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الحمد لله رب العالمين والصلاة والسلام على عبد الله ورسوله نبينا محمد وعلى آله وصحبه أجمعين أما بعد
We begin with the praise of Allah عز و جل. We ask Allah سبحانه وتعالى to exalt the mention and grant peace to our messenger Muhammad صلى الله عليه وسلم, to his family and his companions. Before we continue, I'm just going to make a small change to the live stream because we're having some issues with the audio.
It might be the best that we can do for those brothers and sisters when we try to get their audio nice and clear for them. I think that is probably as best as we can do for them. So now let's start with the topic at hand.
How do we find harmony between the life of this world and the life of the hereafter? And I really love that word harmony. It's much better than the word balance. Because we're not really trying to balance, as in we're not trying to make them equal.
But we're trying to make them work together. So when I'm speaking to you now, I don't want you to think about this idea of them being equal. Like an equal portion of my deen and an equal portion of my dunya.
But I want you to think about them as being balanced, being in harmony, being working together. My dear brothers and sisters, we have not been required to lock ourselves in the masjid, never to go outside again. To live like monks and nuns, like some of Ahlul Kitab did.
Allah Azzawajal says, Allah Subh'anaHu Wa Ta-A'la said, Then we followed up these messengers with others. And we followed them up with Isa Ibn Maryam, Jesus son of Mary, alayhis salatu wasalam. And we gave him the Injeel.
And we put in the hearts of those who followed him, A kind of gentleness, kindness, mercy. And this living like a monk monasticism, locking yourself away from the world, close the door, live inside the monastery. Don't go out, don't marry, don't have a business, don't have a life, don't have anything in your world.
But we never ever told them to do that. They invented it. We had never ever commanded them to live like that.
Except seeking the pleasure of Allah. Meaning that they were trying to get Allah's pleasure by living that way. But they didn't even do that properly.
They didn't fulfill that responsibility properly. So they joined between two big problems. They lived their life away that Allah never told them to live it.
And on top of that, They didn't do what they were supposed to do anyway. وَكَثِيرٌ مِّنْهُمْ فَاسِقُونَ We gave those who believe among them their reward. But many many of them were fasiqoon.
This ayah, from that which we can take from it, two very important points. We do not want to fall into the way of Ahlul Kitab. In the way that they tried to blend between the deen and the dunya.
And like usual, Ahlul Kitab went into two extremes. A group of them closed themselves in the monastery. They locked the door.
The monks and the nuns, they refused to marry. They refused all of their possessions. They gave away everything that they own.
And we don't want to do that. That's not what Allah commanded us to do. And another of them devoured the dunya.
And they left their religion behind. And they took it in every single way. سَمَّعِينَ لِلْكَذِبِ أَكَّذِ سَمَّعُونَ لِلْكَذِبِ أَكَّذُونَ لِلسُّحْتِ They devoured people's wealth with evil.
And so they became المغضوب عليهم and الضالين. The people that Allah Azzawajal is angry with and the people who are astray. So it's not from this religion to cut yourself off from the world completely.
And that is why in the very famous hadith of the Messenger ﷺ That the Messenger of Allah ﷺ Three people or some people they came to ask the wives or some of the wives of the Messenger ﷺ about how he used to be. And when they heard his ibadah and how he used to worship Allah ﷻ One of them said, one of the people said I am going to pray all night and I'm not going to sleep. And the other one said, I'm going to fast every day and I'm not going to break my fast any day of the year.
And another one said, I'm not going to get married. And the Prophet ﷺ heard what they said and he stood on the minbar and he praised Allah and he said, what is the matter with these people? They said this and this. Rather, I pray and I sleep.
And I have days when I fast and days when I don't fast. And I get married. The one who turns away from my sunnah is not one of me.
The one who doesn't want my sunnah is not one of me. So what we understood from this is there has to be a balance. There has to be some kind of harmony.
And if there is a harmony to be found then there is no doubt that the Messenger of Allah ﷺ told us how to get it. And that Allah ﷻ in the Qur'an told us how to achieve it. Because this religion is complete.
اليوم أكملت لكم دينكم وأتممت عليكم نعمتي ورضيت لكم الإسلام دينا Today, I have completed your religion for you. And completed my favour over you. And chosen for you Islam as your religion.
And therefore this complete perfect religion it has to have the answer to how we find this harmony and how we manage to live a life in this world that will take us to Jannah. And ultimately this is our goal. فَمَنْ زُحْزِحَ عَنِ النَّارِ وَأُدْخِلَ الْجَنَّةِ فَقَدْ فَازْ Whoever is saved from the fire and entered into Jannah that person is truly successful.
So we have to find a way to manage this life in such a way that we live it in accordance with our religion and it helps us and it brings us closer to Allah and it serves its purpose. We're going to start with an ayah or two ayahs of beautiful advice in Surah Al-Qasas. And that is in the statement of Allah Azzawajal إِنَّ قَارُونَ كَانَ مِنْ قَوْمِ مُوسَى فَبَغَ عَلَيْهِمْ وَآتَيْنَاهُ مِنَ الْكُنُوزِ مَا إِنَّ مَفَاتِحَهُ لَتَنُوءُ بِالْعُسْبَةِ أُولِي الْقُوَّةِ إِذْ قَالَ لَهُ قَوْمُهُ لَا تَفْرَحُ إِنَّ اللَّهَ لَا يُحِبُّ الْفَرِحِينَ The story of Qarun.
He was from the people of Musa. He was from Bani Israel. And he transgressed against them.
And he sided with Fir'aun. And he worked with Fir'aun. And we gave him so much treasure.
So much money. That the keys were something that was a burden for the people of strength. And the strong men couldn't carry his keys.
He had a group of strong men for his keys. Not for his money. He had a big group of strong men just to carry the keys to the money that he had.
And his people said to him, لا تفرح Don't be arrogant. Don't be haughty. Don't be boastful.
إِنَّ اللَّهَ لَا يُحِبُّ الْفَرِحِينَ Allah doesn't love the people who are boastful. وَبَتَغِ فِي مَا آتَاكَ اللَّهُ الدَّارَ الْآخِرَةَ وَلَا تَنسَ مَصِيبَكَ مِنَ الدُّنْيَا وَأَحْسِن كَمَا أَحْسَنَ اللَّهُ إِلَيْكَ وَلَا تَبَغِ الْفَسَادَ فِي الْأَرْضِ إِنَّ اللَّهَ لَا يُحِبُّ الْمُفْسِدِينَ And this is the advice that we want to start with. وَبَتَغِ فِي مَا آتَاكَ اللَّهُ الدَّارَ الْآخِرَةَ Use what Allah has given you.
Whatever Allah has given you, use it to get the Hereafter. Use what Allah Azza wa Jal has given you in order for you to be able to get the Akhirah. Some people Allah has given them money.
Some people Allah has given them intelligence. Some people Allah Azza wa Jal has given them strength. Some people Allah Azza wa Jal has given health.
Some people Allah Subh'anaHu Wa Ta-A'la has made them really organized people. Some people Allah Subh'anaHu Wa Ta-A'la has given them the ability to assist and help in certain things. Whatever Allah has given you, use it to get the Akhirah.
So the first thing we understood from this is that our dunya is there to serve our Akhirah. It's there to facilitate for us and help for us to reach the Akhirah. So our goal is not for us to use the dunya for the sake of it or to become busy with it for the sake of it.
But to ask what can I use from this dunya that will help me to be able to get the Akhirah. Now here I want to share with you a very important point. What we want to share with you is that there is a difference between using what you have in the dunya and running after the dunya.
And I'm going to give you an example, a surah, an explanation to help you to understand. Let's say a person says, I listened to what you just said, Muhammad Tim, you explained this beginning of the ayah to us. So I've decided to give up my life to be a businessman, to make loads of money so that I can get my money and use it for the Akhirah.
Another person, Allah gave it to them. They started a business and they were good at it and they got some money and now they are using it for the Akhirah. There's a very important difference between those two.
One person went chasing the dunya to try to get it. The other person, they got it by Allah's grace and now they're using it. Don't mix the two.
Very important because some people become deceived by a trap of the shaitan that they say, I'm going to give up this 10 years, 20 years for the dunya. So in 20 years, I will help the deen. Whether study, I'm going to study really hard for the next 10 years, 20 years and then inshallah, I'll be able to serve my religion.
But that's not the meaning of the ayah. وَبَتَغِ فِي مَا آتَاكَ اللَّهُ In the past, Allah has given it to you, you have it now. That's not to say that you can't start a business or you can't go and study.
But I want you to see the difference between the two is very important. Someone achieved that benefit and now they're using it for Allah. Another person is chasing it, they have no guarantee whether they will achieve it or not achieve it.
So they might waste that 20 years. I started it, it failed, I lost all the money. Then I started again, then I failed and I lost all the money.
Now I'm gonna just get a regular job and now I'm back at the beginning. Another person might say, I'm gonna study and study and study but they don't get good grades and then they change their course or they drop out. So the point is there's a big difference between someone who has something and uses it for Allah and someone who chases something they don't have.
And again, I'm not saying that we can't go out in the world. We're gonna come to that Insha'Allah ta'ala. But I don't want you to carry the ayah in the wrong way.
I don't want you to apply the ayah in a way that it's not meant to be applied. So the ayah refers to someone who's been given something by Allah from the blessings of this world and now they use it. وَبَتَغِ فِي مَا أَتَاكَ اللَّهُ الدَّارَ الْآخِرَةَ وَلَا تَنْسَ نَصِيبَكَ مِنَ الدُّنْيَا And don't forget your portion of this world.
يَنِي لَا تَنْسَ Here it comes with the meaning of لا تَتْرُك Don't leave, don't abandon. There's no need for you to give up everything you have. No one is asking you to live in poverty.
No one is asking you, did the Prophet ﷺ ever make dua, Oh Allah make me poor. He didn't, right? He didn't ever make dua for Allah to make him sick, make me poor, make me suffer, make things difficult. Never ever.
This is not from our deen. Therefore, you're allowed to keep your share of what is permissible for you. And we're going to speak about what is that naseeb.
We're going to speak about it insha'Allah ta'ala. It's going to come. What is that bit you're allowed to keep? But from here we understood there is an amount you're allowed to keep.
وَأَحْسِن كَمَا أَحْسَنَ اللَّهُ إِلَيْكَ And be good to others like Allah has been good to you. Allah has blessed you, Allah has given you some wealth, some health, some free time, some ability to do something. Use it to be good the way that Allah has been good to you.
Help other people the way that Allah Azzawajal has helped you. And that reminds you of the hadith of the message of salallahu alayhi wasalam وَاللَّهُ فِي عَوْنِ الْعَبْدِ مَا كَانَ الْعَبْدُ فِي عَوْنِ أَخِيهَ Allah will help a person to the extent that that person helps his brother. وَلَا تَبْغِي الْفَسَادَ فِي الْأَرْضِ Don't use your dunya and make trouble for people on the earth.
And if you for example have been given money, don't use that money to make trouble for the people, to corrupt the earth, to take people away from the religion. If you've been given intelligence by Allah Azzawajal and Allah has given you something more than what other people have, don't use it to misguide people from the path of Allah. If Allah has given you some free time, don't use that free time to corrupt the earth and make trouble for the people and take people away from Allah.
