- 2 years ago
How can the Qur’an and the life of the Prophet Muhammad (s) be the primary source for our lives even after 1400+ years later?
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00:00Bismillah walhamdulillah wassalatu wassalamu ala rasulillahi wa ala alihi wa sahbihi ajma'in.
00:12Assalamualaikum warahmatullahi wabarakatuhu. Allah subhanahu wa ta'ala in the Quran,
00:17He gives us certain principles, overarching guidelines that explain to us the exact nature
00:27of this life and that lay out for us the principles and the major understandings of our religion
00:38and how this world exactly works, what will occur with us and what should be the appropriate
00:44response and then ultimately what will be the conclusion. One of the things that is
00:49very important to understand is that a lot of times you hear discussions or rhetoric
00:56where people will say that the Quran contains all the answers or that the life of the Prophet
01:03sallallahu alayhi wasalam will answer all of your questions. Obviously we're dealing
01:09with scenarios and circumstances and situations that are not exactly laid out and spelled
01:16out within the Quran. We're dealing with issues that did not occur in the life of the Prophet
01:23sallallahu alayhi wasalam exactly. So how can the life of the Prophet sallallahu alayhi wasalam in the Quran
01:31be a resource for humanity till the end of time? So that even today, 1400 years later, halfway
01:41across the world, everything that we're dealing with and we're going through and that all
01:47the Muslims around the world are dealing with, how can the Quran which was revealed
01:531400 years ago and the life of the Prophet sallallahu alayhi wasalam which occurred 1400
01:58years ago still be the primary resource for us to be able to navigate what goes on in
02:07this life? And that's a very very important question that we have to answer and that we
02:14need to move beyond the rhetoric. Because as the sister mentioned even in the introduction
02:21here, we're dealing with so many issues all across the globe and Muslims are dealing with
02:28so many unique circumstances in their everyday lives that while we've heard, we've been told,
02:35we've read that the Quran and the life of the Prophet sallallahu alayhi wasalam contained
02:41the solutions for your problems. How does that exactly match up? How does that exactly
02:47sync up? How do we exactly make sense of that? And the answer to that is that if you're looking
02:55for very very specific outlines, if you're looking for very specific details, then you
03:04might not find a lot of that within the Quran and within the life of the Prophet sallallahu
03:08alayhi wasalam. But the Quran lays out for us principles, usool, axioms, guidelines. The life
03:21of the Prophet sallallahu alayhi wasalam gives us examples of scenarios. It might not address
03:27my exact specific scenario or situation in terms of the details, but it gives examples of similar
03:36scenarios. And if I can learn to think about that, and that's why I'm going to get to the topic at
03:44hand here in just a minute, but the first thing I have to emphasize, and I'm going to circle back
03:50to this at the end again, that we need to read, we need to understand, and we need to reflect,
03:58and we need to think. It is not enough for us to be told that the Quran is this and the life of
04:05the Prophet sallallahu alayhi wasalam is that. We need to read it for ourselves, we need to understand it for
04:11ourselves. And that's the second thing, that there is a great place in terms of the original wording
04:21in the language of the Quran. The original wording in the original language of the Quran in the
04:26Arabic in which God revealed it is sacred. It is sacred. However, Allah subhanahu wa ta'ala said
04:38so that you may think about it, you may understand it. Why don't they think about and ponder upon and reflect upon the Quran? So we need to strive for understanding. Empower yourself with the
04:54understanding of the Quran. Empower yourself with the knowledge and the understanding of the life of
05:00the Prophet sallallahu alayhi wasalam. And that means a couple of things. Number one, if someone has the
05:10ability to be able to read the Quran and understand what it's saying in its native language, it's an
05:16original form, they have the background and the ability to do so, then that's excellence. But if
05:24I'm not there yet, there is no problem, there is no shame. And there should not be any hesitation
05:32to access any kind of academic material, like a translation of the Quran, like a book on the
05:40life of the Prophet sallallahu alayhi wasalam in the English language, to try to better understand what
05:47exactly the Quran is saying, and what transpired in the life of the Prophet sallallahu alayhi wasalam.
05:52And the second part of that is, that in the Islamic tradition in our 1400 years, we have a
06:00very beautiful tradition of knowledge and the understanding of the religion being passed on
06:06from person to person, from individual to individual. And this, we are part of a living, breathing
06:14tradition, that the companions of the Prophet sallallahu alayhi wasalam, the companions
06:21themselves, they say, like Abdullah bin Abbas, he says that I personally read the Quran to the
06:28Prophet sallallahu alayhi wasalam and heard it from him multiple times in its entirety in my life,
06:35during his lifetime. They learned it directly from the Prophet sallallahu alayhi wasalam.
