The Reality of This Dunya

The following are notes taken from the lecture ‘The Reality of This Dunya’ by Shaykh Abdullaah Al Bukhaari

• Salama ibn Dinar Al ‘Araj, from the major ulama and scholar of hadeeth, said: Every bounty of Allaah, if it does not bring you closer to Allah, then it is a misfortune and an affliction upon you
• Everything Allah has blessed you with, no matter how small or simple, if it doesn’t bring you to Allaah, it’s a problem, and Allah has established a proof against you
• From these favours are: health, time, wealth
• Therefore it is upon us to realize the tremendous favours Allah has blessed us with
• Abdullah bin Mu’taz said: The ni’ma goes away very fast and it returns very slow
• So if Allah doesn’t see the slave thankful, and it doesn’t bring about acts of obedience and following the Messenger, then no doubt, these favours are an affliction upon the person
• But if he is thankful, then he is amongst the Muhajireen, those who make hijrah to Allaah ta’ala
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• Why am I reminding you of this? Because today you have good health, but tomorrow there could be sickness
• The Messenger salAllahu alayhi wa sallam said: “Take benefit of five before five: your youth before your old age, your health before your sickness, your wealth before your poverty, your free-time before your preoccupation, and your life before your death.”[al-Haakim, al-Bayhaqee, Saheeh]
• Rush forth and hasten to the da’aa (obedience)
• Imam Ibn Abee Shaybah, on authority of Urwah ibn Zubayr, stated: if you see a man going to an act of obedience, then know for sure this act of obedience has sisters. But if you see a man performing acts of disobedience then know for sure that it has sisters.
• Meaning these good acts have sisters, just as the bad acts do
• This athar is extremely important
• The ma’siyah have sister acts of disobedience; when he’s alone and by himself, he performs the acts that are forbidden
• The obedience points a person to more obedience, and similarly the disobedience points a person to more disobedience
• When a person performs disobedience, the Shaytaan causes one to fall into disobedience, and sins continue to pile up and there are three different things he’s responding to:
  • He falls into hawa (following his lusts and vain desires)
  • The soul that orders him to do bad – nafs-amara-bis-soo’
  • The Shaytaan who encourages the evil
• These things call him to abandon the straight path
• And the person who performs acts of obedience, he also answers the call of three:
  • He answers the call of Ar Rahmaan, the Angels, and the soul that is blameworthy (but still has good in it)
• Whenever you become weak you will incline to the three things (hawa, soul that order evil, and Shaytaan)
• Whenever you become inclined to the good, you will incline to: the call of Allaah, Jannah
• So therefore, the believer who has common sense, and correct understanding, it’s upon him to reflect and think about this worldly life
• In reality, it is nothing other than days and nights, passing very quickly
• Ibn Al Qayyim stated: ‘The reality of the worldly life is a time between two times, this is, a time that has already passed (and it’s important to realize it’s already passed), and there’s a time that’s coming in the future (tomorrow), and the time between these two is the present time, today.’ (You cannot go in the past, or the future, you must focus on time you’re actually in)
• The reality of the life is that it’s current and realize that it is extremely short
• Some people say fulaan lived for 100 yrs and had a long life, however in reality, it was a very short life
• The only time you have to reform and rectify is the time that you’re standing in today
• From the complete thankfulness to Allah is rectifying and correcting that which has already passed
• Ibn Qayyim mentioned that reforming what has passed is not difficult or burdensome, rather, there’s no action in it. For rectifying it takes place by tawbah, and seeking forgiveness, and having regret for his shortcomings
• So therefore this nadam (regret) is an act of the heart, and the tongue and doesn’t involve the bodily limbs
• Imam Ahmad in his musnad, recorded that the Prophet salAllaahu alayhi wasallaam said: “Tawbah itself is nadam (regret)”
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• O you who believe! Turn to Allâh with sincere repentance!(Tahreem 66:8)
• Ibn Mas’ood: Sincere repentance is regretting it and not returning to the sin
• He can reform his life by turning back to Allah in repentance
• So you correct your future by having a firm belief that you will not return to the disobedience
• Speak to yourself and tell yourself that you’ll be far and remote from the things that gain His anger and displeasure
• Allah will reward you for that intention and bless you with recompense
• The current time is corrected by strictly guarding Allah’s rules and legislations and performing the faraa’id and staying away from the disobedience (Surah Baqarah, these are the set limits of Allah so do not transgress them, and in another place: do not come near these set limits, and in another place: whoever transgresses this, he transgresses himself)
• The current day is the most difficult of the three times
• The intellectual one: he doesn’t give away to that which is great for that which is small and meager
• So he doesn’t give into the current pleasure of the worldly life for the pain of the everlasting life
• So therefore, in closing, the slave must be patient upon Allah’s obedience, and staying away from disobedience
• If a believer does these things, then this is the bounty of Allah, to whom He gives what he wills
• These things are proven in the Qur’aan and Sunnah
• The Sahabah, and the Khulafa, and the Taabi’een proceeded upon the affairs we previously mentioned
• And this is the fiqh un nafs, having an understanding of one’s soul, something that not many people have
• Salama ibn Dinar Al ‘A’raj stated: The difference between us and between them, is that the worldly life ran behind them, It chased the sahaba, and they ran away from it, and as for us, the worldly life is running away from us, and we’re running behind it.
