Make People Happy and Put Yourself Last
Mawlana Shaykh Hisham Kabbani
30 October 2009 Jakarta, Indonesia
Bayt al-Ihsan Masjid
Alhamdulillah. As-salaam `alaykum wa rahmatullahi wa barakaatuh. Allahumma salli `alayk yaa Sayyidee yaa Rasulullah. As-salaatu was-salaamu `alayku ya Habeeballah. As-salaatu wa 's-salaamu `alayka ya Rasulallah. As-salaatu wa `'s-salaamu alayka ya shafi` al-mudhnibeen.
Bismillahi ‘r-Rahmaani ‘r-Raheem.
Nawaytu ‘l-arba`een, nawaytu’l-`itikaaf, nawaytu ‘l-khalwah, nawaytu ‘l- `uzlah, nawaytu ‘r-riyaadah, nawaytu ‘s-sulook, lillahi ta`aala fee haadha ‘l-masjid.
Alhamdulillah, it is a full masjid. If you look behind you, you see the men there and the ladies all the way there, just like yesterday. This is the barakah of the love of Sayyidina Muhammad (s). (Mawlana stands.) As-salaatu was-salaamu `alayka ya Rasulullah! As-salaatu wa 's-salaamu `alayka ya Habeebullah! As-salaatu wa 's-salaamu `alayka ya shafi` al-mudhnibeen! Allahu akbar! Allahu akbar! Allahu akbar kabeera, w 'alhamdulilaahi katheera, wa subhaanallahi wa bi-hamdihi bukratan wa aseela! (Crowd repeats after Mawlana, echoes through masjid. Mawlana sits.)
The Prophet (s) said: "Qaala an-Nabi (s) idkhali 's-suroor fee quloob il-mu’mineen min al-eemaan, to put happiness in the heart of a believer is from iman." (similar to what is related by al-Bayhaqi) To make people happy is from faith. It is from faith to smile, not to be serious always, like me. A smile is a sadaqa. If you smile in the face of your brother, it is as if you are giving a donation. If you give a poor person a donation, he will be smiling. If you give him food, he will be smiling. So if you smile in his face, he will smile. It is a sadaqa. You are making someone happy. Allah (swt) wants everyone to be happy.
Sayyidina Muhammad (s)! (everyone stands.) Allahumma salli `ala nabee, salloo `alayh, salloo `alayh, salloo `ala an-Nabi (s)! (Mawlana sits). I was speaking yesterday about the importance of mentioning the name of Prophet (s). If we stand from the beginning of Creation until the Day of Judgment making salawaat, we won’t fulfill his rights. From Adam (a) until the end, Allah (swt) ordered every human being to make salawaat on Prophet (s)!
إِنَّ اللَّهَ وَمَلَائِكَتَهُ يُصَلُّونَ عَلَى النَّبِيِّ يَا أَيُّهَا الَّذِينَ آمَنُوا صَلُّوا عَلَيْهِ وَسَلِّمُوا تَسْلِيمًا
Inna Allaha wa malaa`ikatahu yusalloona `ala an-nabiyy, yaa `ayyuha ‘l-adheena aamanoo salloo `alayhi wa sallimoo tasleema.
Allah and His angels send blessings on the Prophet. O ye that believe! You send blessings on him and salute him, with all respect. (33:56)
To give us an example, Allah (swt) and His angels are praising Prophet (s). Allah says, “O believers”. He didn’t say, yaa ayyuhal ladheena aslaamu; he said, ya ayyuhal ladheena amanoo, meaning, “You mu’min, you understand.” Muslims must still make more progress to understand the rights of Sayyidina Muhammad (s), the love of Sayyidina Muhammad (s) (all stand) and how much we have to respect Sayyidina Muhammad (s) in every moment of our life. Allahumma salli `ala an-Nabiyy, Allahumma salli `ala an-Nabiyy, Allahumma salli `ala an-Nabiyy! (All are seated.) It means that if we don’t send salawaat on the Prophet, in every moment we remember we will be asked why we didn’t praise him.
(Allah [swt] will ask,) “O My servant, I said to do salawaat on Prophet (s), I didn’t say do one salawaat or five salawaat a day. I said, ‘Me and my angels are doing a continuous salawaat on Prophet,’ so why are you not sending salutations?” You are going to be asked, so do as much as you can. Send salawaat on Prophet (s) daily, 24 hours a day it is accepted.
