Suhbah at Pesantra Dar al Hikma
As-salaamu `alaykum wa rahmatullahi wa barakaatuh. Alhamdulillah, alhamdulillahi Rabbi ‘l-`alameen was-salaatu was-salaamu `alaa ashraf al-mursaleen, Sayyidina wa Nabiyyina Muhammadin wa `alaa alihi wa saahbihi ajma`een.
First, we ask Allah (swt) to keep us far away from Shaytan the accursed one by saying, “A`oodhu billahi min ash-Shaytaani ‘r-rajim. Bismillahi 'r-Rahmaani 'r-Raheem.” We ask Allah (swt) with the Name of Allah, the Beneficent, the Merciful, to draw us closer to His Presence, and to the Presence of the Beloved Chosen One (s).
Alhamdulillah, Allah brought us all together on this day, especially with the organizers of this conference. I have one request from the organizers, and that is to recite qasidas dedicated to Prophet Muhammad (s). We have come all the way here and we hope that we will hear more qasidas in the love of Prophet (s), especially from the girls and boys. Salloo `ala an-Nabee! Salloo `alaa Sayyidina Muhammad! Alhamdulillah, praise be to Allah, Who made us from the nation of the Beloved Chosen Prophet (s) and completed for us a light from His Light, and honored and ennobled us to be following the sunnah of the Prophet (s).
Allah (swt) said:
قُلْ إِن كُنتُمْ تُحِبُّونَ اللّهَ فَاتَّبِعُونِي يُحْبِبْكُمُ اللّهُ وَيَغْفِرْ لَكُمْ ذُنُوبَكُمْ وَاللّهُ غَفُورٌ رَّحِيمٌ
qul in kuntum tuhibboona ’Llaha fa attabi`oonee yuhbibkumullahu wa yaghfir lakum dhunoobakum w ’Allahu Ghafooru 'r-Raheem.
Say (O Muhammad), "If you (really) love Allah, then follow me! Allah will love you and forgive your sins, and Allah is Oft-Forgiving, Most Merciful. (`Ali Imraan, 3:31)
So we ask Allah (swt) to love us and to make us enter into the highest Paradise, the Garden of Eternal Abode, with the Chosen Prophet (s).
Education is obligatory on every Muslim, male or female. It is not permissible to say education of a Muslim female is not permitted. An exemple for us is our Lady, Sayyidah A`yesha (r), the Mother of Believers (r), who taught the Companions (r) what she heard from the Prophet (s). We also have our Lady, Umm Salama (r) and all the wives (r) of the Prophet (s), who taught the ummah about matters between them and the Prophet (s) concerning the most noble of manners.
Alhamdulillah, all praise be to The One Who has given you this mosque and this college. When I came here, I was very happy to find this great institution for teaching Qur’an and Islamic Shari`ah amidst a jungle full of trees! So congratulations to you and to those who put their noble efforts into this, and to those who financially supported the efforts of this noble task and for this school. When we entered the city, we saw so many monkeys to our right and left and we asked the person driving us, “Where are we going?” He said, “To the school.” But there wasn’t any school within two or three kilometers, there was nothing except jungles and monkeys! Then suddenly we arrived at this great institution. So congratulations to you, O People of Islam, and to the nation of the Chosen One, al-Adnaan (s). Mashaa-Allah, mashaa-Allah! May Allah increase you in wisdom and strength and in love of Prophet (s)!
A man came to the Prophet (s) and said, “Give me an advice, yaa Muhammad!” We all hope to follow the advice of Prophet (s), and it is a duty on all presidents of institutions, as well as scholars, listeners, speakers and attendees; it is a duty on all of us to accept the command of the Prophet (s) where he said, ad-deenu nasiha, “Religion is advice,” meaning, “Islam is advice.” Without advice, it is impossible for a man to submit to the rights of Islam. That is why it is a duty upon us to listen to the speech of those who are responsible for this school. We must listen to them, because they are the people of advice. So the Prophet (s) replied to that man, laa taghdab, “Don’t get angry.”
Anger within this ummah is too much. All of us get angry, and the Prophet (s) commanded us to leave anger because it makes a person lose his mind, senses and heart. It is impossible to advise anyone if he has lost consciousness. Drunkenness makes people lose consciousness, and that is why anger is a branch of intoxication as it causes the mind not to work soundly.
A person is like a tree that has roots as its foundation and it has branches that are basically shoots of growth carrying the fruit. Anger is a tree inside the person, “the Tree of Bad Characteristics,” what Prophet (s) forbade. Indeed, these bad characteristics were counted by some Gnostics to be eitght-hundred in number. They are undesirable and forbidden by the Prophet (s), where he said, laa taghdab, “Don’t get angry.” This means, anger is the tree of all bad characteristics.
Learn the ways of forbearance! No one has ever seen even the smallest sign of anger in the Prophet (s), who is “al-Haleem,” the Forbearing One, who never pushed anyone away and never spoke to anyone in a rude or low manner; rather, he is the most complete in manners, as he said:
انما بعثت لاتمم مكارم الاخلاق
Innamaa bu`ithtu li utimmu makaarim al-akhlaaq.
I have been sent to perfect the best of conduct (to perfect your behavior and character). (Bazzar)
Innamaa bu`ithtu, “Verily, I was sent,” means the Prophet (s) is reinforcing that his coming to this ummah is to complete the best manners that initially started in the Day of Promises in the Divine Presence. He came to this Earth to complete “makaarim al-akhlaaq” so that the servant becomes a true monotheist in front of his or her Lord, as was said in the Day of Promises, alastu bi rabbikum qaaloo balaa, “Am I not your Lord?” and they said, “Yes, for sure!”
