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Today We Can, Tomorrow We Cannot!

I remind you and myself that the real role models are the companions of the Prophet (PBUH). Allah swt commanded us to follow the footsteps and the sunnah of our beloved Prophet Muhammad (PBUH) and the rightly guided companions whom Allah (SWT) chose to be in the company of the Prophet and their own role model. The material life makes us forget that we are going to die. We forget that there is no way we can stay young. We have to get old. Nobody knows who will have an accident and who is going to die. Will anybody stay young forever? We know that we cannot…just look at each other – One day I may call you and you will be dead or one day you will call me and I will be dead. We pray, but we are not aware what we are saying (reciting). I was talking to people about something basic in Islam, about ikhlas;

The Noble Quran; Chapter 112 Ikhlas (Sincerity):

Say: He is Allah, the One! (1) Allah, the eternally Besought of all! (2) He begetteth not nor was begotten. (3) And there is none comparable unto Him. (4)

But when you read it, it doesn't tell about Ikhlas, rather talks about Allah. How come in the Quran, in a very small Chapter He talks about Himself? If you read it carefully it will generate a pure and strong faith, Imaan.

If you have Imaan, meaning you are sincere in your own faith and sincere in your action, then why today we have no sincerity of actions? We forget the reality of life, that is; sooner or later we will be underground (in the grave). Many of our friends and relatives are already dead. When we pray, the thinking we inculcate or cultivate, think and try to live the message we read. This will not be the condition. For example, how can I oppress others? How can I have a bad manner? Everything is accounted. Everything I say or do will be recorded. My aim should be – How to be a real believer with a faith that can help me and support me in a journey to accumulate deeds for the success in this life and the life after death. To do that I take everybody to the first chapter of the Quran, Surah Al-Fatiha, The Opening, The mother of the book and has many, many names.

Before we recite, we pray, "We seek protection from the devil" which means we acknowledge the need to be protected by the creator! Now this in turn means, you believe in His power and in His might.

"In the name of Allah The Compassionate, The Merciful", What does this mean?
– Allah wants me to thank Him.
– Its like a hug
– Its like Allah is giving a warm hug to the reader

Allah (SWT)introduces himself here as an ultimate mercy and, as a compassion between His slave servant and the creator almighty Allah.

One sister told me that, "I am a sinner. How can I stand in front of Allah with my weakness and sins and talk to him if I am a sinner?" I said," Look carefully when you read the chapter Al Fatiha. You will find out,

Allah said, "In the name of Allah, Most Gracious, Most Merciful, Praise be to Allah, The Cherisher and Sustainer of the Worlds, Most Gracious Most Merciful."

I would be merciful to you and I will be kind to you... move forward and always have hope and faith
– He will forgive you and take care about you
– He is The Most kind and The Most Merciful, "Maliki E Yom Mideen"
– I am the Owner and The King
– Be careful of what you are doing, saying and behaving
– After this is "Eyyya Kana Budu Wa Eyya Ka Nastayeen", only you we worship and Only from You we ask for support and guidance

If you continue till the end of the chapter, His power His Gifts His bounties are acknowledge. If you don't believe me go to the hospital, some can't eat / drink / go to the bathroom or in pain. None of us can say I have no bounties in my life.

My first message:How can we comprehend and acknowledge and understand what we say?

Rasul Allah (PBUH) said: [the meaning of the hadees is]

"When a person gets up and prays and starts reciting Surah Al-Fathiha, Allah replies 'This salaah is divided between me and my servant half and half...
- If my servant says, "Alhamdulillahi Rabbil Al Ameen" Allah (SWT)replies "My servant praised Me and thanked Me".
- When the slave servant says, "Ar Rahmaan Nir Raheem" Allah (SWT) replies "My slave servant is thanking Me and glorifying Me".
- When he says "Malik E Yom Mideen", He (SWT) replies 'My slave elevates and respects Me" and
- When the person continues his prayer and recitation, Allah [swt] says, "This is for Me, whatever you wish and whatever you ask I will grant you! He acknowledged, I (SWT) am the King of Dominion and the Owner and the King of the Day of Judgement."

My message today is, How to pray? How you live it? How you can really be a slave? How you enter the state of prayer with complete gratitude and thanks? How you can be in a state of surrender and submission inside the prayer? Before the prayer, and after the prayer! You have to realize that you are going to die!

Somebody asked me, what am I going to gain from what you say? I replied, "You will gain a lot, you will gain tranquility, security, you will be content, you will have gratitude, you will be scared to hurt or oppress anyone or insult anyone or cause mischief to anyone. You will also know you belong to the Creator (SWT), the Almighty and you are accountable for all your actions, good or bad. Allah (SWT) will always be for you if you believe in Him. Meaning, you have no problem, no worry, this relationship gives you strength, tranquility, peace and security. And most of all you will get happiness and success in this life and in the life hereafter".

