Endings and Beginnings

Endings and Beginnings

Opening Supplications

Alhamdulillahi ta'ala nahmaduhu wa nasta'eenuhu wa nastaghfiruhu wa na'udhu billahi min shururi anfusina wa min sayyiati amalina man yahdihi allahu fala mudhilla lah wa man yudhlil falan tajida lahu waliyam murshida wa ash'hadu an la ilaha illallah wahdahu la sharika lah wa ash'hadu anna muhammadan abduhu wa rasuluh. Sallallahu alayhi wa ala alihi wa ashabihi wa sallim tasliman kathira.

"O you who have believed, fear Allah as He should be feared and do not die except as Muslims."

Ya ayyuhal lazeena aamanu ttaqullaha haqqa tuqatih wa laa tamutunna illa wa antum muslimoon.

"O mankind, fear your Lord, who created you from one soul and created from it its mate and dispersed from both of them many men and women. And fear Allah, through whom you ask one another, and the wombs. Indeed Allah is ever, over you, an Observer."

Ya ayyuhal nasu ttaqu rabbakumu allathee khalaqakum min nafsin wahida wa khalaqa minha zawjaha wa battha minhuma rijalan kathiran wa nisaa wa ttaqullaha allathee tasaalu nabihi wal arhaam inna allaha kana alaykum raqeeba.

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

Ya ayyuhal lazeena aamanu ttaqullaha wa qoolu qawlan sadeeda yuslih lakum a'malakum wa yaghfir lakum dhunubakum wa man yuta'illaha wa rasulahu faqada faaza fawzan azeema.

Amma ba'd fa inna astaqal hadithi kitaabullah wa khairul hadi hadi Muhammadin salallahu alayhi wasalam wa sharral umar muhdathatuha wa kulla muhdathatin bid'a wa kulla bid'atin dalalah wa kulla dalalatin finnar.

We praise Allah and we send peace and blessings upon our beloved messenger Muhammad salallahu alayhi wasalam, upon his family, his companions and those who follow him until the end of time InshaAllah. Before we start, if the brothers can once again do their best to make as much room as you possibly can, it will be super appreciated MashaAllah.

The Profundity of Beginnings and Endings

Beginnings, you know, beginnings are something very profound. Allah in the Quran notes that creation began by praising Him:

Alhamdulillahi allathee khalaqa assamawati wal arda wa ja'ala dhulumati wal nur.

You know, Allah made the heavens and the earth and He made the night and the day, and He began it by praising Himself subhanahu wa ta'ala. And then endings were also met with praise. In Surat Al-A'raf, Allah mentions people will enter paradise, and after they enter paradise, the first thing they will say is Alhamdulillah:

Wa qalu alhamdulillahi allathee hadana lihaza wa ma kunna linahtadia lawlaa an hadana Allah.

You know, praise be to Allah who guided us to this moment. If it was not for Allah, we would not be here.

Focusing on Beginnings

Often times we think about outcomes, you know, we are an outcome-driven society. Very rarely do we think about beginnings. Many of you are going to be starting your education or starting a new year. Alhamdulillah, you are at the university. So I thought it would be important to talk about beginnings.

Imam Ibn Al-Ata Allah, may Allah have mercy on him, said, "Man ashraqat nihayatuhu faqad ashraqat bidayatuh." He said, you know, from the signs in Al-Hikam, from the signs of an illuminated ending is that the beginning was illuminated. Then he explained this later. He said, Rahimuhullah, "wa min alamat najah fin nihayah arruju'u ila Allahi fil bidaya." He said, you know, the signs that your ending is going to be successful is that you return to Allah in the beginning.

The Importance of Intention

So the Prophet Sallallahu Alaihi Wasallam, we have a number of very beautiful things to think about when we talk about how we start. And we know that he said alayhi salatu was salam:

(Sahih al-Bukhari 1)

Innamal amalu biniyat - Indeed, undertakings...

Al-amal is different than af'al. Af'al is something that anything can do, like animals. We say af'alul hayawanat, but you can't say amalul hayawanat. Amal, the word amal carries with it the meaning of like deliberateness, intention coupled with action. So the Prophet Sallallahu Alaihi Wasallam, he said innamal amalu biniyat - The actions are the outcomes of their reasons, what drives us, what pushes us.

So the first thing that we should do as we enter into this new phase of life is we should examine our intentions: Why am I here? What's my purpose? What am I trying to achieve? And like we should examine them deeply.