If Allah has given you health, don't use that health to corrupt the people and make trouble and take people away from Allah Azzawajal. إِنَّ اللَّهَ لَا يُحِبُّ الْمُفسِدِينَ Allah does not love the people who cause corruption on the earth. This ayah wallahi is profound and it's very very deep.
It tells us what we're supposed to do with our dunya. We're given something from any of the things that Allah gives the person and we are commanded to use it to get what is with Allah Azzawajal. We're not commanded to leave this world and everything in it.
But we are commanded to be good to others just as Allah has been good to us and not to make corruption on the earth. Allah doesn't love the people who are corrupt. But now we have to come to a question and I'm gonna ask this question to you and then I'm gonna think the answer might be and then after that Inshallah Ta'ala I am gonna tell you what we have prepared on it.
You might have heard the word Zuhd. A Zuhd. Someone is Zahid.
They abstain from the world. They keep away from this dunya. What does this word mean to you? If you hear someone is Zahid or you hear someone talking about Zuhd What does this word mean to you? Who can tell me something about what this word means? Even if it's just something you heard it doesn't have to be a dalil or a ayah or a hadith I think it's this.
I just want to hear from you guys what do you think Inshallah? Isolation. Isolation. Beautiful.
Very nice. So, Al-Uzlah. Ya'ni, Zahid Ya'tazil An-Nas Keeps away from the people.
Isolate yourself. Beautiful. Good.
Who else has an idea? You heard this. Your shaykh today. The shaykh was teaching earlier on.
The shaykh, Hafizullah, he's teaching the topic of Kitab as Zuhd. What do you expect he's gonna be talking to you about? Ya, different level. Tamam.
So, tell me one level. Tell me something you understood from it. He doesn't eat food like the others.
Very good. He doesn't eat food like other people. Jameel.
Did you have one for us? Yes. Maryam, he's like, he's left even maybe what the other people do in terms of his food and his drink. Jameel.
Okay. He doesn't have as much love for the worldly things. Very nice.
He doesn't have as much love for the worldly things in the dunya. Taim. Very beautiful.
Does anyone else have some thoughts? One more time. It was a little bit quiet. Wala.
Beautiful. He's not, he doesn't feel despair over what he lost from the dunya. He doesn't feel sad and depressed because he lost something from the dunya.
It's very nice answers. Does anyone else have one? Any ideas? Beautiful. Wow, mashaAllah.
You guys have studied Zuhd before, huh? He let the sweetness of Iman make him forget the sweetness of everything else. Jameel. It's an action of the heart.
Taim. Beautiful. The reality of Zuhd to begin with is This is the first definition.
We didn't finish it. The first type of Zuhd is to keep away from the haram. Before you keep away from food, before you keep away from nice things, before you give up your car, or you give up your home, or you wear rough clothes, the first thing you give up is you give up the haram.
And this is important because a lot of people actually miss this bit out. Maybe the guy gave up food and drink, and maybe he gave up his nice house, and maybe he lives the simple life, and maybe he still didn't give up the haram. Allah didn't ask you to give up the luxuries of this world first.
He asked you to give up what is haram first. Keeping away from the limits. You know, don't sail close to the boundaries.
So the Zahid is someone who doesn't want to engage in that haram. So he keeps away from the boundaries, and he keeps away from the things which are al-mujtahid, the things that he craves, and he keeps away from things which are doubtful, and he keeps away from al-mujtahid, the things that he craves, and he keeps away from at-tatallu ila ma fi aydin nas. He keeps away from what? Craving and looking at what is in the hands of the people.
So he doesn't have jealousy. He doesn't look at what's in the hands of the people. He's satisfied with what Allah Azawajal gave him, even if it's only small.
Ali ibn Abi Talib, radiallahu anhu, when he described what a taqwa is, he said, الخوف من الجليل والعمل بالتنزيل والقناعة بالقليل والاستعداد ليوم الرحيل It is to be satisfied with a little bit, it's to fear Allah, and to practice your religion, and to be satisfied with a little bit, and to prepare for the day when you journey to Allah. For one of the things that, I mean, you have to think about here, is being happy and content with what you've been given. It's also being defined as الرضا بما آتاك الله To be content with what Allah gave you.
But there is a difference in all of them. All the things we said, we said ترك المجتهات, and we said يعني الابتعاد وحما المحرم All of these things, there's better than all of those. The best definition of Zuhd, and the most comprehensive of it, or of them, is ترك ما لا ينفع في الآخرة Leaving the things that don't benefit you in the Akhira.
That is reality of what Zuhd is. And this is the most comprehensive, and the best, and the most accurate explanation of it. ترك ما لا ينفع في الآخرة Leaving off all the things that don't benefit you in the Akhira.
In other words, here you are in your dunya, and there are things you do. You eat, you buy clothes, you have a house, maybe you have a car, you have a job, but what you're looking at with these things, the Zahid, is not looking at those things as they are. He's looking at, is this helping me in my Akhira? So for example, this car, I go with it to the Masjid, الحمد لله It's reliable, it always starts when I put the key in the engine, and it takes me, ولله الحمد, to the Masjid, and I go to travel for seeking knowledge, this is benefiting me in the Akhira.
It's benefiting me. لكن, maybe somebody has something that is permissible, like a nice fast sports car, and he spent a lot of money on it, and it's not haram for him, he paid his Zakah, so it's not haram for him, but it's not really benefiting him in the Akhira, it's not taking him closer to Jannah, or further away from Jannah. It's not bringing him closer to Jannah, nor is it taking him away from Jannah, it's not really helping him.
So for him, if he is a Zahid, he says, this is dead weight. It's not taking me away from Allah, but it's not bringing me to my Akhira, so I'm gonna get rid of it. Not because it's haram, because it's not helping me to get closer to Allah in the Akhira.
The food, no doubt you can eat a small plate, you can eat a big plate, you can eat expensive food, you can eat cheap food. The person he says, this food, Alhamdulillah, it's healthy, I spend a little bit more, so I don't eat really cheap food, that's not healthy for me, it's healthy for me, and I feel good with it, I am healthy, I go to the Masjid, I do my prayers, Alhamdulillah, I'm happy. Another person, has all the different kinds of food on the table, there's some of this kind, this kind, this kind, this kind.
But the Zahid says, is this gonna get me closer to Allah? Don't say it's haram, it's not haram. Is it gonna get me close to Allah or not? Is this actually helping me get near to Allah, or it's not helping me get near to Allah? And if it's not helping him get near to Allah, and not helping him for the Akhirah, he says, it's okay, you guys have it. I don't need it.
There is no doubt, that this is a higher level, than the basic requirement, no doubt. Because the basic requirement, I'm gonna take you to three levels. Because the brother said correctly, Jazahallahu Khayran, that Zuhd is levels, I'm gonna take you to three levels.
One of them is obligatory, one level up, and one of them is the highest level. The obligatory is, the first one we mentioned. It is a Zuhd bil Haram, that you keep away from the Haram.
So I don't buy something Haram, I don't spend something Haram, I don't sell something Haram, I don't eat Haram, I don't do Haram. That is the minimum standard, which we're talking about. And that is the minimum Naseeb of the Dunya, you can have.
Does that make sense? Wala tansa maseeba kamina dunya. The minimum extent you can say is, I will leave, but I'll just keep what is Halal for me. Fah? I pay my Zakah, I give to the poor and the needy, I support people, I look after my family, and I don't do Haram.
That is the minimum that you're allowed. But there's a level up. That level up, we call it, Al-war'a.
And Al-war'a, it is a level higher than that. And that level which is higher than that, it is, Tarku ma yadurru fil aakhirah. If the person says, I'm scared this might harm me in the aakhirah.
Even if it's not Haram. I'm scared it might harm me, I'm scared it might be Haram. I'm scared I might fall into the Haram.
This is what we talk about, Al-mutashabihat and Al-mujtabihat. I'm scared I might fall into the Haram, so I'm not going to do this. Sadaqah, there's nothing wrong with it.
Sheikh said it's fine. I know the Sheikh said it's fine, but I'm just, I just feel scared. I feel like I might fall into this thing, which is Haram, and I'm scared.
So I'm going to keep away from it. This is what we call, Al-war'a, and this is the second level. And the highest level is Az-Zumt.
The highest level of Az-Zumt, is Tawqu ma la yanfa'a fil aakhirah. The person leaves every single thing that doesn't benefit in the aakhirah. And if I told you some of the stories of the early generations and how they used to be, you'd be amazed.
From them are those, who for food, the only thing he ate, was crushed breadcrumbs, mixed in gravy, in like the soup. Why? He said, I just want to finish my food as quickly as possible, so I can get back to worshipping Allah, and this is easy for me, it's quick, it's easy, I don't have to stress, just put it in, drink it, done. Is that the issue of Haram and Halal? It's not.
It's the issue of, not wanting to do something, that doesn't benefit you in the aakhirah. Now, how do we apply, this, to ourselves? I want us to evaluate, our dunya, into three things. As we said, think about anything in your life, and divide it into three, or four things if you want.
Number one, you look at something in your dunya, and you say, to be honest, this is Haram. Some money you earned, some business you did, some choice you made, a relationship, and you said, this is, Haram. The second one, you looked at it and said, I don't know if it's Haram, but I'm scared it might be Haram.
Wadhih? Clear? The third one, you said, this is not Haram, and I'm sure, but I'm scared that, or I think that, it's not really benefiting me. It's not really helping me in my deen. It's not Haram, nothing wrong with it, but it's not helping me in my deen.
And the fourth one, you said, this, is what is helping me in my deen. It's a dunya thing, and it's helping me, it's getting me close to Allah, and it's permissible, and there's no doubt in it, and it's actually getting me, helping me to get close to Allah. And then you rebalance your life.
No doubt, what is Haram, goes out the window, no doubt. And no doubt, what you're scared is Haram, as much as possible, goes out as well. As for the last two, reduce the things.
I'm not saying to make it zero. We're not saying to come here today and say, zero, but reduce the things that don't benefit you, with Allah. Just, take them down.
But when it comes to the Haram, the Haram goes out the window. The things which you're scared of Haram, go out as well. The things which you say, it's not really helping me, but, just try to cut them down, lower them down.
And automatically, you're gonna see that your life, will be so much more productive, bi-idhnillahi ta'ala, and so much more, beneficial. And so much closer to Allah, for you to just divide your life, in the dunya, into these four things, get rid of the Haram, work as hard as you can, to get rid of the things you think might be Haram, and then reduce the things, that don't really help you, to get close to Allah. Turn them down, tone them down, cut them down.
The reality is, that this dunya, is supposed to be your servant, and it's not supposed to be your master. Abu Sa'id, Al-Khudri, narrated, from the messenger of Allah, salallahu alayhi wa sallam, that he said, inna al-dunya, hulwatun khadirah, wa inna Allaha, mustakhlifukum feeha, fayanzuru kayfa ta'amaloon. Fattaqoo al-dunya, wattaqoo al-nisaa, fa inna awwala fitnati bani Israel, kanat fin nisaa.
This world, is sweet, and green. The meaning of green is, it's beautiful, it's alluring, it's amazing, it captures you. And Allah has placed you in this world, and he's going to see, how you will behave.
He's gonna judge, what you do in this world. So protect yourself, from this world. You don't allow yourself, to be captured by it.
