Live Every Day Like It’s Your Last

وَأَمَّنَا بِهِ بَعْدَ الْخَوْفِ وَأَغْنَى بِهِ بَعْدَ الْعَيْلَةِ فَالصَّلَوَاتُ اللَّهِ وَسَلَامُهُ عَلَيْهِ وَعَلَى آلِهِ الطَّيِّبِينَ الطَّاهِرِينَ وَالصَّحَابَةِ أَجْمَعِينَ وَمَنْ تَبِعَهُمْ بِإِحْسَانٍ إِلَى يَوْمِ الدِّينِ. أَمَّا بَعْدُ.

All praise is due to Allah, our Creator, the Originator and Designer of the heavens and the earth, and upon the best of creation, Muhammad ﷺ. We send our salutations upon him, his family, his companions, and all those that follow them in goodness till the end of times. Allahumma ja'alna minhum.

The Certainty of Our Last Day

My dear beloved brothers and sisters of Islam, there will come a day where you and I will breathe our last — where we read our last verses of the Qur'an, we do our last dhikr, the last time we tuck our children to bed, the last time we gaze upon our parents, the last time we pray to Allah. That day is certainly to come.

And the Prophet ﷺ said:

Every servant of Allah will be resurrected upon what they died upon.
(Sahih Muslim, Hadith 2878)

So it is incumbent upon the Muslim to strive to do righteous deeds so that they can be resurrected upon a righteous deed. That they strive, that they live as Muslims, so that they may die and meet Allah as Muslims. And this is where Allah says:

Fear Allah as He should be feared, believers, and do not die except that you are Muslims.

It's not about how you start the race, it's about how you finish the race. This is why Rasulullah ﷺ said:

Indeed, deeds are judged by their endings.
(Sahih al-Bukhari, Hadith 6607)

It's about how we end our life. And this is why Ibrahim ﷺ and Ya'qub ﷺ, when they gave advice to their offspring and their children — and remember those offspring are prophets — what did they say?

Don't die except you're Muslims. Don't leave this world except you're Muslims.

The Du'a for a Firm Heart

And this is why Rasulullah ﷺ would make the du'a:

Ya Allah, the turner of hearts, keep my heart firm on Your religion.
(Sunan al-Tirmidhi, Hadith 3522)

Ya Allah, do not let our hearts deviate after You have guided us. After You have made us Muslims, let us not be distracted.

And this is one of the things that would really, really concern our righteous predecessors, our Salaf as-Saleh. Imam Sufyan al-Thawri, when he would think about the end of his life, it would bring him to tears. And he would say, "I don't know if I'm written amongst the wretched. I don't know how my last moments will be." None of us knows what our last moments will look like.

And so today I'm going to be sharing two stories. One of a beautiful ending — حُسْنُ الْخَاتِمَةِ.

Ya Allah, grant us all a beautiful ending.

And one of a very wretched and evil ending.

We ask You, Ya Allah, for protection and refuge from an evil ending. And we ask You, Ya Allah, that the last words we utter from this life are لَا إِلَهَ إِلَّا اللَّهُ مُحَمَّدٌ رَسُولُ اللَّهِ ﷺ.

The First Story: A Beautiful Ending — Imam Abu Hanifa

The first story of a beautiful ending — and they're tied together — is of one of the greatest imams to have ever lived, and his oppressor who had a very terrible ending: Imam Abu Hanifa رحمه الله and Abu Ja'far al-Mansur, the Abbasid Khalifa.

Imam Abu Hanifa رحمه الله — as was the case before and as is the case now — scholars were targeted because they carried so much influence and power in the hearts of the people. And so what would tyrants do? They would like to subjugate them and make them puppets. Because they know that if they control the scholars, they control the people.

And so Abu Hanifa رحمه الله — that great imam, we ask Allah to shower mercy on him, say ameen, and on all of our imams — he had a lot of people that were jealous of him. Jealous of his knowledge and jealous of what Allah had bestowed him with. And he came at a time where the Umayyad Caliphate was going down and the Abbasid Caliphate was going up. And not only was he tortured and killed in the Abbasid Caliphate, but he was also tortured during the Umayyads' time. Tortured, whipped — رحمه الله.

And SubhanAllah, one time when he was whipped, he was seen crying and he was asked, "Why are you crying?" He said, "Because I don't want... I think of what would happen if my mother were to see me in such a situation, how depressed she would become." SubhanAllah.

