The Youth Dilemma
By Omar Suleiman | 2026-01-06T21:36:15.721096+00:00 | Topic: Youth
The Youth Dilemma - Sh. Omar Suleiman
Introduction: What Is Your Legacy?
The point is, when you pass away, you leave a certain legacy, you leave a certain imprint, you leave something on this earth. And whether you are the most wicked person or whether you are the best person, yes, there are going to be people that are going to be crying at your janazah. Yes, there are going to be people that are going to have pictures of you.
Yes, there are going to be people that are going to say what a good man he was. Yes, there are going to be people that are going to actually feel sorry that you passed away. But fast forward a little bit.
One hundred years from your janazah, what is your legacy? What did you do on this earth? What was your contribution that made you different, that made you a stranger?
(Bukhari 6416)
be in this world as if you are a stranger or a wayfarer, someone who traveled to a foreign land, had no financial means, no family, no nothing. Be in this dunya as if you are a stranger. What have you contributed at the end of your life? What can you truly say about yourself? One hundred years, what will people remember about you? And subhanallah, whenever you think of the youth dilemma, the first thing that comes to your mind is what? What is the youth dilemma? It's funny because usually the answers of the uncles and the youth are so different.
The uncles will say, he doesn't have a topi on his head. And the youth will be like, girls, drugs, right? All of that is the youth dilemma. People will come up with these different answers.
The Real Dilemma
But these are all symptoms of a bigger problem. They are not the problem itself. The dilemma is not girls. The dilemma is not drugs. The dilemma is the vulnerability of that young person's faith to those drugs and to those girls and to whatever it may be. That's what it is.
That's the dilemma. Subhanallah, when your iman is not strong enough to hold you back from something that is forbidden from Allah subhanahu wa ta'ala. And people sin in different ways.
Some people, they commit sins like animals. You know, some people, they're good overall. And this is, you know, subhanallah, every son of Adam makes mistakes. Every single son of Adam makes mistakes. But some people make mistakes. They, you know, they do sins. They commit those disobediences, those violations. Every once in a while they fall into a weak spot. And so they'll fall here or there.
And that's true for all of us. None of us are ma'sum. None of us are infallible.
And some people, you know, they're like, you know, they're like chameleons. They go with whatever is around them. They adapt to whatever is around them.
If they're around good people, they take the characteristics of those good people. If they're around bad people, they just take the characteristics of bad people. And this is a natural human tendency.
A person is on the deen of this khalil. You are your environment. Whether you are, if it's a $4 million mansion and it's surrounded by dumpsters, it's going to stink.
It's going to have flies inside. Lysol, no amount of lysol in the world is going to get that smell out. So to an extent, yes, every bad environment will influence you.
But some people are just, they just get carried away like the wind. Subhanallah. They're gone with the wind.
Whether if it's good people that, you know, I'm religious. If it's bad people, I don't need peer pressure. It's automatic. I just act like the people I'm around. And some people are animals. An animal like self.
When Allah describes it as like sheep, but they're actually more astray than sheep. You want a more severe example? Like a dog. If you leave it alone, it's going to do what? Pant.
The tongue will always be sticking out. If you give it, you know, if you put a bone in front of the dog, it's going to pant. The tongue is going to be sticking out.
No matter what you do, the dog is always going to be... Sometimes subhanallah, we just become extravagant with our sins to a point that we actually become impolite with Allah subhanahu wa ta'ala. Just rude. Where I'm going to pursue a sin, whether it benefits me or not, I'm just going to pursue it.
I'm just carried away and I'm attracted to sin. I have an addiction to sin, I'm just going to follow it. Subhanallah, everyone has their limits. Everyone has their boundaries. But now here's where the problem comes in. And here's where the dilemma comes in.
Seeking Loopholes
I can't tell you how many times I've had someone ask me, and I'm going to be very, very, very blunt for the youth. I'll try not to be too blunt. But, you know, Shaykh is kissing as bad as zina? Or if I get really intimate with a girl, would I be punished as if I committed zina? We don't have an Islamic state. We're not, we're not. There is no hudood here. You're not going to be stoned, is that what you're asking? You're not going to be lashed? No, no, but if there was an Islamic state, would I be flogged or stoned? What are you trying to get from me? What are you trying to ask? Or Shaykh, is weed haram? It's not.