And protect yourself, from the problems, that come with the opposite gender. And nisaa, falling into a fitnah, when it comes to relationships. For indeed, the first trial, that bani Israel were tried with, was they were tried with the fitnah, of women.
This hadith is amazing. It shows you, how the dunya captures you, how you become caught up in it, how you look at it, and you want more and more, and you crave for it, and you desire for it. And how, there are so many nice things to do, and so many pleasurable things to do.
But remember why you're here. And why I brought this hadith, is I wanted you to understand something. Why am I here? If this dunya, is your jannah, you're going to be very, very disappointed.
And it's going to, you're not going to get out of it, what you want. But if it's the case, that you see this dunya, as a place of a test, and trial. The one who created death and life, has to test which of you are best in deeds.
If you see it as a test, you'll get the most out of it. But if you see it as jannah, and you're trying just to get better, and more, and I want more things, and more things, and I'm trying to get more, and more, and more things. Ultimately, you'll never ever be happy.
This dunya, in the sight of Allah, doesn't count for anything. Sahih Ibn Sa'd, radiallahu anhu, narrated from the messenger of Allah, salallahu alayhi wa sallam, that he said, If this dunya, was worth, the wing of a nut, a fly, a mosquito, in the sight of Allah, Allah would not have given the disbeliever, any water to drink. Now when we look at non-Muslims, how they're living their lives in this world, in the whole world, we see they're rich, they're powerful, they have nice cars, and houses, and all of that.
If this dunya, was worth anything to Allah, Allah wouldn't have given them water. So that means, this world is not worth something. It's a place to be tested.
It's a place to be tried. It's a place to be examined. And if you see that, it's a place to be tested, and a place to be tried, and a place to be examined, you will get the best out of it.
Because you're not seeing it as your home, you don't see it as, this is where I'm gonna live forever, I want the most beautiful house, and beautiful car, and amazing life, and so much money, because I'm living here forever, right? But if you see that, I'm only here for a little while, I'm just here to pass my exam. What would you think, if someone goes into an exam hall, you know the exam room, the exam hall? Qa'at al-Iftibarat, and he goes into the exam room, and he brings with him a bag, he opens, he puts a plant on his desk, then he puts a nice, you know, candle, some perfume, and then he starts putting his furniture here, he puts a place for his clothes, and he puts a place for his shoes, and he organized himself beautifully. You will say to him, you're only there for two hours, to finish your exam, what are you doing here, making this place like your house? This dunya, you're only here, for a very, very short amount of time.
The average age of the ummah, is between 60 years, and 70 years. That's the average age, the Prophet ﷺ gave, for the average age of the ummah, between 60 years, until 70 years. So wouldn't we say, that you don't overdo it? Of course, you're going to have a house, you're going to have somewhere to live, you're going to have a roof over your head, but you don't go so far, that you're actually treating it like, you're going to be here forever, but you're treating it like, a temporary place, that you're just going to stay for a while.
I'm going to finish one more point, and then I'm going to hand it over, for a short presentation, and as for the live stream, we're going to pause it, Insha'Allah. And we're going to hand it over, to the brothers from Denmark, Insha'Allah, who are going to give a small presentation, if they're ready. And if they're not ready, it doesn't matter, we can pause, we can give them time later on.
I'm going to make one more point. Five minutes they have, if they're ready, Insha'Allah, if they're ready. My point now is, is it blameworthy? We need to understand this.
Is it wrong, to ask Allah, for the dunya? Think about it. The statement of Allah, Izza wa Jal, فَمِنَ النَّاسِ مَنْ يَقُولُ رَبَّنَا آتِنَا فِي الدُّنْيَا وَمَا لَهُ فِي الْآخِرَةِ مِنْ خَلَاقٍ I said, when we finish it, we'll put it down the way, Insha'Allah. فَمِنَ النَّاسِ مَنْ يَقُولُ رَبَّنَا آتِنَا فِي الدُّنْيَا وَمَا لَهُ فِي الْآخِرَةِ مِنْ خَلَاقٍ From among the people, are those who say, my Lord, give me in the dunya, and they don't get anything in the akhirah.
What does that ayah tell you? To ask Allah for the dunya. But if you go to the next ayah: وَمِنْهُمْ مَنْ يَقُولُ رَبَّنَا آتِنَا فِي الدُّنْيَا حَسَنَةً وَفِي الْآخِرَةِ حَسَنَةً وَقِنَا عَذَابَ النَّارِ Among them are those who say, "My Lord, give us good in this dunya and good in the akhirah, and save us from the punishment of the fire." What do we take from this? The problem is when you want the dunya, and you don't want the akhirah, or you don't care about the akhirah. The problem is not when you are someone who wants the akhirah, and you want something from the dunya to make your akhirah, your path to the akhirah, easy. Do we have the evidence that that's the correct understanding? The statement of Allah عز وجل: فَأَعْرِضْ عَمَّن تَوَلَّى عَنْ ذِكْرِنَا وَلَمْ يُرِدْ إِلَّا الْحَيَاةَ الدُّنْيَا ذَلِكَ مَبْلَغُهُمْ مِّنَ الْعِلْمِ إِنَّ رَبَّكَ هُوَ أَعْلَمُ بِمَنْ ضَلَّ عَنْ سَبِيلِهِ وَهُوَ أَعْلَمُ بِمَنْ إِهْتَدَى Turn away from the one who turns away from our remembrance and only wants what? Only wants the dunya. That's all the knowledge he's got. So what is blameworthy is the one who wants the dunya at the expense of the akhira, or the one who wants the dunya for itself, or the one who gives up his deen. As for the one who says, "My Lord, give me good in this world and good in the next," their focus is the akhira, and they want from the dunya that which will help them and assist them to worship Allah. There is nothing wrong with that.
Be careful about something, and this is the last ayah I'll read before the break: فَلَا تُعْجِبَكَ أَمْوَالُهُمْ وَلَا أَوْلَادُهُمْ إِنَّمَا يُرِيدُ اللَّهُ لِيُعَذِّبَهُمْ بِهَا فِي الْحَيَاةِ الدُّنْيَا وَتَزْهَقَ أَنْفُسُهُمْ وَهُمْ كَافِرُونَ Don't allow yourself to be amazed by their money and their children. Allah only wants to punish them with these things in this world, so He takes their soul when they disbelieve.
This is where we're going to talk about the issue of craving the dunya and being amazed by it. That's what we're going to talk about after the presentation. Are the brothers ready for the presentation? They're ready.
In that case, I'm going to put a 10-minute countdown on my screen for the live class, and after a short presentation, we'll be back to talk about craving the life of this world. هَذَا وَاللَّهُ وَعَلَمُهُ الصَّلَاةُ وَالسَّلَامُ عَلَى لَبِيْنَ مُحَمَّدٍ وَعَلَى أَهْلِهِ وَصَحِيحِهِ أَجْمَعِين.
Okay, brothers and sisters, let's get back to our topic, inshallah. If I can just say a couple of words also, we really want to thank the brothers who came to give their presentation, and I really want to encourage all of you, inshallah, to support it as much as you can. I really would appreciate it, and it will move you forward.
You all know the famous hadith: مَنْ بَنَا لِلَّهِ مَسْجِدًا بَنَا اللَّهُ لَهُ بَيْتًا فِي الْجَنَّةِ Whoever builds a masjid for Allah, Allah will build him a house in paradise.
My brothers and sisters, didn't we talk about how you shouldn't make your house in this dunya too much and be too focused on it? You should focus on the akhira. Some brothers came to you to offer you a house in Jannah. Do your best to support it, inshallah ta'ala. We really appreciate it. We ask Allah عز وجل to reward you all.
We're speaking now about a question that you have to ask yourself when you're trying to find harmony between the dunya and the deen. And that question is: What do you crave? Because there are two things that people crave. Either you fall into the ayah in which Allah عز وجل said: تَتَجَاسَ جُنُوبُهُمْ عَنِ الْمَضَاجِعِ يَدْعُونَ رَبَّهُمْ خَوْفًا وَطَمَعًا i.e. they get up from lying on their sides in their beds and they call upon Allah in fear and with tamaa, i.e. they crave what is with Allah. They desire what is with Allah. They hope for what is with Allah.
The other one is the one who craves the dunya, i.e. what your heart is craving. If you imagine, what does it look like to you if this was perfect, if your dreams, your goals, and your cravings are all for the dunya? Then this is blameworthy.
Listen to the hadith of Ta'b ibn Malik r.a, the famous hadith from the messenger of Allah s.a.w: مَا ذِئْبَانِ جَائِعَانِ أُرْسِلَ فِي غَنَمِ بِأَفْسَدَ لَهَا مِنْ حِرْسِ الْمَرْءِ عَلَى الْمَالِ وَالشَّرَفِ لِدِينِهِ Two hungry wolves let loose among a group of sheep... you with me so far? You have a group of sheep, and you take two hungry wolves and let them go free. They will not cause more damage than desiring wealth and status will damage your religion. Your religion will be more damaged by hoping for money and status than if you let two wolves go free among a group of sheep.
So, this idea of craving money and craving status is the danger. That's why we said the difference between the person who's been given something and they use it for Allah and the person who has it, but their craving for it is blameworthy. If a person says, "Alhamdulillah, we all have to earn a living, I go out and do my job, my business, and Alhamdulillah Allah gave me khair," Alhamdulillah, versus the person who every day closes his eyes and dreams of more money, more status, more power, and more influence, and that person, that is what they're for, that is what they dream. That person is blameworthy.
In the hadith of Amr ibn Awf Al-Muzani R.A, the messenger of Allah said: فَوَاللَّهِ مَا الْفَقْرَ أَخْشَىٰ عَلَيْكُمْ وَلَكِنْ أَخْشَىٰ عَلَيْكُمْ أَنْ تُبْسَطَ عَلَيْكُمُ كَمَا بُسِطَتْ عَلَىٰ بَنِي إِسْرَائِيلَ قَبْلَكُمْ فَتَنَافَسُوهَا كَمَا تَنَافَسُوا فِيهَا وَتُلْهِيكُمْ كَمَا أَلْهَتْهُمْ He said, "Wallahi, I'm not scared of poverty for you. I'm not worried about you being poor," the Prophet is talking to the sahaba. "I'm not worried about you being poor, but I'm scared that this dunya is going to be opened up for you like it was opened up for people before you, and you're going to compete with each other in it like they competed with each other in it, and it's going to make you preoccupied like it made them preoccupied."
أَلْهَاكُمُ التَّكَاثُرُ You became busy with getting more of everything. One more time: Wallahi, I'm not scared of poverty for you, but I'm scared that this dunya will be opened up for you like it was opened up for the people before you, spread out for you like it was spread out for the people before you, and you start to compete in it. "I want more than you, I want more than him, he wants more, we want more" all the time, and it ends up making you busy instead of being busy with what benefits you in the Akhirah.
In Abdullah ibn Abbas رضي الله عنهما مرفوع: لَوْ أَنَّ لِابْنِ آدَمَ مِنْ أَوَادٍ مَالًا لَأَحَبَّ أَنْ يَكُونَ إِلَيْهِ مِثْلُهُ وَلَا يَمْلَأُ نَفْسَ If the son of Adam had a valley of gold, what would he want? He wants another one. And nothing is going to fill the soul of the son of Adam except dust, and Allah will accept the tawbah of the one who makes tawbah.
