Majesty of Divine Speech - Episode 5 Characteristics of the People of Jannah

Majesty of Divine Speech - Episode 5: Characteristics of the People of Jannah

Opening and Context

أَعُوذُ بِاللهِ مِنَ الشَّيْطَانِ الرَّحِيمِ - I seek refuge in Allah from the accursed Satan.

"And hasten to forgiveness from your Lord and to a Garden whose width is the heavens and the earth, prepared for the righteous."

The Structure of the Passage

So the passage is sandwiched between two ayat that both describe Jannah, and in between are these people. So you can imagine these qualities are not a small matter. They are a big deal in the Qur'an, these characteristics that Allah is about to mention.

So He says: وَسَارِعُوا إِلَىٰ مَغْفِرَةٍ مِّن رَّبِّكُمْ - "Rush, or run towards the forgiveness from your Lord." وَجَنَّةِ عَرْضُهَا السَّمَاوَاتُ وَالْأَرْضِ - "And towards a Garden, or a Jannah, whose real estate, whose size, whose expanse, is that of the heavens and the earth." أُعِدَّتْ لِلْمُتَّقِينَ - "That has been prepared, well prepared, for those people who have Taqwa, the Muttaqeen."

First Characteristic: Spending in All Circumstances

And in these few ayat, Allah will describe some features of the Muttaqeen. What makes them Muttaqeen? And He says:

"The first feature. They are people who spend when it's easy and when it's difficult. They spend when it's easy and when it's difficult."

You know, spending when it's easy is actually, goes without saying. When you get a bonus, or you get businesses doing really well, and you call your mother and you say, Mom, business is going really well. She says, you know, you should be grateful, give some Sadaqah. Or your father will say, make sure you feed some people, you know.

Just as a show of gratitude that, you know, things are good right now, right? So people tend to have this attitude when things are good. But when things are bad, we feel as though when we give, what's gonna happen is we're not gonna get it back. Or when we give, we're already in a tight situation, Inshallah, when things get better, then I will give.

Allah's Promise Regarding Spending

But the people who really have Taqwa of Allah. First of all:

- Allah mentions, whoever has Taqwa of Allah, Allah will make for him a way out and provides him from where he couldn't even imagine.

But he also says:

- "Whatever good you spend, it will be refunded to you. It will be given back to you. And you will not be wronged."

And the Messenger (صلى الله عليه وسلم) he promises us that the money cannot experience any loss because of Sadaqah. When you give Sadaqah, it is impossible that your money will experience loss. And this is the promise of the Messenger (صلى الله عليه وسلم)

Now, you know, I know tons and tons of stories of brothers who will give Sadaqah, or will give, and this, even from my personal experience, I know. Right? People will give a certain amount of Sadaqah and they will remind themselves:

- "Whatever you are going to give, it will be returned to you."

And they will find a few days later, a few weeks later, just soon after, they get a bump in the business, or they get a contract, or they get somebody giving them a gift or something like that, and it's in the amount or more than they had given in Sadaqah. All because they believed in Allah and they knew the promise of Allah. Allah will not let it go away.

This money that you're giving is not going away. It will be returned to you and more. So we have to have this confidence in Allah. And really when things like this, you experience them, this strengthens your Iman. So giving in the sake of Allah is actually an opportunity to become more conscious of Allah's presence.

Second Characteristic: Suppressing Anger

So He says the first thing:

- "Those who spend in times of ease and times of difficulty. And especially in times of difficulty, what's being highlighted here."

وَالْكَاظِمِينَ الْغَيْظَ - Now here Allah switches, in the syntax of the ayah, He says يُنفِقُونَ But He doesn't use a fi'il for the people who suppress anger. He says وَالْكَاظِمِينَ الْغَيْظَ It's an ism, ism fi'il being used. What this implies is, in simple translation would be the people who swallow their anger. The people who swallow their anger, the next characteristic.

وَالْكَاظِمِينَ الْغَيْظَ - First of all the important thing to understand is swallowing. When you're chewing on something and you close your mouth, like you're chewing on an apple and you close your mouth, there's some swelling in your mouth, isn't it? So I can see there's something still there. But if you've swallowed what you're eating, can I see that something's there? It's gone.

