A Forgotten Practice

وَلْتَنظُرْ نَفْسٌ مَّا قَدَّمَتْ لِغَدٍ

So you start taking a look at what you are investing for tomorrow.

وَاتَّقُوا اللهَ

Then Allah reminds us again that the only thing that will keep you on this path, after a while you're gonna hate this exercise and practice. Because the nafs by design, the nafs in its nature is a wild animal. And a wild animal does not like to be tied up, does not like to be chained, does not like to be restrained. It does not like it at all. So what happens with a wild animal the second that it gets a little bit of daylight? It gets a little bit of a crack of daylight. What does a wild animal do? It runs. And if that door opens this much, that wild animal goes and rams that door trying to bust out into the open. So every single time that you try to close that door on that nafs, you try to rein it in, you try to chain it in, that nafs is gonna go smashing into the door and trying to bust out.

And so you have to remind yourself why you're ultimately doing this. And that is to have a better relationship with Allah, to make sure that Allah plays a practical role in your life every single day.

Because Allah without a doubt is fully informed all the time of each and every single thing that you are doing or that you will do.

The Consequences of Neglecting Allah

Now Allah really analyzes this idea of self accountability. Allah tells us in ayah number 19:

Do not be like those people who forgot about Allah. The first step is you won't be motivated to actually take this journey if you don't care about your relationship with Allah. But what happens when you don't care about your relationship with Allah? Those people who don't care about Allah, Allah makes them forget about themselves. Allah is subjecting them to the worst fate possible. And that is Allah makes them forget about themselves. Allah makes it so that they don't even care about their own well-being anymore.

And think about everyone that you've ever seen with destructive behavior. Such destructive behavior that you're like, dude, self-accountability is not even necessary. You know, some (مُحَاسَبَة - muhasabah) or (مُرَاقَبَة - muraqabah) or some fancy Arabic word or spiritual practice is not even necessary to be able to understand and realize what you are doing is destroying you and everyone around you.

If somebody gets involved in some very dangerous criminal activity and they're on the run from the law, you're like, what are you doing? You're destroying everything in your wake and in your path. How do you not get this? When you see somebody, and again, if this kind of hits home for some people, maybe you know somebody or whatever the case may be, I apologize, I'm not making light of your situation. But just to give practical examples, when you see somebody who's addicted to drugs, destroying their life and destroying the lives of their family, then you're just kind of like, what are you doing though? Stop, why wouldn't you stop? You're destroying everything around you.

But what ends up happening is that when you neglect Allah, when you don't care about Allah and His place in your life, the predicament that comes out of that is not that Allah makes you, that Allah doesn't care about you or whatever, Allah makes it so that you don't care about yourself anymore. That's the scary thing.

That those are people that start to live their lives on a consistent manner, day in and day out, morning and evening, outside of the realm of the protection of Allah.

The Difference Between People of Paradise and Hell

They start to live their lives outside of those boundaries. And Allah gives us a little bit of perspective.

Ibn Qayyim talks about when he speaks about this idea of (مُحَاسَبَة - muhasabah), he says that, when a person does not have this (مُحَاسَبَة - muhasabah),this self accountability in their lives, they don't hold themselves accountable. And then things start to go awry, things start to go bad within their lives, and they start to deal with the fallout of that. They start to struggle with all the difficulty that comes along with that, the baggage. Then they don't want, they can still see the road to redemption. They can still see the road to redemption. It's right there with a huge sign in front of it pointing to it this way. It's right there in front of them. But they still are not willing to make the commitment and give up that which is so pleasurable and pleasing to them. They are self gratifying instead of self accountable. And so they still don't want to take the correct course of action.

One of the first things that they do to cope with that situation, because imagine realizing that I'm messing up here. I'm destroying myself and everything around me. Right here in front of me is the way to fix this. But I don't want to do that because it doesn't seem like it would be a lot of fun. Now you're gonna have to figure out a way to live with yourself. So the first step that that person takes in terms of trying to live with themselves is that they start negotiating.

