- Interpretation Of Quran / The long version
- /
- (003) Al Imran
Honorable brother, this is the fourth lesson of Surah Ali Imran, where we look at the eighth ayah corresponding to His Words:
Our Lord! Cause not our hearts to stray after Thou hast guided us, and bestow upon us mercy from Thy Presence. Lo! Thou, only Thou, art the Bestower.
The first meaning
O respectable brother, the theologians of interpretation have said that as Allah Almighty orders us to pray for Him not to cause our hearts to stray, this means that the thing is in our hands, and the following ayah affirms this meaning:
So when they went astray (Zagh) Allah sent their hearts astray.
The meaning of “go astray” (Zagh) in Arabic is to turn away towards something other than religion, to turn away towards mundane life, to turn away towards sin, towards cheap pleasures, or to turn away towards (ascribing) a partner unto Allah Almighty. This means that he was at first directed towards Allah, then his heart deviated, so he is now directed towards something other than Allah; he was going after obedience, then his heart went astray, so now he is going after sin; he was beneficent, but his heart deviated, so now he is doing evil; he was chaste, then his heart deviated, so now he is sinful. Allah (Infinitely Exalted Is He!) orders us to pray to Him, so that we do not go astray from his straight path.
Cause not our hearts to stray.
Abdullah ibn Amr ibn al-'As reported that he heard Allah's Messenger (may Allah’s endless peace and blessings be upon him) as saying: Verily, the hearts of all the sons of Adam are between the Two Fingers out of the fingers of the Compassionate Lord as one heart. He turns that towards any (direction) He likes. Then Allah’s Messenger (may Allah’s endless peace and blessings be upon him) said: 0 Allah, the Turner of the hearts, turn our hearts towards Thine obedience.
We have to understand this Hadith very carefully, it means that Allah Almighty holds our hearts in His Hand for one reason; that is to help us in our faith, so that if someone wants a good thing, Allah shall fill his heart with ease, and if someone wants to hurt somebody else, Allah shall fill his heart with desolation. So because one’s heart is in the Hand of Allah, He (Infinitely Exalted Is He!) either gives us an encouraging push, or a “preventive” pull. We have to understand this hadith:
The hearts of all men are held, as one heart, between the Two Fingers of the Most Compassionate Almighty, Who shapes it as He wishes.”
Either He (Infinitely Exalted Is He!) fills it with confidence, peace, security, and rest, or He fills it with fear, anxiety, and anguish, so if the decision is right He fills the heart with assurance, rest, and ease, and if the decision is wrong He fills the heart with fear and anxiety. The ayah and hadith above simply amount to our own goodness, for the sake of our faith.
The second meaning
There is another meaning: when you see someone who is stronger than you, you should not fear his strength, because the heart of this strong man is utterly in the Hand of Allah Almighty, either He fills it with compassion towards you, or He fills it with grudge towards you, so as his heart is in Allah’s Hand you should not fear him, what you should fear is Allah, lest He (Infinitely Exalted Is He!) lets him get to you.
I fear not (the beings) ye associate with God: Unless my Lord willeth.
If Allah (Infinitely Exalted Is He!) so wishes that a strong man should oppress you, then he will oppress you, so you should not fear the strong man, but you should fear Allah lest He (Infinitely Exalted Is He!) will let him do so, because his heart is in Allah Almighty’s Hand. This is the second meaning.
I mentioned to you before that Imam Hasan al-Basri, may Allah have mercy upon his soul, performed the act of explaining (the truth) – and theologians are commissioned by Allah Almighty to explain things unto sh3er – and so Imam Hasan performed his explanation, and al-Hajjaj heard about this, so he said: “O cowards, by Allah’s Name, I will make you drink from his blood,” and he gave his orders to kill him, so they brought Sheikh Hasan before al-Hajjaj, and when this venerable Sheikh entered, he saw the executioner with his sword standing, and everything was ready for his killing, so he moved his lips, and none understood what he said, and suddenly al-Hajjaj stood for him, and, welcoming him, approached him, and said, “You Abu Sa’id, you are the master of theologians,” and went so far as to make him sit on his bed, and he asked his opinion about something, and, at the end of the interview, accompanied him towards the door. All this shocked the executioner and those who were present at the interview, so after the interview the doorman followed the Sheikh and asked him, “O Imam, you have been brought here to be killed – O Imam (I saw that) you moved your lips when you entered here, so (I beseech you) what you have said, by the Name of Allah Almighty?” The Sheikh replied: “I said, ‘O my Refuge from distress and my Friend in loneliness, turn his indignation into coolness and peace upon me, as You have turned the fire (preying) on Ibrahim into coolness and peace.”