When we take these ahadith together, we understand that it is blameworthy to crave this world and chase after it. It's not blameworthy to live in it, it's not blameworthy to have it, it's blameworthy to crave it, it's blameworthy to chase after it, and it's blameworthy that when you get it, you want more and more and more. It's blameworthy that it makes you busy so you don't take care of your deen because you're too busy chasing your dunya.
And again, I want you to think specifically about the difference between that and someone who goes out with a job, with a business, with whatever, and does well. There’s nothing wrong with that. The problem is the person who closes their eyes and wishes their bank balance was double, then closes them again and wishes it was double that, and more, and more. It starts to affect their deen. Now they don’t want to have their religion anymore, they don’t want to come to the masjid anymore because they’re busy with their dunya. They want more and more and more.
The two things that really destroy you in this world are loving al-maal wa-sharaf — loving wealth and loving status. It’s not just money. The dunya is not just about money; it’s also about positions, being in charge, having people look at you, having status in the eyes of others. These two things — if you took two wolves and let them go among a group of sheep, they wouldn’t cause more damage than these two things will cause to your religion.
So, we understood the difference between craving and the difference between living. Living in this world: getting married, having a job, getting a salary, working hard. Allah commanded you to have excellence in everything you do, to do a good job at work. Versus the one whose dreams and goals and life are built around getting more money and more status, until it starts to affect their religion, and they become busy with the dunya instead of the deen.
And maybe even they get to the level where they say: فَمِنَ النَّاسِ مَن يَقُولُ رَبَّنَا آتِنَا فِي الدُّنْيَا وَمَا لَهُ فِي الْآخِرَةِ مِنْ خَلَاقٍ — they stop even asking Allah for Jannah. Their dua is just: "Ya Rabbi, give me more money. Ya Rabbi, give me more power." They even stop asking for the Akhirah.
Now, we’re going to come to a hadith that brings all of this together and helps us focus our thoughts. The hadith is a beautiful, easy one to understand. It’s narrated by one of the noble companions, whose name was Hamdala Al-Asadi رضي الله عنه, and he was one of the scribes of the Messenger of Allah ﷺ. Hamdala used to write down the Qur'an when it was revealed to the Prophet ﷺ. Some narrations say وَكَانَ مِن كُتَّابِ الْوَحِي — he was one of the scribes of the revelation.
Hamdala narrates: قَالَ لَقِيَنِي أَبُو بَكْرٍ فَقَالَ كَيْفَ أَنْتَ يَا هَمْظَلَةَ — One day, Abu Bakr met me, and Abu Bakr Al-Siddiq رضي الله عنه said, "How are you, Hamdala?"
قَالَ قُلْتُ نَافَقَ حَمْظَلَةً — I said, "O Abu Bakr, I’m a Munafiq." Hamdala said about himself, not Abu Bakr.
قَالَ سُبْحَانَ اللَّهِ — Abu Bakr said, "SubhanAllah, what are you saying? How can you write the Qur'an for the Prophet ﷺ and say you’re a Munafiq? What’s the matter?"
قَالَ قُلْتُ — Hamdala said: نَكُونُ عِندَ رَسُولِ اللَّهِ ﷺ يُذَكِّرُنَا بِالنَّارِ وَالجَنَّةِ حَتَّى كَأَنَّا رَأْيُ عَيْنٍ — "When we are with the Messenger of Allah ﷺ, he reminds us of the Hellfire and he reminds us of Jannah as though we can see them with our eyes. But when we leave him, we become busy with our wives, our children, and our wealth, and we forget a lot."
What is he describing? He’s saying: "We are in the lesson, and it’s like Jannah is in front of our eyes. But then we go out, and our wife says, 'Do this.' The kids need this. There’s business to take care of, my job. And I forget. I don’t stay the same way I was when I was with the Prophet ﷺ."
قَالَ أَبُو بَكْرٍ — Abu Bakr said: فَوَاللَّهِ إِنَّا لَنَلْقَى مِثْلَ هَذَا — "By Allah, I feel the same way. I also feel like that. I feel like I see Jannah, and then my wife wants something, my kids need something, my business — I get busy, and I forget."
So, they are Sahabah. What did they do?
قَالَ فَانطَلَقْتُ أَنَا وَأَبُو بَكَرٍ حَتَّى دَخَلْنَا عَلَى رَسُولِ اللَّهِ ﷺ — He said, "Me and Abu Bakr decided to go to the Prophet ﷺ. So, we went to him and entered, and we said:"
قَالَ قُلْتُ نَافَقَ حَمْظَلَةَ يَا رَسُولَ اللَّهِ — "O Messenger of Allah, I’ve become a Munafiq."
فَقَالَ رَسُولُ اللَّهِ ﷺ وَمَاذَاكَ — The Prophet ﷺ said, "What do you mean? What’s this all about?"
قَالَ قُلْتُ يَا رَسُولَ اللَّهِ نَكُونُ عِندَكَ تُذَكِّرُنَا بِالنَّارِ وَالجَنَّةِ حَتَّى كَأَنَّا رَأْيُ عَيْنٍ — "O Messenger of Allah, we are with you, and you remind us of the Hellfire and Jannah like we can see them with our eyes. But when we leave you, we become busy with our wives, our children, our affairs, our trade, and business. And we forget a lot."
فَقَالَ رَسُولُ اللَّهِ ﷺ وَالَّذِي نَفْسِي بِيَدِهِ إِنْ لَوْ تَدْدُومُونَ عَلَى مَا تَكُونُونَ عِندِي وَفِي الزِّكْرِ لَصَافَحَتْكُمُ الْمَلَائِكَةُ عَلَى فُرُشِكُمْ وَفِي طُرُقِكُمْ — "By the One in Whose Hand my soul is, if you could stay as you are when you’re with me, remembering Allah like you do with me, the angels would come down and shake your hands, on your beds and on the roads."
وَلَكِنْ يَا حَمْظَلَةَ — "But, Hamdala, there is a time for this and a time for that."
Two things I want you to take from this hadith:
- Make sure that there is time for your religion. The mistake we sometimes make is that we’re so busy with the world that we forget to give time for the deen. There’s no time for Salah, for lessons, for the Qur’an. We get busy with the dunya and give nothing to the deen.
- Do the right thing at the right time. There’s a time to work, a time to be in the masjid, a time to read Qur’an, a time to play with your kids, a time to spend with your family, and a time to be with the Muslims in jama'a, for example, or in the lessons. There’s a time for everything. If you do the right thing at the right time, you’ll see harmony between the dunya and the Akhirah.
So when the time for Salah comes, how did the Prophet ﷺ used to be at home? He used to be serving his family; he used to be spending time with his wife. And when the adhan would go, he would leave everything and go to the Salah. The right thing at the right time. No one is suggesting to anyone that they leave this world. Do you remember the first thing we mentioned in the dars? We mentioned that completely abandoning this world is against the Sunnah:
فَلَنْ رَغِبَ عَنْ سُنَّةِ فَلَيْسَ مِنِّي وَرَهْبَنِينَ تَنِبُّ تَدْعُوهَا مَا كَتَبَنَاهَا عَلَيْهِمْ It’s not from the Sunnah to leave this world.
وَلَا تَنْسَ نَصِيبَكَ مِنَ الدُّنْيَا Don’t forget وَلَا تَنْسَ نَصِيبَكَ – don’t leave your allowed portion.
But all of this requires that your religion comes first. It requires that your religion is given time, not all day, every day, but it’s given some time. You put time aside. And it requires that you do the right thing at the right time. And it requires that you don’t forget about your religion and become busy with this world. And it requires that your craving is for the akhirah, not for the dunya. And if you fulfill those things, there’s nothing wrong with your naseeb – that you take your peace from this world.
There’s something else that we should conclude or speak about as well, and that is the issue of al-ihtisab – expecting reward from Allah. Is it possible that a person could do something in this world, from the worldly matters, and be rewarded for it by Allah? It is. For example, a person goes to work, and he says, "My intention in going to work is that I want to earn halal money so that I can give my zakah, so that I can give sadaqah, so that I can spend on my family, so that I can please Allah with what I earn and what I spend." Is he rewarded for the job? Not the job itself – the job is a matter of the dunya – but he’s rewarded for the intention, the ihtisab that he has, the expectation of reward that he has. So, you could be just in your dunya – you could just be doing a job, washing dishes, that’s your job, just washing those dishes, one after the other – but your niyyah and your ihtisab bring you a reward, even from that.
The second thing that I want to share with you about optimizing your time is: Find these little gaps in your dunya and fill them with what pleases Allah. So, for example, let’s just say that in your job, every few minutes, you have a pause. You’re doing something, doing some work, and every 5, 6, 7, 10 minutes, there’s a pause – you have to wait for something, you have to wait for the screen to refresh, or the data to come, or whatever it is, the different jobs people do. You have to wait for the factory, the next thing to come to you. Fill it with something that pleases Allah. Fill it with dhikr, fill it with reciting the Qur'an, just while you’re waiting for the next thing to happen. Commute: You’re sitting in the car, driving to work, or you’re on the train, or whatever, or the tram, and you’re going to work, and there’s 10 minutes, 20 minutes until you reach work. Fill it with a beneficial lecture, fill it with listening to the Qur'an, revise your Qur'an, read a book on your phone, or something like that as you’re going. Alhamdulillah, suddenly, you’re finding that you’re tipping the balance now, and you’re tipping the balance by having this ihtisab. "I’m doing this because I want something that will please Allah," and by filling the spare time, the spare minutes, with what pleases Allah, azzawajal, and doing the right thing at the right time, and making sure that you’re not craving and you’re not chasing, and making sure that you’re not allowing yourself to forget the akhirah. And that’s what Shaytan wants you to do – to forget.
يا أيها الناس إن وعد الله حق O mankind, the promise of Allah is true, فلا تغرنكم الحياة الدنيا so don’t allow yourself to be deceived by the life of this world, ولا يغرنكم بالله الغرور and don’t allow the great deceiver – who is the great deceiver? Shaytan – don’t allow the great deceiver to fool you in this world.
The tafsir of this ayah, Ibn Jarir At-Tabari, he said, رحمه الله تعالى – فلا يغرنكم ما أنتم فيه من العيش في هذه الدنيا ورياستهكم التي تترسخون بها في ضعفاءكم فيها عن اتباع محمد صلى الله عليه وسلم والإيمان Don’t let yourself be deceived by the life you lead in this world and your desire for authority by which you have some control over the weak people in your society, instead of following Muhammad ﷺ and the iman. ولا يغرنكم بالله الغرور Don’t let Shaytan deceive you, don’t let him fool you, don’t let him trick you, so he causes you to have الأماني – false hopes and dreams, ويعدكم من الله الوعيد الكذب and he promises you false promises, ويحملكم على الإصرار على كفركم and he tries to push you to stay believing in Allah.
What we’re going to finish with is a dua or two that the Messenger of Allah ﷺ used to say, and they are very beneficial in finding harmony in the matters of the dunya. The first one is the statement of the Prophet ﷺ: اللهم إني أعوذ بك من علم لا ينفع، ومن قلب لا يخشع، ومن نفس لا تشبع، ومن دعوة لا يستجاب لها. O Allah, I seek refuge with You from knowledge that does not benefit, from a heart that does not humble itself, from a soul that is never satisfied, and from a prayer that is not answered.
