The Three Rivers

The Three Rivers

الحمد لله رب العالمين والصلاة والسلام على رسوله الأمين وعلى آله وصحبه أجمعين، أما بعد،

Brothers and sisters in Islam, the title of our khutbah today is Three Rivers. We begin with this hadith that is narrated in Sahih Muslim, and the narrator is Abu Dharr al-Ghifari, the companion, may Allah be pleased with him.

The Last Person to Enter Paradise

He said, the Prophet, peace and blessings be upon him, said:

(Sahih Muslim, Book 1, Hadith 451)

"Indeed I know the last of the people of al-Jannah to enter al-Jannah and the last of the people of the Hellfire to leave the Hellfire." And of course he is talking about the same person — the last one to leave the Hellfire and the last one to enter al-Jannah is the same individual.

(Sahih Muslim, Book 1, Hadith 451)

The Prophet, peace and blessings be upon him, said: a man will be brought forth on the Day of Judgment, and it will be said — meaning Allah will say — "Present him," after he has been taken out of the Hellfire. Allah will tell the angels: "Present him with the minor sins, all his minor sins, and do not display his major sins." Then it will be said to him: "You did on the day of such and such this and that, and you did on the day of such and such this and that," and he will say: "Yes."

The Prophet, peace and blessings be upon him, says: لَا يَسْتَطِيعُ أَنْ يُنْكِرَ وَهُوَ مُشْفِقٌ مِنْ كِبَارِ ذُنُوبِهِ أَنْ تُعْرَضَ عَلَيْهِ — he is not able to deny any of the deeds he is presented with, because his major concern is that his major sins will be displayed. These are the minor sins, so he is agreeing to everything; his major concern is that they will bring his major sins to display in front of him.

Why Are the Deeds Presented?

Before we continue, the question is: why are the deeds presented? The scholars say li kamāl al-'adl — to show the complete and perfect justice of Allah. We see this in other ahadith, such as the famous hadith known as Hadith al-Bitaqa — the Hadith of the Parchment, narrated in Sunan al-Tirmidhi and also by Ibn Hibban. The point we want from that hadith is that at one point when the deeds are displayed, Allah will ask the servant: "Did my servants" — meaning the angels who write down the deeds — "did they do any injustice to you?" He will say: "No, my Lord." He will see the complete justice; everything is written and he will not feel any injustice whatsoever.

That is why whatever you do, big or small, it will be written and recorded and brought forth on the Day of Judgment, as Allah says in Surah al-Zalzalah:

Whoever does the weight of a small ant — they used to call it dharrah — so whoever does the weight of a small ant of good, he will see good, and whoever does the weight of a small ant of bad, he will see bad. It is the perfect justice of Allah that He presents the deeds in front of us, and likewise it is also the mercy of Allah. The scholars say Allah will display thousands of your bad deeds and then pardon them right in front of you, so you see both the mercy and the justice.

Bad Deeds Replaced with Good Deeds

So in our hadith, the man is worried that his major sins will be presented. It will be said to him: "You will have, in the place of every sin you see here, a good deed." He then says: "I did other bad deeds that I don't see here." Why is he saying that? Because all the deeds that were presented were switched and changed into good deeds, so now he wants to see the rest of his bad deeds. And then our narrator, Abu Dharr al-Ghifari, may Allah be pleased with him, says: "I saw the Prophet, peace and blessings be upon him, laugh until his rear teeth showed."

Why is the Prophet, peace and blessings be upon him, laughing? The man did not want his deeds to be displayed, but when they were switched into good deeds, now he is saying: "But I did other things that I don't see up here!" — because he wants his reward.

The question also in this hadith is: what happened to the major sins and why were they not presented? Ibn al-Qayyim, may Allah have mercy on him, the great scholar, explains in his famous book Madarij al-Salikin:

The Three Rivers

He says: for the sinners are three rivers in this dunya that they use to purify themselves, to cleanse themselves of their sins. So if they don't purify them — these three rivers in this dunya — if they don't purify your sins, then they are purified with the Hellfire.

He says they are:

Number One: Good tawbah (repentance).
Number Two: Good deeds.
Number Three: The trials or calamities that expiate sins.

And he continues: if Allah wants good for His servant, He enters him into one of these rivers. And if he enters one of them, then Allah saves him from the fourth — meaning the Hellfire. If Allah guides you to one of these three rivers — tawbah, good deeds, and calamities that expiate your sins — and if they don't expiate them, then Allah will purify them with the Hellfire. So it is from the mercy of Allah that He has given us many avenues through which our sins are erased.

