Attachment: The Two Highways (3/16/12 | 23/4/1433 - Masjid Quba)

(If above player does not work, click "Attachment: The Two Highways" for audio recording of the khutbah) - [opens in a separate window]


March 16, 2012 | Rabi Ath-Thani 23, 1433 - Masjid Quba 


Al-Munafiqun (63:9)
يَا أَيُّهَا الَّذِينَ آمَنُوا لَا تُلْهِكُمْ أَمْوَالُكُمْ وَلَا أَوْلَادُكُمْ عَن ذِكْرِ اللَّهِ وَمَن يَفْعَلْ ذَلِكَ فَأُوْلَئِكَ هُمُ الْخَاسِرُونَ 
O YOU who have attained to faith! Let not your worldly goods or your children make you oblivious of the remembrance of God: for If any behave thus - it is they, they who are the losers!


Umar Al-Khattab (RA)
"Bring yourself to account before you are brought to account. And weigh your deeds before your deeds are weighed." 


Part I


Brothers and sisters, many times we speak about loving Allah and loving His messenger (saws). We pray for Allah to give us the good of this life AND the good of the hereafter - this is an authentic tradition. We pray for these two things, but which of them do we really work to attain? The dunya - this world - is what we see here and now, so we often tend to focus on that and work hard on that. But is that where our focus should stay? A true believer knows that Allah will give him the dunya if he works hard for the akhirah. Now, what do I mean by “working hard for the akhirah”? 


I know that once I said that, some of you switched off in your minds. You basically may have said, “Oh no... Not another one of these - pray 5 times, fast, etc - khutbahs again.” Brothers and sisters, those things are important, BUT they are just basic. When I say work hard for the akhirah, I mean work hard in THIS dunya, but your focus is on the akhirah. What I am speaking about is not becoming tied or attached to the things and possessions in this life, but become attached to the promises that Allah has laid out for us. As Muslims, we hardly speak about detachment although it is a key aspect of our faith. Brothers and sisters, if we do not find ways to detach from our strong desire and focus on holding on to worldly things, we will forego the opportunity for the hereafter. If we continue to desire to hold on to power, wealth, status, the ego, etc., the price that we will pay for it is possibly the price of the hereafter... Are we willing to sacrifice the hereafter for this “fleeting enjoyment”?


I don’t like to put myself out there. But I have to share this. I remember distinctly when I first took my shahadah in the 90’s, I would lay down in bed and cry because I could not fathom how long the hereafter was. I mean, let us try this. None of us know when the Day of Judgement will come. Imagine being in the grave. Imagine the grave constricting to the point that it squeezes you and it is hot. Now the question is, how long will it last? This is the punishment that we pray Allah protects us from. Or think of the hellfire. Think of wearing sandals or shoes made of fire. Fire so hot, that your brain boils. 


What we are trading:


When we attach ourselves to this world, we do it at the expense of the hereafter.

• We will forget all the good of this world: The Prophet (saws) narrated: “One of the people of Hell who found most pleasure in the life of this world will be brought forth on the Day of Resurrection and will be dipped into the Fire of Hell.  Then he will be asked, ‘O son of Adam, have you ever seen anything good?’  Have you ever enjoyed any pleasure?’  He will say, ‘No, by God, O Lord.”[1] Few moments in Hell and the person will forget all the good times they had.
• Criminality has no place in Islam: Al-Ma’rij (70: 11-18) [for,] everyone (criminal)who was lost in sin will on that Day but desire to ransom himself from suffering at the price of his own children, and of his spouse, and of his brother, and of all the kinsfolk who ever sheltered him, and of whoever [else] lives on earth, all of them - so that he could but save himself. But nay! Verily, all [that awaits him] is a raging flame, tearing away his skin! It will claim all such as turn their backs [on what is right], and turn away [from the truth], and amass [wealth] and thereupon withhold [it from their fellow-men].
• Other descriptions: “and We will gather them on the Day of Resurrection (fallen) on their faces – blind, dumb and deaf.  Their refuge is Hell; every time it subsides We increase them in blazing fire.” (Quran 17:97)
• “And brings an evil deed — such will be flung down on their faces into the Fire, (and it will be said), ‘Are you recompensed for anything but what you used to do?’” (Quran 27:90)
• “The Fire will burn their faces and they will grin therein, their lips displaced.” (Quran 23:104)
• “The Day their faces will be turned over in the Fire, they will say, ‘How we wish we had obeyed God and obeyed the Messenger.’” (Quran 33:66)
• Al-Balad (90:8-16)
• أَلَمْ نَجْعَل لَّهُ عَيْنَيْنِ 
• وَلِسَانًا وَشَفَتَيْ
• وَهَدَيْنَاهُ النَّجْدَيْنِ
• فَلاَ اقتَحَمَ الْعَقَبَةَ - وَمَآ أَدْرَاكَ مَا الْعَقَبَةُ  فَك رَقَبَةٍ - أَوْ إِطْعَامٌ فِى يَوْمٍ ذِى مَسْغَبَةٍ - يَتِيماً ذَا مَقْرَبَةٍ - أَوْ مِسْكِيناً ذَا مَتْرَبَةٍ - ثُمَّ كَانَ مِنَ الَّذِينَ ءَامَنُواْ وَتَوَاصَوْاْ بِالصَّبْرِ وَتَوَاصَوْاْ بِالْمَرْحَمَةِ - أُوْلَـئِكَ أَصْحَـبُ الْمَيْمَنَةِ - وَالَّذِينَ كَفَرُواْ بِـَايَـتِنَا هُمْ أَصْحَـبُ الْمَشْـَمَةِ - عَلَيْهِمْ نَارٌ مُّؤْصَدَةُ 
• But he has not attempted to pass on the path that is steep.) (12. And what will make you know the path that is steep) (13. Freeing a neck) (14. Or giving food in a day full of Masghabah,) (15. To an orphan near of kin.) (16. Or to a Miskin cleaving to dust.) (17. Then he became one of those who believed and recommended one another to patience, and recommended one another to compassion.) (18. They are those on the Right,) (19. But those who disbelieved in Our Ayat, they are those on the Left.) (20. Upon them Fire will Mu'sadah.)

