Returning To Allah - Corrected Khutba Transcription

The Prophet

The Prophet ﷺ said whoever intends to do a good action and even he is unable to do that good action, Allah will write it for him.

Look at this. As far as your business is concerned, you can work day and night and you will only get that which Allah decreed for you. But as far as the deen is concerned, as far as the deen is concerned, there is no limitations.

The Legacy of Sadaqah Jariyya

Mashallah, this madrassa was started by Mufti Shabil rahmatullah alaihi, passed away at the age of 39, started off in a house. I'm sure this madrassa was not this big when Mufti Sahib rahmatullah alaihi passed away, but all this is a sadaqah jariyya for him and this is why they say the best action that you can do is that action which outlives your existence and in Islamic narrative, we call it sadaqah jariyya that you lie in the depth of your grave. Today, we went to Mufti Sahib's grave.

He's lying in the depth of his grave, but me standing here. He's getting rewarded for it. Every single student sitting here studying, he's getting rewarded for it.

And this is why Islamically we have no limitations. We have no ceilings. There is no ceilings for believers.

If you intend to do an action and you are unable for some reason to do that action, Allah will still reward you for that action. How beautiful, how beautiful.

Examples of Great Scholars

Abdullah Ibn Mubarak

Abdullah Ibn Mubarak rahmatullah alaihi, Abdullah Ibn Mubarak was a very unique figure. Mufti Taqi Sahib hafidhahullah says that out of all the imams the only imam that was never criticized was Abdullah Ibn Mubarak.

All the other imams, maybe Imam Bukhari, Imam Muslim, the authors of the sihadah, imams of the four muzahib, somebody or the other criticized them. Abdullah Ibn Mubarak was never criticized. One year Abdullah Ibn Mubarak would go for jihad and the second year he would go to he would go for hajj.

He lived in a place called Merv, which is Central Asia. That's where he lived and he would go for hajj every other year.

The Story of the Accepted Hajj

One year he went to hajj, after hajj, completing the hajj, he's sleeping and he sees a dream that two angels descend and one angel says to the other angel, how many people attended the hajj? So one angel says that 60,000 people attended the hajj.

So he asked the angel, how many hajj was accepted? He said none, besides one person who didn't even come for the hajj. He was at home, but his hajj was accepted. And his name is Abdullah Ibn Muqafal, he's a qabla and he lives in Damascus.

Abdullah Ibn Mubarak rahmatullah alayhi, stands up. He's perspiring, he's shaking, 60,000 people have come for hajj and nobody's hajj has been accepted. He wakes up and the next morning he leaves for Damascus.

He goes to Damascus. He asked the people of Damascus. Do you know Abdullah Ibn Muqafal? And they said yes.

He said a qabla, they said yes, this is his house. He goes, he knocks on the door, Abdullah opens the door. He asked his name, he asked his profession and then he tells him about the dream.

He said tell me the truth. I saw this dream that you didn't even come for hajj. But your hajj is accepted.

The Greater Sacrifice

So Abdullah Ibn Muqafal said, you know, I am a qabla poor person. For the last 20 years. I've been wanting to go for hajj and I have been saving money every year for the last 60 years.

Sorry, for last 20 years. And this year I had enough money to go for hajj and my wife became pregnant. And one day my wife smelled meat from the neighbor's house and you know pregnant women when they want something they want it there and then.

So she said to me go to the neighbor's house and ask them for that meat. So I went to the neighbor's house. I knocked on the door, the lady opened the door and I said my wife is pregnant.

She smelled some meat. Can I have some of the meat and the lady said to me that meat is halal for us but haram for you. Halal for us but haram for you.

So I said how can it be halal for you and haram for us? And she said for many days my children have had nothing to eat and today I was walking on the street and I saw a dead donkey, carcass of a dead donkey and I cut the meat from the donkey and I came and I cooked it for my children and what you are smelling is that meat. So it's halal for us but haram for you. Abdullah Ibn Muqaffar says I went home.

I gathered all the money that I had saved for the last 20 years and I gave it to this lady and I said this is my hajj. This is my hajj. He didn't go for hajj but Allah rewarded him for the hajj.

