Today we are talking about the legacy of the Prophets and the Messengers of Allah Salla Allahu alaihi wa sallam but the problem is, each aspect requires a number of dedicated lectures and to squeeze 3 great Messengers and Prophets of Allah in one lecture and to speak about these topics would not give it it’s due right; however we will try our level best to utilize the time to benefit us as much as possible from this lecture In sha Allah.
The Prophets and Messengers of Allah Azza wa jall are the elite of His creation, they are the cream of human kind. And Allah Azza wa Jall had sent them as His ambassadors to convey His message to His creation. And believing in them, loving them, respecting them and following them is part of the pillars of our Faith {Iman]. All Muslims know,” How many pillars are there of Iman?”
“SIX.”
There are 6 pillars of Iman and one of them is to believe in Allah’s Messengers. Now believing in them and loving them is part of our Deen, unlike other religions; it will nullify your Islam if you discredit them, if you mock them. If you ridicule anyone of them the slightest; this gets you out of the folds of Islam. If you speak negatively about any Prophet or any Messenger, then, even if you pray five times a day, if you pray Tahajjud, if you go for Hajj, fast Ramadan, do voluntary deeds, give charity, then you are a Kafir on the spot; just by saying this one particular joke.
And it is needless to say that Allah Azza wa Jall has instructed us to follow His messengers. Allah says in the Qur’an,” Indeed there has been an excellent example for you in Ibraheem and those with him, so he’s an example. And Ibraheem is unlike any other Messenger, we always offer salutations to our Prophet Salla Allahu alaihi wa sallam in our prayers and we also offer salutation to Ibraheem{peace be upon him and all the Messengers of Allah Azza wa Jall}
Not only that, Allah Azza wa jall has mentioned in surat Al Ana’am , a number of messengers and Prophets.
And then at the end after mentioning their names Allah said ,” They are those whom Allah has guided, so follow Oh Muhammed Salla Allahu alaihi wa sallam, follow their guidance.”From this Ayah, among the Prophets who were mentioned was Haroon, who was a Prophet and a Messenger.
And Allah is telling us, actually Muhammad Salla Allahu alaihi wa sallam to follow the guidance of all the Messengers and Prophets, including Haroon. And Imam Al Shamqeeti, may Allah have mercy on him, in Abawil Bayan said that this Ayah is an evidence for growing the beard, because in the Qur’an, Haroon, Peace be upon him, was talking to Moosa, peace be upon him, when he came back and he said,” Oh my brother, do not take hold of my head and my beard,” which means that Haroon had a beard. And in this Ayah Allah is telling Muhammed Salla Allahu alaihi wa sallm,” Follow their guidance.” And part of their guidance is growing the beard, but this is not our topic.
Let’s talk about today’s topic:” Legacy of the Prophets,” and we have so much to talk about each and every Messenger and Prophet’s lives but we will select about the repentance of Adam{peace be upon him}; the Dawah of Nuh{peace be upon him} and the perseverance of Ibraheem{peace be upon him}.
And I have stated before that I cannot give justice to this topic because of the time limitation. However we will try our best to learn, to ponder and to implement what we hear, in our lives.
Because the essence of this lecture and all the lectures we give and we hear is not to increase our knowledge, this knowledge would be a menace, it would be something we would regret on The Day Of Judgment, if we do not apply it, because Allah would be holding us accountable for each and everything that we learnt and did not implement.
So it’s not an issue of just adding things and topping things without applying it and without implementing it.
Adam {peace be upon him] is the father of all humanity. Allah Azza wa Jall created 4 things with His hands. Does Allah have hands? Definitely, Allah has hands. Don’t listen to those Asharees and those of the deviant groups who say Allah does not have hands. Allah Azza wa Jall has told us in the Qur’an that He has 2 hands, so we have to believe this as Ahle Sunnah Wa Jamah.
So Allah created only 4 things with His own hands as stated in the hadith, He created the Pen that registered everything that would happen till The Day Of Judgment, He created The Thrown, He created The Gardens Of Eden, and He created Adam {peace be upon him} with His hands. And that is why when Allah ordered Satan to prostrate to Adam, what did Satan do?
