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How Sincere Are We About Our Sincerity? | Virtual Khutbah
How sincere are we about our sincerity? How do we guarantee the rewards for the deeds we can't do?
Tune in as Sh. Omar Suleiman talks about our intentions and sincerity when it comes to what we do and what we can't do.
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Transcript
This transcript was auto-generated using AI and may contain misspellings. Assalamualaikum warahmatullahi wabarakatuh. Bismillah wa rahmatullahi wa barakatuh. Wa salatu wassalamu ala rasulillah wa ala alihi wa sahbihi wa man wala. I hope you all are doing well. I pray that you're keeping in high spirits with everything that's going on. May Allah keep you all safe under his protection and in good faith with everything that's happening. May Allah protect you and your families. And allow this to be a moment of great reflection and raising your station in the sight of your Lord and doing much good. I'm going to inshallah ta'ala just as I'm about to start and get into the depth of the topic that I had. And I actually really wanted to hone in on this subject of sincere intentions and truthful intentions inshallah with everything that's happening right now. And before I do that I need to make my weekly disclaimer since I'm going to be doing this every week. This is not a Juma'ah khutbah. This is not a replacement for your khutbah. Please do not pray two rak'ahs and then blame me on the Day of Judgment. Pray your four rak'ahs of the Dhuhr prayer as soon as this is over inshallah ta'ala. And this is merely a reminder to keep us engaged at this time as we usually would be in the Juma'ah khutbah until we're able to get back to our weekly khutbahs and Juma'ahs in the masjid inshallah ta'ala. So with that disclaimer I want to talk about three things here. Number one, this idea of truthful intentions and the discussion of truthful intentions. And I'm deliberately using the word truthful instead of sincerity or sincere for a reason which I'll get to inshallah. Truthful intentions under limiting circumstances and guaranteeing your rewards. How are those three things connected? Because usually we start talking about intentions when we're unable to fulfill the action itself. So we're not able to actually commit to the things that we otherwise would do.
Or we're not able to do them with the same level of excellence, with the same level of faith, with the same level of ihsan as we would in other times. So when those circumstances become difficult and become constricting then suddenly we start hearing things like, I wish I would have done this, I wish I would have done that. I personally, I can't tell you how many times I've thought about all the times I could have gone to the masjid but I didn't go to the masjid when it was open. And now as I'm sitting here thinking, I wish I would have gone to fajr every day. I wish I wouldn't have missed out on the prayers. Now as I'm thinking about that, whether that's going to actually continue on to when the masjid reopens inshallah ta'ala. If I'm actually going to allow that to materialize in a regular action or a commitment to regularly going to the masjid or not. And of course beyond all of that whether Allah will reward me for it or not. Because if I'm sincere in my intention, whether I'm able to do the action or not is actually irrelevant. It's about whether or not it's sincere because Allah will accept it based on its sincerity, not its performance. However, the sincere intention leads to a certain level of performance. Now what I'm going to talk about is an niyas sadiqa, this idea of a truthful intention. And a truthful intention encompasses sincerity but it's not only sincerity. So let's talk about this inshallah. The most famous hadith tradition of the Prophet peace be upon him salallahu alayhi wa sallam that gets quoted. It's in the beginning of most of the major hadith collections. وَإِنَّمَا الْأَعْمَالُ بِالنِّيَاطِ وَإِنَّمَا لِكُلِّ مِرْئٍ مَا نَوَىٰۜ That verily actions are but by intentions and for every person is that which they intended. So if your intention is sincere, your reward is guaranteed whether or not you fulfill the action.