06:41And then they went on and taught it to the next generation directly.
06:54That they say that we would teach our children the life and times of the Prophet sallallahu alayhi
06:59wasalam, just like we would teach them chapters and surahs of the Quran. So then find people of
07:06knowledge and learn from their knowledge and understand better the Quran, the depth of the
07:12Quran and the depth of the life of the Prophet sallallahu alayhi wasalam. So the first thing is,
07:17read it for yourself. Number two, understand it and utilize whatever tools are available to you
07:23in order to be able to understand it, whether it be translation or it be knowledgeable people.
07:28And the third thing is then reflect on it. Take time, sit with it, reflect on it, ponder it.
07:37Without that kind of time being invested into something, you are never able to really make
07:44use and make benefit of it. Anything that is worthwhile, anything that is good, it takes time.
07:52It takes time. You know, silly little examples. You can look at so many different examples,
07:59but silly little examples. I was just the other day talking to a friend of mine,
08:06and he's a bit of a food connoisseur. And, you know, he cooks and experiments with all this
08:13kind of food. And Mashallah, his food is really great. And he was talking to me about pizza
08:19and he makes his own pizza at home. And he was talking about how he
08:24lets this dough sit for like days, four or five days. And I said, really, who's got time for that?
08:33But he said, well, you like the product, don't you? You like the outcome? You like the results?
08:37And I said, yeah, the result is great. It's fantastic. Well, he said, well, it takes time.
08:42If you want to rush it, then you'll get the outcome will be according. So it needs time.
08:49We need to reflect on things. We need to think about things. We need to ponder things,
08:53spend time with this understanding. And if we're able to do that, these three steps,
09:00read, understand and reflect. If we're able to do this, then you'll unlock something that will
09:09absolutely, without any exaggeration, change your life. Because then you will have unlocked
09:17this never ending resource that has all these principles and guidelines and examples and
09:25like similar scenarios that you'll be able to apply anything in this life that you come across.
09:32You'll be able to apply it there and have an understanding as to how to navigate it,
09:37how to understand it, how to view it, how to see it, how to internalize it, how to feel about it.
09:44And one of the things that is the focus of this particular session that is of particular
09:53significance at the moment, and that is the trials, the tests, the tragedies,
10:01the adversities, the catastrophes that the Muslim Ummah is dealing with currently.
10:07Both here and all around the world. We have so many different issues that we are dealing with
10:16in our community. There is the political climate and the negative attention that is put on Muslims
10:26here and how Muslims are being vilified and targeted here. And then when we glance around
10:36the world, the atrocities and the difficulties that we see just absolutely leave you speechless.
10:45And if you don't have anything to fall back on, it can even leave you broken.
10:51When you see what's going on with Muslims in Palestine or in Syria or Iraq or in China,
10:59in Burma, in Kashmir, and the list goes on and on.
11:07So how do we exactly understand this? Because at some point, and I will present the question,
11:12and even the question itself makes your skin crawl, that if Islam is correct,
11:18if Muslims are people who believe in the proper deen of Allah,
11:27Muslims are good people fundamentally, Islam is good, Muslims are good,
11:33then what's going on? How can this be the reality? On one side, someone could say
11:42that we have this current state of affairs because we as Muslims are not maybe properly
11:50practicing or understanding and implementing and living by our religion as we should.
11:57That's a thought and idea, somebody might say. But the answer to that is, but God is so merciful.
12:05And this is still a religion of mercy.
12:09And number two, I am more than free to gauge myself, to critique myself,
12:20that maybe I am not living in accordance with my Islam, maybe I am not as devoted to Allah as I
12:28should be. But what gave me the right to pass that judgment on a whole nother group of people?
12:36Like the Prophet ﷺ said,
12:41did you open up their hearts and look inside their hearts to see what's in their hearts?
12:47No.
12:47And God alone is the one who knows what's contained within the hearts,
12:57what's sealed within the chests. So I have no idea. I have absolutely no right to speak on
13:06anyone else's behalf. So my Muslim brothers and sisters who are struggling, who are enduring,
13:15I have absolutely no right to be able to say, well, maybe they're not practicing their Islam properly.
13:23They're not devoted to their Islam as they should be. And that's why they are in the situation that
13:28they're in. Absolutely not. So then how do we go about understanding and making sense of this?
13:38So this is when we turn to the Quran and this is when we turn to the life of the Prophet ﷺ.
