We Will Not Fix What You Have Ruined | The Other Side: Barzakh and Beyond Ep. 15
Will your deeds save you, or will they betray you?
In the next life, even the smallest actions hold immense weight. A prayer rushed through, a charity given with pride, a careless word that hurt someone—these could be the very things that hold you back. Allah’s mercy is vast, but His justice is precise.
The punishment of the grave is real, but so is the chance to escape it. You still have time to right your wrongs.
NOTE: All depictions of Barzakh are purely conceptual and only vocals were used in the making of the soundtrack.
Download discussion guides for "The Other Side": https://yqn.io/2e7585
References
- When the Prophet ﷺ migrated to Medina, at-Tufayl ibn Amr also migrated to him, along with a man from his people. However, they found the climate of Medina difficult to endure and became ill. The man grew distressed, so he took a sharp blade and cut his fingertips, causing his hands to bleed profusely until he died.
Transcript
This transcript was auto-generated using AI and may contain misspellings.You've dug your own grave. Now you lie in it. Every word, every action, every deed you've done and left undone are the only companions you've taken with you to the next station. It's easy to forget how much weight even the smallest things carry. A word spoken in anger, a prayer rushed through, a charity given with the expectation of praise, while you hope for your good deeds to save you. What if the deeds you've neglected or corrupted are the very ones holding you back? What if the only thing standing between you and salvation was something you thought didn't even matter? If a man robbed a bank but then gave some of that money in charity, would the smile of the poor person nullify his initial crime? If you could take your salah and then draw a picture of what your salah looks like, would your salah be missing limbs or have messy hair or something else be wrong with it? Remember Tufayl ibn Amr (رضي الله عنه), the man who would lose his head for the sake of Allah, only to become a shaheed flying in a bird for his admirable patience. Tufayl tells the story that there was a man from his people that initially made hijrah with him to be in Medina with the Prophet (ﷺ). But this man strongly disliked the climate and he ended up getting sick and so sick that he got stressed out. And then at some point this same man takes some of his arrowheads and he cuts his fingers from the joints and then his hands bleed out until he dies. So this is a confusing situation because technically he's a
muhajir which means all of his sins are supposed to be forgiven. But he also lost patience and died due to something he did to himself in a moment of pain. So what's his status? Tufayl (رضي الله عنه) says, I saw him in a dream looking as if he were in a garden but his hands were covered. So Tufayl said, I asked him how has your Lord treated you? And the man said, alhamdulillah he has forgiven me due to my migration to the Prophet (ﷺ). Tufayl said, but why do I see your hands covered? And the man responds and says, I was told "inna laa nuslihulaka maa afsat." That we will not fix for you what you yourself have ruined. Now as a side point because this is one of the most distinguishing features between Barzakh and Jannah. No one is going to enter Jannah deformed in any way. But in Barzakh it could be a mixed bag. So Tufayl goes and he tells the Prophet (ﷺ) what he saw. And what did the Prophet (ﷺ) do? He raised his hands in his du'a and he said, "Allahumma wa liyadayhi faghfir. Allahumma wa liyadayhi faghfir." Oh Allah, forgive his hands as well. Oh Allah, heal his hands as well. While we can stack up all of the deeds to save us, we can also ruin them with actions that betray our hope and faith in Allah subhanahu wa ta'ala. So we know for example that Hajj is supposed to forgive us for all of our sins. I actually have a relative of mine that had the blessing of going to Hajj and dying in Hajj. And that's the best sign of a good ending in a life of righteousness. What better death than that? But for this relative of mine, it was known that he hurt one of his neighbors badly. So he actually appears in a dream to all of his children and they said that they saw him standing outside the gates of what appeared to be Jannah. And he's pleading with his children to go seek forgiveness from that woman so that he can enter into his promised place. And subhanAllah, they all