So if someone fulfills an action but it's not sincere, it could have no reward whatsoever. If someone has a sincere intention but they're not able to actually perform the action, they could be rewarded tremendously for that from Allah subhanahu wa ta'ala. And for everyone that's sitting at home right now and otherwise would have been at Salatul Jumu'ah, I want to read one hadith to you to start this off. The hadith of Abu Darda radiyaAllahu ta'ala alaihi wa sallam that the Prophet salallahu alayhi wa sallam said, مَنْ أَتَى فِرَاشَهُ وَهُوَ يَنْوِي أَنْ يَقُومَ يُصَلِّي مِنَ اللَّيْلِ فَغَلَبَتْهُ عَيْنَاهُ حَتَّى أَصْبَحَ You went to sleep at night and you intended to pray Qiyamul Layl. So you intended to wake up and pray. But then sleep overwhelms you until the morning. So what that means is that you try to wake up, for whatever reason you didn't wake up to your alarm or you said, alright, five more minutes or you didn't hear it at all. The point is you went to sleep at night and you had the intention of getting up and praying Qiyamul Layl that night. كُتِبَ لَهُ مَا نَوَى وَكَانَ نَوْمُهُ صَدَقَ The Prophet salallahu alayhi wa sallam said, Allah has written down for you what you have intended and the sleep was a charity from Allah to you. The sleep was a charity from Allah to you. So if you are sincere in your Jum'ah, your Jum'ah is written for you. Even though you're sitting at home right now, if you were sincere in saying that you would have gone to Jum'ah seeking the reward, your Jum'ah is guaranteed for you. If you were sincere about going to the masjid for your prayers, your prayers are written for you. You don't get a decrease in your paycheck with Allah the way that you would with other people, right? There's no decrease in the reward because you weren't actually able to do it. And the time that you have at home right now is a charity from Allah. So this is paid time off from Allah subhanahu wa ta'ala.
So long as your intention was sincere based on the hadith that I just read, it is paid time off for you with Allah subhanahu wa ta'ala right now. So how do I make my intentions though, not just sincere, but how do I actually guarantee that they're truthful? And this is the next step of that. You see when you're talking about making your actions accountable, you make your actions accountable by looking at the performance of those actions. So you have, for example, in prayer, for example, you have the arkan, the wajibat, and the sunnah. You have the pillars of the prayer, the mandatory actions of the prayer, and you have the voluntary deeds of the prayer. And you look at making sure that you fulfill their performance. You pray them on time. There are certain things that make every one of your actions from an external perspective accountable. And certain things that make them acceptable. And then beyond making them acceptable, that make them even more rewardable, right? So whether you're talking about prayer or fasting or how you break your fast, what you break your fast on, there are ways to make your actions accountable. But how do you actually make your intentions accountable? Meaning, is it enough to simply say that I'm sincere in my intention, therefore Allah is going to reward me. Or do I need to actually see if my intention, if there are things that I could measure my intention against to see whether or not those intentions count as sincere, truthful intentions in the first place. And so that's what I want to talk about. Also, even if I have a sincere intention, can one person's intention be more sincere than another person who also has a sincere intention? What that means is that two people could both be sincere, but one person's sincerity, which is not as quantifiable as action or in fact at all, one person's sincerity surpasses the other for the same intention, for the same action. So they both have the reward of a sincere intention.
But what are the darajat, what are the steps, what are the stations of sincerity within that same intention? So when Allah says, وَلِكُلِّنَ دَرَجَاتٌ مِّمَّا عَمِلُوا And for everyone there are stations in regards to their actions. Meaning there's a customized reward. And this came in the capacity of how Allah divided the companions based upon how early they came into Islam. لَا يَسْتَوِي مِنكُم مِّنْ أَنْفَقَ مِنْ قَبْلِ الْفَتْحِ وَقَاتَلُوا أُولَئِكَ أَعْظَمُوا دَرَجَةً مِّنَ الَّذِينَ أَنْفَقُوا مِّنْ بَعْدِ وَقَاتِلُوا وَكُلَّنَا وَعَدَ اللَّهُ الْحُسْنَةُ So when Allah says that those that became Muslim later on are not like those that became Muslim first. The ones that became Muslim after the Fath, meaning in the last couple of years of the Prophet's, salallahu alayhi wa sallam's mission, are not like those that accepted Islam in the very beginning. The people of Medina are not like the people of Mecca that accepted Islam first. But Allah says everyone has their customized reward because it may be that someone accepted Islam in the last year of the Prophet's mission, salallahu alayhi wa sallam, and because of the sincerity of their intentions, they actually surpassed someone who accepted Islam in the first year of the Prophet, salallahu alayhi wa sallam. So the darajat, the degrees of reward, depend upon the depth of the sincerity within the intention. So they could all be sincere, they could all be special, but how special, how sincere depends upon that person. And Allah sees that, كُلَّنَا وَعَدَ اللَّهُ الْحُسْنَةُ Allah has promised everyone a different reward, a customized reward. Allah sees that, no one else sees that. So the stations of sincerity within the same intention for the same action. In this case it was accepting Islam with the Prophet, salallahu alayhi wa sallam, right, accepting the da'wah, the call of the messenger.
