Bismil
Laahir Rahmaanir Raheem
Assalaamu
alaykum wa rahmatul Laahi wa barkaatuh brothers and sisters in Islam. Allah is
the Gafuurur Raheem; the All Forgiving and Merciful. We pray that Allah azza wa
jal favours us with the blessing of His forgiveness whiles we live this life,
in our death and on the Day that we would stand before Him to give accounts of
our lives; which is a surety. Aameen.
On
this Day of Accounts which has been given various names worth pondering upon,
we are told by the noble Prophet Muhammad suallal Laahu alayhi wa sallam that
Allah azza wa jal will ask us a question. This is related by Abu Huraira
radiyal Laahu anhu who reports that the Prophet said;
‘Allah will ask on the Day of
Judgment: ‘Where are those who loved each other for the sake of My glory?
Today, a day when there is no shade but mine, I shall shade them with My shade.’
Saheeh Muslim
I
need and want so badly to have this favour on this Day and I pray that all of
us are blessed with this favour in shaa Allah. There are ahaadith that talk
about the favour of Allah azza wa jal upon those who love one another truly and
solely for His sake but the one that blows my mind most is found in Sunan Abu
Dawood which states;
The Prophet suallal Laahu alayhi wa
sallam said: “Among Allah’s servants are people who are neither Prophets nor
martyrs, but whom the Prophets and martyrs will deem fortunate because of their
high status with Allah.”
They asked: “O Messenger of Allah!
Inform us of who they are.”
He said: “They are people who loved
each other for Allah’s sake, without being related to one another or being tied
to one another by the exchange of wealth. By Allah, their faces will be
luminous and they will be upon light. They will feel no fear when the people
will be feeling fear and they will feel no grief when the people will be
grieving.”
Then he read the ayah: “Behold, on the
friends of Allah there shall be no fear, nor shall they grieve.” (Surah Yunus,
Chapter 10 ayah 62)
Now,
that is just enough motivation for you and I to start loving as much as we
could others (without being related to
one another or being tied to one another by the exchange of wealth) fiisabi
lil Laah. If you are doing so already, then keep the fire burning. If you are
not, then this could be the time.
There
are a thousand and one ways to show love to a brother or sister fiisabi lil
Laah and this show of love should be directed towards one goal: enjoining that
which is right and discouraging from that which is wrong. In this article, I
want to look at one aspect of ‘love fiisabi lil Laah’ that I believe we should
intensify among us.
We
are in an era where we are challenged with lots of external (outside of the
Muslims) problems and then internal ones (within the Muslims) as well. In this
era, it is getting a lot tougher to genuinely show your love for a brother or a
sister fiisabi lil Laah because even sometimes those people put question marks
to your show of love. Think deeply about that. That should not discourage us
anyway since our sole purpose is to attain that status that Allah azza wa jal
talks about. The Prophet suallal Laahu alayhi wa sallam said:
“A Muslim’s supplication for his
brother in secret is answered. At his head an angel is appointed, and whenever
he supplicates for his brother with something good, the angel appointed to him
says: ‘Amîn, and likewise for you’.”
Saheeh Muslim
So the aspect of loving fiisabi lil Laah that I want to
emphasize on is in the hadith above: ‘Supplicating for one another.’ For me,
this is one of the best ways for us to show love for one another for Allah’s
sake and it is the easiest as well. This type of love could be given to the
poor by the rich and the rich to the poor. Du’a is the best form of love for
Muslims who know or don’t know one another (and might never know one another
until the end).
We face diverse problems in our lives. We have various
needs and fears and our greatest weapon in dealing with these things is du’a
(seeking Allah’s aid). Allah azza wa jal tells us;
‘And your Lord
says, "Call upon Me; I will respond to you...’
Surah Ghafir, the Forgiver, Chapter 40
ayah 60
Allah, al-Mujeeb, has
assured us that He is ever ready for ‘our call,’ ‘our du’a.’ He again says
beautifully that;
‘And when My servants ask you, [O
Muhammad], concerning Me - indeed I am near. I respond to the invocation of the
supplicant when he calls upon Me. So let them respond to Me [by obedience] and
believe in Me that they may be [rightly] guided.’
Surah al-Baqarah, the Cow, Chapter 2
ayah 186
Alhamdu
lil Laah! Alhamdu lil Laah! Alhamdu lil Laah! Feel it! Say it! Act it because
most definitely we are blessed to be Muslims. May Allah sustain us on this
beauty. Aameen. This is how much Allah, al-Mujeeb, is ready to listen to us. It
will be unfortunate on our part to let the opportunity of Allah hearing us pass
us by. It is even more loving, per my understanding, if we call on Allah azza
wa jal to tell Him about the needs of a brother or a sister or simply ask Allah
to bless them with His guidance and love and all the goody goodies.
Sometimes
we know the specific problems that some of our brothers and sisters face so we
can seek specific things for them from our Rubb. Where we don’t know of their
challenges in life (and everyone has a challenge unless the person does not
know), then we give them general du’a.
We
could also cultivate the habit of doing du’a for others just about any time
when the need arises and not necessarily after our sualaat or tahajjud prayers.
Imagine we made seeking the guidance of Allah our core du’a for people we see
doing things that are against the Deen as we try to talk them out of it; that
will be awesome. That is not to say that we should think they need the guidance
more than us; we all need it.
The
hadith above makes the whole situation of making it a habit to do du’a for
others even more rewarding. That is because for every good that you ask Allah
to do for a brother or a sister, an angel seeks the same from Allah for you.
That is enough motivation to keep it up if we are already doing that or to
start if we aren’t.
So
I make an appeal to you by this article to remember others in your du’a always
(they don’t need to know or ask you for it or thank you for it). Do this with
the hope that on that Day, Allah azza wa jal may bless you with His shade and
the Prophets and martyrs will deem you fortunate. But of course, please do not
forget me in your du’a and I pray that Allah azza wa jal does for you an
uncountable number of whatever you ask Him for me. Aameen.
We
are still warming up for Ramadaan; you could do this best during this holy
month provided you are alive to witness it. Alhamdu lil Laah for everything. I
love you fiisabi lil Laah and may Allah, ash-Shaheed, be a witness to this
love. Aameen.
Jazaakumul Laahu khair always!
Love fiisabi lil Laah always!
Assalaamu alaykum wa rahmatul Laah!
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