Transcript
This transcript was auto-generated using AI and may contain misspellings. Alright everyone, Bismillahir Rahmanir Rahim Alhamdulillahi Rabbil Alameen Wa ala alwani illa'l al-zalameen wa ala al-aqiba tulil matakeen Allahumma salli wa sallim wa baraka al abdika wa rasulika Muhammadin salallahu alayhi wa sallam wa ala alihi wa sahbihi wa salam tasliman katheera Dear brothers and sisters, I wanted to share a reflection today on the verses in the Qur'an that speak to this concept of Allah not letting good go to waste. Now these are things that we find throughout the Qur'an. This is not necessarily one verse or one particular context, but Allah subhanahu wa ta'ala mentioning, for example, hal jaza'u l-ihsan idha l-ihsan Is there any reward for excellence? Anything that you do will be repaid by Allah subhanahu wa ta'ala in ways that you could never have imagined and in ways that will greatly outdo the initial deed. Allah's mercy, Allah's gratitude will always be greater than whatever deed you put forth for his sake subhanahu wa ta'ala. And I wanted to speak particularly to this verse inna allaha laa yudhya'u ajara'l-muhsinin And Allah subhanahu wa ta'ala says this in different parts of the Qur'an that verily Allah does not let the reward of the good doers go to waste. And there are different types of waste that could be implied here. There's the ultimate promise from Allah subhanahu wa ta'ala that everything that is done here will have its reward, will have its proper compensation in the hereafter. But when it comes to the importance of us knowing that our efforts are not in vain, especially when the presence of evil seems to be so overbearing or the presence of hardship or whatever it may be, the counter forces of good seem to be so heavy that a person feels paralyzed
and doesn't know is it really worth it anymore. And by the way, when we're doing something good and we're not seeing the output or we're not seeing the reward of that good in this world, then that is a way for us bidden Allah ta'ala to keep ourselves sincere and to remind ourselves why we do good in the first place. We don't do good with the condition that we have to see the results in this world. We don't do good certainly with the condition that we have to be credited for that good in this world. But what are the implications of this and how can this really be an empowering verse for us? And insha'Allah ta'ala tonight, by the way, the session will be about al-latif, Allah subhanahu wa ta'ala being subtle in our Quranic healing session. But I want to speak about this insha'Allah ta'ala. First of all, the fact that wasbir, to be patient for verily Allah subhanahu wa ta'ala does not let the reward of the good doers go to waste. This comes in surah al-hud and surah al-hud after one of the scariest ayat to the Prophet salallahu alayhi wasalam استقم كما أمرت ومن تاب معك To be firm as you have been commanded to do and those that have turned back with you should also remain firm, should also remain upon istiqama and do not turn back, ولا تطغوا because Allah subhanahu wa ta'ala does not love those who turn away and Allah subhanahu wa ta'ala is well aware of that which you do. So the command to stay firm that was given to the Prophet salallahu alayhi wasalam comes before this and of course this surah was one that was distressing to the Prophet salallahu alayhi wasalam because it spoke about sort of this last warning to the people after which, you know, comes punishment after all of these years of patience with them and calling them after which now comes punishment but in allah la yudhi'u ajra' al-muhsineen the general, you know, mention of this verse and what it implies is important some of the scholars actually quote a narration in which some of the sahaba
that lived past the changing of the qibla from Jerusalem to Mecca were worried about their companions who had passed and their prayers that were done before and so, you know, when the Muslims migrated to Medina they were still upon the qibla, upon the prayer direction of Jerusalem and then 16-17 months in Allah subhanahu wa ta'ala changed the direction of prayer from Jerusalem to Mecca, from al-Quds to the Kaaba and some of the sahaba worried about, according to this narration, worried about the companions that had passed away before that change of qibla would their prayers still count? and the prophet salallahu alayhi wasalam taking that to jibreel alayhi salam and jibreel alayhi salam coming down with the verse from Allah subhanahu wa ta'ala that Allah does not let the reward of those who have done good go to waste so that's a very specific notion here that there was a time in which this was done and it was done in this way and the nature of that good, the mechanics of that good have changed but the intention and the way that it was put forth are still given in full credit and subhanallah you have to think about the sahaba that lived as Islam was developing before their eyes and all of these new obligations were coming down new good deeds were coming down and promised rewards with those good deeds and Khadija radiya Allah ta'ala anha did not live to see the five prayers legislated she didn't live to see Ramadan legislated, she didn't live to see zakat legislated she didn't live to see the hajj legislated the only one of the five pillars of Islam that Khadija radiya Allah ta'ala anha caught was ash-hadu wa la ilaha illa Allah wa ash-hadu anna Muhammad rasool Allah but she lived to the fullest of that pillar as it came down and of course the notions of prayer and charity and fasting all these righteous acts she did but not in the way that it would be obligated later on