One sister told me "It generates calm and relaxation". This is why if we do the real prayer the reflection of prayer helps us to be in the state of relaxation and rest. It enables you to handle the rush of the family, job, neighbor and others. It makes you afraid to have jealousy or envy, It generates security, It helps you gain the state of humble and humility!

Now the question:

Why is this state so very difficult? [Meaning the state of slavery, the state of abd, the state of belonging, the state of believing and the state of relying on him (SWT)…]

Answer:
Because the materialistic life is overwhelming over the purpose of life! We have become stingy, selfish and greedy. We forget the essence of Islam. The main purpose of your existence in this life is "Allah (SWT) trials you by putting you in two states; State of giving or State of taking. Meaning one day, The Almighty (SWT) gives you increase in your provisions and one day, He (SWT) decreases from your provisions. The whole thing is to test you to see what you are going to do. He will give you but what will you do with it?

E.g. Money, Wealth, Health, Power, Ability, Intelligence and so on. He wants to see what you are going to do with it. Are you going to enjoy and use it for yourself or you are going to share it and give it to others? If you use it for yourself only and you try to gain pleasure out of it, it will generate a lot of disease of the heart like arrogance, selfishness, greed and make you hungry for more and you don't care about others. From Islamic point of view - this provision will destroy you in this life and after death. On the other hand, If you take it and use it part for your own needs and necessities and you remember to share with others to give the needy, the poor, the sick, the widow, the orphan, whatever good deed that be, that provision now becomes a bounty for you! On another day He will take provisions from you to see what you do? Are you going to be patient? Is your belief increasing or decreasing? Are you going to seek support from Him or somebody else?

By this way if you comprehend, He did not take from you to hurt you, but He took it from you
- To cleanse you!
- To humble you!
- To see if you will surrender!
- To check your faith
- To see how you behave.

This mean, He takes from you, to elevate you! To increase His provision to you! But in a hidden sudden way we do not comprehend it. It might be in this life like generosity, love, sharing, or like in the hereafter, like forgive you, elevate your status, give you higher place in Paradise. By this way, He (SWT), by giving or taking, He checks the sincerity of our faith, because sincerity of faith is not a talk! Its action and the more you water the tree of your faith with sincerity of action, you are actually watering the tree of the sincerity of your faith. Now if you have sincerity of our own faith we will have sincerity of action and if we do so we will have sincerity and ease in the time of giving or in the time of taking and will use it to please Him more than pleasing ourselves.

Because, The Almighty, Allah (SWT) has Promised Us,
If We Please Him In This Life, He Will Please Us in The Hereafter!

What is happening to us as Mankind?

The high speed lifestyle with greed and material life has generated or generates a cycle that causes:

Weakening of our faith!
Disturbance to our soul!
Us to neglect life after death!
Us to neglect the journey of our soul!

And once human beings live like that we lose quality, manner, generosity, lose ones own humanity!

As a human being if you build your faith and try to obey your Creator, to believe in Him and you will gain the happiness of this life and the after.

"Know that the life of the world is only play, and idle talk, and pageantry, and boasting among you, and rivalry in respect of wealth and children; as the likeness of vegetation after rain, whereof the growth is pleasing to the husbandman, but afterward it drieth up and thou seest it turning yellow, then it becometh straw. And in the Hereafter there is grievous punishment, and (also) forgiveness from Allah and His good pleasure, whereas the life of the world is but matter of illusion. " (Surat Al-Ĥadīd, Verse 20)


Hadith- Narrated by Abdullah Ibn Umr (RA) said Rasul Allah (PBUH) said to him – Be in this life like a stranger or a traveler – Meaning don't be hungry of accumulation because you will not take to the grave except your faith and your good deeds and the legacy of your life and you are the one you work it alone by yourself.

Today you can, tomorrow you cannot…
Today you are alive, tomorrow you are dead...
Today you have a chance, tomorrow you don't…

I will give you some idea from Quran – almost 78 verses from Quran command and advise us with spending [Infaq] When you read all these verses you will discover the essence and the message of these verses is very simple. The importance of spending, the warnings to the stingy – the importance to think about the signs of all the nations before us – the importance of the thinking about death and life after death – Of all to remind you who is The Creator, who is The Provider and what is the purpose of life. All the messages actually will give you the conclusion of how to live, the purpose of life, where you are going, how you can gain the success and happiness of this life and the hereafter – :


I will give you some idea from Quran – almost 78 verses from Quran command and advise us with spending [Infaq] :

"Ye will not attain unto piety until ye spend of that which ye love. And whatsoever ye spend, Allah is Aware thereof. " (Surat 'Āli `Imrān, Verse 92)

