Hope in times of Despair

ummtaalib · November 10, 2014

إِنَّمَا بَغْيُكُمْ عَلَى أَنْفُسِكُمْ

[10:23]your injustice is against your ownself.

ظَهَرَ الْفَسَادُ فِي الْبَرِّ وَالْبَحْرِ بِمَا كَسَبَتْ أَيْدِي النَّاسِ

[30:41]Corruption has appeared thoughout the land and sea by what the hands of people have earned.

In this present day and time in this country of Pakistan, a great many people who, due to the situation in the country, feel greatly and deeply disturbed about the conditions of the country and we find that everybody is saying ” we are very worried, so much so that no one can talk about religion, even if one starts talking about religion then people say that molvi sahab kindly talk about the current conditions .”

Today, I’m going to speak about the current conditions and what is the cure for our halaat, the cure for our halaat is exactly what the ullema of the deen of Islam would have told us. I’m going to state it very clearly at the outset, and I’m going to establish it with the Qur’an: Unless we fix our individual halaat we have no hope, absolutely no chance whatsoever, for our collective halaat to get improved.

So, I will establish this premise from the Qur’an-e-karim and then will describe how is our own individual halaat in the times that we live in.

Allah Almighty says in the Qur’an-e-karim:

إِنَّمَا بَغْيُكُمْ عَلَى أَنْفُسِكُمْ

[10:23]your injustice is against your own self.

That know humanity that whatever you do is going to come back to haunt you. That whatever we do is going to come back to haunt us, so if we seek to live a life as an individual, as a family, as a society, as a community, as a country, as an ummah distant from the ahkaam of Allah Almighty , distant from the teachings in the life of Sayyidina RasoolAllah (peace and blessings be upon him) عَلَى أَنْفُسِكُمْ it is going to come back to haunt us, it is going to come back and plague us and then Allah Almighty says in the Qur’an-e-karim:ظَهَرَ الْفَسَادُ that how does fasad become apparent, when does it manifest itself everybody feels we are living in the times of fasaad. فِي الْبَرِّ وَالْبَحْرِ on land and on water بِمَا كَسَبَتْ أَيْدِي النَّاسِ That what is the sabab of it? – What human beings themselves do, what we ourselves earned, our own actions that is what brings fasaad.

Fasaad does not come about on its own.

Allah Almighty is saying very clearly that Fasad is a product of what we ourselves earned. Its our ‘amaal or in many cases our lack of certain amaal that has lead to the situation that we are in right now. Infact, I would suggest that if we were to be honest: our bad amaal or our lack of good ‘amaal actually warrant and justify that much more should be happening right now, it is infact a dua of RasoolAllah (peace and blessings be upon him) that has saved this ummah from the azaab of Allah Almighty:

It is mentioned in hadith that Jibraeel (peace be upon him) came to him at a particular moment and told him that the duas that you make at this moment, Allah Almighty will accept them and there is a masjid that is marking this place that is on walking distance from Masjid-e-Nabwi to Madina Munawwara and in this masjid, sayiddina RasoolAllah (peace and blessings be upon him) made a few duas, one of the duas was that Ya Allah , I make dua to You that You never Put an azaab on my Ummah.

It is just due to this dua that we have not fallen under the azaab of Allah Almighty, otherwise as an Ummah we are doing sins the like of which have not in any way been exceeded by the Qaum of Aad and Thamud. We are an ummah who have left the teachings of our Book and our Prophet , not unlike the previous communities left the teachings of their Book and their Prophet.

This is our real haqiqat; this is our real reality.

Now, before we continue I want to mention a few more ayahs in the Qur’an-e-karim, in which Allah Almighty Has Promised His Madad, His Nusrat, His Nijaa’at to the mo’mineen; in which Allah Almighty in the Qur’an-e-Karim Has Promised that He will help the believers, and after going through these ayahs we will have only two possible questions left to ask ourselves that:

Are we believers? Have we stopped being believers? Or Has Allah Almighty stopped being Allah Almighty? There are only two possibilities!

1. Allah Almighty says in the Quran:

إِنَّا لَنَنْصُرُ رُسُلَنَا وَالَّذِينَ آَمَنُوا فِي الْحَيَاةِ الدُّنْيَا

(40:51) Indeed! certainly we will help our messengers and prophets And the people of Imaan in their worldly matters.

Allah Almighty is promising and invoking with emphasis His nusrat for the people who believe. And He is saying in this ayah that He is going to help them as much and as certainly as He helped his messengers and prophets. All of us are Alhamdullilah familiar with the sirah of Syedna Rasool Allah (peace and blessings be upon him) and how much Allah Almighty’s madad and nusrat came. Whether it is Badr, all the way to Fatah-e-Makkah, all the way from Badr till after Fateh Makkah. Allah Almighty’s miraculous madad came on Prophet (peace and blessings be upon him) and Allah Almighty is pledging with equal certainty and surety that He will help the believers in their worldly lives.

2, Q: And then We will give nijaat to messengers and prophets and just like that we will grant nijaat to the believers.