اللهم إني أعوذ بك من علم لا ينفع ومن قلب لا يخشع ومن نفس لا تشبع ومن دعوة لا يستجاب لها.
Oh Allah, I seek your refuge from knowledge that doesn't benefit, from a heart that doesn't fear you, from a soul that's not satisfied, and from a dua that is not answered.
The Prophet ﷺ used to say:
اللهم اقسم لنا من خشيتك ما تحول به بيننا وبين معاصيك ومن طاعتك ما تبلغنا به جنتك ومن اليقين ما تهون به علينا مصائب الدنيا.
O Allah, give us from the fear of You that which will come between us and disobedience, and give us enough obedience to take us to Jannah, and give us the certainty that will make it easy to endure the hardships and calamities in this world.
ومن قلوبنا وأسماعنا وأبصارنا وقواتنا أبدًا ما أحييتنا.
O Allah, cause us to enjoy the use of our hearing, our sight, and our strength for as long as we live.
واجعلها الوارث منا.
And make them inherit from us.
واجعل ثأرنا على من ظلمنا.
And make our enmity against those who oppress us.
وانصرنا على من عادانا.
And help us against those who show enmity to us.
ولا تجعل مصيبتنا في ديننا.
And don’t make our problems happen in our religion.
ولا تجعل الدنيا أكبر همنا ولا مبلغ علمنا.
Don’t make this dunya our biggest concern, don’t make this world our biggest concern.
ولا تسلط علينا من لا يرحمنا.
And don’t put in charge of us those who don’t have mercy upon us.
I hope that this has, insha’Allah ta'ala, been a way that, insha’Allah ta'ala, inspires people to think. It’s a constant thought that you have to have, it’s a constant process. It’s not something which is easy to do because this world keeps on coming back, it keeps on calling you, it keeps on chasing you, and Shaytan keeps on trying to get you to take it and to be amazed by it. So you have to remind yourself from time to time.
وَذَكِّرْ فَإِنَّ الذِّكْرَى تَنْفَعُ الْمُؤْمِنِينَ.
And remind, for indeed, the reminders benefit the believers.
And so we have to remind ourselves from time to time about the reality of this world and remind ourselves what we're trying to do, recalibrate, balance ourselves differently, so that we can achieve the best of this world and the best of the akhirah.
There is one more issue that I thought is worth speaking to you about, maybe some of you have asked this as a question. It’s the issue that people ask: What happens when the dunya and the deen come together in such a way that you struggle with your intention? So, for example, you are paid to teach the Qur’an. You get an offer of a job to teach the Qur'an. Now, I want to teach the Qur'an for Allah, I want it for the akhirah, I don’t want it for the dunya, but someone is offering me now to have a salary to teach the Qur’an. The first thing you do is you focus your intention upon the akhirah. You say, “I’m not teaching Qur’an for money, I’m teaching Qur’an for Allah.” Then, if you see that this job is the best way to please Allah, take it. The money is perfectly permissible for you.
إِنَّ أَحَقَّ مَا أَخَذْتُمْ عَلَيْهِ الْأَجْرَ كِتَابَ اللَّهِ
The most deserving thing you take a wage for is the book of Allah. But your first thought has to be: I’m doing this for Allah, for the akhirah, that’s what I want, and this job, if it’s good for me in my akhirah, I’ll take it as a means, as a way to get to Allah.
For example, you may say, “Right now, I can only teach the Qur’an one hour a day after my work, but if I were a teacher, I could teach it all day, so I feel it’s more beneficial for me in the sight of Allah to go for this, for Allah, and not for the sake of having a place, and not for the sake of some money, but because this is actually going to facilitate me to get closer to Allah.” That’s what we mean about using the dunya for the akhirah and not abusing the dunya, and neglecting the akhirah.
That is what Allah made easy for me to mention. Now we’ve used up all of our time, and it’s coming now exactly to the time of Isha. I wonder if we could take a little bit of questions. Are we allowed to take some questions after Salah? Inshallah.
In that case, we’ll again put a countdown timer on the live stream so it doesn’t go off, and we’ll come back and we’ll take questions inshallah. Only a little bit, we won’t go very, very long, inshallah, because you guys have been incredibly patient.
We ask Allah to teach us what benefits us, to benefit us with what He teaches us, and we ask Allah to increase us in knowledge. We ask Allah to give us the ability to act upon it.
اللهم لا تجعل الدنيا أكبر همنا ولا مبلغ علمنا ولا إلى النار مصيرنا.
We ask Allah, subhanahu wa ta'ala, and we seek His refuge:
اللهم إنا نعوذ بك من علم لا ينفع، ومن قلب لا يخشع، ومن دعوة لا يسمع، ومن نفس لا تشبع.
We seek refuge from a soul that’s not satisfied.
We ask Allah, subhanahu wa ta'ala, as He gathered us together in this gathering, to gather us together in Jannah without any account and any punishment, along with our Prophets, the Siddiqeen, the martyrs, and the righteous, and how excellent are those as companions.
My dear brothers and sisters, that is what Allah made easy for us to mention. The message Allah kindly allowed us to gather here, inshallah, after the Salah, for a short time for some questions and answers. So, I’m now going to put the timer on for the live stream to give us some time for the Salah, bi izni Allah ta'ala, and after our Sunnah prayer, we will take some questions and answers inshallah.
هذَا وَاللَّهُ أَعْلَمُ، وَالصَّلاَةُ وَالسَّلاَمُ عَلَى نَبِيِّنَا مُحَمَّدٍ وَعَلَى آلِهِ وَصَحْبِهِ أَجْمَعِينَ.
All praise is due to Allah, Lord of the worlds, and may peace and blessings be upon His Messenger Muhammad, and upon his family and companions.
A brother came to me with a really, really good question. He said—and this wallahi shows honestly someone listening and thinking—he said, "You said that the Prophet (ﷺ) never asked for poverty, but there is a hadith in which the Prophet (ﷺ) said: 'Allahumma ahini miskeena wa amitni miskeena wa hshurni fi zumratil masakeena.' Hadith in Tirmidhi and Ibn Majah. How do we respond to it?"
"Oh Allah, make me live as a miskeen, die as a miskeen, and raise me among the miskeen people." This hadith, narrated by Tirmidhi, is a strange hadith, and the hadith of Ibn Majah and Tirmidhi is hadithun da'if—it’s not authentic at all. A number of scholars, such as al-Hafidh Ibn Kathir, al-Hafidh Ibn Hajar, and Shaykh al-Islam Ibn Taymiyyah, have declared the hadith weak.
The question is good: what if the hadith is authentic? The hadith is not authentic. In both the chains of Tirmidhi and Ibn Majah, the hadith is da'if. But if we say it is authentic, how would we explain it?
I think al-Hafidh Ibn Hajar said: fi matnihi nakara—its text is contradictory to what we know to be correct from the Prophet (ﷺ). The text doesn't match. But if we say it is authentic, how would we explain it?
Really simple: we would say that the meaning of "miskeen" here is not "faqeer" (poor), but "make me mutawadi'an"—make me humble. Make me have the character and akhlaq of a miskeen. It doesn't mean make me poor. That's the short answer from those who mentioned it.
Shaykh al-Islam said, even if it's authentic, the meaning here is the meaning of attawadu' (humility). So it’s a very, very good question, and I'm amazed people are thinking, listening, and saying, "Alhamdulillah, this doesn't match."
I heard a video, I watched a clip, and in that clip, someone said the Prophet ﷺ said, "O Allah, make me live as a miskeen, die as a miskeen, and raise me among the miskeen people." We said that first of all, the hadith isn’t authentic, and a large number of scholars declared it to be weak. Also, if it’s authentic, it can't contradict what we know from the Sunnah.
So we say that if it’s authentic, then it’s going to be "miskeen" in terms of a person’s character and akhlaq and tawadu’—the humility of the person who is not a haughty person, not an arrogant person. And He [Allah] make me a person who is simple, who lives as a simple person, who dies as a simple person, and who is raised among the poor, the needy, the people who led a simple life. Don’t raise me among the tyrants and the oppressors, and so on.
So that is, if the hadith is authentic, then that is the meaning of the hadith, insha'Allah ta'ala.
So I really appreciate the question. It’s a fantastic question.
Will we take first from the sisters? One question or they have the microphone? If I believe they will pass the microphone or someone will give it to them. So we ask one of the sisters, the first one who has a question, insha'Allah ta'ala. Once again, I apologize to the YouTube viewers and the live stream that we are not going to take questions from the live stream today because of so many questions we have in the message. So we have to give priority to the people in front of us, and insha'Allah ta'ala, the live stream—we will note your questions and try to address them later, insha'Allah. No problem.
In that case, we take from the brothers, one question, insha'Allah ta'ala. Until the brothers try, then I will start with YouTube. And if I start with YouTube, you will not... Oh, you have it. Ok. Oh, I nearly gave it to YouTube, and then you would have been in trouble.
That’s a beautiful question, and I ask Allah subhanahu wa ta'ala to reward you for it. And I ask Allah azza wa jalla to keep us safe from shubuhat.
This is from the best dua you can make to be safe from shubuhat:
So what's the question? The question is, when you are exposed to doubts and confusion on social media, how do you navigate that? How do you stay safe from that?
So I'm going to give you three things, insha'Allah ta'ala.
Number one: Try your very, very best not to expose yourself to the content, the channels, and the people who are putting doubts about Islam, even if you are knowledgeable, even if you are talib ilm or sheikh or ustaz. Don’t expose yourself to that. We are not a people who, for example, say, "Sit with a glass of alcohol in your hand just to show that you won’t drink it." We don't do this. You must stand next to these beautiful women and prove that you will not be tempted. And we don't do it with shahawat and we don't do it with shubuhat. Don't put yourself in a situation where you're exposing yourself. Some people think it's like a vaccine. They think it's like the COVID vaccine, and you just give a little bit, and then you won’t get a lot. It’s not like that. Any single one thing could come and go into your heart. Rather, some of the imams of Islam, a man came and said, "May I read the Quran to you?" He said, "No, it’s a person who gives these doubts." He said, "I only want to read the Quran." He said, "I will not allow you to read the Quran in case something goes into my heart." Even he wouldn’t even let that person who had the confusion and the doubts—he wouldn’t even let the person read the Quran to him in case he just made one word or just something. He stopped and made him confused. And he was an imam of Islam. So what do you think about us?
Number one: Don’t expose yourself to these things. Maybe it will happen by accident, but don’t go looking for it, watching the debates and the arguments, and what people say about what the missionaries say and what the atheists say. Don’t listen to them to begin with.
Number two: Make dua to Allah to keep you safe. This is most important. Make dua, for example, make dua for Allah to guide you. Make dua that, "Oh Allah, guide me to what they’re differing about. What is the truth? Because You guide to the straight path."
Number three: Arm yourself, not with a weapon, but with knowledge—enough knowledge to keep you safe from this confusion and safe from these doubts and misconceptions. And this knowledge is divided into two. It’s got two parts. What do we mean by that?