He said,” I am better than him, you created me from fire and you created him from clay, from mud.” Allah asked,” Why didn’t you prostrate to what I have created with My Two Hands?”{Allah says, “With My Two Hands.”} Satan at least would have said,” So what, you have created even me with your two hands.”He didn’t say that because he was not created by Allah’s Hands.
Only those 4 things were created by Allah with His Own Hands as mentioned in the authentic hadith.
So Adam {peace be upon him} is the father of all humanity, he was created by Allah’s hands and Allah Azza wa Jall got all the angles to prostrate to him. And Adam {peace be upon him} was the first Prophet as the hadith stated. So always remember this, if someone asks you,” Who was the first Prophet?” You should always say: Adam.
Who was the first Messenger?
You should say: Adam{peace be upon him}. We all know the story. He was forbidden to eat from that tree, and then {this is crucial to understand and to believe} that Prophets may sin, but they may only sin minor sins, but not out of insisting to do it. It is just a sin that they fell in and they immediately repent and ask Allah for forgiveness.
They do not do major sins. Allah Azza wa Jall had made them Ma’soom. They would not do any major sins. In the Quran it states clearly that Adam did disobey Allah Azza wa Jall. What would we learn from this story, without going into details? First of all, even those who are honorable, big and great, they can fall into sin. Who can be greater than a Prophet? Yet he fell into this sin. The difference between us and them is that they immediately repent, and they immediately go back to Allah Azza wa Jall. Every single person on this earth is a sinner. And the Prophet Salla Allahu alaihi wa sallam said,
“Every son of Adam is a sinner, and the best of sinners are those who repent”. So we, unfortunately take the first part of the Hadith. So if you ask someone,” Akhi why are you doing this?” He would say,” Well yeah every son of Adam is a sinner, I am one of them.” Ya Akhi continue and complete the hadith, where is the repentance part? He says,” I didn’t reach that part in my studies, this is where I stopped.”
So we understand that this sin was committed by Adam. However you have to understand that his sin was not out of arrogance, so if you compare Satan’s sin with Adam’s sin, you would find that Satan’s sin resulted from his arrogance, his pride. Allah said,” Prostrate,” he said,” No, I am better than him.” The sin of Adam was out of forgetfulness and that is why Allah Azza wa Jall says,” And indeed we made a covenant with Adam earlier but he forgot.”
So this is what drove him to sin and that he forgot the covenant and disobeyed Allah Azza wa Jall. Now compare our situation with the sin of Satan and with the sin of Adam {peace be upon him} When we sin is it out of weakness and human nature? If the answer is yes then what follows that? Is it repentance and remorse, then you are in good hands and you are closer to Allah’s forgiveness and to Allah’s paradise. But if you commit sins out of arrogance and pride and if someone advices you tells you this is haram, what you are doing is wrong and he says,” I know, I know.”
It’s an issue of dispute among scholars. And you continue to be defiant and you insist on sinning and sinning without stopping then you are similar to Satan and eventually you will end up with him { Ya Allah have mercy upon us all} So you should compare this to that. We all sin.
Adam sinned, that was out of forgetfulness, not only that, he was recently created, he didn’t have experience, he didn’t interact with conmen and people who lie and deceive and cheat and that is why Satan banked on that and utilized that. And Allah tells us in the Qur’an that Satan swore by Allah to them both {Adam and Eve} saying,” Verily I am one of the sincere well wishers of you both,” and they believed him. He swore by Allah and they did not think it was possible that someone swears by Allah and lies. This is how naïve, natural and pure they were. He swore by Allah, that’s it, they believed what he said and ate from the forbidden tree, which cost them what, you all know. And falling in sin is not a catastrophe in itself, but refusing to repent and not ask for forgiveness is the problem. And that is why the first step of repentance is to admit your guilt. Don’t look at the brother who is sitting next to you, don’t look at your neighbor, go and look at yourself in the mirror. Try not to talk to yourself in the mirror when someone is watching, they will think something’s wrong with you but sit alone, look in the mirror and say,” Assim you have these following short comings.” If you have a problem then the mirror is going to talk back to you,” No, no I don’t, you have it.” But seriously, analyze yourself; look at your own short comings.
