On the night of al-Israa wa-l-Miraj, the Prophet SallAllahu Alaihi Wasallam says that one of the scenes that he saw was that we came to this garden and he said that it had the most beautiful colors, all of the colors of spring in that garden. And he said SallAllahu Alaihi Wasallam, and there was this tall man. He was so tall that his head was above the clouds in that garden. And he said, Alaihi Salatu Wasallam, there were children playing around him. And he said, that was the largest number of children I had ever seen. As-salatu wa ala l-mawati wa-l-muhammadan wa-l-muhammadan So imagine this garden, this man who's so tall, his head is in the sky, the most beautiful garden he had seen SallAllahu Alaihi Wasallam and these beautiful children, the largest gathering of children that he had ever seen SallAllahu Alaihi Wasallam. And so he says that I asked the angels, who was that man? And they said that that was Ibrahim Alaihi Salam. And then the Prophet SallAllahu Alaihi Wasallam said, and who were the children around him? And they said that those are the children who died in a state of fitrah, they died pure. And one of the Muslims who was listening to the Prophet SallAllahu Alaihi Wasallam narrate the incident of Al-Asra' ul-Mi'raj, he said, oh, messenger of Allah, what about the children of the disbelievers? The Prophet SallAllahu Alaihi Wasallam said, and the children of the disbelievers. So when we're talking about a child that dies, it's less about the uncertainty of where that child is and more about the pain that we feel. And it is not an easy trial. It is probably the most difficult trial that a person can face in this life. A person is willing to suffer with their wealth and with their health before their child. And it is the nightmare of every parent to lose their child. And there are so many ahadith about that, that you can go down the list. One of them that the Prophet SallAllahu Alaihi Wasallam mentioned that Allah Subh'anaHu Wa Ta-A'la asks the angels after the death of a child,
did you take the coolness of the eyes, the fruit of the eyes of my servant? And they say, yes, O Allah. And Allah Subh'anaHu Wa Ta-A'la talking about the grief of the servant says, and what did my servant say? What did my servant say as a result of all of that? And they say, Ya Allah, hamidaka wastarja. They said, amazingly, he praised you. He said, alhamdulillah. And he said, inna lillahi wa inna ilayhi raji'oon. To Allah we belong and to Allah we return. So Allah Subh'anaHu Wa Ta-A'la says to the angels, ibnu liabdi baytan fil jannah. That build for my servant a house in jannah, wasammuhu bayt alhamd. And name that house, the house of praise. SubhanAllah, it's a special home in jannah because it's a unique tragedy in this life. And no one knows that more than the Prophet SallAllahu Alaihi Wasallam who buried six of his seven children, six of his seven children, alayhi salatu was-salaam. And we know a lot about the last one, because at that point, this is after Islam and this is in Medina and the sahaba are surrounding the Prophet SallAllahu Alaihi Wasallam as he's going through the pain of his son, Ibrahim dying. And when Ibrahim was dying, the Prophet SallAllahu Alaihi Wasallam entered into the room, faqabbalahu washammahu. I mean, this is very real. He kissed him and he started to smell him, right? He kissed him and he started to smell him. This is the love of a parent to the child. And when Ibrahim breathed his last, the Prophet SallAllahu Alaihi Wasallam started to cry. And Abdurrahman ibn Auf radiAllahu ta'ala anhu, he says to the Prophet SallAllahu Alaihi Wasallam, wa anta ya rasoolAllah? You too, O messenger of Allah? Look at the question here, right? Because the Prophet SallAllahu Alaihi Wasallam has seen Jannah. The Prophet SallAllahu Alaihi Wasallam saw that scene that we started off with