The Poet's Words

As a poet says he said, oh you are going to the Bayt al-Ateeq or you are going to the house of Allah for hajj. You went with your bodies. We are going with our souls.

If we couldn't go due to an other, an excuse or the fact that Allah had not decreed for us to go for those who remain behind because of an excuse. It's as though they have gone for hajj.

The Battle of Tabuk: Rewarding Good Intentions

And the Battle of Tabuk, this was the battle which was known as the difficult battle. The Sahaba رَضِيَ اللهُ عَنْهُم gathered. This was the battle where Abu Bakr bought everything that he had, where Umar Ibn Khattab رَضِيَ اللهُ عَنْهُ bought half of what he had. This was the battle where Uthman رَضِيَ اللهُ عَنْهُ prepared a third of the army.

This was the battle where there were certain Sahaba who came to the Messenger of Allah ﷺ and they said, oh Messenger of Allah, we want to go for the jihad because it's around about 600 miles to Tabuk, but we don't have shoes to wear. We don't have shoes. And the Prophet ﷺ said I have no shoes to give you and they left the gathering and they were crying and they were given the permanent name as al-Bukaoon, the weepers.

And today until today their names are recorded. When the Prophet ﷺ was returning, he stopped with the Sahaba and he spoke to the Sahaba and he said, he said, in Medina there are men, no space did you traverse, nor did you walk anywhere, nor did you go over any valley, but they were with you in reward. They were in Medina.

They didn't come but every step that you took, they got their reward for it. And this is the deen of Allah. We invest in our hereafter.

High Aspirations in Islam

We are believers who have a high vision. We are people who have high aspiration. We have alul himmah.

That's what we are like. We are people who don't take second best. Second best is not an option for those who work for the sake of Allah.

Mufti Wasim will not take second best. Your boss wherever you work will not take second best and you want to give Allah second best? You want to give Allah second best and then you speak about the ummah being in the decay that is, the decadence that it is. We are people, you know who aspire.

We are people who have a positive view on life. Why? Because we know that everything happened through the help of Allah, Ibn al-Jawzi or Ibn Qayyim al-Jawzi one of the two, gives an example of a dog.

The Parable of the Dog and the Lion

A dog comes to the lion and he says, you know, change my name. Because every time when somebody wants to curse somebody else, they say you dog, you're deceptive like a dog. You're treacherous like a dog, so change my name. So the king, the lion of the jungle said I ain't changing your name.

You deserve it. You deserve the name. You know, nowadays in America, they say, yo dog, you know for somebody, for the homie or for somebody who's close to them because you're loyal like a dog.

You couldn't translate that in Urdu. It wouldn't work. So the lion says to him, you deserve the name.

So the dog says try me, give me a chance. So he says, okay, here's a piece of meat, look after it until tomorrow morning. If you manage to look after it tomorrow morning, I will change your name.

So the dog, he's got the meat in front of him and he's looking after the piece of meat. Half the night passes, no problem. Second half of the night.

He's eyeing the meat now. He's thinking that meat be tasty, but he managed to control himself. Last part of the night, the dog nuffs gets better of him and he says, he's beginning to talk to himself.

He said dog? He said dog is a good name. He said who said dog is a bad name? He justifies it to himself. He justified it and then he devours the meat.

Ibn al-Jawzi rahimahullah says this is example of people who have low himmah, who have low aspirations. They will justify to themselves their state. They will not want to change and you often see this when you speak into people.

The Problem of Chronic Pessimism

You know anything that you say to them, they have a negative perception. Say bro, we want to do this. No, don't bother yahi.

No benefit yahi, no benefit brother. You mention any person to them. He's got something to say.

Chronic pessimism, pessimism so chronic that it's contagious. It stifles the community. You say to him, brother, you know that madarsa dharoom or whatever, he's got something to say.

He's got something to say. And these are the people who have low himmah, as believers we trust in Allah that we want to make a change. But where does that change start from? Where does the change start from? The change start from you.

Personal Change First

You cannot speak about revolutionizing the world if you can't change yourself. You cannot talk about liberating Palestine or the state in Syria or in Burma or wherever the crises are taking place. You see this all the time, brothers, sisters, two o'clock in the morning.