There's nothing in the Quran that says weed is haram, right? Haram just means, you know, Jack Daniels today, subhanallah. You know, is weed as bad as alcohol? Is this as bad as that? What is this person trying
to do? What are they trying to do? Someone tell me. Yeah.
Find an excuse to do something wrong. In a way, they're trying to water down their faults so that they don't feel too bad about it. You know, Abdullah ibn Abbas was approached by two men.
One person came in and said to Abdullah ibn Abbas, I kill a man, will I ever be forgiven for it? And he said yes. You can be forgiven for killing a person. Allah subhanahu wa ta'ala does not forgive shirk.
He forgives anything other than that. And then another man walks in, in front of the companions of Abdullah ibn Abbas, he says, if I kill a man, could I possibly be forgiven? He says no. And so the people that are sitting there thinking to themselves, what just happened? One guy walked in and said, if I kill a man, can I be forgiven? He said yes.
Another man walked in and said the same question. And he said no. What was the reason? Does anyone know? Yeah.
Abdullah ibn Abbas رضي الله عنه recognized. The first guy was coming and it's obvious he fell into that crime. And he's seeking forgiveness from Allah subhanahu wa ta'ala.
Allah did not expose him. He's seeking forgiveness from Allah subhanahu wa ta'ala. And he's feeling guilt.
And he wants to know, will Allah accept his tawbah? So say, oh my servant who has been extravagant with himself, extravagantly sinning against Allah subhanahu wa ta'ala. Don't despair from the mercy of Allah. Allah forgives all sins.
So Abdullah ibn Abbas is giving him hope. The second person walks in there and what was he doing? He was looking for an excuse to go kill somebody. He wanted him to tell him that, you know what, it's going to be okay.
Go ahead and kill somebody. That's what the shaytan does. Shaytan, before you commit the sin, tells you, look man.
It's like in surahYusuf. Whenever the brothers were talking about, you know, fighting against Yusufalayhi salam. UqtuluYusuf.
Kill Yusuf. Or put him in a land that no one, you know, let's get rid of Yusufalayhi salam. And the youngest brother is telling the other brothers, what's it going to be? You're all going to be righteous people after that.
We'll be all right. We'll be able to pick ourselves up after that. And this is what shaytan does.
Before you commit a sin, he tells you, look, it's okay. Allah is ghafoor raheem. Allah is most merciful.
Shaytan is your favorite mufti. Your favorite alim. He beats Sheikh Google. He beats Sheikh Wikipedia. He beats Sheikh Yahoo. I mean, he's like all of them.
He's the coolest sheikh that you can possibly have because he'll tell you everything is halal. But then the problem is after you commit the sin, what does he say? He says, how could you do that to yourself? You are a disgusting person. You think Allah will ever forgive you? You think you have a chance of being forgiven? Don't you remember when you did this and you did this and you did this? Don't you know Allah is aziz al intiqam? He'll completely flip the switch.
Whereas Allahsubhanahu wa ta'ala is telling you the opposite. Avoid disobeying Allahsubhanahu wa ta'ala. Avoid sinning against Allahsubhanahu wa ta'ala.
Try your best. Hold yourself. Restrain yourself.
And then if you end up falling, then Allahsubhanahu wa ta'ala will forgive you if your tawbah is sincere. Shaytan tells you the complete opposite. Now dear brothers and sisters, the reason why I'm giving this sort of lengthy introduction is subhanAllah, what is the real youth dilemma? Is it really that the girl that came around you was just that attractive? Or the drugs were that good? Or doing this was that easy? Was it really the sin itself? Or was it the fact that your iman, your iman cannot bear, cannot hold itself, hold its own in that situation? That whenever someone walks by, you just have to look.
You just have to stare. You know subhanAllah, you go to Muslim countries today, Muslim countries, I'm telling you. In Muslim countries, niqab was followed, even to those who say it was to heaven.
Trust me. People are just looking at the women like this. It's like all you're showing is the face. You're just looking directly at them. And if you were to talk, they still might harass you. SubhanAllah.
Is the problem that she's dressed immodestly or is the problem that your faith is so weak that even when she's dressed that modestly, you still can't hold yourself? So we need to stop blaming the societal issues and blame ourselves. Look at our own selves. And this is where we really have to ask ourselves.
