Ismail ibn Musa Menk Harms of Excess Baggage

Harms of Excess Baggage - Mufti Menk

Opening Quranic Recitation

"And when their eyes are turned toward the companions of the Fire, they will say, "Our Lord, do not place us with the wrongdoing people." And the companions of the Heights will call to men they recognize by their marks, saying, "Of no avail to you was your gathering, nor that you used to consider yourselves great."

Salutations and Blessings

Peace and salutations upon Muhammad ((صلى الله عليه وسلم)). We ask Allah to bless him and his entire household, every single companion of his. May Allah bless them and may he bless all those who have struggled and strived through the generations in a way that today the deen has come to us. May he make us from amongst those who can struggle and strive in whatever way possible for us in order to preserve the deen, to protect it, to learn it, to convey it to others. Inshallah may we be an asset for our own children and a means of their guidance. May Allah guide us firstly and may he then help us to guide our own offspring and to help one another in terms of guidance.

Introduction: The Purpose of Our Creation

Beloved brothers and sisters in Islam, we have a topic that we ask Allah will be as beautiful. Tonight we are speaking about travelling light. One of two things: either light that is nur, that travels, or travelling light in terms of weight. I think the second part of the title clarifies that we are going to be concentrating on the latter, which means excess baggage that is unnecessary - we do not want it and it will actually harm us. We need to get rid of it and we need to understand why we should get rid of it and how to get rid of it. We ask Allah to make our journey into paradise very easy.

As we would like to commence on this topic, an introduction is extremely necessary. Yesterday we focused in the introduction on why we were created by Allah, and it's important today that we reiterate and repeat that we have been created by Allah in order to prepare for the day we are going to be meeting with Allah - that is it. I need to be focused on that. I pray that Allah grant me the ability to focus on that at all times and I ask Allah to help me prepare for the day that I will meet him and to help us all prepare for that day in a way that when we meet him he will be pleased with us and we definitely pleased with what he has chosen for us.

The Concept of Good and Bad Weight

My brothers and sisters, in this short life we have, it is definitely not worth our while carrying that which is going to be burdensome in this life as well as in the next. When we talk of cholesterol, for example, there are two types of cholesterol. If someone is to tell you be careful of the scale, make sure you don't have something heavy on it, someone else might tell you well if it is good then you need that weight.

Like the hadith of Rasulullah ((صلى الله عليه وسلم)) speaks about the weight that is good on the day of Qiyamah - such as the last hadith that appears in Sahih Al-Bukhari - that praise of Allah, as Allah has taught us through the blessed lips of Muhammad ((صلى الله عليه وسلم)), is very light on the tongue (which means it has no weight to utter when we say it - it's very easy) yet the same two words are very heavy upon the scales of good deeds.

The hadith says these words are very light on the tongue, very heavy upon the scales, very loved to Allah:

(Bukhari)

All praise is due to Allah, praise be upon Allah, every form of praise and all the attributes of goodness before Allah we declare them and we utter them. The great - Allah is indeed the greatest and he is indeed the one, the supreme, the irresistible. May Allah bless us all.

The Importance of Self-Accountability

The hadith says - may Allah grant us goodness - in fact it is the statement of Umar ibn al-Khattab:

"Take account of yourselves before they shall be taken account of, and weigh them before they are weighed."

This is talking about Allah weighing our deeds on the day of judgement. But now if we had to arrive at an airport without having had the feeling or doubt or without even knowing, for example, that we were overweight, then we are the ones who are foolish.

The Divine Scales of Justice

Allah speaks about this in Suratul Anbiya:

Allah says: "And on that day we shall place the scales of justice so all our deeds will be weighed literally weighed on the scales of justice - the right side, the left side - and nobody shall be oppressed at all. And even if it is the weight of a mustard seed of an action, we will bring it forth." Allah says we are sufficient as those who take account. May Allah bless us, may He make that day easy for us.

