بِسْم الله الرحمن الرحيم
17 times a day in prayer, we ask Allah to guide us to الصراط المستقيم. In [1:6]:
If we say these words with an attentive, sincere heart, Allah will surely guide us. There's only one way to Allah and that's الصراط المستقيم. No other way will lead to Allah.
But everything in life has means. What are the means of guidance?
The most important means is studying the Book of Allah and the Sunnah of the Prophet ﷺ. Out of Allah's grace, He preserved them both for us. All we have to do is study them.
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The Prophet ﷺ said:
نِعْمَتَانِ مَغْبُونٌ فِيهِمَا كَثِيرٌ مِنْ النَّاسِ الصِّحَّةُ وَالْفَرَاغُ
"There are two blessings which many people waste: Good health and Free Time" [Bukhari]
"There are two blessings which many people waste: Good health and Free Time" [Bukhari]
What should we spend our free time and good health in?
The Prophet ﷺ answered this in another Hadith, when he said:
"اللهم لا عيش الا عيش الآخرة"
"O Allah there's no life except the life of the hereafter"
Does that mean we abandon this world?
No. This Dunya is a farm for us. We plant here, and harvest in the next.
It's nothing in comparison to the next world. A place the size of a whip in Paradise is better than this whole world and everything it consists.
This Dunya is perishable - it shouldn't be our main goal.
On the authority of Ibn Umar, may Allah be pleased with both of them, who said: The Messenger of Allah ﷺ took hold of my shoulder and said, ‘Be in the world as if you were a stranger or a traveller along the path.”
This life is a journey. And in the Sunnah, it's disliked for a person to travel alone. This means, that in your journey to Allah, you need a good companion to accompany you.
What should the description of this companion be?
He should be righteous, serious in his endeavor, not lazy, nor disheartening. Whenever you slacken, he should pull you back up, and whenever he slackens, you should pull him up. You help each other.
He should know the reality of this life and the reality of the next. He should know who Allah is.
Assess your companions.
If you accompany the people of the Dunya, they'll adorn this life in your heart. They'll make you compete with others regarding worldly things. They'll make you concerned about your position with the people. They'll make you covet after this world. Their concerns and words are restricted to this life. They only think about what to get, what to eat, how to live. The hereafter doesn't even cross their minds.
Bukhari has a chapter in كتاب الرقاق called "باب الْعُزْلَةُ رَاحَةٌ مِنْ خُلاَّطِ السُّوءِ" (Isolation is better than Evil Companions)
You have to abandon them. They'll harden your heart, and you don't need people who harden your heart in your life.
What prevents us from living like a stranger or traveler?
Having too many worldly hopes and wishes. We think this life is our final abode, that's why our concerns are restricted to it.
In [3:185], Allah mentions the solution to cutting off these hopes:
1) "كل نفس ذائقة الموت"
Remember Death
2) "و إنما توفّون أجوركم يوم القيامة
فمن زحزح عن النار و أدخل الجنة فقد فاز"
Everyone will be given their wage in full on the Day of Judgement. And true, real, success is to be saved from the HellFire and entered into Paradise. It's not to be rich, have a good job, etc.
3) "و ما الحياة الدنيا الا متاع الغرور"
Remember that this is life is a deceiving enjoyment. All its allurement is temporary and will soon fade away.
E.g. You wish to eat a certain kind of food you haven't eaten in a very long time. You're thinking and thinking about it, might even dream about it, but the enjoyment and longing for it goes away after eating the first morsel.
Or you want to buy a dress. You think of it, save up money to buy it, but when you do get it, feeling of how special it was goes away.
This is the state of everything in this world. The enjoyment is so temporary.
You may ask: Is it wrong to have hopes?
There's nothing wrong with having hopes. It's very natural. But what kind of hopes should we have?
There are two kinds of hopes:
1) Blameworthy Hopes
2) Praiseworthy Hopes
These are good, beneficial, - be it worldly or religious - for the sake of the next life.
E.g. You wish to have money to spend it for Allah's sake.
E.g. Some people wish to have children. The question is why. If you only want children for them to take care of you when you're old, Your concerns just revolve around this world. But if you want righteous children to benefit you and invoke for you after your death, this is a praiseworthy wish - and you'll be rewarded for it.
The Prophet ﷺ said, "7 things will remain after the death of the person:
1) Knowledge which a person imparts to others.