They start negotiating. And one of the key types of negotiations that occurs at this particular time particularly from a spiritual perspective is:

that Allah is very forgiving and very merciful. And Allah is forgiving and merciful. You cannot limit the mercy of Allah and I cannot restrict the forgiveness of Allah. That is true without a doubt. Allah is forgiving and merciful.

But that person is trying to convince themselves of something. And so Allah mentions here:

He says, look, people who go to paradise and people who go to hell are not the same nor will they ever be the same. It's very fascinating, right? If Allah was saying that people who go to paradise are not like the people who go to hell, like people in paradise will not be with the people in hell. Well, obviously because there are people in paradise and those are people in hell. Why would Allah be telling us the obvious and stating the obvious that these are two separate groups of people? I could tell that they were two separate groups of people when one group was called people of paradise and the other group was called people of hell. I could tell that already.

What Allah is saying is that they don't even look the same in this world. They don't look the same in this world. They don't live their lives the same way in this world. They don't conduct themselves in the same way in this world. The decisions they make, the priorities they have, the challenges that they accept are very, very different. It didn't take a rocket scientist to figure out when you were in the company of Abu Bakr رضي الله عنه the companion of the Prophet صلى الله عليه وسلم, Abu Bakr, it didn't take a rocket scientist to figure out that you were with the person of paradise.

When you saw Khadija رضي الله عنها you knew you were with the person of paradise. And we can't make a judgment about anybody belonging in hell. But when you were around Abu Jahl, something didn't feel right. When you were around Abu Lahab, something didn't feel right. It felt like this situation wasn't correct. And so realize that you, this is in terms of self-accountability by the way.

This is not for us to judge anyone else. Self-accountability. Do you, when you look in the mirror, do you see a person of paradise or do you see a person who's slowly making their way to hell?

Allah says that the people of paradise, they will be successful. Ultimately they will be successful. They might seem like people who live more difficult lives right now. They might seem like people who are not enjoying themselves right now. But ultimately they are the people who enjoy success. It's a very powerful idea. It's kind of heavy.

A Powerful Example from the Battle of Uhud

But I'm tempted to share it. Everyone's been in the environment all weekend long. Hopefully you can handle something kind of heavy like this. It really blew my mind. It was quite fascinating. It was very humbling.

In the battle of Uhud, which was a very difficult moment in Islamic history. The Prophet صلى الله عليه وسلم himself was severely injured. He bled profusely from his face. His uncle was not only killed but mutilated. His cousin was killed and mutilated. Many of his companions were killed on that day. Huge losses. It was a very very difficult day. Abdurrahman bin Auf, who is a great companion of the Prophet صلى الله عليه وسلم. He's been there since the second or third day of the Prophet's mission.

I mean this guy's been there by the side of the Prophet صلى الله عليه وسلم the entire time. He was severely injured on that day. It's said that he received about 20 wounds in the battlefield. And his leg was so badly injured that he limped for the rest of his life. And he had very bad pain in his leg for the rest of his life. So he sacrificed a lot on that day.

And one time, many many years later, he was sitting in the masjid. This is after the passing of the Prophet صلى الله عليه وسلم. Islam was now spreading far and wide. The Muslim community was growing by every minute. Things were going great. Everything the Prophet صلى الله عليه وسلم and his companions had worked for was coming to fruition. And he was sitting there one time, and he says that Musa'ab bin هو خير مني Umair

He said Musa'ab bin Umair, who was another young companion who died, was killed on the day of Uhud. He says, Musa'ab bin Umair, he is better than me. He is better than me. And he says that he sacrificed. And he gave his life for the sake of Allah. And he died fighting on behalf of Allah.

