Thursday, May 17, 2012

What are the reasons for evil ending


The most important stage of your life is the ending. “Whoever dies on something will be resurrected on it.” If you die in Hajj, with ihram, making talbiyah, RasulAllah sallallahu ‘alayhi wa sallam said: “On the Day of Judgement, you will be resurrected saying labbayk Allahumma labbayk.” ”When you die on something, you will be resurrected on the same thing you were doing.”

RasulAllah(SWS) said: “Oh Allah, make the best of my deeds, the last deeds.”
RasulAllah(SWS) said: “One of you would do the deeds of the people of Paradise until only one foot [a short distance - transcribers’ note] is between you and paradise, and then in the end he would do the deeds of the people of hell fire and he would die and he would enter into hell fire.” And the opposite can happen to – you do the deeds of the people of hell all of your life and then you do the deeds of the people of jannah in the end and enter jannah.

What are the reasons for evil ending? We ask Allah subhaana wa ta’aala for a blessed ending.

1. Al-Fasaad fil al-’Itiqaad
Al-Fasaad fil al-’Itiqaad corruption and defect in the belief. Analogy: You buy a computer and work on that computer. It works fine for a few months. Then you put it through a rigorous application; it fails and breaks down. You find that it had a defect from day one. This defect didn’t show up because it was being dealt with gently. When you put it through a rigorous test, this defect showed up. You thought that it was brand new and nothing was wrong with it. There was a hidden defect. Similarly, you can think that you’re fine now and your aqeedah is fine. You have some doubts in the corner of your heart – about Allah, about the ambiya, for example. Death approaches and shaytaan comes and puts you through a test. That defect or problem shows up. When you find out that there is a corruption in your belief, you give up your whole belief. You would lose it all. You lose the whole battle. That’s why Ibn AlQayyim says, “We believe that out of the mercy of Allah, Allah will not mislead the person if he was of true righteousness.” There must be something wrong with that person.

Allah says: “Say (O Muhammad SAW): Shall We tell you the greatest losers in respect of (their) deeds? Those whose efforts have been wasted in this life while they thought that they were acquiring good by their deeds.” (18:103-104) The biggest losers are the ones who think they are doing right, but they are doing wrong. You find that someone is very righteous, but he is not doing things the way of the Prophet sallallahu ‘alayhi wa sallam. It is all unaccepted.

2. al-Istiqaamah
Diversion from the straight path. A person could be on the straight path, but then he decides to take a turn. When this person takes this short turn (onto the wrong path), it’s like a fork – it starts out as a small turn, but the further you go, the farther you become [from the straight path].Iblees was one of the righteous. He did that small mistake out of a great problem – kibr (arrogance). He became the worse of creation.

Allah says: “And recite to them the story of him to whom we gave our ayaat, but he threw them away so shaytaan followed him up and he became of those who became astray. And had We willed, We would surely have elevated him therewith, but he clung to the earth and followed his own vein desires.” This man received the ayaat of Allah, but he detached himself from the ayaat of Allah and followed his own desires. This person had the knowledge, but he was misguided because of his attachment to dunya because he followed his own desires. This is contrary to Islam. Islam is submission to Allah. You submit to Allah, even if it’s against your own will and desires. You give up your desires for Allah. We do not custom make Islam to serve us. We change ourselves to fit into Islam. We change our own characters to fit Islam. Islam is COMPLETE submission. Submission to Allah. This man had the knowledge, but it didn’t do him any good because he followed his own desires.

The Prophet sallallahu ‘alayhi wa sallam said: “The thing that I fear most on you is a man who memorizes Qur’aan until the light of Qur’aan shows up on his face and then he detaches himself from the ayaat of Allah. Then he carries the word on his neighbor and accuses him of shirk.” Hudhayfah ibn AlYamaan asked RasulAllah sallallahu ‘alayhi wa sallam, “Who is the mushrik among them? The accuser or the accused?” RasulAllah sallallahu ‘alayhi wa sallam said, “The accuser.” The man fell into fitna and accused his neighbor of shirk – and he himself has become a mushrik.

3. Alisraaru ’ala al ma’aasiyy (insistence on sinning)
A person may be commiting a small sin, but the ‘ulamaa` say that insisting on a small sin makes it a major sin. When you keep on doing it again and again, it becomes a major sin.Adh-Dhahabi, in his book AlKabaa’ir, talks about evil ending. There was a man who was obsessed with chess. They kept on telling him to say la ilaaha illallah, but he couldn’t. At the end, he kept on repeating, “Checkmate, checkmate” until he died.

