A Popular Lecture
by: Moulana Qari Muhammad Tayyib Qasimi (Rahmatullah Alayh) Late Rector Daml-Uloom Deoband
Praise be to Allah. We praise Him, we seek help from Him, we ask for His forÂgiveness, we believe in Him and in Him we trust. And we seek the refuge of Allah from the evils of ourselves and from the evils of our deeds. Whoever Allah guides, then, there is non to mislead him. And whoever He lets be mislead, then, there is non to guide him. And we bear witness that there is no god but Allah. He is One. There is no partner in Him. And, we bear witness that our leader and our authority and our master is Muhammad (peace be with him). His servant and His messenger. Allah sent him to all human beings as a harbinger of good news, and a warner. And he is a caller to Him with His leave, and a source of light, all resplendent.
There are two things I would like to talk to you about: Dunya and Akhirah. Dunya, as you know, is our present life. Akhirah is what comes after that - call it the Hereafter. Afterlife, Life-to-come, Life-After-Life as you wish. About one of these two things, the Akhirah, people generally nurse a notion that Akhirah is something way up beyond the skies, and that Dunya is right here what lies under our noses. This is all wrong. The truth is that our Akhirah lies concealed right here in this very world of our experience. It is our job to find it out. And to do so you do not have to go on some searching mission. What do you think of your mundane acts of eating and drinking and sleeping and waking? Your Akhirah is lurking right behind them. Bring out your Akhirah through them. Do not be under the impression that Akhirah is some detached slate of being, far out in a world of its own, and that you will reach Akhirah only after you have forsaken the present life of this world. Extracting your Akhirah by living right here in this world is the feat of a wise man.
What do you think about your prayer and fasting? You do it with your body, don't you? That body is either in time, or in space. This, every act in there is worldly. Yet, you are travelling on the road to Paradise. Where did Paradise come from? Right from this prayer you offered with your body. Akhirah was nothing alien, was it?
This hand of yours which you placed affectionately on the head of an orphan causes thousands of virtues to be registered in your name. And these thousands of virtues are nothing else but Paradise. So, Akhirah is all mingled right here in this world. You do not have to go looking for it - out and elsewhere. Just see that your deeds come out right. Paradise will start becoming yours right from here. If your deeds come out wrong. Hell will start becoming yours right from here.
The Hadith says: If one sits down to eat - by the way, the act of eating is naturÂal; when hungry, man has got to eat - but, when one sits down to eat with the niyyah or the intention to get energy out of it so that he can worship Allah comfortably; and if he begins eating by first saying (Bismiilah: With the name of Allah) and finished it by saying (Alhamdulillah - i - Kathira: Praises be to Allah, repeatÂedly and many); it has been said that all his past sins will be forgiven. This is despite the fact that one went about eating his meals yet the forgiveness of sins came as an unexpected bonus attached to the act. That sins are forgiven is nothing but Akhirah. This is it. So, where else would you look for Akhirah? It is here. In this world.
The Hadith says: Two brothers shook hands, and did that with all the warmth of their heart. They smiled. They laughed. It is said there: Before they could unlock their hands, their past sins will be forgiven. Now what did they do? Nothing but something natural, yet they were blessed with the gift of forgiveness. So, let us forÂget not that our Akhirah emerges from within the environs of this dunya.
Akhirah: The difference between Islam and other faiths
From here comes the difference between Islam and other faiths and religions. They think Akhirah is something totally detached from Dunya. According to them, you do not find Akhirah unless you abandon Dunya. For example, the Hindu faith. They say goodbye to all social links, leave their house, leave their family, wife and children, go far out into some wilderness, abandon comforts, conÂveniences and desires. Now, they think, they have got their Akhirah all carved out for them.
With Christians, the surrender of desires is a standard practice. Go to the Church, make a solemn covenant not to marry, not to meet people, become a monastic, forÂsake the normal existence, abandon the world and settle down in a far out corner. Akhirah will, thus, be theirs. That is what they think.
Islam rejects all this as monasticism. You just can't go and hide yourself in some wilderness, or a high mountain, or a desolate sea-side. Islam stops this kind of attiÂtude to life because this is no way to the Akhirah. You have got to live in Dunya, among people, bear by their ways, keep trying to correct your course. This is how Akhirah will emerge. Yes, it will emerge from what you think is mundane. From eating and drinking, that is from where Akhirah will take shape - and certainly not from abandoning all this
The Holy Qur'an lays down the rule:
Allah has made so many of the good and pure things for you. Use them and take to deeds that are good. If your intention is true, from it will emerge your Akhirah. You do not have to stop eating and drinking, and you do not have to go and sit out your life in some jungle. This is no way to make your Akhirah work for you, Then, there is the need to wear clothes. Some faiths favour a code of scanty dress - a strip here and a strip there. The adherents of the negligee sort of abandon what is otherwise obligatory. So, Islam says: this is impermissible. This is monasticism. Sitting out your dear life into a far-out corner is escapism. Islam does not admit anything of the sort. Wear clothes, coarse or fine, it doesn't matter. Just let your intention be good all the time. Your Akhirah will come out right from here. So, eat and drink, make a house, live your life - Islam doesn't stop you from all that. But, it does tell you to keep your intention good and clean. You want a little decor round your self and surrounding, you want to do things the way you like, well and good - Islam doesn't stop you from that too. But, keep your intention clean. If so, these very things will turn into your Akhirah. Now, you can see for yourself. In other faiths, you leave Dunya , to hope for Akhirah, In Islam, you live in Dunya, keep your intention good and correct, do what has to be done, and this goes to make your Akhirah all set Tor you.
