World of the Unseen

World of the Unseen - Khutbah by Yahya Ibrahim

Opening

أَسْلَامُ عَلَيْكُمْ وَرَحْمَةُ اللهِ وَبَرَكَاتُهُ

بِسْمِ اللهِ الرَّحْمَنِ الرَّحِيمِ

إِنَّ الْحَمْدَ لِلَّهِ نَحْمَدُهُ وَنَسْتَعِينُهُ وَنَسْتَغْفِرُهُ وَنَعُوذُ بِاللَّهِ مِنْ شُرُورِ أَنْفُسِنَا وَسَيِّئَاتِ أَعْمَالِنَا مَنْ يَهْدِهِ اللَّهُ فَلَا مُضِلَّ لَهُ وَمَنْ يُضْلِلْ فَلَا هَادِيَ لَهُ وَأَشْهَدُ أَنْ لَا إِلَهَ إِلَّا اللهُ وَحْدَهُ لَا شَرِيكَ لَهُ وَأَشْهَدُ أَنَّ مُحَمَّدًا عَبْدُهُ وَرَسُولُهُ

Main Khutbah

This moment, on this moment of your death, you will be punished with adab that is everlasting. You and I, alhamdulillah, who are solid in our faith, who are fulfilling of our ibadah, who are practicing of our sunnah, we have great hope.

What is Abu Dharr's occupation? Why did they call him Abu Dharr the Ghafari? What is Ghafari? What was his occupation? He was an armor maker.

Do you know armor? The soldiers, they wear armor. In particular, al-ghifar is the helmet that a person wears to battle. Because the head is the most important thing that needs to be protected.

Istighfar and Protection

Istighfar, when you make istighfar, you're asking Allah to do what? To protect you. From what? From yourself. And the mistakes you make unknowingly.

Istighfar, it's not just, oh Allah, forgive me. Istighfar is, oh Allah, protect me. From myself and the mistakes I make unknowingly.

That's istighfar. And therefore the Prophet teaches us, after ibadah, after sunnah, the Prophet would say, assalamu alaikum, assalamu alaikum, he would say, أَسْتَغْفِرُ اللهَ، أَسْتَغْفِرُ اللهَ، أَسْتَغْفِرُ اللة. And you would say, why is the Prophet making istighfar? Why does he teach us that? We were doing namaz, we were praying.

We were doing our salah. Why are we saying أَسْتَغْفِرُ الله? Because in your salah, your mind was the sister, she's praying the biryani. I think the heat is too high.

You know, the brother, he's thinking, oh, you know, tomorrow traffic is going to be too much to get to work. I have to leave early, right? He's in salatul asr, but his brain is in his accounts, in his books, in this and that. So therefore, أَسْتَغْفِرُ اللهَ، أَسْتَغْفِرُ اللهَ، أَسْتَغْفِرُ الله to do what? Oh Allah, protect us.

Oh Allah, shelter us. Oh Allah, forgive us from these distractions that we have in life.

Tawbah and Its Requirements

Tawbah, which is always linked to istighfar, they're always linked together.

The Prophet says in Sahih al-Bukhari:

(Sahih al-Bukhari)

"I make tawbah and I make istighfar more than 70 times a day." Reference: Sahih al-Bukhari Hadith 6307

What is the difference between tawbah and istighfar? Tawbah is the thing you know you do wrong, something you know. I said this, I did this, I know I made a mistake.

So therefore, I have to أتُوبُ إلى الله. I have to come back in repentance to Allah because I know I did it. Istighfar is for the things that we do not know, but we also must come back to Allah.