The heart of the strongest of the strong is in the Hand of Allah, and Allah Almighty is able to inspire your enemy to serve you, and He is able to make the closest man to you (suddenly) vengeful, because the hearts of the servants are in the Hand of Allah, so your relation is (uniquely) with Allah (alone)…
So scheme (your worst) against me, all of you, and give me no respite.
I put my trust in God, My Lord and your Lord! There is not a moving creature, but He hath grasp of its fore-lock. Verily, it is my Lord that is on a straight Path.
So my (ultimate) relation is not with creation, but with the One Who grasps its fore-lock, so if He loosens the bridle they will catch me, and if He pulls the bridle He will make them distant from me, this is one truth of Tawheed “Oneness”, which is very important. The earth is full of strong men, full of wicked men, full of malevolent men, full of infidels, full of cruel hearted and ruthless men, but their hearts are all in the Hand of Allah Almighty, so if He so desires goodness for a faithful servant (of Himself), He fills strong men with fear of him, and so,
The hearts of all are between the Two Fingers of the Most Compassionate Almighty, as one heart, shaped as He wishes.
He turns them towards your side; He fills them with acceptance, security, and optimism when they come in accordance with Him (Infinitely Exalted Is He!); and He fills them with fear, distress, and anxiety when they go far from Him, so (indeed),
“The hearts of all are between the Two Fingers of the Most Compassionate Almighty, as one heart, shaped as He wishes.”
As for the hearts of sh3er, they are also in the Hand of Allah, so either they will be filled with love and compassion towards you, and with desire to serve you, or they will be filled with indignation, grudge, and hardness.
Man has freewill
So this “deviation” – we pray to Allah Almighty against it – is the primary deviation of the heart. As for the corresponding compensating deviation, it is from Allah Almighty, so when you choose to sin – may Allah not let it happen – Allah Almighty endows you, in your constitution, with free will. He (Infinitely Exalted Is He!) brought you to this mundane life and you are free to choose, because your personality is endowed with free will, because free will is one of the constituents of your composition; so Allah Almighty allows you to head towards whatever you wish. This permission of Allah for you to head towards whatever you wish is the deviation from Allah’s straight path when the wish is evil.
An example of this is a university student who has not attended the exams; he has never attended the courses, nor bought a book, nor met a professor. One warning has been sent to him after another, but he insists on his position. After all these failing attempts to make him return to the university, a decision has been taken to dismiss this student from the university, thus this decision is an incarnation of what this student has wished (for himself)…
Then when they went wrong…
When one heads towards mundane life, towards sins, he cares not about Tawheed, and, not looking for knowledge, he only goes after lust. Allah (Infinitely Exalted Is He!) this allows him to fulfill his wish; this instance of allowing Allah to fulfill his wish is the deviation that is mentioned in the Ayah, and the strongest proof is:
Then when they went wrong, God let their hearts go wrong.
And according to this you can measure everything. You can measure according to this every ayah in which one may understand that Allah misleads His servants. If you say that Allah Almighty misled them, which is the compensating act of misleading (on His part), built on a chosen perversion, you have free will, and the moment you lose your choice you negate your identity, you negate the trust, you negate commission, you negate responsibility, reward and punishment, paradise and hell, all this because you have lost your choice. If Allah Almighty forced his servants to be obedient, reward would no longer be right, and if He forced them to sin, punishment would no longer be right, and if He left them with no care then it would refer to disability in power. Allah Almighty orders His servants, whilst giving them free will. He inhibits them, whilst warning them. And He commissions them with ease; and He commissions them not with difficulty. He gives so much for doing little, and He is not disobeyed by order, nor is He obeyed by compulsion, thus:
Then when they went wrong, God let their hearts go wrong.
This is the compensating deviation, which is at its core: Allah Almighty allows you to do that which you wish, so you are free to choose.
