Praise be to Allah for gathering us all here tonight with His hidayah because He wants to grant more rahmah and tawfiq to us. Allah has gathered us tonight with His tawfiq so pray that He'll give us more tawfiq. He has gathered us in His House so that He could shower His mercy on us. Glory be to Allah, the Rich, who grants mercy. If Allah turned away from us, we will not be able to make du'a, zikr nor plead Him. If Allah turned away from us, we shall be thrown into the pits of carelessness, recklessness, disobedience, and transgression of His orders.
Be grateful to Allah that He has gathered you here at this place despite the fact that He does not need us while we are in need of Him; by renewing our vow to Him in the kalimah:
Ash hadu anla ila ha illAllahu wahdahu la sharikalah, wa ash hadu an na Muhammadan abduhu wa Rasuluh
Let's renew our vows together.
Ash hadu anla ila ha illAllahu wahdahu la sharikalah,
wa ash hadu an na Sayydana Muhammadan abduhu wa Rasuluh
Ash hadu anla ila ha illAllahu wahdahu la sharikalah,
wa ash hadu an na Sayydana Muhammadan abduhu wa Rasuluh
Ash hadu anla ila ha illAllahu wahdahu la sharikalah,
wa ash hadu an na Sayydana Muhammadan abduhu wa Rasuluh
A heart that Allah turned away from, that heart would not be able to profess the shahadah. If Allah gave someone the entire world and its contents and yet He disallows/forbid him to say the shahadah, know that that person is doomed twice. When He does not give someone the world but give the shahadah instead, even though he doesn't have much of dunya and he's always tested, if he dies in that state of shahadah, know that he will have everlasting happiness. So what about us who have been given the shahadah? How do we obtain tawfiq that we're able to say shahadah? It's because Allah wishes to honor us with the blessings of Muhammad s.a.w. When the skies and the earth are put on one side of the balance (mizan) and the kalimah la ilaha illAllah on the other, know that la ilaha illAllah surely weighs more.
That's the pledge we made to Allah when we were in alam arwah prior to coming to dunya. Allah said in the Qur'an: "Did not I take your pledge O man that you would not prostrate Syaitan but worship me instead?"
O Allah, keep the shahadah firm in our hearts until we meet You with that kalimah. Do not let us die without saying the kalimah la ila ha illAllah. Grant us tawfiq so that we are able to profess shahadah when we die, and make us say it with perfect understanding of its meaning.This request we make is a significant one but we know Your mercy is even greater, so we ask of You O Allah. We cannot achieve much except that we seek refuge in You. We pray to Allah so that we die while our iman is in a perfect state.
O Allah just as You have gathered us here, please end our lives with husnul khatimah (good ending). Our eyes have fallen on the forbidden, such disobedient eyes will prevent us from saying the kalimah properly at death. And the mouth has uttered plenty unworthy words that could prevent us from saying the kalimah properly at death. There are many disobedient men and women, children and adults who might not die in a good state. There was an incident where a dying man could not repeat the shahadah and yet he was able to repeat all other words that were being said to him. When people asked him why, he said it was because he had looked at one haram thing but did not have the chance to repent for it. But those who are pious like Bilal, was happy to die because he could reunite with Rasulullah and his sahabah. Bilal told his wife not to be despondent because he was in fact rejoicing.
(to be continued)
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Habib Umar's lecture at Masjid al-Falah, Selangor, Malaysia on 10 January 2010
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