Why the Shaheed would want to come back

The Shaheed and the Sweetness of Sacrifice

We begin by praising Allah, bearing witness that none has the right to be worshipped or unconditionally obeyed except for Him. We bear witness that Muhammad ﷺ is His final Messenger. We ask Allah to send His peace and blessings upon Him, the Prophets and Messengers that came before Him, His family and companions that served alongside Him, and those that follow in His blessed path until the Day of Judgment. And we ask Allah to make us amongst them. Ameen.

One More Conversation

Dear brothers and sisters, often when someone passes away, we wish we could have a conversation with them and ask them — what is it like on the other side? Even if that person had a good ending, even if you had the perfect shahada right in front of you, someone who was martyred or someone who lost their life in a noble way, someone who left this world saying لا إله إلا الله on the day or night of Friday, someone who just had a beautiful, perfect death and you were so sure they were in Jannah — you would long to have a conversation with them and say: what's it like over there? What can you tell us about your experience? One more apology maybe, or one more I love you.

Allah knows best. But of course we know that after someone passes from this life, we send our du'as, we have our connection through sadaqa jariyya, through continued charity. But there is no feedback. You might see a good dream, but you can't hear directly from them the perfect words that you're looking for.

And I was reflecting on the community of the Prophet ﷺ. They had people that they lost before the Battle of Uhud. But the Battle of Uhud represents the first time that you had mass casualties — that you had a group of companions that were all killed at the same time. And of course amongst them Hamza رضي الله تعالى عنه. We had our strength from Hamza رضي الله عنه. Mus'ab رضي الله عنه who set the stage in Medina. This was an extremely well-respected and well-loved group of companions.

And can you imagine what was going through the hearts and minds of the Muslims here in Medina, thinking — one more conversation. I wonder what it's like. They're still receiving the ayat about shahada fresh. The Qur'an has not even been revealed in full yet to the Prophet ﷺ. What can you tell us about your experience?

And subhanAllah, it's very interesting because the ahadith of the Prophet ﷺ actually give us a window into the unique experience of the shuhada of Uhud after they were martyred. The Prophet ﷺ mentioned that the shuhada of Uhud expressed to Allah a desire to tell the companions: we're still here, we're okay, don't worry about us. Tell our relatives we are fine. That they collectively — Hamza, Mus'ab, all of them — collectively wished for an opportunity to just say: we want those that we've left behind to know that we're okay. Tell them that we're in Jannah. Tell them that we're enjoying ourselves. Tell them that we have found the promise of Allah to be true.

And Allah sends Jibreel to Muhammad ﷺ to tell the sahaba: Hamza, Mus'ab, Abdullah — they want you to know that they are in na'im, that they are in blessing right now.

The Ayah of the Shuhada

Abdullah ibn Mas'ud رضي الله عنه was asked by his students about the ayah:

Do not say of those who were martyred in the path of Allah that they are dead. Rather they are alive with their Lord, in constant provision, in constant prosperity, in constant happiness.

So Abdullah ibn Mas'ud رضي الله عنه, when he was asked about this ayah, he describes a conversation that Allah had with the shuhada of Uhud. SubhanAllah.

Green Birds Under the Throne

Think about this gathering now. Abdullah ibn Mas'ud رضي الله عنه says:

(Sahih Muslim, Book 33, Hadith 4651)

The souls of the shuhada live in the bodies of green birds — not like the green birds that we see, but heavenly green birds. And they have their nests in the chandeliers that are hanging from the Throne of Allah. They eat from the fruits of Jannah whenever they want. And they come back and nestle in those chandeliers under the Throne of Allah.

So Allah looked at them. فَاطَّلَعَ إِلَيْهِمْ رَبُّهُمْ — your Lord looked at them. And Allah said to them:

Do you want anything? Do you desire anything? You're living the life right now. Is there anything that you want? And Allah asked them this question three times. And every single time, they said: Ya Rabb, we're — I mean, this is the maximum. We're okay. We're living the life right now. We're living this eternal promise.

What the Shuhada Asked For

When Allah saw that they were not going to stop being asked until they gave an answer, they said:

(Sahih Muslim, Book 33, Hadith 4651)

Our Lord, we want you to put our souls back in our bodies so that we can sacrifice for you once again. SubhanAllah.

