Understanding My Journey: A Qur’anic View
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Planning Your Perfect Ending (Part 5)
If you wrote an autobiography, what would the title be? What would the conclusion read? What is true success? And how do we get there?
Transcript
This transcript was auto-generated using AI and may contain misspellings. Salamualaikum wa rahmatullahi wa barakatuhu. A'udhu billahi minash shaitanir rajim. Bismillahir rahmanir rahim. Alhamdulillahi rabbil alameen. wa al-udhwani ila ala al-dhalimeen. wa al-aqiba tul al-muttaqeen. Allahumma salli wa sallim wa baraka ala abdika wa rasulika Muhammadin salallahu alayhi wa sallam wa ala alihi wa sahbihi wa salam tasneemin kathira. Dear brothers and sisters, I have an exercise for you to start inshaAllah ta'ala. You know, over the last few nights, I've been covering different elements of the journey that we have in this life. And I've been starting off with a visual in most of these lectures. And tonight, I want you to actually think about something. I want you to imagine writing an autobiography. What would the title of your autobiography be? So go ahead, take a few seconds inshaAllah ta'ala. What would the title of your autobiography be? And don't be lame and put your name. Think about it. Title of your autobiography. You wrote a book about your life. Let's say that you're 80 years old, you're looking back. What's the title of your autobiography? It's actually a really, really good exercise. Anybody want to volunteer? Yeah. My sins. My sins. Allahu Akbar. Change it to my repentance, bro. This is the good side. Autobiography is how you overcame. But no, why did you choose that? So there's less to know about yourself, about what you did wrong,
and how you overcame that before you left this world. JazakAllah khair. Anybody else? I'll take one more. It's always really introspective. You guys look like your friends, right? Brothers, mashAllah. My uprising. Beautiful. Intifada. Trying to get me in trouble. Got a Palestinian on stage saying intifada. Alright, uprising. Why my uprising? Why? So you've been over time, through a lot, and there's a massive uprising. Alright, I'm going to take your brother too, inshAllah. Yeah. Don't tell me you forgot it. Don't say the downfall, uprising, the downfall. What's your autobiography titled? Allahu Akbar. Man, that's beautiful. Does my name have meaning to me? Because his name is Muhammad. Does my name have meaning to me? SubhanAllah. Beautiful. I already know what you mean by that, so I don't have to ask you for an explanation. Dear brothers and sisters, as we're thinking about this idea of your autobiography, this is a powerful exercise about how you write your life story. Because there's something very interesting about the way we function as Muslims in terms of our mindsets. We always put the conclusion and work backwards. We always put the conclusion and work backwards. When we talk about our lives, bi'idhnillahi ta'ala, in the afterlife,
Allah says, Allah subhanahu wa ta'ala says, Verily the mutaqeen, people of conscience, people of piety, Allahumma ja'alna minal mutaqeen, Allahumma ameen. May Allah make us amongst them. People of taqwa are in gardens and springs and rivers and trees and palaces. They're in jannah. Allah is giving you the scene. Allah is giving you the end. Giving you the conclusion, the scene. And Allah subhanahu wa ta'ala says, They're getting exactly what their Lord promised them. They used to be people of excellence before. Then Allah describes the actions. They used to sleep little at night. And then before fajr, they would spend that time making istighfar. And then in their money, they used to spend upon the one who asked and the one who was forbidden. Meaning the one who was not able to ask due to circumstances or otherwise. Allah gave you the conclusion. And then Allah subhanahu wa ta'ala moved you right back to what it looked like in this life. Meaning try to picture yourself as a person of jannah looking back at this dunya.