As for a house, let me tell you what 1 saw in Gaya. a Buddhist enclave in India. According to them, a man of God was supposed to have no house, no place of his own. Come morning, a whole army of them walks into the city. They go, house to house, asking for food. Incidentally, they do not like the hassle of cooking their own. If someone fills their begging bowl, that becomes what they eat. Islam forÂbade this as something self-degrading. It is not for a true Muslim that he goes about putting his self to shame. On the contrary, he must, at all times, stay dignified. So, let him eat and drink and dress and do a little picking and choosing to satisfy his taste hoping and intending that he is doing all that for his Akhirah if this is how Allah wants him to do things, then, this is exactly how he will do them. This very attitude will thus become the very source of Divine rewards for him. Islam did not ask you to become beggars. It never wanted you to become a burden over others. Instead, we have been commanded to make our own living. And earning it lawfulÂly has been declared a matter of obligation. Go in business, farming. Pick the fruits of Dunya. Use them for your selves. Share them with your brothers too. This is the way shown to us as opposed to the way of escape into the mountains and wilderÂnesses.
In some faiths,
the idea of having a part of one's body paralysed is supposed to be good
and practice-worthy. This is supposed to give one an access to Akhirah. For
example, they would raise a hand till it dries out like a branch.
When it turns out to be no good for anything, they think they have a
passport for Akhirah. Islam dismissed this as an exercise
in absurdity. How can this have anything to do wilh Akhirah.? Or,
there are those who go silent under the impression that this act of theirs
will lead them into the Akhirah. Says Islam: Akhirah? Here
you are wasting the blessÂing of a strength given to you in the false
hope of achieving Akhirah. What sort of Akhirah is
that? Akhirah comes by harnessing the energies given to you and
cerÂtainly not by leaving them in a state of suspension and inertia.
Let me relate to you another incident from my trip to Gaya mentioned a little earÂlier. There is a big temple out their which houses many Buddhist relics including images and idols of Buddha.
There I saw a huge idol of Buddha around which peoÂple were busy lighting lamps of butter oil. Some worshippers who had finished with their act were on their way out. I asked one such worshipper: Why are you wasting this butter oil? Let someone eat it. This will give energy to his body. Why do you have to burn it in this manner? Now, I saw that he hears me all right, but for some reason, he does not speak up. I thought he may be deaf. So, I raised my voice a little louder. Still, this man keeps looking at me while making no answer. I must have been pretty louder the third time when people around told me not to waste my energy for the man was not going to answer me. Silence is an act of worÂship with them, this man has been silent for forty years and that man has not spoÂken a word for the past fifty years. So, think of human speech, it is power. Strength. Energy. Wasting such a blessing cannot be an act of worship on any count. Islam bids you to use this power intelligently. It will win you your passage to Akhirah.
Once man wastes his asset, he ends up being a half-man, and as a result, his chances in Akhirah are reduced by that measure. Use your power of speech. Recite the Holy Qur'an. Say the noble Durud. Use it in Ibadah for your own self. Use it in making life better for other people, in giving good counsel, in saying what is true and must be said. This kind of use of the great power of speech will groom your Akhirah for you. Nobody has told you to gag this wonderful power and sit away idle, mum. This will breed nothing hut evil.
Look at your hands. You shake hands, greet somebody with them. You are rewarded for it. You touch your Akhirah. You touch your Holy Qur'an with your hands. You are rewarded. You touch the Ka'bah, the noble House of Allah in Makkah Mukarammah. You are rewarded. You have got to have your hands, live and moving, in order to have your reward. Now, if you were to raise your hand in sine die and let it dry out like dead wood, you end with no power, no reward. You close all doors of being rewarded on yourself by choosing to do things wrongly. Look at your feet. Paralyse them and you cannot go to the masjid. It is with feet you will go to the masjid, to the homes of your friends, to places of worship, to religious sermons, meetings. All of them are sources of great rewards. Now, if you were to hack your feet into becoming inactive, that is good-bye to the masjid the Hajj and all get-together to learn your Faith. What do you gel in return? Nothing.
So, let us now sum up. Faiths of the world say: Leave Dunya in order to have Akhirah. Lose the body to find the Akhirah. But, Islam says: Live in Dunya and construct your Akhirah through it. Abandoning Dunya does not mean that you should abandon the blessings of Dunya. But, just do not exaggerate in there, Commit no excess. Do not cross limits. Use the blessings of Dunva by all means, but do so with moderation. Use them to take care of your life. Then, extend this use a little - share them with your relatives, friends, brothers-in-faith and the rest of humanity. This will contribute in the making of your Akhirah. Thus, everything depends on the niyyah, the intention, and on what you elect to do. Now, if you were to do things in line with die pleasure of your Lord, you will find your Akhirah all set for you right here in this Dunya.
Published by:
The Young Men's Muslim Association
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Benoni South Africa
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