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There are always three groups of people.
The generally wicked, the generally righteous,
and then those who excel, people of Ihsan.
And everyone in the group of the generally righteous
should be thinking about
how they can be counted amongst those who excel.
And the difference between the two
is how quickly you respond to the call of Allah
and then how you distinguish yourself
within that deed once you get to it.
So, how quickly and earnestly
you respond to Allah Subh'anaHu Wa Ta-A'la
And if you think about the way that we're resurrected,
the difference between the generally righteous,
the believers, the Muttaqeen, those people of piety
and those who excel, the people of Ihsan, is
that one group is walking and the other group is riding.
So Allah says, wa quntum azwaaJan thalaatha
you will be divided into three groups.
As-haabul maimanati maa ashaabul maimanah
The people on the right, and how blessed are they?
And then you have ashaabul mash'amati maa ashaabul mash'amah
The people on the left and how miserable are they?
And then you have assabiquunas saabiquun,
the forerunners, the forerunners.
Sabiquuna illa da'atil allahi fiddunya
They are forerunners
to the obedience of Allah in this world
Sabiquuna illa ridwanihi yaumul qiyaamah
Forerunners to His pleasure, on the Day of Judgment
Ulaa-ikal muqarabuun
Verily, they are the ones who are closest to Allah
I remember once asking one of my teachers
about the Shuhadah, the martyrs,
and why they're are not included
in the Hadith of the seven shaded
under the throne of Allah
And he said to me, it's because the Shuhadah,
as the Prophet SallAllahu Alaihi Wasallam said, they're
in chandeliers that are hanging from the throne of Allah.
So they're in a league of their own.
After them, every believer has some shade
on the Day of Judgment.
And we said, that's with their Sadaqah, with their charity
but then you have these categories
of those that are shaded in the throne of Allah
Subh'anaHu Wa Ta-A'la
and these are very specific categories and they all come
under the banner of as-Sabiquun, they're forerunners.
Now the beauty of that Hadith of the seven groups
of people is that it covers every single person
whether you occupy a position or not
whether you are young or old, whether you are male
or female, whether you are rich or poor
you have somewhere in this Hadith.
And that shows that you don't have to be
in a special position in this life
in order to have a special position in the next
you just have to be truthful
and sincere in your pursuit of Allah's pleasure.
The Prophet SallAllahu Alaihi Wasallam said,
there are seven whom Allah will shade
on a day when there is no shade except for His.
And he says SalAllahu Alaihi Wasallam, they are a just ruler
a youth who grew up in the worship of Allah
a person whose heart is attached to the Masaajid,
Two people who love each other
and they meet each other and depart from one another.
All for the sake of Allah, a person who is tempted
by someone of beauty and high status
but he guards himself saying, inni akhafull-Allah,
"I fear Allah."
And then someone who spends in charity
and conceals it in such a way that his right hand
doesn't know what his left hand is giving.
And then someone who remembers Allah Subh'anaHu Wa Ta-A'la
in private and that causes them to weep.
So that covers seven deeds.
You have just leadership, pious youth, love of the Massajid,
love of one another for the sake of Allah
resisting temptation, secret charity,
and then crying out of the awe of Allah.
Now there are several Ahadith about people that are shaded
under the throne of a Allah Subh'anaHu Wa Ta-A'la
other than these seven.
In fact, al-Hafidh Ibn Hajar rahimahullah,
he wrote them in this book,
Ma'rifatul Khisal al-Muhsilati iladilla
that these are the categories that lead people
on the Day of Judgment to the shade.
And almost all of them are connected to being charitable
because when you're charitable, you're providing shade
to someone else in one way or the other.
So you have the person who is lenient
with someone who owes them money, or you have someone who
at the next level pays the debt of another person off
or someone who loans someone money to get them
out of a cruel debt situation.
All of these are specific in a Hadith of the
Prophet SallAllahu Alaihi Wasallam
about those who are shaded
under the throne of Allah Subh'anaHu Wa Ta-A'la.
So what are some other underlying themes
beside there being Sabiquun, that they're all forerunners?
Ibn al-Qayyim rahimahullah said,
If you look at all seven of these categories
you see Mukhalafatul hawaa,
that they gave preference to their love
for Allah over the pull of their lust and desires
even when they had access to those desires.
So everyone from the judge who could have wronged
to the person that chose to be in a good place of worship
rather than an evil place
to a person who preferred to use their youth for worship
instead of partying to the person who chose charity
over wealth or chose secret worship over secret sin.
All of them chose to contradict their desires
for their love of Allah Subh'anaHu Wa Ta-A'la.
Then you have the second theme, which is all
of them did an act of obedience to Allah and obedience,
as the scholars mentioned, is of two types.
You have an act of obedience between you and Allah
and then you have an act of obedience
between you and the people
also for the sake of Allah Subh'anaHu Wa Ta-A'la.
You'll also notice that the first four categories
of these seven are in regards to public life.