What do we want? What is it that we're looking for? When you sin, you sin because you think it's going to bring you a certain result. What do you want? You know, as much as everyone else might want you to succeed, unless you yourself want to succeed, you can't succeed. Right? If your parents somehow go get you, they know a professor in Yale or they know people in Yale and they have a lot of money and they can get you in Yale and then they can get you to graduate and become president of the United States, you'll still be an idiot because you weren't smart enough.
Just because you had your connection back to our connection did not guarantee you success. The point is that unless you yourself want to succeed, you can't succeed unless you yourself want that. No matter what, no matter how many people want you to succeed.
So I want each and every one of us to seriously ask ourselves, what do we want? What do I want? What do I want my legacy to be? What do I want people to say at my janazah? After my janazah, 100 years after, what will people look back and say about me or will they even look back and say anything about me at all? Will I be someone who contributed in an evil way? Who left a bad effect? SubhanAllah, there is a profound video, Sheikh Mohammed Al-Uraifi, online, called Email From The Grave. I'm giving you the link so you can go watch this whole video. And he was talking about a young man in Saudi Arabia who used to receive pornographic emails.
The Story of Bad Legacy
He paid for some kind of pornography subscription and every time an email would come to him, he used it as a way to gain leverage with his friends. He went to all of his friends and he said, look, I'll send it to you for free. Every time he got his package.
So he made an email list. So every time he received something, he sent it to everybody else. Then he dies in a car accident. I think he said he was like 18, 19 years old. And then a week later, all of these kids are coming to the Sheikh and they're saying, Sheikh, he sent us an email again. We got the email.
Every week they were getting these emails. We got it again. Two weeks passed by. They're still getting the emails. And subhanAllah, it turned out that he set up an automated email system. So that as soon as they came in, they automatically went out.
That's a way of having a very nasty legacy. We ask Allah to protect us from that. Many people have insignificant legacies. They live very ordinary lives. They had, I mean subhanAllah, everything, you know, it's so funny because I always see this. Whenever a young person says, I want to do me, I'm going to be me.
I'm going to be free. I'm going to do this. I'm going to do what I want to do. I'm going to do whatever I want to do. And then actually what they're doing is they're following into the same footsteps of somebody else. So you left being a slave of AllahsubhanAllah to being a slave of the kid at school who can't get better than a deen on his report card.
You left being a slave of AllahsubhanAllah to being a slave of someone else. I mean, hey, if you're compelled to dress in a certain way because you feel like people will look at you differently, if other people's perception of you influences your behavior, then who are you really worshipping? You just left the slavery of AllahsubhanAllah to the slavery of someone else. You didn't escape nothing.
And so they end up dying. Very insignificant. One hundred years from now, no one's going to care. No one's going to know. And then there's the third group of people. We ask AllahsubhanAllah to make us amongst them.
That they put something on this earth. They leave something in this dunya that yields the maximum rewards in akhirah over years and years and years and years. They leave an example.
They leave a legacy. And nothing can take away that legacy. And subhanAllah, I want you to truly think about that.
One hundred years from now, who are you? Do you even matter? And if you do matter, do you matter in a good way or do you matter in a bad way? SubhanAllah. It's not that we're seeking praise and fame on earth. I'm just asking what your legacy is.
Because obviously everyone wants to be special. Everyone wants to be different. But how many people are actually being different? How many people are actually coming out and breaking that shell of dunya and actually doing something different and special and building a legacy for themselves? And the worst thing that can possibly happen, I want you to think about this.
If you're the type of person who when people talk about you, they say, oh, mashallah, my son is so good. He has such a good heart. He does this. You know, when people start talking like that, what do you know is coming next? But, you know, whenever people begin by praising your characteristics and talking about how great you know, he's such a good person and he's so loyal and he loves his mom so much and he really wants to succeed. But, whenever that but is there, then you know that you're in trouble. That automatically means that you're not living up to your potential.
That automatically means that people see good in you, but you don't see it in yourself and you're not living up to that. Because you're constantly corrupting yourself. You're constantly going around seeking fatwas, trying to find what shaykh will give you the easiest thing to follow.
You're constantly going around and you're looking at other people and you're saying, well, he's doing this. I'm better than him. You know, in some places, the religious guy is the one who just has a girlfriend.
You know, he doesn't go any further. That's the religious guy in some places. The one who goes to the haram, but he sits on the side. He's the religious guy. What standard did he set for himself? Where did these standards come from? But he can look down on that person. He can say, well, that person does this.
