Second Ramadan Lecture Presented by Al-Sayyid Abdul Malik Badruddin Al-Houthi, 1444 A.H.
Taqwa and its fruits in the Hereafter (1)
I seek refuge in Allah from Shaytan, the outcast.
In the name of Allah, the Compassionate, the Merciful.
Praise is to Allah, Lord of the Worlds. I believe that there is no god but Allah, the Sovereign and the Manifest Truth, and that Muhammad, our master, is His servant, Messenger, and Last Prophet.
O Allah, confer Your salat and blessings upon Muhammad and the Family of Muhammad as You conferred Your salat and blessings upon Ibrahim and the Family of Ibrahim. You are Owner of Praise, Owner of Glory! And be pleased with Muhammad's good companions and all Your righteous servants and mujahidin.
Brothers and sisters, peace be upon you and the mercy of Allah and His blessings.
Our discussion continues regarding the importance of Taqwa and what it means for individuals on a personal level, as well as its significance for society and nations in general. We have previously spoken about some of the outcomes of Taqwa and what it grants for individuals in this immediate worldly life. However, one of the most important aspects related to Taqwa is what it means for our eternal future in the realm of the Hereafter, the everlasting life where evil and goodness exist at their highest. Taqwa holds immense importance for us in relation to that.
Allah (Glory be to Him) addresses us in the Holy Quran, saying: {'O believers! Be mindful of Allah and let every soul look to what it has sent forth for tomorrow. And fear Allah, certainly Allah is All-Aware of what you do. And do not be like those who forgot Allah, so He made them forget themselves. It is they who are rebellious. Not equal are the companions of the Fire and the companions of Jannah. It is the companions of Jannah who are the successful'}.
Taqwa holds great significance for each one of us in terms of our immensely important future in the Hereafter. When Allah (Glory be to Him) created us in this life, He made our lives and existence in this world connected to our future in the Hereafter, and our lives in the Hereafter connected to our lives here.
This understanding is very important for humans: to believe in this connection between the two lives so that their attention, concerns, and focus do not become solely directed towards this life, completely disregarding their future in the Hereafter. Here lies the danger: when a person's focus, concerns, and entire attention are directed solely towards this life, completely detached from his inevitable future in the Hereafter. Therefore, Allah (Glory be to Him) warns and alerts us so that we do not fall into this heedlessness that many people fall into by not considering the consequences of their future in the Hereafter and not being mindful of Allah towards themselves regarding it. They ensnare themselves as a result of these calculations that make them separate their future in the Hereafter from their concerns in this life, and direct all their attention solely towards this life. They entangle themselves in a great predicament and lose their immensely important eternal future for the sake of limited interests and desires in this temporary life.
Wake up and pay attention to your eternal future and what you have sent forth!
{'O believers!'} It is our faith that is what connects us to Allah (Glory be to Him) and to His guidance and teachings. It is our faith that is the foundation upon which we build our belief in Allah's promise of reward and punishment. It is our faith that serves as a covenant between us and Allah, based on our response to Him and our adherence to His commands and prohibitions. Allah uses this faith in calling and addressing us and reminds us based on it, saying, {'O believers! Be mindful of Allah and let every soul look to what it has sent forth for tomorrow.'} Be mindful of Allah and do not neglect your future, which is a near future, no matter how distant it may seem in human perception. It is near, and the only barrier between you and that future is death. When compared to the calculations of the eternal great future, death is nothing but a moment, a brief moment. On the Day of Resurrection, the Day of Judgment, this is how a person will feel: that the duration spent in the state of death was merely a very short time, a very short amount of time. Allah (Glory be to Him) says, {'He will ask , "How many years did you remain on earth?" They will reply, "We remained a day or part of a day. But ask those who kept count"'}. {'And on the Day the Hour will arrive, the wicked will swear that they did not stay more than an hour'}. That stage which acts as a barrier between you and the near future that is to come, is considered a brief period.
