Affairs of the Heart

Affairs of the Heart - Siraj Wahhaj

Opening and Introduction

Assalamu alaikum. (بِسْمِ اللَّهِ الرَّحْمَٰنِ الرَّحِيمِ - bismillahir-rahmanir-rahim). Alhamdulillah. Nahmedu wa nasta'eenuhu wa nastaghfiruhu wa nu'minu bihi wa natawakkalu alayh. Wa na'udhu billahi min shururi anfusina wa min sayyi'ati a'malina. Man yahdihillahu fala mudilla lah, wa man yudlilhu fala hadiya lah.

Wa nashhadu an la ilaha illallah wahdahu la sharika lah. Wa nashhadu anna Muhammadan abduhu wa rasuluhu. Amma ba'd.

Brothers and sisters, I am thankful to Allah to have the great honor and privilege to be here with you at this wonderful camp. This camp is as much for me as it is for you. I'm very happy to be here with Sheikh Mohammed Noor and my good friend, Professor Abdul Hakeem Jackson. And also to see so many of you that I've come to know over the years. I was shocked to see how many people, how many of you I remember. Most of you, I actually remember you.

And so many of the brothers, I remember some of my good friends, some of my best friends around the world of Canada and United States. So I want to say that I'm very happy to be here. And also to get an opportunity for me to learn, sit down into the sessions of my brother, Brother Sherman, Professor Sherman and Sheikh Noor, and Brother Pervez and the rest of you.

The Theme: Striving Toward Excellence

Brothers and sisters, in these two days, every one of my talks, I'm going to focus on one thing. I'm going to keep that in front of you. Though we speak about each particular topic, but there's one thing that I'm going to keep focusing on, and I'm going to talk in detail about it tomorrow, and that is striving toward excellence.

The first thing that I want to know, Brother Jackson, I noticed something from the more I studied the Sharia, I noticed something. It seems to me that it is inherent in human beings, at least, to always compare themselves with someone else. It's inherent, can't help it.

The Nature of Comparison in Creation

I'll go a step further. It seems that this nature to compare is even in other living things.

"He said: I am better than him"

And when Allah asks Iblis, why didn't you bow down when I told you to bow down? He said, I'm better than him. This comparison that this jinn, a jinn made, not with another jinn, but this jinn made with a human being.

They said: Will You place therein one who will make mischief therein and shed blood, while we glorify You with praises and sanctify You. He said: I know that which you do not know

The angels, these creatures of light, when Allah said I'm about to create on the earth a khalifa, these angels started to compare themselves with the children of Adam. That we, you're going to make that which causes mischief in the earth and the shedding of blood while we, we celebrate your praises. Look how they compare themselves with human beings. Look how the jinn compare themselves with human beings.

Aisha رضي الله عنها, everyone knows that she was the favorite wife of the Prophet. Everybody knows that. When someone asked him the question, who does he love the most? He said, Aisha فَمَنْ مِنَ الرِّجَالِ؟ قَالَ أَبُوهَا - "Among men? Her father." But yet Aisha, most beloved, and yet Aisha, she said in her own words, she was more jealous of who? Who? Khadijah. More than any of the wives of the Prophet, even though Khadijah had died, but yet Aisha couldn't help herself comparing herself.

The Universal Nature of Competition

Everyone is always comparing themselves, you can't help it. You know what's happening in Sydney, Australia right now? Olympics. Every four years, people around the world come together to compete. Who's the best? Who's the fastest? Who can play better basketball? Who can play, who can swim the best? This nature of competition, it seems to be within us.

The Importance of Arabic Language

How many of you study Arabic? Raise your hand. You know Arabic or you study Arabic? Raise your hand. We have an Arabic professor here. You ought to... I'm telling you everywhere I go, I'm preaching that every Muslim has to study the Arabic language. You must study the Arabic language. You must study the Arabic language. If you leave this camp, at least with the desire to learn, to study the Arabic language, then you have taken a greater step to get closer to Allah subhanahu wa ta'ala, in my opinion.