Listen to this fear-inspiring hadith. In Sahih Muslim, the Prophet in Sahih al-Bukhari, it's مُتَّفَقٌ عَلَيْهِ The Prophet says:

(Sahih Muslim)

"A person may speak one word and pay no attention to its significance, not think it's something that's significant or it's not a big thing, just something I said. The individual does not think it is of any consequence or significance. But that word, that sentence, that statement is what pulls them into the fire." Reference: Sahih al-Bukhari Hadith 6478

Story of Aisha and Safiyyah

عَائِشَةُ رَضِيَ اللهُ عَنْهَا the wife of the Prophet Muhammad, our mother, my mother, your mother in faith أَمَّ الْمُؤْمِنِينَ عَائِشَةُ رَضِيَ اللهُ عَنْهَا one day she saw another one of the wives of the Prophet, Safiyyah, in a situation that was a little bit humorous. So, عَائِشَةُ she says to the Prophet يَا رَسُولَ اللهِ انْظُرْ إِلَى صَفِيَّة وَحَسْبُهَا كَذَا وَكَذَا "Look at Safiyyah" and this or this.

That's all she said. The Prophet's face became angry and he turned to عَائِشَةَ and he said:

"You said one word. If it was to be dipped in the ocean, it would poison it." Reference: Sunan Abu Dawud Hadith 4875

A word. Nothing عائشة didn't think it's anything big. Look at Safiyyah.

Right? توبة and اِسْتِغْفَار - اِسْتِغْفَار is these things that we don't pay attention to. They're the mundane things that have become evil characteristics in our habits, in our life. Things that we say, things that we do that are wrong but we may not be as aware of them.

The Prophet actually tells us that he fears for us sins. أَخْفَى مِنْ دَبِيبِ النَّمْلِ - sins that creep upon us more silently than the footstep of an ant. You're unaware.

The Three Requirements of Tawbah

So that is اِسْتِغْفَار and that is تَوْبَة الإِمَامُ النَّوَوِيُّ says تَوْبَةٌ وَاجِبَةٌ - tawbah is compulsory مِنْ كُلِّ مَعْصِيَةٍ صغيرها وكبيرها - it is a requirement for every error a person makes whether it's a major or a minor sin.

If a person makes a mistake, there are three ways of clearing it.

أوّلاً الإِقْلَاعُ عَنِ الْمَعْصِيَةِ - To stop. You know something's wrong, stop.

Second, النَّدَمْ عَلَى فِعْلِهَا - To have sincere regret in one's heart that is measurable only by Allah for having committed it.

In the authentic hadith narrated by Imam al-Tirmidhi, the Prophet says:

"Sincere regret is the essence of repentance." Reference: Sunan al-Tirmidhi Hadith 3205

Third, الْعَزْمُ أَلاَّ تَعُودَ إِلَيْهَا أَبَداً - intention never to make that mistake again. Intention.

Now I want to just pause for one second. One of the ideologies of the deviant sects in Islam the خوارج extremists is their ideology that if a person makes a mistake and repents from it if they do that mistake again their first repentance is not accepted. Now that is not the ideology of the Muslim.

As a Muslim, our belief in Allah the belief taught to us by the Prophet if you make a mistake repent and are sincere in your repentance to Allah even if years later, weeks later, months later you make that mistake again your initial repentance, if it was sincere and if it was true with Allah, it is forgiven. Even if you were to make that mistake again. Could you imagine if every time you did something wrong and repented and did it again it would keep adding up? None of us would have any security.

And that part of the ideology it's what makes people label other people kafir. They look at someone and they say, no, no, this person he doesn't pray. Okay, he doesn't pray.

We told him to pray. The person might be lazy. The person might be, you know, asi, he's a sinner.

He believes in Allah, believes in his messenger Muhammad. But couldn't wake up for fajr. Didn't wake up for fajr. Now if you say, okay, make tawbah the person and then the next morning he forgets or doesn't wake up or is lazy again, that that person continues to have that, it is not from the ideology or the belief of أَهْلُ السُّنَّةِ

Returning Rights to Others

So that's a very important statement about tawbah. If you repent to Allah and stop committing the sin and intend not to make it again, even if you make it again, Allah has initially forgiven you. But more important is what if you do a sin that involves other people? These three things are about sins between you and Allah.

