 As-salamu alaikum wa rahmatuhu wa barakatuh Bismillahir rahmanir raheem wa as-salatu wa as-salamu ala Sayyidina wa Nabiyina Muhammadin wa ala alihi wa sahbihi wa salim Ya Rabbana lakal hamdu tama yambaghili jalal wa jihika wa awwimi sultanik Allahumma ya mqalibi al-kulubi wa al-absar thabdat kuluban ala dinika ya Rahm Al-Rahimin Allahumma al-limna ma yanfa'una wa nfa'na bima al-lamtana ya Allah Today, insha'Allah, we will start with Hadith number eight. A'han ibn Umar ar-Raziyallahu an-Huma An-Rasulallahi sallallahu alayhi wa sallam al-qal Umir tu an-uqatil an-Nasa hatta yashhadun Alla ilaha illallahu wa an-Namuhammad al-Rasulallahu wa yuqimus salata wa yuqtuz zakah fa itha fa alu thalika asamu minni dima'ahum wa amwala hum illa bihaqqil islam wa hisabuhum ala Allahi ta'ala A'han ibn Umar ar-Raziyallahu an-Huma May Allah be pleased with that. He reported that the Messenger of Allah sallallahu alayhi wa sallam once said, I have been commanded. And of course, the one who commands Sayyidina Muhammad sallallahu alayhi wa sallam is Allah. I have been commanded by Allah to fight people until they testify that there is no God except Allah. And that Muhammad is the Messenger of Allah and performs salam and pay the zakah. If they do so, they will have protection of their blood and property from me, except when justified by Islam. And then account is left to Allah, subhanahu wa ta'ala. So let's start and see what this hadith is about. So the hadith starts with the command to fight. Umirtu an-uqatil have been commanded to fight. But why do we fight? We fight to make Allah's word the highest word. And that means that Allah's laws are the highest laws. And these laws should be implemented. So Sayyidina Ibn Mas'ud, r.a narrated in one of the hadith. He said, Sayyidina Muhammad sallallahu alayhi wa sallam said, So Ibn Mas'ud, r.a narrated that the Messenger of Allah sallallahu alayhi wa sallam said, it is not permissible to spill the blood of a Muslim except in three cases. Sayyid waszani, the married person who commits adultery. When nafsubin nafs, a life for a life. So if someone kills a person, then he is to be killed. And the one who forsakes his religion and separates from the community. So these are the three conditions, the three instances that a person, Lord, can be spilled. Abu Huraira, r.a, said, When the Messenger of Allah sallallahu alayhi wa sallam said, And who disbelieved of the Arabs? Umar, r.a, said, How can people be killed? And the Messenger of Allah sallallahu alayhi wa sallam said, I am ordered to kill people until they say, There is no god but Allah. So whoever said it, So Abu Huraira, r.a, reported that when the Messenger of Allah sallallahu alayhi wa sallam passed away, Abu Bakr, r.a, was appointed as his successor as the Caliph after Sayyidina Muhammad. So most of the Arabs, some men after the death of Sayyidina Muhammad sallallahu alayhi wa sallam, were destitized and Abu Bakr resolved to fight them. So Umar ibn al-Khattar, r.a, said, How can you fight them? When the Messenger of Allah sallallahu alayhi wa sallam declared, I have been commanded to fight people until they testify, La ilaha illallah. There is no god but Allah. And if they do so, then their blood, their life, their property are secured, except when justified by law. And it is for Allah to call them to account. So Sayyidina Umar was thinking, how can Abu Bakr do so? So when he talked to him about it, Sayyidina Abu Bakr said, Wallahi la'uqatil anna man ferraqabainas salati wa al-Zak'a Fa inna al-Zak'a ta haqqal mal. So Sayyidina Abu Bakr said, By Allah, I would definitely fight those who make distinction between Salat and Zak'a. Because Zak'a is an obligation upon the rich. The rich has to pay Zak'a and I will kill that person who differentiates that. So Wallahi la'uqatil anna man a'uqatil anna man ferraqabainas salati wa al-Zak'a Fa inna al-Zak'a. So by Allah, he's swearing that I will fight them even to secure the piece of rope which they used to give to the messenger if they did not want to give it anymore. So this is what it means to fight people. To fight people until they witness that there is no God but Allah SWT. And Sayyidina Muhammad SAW, whenever he wanted to attack some people or whenever he sent a dispatch to fight some people. So he would never attack them until it was done. So if he heard the adhan, if he heard the call for the prayer, he would delay the fight. If he did not hear