On The Day Of Judgment, Allah will hold you accountable for you own deeds; He’s not going to ask you about your neighbors, your family; He’s going to ask you about what you had done, what your sins are and what your convictions were. So let’s look and analyze ourselves. We have committed sins and we have short comings, admit it and this half of the journey. Once you admit and confess then repentance is very close by.
Musa {peace be upon him} when he killed that Coptic, what did he say,” O lord I have wronged myself tremendously, so forgive me.” Allah Azza wa Jall forgave him. The minute he admitted it and sort forgiveness Allah forgave him. Younus, Jonah, when he was in the belly of the whale said,”
There is no God worthy of worship but you and I admit I was among the wrongdoers.” And Allah forgave him. The Prophet Salla Allahu alaihi wa sallam himself used to say in his Dua’a,” I confess my sin and I have wronged myself.” The best of this ummah, Abu Bakr{may Allah be pleased with him} came to the Prophet Salla Allahu alaihi wa sallam and said,”
Teach me a Dua’a that I would say in my prayers.” Now remember the first one to enter Jannah from the ummah of Muhammed Salla Allahu alaihi wa sallam is Abu Bakr {may Allah be pleased with him}. Now you all know the attributes of Abu Bakr, he is second to none.
However the Prophet Salla Allahu alaihi wa sallam taught him this Dua’a, Allahumma inni zalam tu nafsi zulman kaseeran wa innahu la yaghfir uzzunuba illa anta faghfirli maqfiratan min indika warhamni innaka antal ghafoor ur raheem. He didn’t tell him to ask for more wealth, ask for money, ask for health, ask for this or ask that, rather he asked him to say,” O Allah I have wronged myself tremendously and there is no one who can forgive the sins except You, so forgive me and have mercy on me from Your side because You are Most Forgiving, Most Merciful.”
That’s it, this was for Abu Bakr, now what about us who have done so many sins and we don’t accept. I know how wrong you are with your wife, how abusive with your children, how bad you are with your neighbors, how bad you’re about connecting with your next of kin, you haven’t spoken with your uncle in weeks and months, some of you with your brothers, you live in the same city, you never see them, you don’t talk to them, you don’t give them.
On top of that lying to the government, abusing the benefit system and saying that your wife is not your wife when you have six kids with her, she claims and lies that she’s a single mom, let alone the lying, cheating, stealing and the list can go on. And the brothers are saying,” Yeah I have this, I have this, is he talking about me, how does the sheikh know me?”
We do have these problems. How many times have you skipped Fajr prayer? I asked this question to a brother who works in giving Dawah. He was driving me one day and I asked him,” Brother how many Fajr prayers have you missed this month?” He said,” Sheikh I prayed only once or twice this month, I work for Dawah, long hours, I get to sleep at 2 in the night, I am unable to get up for Fajr.” Subhan Allah, you leave the essence, you leave the essential things that Allah Azza wa Jall has obliged upon you and you focus on things that are so minor.
Allah says,” My servant will not closer to me better than doing the things that I made obligatory upon him.” And you leave the obligations and you go to the voluntary stuff and this will not help you. If you even pray the whole night and then you miss praying Fajr, it doesn’t count because Fajr is an essence, it is the mandatory thing.
Now we have to analyze ourselves. I always tell the brothers that I speak with,” Akhi you won’t have a mentor with you 24/7 telling you, this is right, this is wrong. You will not have someone who knows what’s inside your heart, who knows your short comings. No one is there with you when you close your doors at night.
A man came to Ibn Umar{may Allah be pleased with him} and started flattering him,” Masha Allah the people are in safe hands as long as you are with them, you are the cause of them being guided and away from Fitnah and away from tribulation.” Ibn Umar got angry and he’s the brother-in-law of the Prophet Salla Allahu alaihi wa sallam, one of the best companions, he said,” Do you what your brother does when he closes his door at night?
