Soul Searching

In the Prophet (sws)’s  last khutbah, the Prophet stood on the valley of Mount of 'Arafat and left his last reminders to the Ummah. Among many other important reminders, the Prophet concluded by saying: “I leave behind me two things, the Qur’an and my Sunnah and if you follow these you will never go astray.”

Human beings naturally have physical needs. We need food, water, comfort, protection, stability, a roof over our heads, and partners in life. These are physical needs that need to be fulfilled. However, human beings aside from physical needs also have spiritual needs. The physical needs sustain the body of the human being but what sustains the soul? What fills that empty feeling inside of us? What do we feed out soul?

These questions are answered in the Prophet (sws)’s khutbah: the Qur’an & the Sunnah. These two ingredients, these two vital nutrients are food for our soul. The Qu’ran, we all know is the book of Allah- it is Allah speaking to us through his words and the Sunnah is the tradition, the example of the last and final messenger, peace and blessings be upon him.

Allah says in Surah Ibrahim, “Alif, Lam, Ra. [This is] a Book which We have revealed to you, [O Muhammad], that you might bring mankind out of darknesses into the light by permission of their Lord – to the path of the Exalted in Might, the Praiseworthy –“ [14:1]

In this ayah, Allah is reminding the Prophet (sws) but at the same time we are being reminded today about the power and purpose of the Qur’an. Allah says that this is the book that brings people out of multiple shades of darkness into the singular light. The word that’s used is not a singular darkness- it means multiple shades- different kinds of darkness’ to the light by means of the Qur’an. Today we are surrounded by different types of darknesses. Today, faith is being questioned in classrooms which we think are protective, safe haven for our children, today little kids are being exposed to shamelessness, to filth. We live in a time where the industry of pornography makes big bucks, and even the Muslims are not safe from it. We live in a time where wearing less is better, where we are losing our identity as Muslims and are after this chase of fitting in no matter if that means we have to sacrifice our beliefs and duty to Allah. Today we live in a time where parents have no respect anymore, where as soon as an argument or two starts bubbling the kids think of running away. Today, we’re in a time where little girls that have barely turned teenagers are committing zina, where we have so many conveniences yet we feel like we never have enough time because the time we do have is sucked up by entertainment and socializing and dunya dunya dunya.

But the Prophet (sws) said that if we held onto the Qur’an and the Sunnah, we would never go astray but how many of us are chasing in all the wrong directions today, towards more and more darknesses? That is because we have primarily abandoned the Qur’an. We don’t even care enough to figure out or find out who the Prophet (sws) is. In so many households, the Qur’an remains on our bookshelves, getting dusty unless a funeral comes around or we face some trying times and finally want to open it up. The Qur’an was revealed to the Prophet (sws) and used to be so heavy on him- when he would receive revelation, beads of sweat would form on his forehead, it’s said that his body would get very heavy and one time you could hear a buzzing sound coming from him. It took a huge toll on him and he went through so much and sacrificed his whole life to make sure that the message gets to us, and left behind his practice and example for his Ummah- and that same Ummah, us, we have abandoned it.

Allah says this book has the potential to bring us out of the shades of darknesses that we may be in and bring us into the light. How so?

·       Through the Qur’an we get to know who Allah is- “He is Allah, besides whom there is no god, the Soverign, the supreme in holiness, the one safe from all defects, the giver of peace, the guardian, the all mighty, the all repairer, the sublime. Pure is Allah from what they associate with Him” [59:23].

·       The Qur’an reminds us of our purpose- “I did not create the Jinns and the human beings except for the purpose that they should worship me” [51:56].

·       The Qur’an reminds of accountability- “Whoever acts righteously, it is for his own benefit, and who does evil, it is against his own soul. Then towards your Lord will you be returned” [45:15].

·       The Qur’an reminds us of a day that is bound to come, a day when we will face Allah. The Qur’an heavily focuses on warning us, on reminding us of resurrection- the last two juz are heavily based with the Day of Judgment as their theme where Allah swears by various things that the Day is near. “About what are they asking each other? About the great event in which they dispute! Indeed they will soon know. Again, indeed, they will soon know” [78:1-5] 

·       The Qur’an presents many examples, many case studies, and stories of people of the past that were destroyed for the wrong that they were doing, and on the other hand many role models for us to take examples from.  “And We have certainly presented to the people in this Qur'an from every [kind of] example.” [30:58]

·       The Qur’an presents various characteristics of the believers and full descriptions of their qualities as well of those of the disbelievers and hypocrites as well. One can even make like a checklist of the do’s and don’ts based on the characteristics that Allah presents of those type of people.