We will free them and take them out of their pareshan halaat. We will grant nijaat Allah Almighty says it is lazim on Him. We talk about Haqooq Allah; Allah’s rights over us. We talk about Haqooqul Ibaad; other’s rights over us. Here Allah Almighty has used the word Haq ul Alaina that it is a Haq on Allah Almighty to give madad and nusrat to the believers. Allahu Akbar Kabeera! This is how far Allah Almighty has gone.

The words used in both ayat were Al’lazeena Aminoo and Mu’mineen. So it’s not something just for the mutaqeen, muhsineen, sadiqeen or sabireen. It is for the basic entry level Ummati, a person who is amongst the mu’mineen Allah Almighty has promised and made it mandatory upon Himself their nusrat and nijaat.

So there are only these options left:

a) Either Allah (swt) has stopped being Allah (swt) [Na’auzubillah] and that’s why He is not giving His nusrat and nijaad.

b) Or He is still Allah (swt) but He has broken His promise. He is not true to His Kalaam, the Quran al kareem [Na’auzubillah]

c) Or the other possibility, which is the true reality, is that we have stopped being such believers who would get His nusrat and nijaat, this promised help from Allah (swt).

Just in case a person thinks that no we still have to strategize we still have to plan because only we know who our enemies are and who are plotting against us, whether they are within the country or out of the country. We should spend hours and hours watching television programs every single night. This is what our whole country has been doing. Anywhere from 1 to 6 hours every single person in this country is either watching television, listening to the radio or reading the newspapers, doing what you call ‘tabsira on the halaat’. And then when they turn the program off and they look at one another and they do ‘tabsira ala tabsira’.

We have become people who do tabsira ala tabsira, while Allah (swt) wanted us to become Noor-’ala-Noor. It is only because we have not become noor ala noor, that we are doing tabsira ala tabsira.

This is our response to the situation.

We think we can somehow figure out what is going on, we can engage in news and analysis and the wonderful programs on television from one channel to another channel. Has this brought you even an inch closer to solving your problem? Has this brought you even an inch closer to the aman which you so desperately want and have so vainly lost due to your own actions.

Imagine now those same 150 million people spending 1 to 5 hours making dua to Allah (swt) in about 30 days let’s say 1 hour per day, so 150*30 = 4.5 billion hours could have been spent making dua to Allah (swt). You tell me, had 4.5 million hours been spent in making dua to Allah (swt), you don’t think His nusrat and nijaat would have come?

You have under-estimated the power of Islam and you have over-estimated the power of news analysis.

We have failed to understand how our deen teaches us to respond to these halaat. Let’s say some of you are thinking that all these ayaat are saying Al’lazeena aaminoo and mu’mineen tou wohi na ijtamaai halaat theek houn gey tou phir infradi halaat theek houn gey.

So here’s another ayah of the Quran al Kareem which makes it clear, it’s a crystal clear verse:

يَا أَيُّهَا الَّذِينَ آَمَنُوا عَلَيْكُمْ أَنْفُسَكُمْ

[5:105] O you who believe! It is laazim on you to fix your ownselves.

Remember the 2nd verse? That helping the believers is laazim on Allah Almighty. Now what is laazim on you O believers is your ownselves.

Fix ourselves! Fix our own individual selves. This is what we are being taught in Arabic grammar muqabila tul jama ala jama it means taqseem ul ifraad ala ifraad.

I’ll explain giving an example.

Allah Almighty says all of you should wash all of your faces. It doesn’t mean all of you should get together and start washing each other’s faces together. It means each and every one of you should wash your own face. Alaikum anfusikum means each and every one of you should fix your ownselves! That is what is laazim on you. If we can fix just one 6 feet body of our ownself, and each and every one can do this, then Allah Almighty will Himself take care of the nusrat and the nijaat and the madad for all of the mu’mineen and muslimeen.

Then Allah Almighty goes further to say

عَلَيْكُمْ أَنْفُسَكُمْ لَا يَضُرُّكُمْ مَنْ ضَلَّ إِذَا اهْتَدَيْتُمْ

[5:105]Those who have gone astray will not harm you when you have been guided.

Mand’alla is that person who has gone astray, who is on zalalat. La yuzurrukum means that person on zalalat will not be able to harm you in any way. Those who are astray and those who wish to lead you astray will not be able to harm you in any way.

When will that happen? When we do Alaikum anfusikum – > when we take care of our ownself.

Allah Almighty says that Allah knows better of who our true enemies are. So He is the most perfect to do our nusrat and nijaat. And He has said simply that all we have to do is fix our own self. Further He says that no way will any person who is astray or wishes for us to go astray will ever be able to harm us ‘iza hidaytum’ if we submit to hidaya. If we follow the hidaya, if we follow the deen, if we follow the Quran and the Sunnah of Syedna Rasool Allah (may peace and blessings be on him), there is no way that anyone will be able to harm us. And all of us will return to Allah Almighty collectively and Allah Almighty will inform us that what it is that we used to do.

Better to figure it out in our lives that what is it that we are doing which has led to this state of affairs rather than being informed by Allah Almighty on THAT day what it is that we were doing that caused these state of affairs! Allah Almighty has told us clearly what it is that we are supposed to do.