the adhan, then he would know that those people are non-believers. So he would attack them immediately after down time. So becoming a Muslim, when someone witnesses that there is no God but Allah SWT, it means that these people who became Muslims, they protect their blood and money. So they are secure. No Muslim can kill them except if they did any of the three just mentioned things. So what will happen then? Then the hadith says, Allah SWT is going to have reckoning. So what does this mean? It means that when someone pronounces Islam, when he performs Salah, when he gives Saka, he is secure. But on the day of judgment, Allah SWT is going to judge him. So in dunya, we do not judge. It's not our business to judge people. If that person is sincere, he had sincere intentions, and here we link again this hadith to the first hadith that we started with, the actions are by their intentions. So if the person is sincere, if he had sincere intentions for the actions that he is doing, then Allah SWT is going to reward that person. So no one is allowed to judge people. This is judging people is the work of Allah SWT. So if that person is sincere, he will be rewarded. If that person is a liar, then Allah will take care of him. Allah will punish him. So we have to take things, how they appear. So actions that we carry out must always be based on what is apparent and not on what we assume. And this is one of the biggest problems in our society. Whenever we have any issue, any problem, any dispute, so you will find that one of the reasons is misunderstanding. So he said so, then he means so. You cannot do that. Actions have to be based on what is apparent. This is how you take actions of people. So we treat people based on what they portray and what do they say? If deep inside they are not sincere, then Allah SWT will judge them. It shouldn't be our concern to judge people. Take things as they are. So we shouldn't fall into the traps of shaitan that would, he would be pleased to see dispute. That would be his happiness, just to see people getting divided. It's a problem to see people getting united. And when they get divided, the reason for that is, one of that reason is why did they do so? They said this word, then they mean this. No, we cannot say that. Sayyidina Muhammad SAW, he said, I have not been commanded to dig into the hearts of people, nor to split their bellies inside. I have to take what's out, what's apparent. So this is Sayyidina Muhammad SAW. And we will link this hadith to the next hadith when Sayyidina Muhammad SAW said, do as I do. We have to follow. We have to follow the footsteps of Sayyidina Muhammad SAW. So Sayyidina Muhammad SAW, supplemented Usama bin Zaid RA, when he killed a person, saying, La ilaha illallah. After saying, La ilaha illallah. So he was with a group of Muslims, some people, non-believers. And when Sayyidina Usama saw that person, he lifted his sword to kill him. And the words La ilaha illallah came out of the mouth of that person. But he did not care and he killed him. So when he went back to Sayyidina Muhammad SAW, he told him what happened. When Sayyidina Muhammad SAW was very upset, he would say, what would you say in front of Allah SAW about a person who said La ilaha illallah? So Sayyidina Muhammad SAW used to say, La ilaha illallah, kaleematun ala Allahi kareemah. Man qalaha sadiqan adkhala hullahu bihal jannah. So the word La ilaha illallah is so important. It has so much value to Allah SAW. And we know that on the day of judgment, a card with La ilaha illallah will be put on the scale and the person will be a winner. After all his deeds were equal, good deeds and bad deeds were equal. But La ilaha illallah will overweigh everything. So Sayyidina Muhammad SAW says, Man qalaha sadiqan adkhala hullahu bihal jannah. Whoever says La ilaha illallah, sincerely, then Allah SAW would get him into paradise. Man qalaha qaziban haqanat malahu wadama. But whoever says this word just without sincerity or he was a liar, he will be secured. He will be saved in this dunya. He will not be killed. They will meet Allah SAW and Allah will hold him account for his words, for not being sincere, for being a liar, for everything. So the hadith ended with and their reckoning will be Allah be exalted. So Allah is the one who is going to scale the actions. He is going to judge the actions. So with this, the hadith tells us that we carry out rulings in this life based