• This is the clear difference between the sahaba and those besides the sahaba, they had an understanding that the dunya had a putrid smell
• Abu Bakr used to sit down and grab his beard and say to the dunya, put someone else through the fitnah, and don’t deceive me (this right here is the true understanding, fiqh un nafs)
• A man made the du’aa: ‘O Allah make me from the few’ – Umar radiAllaahu ‘anhu asked what he meant by this, and he said haven’t you heard from Allah, But few of My slaves are grateful (Saba 34:13)
• So how many bounties do we have, and we have little gratitude
• Thankfulness takes place with the heart, the tongue and the bodily limbs
• This is a tremendous statement, when the sahaba realized the reality of the dunya, every path that lead them to Allah, they tread it
• I’ll ask you a question: The sahaba that fought in the different battles, some of them were wounded, others killed – where did the physical pain go? It’s gone away
• From the sahaba are those that were informed that they would be the inhabitants of Jannah
• The pain has gone away, it’s nothing but a story now, but their levels are high, and they’re mentioned with praise
• Imam Ahmed was put through trails and physical pain, yet where did the pain go? It is gone, but he is still mentioned today, with praise and has a high level
• So then look at the people who had the luxuries of the worldly life, Qarun, and Fir’aun, they died and went away and their punishment remains and they’re mentioned in a bad manner – they’re never mentioned with good
• Remember: the intellectual person doesn’t give away the greater portion for the lesser portion
• Al Masrook ibn Ajda’ (student and friend of Abdullah ibn Mas’ood), was very elderly, he was from those who were alive during the time of the Prophet salAllaahu alayhi wasallam, but he didn’t meet him as a believer, he was actually older in age than Abu Bakr
• Al Masrook, was from the leaders of the tabieen, Ibn Abee Shybah mentions in his biography: Once he made hajj and Masrook never slept except that he was in sujood, he didn’t sleep at all, and he used the time in Hajj for this ibadah, he only slept in sujood, but he didn’t intentionally fall asleep in sujood, the lack of sleep made him sleep in the sajdah position, his wife would cry when she saw this, as he wouldn’t sleep and the hardship she would see him undergo
• Therefore, the difficulty and pains that you undergo in the dunya, pleasures and good shall come from them
• AbdulHaqq Ibn Muzahim (from the tabi’een) – whenever the night would come he’d begin to cry: ‘I don’t know which of my deeds that I’ve done today has ascended to Allah’
• And yet if people would say to him, the Angel of death is at your door, there’s nothing extra he could do (and this was how righteous he was)
• All of his time was spent in ‘ibadah (and what of us?)
• They had himmah ‘aaliyah (great aspirations, great goals ) and they weren’t pleased with that which was lower, only pleased with that which is greater
• That was a nation who has passed away. They shall receive the reward of what they earned, and you of what you earn. And you will not be asked of what they used to do. (Al-Baqarah 2:141)
• So the person will be resurrected by himself: On that Day man will be informed of what he sent forward (of his evil or good deeds), and what he left behind (of his evil or good deeds). (Al-Qiyamah 75:13)