What if everything we owned and everything we think we own of our body parts could speak? How paranoid would we be about our own hearts contradicting us and our own bodies, our homes,
our devices testifying against us? And the trickiest of all of those is the heart because sometimes we're not even so sure of what's in our hearts. We might see what our hands and our feet
do, but it's really what's in our hearts when we act that counts most. And you have this incident where Abu Dawood, rahim Allah ta'ala, the famous hadith author, he said that I said to Imam Ahmed,
rahim Allah, I wrote this book for the sake of Allah. And Imam Ahmed said to me, that's a serious claim. Instead say that this is something my heart has been made to incline towards. So I did it.
SubhanAllah, it's to that level, like, are you sure you did this for Allah? Because the intentions are so volatile and can switch on us at any moment. And in general for ourselves, fa la tuzakku anfusakum hu a'lamu biman ittaqa
Do not claim purity for yourselves because Allah knows who indeed is pious. If you feel like you did something for Allah, you don't have to constantly tell other people that you did something for Allah. Now, as far as what you assume of other people, let them always be good
assumptions. And even then the Prophet SallAllahu Alaihi Wasallam said, if you want to praise someone say, ahsibu fulanan wallahu hasibu wa la uzaki alallahi ahada
I consider such and such a person to be good, but at the end of the day, Allah is his only true assessor. And I cannot claim anyone for sure to be pious in his sight, because only Allah knows who
we really are. And on the day of judgment, Allah is going to bring forth all of these things that
were silent in this world to speak either for us or against us.
At this point on the day of judgment, you're already well aware that your deeds can speak. They've been personified since you've been in the grave. But while you're standing before Allah,
he suddenly causes so much more to speak. In that same hadith where the Prophet SallAllahu Alaihi Wasallam spoke about the servant being brought forth and reminded of his favors and then his forgetfulness of Allah, the Prophet SallAllahu Alaihi Wasallam said, Allah calls forth another
servant. Allah says to him similar things. He reminds him of his favors upon him. The difference is that this person will say when asked if he remembered the meeting with Allah,
Ya Rabb aamantu bika wa bi kitabika wa bi rusulika wa sallaytu wa sumtu wa tasaddaqtu. My Lord, I believed in you. I believed in your book. I believed in your messengers. And I prayed
and I fasted and I gave charity. And he'll be going on and on and on until Allah says, haa huna idhan, stop for now. Al-ana naba'athu shahidana alayk. Now we're going to produce
our witnesses against you. And the Prophet SallAllahu Alaihi Wasallam said that this person yatafakkaru fee nafsihi manda lali yashhadu alayya. Who is it that is going to bear witness against
me? I'm pretty sure no one saw this or that or heard this or that. And in one narration, he even challenges Allah Subh'anaHu Wa Ta-A'la, he says la ujizu alayya illa shahidan min nafsi. I only accept
a witness from myself. And Allah responds and says, the angels are sufficient and you are sufficient. Kafaa binafsika alyawma alayka hasiba. You yourself are sufficient of a witness against yourself.
Fayukhtamu ala feehi. So his mouth is sealed and it's set to his thighs. Takallam, speak. And then to his flesh, speak. And then to his idham, to his bones, speak.
Al yawma naqtimu ala afwahihim wa takallimuna aydeehim wa tashhadu arjuluhum bima kanu yakseegun. Today we have sealed their mouths and their hands and feet will speak and bear witness against them.
And as every part of your body comes forth in the form of a human witness, qalu li juludihim, mima shahidtum alayna? They say to their skins, why are you testifying against us?
I was trying to protect you. If we go to hell, then you're going to be the one that suffers. Qalu antaqanallahu ladhi antaqa kulli shay. It's Allah who caused us all to speak, just as he caused
anything that he wants to, to speak. Now this is not the average person. To be clear, the Prophet SallAllahu Alaihi Wasallam said, thalika almunafiq wa thalika ladhi yasqatullahu alayhi. That this is the hypocrite
and this is the one who Allah is angry with. May Allah not make us amongst them. But it shows us the capability of the limbs to speak. So if your deeds can speak and your limbs
can speak, those things which you use to wrong others can speak as well. And one of the defining traits of the hypocrites, who were of course merely pretending to be believers, was that they hated to
spend in charity or in the cause of Allah Subhanahu Wa Ta'ala. Remember, money and power were what they truly worshipped. So what was the first thing they tried to eliminate from the religion after the death of the Prophet SallAllahu Alaihi Wasallam? They wanted to get rid of zakat, because they're materialists
and they were trying to accumulate these mountains of gold, even if that meant abusing the religion to do so. And the Prophet SallAllahu Alaihi Wasallam gave a severe warning to those who abandoned zakat.