on what's appeared and not based on assumptions. We cannot assume that this person says so, so he means so. No, ask, ask. Just get things clarified. In the day of judgment, Allah will deal with everyone in a just way. So we have to be careful in this dunya. So get your heart just pure to have it a sound heart on the day of judgment. So this is our focus, is the heart should be sound. Leave everything to Allah SAW. He's going to judge people. He's going to take care of everything. So moving to the next hadith, insha'Allah, about Abu Huraira. He said, So on the authority of Abu Huraira, he said, I heard the messenger of Allah SAW say what I have forbidden for you, then avoid. And what I have ordered you to do then do as much of it as you can. For verily, it was only the excessive questioning and the disagreeing with their prophets that destroyed the nations who were before you. Subhanallah. So Allah SAW was ordered by Allah SAW to fight people until they do so and so. And then Allah SAW will have reckoning. So we have to follow. This hadith starts with, it starts with what I have forbidden for you then avoid. So do as much as you can of what Prophet Muhammad SAW has ordered us to do. Abu Huraira SAW says, So once there was a ceremony by Sayyidina Muhammad SAW and he said in the ceremony, So he said to, he addressed the people and he said to them, Pilgrimage was made an obligation then do it. So this was Allah SAW said it has been ordained for you. Pilgrimage has been ordained for you. So perform it. So one of the people, one of the men said, asked, he asked whether they should perform it annually every year. And he repeated it three times. So Sayyidina Muhammad SAW said, If I were to say that it should, then it would be obligatory. And you would not be able to perform it. Imagine that every year we have to go to Hajj. Imagine how much we have to save every year. And just for a question that someone asked, then Sayyidina Muhammad SAW went on and he said, Leave me alone. Leave what I did not specify. Leave it alone. Do not ask questions. Leave things. Because the predecessors perished simply on account of their much questioning. They disagreed with their prophets. So that's what perished them. So when I command you to do something, then wait. Wait as much as you can. Do as much as you can. And when I forbid you to do anything, then leave it alone. So when that person asked about performing Hajj every day, every year, sorry. So Allah SAW revealed, O you who believe, do not ask about things if you want to. And if you ask about them while they are reciting the Qur'an, then ask about them. So in Surah Al-Ma'idah, one Allah SAW says, O you who have believed. Let us do not ask about things which if they are shown to you, will distress you. So do not ask when Prophet Muhammad SAW says, when I don't specify, don't ask for details. Allah SAW goes on. But if you ask about them while the Qur'an is being revealed, they will be shown to you. So Allah has pardoned that which is past. So when Allah SAW is forgiving and he is forbearing. So we have to follow the orders of Allah SAW. Do not ask more questions. Do not ask, keep things where Allah stopped, where Sayyidina Muhammad SAW did not go over. Sometimes you find people asking the scholars questions, just to make sure that they know what they are talking about. They just want to make it hard for the scholars. Why? Sometimes people ask the scholars questions not for the sake of the answer, not because they are seeking an answer, but just to argue. They don't even need the answer. They want to know, does he know the answer? These are scholars. Ibn Abbas SAW says, but wait, do not ask questions. So when Allah reveals the Qur'an, you don't need to ask anything. If you ask, you will find the answer in the Qur'an. But what does the ayah mean? We have to know about the Qur'an. So we have to strengthen our bond with the Qur'an. If you read one page a day, make it two. Try to understand the meanings of the ayahs that you are reading. So it's not just going over the Qur'an one time after another, one time after another. Try to understand the meanings of the ayahs. When you understand them, try to implement what you learned about the Qur'an in your daily life. This is how Sayyidina Omar used to be. He used to take five ayahs, and he would understand them, and then he would implement them, and then he would move to the next five ayahs. So when