They speak about Palestine, you know, Palestine, liberating Palestine, come Fajr salah, a hero sleeping and I'm not saying you can't speak about Palestine if you don't pray Fajr salah, but we have a thing called priorities, the help of Allah descends according to your actions.

The Battle of Qadisiyah: Victory Through Righteousness

On the Battle of Qadisiyah, Umar Ibn Khattab he said to Sa'd Ibn Abi Waqas, he said O Sa'd, let me tell you something. They were going to meet the superpower of the day. He said the vast majority of people who lose on the battlefield is not because of numbers and weapons but is because of their sins because when you commit a sin the help of Allah is removed, it is removed and so the real change starts, it starts from me and you, it starts from within.

If you can't revolutionize yourself, you're not going to revolutionize the world.

The Story of the Father and Son

There's a beautiful example of a man who comes home and he says that it's young toddler child wants to play with him. He's young child and the father just come back from work and he's tired.

So he says to his son, he says give me a few, give me half an hour, I want a cup of tea, I want to put my feet up, when I'm finished, you know, we'll chill and the boy wants to play. So what he does? He sees a map on a newspaper. So he tears this map up.

So he said son put the map together. When you put the map together then we will play. So the boy goes back within a few minutes.

He thinks the father thinks he's got half an hour, a cup of tea and he'll relax. Within half an hour the boy's back and he's put everything together. Australia is where it's meant to be, UK is where it's meant to be, even Trinidad is where it's meant to be, even found Trinidad.

And he puts Trinidad everything and the father shocked. He said my son must be a genius. He did it so quickly.

So he said, son, how did you do it so quickly? So the son turned it around and on the other side, there's a picture of a man. He said, oh dad, I put the man right and the world came right itself. I put the man right and the world came right itself.

If we become right, if our households are right, if we are right, that is our first step, but that is the most difficult step. That is the most difficult step that we put ourselves, our homes, our communities right. And when you do that and when you have that connection with Allah, then many things which are difficult become easy because Allah inspires you.

The Power of Divine Inspiration

Allah inspires you. You look at the Sahaba رَضِيَ اللهُ عَنْهُم . The vast majority of the Sahaba رَضِيَ اللهُ عَنْهُم were people who could not read and write. You look at Rabbi Ibn Amir, Rabbi Ibn Amir رَضِيَ اللهُ عَنْهُ who

Who Was Rabbi Ibn Amir?

Who is Rabbi Ibn Amir? Let me tell you. Rabbi Ibn Amir was a Sahabi. If this incident hadn't happened, maybe you would have never heard his name.

He's not a famous Sahabi. He's African in origin. He was a slave all his life.

The Sa'd Ibn Abi Waqas chose Rabbi Ibn Amir and he goes to the tent of Rustam and they say that tent was embellished like had never been embellished before. It had silver lining. They're in the battlefield, but this is the pump and the glory that the Persian lived in.

They had these cushions which had rubies and emeralds upon them because they thought that this Bedouin, he would see, he would see all this pump and glory and he would be overdosed but Rabbi Ibn Amir reaches the tent and they tell Rabbi Ibn Amir descend from your mount and Rabbi Ibn Amir (رَضِيَ اللهُ عَنْهُ) says I will not descend from my mount. You call me, you will accept my conditions. And then Rabbi Ibn Amir enters the tent on his mule and all this dunya around him, none of this dunya affects him.

The Strength of Iman

None of this dunya affects him, why? Because these were people of iman. They understood that the wealth that they had, the wealth of iman was greater than any of the dunya. Today, you know, anything diverts us.

We get rise at work and all of a sudden, you know, oh we are ready to compromise the deen. We get promotion at work all of a sudden, you know, salah becomes very secondary. It's my future.

It's my career. The boys, the youngsters, you know, anything takes them away. A few negative images about Islam on the media and all of a sudden the iman began to shake.

If the iman was strong, it wouldn't shake. Boy gets involved with a girl, all of a sudden the beard goes, the thobe goes, for the girl, the hijab goes, is that all it took? Is that all it took?

Stories of Transformation

Fudayl Ibn Ayyaz: From Bandit to Saint

If you look at the salaf and the pious predecessors, you know, you looked at their piety. Look at Fudayl Ibn Ayyaz, Fudayl Ibn Ayyaz was who? You could say he was the gangster of his time.