And then the last three are in regards to your private life.
And what this tells us is that if you fix your externals
then your internals are going to be strengthened as well.
The scholars also mentioned that, like the gates of Jannah,
a person who belongs to one category likely belongs
to more than one, but they say Subhan'Allah, that
Yusuf Alayhi Salaam is the only man who we
can confirm belong to all seven, right?
If you think about Yusuf Alayhi Salaam's position
every one of these categories fits him.
And then you have the first category
which is the rarest of the categories, which is a just ruler
and the last category, which is the most common of them all.
And anyone can do it.
And that is al-buqaa min khashyatillAllah, a person
who cries out of their fear of Allah
You don't need power or position to cry
out of your awe of Allah.
And the most beautiful character is someone
that includes the first and the last.
And that was Sayyidina 'Umar ibn al-Khattab
radiAllahu ta'ala Anhu
this man who was known for being a just ruler.
And he had marks on his shoulders
from the charity he carried at night.
And then he also had marks under his eyes
from the amount of tears that he used to shed in prayer.
The scholars also mentioned that the Prophet SallAllahu
Alaihi Wasallam often mentioned these seven in
various orders but he always mentioned the just ruler first.
And the wisdom of that is that if the ruler is
just, then the other six categories become more likely
because a virtuous ruler unlocks blessings in society
and encourages virtue in society.
And that's why Sufyan al-Thawri rahimahullah says,
Sunfaani ila saluha saluhatill Ummah
wa iza fasada fasadatil Ummah, al muluku ulamah.
There are two groups of people.
If they're good, everyone else is gonna be good.
And if they're corrupt
then the entire Ummah is going to be corrupted.
And he said, they are the rulers and the scholars.
And then you start to see how each category connects
to the next in the Hadith.
So a just ruler, for example,
he sets the tone and encourages the construction
of virtuous places and ideals.
And that means that young people grow up in the worship
of Allah and with role models who are worshippers
and environments that can nurture their righteousness.
And that can't be done except through what?
except through the Masaajid, and Allah mentions
that hallmark of tyrants is that they destroy
or they corrupt the Masaajid of Allah.
So under the righteous, the Masaajid flourish,
and then young people who worship Allah
find the house of Allah connected to their hearts.
And then what happens when they meet each other
in the Masaajid? They start to love each other
for the sake of Allah, with the Masjid being the conduit
for those relationships that are formed only
for the sake of Allah.
And then that allows the person to
nurture enough faith to resist sin in private.
So when they're called to temptation, they say
I fear Allah.
And then that allows that person to also
nurture enough faith to do good in private.
So they give secret charity instead
of secret sin and that's category six
and then category seven is where all the categories meet.
And that is weeping in private, out of the awe of Allah.
And you know, this is a category which is only
between you and Allah, and anyone can strive
for this regardless of their circumstances.
And if you look at the salaf,
if you look at the righteous predecessors
they were always in between these two states,
yunfiqun fin-nahar wa yabqi fillaeel.
They gave charity in the day and they cried at night.
And so these last two categories are constants in the life
of the believer and they're connected to each other.
Why? Because the best time to remember Allah is
after you do an act of charity
because the Prophet SallAllahu Alaihi Wasallam said
your heart will be soft at that time.
And then the best time to give charity is
after you remember Allah at night, because your appetite
for dunya is reduced and you'll be more sincere in that act.
Now imagine how it is when Allah, who is more merciful
to you than your mother, sees your tears.
Imagine how your mother would comfort you when
she sees you crying.
And remember, Allah does not make you fear Him twice.
So what then of the one who shed tears out of that Khasyah?
Out of that awe of Allah?
The Prophet SallAllahu Alaihi Wasallam said that
the eye that was in the cause of Allah
and the eye that shed tears for Allah
would not even be touched by the fire.
So Abu Hurairah radiAllahu ta'ala Anhuhe said,
La yabqi ahadun min khash-yatil Allah
fatat ma'amu hunnaaru hatta yuraddal
labanu fiddur'ee
He said, "No man weeps out of their fear
of Allah and is touched by the fire until the milk goes back
into the udders," meaning it is impossible.
And that's why Abdullah ibn 'Umar radiAllahu ta'ala Anhuma,
he says something very powerful. He says,
La in adhma'a min khashyatillah
ahabbu ilaiyya min an-atasaddaq bee alfi dinaar
fa-in anfaqtu bee alfi dinaar
la adri idh mana'atee minan naar.
He said, "For me to shed one tear
out of the fear of Allah is more beloved
to me than spending a thousand dinars in charity.
Because if I spend a thousand dinars in charity,
I don't know if that would forbid me from the fire,
but those tears between you and Allah,
whether they come after a good deed
or whether they come after a sin, if they were sincere
they will protect you from the heat of the sun on that day.
And they will protect you from the fire of Jahannam
in a way that no other position could ever do."
Fa-amma man thaqulat mawa zeenuh
Fahuwa fee 'ishatir raadiyah