Everything you hear said—any misconception, any doubt, any confusion—has two answers: a general answer, which is kind of a summary, and the details. Now, my brothers and sisters, many times you won’t know the details. For example, someone brought you a hadith. You don’t know this hadith. You don’t know if it’s sahih, da'if, the wording is wrong, you don’t know if the translation is wrong, you don’t know anything about it. But what you do know is a general answer. Let’s just say that someone brought a hadith which seems to say that Islam is unjust to women. Okay, that’s what it seems to say. You never heard this hadith, you don’t know if it’s sahih or da'if, the translation is wrong, made up, you don’t know what it is. But let me ask you a general question: is it possible for Islam to be unfair to anyone? Never. Will your Lord oppress anybody? Is it possible for Islam to contradict? For there to be something good on one side and then the opposite on the next day? It’s not possible, right? Islam cannot contradict. The Qur’an doesn’t contradict. So what about Allah said, “Live together with them in the best way”? The Prophet ﷺ said, "Treat your women well." He said, "I’m the best of you to my family." The best of you is the one who is best to his family. We know this.
Is it possible there could be another hadith saying mistreat your wife? Could it be? It could not be, right? I don’t know what this hadith is. I’ve got no idea. Maybe you made it up, maybe it’s da'if, maybe the translation is wrong. But I know you have to be wrong. This is enough to save you from the shubha the first time. What do I mean the first time? I mean it’s enough to give you a temporary protection. It doesn’t give you the full answer, but it gives you a temporary minute just to say, "Okay, it has to be wrong." That’s okay. Now I’m going to go and find out exactly why it’s wrong. Now I’m going to go and find out why. So I’m going to look at: is it authentic? Is it not? Is it translated wrong? Is there a different meaning? I’m going to go into all of that, but that’s going to take me time. In the beginning, all I need to know is there’s no contradiction in Islam. I already know that Allah Azawajal told us to treat our women well, and the Prophet ﷺ told us so. It has to be what this person is saying is wrong. I just don’t know why they’re wrong, but it has to be wrong. And then I go and I ask a person of knowledge to give me the full answer, and I get all the details of what it is and what they said, and is it right and everything, and then I can go back and I can answer it in detail.
Every shubha is like that. Everything. Anytime someone puts a doubt about Islam in your mind.
Always the same system: You can use any doubt somebody puts into your head about Islam, go with the basic things we know: there's no way there can be a contradiction. Islam is not unfair. Islam is perfect, so you must be wrong. But I just don’t understand what it is you're talking about. I’ll get the detailed answer later. This is a beautiful way of dealing with doubt and confusion.
Even if someone brings you something in that second which you have no answer for, they bring you something really strange, and you have no answer for it, you know enough about your religion to be able to survive until you can get the proper answer, insha'Allah ta'ala. And Allah azawajal is most blessed.
Maybe we have from the sisters now? Do we have a question? No, we don’t, but we have a question. Go ahead, Allah bless you.
Sister's Question: "I hear from some according to your lecture part number three, if you have something extra, it’s not haram but you can keep it. It’s not like good or bad, but you can use it. For example, what I hear from the shaykh from the mu’mins, the kābi mu’min is better than the normal mu’min. A normal Muslim and the kābi Muslim is better than the normal. The definition of kābi they give in this different perspective, in terms of their health, their wealth, you can consider it in any way of life, many makes perfect sense. I completely understand. So according to your lecture part, whatever you have extra, Allah likes that. If you have good muscles, good body, you have a good balance, so is that not better? Beautiful, insha'Allah ta'ala."
Answer: I’m going to try to summarize your question, and I’m going to try to answer it in a way that brings the two together in an amazing way.
The question is regarding the hadith of Abu Huraira, where the Messenger of Allah ﷺ said, "A strong believer is better than a weak believer, and there’s good in both." And the brother said, may Allah bless him, that some of the scholars mentioned that strength can be in many different things: the strength of iman, strength of the body, even strength of financial wealth, and so on.
Does this go against the idea of giving up for what doesn’t benefit you in the Akhira and getting rid of the extra things you don’t need?
We’re going to answer with two answers and bring those two opinions together in a way that shows you the correctness, insha'Allah, of both.
First: The hadith’s primary meaning speaks about iman. Everything else is secondary compared to iman, okay? So that’s why it says al-mu’min al-qawī (the person of strong iman), and the other things are true. I totally agree with what the shaykh said: the strength of the body, the strength of your patience (sabr), the strength of your financial strength and everything. These come in as secondary meanings. Meaning, it’s not the point of the hadith, it’s an extra benefit. The primary meaning is iman al-mu’min al-qawī. However, the other things can be included: strength of the body, strength of your wealth, strength of your patience, and so on.
Second point: The question really comes down to having a healthy bank balance versus giving up what you don’t need. This is the heart of the question: having a good bank balance versus giving up what you don’t need.
And what we’re going to say is that the Prophet ﷺ helped us understand this with another hadith. He said, "Ni’mal malus salih lil abdi salih." As he said from memory, so I hope I got it right, or otherwise, as the Prophet ﷺ said: "How excellent is good money for a good person—halal money for a righteous person."
Now, where do we get down to it? It’s all about what you're going to use that money for. If that healthy bank balance is just for your dunya, it would be better for you to leave it, because it’s not getting you closer to Allah. But if that healthy bank balance is actually helping you in a way to get near to Allah, it’s making you beloved to Allah, you are using it to secure it for your family, to spend upon them, to give in sadaqat, so that you don’t have to beg, so you don’t have to ask, alhamdulillah, this is not something you should leave because it’s benefiting you in the akhira.
It comes under the hadith: "How excellent is halal money for a righteous person", because he is going to spend it for Allah, he’s going to use it for his family, he’s going to make sure he doesn’t have to beg from the people, and so on.
What you have to leave is when that money isn’t actually getting you near to Allah. Like, it’s not—he looks at it and says, like we said, there are going to be four options.
- Haram money—get rid of it.
- Maybe haram money—get rid of it.
- Money that isn’t haram, but you’re not actually planning to do anything good with it, not for your family, not for yourself, not for your akhira. This one, it would be better for you to get rid of it, but it’s not haram for you to keep it either.
- The money you’re going to keep and use for something good—it comes under the hadith, "How excellent is good money for a righteous person, halal money, righteously earned money for a righteous person."
And Allah azawajal knows best.
It's a very, very good question. We have one from the brothers here. Is there a way, then, if the sisters were shy to give on the mic, is there a way if they had a question, they could write it down? Like, maybe you can try it that way, Inshallah. Inshallah. Inshallah.
I have a debate with many Muslim brothers about voting in the Western countries, like here, that might change the national policy on Muslims. So, what is the Islamic view on this voting, if it should work or not? So, the brother's question is a very good question. It's a little difficult of a question to answer because I'm frightened, as someone who comes from outside of the country, that I might give you an answer that isn’t appropriate for the situation that you guys are in here, and I'm always worried about that because I might say something—I mean, if you ask me about a generic question about Islam, like should I memorize the Qur'an—but when you ask me a question about something relating to politics and the situation of the country, I'm a little worried that I might answer it in a way that is not appropriate for your situation.
So, you have one thing beautiful in Sweden. I was amazed. You have a lot of senior students of knowledge. You have some very, very—I was in Stockholm recently with some of the senior students—and you have access to really senior students who've lived here 20-25 years, seeking knowledge in and living in Sweden. So, I feel questions about voting and politics and how much we should be involved and what’s allowed and what’s not allowed would be best to ask to them. Because, like they say in the famous statement, Ahlul Makkah, Adrabi Ma Fihah—the people of Makkah know best about Makkah. So, if you want to ask about it, and I'm just frightened, I might say something from the UK because I know about that. I might say never go to the voting; it’s a waste of time and it’s haram. But I don’t know the situation you guys are in, and I don’t know what you're going through and what the options are and how dangerous the situation is. So, for that reason, I’m going to say that I would prefer for this question, Inshallah, to be raised to the senior students of knowledge in Sweden, Inshallah Ta'ala, so they could give you a good answer more appropriate to your situation that you're in, Inshallah Ta'ala, and Allah knows best.
As a beginner student of knowledge, when are you ready to teach in a Masjid or school if there's no active classes going on, and what should they teach the people first? And if you have some tips on how to memorize in the best way... Give me one more time, I want to really make sure because you asked me two-three things. So, give me the one by one.
The beginner student of knowledge—someone who is actively learning about their religion and about Islam—and that person who is learning about their religion and learning about Islam, they’re asking: when should I start to teach? Bearing in mind, in this question, there are no active lessons, so they’re not stepping on someone else's toes. They're in a place where, in my city, nobody is giving a lesson, and I'm studying. We're going to take this from two sides: the side of tabligh or al-balagh, giving the message out, conveying the message. This can be done whenever you know what you're saying. For example, if you've memorized Surah Al-Fatiha and you share it with someone, or you've memorized a hadith and you share it with someone. Because it doesn’t come under teaching, if that makes sense. It comes under the issue of al-tabligh, conveying what you know and passing it on, and al-balagh al-mubeen, giving a clear message.
The issue of teaching is where you step forward to actually explain and go around what you've memorized. So, you've memorized and you've learned a hadith, but now you're explaining and you're guiding people, and you're telling people, "This is what it means," and so on. This is a stage where you should definitely not start doing it without two things in mind.
The first one is that you delay as much as possible. And what I mean by that is you prefer to give it to somebody else. You try to find someone, to bring someone. Why? Because the more you delay, the better you're going to be when you finally take that position, and you're going to give it its right, Inshallah, and you're not going to fall into a lot of the evil and haram and mistakes and shortcomings that people fall into. But if you now find that I can’t delay, like now as the time has come, there is no one else, I have an opportunity, then now you're going to consult a person of knowledge as your teacher, someone who knows you. And you're going to say to your teacher, "Ustaz, my situation is this: I'm in this city, I don’t find anyone else teaching, and I feel like this might be the time when I should step forward. Ustaz, what do you think about it?" Personally, he knows you, he knows your city, he knows your situation, and he says, "Okay, teach this, but don’t go outside of it. Do this, but come back to me and get it checked." He will guide and assist you to make that decision at the right time.
As well as that, when you first begin teaching, it’s very important that you start by just taking what is already there from the scholars and conveying it. You’re almost just doing another kind of balagh. You’re just, instead of just conveying the ayah or the hadith, you convey the ayah and the tafsir of a shaykh.
The hadith and the sharh (explanation) of a shaykh, does that make sense without going outside of it until you develop any marhalatul tahreer (the ability to evaluate and to know what's right and wrong)? In this case, you can start to be more active about choosing the explanation you want to give and so on. Otherwise, if a person was just to read the hadith and the explanation of a famous scholar of Islam and say "no questions, no explanation," that is a kind of conveying, right? So that is what I would advise them to do in the beginning. But in all of this, don't sit down without speaking to someone who knows you and someone who knows where you are and what you're doing, so they can give you really good advice and you don’t end up falling into a mistake.
And the reason we say this, wallahi, wallahi, wallahi, we need thousands more teachers. We are not frightened of someone else teaching, and we want to see 1000 more, 10,000 more, 100,000 more, but it has to be quality because otherwise one of the greatest sins you can fall into is to say something about Allah or about His religion that you don’t know. We ask Allah to keep us safe and to forgive us for our mistakes in this—that a person says something about Allah they don’t know.