Self-Accountability and Self-Knowledge

As Sayyidina Umar, he said: "Hasibu anfusakum qabal antuhasabu" - Audit yourself before you're audited.

Sayyidina Imamana al-Muhasibi, may Allah have mercy on him, he said: "Wa'arif nafsak" - Like you should know yourself.

So we should know the motivations behind why we do things. We should understand the inner workings of our heart. We should figure out like what really pushes us. That's the sign of a sincere person.

Allah said:

Ya ayyuha allatheena aamanu taqoo allaha wal tanthur nassum maa qaddamat lighad.

O believers, be dutiful to your Lord and let each and every soul look for what's going to be harvested tomorrow. Ghad means tomorrow, but actually it means al-akhira. But Allah referred to al-akhira as tomorrow morning, as if to say like don't get it twisted, it's tomorrow.

- Innahum yarawnahu ba'ida wa narahu qariba.

So the first is let me examine myself and ask myself like why I'm here, what's the real purpose?

Creating Conditions for Success

The second thing is that moments of success demand certain things around us for them to develop properly. So the first I said is spending time with our souls, spending time examining ourselves. Again, Sahib ul-Hikm, he said: "Udfun wujudak fi ardil khumud." He said, you know, Imam Ibn Ata'allah in al-Hikam, you should dig yourself in a fertile deep land because what wasn't buried in a deep land will not ripen nor will it grow. Like there has to be this time for preparation. People want without working.

Lessons from the Prophet's Beginning

So we go to the beginning of the Prophet, of Sayyidina Muhammad Sallallahu Alaihi Wasallam, and there are some things like we can take from that. Perhaps we can inject into the veins of our own dunya that we can apply some antivirus to our dunya with the seerah of Sayyidina Muhammad Sallallahu Alaihi Wasallam.

The Value of Solitude and Introspection

And the first is, of course, this is the second hadith in Sahih al-Bukhari (Sahih al-Bukhari 3), related by Sayyidina Aisha radiyallahu anha, who Imam al-Zuhri said if you took the knowledge of Sayyidina Aisha and you took the knowledge of all of the ulema of Medina, her knowledge will outweigh their knowledge.

She said, you know, that the Prophet Sallallahu Alaihi Wasallam, the revelation came to him in the form of true dreams, like the dawn. And she said, you know, he never saw a dream except it became true at that time, alayhi salatu wasalam. So she said, until he started to love being alone, introspection.

Closing Du'as

Ask Allah by all of His names and attributes to protect our brothers and sisters in East Turkestan. We ask Allah to bless the Uyghur community who are now suffering through an incredible, incredible challenge. We pray for our brothers and sisters in Kashmir, subhanAllah, who have been like muted from the earth. Ask Allah to strengthen them and to allow us to be a means of helping them find their dignity.

We pray for our brothers and sisters this week in Egypt, again not on the radar, around 75 people were killed. Pray inshaAllah that Allah will allow the Arab Spring to see the true fruit of the Arab Spring.

Pray for our brothers and sisters in Palestine. Pray for our brothers and sisters in Africa. We pray for our family in Puerto Rico also, again totally ignored. We ask Allah to protect the people from this impending hurricane. Ask Allah to help us be agents of peace and tranquility in the city. Ask Allah to give us Tawfiq as we enter in this new year. Ask Allah to bless us with our parents, with our spouses, with our families.

We ask Allah to help us have a good assumption of our fellow Muslims. Ask Allah to make the Ummah of the Prophet beloved to us. Ask Allah to give us strength, to give us the bravery to be as good as we fear we can become. Ask Allah to forgive us of our sins and our shortcomings and to accept us as we struggle to improve our lives.

We ask Allah to cure our sick brothers and sisters and those who may be struggling with anxiety or may have been triggered in these few days. May Allah placate inshallah those challenges. Ask Allah to unite us with the Prophet salallahu alayhi wa sallam and that we will see the face of Al-Habib, and that the Prophet will look at us and say our names, and he will smile, and he will offer us to drink from his Haud.

We ask Allah to enter us into Jannah without Hisab.

"Glory to your Lord, the Lord of might, above what they describe, and peace be upon the messengers, and praise to Allah, Lord of the worlds."

Subhana rabbika rabbil izzati amma yasifoon, wa salaamun ala al-mursaleen, walhamdulillahi rabbil alameen.