Captioning provided by MUHSEN (www.muhsen.org)
What if everything we owned
and everything we think we own
of our body parts could speak?
How paranoid would we be
about our own hearts contradicting us? And our own bodies
our homes, our devices, testifying against us?
And the trickiest of all of those is the heart,
because sometimes we're not even so sure
of what's in our hearts,
we might see what our hands and our feet do,
but it's really what's
in our hearts when we act that counts most.
And you have this incident where
Abu Dawud Rahimallah ta-a'la, the famous hadith author
He said that "I said to Imam Ahmad Rahimallah,
'I wrote this book for the sake of Allah'
and Imam Ahmad said to me, 'that's a serious claim.
Instead, say that this is something my heart has been made
to inclined towards, so I did it'."
SubhanAllah it's to that level.
Like, are you sure you did this for Allah?
Because the intentions are so volatile and can switch
on us at any moment. And in general, for ourselves
Fala tuzakku anfusakum huwwa a'lammu be mani'taqqa
do not claim purity for yourselves
because Allah knows who indeed is pious.
If you feel like you did something for Allah
you don't have to constantly tell other people
that you did something for Allah.
Now as far as what you assume of other people,
let them always be good assumptions.
And even then, the Prophet SallAllahu Alaihi Wasallam said
"If you want to praise someone, say
Ah'sebu fulaanan wallahu H'aseebu
wala uzakky a'lAllahi ah'ada
I consider such-and-such a person to be good,
But at the end of the day Allah is his only true assessor,
and I cannot claim anyone for sure to be pious
in his sight because only Allah knows who we really are.
And on the Day of Judgment, Allah is going to
bring forth all of these things that were silent in
this world to speak either for us or against us."
(dramatic music)
At this point on the Day of Judgment,
you're already well aware that your deeds can speak.
They've been personified since you've been in the grave.
But while you're standing before Allah, He suddenly
causes so much more to speak. In that same hadith
where the Prophet SallAllahu Alaihi Wasallam spoke
about the servant being brought forth
and reminded of his favors
and then his forgetfulness of Allah
Prophet SallAllahu Alaihi Wasallam said
Allah calls forth another servant.
Faya'qulu laha mithla dhalik
Allah says to him similar things.
He reminds him of his favors upon him.
The difference is that this person will say when asked
if he remembered the meeting with Allah,
Ya Rabb, amantu bikka wa bi kitabika, wa bi rusuulika
wa salaytu, wa sumtu, wa tasadaqtu.
My Lord, I believed in you.
I believed in your Book. I believed in your Messengers.
And I prayed, and I fasted,
and I gave charity. And he'll be going
on and on and on until Allah says,
"Ha huna illan", stop for now.
Al-an nab'athu shaahidana a'laik
Now we're going to produce our witnesses against you
and the Prophet SallAllahu Alaihi Wasallam said that
this person, yatafakaru fe nafsehee
manthalathy yashhadu a'laya
Who is it that is going to bear witness against me?
I'm pretty sure no one saw this or that
or heard this or that. And in one narration, he even
challenges Allah Subh'anaHu Wa Ta-A'la
La ujeezu a'layah illah shaheedan min nafsee
I only accept a witness
from myself and Allah responds and says,
"The Angels are sufficient and you are sufficient."
Kafa bi nafsika alyawma a'laykah h'aseeba
You yourself are sufficient of a witness against yourself.
Fa yukhteema a'laa feehy
So his mouth is sealed
and it's said to his thighs "takallam", speak.
And then to his flesh, "speak."
and then to his "i'dhaam" to his bones, "speak."
Al yawma nakhtimu a'la afwaheehim
wa tukalimuna aydeehim wa tashhadu arjuluhoom
beema kanu yakseebun.
Today we have sealed their mouths, and their hands
and feet will speak and bear witness against them.
And as every part of your body comes forth
in the form of a human witness,
qalu li juluudhihim lima shahittum a'layna?
they say to their skins
"Why are you testifying against us?
I was trying to protect you.
If we go to hell, then you're going to be
the one that suffers."
Qalu antaqun Allahu lathy antaqu kul shay.
It's Allah who caused us all to speak
just as he caused anything that he wants to to speak.
Now, this is not the average person,
to be clear, the prophet SallAllahu Alaihi Wasallam said,
dhalik-al munnafiq wa dhalikalathy yaskhatulAllahu a'layhy.
That this is the hypocrite,
and this is the one who Allah is angry with.
May Allah not make us amongst them.
But it shows us the capability of the limbs to speak.
So, if your deeds can speak
and your limbs can speak those things
which you use to wrong others can speak as well.
And one of the defining traits of the hypocrites
who are of course merely pretending to be believers,
was that they hated to spend in charity
or in the cause of Allah Subh'anaHu Wa Ta-A'la.