There’s another feature to our dilemma We have been born in an age of fitnah.

Those who are younger are born, while some of us who are a bit older are living and witnessing the age of fitnah. This is even more intense.

Allah Almighty says that fitnah is even more devastating than murder. And we are worried about the murders and killing that has begun recently while we have been in the state of fitnah for several years. But we are blind to it. Most of us are still oblivious. We are unaware of our true state of being collectively and individually. We are just worried about our own individual peace. There are people in Pakistan making plans of going to Dubai, or of going to Bahrain… o shabash! Little runaway havens worrying about their kids, right?

They still don’t understand, they still don’t get it. We’re not going to be safe in Dubai. Not in this age of fitnah. That’s not the response that Allah Almighty wants. We are supposed to fix ourselves. We are supposed to be a means to fix this society.

Now what does fitnah mean?

Syedna Rasool Allah (may peace and blessings be upon him) in the Hadith has defined fitnah in several ways, in case anybody thinks that we are not sure that we are in the age of fitnah. There are many Ahadith describing fitnah. In fact, muhaditheen have gathered these Ahadith into chapters named kitaab ul fitan. In one hadith Syedna Rasool Allah (may peace and blessings be upon him) says

‘Fitnah will occur in you just like the rain falls ‘

So fitnah will occur just like a downpour. That will be the age of fitnah. Not just one fitnah, but a downpour of fitnas.

How is the age of fitnah defined in Ahadith?

1. This is that age when it will be difficult to tell who is right and who is wrong. There will be so many fitnas that you won’t know for sure who is Haq (truthful) and who is Batil (wrong). There will be many people out there trying to convince you. But deep in your heart you won’t really know for sure what is going on. The age in which we won’t be able to tell what is truth and what is falsehood. That is also the age of media. The age of media actually fits very well with the age of fitnah.

2. The age of fitnah will be such that disobedience to Allah Almighty will become widespread. This is something that is clearly apparent in the urban centers of this country. And it’s not something only confined to the youth. Whether it’s people in their 40’s 50’s or 60’s we find within them 24 hours of widespread range of sins. For some of them the sin starts off when they sleep through their fajr Salah. For some of them their entire day is spent in sin as they work in interest bearing banks. Sin is common and widespread. It is unrepentant and unabashed. Sin means to do anything against the will of Allah Almighty and/or to do anything against the practice and teachings of Syedna Rasool Allah (peace and blessings be upon him). Some of us have fooled ourselves by believing only fuhish (vulgarity) is a sin. So a person thinks no I’m not a bad person because he thinks that he doesn’t do anything vulgar or obscene. Because we have misunderstood sin. Yes there are sins which also have vulgarity in them. But sins means anything done against the pleasure and wish of Allah Almighty and against the teachings and practice of Syedna Rasool Allah (peace and blessings be upon him).

3. The age of fitnah is such that the crimes will become rampant. Crimes whether theft, burglary, corruption, bribery, murder, rape, they have become rampant. These are the sign, by the way, which Syedna Rasool Allah (peace and blessings be upon him) is mentioning will take place within the ummat-e-Muslima in the age of fitnah.

4. People will present proofs for falsehood which aren’t proofs for it and they will present proofs to refute the truth which aren’t proofs against it. This again we see in media. People giving you reasons why such and such thing is correct. But if you pause for a moment you’d realize this is not a justification or proof of it.

5. In the time of fitnah one of the signs that will occur in this Ummah is that two groups of Muslim Ummah will fight one another and kill one another and the one killing the other one would not know why he killed the other one. And the one killed would not know for what crime he was killed.

This has been further explained in another Hadith of Syedna Rasool Allah (peace and blessings be upon him): When two Muslims meet one another with weapons, both the killer and the one being killed will both go to jahannum. These days some of us like to think that both are shaheed. Maybe we think one of them is shaheed. But according to Syedna Rasool Allah (peace and blessings be upon him) they are both jahannumi. It’s because they both intended to kill without justification.

So me and you are living not just in difficult times, but we are living in an age of fitnah. In this age of fitnah it’s all the more important for us to know what our deen tells us to do. I’m going to go even one step further. And I’m going to explain that one thing that is mentioned in the Hadith are the signs of the age of fitnah, up till now I’ve given some of those signs. Then there’s a second set of Hadith that mentions not just the sign and the alamaat of the age of fitnah, but another phrase is used ‘the alamaat of qurb e qiyyamah’. That there are certain signs, and again these are the signs that are going to take place inside the Ummah, that indicate the closeness of the end of time. Now people don’t understand, they don’t realize in fact many of us enjoy studying this Hadith but these Hadith were said by Syedna Rasool Allah (peace and blessings be upon him) for a reason. When we try to signal something to a person, we want them to get the signal. So by giving the alamaat Syedna Rasool Allah (peace and blessings be upon him) wants us to realize that we are living in the age of end of time. There’s a particular fitnah related to the age of end of time and that fitnah is called fitnatul Dajjal.