So, if that made sense, in the beginning, just convey exactly what you know, yani hadith and ayah. After that, you wait and wait as much as you can, but if you see there is no other option, then your next step is to do what? It is to convey the explanation. So take an explanation of a reliable teacher and just convey what they said, without ta'liqat (personal commentary), without shaf (explanations), without anything extra from you, and with the consultation of someone who knows you in a more senior place of knowledge. And that's what we all do—we go to the teacher and say, "Sheikh, I had the opportunity to teach in this masjid, do you think I should do it?" "Yes, do it, what are you going to teach?" "I’m going to teach this." "Don’t teach this, teach this," and you get that tarbiyah (nurturing) and the guidance from the teacher so that you don’t make a mistake. So, we preserve that person and we actually keep them safe. Insha'Allah, by Allah's permission, that person will be the best teacher, and they'll come later on at the right time for them, and they'll be the best teacher, insha'Allah.
There was a second part to your question, Habibi, go ahead. And if you have some tips on how to memorize, the best way of knowledge, so Quran or... or Allah... Allah, you asked a hard one! I have an entire course on tips for memorization which is coming out insha'Allah, but I will try to just give you some tips. The greatest tip for memorization, probably, is the question they asked Imam Bukhari. So, you know, Bukhari was, you know, his famous hadith, the athar of 100 people came and they mixed all the hadith, 10, 10, 10 people with 10 hadith, 100 hadith, and they mixed all the hadith up and he memorized instantly their mistakes and he memorized the correct answer, all of that—he's an amazing, amazing hafiz, hafiz. They asked him, Imam Bukhari, "Do you know any medicine for hifz (memorization)? Like, is there something I can take to make my hifz really good, like a medicine or a herb or a food that will make my hifz really good?" He said, "I don’t know anything except lots of looking at the thing that you're memorizing." And he said, " كثرة النظر" or "تكرار النظر في المحفوظ" (a lot of looking again and again).
So, you take what you're memorizing and you just keep looking at it again and again and again. And I'm going to add to that a small point, which is reduce the amount that you memorize in one go. So, start by just memorizing, say, for example, one sentence instead of one hadith, and look at it a lot. Write it on your wall, your window, on your car, post-it notes, put it on your fridge, until everywhere you go you see it. On your phone, screenshot it, you see it. You know, you sit down at work, desktop screensaver, you see it. You go out, there's a post-it note on your car wheel, and you see it. You keep on seeing it over and over and over again, and it's only very small. As you become stronger, you will be able to memorize more in one go, and you'll be able to look at it less.
But there's two types of hifth: hifthun sadiq (true hifth) or hifthun tahdiq (fake hifth). True hifth is the hifth where you really genuinely know it. I'll give you an example—Surah Al-Fatiha. If I say, "Read from 'ehdinas sirat al-mustaqeem,' do you ever go, 'ehdinas sirat al-mustaqeem'? What comes next? 'ehdinas sirat... one second... ehdinas sirat, I'm nearly there...' no, never. It's instant, 'ehdinas sirat al-mustaqeem.' Like, straight away it comes, you don’t even have a second. This is true hifth.
But if I ask you, for example, something that you heard one time but it's kind of sort of there and it's a bit not there, this is what we call fake hifth. The problem is the fake hifth comes quick, it's quite quick. Like, for example, let's see... let’s do a quick test. Okay, you mentioned there's a time for everything, deen and dunya, with regard to the youth who has the choice between seeking knowledge... you mentioned that there's a time for everything, dunya with regard to the youth that's seeking knowledge... more or less I did it, missed a word or something. Let me now ask me again. You asked, with regard to the deen and dunya and the youth... that's what we call fake hifth.
It looks like you've done it, and even if I do it ten times, it’ll look like I do it, and maybe I'll even memorize it until outside, but ask me a third year tomorrow, I’m going to say, "I don't even remember what the question topic was, let alone what the... yeah." So you have to go more than what you think. You can’t just do like you read it ten times, you know it—no, no, go for a hundred times until you don’t just know it, you see it in your sleep, you see it when you open your eyes and you dream about it, it's like it's there, it’s not going anywhere. Very important.
This next tip I’m going to give is give attention to revision more than you give to new memorization because actually, it's more important to keep what you have than to add something. So what we do sometimes is people who memorize the Qur'an, keep going. He memorized, let's say, for example, Al-Baqarah, goes to Ali Imran, he finished Ali Imran, but now he doesn’t know Al-Baqarah anymore—shaky, shaky. He goes to Surah Al-Nisa now, he doesn’t know Al-Baqarah at all, loads of mistakes. He goes to Surah Al-Ma’idah, by the time he reaches Surah Yunus, he doesn’t know Al-Baqarah, not Ali Imran, not Al-Nisa, he’s forgotten it, or he’s been made to forget.
We shouldn’t say forgotten it, but he’s been made to forget. The better way is, don’t go so fast but keep what you have. And that’s why memorization really helps to have a teacher because your teacher will make sure you don’t get lazy and go on now, you don’t know that, now you don’t know that. But back again, till you know it.
I was talking to a brother, one of the Tullabul Ilm Mashayikh in the UK, and the Sheikh said, “You know, I had a student come to me, and he said, ‘I’ve memorized seven ajza’ (sections of the Qur’an).’” He said, “Read them.” So when he read them, he had one or two mistakes, you know, a few mistakes here and there. He said, “No, back to the beginning until you can recite all seven.” He said, “By the end, that brother recited all seven in one day from beginning to end with no more than two mistakes in each juz, he made seven ajza’ in one sitting and he didn’t make more than about ten mistakes or so, and now you can continue.”
So it’s about preserving what you have, looking after what you have, and progressing on slowly. Don’t try to take your hifz all in one go, but take it step by step, stage by stage.
I had a whole course but it's like just a few little points to get you thinking about it and also Aulawiyat in Hifz. Aulawiyat is priorities—don't fill your Hifz with things that are not that important, right? Like sometimes, for example, let's say you have a certain ability to memorize, and I love—don't get me wrong—I love memorizing chains of Hadith, but if you know your memory is limited, why are you going to put the chain in your memory and miss out on the words of the Prophet ﷺ later on? Does that make sense? Like, I would say don't memorize the chain, memorize the words, what the Prophet ﷺ said. For now, if you see your memory became very strong, you can go with the chains of narration, no problem, but if you're struggling already to memorize 20, 30, 50 Hadith and you put the chains there, instead of 100 Hadith, it will be 20 Hadith, or instead of 1000 Hadith, it will be 200 Hadith because you're filling it with things you don’t strictly need at this moment in time. So, be very stingy with your Hifz—like, be very careful what you commit yourself to memorize, that you really, really need it, and Allah Azawajal knows best.
Do we have a question over here about the daily routine? Daily routine and revision. So the first thing is that some of this is a personal matter in the sense that what works for you, what works for you. So some people will say, “I revise after Fajr, and it’s the best time—the blessing has been put in the morning,” and people say it works for me. But if you know you're a night owl and you work really well at night, and you know that, you know, you're that kind of guy that just does well at night, then do your revision at the time when you're most clear, when your mind is the clearest. Because some people just do really well at night, and some people do really well in the morning. But when we talk about revision, I'm going to say four things, okay? They’re just tips, but I’m going to say four things. The first one is that there are three types of revision: there is Muraja, Muzakarah, and Mudarasa.
Muraja is you going over the content yourself. Does that make sense? You're looking over your notes and your content, you're going over it. Muzakarah is for you to revise with your friends and the people studying with you, and that's very important—don’t miss that out, that you sit with the people on your level, the same knowledge as you or similar, and together, “What did he say was the Hadith? Who knows the Hadith?” “Okay, I know, you prepare this book, you prepare this Hadith, you prepare this topic.” “Okay, what were the five ayahs that he mentioned?” “This one, do you know it?” “No.” And together you test each other. This is called Muzakarah.
And the third one is Mudarasa, and that is with your teacher. So, your teacher tests you: “Do you remember this? What was the ayah we said? Who can tell me?” This is called Mudarasa. When it comes to your own personal or sometimes people call it Muzakarah or when it comes to studying with yourself and revising with yourself, the first thing to do is to make sure that the material you're revising from is well written. The worst thing that happens is you’ve taken notes in the lesson and your notes are, you know, fast, they're a bit scribbled, a bit messy, and then you come back and you try to revise, and suddenly Abu Hurairah became Ibn Abbas, and Bukhari became something completely different, and it all got mixed up. You need, after the class, to spend some time to tidy your notes. Wallah, I'm sore, it pains me, it hurts me, when I go back to my university notes that I took from some of the big mashayikh. Wallah, I find it very hard to understand what I wrote. I have to spend a long time, and Subhanallah, if I had the chance again, I would have just taken that, when I go from the dars, make it clean and tidy, and then, you know, revise from that the next tip.
Be intelligent about what you revise and how you memorize. So we talked about hifth, right? What should this kind of hifth be used for? The hifth, which is the hifth of any proper hifth, hifthun sadiq—what should it be used for? It should be used for the Qur'an, it should be used for the sunnah, it should be used for poetry, and it should be used for the mutoon that your teacher told you to memorize. That is what you need that for, right? Like, you memorize word for word with repetition and everything. There is another type of hifth which you might call it shibu hifth (partial hifth), which is just that you look at it so many times that you become comfortable with the topic. For example, it mentions everything... I don’t need to memorize it word for word, but I’ve got a very good idea of what the paper was about. This is very useful because it stops you from having to do that perfect memorization, and it's suitable for what your teacher said—bullet points, key things from the lesson. It’s not word for word; it’s not revelation; it's not something that has to be memorized like that, but just look at it enough times that it goes into your mind.
Consider summarizing your notes or writing questions. These are two methods which are very good. One is you write a summary of your own notes, so you take your notes or the book, you look at it, you close it, and you write a mulakhith (summary) of the book, of the points the teacher mentioned: one, two, three, four, and this helps to solidify your knowledge. And then you compare and you see, “Did I do a good job or not?” And from it is to write questions. So this is kind of self-testing. This is what we might call al-muzakarah.
... Is that you write yourself, for example, questions about the lesson? Mention this ayah, what’s the answer to this? How many points are that? What are the different types of this? You just keep it as questions, and what you do is you keep those questions at the front of the book or in the front of your notes. So, every now and again, you look at them and you see, can I still answer them? If you can answer them, your revision is fine. Don’t be frightened to go over things from the beginning. One of the best pieces of advice I was ever given was by my teacher, and it stuck with me until today. He said to me, "You know, just when you're relaxed, just chilling, and you have in your hand a cup of tea, you know, karak, chai, and you're just completely relaxed, open your book from the very first page and just gently skim through from the first page all the way to the last page without stress. Don’t sit there like you're in a rush—just go through and read all of your book, beginning to end." He said, "Whenever you get stuck, or you start finding your brain is not taking it in, mark the page. That’s where you need to start your revision next time, without the tea and the comfort." So, he's like, just relax. You're there, yeah, I got that, this one, what is that, what does that mean, what does that mean? Okay, put the marker there, I need to go back to that, I need to study it. Because if you couldn’t understand it in a relaxed way, that means it’s not fully in there, right? So that means that now you need to go back to that and focus on it. Then the next weekend, you do the same thing, and you go a bit further. By the end, you get to the end of the book, and it’s like, "I completely understand." You check your questions, and Alhamdulillah. So, these are some ways.
And I do think, you know, these days we’re really blessed to have these amazing tools for writing notes. You can write notes on a tablet, iPad, you can get them linked and indexed, you can put all the colors and lines, and Wallahi, you can search them. You can put voice and have it convert to text and make use of the tools, mind maps, and all that type of stuff, and the modern kinds of tools for memorizing.