And then consider the worth of this dunya. Try to look at yourself standing on the day of judgment. And then consider the value of the day that's ahead of you. Look from there and consider that your ultimate conclusion. This is our success, bi-idhnillahi ta'ala, as a group of believers that are celebrating the righteousness that led us to that place. Inni dhanantu anni mulaqin hisabiyya. I knew this day was coming. I was ready for it. And then when we think about how Allah subhanahu wa ta'ala talks about the story of Yusuf alayhi salam. The very first page of Yusuf alayhi salam. Before Yusuf alayhi salam saw the bottom of the well, before Yusuf alayhi salam saw the temptation, the lady that was throwing herself at him, before Yusuf alayhi salam saw slavery, before Yusuf alayhi salam saw the rotting inside of a prison cell, Yusuf alayhi salam saw a dream. It starts off with that. The story of Yusuf alayhi salam starts off with the final chapter. When Yusuf alayhi salam says, Ya abati inni raaytu ahad aashara kawkaba, wa shamsa walqamar raaytuhum li saajideen. My father, I saw the stars. I saw eleven stars prostrating towards me. Wa shamsa walqamar, and I saw the sun and the moon prostrating towards me. So it starts off with the dream, the end, this is the final chapter. Now let's talk about how we got there. Allah subhanahu wa ta'ala then gives you the story of how we got there. Because you start with the conclusion. When we talk about the life cycle of this ummah, we have an explicit detail.
Where Isa alayhi salam, Jesus peace be upon him will return. Where Ad-Dajjal, the Antichrist will rise from. The events that will unfold in the last days of this world, in precision, in precise details. We know locations. We know the conversation between the Mahdi and Isa alayhi salam. When Isa lands and he comes to pray behind Mahdi, and Mahdi takes a step back and says to Isa alayhi salam, you lead, and he says, no, no, you continue the salah. We know all of this in precision, and we could speak more about that than we could about the months to come. The events to come as a life cycle of this ummah. We know more about the last days than we do about the next days. The conclusion. And Imam Ahmed rahimahullah ta'ala on a personal level, when he was going through his tribulations, going through his trials, when he was slandered by a filthy man, whose name was also Ahmed, but he was anything but praiseworthy, anything but Ahmed, Ahmed ibn Abi Du'ad. And he would say, he would torture Imam Ahmed, and there was a time where he led to, with his slander, the torture of Imam Ahmed rahimahullah, there was a time that Ahmed ibn Abi Du'ad would be welcomed into the palaces of the rulers, and he would be welcomed into the highest gatherings, to speak about Imam Ahmed ibn Hanbal, radiallahu ta'ala anhu wa rahimahullah. And Imam Ahmed would say, بَيْنَنَا وَبَيْنَكُمُ الْجَنَائِزُ Between you and us is the day of the janazah. Between you and me is the day of the janazah. Imam Ahmed rahimahullah had maybe the largest janazah in the history of our deen. Millions of people came from all over to pray janazah on him, because of the benefit that came from him, Ahmed ibn Abi Du'ad was thrown away, cast away, a nobody. Allah subhanahu wa ta'ala gives us the end of Abu Lahab, in the beginning of the call of Islam.
How powerful is that? How powerful for the Prophet salallahu alayhi wa sallam to be standing on a safa, and to be calling the people to Islam. And think about how humiliating, in the worldly sense, of a circumstance this seems like. No one responds to you, after you've been honoured, after you've been loved. No one responds to you. They look at you like you're a weirdo, they look at you like you're a madman. And he's standing on safa, and he's calling upon his people, and his people love him. Just a minute ago, they were testifying to Al-Amin. You are Al-Amin, we trust you. You're this, you're that, lavishing praise. And now, pin drop silence. And the mockery, and the murmurs start. And Abu Lahab stands up, proudly, says, Tabannak. I can't even repeat the word, subhanallah. Curses the Prophet salallahu alayhi wa sallam. Humiliates him. And Allah reveals the conclusion. Allah gives us the conclusion from that time. Allah reveals the exact, precise punishment of Abu Lahab in the fire. And the same words are used towards him. When Imam Ahmad said, Between us and you is the funeral. Look at the Prophet salallahu alayhi wa sallam, when he left this world, and look at Abu Lahab, subhanallah. Allah humiliated him even before he left this world. His body rotted, a filthy corpse.