Prophet (s) loves his ummah when they are not serious, when they are friendly, and when they show happiness and love to each other. People come with problems and if you don’t make them feel happy, what is the benefit of a lecture? Scholars today are so serious; they enter as if there is a lion in the masjid. They are serious and afraid to make one simple joke, they are so worried! They don’t need to be so worried, then people will run away. To bring happiness to the heart of someone is from faith. You have to do that, then they will listen to you. Look how many candies we gave (to thousands of attendees). Give water now. Give water and they will become happy. Give candies, they become happy. Now they will listen; they open their ears now.
Many seerahs narrate and Grandshaykh (q) mentioned that Prophet (s) would be with his family and his Sahaaba entertaining them. He was not the one that no one could speak with. He spoke with the child, with the adult, with the wife, and to the people. He spoke with everyone in a very eloquent and soft manner, to make people to feel happy.
Why are people coming here? For me? No, they are coming for Allah (swt) and Sayyidina Muhammad (s). We are coming for Sayyidina Muhammad, alayhi afdal as-salatu was-salaam! (All stand) Allahumma salli `ala an-Nabiyy, Allahumma salli `ala an-Nabiyy, Allahumma salloo alayhi! Salloo alayhi! (All sit).
We are coming for Allah (swt), for Prophet (s), and for Islam. Are we coming for anything else? Nothing. We are showing our love, respect and our gratitude to them and we are asking for forgiveness; that is why we are coming. Are you coming for business? No business? Yes, we are making business, we are making business with heavens! “Yaa Rabbee, we are coming for You. Grant us Your forgiveness. Yaa Sayyidee, yaa Rasulullah, we are coming for your love, reward us and honor us with your love.”
We are coming, there is a trade going on. Allah (swt) will not leave you going without anything. Allah (swt) is al-Kareem, Allah (swt) is the Generous; not like us. You are a trillionaire, so what can you give him as a present if you visit him? Say anything. What do you like? A car? A trillionaire, who cares? He can get you the best car. A house, he can get you the best house. A resort? He can give you an island. What more do you want? Horses? He will give you horses. Cows? He can give you cows. Sheep? He gives you sheep. Goats? He gives you goats. Camels? He can give you camels. Safari? He can give you one safari. What more do you want? If you are blind, what is the benefit of all that if you don’t have eyes? There are people who are blind and deaf and they cannot speak. Then what is the benefit of all of this?
Allah (swt) is giving you health in dunya. No one can give you health. No one can give you life, only Allah (swt) gave you life. That is more precious than this whole dunya. If you ask a poor person, “Do you want health or dunya?” he will say “health.” Tell a rich one, “I give you all the money, but you have to be sick all your life,” he will say, “I don’t want that (give me health).”
They tell you to go to the buffet restaurant and take whatever food you like. It’s all for you, you can take it. When you eat buffet style, can anyone stop you? (No).You eat as much as you like on a plate, but then you cannot eat a second plate. It means, be content with what Allah (swt) is giving you. We are coming here to be content with what Allah (swt) is giving us. Do you think Allah (swt) is like a man with a trillion dollars, give you a resort? Allah (swt) is al-Kareem! His generosity cannot be described like the generosity of human beings. The generosity of humans is a dunya generosity. But the generosity of Allah (swt) cannot be counted! He is giving you heavens and paradises! That’s why we are coming here.
Look at those who are outside now, they are dancing and are in the disco, and Allah (swt) knows what they are doing there next to this masjid. That is what they want. They are happy with what they have. We are happy here with what we have. Correct? (Yes!) Allah (swt) will give in Paradise as He described in the Holy Qur’an and more by "maa laa `aynun ra’at wa laa udhunun sami`at wa laa khatara al-qalbi bashr - Allah (swt) will give you what no eye has seen, no ear has heard and what has never been imagined in the heart of any person." Look at how much you see in this life of fantasy and hallucination. They show you all kinds of technology to give you the highest level of pleasure. (Mawlana mimics spitting) Spit on their pleasures!