May Allah have mercy on a man who was too busy with his own faults to even think about the faults of anybody else. SubhanAllah. Are you living up to your potential? Are you living up to your potential? Are you really using those traits that Allah gave you to leave an effect on this earth? And it all comes down to one hadith.
The Four Questions on the Day of Judgment
Rasulullah (صلى الله عليه وسلم) said that there are four things in the hadith written by Rasulullah (صلى الله عليه وسلم). There are four things that you will be asked about on the day of judgment. Definitely.
No servant, his feet will not move. His feet will not move until he's asked about these four things. What is the first one? About his age.
But is it like our standards in dunya where it's about how long you live? You know, if you live a hundred and ten years, you're going to have news cameras at your house and people are going to put you in some kind of record book. You know, you're going to have achieved something great. Is that what Allah subhanahu wa ta'ala is going to ask you? How many years you live? Or is Allah subhanahu wa ta'ala is going to ask you, what he did with all of those years?
Because some people at the age of 14 have accomplished what others have not accomplished at the age of a hundred.
Allah does not care about how many years you live. Allah cares about what you do with those years. The potential that you have, are you realizing that potential or not? Some people are more productive.
You know, they always look back at the salihin and the salaf and they say, did he really used to read the Qur'an that much? I mean, seriously. Did Imam al-Shafi'i really at that age, you know, he memorized the Qur'an and he already was doing all of those great things. He was already giving durus in the message of the Prophet (صلى الله عليه وسلم). At that age, are you serious? Yes.
Whenever you pass away, it's not about how many years you lived on this earth. It's about what you did with it. Subhanallah, you're born into this world, you come from nothing.
There was a time when you did not exist. You come into this earth, you learn how to walk, you learn how to babble, all that stuff. I have a nine-month-old baby, so I'm an expert in baby talk now, in the fiqh of baby talk.
You grow up a little bit older, then you start to develop all these abilities. You're not in the stroller anymore, you get to walk and you get to hold Baba's hand and Baba's hand in the supermarket. All of these things happen, you develop, you go through the stages of life, and then guess what happens? You start to lose your ability to speak again.
You start to lose your ability to walk again. Instead of being in a stroller, you're in a wheelchair. Subhanallah, what did you accomplish between those two times? That's if Allah (عز وجل) allows you to live to see those days.
So Allah will ask you, not about your age, what did you do with those years? And then secondly,
(Tirmidhi 2417) عَنْ جَسَدِهِ فِيمَا أَبْلَاهُ
About your body. Not world's strongest man competition, Allah (عز وجل) is not going to call you on the Day of Judgment and if your biceps are this big or this big or whatever, you know, it's not about that. What did you do with what Allah (عز وجل) has given you? I want you to seriously think about this.
Some of the greatest scholars of our time were blind. What did he accomplish with his life? What did they manage to get done with what they had? We have eyesight. We have limbs at our disposal.
We have this youth that we can do things now that people cannot do and make it older. What did you do with it? What did you accomplish with it? There are some people that have mental deficiencies. They still memorize the Qur'an.
My mother, may Allah have mercy on her, had four strokes, suffered from throat cancer. Subhanallah, the last year of her life she finished reading the Qur'an 14 times in Ramadan. Last year of her life.
What I'm trying to say is Allah (عز وجل) is not going to ask you about your body, your strength. It's what you did with it. The potential that you had and how you lived up to that potential.
What capacity could you have acted in? And how did you act in that way? I'm not going to get into a discussion about the way he did da'wah and those types of things. No, just look at the man's contribution for now. You can disagree with the way that he did things, but you cannot deny what he was able to accomplish.
Allah (عز وجل) tested him in the last years of his life with what? Does anyone know? He was paralyzed. Not just paralyzed, nose down. The man who could stand up there and talk with the most dominating voice.
Now could not even use his tongue. What do you do on earth when all you have is your eyes? What did he do? He wrote letters of da'wah. He debated with his nurses, his Christian nurses.
He came up and followed up with the preachers that he used to debate with. And you know what? One of his Christian nurses accepted Islam. What I'm trying to say is that man, Allah (عز وجل)with his two eyes accomplished more than what most of us have accomplished with our own bodies.
Allah (عز وجل) is not going to ask you about how strong you are, what you have. Everything is in amanah. How did you use what was given to you? What's your legacy? What's your potential? The third one, about his knowledge.