He was the gangster of his time. Fudayl Ibn Ayyaz, he would rob even the hajjis. He spared nobody.

The hajjis would not stop in the area where Fudayl Ibn Ayyaz and his boys were. One day Fudayl Ibn Ayyaz sees a group of people going for hajj and he hears the people saying let's move quickly. This is the place of Fudayl and his boys.

And Fudayl Ibn Ayyaz hears this and something hits his heart. And he comes to these people and he says to them, he says, look I will protect you from Fudayl Ibn Ayyaz. They don't know this is Fudayl Ibn Ayyaz.

They said I will protect you. They said, alhamdulillah. He said come and stay with me tonight.

Fudayl Ibn Ayyaz, I know him. He won't touch you. So they stay with him and that night somebody is reciting the Quran.

The Transformative Verse

Has not the time come for those who believe in Allah that their heart submit for the sake of Allah.

Has not the time come that those who believe in Allah that their heart submit out the fear of Allah and Fudayl Ibn Ayyaz hears this and he says my time has come. He says my time has come and all of a sudden that Fudayl Ibn Ayyaz became who? He was known as Abidul Harameen, the worshiper of the two harams. Why was he known as Abidul Harameen? He was known as Abidul Harameen because they say that there was no place in the two harams that the fear that the tears of Fudayl Ibn Ayyaz did not fall out of the fear of Allah.

From being a gangster, from being a man who would not even spare the hajjis, he becomes a wali who has inspired millions. Is that your role model or is that the local celebrity or some repartition role model? Who is your role model? Because you're cheap in all honesty. If you are substituting the Sahaba, the awliya, the Prophet ﷺ for some celebrity then you're cheap because people through the youth who know that they are going to stand in front of Allah.

They know they're going to stand in front of Allah, then they resist the temptations around them and that is the sign of a living human being, a person whose heart is living, he resists the temptation.

The Example of Living vs Dead Fish

My friend Shaykh Yawar, he says, he gives an example. He says dead fish, dead fish go with the flow, living fish swim against the current, you're dead, you go with the flow, whatever is around you, whatever society portrays to you, you go.

Today the fashion is this tight, you wear tight. Tomorrow the fashion is loose pants, you wear loose pants. The day after they were wearing the Palestinian scarf, you start wearing the Palestinian scarf.

Brother, why are you wearing the Palestinian scarf? Bro, it's the cause. It wasn't the cause before the celebrities wore it. Now all of a sudden it's become the cause.

They're telling you to wear your trousers halfway down your backside, you wear your trousers halfway down your backside. Where's the haya?

Imam Al-Qa'nabi: Another Transformation Story

Let me tell you about another shaykh, another gangster, Imam al-Qa'nabi, Imam al-Qa'nabi is a narrator on Muwatta. He's one of the students of Imam Malik rahimahullah.

He was once sitting and Imam Shaabi was coming with an entourage and this was the local gangster. So he asked them, he said who's this man? Who was this following he's got? He said this is Imam Shaabi. He's a muhaddith of his time, a great scholar.

He said great great scholar, hadith scholar? He said, okay. He went and he stood in front of the mount of Imam Shaabi and he said narrate to me narrations. He said read hadith for me.

He said you're not a muhaddith nor are you a student of deen. Why should I read to you? So he took out his knife. He took out his knife and he put it by the throat of Imam Shaabi and he said narrate for me.

Either you narrate or this goes inside you. Imam Shaabi says hadith on Mansur and Rabai' and Ibn Masud qala Rasulullah ﷺ.

The Hadith About Shame

(Bukhari hadith 3484)

He says that Mansur narrated from Rabai' from Ibn Masud (رَضِيَ اللهُ عَنْهُ) that the Prophet ﷺ said when your haya, when your shame dies, you will do whatever you wish. He said these words.

The words permeated the heart of Imam Ka'nabi. He went home. He did tawbah.

He went and he studied by Imam Malik for a very very long time from becoming a gangster. He becomes the imam of his time. The ulema say that he was the most of one of the most authentic narrators of the Muwatta.

From where did he start and where did he end?