And Imam Abu Hanifa رحمه الله, during the time of Abu Ja'far al-Mansur — Abu Ja'far al-Mansur knew he wanted to get rid of Abu Hanifa. And he used this as an excuse, a political excuse, to murder him. And so Abu Ja'far al-Mansur brought Abu Hanifa to his court and he said, "I will appoint you as the chief judge under my rule" — قَاضِي الْقُضَاةِ. And Abu Hanifa knows that if he becomes the chief judge under his rule, he's going to become his puppet — having to make what is halal, haram, and what is haram, halal. This is what these tyrants do.

And so Abu Ja'far al-Mansur was forcing him to do such a thing. And he says, لَا أَصْلُحُ — "I'm not fit for this." And Abu Ja'far responds to him, "You lie." And Abu Hanifa, at this age — he's 70 years old, a senior old man — says, "Then if that's the case, the Ameer al-Mu'mineen has already decided I'm not fit. Because if I'm telling the truth that I'm not fit, then I'm telling the truth. And if you're saying I'm a liar, then I'm also not fit for the role of قَاضِي الْقُضَاةِ."

Angered and upset at the brilliance and the genius of Abu Hanifa and his answers, he has him imprisoned again and whipped every single day. Starved, dehydrated — to the point where the people, when they did his janazah at the end and they washed his body, they said he was so frail, so nahif, because of all the torture that had come before.

And Abu Ja'far al-Mansur calls him again to his courtroom. And he says, "I swear by Allah" — he takes an oath — "that you will be قَاضِي الْقُضَاةِ." Imam Abu Hanifa responds with an even stronger and greater oath. And those in the courtroom say, "How dare you make an oath after Ameer al-Mu'mineen has made an oath?" And SubhanAllah, look again at the genius of Abu Hanifa. He says, "The Ameer al-Mu'mineen is far more capable and able than I to expiate his oath. He has so much more wealth — it's nothing for him." And again, he shines with his brilliance.

Abu Ja'far al-Mansur again has him whipped, has him imprisoned, has him put back in his cell. And Abu Ja'far — خلاص — he wants to get rid of Imam Abu Hanifa once and for all. He brings him and he has a bowl of poison in a drink that he forces him to drink. Abu Hanifa refuses. He says, "I know you're trying to poison me." He then has his guards force him down, and he has Imam Abu Hanifa رحمه الله forced to drink that poison.

And Abu Hanifa then gets up to walk away. And Abu Ja'far al-Mansur asks him, "Where are you going?" He said, "From where you brought me." And then he's taken and escorted back to his cell. And he spent his last moments — رحمه الله — in salah. And he took his final breath and he died in sajdah as a shaheed. We ask Allah to shower mercy on him, ya Rabb, and to make all of his a'mal in his mizan of hasanat, ya Rabb, and all of our imams.

The Second Story: A Wretched Ending — Abu Ja'far al-Mansur

Abu Ja'far al-Mansur, he didn't stop there. He wasn't done just yet. Because oppressors — they keep wanting more blood, more blood, more blood. That's what we see today. They promise a ceasefire, but they don't give it.

So Abu Ja'far al-Mansur, what does he do? He goes after the next scholar. He goes after Sufyan al-Thawri. We saw that beautiful ending — and let us now hear how Abu Ja'far has an evil ending, سُوءُ الْخَاتِمَةِ.

Sufyan al-Thawri's Flight from Oppression

And so he goes and brings Sufyan al-Thawri — that great imam — to his courtroom. And he says, "You will be قَاضِي الْقُضَاةِ under my rule." Sufyan al-Thawri knows what that means. He refuses. He says, "I'm not going to take this position." He said, "If you don't, then the sword." And Abu Ja'far al-Mansur, when he promises to take someone's life, he's not playing around — he means it.

And so Sufyan al-Thawri knows now that his life is on the line. And so he makes an excuse and says, "At least give me till tomorrow to think about it." And he agrees. He excuses him. Sufyan al-Thawri knows this is his only chance. He packs up whatever little he can — he does not have an ATM where he can just travel with all of his wealth — he leaves everything behind. Whatever little belongings he has, he makes his journey to Yemen.

The next day, Abu Ja'far al-Mansur finds out. Angered, upset, he puts a bounty on his head — anyone who brings him to him dead or alive will have a handsome reward. And so now everyone is looking for Sufyan al-Thawri.