13:45The first thing that we need to understand is that we as creation, we as human beings,
13:52we are constructed of two parts. And technically, if we want to be even more technical, three parts.
14:00We are constructed of three parts. There is the jasad, there is the body, the physical body,
14:08the physical reality that we have here. Number two is the aql, the intelligence, the cognizance.
14:20The intelligence and the cognizance that we are able to understand, we are able to think, we are
14:27able to arrive at conclusions. Number three is the soul, the ruh, which can also be referred to
14:39in a sense as the consciousness that we have. Our consciousness, our awareness, our soul, the ruh.
14:49We are constructed of these three parts. Of these three parts, the soul is everlasting.
14:59The soul is eternal. The soul is never ending. This body is very, very temporary.
15:08It exists in this world and then there will come a time when this body will basically wither,
15:14it will die, it will decompose, and it will be nothing.
15:20The mind and the intellect is something that is very, very limited
15:26and cannot think and cannot grasp something outside of a certain scope. It's limited in its ability.
15:35So the body is very temporary, the mind is very limited, the soul is something that is eternal.
15:44It's everlasting. The first thing that we have to understand is that
15:49the equation of this life for Muslims will never ever make sense.
15:56I will never be able to win a debate. I will never be able to win an argument
16:03about the reality of this world and what we experience in this world and what it means
16:08if we do not first establish the premise, we do not first grasp the reality
16:16that while we exist right now, right here in this world, there is a life after death and we are to
16:24live in that eternal life of the hereafter forever and ever and ever. We have to understand that we
16:33are not just worldly beings, we are spiritual eternal beings. In the sense that while our body
16:42will stay here, but the soul will continue on into the afterlife and will be given another reality
16:50in the afterlife. If we can establish that premise, we can have a conversation based off of
16:56that, then this conversation can go somewhere. Because now when we talk about things, about well
17:04Islam is the truth and Muslims believe in what's correct and God is merciful,
17:11but you only have a 60-year window of reference that maybe your math is not going to add up.
17:20But if you have a frame of reference that extends beyond this life and goes into the afterlife,
17:25now it will absolutely make sense.
17:30And now we can talk about the fact that Allah subhanahu wa ta'ala tells us within the Quran
17:37that the life of this world is a place of trial and tribulation. The life of this world is an
17:45opportunity to prove our worth and our value. Allah subhanahu wa ta'ala tells us in the Quran
17:55نزد له في حرثه. Allah gives us the example of a farmer. In surah number 42,
18:03ayah number 20, Allah gives us the example of a farmer. Now this goes back to that first
18:08thing I had mentioned. How is the example of farming relevant to us?
18:14How is the example of farming relevant to someone 1400 years later in America who works in IT?
18:22How do I understand farming? Well, Allah uses the example of farming again not because of the
18:27specifics that it's only relevant to farmers. Allah uses the example of farming because
18:34farming involves certain truths and realities. Farming involves certain experiences that we
18:41can all relate to. What are some of the experiences of farming? Number one,
18:46it's really really hard work. We've all experienced hard work at some point or another.
18:52Your hard work might not have been farming. You might have been doing a master's degree
18:56or going to med school or raising children or whatever else your experience may be in life.
19:04But we can all relate to the theme of hard work. That some things are just really really difficult.
19:11They're very hard. Number two, the other thing about farming is that it requires patience.
19:19It requires patience. If I'm buying and selling and trading
19:26online, then you know what? Something starts to seem like maybe it's going a little sideways.
19:33I can quickly change course. I can dump all of my product. I can try to cut my losses.
19:42I can maneuver quickly. I can switch quickly. But some things, they just require patience.
19:50You just have to stick with it for a long time. And then eventually you hope that it'll pay off
19:56at the end. Farming is like that. The farmer works, toils, just completely exhausts him or herself.
20:08Six months, seven months, turning the soil, sowing the seeds, tending to the crop.
20:16Six months of non-stop hard work with no payoff. With no payoff. Nothing is coming back right now.
20:25But I have bills to pay. Well, you got to wait. I'm running out of money. You have to wait.
20:32I had an emergency come up. You have to wait. You can't speed up the harvest. It'll come when
20:42it comes. It'll arrive when it arrives. You can't do anything about it. You have no choice but to
20:51just try to make do and try to persevere. But there's no speeding up this train. You'll get
20:59there when you get there. And then there's this risk, this inherent risk that is assumed by a
21:10farmer. That the farmer has his whole life out there, out in the open, exposed to the elements.
21:21What if somebody comes by and lights a fire? We're done.
21:27What if an infestation of like locusts basically hits? The crop is gone.