Remember, money and power were what they truly worshiped.
So, what was the first thing they tried to eliminate
from the religion after the death
of the prophet SallAllahu Alaihi Wasallam?
They wanted to get rid of Zakat
because they're materialists
and they were trying to accumulate these mountains of gold
even if that meant abusing the religion to do so.
And the Prophet SallAllahu Alaihi Wasallam gave
a severe warning to those who abandoned Zakat
He said SallAllahu Alaihi Wasallam
"Anyone whom Allah has given wealth
but he does not pay Zakat,
then on the day of resurrection
his wealth will be presented to him in the shape
of a poisonous snake with two poisonous glands in its mouth.
And it will encircle itself around to his neck and bite
at his face and say, "Ana maaluk, ana kanzuk."
I am your wealth. I am your treasure.
Then the prophet SallAllahu Alaihi Wasallam recited
wala yah'sabanaladheena yabkhaluna bimaa 'ataahum
Allahu min fadhlihi huuwa khayrallahum.
Those who withhold in miserliness what Allah has given them
out of his grace should not take it as good for them.
Bal huwa sharrullahum sayu tawwaquuna
mabakheelu bihi yawmal qiyaama.
Rather it is bad for them because whatever they meanly
withhold will be hung around their necks
on the Day of Resurrection. And then places and possessions
they start to speak as well on the Day of Judgment.
"Yawma tubla sara'ir."
The day that all of the secrets of the earth are brought
forth. Again, for the repentance believer
the inevitable sins are forgiven.
So, you're not to despair as long
as you're prepared for this moment.
And by the same token, the places
of goodness are also going to come to your defense.
And if you're sincere and trying to be on the side
of righteousness with Allah Subh'anaHu Wa Ta-A'la,
then Allah will forgive those things that the limbs
have witnessed, and that those places have witnessed so long
as they were not intentional and done in
extended periods of hypocrisy. Now for the wicked,
Allah Subh'anaHu Wa Ta-A'la says
"ma bakat a'layhum al samawaat wal ar'dh,"
Neither the heavens nor the earth shed tears for them.
Ibn Abbas radiAllahu ta'ala Anhuma
He said that "for the righteous person, the place of your
sajdah, your prostration,
it cries when you depart from the earth.
And now your place
of sujood is coming forth to testify on your behalf.
Now what about those, for example, who made umrah or hajj
or they intended to do so sincerely?
The Prophet SallAllahu Alaihi Wasallam said
about the Black Stone
Wallahi layab'athanahullahu yawm al qiyaamati
lahu a'ynaani yubseeru biheema wa lisaanun yantiqu bihi
yashhadu a'la man istalamahu bi haqq.
By Allah, Allah will raise the Black Stone
on the Day of Resurrection with two eyes
by which it sees and a tongue that it speaks with,
and it will testify to whoever touched it in truth.
In another narration, the Prophet
SallAllahu Alaihi Wasallam said
ya'ti ruknu yawm al qiyaamati a'dhama bi abi qubais
lahu lisaanun wa shafataan.
The Yemeni corner of the Ka'bah will come forth
on the Day of Judgment greater than Abu Qubays.
Abu Qubays is this huge mountain
right next to the Haram in Makkah. So again, a mountain.
the Prophet SallAllahu Alaihi Wasallam said
the Yemeni corner will have a tongue testifying
for all of those who touched it. Then you have the animals.
Remember the bird and the camel that were complaining to
the Prophet SallAllahu Alaihi Wasallam
in a way that only he could hear?
Well now it's the Day of Judgment and the animals come forth
as witnesses for you or against you.
And the Prophet SallAllahu Alaihi Wasallam said
that whoever kills a small bird for play
it will come on the Day of Judgment and say
Ya Rabb! Inna fulaanan qatalaney a'bathan
walam yaqtulney le manfa'.
"O my Lord, so-and-so killed me for sport
and not for any benefit."
On the other hand, the Prophet SallAllahu Alaihi Wasallam
mentioned about the seeker of knowledge,
yastaghfeeru lahu man fi samawaatu wa man fil ar'd
wal h'eetanu fe jaw fil ma'a.
that everything in the heavens
and the earth seeks forgiveness for that person.
Even the fish in the depths of the ocean,
the birds high in the sky, they're coming
on the Day of Judgment and they're testifying. Why?
Because the knowledgeable believer is mindful
of everything and everyone around them
and realizes they have a responsibility
with what they have been given
to everything that they encounter.
And if Allah is going to make our limbs bear witness
and Allah is going to make our possessions bear witness
and the places that we go, the environments
and the animals, imagine the weight of the testimony
of people we encounter when they are
brought forth to bear witness for or against us.
Captioning provided by MUHSEN (www.muhsen.org)