 We've reached Chapter 12 in Riyadh-e-Salehine. Congratulations. Actually, it hasn't been that long. We've covered some decent territory. In this chapter, The chapter of encouraging people to increase in good works, particularly at the end of their lives. It starts every chapter with one or a few verses of the Qur'an that he sees as being linked to the theme. He says here, Has he not caused you to live a life long enough that someone who is thoughtful could think carefully about their lives and the warner has come? Subhanallah. Has Allah subhanahu wa ta'ala not caused you to live long enough that a person who is capable of reflection has a long enough time to reflect on how short life can be or that the end is coming and a warner has come to you? The Sahaba said that the warner hears the Prophet a.s. Elsewhere, sometimes the nathir is the gray hair that comes. That should be enough to warn us that we better start working on getting our act together. Has Allah not given you a long enough life? And what is a long enough life? Well, different things have been said. Some people have made it as extreme as reaching puberty is long enough to get it. But the general consensus amongst the Sahaba and the early Muslims is that it's 60 years of age. This is a Hadith of the Prophet a.s. that's going to come up that speaks about reaching 60 years of age. We'll begin with the first Hadith, inshallah. The Hadith is about the Prophet a.s. The Prophet a.s. said, Allah has made it more than 60 years of age. Abu Hurayro relates that the Messenger a.s. said that Allah has taken away the excuse of a person who he has allowed to live beyond 60 years of age. So according to the Prophet a.s. after 60, there's no excuses left. Not that excuses work with Allah s.w.t. Not that he was allowing people to have excuses, right? But it's a cause for reflection. Subhanallah, the most benefit from a society and a community in which people have consciousness of Allah s.w.t. That's what this chapter is about. Realizing that life is short and we should increase in good works particularly at the end of our lives. But that comes from a consciousness of our return to Allah s.w.t. Sometimes we see things going on in a society and people doing things to others or engaged in things that are just unhealthy. And we say, doesn't this person fear Allah? How does this person sleep at night? We want to be the person that can sleep at night. Subhanallah. And being a person who can sleep at night because they've done well by the others around them. And they want to live in a place where others do well by those around them. That's in everyone's best interest. That comes from increasing our consciousness of Allah s.w.t. Being thoughtful of Allah s.w.t. Which comes from our understanding who is Allah. What are the attributes of Allah s.w.t. What are the ways that He works in the world? His sunnah, His ways of doing things. That Allah s.w.t. is the one who is there making things happen in every moment of your life. For you to receive a lesson from that. For you to learn something from that. If you're attentive. Who has a heart? And is listening and paying attention. And is a witness to what's going on around them. Here and present with their moment. We all benefit from a society where people have some consciousness of Allah s.w.t. Allah increases us in that. And of course the intelligent believer is the one who knows that Allah s.w.t. has allowed them to live to an advanced stage. Subhan Allah. All of the things that come with advanced stage. Wisdom. Insight. Life experience. Subhan Allah. What a beautiful thing. What a beautiful thing. Let's celebrate it. Let's appreciate it. You only have one life to live. So live it. In accordance with every moment that Allah s.w.t. is giving you. As Allah is giving it to you. And we'll see in the second hadith from Ibn Abbas. He said that Allah s.w.t. used to bring me into his dwan. Into his majlis. With the asheikh of better. Older Sahaba who fought at the battle of better. And Ibn Abbas at this time was very, very young. As if some of them found that that was inappropriate. We're the senior people and you're bringing this young man into our majlis where we're discussing affairs of state. That's kind of an insult to us. He said, Why do you bring him into our private meetings when we have children his age? And Omar said, He's young like you said. He's the age of your own children. He called me one day. You listen to what they're saying. It's kind of a little bit insulting that someone so young and one would assume in that youth inexperienced would be allowed to sit with them. It's inappropriate. So he called me one day and brought me in. And he said, Fema rai too. Anu daniyoma idin illa liyuriahum. And I knew that he only brought me that day just to show them something, to teach them a lesson. And he said, What do you all say about the statement of Allah? When the victory of Allah comes and the opening or when the help of Allah comes and the victory. Some of them said, We've been commanded to nahmalu Allah to praise Allah and ask him to forgive us. Ila jaa anasru Allahi wal fataah. Wa rai taal nasa yadakuluna fi dinillahi afwaja. Praise Allah. Ask Allah to forgive you. If he brings you that help and if he brings you that victory and some of them didn't say anything. And he said to me, Is that what you think Ibn