That is why it is expressed in the Holy Quran in this manner: {'what it has sent forth for tomorrow'}. That is because it is a near and extremely important future, no matter how distant or unlikely you may perceive it to be or you overlook it. You are the one who should prepare yourself and send forth for your coming tomorrow and your important future what grants you salvation, success, and prosperity. If you do not consider what you are presenting and what kind of consequences it might lead to, then your efforts and deeds in this life, which determine your destiny in that future, might prove that you are preparing nothing for yourself except torment and misery. You prepare torment and punishment for yourself because you do those kinds of deeds that lead to misery and torment and cause you to lose the pleasure of Allah, His Jannah, and the eternal happy life. So it is you who bring destruction and loss upon yourself and cause yourself to miss this great bliss and eternal happy future.
{'And let every soul look to what it has sent forth for tomorrow'}: You yourself must have a sense of responsibility towards yourself and pay attention to yourself, your future, and what you send forth. The deeds you do in this life are of great importance, even more than you imagine or think, as one will be held to account even for a particle's weight of good or evil that his deeds include: {'So, whoever does a particle's weight of good will see it. And whoever does a particle's weight of evil will see it'}.
The calculations a person makes should consider both lives. If a person focused, as we said to be the case with many people, all his attention on this life—he seeks to find comfort and fulfil his ambitions, material desires, lusts, and pleasures—at the expense of that important future, the eternal future in the Hereafter, he will entangle himself and lose that great bliss which is free from any impurities and that eternal happy and elegant life for trivial and limited things that he seeks to attain here in the worldly life, only to lose them and bear their very grave consequences, their terrible aftermath, regretting and repenting. That is why Allah (Glory be to Him) says in the Holy Quran:
{'Whoever desires this fleeting world , We hasten in it whatever We please to whoever We will; then We destine them for Jahannam, where they will burn, condemned, and rejected. But whoever desires the Hereafter and strives for it accordingly, and is a true believer, it is they whose striving will be appreciated. We provide both the former and the latter from the bounty of your Lord. And the bounty of your Lord can never be withheld'}.
A person's care for the Hereafter and his striving for it does not mean that he will fail to pay attention to the affairs of his worldly life. Rather, his priorities and efforts in this life will be within the framework of his pursuit of his future in the Hereafter. Through this connection, he will take care of his affairs in this life but in a way that benefits him and takes into consideration his future in the Hereafter, so it is not at the expense of his future in the Hereafter.
The destiny of those who prioritize this life over their future in the Hereafter
As for a person who neglects his future in the Hereafter, he focuses on this life at the expense of that future: He does anything here in pursuit of his pleasures, desires, and inclinations. That is, he may disobey Allah (Glory be to Him), serve falsehood, commit sins, neglect or fall short in what Allah has commanded him to do, or shirk his important responsibilities in this life, which are part of his religious, faith-based commitments. He may do all of this in order to make this life go his own way and to fulfil some of his pleasures, desires, and inclinations.
With this limited and short view, a person does not get to his goal in this life. He might have a bit of it but with a lot of inconveniences and complications; then it is over and gone, for this is a temporary, limited life: If a person gets whatever he gets, if he gets whatever he desires, and if he fulfils some of his inclinations and desires, all that is a limited, temporary thing and will soon end. It is a fleeting life, for it fleets quickly and is limited and temporary. Then everything is over; however, the consequences, inequities, and burdens remain, and so does the eternal torment in the Hereafter (We seek refuge in Allah): {'Then We prepare for him Jahannam.'}
What is the value of what you will get in this life (the pleasures, desires, inclinations, lusts, or delights in it) if it is followed by Jahannam? One dip in the fire of Jahannam can make you forget everything: the pleasures of this life, the comfort of this life, and the delights of this life. This is what happens in one dip, one moment, let alone what happens when your destiny and future is Jahannam (We seek refuge in Allah): {'Then We destine them for Jahannam, where they will burn, condemned and rejected.'} Such a person loses dignity and human worth, and his future in Jahannam is a future of torment, humiliation, shame, and condemnation as he is expelled from the mercy of Allah (Glory be to Him). Indeed, he is without value, dignity, respect, importance, or weight; he is just a loser who is despised and rejected. Even in his feelings, he himself looks at himself as a loser and a worthless, troubled person who did not guide himself properly or make a good choice for his future. He becomes very remorseful and regretful, and at the same time, he looks down on himself, always blames himself, and is in the deepest state of regret. That is because there was no value of what he got after being in that horrible trouble, torment, and misery: Jahannam (We seek refuge in Allah), {'where they will burn, condemned and rejected'}.