A clearer example, (suppose) you are a pharmacist, and you need an assistant to help you with your pharmacy, this assistant should have knowledge with medications and their properties. You have announced for this work, and you have multiple candidates for this position. Now you make a test for each one of them, you put a collection of medications on the table, and you ask each candidate to arrange these medications according to their properties: poison, vitamins, anesthetizers, tranquilizers, etc.
Now you proceed to test them. One candidate takes the poison and places it in the vitamin closet. Now if you prohibit him from doing this then you have not tested him, you should let him do what he thinks is right – he is being tested – and you’re now testing him; he takes the poison and places it in the vitamin closet. (At the end) if you had not allowed him to do this, you simply would not have tested him.
Then when they went wrong, God let their hearts go wrong.
Which means that Allah Almighty has allowed them to head in whatever direction they have wished (for themselves), and they themselves have made the choice. We should understand that the word “perversion”, wherever it comes attributed to Allah Almighty, is about the compensating act of misleading, built upon a chosen perversion.
Our Lord! Cause not our hearts to stray after Thou hast guided us.
Why then does Allah Almighty (inspire us to) say,
O my Lord! Let my entry be by the Gate of Truth and Honor, and likewise my exit by the Gate of Truth and Honor.
[17:80]Why? Because you may enter by the gate of truth, and may not get out by the gate of truth. Why does Allah Almighty not (inspire us to) say: “O Lord, make me truthful”? No the meaning is very accurate, you may enter many fields truthfully, and you may not leave truthfully, you may foster a charitable hospital, and still it may turn into an extortionate hospital, blackmailing people of their money viciously: the project may start as charitable, and end as uncharitable. You may start a call upon Allah with extreme sincerity, and may not end this appeal with the same sincerity with which you started. Thus:
O my Lord! Let my entry be by the Gate of Truth and Honor, and likewise my exit by the Gate of Truth and Honor.
This means that man should always be ready for any battle with shaytan, as he (shaytan) does not give up, and for every period of faith there is a devil who damps the determination of man, until when man arrives to the top of success, he seduces him with pride. Every success has its own pothole, and man should be always vigilant.
As I was saying, it is very hard to get to the summit, (through) a lumpy road. It is very difficult. There are bends, holes, and humps, until you get to the summit, and there, there is a very dangerous pothole – the pothole of pride – and pride is a smooth, silky road, you slip through it very fast, all the way to the bottom. So before marriage there are potholes, and after marriage there are potholes. You have children there are potholes, no child, you have a problem, abundance of livelihood is a problem, meagerness of livelihood is a problem, so:
Our Lord! Cause not our hearts to stray after Thou hast guided us,
Man should always have faith, and he should always protect his faith, and he should renew his faith, and faith gets worn inside a human’s heart, so there is a need to renew it, and renewing faith is by elevating the level of knowledge you are seeking, and by exaggeration in straightness, and by doing good deeds, to increase your knowledge, to increase your discipline, to give more; by all these you can renew your faith.
Our Lord! Cause not our hearts to stray after Thou hast guided us, and bestow upon us mercy from Thy Presence. Lo! Thou, only Thou, art the Bestower.
Mercy
The word “mercy” is a summing word; it is both inclusive and exclusive. The absolute gift of Allah Almighty to you is for Him (Infinitely Exalted Is He!) to bestow mercy upon you, so He gives you good health, He fills your heart with peace, He allows you to get in touch with Him, He causes you to taste the sweetness of being close to Him. So, accordingly, He gives you wisdom. If you speak about mercy for hours and hours, you will not finish (describing) it. The mercy of Allah Almighty is His free (absolute) gift.
Of this, I remember:
And the mercy of thy Lord is better than that which they amass.
There are big companies, whose surplus money are more than the budget of multiple countries summed together; (imagine) this is only their surplus money…
And the mercy of thy Lord is better than that which they amass.
The mercy of Allah Almighty means happiness forever. The mercy of Allah Almighty means a Paradise, of which no eye has ever seen anything like it, nor has an ear ever heard anything like it, nor has a human heart ever imagined anything like it. The mercy of Allah in the mundane life is this security that the faithful attains.
Which of (us) two parties hath more right to security? (tell me) if ye know.
It is those who believe and confuse not their beliefs with wrong - that are (truly) in security, for they are in (right) guidance.