But the same action of acceptance has different levels of sincerity and intention. And while someone may do something on the external that causes them to surpass their companion, the sincerity of the intention allows that person to surpass someone who's also sincere, who also did something wonderful, who also did something that's great. But the degree of the sincerity allowed that person to surpass them. So there are darajat in intentions as well. There are levels of sincerity within sincere intentions as well. And may Allah subhanahu wa ta'ala make us all amongst those that are sincere. Allahuma ameen. And I wanna actually reference the story that you've probably heard many times in a khutbah or in a lecture where the Prophet, salallahu alayhi wa sallam, he was talking about this group of people that enter into paradise, enter into jannah without any form of a'zab and without any form of hisab. They're not punished nor are they even questioned. So the Prophet, salallahu alayhi wa sallam, said there's this group of people that enter into paradise without being questioned, without being punished. May Allah make us amongst them. Allahuma ameen. People that will just immediately be fast-tracked into paradise without even having to go through the hisab, without even having to go through the questioning. Now if you've heard this hadith, there's a famous incident around it that when the Prophet, salallahu alayhi wa sallam, said that, there was a companion by the name of Uqasha, radhiAllahu anhu. Uqasha raised his hand and said, O Messenger of Allah, make dua, supplicate, pray to your Lord that I may be amongst them. And the Prophet, salallahu alayhi wa sallam, said, Anta minhum, you are amongst them. And then another person said, Ya Rasulullah, O Messenger of Allah, and me too. And the Prophet, salallahu alayhi wa sallam, said, Sabaqaka biha Uqasha.
Uqasha has surpassed you in that. Now, if you've heard this hadith before, in fact I've quoted this hadith many times, the lesson, the usual takeaway, is that Uqasha had such a level of alertness to the pleasure of Allah that when he saw an opportunity, he jumped at it. So it's usually speaking about Uqasha. But what about the other guy? We usually don't talk about the other guy. And I was reading in the explanation of this hadith, and I found something very interesting. Al-Qadi Ayyad, rahimahullah, he said, Qeela anna ar-rajulath thani lam yakun mimman yastahik tilka al-manzilah. It's said that the second person was not amongst those that deserved that station. Wala kana bi sifati ahliha bi khilafi Uqasha. And he did not have the characteristics of those people, whereas Uqasha did. So Uqasha and this other person are not the same. And on top of that he said, bal kana munafiqan. Rather this man was a hypocrite. Fa ajabahu an-nabi sallallahu alaihi wa sallam bi annaka lastah minhum. So the Prophet salallahu alaihi wa sallam basically told him, you are not amongst them. But he says that when the Prophet salallahu alaihi wa sallam said, Uqasha beat you to it, that was because of the Prophet's good character salallahu alaihi wa sallam instead of directly telling the man and crushing him and saying that, you are not amongst those people. He said Uqasha beat you to it. So he made it more about Uqasha than that man in hopes that that man would develop that same level of sincerity and that same level of desire for Allah's pleasure that Uqasha had. This is a really powerful point here, right? Since we always talk about Uqasha, the second person, right? Did he just say, sabqa qabi, did he just say, and I want to be amongst them too
because he saw an easy opportunity? Whereas Uqasha did not just see an opportunity, Uqasha was putting in the work, right? Uqasha was already trying to attain the highest level of paradise. And when he heard the Prophet salallahu alaihi wa sallam talk about this group of people that get to that level, he immediately, right, instinctively responded and said, O Messenger of Allah, pray that I am amongst them, right? So Uqasha was doing the work in accordance with that sincere intention when he asked the Prophet salallahu alaihi wa sallam, make dua that I am amongst them. Whereas that second person, right, simply tried to latch on, you know? And that's something that's important for us to take because it's not just about simply saying that you have a sincere intention. It's not just about verbalizing that intention. There's got to be something more to it than that. So I actually want to give you five things or five points in regards to what a truthful intention is inshaAllah. So a niyyah sadiqah, what does it mean to have a truthful intention and to guarantee the rewards of that intention, especially when there are limiting circumstances because the limiting circumstances prohibit us from doing certain actions. And so we have to really make sure that our intentions are sincere and are truthful so that we can reap the full rewards during these extraordinary times. Number one, and the first two actually refer to the ikhlas, refer to sincerity. So the first one, is it only for Allah and no one else? Is it only for Allah and no one else? So would you still do the good deed if no one was watching? So here the limitation refers to the sight, okay? The sight. Is it only Allah watching me or are other people watching me too? And do I only do good or do I only do that good deed when someone else sees me as well as Allah?