{'But whoever desires the Hereafter'} he, in his concerns and attitudes, pays special attention to his important future in the Hereafter, which is eternal and what it has is of paramount importance, since its bliss is the greatest and most delightful bliss that lasts forever, while its torment is the most severe torment that knows no end. These are the calculations of an insightful person, a person who has chosen well for himself and taken care of himself and his future.
{'But whoever desires the Hereafter and strives for it accordingly, and is a true believer'}—our striving for the Hereafter in this life is part of our concerns and activities in this life itself. Our deeds in this life are important for us in this life itself and in the Hereafter; it is not that our deeds have neither effect nor importance in this life. All deeds that we do for our future in the Hereafter have their positive impact and importance in this worldly life, as they are part of what we need in this life. However, when it comes to the calculations one may make and the outcomes of such calculations or when it comes to inclinations of the soul and its desires, the believer who is mindful of Allah adheres to Allah's commands and confines himself within His instructions, in which lies abundant goodness and the true benefit for man.
{'But whoever desires the Hereafter and strives for it accordingly, and is a true believer,'}—this is because your motive must be a faith-based motive in what you do and contribute for your future in the Hereafter—{'it is they whose striving will be appreciated'}: Allah (Glory be to Him) appreciates your striving. Even though this is a manifestation of thanking Allah in this life, He, out of His great generosity, makes your striving appreciable and therefore grants you great reward and bounty and a happy life.
{'We provide both the former and the latter from the bounty of your Lord. And the bounty of your Lord can never be withheld,'} in order to show us that one's taking care of his future in the Hereafter never means that he has lost himself in this life or he denied himself everything in this life. Therefore, the good intended for you by Allah in this life will come in a way that is not at the expense of your future in the Hereafter.
{'And let every soul look to what it has sent forth for tomorrow. And fear Allah.'} That is because the greatest negligence and the biggest loss is when one does not take into account his future in the Hereafter. This is a very terrible loss and great negligence: You yourself did not protect yourself from the eternal misery and severe torment in Jahannam, in the Hereafter, starting with terrible reckoning. Indeed, this is a very terrible issue.
{' certainly Allah is All-Aware of what you do.'} Our deeds are a prelude to our future in the Hereafter; therefore, we must look to our deeds with due importance that they determine our future in the Hereafter, and with regard to our calculation, we must move from the perspective that Allah is watching us. He is aware of what we do and the level of the effects resulted from what we do, our deeds. The effects in this life, their results, and their consequences are taken into consideration a long with the deeds, as Allah is All-Aware and the One Who grants reward for that.
Remember the inevitable reality: You are on a path leading either to Jannah or the Fire!
{'And do not be like those who forgot Allah, so He made them forget themselves. It is they who are rebellious'}: The result when a person moves in this life while he forgets Allah and does not think of Him (to fear Him, to know that Allah is an All-Watcher over him and that good for him lies in fearing Allah, to obey Him and respond to Him, and to listen to His calls, His warning of the state of heedlessness, and His warning to us in this life) is that he forgets himself—{'So He made them forget themselves'}—and does not care about his important future and great, certain destination. {'So He made them forget themselves. It i} they who are rebellious'}: They drive themselves away from what Allah has laid to His servants as a path of salvation and as deeds for their good, interest, and benefit in this life and in the Hereafter. Keep in mind the undeniable truth: You are destined to either Jannah or the Fire.