Your brother, your sibling, one you know best. Do you know what he does when he closes his door at night and when he’s alone in his room? So how dare you say something about me when you don’t know me?” And this means that you are the only one, with the grace of Allah, who is capable of analyzing your own short comings and fixing your own bad things.
You have to repent, you have to look inside yourself and say,” Ok I am making these minor sins but also making some major sins, backbiting, lying, cheating, envy, holding grudges against Muslims etc and on top of that financial transactions, the mortgages, the Riba, this and that,” the issue goes on and on. So this is why you have to take the example of Adam and follow it.
Look how beautiful and great Allah is. He creates us, He provides for us, He gives us everything that we ask for and the things that we never anticipated and when we sin He tells us how to repent and He accepts our repentance; Subhan Allah.
If you look at Allah’s repentance; it is divided in to two types, the only thing is, “Ok I am going to repent and Allah will forgive my repentance,” and we take it for granted and this is wrong. Allah Azza wa Jall first of all guides us to repentance. Me and this brother, we are sinful.
But, Subhan Allah, we do the same sin, we go to the same places; and all of a sudden Allah Azza wa Jall guides him to repent and I am not guided, I want to repent but not interested. I see him repenting, walking and taking the straight path and I say,” Poor thing he doesn’t know what he is missing?” Why, because Allah Azza wa Jall guided him to repent; So this is phase one; phase two: Allah’s acceptance of his repentance. He may be guided and he seeks Allah’s forgiveness and he repents but this does not mean that Allah Azza wa Jall has accepted his repentance yet and this is something that we do not know. And that is why we have to be in hope and in fear at the same time; this has to go parallel. In Saudi Arabia, we have 5 gear cars.
Here I think you have 6 or 7 gear cars. So if you’re in the 5th gear, it means you are on the highway, going to Madina, so you relax and you drive. If you sin and if you repent and you put the fifth gear, thinking this is it,” I have repented and Allah has accepted my repentance.” What effect will this have on you? You tend to relax. This is what I was telling one of the brothers, after someone finishes his umrah and he is going back to Jeddah, he starts listening music in his car, the moment he goes back home, he watches a movie or two.
If you say,” Akhi, what are you doing?” He says,” The umrah erases everything, so I have a new record, so I might as well enjoy, I have got credit.” Don’t laugh, this is what is happening. We deal with Allah Azza wa Jall as if we have credit,” You are going to forgive me definitely so I think I can manage to do this and that; and this is the greatest problem.
Allah guided you to repent but he did not accept your repentance yet, this is something we do not know. There are signs but these signs are not definite and 100% foolproof; they might be correct and they might be means of dragging your feet so that you would go back to the vicious circle of sinning without repenting. What are the words that Adam received and we should always say these? Allah Azza wa Jall said,” They say, Our Lord we wronged ourselves, if you do not forgive us and bestow upon us your mercy, we shall certainly be among the losers.” You have to say this, you have to break your ego and pride and you have to humiliate yourself when you pray to Allah Azza wa Jall.
It is not enough to say,” I have sinned, hmmmm I am sorry.” You have to feel the need in humility in submissiveness to Allah Azza wa Jall and a sign of your true repentance would be a warm tear falling off your eyes when you are alone. But if you watch a movie or listen to a song and you cry, yet if you listen to the Qur’an and you contemplate on your status and your lack of repentance and you do not cry then you have a problem. This was the repentance of Adam and the lessons that can be learned from it.
We move on to Nuh{peace be upon him}. He is one of Ulul Azmi Minar Rusul. There are 5 Messengers with strong will: Nuh, Ibraheem, Musa, Isa and Muhammed {may Allah’s peace be on all of them} what stands out in the story of Nuh is, he was one of the greatest Daees of all time. And this is attributed to a number of things; among them is: the duration of his Dawah.