And he says, I'm sitting here today, enjoying myself, in the lap of luxury, seeing the community grow, and really enjoying the growth of the community. He says, I'm fearful, I'm afraid. And this is a guy who still walks with a limp that he suffered in the battle by the side of the Prophet صلى الله عليه وسلم. He says, I'm afraid that I'm reaping the reward of all of my deeds in this world. I'm afraid that I'm cashing in my stock here in this dunya. That I'm taking paradise here in this world. And that I won't have anything to show for when I get to the life of the hereafter.

This is a very sobering thought and idea. These were people who understood what the reality of this life was and how they live for the life of the hereafter. Allah goes on.

The Quran as the Foundation of Self-Accountability

He says, Ayah number 21. How to now start building the self-accountability in this God consciousness.

The Quran is the primary means to do so. Read the Quran, reflect on the Quran, study the book of Allah. Allah says that if we would have revealed, we would have sent down this Quran upon a mountain, you would see that that mountain would crumble and would just literally fall to pieces out of the fear and the understanding of the greatness of Allah.

Allah says, these examples we give to people so that they would actually think and reflect on them. That we interact with this Quran on a daily basis. It is the word of Allah Himself.

All Creation Glorifies Allah

All of the creation of Allah, Allah tells us in the Quran, it talks about the praise and the glorification of Allah.

All creation of Allah talks about His praise and His glorification. This surah in the beginning itself it says:

Everything in the heavens and the earth speaks about the greatness and the glory of Allah.

But the human being is still the envy of all of Allah's creation. And one of the primary reasons for that is that this human being has been granted the gift and the ability to be able to speak the words of Allah with their own tongues and their own mouths. No other creation of Allah has that honor.

And for this very reason, all the other creation of Allah envies this human being. So reflect and think and read and educate yourself. Whenever we talk about reform, whenever we talk about changing the situation, understand education is always the first step of that.

The Importance of Reading and Education

You know one of the very profound realizations and reflections is that there are authentic narrations which tell us that Allah did not send any prophets between Isa (عَلَيْهِ ٱلسَّلَامُ - ʿalayhi s-salām) and Muhammad (صَلَّى ٱللَّٰهُ عَلَيْهِ وَسَلَّمَ - ṣallā-llāhu ʿalayhi wa-sallam). There were no prophets that came between them. And it was a span of over 600 years. So for six centuries, revelation did not come to this world. Prophets did not come to this world. Now somebody might say, well what's the big deal with that? It's been 1400 years since the Prophet (صَلَّى ٱللَّٰهُ عَلَيْهِ وَسَلَّمَ - ṣallā-llāhu ʿalayhi wa-sallam) More than twice that long. That's true but we have the Quran.

Can you imagine what would happen to this world? What would happen to us if 1400 years passed without the Prophet (صَلَّى ٱللَّٰهُ عَلَيْهِ وَسَلَّمَ - ṣallā-llāhu ʿalayhi wa-sallam) and without the Quran? It's unfathomable. So six centuries went by and there was no revelation. And after six centuries, 600 years, when the doors of revelation opened again for the very first time, not the first surah, not the first ayah, but the very first word that came down through those gates was the word (إقرأ - Iqra).

And the word (إقرأ - Iqra) does not mean recite. That's from (تلاوة قراءة - tilawa qira'a), (إقرأ - Iqra) means to read. And in the Arabic language that means automatically it's inclusive of the meaning of comprehend. Read with understanding, read while comprehending, read and understand what you're reading. So open your mind and educate yourself was the very first command that came from Allah. And it was the very first word that was revealed.

Because the Prophet (صَلَّى ٱللَّٰهُ عَلَيْهِ وَسَلَّمَ - ṣallā-llāhu ʿalayhi wa-sallam) was sitting there in the cave of (حراء - Hira) overlooking Makkah, reflecting on society and where humanity had fallen. Allah told him on that night that the very first step to reforming humanity is to educate people. So read and understand and learn and educate.

Fixing Our Relationship with Allah First

And the Quran is the primary means of that. Now Allah reminds us, because remember it said the very first step is realize what is your relationship with Allah like. Because if your relationship with Allah is not correct, then nothing else will be correct.