we understand the Qur'an, we follow what is being quartered in the Qur'an, and we abstain from what is unlawful that both are shown in the Qur'an. Allah SWT makes it clear to Sayyidina Muhammad SAW to deliver the message. So when I command you to do anything, just obey as much as you can. But when I forbid you to do anything, then leave it. Do not do it. If you think a little bit about the first part and the second part, when I command you to do anything, obey as much as you can. Do as much as you can. You might not be able to fulfill it to do 100%, but do as much as you can. But look at the second part. But when I forbid you to do anything, leave it. So for orders, we have to do as much as we can that order. But for things that are being forbidden, we have to leave it all. We cannot do just part of it. Do just part of it. No. Allah SWT says, no robbing, no stealing. There is nothing called a small robbing or small stealing. No stealing. That's it. So Omar bin Abdulaziz, may Allah be pleased with him, says, So Omar bin Abdulaziz, he was called the fifth caliph. So he was after Sayyidina Abu Bakr, Sayyidina Omar, Sayyidina Ali and Sayyidina Uthman. So he was the next one. So he said, is not just to wake up at night, to perform prayers, and to fast during the day. No, that's not called taqwa. But taqwa is to do, to obey what Allah has commanded you to do, and to leave what Allah has forbidden you to do. This is taqwa. And Sayyidina Muhammad SAW says, So Sayyidina Muhammad SAW said, taqwa being pious is here. And he pointed to his heart. So we have to connect our heart to the heart of Sayyidina Muhammad SAW to know exactly what taqwa means. We have to leave dunya. We have to leave the love of dunya. We have to leave the things that would cause our heart to be sick, pride, being stingy. So many things that if they get into the heart, they would make it a black heart. We want our heart to be white. We want our heart to be pure. We want to have a sound heart. We have to work for the life after. We want to be of the winners. So stay away from what was forbidden and get as much as you can from what Allah has ordered. Because the result is gaining the reward in this dunya and the life after. So we might say, we may find doing a certain commandment to be quite difficult to Allah ordered us to do so many things. But sometimes some of them are difficult. But we should always remember that Sayyidina Muhammad SAW said to Aisha Allah your reward is the magnitude of your exertion, of your effort. The more effort you do, the more reward you will get. So the harder we find doing a certain action, the more we know that Allah will reward us. When the hadith ends with not questioning, this hadith does not mean that we should not ask questions. No, because when you ask questions, you learn. But it refers to the questions that are of no benefit. These questions are the ones that we have to stay away from. And we all know the story of the cow in Surat Al-Baqarah when the people were asked to slaughter a cow and they started to ask, what color is it? So they made it difficult for themselves to not ask questions. And always remember that we want deeds, not mere words. So do not waste your time. Do not waste the time of people. Do not waste the time of the scholars. There isn't an important question to not ask. Of course, if you are a beginner, if you want to learn about the religion, you ask. But the hadith means that questions which are of no benefit, these are the questions that people should be away from. So this hadith can also be linked to hadith number seven when Sayyidina Muhammad sallallahu alaihi wa sallam said, ad-dinun nasiha. So the religion is to give advice. And Sayyidina Muhammad sallallahu alaihi wa sallam is giving us advice. This is the mercy of Sayyidina Muhammad sallallahu alaihi wa sallam that he is caring about us. He's caring about our Akhira, not only about this dunya. No, we as parents should be careful and should be caring about the life after of our children. We should always give them advice. We should always guide them. We should always know what we should always follow them and know what they are doing. We should give them advice. So the other thing is what versus people, the questioning and disobeying their prophets. So we should never go against anything that the prophets Muhammad sallallahu alaihi wa sallam told us because this was the reason for the destruction of