You're living all of this karama, all of this nobility, all of this honor, and your Lord is showering you with mercy and blessing — and you say: Ya Allah, we want to do it for you again. We have nothing to ask of you but the love that you are showing, the nobility, the generosity, the magnanimity. Ya Allah, if we could do it again — put us back into the dunya and we will do it again.

And the hadith ends: when Allah saw that they weren't going to ask Him for anything else, He left them back to their being. The shuhada continue to enjoy this life that Allah has given to them.

The Shaheed Who Would Return Ten Times

In another narration, the Prophet ﷺ said, as Anas رضي الله عنه narrates:

He ﷺ said: no one enters Jannah and would like for a moment to leave Jannah — except for the shaheed. There is nothing in the world that you could give to someone and say, come back out of Jannah for it — except for the shaheed. The shaheed would want to be sacrificed for the sake of Allah ten more times. Because of the magnanimity, the love, the nobility, the honor that is being bestowed upon them — what they're seeing from the karama of Allah, from the generosity of Allah.

Even the Prophet ﷺ himself said:

By the one in whose hand is my soul — even I, I wish I could give my life for the sake of Allah and be brought back and do it again and do it again and do it again and do it again.

Pleasing Allah vs. Being Pleased by Allah

Why are we talking about this? What does this have to do with anything — other than fadl al-shahada, other than the virtue and the nobility of the shuhada? Someone asked me after this past week, when we talked about Ubadah ibn Samit رضي الله عنه: what do we take when we're reading about these heroic companions? What's the quality we're trying to gain?

I want you to ask yourself for a moment — why would these people want to leave the blessing of Allah for a moment, except that they love to please Allah even more than they love being pleased by Allah? That a connection develops. That they taste the sweetness of sacrifice.

The Lesson of Ibrahim and Dhul Hijjah

We're coming to the month of Dhul Hijjah with Ibrahim alayhi as-salam. When Allah was commanding Ibrahim alayhi as-salam — test after test, maybe because of your own experience when you're given an inconvenient test, you probably imagine Ibrahim alayhi as-salam putting his head down and grumbling. Again? Here we go again. Now this? Now that?

But Ibrahim alayhi as-salam was the Khalil of Allah. He is the friend of God. Allah says about him:

When his Lord tells him to submit, he says: I submit to the Lord of the worlds. That is not a forced submission on the outside. That is with heart, with mind, with soul. I know what my Lord commands is good, and I love to submit to my Lord. I love to sacrifice for my Lord. It's not about the pain of the sacrifice — it's about the sweetness of who you are sacrificing for. The love and the sweetness that you derive from sacrificing for Allah.

The False Martyr

There is a very interesting contrast here. Think about the person on the Day of Judgment who is dragged on his face to the Fire — and you thought he was a shaheed. This is the opposite contrast. It's the opposite person.

The Prophet ﷺ mentions a person who is an alim, a qari of Qur'an — a reciter of Qur'an, a teacher — a person who is generous and charitable, and a person who is a martyr. And they end up being amongst the first to enter Hellfire. Why? Because the one who was spreading knowledge only wanted to be acclaimed for that knowledge, respected and honored for that knowledge. The one who gave only wanted to be praised for their generosity. But this person who gave their life — I mean, do we become so obsessed with ourselves, so self-absorbed, that there are people who would literally die so that they could be praised in a world that they can't even experience anymore? Isn't that strange? I want to go down in history this way? You're not going to be around to read those history books. I want people to say courageous. You're not going to be around to hear them say courageous. You're not going to hear them praise your bravery.

And Allah raises that person on the Day of Judgment. What did you put forth? Ya Allah, my whole life — I'm a shaheed, right? Where's my banner of shahada? And Allah says: you only did that so people would praise you for bravery and courage and say, mashallah, shaheed, a martyr.

So subhanAllah — this person wanted his name to live amongst dying people in this dunya, rather than his rank to be elevated amongst ever-living people in the akhira, in gardens of eternity. See the difference?

The shuhada — they're not worried about what's going to happen in this dunya after them. They're worried about where they're going in the akhira. The consequence on the outside — they look like the same person. Both of them died noble deaths. But the raghba, the desire of that person for Allah versus the desire of that person for the praise of people, is what separates the two. It's not the worldly outcome. It's the internal desire. It's the drive. What's driving you? The sweetness of sacrifice.