How did he benefit with his knowledge? Today we mark our standard of knowledge is how much you memorize. Our standard of knowledge is how much you know. Unfortunately, how many times are the people who study, students of knowledge, not doing anything whatsoever to benefit.
Do not benefit people whatsoever. SubhanAllah. You have to use that ilm that was given to you.
Knowledge is not just some information that you collect so that you can go and you can start arguing with people and you can start putting people down and you can show off what you have. Knowledge has to be put into action or else it's completely worthless. It's just information.
It's just as beneficial as a closed library. And the fourth one,
(Tirmidhi 2417)
And I just want to mention actually first with the knowledge. Al-Imam Ibn Taymiyyah what's his title? Shaykh al-Islam.
He accomplished amazing things on this earth. Does anyone know that Imam Ibn Taymiyyah's father was actually a scholar? Not only that, his grandfather was a great scholar. Not only that, he had a brother.
Does anyone know the name of the brother of Imam Ibn Taymiyyah? Ibn Taymiyyah. Ibn Taymiyyah. JazakAllah khair.
You caught me off guard. What was his first name? Anyone know? No one. Do you know that he had a brother? Imam Sharafuddin Ibn Taymiyyah, who was actually more knowledgeable than him.
That's not my word, those are the words of ulama. But who do we think of today when we say Shaykh al- Islam? Him. We don't, you know, there were people that lived in his time, al-Sulki and others and scholars, but who do we think of? Ibn Taymiyyah.
Why? Because whether it was da'wah, whether it was ilm, whether it was, you know, fighting off deviancy in the ummah, whether it was jihad, whatever it was, he was always there. There was Imam Ibn Taymiyyah. It's not just the knowledge he had, it's the way he put it into practice.
The fourth thing. Your money. Where did you get your money from and how did you spend it? You know, subhanAllah, this is the only one out of the four things that Rasulullah s.a.w. is saying that you're going to be asked about the source too.
Why? Because nowadays, you could be living your life in haram in every way possible, but as long as you come and you write your check to the masjid, people will say, mashallah, brother, jazakallahu khayran. You are an amazing person. Hello, it's liquor, pork, riba.
And what did he do with it? Allah subhanahu wa ta'ala is not going to ask, Allah subhanahu wa ta'ala is not going to pick up a Forbes 500 magazine on the day of judgement. And Allah subhanahu wa ta'ala is not going to care if Bill Gates or Sam Walton was richer. It doesn't matter.
Some people with five dollars do more than what others do with five hundred thousand. Some people with a dirham, according to Rasulullah s.a.w., are more rewarded than people with alf alf. How much is a thousand by a thousand? A million.
Why? Because they lived up to their potential. They lived up to their capability. They tried their best.
And I want you to seriously think about that. How much wasted potential do you have? How much wasted potential do you have? That if you used it for this deen, you could be doing amazing things. But instead, we're just trying to find the backdoor in everything.
Trying to find the backdoor. How can I commit the maximum amount of sin while having the least amount of guilt? That's what it is. How can I do the worst without being called out as much as possible? And that's what we do, subhanAllah.
If you truly want to succeed, you don't need anyone to give you a fatwa. You don't need anyone to tell you what's halal and haram. Because your heart will actually guide you to that.
Because Allah subhanahu wa ta'ala has legislated, that which is pure is halal and that which is forbidden is haram. How many times do you look in the ahkam of Islam and find something that's haram that's actually good for you? And how many times do you find something that's haram or that's halal that's actually bad for you? It's not there. I'm not saying that you don't need scholars.
I'm saying that your heart will not allow you to find all this wiggle room and all these backdoors. You will not make yourself any excuses because you want to succeed. You want to live up to your potential.
You want to have a legacy. You want to be someone special. You do not want to leave this earth as an ordinary person.
And subhanAllah, I... Where is brother Ahmad? I'm going to call you out. I saw the video online, I love this quote. English poetry.
It's not Arabic. It's not the Diwan al-Shafi'i. Some people try to live lives that are extraordinary but they end up being extraordinary.
They want to be outstanding but they don't stand out. I love it. What makes you different from the people around you? What makes you gharib? What makes you weird? What makes you strange? What makes you different? What makes you someone who's going to leave a legacy? Someone who's not going to be forgotten? On this earth, for the sake of Allah subhanahu wa ta'ala, because you're seeking the pleasure of Allah subhanahu wa ta'ala.