of Ibrahim Alayhi Salaam with the children in Jannah already. And he knows that Ibrahim is in a better place. Wa anta ya rasoolAllah? But you're still crying, O messenger of Allah? As if to suggest is there a lack of rida, a lack of being pleased with the decree of Allah Subh'anaHu Wa Ta-A'la? And the Prophet SallAllahu Alaihi Wasallam, he responds and he says, inna alAAeena latadmaAAa He says, listen, the eyes shed tears. And he said that the heart grieves, the heart feels sadness. walqalba yahsan And he says, wa inna lifi raqiqa ya Ibrahim lamahzoonoon And we are due to your departure, O Ibrahim, sad. We're grieving over your departure. But, wa la naqulu illa mayurudillah But on top of all of that, we do not say except that which is pleasing to Allah Subh'anaHu Wa Ta-A'la. What is that? Hamd wa istarja' alhamdulillah inna lillahi wa inna ilayhi raj'oon That's how you get the house of praise. You don't get the house of praise by crying less. You don't get the house of praise by feeling less sadness. You get the house of praise by praising Allah Subh'anaHu Wa Ta-A'la despite your intense pain. And Allah Subh'anaHu Wa Ta-A'la says in a hadith Qudsi, ma li abdil mu'mini andi jaza itha qabattu safiyyahu min ahl al-dunya thumma ihtasaba illa aljanna That my servant does not have a reward with me if I take their Safi, their chosen one. You know, inna Allahastafaki, right? Inna Allahastafa'a Adam Allah chose, Allah chose. And the Prophet SallAllahu Alaihi Wasallam said to Ibrahim one narration, wa Safiya Referring to him as his Safi, his chosen one, his loved one. My servant does not have a reward with me if I take his Safi, if I take their chosen one from this world and they are patient except for Jannah. SubhanAllah, you know, another hadith by the way that doesn't speak about children
but has almost identical wording is when a person loses their eyesight. And we ask Allah for our children to be the coolness of our eyes, the apple of my eye. And Allah Subh'anaHu Wa Ta-A'la is saying that no one is patient when I take away the apple of their eye. And they continue to seek reward from me except that I will give them Jannah. The same hadith, the Prophet SallAllahu Alaihi Wasallam narrates that Allah Subh'anaHu Wa Ta-A'la says that my servant is not patient when I take away their eyesight, seeking the reward from me, except that I give them Jannah. And so again, it's not about worrying about where the child is, it's what about me? Will I be reunited with my child? Will they remember me? Will they even know who I am? And this is what I want to end off with InshaAllah Ta'ala. A few hadith in that regard. One of them, any woman who loses three of her children, they will be a shield for her from the fire. And they said to the Prophet SallAllahu Alaihi Wasallam, Ya Rasulullah, what about two? He said, even two. So the children that are lost are a shield from any punishment. They are a shield from the fire. And notice by the way, that this also matches what the Prophet SallAllahu Alaihi Wasallam said, Man Rabba Tiflatain, whoever raises two children and was dedicated, Ahsana Tarbiyatahuma, was dedicated to raising them properly, two daughters, then Allah Subh'anaHu Wa Ta-A'la will cause them to be a shield from the fire. And so even though those children have gone on, those children are a shield from the fire. There's another narration that Abu Hassani said that I asked Abu Huraira radiAllahu ta'ala Anhu. I said, two of my sons have died. Can you narrate to me a hadith from the Messenger of Allah SallAllahu Alaihi Wasallam that would give me some sort of peace? And he said, yes, these little ones are the little ones of Jannah. The Prophet SallAllahu Alaihi Wasallam said, when one of them meets his father or his parents on the day of judgment, he takes hold of his garment or by his hand, the way that I am taking hold by your garment, as Abu Huraira radiAllahu ta'ala Anhu
was doing, and he does not let go of his parents until Allah Subh'anaHu Wa Ta-A'la enters his parents into Jannah. In another narration, the Prophet SallAllahu Alaihi Wasallam mentioned with the miscarried fetus, that it would pull the parents, the patient parents into Jannah, even by the umbilical cord. And so here you have the combination of protection from the fire and entrance into paradise. And the fact that a child would be waiting for you, waiting for you at the gates of Al-Jannah to enter you into Jannah. And you wait your entire life, you hope to raise your child to see their wedding, to see their graduation, to see all of these different forms of success. And SubhanAllah, here you have a child that is waiting for you at the gate of Jannah. And not only do they remember you, even if they died very young, you know, when children grow up in this life, they forget their early childhood. Your child will not forget you. They'll be waiting for you at the gate of Jannah. And they will not be pleased. They will not be pleased until you enter Jannah alongside them. And Allah Subh'anaHu Wa Ta-A'la has guaranteed them Jannah because they did not even live to commit a sin on this earth.