2) A canal of water a person runs in order for the people to benefit
3) A well he drills for the Muslims
4) A date palm tree that he plants
5) A Masjid that he builds to benefit the people
6) Qur'an copies which are inherited after his death
7) A righteous son or daughter who asks forgiveness for him after his death" [Authenticated by Al-Albani]
Many of us think that it's natural to have many hopes when you're young, and when you're old all these hopes will dissipate. Is this true? As a person grows older, will his greediness for this world stop?
Nope. The Prophet ﷺ said:
لاَ يَزَالُ قَلْبُ الْكَبِيرِ شَابًّا فِي اثْنَتَيْنِ فِي حُبِّ الدُّنْيَا، وَطُولِ الأَمَلِ
The heart of an old man remains young in two respects:
1) His love for the Dunya (it's wealth, amusements, luxuries)
2) His incessant hopes" [Bukhari]
He's 60 or 70 but his heart is like a 20 year old in this regard.
In another narration, the Prophet ﷺ:
يَكْبَرُ ابْنُ آدَمَ وَيَكْبَرُ مَعَهُ اثْنَانِ حُبُّ الْمَالِ، وَطُولُ الْعُمُرِ
"The son of Adam (i.e. man) grows old and so also two (desires) grow old with him:
1) Love for wealth
2) and (a wish for) a long life." [Bukhari]
It increases with him, not diminishes. And this is the problem with the people. They think they'll stop hoping when they become old.
If there is no belief in the hereafter, hopes will never stop. It will never be extinguished. And that's the line that extends his lifespan:
In another Hadith: The Prophet ﷺ said:
أَعْذَرَ اللَّهُ إِلَى امْرِئٍ أَخَّرَ أَجَلَهُ حَتَّى بَلَّغَهُ سِتِّينَ سَنَةً
"Allah will not accept the excuse of a person whose instant of death is delayed until he is 60 years old" [Bukhari]
This means that this person has no right to say to Allah, "If Allah had given me another lease of life, I'll do good, be righteous, etc"
60 years is enough time and life to do good. It's not short. But as he grows older, as his heart increases with love of the Dunya and long hopes.
The only thing that can extinguish these hopes is إيمان, struggling against your desires, and remembering death. We have to discipline ourselves, or else these hopes will continue to grow until death strikes us.
We see people who are so old, yet they amass wealth, lock their possessions away, become stingy, greedy, and attached to this world. This is the exact manifestation of the Hadith.
In [35:36-37]:
This verse shows us that the people of the hellfire have no plea against Allah - that Allah didn't give them enough time or didn't send them a Warner.
Allah set three proofs against all the sons of Adam:
1) Allah created all the creation with a فطرة; a natural disposition:- with which they can distinguish between right and wrong.
2) Allah created signs in the universe around them.
The sun rises weak, gets full strength in the middle of the day, and will set and die by the end.
The moon is a crescent, becomes full, then dies.
The plants grow, then die.
People are born, become strong, and then die.
Aren't these signs from Allah, that you'll die too? That this life is not a permanent life. This means there should be another life.
3) Allah sent Messengers, He sent books, He sent warners, preachers, etc.
The interpreters of this verse said that grey hair is a Warner, that your life is ending.
And yet after all this they ask for another life and chance, and say no warner came to them.
So hopes and wishes prevent a person from living like a stranger, and don't think your hopes will stop at a certain time or age.
E.g. Mothers.
They wish for their daughters to get married. Then when they do, they wish they have kids, and get worried if they don't. Then when their daughters have kids, they wish to take care of their grandchildren. Then they wish to live to see their grandchildren getting married. Their hopes continue and never stop. This is the state of the people.
So have good hopes; hopes that'll benefit you while you're in your grave, and remember that death is very close. So take the means of attaining Paradise and staying away from the HellFire
The Prophet ﷺ said:
"الجنة أقرب إلى أحدكم من شراك نعله، والنار مثل ذلك"
"Paradise is nearer to you than your shoelace, and so is the (Hell) Fire". [Bukhari]
The more you talk about the reality of this life and the next, the more you'll realize how worthless this life is. If you don't talk about it, you'll get deceived by its enjoyment.
And it's a way of increasing our faith. One thing that prevents our faith from increasing is attachment to this world. All the adornments of the Dunya are nothing in Allah's sight.
In [57:16]:
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