Rabbi Ibn Amir's Message to Rustam

So Rabbi Ibn Amir (رَضِيَ اللهُ عَنْهُ) goes into the tent and the dunya doesn't affect him and he enters the gathering of Rustam and Rustam is sitting on his bed which is made out of gold. And around him are his

cronies and when they see Rabbi Ibn Amir (رَضِيَ اللهُ عَنْهُ) they begin to laugh. Because they see this man dark-skinned, riding a mule.

He's got patches on his clothes. His sword, the sheath of his sword was made out of a cloth. And the tip had a piece of leather and they begin to laugh.

Why? Because they judged him by the zahir, they judged him by his apparent, but little did they know that under that dark skin, patchy clothes were characteristics which Allah defines as that Allah is pleased with them and they are pleased with their abode by Allah. And then Rabbi Ibn Amir (رَضِيَ اللهُ عَنْهُ) he gets off his mount and they had placed a cushion for him and he removes the cushion and he sits on the floor.

And Rustam asked him why are you sitting on the floor? He said I prefer to sit on the earth of Allah and then Rustam asked him, he said why have you come? Why have you come? And Rabbi Ibn Amir (رَضِيَ اللهُ عَنْهُ) says, what did he say? He said, what did he say? He didn't say that Saad Ibn Abi Waqas sent me.

He didn't say that Umar Ibn Khattab, Ameer of Momineen sent us. He didn't say that the Messenger of Allah sent us. What did he say? He said Allah has sent us.

The Message of Liberation

He said Allah has sent us to remove whoever He wishes from the servitude of man to the servitude of the Lord of man. If anybody knew the servitude of man, it was Rabbi Ibn Amir because he remained in the servitude of man all his life until he embraced Islam and then he became the slave of Allah, from the unjust nature of other religions and other systems to the justice of Islam and from the tight confinement of the dunya to the vast expansion of the hereafter. This is what happens, Rabbi Ibn Amir when Rustam went to his people, a long discussion.

I don't have time to go through it. But when Rustam went to his people, he said to his people, he said have you ever seen a man who is more articulate than this man and more confident and you know what Rustam's crony said to him? He said oh Rustam, do not incline to the religion of this dog. Don't you see his mount? Don't you see his ride? Don't you see his clothes? They judged him by the zahir, like many of us today, we judge people by their dunya.

The Real Measure of Respect

The respect that we give people is by their dunya. The ruder the youngster is the more respect that he gets on the street. The richer the person is in the mosque committee, the more respect that he gets.

Rizq is written by Allah. There was a time when Muslims respected each other for the khair, for their good, not for their bank balances, not for the car that they drove, not for how good-looking you were because your looks, you have nothing to do with the looks. You have nothing to look do with the looks and by

Allah, no matter how good-looking you are on the Day of Judgment, if you have utilized your looks for haram, then you will wish that you were ugly in this dunya.

On the Day of Judgment, no matter how good-looking you are, no matter how the women flock for you in this dunya, no matter how the men flock for you in this dunya, by Allah, you will all be naked, you will all be naked and nobody will give you a second glance. Nobody will give you a second glance. That's your reality, no matter how good-looking you are, when you're placed in that grave of yours, the spiders and the worms will run through those hairs of yours and those sockets of eye sockets of yours.

Allah makes people beautiful because He wants to test them. He wants to see what you do with that beauty. Are you inclined towards your upper sex? Do you transgress the laws of Allah or do you say alhamdulillah, Allah has made me like this but the thing that really counts is my character.

Rustam's Recognition

So Rabbi Ibn Amir (رَضِيَ اللهُ عَنْهُ), he knew what it meant from being a slave. So they say to Rustam, they said don't you incline towards the religion of this dog and Rustam, you know what he says? Rustam says, fool, don't you understand that these people are not concerned about the dunya. These people have a greater goal.

They're not concerned about their clothes or what they ride. Rustam met one believer, one meeting and he understood that these people were different. Rabbi Ibn Amir hadn't studied in Harvard University.

Or Oxford University or any other university. He hadn't studied in Azar or Deoband but when he spoke Allah was the tongue by which he spoke, Allah was the hands by which they held, Allah was the eyes by which these people saw because they were close to Allah and this is why my dear respected brothers and sisters when we create that connection with Allah things become easy. Things become easy.

Those things that we thought were difficult become very very easy.