So now there's one thing to try to hold your temper. You're angry, but there's still this look on your face. Right? Or you're... You know, you take a deep breath or something. Or you take a walk. There's an expression of anger. But the people Allah is describing here are people who swallow, completely suppress their anger, so you don't even know anything is there.

وَالْكَاظِمِينَ الْغَيْظَ - And because the ism is used, they do this often. They do this over and over and over again. So the opportunities for them to get upset, as soon as they come up, immediately they respond and they swallow their anger as though nothing is wrong.

So their wife or their children or their friends or the brothers don't even have a chance to ask them, something's wrong? Are you okay? It doesn't even come to that point because they can't even see it on their face.

Third Characteristic: Forgiving People

وَالْكَاظِمِينَ الْغَيْظَ وَالْعَافِينَ عَنِ النَّاسِ - And then He says, On top of this He adds, those who lovingly forgive people also over and over.

Now forgiveness is of two kinds. You know, you could forgive somebody while insulting them. Like if one of you was mean to me the other day, I could turn around and say, by the way, you were mean to me the other day, I forgive you.

You're not so bad. In sha Allah, Allah will forgive your sin and I forgive you too. I do that in public. I'm not forgiving him, what am I doing? I'm insulting him, right? Even if you go up to somebody and say, by the way, you were pretty bad to me last year, but you know what, I forgive you. This is a show of arrogance. Or you wanna pick another fight.

What do you mean you forgive me? It is me who should be forgiving you. So, you know, it just takes up from there. But really truly forgiving someone, it happens in private. When you make dua for yourself, you make dua for this person. That's when you know you've forgiven them. You know.

Example from the Messenger's Life

The Messenger of Allah (صلى الله عليه وسلم) one time he was upset with some sahaba. In the same surah it appears. Some sahaba disappointed him. So now the Messenger is obviously upset, sallallahu alayhi wa sallam. And so the ayat come down:

- "It is from the mercy of Allah that you are lenient towards them." وَلَوْ كُنتَ فَظًا غَلِيظَ الْقَلْبِ لَا نفَضُّوا مِنْ حَوْلِكَ - "If you were hard-hearted and harsh and stern, they would have run away from you."

What is the ayah saying? The sahaba would have run away from who? From the Messenger, sallallahu alayhi wa sallam. Allah didn't say if you didn't tell them the truth. He would still be telling them the truth. He would still be giving them Qur'an. The only difference is he would have been harsh. And even though he had the truth, people still would have run away.

The sahaba would have run away from him. So what does he tell him? فَاعْفُ عَنْهُمْ - "Then you forgive them." وَاسْتَغْفِرْ لَهُمْ - "And ask Allah to forgive them too."

So this is Allah's sunnah of the believer. When he forgives someone, not only does he forgive them, he does the next step. What is that step? He asks Allah to forgive them too.

In his private moment, he asks Allah to forgive them. So you want to gauge if you've truly forgiven someone, will you be making dua for them when you're alone? If you find yourself making dua for them, then there's nothing in your heart left. But if you forgive, you say you forgive them, but when it comes to making dua, I'll skip over that one.

I'm not there yet. Then you really have, there's still something left. But عفو means there's nothing left. You've completely, lovingly forgiven them.

Fourth Characteristic: Excellence in Religion

So the next thing is : وَالْعَافِينَ عَنِ النَّاسِ And then Allah says:

- "And Allah loves those who excel in their deen."

So these characteristics in this one ayah. The first characteristic was, they spend when it's easy and when it's difficult. That was number one. Number two is they suppress their anger. And they suppress it continuously. Meaning that every time the opportunity comes, they immediately suppress it. And third, they forgive lovingly in regards to people. They're very forgiving in regards to people.

A Community Reflection on Forgiveness

And I want to make a comment, just a personal observation when it comes to this third characteristic in Muslim community. Especially the religious Muslim community.

A lot of times, Muslims, they hear a person speak, give a talk or give a speech. And they don't belong to the same school of thought or they don't belong to the same understanding or ideology. And they'll say, you know that guy, you shouldn't listen to him.

He's a deviant. Because you know what he said in 1997? And in that one speech at that conference, I remember what he said. And I actually recorded him. And I've got the mp3 proof right here. Right? We're not forgiving of people. We're very harsh against people.