This means that if you say, “O my Lord, have mercy upon me,” then it is a very broad prayer. It means, “O my Lord, heal my body; O my Lord, make my income easy; O my Lord, make my family fine, make my wife good, make my children obedient; O my Lord, connect me with You; give me a good deed which brings me closer to You; O my Lord, be revealed to my heart; O my Lord let me taste the sweetness of your nearness,” all this means, “O my Lord, have mercy upon me.”
Allah almighty says:
And if ye die, or are slain, Lo! it is unto God that ye are brought together.
By His mercy, when you read the obituary of someone, you (often) read a phrase that has lost its meaning, it means that someone has died; no, no, if someone is faithful he is (simply) moved from the narrowness of the difficulties of this mundane life to the vastness of the hereafter, as the embryo is moved from the narrowness of the womb, to the vastness of the mundane life, because mundane life is all about troubles. Abu Rabi’i al-Ansari reported that (once) a death procession passed the Prophet (Allah’s endless peace and blessings be upon him) and he said: he is rested now and the people are rested from him. The people around asked what the Prophet (Allah’s endless peace and blessings be upon him) meant by that. He said that the good believer, when he dies, takes a rest from the toils of life and its wrongs, and goes towards the mercy of Allah, and when the bad man dies, the people and the country and the animals and the trees, will take a rest from his evil, as he was a heavy problem.
Our Lord! Cause not our hearts to stray after Thou hast guided us…
The heart is the heart of the self, Abu Huraira reported that the Prophet (Allah’s endless peace and blessings be upon him) said, “Allah does not look at your forms nor at your money, but He looks at your hearts and deeds.”
The heart is the reflection of Allah. In some holy traditions it is told that Allah said, “Oh My servant, I have purified the view of the creation for years, why do you not purify My Image for an hour?”
Does not man feel ashamed to hold grudge in his heart for someone, while Allah Almighty is looking into his heart?
O brother, hidden sin much more dangerous than conspicuous sin: pride is a dangerous heart disease, self-admiration is a dangerous heart disease, self-loving is a dangerous heart disease. To have the illusion that you are the best of men is a dangerous heart disease…
Hast thou not turned Thy vision to those who claim sanctity for themselves?
He who always praises himself is a sick man.
Thus:
O, Lord!
This is a prayer, and this is one of Quran’s prayers, and how good it will be if we collect the Quran’s prayers, and pray to Allah with these prayers…
Our Lord! Cause not our hearts to stray after Thou hast guided us.
Man is always vulnerable to tests at any moment, so you have to always be vigilant…
O ye who believe! Take your precautions.
As for the devil (shaytan), he may (even) come from the right side:
Then I shall come upon them from before them and from behind them and from their right hands and from their left hands, and Thou wilt not find most of them beholden [unto Thee.
Beware of Devil’s entrances
Here is an example: you see an employee, she seems good, and you feel that you must bring her to Allah. So you sit with her alone for long hours, for you could be the cause of her return to Allah. You are a caller towards Allah, but you are sitting alone with her; you should leave any good deed if its evil is more evident to prevent abuses from coming before the deed brings benefits. There is no selfishness in goodness, and all goodness is in being selfless. I do not sacrify my religion for a woman, because shaytan (devil) whispers from the right side, in a good deed that involves a pothole, or a suspicion.
There is a charitable lottery, and the outcome of this lottery is for the elderly people. By the Name of Allah, this is a beautiful thing! Shaytan (devil) causes him to be involved with lottery, because when he (shaytan) finds someone with faith, he covets to turn him into an unbeliever, so if he gets despaired from this, he will try to beautify polytheism for him, he will deceive him into believing that there is one side that controls everything, and that he has to please it, for the sake of his future and his kids, he will deceive him telling him that this side is a rival unto Allah (Infinitely Exalted Is He!), that it can exalt and degrade, that it can give and hold, that it can punish and reward, so he has to head towards this side. Shaytan pushes him into disbelief and the man fails, so he seduces him with polytheism, “shirk”, and he succeeds. And if this man who is seduced by shirk (polytheism) remains in his belief in the Oneness of Allah, then shaytan will try another pothole, to make him invent. What the Prophet (Allah’s endless peace and blessings be upon him) did, the religion is entire and complete; this means that the Religion is a revelation, and the One Who revealed it is the Creator of the Universe, and Allah Almighty may not forget anything, so any addition to this religion is an accusation to this religion of deficiency, and any deletion of it is an accusation of excess, so for the mere thought of adding to the creeds of this religion or its worships then you are accusing it, and you are saying: this religion is missing what I should add.