{'Not equal are the companions of the Fire and the companions of Jannah. It is the companions of Jannah who are the successful'}: One should realize that he is definitely going either to Jannah or to the Fire. This will be determined according to his deeds and attitudes: If he goes by the guidance and instructions of Allah (Glory be to Him), that will definitely lead him to Jannah. Otherwise, the inevitable outcome, if he violates that , will be that he becomes destined to the Fire (We seek refuge in Allah).
This is a significant fact that a person should always remind himself of every day, every day. That is, he certainly heads either to Jannah or to the Fire, and this depends on his deeds, actions, attitudes, and priorities. So he should realize how to act responsibly and how to adjust his actions based on this—actually, this is Taqwa—in order to protect himself from heading into that direction or destiny that leads to Jahannam (We seek refuge in Allah).
In our future in the Hereafter, as we have said, death is the dividing line; in fact, we must leave this life, and the Hereafter must definitely come. The departure from this life comes through death. In fact, death is the truth which is recognized by all human beings and which no one can deny. It is the beginning of returning to Allah (Glory be to Him) and the end of the opportunity given in this life to do deeds.
Therefore, Allah (Glory be to Him) says in the Holy Quran, {'Every soul will taste death.'}—everyone. No one of us, whoever he is (king, one in power, a person with capabilities, abilities, experience, or knowledge, or one with any capability), whatever his reality is, whatever his rank is, can escape death, which is the end of this life and the beginning of returning to Allah (Glory be to Him). 'Every soul'—one can never keep that end away from him or maintain his existence in this life to keep living in it and immortalize himself in it. Therefore, why do you turn all your attention just to it? Why do you neglect your future that is definitely coming? Why do not you care about the coming important day and your future in the Hereafter?
{'Every soul will taste death. And you will only receive your full reward on the Day of Resurrection'}. This is a fact that is lived by all people and takes place in people's reality every day: Every day, people bid farewell to large numbers of them, and a lot of people die in hospitals every day. These hospitals in cities bear a lesson. In reality, generations after generations die. All people will die and move from this life: There is no survive, immortality, and continuity in it. It is a temporary life with an appointed time.
{'And you will only receive your full reward on the Day of Resurrection'}: The full reward will come in our future in the Hereafter. So why don't we care about it and work to gain this reward? It is an important matter, for the reward there is not an ordinary reward, and the future there is not an ordinary future: It is either Jannah or the Fire. {'Whoever is spared from the Fire and is admitted into Jannah will triumph, whereas the life of this world is no more than the delusion of enjoyment'}.
Your end is inevitable, and death is the end of the opportunity to seek good deeds!
Death is the beginning of returning to Allah (Glory be to Him), as Allah says, {'Every soul will taste death, then to Us you will be returned'}. And He says, {'He reigns supreme over all of His creation, and sends recording-angels, watching over you. When death comes to any of you, Our angels take their soul, never neglecting this duty. Then they are returned to Allah, their True Master. Judgment is His . And He is the Swiftest Reckoner'}. No one can avoid that end or find someone who can protect him from that end and push it away from him. That is why Allah (Glory be to Him) says, {'Then why do you not when reaches the throat, and you are at that moment watching? And We are closer to him than you, but you do not perceive'}.
In his last moments in life (while leaving this world), one might be surrounded by his relatives, friends, loved ones, and doctors, but they won't be able to prevent his death or prolong his life if death approaches him. There will be Who is closer to him: {'And We are closer to him than you.'} Even when you are next to him, {'And We are closer to him than you, but you do not perceive.'} No one can avoid facing that inevitable fate: {'Now, if you are not subject to Our will, bring that soul back, if what you say is true'}.
