How Many Lives Do You Really Have? | The Other Side: Barzakh and Beyond Ep. 7
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How many lives do you really have? You may be breathing, but is your soul already dead? Have you fed your body while starving your heart?
Spiritual death is more terrifying than physical death. The Qur'an reminds us that just as Allah brings the dead earth back to life, so too can He revive your soul. So how many times have you killed your heart, and how many times can you bring it back? Once you take your final breath, your chance for rebirth is over. So, will you wait for the grave to realize whether you ever truly lived? Or will you revive your soul while you still have time?
NOTE: All depictions of Barzakh are purely conceptual and only vocals were used in the making of the soundtrack.
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References
- Ibn al-Qayyim (ra) narrated: Allah revealed to Musa: "O Musa, the first who died among My creation was Satan, for he disobeyed Me and I count the one who disobeys Me among the dead." [Ibn al-Qayyim, Ad-Da’ wad-Dawa’]
- He was dead, and then we gave him life and light by which he walks amongst the people. [al-An’am (6):122]
- isnt it time for those who believe to humble their hearts to the remembrance of Allah and what He has revealed to the truth [Surah al-Hadid (57):16]
- Know that Allah gives life to dear barren land. [Surah al-Hadid (57):17]
- The salaf used to say, what’s more frightening than the death of one’s body is the death of one’s heart. [Miftah Dar as-Sa’ada vol. 1, p. 306]
- The Prophet ﷺ said: “The most truthful words spoken by a poet are: Verily everything but Allah is disposable.” [Sahih al-Bukhari #3841; Sahih Muslim #2256]
- Uqbah ibn Amir narrated that the Prophet ﷺ said: “There is no Muslim that performs wudu properly, then stands in his prayer while he knows what he is saying, except he will emerge just like the day his mother gave birth to him.” [Musnad ad-Darimi]
- wudhu and salah wash away the sins just like a river of life and whatever remains falls off in ruku and sajdah just as sand would fall off from their back [Sahih Ibn Hibban #1734].
- The Prophet ﷺ said: "My Lord came to me in the most beautiful form and said, ‘O Muhammad!’ I replied, ‘Here I am, my Lord, at Your service.’
Transcript
This transcript was auto-generated using AI and may contain misspellings.When you look in the mirror, you might see a living human being, but on the other side, are you actually just a corpse? Are you truly living, or are you just waiting for your body to catch up to your dead soul? You may have fed your body to keep it alive, but have you been starving your soul to death? How many times have you killed your own spiritual heart? And how many times can you bring it back to life? Al-Imam Ibn Al-Qayyim narrates that Allah revealed to Musa (عليه السلام), Oh Musa, the first one to actually die from my creation was Iblis, because he disobeyed me and I count the one who disobeys me amongst the dead. Umar (رضي الله عنه) on the other hand is described as a dead man brought back to life. أَوَمَن كَانَ مَيْتًا فَأَحْيَيْنَاهُ وَجَعَلْنَا لَهُ نُورًا يَمْشِي بِهِ فِي النَّاسِ Allah says that he was dead and then we gave him life and a light by which he walks amongst the people. I want you to imagine seeing Umar (رضي الله عنه) in his previous life, if you saw him drinking heavily and hurting those people around him, even getting to the point of plotting to kill the Prophet (ﷺ). And then you saw Umar (رضي الله عنه) as the khalifah. That's not the same human being. And in Surah Al-Hadid when Allah says, أَلَمْ يَأْنِ لِلَّذِينَ آمَنُوا أَن تَخْشَعَ قُلُوبُهُمْ لِذِكْرِ اللَّهِ Isn't it time for those who believe to humble their hearts to the remembrance of Allah and to the truth that he has revealed? He immediately follows it up by saying,
اعْلَمُوا أَنَّ اللَّهَ يُحْيِي الْأَرْضَ بَعْدَ مَوْتِهَا Know that Allah gives life even to dead, barren land. And that's a sign that no matter how dead your heart or soul is, it still has a chance to be brought back to life multiple times. But are you alive right now or are you already dead? That depends fully on your spiritual state. And the Salaf used to say that what's more frightening than the death of one's body is the death of one's heart. And the Prophet (ﷺ) said that the most truthful of poetry is, أَلَا كُلُّ شَيْءٍ مَا خَلَا اللَّهَ بَاطِلُ Verily, everything but Allah is disposable. And that includes your body when it's not connected to Allah subhanahu wa ta'ala. Now physically your life goes through many stages. You have the life of عَالَمَ الذَّرِّ which is the realm of pre-existence where you were just a soul. And then you have