The First River: Tawbah (Repentance)

We have tawbah, and we have spoken about tawbah from this minbar before, and we've all heard lectures and we know so many examples and so many things that invite you to return to Allah in repentance. In Surah Al 'Imran, Allah says:

"Except for those who repent after that and become righteous — indeed, Allah is Forgiving and Merciful." And in Surah Hud:

"And ask forgiveness from your Lord and then repent to Him. Indeed, my Lord is Merciful and Wadood." Why this ending? Wadood means loving. If your Lord were angry, hateful, or vengeful, would that encourage you to repent to Him? Or would a Lord who is loving encourage you? The scholars also say that Allah is ending it in this way — and in other verses as well, like in Surah al-Buruj — to tell you that He will forgive you but keep loving you. Because in this dunya we might forgive one another — I forgive someone but I don't like them anymore, or I even hate them, but I've forgiven them — but Allah will forgive you and keep on loving you.

The Second River: Good Deeds

So what if we fall short in tawbah and repenting to Allah? Then we have the second river: good deeds. We have much evidence in Islam to support this — that the good deeds erase the bad deeds. One of the strongest verses is in Surah Hud:

"And establish the prayer in the two ends of the day — the Fajr prayer and the Maghrib prayer — and in the night, meaning the 'Isha prayer. Indeed, the good deeds push away and erase the bad deeds."

This verse was revealed regarding an incident narrated in Sahih Muslim. A man came to the Prophet, peace and blessings be upon him, and said that he had kissed a woman. In this narration, Umar ibn al-Khattab was there, and the first thing Umar, may Allah be pleased with him, told him was that Allah had concealed you — why would you expose yourself? It is not for us in Islam to expose our bad deeds in front of others.

So the Prophet, peace and blessings be upon him, did not answer this man until he left, and when he left, he had someone go and call him back because this verse had been revealed:

Then in Sahih Muslim, a man from the people said:

"O Prophet of Allah, is this just for him specifically?" — this verse, that the prayer and good deeds erase the bad deeds. And the Prophet, peace and blessings be upon him, said:

(Sahih Muslim, Book 39, Hadith 6756)

"Rather, it is for everyone." And in Sahih al-Bukhari, the man himself said: "O Messenger of Allah, is it just for me?" And the Prophet, peace and blessings be upon him, said:

(Sahih al-Bukhari, Hadith 526)

"It is for my entire ummah."

And in another hadith, just as one example of the good deeds erasing the bad deeds, the Prophet, peace and blessings be upon him, said:

(Sunan al-Tirmidhi, Hadith 2616)

"And sadaqah extinguishes, puts out the bad deed — the sin — the same way water puts out fire." This is an excellent example and a strong analogy, because the fire here represents sins — its heat, its flame, and its ability to cause destruction. And when water extinguishes fire, there is not even a spark left; it is completely gone. So the good deeds erase the bad deeds.

The companions themselves understood this concept. After the Treaty of Hudaybiyyah, Umar, may Allah be pleased with him, was not happy with the terms of the treaty, as were the other Muslims. So he started to question the Prophet, peace and blessings be upon him, and question Abu Bakr. He didn't really do anything haram, but he felt guilty later for questioning the Prophet of Allah in that way. So what did he do for the rest of his life? He said:

(Sahih al-Bukhari, Hadith 2731–2732)

"I did many deeds to cover up for that sin." In his eyes, it was a sin, and he did so many good deeds because of it — which shows the understanding and the concept that you do good deeds to cover up for your bad deeds.

So brothers and sisters in Islam, let us drown our sins in the rivers of tawbah and in the rivers of good deeds.

الحمد لله رب العالمين والصلاة والسلام على رسوله الأمين وعلى آله وصحبه أجمعين

The Third River: Calamities and Trials

So Ibn al-Qayyim said we have three rivers to cleanse ourselves from bad deeds here in this dunya. The first we said was tawbah, the second was good deeds, and the third is calamities — the trials, the difficulties that befall us in this world. They expiate from our sins.

That is why Imam Ahmad, may Allah have mercy on him, used to say:

"Had it not been for the calamities, we would have come forth bankrupt on the Day of Judgment." But it is Allah expiating our sins with difficult trials, tests, and calamities that remove our sins — otherwise we would have nothing on the Day of Judgment.

And in Sahih al-Bukhari and Sahih Muslim, the Prophet, peace and blessings be upon him, explains to what extent anything — any difficulty you encounter in this world — removes from your sins. He said:

(Sahih al-Bukhari, Hadith 5641; Sahih Muslim, Book 45, Hadith 2573)

Even a thorn that pricks your finger removes from your sins. Every difficulty you go through removes and expiates from your sins.

But the scholars do make an important point. They said: when do calamities and difficulties expiate sins? They said: if the person is patient. If the person is patient through the difficulties and calamities, then they will remove and expiate from their sins.

And one of the beautiful points they mention is that Allah might expiate sins with calamities — sins that you don't even remember. Because you don't remember them, you are not going to make tawbah for them; you are not going to repent and ask Allah to forgive these sins because you have forgotten them. And so here come the calamities, the trials and tests, and they remove and expiate the sins that you have forgotten about and forgotten to make tawbah about. So the third river takes care of them.

Closing Du'a

With that, we ask Allah to make us of those who recognize the truth as clear truth and follow the best of it, and to make us of those who recognize falsehood as clear falsehood and abstain from it.