But there is an Arabic grammar, what is called اسم التفضيل. اسم التفضيل is the comparative or the superlative. If you say, أنا كبير - I am big. أنا أكبر من أخي - I am bigger than my brother. هو أكبر رجال في المدينة - He is the biggest man in the city. This is comparative.

The Call to Excellence

Now, I say all that to say what? I don't think that this group here, these 80 participants or so, should look at yourself as just simple Muslims. You came to a retreat for two days, alhamdulillah. You're going to get a little bit knowledge, a little bit information, and stop at that. That's not my opinion. I don't know what the professor Jackson is thinking about. I have something else in my mind. I don't know what professor is thinking. I have something else in my mind.

Let me share what I have in my mind. I think that every one of you should put in your heart that you want to be the best that you can be.

The Basketball Analogy: The Triple-Double

Now, sisters, don't get angry at me, okay? I'm going to talk brother language for just a moment. Sisters, I'm going to teach you a little bit about basketball. Would you mind? We can learn a little lesson from that. I told Pervez already, really, I've got an attitude. Please forgive me. I've got an attitude. I came with my sneakers. I'm serious. I'm mad. I'm mad. I'm going to try to find me another camp. You think I'm kidding, right? You watch. I'm expecting a basketball court. I brought my sneakers. The brothers are here. I want to show them. A brother from Philadelphia is here. I want to show you what happens when New York and Philadelphia get together. I want to show you. I want to show you, but you won't let me because you refuse to have a basketball court. Yeah, we can get one of those portables and fix it up. I'm serious.

Now, I want to teach you sisters a little bit about basketball. Brothers, if you know what I'm talking about, raise your hand. How many brothers know what a triple-double is? Raise your hand, a triple-double. How many sisters know what a triple-double is? You know, okay, all right. A triple-double is in a basketball game where three different times you get a double. For instance, if you score 10 or more points, it's a double. Not nine, not eight, but 10 or more. 10 or more rebounds. 10 or more assists. 10 or more blocks. 10 or more steals.

And so, if you study, go back. There's a basketball player named Oscar Robertson, one of the best ever. He knows people. It's not your generation. But do you know the one year Oscar Robertson, he averaged a triple-double. Yeah, he's one of the most prolific scorers in the NBA history, Oscar Robertson.

Being Well-Rounded in the Deen

Now, the reason I'm saying that, brothers and sisters, what I expect from this group is for each one of you to look at yourself and look at different aspects of your life and always make an improvement upon one of them. For instance, my topic today is about the heart, spiritual. Today is about spiritual things. This whole day is about spiritual things, inshallah. But tomorrow, we're talking about mental things. If your strength is in spiritual, but you have a weakness in the mental, in the physical, in the material, then work on that aspect of your deen to help you make you be well-rounded.

What I expect from this group is a well-rounded group in everything. But the foundation has to be the spiritual. Someone asked the question, how long will the building stand? The answer is, how strong is the foundation? What I want to speak about the next few moments is the foundation, and I want to talk about your heart.

Because that's the key.

The Transformative Power of Islamic Gatherings

Now, brothers and sisters, and I'm telling you, and don't be going to sleep. I'm not playing that today. Just you

The Disease of the Heart

Now brothers and sisters, be careful. Be careful a few things.

"In their hearts is disease, so Allah has increased their disease" (Quran 2:10)

The disease in the heart.

"For indeed, it is not eyes that are blinded, but blinded are the hearts which are within the breasts" (Quran 22:46)

All of these things brothers and sisters I'm laying the foundation that the heart is something very very significant. It is something that changes very very fast if we're not careful.

The Tragedy in New York City

Now inshallah let me try to tie it up together. I don't know if you heard about what happened just a couple of days in New York City. I mean really major tragedy. I think his name is John Taylor. This man who robbed a Wendy's restaurant and killed, shot seven people, killed five of them. One of them is in critical condition, the other one in bad condition.

Now when I heard about that, I'll be honest with you, I was devastated. I've never been affected so much in my life. When you read the details that what he did, he came in at night, called for the manager, took the manager downstairs and told the manager to call the other workers downstairs, it's closing time. He took one of them, he took them systematically, one by one, tied their hands behind their backs, put a tape on their mouth and then put some kind of bag, a plastic bag on their head and put a .380 millimeter gun to the back of their head and systematically killed each one or shot each one of them.