Allah always sees me, but someone else sees me as well as Allah subhanahu wa ta'ala. And Ibn al-Qayyim says in Madarij as-Saliqun, he says that a person who considers himself to have attained ikhlas should know that his ikhlas lacks ikhlas. A person who considers himself having attained sincerity should know that his sincerity lacks sincerity. Why? Because the first daraja, the first station of this is that you do the same actions whether Allah alone sees you or whether Allah and other people see you. The second action or the second station of this is that you do that good deed with even more quality, with even more excellence when it's only Allah watching you. And so you have effectively made the sight of Allah subhanahu wa ta'ala more beloved to you than the sight of other people. So that's the first level here. Is it only for Allah and no one else? Okay? So if there are good deeds, and let's think about the things that we still do in private that we were doing in public. We have to ask ourselves, right? One test that we can put to ourselves right now. Especially the prayers that we were doing in the masjid, right? Is my prayer going to be of the same quality as it would have been in the masjid when other people were watching? Right now I'm going to be praying the five daily prayers at home. I'm going to be doing these deeds at home. How do I make sure? How do I actually see if I can make them as good as if they were going to be in the masjid right now? Right? So what do I add on to the prayer? What do I immerse myself in? In terms of khushur and humility and awe so that I can assure that I'm actually putting in the same amount of sincerity, the same amount of good into that prayer. Because right now it's just Allah that sees me. No one else sees me. Okay? So again, there are two darajat, two stations within this one.
Which the first of the five was, is it only for Allah and no one else? The first one is that would you still do the good if no one was watching you but Allah? The second one is how do you do that good when it's only Allah watching you? Alright, so that's the first category. Number two, is it only for the hereafter? Is it only for the akhira and nothing else? So the first one is, is it only for Allah and no one else? The second is, is it only for the akhira and nothing else? Only for the hereafter and nothing else? And this speaks to the second part of the hadith when the Prophet sallallahu alayhi wa sallam said, فَمَن كَانَتْ هِجْرَتُهُ إِلَىٰ دُنْيَا يُصِيبُهَا أَوْ إِلَىٰ اِمْرَآةٍ يَنكِحُهَا فَهِجْرَتُهُ إِلَىٰ مَا هَاجَرَ إِلَيْهِ When the Prophet sallallahu alayhi wa sallam said, whoever made the migration لِدُنْيَا يُصِيبُهَا for something of this world that they could attain or to marry someone, then their hijrah, their migration is for the purpose that they set out for it. Allah subhanahu wa ta'ala says, whoever desires this world, the life of this world and its amusements, everything that comes with this world in terms of the superficial, whoever is seeking something of this world when they actually do these actions, so their intentions are worldly in their nature, Allah says, look, we're going to give them the full reward of what they are seeking and they won't be cheated. وَهُمْ فِيهَا لَا يُبْخَصُونَ What that means is that if you're doing something good for a worldly purpose, you'll be rewarded with good in a worldly sense, but don't seek out anything in the hereafter. Don't expect anything in the hereafter. And so if you're going out to visit someone who's sick
and your intention is because that person who's sick happens to have some sort of position in society or whatever it may be, but there's a worldly benefit to attain from going out and visiting that person, then that's a good thing. It's good that you're going to visit that person, but the only thing you're going to get rewarded for or the only thing you're going to get rewarded with is the nature of that which you sought, right? Something worldly. So you wanted that person to remember you the next time they're doing something, the next time they're giving something out, the next time they're doing promotions or whatever it may be. Well, you got that. You wanted that person to think about you or you were trying to marry someone that's related to that person, whatever it may be. The point is if there was a worldly intent behind it, it's still a good action, but don't expect a reward in the hereafter. And so that hadith of the angel stopping the person who goes to visit their brother for the sake of Allah, is it really for the sake of Allah or is it that there's something else? I'm giving charity to this person, and charity is a good thing, right? But maybe I'm giving charity to this person because I know that if I give charity to this person, it's going to cause this person to take note of that, and then I'm going to get some worldly benefit in return for that. Or, to smile in the face of your brother's charity, but I'm really smiling in the face of that brother because that brother can give me something that I want. So the second quality here is, is it only for the hereafter and nothing else? So as I said, there are five. The first two relate to ikhlas. The first two relate to sincerity. For those of you that are tuning in, and it's always good to repeat, we're talking about the five requirements of a niya s-sadiqah, a truthful intention.
