The Prophet Sulaiman 'Alayhi Salaam
was once walking with his entire entourage,
and his entourage is not like the entourage of anyone else.
He has the birds forming a canopy above him,
he's got the humans at his disposal,
animals, insects,
and even Jinn are moving at his order,
'Alayhi Salaam.
And as he's walking by with this entourage,
he passes by a worshiper.
And the worshiper, who's a humble man,
he looks at Sulaiman 'Alayhi Salaam,
and he says,"yabna Dawood, laqad
a'taka Allahu mulkan 'atheema"
"O son of David,
Allah has given you a magnificent kingdom."
So Sulaiman 'Alayhi Salaam,
he heard what the man said,
and he stops the entire entourage,
and he goes up to that man,
and he says,
"You see this entire kingdom of mine?
All of it with its glory?"
He says, "Wallahi, latasbeehatun fee saheefati mu'min
khayrun mimma u'tiya-bnu Dawood"
He said, "I swear by Allah
that one tasbeeh,
one word of glorifying Allah, from any believer,
is better than all of this
which has been given to the son of David."
"fa ma u'tiya li bni Dawood yath-hab"
"Because everything that's been given to the son of David
is going to perish."
"wa ttasbeehatu tabqa."
"And this tasbeeh of yours
is going to remain forever."
SubhanAllah!
In one moment, you can plant a tree in Paradise
that is greater than the greatest kingdom of all time
to exist in this world.
Now we've spoken about the gardens, the soil.
Now, what do you plant in those gardens?
What does it look like to actually
harvest the crops of those gardens?
The Prophet SallAllahu 'Alaihi Wasallam said,
"I met Ibrahim 'Alayhi Salaam
on the night of Al-Isra' wal-Mi'raj,
on the night journey".
And he said, " Ya Muhammad, aqri' ummataka minni-ssalam"
'O Muhammad, give my salaam to your ummah.'
(responds) Wa 'alaikassalaam.
Ibrahim 'Alayhi Salaam sending salaam to us
through our Prophet Muhammad
SallAllahu 'Alaihi Wasallam.
And he said, "Ya Muhammad, tell your ummah
that Paradise is "ttayyibatu-tturba, 'aathbatul maa'.""
'It's a land whose soil is pure and its water is sweet."
And he said, 'It's an empty white plain
and the trees of that plain
are planted with 'SubhanAllah', 'Alhamdulillah'
'La ilaha illa Allah', 'Allahu akbar'.'
So you plant trees in Paradise with your tasbeeh.
And you think about how many trees we have failed to plant
in our gardens? SubhanAllah.
And what are these trees like?
So let's actually go through the descriptions
and this takes some time when you go
through the Qur'an and the Sunnah, of the various trees
and plants that Allah Subh'anaHu Wa Ta-A'la mentions to us.
So let's start with the smallest plants in Paradise.
Allah Subh'anaHu Wa Ta-A'la mentions to us,
that in Paradise there are aromatic plants.
So everything smells good, of course.
"fa rawhon wa rayhan wa jannatu na'eem"
Allah Subh'anaHu Wa Ta-A'la says,
"So there is rest, and rayhan."
And 'rayhan' literally is sweet-smelling plants.
And here it's used as a symbol of complete satisfaction.
So if you think about your eyes being closed
and you're laying down in Jannah,
and you smell the plants that are all around you.
And the plants don't necessarily have to be outdoor.
So that's just the plants, the 'rayhan.'
So what are the trees like if the flowers
and plants are so beautiful that you would admire them
for decades without worrying about the time?
For one, the Prophet SallAllahu Alaihi Wasallam said,
"That the trees of paradise are of thahab"
They are of gold. And in one narration
from ibn Abbas radiAllahu ta'ala 'anhuma,
they are green emerald with branches of red gold.
And of course there's diversity in Jannah.
And if you think about the trees of this world,
what's the least attractive part of the tree?
It's the trunk, right?
But here in Jannah, the trunk itself is so striking.
Imagine the trunk itself is made of gold and emerald.
And then the branches,
and what those branches bear, is even better.
Even the branches themselves Allah Subh'anaHu Wa Ta-A'la
says, "thawataa afnan"
Lush branches.
Let's not even talk about the production.
Just what they look like.
And then he goes on to say in Surah Ar-Rahman,
"thawataa afnan"
'That in these gardens
there is plentiful fruits, palm trees, pomegranates.'
And SubhanAllah! The wonder of these trees is
that the beauty doesn't compromise what they produce,
and vice versa. You know usually beautiful trees
don't have anything to bear in this life.
But look at how Allah Subh'anaHu Wa Ta-A'la describes them
in Surah Al-Waqi'ah. Allah Subh'anaHu Wa Ta-A'la says,
"fee sidrin makhdhood
wa talhin mandhood wa thillin mamdood wa ma'-in maskoob".
