do you want to be a servant of the merciful well if so we make this duʿā
oh Allah protect us from the punishment of the hellfire
Verily that punishment is something which is continuous
and the hellfire it is the worst place it is the worst abode that we can be in
you know when we talk about the hellfire sometimes we get scared like oh no don't talk
about that well not talking about it is not going to make it any less of a reality it's not going
to make it go away and it's not going to allow us to take steps to protect ourselves from that
hell fire the hellfire is serious the prophet ṣallallāhu ‘alayhī wa sallam described a man
who will be in the hell fire in Sahih Bukhari and in Muslim and he has two coals under his feet and
those coals are warm and they're boiling his brain and he will think that this is the worst
punishment in hell and reality is it is the lightest punishment in the hellfire and the
prophet ṣallallāhu ‘alayhī wa sallam told us this why so that we
live a life that does not lead us to that direction so intense is the hellfire Allah says
that the skins will come and be roasted and they will be replaced with another skin
to be roasted again and that's why we're seeking refuge from the punishment
because the punishment is continuous so this is serious so how do we protect ourselves from
it one of the things that leads us off the path the straight path and leads us towards
the hellfire is becoming too enrapt and engrossed in the dunya it's becoming too
caught up in this worldly life to a point that we don't understand what our ultimate purpose
is and where we are heading there's a process or a concept known as zuhd now zuhd you may
have heard it translated in different ways zuhd doesn't mean you don't own anything
zuhd means that nothing owns you so we can have material things but it does not own us
and so the first question we have to ask ourselves if we're serious is are we
willing to make some of the sacrifices in the dunya to protect ourselves from the hell fire
because in the time of the prophet ṣallallāhu ‘alayhī wa sallam there were people that saw
him they saw his blessed face but they did not want to give up their worldly possessions
and there are people like that now that they don't want to make any sacrifices
are we willing to do that that is the first step and the most important question to ask ourselves
what else can we do well who do we surround ourselves with show me who your friends are
and i'll show you who you are the prophet ṣallallāhu ‘alayhī wa sallam told us
that a person is literally on the path or the way of their best friend so be careful who you
take as your best friend do our friends do anything for us which is productive
are they reminding us of Allah or diverting us further away another thing we can do is to
downsize or downgrade you know we don't always have to have the latest and best and brightest
of every single thing or we can wait a week to get it there was someone a very wealthy man he
said it was very interesting that when i came to the mall and i and i could afford everything in
the store i realized i didn't want it anymore that desire wasn't there now we don't need to
wait as believers to be millionaires to understand that that may never happen but we can still
understand the beautiful teachings of our religion the place of the dunya in this world and how to
live in a balanced way and we also reflect and ask ourselves is the material possessions that we have
defining who we are are we quick to brag about our kids or show off our cars or drop you know
the latest accomplishments we've had in our work or what we're doing or how successful etc etc
does that define who we are if it defines who we are then that's leading us off the straight path
when we ask Allah subḥānahu wa taʿālā for the best in this life and the next
life we are not asking to be miserable here quite the contrary when you have a strong connection
with Allah life here will be wonderful but what we're asking also is to stay on the path which
will protect us from the hellfire and lead us to our ultimate destination in shā Allah of Jannah
you