Two of them were living. One of them, he woke up and he was unconscious, he had gotten unconscious. He woke up, he called 9-1-1 and he fell out again. Police came and rescued him and the other person was in critical condition. And I said, man, my God, how in the world can someone do that? And I was so angry, Wallahi, beloved, I was angry. I don't know about any of you who read it. I'm in the city and I'm thinking about, man, I'd like to find this person, really.

The Warning of Sick Hearts

And you know what, brothers and sisters, what scares me? That we're living in a time right now that it seems that every day is getting worse. I think I heard about a young boy who shot a teacher, killed a teacher just maybe yesterday. And the Prophet, peace be upon him, warned us that it's going to come a time where the person who committed murder won't know why he committed murder and the one who's murdered don't know why they murdered. We come into a time like that, you know why? Because we live in a time where we have sick hearts. Real sick hearts.

The Reality of Those Who Leave the Path

Now, I'm going to ask you a question, I want you to be honest. It's going to pain me to ask me what I'm going to ask you now. It's going to be very painful. How many of you, including Professor Jackson, know Muslims who used to practice the deen but are no longer practicing? Used to pray, no longer pray? If you know someone like that, raise your hand. If you know one, raise your hand. Pervez, you don't know any? Allahu Akbar. How do you know more than one?

You know what scares me? What scares me is that could be any one of us. No, not me, I'll be a Muslim the rest of my life. Good, I'm glad you think that. Let's see what the Messenger of Allah said, sallallahu alayhi wa sallam. And we'll see. Brothers and sisters, I'm really concerned about us, really.

You know what I've seen over the years? Workers in Islam. I mean, people used to run camps. There's a famous one now, their brother used to tell me, he used to be one of the most famous young youth workers in America. Now he has some kind of, you know what I'm talking about, had some kind of, so-called gay Muslims. He used to be a good Muslim, he used to be a well-known Muslim. And now he's doing that, he's well, yeah brother, well known for that. And there's more, and there's more like that.

Now, what's going to make sure that we stay on this theme is the protection of our heart.

Music and the Heart

Brothers and sisters, let me tell you something. I have not been to one country or one state or one city where people don't ask me about music. Everywhere I go, every conference, we have dozens of questions, well what about music? And I'm sure you've already asked Professor Jackson, if you haven't, you will, don't worry, they will.

But you know what? Brothers and sisters, I pray to Allah subhanahu wa ta'ala that one of the things that can come from this group here is a profound love of the Qur'an.

The Story of Haroon

I was here in Houston a few hours, just right before I went to Australia. And remember, as I mentioned, about a young man named Haroon, who took his shahada. And this young man named Haroon was a, used to be a rap singer, and a poet, and he used to write songs. He was very good at it. And four years ago, as a young man in his early 20s, someone played a disc of the Qur'an. And he was so impressed with that Qur'an, he never heard anything like that, he became a Muslim on the spot.

This is true, I met him in Jersey City recently. He became a Muslim, didn't know one word of Arabic, but yet he was touched by the Qur'an, and it had a miraculous effect upon him. And it reminded me the first time I heard the Qur'an, I even have the tape where I said, this is the most beautiful thing I ever heard in my life, I have to

learn that. That was in 1978, Sheikh Jafar Idrees recited the Qur'an for us. And sitting there in that room, I listened to that Qur'an and was moved by it, not knowing any Arabic.

The Qur'an as the Cure for the Heart

Allah subhanahu wa ta'ala lets us know in the Qur'an that in the remembrance of Allah, the heart feels tranquil. I want you to go, sisters and brothers, to any song you ever heard in your life, the best song that you ever heard in your life. You will notice that that song, if it's popular, will be on the charts like number one for weeks. But notice, it never stays there, does it? If they're lucky, three weeks, four weeks, five weeks. But then after that, the people, they get tired of it. We heard it already, we don't want to hear it again. This is the nature of the songs of this world.