He was cast aside, and no one wanted to see him out in any tribute. Gone. Whereas the Prophet salallahu alayhi wa sallam's death, was the greatest tragedy. If you walked into the masjid of the Prophet salallahu alayhi wa sallam, when the Prophet salallahu alayhi wa sallam passed away, and you knew nothing about Muhammad salallahu alayhi wa sallam, you would say, what a great man. How much he must have moved these people. Allah gave us the conclusion of Abu Lahab early on. Because it's the last chapter that matters. And sometimes it's important for us, just like Yusuf alayhi salam was given his dream early on. Just like Imam Ahmad rahimallah had that foresight. Just like Allah subhanahu wa ta'ala comforted the Prophet salallahu alayhi wa sallam, with the conclusion in the very beginning. Just like Allah subhanahu wa ta'ala tells us about our celebrations in Jannah, as if it's a conclusion that we can count on. Should we invest ourselves in that fate, in that eternity. Once you start from that point and you look backwards, then everything falls into place with the journey. Everything falls into place with the journey. The Prophet salallahu alayhi wa sallam, and he did this in multiple ways. Sometimes in one hadith the Prophet salallahu alayhi wa sallam drew lines, in one hadith he extended his neck to show the difference, and in one hadith he took two stones. The hadith of Abdullah ibn Buraidah, and he threw two stones salallahu alayhi wa sallam. And he said, do you know what these two are? And they said what? And I want you to imagine this is one and this is two. He said salallahu alayhi wa sallam, that this is the human being, this is his ajal, this is the date of his death, this is his amal, this is the hope that he had in life.
And he stood between them, according to some of the explainers of that hadith, salallahu alayhi wa sallam. This gap that I'm standing in doesn't exist. This is a part of life that you thought would come that never actually came. You had hopes in it, but you died before you could realize it. And the idea was that every single person in the graveyard has some level of unfulfilled hopes. But what's the cure for that? The cure for that is instead of having lofty hopes in this life, let all of your hopes be after this point. If you're storing your hope for this point, this is a certain transition point in your life, in your existence, and I'm intentionally using the word life. This is a certain transition point in your life. And if you've stored your hope for here, then you will find it in a way that is greater than what you could have ever hoped for. But if you store your hope here, and you're counting on this, the date of your death, not coming too early, then it will be disappointment here, and it will be disappointment there. Store your hopes, your amal, for that part of your journey, not for this part of your journey. That part of your journey is certain. This part of your journey you're unsure of. It could be tomorrow, it could be in 10 years, it could be in 20 years. You don't know. Remember your autobiography, and I hope you all have the title for your autobiography, and I look forward to reading some of them insha'Allah. Write the conclusion. Write the last chapter. SubhanAllah, one of the beautiful things, as we've been going over over the last few nights, is the connection between the beginning of the Qur'an and the end of the Qur'an. And that's all I've been, subhanAllah, looking at, some of the first verses and some of the last verses. Last night I asked what's the first dua in the Qur'an, and it is,
اهدنا الصراط المستقيم Guide us to the straight path. At the end of Surat Al-Baqarah, when Allah subhanahu wa ta'ala gives us those heavenly verses, and the entire Qur'an is divine, those verses that were given to the Prophet ﷺ, in the highest of places, and they allow us to elevate to the highest of places. Allah subhanahu wa ta'ala says to us, at the end of those verses, وَاعْفُوا عَنَّا وَاغْفِرْ لَنَا وَارْحَمْنَا أَنتَ مَوْلَانَا فَانْصُرْنَا عَلَى الْقَوْمِ الْكَافِرِينَ Forgive us. Have mercy on us. Pardon us. You are our Lord. Grant us victory over a disbelieving people. It was a request for a nassr, a request for victory. Because there is success on the individual level, and there is victory for the ummah. As for the believers, we already said, إِنَّ الْمُتَّقِينَ فِي جَنَّاتٍ وَعُيُونٍ Verily, the mutaqeen, people of piety, are in gardens, springs, rivers, palaces, they're in paradise, they're looking backwards, they were people of taqwa. They perceived a moment that has now come to reality for them, to where they can see it and feel it. And Allah says in the very beginning of surah al-Baqarah, هُدًى لِّلْمُتَّقِينَ This is a guidance for people of taqwa. You will not benefit from the Qur'an or access the Qur'an, unless you are willing to abide by the Qur'an. And unless you are going to try to experience it in a way that you become aware of the sight of Allah SWT upon you, and you live your life in accordance with the sight of Allah upon you. And then Allah talks about victory for the believers. And Allah says about the victory of this ummah, وَالْعَقِبَةُ لِلْمُتَّقِينَ