the previous nations. So this is how this hadith also ends. It's just an order from Sayyidina Muhammad sallallahu alaihi wa sallam to follow the orders and to abstain from the forbidden things. Then Sayyidina Muhammad sallallahu alaihi wa sallam says in the next hadith إِنَّ اللَّهَ طَيِّبٌ لَا يَقْبَلُ إِلَّا طَيِّبًا Allah is good and accepts only that which is good. So this hadith teaches us about the acceptance of deeds. So what deeds are accepted by Allah SWT? The ones that have good intentions. The ones that have sincere intentions. The ones that are pure. The ones that are free from defects. So a thief will not be accepted from him to go rob someone just to feed the poor. The action should be for the sake of Allah SWT free of what Allah SWT has ordered us to be away from. So Allah is طيِّب and he accepts the طيِّب. Allah is good and he accepts what's good. So this is the first part of the hadith. It establishes that Allah is طيِّب. And for the action to be accepted it needs to be a طيِّب. So the action should not have any riyah, should not have any showing off, nor it should be a bid'ah, an innovation that was not in the actions of Islam. So when Allah accepts an action, this means two things. He is pleased with this action and that he rewards, he will reward us for this action. So we have to be careful what to say, what to do. Will our words hurt someone? Then this is not called طيِّب. This is not called good. If someone says those words to us, will we be happy? If not, then we shouldn't say these words to people. Then the hadith goes on. وإن الله أمر المؤمنين بما أمر به المرسلين. And verily Allah has commanded the believers to do that which He has commanded the messengers. What did He say? So فقال تعالى يا أيها الرسل كل من الطيِّبات وعملوا صالحة. This is how Allah SWT said what He said to the messengers. Oh you messengers, eat from the طيِّبات, eat from the kinds of the حلال, the legal food, and perform righteous deeds. So do everything good. This is what it means. Because Allah is good and He accepts good. And He told us, oh you who believe يا أيها الذين آملوا كل من طيِّبات ما رسلتناكم. Eat of the lawful things that we have provided you. So again, Allah is good and He accepts good. And He wants us to take and to do everything that's good. So in the hadith, we are being compared to the prophets here. Salallahu alayhim. Peace be upon them all. So how are we compared to the prophets? We have been both ordered to do, to eat from that which is طيِّب. Both. So we should see this comparison as a privilege to us. We've been compared to the prophets. So the prophets are humans like us. They are not just angels or super human, super people. No, they are people like us. So Allah gave us the same orders. And this means at the end we should try to follow their first steps. We should follow Allah's order and abstain from what He has asked us both to abstain from. Then the hadith goes on. Then the man remembers the journey. He spread his hand to the sky. O Lord, O Lord, their food is forbidden, their drink is forbidden, their clothes is forbidden, and their clothes are forbidden. So how can we respond to that? So how can we respond to that? Then Sayyidina Muhammad ﷺ mentioned the case of a man. This man who is having a journey far, so yutri lus safar, long journey. And Ash-Sha'atha Aghbar is disshaped, he is dusty. He is not clean because of travelling from place to place for a long time. And of course travelling on camel or on horse, so it's not that clean environment, it's dust all around him. And who spreads out, he spreads out his hands to the sky, asking Allah ﷺ, O Lord, O Lord, but what is, what about this man? His food is haram. His food is unlawful. His drink is haram. His clothing is haram. And he has been nourished with haram. So everything that this person does is haram by haram. So how can his supplication be answered? Subhanallah. Well, understanding this man, the Prophet described this man raising his hands in du'a. He described him with a specific description. And he talked about travelling, the time of acceptance of du'a. You know when they say, when you hear someone who is travelling, you say, make du'a for us. When someone is travelling, the du'a is accepted. So this man is dusty, he's covered with dust. And this is a sign of humility. And comparing it to the du'a, this is how we should be when we do the du'a. We shouldn't be having humility to Allah. Ya