but she's a woman of perfect faith so the window is specific to some people and Allah subhanahu wa ta'ala blesses different people with different times and different places but at the end of the day Allah does not let the good of the good doers go to waste one of the things that we find, one of the implications of this verse is that when you enter into Jannah la tul dhulamoon you will not be wronged, Allah mentioning that you will not be wronged in that you will not have any good deed that you did missing on the day of judgment in terms of the reward if it was done sincerely for him then you can expect to be rewarded fully by him and so you will not be wronged no hardship that you endured with patience and steadfastness will go unrewarded on the day of judgment la tul dhulamoon, you will not be wronged and beyond that, this idea that on the day of judgment every deed that you intended both in terms of a deed that you were not able to perform but you intended to perform a deed or a deed that you intended to do good by but the results of that good were underwhelming okay, so you know there are deeds that you intended, good deeds that you sincerely intend and the prophet salallahu alayhi wasalam says to us innamal a'malu binniyat that verily actions are but by intention and everyone is going to have manawah, what they intended Allah will give them the full reward of that which they intended so long as they were sincere in that intention if something missed you, not because of a lack of intention but because of a circumstance that was out of your control the reward is full if you've been unable to pray Jum'ah because your masjid is not open in the pandemic every Jum'ah that you intended is written down full bi-idhnillahi ta'ala because anything as the prophet salallahu alayhi wasalam said
anything that misses you as a result of a sickness or travel or a deed that you would have done but because of circumstances out of your control you're unable to do, Allah will give you the full reward of that deed you're not missing any of it, you're not missing any of it if a person went into a coma and they missed the last 10 nights of Ramadan and every single year, the last 10 nights of Ramadan, they do i'tikaf they have the full reward of that i'tikaf if a person goes to Hajj or a person intended to go to Hajj and they're unable to go to Hajj this year and they're sincere in that intention the full reward of Hajj is written down for them bi-idhnillahi ta'ala so there are deeds that you intend of good to do that you don't get to do but you have the full intention and the reward is written down and then there are sometimes deeds that you get to do but it didn't turn out the way that you wanted them to turn out okay, so for example you gave sadaqa to a project and you were sincere in giving your sadaqa to that project but you know, there was a hang up, the masjid didn't end up getting built whatever it may be, you intended to do something good because you thought that it would yield certain good in society for the sake of Allah subhanahu wa ta'ala and so you put something forward thinking that this was going to be good for the sake of Allah subhanahu wa ta'ala Allah will not reward you according to the underwhelming result Allah will record you according to the greatest potential that you intended of that project okay, so that's the generosity of Allah subhanahu wa ta'ala inna allaha laa yudhya'u ajra'al muhsaleen Allah will not let any form of good go to waste it will still be written down for you fully, okay so both the deed that you intended to do but you were not able to do and the deed that you intended to have some sort of effect but it didn't actually have that impact that you sought
Allah subhanahu wa ta'ala, you know, in his mercy, shakur in his gratitude, Allah subhanahu wa ta'ala would incorporate all of that in your reward, jaza'a man rabbika a'ta'an hisaaba and that is the promised reward of Allah that will always overwhelm you so even if the result of your deed was underwhelming the reward of Allah subhanahu wa ta'ala will still be overwhelming and that's part of our husn adhan, our good expectation of Allah subhanahu wa ta'ala but you know, I want to really speak to the impact of good in this life okay, the impact of good in this life and we can root out insincerity here that if a person does something seeking praise then that lowly praise will come in this life and what remains in the hereafter will be the opposite of that may Allah protect us if a person does something in this life that is good but to achieve something that is dunya'y in its nature, worldly in its nature and that's their intention, then their reward is restricted to this world then Allah will choose whether or not to punish that person in the hereafter but sometimes it can just feel very debilitating right, that you think you're doing some good and you're overwhelmed by the presence of hardship it's like, what good is this anyway if when I'm doing this good, all of this is happening so if you think about it in the capacity of charity right, and I'll mention this subhanAllah and I say this and I don't want to take away from any of the relief agencies and the great work that they're doing in fact, I want to support them you know, you feel like hey, I'm giving this money to support our brothers and sisters in Yemen or Afghanistan or Somalia or Mali or the Rohingya or whatever it may be, right, Syria, Palestine
you can go to the list goes on and on and on and on and you're seeing that the situation is getting substantially worse now as Muslims, we want a world in which charity is unnecessary when the prophet salallahu alayhi wasalam tells us about the return of Jesus peace be upon him when Jesus peace be upon him comes back, when Isa Islam returns what happens, right, charity becomes unnecessary because righteousness is established and affirmed on this earth and so as Muslims we're obviously thinking about those bigger things, right but sometimes it can feel just, you know, you can just feel so, you know debilitated and not really have that motivation lack the motivation to give anymore to these charitable causes you still should give to those charitable causes but you still should work in small ways with the same mentality with the same mindset towards doing away with the things that are making that charity necessary and not feel overwhelmed by either of the two circumstances meaning, yes, my small charity is not big enough to feed an entire village but it's good enough to feed that one person and I'm pleased with that, right and if I can do more then I'll feed more and yes, my advocacy work and the things that I'm doing are not good enough to stop the zulm of this people, the oppression of this people altogether but if it can stop them by limiting their oppression or if it can stop the oppression to a segment of the people then Alhamdulillah, right, you know, I still don't lose sight of what I want in terms of the entire eradication of the zulm and all of its manifestations political, theological, spiritual, social, all of it, right that wrongdoing, I should want it to go away and I should not belittle the effort that I put forth in that regard