The first two are ikhlas, have to do with sincerity. The first one is, an takuna khalisatan li wajhillah, that it's only done for Allah and no one else. The second one is that it's only done for the reward of the hereafter and nothing else. The third one, not giving up so easily. Al-qast, al-azimah, al-himmah. Al-qast, al-azimah, al-himmah refers to the determination that you have, the effort that you put behind that intention. At what point do you give up on that good intention? Okay, someone says, you know, I have the niya to go to hajj, you know, and right away, right away, as soon as, as soon as something breaks out, oh, never mind, forget about hajj. You know, your work tells you, you're going to have two weeks where you can do this. Oh, well, it is what it is, right? Someone who says, you know, I know I want to pray Jumu'ah every week. You know, I want to pray Jumu'ah every week. You get a new job. Boss says you got to be there Friday. I'm not even going to try. I'm not going to talk to my employer. I'm not going to try to do everything I possibly can to get that break for Jumu'ah. But, you know, well, you know, I had the niya, I had the intention. I was going to do it, but then something got in the way, right? At what point do you say, oh, well, when you make that good intention? OK, so I was going to give sadaqah, I was going to volunteer for this thing. Oops, something else came up, you know, at what point do you give up on it? OK, so this is a really important part of a niya sadaqah, the truthful intention, which is you are really going to try to fulfill that intention. OK, you're not now at what point is trying too much. The point that you stop is when the effort actually becomes harmful to you or someone else. OK, so, you know, I have you know, I'm not I'm not telling you right now to say, you know what, I have the niya sadaqah, the true intention to go pray salatul Jumu'ah. I'm going to go bust the doors down, you know, go pull the security guard in and be like, you're praying Jumu'ah with me right now.
You know, I'm not talking about that. There's a reason why we have the restrictions that we have in place right now. What I'm talking about is that, you know, when you make a sincere intention, you do everything you possibly can to see that that sincere intention is fulfilled, inshallah ta'ala, in any way possible. So long as you don't cross the boundary of harm to yourself or to someone else. The fourth thing, and this is so important to everyone that's quarantined right now, to everything that we're going through right now. The fourth thing is doing the next best thing. Doing the next best thing is a testimony to the truthfulness of intention. So when the companions, the poor companions, you know, complain to the Prophet salallahu alaihi wasalam that we don't have the ability to give charity like the rich companions. The Prophet salallahu alaihi wasalam said, hasn't Allah given you something to give sadaqah with? Like hasn't Allah given you an avenue of charity as well? So your tasbih, your subhanallah as a sadaqah, your alhamdulillah as a sadaqah, it's a charity. Your la ilaha illallah as a charity. The Prophet salallahu alaihi wasalam said to justly reconcile between two people is a charity. To help a person on a riding animal is a charity. To lift their luggage is a charity. A kind word is a charity. Every step towards the masjid is a charity. Removing something harmful from the road is a charity. To bassamuka fi wajhi akhiq sadaqah, to smile in the face of your brother is a charity. So don't you have something to give charity with right now? Are you doing the next best thing or not? Are you doing the next best thing or not? So if you can't smile at someone in person because of social distancing, you can smile at them through FaceTime. If you can't spend money, you can spend time. Every single person has the next best thing. What's the next best thing when something gets in the way of your intention with your action?
