- Not everyone gets into Jannah at the same time.
Not everyone occupies the same rank.
And not everyone is called from the same gate.
But everyone who eventually gets in is going to be pleased.
And the believer is so driven to Jannah right now
that he tries to get in as fast as possible
and with the highest place possible.
And SubhanAllah, that's what a Jannah mindset means.
It means that every single minute in this world
is an opportunity to proceed quickly
and beautifully through the gate of eternity.
People are going to be entering Jannah at different points,
and you have some that will actually be entering Jannah
while others are still being held accountable.
The Prophet SallAllahu 'Alaihi Wasallam said that there is a
gate which is specific for those who are not even going
to be called to account.
May Allah make us amongst them, Allahuma Ameen.
And he said, "This is the right hand gate of Paradise."
And he said, "The rest of the people of Paradise
will enter with everyone else through the normal gates."
And Allah Subh'anahu Wa Ta-A'la controls time and place
so this doesn't all have to fit in a linear way
when we're speaking about it.
The Prophet SallAllahu 'Alaihi Wasallam said
that the poor and downtrodden,
and they are the majority of the people of Paradise,
they get to go first.
And if you think about first class and VIP in this life,
who usually is always at the back of the line?
And in a more dramatic way, those swathes of poor people
that are turned away from the gates of rich nations
and now they're ahead of everybody else
and everybody wants to be like them.
But that's not absolute because
Abu Bakr radiAllahu ta'ala Anhu,
for example, was not a poor man
and he's going to be ahead of us all.
So the scholars said that if a person used their blessings
right, then they still have a higher place,
even if the poor will get in faster and lighter
because they have less burdens to worry about.
So, there's the pace that you get into Jannah
and then there's the place that you occupy within it.
Now remember, Jannah is for people with certain qualities.
So the Prophet SallAllahu 'Alaihi Wasallam said,
The first people to enter Jannah
are people who are hammadoon.
They praise Allah Subh'anahu Wa Ta-A'la at all times.
In good times, and in bad times.
So it's not about what you had or didn't have,
it's about how you channeled all of that
towards the pursuit of Allah's pleasure and Paradise.
So you ask yourself, are you praising Allah
with your circumstances or not?
Because that's going to determine how praiseworthy
your order of entrance and eventual station
are into Paradise.
Now, what is the waiting area outside the
gates of Jannah look like?
"The Believers are near to its entrance,"
as the Prophet SallAllahu 'Alaihi Wasallam said.
And they're under this tree where two rivers are flowing.
They drink from one of them, and they bathe in the other.
And this removes all of the impurities inside-out
and they come out full of radiance.
And the Prophet SallAllahu 'Alaihi Wasallam said
"that as you look at the gates of Paradise,
Paradise has eight gates, whereas Hellfire only has seven."
And this is just another way in which
Allah Subh'anahu Wa Ta-A'la shows us
how His mercy exceeds His wrath.
The Prophet SallAllahu 'Alaihi Wasallam said,
"You have the gate of Salah, you have the gate of Sadaqah,
you have the gate of Jihad
those who strove for the sake of Allah."
And then he mentioned, SallAllahu 'Alaihi Wasallam,
"You have the gate of Fasting."
And he said it's called 'Ar-Aryan'
which means endless drinks.
And he said that no one enters that gate of Paradise
except for the one who's distinguished
by their fasting.
So Abu Bakr radiAllahu Anhu is hearing this
And he says, "Ya Rasulullah,
is there anyone who gets to be called
from all of these gates?"
And the Prophets SallAllahu 'Alaihi Wasallam said,
"Yes, and I hope you will be one of them."
And this isn't random, because Abu Bakr radiAllahu Anhu
actually used to excel in all of those things.
So, it's only right
that he's called from all of those gates.
Whereas most people are blessed if they have
just one quality that they excel in,
to which they hope to be called into Paradise by.
Now, of course you have gifts from
Allah Subh'anahu Wa Ta-A'la that open all of these gates,
even if you don't have all of the qualities of those gates.
So when the Prophet SallAllahu 'Alaihi Wasallam said
for example, "No one of you performs wudu perfectly
and then says,
'Ash-hadu an La ilaha illa Allah, Wahdahu la Sharika la
Wa ash-hadu anna Muhammadan Abduhu wa Rasulluh'
except that all eight gates of Paradise
will be open for you,
and you can choose which one to enter from."
But even that's not random, because to make that dua,
you have to do a perfect wudu,
and you wouldn't be careful and frequent with your wudu
if you weren't careful and frequent with your salah.
So the wisdom of wudu opening all the gates
is that if a person carefully preserves their salah,
they naturally preserve everything else.
And the Prophet SallAllahu 'Alaihi Wasallam said
the same thing about the Day of Judgment,
that if the prayer is good, everything else
is going to be good, and the same thing is now true
about your entrance into Paradise.
Now, Ali radiAllahu Anhu said,
you'll notice that the gates of Paradise
are actually vertical, not horizontal.
You have one above the other,
because the higher gates correspond to the higher levels.
And for this ummah, there's a special gate reserved
for us insha'Allah.
The Prophet SallAllahu 'Alaihi Wasallam said,
"The gate from which my ummah will enter Paradise is as wide
as the distance covered by a rider in several years."
And in some narration,
the Prophet SallAllahu 'Alaihi Wasallam said,
"Like the distance between the cities of Mecca and Hajar."