Sufyan al-Thawri escapes, he's on his way to Yemen. With his little belongings, he's not able to make the full journey. In the midst of his journey, he stops and finds a man who owns a garden, a farm, and asks, "Can I work under you for some wage?" And he works there for some time with that gardener in his farm.

Until one day that gardener has some guests over. And he tells Sufyan al-Thawri — imagine, that great scholar, one of the greatest imams to have ever lived, working in a garden, SubhanAllah, just so that he doesn't have to face that zulm — "Fetch me some grapes for my guests." And Sufyan al-Thawri goes and gets grapes and brings them back, and they turn out to be very sour. He said, "What are you bringing me sour grapes for? Go bring me some sweet grapes." Sufyan al-Thawri again goes back and brings back grapes. They're again sour grapes. He said, "You don't know the difference between sour and sweet. Why do you keep bringing me these sour grapes?"

And Sufyan al-Thawri, SubhanAllah, working this entire time at this man's garden, said, "How can I know the difference between what's sour and sweet when I've never tasted it?" And so this gardener was like, "Oh SubhanAllah — you think that you're a wali min awliya'illah, that you're such a God-fearing servant of Allah, that all this time you've been working in my garden and you haven't eaten any of the vegetables and fruits. Oh, come on — you think you're Sufyan al-Thawri?"

Because the scholars then were not known by their faces or by YouTube or Facebook or Instagram. They were known by their qualities. And so Sufyan al-Thawri was known for his righteousness. As soon as he hears his name, he knows that again his life is at risk, and so he knows it's time to leave.

The gardener then goes to his guests and tells them of what transpired. They said, "Give us the description of that man." And he describes the man to them. And they said, "There is a bounty on Sufyan al-Thawri and he is working with you. Let's go get him, tie him up, take him to the khalifa, and get that huge reward." When they go back, Sufyan al-Thawri is already gone.

And he made his way to Yemen. And SubhanAllah, he said, "I'm not going to do any odd jobs anymore. I'm just going to go into the marketplace and do business there." And Allah willed that there would be a case of theft and Sufyan al-Thawri gets caught in the middle of it. And then he is brought in front of the hakim — the governor, the one who represents the khalifa in Yemen.

And when the governor, the hakim, sees him, he sees the nur of the Sunnah of Rasulullah ﷺ. He said, "This is no ordinary man. This is no thief." He tells his guards to leave the room, and he asks him, "Who are you?" He says, "I'm Abdullah." He said, "No, by Allah, tell me who you really are." He says, "I'm Sufyan." He said, "Sufyan who? The son of who?" He said, "Sufyan, the son of Abdullah" — again trying to escape as much as he can. He said, "No, by Allah, tell me who you really are." And then he finally reveals his identity as one of the greatest imams, Sufyan al-Thawri.

And the hakim, the governor of Yemen, says, "So long as you are here, I won't give you to the khalifa — you're safe here." But Sufyan al-Thawri knows that if one person knows, then everyone's going to find out. So he again leaves from Yemen and makes his way to Mecca in hopes that Abu Ja'far al-Mansur will at least respect the sanctity of Mecca al-Mukarramah. Because Allah called it بَلَدًا أَمِينًا — a place that's safe for the believers.

Clinging to the Ka'bah

And so Sufyan al-Thawri is there, and Abu Ja'far al-Mansur is after his head. He wants Sufyan al-Thawri not just to kill him, but to make an example of him. And so he tells his guards — he's making his way to the pilgrimage as well — "Not only are we going to kill him, but we're going to put him on stakes and crucify him, for everyone who defies Abu Ja'far al-Mansur to know what happens when you say no to me." Crucify him in Mecca al-Mukarramah.

And so when Sufyan al-Thawri is there, the guards have finally come, the army has finally come, Abu Ja'far al-Mansur is on his way as well. Sufyan al-Thawri is laying in the laps of Fudayl ibn Ayyad — one of the great awliya, one of the great imams — and Sufyan ibn Uyayna. And he hears the guards calling out for Sufyan: "Now your time has come. Now you will be killed. Now you will be crucified."

Sufyan al-Thawri has nowhere to turn. Imam Sufyan al-Thawri has nowhere to run to. So he goes to Allah, and he comes to the curtain of the Ka'bah, the cloth of the Ka'bah, and he grabs onto it. And he says — and SubhanAllah, think about the people of Gaza; they have nowhere to turn to, nowhere to run, nowhere to leave:

"I have nothing to do with Him if Abu Ja'far enters."