The Qur’an heals hearts, the Qur’an transforms lives. There are prisoners who pick up and open up the Qur’an and it completely turns their lives around, a whole 180 degree turn, and they come out to be better people, why? Because the Qur’an reconnects us with our Fitrah, it reminds us where we came from, and where we are headed towards and gives us a wakeup call. But in order for the Qur’an to heal us, and to change us, we have to make the effort to understand Allah’s words, start small, maybe one ayah a day but read it with full understanding, and relate it to one’s life and try to implement it. It is said that the sahaba would take the Qur’an ten ayahs at a time and would not move on until they had implemented those ayahs. The first step to developing a relationship with the Qur’an, is to take small but consistent steps towards understand what Allah is telling us.

The Qur’an is one side of the balance and the other side is the Sunnah- the tradition and example of the beloved Prophet Muhammad (sws). The Sunnah is our travel agent-the way he prophet peace be upon him lived.
 A lot of the times when we think of Sunnah, we think of little action items or practices that we have to implement to “follow the messenger”, which is important, but before that how much do we know about the Prophet (sws)? How much do we know about his character, about who this man was, about what he did and the sacrifices that he made for us? He (sws) would cry out worry for US, he had the biggest responsibility on his shoulder, and he would worry to the point where Allah reminds him through the Qur’an that he’s going to kill himself out of grief for worrying about these people. How much do we know about this man? The more you read about his life, the more you learn about the way he treated people and the way he interacted with them, you cannot help but fall in love with this man.

Once this love is established, once a person gets to know his character and familiarizes themselves with who he was, then we go to learn about his daily routine and practices and we can all implement little by little into our lives.

“And whatever the messenger gives you and take it and whatever he forbids you leave it and fear

Allah: truly Allah is severe in punishment” [59:7].

“There is indeed a good model for you in the Messenger of Allah- for the one who has hope in Allah and the last day, and remembers Allah profusely” [33:21].

“Say (O Prophet): If you really love Allah, then follow me, and Allah shall love you and forgive you for your sins. Allah is most forgiving, very merciful” [3:31].

Some sunnah practices that are very easy to employ into our lives are:

·       Smiling, yes its Sunnah : )! Even though the Prophet (sws) went through many difficulties in his life, lost many of his childen, was rejected and humiliated by family and was even tortured sometimes, the Prophet would bear it with patience and remained optimistic. Every day is a new day, learn to let go, be happy, and count your blessings!

·       Visit the sick, take care of the poor and the needy.

·       Speak politely, not harshly.

·       Give the greetings of “Assalamalaikum” those those you know and don’t know

·       Pray the Night prayer during the last third of the night. This is as simple as getting up five minutes before Fajr and praying even one rak’ah! Allah actually swears by this witr prayer in the Qur’an. During the Prophet (sws)’s life, the Prophet never missed the night prayer.

·       Accepting Invitations

·       Drinking water sitting down and from the right hand

·       Using miswak

·       Eating from that which is closest to you

·       Saying Bismillah before you eat, if forgotten, recite: Bismillah Awal-wa-akhir

This may seem to be an overwhelming amount of things to immediately add to one’s routine and implementing all of them is unreal and unpractical. The Prophet (sws) related to us that the deeds that are the best and those that are the most consistent. So start slow, take it one at a time, maybe employ one small sunnah habit into your routine a month and make it consistent inshAllah!

One thing to remember is that the Qur’an makes up one side of the balance and the sunnah makes up the other. We cannot pick and choose whether we want to follow one or the other. The Prophet (sws) prescribed both things and with the Qur’an and the sunnah, the Ummah would never go astray. The Qur’an gives the basic big picture and lessons and the Sunnah and seerah provide details and explanation and specific instances. The Qur’an gives basic reminders whereas sunnah provides details. It’s important to remember that the Qur’an is the word of Allah whereas the hadith and narrations need a deeper understanding and in depth study to really get what’s being narrated and the authenticity of what’s being said etc. Abandoning the Qur’an but engrossing oneself in hadith study actually doesn’t logically make sense. The Qur’an is the foundation and the hadith and seerah help in the understanding of it. It’s all about taking both and moving forward.

You are the seed. 

The soil is the Quran, the sun is the sunnah, and the water is hard work. You need the soil no matter what, you need the sun to grow, and it all means nothing unless you have water.