Allah (swt) will give you pleasures, and you will be in ecstasy in every moment of your presence in the heavens. When He gives, it is without limits. It is continuous and you will experience pleasure continuously and one pleasure will not overlap the other pleasure. Look! What are you seeing above the heads of men and women? It is empty, but in the heavens not one single place is empty. Whatever you are in, above you, in front of you, at the back, left and right of you, there is pleasure. You can take each pleasure and it doesn’t overlap the other. In every moment you are taking pleasure from all of them at the same time.
Prophet (s) was lovely and entertaining with the Sahaaba and his family. Grandshaykh (q) may Allah (swt) bless his soul, tells this story, as narrated by the seerahs. Once Prophet (s) was relaxing, lying down, and the Sahaaba were around him talking. This shows the humbleness of Prophet (s). He was sitting with the Sahaaba and reciting the Qur’an or poetry, and Prophet (s) was making them happy. He gave them something to make them laugh or smile. So he was lying down with the Sahaaba around him and suddenly there was a knock on the door and someone said there was a group of non-believers coming to see Rasulullah (s). At that time they were eating grapes. Prophet (s) was lying down and eating grapes and sitting informally with the Sahaaba, who were eating. As soon as the group of people came to the door, Prophet (s) immediately combed his hair and beard, and sat very formally on the floor. And he began to eat from the top of the bunch of grapes. They came in and saw that Prophet (s) was sitting and eating from the top of the bunch. At that moment all the Sahaaba were sitting on their knees formally. But Prophet (s) was smiling with the Sahaaba. He made them happy and made them to smile. He was giving them sweetness and grapes, whatever he could do to make his Sahaaba happy.
The unbelievers saw Prophet (s) eating the grapes from the top of the bunch, where they are very sour. They looked at him and they didn’t say, “yaa Rasulullah,” or “yaa Nabiyullah” or “yaa Habeebullah”. Because they were unbelievers, they said, “yaa Muhammad!” (All stand.) Allahumma salli `ala Muhammad, Allahumma salli `ala an-Nabi, Allahu akbar, Allahu akbar, Allahu akbar, al-`izzatu lillah wa li rasulihi wa li 'l-m’umineen!
So they addressed him by his name. “Yaa Muhammad (s), you say that you are a prophet, but a simple issue you are not noticing.” Prophet (s) looked, the Sahaaba wanted to kill them. The Sahaaba could not accept these words. Their love to Prophet (s) is beyond whatever we can imagine. So Prophet (s) kept them calm. He said, “What you mean is, why am I eating from the unripe (sour) grapes?” Because normally you eat the ripe, sweet grapes and not the sour ones, because you don’t want to have a stomach ache. If you serve food here, everyone will try to get the best and leave the worst food. Everyone wants the most suitable sweet for him, which means the best food. And they think, “Leave the rest, because who cares for this one and that one? I eat the best and leave for them the worst.”
Prophet (s) said, “We keep for ourselves last and for our guests first. I am eating the unripe ones to leave for you the ripe ones. I take the sour and leave you the sweet ones; we carry the responsibility. We take the sour. We will carry the suffering. But we give our guests the best that we can. We give them the best food, shelter, knowledge and Paradise. We give them everything, because they are they are Allah’s (swt) guests. And you are Allah’s (swt) guests and Allah (swt) has sent you to me.” At that moment they (the guest) said Ash-hadu an laa ilaaha illa-Llah, wa ash-hadu anna Muhammadan `abduhu wa habeebuhu wa rasooluh.
Once Prophet (s) was invited to dinner by one of the Sahaaba, who was so happy that Rasulullah (s) was coming to his house. And he tried to make the best food for Prophet (s.) He came with Sayyidina Abu Bakr as-Siddiq (q) and other Sahaaba. As soon as Prophet (s) put his foot in the house, the man out of love and respect said, “Yaa Rasulullah, the food I prepared for you is not to your standard. Your right is to have better that this food.” Immediately, Prophet (s) pulled his leg out and said, “I cannot eat from that food.” He said to his Sahaaba, “Go inside and eat. I am not eating.” The man was crying, saying, “Yaa Rasulullah (s).” Prophet answered him, “I cannot eat. What you said was something big on my heart, because I saw all these angels coming down on that food, coming down and going up repeatedly. And more angels are coming down for the barakah of that food. And what you said is not appropriate to be said about the food that Allah (swt) gave to human beings. For me it is enough, but now I cannot eat. You will get the barakah and reward. Let the Sahaaba eat.” He left with Sayyidina Abu Bakr as-Siddiq (q).