21:36What if a tornado comes and tears through the land? Your harvest is gone. There's a risk that
21:46is being assumed. There is a risk that is taken on that cannot be avoided, that cannot be averted.
21:53So there's an element of trust and faith you're putting in that.
21:58And ultimately, what you're hoping for is a harvest. So that's why Allah gives the example
22:05of the farmer. Because we in the life of this world have to have the attitude of a farmer.
22:11We have to work hard. The payoff will come in the life of the hereafter.
22:17There's a lot of risk and danger that is assumed during this time. But Allah says,
22:27But if you keep your eyes on the prize, if you stay focused on the life of the hereafter,
22:34Allah says, Allah promises, we will give you more than what you deserve. We will give you more than
22:40what you've earned. We will give you more than what you should have gotten. If we're just simply
22:45giving you based off of your effort. We'll give you more. We'll increase you. The hadith of the
22:52Prophet ﷺ talks about the fact that on the day of judgment when a man will come and Allah will
22:59tell the angels, remove the last person from hell, the last believing person from hell.
23:11Anyone who's got any amount of faith, find them and take them out of hell. And the last person
23:17that is removed from hell, who barely got in, Allah will tell that person, ask what you want.
23:27And he will ask and ask and ask. And after he's exhausted, he's done asking, Allah will say, ask
23:35more. And he'll ask and ask and ask. And then Allah will say, ask more. And he'll ask until
23:44he'll say, I have nothing. I don't even know where to go anymore. I have nothing left to say.
23:50And Allah will say, you have been given everything that you have asked for multiplied by 10.
23:59And he'll actually say, the Prophet ﷺ says that he'll say, you are the lord of the worlds
24:04and you make fun of me. You're mocking me. I'm the lowest person, last person to get out of hell.
24:14And you're saying I get that much. And Allah will say that is the blessing and the benevolence of
24:21your Lord. So understanding that, well, Allah says, you keep
24:33prioritizing everything in this life. But in reality, the life of the hereafter is better
24:40and longer lasting. The life of the hereafter is much, much more worthy of your consideration.
24:48So understanding this first premise, that the life of this world has ups and downs, highs and lows,
24:55good times and bad times, difficulties and adversities, but also victories. That is the
25:01nature of the life of this world. And then the eternal life of the life of the hereafter is where
25:08there is mercy and there is benevolence and there is the blessing of Allah unlimited.
25:17Once we understand this, now we can start to talk about how to deal with the adversity in this world.
25:25But the first thing that needs to be understood, because if we do not understand that there is a
25:31life of the hereafter, how we're going to have trouble understanding. I understand some people
25:37go through difficulty, but then they also see victory in this life. They saw bad times, but they
25:43will see good times in this life. Some of the companions like Abu Bakr radiallahu ta'ala anhu,
25:49like Bilal radiallahu ta'ala anhu, like Zayd radiallahu ta'ala anhu.
25:55All these companions, they experienced very, very tough times in Mecca and a lot of adversity in the early days of Medina.
26:04But then they got to see the glory of the conquest of Mecca and Hajjatul Wida, and they got to see
26:11Islam being established and spread in Medina. They saw that. But how do you understand
26:19Sumayya and Yasir radiallahu ta'ala anhuma, al-Yasir, the family of Yasir, they accepted Islam in the
26:27early days of Mecca. And then they were tortured and they were persecuted for being Muslim until
26:34the point where they were killed because they were Muslim while they were still in Mecca.
26:38They never got to see Medina. They never got to see Medina. So how do we understand them?
26:46The way we understand them is the Prophet salallahu alayhi wa sallam told us. He said,
26:53He said, have patience, O family of Yasir, for you shall be reunited in paradise. Paradise waits for you.
27:01Paradise awaits you. The life of the hereafter will be yours. So we have to have that full vision.
27:09Now, secondly, while we are here and now and we are seeing and maybe some are even experiencing
27:17these adversities and difficulties, trials and tribulations, how do we manage them? How do we
27:24handle them? How do we conduct ourselves within them? Number one is that there's a profound question
27:33that a lot of people deal with and a lot of people struggle with, and that is the question of
27:38a test versus punishment. Am I being tested? Because the whole point of a test is I get to
27:45prove myself and I get to establish myself through the test. Or is this a punishment from God?
27:57Understand that by default, and this is very important, so I want everyone to really understand
28:02by default, everything is a test. The default is everything is a test. The only way
28:12to know for certain that something is a punishment is after it happens,
28:19is after this life is over. That's the only way you can know that something is a punishment.