Man aslaha ma baynahu wa baynallahi aslahallahu ma baynahu wa baynan-nas

Whoever corrects things between them and Allah, Allah will help them correct things between them and everyone else. So the first step is making sure that you fix things between you and Allah.

The Connection Between Prayer and Relationships

One of the most profound examples of just the eloquence of the Quran from ayah to ayah and the connection and the continuity between verses that I personally have come across within the study of the Quran, is found in surah al-Baqarah.

In surah al-Baqarah, surah number 2, ayah number 238, Allah He is talking about the dynamic and the issues and the rules and the regulation and the legislation of divorce. That why does divorce happen? When it happens, what are the procedures for it? What is the aftermath of it? What is supposed to happen after it? It talks about all the rules and regulations. It is the most comprehensive passage in the entire Quran about the rules and the regulations of separation.

It's a very serious topic. It's a very technical topic. This year in the seminary, we actually went through the study and the analysis from a legal perspective of those ayahs. It must have taken at least two months. Very, very detailed, very, very elaborate, very complex. But the fascinating thing is in the middle of that passage, Allah says:

Hafidhu alas-salawati was-salatil-wusta wa qoomu lillahi qaniteen

Allah in the middle of the passage was talking about rules and regulations of divorce and separation. He says it very carefully, very cautiously, watch over the prayers. Now if we pause here for a second, what does watching over the prayers, maintaining the prayers have to do with divorce? It's a good topic. If there's any topic that you could interject into any discussion, and that would be, take care of your salah.

You could say that line in the middle of anything and it would completely fit and work. But at the same time, Allah's speech is not like you and me. Not like you and I. Allah's speech is so sophisticated, so beautiful, so coherent, so perfect, that how does that ayah fit within a passage about divorce? How did Allah go from divorce to talking about maintaining prayers to going back to talking about divorce? It's a question you and I have to answer.

And so the scholars they help us understand this, and what they explain the Mufassirun is that one of the things, there's many many benefits and blessings in this, and how Allah connects these two ideas, that that's another discussion for another day. But one of the very basic and fundamental ideas is Allah is talking about reconciliation. And Allah is talking about analyzing the core and the root of your problem.

And Allah is saying that maybe the divorce is not the problem itself, but it is symptomatic of the real issue. That before you analyze and you evaluate your relationship with each other, go back to your respective corners, take a break from slugging it out, and reflect on your own relationship with Allah. Where are you in your relationship with Allah? How is your relationship with Allah? Because we have to understand that we as human beings are the product and are the beneficiaries of barakah blessing.

Understanding Barakah (Blessing)

What is barakah? What is blessing? It is the eternal blessing that is granted by Allah into anything and everything that we do. And it is the engine, it is the only thing that keeps us moving. You know when you

see somebody who has all the money in the world and doesn't even have a lot of responsibility, but they seem to be living in nothing but misery and pain and suffering.

And then you have somebody else who barely can make ends meet, has all the responsibility that you could ever imagine. And that person is quite literally like the happiest and the most fulfilled human being you have ever met in your life. Being around that person just makes you feel better about yourself.

You know what's the difference between those two people? Because this guy's got more resources and less responsibility. This guy's got more responsibility and less resources. But because this guy's got barakah and this guy obviously does not. That's as simple and plain and easy as it is. Barakah is the ability to do more with less. The ability to do more with less.

A Story of Barakah from Abu Huraira

These are miraculous stories from the life of the Prophet (صَلَّى ٱللَّٰهُ عَلَيْهِ وَسَلَّمَ - ṣallā-llāhu ʿalayhi wa-sallam). But at the same time, it's a part of our tradition and it's powerful and it's beautiful and it's worth thinking about. What is barakah? Let me just give you a little simple example of barakah that is miraculous but very simple. The Prophet of Allah (صَلَّى ٱللَّٰهُ عَلَيْهِ وَسَلَّمَ - ṣallā-llāhu ʿalayhi wa-sallam). Abu Hurairah (رضي الله عنه - radiAllahu anhu), (رضي الله عنه - radiAllahu anhu) was a companion of the Prophet (صَلَّى ٱللَّٰهُ عَلَيْهِ وَسَلَّمَ - ṣallā-llāhu ʿalayhi wa-sallam). He was from what they called the Ashab al-Suffa.