Types of attachment


There are varying types of attachment
اعْلَمُوا أَنَّمَا الْحَيَاةُ الدُّنْيَا لَعِبٌ وَلَهْوٌ وَزِينَةٌ وَتَفَاخُرٌ بَيْنَكُمْ وَتَكَاثُرٌ فِي الْأَمْوَالِ وَالْأَوْلَادِ كَمَثَلِ غَيْثٍ أَعْجَبَ الْكُفَّارَ نَبَاتُهُ ثُمَّ يَهِيجُ فَتَرَاهُ مُصْفَرًّا ثُمَّ يَكُونُ حُطَامًا وَفِي الْآخِرَةِ عَذَابٌ شَدِيدٌ وَمَغْفِرَةٌ مِّنَ اللَّهِ وَرِضْوَانٌ وَمَا الْحَيَاةُ الدُّنْيَا إِلَّا مَتَاعُ الْغُرُورِ 
Al-Hadid (57:20) KNOW [O men] that the life of this world is but a play and a passing delight, and a beautiful show, and [the cause of] your boastful vying with one another, and [of your] greed for more and more riches and children. [29] Its parable is that of [30] [life-giving] rain: the herbage which it causes to grow delights the tillers of the soil; [31] but then it withers, and thou canst see it turn yellow; and in the end it crumbles into dust. But [the abiding truth of man’s condition will become fully apparent] in the life to come: [either] suffering severe, or [32]God’s forgiveness and His goodly acceptance: for the life of this world is nothing but an enjoyment of self-delusion.