Victory, the ultimate victory belongs to the believers, to the mutaqeen in specific, people of piety. So the end of surah al-Baqarah is an ask for an nasr, an ask for victory. What does the Qur'an end with before the mu'awwidat? إِذَا جَاءَ نَصْرُ اللَّهِ وَالْفَتْحِ The help of Allah has come. SubhanAllah, think about how powerful that is. When the help of Allah has come, when the victory of Allah has come to you, and the conquest has come to you. وَرَأَيْتَ النَّاسَ يَدْخُلُونَ فِي دِينِ اللَّهِ أَفْوَاجًا And you start to see people embracing Islam in large groups. فَسَبِّحْ بِحَمْدِ رَبِّكَ وَاسْتَغْفِرْهُ إِنَّهُ كَانَ تَوَّابًا Declare the glory of your Lord and seek His forgiveness, and He is always accepting of repentance. It started off with a request in the beginning of the Qur'an, SubhanAllah, the end of Surah Al-Baqarah, asking Allah for victory. And then it comes to, the victory has come. Now what do you do? And as Ibn Abbas radiAllahu ta'ala Anhuma explained, that this was the death announcement of the Prophet ﷺ. You've written the conclusion of your life on this earth. This was your ultimate conclusion of life on this earth. As an ummah, you are bound for victory. As an ummah, you are bound for success. As an ummah, Allah subhanahu wa ta'ala has promised you great things. And even if you don't live to see the glory days of this ummah, know that you are a part of a glorious ummah. And so long as you are part of the process of bringing back that revival and glory, you will have the reward for that revival and glory,
which is destined for you as an ummah. Destined for you as an ummah. And as Allah subhanahu wa ta'ala started off with the story of Adam ﷺ, the first person mentioned in the Qur'an by name is Adam ﷺ, coming down from the heavens and then making his repentance and achieving through that repentance, a higher level in the sight of Allah subhanahu wa ta'ala, than he was before. Because tawbah actually elevates a person. As Ibn al-Qayyim, rahimahullah, describes so beautifully, he said that when Adam ﷺ was expelled from paradise, Iblis was happy. He was pleased. But what he didn't realize is that when the diver goes to the bottom of the ocean, he gathers the pearls, he gathers the precious gems and stones at the bottom of the ocean. And then he rises up once again. So the first person mentioned to us in the Qur'an is Adam ﷺ, coming from paradise to this world. And the mistaken bare eye might see that as humiliation. But instead, he comes down only to gather the best of this world and to rise to a higher position than he was in the first place, because he repented to Allah. The last person mentioned in the Qur'an is Abu Lahab, who had the opportunity to rise like Adam ﷺ, but chose the lower way and hence Allah subhanahu wa ta'ala was explicit with his descent from this world into hellfire. You were put in this world with the opportunity to ascend like Adam ﷺ, but should you choose to descend like Abu Lahab, that is a fate that you have chosen for yourself by your actions. And you cannot overpower the will of Allah subhanahu wa ta'ala, but Allah subhanahu wa ta'ala does not wrong you with his will. It starts with this story, it ends with this story.
It starts in Surah Al-Baqarah with a request for victory, and it ends with the announcement of victory for the Ummah. Always start with the conclusion and then come back to where you are, where you're supposed to be, and ground yourself in that conclusion, and write your story in accordance with the conclusion. Now subhanAllah, some of us can't see past surface level. And it is a miserable existence, and I say that and I feel sorry for people. I feel sorry for people. It is a miserable existence. If you don't believe that there is anything past that grave. What a miserable existence if you think this is it. What a miserable existence if you think it ends with this. Doesn't end with this. And what a beautiful existence. عَجَبًا لِي أَمْرِ الْمُؤْمِنُ What a beautiful existence if you merely see this as a bus stop, as another stop in the station. What a beautiful existence if you are able to appreciate and show gratitude for all the blessings that you have in this temporary world. Hence, your happiness grows, your pleasure grows, your contentment grows, and you don't even believe that this is the abode of happiness. Because you know that there is a much more vast abode where Allah subhanahu wa ta'ala will reward you with something should you stay the course. But the difference is not in the existence of this space or the existence of this space or the existence of this space. Two people could be standing in a graveyard and looking at a grave and feeling entirely different emotions. Allah subhanahu wa ta'ala wants us to broaden our vision. And when we see victory and defeat even in the worldly sense, in the material sense, only by the externals. We are not able to think of a proper conclusion because we can't see past chapter 3.
