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Will Anyone Remember Me? | Khutbah
Will anyone remember you?
In a time where relevance is often measured by public recognition, how do we find our own sense of value and define our unique legacies?
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Transcript
This transcript was auto-generated using AI and may contain misspellings. We begin by praising Allah subhanahu wa ta'ala, by bearing witness that none has the right to be worshipped or unconditionally obeyed except for him. We bear witness that Muhammad sallallahu alayhi wa sallam is his final messenger. We ask Allah to send his peace and blessings upon him, the prophets and messengers that came before him, his family and companions that served alongside him and those that follow in his blessed path until the day of judgment. We ask Allah to make us amongst them. Allahumma ameen. Dear brothers and sisters, as we pass through a glorious day in our history, and we are still in a glorious month, the month of Allah, Muharram, but we pass through Ashura. There are certain names that were mentioned, and of those names that were mentioned was the name of Musa alayhi salam more than any other name. And why not? Because Musa alayhi salam is the most celebrated person by name in the Quran, a person whose name occurs over and over again, who we see in his moments of vulnerability, in his moments of dua, in his moments of hardship, in his moments of victory. But subhanAllah, with the story of Musa alayhi salam, just like with the story of all of the anbiya of Allah, all of the prophets of Allah, there are people there in the background that have this incredibly high station with Allah subhanahu wa ta'ala, whose names you and I do not know. If Allah subhanahu wa ta'ala grants us, and may Allah make us amongst them, grants us al-Firdaws al-A'la, grants us the companionship of the Prophet salallahu alayhi wa sallam, may Allah unite us around our beloved one salallahu alayhi wa sallam, and his family, and his companions, and those righteous people that we always speak about, and we walk around the homes of al-Jannah in anticipation of meeting our Prophet salallahu alayhi wa sallam, of meeting our mother Khadija radiyaAllahu ta'ala anha, of meeting al-Hassan wa al-Husayn
radiyaAllahu ta'ala anhuma, of meeting these incredible people that you hear about over and over and over again, there are going to be people around the Prophet salallahu alayhi wa sallam and those companions that you are going to be very curious about. Who's that guy? Who is that lady? I have no idea who this person is. Is it a famous person? Is it someone who died in Hijrah? Is it someone who died in one of the famous battles? Who is this person? And that person could be from some obscure place in Andalus in the 14th century that you've never heard about, that never had his or her name written in a book, that maybe could not even read a book. And they are roaming in the highest level of paradise with the Prophet salallahu alayhi wa sallam and the companions, and we hope that we will be there to introduce ourselves to them and be introduced to themselves, to be introduced to them. Allahuma ameen. And there is this one narration subhanAllah that always moves me deeply in this regard. And it is the narration of al-Israa wa al-Mi'raj. When you talk about the possibility of being outshined by some of the big names, there is no event that you could possibly be more outshined in than the event where the Prophet salallahu alayhi wa sallam led all of the Prophets in salah and then proceeded through the heavens to meet them one by one. I mean where do you find yourself in the mention of a story with the Prophet salallahu alayhi wa sallam praying in al-Aqsa al-Mubarak with Ibrahim alayhi wa sallam and Isa alayhi wa sallam and Musa alayhi wa sallam behind him and these amazing Prophets and people with great legacies. How are you going to situate yourself in this story of the Prophet salallahu alayhi wa sallam ascending through the heavens with Jibreel alayhi wa sallam and meeting people whose names are etched into not just the history books but into the Quran, the greatest book of all to be recited at every moment for the rest of the existence of mankind and beyond
because Allah subhanahu wa ta'ala's word does not cease. And subhanallah on that night the Prophet salallahu alayhi wa sallam is ascending through the heavens and he smells this incredibly beautiful fragrance and as he takes in that smell with all of these images of things that are otherworldly that you could not imagine that are so striking Rasulullah salallahu alayhi wa sallam says, Ya Jibreel, what is that beautiful smell that I'm smelling? Never smelled anything like this before. What is that incredible smell? Is it a smell from al-jannah? Is it a smell from the cloth of one of the prophets of Allah who Allah subhanahu wa ta'ala has elevated to a high rank? Where is the smell coming from? And Jibreel alayhi wa sallam says, this is an authentic hadith from Muslim Imam Ahmed, he says, Hadhihi ra'iha tu ma shita tibnati fir'oon. This is the fragrance of the hairdresser of the daughter of Fir'oon and her kids. What? Out of all of the people that the Prophet salallahu alayhi wa sallam is meeting and interacting with and smelling and experiencing and greeting all of the sights and sounds and smells, you are smelling that striking smell that caught your attention when most people would just be lost in the sights. That striking smell is the smell of the perfume of the hairdresser of the daughter of Fir'oon. I'm going to repeat that. The hairdresser of the daughter of Fir'oon. Not even Asiya alayhi wa sallam, the famous wife of Fir'oon who was killed. The hairdresser of the daughter of Fir'oon. And the Prophet salallahu alayhi wa sallam in the midst of this incredible journey goes, wa ma sha'nuha? What is her story?