If I gave Dawah for a couple of hours, I will consider myself to be one of the best Daees in the world. Just to give him 2 hours continuously; people would think this is an achievement and if someone does this for a whole day with a non Muslim or with a Muslim friend, giving Dawah to a friend, for a whole day Masha Allah, this is a superman, If we do it for a week, we are not human, if we do it for a year, there is a problem.
Nuh Alaihissalaam, did it for 950 years, without giving up, without being bored. Subhan Allah and this shows us that in his Dawa, there are a number of aspects we should look into and try to adopt.
First of all, the Daee’s situation, if u r giving Dawah, you must not feel bored and you must never give up and you have to have a lot of patience. And patience is something that we do not possess, yet it is the greatest attribute of a practicing Muslim. I am Daee, someone comes to me and says,” Ya Shaikh, you don’t understand anything, you have no knowledge, your aqeeda is corrupt, your salah is incorrect, you are doomed in hell.”
What would I do, being who I am, I would probably grab him by his neck and pound him in his face and poke holes in to his body. This is not a Daee. I am doing this for Allah Azza wa Jall. What did the Prophet Salla Allahu alaihi wa Sallam do. Imagine yourself prostrating in the masjid and someone puts the guts of the camels on your back while prostrating, what would you do?
Allahu Akbar, Allahu Akbar, don’t ask, which shows us that, what we do is nothing. Our pray is not accepted, the submissiveness is not there, our Dawah is not for the sake of Allah, Subhanahu wa ta’aalah, purely. We learn from the story of Nuh Alaihis Salaam that he was tolerant, that he was patient.
If you look at the people he gave Dawah to; I could talk to the brother for 5 minutes, and immediately I could see tears coming from his eyes and that’s it, I promise Allah Azza wa Jall,” I am not going to do any more sins.”
Why?
Because he is demanding, he is requesting, what I would give him. Now on the contrary if I preach someone who doesn’t want to listen, it would be very difficult to give Dawah to him.
So was the case with the people of Nuh{peace be upon him] Allah says in the Qur’an,” And verily every time I call on to them that You might forgive them.”Nuh{peace be upon him} was not calling them for money or he was not calling them for property.
Some of the deviant scholars {if I can call them scholars]; I know a brother who told me this about a particular scholar, in a particular subcontinent country: people pay him 5000 pounds every month, this guy is filthy rich and he is deviant, he is calling people to grave worshiping and they give him money. Nuh{ peace be upon him} was not like this, he was not calling people for any gains of this duniya. He said,” Every time I call on to them so that you might forgive them.”Nuh was calling on to his people for Allah’s forgiveness.
They put their fingers in their ears, covered themselves up with the garments and persisted and magnified themselves in pride. So difficult that would be; if you plough in soil, it’s not like how it would be if you plough in rocks; there’s a big difference.
And look at his methodology of Dawah. I could give a lecture a day, two lectures, three lectures, that’s the most I could do. Then I would say,” Listen, I have to have my time, I have to rest, I have to go to work out, I have to go read.” I can’t do more than that because my ability is limited and my Dawah is not sincere enough.
Nuh’s{peace be upon him} Dawah was 24/7; not just from 9 to 5. Allah says,” Then verily I called to them openly, aloud and verily I proclaimed to them in public and appealed to them in private.” So it is day and night, in public and in private, aloud and one to one and this shows us that Dawah is not limited to a particular form. The brothers all want to be Daees, I get tons of mails,” Sheikh I want to be a Daee like you.
” Ya Akhi I am not a Daee first of all, I am just a freelancer, giving Dawah, people invite me and I come; I have free food, I have free lodging Alhamdullilah, it is a vacation for me. I am not a true Daee. True Daee is the one who does this only for the sake of Allah. Now if you ask them why do you want to be a Daee? They would say I would like to come on TV.
Subhan Allah, ok join American Idol that way you can be on TV. This is not the essence to be a Daee: To be famous, to be prominent or to have people look up to you. Akhi, Dawah, if it’s not implemented in your house at the end of the night when you close your door when no one sees you, Wallahi this is a menace against you. Allah will hold you accountable for this.