What is strange about people is that they do not benefit from the lessons and guiding examples in their life: They see people known to them (their relatives and their friends) have gone and left this life, but they do not take into their consideration that they will also leave this life too. They do not ask themselves what they have sent forth and done and what their march in this life will grant them in the Hereafter: Will it result in granting them a life of happiness and success? Or will it result in damnation and loss?
A person who gives no heed to this end, what comes after it, and his future in the Hereafter will find the beginning of this end and return very disturbing and will experience disappointment, loss, and deep regret after the opportunity has gone. That is because death is the end of the opportunity to work and send forth for yourself the deeds that can save you from punishment and lead you to triumph and success. Even though Allah has granted reward for some kind of deeds—He has granted good results for such deeds in this life and great outcomes in the Hereafter and promised Jannah and great reward and bounty for such deeds—you do not give heed to them. They are easy for you to do and within your reach (not beyond your capacity and what you can bear), yet you neglect them. As a result, you will consider yourself a loser when you see your life is over and there is definitely no another opportunity for you. That is why Allah (Glory be to Him) clarifies the state of regret at that critical, sensitive moment, saying, {'When death approaches any of them, they cry, "My Lord! Let me go back, so I may do good in what I left behind." Never! It is only a appeal they make. And there is a barrier behind them until the Day they are resurrected'}.
One should be careful and think about his future in order to avoid being the kind of person who lives in this life without paying any attention or concern towards his important future in the Hereafter. Such a person does not pay attention to his deeds and the consequences and results of these deeds until death falls upon him all of sudden. It is then when he wakes up and starts to pay attention. He receives reminders, but he chooses to turn his back. Admonish is paid to him, but he lets go in one ear and out of the other without paying attention or showing interest, as if people were talking to him about an imaginary thing that is not true and never exists, or thing that he will never face or experience. His surprise will then be great, and death will fall upon him all of sudden as a great shock; however, it will be then impossible for him to seek salvation or avoid that destiny, for the opportunity will be gone forever. He will evoke Allah in humbleness, saying this prayer from the depth of his heart, {'My Lord! Let me go back, so I may do good in what I left behind'}—'to remedy what has passed, what I have lost, and what I have wasted'.
But it is as Allah (Glory be to Him) said, {'Never! It is only a appeal they make'}—it is nothing more than a word through which he expressed his regret, his sorrow, and his loss. There is no place for an additional opportunity to make up for what he has lost from his lifetime, from the days of his life, from the time he wasted, or from the deeds in which he did not take into account the responsibility between him and Allah (Glory be to Him). {'And there is a barrier behind them until the Day they are resurrected'}: There is a barrier that prevents them from returning to life until the Day of Resurrection and Reckoning.
Clarifying this stat that many people will get into—so many people will experience that shock in the last moments of their lives—Allah (Glory be to Him) also says, {'And spend something out of the substance which We have bestowed on you.'} He asked you to spend because this is written for you and you send it forth for yourself: You obtain the pleasure of Allah and His Jannah and triumph. You send it forth for your future in the Hereafter; you achieve great results and gains in the great bliss that Allah has prepared for you.
{'And spend from what We have provided you before death approaches one of you'}. The moment death falls upon him, he wakes up, pays attention, and realizes the value of all these deeds and that they are important, great deeds. Some of the forms of spending include spending in the cause of Allah and spending in the ways of goodness that Allah has guided us to and commanded us to spend on. However, when death comes, what will a person say? {'And he says, "My Lord, if only You would delay me for a brief term'}—all he needs then is a while, even if a little one, {'a brief term'}, even if it was very tiny or a short period of time—{'so I would give charity and be of the righteous'} He says, 'I want to give in charity from my money and send something forth for myself.' After all, you will leave that money and won't benefit from it, or you may have spent it in a way that leads to a burden on you. {'So I would give charity and be of the righteous'}—but will you be given an additional opportunity, even an hour or a day, or even a short time? The answer is this: {'But never will Allah delay a soul when its time has come. And Allah is Aware of what you do'}.