What this means for Jum'ah, for Friday. It's Friday and you can't pray Jum'ah. But are you doing salawat? Meaning when I say salawat, sending peace and blessings on the Messenger salallahu alaihi wasalam. The Prophet salallahu alaihi wasalam said that the night and day of Friday are the best day of salawat. Are you reading surah al-kahf? The Prophet salallahu alaihi wasalam taught us to read surah al-kahf every single Friday. The Prophet salallahu alaihi wasalam mentioned the last hour of the day of Friday. So between Asr and Maghrib, that it's a time of dua, a time of supplication. Are you giving up on Friday altogether because you can't pray Jum'ah in the masjid? So the next best thing is extremely important here. In proving that you have a truthful intention with Allah subhanahu wa ta'ala. Number five and the last one. Forgive me, this one might bite a little bit. But calling out to Allah and committing yourself to do the action when the opportunity presents itself. I'm gonna say that again. Calling out to Allah and intending to do the action once the opportunity presents itself again. Let me talk about this for a bit inshaAllah and I'll go ahead and I'll conclude. When Allah says, مِنَ الْمُؤْمِنِينَ رِجَالٌ صَدَقُوا مَا عَاهَدُوا اللَّهَ عَلَيْهِ That from those believers are men, of course by extension men and women, that are truthful to the promise that they make to Allah subhanahu wa ta'ala. The covenants that they make with their Lord. They make these promises to Allah that should this happen I will do this. If this opportunity presents itself, I will certainly be amongst the first to do this. مِنْهُمْ مَنْ قَضَى نَحْبَ وَمِنْهُمْ مَنْ يَنْطَضِرْ وَمَا بَدَّلُوا تَبْدِيلًا Some of them actually have the opportunity where their intentions are put to test. They say that when things get better, I'm gonna do this. When I get this, I'm gonna do that or when this happens, I'm gonna do that.
So they make these promises to Allah, these commitments to Allah that as the circumstances open up, I'm gonna do something different. They make these promises to Allah subhanahu wa ta'ala. I will do this action. And Allah says some of them have the opportunity to fulfill that. Meaning for some people, the circumstances do change in a way that they have the opportunity to do that action. For some people, a time comes where they have the wealth that they said that if Allah gave me this wealth, I'm gonna do this. They have the time. If Allah gave me this time, I'm gonna do this. If Allah gave me this opportunity, I'm gonna do this. And some people never get that opportunity. But the point is, وَمَا بَدَّلُوا تَبْدِيلًا They never lost resolve with their intention. Meaning that sincere intention always remained no matter what. So, what does this mean for us? If Allah sees a niyat al-sadiqah, a truthful intention, Allah is too generous to let that go to waste without giving you the full reward altogether. Allah is far too generous to let that go to waste. If Allah sees that you're sincere and truthful in your intention, that if the circumstances were different, you would do this. Allah will reward that fully because Allah subhanahu wa ta'ala is the most generous of those who show generosity. But we have to make sure that these promises that we're making to Allah, these commitments to Allah, have some weight to them. So right now if you're saying, I missed out on the masjid when it was open. As soon as the masjid opens up for me again, I'm gonna be amongst those that go to fajr this many times a week. I'm gonna make sure that I don't miss harsha anymore. You know, I used to go late to jummah and I missed jummah. As soon as the masjid opens back up, I'm going to go early to salatul jummah. Alright, if you had the intention to go to umrah or maybe hajj, okay.