حَيَاةَ الدُّنْيَا the life of this world where your body mixed with your soul and you became a نَفْس which is a self. And then you move on to البَرْزَخ where your soul goes on but it still stays connected to your body in some fashion while the body decays. And then finally you have the آخِرَة where Allah subhanahu wa ta'ala in the hereafter allows for rain to come down from the sky. And then from عَجْبِ الذَّنَبِ the Prophet (ﷺ) said this small portion of your spine, the rain hits and a new body springs forward and it is connected with a soul and that soul and body will live with eternal consequences. That's physical but your soul unlike your body can be reborn and brought back to life multiple times. And why that's so significant is that a person could die at 80 years old but only really be eight days old as far as the soul is concerned because every struggle, every return back to Allah peels away a layer of the old you and what remains is this fresh renewed believer. SubhanAllah I remember in my own community there was a 75 year old man who would tell
people he was only four years old because he was counting the day of his shahada as his birthday. But that doesn't mean his rebirth was easy. When you become Muslim you shed the comfort of your womb being your old life including so much of what you used to consume and who you used to be with and more importantly who you used to be. Every rebirth has some sort of sacrifice or discomfort to it but it's then followed by a new life. And I want you to pay attention to all of the hadith where the Prophet (ﷺ) mentions how we can return to the state in which we were the day our mother gave birth to us. So first the Prophet (ﷺ) says in the hadith of Uqba bin Amir, he said (ﷺ) there is no Muslim that performs wudu properly and then stands up in his prayer while he knows what he is saying except that he will emerge from that salah just like the day his mother gave birth to him. So just as the baby came out into this world covered in amniotic fluid you emerge covered in the spiritual fluid of wudu and the first thing that you heard as a baby when you came out was the adhan. So a person is basically replaying the cycle of their birth with every single wudu and every single prayer. If you think about how the soul is born into this world without sin, the Prophet (ﷺ) said that wudu and salah wash away our sins just like the river of life and whatever remains on our bodies falls off in our ruku' and sujud just like sand would fall off from our backs and our shoulders if we were to move. Then you have this more intense version of wudu and salah which is walking to the masjid waiting for one prayer until the next and making wudu in difficult circumstances and here you have one of the most incredible narrations from the Prophet (ﷺ) about a dream of his. Mu'adh (رضي الله عنه) says that one time the Prophet (ﷺ)
was late to salatul fajr and it was almost sunrise and so we were waiting in the masjid and then he came out quickly (ﷺ), the iqamah was made and the Prophet (ﷺ) prayed and he shortened the prayer and then once the Prophet (ﷺ) finished the salah, he turns around to us and he says in a loud voice kama antum, remain in your rows as you are. Then he said I'm going to tell you why I was late this morning. He said last night I was praying qiyam and I performed wudu and I prayed as much as Allah subhanahu wa ta'ala wrote for me. Then I got drowsy and I went to sleep and he says then I saw Allah subhanahu wa ta'ala in the best of forms and he said to me ya Muhammad, oh Muhammad. So I said rabbi labbayk, here I am oh my lord. He said do you know what the highest assembly al-mala'ul a'la, meaning the angels are arguing about right now. I said la adri ya rab, I don't know oh my lord. So he said it to me again and I answered the same way and this happened three times and then he says he placed his hand between my shoulders until I felt the coolness on my chest and everything became clear to me and I knew the answer. So he said ya Muhammad, I replied here I am oh my lord. He asked what are they disputing about? I said they're disputing about what the deeds are that completely expiate one's sins. This is the conversation of the angels in the heavens. So Allah asked me so what are they? And I said walking to the congregational prayers, sitting in the masjid after the salah and waiting for the next one and then performing wudu in difficult circumstances. Whoever does these things, aasha bikhayr, wamaata bikhayr, will live well and die well, wakana min dhunubihi kayawmi waladathu ummu. He will be purified from his sins like the day his mother gave birth to him. You see in physical birth there's struggle, there's pain and there is waiting.