In Sahih Imam Muslim the Prophet Salla Allahu alaihi wa sallam says, of the first 3 to be thrown in hell are: The Qari, a Martyr and a man who spend his money in the cause of Allah.
The Qari is submitted in front of Allah and shows this man His favors and blessings and Allah asks him,” What did you do?” He says,” I taught Qur’an and I learnt it for your sake, I taught the knowledge and I learnt it for your sake.” Allah says,” You lied and you did this so that people would say that you are learned and they had said that, take him to hell.”
So Dawah has to be for the sake of Allah; 24/7 and this is what Nuh{peace be upon him}did. If it doesn’t work this way, it doesn’t work through preaching and a lecture then you have to visit the individual’s home, you have to give him leaflets, you have to do him some favors, sometimes have to spend money on him so that you get results.
Change and vary in your methods of Dawah like Nuh{peace be upon him} And remember he called them to believe in the oneness of Allah and to worship him alone, only for the sake of Allah. Among the ways he used was, the carrot and the stick. We, unfortunately are good with the stick, carrots, we are not that good with. Why? Because Akhi if I tell you,” Prophet Salla Allahu alaihi wa sallam said say La ilaha illah Allah and you would enter Jannah.”
He would say,” Really? Is it authentic?”
“Yes it is, it is in the Sahih.”
He would say,”Well what are we doing in the masjid? Let’s go to the pub, because we say La ilaha illah Allah!” Because of so many sins around them, with so many Fithnas and a weak Iman, people need a longer stick, because they usually need intimidation and warning more than they need something that would make them relax and not being so keen and careful.
Nuh{peace be upon him}and all other Prophets of Allah used both{warnings and glad tidings} So he warned them from hell and at the same time he gave them the carrot and he said,” I said to them, Ask for forgiveness from your lord verily he is oft forgiving.” What will happen if you believe in Allah and ask for His forgiveness, He will give you so much, He will send rain to you in abundance and will give you increase in wealth and children and bestow on you gardens and bestow on you rivers. Wallahi, if you keep on asking Allah for forgiveness you will find these results.
So many people come,” I have debts, I have problems, I have been jobless for couple of years.” Ask Allah for forgiveness, seek Allah’s forgiveness. Ya Akhi look at the gazillion number of insects, birds, fish, animals, plants. Who provides for them? Allah Azza wa Jall. Are they better or are the sons of Adam {peace be upon him} better, of course Bani Adam {sons of Adam} are better.
So you think Allah would provide for insects and leave you? You have to believe in Him and He will provide for you. Without you being capable of achieving that, He will provide for you if you have true Tawakkul in Allah Azza wa Jall. And Nuh {peace be upon him} had never given up on his people.
“They said, O Nuh you have disputed with us and much have you prolonged the dispute with us.” They complained,” You did not remind us once or twice, 950 years,” this is too long! And this gives us the lesson that when we advice a brother,” Come akhi do salah, brother, the people you are hanging out with, their Aqeedah is corrupt and you have to try and choose better companions.” And they tell you,” That’s it, you advised us now you move on!”
You shouldn’t give up you should continue but try in a different way. A wife should always try to advice her husband, though husbands don’t usually listen to their wives, so they should try and change their ways. If direct Nasiha{advice] doesn’t work then try indirectly, try to come to him through his stomach. Maybe you cook something and make him happy, this might help, please him through looking at you {look good and beautiful for him} And the husband does the same with his wife. You have to change and vary your means of Dawah.
And it is not an indication as in how many follow you as a Daee. Deviant scholars and Daees have millions of followers. Salafi Daees or scholars may have a hundred or a thousand followers. Does this mean: this is an indicator of how true and sincere your Dawah is? No. As I stated yesterday, Justin Beiber has like 25 million followers on Twitter.
How many does Sheikh Bin Baz have, how many? Very few.
So it’s not the quantity that counts in Dawah, it is the quality.
And that is why Prophet Salla Allahu alahi wa sallam said,” The nations were displayed in front of me and I have seen a prophet with a great nation and I have seen a prophet with few men following him and I saw a prophet with a man or two following him and I saw a prophet with no followers at all!