• Wealth: We hold on to our wealth like it really belongs to us. We are afraid to lose it. We think that if we lose it, we will not get it back. A brother said recently, “It takes strength to give charity.” Subhanallah. When he said that, I agreed with him. But as I thought about it some more, I realize HOW profound the statement was... I look around and I think of people in our community... OUR exemplars... Real men and women who do just that... I think of Br. Uthman... Over 60 and makes me feel ashamed when I see him working as hard as he does sometimes. Imam Rashid Awad. Each time I come to give a khutbah, and I see Imam Rashid in the masjid, I ask myself, “why are you even attempting to speak and you have people like him in the room?” I think of our brother who died recently, Br. Amin Alkhatib... May Allah make his grave spacious, filled with light, and a peaceful abode until the Day of Judgement...Ameen... And we pray that on that day, when all accounting will be done, that Allah accepts his good deeds, forgives him his sins, and grants him access to the highest levels of paradise... Ameen... Ameen... Ameen...
• As a man, are you well polished, neatly groomed, wearing the latest and best, while your wife and kids look like wayfarers? Like they are miskeen? If you have kids, and your KIDS are suffering more than YOU are, you are not a man! If you go to bed with the stomach full and your kids are hungry, you are NOT a man! If you can choose what you can have for dinner because you have the means to do do, but your kids have no choice but to eat noodles and butter each night, you are NOT a man... How can you stand in salah and pray to your lord, and ask Rabbil-alameen to increase YOUR bounties when you are not doing your most basic job of taking care of your kids???  Brother, if you fall into this category, after Jumu’ah, go out and seek Allah’s bounties... How? Give some money to your kids, wherever they are. If you know they struggle for transport to get to school and work, and you are telling yourself, “I only have $20 for my transpass, she will have to work it out for them.” Then, you are missing the point of this whole Islam thing. Give them the $20, and I can guarantee you that Allah will send what YOU need. How can I guarantee that? Because Allah promises to reward those who do good. This is not my guarantee... This is me repeating Allah’s guarantee.
• “Whoever fails to show mercy to our children and honor to our elders is not one of us.”
• People: In marriage, we treat our spouses and children as though they are our possessions, and not as though they are our trusts! Allah has given us an opportunity to earn HIS paradise by entrusting us to care for HIS creation. I am going to discuss TWO things that are a serious problem in our community because they are not addressed proactively and productively. 
• Brothers: Your wives are a trust for you. You protect it and safeguard it. She is NOT your possession. She, like you, has a right to be advised and corrected if she is doing something wrong. But you DO NOT have the right to punch her and abuse her. That is haraam! That is not sanctioned anywhere in Islam. Additionally, this thing of treating your wife with contempt and indifference when you decide to add on to your family or get another wife needs to stop. How can you claim to uphold the trust of being kind and compassionate to your wife, when she hears that you have another family through a Facebook post or because you brought home a plate from the walimah to her? Where are we getting this from?
• “None but a noble man treats women in an honorable manner. And none but a dishonorable man treats women disgracefully.” ~The Prophet Muhammad (Sunan Tirmidhi).
• Sisters: Your husbands are a trust for you. You protect him and safeguard him. You help him nurture his iman and guide his family. Like you, he has the right to be advised and corrected if he is doing something wrong. I will raise this topic because it is happening in our community, and not enough people are speaking about it. This attachment to the man that makes us accuse him wrongfully or say things against his character if he says he is going to expand his family by taking on another wife is something that has to stop. This is not good character. If he is being unjust, then that should be addressed. But if today, he is a good man and you are signing his praises, and tomorrow he mentions this and now he is the worst man to walk to face of the earth, then something is wrong. This cannot continue. 
• The Messenger of Allah (SAWS) said: "A man will follow the way of his close friend, so let each of you look to who his close friends are."
• Life and time: We curse time. We are impatient. 
• Hadith Qudsi.“Man offends Me: he reviles {curses} Time, though I am Time; the command is in My hand, I turn over the nights and days.” Wake up late in the morning. Taking public transportation. Driving in your car. We have all looked at out watches or our phones and curse at how late it is. 
• Power: Abu-Bakr as Caliph: 
• “Oh people, as I have now been placed in a position of authority over you and I am not the best of you, if I do good, then help me, and if I do wrong then correct me. Truth is a trust and lying is betrayal. The weak amongst you is strong with me until I get his rights returned to him, God willing; and the strong amongst you is weak until I [justly] take the right from him, God willing… Obey me as long as I obeyed Allah and His messenger, so if I disobey Allah and His messenger then you owe me no obedience.” [Al-Bidayah Wan-Nihayah by Ibn Kathir. Vol 6, p. 320] As leaders, are we like Abu Bakr? Do we take correction? Do we admit WHEN it is time to move on and pass on the torch? Or, do we hold on to it like it is the only thing that defines us?
• Pleasures: Our possession are merely a trust and others have a right to our charity. We are not doing it for them, we are doing it for our own souls. 
• It is this attachment to temporary pleasures that makes it possible for us to live in a time when 50% of all births to women under the age of 30 are to single, unwed mothers. There was a time in our community when having a child out of marriage was something that few people knew about. It was something that did not touch YOUR family. Now... It is very different. A generation later, almost each family can say that they have a family member, who is Muslim, who has a child outside of marriage. Our community cannot sustain this. A generation from now, we will be looking to marry off our children, and we will wonder why we cannot find stable men and women. It will be worse than this; allahu-alam... Just this week a sister messaged me, “Brother, do you know of any good brothers available for marriage?” Do you know HOW MANY of these messages we get? The answer is always the same, “Sister, try to align yourself to a community. Speak to your wali or wakil. We lose our values. We do not see beyond ourselves. We do not see that our actions will impact the lives of so many...
• Self: Do we hold on to ourselves at the expense of the akhirah?
• Once, a person was verbally abusing Abu Bakr (may Allah be pleased with him) while the Prophet (peace be upon him) was curiously watching with a smile. After taking much abuse quietly, Abu Bakr responded to a few of his comments. At this, the Prophet exhibited his disapproval, got up and left. Abu Bakr caught up with the Prophet (pbuh) and wondered: "O Messenger of Allah, he was abusing me and you remained sitting. When I responded to him, you disapproved and got up." The Messenger of Allah (pbuh) responded: "There was an angel with you responding to him. When you responded to him, Satan took angel's place.' He (pbuh) then said:
• "O Abu Bakr, there are three solid truths:
• 1) If a person is wronged and he forbears it (without seeking revenge) just for the sake of Allah Almighty, Allah will honour him and give him the upper hand with His help;
• 2) if a person opens a door of giving gifts for cementing relationships with relatives, Allah will give him abundance; and,
• 3) if a person opens a door of seeking charity for himself to increase his wealth, Allah will further reduce his wealth.'
• How many of us, if we feel disrespected or challenged will remember the advice that the Prophet gave to Abu Bakr? How many of us will trade the companionship of the angels for the companionship of shaytan because of our attachment to self and ego?