How in the world amongst this league of prophets and people does she have this incredibly noble place with Allah subhanahu wa ta'ala? And Jibreel alayhi salam starts to tell him the story salallahu alayhi wa sallam on the journey and says that this was a woman who used to comb the hair of the daughter of Fir'oon in the palace of this cruel tyrant. And she was a secret believer. So one day she dropped the comb and she said Bismillah in the name of Allah. And the daughter of Fir'oon said, Abi, you mean my father? And she says, no, no. Rabbi wa rabbu abik, Allah. No, I mean my Lord and the Lord of your father, Allah. She says, I'm going to have to tell my father about this. So she delivers the message to Fir'oon that my hairdresser said Allah and the Lord of my father and her Lord is Allah. Fir'oon is a petty man as most tyrants are. He could have said, who is she anyway, whatever. Gave her a little bit of a flogging. He puts on this whole scene and he says to her, is there a Lord other than me? And with full confidence and certainty, that woman says to him in front of all of the subjects of Fir'oon and with all of the intimidation, your Lord and my Lord is Allah, the Lord of the heavens and the earth. Fir'oon decides to create an entire ditch and light it on fire and decides to publicly execute this woman and her children. Subhanallah. Just for that, the pettiness of a tyrant.
And the Prophet ﷺ said that Jibreel ﷺ said to him that one by one he took her children from her and dropped the child in the fire. She watched her children go one by one until she was holding on to her baby. And Fir'oon said, cast the baby in. And she said, I have one request. What is that? She said that my bones and the bones of my children will be in one katham. I want to be buried with my kids. When you gather us at the end of this, at least put us together. Fir'oon says, fine. Throw the child in. And she hesitated for a moment. And the baby says to her, ikhtahimi fa'inna a'zab al-dunya ahwanu min a'zab al-akhira, go ahead and throw me in because the punishment of this world is worse than the punishment of the hereafter. This is temporary. And so her child goes in and then she is thrown in. And that was the end of her story as far as this dunya was concerned. No mention of her in a history book. No mention of her in a scripture. No mention of her in any newspaper. She was deemed an insignificant casualty of Fir'oon who used to kill people for fun, right and left. Until thousands of years later, our messenger, sallallahu alayhi wasallam, smells her perfume in the heavens. And Jibreel alayhi salam gives the Prophet, sallallahu alayhi wasallam, the story of this woman who otherwise would have been deemed insignificant. Subhanallah. How many people exist in the heavens whose fragrance fills the skies, whose clothes are more beautiful than the most expensive and extravagant custom-tailored cloth of this
life and their names are not known to us, but they're known to Allah subhanahu wa ta'ala. Your brothers and sisters, subhanallah, a few weeks ago, someone who is very beloved to me and beloved to many of you, Sheikh Mohammed al-Sharif, rahimahullah ta'ala, passed away. Unexpected. And we love this man. Those who knew him loved him as a brother, not just as a teacher. And subhanallah, you saw the outpouring of love and well-deserved. Well-deserved. And indeed, it is a beautiful sight when someone has touched so many people, benefited so many people and people can recall the story after story and many of them, by the way, just human stories. The end of the day, he was a dad that was taking out his younger two children to the mall and praying maghrib and a musalla to give his wife a break because his wife wasn't feeling well. The brother, Sheikh Mohammed al-Sharif. And he fell dead, rahimahullah ta'ala, and rightfully so, people came forth with their stories of how they benefited from him and how they knew him. And in that, you also had, of course, great scholars that passed away. Sheikh Effendi, rahimahullah ta'ala, in Turkey, one of the largest janas that you would see of a scholar. Beautiful janas, beautiful outpouring of love of this great scholar. And I wanted for a moment, us to just think, there are beautiful signs in that of people that have been touched that way. But the majority of ahl al-jannah, the majority of the people of paradise will not have that outpouring. Not because they weren't important. Not that that outpouring is not beautiful. But because the standard that we have and those great people that pass away would be the first to tell you that is different. It's not the only way to have worth.