And that's why Allah subhanahu wa ta'ala when he talks to us in surah Rum, when Allah azzawajal tells us about the battle of the Romans and the Persians, and Allah subhanahu wa ta'ala gives the prophecy through Rasulullah salallahu alayhi wa sallam of a change. Something is going to happen where it's all going to change, it's all going to flip. Allah subhanahu wa ta'ala mentions about those people who can only see surface level. يَعْلَمُونَ ظَاهِرًا مِّنَ الْحَيَاةِ الدُّنْيَا Allah didn't even say they know the life of this world. They're not even experts in the life of this world. يَعْلَمُونَ ظَاهِرًا مِّنَ الْحَيَاةِ الدُّنْيَا They only know surface level of this life. They only can see the very outward surface level of this life. وَهُمْ عَنِ الْآخِرَاتِ هُمْ غَافِلُونَ And they're even more heedless about the hereafter. With the hereafter, they're completely heedless, they have no idea what they're talking about, no clue. They're completely blind to the hereafter. And when it comes to the matters of this life, they only see outward. They can't see deeper. They can't see past surface level. The surface literally being that grave. How can they write a conclusion when they don't even believe that that part of the book exists? How can they write their story properly? If they don't even know where their story extends to. How can they begin to envision another life? If they only know this fraction of the journey. Dear brothers and sisters, when we think of our journey of life, we're not just talking about our life of this world, we're thinking about our journey of existence. And subhanAllah, nothing can possibly make sense to us. Not our ease or our hardship. Not our material victory or our material defeat.
Not our ummah successes or failures, or our individual successes or failures, without the afterlife. Nothing of it could make sense. Nothing of it could give us any form of tranquility. Nothing of it could give us any form of ease. Unless we see the end. Unless we see where we're going, bi-idhnillahi ta'ala. And so I come back to this, dear brothers and sisters. And I said, write your autobiography. Write the title. What's the conclusion? What's the last chapter? I want you to think of the day of your janaza. Are there any debts that are unresolved? Are there any people that you've hurt, that you haven't sought forgiveness from? Are there prayers that are still there to be made up? Are there obligations that you need to do? If you were to have a heart attack right now, and your phone was in your hands, and you felt like you only had two more minutes to live, what would you start trying to delete from your phone? So that when it's recovered after your death, it's not found. How many people would be able to say that you helped them? And it's not quantity. I want us to get away from this idea that legacy is merely determined by how many. It's not about how many, it's how deeply. Wallahi, if you served your mother, if you served your brother, your sister, your father, if you served your grandparents, if you served your neighbor, and you did it with ikhlas and sincerity, Rasulullah ﷺ said, I saw a man strolling, this is the conclusion of the man's autobiography. If he was to write his autobiography, it would probably be the man strolling in jannah. Rasulullah ﷺ said, I saw a man strolling in paradise, because he removed a branch from the road.