As they were passing through the streets of Madinah, a woman saw Prophet (s) and Sayyidina Abu Bakr (q) from her window. She came running and said, “Yaa Rasulullah, I am a poor lady and my husband cannot walk and see well. And my wish is that my husband can see you and will be with you. I cannot take him to see you, but since you are passing by, come and sit with us and eat at our table from our food.”
Don’t be picky over your food. It means whatever you find, eat it. Like for some people they don’t have anything at home, they only have tomato, and they eat tomato with rice, no problem. Don’t say, “I want to eat this and this and this every day.” And make all different dishes. Like in Ramadaan they make all different kinds of food and throw it away after two days. They do that or not? (Yes). Okay. How many poor people are living at the top of mountains or live in the jungle and have nothing to eat? They do have rice in a banana leaf and cook it and eat, and they are happy, no problem. They are making their salawaat and doing their prayers and keeping their fasts with rice and banana leaf, and we are not happy with anything! We want this, we want this, and we want that!
So Prophet (s) entered the house of that lady and she said, “Yaa Rasulullah, this is our food. Come and eat.” What was their food? Dry bread, water and salt. The dry bread was made from barley with a lot of rocks in it as they didn’t have anything to clean it with at the time. So water, bread and salt. Prophet (s) took the dry bread and soaked it in the water to soften it, dipping it in the salt and eating it. He said to Sayyidina Abu Bakr (q), “This is blessed food; eat as much as you can.”
Before I recited a hadith about the sunnah of Prophet (s), to fill your stomach one-third with food, one-third with water, and reserve one-third for air (leave it empty). It means eat less, don’t eat too much. This time Prophet (s) said, “Eat as much as you can.” Grandshaykh (q) was always giving the best food, but sometimes he gave bread, salt and water. Many times Mawlana Shaykh (q) is serving bread, water, vinegar and salt. Because that lady didn’t say like the other Sahaabi, “This food, yaa Rasulullah (s) is not sufficient for your respect, I have to make it better.” She said, “This is the best food I am giving.” The best food to that lady means they hardly had any bread or that they don’t have salt.
The food of Prophet (s) in the morning was one cup of hot water with a spoonful of honey, for lunch he ate seven dates and one cup of milk, and in the evening for dinner he took vinegar with olive oil and barley bread. That is food he ate most of the time with his wives and his children. Look today and compare yourself with what you are eating and what they were eating, and we can see the difference. What kinds of food we are eating?
O Muslims, men, mashaykh, scholars, imams, ladies, mu’mins! Be simple, not complicated. You are going to eat and that is it. The taste is only from the beginning of the tongue to end it, that is the taste; all food has the same taste from the throat down. This mouth is what creates all the problems, talking, cursing, saying, “I don’t like anything.” Be careful, and be simple; eat what is in front of you. Eat bread. Don’t say, “I like this and I don’t like this.” No, don’t say that. Eat and go. Allah (swt) will be happy with you. Prophet (s) was happy with the salt and water that lady offered them. And this man was happy, because they visited their home. Do you want Prophet (s) to be happy with you? (Yes!) Make salawaat on him.
(All stand.) Allahumma salli `ala an-Nabiyy, allahumma salli `ala an-Nabi, allahumma salli `ala an-Nabiyy, allahumma salli `ala an-Nabiyy, allahumma salli `ala an-Nabi, allahumma salli `ala Sayyidina Muhammad, yaa Rasulullah, yaa Habeebullah, yaa Shaf`ee'i 'l-mudhnibeen, yaa khayru khalqillah! (All sit.)
When you are in the army they teach you to raise your voice, to show that your whole body is speaking together at the same time. When you call on Allah (swt) and His Prophet (s), don’t be like this (mumbling). There are many like that. Not with a strong himmah, zeal. (Call out with zeal!) Yaa Rasulullah! Yaa Habeebullah! Yaa Rabba 'l -`izzati wa 'l-`adhamati wa 'l-Jabaroot!
When Mawlana Shaykh (q) was in khalwah, I used to visit him. He was not talking; he was shaking completely. When he is visiting Prophet (s) for Hajj or ‘Umrah, I used to go with him. And when he is in muwajhaha making du`a and salawaat in front of Prophet (s), his whole body is shaking during that du’a. How are we making du`a today? We are weak servants. Yaa Rabbee, we are weak servants. Prophet (s) said (everyone stands) you have to smile in the face of people in order to make them happy. Yaa Rabbee, we are coming to you smiling. What can we do? Make us happy, because we can’t do anything. We are nothing!