Allah Subh'anaHu Wa Ta-A'la
says, "You have thornless lote trees,
banana clustered with spreading shade, constantly
flowing water," and Allah Subh'anahu Wa Ta-A'la
says,"wa fakihatin katheera la maqtoo'aatin wa la mamnoo'aa"
'And you have abundant fruit.'
Never out of season, never out of stock.
Now if you know trees, you'd notice
that this is really out of this world.
And so one day, a Bedouin came and he said,
"Ya Rasullulah,
Allah has mentioned a tree in Paradise that drives us crazy.
And I don't think that there is a tree that causes more harm
to people than this tree."
And Rasullulah SallAllahu Alaihi Wasallam said,
"What tree are you talking about?"
He said, "The sidr, this lote tree,
it drives us crazy here. It has all sorts of thorns."
And the Prophet SallAllahu Alaihi Wasallam said,
"Well doesn't Allah Subh'anaHu Wa Ta-A'la say,
"sidrin makhdhood"
'A thornless lote tree'."
The Arabs had never seen that before.
And what it is, is that
the Prophet SallAllahu Alaihi Wasallam said,
"Allah has removed all of the thorns
of the tree and replaced every thorn with a fruit."
So the same place that we knew the tree to have thorns,
it now bears fruit instead.
Now you may have noticed I also said bananas.
"talhin mandhood"
And yes, banana trees in Jannah are amazing!
Imam Malik Rahimahullah,
he loved bananas for this reason
because he said, "they're the most similar
to the fruits of Paradise,
and unlike all the other fruits in this world
because you can find them in any season of the year."
But don't feel guilty if you're not crazy
over bananas here because you will be in Jannah
inshaAllah Ta'ala.
So this is the general theme of trees in the Qur'an.
They're lush, they're beautiful, and they are satisfying.
But then we have some specific trees that are mentioned
in the Sunnah.
And first, you have this tree that the Prophet
SallAllahu Alaihi Wasallam said
takes a hundred years to cross.
So when Allah Subh'anaHu Wa Ta-A'la says,
"Spreading shade 'thillin mamdood' " the Prophet
SallAllahu Alaihi Wasallam said, "There's a tree in Paradise
that a swift rider on a swift horse would take
a hundred years to pass beneath."
And some of the scholars say perhaps this is referring
to the tree known as Toobah.
Now Toobah, you may have heard the word, like the word
'kawthar',
it has a general meaning of glads tidings.
But it specifically refers to a tree in Paradise as well.
Just like how 'Kawthar' can refer to the specific Kauthar,
the fountain of the Prophet SallAllahu Alaihi Wasallam,
or it can refer to glad tidings.
So in the famous Hadith
when the Prophet SallAllahu Alaihi Wasallam
says, "Toobah lil-ghuraba'"
'Glad tidings to the strangers.'
Specifically, this may mean glad tidings
to the strangers of the tree of Toobah in Paradise.
And there is a connection here. You are to be a stranger
in this life, just like a traveler,
as the Prophet SallAllahu Alaihi Wasallam said,
"Who takes a break
under a tree and then proceeds with his journey."
So the Prophet SallAllahu Alaihi Wasallam
is saying the reward
for that is a permanent tree that you forever rest
under as a believer in your actual home.
And in another narration,
the Prophet SallAllahu Alaihi Wasallam
said, "Toobah liman ra'-ani wa aamana bi,
wa Toobah liman amana bi wa lam yarani"
He said, "Toobah for the one who saw me and believed in me,
and Toobah for the one who did not see me,
yet still believed in me."
And he repeated this seven times,
SallAllahu Alaihi Wasallam.
And that is the way of the stranger.
We cling to the example of the one who already passed
from under this tree of dunya.
And we wait to be gathered with him,
SallAllahu Alaihi Wasallam, under the tree of Toobah
in Paradise that was promised to us through him,
SallAllahu Alaihi Wasallam.
Now what's so special about this tree of Toobah?
The Prophet SallAllahu Alaihi Wasallam said,
"That this isn't just a huge tree in Jannah,
but it's also the tree that produces the fabric
for the clothing of the people of Paradise."
He said, SallAllahu Alaihi Wasallam, "Toobah is a tree
in Paradise that has a journey of a hundred years
under its shade, and the clothes of the people
of Paradise come out from the outer parts of its flowers."
And there was a Bedouin, once again, who asked the
Prophet SallAllahu Alaihi Wasallam the question.
And they always used to ask
the Prophet SallAllahu Alaihi Wasallam questions.
They said, "So are the clothes woven or are they created?"
And people laughed and
the Prophet SallAllahu Alaihi Wasallam said,
"Why are you laughing?"