He said, SallAllahu Alaihi Wasallam, anyone whom Allah has given wealth but he does not pay its zakat, then on the day of resurrection his wealth will be presented to him in the shape of a poisonous
snake with two poisonous glands in its mouth. And it will encircle itself around his neck and bite at his face and say, ana maluk, ana kamzuk, I am your wealth, I am your treasure. Then the Prophet SallAllahu Alaihi Wasallam
recited, wa la yahsabanna allatheena yabkhuluna bima ataahum Allahum min fadlihi huwa khayrun lahum Those who withhold in miserliness what Allah has given them out of his grace should not take it as
good for them. bal huwa sharrun lahum sayutawwakuna ma bakhiru bihi yawm al qiyamah Rather it is bad for them because whatever they meanly withhold will be hung around their necks on the day of resurrection.
And then places and possessions, they start to speak as well on the day of judgment. yawm matubal as-sara'ir The day that all of the secrets of the earth are brought forth. Again,
for the repentant believer, the inevitable sins are forgiven. So you're not to despair as long as you're prepared for this moment. And by the same token, the places of goodness are also going
to come to your defense. And if you're sincere and trying to be on the side of righteousness with Allah subhanahu wa ta'ala, then Allah will forgive those things that the limbs have witnessed and
that those places have witnessed. So long as they were not intentional and done in, you know, extended periods of hypocrisy. Now for the wicked, Allah subhanahu wa ta'ala says ma bakat alayhim wa samaa'u wa al-ard
Neither the heavens nor the earth shed tears for them. Ibn Abbas radiAllahu ta'ala anhuma He said that for the righteous person, the place of your sajda, your prostration, it cries when you
depart from the earth. And now your place of sujood is coming forth to testify on your behalf. Now what about those, for example, who made umrah or hajj, or they intended to do so sincerely? The Prophet
salallahu alayhi wa sallam said about the black stone, wallahi layab'athannahu allahu yawm al qiyamati lahu aynani yubasiru bihima wa lisanun yantiqu bihi yashhadu ala manastalamahu bihaq
By Allah, Allah will raise the black stone on the day of resurrection with two eyes by which it sees and a tongue that it speaks with and it will testify to whoever touched it in truth. In another
narration the Prophet salallahu alayhi wa sallam said, ya'tirruqnu yawma al qiyamati a'adhama min abi qubais lahu lisanun wa shafatan The Yemeni corner of the Kaaba will come forth on the day of judgment greater than Abu Qubais. Abu Qubais
is this huge mountain right next to the Haram in Mecca, so again a mountain. The Prophet salallahu alayhi wa sallam said the Yemeni corner will have a tongue testifying for all of those who touched it. Then you have the
animals. Remember the bird and the camel that were complaining to the Prophet salallahu alayhi wa sallam in a way that only he could hear? Well now it's the day of judgment and the animals come forth as
witnesses for you or against you. And the Prophet salallahu alayhi wa sallam said that whoever kills a small bird for play it will come on the day of judgment and say, ya rab inna fulanan qatalani abathan walam yaqtulni li manfa'a
Oh my lord so and so killed me for sports and not for any benefit. On the other hand the Prophet salallahu alayhi wa sallam mentioned about the seeker of knowledge. Yastaghfiru lahu man fi al samawati wa man fi al ardi
wal hitanu fi jawfi al ma'a. That everything in the heavens and the earth seeks forgiveness for that person. Even the fish in the depths of the ocean, the birds high in the sky, they're coming on the day of
judgment and they're testifying. Why? Because the knowledgeable believer is mindful of everything and everyone around them and realizes they have a responsibility with what they have been given
to everything that they encounter. And if Allah is going to make our limbs bear witness and Allah is going to make our possessions bear witness, then the places that we go, the environments and the
animals, imagine the weight of the testimony of people we encounter when they are brought forth
to bear witness for or against us.