Attachment makes us heedless and negligent

• We do not stand up for justice and we do not accept correction:
• We lose our values - the thing that connects us to Allah and to others
• Pride clouds ability to accept correction
• Think of Pharaoh
• Think of Iblis
• We try to preserve fleeting relationships. We focus on the person and we do not love the soul. If you truly love for your brother what you want for yourself, you want paradise for him MORE than you want it for yourself. 
• Homosexuality
• Fornication
• Drugs - taking and selling
• BAD advice
• Violence in our community
• We do not guide with compassion. We criticize with condemnation of the person. We beat people down. So much so, that they do not know how to get back up. Give you an example. A sister comes to you and says that she has a problem. She commits zina. Each time she tries to protect herself, she finds herself in the same situation. How do you help her rectify this? As Muslims, we should help them to see how detestable the sin is in the sight of Allah and how they can corrupt even the values THEY hold true. Make it a struggle for them to do it within them. However, this works BEFORE they commit it. If it is after they commit it, then what? My suggestion, do not focus so much on the sin. Do not condemn them. Your job is to remind them of how EASY it is to return to the path of Allah. 
• Narrate Trinidad incident in shop...
• A friend shared this on FB recently: If we sleep comfortably on our pillows tonight, not grieving because of their grief, not feeling wounded from their wounds, not furious for their agony and suffering... then know that we are exorbitantly deficient in our iman and are drowning in an ocean of ghaflah... as we lay on our soft pillows tonight.
• The Prophet SAW said: The believers in their affection, compassion and love for one another is like one single body. If a part of the body suffers from pain, the whole body will suffer in pain and insomnia.

Part II


Brothers and sisters, we need to find ways to constructively detach ourselves from the love of the dunya in the hopes that we will find out place with Allah in Jannah.


Action Plan:

• Make a SINCERE intention to be better
• Whoever forms a sincere, definite intention to do good or obey Allaah, then is prevented from doing that deed, Allaah will decree the reward for him. 
• It was narrated from Abu'l-Darda' (may Allaah be pleased with him) that the Prophet said: "Whoever goes to his bed intending to get up and pray at night, then his eyes overwhelm him and (he sleeps) until morning, the (reward for) that which he intended will be written for him, and his sleep is a charity for him given by his Lord, may He be glorified and exalted." Narrated by al-Nasaa’i, 1787; Ibn Maajah, 1344; classed as saheeh by Shaykh al-Albaani in Saheeh al-Targheeb, 601.
• Du’a
• Prayer - You want to pray more and cut your attachment to sleep?
• Prophet Muhammad (sal Allahu alaihi wa sallam) said, "When one of you sleeps, the Shaitan ties three knots at the back of his head and says for each knot: have a long night, so slumber. When you wake up and mention Allah, one of these knots is untied. When you perform ablution, another knot is untied; and when you establish prayer, all of the knots are untied and you become alert and pleasant. Otherwise, you become wicked hearted and lazy. [Sahih Bukhari]
• Curing it:
• Being grateful
• Being generous
• Reviewing intentions / checking motives
• Being forgiving of others
• Changing attitude

Brothers and sisters, our level of attachment to things of this world will most surely impact how we are remembered (or NOT remembered) after our death. What is the legacy you are leaving behind? Are you someone who reminds people of the beauty of Islam and the goodness of man, or are you someone who reminds people of the corruption and scams of this life? Are we attaching ourselves to Allah, His Messenger and Islam in meaningful ways, or are we doing it by lip service and really attaching ourselves to this dunya and our own nafs? Let us take the examples of our beloved elders like Imam Rashid Awad, like Br. Amin AlKhatib (may Allah be pleased with him) and forge a NEW reality for ourselves and our children... May Allah make this a reality for us... Ameen... Ameen.. Ameen...