The people that lived basically in the masjid and were at the mercy of the community to basically give them some type of food or sustenance. He says, I hadn't eaten for days. Because everyone in Medina was in dire straits, was in financial difficulty. I hadn't eaten in days. So he says, after isha prayer, I sat down at the door of the masjid saying salam to everybody who passed by, hoping somebody would be like, hey, why don't you come have dinner with me? So he says, Umar (رضي الله عنه - radiAllahu anhu) comes and I say, (سلام عليكم - as-salamu alaykum). How's it going, Umar? And he says, (وعليكم السلام - wa alaykum as-salam).

And he just walked off. Because he didn't have anything to eat at home either. Then Abu Bakr (رضي الله عنه - radiAllahu anhu) came. And Abu Bakr, I'm like, (سلام عليكم - as-salamu alaykum)Abu Bakr. Everybody knew how generous Abu Bakr was. And he's like, (وعليكم السلام - wa alaykum as-salam). And he just went about his way. Because he didn't have anything either. He says, finally the last one to come out of the masjid was the Prophet (صَلَّى ٱللَّٰهُ عَلَيْهِ وَسَلَّمَ - ṣallā-llāhu ʿalayhi wa-sallam). And he says, when the Prophet (صَلَّى ٱللَّٰهُ عَلَيْهِ وَسَلَّمَ - ṣallā-llāhu ʿalayhi wa-sallam) got to the door, before he even reached me, he saw me.

And he stopped and he smiled at me. And he says that the Prophet (صَلَّى ٱللَّٰهُ عَلَيْهِ وَسَلَّمَ - ṣallā-llāhu ʿalayhi wa-sallam) smiled at me. And he said that, you're hungry, aren't you? And he said, (يا رسول الله - ya rasul Allah) I haven't eaten for days.

So the Prophet (صَلَّى ٱللَّٰهُ عَلَيْهِ وَسَلَّمَ - ṣallā-llāhu ʿalayhi wa-sallam) said, come with me. And he took me home. And we sat down and he asked his wife, do we have anything? And she said, somebody just sent over a bowl of milk.

So the Prophet (صَلَّى ٱللَّٰهُ عَلَيْهِ وَسَلَّمَ - ṣallā-llāhu ʿalayhi wa-sallam) tells Abu Huraira, all your buddies in (أصحاب الصفة - Ashab al-Suffa)? And he says, there was about 70 of us. He said, they probably haven't eaten either, right? And I was like, no. So he said, I want you to go get everybody.

And he says, the moment he said that, of course, we listen and obey. You do what the man tells you to. But he said, at that moment when he told me to go get everyone, my heart sunk. Because I knew that if he was telling me to go get everyone, then he was going to tell me to serve everyone. And the one who serves is the one who eats last. And there's a bowl of milk and 70 hungry dudes.

There ain't nothing going to be left, right? So I went and got everybody, brought them back. Everyone sat down. The Prophet (صَلَّى ٱللَّٰهُ عَلَيْهِ وَسَلَّمَ - ṣallā-llāhu ʿalayhi wa-sallam) as I expected, told me, Abu Huraira, serve everybody.

So I went around serving everyone in the room. And everyone drank from the bowl of milk till they were full. Until it finally ended. All 70 people had drank to their fill. And the Prophet (صَلَّى ٱللَّٰهُ عَلَيْهِ وَسَلَّمَ - ṣallā-llāhu ʿalayhi wa-sallam) took the bowl and he handed it to me. He goes, now you drink.