This is the greatest fitnah to inflict the humanity. Even Syedna Rasool Allah (peace and blessings be upon him) used to make dua ‘Allahumma inni aoozubika min fitnati Dajjal’ [O Allah! I seek refuge in You from the fitnah of Dajjal]. Such a big fitnah that all of the Sahaaba karam, tabieen, all of the great Muslims, Muslims who had real Imaan and taqwah used to seek refuge from the fitnah of Dajjal. And me and you who have weak Imaan and taqwah, we’re not even thinking, we’re not even opening up our eyes to all of these alamaat, we’re not even realizing that the age of fitnah of Dajjal had begun.

Nobody knows when Dajjal will show himself. Nobody can tell when zuhur e Dajjal will take place. But the fajr of that age has begun because the alamaat are present. When does the fajr start? When the time of sunrise is close and the alamaat can be seen. So if these alamaat that I will be mentioning are already here then that means that the time of coming of Dajjal is near. However, nobody can ever tell you how close you are. Normally when the fajr starts it takes about one and a half hour for the sun to rise. When the fajr of Dajjal starts we don’t know it could take 10 years, 20 years, 50 years or even 100 years before Dajjal comes. But it means that Syedna Rasool Allah (peace and blessings be upon him) wants us to take a lesson that the time is near. That we are living close to that time. It may happen in our lifetime or in our children’s lifetime, maybe our grandchildren’s lifetime. But there’s a mentality which Syedna Rasool Allah (peace and blessings be upon him) was trying to create by telling us these signs. And not only are we going to notice the signs , rather we are drowning in these signs.

We are drenched in the realities that were mentioned in Ahadith 1400 years ago but we are still not able to take a simple ibrat. In fact there’s a famous Arabic proverb which will tell us something about ibrat. “A good person is he who takes ibrat from others, while a badbakht is he who becomes an ibrat for others.” We have two choices. Either we choose to take ibrat.If we don’t take ibrat from these things and fix ourselves then we will become an ibrat for people who come.

So let’s look at the ilamaat and signs which have been mentioned in the Hadith.

There are many of them but we are only going to do a few:

1. My Ummah will miss their prayers.

Now we should also think, imagine who is hearing this. Me and you are listening to this now. But imagine Sahaaba karam listening to this. They would have been stunned. They would have thought Ya Rasool Allah (peace and blessings be upon him) we are giving our lives in Uhad and Badr for this Deen. We are giving our lives for the sake that this Ummat should continue and you are telling us that there will come a time when this Ummat will voluntarily leave Salah, which to them was more basic and more essential than food and drink.

I can only imagine what the Sahaaba must have thought at that moment. And they would have thought that surely such a thing would be the beginning of the end. They would have thought such a state when the Ummat would miss compulsory Salah truely the day of judgement should dawn on it. And we who leave salah do not understand it.

There are a very few Muslims left today who pray five times a day. It’s very shocking for me to say this. It’s like saying that they don’t have the most basic thing such as water. The human race would have died out. Actually the mu’mineen have died out. Mu’mineen and Al’lazeena amino are an endangered species. Because they are so few that’s why this nusrat and nijaat doesn’t come. A naik Musalman today is that who prays four or four and a half times a day. And a University naik is that who only prays Jumma. That’s the university level of Islam.

Some of our uncles are pious who offer the Eid prayer. That’s the uncle level of Islam. Right at the first alaamat we are there. In fact the missing of the prayers is so widespread that we would say this has been going on for quite some time, don’t think that this is new that we just came near to this because of a couple of bombs that hit us 2009. These alamaat have been there for several years.

2. The people in the Ummat will betray one another’s trust. They will do khayanat in amanaat. They will betray and leave their promises unfulfilled, broken promises.

3. Riba and interest will be widespread and rampant.

Today we go to any commercial market in any neighborhood of any city in this country we will find several institutions called banks that openly, unabashedly and proudly have their windows advertising that they are ready to offer you a loan on such and such rate of interest. And the thing is we don’t understand, we don’t feel that to be vulgar. The vulgarity and obscenity of riba is as much as zina, no less. It’s as shameful as zina.

As far as I’m concerned a man that works in a bank is as shameful as someone working 9 to 5 in a prostitution rank. I see no difference between the two. That’s what my deen tells me. That’s the mizaj that our deen is trying to create. we think we should have repulsion on the basis of our tabiyat? No! we should have repulsion on the basis of what Allah Almighty has forbidden. And a thing that Syedna Rasool Allah (peace and blessings be on him) has mentioned that will bring about the end of time for this Ummah, how can we not be repulsed by such a thing?

How can we not feel a moral outrage, this is what we call in English. That we should feel a moral outrage. Just like we would feel if a vulgarity took place such openly, we should feel the same level of moral outrage at the presence of these institutions in our society. We don’t feel that, at all.

4. Lying will be widespread.

5. Murder will be widespread.

6. The believers will sell their deen for a small price.

That’s what happens when people miss their prayer. we go to any commercial centre in any city and just see what happens during Jumma. The vast majority of people do not pray Jumma.Most of the shopkeepers don’t go for jummah. The majority of our corporate workplace do not go for Jumma. If we go to a store and let’s say the Medical Store owner decides not to go for a Jumma. Let’s just talk about the farz of Jumma. How long does it take? It would take 20 minutes max, although we could get done with even less than that.