So the devil (shaytan) inauthors him towards infidelity, and if he finds the man clinging to his faith, he will inauthor him towards shirk, and if he finds him clinging to Tawheed, he will inauthor him towards invent, and if he finds him clinging to the Sunnah, he will inauthor him towards a grave sin, and if he finds him clinging to obedience, he will inauthor him towards committing small sins, and if he finds him clinging to devotion … so what then? Nothing has worked with this man, now the devil inauthors him towards igniting provocations among the believers: you are like this and I am like that, and this is the so-called group, to tear down the religion, he makes a small issue a big problem, and he fights for it; while it’s a very small issue in Islam, we fight each other for trivial reasons, we stab each other, we call each other “infidel”, because they have left one source, and have taken another source instead. He calls them infidels and deems it is finished. All that is exaggerations, this is all extravagance in religion, to take a small issue, and to make a big issue of it, to make it the core of the religion. This is an act of shaytan. And if all these do not work, and if the believer is aware of all this, shaytan will cause him to do illicit things, to expand those illicit things until they consume his whole time, and until he meets Allah Almighty with empty hands…
Then I shall come upon them from before them and from behind them and from their right hands and from their left hands.
“from their left hands”, the side of guilt and sin, “from before them”, progress and modernism, laicism, development, open society, and globalization, and we are (living) in an era of science (technology) and of no segregation between men and women, with deviation, and degeneration, or an age stuck to very old shabby habits that are against the religious legislation, “Shari’a”. That is how my father has raised me, that is how he has taught me, how I have grown up, accepting intermixing between the sexes, without accounting, and every man can take whatever he wants from the shop, because they are brother, until they fight; so either you invent new traditions against religion, or you invent new very modern values contrary to Allah’s values, or “from their right hands,” from the gate of calling people towards Allah, or “from their left hands,” from the gate of sin, but the Qur’an does not mention a higher side, nor a lower side, which means that the path to Allah (Infinitely Exalted Is He!) is secure from shaytan; and (consequently) the path of “conformity” is also secure: if you obey the orders of Allah you are safe, and if you run towards Him you are safe, and Allah has mentioned the four sides:
from before them and from behind them and from their right hands and from their left hands.
Thus the devil (shaytan) is the one who tries to deviate hearts, so we always have to be attentive…
Our Lord! Cause not our hearts to stray after Thou hast guided us, and bestow upon us mercy from Thy Presence. Lo! Thou, only Thou, art the Bestower.
By Allah, O brother, there is (Allah’s) mercy in the heart of the believer, and the word “mercy” is again very vast, that is to say, it is peacefulness, restfulness, and resignation to Allah, and security (certainty), with a feeling of lightness, and not the feeling as if there are mountains upon one’s shoulders. He does not commit any evil deed, nor do the people became poor for him to become wealthy; he has no relation with any disobedience, he is not responsible for any adversities of sh3er, and his heart is in a state of rest:
Our Lord! Cause not our hearts to stray after Thou hast guided us, and bestow upon us mercy from Thy Presence. Lo! Thou, only Thou, art the Bestower.
You are the Bestower
The word “bestower” means giving without any price, without any equivalent price, for the price is very simple: just to ask (Him). You are a poor servant, and you are weak, and you do not know, so if you run towards Allah Almighty, He shall give you knowledge, strength, and wisdom, so it’s impossible that you offer a request with sincerity to an earthly side. And you say, “I want that You give me thousands of millions (of dollars),” and the thousands of millions can be given to you with one request without effort; this is the meaning of:
“You are the Bestower.”
You find in the mundane life a man with a huge fortune: “This is because of (my own) efforts”, he tells you, “the pain of fifty four years of working in commerce; we have suffered two hundred million deaths to achieve all this fortune, this fortune is in return of hard work,” while our Lord Almighty gives you without any return, only in return to your request…
Of the bounties of thy Lord, We bestow freely on all - These as well as those: The bounties of thy Lord are not closed (to anyone).
What you have expresses your truthfulness, and what you have not achieved expresses your (mundane) wishes, because Allah (Infinitely Exalted Is He!) does not respond to such wishes…
Not your desires, nor those of the People of the Book (can prevail).