Abbas? And he said no. He said, I said no. So what do you say then? He said, It is the end of the life of Rasulina sallallahu alayhi wasallam. And all of us, most of us are familiar with that hadith that Ibn Abbas said that Ila jaa anasru Allahi wal fataah is the indication that the life of the messenger when it was revealed to the Prophet alayhi sallallahu alayhi wasallam in his lifetime. Now they're in the khilaf of the Umar ibn al-Khattab that that was the indication of his death. And if we pay attention once more we'll see exactly what Ibn Abbas saw. And of course he knows that also because he learned it from Rasulina sallallahu alayhi wasallam. Allahumma. That's what Rasulina sallallahu alayhi wasallam said about him. Allah give him understanding, fiqhah in the deen and teach him the explanation of the Quran. He said it is the end of the life of the messenger that Allah subhanahu wa ta'ala informed him of. He said if the victory, if the help of Allah comes in the victory and the messenger said to me that is a sign that I will see happen among my people. Fasabih and when you see that sign like Musa when he was traveling with the young man and he said what happened to the fish? He said oh I forgot to tell you the fish jumped away and jumped back into the water. He said that was the sign we were waiting for and we were supposed to do something when Allah told me that sign was going to come. Then I'd know that I needed to get off the road here and find the person I'm going to learn from. Here also the messenger alayhi wasallam was told when you see that great help of Allah when you see that great opening, that victory, the great victory, then praise Allah subhanahu wa ta'ala sabbih Allah, right? Say subhan Allah. Say Alhamdulillah and ask Allah to forgive you because he relents the people and accepts their tawba and the Omar of the Allah who said I don't know anything other than about it than what you've just said right now. So Ibn Abbas proved that he knew and understood the Quran better even than senior sahabah from around the people of better from among the people of better. But of course our chapter is about doing good at the end of life. And here is the end of the life of Rasulullah alayhi wasallam and in other narrations the sahabah said that at the end of his life he would say sabbih subhan Allah wa alhamdulillah wa astaghfirullah very very frequently. And elsewhere they would say that there was more and more revelation coming at the end of the life of Rasulullah alayhi wasallam. So even the messenger who all of his faults are forgiven that went before and all of his faults will be forgiven after he's still increasing and increasing in every moment and he's our example. The third hadith is from Isha she said ma sattah rasulullah wa alayhi wasallam sadaatin baada annazalat alayhi ila jaa nasrullah wal fataah The messenger never prayed a prayer after the revelation of when the help of Allah comes in his victory except that he would say in it subhanaka rabbana wa bihandika Allahumma ghufir bi This is what tafakun alayhi that he would say glory to you our Lord in your perfection and your praise and Allah forgive me. Some of the exegetes will say that he said it when he went down into Rukua after reciting this surah and there are places in the Quran where there are sunnah phrases that the messenger alayhi wasallam would stop and say when he would reach those verses isn't Allah the best of judges in surah to deen and then we finish the surah and we say before making Rukua baada so is it that he said this in his Rukua or he would stop and say this before going into Rukua both would be valid if he rewired to say sahihaini anha kana rasulullahi sallallahu alayhi wasallam yukthir wa'iyya quwada fi rukua ihi wa sujoodihi that he would say that very frequently in his bowing and in his prostration it's a awwala quran meaning that he would it's a awwala quran here is he would act on what the quran was telling him to do kana quran al yamshi right there you go right as we progress in life we can become more like rasulullah sallallahu alayhi wasallam it's a beautiful thing fa sabbih bi hamdi rabbika wasallam becoming more like the quran acting on the quran following the way of the messenger alayhi wasallam but this is for the intelligent believer this is for the believer that understands priorities this is the believer who has embraced his life as a journey to Allah swt and understands the priorities that if your destination your objective is Allah swt then you will do your best to learn and act accordingly Bismillah ar-Rahman ar-Rahim and in the narrations of the Rasulullah sallallahu alayhi wasallam he will say before he dies subhanak allahumma wabihandik astaghfirukha wa atubu ilayk subhanak allahumma wabihandik astaghfirukha wa atubu ilayk subhanak allahumma wabihandik astaghfirukha wa atubu ilayk Aisha said Ya Rasulullah what are these new words that you're saying so often and he said that a sign was made for me among my ummah that if I saw it I should the sign being the jah if I saw it I should do this and it goes on mentioning a number of other instances in the same vein the next hadith number four an anas radiallahu anhu Inna Allah Az-Zawujalla taba al-wahiya a'la Rasulillah sallallahu alayhi wasallam al-qabala wa fatihi hatta tuwafiya a'la ma'kan al-wahiya alayhi Allah subhanahu wa ta'ala gave so much