And Allah granted him a stroll in jannah, a garden in jannah to stroll in. His autobiography title would probably be something about that. The woman who gave water to the thirsty dog. It's probably her autobiography title, right? What would it be? If that's the level of ajr, of good deeds, if that defined those people, because of how one of them treated a dog, and how another one treated complete strangers, by removing something harmful from the road. What about if the people that are closest to you in life, could speak about how deeply committed you were to them, and how you touched them, and how you helped them, and how you were the best of children, the best of spouses, the best of neighbors to them, the best of friends to them. That's all you need. That's all you need. Those witnesses on the day of judgment to bear witness to your character. But you put your janazah in front of you, and you say, that's how I wanted to be. You write your last chapter now, and say, that's how I wanted to be. Subhanallah. When you think about the images of jannah, when the companions used to sit with the Prophet ﷺ, they were a people of certainty. And sometimes they were weathering the most difficult of storms. And when they were sitting with the Prophet ﷺ, and he was talking about this other world, this other realm, they didn't have doubt in the existence of that other realm. And when you're in the ditch of khandaq, when you're in the ditch facing death, starving, but you have in front of you a man ﷺ, who's speaking about endless lands and vast gardens,
and fruits and joy, and his companionship and the companionship of the Prophets and the righteous of old and those to come. Then that ditch is no longer a reality to you. That ditch is merely a footnote in your book. Sometimes, subhanallah, when we can't see past our trials, our trials become the dominant story for our book. But to the believer, our trials can become footnotes in the book. Because they can become the things which propelled us, inshaAllah ta'ala, to creating that reality by the help of Allah subhanahu wa ta'ala. That we needed so badly to get us through the moment. Your jannah is waiting for you to build its houses. Your jannah exists right now. You plant trees in jannah right now. You have rivers that flow for you in jannah right now. You choose your companions in jannah from now. This is a reality that you are actively working on right now. You're in the construction phase. You're at work. What type of house are you building there? لَا دَارَ لِلْمَرْءِ بَعْدِ الْمَوْتِ يَسْكُنُهَا إِلَّا لَتِي كَانَ قَبْلَ الْمَوْتِ يَبْنِيهَا There is no home for you to find in the hereafter except for the one that you used to build here. What are you stepping into? What keys are you using? It's your moment now insha'Allah ta'ala to build your hereafter. And I want you insha'Allah ta'ala to do this with yourself, to sit with yourself, write the concluding chapter. Write the conclusion of your life and say ameen. Ask Allah subhanahu wa ta'ala to grant you a good ending. I'll share with you a personal story subhanAllah. Because there's a hadith of the Prophet ﷺ
that a person will be doing the deeds of the people of hellfire until they can just reach out and they would enter into hellfire and then they do one of the actions of the people of paradise and so they end up in paradise and vice versa. Vice versa is also true. That a person would be doing the deeds of the people of paradise until they're right about to get into paradise and then they do one of the deeds of the people of hellfire and they enter into it. May Allah subhanahu wa ta'ala protect us from that fate. Allahuma ameen. Dear brothers and sisters, subhanAllah. First of all, that person, you know the ulema mention, we should not have su'adhun in Allah subhanahu wa ta'ala, a bad assumption of Allah subhanahu wa ta'ala, a suspicion of Allah. So you mean I was good my whole life and I was sincere and exerting myself and then I just got taken away from me? No. This is not what this is speaking about. It's, fima yadharu lin-nas. It's a person who was showing off. They were wearing the clothes. They were embracing the deeds in public. They were masquerading as the people of paradise. And then Allah subhanahu wa ta'ala stripped that costume from them before they passed away and they ended up of the people of hellfire. May Allah protect us from being of the hypocrites. Allahuma ameen. The opposite though. You see someone who's a person destined for hellfire, right? I mean they're doing the deeds of the people of hellfire. They don't have iman, they don't have any of these things. And then subhanAllah, right before they pass away, they do something good and you go, oh my God, subhanAllah. How is it that this person lived this whole life disobeying Allah subhanahu wa ta'ala and then one week, one month, and you start to realize Allah in His mercy saw something good in that person. And Allah subhanahu wa ta'ala saw a good characteristic as Ibn al-Qayyim rahimahullah ta'ala mentions. It was a good khuluq because we're made up of akhlaq and deen, religion and character. They had some good akhlaq, some good qualities, some good characteristics
that Allah subhanahu wa ta'ala loved about them. And so they were given the deen, they were given the right creed, the right way right at the end to where all of those good qualities suddenly pass through the filter of acceptance and they found themselves through the gateway of paradise. And I actually was sharing with some of my closer friends. I had a family member, subhanAllah, didn't used to pray, didn't used to fast, didn't used to do any of the deeds that were necessary from an obligation perspective. And subhanAllah, something about him, he hated backbiting, hated gossip. I mean he absolutely hated it to the point that when you started to talk bad about someone, he'd wave you off. He'd actually tell you to be quiet. So calm, so dignified, so beautiful. He said to myself, subhanAllah, if only he had the deen. And Allah subhanahu wa ta'ala guided him literally in the last few months of a lifetime of over 80 years and it was one of the most beautiful endings that you would see of a person. He said, subhanAllah, I was giving a khutbah about Zakariya alayhi salam. And I said he made dua and he was in his 90s. And he is calling upon Allah subhanahu wa ta'ala in his 90s with a whole lifetime. We see the conclusion of Zakariya alayhi salam, right? The life of Zakariya is not in the Quran alayhi salam. But he calls upon Allah subhanahu wa ta'ala with over 90 years of obeying and worshipping Allah. We're only seeing the ending, the concluding chapter, right? As far as this world is concerned. Imagine walking into Masjid al-Aqsa and you see a 90-year-old man in the corner making dua and saying, Ya Rabb, grant me a child.
