Keep Your Eyes on the Prize and Be Patient

بسم الله الرحمن الرحيم
In the Name of Allah, Most Merciful, Most Compassionate

Assalaamu alaykum

Dear Friends

I pray that you are well.

Many of us who were born before the 70s, we grew up without internet, Facebook, Twitter, Instagram, Whatsapp, Viber and all what you find out there today. We didn't have phones back then and the only way we could talk to people (meaning our parents) was by using public phones or communicate via letters.

So, life was very simple back then and actually very peaceful and relatively pure. With the advent of cell phones, you couldn't even have a peaceful dinner with your family, at home or restaurants, because people couldn't just go to their dinner tables without their cell phones. When you think that was bad, here comes the social media. It is the state of our affairs, people love social media. You can't take it away from them, even from the adults, forget the kids--they will hold grudges against you. They love it so much, that when they are together with their families or friends, at any moment, someone (rather all of them) is checking Facebook, Twitter, etc. It’s the norm, and frankly, it’s stupid.

Twitter, Facebook, Whatsapp, etc have changed the way that we interact with the world. There’s no doubt that we owe so much to internet and social media, but it’s consuming our life.

Plain and simple, it’s a distraction. we are constantly devouring information, whether it’s what so-and-so is having for lunch or an interesting such-and-such video on how to cut onions (seriously?) or more serious issues like global warming, police brutality, family court injustices, political campaigns and lobbying, Islamophobia, fighting terrorism, natural disasters, bombings, and so on. People become an information addict. Sure there's something to know but it all comes back to being a chronic consumer, and not a producer. You are too busy with I don't know what- simply put, you are just not creating enough value in your life.

This is the concern of the Prophet (Allah bless him and grant him peace) have for us. He was shown everything that will be until the end of time. Some of that he (Allah bless him and grant him peace) informed the Companions. He mentioned concerning, what some scholars believe, to be the period we find ourselves in. We find so many things to turn people away from the proper religion and from Allah. There are so many things to busy people with other than the religious scriptures (Qur'an, Hadiths and other religious texts).

Even in their innocuous usage, the internet and the cell phones take people's time. Those distractions weren't there before so we were more productive and less troublesome to our parents. We also didn't have an organized atheism movement constantly trying to destroy people's faith. We didn't have an aggressive homosexual movement.

All these things people are facing today didn't exist before. It is very challenging for people to hold on to the faith. That's why you see many people falling by the wayside, and unfortunately a lot of them are Muslims. Families are falling apart, children are becoming more and more self-centered and turning away from their parents. Recently I received a news article about two young Muslim brothers booked as suspects in the murder of their parents. May Allah have mercy on the boys, the parents and their community. It is heartbreaking to hear horrible things like that could happen in our Muslim communities, but it is frightening to see that our youth are losing it and we are losing our children.

At the end of time, just negotiating and talking with people, including your own children, takes a tremendous amount of patience.

So our Prophet (Allah bless him and grant him peace) tell us that the one who continues to forge on, to be strong and do what we have been asked to do by our Lord through the Prophet (Allah bless him and grant him peace) will have the reward of fifty Companions. And this is from the mercy of our Prophet (Allah bless him and grant him peace) for us and it is out of his concern for us.

The Prophet (Allah bless him and grant him peace) told his Companions:

“Ahead of you there lie days of patience, during which being patient will be like grasping a hot coal. The one who does good deeds then will have a reward like that of fifty men who do such deeds. – And someone else added – They said: O Messenger of Allah, the reward of fifty of them? He said: “The reward of fifty of you.”

Narrated by Abu Dawood (4341); al-Tirmidhi (3085) and he said: it is a hasan hadeeth. It was classed as saheeh by al-Albaani in al-Silsilah al-Saheehah (494). In some reports of the hadeeth it says: “They are the ones who will revive my Sunnah and teach it to the people.”

Allah, Exalted is He, tells us,

وَإِذَا مَآ أُنزِلَتْ سُورَ‌ةٌ نَّظَرَ‌ بَعْضُهُمْ إِلَىٰ بَعْضٍ هَلْ يَرَ‌ىٰكُم مِّنْ أَحَدٍ ثُمَّ ٱنصَرَ‌فُوا۟ ۚ صَرَ‌فَ ٱللَّهُ قُلُوبَهُم بِأَنَّهُمْ قَوْمٌ لَّا يَفْقَهُونَ ﴿١٢٧

There has certainly come to you a Messenger from among yourselves. Grievous to him is what you suffer; [he is] concerned over you and to the believers is kind and merciful. (128)

[Qur'an, At-Tawba 9:128]

He (Allah bless him and grant him peace) is deeply troubled and burdened by what we have to endure. So, never look at the magnitude of the obstacles but look at the magnitude, the greatness of the reward for surmounting the obstacles. Because if you just look at the obstacles you might be discouraged to even try to overcome it but if you look at the magnitude of reward that accrues to the one who overcomes it, then we have the incentive to just keep overcoming the obstacles that are in our path.

So, don't look at the world, look beyond the world. There is so much to make us burden down with the world. It's always in our face. Because our face is constantly on the screen. That is hard sometimes to look beyond it. We are not living for this world. We are in this world but we are living for what is beyond this world. We are living for the hawd, the pool of our Prophet (Allah bless him and grant him peace), we are living for the drink that we will take from it that will spare us from experiencing thirst for the rest of eternity. We are living for the greeting with the prophets, the martyrs, the siddiqin, the soliheen. Those people like Abu Bakr, 'Umar, 'Uthman, Ali, Khadijah, Aisha, Fatimah Zahra', Bilal, Sumayyah and so many great companions (radhiaAllahu anhum). We are living to see them. It is a beautiful thing because we can imagine their beauty but when we see them it will be beyond our imagination. The beautiful of all is be in Jannah gazing at our Lord.

وُجُوهٌ يَوْمَئِذٍ نَّاضِرَ‌ةٌ ﴿٢٢﴾ إِلَىٰ رَ‌بِّهَا نَاظِرَ‌ةٌ ﴿٢٣

[Some] faces, that Day, will be radiant, (22) Looking at their Lord. (23)

[Qur'an, Al-Qiyamah 75:22-23]

On the authority of Abu Hurayrah (may Allah be pleased with him), who said that the Messenger of Allah (peace and blessings of Allah be upon him) said:

“Allah said: ‘I have prepared for My righteous servants what no eye has seen and no ear has heard, nor has it occurred to the human heart.’” Thus recite if you wish (words are those of Abu Hurayrah): “And no soul knows what joy for them (the inhabitants of Paradise) has been kept hidden (Qur’an Chapter 32 Verse 17).”

[al-Bukhari, Muslim, at-Tirmidhi and Ibn Majah]

May Allah bless us to be amongst those who hold on to His religion and bless us to keep our eyes on the Prize and grant us patience. Ameen.

Allahumma salli 'ala Muhammad wa 'ala aalihi wa sahbihi wassallam.

And Allah knows best and He alone grant success.

Wassalaam