Allah, we are nothing, we want you. So these are the two things that are important for the du'a. So he raised his hands. And this is also related to du'a. We raise our hands when we do the du'a. And Allah subhanahu wa ta'ala says in one of the hadiths, the hadiths of Qutsi, the meaning of the hadith, I'm not saying the hadith exactly, but when someone wants to make du'a, then raise your hand, start with Sayyidina Muhammad sallallahu alayhi wa sallam, sending salawat to Sayyidina Muhammad sallallahu alayhi wa sallam, and end with sending salawat to Sayyidina Muhammad sallallahu alayhi wa sallam, and in between make you du'a. Then Allah subhanahu wa ta'ala says, I accept the beginning and the end, and I will not reject what's inside. But of course, the du'a should be du'a for khayr, du'a for goodness, du'a not du'a against anyone, no. So when someone starts the du'a, this person he would say, Ya Rabbi Ya Rabbi, so he is calling Allah subhanahu wa ta'ala. And the best time to make du'a is before praying Fajr. So before the Adhan of Fajr, just wake up 10 minutes, feed anything from Allah subhanahu wa ta'ala, talk to him at that time, he's close to us. And he says, during that time, is there anyone who is making du'a, and I will accept his du'a. Is there someone who is making istighfar, who is asking for forgiveness, then I will grant them forgiveness. Is there someone who is asking for so and so, and I will give it to him. Just sometime before the Adhan of Fajr, this is the time where the du'a is accepted. So talk to Allah subhanahu wa ta'ala. Allah is close to us. I am close, and I will answer the call of someone who is calling me. So despite all the positive requirements that that man had, making du'a, raising the hand, humility, so and so, but due to what he did, Allah is not accepting his du'a. So everything that he is doing is haram. His food is haram. His drink is haram. His clothing is haram. And he has been nourished with haram. So he is not obeying Allah subhanahu wa ta'ala. How would he raise his hand? How would he have the power to do that? If you want to ask someone to do something for you, you want to be good to that person. But this person has done everything that Allah subhanahu wa ta'ala has prevented him to do. So how would his supplication be answered? So if you want Allah subhanahu wa ta'ala to answer your questions, you have to be good to Allah subhanahu wa ta'ala. There are some people who say, oh, we make prayers, we ask Allah subhanahu wa ta'ala for so many things, but he does not answer our calls. He does not answer our prayers. And for those people, I'll say so many points. The first one is that when we ask Allah subhanahu wa ta'ala for anything, he would either give it to us in this dunya, or he would delay it till the life after. And when he delay it to the life after, the answer will be, or the reward will be so much, much, much bigger than if it's given to us in this dunya. Secondly, sometimes we might be asking Allah subhanahu wa ta'ala and we might be nagging that Allah subhanahu wa ta'ala gives us or grants us a special wish. And when that thing happens, we would say, oh, Allah, we wish it did not happen. It did not turn out to be good to us. So when you want to ask something from Allah subhanahu wa ta'ala, then say, say what you want and say, oh, Allah, if there is khayr in that thing, then give it to me. If there is no khayr in it, if there is evil in it, then don't give it to me and replace it with something that's good to me. Another point, sometimes we ask Allah subhanahu wa ta'ala for some, for dua. We do lots of dua and it's not answered. But how do you know that it's not answered? Allah subhanahu wa ta'ala when, let's say when a mom makes a prayer for her children, it happens, Allah protects. So when you make dua, then know that Allah might have accepted your dua in a way other than what you want. So he might have lifted a calamity that might have happened to you. So don't say Allah is not answering my call. Allah is answering the calls of His servants, the good calls of His servants. So with this, I think we have to stop here and insha'Allah next week, insha'Allah, we will start with Hadith number 11. And until we meet again next week, insha'Allah, I would leave you by sending your salam, my salam, our sincere salam to our beloved prophet, Sayyidina Muhammad, Sallallahu alayhi wa sallam, wa salaamu alaykum, wa rahmatullahi wa barakatuh.