consecutive revelation to the messenger alayhi salatu wa salam at the end of his life that more revelation was coming at the end of his life than at any point earlier subhanAllah an increase in goodness because in the Quran is a great deal of goodness so we see the prophet alayhi salatu wa salam increasing subhanAllah the warner comes for many of us the warner are the gray hairs that we have in our head there's a beautiful thing there's so much beauty in that it's a sign of wisdom Rasulullah sallallahu alayhi wasallam said that the white hair and the gray hair that comes is a light a light of what? a light of experience a light of understanding a light of settledness a light of being at peace with Allah subhanahu wa ta'ala because the one who embraces that warner of gray hair or white hair and acts in accordance in harmony with what it means by becoming more contented with Allah subhanahu wa ta'ala do you think that Allah is not going to become more contented with that person? subhanAllah and we're living in a society that doesn't celebrate age it celebrates only youth and recognizes only youth and is only interested in the younger and the opinion of the younger and we see that Sayyidina Allah is bringing the younger even Abbas into the mejdes that seems to inspire us to follow the the way that American society goes but then we stop we take a breath of that age and that experience that we have and we see that the reason why they didn't want him there was because they saw only his age and they compared him to their own children of the same age and said this is not appropriate but there was an exception about even Abbas it's not about age it's not about how old is this person and how old is that person how old is this one too young is this one young enough or is this one old enough but it's about the individual and the experience that this individual has the wisdom that this individual has and some people will receive it at a very young age and not everybody will be able to recognize it not everybody will be able to celebrate what more frequently comes with gray hair comes with white hair but because we live in a society that doesn't recognize the value of that we have people die the white hair die the gray hair they don't want anyone to see it they don't have like men in the masjid who are way way too old to have such brilliantly robust hair coloring right? and something looks askew something doesn't look right and what doesn't look right is the loss of priorities the fact that if a brother would just let those gray hairs show but he never embraced them in the first place right? he wanted to hide them and you know Abbasiri he said that had I known that I would respect the warner of gray hair that would come to my head out of embarrassment for not being in harmony and embracing this I would have died my hair so maybe it's out of embarrassment right? for not yet reaching the point where one is settled and in peace with their life I was recently on the east coast and a brother was mentioning to me one of the young professionals was mentioning to me that we've learned that we're supposed to respect our elders in the community and we're very ready to do that but we've discovered that there seems to be a difference between elders and elderly and we ask Allah subhanahu wa ta'ala to send us some elders because with this age is supposed to come wisdom and insight with a certain age a person is naturally called Shaykh and this is the organic meaning of the word they understand the deem to the point where in the absence of a scholar or a teacher some of our elders could guide us in the deem if they would just listen or had listened and understood the deem but if they go their entire lives not learning not trying or attempting to gain harmony with the teachings of Allah subhanahu wa ta'ala and his messenger which are a goodness and a salve or a balasam for our human condition then when they get old they're just old and we will show respect for them we all need to take a deep breath and ensure that we're not just going through the motions and missing out on a real life in the actual world that Allah subhanahu wa ta'ala has created and put us in because we're hiding away in places where we go through the motions we act like robots we plug and play and cut and paste and wait around for the end to come to us hoping that there's no big tragedies or catastrophes instead of trying the world, testing the world learning about the world and being in life with your deen instead of hiding our children from the world let's teach them to be leaders in the world because you can't hide them from the world when they leave your home you won't be able to hide them from the world when you send them away to college we have to experience this world and live this life and be part of it and be our deen not hiding closets and cabinets where it's easy to practice where it's easy to be a good Muslim subhanallah this is a test and tests are not always easy age is a beautiful thing when we cannot or do not have the ability to benefit from the experience the life experience of elders when we have the inability to celebrate that experience all of us are at a loss we're trying to raise kids and we don't know exactly what to do next because there is no knowledge that's being passed on by a society around us by people who went before us we're