You'd say, that's strange, that's odd. But he's calling upon Allah subhanahu wa ta'ala. And he's asking Allah subhanahu wa ta'ala for a child. And he says, وَلَمْ أَكُن بِدُعَاءِكَ رَبِّ شَقِيًّا You've never deprived me in my dua before, O Allah. I've been making dua to you my whole life and I never felt deprived by you. And Allah subhanahu wa ta'ala blesses him with a miracle. And you haven't seen the 90 years prior to that. And wallahi, there was an old man who was sitting in the masjid, weeping. And I said, what's his story? He came up to me. He said, I'm 90 years old. I have a whole lifetime of sin, not a lifetime of good deeds. Do you think God would accept me? I said, of course he would. I gave shahada to a 90-year-old man. You imagine a 90-year-old man taking shahada? Hani and nahu. How amazing. 90 years of sins forgiven in less than 90 seconds. Vanishes. And he didn't live much longer. Subhanallah. You think that's random? Put the conclusion in front of you that you want. You don't know what twists and turns are coming in the chapters ahead. You don't know if there's a well, or there's slavery, or there's prison. You don't know if there's the death of a loved one ahead of you. You don't know if there is an unexpected beautiful gift ahead of you. You don't know if there's a career hang up in front of you, or Allah propels you to your wildest dreams when it comes to your material success. You don't know what's gonna happen in the chapters in between.
But don't put your hope with the grave here, the ajal. In this part here, which is between your ajal and your amal, between your date of death and your long hopes, don't put your hope here, where it doesn't exist, where you might not live to see it. Put your hope after the hereafter. Put your hope in that realm, and you will find meaning and fulfillment in every moment that you have in this journey, because you're investing in something that is certain, you're investing in something that is real, you're investing in something that you will enjoy, you're investing in something that you will experience, and bi-idhnillahi ta'ala, you and I will experience it with Rasulullah ﷺ in al-Firdaws al-A'la, in the highest level of paradise, because the Prophet ﷺ said, when you ask Allah, when you make worldly calculations, you be a little realistic, right? I don't know, how can I apply for this job? How can I apply for this job? How can I apply for this Jannah? The Prophet ﷺ said, when you ask Allah, don't just ask Allah for Jannah, ask Allah for al-Firdaws al-A'la, ask Him for the highest level, because you're dealing with Allah subhanahu wa ta'ala here, and Allah subhanahu wa ta'ala recognizes sincerity. May Allah make us sincere in this journey, may Allah subhanahu wa ta'ala grant us steadfastness upon it, may Allah subhanahu wa ta'ala allow us to arrive in Jannah al-Firdaws, in Jannah al-Firdaws together. May Allah subhanahu wa ta'ala gather us around our Prophet ﷺ in al-Firdaws al-A'la. May Allah allow us to find our loved ones there, in al-Firdaws al-A'la with us. May Allah allow us to celebrate in that place together. May Allah subhanahu wa ta'ala forgive us for any shortcomings along the way. May Allah subhanahu wa ta'ala guide us and guide through us,
rectify our hearts and rectify other hearts through us. Allahumma ameen. Wa alaikum salam wa rahmatullah wa barakatuh.
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