Abraham Moosa - 4-25-25

As-salamu alaykum wa rahmatullahi wa barakatuhu. In the name of Allah, the Most Gracious, the Most Merciful. Praise be to Allah.

We praise Him, the Most Glorious, the Most High. We ask for His guidance, help and forgiveness. We seek refuge in Allah from the evil of our souls and from the evil of our actions.

Whom Allah guides, he is the one guided. Whom He misguides, you will not find for him a rightful guardian. I bear witness that there is no deity worthy of worship except Allah.

I bear witness that Muhammad is His servant and His Messenger. He is His Chosen One and His Friend. Allah has sent him as a witness, a bearer of glad tidings and a warner.

He is a caller to Allah by His permission and a bright lamp. All praises are due to Allah. We ask Him for guidance, for help and for forgiveness.

We seek refuge in Allah from the evil of our souls and from the sins of our actions. Whom Allah guides, will be guided. And whom Allah leaves misguided, you shall not find who can guide him.

And I bear witness that there is nothing worthy of worship except for Allah. And I bear witness that Muhammad is His servant and His Messenger. Allah sent him with the truth as a witness, as a giver of good tidings and as a warner.

And called to the worship of Allah with His permission. O mankind, fear your Lord who created you from one soul and created from it its mate. And disperse from both of you from one soul and one mate.

Fear Allah through whom you ask one another and the wombs. Indeed Allah is ever over you an observer. O you who have believed, fear Allah as He should be feared and do not die except as Muslims in submission to Him.

O you who have believed, fear Allah and speak words of appropriate justice. He will then amend for you your deeds and forgive you for your sins. And whoever obeys Allah and His Messenger has certainly attained a great attainment.

The truest of speech is that which is found in the book of Allah, the Qur'an. And the best of guidance is the guidance of the Prophet Muhammad. Peace and blessings be upon him.

What Have You Prepared for Your Akhirah?

Brothers and sisters, the topic of today's khutbah will revolve around the question of what have you prepared for your akhirah? The beginning of this week we were welcomed or not necessarily welcomed but given the notice of the passing of the Pope. And before that maybe a month ago, a popular muhaddith from Egypt, Shaykh Abu Ishaq Al-Huwaini, we heard notice of his passing. And while many people might be writing on social media or that this person did so and so and this person did so and so.

The question that we need to be thinking about when we hear about this news is what have I done? This is not something uncommon. It's not some celebrity or some big person that is the only person who is going to be prone to this end. Rather this is something that all of us are certainly going to come to.

And this is something that we're seeing in front of us. So the question is what are we doing to prepare? It is narrated that the Prophet, peace be upon him, salallahu alayhi wasalam, visited the grave of his mother. He cried and that caused everyone around him to cry.

So he told them, The Prophet, salallahu alayhi wasalam, told them, I asked my Lord to ask for forgiveness for her and he didn't allow me to do so. But then I asked him to be able to visit her grave and he allowed me to do so. So visit the graves for indeed it reminds of death.

(Sunan at-Tirmidhi, Hadith 2307)

It was also narrated by Abu Huraira radiallahu anhu that the Prophet, salallahu alayhi wasalam, said, أكثروا ذكر هادم اللذات Remind yourself frequently of the ender of all the desires. Of the ender of all desires, meaning death. فإنه لم يذكره أحد في ضيق من العيش إلا وسعه عليه ولا في سعة إلا ضيقها عليه For a person is not reminded by it, by death, during a time of difficulty, except that he feels relief. And he is reminded by it in a time of ease, except that he feels unease. That his lavish life will come to an end.

So my dear brothers and sisters, why does the Prophet, salallahu alayhi wasalam, tell us to be reminded of death? He gives the answer in the second narration in which the gist of what he's saying is that because when we are reminded of death, we will remember that whatever circumstance that we're in will end.

Whether life is easy, whether life is difficult, it will come to an end. The life that we're in right now is temporary. We were never meant to stay on this earth forever.

The Deception of Eternity

Yet my dear brothers and sisters, we live life believing that tomorrow is guaranteed. We live our life thinking that we're going to grow old. And that we're going to achieve all our worldly dreams that we want to.

And I'm not necessarily saying that there's something wrong with you if you feel like that sometimes. Rather shaytan wanted to trick Adam, alayhi wasalam, into believing that as well. Allah relates this story in the Qur'an in which he says in surah Taha:

Then shaytan whispered to him and he said, Oh Adam, shall I direct you to the tree of eternity and possession that will not deteriorate? As I mentioned, it can be easy for us to forget that at any day, any moment, all of this that we know can cease to exist.

The things that we've done in this life to immortalize ourselves, to feel like we're going to be living here forever. We've sought to immortalize ourselves through gaining fame or accumulating wealth. Like shaytan told Adam, wanting to deceive him, Shall I direct you to the tree of eternity and possession that will not deteriorate? Shaytan was telling him that you can live forever and have endless wealth.