This is a prophet of Allah and he doesn’t have a single follower so this is the same thing with Nuh, he did not have a lot of followers, not only that, those closer to the Daee are the ones who reject his Dawah most.
That is why Nuh’s{peace be upon him} wife, Nuh’s son died as kafirs, regardless of how much time he invested in calling them. Our Prophet Sallah Allahu alaihi wa sallam wanted so eagerly for his uncle Abu Talib to accept Islam until he was on his death bed but Allah did not open his heart to accept Islam and Abu Talib died as a kafir. So always look at the quality and don’t care about the numbers because numbers do not matter and they do not give a true indication.
And finally, Ibraheem {peace be upon him} He was also one of the Ulul Azami Minar Rusul. He was the true example of perseverance, of adhering to Allah’s commandments without any questions asked. And this is something we need in our lives. Now with the internet and with the possibility of preaching knowledge from here and there, you will find people justifying their {sins}, you will find people collecting what serves their desires and whims without adhering to the Qur’an and the Sunnah. And this is a problem.
You will find people using the 4 schools of thought as a methodology, as a bridge to cross the Qur’an and the Sunnah and reach what they want.
So whenever someone asks you,” What’s the ruling on this?” And if you say,” Allah said this or Prophet Salla Allahu alaihi wa sallam said this.” They will say,” Yes but Hambali School of thought says otherwise, and I follow Hambali madhab.” And he’s not a 24/7 Hambali, when it comes to another issue he becomes Maliki because it serves his purpose and needs. Well the perseverance of Ibraheem{peace be upon him}was astonishing. Allah Azza wa Jall said about him,” And remember when Ibraheem was tried by Allah,” and when Allah tries you then this is the ultimate test, he was tested by Allah with certain commands which he fulfilled full stop, each and every one of them, no questions asked.
None of us can say,” Alhamdullilah, I have fulfilled each and every command.”
Ibraheem{peace be upon him} did that. And Allah also said about him,” And Ibraheem, who fulfilled his commitments, all of them.”
If you look in his Seerah{biography} which the Prophet Salla Allahu alaihi wa sallam told us about, it’s astonishing. In the Sahih Hadith Allah Azza wa Jall ordered him to circumcise when he was 80 years old. Imagine 80 years of age and he circumcised himself with an axe.
Nowadays you get people saying,” Aaaa Sheikh, can we find a solution, can we find this or that, what’s the different opinion of scholars?” ” Ya Akhi, do it, do it and have Tawwakul on Allah.” They say,” Sheikhhhh but it’s so….”Just do it and kiss the baby goodnight! Ya Akhi have trust in Allah, Ibraheem {peace be upon him} was 80 years old with an axe, what kind of commitment are you talking about! And not only that imagine when you are so desperate for a child; he was not given an offspring until he was really old and he had given up on having children, then Allah Azza wa Jall gave him Ismael. We all know the story of Ismael{peace be upon him} When Ismael was just an infant, Allah tells Ibraheem,” Take your family to Mecca.”
If you check the GPS, Mecca is a desert, it’s a mountainous area and there are no plants, no water. He took them without any question, no questions asked. And he put them there. And his wife Hajar{peace be upon her} did not ask, throughout the way,” Where are we going?”
She is a good wife, she doesn’t nag, like some women I know…my wives don’t speak English, they speak but they are not going to watch this, so she doesn’t nag, she doesn’t ask, ”Why are you like this?” She travelled with them for a whole month, they reached Mecca, with no food, no water, and he turned his back and went away from her.
“Who are you leaving us for? Are you leaving us here with nothing, with no one?” And he did not even reply to her. Then she said, “Did Allah order you to do this?” He said, “Yes.” Then, she said, with full trust in Allah, “Allah Azza wa Jall will not leave us…..go. And he left.
Now, if you were not 80 years of age, with your only child that Allah granted you at this old age, if you were 20 years of age, would you leave your wife? Would you leave your children?
Never!
