Allah

The other great act of worship during these days is the Hajj. And what is the Hajj? The Hajj is our manifestation of true love for Allah. That is why if we take a look at all of the acts of Hajj, they are all irrational — they are all acts that a man does when he is deeply in love. What are we doing? We are making tawaf of the Ka'bah, going around the house seven times. Running between Safa and Marwa, because this was the practice of Ibrahim عليه السلام. We are clinging on to the curtains of the Ka'bah. We are clinging on to the Multazam. We are drinking from the water of Zamzam. These are all acts of a person who is madly in love with Allah.

We just have to ask the people who actually fall in love and what they do to attain the love of their beloved — in order to understand how to attain the love of the actual Beloved, and that is Allah. We often speak about the love of Rasulullah ﷺ, and definitely we should speak about the love of Rasulullah ﷺ because the love of Rasulullah ﷺ is a stepping stone to the love of Allah. But we also need to speak about having love for Allah because a true believer's love for Allah will supersede the love of every single thing.

Allah says that those who believe, their love for Allah is the most intense.

Closing Du'a

Oh Allah, grant us Your love and the love of Your Prophet ﷺ, and grant us the love of every action that makes us close to You — يا رب العالمين.

وَآخِرُ دَعْوَانَا أَنِ الْحَمْدُ لِلَّهِ رَبِّ الْعَالَمِينَ