Being Different
On the Day of Judgment when you stand there, what is your hujjah to enter Jannah? What is your hujjah to enter Paradise? You know when people apply to a very prestigious university, a lot of people have 4.0s. But whenever they apply, what happens? They still get rejected. Why? Because your resume wasn't unique. You had nothing unique.
You weren't different. You weren't standing out. Nothing was really special about you.
I want you to think about that. Rasulullah (صلى الله عليه وسلم) says to the hadith that was in Abu Nu'aym,
(Abu Nuaym)
In every single generation of my ummah, there are people that are sabiqoon, pioneers, they're foremost. As Abu Bakr as-Siddiq ra. As Ali ra. (كَانَ سَبَّاقًا لِكُلِّ خَيْرٍ) They were at the forefront of every good.
You don't have time to worry about symptoms. You look at your iman, and you try to strengthen that. And you judge yourself by that standard.
What will be my legacy? Let me ask you this question. If I'm sitting in a Sunday school classroom, and I tell you to clean up the masjid, it's good for you. What is the hadith that I'm going to use? Anyone know? Give me some ideas.
Tell me what the virtues of cleaning the masjid are. Somebody. What was her name? You know why you don't know? Because we don't know.
Brother Mu'adh mentioned the woman who used to clean the masjid. But it's not necessarily authentic. We don't know.
We don't know the name of the woman that used to clean the masjid. We don't know for a fact what her name was. We don't know her biographical details.
We don't know how old she was. We don't know anything about her. We don't know her family name.
But is her legacy more than the legacy of Qaroon? I mean, who's Qaroon? What was the name of Abu Jahl? What was Abu Jahl's name? See, only some of you can answer Awad bin Hisham. But we all know him as the father of ignorance. Wasn't he wealthy on this earth? Didn't he have a lot of money? Didn't he have a lot of status? Didn't he have a lot of power? That woman who used to clean the masjid, that even some of the sahaba thought was too insignificant to go wake up Rasulullah (صلى الله عليه وسلم) and disturb him.
That woman is being remembered on earth probably every moment in some Sunday school in some haraqah, in some khutbah. She has more of a legacy than the richest man 600 years ago, the most famous man 500 years ago, 1200 years ago, 1800 years ago. She has more of a legacy.
You know what that means?
As Umar al-Khattab radiallahu ta'ala said We are a people who Allah honored with Islam if we seek honor through anything else, we'll just going to be humiliated. You won't have any legacy on this earth. Can anyone name me who the richest person in the world was 500 years ago? 600? 700? Qarun who had the keys to his palace, to the gate of his palace that needed multiple, multiple men to carry it.
Anyone know what Qarun's dad's name was? What his legacy was? Do you find any mark that these people were able to leave? No legacy whatsoever. And if they did leave a legacy, it was a bad legacy.
What is your legacy? The sooner you start working on it, the more you become focused on it, the more you become focused on being special, the more that Allah subhanahu wa ta'ala will honor you.
The Story of Umar bin Abdul Aziz
People always wait until the old age. You walk into any masjid in the Muslim countries and walk into any masjid today, if it's open and there's one or two people sitting there. And this is good for the older brothers who take advantage of that.
Alhamdulillah, may Allah subhanahu wa ta'ala grant them the best reward. But how many times do you walk into a masjid in the middle of the day and find an 18-year-old reading Quran? Find a 20-year-old reading the book of Bukhari, or Riyad-e-Salihi. How many times does that happen? Too often people wait until they get older to start worrying about their legacy.
It's just like the kid who goes to school and then worries about not getting into college because he has a 1.8 GPA whenever he's a 12th grader. It's like, you didn't think about this earlier, now you're worried about that? And I just want to mention in closing, one thing that actually I didn't plan to mention because the panel is very hard to mention. This was something that just happened last week.
Allah subhanahu wa ta'ala says in the Quran:
This is the home of paradise. We grant it to those who don't seek status on this earth and not corruption. And victory belongs to the pious. Victory belongs to Al-Muttaqin.