And you know, we ourselves, we say things that we regret. I've said a lot of very retarded things that I look back and I wish to Allah, I never said them. And that Allah forgive me. And the people who I said it to, they forgive me. How do you know? Even if the person was blatantly wrong, blatantly wrong. How do you know they're still on that? How do you know they didn't make tawbah? How do you know they didn't change their mind? People change their mind all the time.

I know scholars that I love, that I admire, that were a different person 10 years ago than when they are now. What they used to say 10 years ago is not what they're saying now. They're completely different people.

So we, you know, as Muslims, we have to be more forgiving than that. And this is the characteristic of the Muslim. On top of that, there's one more serious matter here.

You know the people that write these blogs and these, you know, these forums where they're bashing scholars and they're bashing institutions and they're doing all this sort of stuff. How do you know what this person is worth to Allah? How do you know? And this person may be close to Allah and you're bad-mouthing him. And so Allah is taking all of your good deeds and handing it to them on the Day of Judgment.

You're just doing them a favor. Right? So وَالْعَافِينَ عَنِ النَّاسِ is an important principle for the Muslim community. But of course it stems from anger, right? So the first part is important.

Issues with Anger in Worship

وَالْكَاظِمِينَ الْغَيْظَ - Those who suppress the anger. And another, again, personal comment. You know, alhamdulillah, this time around we didn't experience the drama that we usually do around the coming of a new moon sighting.

But in acts of ibadah, in things that pertain to worship, the Muslim community gets so angry and so frustrated. People separate from other people from masajids and make their own masjid or go and separate and make their own faction in their own community simply because what? Well, they pray 20 and we pray 8. It's not even a matter of fardh. And the anger is so high like this is a matter of halal and haram.

And the tragedy is these are people that are arguing over these things while they have mortgages at home. And their children are taking like college loans of like 13% interest. But that's okay.

We can pray 8 taraweeh, we have to pray 20 and we can't pray 20, we have to pray 8. Come on, get real. You know, so there's a lack of priority and all of it comes from just this, you know, this state which excites your anger and doesn't let you think clearly. So the second characteristic, those who suppress the anger and the third, who are forgiving in regards to people.

وَاللَّهُ يُحِبُّ الْمُحْسِنِينَ - And Allah loves those who excel in their deen. May Allah make us from them.

People of Paradise Who Sin

Then he says something really peculiar. And this is what really catches one's attention. Allah is talking about people who are in paradise. He says, run towards forgiveness and Jannah. And he's describing people, now listen to the explanation.

"The people who if and when they had committed a shameless thing. They had done something shameless, something lewd, something vulgar."

Now a fahisha can be in words, a fahisha that can be from your eyes, a fahisha can be a deed, right? Or you're going towards someone or something. It can be any of those things. But it's something shameless. Something that you do to fulfill a lust. This is a fahisha. Allah is describing people who go to Jannah. And he's talking about people who commit a fahisha.

And then he adds: (أَوْ ظَلَمُوا أَنفُسَهُمْ) - "Or they wronged themselves. They did something wrong against themselves."

So fahisha is when you do something because you're overwhelmed by lust. And (ظُلْم عَلَى النَّفْس) is something you do, and it doesn't bring you any worldly benefit, but you do it anyway. Like ghibah, backbiting against someone, or lying, or jealousy, right? These sorts of things that Muslims engage in that don't bring them any benefit, but they engage in them anyway.

Immediate Remembrance of Allah

So he says, those who commit this kind of fahisha, whether it's on the internet, whether it's on television, whether it's going down the street, whether it's when they were commuting, and they looked at a billboard, right? Whether it's on the train, whether it's at the workplace, it doesn't matter where it is. If they committed it, and they did something wrong against themselves, Allah says:

- He doesn't even say, remembered Allah, or thereafter they remembered Allah. It's simultaneous. As soon as they did something wrong, they remembered Allah. They mentioned Allah. Now this is very very difficult to do.

You know why? Because in life, think about it, if you're in a class, or you're at work, and you get late to work, or you're in a classroom, and the teacher has started the lecture already, you walk in late to class. You know the number one thing you do, most students do? They avoid eye contact. Right?

You kind of pretend like you didn't see the teacher, and you kind of quickly make your way to the seat, and you just sit down, and you pretend like you're part of the audience. Right? You don't want to cause any attention, because you're embarrassed. When you walk in late to work, you kind of sneak into your cubicle, without drawing too much attention. Right? And then eventually, you come up to the boss, and he says, when did you get here? And you say, 20 minutes ago.