Divine Knowledge and Modern Technology

Allah subhanahu wa ta'ala reminds us again in Surah Luqman with the story of Luqman Al-Hakim the wise when he speaks to his son:

"O my son, even if it is the mustard's weight or size of a deed and it is in the darkest rock - you know inside a rock is something very, very eloquent which means you are now describing something really grand - if someone knows what is under the rock it is okay, it's a big deal, but it's a bigger deal to know what is inside the rock - or anywhere in the skies or the earth, he says my son you must know Allah will bring it forth."

The Religion of Mercy

My brothers and sisters, I want to make one thing very loud and clear: we are followers of the religion of mercy. We are really followers of the religion of mercy. When we speak about the punishment of Allah, it should raise our hair and it should make us feel that we need to turn to Allah, and you need to know that the moment you say "Oh Allah, forgive me, I am a weak slave of yours, I have wronged, I have erred" - and if you are serious about that statement and you mean it and you are promising Allah that you want to change your ways and habits - believe me, you have wiped out all the bad that you have done in a flash, without becoming embarrassed or exposed or without being a person who is disgraced in any way by confessing to a fellow human being or to anyone else. Your sins are wiped out totally just between you and Allah. That is the religion of mercy.

Types of Harmful Excess Baggage

1. Shirk (Associating Partners with Allah)

The question is: so what is it that brings about this bad baggage?

Point number one: Al-ishraq billah - to associate partners with Allah is adding dead weight onto yourself which will destroy your deen, your dunya, and your akhira - your life, your spirituality as well as your life after death.

This is why Allah says:

"Allah has made it incumbent upon himself - Allah says he will not forgive association of partnership with him in worship, he will not forgive that, but anything else he may forgive whatever he wishes."

Allah says to Muhammad ((صلى الله عليه وسلم)) in Surah Zumar:

"If you associate partners with us, if you have to engage in shirk, all your deeds, your good deeds, will be wasted." So that is the only time that your deeds are wasted - when you have engaged in shirk, associated partners with Allah.

2. Setting Bad Examples for Others

There are some people - the word used in the Quran in Surah Al-Ankabut is actually athqal - athqal means weight, that which is heavy:

"There are some people who will be carrying their excess baggage, their weight, and they will be carrying more baggage over and above their baggage."

Who are those people? The disbelievers told the believers: "Follow us and we take responsibility of your burden." You hear them saying Jesus died for your sins, so now you are definitely going to paradise. Where in the world is it part of justice to punish the most innocent and pious amongst us in order to die for the murder, rape and adultery of the rest? The gravest injustice which is easily understood by man would never be perpetrated by the lord of man.

Allah says they are liars and on the day of judgment they will carry their own baggage and over and above that the baggage of the lying that they diverted so many people with.

3. Engaging in Sin Directly

It is not worth our while to do that which is bad. It is very, very unhealthy. When you engage in sin, what it will do is it will add weight, it adds cholesterol to our spiritual system and it increases that which makes us heavy in the wrong way. May Allah protect us.

The Burden of Holding Grudges

Now I'd like to talk a little bit about the baggage that brings us down in the dunya as well as in the akhira: social circles. There are so many examples of even the previous prophets as well as the life of Muhammad ((صلى الله عليه وسلم)) and his companions where they have forgiven one another in order to release some baggage that was holding them down or that would have held them down had they not engaged in forgiving people.

When you hold a grudge against someone, even if someone has wronged you - yes you do have the right of revenge and justice and so on - it is there. If you read Surah Shura, Allah says:

"The recompense of a bad deed is something similar to it - someone does bad to you, you can retaliate similarly, that is your right - yes, but Allah says whoever forgives and forgoes, it is better for them, their reward is with Allah."

The Example of Yusuf (Peace be upon him)

Let me give you the example we will all know of Yusuf (peace be upon him). What did his brothers not do to him? That is the question in terms of evil - they left no stone unturned trying to destroy the young boy out of jealousy and hatred, outright enmity for their own sibling.