You wish to be the greatest merchant, the richest man, the greatest scientist; such mere wishes do not have any value to Allah Almighty, and the proof is:
Those who do wish for the (things of) the Hereafter, and strive therefore with all due striving, and have Faith; they are the ones whose striving is acceptable (to God).
Allah does not say, “… and strive,” but the servant strives for it with its entire special due striving. Suppose a student has succeeded in medicine, and medicine has its own special marks, but if you are a student then, further, this special faculty has its own special marks…
Those who do wish for the (things of) the Hereafter, and strive therefore with all due striving, and have Faith; they are the ones whose striving is acceptable (to God).
You need truthfulness, and straightforwardness.
And this brings me indeed to a wonderful world; you may learn the orders of Allah (Infinitely Exalted Is He!). Any intelligent man with enough intellect, education, and languages, who have books, resources, and tools can learn Shari`a, and even if he was not a Muslim he might be irreligious – he might be an adulterer, he might drink wine, he might be an atheist – if he reads books, and understands them, and comprehends them, and learns them by heart, and connects them one with the other, he might pass the exam, because the orders of Allah Almighty can be learned by studying, and knowledge of His creation can be obtained by studying physics, chemistry, mathematics, astronomy, medicine, engineering, sociology, psychology, history, and education; all these are worldly sciences that require intellect, books, teachers, time, study, and reading, but knowledge of Allah needs striving, turning away the eye (from vain objects), controlling the tongue, having right revenue, giving alms for the sake of Allah, controlling the passions, controlling the (inter-human) relations; all these things require strong will, obedience, and striving.
Our Lord! Cause not our hearts to stray after Thou hast guided us, and bestow upon us mercy from Thy Presence. Lo! Thou, only Thou, art the Bestower.
If a man has his heart deviated, his path deflects, and sinks in mundane life, and accumulates lots of money, and then what? He has accumulated one thousand million dollars – Bill Gates has a celestial figure of billions, eighty or ninety billions – and then what? And then death. You have reached the highest position, then what? Then death…
For to Us will be their return.
Then it will be for Us to call them towards (Our) account.1. So what (remains) save death?
So if the man strays – he wants only mundane life, and turns his back towards the Hereafter – so what is waiting for him?
Abu Huraira reported that the Prophet (Allah’s endless peace and blessings be upon him) said, “Hurry in doing good deeds, do you wait for forgetful poverty, or blinding richness, or degenerative disease, or disabling old age, or finishing death, or the charlatan (ad-Dajjal), the most evil, absent (vacant) person people are waiting for, or the Hour (Qiyamah)? And the Hour is more awful and more bitter.”
In the airport there are gateways. They tell you the gate number such and such… and every one of us has his gateway as an exit through which he leaves this mundane life to the afterlife. There is a gateway which is a traffic accident, and a gateway which is a heart disease, another gateway is cancer, and there is no way out but through one of these gateways, which is the terminal disease called death, as death is the end of every man, so…
[Who say], "Our Lord, let not our hearts deviate after You have guided us and grant us from Yourself mercy. Indeed, You are the Bestower.”
Our Lord, surely You will gather the people for a Day about which there is no doubt. Indeed, Allah does not fail in His promise.
2. One Great Day, men will be gathered
The certitude of this gathering is expressed by
A Day when (all) mankind will stand before the Lord of the Worlds?
Then he, who will be given his Record in his right hand, will say: "Ah here! Read ye my Record!”
"I did really understand that my Account would (One Day) reach me!"
And he will be in a life of Bliss,
In a Garden on high,
The Fruits whereof (will hang in bunches) low and near.
"Eat ye and drink ye, with full satisfaction; because of the (good) that ye sent before you, in the days that are gone!"
And he that will be given his Record in his left hand, will say: "Ah! Would that my Record had not been given to me!”
"And that I had never realized how my account (stood)!”
"Ah! Would that (Death) had made an end of me!”
"Of no profit to me has been my wealth!”
"My power has perished away from me!"...
(The Stern of Command will say): "Seize ye him, and bind ye him,
"And burn ye him in the Blazing Fire.”
"Further, make him march in a chain, whereof the length is seventy cubits!”
"This was he that would not believe in God Most High.”
This is the Day of Resurrection, “Yaum al-Qiyamah”, O respected brother; if we truly realize the certainty of this day, by the Name of Allah, we will not (be inclined to) sleep at night, running after this great endless divine gift.Indeed, those who disbelieve - never will their wealth or their children avail them against Allah at all. And it is they who are fuel for the Fire.