Our Goals and Aspirations

So our goals are what? And I'm going to finish off here. Our goals are what? Our goals are high aspirations.

We don't have low aspirations. We are people who aspire for the highest. We aspire for the highest.

Ask for the Highest Level of Paradise

When the Prophet ﷺ told the Sahaba (رَضِيَ اللهُ عَنْهُم)he said when you ask for jannah, what kind of jannah do you ask for? He said ask for Jannatul Firdous, Firdous, the highest of jannah, second best is not good enough.

The Story of Rabi Ibn Al Ka'b

Upon occasion the Prophet ﷺ was sitting with the Sahaba (رَضِيَ اللَّهُ عَنْهُم - radiya Allahu 'anhum) and there was a Sahabi sitting next to him called Rabi Ibn al Ka'b and this was a time when great wealth from Bahrain came into the Muslim lands. Never in the history of Islam had so much wealth ever come into the Muslim lands and the Prophet ﷺ told the Sahaba (رَضِيَ اللَّهُ عَنْهُم - radiya Allahu 'anhum) he said spread all the wealth in the masjid and they spread all the wealth in the masjid and the Sahaba come and they ask the Message of Allah, can we have some? And the Prophet ﷺ says yes, another one comes, Prophet ﷺ says yes, as one of the Sahaba if I remember rightly is Anas Ibn Malik (رَضِيَ اللَّهُ عَنْهُم - radiya Allahu 'anhum) said, he said the Prophet ﷺ didn't have the word la in his vocab, he never said no to anybody, anybody wanted help the Message of Allah was there.

So another one comes and he said take, another one comes take, Abbas (رَضِيَ اللَّهُ عَنْهُم - radiya Allahu 'anhum) took so much that he couldn't even carry it. That's how much they came and they took and there is a Sahabi (رَضِيَ اللَّهُ عَنْهُم - radiya Allahu 'anhum) next to the Prophet ﷺ. His name was Rabi Ibn Ka'b (رَضِيَ اللَّهُ عَنْهُم - radiya Allahu 'anhum) al-Aslami and the Prophet ﷺ turned to Rabi and he said oh Rabi, ask I will give you, he said a Message of Allah whatever I ask for you will give me, he said ask I will give you.

So Rabi (رَضِيَ اللَّهُ عَنْهُم - radiya Allahu 'anhum) said oh Message of Allah, I ask you one for one thing, one thing only. I ask you for your companionship in jannah. Nothing else.

I ask you for your companionship in jannah, nothing else. And the Prophet ﷺ said is there anything that you want? Take some of this. And Rabi (رَضِيَ اللَّهُ عَنْهُم - radiya Allahu 'anhum) said oh Message of Allah, that is enough for me.

And the Prophet ﷺ said assist me in assisting you by doing profuse sujoods, doing profuse prostrations, do prostrations and inshallah, you will be my companion in jannah, not only Jannatul Firdaus but with the Message of Allah ﷺ.

But what did the Prophet ﷺ say to him? He didn't just say to him. Okay, that's fine. You ask for it. I will give, it will be granted. He said no, no, carry on with your action, do the prostrations, do the actions.

The Attitude of Excellence

You know they say about the Japanese, Japanese work to attitude, attitude to work is what? If he can do it, I can do it. If nobody can do it then I must do it. They say, you know what the Arab and the Middle Eastern attitude and the Muslim attitude to work is? They say wallahi, if he can do it, let him do it himself.

Ya habibi, if nobody can do it, how you expect me to do it? But this is not the attitude that Muslim should have. Muslims who are people who are high, we have high aspirations. We have aluhul himmah and you see this in the life of the Sahaba (رَضِيَ اللَّهُ عَنْهُم - radiya Allahu 'anhum) that we are people who are muta'ddi, we are transitive in our nature.

The Parable of the Three Men in the Cave

The Prophet ﷺ gave this beautiful example and I will finish it Allah willing. That I often say this but mashallah, you are such a good audience. You just keep inspiring me.

He gave an example of three people who are traveling from the Bani Israel, from the people of before and while they traveling it begins to rain. So they take shelter in a cave. And whilst they are taking shelter in the cave, a rock descends and it covers the mouth of the cave.