A mother carries a baby to term until nine months and a soul likewise is carrying its sins until it delivers them to the forgiveness of Allah subhanahu wa ta'ala, then that soul is born again. And what's the greatest masjid and greatest place to do salah in? Mecca. And that's why the Prophet (ﷺ) said whoever performs hajj to this Kaaba and avoids intimacy and avoids sinfulness and avoids arguing will come out from that hajj just like the day that their mother gave birth to them. And SubhanAllah what I want you to think about is how everything about hajj mirrors your birth. You stand on Arafah which is the same place your soul was before you got here and you renew your covenant with Allah subhanahu wa ta'ala. Then you go to Muzdalifah which is the holding place of the souls. Then you come out to the world and you stone the shaitan. Remember when you were born the shaitan poked you? Now this time in the spiritual rebirth you're stoning the shaitan instead. And then you offer your udhiyah, your sacrifice. Remember when you were born it was the aqeeqah, it was the sacrifice? But this time you're offering the sacrifice. Then you place Allah subhanahu wa ta'ala at the center of your life in tawaf and you proceed in sa'i depending on Allah for all of your affairs. And at some point you exit your ihram which happens to resemble your kafan at death. And then you celebrate with the believers which mirrors the celebration of the believers in Jannah. SubhanAllah it's a complete simulation of life and death in just a matter of a few days. And if done right it's a rebirth of your soul altogether. Pilgrimage in this world is a rebirth of the soul because it symbolizes the journey of the hereafter. But rebirth doesn't just happen through pilgrimage to Mecca but through other journeys as well
including another special place that's especially near to our hearts right now, al-Masjid al-Aqsa. The Prophet (ﷺ) said that when Sulaiman (عليه السلام) finished building Bayt al-Maqdis he asked Allah for three things. He asked Allah for judgment that would be in harmony with his judgment. And then he asked Allah for a kingdom that no one after him would have. And then he asked Allah that no one would come to this masjid intending only to pray here except that he would emerge free of sin just like the day his mother gave birth to him. And the Prophet (ﷺ) said his first two duas were answered and I hope that his third was granted as well. Then you have the hijrah which is to migrate somewhere for the sake of Allah subhanahu wa ta'ala. And in this situation you are literally starting over in a new land with a new life for the sake of Allah. So Allah leaves your sins behind in the place that you left. And then finally there's something that happens on a regular basis which is gratitude in times of trial. And this is from the hadith of Shaddad ibn Aus (رضي الله عنه), he said I heard the Prophet (ﷺ) say that verily Allah says when I test a believing servant of mine and he praises me, khamadani, for what I have tested him with then he will rise up that day just like the day his mother gave birth to him from his sins. And this is because sins fall off of you with test and trial especially when you praise Allah subhanahu wa ta'ala in the midst of it. And the greater the trial the more sins that fall off of you and the more rewards that are added to your scale. Now to summarize all of these ahadith I just want you to think about something that Imam al-Ghazali rahimahullah said. He said what is rebirth and death anyway except for an nuqla min halin ila hal, a transfer from one state to another. So you're becoming Muslim, you're going to hajj, you're doing hijrah.
So it's just a transfer from one state to another, ya ayyuha allatheena aamanu istajeebu lillahi walirrasuli itha daAAakum lima yuheekum, oh you who believe respond to Allah and the messenger when they call you to that which gives you life. Every day you're alive is a chance to reinvent yourself, to revive the heart inside of you and yes to even be reborn. But when your moment of physical death comes and you are literally reborn your chance for spiritual rebirth is officially over. Because this time you will be shutting the casing of your body and this world altogether and your death is your new life at the next station based on the lives you're living in at this station. Death is a new birth, al mawt miladun thani, an nuqla min halin ila hal, a transfer from one state to another, wal insaan la yuhibbu hadha al intiqal, and man does not like this transfer. It's traumatic to transfer from dimension to dimension which is the wisdom of the dua of Yahya and Isa, wassalamu alayya yawma wulittu wa yawma amutu wa yawma ubAAthu hayya, peace be on to me, the day I was born, the day I die, and the day I am brought back to life. Because it's in those transitions that you feel the greatest squeeze. Now think about a baby who has gestational diabetes or is exceptionally large and how it comes into this world and think of a soul that is inflated with ego and sin. You want to transfer into that realm not weighing too much in terms of sin. Imam Ghazali says in the beginning you hate to transfer just like the baby hates coming into this world because it feels like it's been taken away from the comfort of the womb and the sustenance that it was receiving. But then if comfortable the baby grows up to love this world and would never want to return to the womb or go to the grave. Likewise the believer after initial birth into the barzakh would grow to love that world
more than anything else after the initial labor. But just like when you came into this world, there's a squeeze, there's labor, there's an entrance through a narrow path and the few hours of birth, in this case death, can feel like an eternity. So will you wait for that one day to arrive where your soul will leave this world to discover whether you were actually truly alive in the first place? Or will you make sure to revive your soul here so that your rebirth after your exit into the barzakh would be into a world of light and life? And what if after all your attempts to be reborn your faith still feels like it's slipping away? The path to the mouth of the barzakh is difficult and the only way to make it through is to hold on tight.
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