So the Prophet (s) came to complete this answer, “Yes, for sure!” It means, “Yes, O Allah! We are Your servants and You are our Lord!” So indeed, the Creation heard this speech and they answered with certainty, saying, balaa, “Yes!” which means, “Yes, yaa Allah! It is our duty to prostrate ourselves to You; our worship is to You and our duty is to complete (perfect) our manners so that we can be righteous and pious servants to You and to Your Beloved Mustafa (s).”
If the command on the angels was to prostrate, it is even stronger for servants to be in continuous prostration day and night, because when angels were commanded to make prostration to glorify their Lord, so on the Muslims, when Allah (swt) commanded them to prostrate themselves to Him, then they must prostrate themselves in every salaat, and before and after every salaat so they can be in a station of servanthood.
At night, the Prophet (s) increased his salaat and prostrations so much, to the point that Sayyida A`yesha (r) said, “Yaa Rasoolullah! Surely Allah forgave you of the sins that came before and after?” He replied, alaa akoonu `abdan shakoora, “Shall I not be a thankful servant to my Lord?” If the Prophet (s) prostrates himself, then the ummah has to prostrate in obedience to the sunnah of the Prophet (s). This means, he linked prostration with thankfulness: he tied salaat with gratitude, it means that his standing is salaat, his sitting is salaat, and his prostration is salaat. So salaat makes the servant thankful to his or her Lord.
Allah (swt) gives that servant more, as He said:
لَئِن شَكَرْتُمْ لأَزِيدَنَّكُمْ
La in shakartum la-azeedanakum.
If you thank Me, I will give you more. (Ibrahim,14:7)
O Servants of Allah! If you want more then thank Allah more, and thankfulness is complete only through good deeds and piety. SubhaanAllah! In Indonesia you can see so many Islamic institutions built by the poor. There are rich ones who have built institutions as well, but the poor people in jungles build institutions for Muslims and this is an evidence of thankfulness to Allah (swt), Who will reward them in goodness here and Hereafter. SubhaanAllah, in this institute, Daaru ‘l-Hikam al-Islamiyya, The House of Islamic Wisdom, they have a kindergarten, primary school, secondary school, technical school, Islamic school and Qur’anic school. Mashaa-Allah, may Allah reward in goodness to everyone who donated and gave to The House of Islamic Wisdom!
There was once a highway robber, a thief, who didn’t leave one person untouched by his evilness. He lived in a small village and tortured people by stealing from them. Two or three months before he died he got married, also by force. One day, he died and they buried him in the cemetery. At night, the villagers heard sighs or moans of torture coming from his grave. He was being tortured for his sins so he moaned in pain and it was heard through the whole village. There was always heat coming from his grave, so much so that no one could place their hand on his grave because it was so hot, which means he was being tortured so much, in fire!
Seven months after that man died, his wife gave birth to a baby boy whom she raised alone because he was an orphan and his father was a highway robber, so she was in anguish trying to raise him (without support) until he became eight years old. She wanted to send him to learn Qur`an, but they rejected him in every school because his father had been a highway robber. All the schools and institutes rejected him, except one old man who taught the Qur`an, who said, “I will take him in and teach him, because he is an orphan and he didn’t do anything to deserve this.”
So the boy entered the class in the small school and started to respond to the teachers. When the teacher said, “Bismillahi 'r-Rahmaani 'r-Raheem,” the boy said, “Bismillahi 'r-Rahmaani 'r-Raheem.” When the teacher said, “Alhamdulillahi Rabbi 'l-`Alameen,” the boy said, “Alhamdulillahi Rabbi 'l-`Alameen,” until the end of Surat al-Fatihah. When that happened, that night the moaning from his father’s grave stopped, all his pain stopped, and the grave became cool. That night, all the scholars and presidents of the institutes that rejected that boy saw a vision, a spiritual address, saying to them, “Verily, I forgave his father when his son mentioned My Name. Because of that remembrance of My Name, I forgave his father and made him enter Paradise!”
Anas (r) reported: The Messenger of Allah (s) said, "I and anyone who brings up two girls to maturity will be like these two on the Day of Rising," and he put his fingers together. [Muslim]
It means, who raises two orphan girls and protects them and raises them and gets them married when they reach puberty will enter Paradise without account. Allah (swt) advised His Prophet (s):
فَأَمَّا الْيَتِيمَ فَلَا تَقْهَرْ
Fa ammal yateema fa laa taqhar.
Therefore, treat not the orphan with harshness. (Ad-Duhaa 93:9)
It means, don’t scold, push away, get angry with or shout at orphans. Don’t make things hard on them; instead, take care of the orphans, just as you would take care of your children. Take care of orphans and Allah (swt) will take care of you on the Day of Judgement. We are here in this an orphanage that is also a home for students, a dormitory. We ask Allah (swt) to grant you success always and to make you an asset to the Muslims in this country, and may your righteous deeds become an asset for you on the Day of Judgment, because of your memorization of Qur`an and studying Shari`ah. Inshaa-Allah, you will find it in the Day of Judgment on the Scale of your deeds, along with the blessings of your deeds coming from the Prophet (s), and you will enter under his intercession! Inshaa-Allah, we will also be with you under the intercession of Prophet (s).
As-salaamu `alaykum wa rahmatullahi wa barakaatuh!
(Du`a)
Wa min Allahi 't-tawfeeq, bi hurmati 'l-habeeb, bi hurmati 'l-Fatihah.