So they heave, they push to no avail and then they decide they can't do anything and they lie down waiting for death. And then one of them stands up and he raises his hands to the heavens and he says, oh Allah, I had elderly parents and every night before my parents would go to sleep, I would milk the cattle and I would give the milk to my parents. One day I went far away to attain the fodder.

By the time I came back my parents had gone to sleep. My children wanted the milk. They were hungry, but I did not feel it fit that I give my children milk before my parents.

So I told my wife put the children to sleep. And all night I stood by the bed of my parents with the milk in my hands. And when they woke up, I gave them the milk and they drank it.

He said, oh Allah, if you know that I did this action solely for your sake then remove the rock and the rock moves but not enough for them to come out. Then the second one stands up. He said, oh Allah, I had a cousin.

I was infatuated with my cousin. There was no woman that I loved more than my cousin. Many times I made a move on her and every time she turned me down.

One day she came to me. She was in desperate need of money and she said to me, give me some money. I am in desperate need and I said on one condition.

That you allow me to have a relationship with you and because she was in desperate need of the money, she agreed and he says when I became came close to her. She said to me, (اِتَّقِ اللّٰهَ - ittaqi Allah) fear Allah. Do not break the seal unless you are the rightful owner, unless you are the husband.

He said when she said (اِتَّقِ اللّٰهَ - ittaqi Allah) fear Allah, those words permeated my heart and I moved back because the fear of Allah penetrated my heart. He said O Allah, if you know that I done this action solely for your sake, then remove the rock and the rock moves but not enough for them to come out. Then the third one stood up.

He said O Allah, I hide a group of people and come evening when it's time for them to take their wages, all of them took their wages besides one. And what I did with his one day wages is that I invested it until there was a valley full of livestock, a valley full of livestock and many days later he came back and he said, he said O servant of Allah, I need that one day wages. So I took him and I said you see all this, all this belongs to you and he said O servant of Allah, do not joke with me.

For I am need of this money. Well in English, we would say you're having a laugh. You're having a laugh, you laugh and you're joking with me.

He said no, that was this one day wages and we invested it for you and it mushroomed and it grew and this is all yours. And the person he takes all that belong to him. He said O Allah, if you know that I done this action solely for your sake, ikhlas, solely for your sake then remove the rock and the rock moves and it moves enough for all of them to come out.

A Question for Self-Reflection

Now, let me ask you a question. If me and you were the fourth person in that cave, by what action in our life that we've done, would we ask Allah to remove the rock? What action?

And if we haven't done such actions that we need to become people of actions. Actions don't have to be great.

But they have to be great in the eyes of Allah. Abdullah Ibn Mubarak rahimahullah said through ikhlas, many small action becomes enormous, huge and many great action becomes small in the eyes of Allah, but we need to be people of actions. We are believers.

We have iman which is unequivocal, but let's show that we can do something. Let's make a change. Let's be people who are muta'di, let's be people who really affect a change within our communities, affect a change in our homes, affect a change within our communities, affect a global change.

That's what this ummah should be about, a global change.

The Story of the Starfish

There's a author, if I remember rightly, his name is Ainsbury, if I remember rightly. He's a well-known author.

He tells a story and I will finish it, in sha Allah, he comes out of his, he tells a story, he comes out of his hotel. It's by the beach like Trinidad, like beautiful Trinidad, masha Allah. You know, one thing I must say, I really admire about you people is the ease by which you sit with different communities.

It's admirable, Africans, Indians. It's very admirable. May Allah give you istiqamah because this is very important, the ability to relate to the people around you, may they be Muslim or may they not be Muslim.

The ability to create a feeling of an ummah, very few communities have the ability to do that, very very few, alhamdulillah it's a very admirable, maybe it's the barakah of being here 170 years, but this is very important. If you look throughout the Quran, sometimes Muslims have the ability, the ability of ostracizing them and isolating themselves, which is not healthy because we are meant to be people, we

are people who are meant, people are meant to incline towards us. If you create a barrier then you will isolate people, you look out throughout the Quran.

The Example of the Prophets

Every single person, every single nabi when he spoke to his people, what did he say? He said (يَا قَوْمِي - ya qawmi) my people, my people. They were all disbelievers, but he addressed them (يَا قَوْمِي - ya qawmi) Lut (عليه السلام - alayhis salam) he addressed his people. You know what the people were up to? It wasn't nothing that Lut (عليه السلام - alayhis salam) agreed with.