So let’s see what is it that this owner is doing in those 20 minutes instead of praying Jumma. What exactly did that guy earn? Maybe he sells Rs. 500 or 600 worth of medicine. Maybe he sells Rs. 1000 worth of medicine. Within 20 minutes he’s not going to sell much. What’s the cost of that medicine? Probably Rs. 700 or 800. So what did he do? For Rs. 200 to 300 he decided to leave his Jumma. Had he closed the shop how much would he have lost? What was the cost of that 20 minutes of closure of shop? Just a few 100 rupees. That’s it.

For a few hundred rupees. That’s what Syedna Rasool Allah (peace and blessings be upon him) said that they will sell their deen for a small price. Now this is what Allah Almighty says about the kuffar from the ahl-e-kitaab that “they sold their soul for a cheap price.” And this is the exact same thing that Syedna Rasool Allah (peace and blessings be upon him) said about his Ummah that they will also sell their deen for a small price. That would be a sign for the end of time.

7. Zulm (oppression) would become widespread. Within 48 hours we have 120.000 refugees from Waziristan. Who are they? They are all mazlumeen. This is their shar’ai definition. Within a period of 2 days we can create this many mazlumeen. That’s phenomenal.

8. Talaq (divorce) would be widespread.

9. People will die sudden deaths. Heart attack, strokes, to name a few.

10. The Muslims will blame others for their problems. Allahu Akbar! Muslims will blame others; they won’t think that it’s their own earning or their own fault. They will blame others for their difficulties.

11. There will be hot weather.

Syedna Rasool Allah (peace and blessings be upon him) said there will be hot weather despite rains. He added that lest a person thinks that rains would stop. English tarjuma of this would be: Global warming. Green house gases. This was predicted by Syedna Rasool Allah (peace and blessings be upon him) 1400 years ago and mentioned as an alaama of qurb-e-qiyamah. That means Muslims only after knowing the first sign, let alone so many signs, should take ibrat. We don’t do that.

12. The leaders of the Muslimeen will be from the zalimeen.

The unjust and undeserving people will be amongst the leaders of the Muslims.

13. The hudood will be suspended. What is hudood? Hudood is Allah Almighty ’s own stipulated punishment for those things which Allah Almighty has Himself declared to be a crime.

Now tell me as Muslims, if Allah Almighty declared something to be a crime and then Allah Almighty Himself said what the punishment should be for that crime then we should at least in act those punishments, if nothing else. That’s the easiest open case of criminal law. That those things that Allah has said is a crime and the punishment He has set for those crimes, that is what is hudood. “Hudood will be suspended.” English translation: women’s protection act.

14. Children will disobey parents.

Children will lose their respect and will start disobeying their parents in matters that are permissible. In fact what happens is that children today are obeying their parents in disobedience to Allah Almighty . Or the children are being asked by the parents to obey them in disobeying Allah Almighty.

There was a time when parents used to ask their children to obey them in an equal obedience to Allah Almighty and now the parents ask their children to obey them in an equal disobedience to Allah Almighty. They want their children to not look a certain way, not to dress a certain way, not to act a certain way, not to follow the deen, not to follow Sunnah, not to follow shari’ah. So then they command their children not to do so.

Sometimes they invoke this right that Allah Almighty has given them, that o my son or daughter, doesn’t your religion tell you to obey your parents? At that time they say your religion they don’t even say our religion. Know that the deen of Islam and the Quran doesn’t anywhere say that you must obey your parents. The Qur’an says you must be kind and respectful to your parents. Obedience lies to Allah Almighty and His messenger alone.

Yes, you can obey your parents as long as their obedience doesn’t mean disobeying Allah Almighty. There’s no obedience to a creation if that obedience equals disobedience to the Creator. That’s not possible. The same Allah Almighty who has allowed their children to be kind and respectful to them how can those same parents twist that right of Allah Almighty and tell their kids to disobey Allah Almighty!

15. Singers will be given a great status in society. Singers will be given a maqam of izzah in society. English translation: celebrity… celebrity musician. Allahu Akbar! who could have thought these would be the celebrities of our time. And this is again referring to inside the Ummah itself.

16. The later Muslims will curse and slander the earlier Muslims. They will say that the earlier Muslims didn’t know anything. The earlier Muslims just came up with ijtihad based on the top of their head. The earlier Muslims didn’t know Hadith. As opposed to the beginning of the deen when the later Muslims used to have love and respect for the earlier Muslims. The people who met the sahaaba said we would do your it’tiba that’s why they were called the tabieen. The people who met the tabieen said we would do your it’tiba and they were called taba tabieen. Allah Almighty says in the Qur’an: follow the person who has taken up the path that leads towards Me. Allah Almighty in Surah Fatiha tell us follow the siratal mustaqeem. What is that path? The path followed by those who were blessed with the favors of Allah Almighty.

All of these signs make us realize that we are definitely living in the time of fitnah. All of those first Ahadith generally about fitnah, and then all of those Ahadith about the alamaat of the fitna of Dajjal and of end of time all of these signs are present. In fact in my own personal study of Hadith, I have not come with a single spiritual alamat of the Ummah that was mentioned as a sign of qurb-e-qayyamat except that I found that spiritual condition present in the Ummah right now. So we are living in that age.