He mentioned another man. He kept saying, “Give me the bottle.” Because he was obsessed with drinking and he kept asking for that.

There was another man who was an accountant and he just kept saying, “ten, eleven, twelve” and he kept saying numbers.

Ibn AlQayyim mentioned the story of a man who they told to say la ilaaha illallah, but he said, “I can’t.” He didn’t have a problem with his tongue; he could speak fluently. He couldn’t say la ilaaha illallah, because Allah didn’t give him the tawfeeq.

Think about it this way – when you go to bed, what are the things you dream about? They’ll most likely be what you were thinking about during the day. If you keep thinking about something all day, you’ll most likely dream of it at night.Another way to know what’s on your mind is to look at what you think of first thing in the morning?

Death is similar to sleep. Sleep is called “the minor death.” When you go from sleep to the state of awakening, it is similar to sakaraat al mowt. That is why the thoughts that are on one’s minds are most likely going to show up in the last moments of life.

We always think that we can live how we want and sin as much as want. Then, five minutes before we die, we will take the shahaadah and be guaranteed jannah. It’s not that easy. You are making a plot against Allah. Why? Because you are making the intention to not worship Allah until the last moments of your life. Allah is telling us to worship Him day and night. We are saying that we want to outsmart Allah and make tawbah in the end. “They are plotting and Allah is planning and Allah is the best of planners.”

A scholar mentioned that they visited a man who was dying. When they came in the house, everyone in the house was listening to loud Umm Kulthum music (a singer). The tape recorder was high. The shaykh said, “itaqullah! This man is dying and you are listening to songs?” So they turned it off and put on Qur’aan instead. When the old man heard the Qur’aan, he said, “Turn that off and turn Umm Kulthum back on because she soothes my heart!” And he died.

When you grow up on something, you are going to die on that thing.
Never think that you can outsmart Allah. You have to have khashiy of Allah. The ones who are the greatest losers are those that feel safe or secure of the punishment of Allah. “Only the losers are the ones who feel secure from the punishment of Allah.” Khashya is an integral quality of a Muslim. To be a Muslim you have to have fear of Allah in your heart.

4. Da’ful Imaan (weak faith)
Sulayman ibn Abdil Malak, a khalifah of the Muslim world, visited Makkah and Madinah. He was asking, “Is there anyone here who has met the companions of RasulAllah sallallahu ‘alayhi wa sallam?” They said, “Yes, Abu Hazim.” He said, “Call him.” So they bought Abu Hazim. Sulayman ibn Abdul Malik asked him, “How come we dislike death?” He said, “Because you have built and established this world and you have destroyed your akhirah. So you hate to go from what is established, to what is destroyed.” If you’re not preparing for akhirah, why would you want to go there? When we love this world, we don’t want to go to the akhirah.Scholars have said, if somebody has the love of the world at heart, then just before their death – when the person realizes they are leaving dunya for akhirah – they will become attached to the thing he loves (to dunya). And then that person will start hating Allah because Allah is the One who wants to take him away. If that happens, this is khulood fin naar – eternal punishment in Hell, because you are hating to meet Allah, so Allah will hate meeting you.

When Mu’aadh ibn Jabal was passing away. He said, “Welcome to death. I have been waiting for you for a long time. I have been waiting for the Promise of Allah to me. Welcome to death.” He’s happy. He said, “O death, don’t think that I ever wanted to live in this dunya because the love of this world. The reason I wanted to live in this world was to fast in the hot summer days and pray in the long, cold winter nights. So as long as it is time for me to leave, I welcome you. Take my soul.” He wants to meet Allah, so Allah will want to meet him.

RasulAllah sallallahu ‘alayhi wa sallam says, “Every Prophet, before he dies, is shown his place in Paradise and then he is given the choice to stay in this world or die.” So the ambiya are given the choice. This hadith is narrated by ‘Aa`isha. When RasulAllah sallallahu ‘alayhi wa sallam was dying, he had his head on my lap, she said. Then he fell unconscious, then he woke up. He started staring at the sky and he said, “O Allah, with the highest companion. (Allah).” ‘Aa`isha said that she knew at that moment that the Prophet was being given the choice, and he was not choosing us. RasulAllah(SWS) was given the choice by the angel of death, and the Prophet sallallahu ‘alayhi wa sallam was saying that he wanted to be with Allah. And that was the last thing he said. [Bukhari]

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