I'm going to take some of the questions from the sisters, inshallah, and I’m not going to go too long. I think if we try to aim to finish in the next 10-15 minutes because it's been a long time and we should also have tomorrow as well, inshallah, as you mentioned, there’s a time for everything, deen and dunya.
With regard to the youth who have a choice between seeking knowledge and getting married, which one should they prioritize? The same between working and seeking knowledge? I’m going to come to, there’s three questions, so I’m going to come to it inshallah.
Question number one: balance between seeking knowledge and getting married. The Prophet ﷺ recommended and encouraged us to get married. He said ... ... ... he said, "Whoever of you young men is able to get married, let him get married." I can’t give you advice different to what the Prophet ﷺ gave, can I? I can’t say, "Don’t get married, brothers, go seek knowledge." The Prophet ﷺ said, "Get married." But is it the case that if you implement this hadith from the Prophet ﷺ, will you just get married today or tomorrow, or will you say, "It’s going to take me, anyways, a bit of time," right? To get myself organized, I need the money, I need to organize myself, I’m going to find the right girl, I need the khutbah, I need to make the proposal, then I need to get the agreement of her father. So, there’s some time. In that time, if marriage is not suitable for you yet, maximize seeking knowledge. That’s the first thing. So, for example, someone is 15, not ready for marriage right now, so let him seek knowledge intensively. He gets to 18; now he’s a little bit more ready for marriage, for example. I’m not suggesting age; I’m just giving an example. He’s a bit more ready for marriage now, so he starts looking, but it takes him a couple more years to find the right person and get the agreement and everything, and he gets married when he’s 19 or when he’s 20. What did he do from 15 to 20? He was studying, studying, studying, traveling, everything. Then, there shouldn’t be a contradiction between marriage and seeking knowledge. And the evidence for that is the marriage of our mother Aisha to the Prophet ﷺ and what Aisha gained of knowledge. There is no woman who had more knowledge than her, ever. There is no woman ever had more knowledge than Aisha رضي الله عنها. So, her marriage didn’t stop her from knowledge. But you have to choose to marry the right person. And if a sister wants to seek knowledge and she’s worried marriage is going to get in the way, then marry a person, a brother, who’s seeking knowledge. If the brother’s worried about that, let him marry someone who wants him to seek knowledge, who’s going to push him and say, "Why did you not go to the class?" So that itself is something to think about as well.
What about work and seeking knowledge? Work, again, is one of those necessities of life, right? Umar رضي الله عنه didn’t like to see the young people not working. If he would come into the masjid and see young people who didn’t go for any work, didn’t have any job, he would make them move from the masjid. "Go and work," because this is one of the basic needs of your life. But don’t let your work overtake your seeking knowledge. What’s the perfect job? Is it the job with the highest salary? For me, I’m going to tell you what I believe the perfect job is in Islam. It is the job that gives you the most time and the most money, together. So, it’s the job that gives you the best salary while giving you the most time. If it’s just salary, no; if it’s free time but you can’t afford anything, that’s also not good. But it’s the optimum blend of salary and time, because ultimately your time is worth more than your money. So, I need time to seek knowledge. If I’ve got a job that requires me to work these long 12-hour shifts and I don’t get a break, and then at the weekend I just collapse, that’s not good for me. But I want, also, if I’m working only 6 hours or 7 hours, I want to maximize the money. So, I have to do less work. If I can get a little bit higher salary, maybe I can take a 4-day week instead of a 5-day week. So, it’s about the optimum blend of salary and time, so that you can get the most money for the least work in the dunya, not in the deen, but for the least work in terms of time commitment. That’s why I don’t think a talib should go into jobs that are time-intensive because it takes you away from it. And Allah Azawajal wants the best regarding the Muslim woman.
How can she preserve herself find work so very simple so with regards to the Muslim woman working we have to say first of all, it's not the default right, we should say that it's not the default. The default position should be the man pays and the lady doesn't have to work. Does that mean it's haram? It doesn't mean it's haram but it just means that should be how it is. Like it shouldn't be that she should feel the need that she has to work because her husband or her father is supposed to take care of that, but there could be some people in different situations.
So if she's going to work, we're going to require from her three conditions. The first is that the work is halal in itself and in the environment. The second one is that it doesn't take away from what Allah made obligatory upon her, whether that be the salah, or whether that be the hijab, or whether that be the taking care of the affairs of the home, it doesn't take away. And the third one is that she has the permission of her guardian, be her father or husband, that they don't object to it in that.
What would I recommend these days? One of the blessings we got out of COVID, I want to make a lesson one day called "The Blessings That Came Out of COVID" because there were ni'mah blessings came out of it. One thing that came out of it is the blessing of work from home and the ability of people to actually, a lot of companies, not every company, but companies are opening up the idea of people being able to work from home. So that could be ideal for her if she needs to do it, because it means that she doesn't have to worry about her hijab. It means that she doesn't have to worry about mixing and all that. It means there's a lot of options and some jobs are better than others. We know that, some jobs are better in terms of interaction with people, some jobs are not so good in terms of interaction with people, and Allah is the best.
I'm just going to take these two very quickly: If I'm a student that moved to another city to study because I couldn't come in my city and I take student loan, what should I do? I'm a little bit also unsure about this one because I know how student loans work in the UK, but I don't know how they work here. So in the UK, the way that they work is that the loan is interest-bearing, you are gaining interest and then you, if you start working, you'll start paying it off by automatically they'll take it from you and you'll pay it off, and if you don't work until like 40 years or something, they wipe it out. I don't know how it works here, but if the loan is riba-based, then a person makes tawbah, and the first thing they do to make tawbah is what? Stop doing it. Then, they look at how to clear it with the minimum possible, like what is the quickest, easiest way to clear it. I don't know if it's work, not work in the UK, it's don't work. The best way to clear it in the UK is don't work because they will clear it for you, and if it's, I'm not saying it's possible for a man, it's not possible, but like for a lady, she took a student loan khalas, don't work, if you don't work, now you will not pay for that loan it will be wiped out, so you made tawbah, you stopped it, and then you don't work and it will be wiped out bismillah ta'ala. If not,
What is the best way, what is the least harm to get rid of it? And I'm sorry I couldn't answer more, but I'm not really sure about how the system works here exactly.
This one says: The benefit of giving sadaqah and supporting the masjid. Wallahi, there are many, many benefits. First of all, one of the great benefits is the hadith of the Prophet ﷺ: "Man bana lillahi masjidan, bana allahu lahu baitan fil jannah" – "Whoever builds a masjid, Allah will build him a house in Jannah." That's a huge benefit.
From the benefit is that you will be from those people that Allah Azawajal loves.
Allah says: فِي بُيُوتٍ أَذِنَ اللَّهُ أَنْ تُرْفَعَ وَيُذْكَرَ فِيهَا اسْمُهُ يُسَبِّحُ لَهُ فِيهَا بِالْغُدُوِّ وَالآصَالِ رِجَالٌ لَّا تُلْهِيهِمْ تِجَارَةٌ وَلَا بَيْعٌ عَنْ ذِكْرِ اللَّهِ وَإِقَامِ الصَّلَاةِ وَإِيتَاءِ الزَّكَاةِ يَخَافُونَ يَوْمًا تَتَقَلَّبُ فِيهِ الْقُلُوبُ وَالْأَبْصَارُ لِيَجْزِيَهُمْ اللَّهُ أَحْسَنَ مَا عَمِلُوا وَيَزِيدَهُمْ مِّنْ فَضْلِهِ إِنَّ اللَّهَ يَرْزُقُ مَن يَشَاءُ بِغَيْرِ حِسَابٍ
"In houses that Allah has permitted to be raised and that His name is mentioned therein. Exalt Him therein morning and evening. Men whom neither commerce nor sale distracts from the remembrance of Allah and the establishment of prayer and the giving of zakah. They fear a Day when hearts and eyes will sway. That Allah may reward them according to the best of what they have done and increase them from His bounty. And Allah provides whom He wills without account." (Surat An-Nur, 24:36-38)
So to be from the people who Allah gives even more than what they've done to, and Allah blesses them. We know a very famous, even a small support of the masjid. There was a woman, she was a lady, she used to sweep the masjid of the Prophet ﷺ. She was not a famous person, she was not a famous sahabiya, she was a sahabiya not really very known, nobody really knew her, and she used to sweep the masjid of the Prophet ﷺ, come and just, you know, clean up. One day she passed away and the sahabiya didn’t want to trouble the Prophet ﷺ, and she passed away at night. So they had her washed and shrouded, and they buried and prayed over her the next day. The Prophet ﷺ came and he said, "Where is the woman who used to sweep the masjid?" They said, "Oh Messenger of Allah, she died and we didn’t want to trouble you by asking you to come and get up and pray for her." The Prophet ﷺ became upset, and he went to her grave and prayed over her at her grave to show the huge deed that she did. And all she used to do is sweep the masjid. Just you hoover a raw asaf of the masjid, or you give something small to help the masjid, or a little bit of perfume you put in the masjid. This is a huge deed in the sight of Allah Azawajal.
So there's a lot of things to talk about in that, but just a small point is that one to answer as well? We'll just finish it, inshallah ta'ala. We'll just finish it quickly. Okay, so can I tell you to become a nurse? My advice is avoid what you can. I don't, I know some people are studying, and those people can find the right ways of doing things, but if you haven’t started this topic yet, why put yourself in a situation where you're going to be touching men and you're going to be looking at the awrah and you're going to be asked to do that stuff? If you're involved in it, there are many people, brothers here today, doctors, nurses – that's a different situation now. We talk about how to minimize the harm and everything, but if you haven't got involved in this, if you haven't started and you're thinking, should I take a course where I have to look at the awrah and touch people and all of that? No, I don’t advise it. And it might be possible to study in another country where they don’t ask you to do those things. It could be, there could be countries better than others. I didn’t study medicine so I’m not sure, but there could be some countries which are not so bad as others. But when they’re asking you to do all these intimate examinations of the opposite gender, they’re asking you to do kashf al awrah and touch people and everything, then just leave it for other people. There's plenty of other people who will go and do it instead of you and you don't need to put yourself into that fitna. And the brothers and sisters who are in that situation, then they have their own discussion, which is a different topic, inshallah.
Okay, with that, my dear brothers and sisters, we're going to conclude for tonight, inshallah ta'ala. Now we do have a program tomorrow. Is it the same time? After Maghrib, the same time, inshallah ta'ala. It's possible that I will not be able to do the Q&A after Isha, we’ll have to see. But inshallah ta'ala, the program will go after Maghrib, bi-idhni Allah ta'ala. Do you remember the topic we had for it? I've done so many topics this week, I don't know, I don't know, I’ve got so many, I don’t know what I’m doing.
In which case, deepening your connection to Allah. That's the topic. Deepening your connection to Allah, a beautiful topic, inshallah ta'ala.
For all the people who watched us on YouTube and the live stream, we want to say to you all, Jazakumullahu Khairan, and we appreciate it, and we apologize that we didn't get to take your questions, but just because we want to give the time to the people who are here. That's what Allah Azawajal made easy for me to mention, and Allah Azawajal knows best.
Wassalatu wassalamu ala nabiyyina Muhammad wa ala aalihi wa sahbihi ajma'een.