But of course, my dear brothers and sisters, after learning from what Allah subhanahu wa ta'ala has told us in the Prophet ﷺ, and by observing thousands of years of human life, we know that this simply is not true. Allah subhanahu wa ta'ala says in surah Az-Zumar speaking to the Prophet ﷺ:

You, O Prophet, will certainly die and they will die too. Allah subhanahu wa ta'ala says in surah Al-Mulk:

Allah says, blessed is he in whose hand is dominion and he is over all things competent. He who created death and life to test you as to see who is best in deeds and he is the exalted in might and the forgiving.

So my dear brothers and sisters, knowing this certain end and knowing that life is a test, I leave myself and all of you with a question to think about during this short break. What have I prepared for my Akhirah? أقول قولي هذا وأستغفر الله لي ولكم

الحمد لله رب العالمين والصلاة والسلام على أشرف المسلمين سيدنا محمد وعلى آله وصحبه أجمعين

Preparing for the Eternal Home

My dear brothers and sisters in Islam, I'll repeat the same question again. What have I prepared for my Akhirah? As I said before, we often are living in this life thinking or feeling or believing that we will stay here forever. And as such we seek to gain the liking and the following of people. And we seek to accumulate as much wealth as we can.

We compare ourselves by looking at each other, looking at each other's salaries, looking at each other's corporate titles, looking at each other's cars, looking at each other's homes. We look at other people's children, what kind of grades they're getting in school, what kind of universities they're getting into. We may look at how other people dress and think I want to dress like that as well.

But after all of this, my dear brothers and sisters, we need to ask ourselves, what have I prepared for my Akhirah? What have I prepared for the place that I'm going to stay in forever?

Do I want, while I'm living in this life, do I try to waste it away? Just whatever income I get, I just spend it and disable myself from living comfortably in this life? Am I okay with living in the dirtiest places in the slums of this city? Of course not. I want to live in a nice place. So, why aren't we doing the same thing for our Akhirah? Why aren't we preparing like we do in this life? Why don't we do the same thing to have a nicer place which we know it's going to be forever in the Akhirah?

And here we have to step back and ask ourselves, my dear brothers and sisters, do I want Jannah? Do I want Paradise? And if that answer to that question is yes, then what have you prepared? Or, what are you going to start doing to prepare?

When you want to pass an exam at school, you spend an amount of time to study for that to increase your chances of passing. When you want to save money to buy a car or to buy a home, you set money aside from your income to save for that purchase. So, what are you doing to save for the purchase of your home in Jannah?

Accountability and Competition

My dear brothers and sisters in Islam, when I ask these questions, I'm not asking, I'm not saying it to judge one of us or any of us. I'm saying it so that we can hold ourselves accountable just like Ameerul Momineen Omar Ibn Al Khattab said, hold yourselves accountable before you're held accountable.

حاسبوا أنفسكم قبل أن تحاسبوا

This means that before you stand before Allah on the day of judgment, ask yourselves today while you're still here on this earth, while you still have a chance, based on what I've done so far, do I evaluate myself and say, yes, I should get Jannah. I should get a palace and the nicest things. Do my actions equate to that deserving of all of that?

And remember, my brothers and sisters, just as we compete in this life to accumulate more wealth and belongings and status, it is more befitting of us to compete for that what truly matters, which is the Akhirah.

Allah subhanahu wa ta'ala says in Surah Al-Hadeed:

Allah says, race and compete towards forgiveness from your Lord and a garden whose width is like the width of the heavens and the earth. Prepare for those who believed in Allah and His messengers. That is the bounty of Allah which He gives to whom He wills and Allah is the possessor of great bounty.

With this, my dear brothers and sisters in Islam, remember death and remember that our true final place of living and rest will be in the Akhirah. So ask yourselves, what are you doing to make sure that your house is reserved for you in Jannah? And what are you doing to compete with your fellow Muslims to reach the highest level in Jannah with the company of the Prophet Muhammad ﷺ, the company of the messengers and the shuhada and the righteous.

Final Du'a

I ask Allah to forgive us all for our sins, to elevate our status and to keep us steadfast in our religion and to allow us all to enter Jannah in the highest level of Firdows.

O Allah, do not let our hearts tremble after You have guided us. Grant us mercy from Yourself. Indeed, You are the Bestower.

O Allah, do not leave for us a sin unless You forgive it, or a worry unless You relieve it, or a sick person unless You heal him, or a sinner unless You marry him, or a debt unless You pay it, or a need of the hereafter unless You fulfill it. O Lord of the worlds, O Allah, forgive the believers and the believers, the Muslims and the Muslims, the living among them and the dead.

O servants of Allah, Allah commands justice, goodness and giving to relatives and forbids immorality, evil and transgression. He warns you that you may remember. Remember Allah, the Most High, the Most Great. He will remember you and He will forgive you. And the remembrance of Allah is the highest and the greatest. And Allah knows what you do. And establish prayer.