Now we come to the real purpose: what does Allah Almighty tells us to do? What are we supposed to do in these halaat? Whether we want to still view it as our national conditions, whether we want to realize now that actually this is the age of fitnah or this is the age of beginning of the end of time. How long will that journey take, again nobody will know. But the forces of Dajjal are already present. The pre-cursors the preludes of Dajjal are rampant. What should we do in response to this?

So listen to what Allah Almighty says in the Qur’an al Kareem:

وَلَا تَهِنُوا وَلَا تَحْزَنُوا وَأَنتُمُ الْأَعْلَوْنَ إِن كُنتُم مُّؤْمِنِينَ

(3:139) so don not weaken and do not grieve and you will be superior if you are true believers.

Wala tahinu: Don’t be lazy. Don’t have apathy, don’t be disinterested. This is exactly what we do. we look at this country and we will see many people going exactly opposite to this verse. They would tell us that due to the conditions we have become lazy, apathetic. we are not interested in doing anything anymore. We cant concentrate on anything, cant even do ibadat, we are not even interested in the worldly affairs. Complete apathy, complete disinterest, complete laziness.

Completely opposite to the order of Allah: Don’t be lazy. Remain active, remain dynamic, do something! Fix yourselves and be a means to fix others.

Wala tahazanu: and dont be depressed, dont lose hope. And Every single one says im sad, we are depressed about the conditions. Everybody is saying that. The Qur’an is saying don’t grieve, don’t despair, don’t worry, don’t fear, don’t have stress, don’t have tension, don’t be depressed, even then everyone is depressed.

Antumul aalaun inn kuntum mo’mineen: You will be a’ala, you will be triumphant and victorious if only but you can make yourself believers. This worry and depression won’t take you anywhere. Instead you must work on yourself and become believers. This laziness, apathy, disinterest is not going to take us anywhere. We must become believers. Even physically people have become stationary. What in English in America we used to call ‘couch potato’. The elites of this country have become nothing more than couch potatoes. Subhaan Allah! Couch potatoes, and they watch hours of that till 11 pm, till midnight, till 1 am and then they go to sleep without praying isha and they don’t wake up for fajr in the morning.

You tell me what’s going to happen to such a society? What does such a society deserve? What do such people deserve? At least what do they deserve from their Allah Almighty? You tell me. They sit down and do exactly the opposite; they become lazy, they watch tv for hours till they say I’m depressed and they go to sleep without praying isha and they wake up having missed their fajr. I’m not talking about one or two people here. We know that this is the case with the majority of the elites of this country; whether we want to view them as economic elites, political elites, military elites, civil servant elites, educated elites, journalist elites, lawyer elites, judge elites any way we want to plot it. Some of them are pious but most of them are exactly the opposite to the Qur’an.

For me that is actually the biggest sign of end of time; that the thinking Muslims, the ones who may actually even have some ability, as opposed to the poor guy who drives the rickshaw, they are going against Qur’an. When they are going against Qur’an then what is the hope for our society.

Allah Almighty says that the izzat is given to the believers. All we have to do is adorn ourselves with the characteristics of imaan.

So now what should we do?

1. Work on ourselves.

This is what the Qur’an is telling us to do. Try to look within ourselves and see how we can improve ourself. Try to see what is wrong with me as an individual in the eyes of Allah Almighty and His messenger. What is there in my life that is divergent from the Qur’an and Sunnah? To do tabsira on myself in fact to do several tabsira on ourselves. This is the first thing that we should do.

2. Don’t be lazy.

Don’t be heedless.

3. Don’t worry

Don’t become pareshan. Don’t despair. Don’t become depressed.

4. Have Sabr.

Allah Almighty tells us to do sabr and have patience, why? Because after every difficulty will come ease. It is just upto us whether we want to spend that time of difficulty in a state of sabr or not. So we must learn to become people of sabr. By the way, sabr is not passive. People think sabr in Islam means just to sit back and be patient. Sabr is a very dynamic concept. Sabr means himmat, fortitude, istiqamat, perseverance. That’s what sabr means. It doesn’t mean that Allah Almighty is with the people who are passively patient. It means that Allah Almighty is with the people who are dynamically strong and persevere in the face of adversity. We must have sabr. That is a strength that we must have. We must develop our will power. We must be people of action.

5. We must remain razi with Allah Almighty .

You must always remain pleased with Allah Almighty. We can never become displeased with Allah, disillusioned with Allah Almighty, or upset with Allah Almighty , or complaining to Allah Almighty. We must remain razi. This is also a part of the sabr. This is also a part of the himmah. That we remain completely pleased with you Allah Almighty in this state as we were in the other state. Our being pleased with you has not changed in any way.