So those are the ones whose hearts has deviated, and turned to mundane life, and gathered lots of money, and raised their children according to modern values. His son holds the highest degree, he lives in the most beautiful house, he is married to the most beautiful woman, a dissolute son, but in a very high position, with high degrees. The Noble Qur’an says,
Indeed, those who disbelieve; never will their wealth or their children avail them against Allah at all. And it is they who are fuel for the Fire.
Only to be important people in this worldly life; the father does not care if his son prays or not, he cares for the success of his son, his income, his marriage; he cares only for material things, that he may use them just to show up. And most women are only concerned with choosing a beautiful wife for their sons, from a reputed and rich family, but if she is covered or not, this is not a problem. So of all those people who have gathered lots of money, and their children are in the highest level of success in the mundane life,Never will their wealth or their children avail them against Allah at all.
The Khalifa Omar (Allah be pleased with him), said after being stabbed, and while regaining his consciousness, “Have Muslims prayed the Fajr (Dawn) Prayer?” Where was he and where were the people? He was stabbed and almost dying, and still, what did he care for the most? The Prayer (Salat) of the Muslims.
Watch this, when you enter your house, you ask your wife, “Did the children eat? Did they do their homework?” You do not ask her, “Did they pray?” You do not take prayer into account. They did their homework, ate, and slept. But if you care for their Hereafter (their certain Future), then you will ask her, “Did they pray Isha’ prayer?” Khalifa Omar asked, “Did Muslims pray the Fajr Prayer?” So…
those who disbelieve,
that is, those whose hearts have deviated…
Never will their wealth or their children avail them against Allah at all. And it is they who are fuel for the Fire.
Take from mundane life as much as you want, and take as much trouble from it
Take from mundane life as much as you want, and take as much trouble from it, and the one who takes from this mundane life more than what suffices him, he takes from his destiny, and he is not aware of it.
You enter a very huge mall, and a woman enters, and she says, “O my God, how many are the things that man does not need!” We are burdened with consumptive society; we measure poorness and richness using secondary things. The essential needs are satisfied, as a small meal and a home that houses him can suffice man. Once a king asked his minster,
“Who is the king?”
He said, “You are. Is there any other one?”
The king replied, “No. The king is a man who does not know us, neither do we know him. He has a home in which he lives, and a wife that satisfies him, and a livelihood that suffices him. If he knew us he would strive to please us, and if we knew him, we would strive to embarrass him.”
So if the man has a home that houses him, be it small or big, owned or hired, the important thing is that he has the keys to this house, in the evening he has a room to sleep in it, and he has enough livelihood, he has one meal then it is enough,
'A'isha, the Mother of the Believers (Allah be pleased with her), reported that one day the Messenger of Allah (Allah’s endless peace and blessings be upon him) said to me, “'A'isha, have you anything (to eat)?” I said, “O Messenger of Allah, there is nothing with us.” Thereupon he said, “I am fasting.” She said, “The Messenger of Allah (Allah’s endless peace and blessings be upon him) went out, and there was a present for us, and (at the same time) some visitors dropped in. When the Messenger of Allah (Allah’s endless peace and blessings be upon him) came back, I said to him, “Messenger of Allah, a present was given to us, (and in the meanwhile) there came to us visitors (a major portion of it has been spent on them), but I have saved something for you.” He said, “What is it?” I said, “It is hais (a compound of dates and clarified butter).” He said, “Bring that.” So I brought it to him and he ate it and then said, “I woke up in the morning fasting”. Talha said: I narrated this hadith to Mujahid and he said: This (observing of voluntary fasting) is like a person who sets apart Sadaqa out of his wealth. He may spend it if he likes, or he may retain it if he so likes.
He has a home that houses him, a wife who pleases him, a livelihood that suffices him, then this is a king from this worldly kings, there are no adversities that he is responsible for, nor are there people who suffer because of him, because a man can build his glory upon the misery of sh3er, he may build his life upon their death, he may build his fortune upon their poverty, he may build his security upon their fears.
(On that Day) neither the riches nor the progeny of those who disbelieve will aught avail them with Allah. They will be fuel for Fire.
This is the Law of Allah (Infinitely Exalted Is He!), so any man who turns away and deviates, then Allah shall punish him and destroy him.