So Yusuf (peace be upon him) asks his brothers:

"Do you know what you have done to Yusuf, may peace be upon him, and his brother whilst you lot were completely ignorant?"

They ask him: "Is it that you are that Yusuf, that brother of ours?" He looked at them and said:

"I am Yusuf and this is my brother. Allah has blessed us and favoured us. Indeed the one who maintains piety and who continues bearing patience for a while, Allah will never ever waste the deeds of those who do good, never."

They said:

"By Allah, Allah has indeed raised you above us, he has given you preference over us, and we were from amongst those who were wrong."

He told them:

"I am holding no grudge against you today, nothing. Allah will forgive you for what you have done, he is indeed most forgiving, most merciful."

The Example from Surah An-Nur

This brings me straight to another example. I'm sure we have come across Surah An-Nur where the story of the accusation of Aisha (may Allah be pleased with her) - the purest of the pure of the women to exist. When she was accused, Abu Bakr Al-Siddiq (may Allah be pleased with him), when he heard that this young boy Mistah ibn Athatha (may Allah be pleased with him) is spreading the rumor, he took a qasam, an oath. He says: "I will never ever spend on this man again, no more."

So verses were revealed in Surah An-Nur:

"The people of virtue should not make an oath not to spend on those who are poor, who are relatives, who have made hijrah... Learn to forgive and embrace. Do you not want Allah to forgive you? Indeed he is most forgiving, most merciful."

The Harm of Backbiting and Gossip

Don't spread rumor, don't spread tale, don't gossip, don't backbite. A clarification of the term backbiting because many of us do not know what is the meaning of backbiting. Backbiting is to mention that of your brother - meaning your fellow human being - that which they would dislike if they were present and heard it, when it is true. The last part of the statement is the most important: when it is true.

So if someone was caught drinking alcohol in a club and then you start spreading all over the globe "this man was caught drinking alcohol" and it's true, that is called backbiting. But if he was not caught and you don't know and you did not see him and it was just a rumor and you spread it, it is now known as slander, which means that which is a total fabrication, accusation without any form of substantiation.

The Sahabah asked the Prophet the same question. They asked him: "Messenger, what if the person we are talking about really does have that quality we are talking about?" He said: "Well, in that case, that is what backbiting is. And if he doesn't have it, then you have actually slandered him." May Allah protect us from that type of excess baggage as well.

The Burden of Jealousy

There are other issues that are mentioned that cause a lot of distress in this world and the next. One of them is jealousy - becoming jealous of one another. A man opened a business exactly like yours across the road. Why are you burning? For what? Are you not a Muslim? Don't you believe that sustenance is in the hands of Allah?

There is no point in hating one another because he has more wealth, he has a happier home, he has children who are like this and that. One doesn't have everything - it is the plan of Allah. Remember, be happy. Release all that hatred, release the jealousy, release the envy, and that will actually help you walk very light in the earth and even on the day of qiyamah the light part or the part of the scale which is meant to be light will be light.

The Burden of Sin and Its Effects

My brothers and sisters, every time we engage in sin, wallahi it adds a lot of weight. One of the biggest issues today is the issue of pornography. It is something that has overtaken - and don't be surprised by what I'm saying - the globe at large. It is accessible in the pockets of the people, and you don't realise that the minute your eyes are set on something bad, it adds a huge burden onto your back and in your mind and it contaminates your thinking, and you pay for it.

The hadith says the gaze is like the spear of the devil. If you have now not controlled your gaze, perhaps it may lead you to something very bad because you won't be able to sleep at night because you saw something that is not yours, was not yours, will never be yours, but you are still having a sleepless night.

The First Question on the Day of Judgment

Look at salah - the hadith says the first thing that you will be asked about on the day of qiyamah is your salah. If that is in order, the rest of your accounts will be made easy. If that is not in order, nothing else will be made easy.

The Scales of Success

This brings me to another verse of the Quran - the verse regarding those scales of the day of qiyamah