Look at Rasool Allah (peace and blessings be upon him) how he was always pleased with Allah Almighty . Allah Almighty bestows the mantel of prophethood on him. He goes out and tries to invite his family members. Uncles refuse him. He tries to invite his tribe Qurraish. The vast majority of them refuse him. He tries to invite the youth of Makkah Mukarama. The vast majority refuse him. He was being faced with adversity. Then he is opposed, persecuted, prosecuted, oppressed but he was always pleased with Allah Almighty. People say this “we are not so bad why does Allah Almighty puts us through such calamities?” what do we think of ourselves?

Do we ever think that Syedna Rasool Allah (peace and blessings be upon him) made this dua k “Ya Allah! im the seal of the prophet hood. what happened that my uncle and the ppl of Quraish are unable to accept emaan, that abu jehl and Abu Lahab aren’t accepting my teachings”. He never thought like that. He was always razi with Allah Almighty.

Syedna Rasool Allah (peace and blessings be upon him) goes to Taaif alone thinking that I had a wet nursing mother Haleema Sadia in Taaif when I was a baby. No one would have remembered it was so long ago but he thought maybe just that nisbat will make somebody in Taaif accept me. So he walks to Taaif all the way alone. Not one person in all of Taaif takes Imaan. No man, no woman, no elderly, no child, not a single person takes Imaan. But Rasool Allah (peace and blessings be upon him) is still razi with Allah Almighty . Subhaan Allah! Pleased with Allah Almighty at all times, in any situation.

We must learn to be pleased with Allah Almighty . If we are pleased with Allah Almighty then Allah Almighty will be pleased with us. When Allah Almighty becomes pleased with us then He will save us. He will take us out from any and all of our situations.

6. Develop a ta’aluq with Allah Almighty .

We must develop a relationship with Allah Almighty by way of doing amaal. Today the average Muslim is totally disconnected from Allah Almighty , has lost touch, has lost contact. We say this about one another that he is out of touch. She’s out of touch. She never contacts, he never contacts anymore.

That is actually how a believer has become with Allah Almighty. We are out of touch; we have lost touch lost contact with Allah Almighty. No ta’aluq at all.

A sign of that is we cannot make dua for more than 2 minutes, we cannot stand up and pray nafl for 5 minutes, we cannot read the Qur’an for 5 minutes. We have no ta’aluq with Allah Almighty and this is our own doing. It’s insane. Generally speaking insane, and at times like this, it is sheer insanity to lose touch and contact with Allah Almighty

The way to create that contact is through amaal; to become people who do good deeds, and we have to do extra. It’s not enough anymore to just do fard and waajib. Some of us think that deen has been reduced to just doing fard and waajib. It’s not going to be enough to just do that. Do we think that a student who is struggling with his CGPA just comes up with D’s he would be fine? we ll say that the compulsory was only that he shouldn’t score an F. He comes home to his parents and says I got straight D’s in this semester. Do we think the parents will say that yes you are lifting yourself out of a difficult situation? It’s amazing that the same parents who are not happy if their kids get straight D’s themselves are getting F’s with Allah Almighty. They never think about it.

I really feel for the conditions of the parents of this day and age. The people in this country who are in their 40’s or 50’s! So distant from Allah Almighty , I’m amazed, how are they living is beyond me. I don’t know actually how they live this Allah-free life. I don’t know how they manage it. Their gatherings are Allah-free, free from the remembrance of Allah . Their homes are Allah-free. Even their whole entertainment system, they lead Allah-free lives. Their workplace is Allah-free. This is completely opposite. We have to bring Allah Almighty back into every part of our lives, everywhere. When people look at our office, our cubicle they should think of Allah Almighty, when they enter our rooms they should think oh this place reminds me of Allah Almighty . We have to start surrounding ourselves with the reminders of Allah Almighty . That is the way we are going to bring Him back in ta’aluq with ourself. We have to remind ourself our own reality our own asal which is we are abd Allah. We don’t even think like that.

How many times do we consciously think that I’m not a free person? I’m a slave of Allah Almighty. We don’t even have that consciousness anymore. That im not an ordinary being. Do we ever say to somebody when they invite us, that I cannot go there, im not a free person im a slave of Allah Almighty. How can i go there? Im an ummati of a nabi. Im someobody’s daughter, im somebody’s son.

We have completely lost our identity. People don’t even think like that. When Rasool Allah (peace and blessings be upon him) told us that Ummul mo’mineen the wives of Nabi (peace and blessings be upon him) are our mothers, then who do we think our father is? Father is the husband of the mother. So the biggest thing that Syenda Rasool Allah (peace and blessings be upon him) is saying that his wives are mothers of the believers, he is saying I’m Abu mo’mineen i.e. I’m the father of the believing men and women. Has any man ever thought like that? That “I’m the son of Prophet (peace and blessings be upon him) what are you talking about? What makes you think I can do that for you?” Has any woman ever thought like that “I have to carry myself in society like the daughter of Prophet (peace and blessings be upon him). I have to have a haya that befits the daughter of Propher (peace and blessings be upon him)”.

We have forgotten who we are and we have lost our ta’aluq with Allah Almighty.

7. The last and final thing is that we should make taubah.

We seem to think that we don’t need to make taubah. Allah Almighty says that we must repent to Allah Almighty a true and sincere repentance. In another place Allah Almighty says that you should make taubah all together. We should think that I’m the reason it is because of my sins, because my name is written with this Ummat this is why all of this is happening to Muslims. We should think that it’s my presence, my wajood in this world that is causing this to happen. That’s the level of taubah we should make. But we don’t think like that. I will make you think like that.

