 Our master Muhammad As-Sallallahu Alaihi wa-Ali wa-Sallam He said al-Hadeeth At Dunya Sijnu al-Mu'min And this is recorded by Imam Muslim Hirmadi Ibn Maja The world is the prison of the believer The world is the prison of the believer Meaning that we are not meant to be too comfortable in this world That the believer, the mu'min, should feel a type of constriction in this world Of course Allah SWT does not give us more than we can handle There are degrees of comfort and joy in the Dunya But the overarching sense of the world for the believer Is one of constriction, of tightness, of discomfort, like a prison cell Thus life in the Dunya requires patience and hope Even a Wali, Allah SWT, even a saint of God Whose desires have completely aligned with the Quran and Sunnah Is not comfortable in this world, especially a saint of God I should say And this is one of the definitions, by the way Of willaya, of nearness to Allah SWT Friendship with Allah SWT Imam An-Nawawi included in his Arba'een A Hadith narrated by Abdullah Ibn Amr In which the Prophet Muhammad SAW said I will not be until I become a saint and follow what I come to be No one truly believes until his desires are perfectly in accordance With what I have brought But what did the Prophet SAW bring? He brought the Quran and Sunnah That is to say He brought the word of God in text and the word of God in practice He brought the Quran and the agreed upon and well known ethos And custom of the Prophet SAW Which is the Quran's greatest exegesis The Sunnah is the greatest Tafseer of the Quran A Sunnah to Fassiru Quran So Allah SWT for example Allah SWT tells us in the Quran Speaking directly to the Prophet Muhammad SAW That verily verily you dominate magnificent character Your ethos is vast What is this khuluq abeen that Allah SWT is speaking about The Sunnah tells us That he SAW Was da'iman bishri Sa'ala khuluqi La'ina amjanibi La'isa li-faktin Wa la-faleedin Wa la-sakhabin Wa la-fahashin That he SAW Was always cheerful He was easy going He was affable He was gentle He was not harsh He was not coarse He was not lewd or crude He was a real man As our mother Aisha Allah SWT describes him As well as SAW And this is just the tip of the iceberg This great khuluq abeen How do we determine what it is From the Quran and the Sunnah Now imagine a Wali of God A friend of God Whose desires have aligned perfectly With the Quran and Sunnah Whose joy is to pray and fast Whose joy is to restrict his appetites Whose joy is to read and study the Quran Whose joy is to give charity Even he is not comfortable In the dunya Why? Because he longs to be With Allah SWT In the Akhirah Also, he longs to be With Allah SWT In Jannah That's called Shope That's called Longing And Shope is discomforting Longing for once beloved Due to a Firaq Due to a separation Causes anxiety Sayyidina Bilal Ibn Rabah When he was on his deathbed In Damascus, Syria His wife was screaming Wa Karabah Wa Karabah Oh disaster Oh calamity Sayyidina Bilal he said La Karabah Wa Allahi La Karabah Hadan Alqa Akhirah Muhammadan Wahizbah There is no calamity Tomorrow I shall meet The beloved ones The Prophet SAW And his fellowship Sayyidina Bilal The Prophet SAW With the love That was unbelievable The message of the Prophet SAW Sayyidina Bilal In every way imaginable When the Prophet SAW passed away Sayyidina Bilal had separation anxiety That only death could cure Imam al-Bukhari Related a hadith of our mother Aisha Rabi Allah She said The Prophet SAW In his fatal illness Told his daughter And told her a secret Because of which She started weeping Fabaqat Then he called her and told her another secret And she started laughing Fabaqat When I asked her about that She replied The Prophet SAW told me That he would die In his fatal illness And so I wept But then he secretly told me That from amongst his family I would be the first to join him So I laughed What makes a woman In her early 20s Laugh at death The answer is reunion With her beloved This is why the people of Ma'ifa They say about Sayyidina Faqima The words of the Prophet SAW They say Slain by the sword Of unconditional love And longing So we should know the nature Of the world We should be cognizant Of the essense of the dunya Allah SWT Says in the Quran We will test you Indeed, we will test you with something of fear and hunger and loss of wealth and loss of lives and loss of the fruits of your labor and some say famara means the loss of your children. The Addressee here is second person, common, plural, in other words, Allah SWT is speaking to humanity, but then Allah SWT without skipping a beat says, wa basher is sawgireen, but give glad tidings to the patient ones. Now the Addressee is second person, masculine, singular. This sudden change in Addressee is called irtifat, it is a rhetorical device in the Qur'an, it is an aspect of the inability, the insuperability, the ajarz of the Qur'an, supreme eloquence of the Qalamah of Allah SWT, but who is this new Addressee? Who is this second person, masculine, singular, muqatab? The answer is the Prophet Muhammad SAW, so after telling us that he will test us with calamity and disaster, Allah SWT commands the Prophet SAW to give glad tidings, to give bushra to the patient ones. In other words, Allah SWT is telling us that the source of our relief is the Prophet SAW. The dunya is indeed our prison, but take solace in the fact that when we get out of prison, we will have a defense lawyer as it were, an advocate to intercede on our behalf with the Judge of Judges, with the King of Kings. We are now in prison, but we have hope, and remember I said that prison requires sabr and rajah, it requires patience and hope. Allah SWT says, You have in the Messenger of God, a beautiful example of conduct, for anyone who has hope rajah in Allah SWT, and in the final day, and makes frequent remembrance of Allah SWT. Look to him, for our relief, he is the greatest embodiment of the mercy of Allah SWT. This is one of the most iconic Ayat in the Quran, we did not send you O Muhammad, except as a mercy to all the worlds. He said, I am the Prophet of Mercy, I am a gifted mercy. Ibn Ajeba says in the Bahru al-Madeed that the meaning of this verse is that he is a cause of happiness, fitdareen in both abodes in this world and in the hereafter. He is the means of our guidance and salvation. Allah SWT says in the book of the Holy Qur'an, Allah SWT says, O you who believe, pray upon him and send him your gift. Allahumma salli ala Sayyidun Muhammadin wa ala ala Sayyidun Muhammad. We bear witness that there is no god but Allah. We seek refuge with Allah from the fire. Allahumma inna ka'aqool dukhilu la'afwa fa'afu anna. Allahumma inna ka'aqool dukhilu la'afwa fa'afu anna. Allahumma inna ka'aqool dukhilu la'afwa fa'afu anna. Ya Karim. Wassallallahu sallim Muhammadin wa la alihi wa sahbih wa salam. Wa alhamdulillahi rabbil anamin. Aamin. Wa timu sallati bi-krihi.