He said, "They grow out of the branches
of the trees of Paradise."
So yes, clothes actually come out
of the branches of this particular tree in Jannah,
SubhanAllah!
And how strange and what a beautiful reward
for the strangers. "Toobah lil-ghuraba'"
Another tree the Prophet SallAllahu Alaihi Wasallam
mentioned is, "shajrat ash-shuhada'"
A special tree for the martyrs.
And the Prophet SallAllahu Alaihi Wasallam said,
"That the souls
of the believers are birds hanging from a tree
of Paradise until Allah Subh'anaHu Wa Ta-A'la
returns them to their bodies on the Day of Resurrection.
And of course with the Shuhada',
they have their own specific tree,
their own particular place,
where they get to enjoy the shade
of the throne of Allah Subh'anaHu Wa Ta-A'la
as well as the tree of al Jannah."
Then of course there is not just any
"sidra", not just any lote tree
but "Sidrat al muntaha",
the ultimate lote tree which marks the highest boundary
of Paradise.
And this is the only place that
the Prophet SallAllahu Alaihi Wasallam
saw Jibraeel Alayhi Salaam
in his full form other than the revelation of
Surah Al-Muddaththir.
So he said that Jibraeel Alayhi Salaam
at that point was staring upwards and he was
in awe, and it was like he was flattened, Alayhi Salaam.
And he said, SallAllahu Alaihi Wasallam,
"That when I reached that lote tree
"Sidrat al muntaha"
he said, "its fruits look like the clay jugs of
hajar."
Its leaves were like the ears of elephants.
And one of those leaves could cover
the whole of this ummah."
And he said, "It had colors that
are absolutely indescribable."
And SubhanAllah, if you've ever been
to the bottom of the ocean, scuba diving
or snorkeling or whatever it may be,
and you've seen the colors at the bottom of the ocean.
They're not just incredible, they're actually indescribable.
So imagine if that's the color at the bottom of the ocean,
what the colors in the highest heavens are.
And some of the scholars, they make an observation
about our connection as Muslims to the idea
of the lote tree and the application of the lote tree.
And that is when the Messenger of Allah,
SallAllahu Alaihi Wasallam,
entered upon his daughter as she had passed away.
And he said, SallAllahu Alaihi Wasallam,
"wash her bi ma'-in wa sidrin"
"Wash her with water, and then some of the leaves
of the lote tree, and put on her "kafoora",
camphor in it." In the last wash, in particular.
So we have connections to the trees
of Paradise, in how we plant trees now
and how we reflect those trees in our lives.
And SubhanAllah, you even see
that Allah Subh'anaHu Wa Ta-A'la
describes the faith of the believer like what?
Like a palm tree, but not just any palm tree.
He says, Subh'anaHu Wa Ta-A'la,
"assluha thabit wa far'uha fi-ssamaa'"
'Its foundations are strong
and its branches are high in the sky.'
"tu'-ti ukulaha kulla heenin bi ithni rabbiha"
'It produces fruits at all time,
by the permission of the Lord.'
So the tree of Faith is not seasonal,
and the trees that it produces
in Paradise are consistent as well.
And the reward of the believer who is
like a tree to everyone else in this life
is literally trees that extend their shade
in Paradise and beautiful low hanging fruit always
in production and within reach.
And the more that the fruit
of your knowledge is beneficial to others,
the more the fruit of your reward in the Hereafter.
So the Prophet SallAllahu 'Alaihi Wasallam said,
"When the Muslim visits his sick brother or sister,
he is harvesting the fruits of Paradise until he returns."
So it's not just that the visit itself, Allah
Subh'anaHu Wa Ta-A'la gifts you with a garden.
But every single moment
that you are there and bringing comfort to that person,
Allah is harvesting fruit for you and increasing your share.
Because Allah Subh'anaHu Wa Ta-A'la
will always bless you with more,
even when you think you're doing so little.
So whether it's that one tasbeeh,
'SubhanAllah',
or when the Prophet SallAllahu Alaihi Wasallam said,
"The lowest branch of Iman, is removing a branch
from the road."
The Prophet SallAllahu Alaihi Wasallam said,
"I saw a man strolling in Paradise,
because in this Dunya he saw a branch of a tree laying
on the ground, and he removed it because he said
I don't want this to harm the believers
And as a result, what? Allah Subh'anaHu Wa Ta-A'la
allows him
trees in Paradise under which he can stroll
and he can enjoy everything that is there."
So you have your trees,
you have your garden, you have your fruit,
now how sweet will the rivers be beneath you?
"Ya ayyatuha-nafsul
mutma-innah.
Irji'i ila rabbiki
radiyatan mardiyya.
Fadkhuli fi 'ibadi wadkhuli
jannati."
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