"And let not those who disbelieve imagine that the rein We give them bodeth good unto their souls. We only give them rein that they may grow in sinfulness. And theirs will be a shameful doom. It is not (the purpose) of Allah to leave you in your present state till He shall separate the wicked from the good. And it is not (the purpose of) Allah to let you know the Unseen. But Allah chooseth of His messengers whom He will, (to receive knowledge thereof). So believe in Allah and His messengers. If ye believe and ward off (evil), yours will be a vast reward. And let not those who hoard up that which Allah hath bestowed upon them of His bounty think that it is better for them. Nay, it is worse for them. That which they hoard will be their collar on the Day of Resurrection. Allah's is the heritage of the heavens and the earth, and Allah is Informed of what ye do. " (Surat 'Āli `Imrān, Verses 178-180)

"Every soul will taste of death. And ye will be paid on the Day of Resurrection only that which ye have fairly earned. Whoso is removed from the Fire and is made to enter paradise, he indeed is triumphant. The life of this world is but comfort of illusion. " (Surat 'Āli `Imrān, Verse 185)

"Spend your wealth for the cause of Allah, and be not cast by your own hands to ruin; and do good. Lo! Allah loveth the beneficent. " (Surat Al-Baqarah, Verse 195)

"O ye who believe! spend of that wherewith We have provided you ere a day come when there will be no trafficking, nor friendship, nor intercession. The disbelievers, they are the wrong-doers. " (Surat Al-Baqarah, Verse 254)

"O ye who believe! Lo! many of the (Jewish) rabbis and the (Christian) monks devour the wealth of mankind wantonly and debar (men) from the way of Allah. They who hoard up gold and silver and spend it not in the way of Allah, unto them give tidings (O Muhammad) of a painful doom. "(Surat At-Tawbah, Verse 34)

"And of them is he who made a covenant with Allah (saying): If He give us of His bounty we will give alms and become of the righteous. Yet when He gave them of His bounty, they hoarded it and turned away, averse; So He hath made the consequence (to be) hypocrisy in their hearts until the day when they shall meet Him, because they broke their word to Allah that they promised Him, and because they lied. Know they not that Allah knoweth both their secret and the thought that they confide, and that Allah is the Knower of Things Hidden? " (Surat At-Tawbah, Verses 75-78)

"Let not their wealth nor their children astonish thee! Allah purposeth only to punish them thereby in the world, and that their souls shall pass away while they are disbelievers. " (Surat At-Tawbah, Verse 85)

"Do men imagine that they will be left (at ease) because they say, We believe, and will not be tested with affliction? Lo! We tested those who were before them. Thus Allah knoweth those who are sincere, and knoweth those who feign. " (Surat Al-`Ankabūt, Verse 2-3)

"Of mankind is he who saith: We believe in Allah, but, if he be made to suffer for the sake of Allah, he mistaketh the persecution of mankind for Allah's punishment; and then, if victory cometh from thy Lord, will say: Lo! we were with you (all the while). Is not Allah best aware of what is in the bosoms of (His) creatures? " (Surat Al-`Ankabūt, Verse 10)

"It is a promise of Allah. Allah faileth not His promise, but most of mankind know not. They know only some appearance of the life of the world, and are heedless of the Hereafter. Have they not pondered upon themselves? Allah created not the heavens and the earth, and that which is between them, save with truth and for a destined end. But truly many of mankind are disbelievers in the meeting with their Lord. Have they not travelled in the land and seen the nature of the consequence for those who were before them? They were stronger than these in power, and they dug the earth and built upon it more than these have built. Messengers of their own came unto them with clear proofs (of Allah's Sovereignty). Surely Allah wronged them not, but they did wrong themselves. " (Surat Ar-Rūm, Verses 6-9)

"Corruption doth appear on land and sea because of (the evil) which men's hands have done, that He may make them taste a part of that which they have done, in order that they may return. Say (O Muhammad, to the disbelievers): Travel in the land, and see the nature of the consequence for those who were before you! Most of them were idolaters. " (Surat Ar-Rūm, Verse 42)

"Thus doth Allah seal the hearts of those who know not. So have patience (O Muhammad)! Allah's promise is the very truth, and let not those who have no certainty make thee impatient. "(Surat Ar-Rūm Verses 59-60)

"But seek the abode of the Hereafter in that which Allah hath given thee and neglect not thy portion of the world, and be thou kind even as Allah hath been kind to thee, and seek not corruption in the earth; lo! Allah loveth not corrupters. " (Surat Al-Qaşaş, Verse 77)

"As for that Abode of the Hereafter We assign it unto those who seek not oppression in the earth, nor yet corruption. The sequel is for those who ward off (evil). "(Surat Al-Qaşaş, Verse 83)