And I wanted us for a moment to just pause because it can be deflating a bit when maybe you see all that and you say, well, what's my value? SubhanAllah, this person has touched this many lives and this person has done this and this person has done that. But what about me? I'm never going to be this great scholar that touches multiple people or someone who's known by millions of people or someone who's done this or someone who's done that. How am I sitting in my masjid? I'm a community volunteer. I'm a mother. I'm a devoted spouse, a brother, a sister, just a good child, just a really good friend to people. Maybe I donate here and there, but I'm not one of those people. I don't fit in that league of people. And that is one of the most detrimental mindsets to Islam and to Ikhlas, to Ihsan, to the concept of sincerity. Those people being celebrated was one consequence of what we hope was a testimony to their righteousness, but it's not the only testimony to a meaningful life and to righteousness. And maybe that's why in a society that glorifies mention, that glorifies value that is defined by other people valuing you. How many people know you? How many people like you? How many people celebrate you? How many people do this and that? If you want to be known, if you want to feel accomplished, then you've got to make sure everybody knows that you're accomplishing your goals, your career has to be amazing, you have to have this spotless family life, you have to have something that makes people say, mashallah. But where is the Allah part? We live in a society where that's how people define their own value. And you'll actually, you know, read about and, you know, hear about people whose fear of irrelevance and fear of being forgotten will dominate their entire lives to where
they don't have happiness in this life and Allah knows what's for them in the hereafter. Will anybody remember me? Does anybody know me? What's my impact? And in the process, lose the opportunity to be that person who is elevated in the sight of Allah subhanahu wa ta'ala, who is a legend in the heavens, where that mention matters most. Because we're always looking for these things. And by the way, it's human nature to look around yourself and to feel maybe a little bit deficient, to feel like, wait a minute, you know, this person accomplished this much. What have I accomplished? This person is doing this, what am I doing? Comparing ourselves to people and putting these types of benchmarks and hopefully for the sake of Allah subhanahu wa ta'ala, we might start to belittle ourselves and belittle what is our mention with Allah subhanahu wa ta'ala. And by the way, even the companions. I mean, imagine how demoralizing it is to look around and see Abu Bakr, Umar, Uthman and Ali and Aisha and Umm Salama. I mean, where do I fit into this picture? The Prophet salallahu alayhi wasalam walking with his companions. And yes, the Prophet salallahu alayhi wasalam used to give people attention, but there were over a hundred thousand people doing hajj with the Prophet salallahu alayhi wasalam in Hajjatul Wada'a. Where do I fit into the scheme? How do I get my moment with the Prophet salallahu alayhi wasalam? Where do I go down as a sahabi? What's going to be my legacy? And that's why some of the ulama in the sharh of this hadith, in the explanation of this hadith, they say when Ubayy radiyallahu ta'ala said to the Prophet salallahu alayhi wasalam, the Prophet salallahu alayhi wasalam said to him, Ya Ubayy, Allah has commanded me to recite to you Suratul Bayyinah. And Ubayy ibn Ka'ab radiyallahu alayhi wasalam said, wait, what? Hold on. Time out before you go any further. Ya Rasulullah, sammani rabbi? Allah said, Ubayy? Allah said to you, Ya Rasulullah, recite to Ubayy ibn Ka'ab? And the Prophet salallahu alayhi wasalam said, yes, Allah subhanahu wa ta'ala said, recite
to Ubayy ibn Ka'ab. Faj'ala Ubayy radiyallahu ta'ala anhu yabki, shtaddal buka. Started to cry and cry and cry and cry and cry at the thought, like, wait a minute, I was part of a conversation between Allah and the Messenger of Allah salallahu alayhi wasalam. I would have certainly thought maybe it would be one of these other companions. Who am I? Who am I? And dear brothers and sisters, this is where that measure comes from. An incredible hadith Qudsi. Yaqulullahu azzawajal ana'inda dhanni abdi bi. Allah says, I am what my servant expects of me. Wa ana ma'ahu heeni yathkuruni. I am with him when he remembers me. Remember last week we talked about what it means when Allah is with you. I am with my servants when he remembers me, despite social status, despite who knows them or who doesn't know them. I'm with them when they go into a state of dhikr. Fa in dhakarani fee nafsihi dhakartuhu fee nafsihi. If he remembers me to himself, I remember him to myself. Allahu Akbar. What more do you need? If he makes mention of me alone or she makes mention of me alone, Allah makes mention of you alone. Allah mentions your name. Who else do you need to even hear it at that point? Allah mentions you favorably. Wa in dhakarani fee mala'in dhakartuhu fee mala'in khayran minhum. And if that person makes mention of me to a group of people, then I make mention of that person to a greater group. I mentioned that person to the mala'ika, to the angels as well. You want Allah Subhanahu wa ta'ala to mention you. You want Allah Subhanahu wa ta'ala to know you. You want Allah to elevate you. Focus on being memorialized, remembered, elevated, extolled by him. To the point that the praise of others becomes so irrelevant in drowning in that mention