trying to reinvent wheels we're trying to figure out how to build Islamic institutions because we've never met anyone that ever lived or experienced healthy Islamic institutions we can't even make and will do area correctly in this country because the people who build our massage it never make will do in a masjid in the countries where they came from subhanallah but we're trying to be positive we all lose when we can't find the wisdom in our elders and all we ask we ask Allah subhanahu wa ta'ala to sound us elders and not just elderly we'll take care of our elderly we'll respect our elderly but Allah send us some elders because we could use some wisdom and some guidance from someone who knows what they're doing and we should think about that as we become older that we benefit and learn and listen and grow and stay true because this is the only shot you've got Allah give us tophia in it how are we for time? 7.30 we can go into chapter 13 chapter 13 chapter 13 there's so many good things that you can do in this life and in this world he begins chapter 13 by citing the verses of the Quran and whatever you do of good Allah knows even if people don't know what you did even if people don't know your intention I don't know if the handouts are good or if you don't go to chapter 13 because I told the sister that we would probably just complete chapter 12 and not go any further Alhamdulillah so Alhamdulillah we read along with chapter 12 and now we'll venture boldly and with confidence encourage into the wilderness of chapter 13 blind not being able to see at night if you drive in the desert in the middle of the night with no headlights on right you probably do okay right or when you were a teenager right you come up in the car behind your friend and they don't know it's you in the middle of the night with the headlights on you come up real real close and you turn the headlights off right that usually unsettles people a great deal so we'll venture into chapter 13 and Alhamdulillah we will light our way وما تفعلوا من خير and Allah SWT knows it's not lost in the next verse وما تفعلوا من خير يعلمه الله the same thing Allah knows it فَمَا يَعْمَدْ مِذْقَالَ ضَرَّةٍ خَيْرًا يَرَى let's stop he stops there because the chapter is explaining or the explication how many pathways of goodness there are in life and when he reads this verse from Zal Zala he wants to draw our attention to just the first half because that's all we need we don't need to complete it right now because that's not the theme that's not the subject matter whoever works even in Adam's weight of good will see it at the end of life judgment it will be there because nothing is lost on Allah SWT if you made the best intention that you could muster not a perfect intention might have some holes in it might need to be stitched up over here and it might need to be tucked under over there but it was the best intention you could muster Allah SWT knows your sincerity and you acted on it and you did something of goodness and it didn't come off exactly the way you wanted it to come off with all the grace and beauty but you did it and you made that effort it's not lost on Allah SWT because if that was in question people would hesitate before doing good and we only have this life to live and give it to the fullest and let's be people of good Subhan Allah من عمينا صالحان فالي نفسي Allah says whoever does a good action it's for his own benefit we don't benefit Allah SWT we benefit ourselves but we like to see Allah we like to see Allah content with us it gives us contentment to know that Allah SWT is content we ask Allah SWT to make us among those he's content with وَأَمَنْ أَحَدِيثَ elsewhere there's the verse of Allah SWT which he says that Allah does not let the effort of any man or woman be lost it doesn't let it be lost the smallest effort of doing what they can Subhan Allah the ways of doing good the first hadith is from He says he said messenger of Allah which action which work is the best and he said faith in Allah having faith is an action the Sahaba used to say to one another come let's believe for a moment maybe we'll sit down and make zikr we'll sit down and remind one another of the teachings of deen we'll talk about those aspects of Islam that inspire us or encourage us we'll celebrate that e-man and they saw it as a verb as an action he said not talking about jihad in our masjid is not working but we need to talk about jihad we need to talk about what jihad is and what jihad is not this is important we need to have a discussion at some point about how we can make sure that no young man or no young Muslim no young Muslim no young Muslim woman no young Muslim man could ever mistakenly think that it's okay in the teachings of Rasulina of the messenger of Allah to hurt another human soul to hurt another soul this is not okay and it doesn't matter what that soul is all you need to know is human soul isn't that okay we don't need to talk about exceptions any exception only takes place in a court of law appointed by the political authority of the region where you live in the earth and after due diligence to bring a case against the person and find them guilty and we still respect the soul of the child of Adam if we're angry about something if we feel small about some politics going on somewhere in the world maybe something's wrong with my manhood because