What are you talking about? You know? So, there's this thing, when we disappoint someone, we avoid meeting with them. We avoid talking to them. We avoid contact with them.

Shaitan's Trap

And shaitan uses this against us. Here we are, we have disappointed, not our boss, or our teacher, or our parents. We've disappointed Allah subhanahu wa ta'ala. By the way, this nature even applies to children, right? They get a bad report card, and they come home, you won't even hear the door open. Right? It'll be very slow, and they'll close it, and all of a sudden, you hear the door slam, and they're in their room.

And they're sleeping. Right? Because they want to avoid contact with the one that they've disappointed. Now, when Allah speaks about these shameless things, or this (ظُلْم عَنِ النَّفْس) these sins, who have we disappointed? We've disappointed Allah subhanahu wa ta'ala.

So shaitan comes to you and says, Oh, you're gonna go pray now? After all these hideous things you've done, you call yourself a Muslim? You're gonna go back to Allah and pray, you hypocrite? Oh, you wanna go to the masjid now? You should be ashamed of yourself. What kind of double life are you leading? And these thoughts start running in your mind. And you say to yourself, You know what? Yeah, I'm a total hypocrite.

I can't even stand in front of Allah now. I can't even pray now. So he uses your sin against you to make you think, I can't stand in front of Allah now. I'm too embarrassed to go in front of Allah now. Now Allah says, immediately they mention Allah, and they ask forgiveness from their sin.

Only Allah Forgives Sins

But then He adds something. He says:

- "Who's going to cover this sin? Who's going to forgive this sin? Except Allah. Where are you gonna go? If you're going to run away from Allah, it's still not covered, it's still exposed. You want the sin to be covered, the (غَافِرُ الذَّنْب) who is he? It is Allah subhanahu wa ta'ala."

He's got nowhere to run. You know

(Quran 16:60) But if you look at the simple example of a child. You know, one time I saw this, it got stuck in my mind.

I was at the mall, and this was of course in Saudi, because it wouldn't happen here. I was at the mall, and this child is like misbehaving in the store. So the mother gives him a nice old spank, right? And his bum, and he's crying.

But where does he go? He runs back to the mother, Mom, she's like, leave me alone. Mom, he's stuck to her. He's not going anywhere else. Because he knows the only protection he has is where? Everybody else is a stranger. The only one he owes is? The mother. Even if she's mad at him, he's still going to the mother.

Now this is just a mother and a child. And this mother will forget her child on the Day of Judgment. Here we're talking about us and Allah subhanahu wa ta'ala. When we disappoint him, where are you gonna

go? Who are you gonna run to?

Condition: Not Persisting in Sin

And then he adds one condition. You see Allah is describing people who make it to Jannah. And He describes people who do sins. Sometimes shameless sins, right? Which one thing it also says, if we've done those things, we still have hope. That's one thing. If we can fulfill the condition, we mention Allah, and we ask forgiveness for our sins.

But then he adds one more condition. And he says:

- "They don't insist upon what they had done. They don't insist upon what they had done."

And this is important to understand. You do something really bad, you're embarrassed about it, you mention Allah, you make istighfar, you say you're not gonna do it again, you make tawbah, right? But in the back of your mind, you say to yourself, well, in a couple of weeks, I'll probably be doing this again. Good thing there is tawbah.

You know, so... So you go do it again, and then you make tawbah again, and you ask Allah to forgive, you shed a couple of tears, you're safe. And in the back of your mind somewhere, you're looking forward to two weeks later. Because it's a cycle in your head, right? If you've already committed, you've already defeated yourself.

You have this defeated mentality that you are going to sin. Let's make tawbah, but it's a cycle, we'll come back to it, right? Then this doesn't apply, because Allah says:

Understanding Human Weakness vs Insistence

But then on the other hand, there's another type of person. There's a type of person who genuinely, genuinely makes tawbah, genuinely mentions Allah, and asks Allah to forgive. But then we're human beings, sometimes we make the same sin again. It happens. It can happen.

But it didn't happen because it was in the back of your head, that I'm gonna do it, you just fell into it much, much later, by accident, right? And you got overwhelmed one time, and you fell into the sin again. This is not what Allah is talking about. You should make istighfar again, and not give up and say, well, I don't apply here because I insisted on my sin.