and it's important for us when we say that Allah does not let the good of the good doers go to waste to understand that in this life you don't know what impact you are having you don't know the inspiration that you are giving to good that you might not even see materialize in your life and you don't know the enabling that you are doing of good you don't understand the full impact of the good that you might be enabling the good that you might be inspiring or the impact that might be coming out of your good in any capacity it's impossible for us to understand the full workings of that and if you look at people that go on to do great things they are usually inspired by a moment that the one who was doing the inspiring might not have deemed very significant, right it was just a talk that someone got or it was a few minutes that they listened to or it was something that I saw someone else doing that inspired me to do something good and the reward is fully to that person and they might not even know what they inspired who was watching, right, who was watching what ideas were derived out of that what someone took from your sincere effort and in renewing their own intentions and making sure that they too were sincere and moving things forward you don't know who you are inspiring you don't know what you are enabling you don't know what impact the good that you are doing is actually having and that's the beauty of this all, right that you trust that Allah SWT definitely knows the full impact of it you ask Allah to expand your good as much as possible and you ask Allah to reward you for every single element of that good that which you know and that which you don't know for surely He knows and the most implicit ways in which good is inspired by that good or good is done as a result of that good
in ways that you could never quantify because Allah SWT in His generosity can quantify it all right, can bring it all on the day of judgment things that could happen generations from now things that could be happening in your own lifetime that you would not attribute to some good that you did but Allah attributes it and so in the same way that when we're talking about the Qadr of Allah, the decree of Allah that we trust that there are workings around us that we are unable to perceive and comprehend that would allow us to understand evil and hardship in a more holistic way had we had that comprehension the same is true when it comes to our efforts of good that Allah SWT surely sees the impact of that good that Allah SWT's knowledge encompasses it all and that Allah SWT's generosity can reward it all and that should keep me going when I find myself in a situation where I see that my good is having no impact again, this is not talking about sincerity versus insincerity you have to move past that or build on that not move past and that's insignificant the most significant element of this right that I'm doing it only for Allah SWT and no one else I'm doing it only for Him and no one else but building on that that I am confident and assured that Allah SWT will bring something out of this that is greater than what I can perceive and that in His generosity Allah SWT will reward it all, bi-idhnillahi ta'ala and so with the Prophet Sallallahu Alaihi Wasallam on the worst day of his life as he was surrounded by the people in Ta'if the children and the sufaha the children and the thugs and the fools of Ta'if surround the Prophet Sallallahu Alaihi Wasallam for a span of several miles spit at him, hit him with stones, curse him right, the Prophet Sallallahu Alaihi Wasallam it would be very difficult for him to see
anything but rejection on that day right, it would be very difficult for him to see anything but rejection on that day I mean there are people literally in your face punching you, spitting at you, cursing you causing your body to be covered in blood how could you see any success in that mission? but even the Prophet Sallallahu Alaihi Wasallam knows that he does not know what child heard his recitation of the Quran a child in Ta'if that would come years later and say I remember when you came here and called our elders to Islam when you called our people to Islam and you recited Surah Tariq and I memorized it from that day, right the Prophet Sallallahu Alaihi Wasallam would not have known that but the Prophet Sallallahu Alaihi Wasallam had trust in Allah knowing that and rewarding that as well the Prophet Sallallahu Alaihi Wasallam was not aware of the jinn that had come to listen to him while human beings had rejected his message that there were other creations that were present that listened to that Quran being recited by the Prophet Sallallahu Alaihi Wasallam and went back to their tribes to call them as well the Prophet Sallallahu Alaihi Wasallam would not have known that had Allah not made that known to him Sallallahu Alaihi Wasallam and so sometimes you are speaking to a people or you are doing some form of good and you are not seeing the benefit in the intended audience but it might be that the unintended audience was meant to benefit from it and they will carry it forward and they will do good with it and Allah will reward you fully because you intended with the deed good and Allah Subhanahu Wa Ta'ala would not let it go to waste there are also times that your good has gone wrong, okay your good has gone wrong, what do I mean by that? you know the Prophet Sallallahu Alaihi Wasallam mentioned to us that man who went out at night and gave charity to three people first night he goes out and he wants to give charity sincerely for the sake of Allah at night no one sees him, he hands off the charity the next morning the people say that someone gave charity last night to a baghi, to a prostitute