When Umar bin Abdul Aziz was dying and he asked everyone to leave, and it was heard it being said to him, or actually him saying,
Welcome to these faces that don't belong to jinn and human beings. Most beautiful face. The man who lived in the most severe poverty, (رضي الله تعالى عنه) left an amazing legacy, to a point that he's even considered the 5th of Khulafa Rashidin although he lived many years after Ali radhiAllahu ta'ala.
I want you to think about that ayah (تِلْكَ الدَّارُ الْآخِرَةُ) This is what he was reciting. The ayah of the Qur'an.
This is the home of paradise. We grant it to those who don't seek status on this earth and not corruption. And victory belongs to the pious. Victory belongs to Al-Muttaqin. Last week, a man passed away in Louisiana. Actually this week, Sunday evening.
The Story of the Unknown Scholar
When I was growing up, I used to see this person, this brother, every single day in the masjid, sitting with his two sons. Nobody knew his name. Nobody.
Nobody knew anything about him. All they knew is that this was the most quiet person that you could find. That every time you saw him, he was going to greet you with a warm smile.
He was going to say (السلام عليكم) and move about with his business. My whole life, I was seeing this brother like this. And he just passed away last week.
And he was so unknown, even though he was in that community for so many years, that even when the emails went out that he passed away, people didn't even know who he was. Turned out, after he passed away, his biography came out. His name was Shakir, the son of Luke.
He was from Mississippi. Was an army veteran. Accepted Islam in the United States Armed Forces.
After he accepted Islam, no one knew this, he studied in Madinah Munawwarah. After studying in Madinah Munawwarah, he went to Malaysia. He wrote a book on the names and attributes of Allah subhana wa ta'ala that's used as a textbook in some high schools in Saudi Arabia.
He married his wife in Malaysia. His wife is Malaysian. Came to America.
Lived in a community for 20 years or more. Never once said who he was. Nobody knew.
Nobody. This was a person who did not seek the status of this dunya. Yet subhanallah, you know how he died? Sunday night.
He was making salah in his room. And Allah subhana wa ta'ala sent him a heart attack. And he wasn't found until 20 minutes or so after that heart attack.
Where already the effects on his body were too severe. And he passed away. I want you to think about that.
This was a person who never sought status in this life. Never. He had the credentials.
He could have done so. But Allah subhana wa ta'ala granted him something that all of us could only dream about. Dying in your most intimate moments with Allah subhana wa ta'ala.
Where will you be? What will you be doing? And what will people say? And more importantly than all of that, what will Allah subhana wa ta'ala say to you? What will be your hujjah? What will be your proof on the day of judgement? It's time for us, especially young Muslims. Stop thinking with a victim mentality. That it's too hard being a Muslim in this country.
There's too much calling me away from Allah subhana wa ta'ala. You have no idea what the Sahaba went through. But they left legacies that are untouched.
Conclusion
Whoever is looking for some examples to follow. Whoever is waiting for these great superheroes to come. Let him wait for people who have already died. Companions of the Prophet (صلى الله عليه وسلم) We ask Allah subhana wa ta'ala in conclusion. To make us amongst those who make every use of every moment in this life. Seeking to please Him subhana wa ta'ala.
Even with our leisure, we only do it to reboost. So that we can continue on the mission of pleasing Him subhana wa ta'ala. And we ask Allah subhana wa ta'ala not to make us amongst those who wasted potential.
Who wasted their lives. And who can only show up on the day of judgment. And say, If only I had another chance. Then I will be from amongst those who excel in good deeds. Because there's no way that you can come back once you're gone. We ask Allah subhana wa ta'ala to enlighten our graves.
To make our graves gardens of jannah. And not chambers of jahannam. We ask Allah subhana wa ta'ala to make us amongst those. Who when they pass away they are greeted by angels of mercy and not angels of wrath. And when they pass away they are taken through the heavens.
And called by the best of names.
Not taken through the chambers of torture and called by the worst of names. We ask Allah subhana wa ta'ala to make us amongst those. Who are praised in the presence of the Creator subhana wa ta'ala on the day of judgment.
And who are not amongst those who are humiliated. And we ask Allah subhana wa ta'ala finally to gather us in the companionship of Rasulullah sallallahu alayhi wa sallam. In Jannatul Firdaus with his companions and those that follow.
And those that follow. And we ask Allah subhana wa ta'ala to make us amongst them. Allahumma ameen.
Jazakumullahu khairu ala qasni istim'aakum. Akhulukum bihadur astaghfirullahi wa barakakum.