No, no, no. This is for the people who intentionally insist on their sin. And what's the proof of that? Allah says: (وَلَمْ يُصِرُّوا عَلَى مَا فَعَلُوا وَهُمْ يَعْلَمُونَ) - "And they know, they have full knowledge that they're gonna do this."

Allah's Teaching on Tawbah

And so Allah speaks in Surah An-Nisa about these people, about tawbah : (إِنَّمَا التَّوْبَةُ عَلَى اللَّهِ لِلَّذِينَ يَعْمَلُونَ)

(Quran (4:17) - In the first ayah, Allah says, tawbah is mandatory on Himself for people who do an evil thing out of over-emotion, out of ignorance and over-emotion. Then they made tawbah soon after that.

Quran (4:18) - "Tawbah is not for people who do evil deeds over and over. Until death presents itself to one of them. He says, I make tawbah now. When death comes to him, he says, I make tawbah. Allah says, tawbah is no good for these people. Nor is tawbah any good for people who died and they were kuffar."

Allah put two people in the same category. People who do sin, and the only time they will make tawbah is when one foot is in the grave. That's when they make tawbah. And the same, these people are in the same situation as the kuffar who died and they're kafir. Their tawbah is no good, and these people's tawbah is no good.

The Reality of Sincere Tawbah

So when we make tawbah to Allah, we have to be sincere. When we ask His forgiveness, we have to be sincere. What we learn from this is, the people who are guaranteed jannah will sin. They're not gonna turn into angels, they will sin. But it is what happens after the sin that will determine whether they are from the people of jannah or not. They immediately mention Allah.

And imagine, if you immediately mention Allah, wouldn't you be ashamed? If you're doing something hideous, and you mention Allah's name, wouldn't you be ashamed? You'd be ashamed right away, and you'd ask Allah to forgive you. And istighfar would be genuine. It would be from the heart.

Because otherwise, when we say astaghfirullah, astaghfirullah, and we don't even realize why we're saying it. It's not real istighfar. When you ask someone, when you say sorry to someone, and you don't look sorry, and you don't feel sorry, then you're not really sorry.

But in those cases, when you immediately mention Allah, and ask Allah to forgive, then you're genuinely sorry. That's real istighfar. May Allah grant us the ability to make that real istighfar.

The Reward of the Righteous

And I conclude with the ayah that sandwiches the discussion of jannah:

- "Those are the people, their payback is forgiveness. And it's multiple gardens from the bottoms of which, at the foots of which, rivers are flowing. And what an awesome reward for people, of the people of work. The reward of the workers who do work."

One subtlety that I'd like to share with you inshaAllah, and we close. In the first ayah Allah says:

- He says, run to forgiveness, and towards jannah. How many gardens does he mention? One jannah. The ayah that concludes he says: If you reach this, if you fulfill these requirements, then the payback is: - Forgiveness.

But then:

What's he offering now? Not jannah, but? (جنّات) So the incentive even goes higher. Because Allah is expecting these things from the believer. And these are things all of us can achieve.

Closing Reflections

May Allah subhanahu wa ta'ala make us from the people of jannah. May Allah make us from the people who He says: (وَنِعْمَ أَجْرُ الْعَامِينَ) - How awesome the reward of those who get to work. May Allah put us to work for His sake.

(Quran (3:31) - Say, O Muhammad. If indeed you love Allah subhanahu wa ta'ala, then follow me. Then Allah subhanahu wa ta'ala, and we'll love you and forgive you the same."

Follow the Prophet (صلى الله عليه وسلم) If we really love the Prophet (صلى الله عليه وسلم) we would not only follow the Prophet (صلى الله عليه وسلم) we would be even more, you know, we would be trying to know about the Prophet (صلى الله عليه وسلم) more. All the time.

The Story of Transformation

That night he went home, he took a shower, and he went to the masjid. He cried until fajr time. He cried until the morning. And Allah subhanahu wa ta'ala accepted his repentance. And he studied about Islam until he became the imam of Mecca and Medina. The imam, the worshipper of Mecca and Medina. Known for his worship.

But you know what he was before? He was a highway robber. Have these high aspirations, and this strong determination, and go for it. Because you can do it.

It doesn't matter what age you are. It doesn't matter what age you are. It isn't how smart you are, but it's how much you fear Allah subhanahu wa ta'ala.