Don’t ever open your mouth and say, “I am a scholar.” Like these people who write after their names, “professor, doctor, MBA, MSA, BA, Masters Degree,” WC! (laughter) They are going to get all these certificates and put them in the WC (water closet, i.e., bathroom) and when they go inside, look at them on the wall. These are in the WC, because they are for dunya. There is no WC for Aakhira; there is Paradise. So don’t call yourself something. Are you a shaykh? How many we are seeing call themselves khalifah, mashaykh, ameer. Who gave you that title? Did Allah (swt) give you that title? “I am a king.” Who gave you that title? You made yourself a king or ameer and you want people to follow you. You occupied a country and called yourself ameer. You want Allah (swt) to call you an ameer, you want Allah (swt) to call you a king.
أَلَمْ تَرَ إِلَى الْمَلإِ مِن
بَنِي إِسْرَائِيلَ مِن بَعْدِ مُوسَى إِذْ قَالُواْ لِنَبِيٍّ لَّهُمُ
ابْعَثْ لَنَا مَلِكًا نُّقَاتِلْ فِي سَبِيلِ اللّهِ قَالَ هَلْ
عَسَيْتُمْ إِن كُتِبَ عَلَيْكُمُ الْقِتَالُ أَلاَّ تُقَاتِلُواْ
قَالُواْ وَمَا لَنَا أَلاَّ نُقَاتِلَ فِي سَبِيلِ اللّهِ وَقَدْ
أُخْرِجْنَا مِن دِيَارِنَا وَأَبْنَآئِنَا فَلَمَّا كُتِبَ عَلَيْهِمُ
الْقِتَالُ تَوَلَّوْاْ إِلاَّ قَلِيلاً مِّنْهُمْ وَاللّهُ عَلِيمٌ
بِالظَّالِمِي
Alam tara il al-mala’ min Banee Isra`eela mim b`ad Moosa idh qaaloo li nabiyyin lahumu b`ath lana malikan nuqaatiloo fee sabeelillah. qaala hal `asaytum in kutiba `alaykumu ‘l-qitaalu illa tuqaatiloo qaaloo wa maa lanaa allaa nuqaatila fee sabeelillahi wa qad ukhrijnaa min diyaarina wa abnaa’ina fa-lamma kutiba `alayhimu ‘l-qitaalu tawallau illa qaleelan minhum w'allahu `aleemun bi 'dh-dhaalimeen.
Have you not turned your vision to the chiefs of the Children of Israel after Moses? They said to a prophet among them, “Appoint for us a king that we may fight in the cause of Allah.” He said, “Is it not possible if you were commanded to fight that you will not fight?” They said, “How could we refuse to fight in the cause of Allah seeing that we were turned out of our homes and our families?” But when they were commanded to fight, they turned back except a small band among them. But Allah has full knowledge of those who do wrong. Suratu ‘l-Baqara (2:246)
The Bani Isra`eel asked their prophet to ask Allah (swt) to send them a king to follow. Allah (swt) sent Taloot (Saul) and after him Sayyidina Dawood (David), who was a young prophet. You can go through the story of Sayyidina Musa (as) and Dawud (as). According to the prophecy of the Bani Isra`eel, the sign of the authority of Taloot would be that Allah (swt) would send his people the relics of the followers of Sayyidina Musa (a). Taloot set out with his forces and told his people not to drink from the river, saying those who obeyed would belong with him. When they met Jaloot (Goliath), those who obeyed were firm against the disbelievers. Dawud (a) was a young man amongst the people of Taloot. He killed Jaloot and the large army of the unbelievers was defeated. So Allah (swt) gave Taloot kingship (based on his strong faith). You want kingship from Allah (swt) and not from people, who cannot do anything for you.
O Muslims, don’t call yourself something (by titles)! Allah (s) appoints you because you are a mu’min and a good worshipper.
May Allah (swt) forgive us, may He bless us.
Bi hurmati ‘l- habeeb, bi-hurmati ‘l-Faatihah, wa min Allahi ‘t-tawfeeq.
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