of Allah Subhanahu wa ta'ala, in that pursuit of the mention of Allah Subhanahu wa ta'ala. There are people that walk amongst us, scholars and imams that you wouldn't recognize that are of the greatest scholars and students of knowledge. May Allah Subhanahu wa ta'ala reward them. Quran teachers, volunteers in the masjid, people that clean up the masjid, people that organize the parking, people that are incredible with their families, parents, spouses, children that have this birr, this righteousness and obedience to Allah Subhanahu wa ta'ala that's admirable. Strive. Strive to be amongst those that Allah Subhanahu wa ta'ala mentions favorably because that's the only thing that will matter when you pass away. We have to remove this idea of legacy only by mention. Legacy is not how you will be remembered. Legacy is how you will be resurrected. Stop worrying about public influence. Worry about impact. What is the sadaqa jariyya, the continuous charity that will continue to give to you after you pass away. No sadaqa jariyya is not attributed to the initiator because it's too hard to trace it at that point. But Allah Subhanahu wa ta'ala traces it down all together. And if Allah knows you, no one else needs to. Dear brothers and sisters, this last incident I leave you with is one with Umar al-Khattab radiyaAllahu ta'ala anhu and I'll get to the end of it. Umar radiyaAllahu ta'ala anhu sent a group of people to Persia and it was one of the famous battles where you had multiple casualties, multiple casualties from both sides. Some of them were senior commanders amongst the companions of the Prophet Sallallahu alaihi wa sallam. And when the ambassador came back to Umar radiyaAllahu ta'ala anhu, Umar radiyaAllahu ta'ala anhu had to chase him down. He was coming on his horse to hurry up and give the news to the people of Medina what happened. And Umar radiyaAllahu anhu went chasing after him and Umar radiyaAllahu ta'ala anhu was asking him for the news, what happened, what happened, what happened?
And the man started to talk about who died. And he mentioned these names that were very beloved to Umar radiyaAllahu anhu, fulan, wafulan, wafulan. This person and this person and this person, Umar radiyaAllahu ta'ala anhu cried at the mention of every single person that he remembered. And then he says to Umar radiyaAllahu ta'ala anhu, wa akharuna min afnaadil nas mimman la ya'rifuhum amirul mu'mineen. You know there are a lot of other people and you don't know who they are. They're amongst those who you don't know. You don't know their names, ya amirul mu'mineen. And Umar radiyaAllahu ta'ala anhu had a deep moment of realization and he started to cry and he said, wa ma darrahum anna ya'rifuhum amirul mu'mineen lakinna allaha ya'rifuhum. Who cares if amirul mu'mineen, what bothers them if I don't know who they are, if Allah knows who they are. What worth is it to them if I knew who they were, so long as Allah knows who they were. Every single time you think about your brothers and sisters from the Uighurs who are being massacred in these internment camps, in numbers that we don't even know. Allah knows who they are, may Allah accept their shahada. When you think about these people in Palestine whose stories become more and more and whose relevance because of the periodic bombardments and occupation and what that comes with, Allah knows their names. When you think about your brothers and sisters in Yemen or in Syria, people whose names we can't grasp in Kashmir, where are they? Allah knows who they are and Allah knows who we are. May Allah subhanahu wa ta'ala make us amongst those that he is pleased with. May Allah make us amongst those whose names are celebrated in the heavens. May Allah subhanahu wa ta'ala make us amongst those who are elevated to be amongst the prophets, the messengers, the shahada, the salihun.
May Allah make us amongst those who are elevated to be amongst the prophets, the shahada, the salihun. May Allah make us amongst those who are elevated to be amongst the prophets, the shahada, the salihun. And may Allah make us amongst those who are standing on the Concurrence path and I am minhum anusitas umu mina.' Wa Akbar. Wallahi Ya'ammama tasna'oon. Al-Fatiha.
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