If you’re a woman, you should think that at any point in the day if there’s a Muslims sister of yours whose izzat is being taken whether it is in Afghanistan or Iran or Kashmir. Now imagine Allah Almighty just like you like to watch the tv channels, Allah Almighty is Al Baseer He is watching everything. He can see everyone at every single moment. At that very same moment He looks at this other Muslims woman who is well-off and well educated in Pakistan. What is she doing at the moment? She is herself walking around without haya.

Imagine how it must look to Allah Almighty when at that same moment a Muslim woman is being oppressed. Right now how many Muslim women are sitting in these areas you have written them off completely by calling them illaqa-e-ghair. While they are wondering if a drone would come and bomb them to smithereens.

This is terror. You want to know what terrorism is? It’s a state of terror that every single night you think that any second you can be blown to bits, to pieces and your children and your grandchildren can be blown to bits, to pieces and your entire country couldn’t care less about you. And the women of this country won’t even shed a tear over you. You never sleep one night like that. Your terror is that the lights are going to go and the fan would stop working for an hour. That’s the extent of your terror. We just don’t realize what’s going on in this world. We are completely oblivious, we have become cold hearted.

If you’re a man you should think that at that same moment at that same time when somebody is rising up in pain and somebody is sitting without any home and that same night when some woman is being oppressed, switch the channel to that young man and what is he doing? The Muslim young man is doing badnazri. Exactly at that same moment Allah Almighty can see them both. Imagine what must Allah Almighty feel looking at that situation. Sins are so rampant. We don’t even have the strength to get up for tahajjud and make dua for the muzlimeen. What is the worth of our news commentators on tv? They can’t even get up for 5 minutes and make dua for someone? We are really the cold-hearted, the dead hearted Muslims.

We have to make taubah of this. Ya Rab e Kareem I make true taubah to you. I make taubah for all the things that I have done in my life that have numbed my heart. I make taubah from all those things that have made my heart fall asleep. I make taubah for all those things that have made my heart dead. I make taubah for everything that I’ve done that was ever displeasing to you. I make taubah for not feeling for my fellow Muslims. I make taubah for not being dynamic and trying to help others in the society. I make taubah from all of these things. It’s time that we make taubah to Allah Almighty.

If this Ummah, this country, our people were able to learn the power of taubah; the power of taubah is such that it attracts Allah Almighty. He is At’Tawaab. It means that Allah Almighty is the Being always ready to accept our taubah. No other being is like that. Even if we go to Allah Almighty after being repeatedly betrayed by the dunya, then Allah Almighty doesn’t leave us alone, He doesn’t taunts us that you came to me after being betrayed from so many places, like we do do others. Somebody goes somewhere else, somewhere else then somewhere else, and as a last resort comes to us, we taunt them saying you went to so and so and now you’ve come to me. Allah Almighty is not like that. He gets very happy. Allah Almighty is an amazing Rabb. He gets very happy. Instead let me you Allah Almighty comes in a state of Haal.

Listen to the haal of Allah Almighty in Qur’an.

قُلْ يَا عِبَادِيَ الَّذِينَ أَسْرَفُوا عَلَى أَنْفُسِهِمْ لَا تَقْنَطُوا مِنْ رَحْمَةِ اللَّهِ إِنَّ اللَّهَ يَغْفِرُ الذُّنُوبَ جَمِيعًا إِنَّهُ هُوَ الْغَفُورُ الرَّحِيمُ

[39:53] O my servants who have transgressed against themselves(by sinning) do not despair of the Mercy of Allah. Indeed

Allah forgives all sins. Indeed it is He who is forgiving, the Merciful.

Allah Almighty says that o sinful servant you came to me? you came to me in a state of repentance? not just forgiveness I will grant you my love. Allah Almighty could have said Allah has forgiven the sinful servants or that Allah has accepted the repentance, and forgave them. No no, Allah Almighty says that o my sinful servant you have come to me after the whole world has betrayed you, you have come to me bringing nothing except my disobedience. But you repented sincerely, you felt remorse in your heart, now listen to the declaration of my Love, that i love the people of repentance. I made you my beloved.

This is our Allah Almighty. Our Allah Almighty wants to make us His beloved. Beloved of Allah for the sinful servants.

Gunehgar Package: To become the mehboob of Allah Almighty just make taubah. That’s it.

We should Return back to Allah Almighty and Repent from our sinful lives and from this distance from Allah Almighty. We should just say that O Allah Almighty I want to become yours, I am sick and tired of my hipocrisy, I also want to live a sincere, true, just and sinfree life. I repent and i seek Your forgiveness.

If we can make this amal of taubah, and if we can fix our own halaat and inshaa Allah Ta’aala if we become people of sabr, Allah Almighty’s nusrat is there. He is still the being who has pledged His nusrat. He is still Rabbe Kareem. His nusrat and nijaat will come swiftly if only we can make our taubah swiftly and once again become mo’mineen.

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