And the bowl was still full. And I drank. And when I was done, I gave it to the Prophet (صَلَّى ٱللَّٰهُ عَلَيْهِ وَسَلَّمَ - ṣallā-llāhu ʿalayhi wa-sallam). He said, drink more. And I drank more. And I tried to give it back to him. He said, drink more. And I drank even more. And he said, drink more. And I said, I can't. I can't. So then I finally gave it back to the Prophet (صَلَّى ٱللَّٰهُ عَلَيْهِ وَسَلَّمَ - ṣallā-llāhu ʿalayhi wa-sallam). And he drank it and he finished it. And then thanked Allah (جل جلاله - jalla jalaluhu). That's barakah, that's blessing.

That's barakah, that's blessing. So sometimes I was explaining about those ayahs in Surah Al-Baqarah. Relationships go awry because there's no barakah and no blessing in them. There's no blessing in them. So Allah is saying, go back to you. Your own corners and fix things between you and Allah. And then try to get back together again. And whether things end up working between you or they don't, at the very least, you know, you'll be able to handle and deal with the situation. So fix things between you and Allah.

The Importance of Prayer

Umar ibn al-Khattab (رضي الله تعالى عنه - radiAllahu ta'ala anhu) said something very powerful about this idea. He says that:

Man kana mudayyi'an lis-salati fa-huwa li-ghayriha adya'

Whosoever will be irresponsible about their prayers, their salah will be even more irresponsible about everything else in their lives.

Man laysa feehi khayrun lillahi fa-laysa feehi khayrun li-ghayrih

If somebody can't be good to Allah, if somebody can't be good to the one who gave them everything and everyone, then why, how would you ever expect that person to be good to anybody else? See, this idea of self-accountability is to become better people.

We will actually become a source of happiness for the people in our lives. Whereas now without realizing it, I might have become a source of misery for the people in my life. That self-accountability is very important.

The Names and Attributes of Allah

And that's why Allah concludes and ends here by focusing us towards our relationship with Allah. And He talks about Himself in ayah numbers 22 through 24. The last three ayahs of Surah Al-Hashr, very famous ayahs, everyone is very familiar with them.

Huwallahul-ladhee la ilaha illa huwa alimul-ghaybi wash-shahadati huwar-rahmanur-raheem

Allah says He, Allah, alone is the one, that there's absolutely positively nothing, no one worthy of any worship except for Him (عَالِمُ الْغَيْبِ وَالشَّهَادَةِ - alimul-ghaybi wash-shahadati) which is unseen and that which is seen. So the things that you do in your private moments, in the middle of the night where nobody else is around, Allah knows that.

And are you still breathing? Are you still sitting here? Are you still enjoying the blessings of Allah? Even though Allah knows every dirty dark little secret you have. Allah knows about every skeleton in my closet, yet I'm still sitting here, I'm still standing here, enjoying the blessings of Allah. Isn't it time that I reciprocated to some extent and capacity? (والشهادة - wash-shahadati) And He knows everything that is seen.

(هُوَ الرَّحْمٰنُ الرَّحِيمُ - huwar-rahmanur-raheem)Allah is the abundantly merciful, the constantly merciful. That no matter what we do privately or publicly, He does not deprive us.

He alone is the one that there's absolutely positively no one, nothing worthy of worship except for Him.

Now Allah lists some of His attributes which I won't go into a lot of detail, but I'll mention very briefly.

(الْمَلِكُ - al-Malik) Which means the king and the ruler. He owns and rules everything.

(الْقُدُّو - al-Quddus) The one who is sacred, sanctified and holy. He's so above and beyond us and our filth. But He still takes care of us and looks after us.

(السلام - as-Salam) The grantor of peace and safety. He's granted us His peace and His safety.

(الْمُؤْمِنُ - al-Mu'min) The one who grants security and stability. Some mentioned that (سلام - as-Salam) refers to the physical peace that we enjoy. Physically He protects us and (مؤمن - Mu'min) is the emotional and the psychological protection and security that He grants us.