"And the agony of death cometh in truth. (And it is said unto him): This is that which thou wast wont to shun. And the trumpet is blown. This is the threatened Day. And every soul cometh, along with it a driver and a witness. (And unto the evil-doer it is said): Thou wast in heedlessness of this. Now We have removed from thee thy covering, and piercing is thy sight this day. And (unto the evil-doer) his comrade saith: This is that which I have ready (as testimony). (And it is said): Do ye twain hurl to hell each rebel ingrate, Hinderer of good, transgressor, doubter, Who setteth up another god along with Allah. Do ye twain hurl him to the dreadful doom. His comrade saith: Our Lord! I did not cause him to rebel, but he was (himself) far gone in error. He saith: Contend not in My presence, when I had already proffered unto you the warning. The sentence that cometh from Me cannot be changed, and I am in no wise a tyrant unto the slaves. On the day when We say unto hell: Art thou filled? and it saith: Can there be more to come? And the Garden is brought nigh for those who kept from evil, no longer distant. (And it is said): This is that which ye were promised. (It is) for every penitent and heedful one, Who feareth the Beneficent in secret and cometh with a contrite heart. Enter it in peace. This is the day of immortality. There they have all that they desire, and there is more with Us. And how many a generation We destroyed before them, who were mightier than these in prowess so that they overran the lands! Had they any place of refuge (when the judgment came)? Lo! therein verily is a reminder for him who hath a heart, or giveth ear with full intelligence. "(Surat Qāf, Verses 19-37)

"We are best aware of what they say, and thou (O Muhammad) art in no wise a compeller over them. But warn by the Qur'an him who feareth My threat. "(Surat Qāf, Verse 45)

"Therefor flee unto Allah; lo! I am a plain warner unto you from him. "(Surat Adh-Dhāriyāt , Verse 50)

"And warn, for warning profiteth believers. I created the jinn and humankind only that they might worship Me. I seek no livelihood from them, nor do I ask that they should feed Me. (57) Lo! Allah! He it is that giveth livelihood, the Lord of unbreakable might. " (Surat Adh-Dhāriyāt , Verses 55-58)

"So wait patiently (O Muhammad) for thy Lord's decree, for surely thou art in Our sight; and hymn the praise of thy Lord when thou uprisest, And in the night-time also hymn His praise, and at the setting of the stars. " (Surat Aţ-Ţūr , Verses 48-49)

"Race one with another for forgiveness from your Lord and a Garden whereof the breadth is as the breadth of the heavens and the earth, which is in store for those who believe in Allah and His messengers. Such is the bounty of Allah, which He bestoweth upon whom He will, and Allah is of Infinite Bounty. Naught of disaster befalleth in the earth or in yourselves but it is in a Book before we bring it into being - Lo! that is easy for Allah - That ye grieve not for the sake of that which hath escaped you, nor yet exult because of that which hath been given. Allah loveth not all prideful boasters, Who hoard and who enjoin upon the people avarice. And whosoever turneth away, still Allah is the Absolute, the Owner of Praise. " (Surat Al-Ĥadīd, Verses 21-24)

"O ye who believe! Let not your wealth nor your children distract you from remembrance of Allah. Those who do so, they are the losers. And spend of that wherewith We have provided you before death cometh unto one of you and he saith: My Lord! If only thou wouldst reprieve me for a little while, then I would give alms and be among the righteous. But Allah reprieveth no soul when its term cometh, and Allah is Aware of what ye do. " (Surat Al-Munāfiqūn, Verses 9-11)

"O ye who believe! Lo! among your wives and your children there are enemies for you, therefor beware of them. And if ye efface and overlook and forgive, then lo! Allah is Forgiving, Merciful. Your wealth and your children are only a temptation, whereas Allah! with Him is an immense reward. So keep your duty to Allah as best ye can, and listen, and obey, and spend; that is better for your souls. And whoso is saved from his own greed, such are the successful. If ye lend unto Allah a goodly loan, He will double it for you and will forgive you, for Allah is Responsive, Clement, Knower of the Invisible and the Visible, the Mighty, the Wise. " (Surat At-Taghābun, Verses 14-18)

When you read all these verses you will discover the essence and the message of these verses is very simple. The importance of spending, the warnings to the stingy – the importance to think about the signs of all the nations before us – the importance of the thinking about death and life after death – Of all to remind you who is The Creator, who is The Provider and what is the purpose of life. All the messages actually will give you the conclusion of how to live, the purpose of life, where you are going, how you can gain the success and happiness of this life and the hereafter –

"O mankind! There hath come unto you an exhortation from your Lord, a balm for that which is in the breasts, a guidance and a mercy for believers. Say: In the bounty of Allah and in His mercy: therein let them rejoice. It is better than what they hoard. " (Surat Yūnus, Verses 57-58)

By Da'ee Ahmed Moait, From here.