28:25Why? Allah tells us in the Quran that the people of Aad, the people of Thamud, the people of Lut,
28:33Fir'aun, Qarun, even from the life of the Prophet ﷺ, people like Abu Jahl,
28:42we knew that what they experienced was a punishment because after it was over,
28:50then we were able to confirm the fact that, okay, this was a punishment.
28:54This person was punished for being a bad person.
28:58But in the moment, everything by default is understood to be a test and a trial,
29:05a way to prove ourselves, a way to raise ourselves, a way to elevate ourselves.
29:13Because think about it, every single time in life, you've been able to graduate,
29:18you've been able to ascend, you've been able to rise to a new level,
29:23it always comes with some kind of a test. You have to prove yourself, you have to establish yourself
29:29that I have mastered, I have learned to manage the level that I am at now,
29:35and now I would like the opportunity to prove myself to be able to rise above.
29:40At work, you succeeded on a project. At school, you passed some examinations.
29:46But it always comes with some kind of a little bit of difficulty, a little bit of adversity,
29:51and that is a test and a way to prove yourself and elevate yourself.
29:55And that is the understanding. So the tests that we deal with,
29:59how do we understand them and how do we make sense of them?
30:04Understand that in the analogy, in the example that I just gave you,
30:08that everything good you've ever experienced came after a test.
30:14And that's one of the great Quranic principles.
30:24Allah tells us that with difficulty comes ease, with difficulty comes ease.
30:30That there is always a test before then you are able to appreciate
30:35and you are able to enjoy some new level, some new stage in your life.
30:42That every great rise that came in this ummah came at the heels of some kind of
30:48difficulty and adversity. And none was probably greater
30:55than the departure of the Prophet ﷺ from this world.
31:00When the Muslims received Medina, they were given the gift of Medina. Medina was a gift.
31:07Medina was a gift. Pre-Medina, what did the Muslim ummah look like?
31:13There were a hundred or so Muslims in Mecca who were publicly known as Muslims,
31:19who were being persecuted and tortured and harassed.
31:23There was another hundred or so Muslims who were secretly Muslim.
31:30So they could not even publicly let people know that, yes, I'm a Muslim.
31:35They had to lie about being Muslim.
31:39Another hundred or so people were living in refuge, in asylum,
31:46in East Africa, in Abyssinia, Habesha.
31:49That's what the Muslim ummah looked like before Medina. It was not a pretty picture.
32:00Some Muslims are away from their homes and families. Some Muslims are having to lie about
32:04being Muslim and those who are publicly Muslim are being tortured every single day. That was Islam.
32:12But they went through that difficulty and then they were given the gift of Medina.
32:15What was the gift of Medina? The gift of Medina was here is a place that is safe.
32:20Here is a city that is yours. Here is a masjid that you can pray in public. You can call the
32:27adhan from. You can be Muslim and be proud of your Islam and not have to worry about anyone.
32:354 a.m you can leave your home in the darkness and you can walk to the masjid and know that you'll
32:40be safe. 9 p.m you can walk back home from the masjid in the darkness of night and know that
32:47nobody will lay a finger on you. That was a gift. You can sit in the masjid for hours and hours and
32:56hours and hours and stare at the Prophet ﷺ and listen to his beautiful words.
33:02You can recite the Qur'an in public at the top of your lungs
33:11and people will stop by and they'll thank you. That's a gift.
33:18But that gift came after a lot of blood was left on the ground in Mecca.
33:25But then Muslims in Medina what were they experiencing?
33:29A year and a half, 18 months after arriving in Medina, they used to pray towards Masjid Aqsa.
33:3618 months, a year and a half after arriving in Medina, the Qibla turned.
33:43The Qibla was turned and now they would pray towards the Kaaba in Mecca. Think about what
33:49it felt like that I know that the Kaaba is so sacred. We pray in this direction. It is the
33:56house of God, the foundations of which Abraham raised. It is meant for the worship of Allah
34:02and yet the Meccans, oppressors are worshipping idols inside the Kaaba.
34:12Oppressors are worshipping idols inside the Kaaba and that's the most sacred place on earth
34:19that we pray in the direction of. But we can't go there, we can't see it, we can't go near it,
34:25we can't clean it, we can't do what was meant to be done there, we can't do it.
34:31You got a bunch of oppressors worshipping idols inside the Kaaba. That's very difficult.
34:41But after that difficulty came the ease, came the victory, literal victory. Fath of Mecca,
34:49the opening of Mecca, the conquest of Mecca where Muslims walked into Mecca, the Meccans surrendered,
34:56the Kaaba was cleansed. The truth came and falsehood was removed and the Kaaba was restored
35:04to its original purpose and that was a worship of one Allah. The Adhan was called from the Kaaba
35:11after centuries, after millennia.