And it may make you feel good at the moment, but if you heard it over and over again, you get tired and you don't want to listen to it. But yet the Qur'an, you can hear the Qur'an all your life. And you would never, ever, ever get tired of hearing the Qur'an when it's recited in the right way.

The Critical Hadith About the Heart

Now I finish with this. The Prophet, peace be upon him, said:

"I swear by Allah, which there's no God other than Him, verily one of you does the deeds of the people of Paradise until there is nothing between him and it except a forearm's length, then the Book overtakes him and he does the deeds of the people of Hell and enters it" (Sahih Bukhari 6594, Sahih Muslim 2643)

It may be that one of you spend the entire life and definitely you're the people of Jannah, no question about it. Here's a man, 90 years old, he spent his whole life praying five times a day, went to Mecca, Hajj, he made fasting, every day, all of the pillars of Islam. He made, he got up in the middle of the night, he read the Qur'an all the time. 90 years old, Ahlul Jannah. And then, something happens and he began to do the work of the people of the Hellfire. What would be the work of the people of the Hellfire?

This man would be so close to the Jannah that the Prophet called it dhira'. Dhira', maybe like a forearm. That means he's just there, he's right there. Now, let me stop for a moment. Are any of you confident in this room right now that you are there? Any of you that confident right now that you are there, that you're right there in Jannah? Are any of you that confident? Here's a man who, according to the hadith, is of Ahlul Jannah. For sure, he's that close. But then, he began to do something other than that. He does the work of the people of the Hellfire. فَيَدْخُلُهَا - And he enters the Hellfire.

Now, brother and sister, you know what that should make you feel like? Wait a minute, man. I can't ever get so proud or arrogant to think that I got it right. I don't care how much I know, but there's a chance that if I don't get myself together, my program together, that even though I spent my whole life in the deen, I could end in a wrong way.

And the Prophet said:

(Sahih Bukhari 6493)

"Verily, deeds are judged by their endings"

The Deed That Can Destroy Everything

Now, what deed could you do? The deed that can be done, brothers and sisters, in that late stage. Riddah. Leave the deen. Leave Islam. Go into shirk. And if you die in shirk, what happens? Hellfire.

Now, what does all this have to do with the heart? Brothers and sisters, I want to help you help myself.

The Adultery of the Eyes

Every one of you, the Prophet said:

(Sahih Muslim 2657)

"The son of Adam has his share of adultery which he commits inevitably"

I'll say it again. لَا مَحَالَةَ - It's inevitable. He said, the son of Adam, every one of you must have some part of the commission of adultery. And then he said, the adultery of the eyes is the look.

Now, brothers and sisters, I'm going to talk straight to the brothers now. Now, brother, let's be for real. Okay, I did some of that stuff now. Let's be for real. Okay, I did that, right? Now, let's be straight. How many of you are on the campus, go to college, raise your hand.

The Reality of Lowering the Gaze

Let me tell you what's happening to you right now, brothers. I'm off. This time of the year, the heat of the summer is the worst time for good Muslim man. Doctor Jackson, let me tell you something, brother. Honestly, honest to Allah, brother, I try, I try to turn my head. I do. I work on it. I'm serious. I'm serious. I couldn't believe it, the airport. I can't believe it. Every time you see a woman, you turn. I'm not going to look. Another one there. I'm not going to look. Another one there.

Am I right, brothers? Everywhere is surrounding because they take off their clothing and you are a man. You are a man. Now, this is like a workshop now. It's not like, Alhamdulillah, brother, I never look. Alhamdulillah. I look up in the sky all the time. I don't think so, brother. I don't think so. And I'm telling you, I don't, I hate it. I hate it. I hate it when women take off their clothing and they're naked. I really do, brother. I hate it. I hate it.

There are times, Allah is my witness, brother. Wallahi, even right now, there are times I don't even, I hate turning on TV. Sometimes, something special, I want to watch some news, I heard about it. You know, I turn, but reluctantly, brother, even this whole week, I didn't turn it on. I just, I hate it. Wallahi azeem, I hate it. Because there's so much evil on it. So much evil on it.