What We Take From This

And so when we look at Ibrahim alayhi as-salam, dear brothers and sisters, and we look at these ahadith — what do we take from this for ourselves? Wallahi, there is nothing that you give for Allah, except that on the Day of Judgment when Allah is rewarding you, not only will you say, alhamdulillah, I gave it — but: Ya Allah, I would do more. What an amazing Lord I have.

SubhanAllah, there are some people on the Day of Judgment — Allah mentions they wish they could come back to this world:

Some people that would say: Ya Allah, take my kids, take my spouse, take my family, take everybody, take my house — I'll come back and I'll prepare the whole dunya for you, Ya Allah — but just don't throw me in Hellfire. That's not out of love of Allah — that's out of self-preservation at that point.

The other person is saying: Ya Allah, for you, Ya Rabb, for you — anything, whatever you want, whatever you are going to put me through, I'll take it, so long as you raise me in rank and closeness to you.

Take from me until you are pleased. That's the attitude of Ibrahim alayhi as-salam. That's the attitude of these salihin, these righteous ones.

And sometimes you don't get to chart that path. The sahaba were not throwing themselves into the battlefield and putting their swords down and saying, I hope I get killed. No — they were courageous. They won battles for a reason. They had a drive. But they had a rahba for Allah. They had this desire for God, this desire for His praise, this desire for His reward, that was so undying. And essentially what it teaches us is that they understood: whatever the sacrifice is, it is worth it for Allah.

The Prophet's Love of Allah

I end with the Prophet ﷺ when he was asked about why he prays until his feet swell up. Ya Rasulullah, you already have the greatest rank. You have maqam al-mahmud. You have this promised station. And the Prophet ﷺ replied:

(Sahih al-Bukhari, Hadith 4837; Sahih Muslim, Book 52, Hadith 7101)

Should I not then be a grateful servant? He loves Allah that much. The greatest feature of the Prophet ﷺ is his love of Allah. He loves his Lord. And the Prophet ﷺ said:

(Sahih al-Bukhari, Hadith 20)

I know Allah better than you. I love Allah more than any one of you. That is his love of Allah.

And so dear brothers and sisters, as Allah charts out a course for us that's going to require sacrifice, that's going to require sometimes hardship, sometimes test — the way that you remind yourself in those tests to be patient and to strive is this: on the Day of Judgment, this test will not only be worth it, but it will give me pleasure, and I would have wanted to do more for Allah. It's not just the reward that Allah is giving me. It's the rida — the pleasure that Allah has with me — that is most blessed.

Du'a and Closing

O Allah, if you have delivered these servants of yours that we talk about to that station by great hardship, then deliver us to that station with ease. But Ya Allah, be pleased with us. Ya Allah, make us amongst those that are beloved to you. Ya Allah, make us amongst those that love to please you. Ya Allah, make us amongst those that love to worship you.

We ask Allah to enable us to worship Him properly, to thank Him properly, to be patient for Him properly, to sacrifice for Him properly, to remember Him properly. We ask Allah to guide us to that which will grant us His pleasure and His paradise.

I say this and I ask Allah for forgiveness for myself, for you, and for all the Muslims. Ask Him for forgiveness — indeed He is the All-Forgiving, the Most Merciful.

O Allah, forgive the believing men and women, the Muslim men and women, the living amongst them and the dead. Indeed You are All-Hearing, Near, Answerer of supplications. O Allah, forgive us, have mercy on us, pardon us, and do not punish us. Our Lord, we have wronged ourselves, and if You do not forgive us and have mercy on us, we will surely be among the losers. O Allah, grant victory to our oppressed brothers and sisters in every place. O Allah, deal with the oppressors. O Allah, destroy the oppressors by the oppressors, and bring us and our brothers out from amongst them safely.

Servants of Allah — indeed Allah commands justice, excellence, and giving to those of kin, and He forbids immorality, wrongdoing, and oppression. He admonishes you so that you may take heed. So remember Allah and He will remember you. Thank Him for His blessings and He will increase you. And the remembrance of Allah is the greatest. And Allah knows what you do. Establish the prayer.