35:14And so after that difficulty came that ease, came this beautiful moment, this beautiful experience
35:24and just when everything seemed like it all, it had all fallen into place, we had Hajjatul Wida,
35:30over a hundred and twenty four thousand Muslims assembled. That might not seem like a huge number,
35:39that might not seem when we talk about Hajj, that doesn't seem like a huge number.
35:44But think about the fact that just ten years ago, I told you that there were a hundred Muslims in Mecca
35:50lying, having to not disclose their Islam, having to hide their Islam. There were a hundred Muslims
35:57being tortured in Mecca and a hundred Muslims living as refugees in Abyssinia. That was what
36:03was going on. Ten years later, a hundred and twenty four thousand Muslims assembled together in Mecca
36:11and perform Hajj with the Prophet ﷺ, Hajjatul Wida. It's a glorious moment.
36:19On the day of Arafah, the Prophet ﷺ gives khutbah to over a hundred thousand Muslims.
36:28And the Prophet ﷺ reminds us there are principles.
36:32تَرَكْتُ فِيكُمْ أَمْرَيْنَ لَن تَضِلُّ مَا تَمَسَّكْتُمْ بِهِمَا
36:36كِتَابُ اللَّهُ وَسُنَّةُ نَبِيِّهِ
36:38I'm going to leave you with two resources. You will never lose your way as long as you hold on
36:43to these two things. The Book of God, the Qur'an and the life, the tradition of the Prophet Muhammad ﷺ.
36:50Hold on, because you're going to need it. How true were his words? Because two and a half months,
36:56barely, not even a full three months, two and a half months
36:59after they returned back from Hajjatul Wida, the Prophet ﷺ departed from this world.
37:06The Prophet ﷺ became sick.
37:11He didn't have the physical strength to get up and go for prayer.
37:14He called for Ali and Fadl bin Abbas, his two cousins. He called for them and he said,
37:21I need your help. They lifted him up. He put his arms around their shoulders.
37:28And they took him for the prayer. And he couldn't stand and lead the prayer. They sat him down and
37:33he sat leading the prayer. And this went on for a couple of days until finally it was Fajr time.
37:42Just two or three days before he passed away. It's Fajr time. Saturday morning.
37:51And the Prophet ﷺ can't even sit up. He can't even sit.
37:58So forget about somebody carrying him. He can't even sit.
38:03And finally, he tells Aisha ﷺ, the mother of the believers,
38:09Go tell your father, Falyusalli bin Nas. Muree Aba Bakr Falyusalli bin Nas.
38:15Go tell your father Abu Bakr, my most trusted companion, to lead the people in the prayer.
38:24And she says, O Messenger of God, if he stands at your place,
38:29having to fill in and stand in for you, he'll cry so much no one will even understand what
38:34he's saying in prayer. He loves you too much. He said, I know, but what needs to be done,
38:42it's what needs to be done. And so she goes and she tells Abu Bakr ﷺ, he comes to the masjid
38:50and he leads the people in prayer. The next two days, pins and needles.
38:58What's going to happen? What's going to happen? Abu Bakr is leading the prayers.
39:03Some people who are closer to the Prophet ﷺ are going and checking on him and visiting him.
39:08He can't open his eyes. He's burning up with fever.
39:13He keeps asking for water, to put water on his face. And he's departing from this world.
39:21Until then, Sunday, he finally comes out in the afternoon and he addresses the people
39:28and he tells them, my time has come. God gave me a choice.
39:34God gave me a choice. Stay in this world or go back and meet him. And it's time to meet him.
39:43And people are broken, devastated. Abu Bakr cries in the front. He's sitting right in front
39:50of the Prophet ﷺ. He cries like how a child cries. You know when an adult cries, we try to
39:58kind of hold it in and kind of wipe away our tears and try to stifle our crying. But you know when a
40:03child cries, they just let it out. He sobs like how a child cries. What does this world look like
40:14without the Prophet ﷺ? I don't know. Can my heart handle that? I don't think so.
40:26We get the Quran through him. We know Islam because of him. We follow him.
40:34We hang on every word that comes out of his mouth.
40:40Like I can't envision life without him.
40:46But the Prophet ﷺ says, time has come.
40:50That night, his whole family gathers around him to spend some moments with him.
40:57Until his daughter Fatima ﷺ, she comes. His only surviving child. He was blessed with seven children in this life.