I feel like I have to take out some type of feelings that are all theoretical really theoretical because nobody bombed your house nobody put you out nobody hurt one of your family members we hurt for those who suffer and there are correct ways to go about helping those who suffer there are ways that are in harmony and in alignment with the teachings of Allah and his messenger to go about writing wrongs and human society has become very sophisticated in the possibilities but you have to be an intelligent person and while young people are misunderstanding the deen and running around like a bunch of knuckleheads there are non-muslims doing a better job than most Muslims at writing wrongs and redressing grievances and stepping up to the plate but they are sharp people they are insightful people they are people who worked in order to understand the world and how it works and how to maintain their humanity Subhanallah we need to have a discussion about how we can go about ensuring that no one misunderstands the teachings of the deen of Islam because sometimes we allow people to come up with mistaken understandings and think that actions are okay that are not okay how did that happen that's what we need to ask ourselves how did it happen that there can be young people that think that actions that are harmful and conflict with the very teachings of the deen somehow can be done in the name of the deen there are people and some of them are elderly and still think that there is no life experience there's a lot of gray hairs but it's elderly and it's not elder how does that happen something must not be going right avoiding talking about it is not going to help avoiding talking about it is not going to help one thing that we can do is we can stop dumbing down our entire muslim discourse the world over stop trying to force every single discussion about the deen into something so simplistic so shallow so thin that it cannot hold up where the rubber meets the road what's the condition of the khuf that you can make wudu over when you put on the foot gear the leather socks that you wear and you can wipe over them when you make your wudu one of the conditions is that you can walk around the campsite for 24 hours without it coming apart or getting a hole in it or ripping that's the condition of a khuf that we wear on our feet if our discourse on the deen of Islam cannot hold up in a campsite for 24 hours right then our discourse is probably no better than the khuf that people wear on their feet it's not a discourse on a deen that is a deen of the lord of the universe that is supposed to be a malad that is supposed to be a balsam that is supposed to be a healing for the people of this world who is the ummah of Muhammad sallallahu alaihi wasallam every black person every red person and all that is in between and this healing is supposed to come to them that was the mission of rasulina sallallahu alaihi wasallam and that is what we should be celebrating when we make salawat on the prophet alaihi sallallahu alaihi wasallam bringing this healing meaning control yourself when you get angry leisil qawiyyu asshadidu besara right the strong person is not the one who can wrestle his opponent to the ground the strong person is the one who if their opponent wrestles them to the ground they don't lose their temper and start showing unsportsmanlike conduct right subhanallah self control subhanallah faith and jihad what is jihad you're striving to make the word of Allah subhanahu wa ta'ala most high word of Allah subhanahu wa ta'ala is already higher than high so what's going on here the word of Allah subhanahu wa ta'ala high in the hearts of people that ikrah of a deen there's no coercion coercion in deen you can't force someone to believe you can force someone into submission maybe but faith does not enter into their heart that's a special thing between that person and Allah subhanahu wa ta'ala also you cannot force a child to respect the word of Allah subhanahu wa ta'ala you can force them to keep the mushaf on the highest shelf in the house you can force someone to not do anything to the Quran that would be disrespectful to the Quran but having a high regard for the words of Allah subhanahu wa ta'ala in the hearts of people comes from something something different we saw a music video that was a nasty music video as nasty as you want to be and they had a South American country and they put the Quran in the background of the rap music and all of this maybe they just wanted to have some eastern flavors or something like that what's the usual reaction with the Muslims let's get excited, let's get what is what if we were in some countries we know exactly what would be going burning tires and tipping over cars and setting shops on fire and breaking glass and laughing the whole time that's not the right reaction because if someone doesn't understand how to respect the Quran or what the Quran is we comment them aggressively and violently or the Maqam of Rasulullah wa alayhi wasallam even we comment them in this way will we leave them with the words of Allah subhanahu wa ta'ala uppermost in their heart, in their regard no that's what we need to consider when we think about jihad when we say that we're engaged in jihad and there are all different types of jihad don't get it twisted and don't misunderstand what I'm saying but we engage in