It was something that he came to change, but he's (يَا قَوْمِي - ya qawmi) my people, so they could relate to him. There was a barrier, so there would be no barrier and then the dawa starts. If you look into the life of the Prophet ﷺ, exactly the same.

Building Relationships First

When the first revelation descended and he went to Khadijah (رَضِيَ اللَّهُ عَنْهَا - radiya Allahu 'anha) and he said to Khadijah he said (زَمِّلُونِي، زَمِّلُونِي - zammiluni, zammiluni) he said cover me, cover me. He said and she gave him a cloth and she said what happened and he told her and he said (خَشِيتُ عَلَى نَفْسِي - khashitu 'ala nafsi) he said I fear for my life. And what did he say? She hadn't prepared a talk on the seerah of the Prophet ﷺ.

It was spontaneous. She said Allah will never forsake you because you assist in a nutshell, you assist those who nobody else is ready to assist, the yetims, the widows, the orphans, the widows, the nobody, the untouchables, you are first to assist them. This was the characteristic of the Prophet ﷺ before Islam and this is why when he stood on the mountain of Safa Marwah, he said if I was ready, if I told you that behind this mountain, there are a group of people ready to attack you, would you believe me? And in one voice they said of course, we will believe you, you are sadiq, you are al-almeen, you are the trustworthy amongst us, you are the truthful one.

When they wanted to give an example of a person who was upright, they would give an example of the Prophet ﷺ. Why? Because he had created that relationship. Generally with the Muslim community is like this.

We want to put a dawah stall out and we want to give verbal dawah nothing else. We don't want to build a relationship. We don't want to do any social work, any outreach work, but we want to give people dawah, that is contrary to the sunnah of the Prophet ﷺ.

The Prophet ﷺ won the hearts and the minds of people after living amongst them for 40 years. 40 years, he gave them dawah. Umar Ibn Khattab says I was the fortieth person to embrace Islam, although there was about 12 more people who embraced Islam, but to his knowledge he says that I was the fortieth person to embrace Islam.

After living amongst them for 40 years being known as sadiq al-ameen it took six years for 40 people to embrace Islam. Six years and we want it like, you know, we want it, you know, we live in an instant world, like you put on the light switch, everybody becomes a Muslim, like you send an email, everybody becomes a Muslim. The most difficult thing is to do the groundwork and may Allah preserve you because alhamdulillah, I see great khair, I travel quite a bit and mashallah the way that you brothers and you sisters, mashallah are comfortable with other communities.

That is very admirable. Anyway, I come back to Ainsley. That's the author's name, Ainsley, Ainsley says I came out of my hotel and this is the change, change sometimes starts little.

But if everybody makes a little change, it makes a big impact. Ainsley says I came out my hotel and I saw tens of thousands of starfish washed up on the shore, tens and thousands and in the distance, I saw this young man. He's picking up the starfish and he's throwing him into the sea, picking him and throwing him into the sea.

So I walked up to this young man and I said what you doing? He said all these starfish, they've been washed up, if they remain here, they will dry up and they will die. And I said to him, I said look around you, there's tens and thousands of them. What difference is it going to make that you pick up a few starfish and throw them back in? He said the boy had a starfish in his hand.

He looked at me and then he looked at the starfish and then he threw it back into the sea and then he turned to me. He said that it made a difference to that one. It made a difference to that one.

And this is why even if we make little changes in our lives, in the community that we live in, you will see the barakah of that will be slowly, you will have a greater change.

Final Dua

So may I make dua that Allah preserve your community. I make dua that Allah bless it, Allah make it grow.

It's also admirable that being here 170 years, mashallah, you are still steadfast on your deen. May Allah make this dar al-'ulum prosperous. May Allah make those who qualify from this dar al-'ulum, ulama who are transitive in their nature, who spread the deen not just to the island of Trinidad, but to the world.

They become, may Allah make your community a role model. May Allah bless the gathering. May Allah overlook our sins.

May Allah overlook our shortcomings. May Allah keep us united in this dunya and may Allah reunite us in Jannatul Firdaus.