Seize the opportunity to repent before the door is closed!
Even repentance—when you lead a life in which you are careless about what you do, acting according to your inclinations, lusts, and personal whims and go beyond the limits that Allah prescribed and His commands and prohibitions—there is no room for repentance when death falls upon you, unless you had taken the initiative and returned to Allah (Glory be to Him) earlier. {'However, repentance is not accepted from those who knowingly persist in sin until they start dying, and then cry, "Now I repent!"'}j. 'I now repent'—he is experiencing death and becoming aware and sure that this time is the beginning of returning to Allah and that after death will be the reckoning and judgment. At that moment, he wants to repent, but it is too late. Allah commanded, invited, and encouraged you in the Holy Quran to repent; however, you were careless and also persisted in committing transgression and continuing in your negligence. So there is no opportunity for repentance, and it is not accepted from you in the last moments of your life when death comes to you. Indeed, when death falls upon you, repentance is not accepted, for your file becomes ready for the reckoning and judgment, and there is no further opportunity or possibility to change your inevitable fate. Therefore, we realize that it is important for us to consider what we send forth for ourselves before we face death and lose the opportunity and our future because of our carelessness and negligence.
Does a person know when the end of his life in this world will be? Is he aware and certain of the date of his departure from this life? Allah says, {'No person knows what he will earn tomorrow, and no person knows in what land he will die'}. A person does not know when he will leave this life. And therefore, when he procrastinates—he says, 'I will become righteous and more careful later and will remedy my shortcomings sometimes later in the rest of my life in this world'—he definitely deceives himself, for he does not know when his departure from this life will be.
In addition, procrastination is dangerous for a person. A person may become forsaken (May Allah forbid) and may not succeed . And success may even be taken away from him, and that leads him to live in a very terrible state of loss. As for the believer who prepares himself, fears Allah, pays attention to his future in the Hereafter, and considers what he sends forth for his future and tomorrow in the Hereafter, he will yearn for Allah when his departure time comes. He will keep receiving good tidings and won't be surprised by that moment, for he used to work for it and prepare himself for it. He was aware of its importance. That is why he used to work and turn to Allah (Glory be to Him) with the deeds that He urged and encouraged him to do. He may even conclude his life here in this world with martyrdom in the cause of Allah; he might be that kind of person who believed in Jihad in the cause of Allah as one of those deeds that are the greatest in terms of reward in the sight of Allah (Glory be to Him)—of those greatest deeds of righteousness. So death will be a fleeting moment in which he moves to a happy, carefree life. Allah (Glory be to Him) says, {'Should you be martyred or die in the cause of Allah, then His forgiveness and mercy are far better than whatever those accumulate'}. When a person gets killed in the cause of Allah, the good tidings come, and he moves to a happy, carefree life as Allah (Glory be to Him) says, {'Never think of those killed in the cause of Allah as dead. In fact, they are alive with their Lord, well provided for, rejoicing in Allah's bounties and being delighted for those yet to join them. There will be no fear for them, nor will they grieve. They are joyful for receiving Allah's grace and bounty, and that Allah does not deny the reward of the believers'}. They enjoy the same spirit showed by the believer of the villagers who when {'It was said, "Enter Jannah." He said, "If only my people knew of how my Lord has forgiven me and placed me among the honourable"'}.
Therefore, one must prepare for this important future that starts with death, the inevitable end, and is followed by the resurrection, the Hereafter, the revival, that big, significant, great matters, and that great and very important future. We are going to speak about this in the coming lecture (Allah willing).
We ask Allah (Glory be to Him) to accept our fasting, nights of worship, and good deeds.
O Allah, have mercy on our virtuous martyrs, heal the wounded among us, set free our captives, and grant us victory. You are All-Hearing!
Peace be upon you and the mercy of Allah and His blessings.