and he says Allahumma lakal hamd O Allah, you know to you belongs all praise and the next night he goes out and he does it again feeling like the first night was insufficient or perhaps not accepted from Allah Subhanahu Wa Ta'ala and he gives charity again and the next morning the people say that someone gave charity last night to a baghi to a thief, to a thief and he says Allahumma lakal hamd O Allah, to you belongs all praise and the third night happens and he gives charity and the next morning he wakes up and the people say last night someone gave charity to a rich man, okay and he said Allahumma lakal hamd O Allah, to you belongs all praise and Subhanallah he goes to sleep that night and he is told by an angel that you know what he did not see of that charity is that his charity to that woman that was earning in haram was a sign that Allah would provide her in halal so she should restrict herself from haram and with the thief as well that he shouldn't steal because Allah will send him what is intended for him and to that rich person to give sadaqa as well to be reminded to give charity with what they have as that man had given charity so he was unable to see what he was able to perceive was that good had gone wrong and sometimes you do something good and it seems to just not really lead to anything which you were seeking and the reality is that that is also within the knowledge of Allah subhanahu wa ta'ala and the wisdom of Allah subhanahu wa ta'ala and Allah will reward it accordingly and I want to end with this thought, this one hadith of the Prophet Sallallahu Alaihi Wasallam, the Prophet Sallallahu Alaihi Wasallam mentioned on the day of judgment that he sees all of these prophets, 124,000 of them according to one narration and every prophet has their people behind them, some people, some prophets have 10 people behind
them, some have 10,000 behind them, some have 5 behind them, some have 1 behind them and there are some prophets that don't have any followers at all. You know and you think to yourself why would Allah let a prophet come to earth and have no followers right and what might that prophet have felt to leave this world and to have no followers whatsoever, to be given a mission to call people to Allah, to have the aid of divine revelation and to not have a single person accept their message, subhanallah, but think about that, think about that and the reality is, inna allaha laa yudhuy'oo ajara al-muhsineen, his reward is not lost, perhaps this was Allah's way of elevating that person alone, of course establishing the hujjah against the people but that Allah loves this servant to elevate this servant and to give that servant a certain reward on the day of judgment but also that maybe a prophet observed that prophet, that a prophet came after that prophet and observed that prophet and the hardships that they faced and was able to build on the da'wah of that prophet because if you look throughout the history of prophethood then there is rapid succession that exists, right, often multiple prophets at the same time so it's impossible for that person to know the full impact and the effect but if that is even the case of Allah's prophets then what about us, right, what about us? And so it's important for us, bismillah ta'ala, to really embed in our hearts what could then be embedded in our actions which is a lack of expectation of any observable worldly gain
from the good that we do and a full trust that that gain will exist in the hereafter in ways that we could have never expected. So we ask Allah subhanahu wa ta'ala to make us amongst the muhsineen, to make us amongst those that do good, to make us amongst those that intend good with our good, to forgive us for our shortcomings, we ask Allah subhanahu wa ta'ala to reward us in accordance with the best of our intentions, to purify intentions so that they are only for him alone, so that our deeds are only done for him alone, we ask Allah subhanahu wa ta'ala to make us people of benefit, we ask Allah subhanahu wa ta'ala to guide us and to guide through us, to rectify us and to rectify through us. We ask Allah subhanahu wa ta'ala to make us a people of righteousness and to inspire righteousness through us, we ask Allah subhanahu wa ta'ala to make us a people of justice and to work justice through us. We ask Allah subhanahaw wa ta'ala to make us a people of mercy who receive his mercy in the hereafter and who channel his mercy in this life to everything around them. We ask Allah subhanahu wa ta'ala to never make us a people who despair. We ask Allah azawajal to make us a people who always have hope in him and who have hope in his reward. And we ask Allah subhanahu wa ta'ala to make us not amongst those who are disappointed or despised on the day of judgment, but amongst those who are rewarded and elevated on the day of judgment until we reach the position of Jannatul Firdos and the companionship of our beloved Prophet salallahu alayhi wasalam the prophets, the martyrs, the righteous and all that came before us that lived amongst us or those that come after us of good. We ask Allah subhanahu wa ta'ala to make us amongst those people. Allahumma ameen. Jazakum Allah khayran. Wa sallallahu wa sallim wa barak ala nabiyyina Muhammad wa ala ahlihi wa sahbihi ajma'in. Assalamu alaikum wa rahmatullahi wa barakatuh.
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