And in other places he mentioned different cities,
SallAllahu 'Alaihi Wasallam.
So it's a wide gate, yet still they're going to be squeezed
until their shoulders are about to dislocate.
And that's from the mercy of Allah Subh'anahu Wa Ta-A'la.
And Rasulullah SallAllahu 'Alaihi Wasallam said,
"Jibreel 'Alayhi Salaam came to me.
He held my hand and he showed me the gate
through which my ummah is going to enter Jannah."
And once again, you have Abu Bakr radiAllahu Anhu
he says, "Ya Rasulullah,
I wish I could have been with you to see that gate."
And the Prophet SallAllahu 'Alaihi Wasallam said,
"I'll give you something better.
Don't worry, you're going to be the first one
to enter through that gate with me."
But the Prophet SallAllahu 'Alaihi Wasallam said,
for all of us, he said,
"You're the best ummah because you're the last ummah to come
yet you're the first ummah to enter into Paradise."
So, Rasulullah SallAllahu 'Alaihi Wasallam
is the first Prophet to enter Paradise.
And we are the first ummah
to enter Jannah together bi-idhnillahi Ta'ala.
So as we stand in line with anticipation
behind our Prophet SallAllahu 'Alaihi Wasallam,
Qatada Rahimahullah says,
"You can you can actually see through the gates of Paradise,
directly into it."
And Rasulullah SallAllahu 'Alaihi Wasallam
walks up and he said, he rings the bell, he said,
"I will be the first person to hold the chain of Paradise
and clatter it, wala fakhr, and I am not boasting."
And the keeper of Jannah will answer the doorbell
and he'll say, 'Man Anta, who are you?'
And I will say, 'Muhammad.'
And he will say, 'Welcome, O Prophet of Allah.
I was ordered not to open this for anyone before you.'"
So that's the Prophet SallAllahu 'Alaihi Wasallam.
Now, for the rest of us, we have our keys.
The key to Paradise in the metaphorical sense
is La ilaha illa Allah.
But as the scholars say,
the teeth of that key are our deeds,
and that's what's going to determine
our order and our station.
And the Prophet SallAllahu 'Alaihi Wasallam says
in another narration by Salman radiAllahu ta'ala Anhu
that we also have passports.
So think about it, like when you go to another country,
you have a passport.
So when you get to Jannah, what's the passport?
He says, "Inna Allah Az-Zawajaal
you'ti al-mu'min aj-jawaazun 'ala as-Sirat."
That Allah Subh'anahu Wa Ta-A'la gives you a passport
on the Sirat.
And it says, "Bismillah Ar-Rahman Ar-Rahim
Hatha Al-Kitaabu min Allah Al-'Aziz Al-Hakeem.
In the name of Allah, the Most Compassionate,
the Most Merciful,
this is a passport from Allah Subh'anahu Wa Ta-A'la
to this person and this person.
Allow this person to enter Paradise
with all of its loftiness and with its fruits within reach."
So, you have your keys and you have your passport ready
insha'Allah Ta'ala.
And then Allah says, "Hataa ithaa ja-ouha
wa futihaat Al-Bouab-ouha."
And then they come and its gates are slowly opened.
And Ibn al-Qayyum Rahimahullah said,
"Pay attention to the difference
between how the people of Paradise enter
and how the inhabitants of Hell enter."
Allah says about the inhabitants of Hell,
"Hataa ithaa ja-ouha
futihaat Al-Bouab-ouha."
As soon as they get to it, the gates are suddenly opened
and they're thrown into Hellfire.
But when Allah speaks about the people of Paradise,
He says, "Hataa ithaa ja-ouha wa futihaat Al-Bouab-ouha."
They get to Paradise and then the gates slowly open,
revealing the beauty of Jannah,
capturing you with every second of its reveal
as you marvel at its beauty.
And we enter into Paradise, zumarah, as groups.
Why? Because it wouldn't be a celebration otherwise.
In this life, as believers, we do Hajj together.
We break our fast together.
We then celebrate Eid together.
We pray in jama'ah together.
So, here every group is walking together with happiness
and they're congratulating one another,
whereas the inhabitants of Hellfire
are actually cursing each other as they're being thrown in.
So, we're together in groups, lined up
and the Prophet SallAllahu 'Alaihi Wasallam
and his Companions and his family
are at the front and we all enter behind them,
just as we followed them in goodness
in this life insha'Allah.
Now, for now, if you want to rattle your gate
and have the angels call you,
the Prophet SallAllahu 'Alaihi Wasallam said
that "Verily there is an angel
at a gate amongst the gates of Paradise.
And he's saying, 'Man yuqrid al-yawm yujza ghadan'"
"Whoever is going to give a good loan today
will be rewarded tomorrow."
And then an angel from another gate calls out and says,
"Allahumma 'ati mounfiqaan khalafa,
Allahumma 'ati moumsikaan talafa."
"O Allah, give back more to the one who gives,
and give destruction to the one who withholds."
And those angels are calling from the highest place
of the gates of Paradise to the one who gives
because you responded to the one calling upon you
from the lowest places in the streets and alleys
of this earth.
And think about how many times the gates of Sadaqah
called out to Abu Bakr radiAllahu ta'ala Anhu
while he was alive in this life.
So, imagine how eager they are for him now
in the next life.
And ask yourself, how eager do you want them to be for you?
Rattle your gate and try to get in line
with the first batch.
Captioning provided by MUHSEN (www.muhsen.org)