And who does he mean by Him? He takes such a strong oath by Allah because he knows that He is الْبَرُّ الرَّءُوفُ الرَّحِيمُ, He is الْحَنَّانُ الْمَنَّانُ — "I have nowhere to turn to, ya Allah, except You. You're not going to let him enter into Mecca, ya Rabb." And so he clings onto the Ka'bah and says, بَرِئْتُ مِنْهُ — "I have nothing to do with Him if Abu Ja'far enters."

And Allah answers his du'a. Fear the du'a of the one who is oppressed, because there is no curtain between them and Allah. And the Prophet ﷺ said:

Indeed there are among the servants of Allah those that, if they were to swear by Allah, Allah would fulfill it for them.
(Sahih al-Bukhari, Hadith 2703)

And so Abu Ja'far al-Mansur, he is on his way to Mecca, he is on his camel — and it just so happens that he falls from his camel, hits his head on a rock, and bleeds to death. Allah gave him سُوءُ الْخَاتِمَةِ.

SubhanAllah, how beautiful it is — the stories of our pious predecessors. We ask Allah to grant us all حُسْنُ الْخَاتِمَةِ.

أَقُولُ مَا تَسْمَعُونَ وَأَسْتَغْفِرُ اللَّهَ لِي وَلَكُمْ وَلِسَائِرِ الْمُسْلِمِينَ فَاسْتَغْفِرُوهُ إِنَّهُ هُوَ الْغَفُورُ الرَّحِيمُ.

Second Khutbah: Live Every Day Like It's Your Last

الْحَمْدُ لِلَّهِ رَبِّ الْعَالَمِينَ وَالصَّلَاةُ وَالسَّلَامُ عَلَى سَيِّدِنَا وَنَبِيِّنَا وَحَبِيبِنَا مُحَمَّدٍ وَعَلَى آلِهِ وَصَحْبِهِ أَجْمَعِينَ. رَبِّ اشْرَحْ لِي صَدْرِي وَيَسِّرْ لِي أَمْرِي وَاحْلُلْ عُقْدَةً مِن لِّسَانِي يَفْقَهُوا قَوْلِي.

My dear brothers, elders, and sisters — I leave us all with just one action item today: Live every single day as though it's your last. Live every single day as though this is your last Jumu'ah that you pray. That this is the last time you fall into sujood. The last time you do dhikr of Allah. Because when you do that, the amount of heart you put into it will be completely different.

This is why Rasulullah ﷺ said:

Pray the prayer of one who is giving farewell.
(Sunan Ibn Majah, Hadith 4171)

You know when family members and relatives say goodbye to their families as they drop them to the airport — every single second feels like Jannah, every single second is so precious, because it's the last time you're gazing upon those people you love. This is exactly why Mu'adh رضي الله عنه, when the Prophet ﷺ was giving him his final goodbyes and took him to the outskirts of Medina before he went off to Yemen — the Prophet ﷺ, as he told his goodbyes to Mu'adh, said:

"Perhaps you will not meet me again after this year." And perhaps if you were to ever return, you would only find this city and the masjid — you won't find me here.
(Musnad Ahmad, Hadith 22061)

And Mu'adh رضي الله عنه, knowing he was giving farewell and his final goodbyes to his beloved ﷺ, fell into tears.

Imagine if we were to live every single day like it was our last. How would we talk to our family members? How would we talk to our children? How would we talk to our parents? How would we read Qur'an? How would we be in our community? So live every single day like it's your last, because you and I don't know when we will share our final breath.

We ask Allah for a beautiful ending. We ask Allah for refuge from an evil ending. We ask Allah to make the last words we utter in this dunya لَا إِلَهَ إِلَّا اللَّهُ مُحَمَّدٌ رَسُولُ اللَّهِ ﷺ.

We ask Allah to ease the situation of our brothers and sisters in Gaza, ya Rabb al-'Alamin. We ask Allah to get rid of their enemies, ya Rabb al-'Alamin, and to get rid of His enemies, 'azza wa jall, ya Rabb al-'Alamin. We ask Allah to accept from them their shuhada, and to cure their sick and injured, ya Rabb al-'Alamin.

وَاذْكُرُوا اللَّهَ يَذْكُرْكُمْ، وَاشْكُرُوهُ عَلَى نِعَمِهِ يَزِدْكُمْ، وَاتَّقُوهُ يَجْعَلْ لَكُمْ مِنْ أَمْرِكُمْ مَخْرَجًا. أَقِمِ الصَّلَاةَ.