We have stories from the pious predecessors, stories from the salaf, of people who went to hajj in the hundreds of thousands and Allah did not accept any of their hajj, but Allah accepted the hajj of a person who had a sincere intention but wasn't able to make it. And because of the sincere intention of that person that wasn't able to make it, Allah accepted all of the pilgrimage, the hajj of everyone that made it that year, that actually physically was present, because of someone that actually wasn't physically present. Think about this for a moment, okay. So if that's the case, that if we have these stories from the likes of Abdullah Mubarak, the person whose hajj is accepted, and the only person whose hajj is accepted is the one who actually didn't get there. You think Allah needs us to be in hajj, right? If a person is sincere in their umrah and their hajj and their intentions, and they really mean it, like, ya Allah, I'm going to do everything I possibly can to make it there, and you're not able to actually physically go, you think Allah, the most merciful, the most generous, is not going to accept that. So, you know, it's really important for you here, and for me here, to make these promises to Allah, but to really be serious about these promises. Ya Allah, when things open up, I'm going to do this, and should things be this way, I'm going to change this about myself. And the last message that I want to give here is do not delay your repentance. Do not delay your tawbah. Don't delay your repentance. Some of us, in fact all of us, are living very comfortably with certain sins in our lives that we've just accepted as a part of us. And we had these, you know, these marks in our lives. Okay, so SubhanAllah, I was just talking to someone that was intending to go to hajj, and then had to pull out, and they happened to work in a haram business, okay?
Meaning they sell alcohol, alright? And he said that if I, you know, what I was intending to do was I was intending to go to hajj, and then once I got back from hajj I was going to shut my business, right? Now Allah, you know, is shutting his business down for him, okay? Why did you have to wait till hajj? Why did you have to wait till hajj? Right? So that brother that was thinking about, you know, I'm going to do this differently once this happens. You know, I had a sister that was telling me that I was planning to do this, but after my wedding, okay? She had made the intention that she wanted to wear hijab, and she said I'm going to start wearing it after she committed to it. She already had this intention, she said, you know, I want to do this, but, she said after my wedding, right? Now her wedding got called off. SubhanAllah, if you have a devotion that you plan to Allah, if you have a sin that you plan to quit, if you had a good deed that you plan to undertake, if you had something that you wanted to pursue, don't wait, right? Those things are not circumstantial. It is about us thinking about now, you know? So I pray that Allah subhanahu wa ta'ala accept our sincere intentions, that he make them truthful, that he forgive us for our shortcomings. May Allah subhanahu wa ta'ala forgive us when our intentions are insincere or not truthful. May Allah give us the full reward of our intentions and our actions in these limiting circumstances. May Allah allow us to be sincere about what we're going to do once these circumstances actually are lifted from us. And may Allah subhanahu wa ta'ala allow us to be prepared for the inevitable circumstance of death and the inevitable circumstance of meeting him. May Allah allow us to do good with the opportunities that he's provided to us. May Allah not make us amongst those that are paralyzed by our circumstances, but instead that are empowered to do the good that other people might not be doing. May Allah subhanahu wa ta'ala allow us to lead the way in khair, in our personal and our communal obligations in these times.
May Allah subhanahu wa ta'ala be generous and be merciful with us. May Allah subhanahu wa ta'ala protect those that were already vulnerable from being more vulnerable. May Allah subhanahu wa ta'ala allow those who pass away due to this from our brothers and sisters, wherever they may be, to be granted shahada. May Allah comfort their families. All of those people who can't do a proper janazah for their loved ones, may Allah subhanahu wa ta'ala allow the angels to replace those people in those janazahs, in those funerals. May Allah subhanahu wa ta'ala allow us to pass this test with flying colors. May Allah subhanahu wa ta'ala allow us to pass this test with a full reward and join us with the Prophet salallahu alaihi wa sallam. Give us that reward that uqasha was guaranteed by the Prophet salallahu alaihi wa sallam. May Allah give us that full reward. May Allah subhanahu wa ta'ala allow us to develop a closer tie to him in these days, first and foremost. And may Allah subhanahu wa ta'ala allow us to develop our relationships with the people that we may have been neglecting throughout this time. May Allah subhanahu wa ta'ala allow us to be protected from the sins that come to us in our times of idleness. May Allah subhanahu wa ta'ala replace our fears of the uncertain with our certain knowledge in his power, in his capability, in his ability, in his full power over this universe. May Allah subhanahu wa ta'ala grant us the best of this life and the best of the hereafter. Allahuma ameen. Inshallah ta'ala, I'll see you all tonight, in fact at 9pm Eastern inshallah, and next week, Friday at the same time, until Allah subhanahu wa ta'ala allows us back into his homes. May Allah subhanahu wa ta'ala allow that to be sooner rather than later.
Wa jazakum Allah khayran, wasalamu alaikum wa rahmatullahi wa barakatuh.
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