go and they speak to this woman and they beg her to forgive him. And she forgives him. And then those same children see a dream of their father entering into Jannah. But the point still stands, what if she didn't forgive him? Umar (رضي الله عنه) narrates that when it was the day of Khaybar, a group of sahaba came to the Prophet (ﷺ) and they started to say, so and so is a shaheed, and so and so is a shaheed, and so and so is a shaheed, until they happened to pass by a man and they said, so and so is a shaheed. And the Prophet (ﷺ) said, no. He said, in fact, I have seen him in the fire for the cloak that he stole from the spoils of war. So someone can appear to have done everything right, but there's this stain that is significant that Allah subhanahu wa ta'ala needs to purify them from before he enters them into paradise. Allah subhanahu wa ta'ala says, "Ya ayyuha allatheena aamanu la tarfa'u aswatakum fawqa sawtin nabi wa la tajharu lahu bilqawli ka jahri ba'dikum li ba'din an tahbata a'malukum wa antum la tash'uroon." O you who believe, do not raise your voices above the voice of the Prophet, nor speak loudly to him as you speak loudly to one another, lest you void your deeds while you perceive it not. Notice how Allah subhanahu wa ta'ala mentions this verse in Surat Al-Hujurat, which is known as Surat Al-Adab, the surah that defines our character, because almost all of it is about how you treat every member of society, starting from the Prophet (ﷺ) to everyone else. And that's why so much of the punishment of the grave has to do with how we treated others. In regards to charity, Allah subhanahu wa ta'ala says, "Ya ayyuha allatheena aamanu la tubtilu sadaqatikum bil manni wal adha." O you who believe, do not invalidate your charity by being boastful and harmful. And in regards to prayer and fasting, Abu Huraira (رضي الله عنه) narrates that the Prophet (ﷺ) said that there are people who fast and
get nothing from their fast except for hunger. And there are people who pray and get nothing from their prayer except a sleepless night. Now the opposite of that is called itqan, which is to perfect our deeds to the best of our abilities. So I want you to think about how these two salat would look in the form of a human being. There's the salah that's performed with khushu' with humility and then with the sunnah prayers embellishing it. And then there's this rushed fard salah where you barely even remembered Allah. Those two human forms in the barzakh are not going to be the same size, they're not going to be the same beauty, they're not going to be the same comfort. And so we want to try to perfect our good deeds so that we can realize the full benefit from them in our grave and then when we meet Allah subhanahu wa ta'ala. And then finally you have the shameless sins that demonstrate no remorse. And Imam Ibn Al-Qayyim tells us the story of this man whose name was Shuraykh Ibn Abid and his friends came to him who was named Afif Ibn Harith as he was dying. And he says to him, oh Shuraykh, if you're able to come to us after death in a dream and inform us of what has happened to you, then please do so. So some time passes after Shuraykh dies and then he shows up in his dream. So he says, and I said to him, did you not die? And he replies, yes I have. He asks, well how are you? And he replies and says, our Lord has forgiven all of us for our sins except for al-ahrad. I said, who are al-ahrad? He said, these are the people whom people point to when they think of evil. Meaning these are the people who are known for their evil deeds. And we know that the Prophet (ﷺ) said that on the day of judgment Allah will forgive everyone except for those who used to publicize their evil. So how can a person wish for the best of the barzakh when they're known for something of evil in this dunya? And that's why as we get to the punishment of the grave, it's important to
first acknowledge that Allah has not been unjust with us. That sometimes it is us who have truly wronged ourselves. It's the same concept as the bankrupt person on the day of judgment who shows up to his mizan, shows up to his scale, but he ends up losing his prayer and his charity because of all the people he hurt. So what does a bankrupt person look like in his grave? It's someone who let way too many pests spoil his garden. They neglected to protect their deeds from the corruption of their actions. And now what once held the promise of salvation stands as a reminder of their downfall. But here's the thing, Allah and his mercy might overlook it all. Every one of these punishments that we're going to mention is a possibility. None of them are inevitable. But the question is do you really want to wait until you get to your grave to see if you received Allah's mercy or his justice for those specific deeds that you know you weren't supposed to be doing? Allah said he will not fix what you yourself have ruined, but you have the ability to fix it in this life before you're stuck with the consequences in the grave. And the deeds you should worry about most are the ones that involve other people. So what happens when the words you spoke bury you deeper than the deeds that you neglected? No, it is a word that He speaks, and behind them is a barrier until the Day they are resurrected. The Day they are Resurrected
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