But what if I, you know, here I am in Mumbai, I'm leaving tomorrow night. Just say, I see something I like, I like the brother's watch. The brother goes to make his wudu, puts the watch and I take it.

And I go to Perth, Australia. And years later, I say أَسْتَغْفِرُ اللة . Oh Allah forgive me.

Now I don't know who the brother is. I don't know if he's now living somewhere. How am I going to find him in Mumbai? So what do I do? How do I fix an injustice inflicted upon someone else?

If I am able to return it, I must.

If I'm able to return it, if you've taken something and you know how to return it to the individual, you must return it, even if you do it in a sneaky way. Put it in the post, put it under their door in the middle of the night, whatever. They don't have to know it was you.

But if you can never identify them, it's very rare that you're going to find them again. The amount or the value of that item, you must donate it in charity on behalf of that individual. Now if they meet up with you, all of a sudden I'm doing hajj.

And I'm in Mecca. And I took the brother's watch, it's maybe 10,000 rupiah. And I gave it in charity.

I made repentance. And I've given it. And then he meets me in front of the black stone.

He says, Ah, you took my watch. I say, brother, I already gave charity. He goes, no, I want my watch.

What must I do to give him the amount that is fitting for his watch? So even if you give the charity, you still owe that person, right? So that is tawbah.

And that is istighfar.

Shukr - Thankfulness

شكر - Are we thankful to Allah? Like are we truly thankful to Allah subhanahu wa ta'ala for the ni'mah that we have? For many of us we have a great deal more blessings and benefits than others. You know, you might be sitting here, the person sitting next to you might be less fortunate than you. And Allah has honored you and blessed you in a way that maybe others might not have been.

And those of you who are with us here may be more fortunate than those outdoors, right? The fortune that we have, it's not because of yourself. It's not anything you do yourself. Do you really think that Bill Gates, you know, the owner of Microsoft, is so much more smart than Yahya Ibrahim that he can make one billion dollars a month because he's that much more smart.

And I cannot. It's not brains or intelligence or... Is he really that skilled that he deserves a billion dollars a month? That's how much his skill is worth?

No. What is it? It is رِزْق

It could have been Bill Gates, it could have been Bill Richards, it could have been Yahya Ibrahim, it could have been anyone. But Allah chose to give رِزْق to whom? This person. Just like you sitting in front of me now, Allah chose to give you a certain amount of رزق

So you are fortunate. And as fortune is for you from Allah subhanahu wa ta'ala, it might be more or less than others. It is not by anything you do, it's not by your skills or your smarts or your answer, nothing.

It is Allah has given you a certain defined amount of رزق. You cannot increase it or decrease it more than what Allah has written. But what Allah asks of you is thankfulness.

The Contact Lens Story

I'll give you an example. In Perth, there's a freeway. Now, it might be a difficult example for you to understand here in Mumbai.

Because your roads, you travel 20 kilometers an hour, right? When I'm talking about a freeway, I mean like, there's no cars around you, you know, it's open road. And I'm on the Tonkin Highway, and it's a bridge that's over the Swan River in Perth. And there's no emergency lanes, right? So if you're in trouble, you gotta keep going until the end of the bridge.

And it was late at night, and I was driving home, just myself, my wife and the kids were at home. Maybe 11 o'clock at night, I can't remember where I was or what I was doing. And normally I don't wear contact lenses, normally I don't.

But on that day it was very sunny, and I put on my sunglasses, so I was wearing, you know, the little plastic contact lenses. And I was out all day, and the contact lenses were in my eyes 13, 14 hours. And usually you shouldn't wear them more than 8 to 10 hours.

So they began to get itchy and dry. So I'm driving, and I touch my left eye, and it falls. See, everyone, they know.

You know if you wear contact lenses how much you need them. And I didn't have my glasses with me in the car, I left them at home. Put the contacts, I'm gonna be home.