something we call jihad in a way that will make people disgusted when Amir Abdul Qadir was weaning against the French rahmatullahi alay he comported himself in such a way that when they took him captive they treated him with so much respect they honored him in Paris they honored him in France and they told him you can choose any country in the world to go to but you just can't be in Algeria until this conflict is over subhanallah Sheikh Mohammed al-Ashmar one of the leaders of the jihad against the French in Syria when the French finally broke and gave their independence they kept diplomatic relations with Syria and all of the leaders of the jihad like Sheikh Mohammed al-Ashmar Sheikh Hassan Haban al-Midani they respected so much the Germans are in love with Salah al-Dina Ayyubi Damascus is full of relics made by the Germans to celebrate Salah al-Dina Ayyubi there's this massive statue in front of Salah al-Dina in the center of the city of Salah al-Dina as soldiers and they're so fierce and on horseback and all of this who made that, whose idea was that Germans just insisted that we set that up here in the grave of Salah al-Dina Ayyubi in the mazaliya where he's buried Rahmatullahi alay there's the grave he's buried in and then there's another sarcophagus next to it that was made by Germans by the German government to honor Salah al-Dina Ayyubi they didn't use it but they put it there because they insisted that it be put there it's nicer than the original one right? Subhanallah so we leave people with the sense that the words of Allah subhanahu wa ta'ala are high most in their hearts and let's take it a little bit further is it just the words of Allah the print on the page the word Quran or the content the meanings of the Quran are now high most in people's heart this is the meaning of jihad to make an effort to make the content of the Quran and what's the name of our chapter 13 how many right? ways of good are there in the deen of Islam how many ways in the deen of Islam are there to do good things the first hadith faith in Allah and jihad and we discussed the meaning of jihad the things that I've said tonight about the meanings of jihad you've heard many teachers explain the meanings of jihad in different ways good teachers and I've explained some facets of that so put that together with the good things that you already know we say to strive and make effort to do what is good that is the way we define jihad to the point where a few years ago about five, six, seven years ago or so even the non-Muslims will say trying to quit smoking really it's my jihad anything that they saw is like a good thing they would start saying that's my jihad because people are getting a sense of what that might be and they get that sense from us but we have to understand it first the difference between being an elder and being elder V Allah SWT let us grow into being elders and not just elder V may Allah be with you we'll stop here inshallah may Allah be with you may Allah give you our peace may Allah give you our i'ana may Allah give you joy in your homes and with your families wherever you find your families wherever your family is may Allah give you joy where you are may Allah give you happiness may Allah give you a lightness of being may Allah SWT put light in your hearts put intelligence in your minds in our minds may Allah show us the way give us a light in the dark make our feet firm on the path of the Prophet SAW amongst the people that he was anxiousness ardently anxious is he over you or about your well-being Allah SWT described him and we walk amongst the people that he was anxious about let us be good representatives of Rasulullah SAW and his intent and purposes in the place where Allah has put us not in the place where we think we should be not in the place where we think we want to run to the place where we are now because that's where Allah has designed for us to be now we may need to get out of this place if it's the last thing we ever do sister there's a better life for me and you we may need to get out of this place Allah get us out if we need to get out Subhan Allah but we're here now so let's do our best to reflect the way of the messenger with Taufiq from Allah SWT success in the affairs of our dunya without losing success in the affairs of our akhirah Allah make our children healthy Allah make our bones healthy Allah make the sincere supplication of you the marrow of our ibadah Allah give us sincerity Allah give us a moment of contentment in our days and in our nights in which there is no space in it except for us and you Ya Rabbana Allah SWT illumined the grave of your messenger alayhi salatu wa salam and bring him joy when we show up let his face light up and let him smile to the point where we see a little bit of his teeth the moment that we walk in and he sees us and he sees our children and our families Ya Rabbana none of this is difficult Allah accept our prayers Allah accept our salawat Allah accept our efforts Allah accept us with all of our flaws Allah SWT stitch us up and bring us together gather us on you give us consciousness of you and conscientiousness of the people that we share our world with make us someone who Rasulullah SWT can be proud of Ya Rabbi give us that joy and give us that happiness and give us smiles and give us relief in our hearts in this life and the next Allah SWT