41:09Six of them died during his lifetime. The only one to outlive him was his daughter Fatima.
41:16Who was the most precious thing in this world to him.
41:21She would pass away six months after he did.
41:24And Ali said that I lost her the day he passed away. She was never the same ever again.
41:31She could not handle his departure. She comes and sits by his bedside.
41:42My father has to suffer so much. And he tells her, he consoles her.
41:46Your father will not suffer after today. No more. No more. There's no more suffering after today.
42:00And then he gives her some good news. He whispers into her ear. She's crying so much.
42:07When he confirms his departure, she cries and weeps at his bedside.
42:14And he whispers into her ear. She would tell Aisha later that you will be the first of my family to come and join me in the afterlife.
42:22We're all going to be reunited soon.
42:26And she smiles through her tears at the thought of being reunited as a family.
42:34And the next morning, Aisha says it was a very tough night. He had trouble breathing. He couldn't breathe.
42:41He was struggling to breathe. But when the morning time came and he heard the Adhan.
42:48And everyone was assembled within the masjid. The Prophet ﷺ asked her to help me sit up.
42:56Scoop me over to the curtain. And he pulled the curtain aside and he stuck his head out.
43:01And he glanced at the Ummah sitting and ready for prayer.
43:08And the Sahaba say we looked at his face. And it was a gift that Allah gave us that we got one last look at his face.
43:14And he was smiling. And they said that every time after that moment we close our eyes we can see his face smiling at us.
43:23We can see his face smiling at us.
43:27And he smiled at us. And then later that day he departed this world.
43:33Abdullah bin Mas'ud says the day the Prophet ﷺ came into our lives, it's like the lights were turned on.
43:45He illuminated everything in our lives. And the day the Prophet ﷺ left this world, it's like the lights were turned off.
43:55We didn't know how we were going to survive. We didn't know what we were going to do.
44:02And somehow in the next ten years after the departure of the Prophet ﷺ, Islam spread five times as far as it did during the lifetime of the Prophet ﷺ.
44:17Islam went five times further in the next ten years after his departure.
44:24Because with every difficulty will come ease.
44:27And some difficulties, and there's a lot of pain out there today, will feel like it's going to break you.
44:33But if anything could have ever broken us, it was the departure of the Prophet ﷺ.
44:37It was losing him. That's the thing that could have broken us. And that didn't break us.
44:45We've been in difficulty before. We've been in adversity before. We've licked our wounds before.
44:51We've picked ourselves up before. We've been able to not just survive, but thrive in the face of difficulty and adversity time and time before.
45:00And this time is absolutely no different than that.
45:03Because remember what the Prophet ﷺ said, I leave you with two things.
45:07So long as you hold on to them, you're going to be okay.
45:10And not only will you be okay, but you will thrive. You will flourish. You will succeed.
45:19And that is the Qur'an and the life of the Prophet ﷺ.
45:24This is a room full of smart, intelligent, educated, very brilliant people.
45:34Who all have so much brilliance in so many areas of their lives.
45:39If every single person in this room, all of us, we dedicated ourselves to understanding the Qur'an,
45:48studying and understanding the life of the Prophet ﷺ,
45:52and then living our lives based off of that understanding,
45:56and carrying that understanding forward, it could change the world.
46:01It could change the world.
46:03We just have to decide to commit ourselves to that.
46:06I hope that's the biggest thing everyone can walk away from.
46:09Everyone can walk away with. And that is the understanding of the resource and the ability you have.
46:16That while the ummah is struggling, you, all of us,
46:19have the ability to make sure that the next chapter is one of great successes.
46:25But that will only happen if we decide to commit ourselves and realize our potential.
46:31May Allah ﷻ give us all the ability to study the Qur'an.
46:35May Allah ﷻ give us the ability to be able to understand the life of the Prophet ﷺ.
46:40And may Allah ﷻ allow us to persevere through these tests.
46:44And may Allah ﷻ grant the ummah of the Prophet ﷺ great victories in the days to come.
46:49Ameen, Ya Rabbil Alameen. Jazakum Allah Khayran. As-salamu alaykum.
47:00We are going to have a Q&A for the next ten minutes, inshallah.
47:03If you have any questions, there is a website called Slido, S-L-I-D-O,
47:08and the code would be YP2019. You can ask any questions on there.
47:14The first question that was asked is,
47:16does being patient through tests and trials also mean not being able to express emotion?
47:22Is this a sign of emotion?
47:24Very, very good question.
47:26So, hopefully everyone was able to understand and hear the question.