But Ibraaheem was like,” I have been instructed, no questions asked. Allah knows best.
” Not only that, Allah Azza wa Jall tells us that Allah tried him with something that is mind blowing. Now, he went back and forth to Mecca, we know the story, visiting his daughter in-law, and then ordering his son to divorce his wife, we all know these things, we’re not going to go into all of that. Just as his child was growing up, when you’re old, really old, what you look for is a son that stands next to you. I know this really quite well, because I only have daughters, I don’t have sons. So, when I do the groceries, I have to take half a car full of groceries up to the third floor, I need someone to give me a helping hand, and I don’t have any, I say Alhamdulillah.
But when you have a son and he’s growing up and you feel that, in a couple of years, In Sha Allah, he’ll take the burden off my shoulders, and all of a sudden, Allah tells you; “Slaughter him.” Don’t drown him, it’s easy, you can just ditch him in the river and leave, rather, slaughter him with your own hands. And when his son was old enough, Allah Azza wa Jall says in the Qur’an, to walk with him, he [i.e., Ibraheem] said, “O my son, I have seen in a dream that I am slaughtering you, so look what you think. The young child did not say, “Come on….you’re bluffing.” He didn’t say that it was just a dream.
The young child was so keen on the revelation and believing in his father as a Messenger, as a Prophet, what did he say? He said, “Oh father do that which you are commanded. In Sha Allah, you will find me among those who are patient.” Glorified be Allah! No questions asked. Ibraheem, once he was ordered, immediately implemented it. And he’s telling his son to do what he saw, not to seek his permission but to prepare him.
And the wise son tells his father, “When you put me on the ground, don’t look into my eyes. Make me look the other way, so that you don’t feel any mercy when you slaughter me.” What kind of test is this? Yet he was as he was complemented by Allah Azza wa Jall, to be adhering to what Allah Azza wa Jall ordered him to do. He was instructed to give Da’wah to his people, who were idol-worshippers and star-worshippers, when he was a young boy, and, when they did not listen to him, he immediately broke their idols. So, as a punishment, they made these great buildings and ditches of fire, and they threw him in it.
Now, what did he say? He said the same thing that the Prophet [Salla Allahu alaihi wa Sallam] said in the battle of Uhud, when he was informed that the pagans and the idol worshippers are coming again to annihilate you. He Salla Allahu alaihi wa sallam said, “Sufficient is Allah for us, and He is the best disposers of all affairs.” Look at the full faith that he had in his heart, and that is why Allah said about him, “Verily Ibraheem was an Ummah, obedient to Allah ‘Haneefan’, and he was not one of those who were Al-Mushrikun.
So look at how Allah Azza wa Jall described him to be obedient, to be away from Shirk, to be grateful and thankful, and to be an Ummah. What is the meaning of Ummah? Ummah, in the Qur’an, is used in four meanings, and one of them that is used here, is a leader of his people.
The other is a nation, or a group of people. The third is a religion. The fourth is a period of time, as mentioned in Surah Al-Yusuf. So here, Ibraheem, on his own was an Ummah. Why? Because he was a chosen one and he was adhering to Allah’s commands on the spot.
So what we learn from Adam, [Peace be upon him], is that we should repent, and ask Allah for forgiveness, and always be fearful that Allah may not have accepted your repentance. From Nuh [Peace be upon him], persistence in giving Da’wah, never give up. Akhi, the best form of Da’wah is to implement Islam in your own self, not by giving leaflets, though these are forms of Da’wah. The best form of Da’wah to your family members, relatives and neighbors, is to be a proper Muslim.
Never cheat, never lie, never use abusive or vulgar language, always be generous, always be courageous, always be proud of being a Muslim. And finally, Ibraheem[Peace be upon him], his perseverance, we should always take whatever comes and implement it on the spot, because Allah Azza wa Jall warned us that He would turn the hearts and the eye sights or vision, for those who receive the truth for the first instance and reject it. If you do that, then Allah Azza wa Jall would not make it easy for you to accept it.
May Allah guide us to act upon what we have heard!