47:31But the perseverance and the succeeding in tests and trials,
47:37in no way, shape, or form,
47:40takes away from us the ability to have a very kind of human response.
47:46The idea more so is about what you do in the aftermath of any given test or trial.
47:51It's not necessarily about the physical response that you have.
47:58That is something that is very normal, that is something that is very natural.
48:02And nothing illustrates that better
48:05Then again, in the life of the Prophet ﷺ,
48:09many, many examples of this.
48:11One of the examples, very powerful ones, that is preserved in the hadith
48:16is that when the Prophet ﷺ lost the last of his children that he lost in this world,
48:21a baby boy, a son named Ibrahim.
48:24That when he passed away, the Prophet ﷺ was holding his body,
48:29covered, shrouded, and the Prophet ﷺ had tears streaming down his face,
48:34almost uncontrollably.
48:36Like to the point where he wasn't actually crying,
48:40but the tears were still coming.
48:43Like he wasn't sobbing, but the tears were coming.
48:46So much so that some of the companions found it a bit curious
48:50and they said, Ya Rasulullah, you're crying like this?
48:55Because they as well had that question,
48:57but I thought you told us to be tough.
49:01So, how are you crying like this?
49:03And the Prophet ﷺ said that eyes were meant to cry,
49:08and the heart was made to feel pain.
49:11And I miss my son,
49:14but I won't say or do anything that would be displeasing to Allah.
49:18It's about what you say and it's about what you do.
49:21But as far as my heart aching, that just confirms my humanity.
49:26My eyes shedding tears, that just tells me that my eyes actually work.
49:31But, and I miss my son, I'm a human being,
49:36but I won't say or do anything.
49:38وَلَا نَقُولُ إِلَّا مَا يُرْضِي رَبَّنَا
49:41I'll only say that which is pleasing to my Lord.
49:46Next question is,
49:49when do we know something that is a test to overcome
49:54versus when it's a sign from Allah to do something different?
49:56For example, changing your major.
50:02Very good question. It's a good question.
50:10Again, I'd like to try to frame these things a little bit more kind of technically,
50:17because I think that it helps people make sense of it.
50:21The defaults. I told you all that whenever we study some usool,
50:26there's always a default of things.
50:31The default is that when you have different things kind of occurring in your life,
50:37especially in the realm of the choices that you make in terms of life,
50:42we do not assume these things to be signs from God.
50:47Everything is a sign of Allah, but everything is a sign of the greatness of God.
50:52But we don't necessarily take it as some kind of a sign of something.
50:57But these things are basically choices and decisions that we make.
51:02And that's how we operate within them.
51:05You mentioned the premises has to be established that there is a fact of the afterlife.
51:11Oftentimes we're challenged with the questions of if God knows the outcome of the test,
51:18why would he bother to put us there?
51:20How can we properly address that question when we're faced with it?
51:24Very good. So the question basically is about, you know,
51:30the idea of the mercy of Allah that if God knows the outcome of the test,
51:39then why basically put us through it?
51:42One very simple thing that is discounted by us whenever we try to figure this out is,
51:49the outcome is known by God, but it's not known by us.
51:53And it's not known by us. It's not experienced by us.
51:57This entire scenario is for me to be able to experience something.
52:03Because ultimately what we can say is that let's play that line of logic out to its ultimate end.
52:09God knows the outcome of the test, so why put us through it?
52:12Just fast forward is there, right?
52:15But then we ultimately are only a result and a consequence of the command of God.
52:22So in that sense, we don't have to exist.
52:25So let's fast forward there and none of us exist.
52:28And then no one's having this conversation and we're talking about nothing and nothing really matters.
52:33So the whole point that we have to understand is that our existence is our greatest blessing.
52:40Our existence is our greatest blessing.
52:43And in that existence, we're meant to have different experiences.
52:48And so the question of the fact that well, Allah knows the outcome of the test,
52:52why put us through it? Why not just take a straight there?
52:56Yes, that might make sense to you initially.
53:00But think about what you're saying.
53:02What you're saying is then you experience nothing, you do nothing.
53:08But then that would ultimately lead us to the conclusion that we are nothing.
53:13And we are nothing without the command of Allah.
53:16But then we're back at square one.
53:18We only exist because God willed us to exist.
53:22And the system of God works the way he willed it for it to work.
53:27And in that sense, we have to try to navigate within that system that God has created.
53:32A lot of this also requires just this understanding, accepting that we are at the mercy of Allah.
53:41But if we can accept that, then ultimately what we understand is that we're just a product of the will of God.
53:50The system is the will of God.
53:52And so really, there's nothing more to talk about.
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