Twenty-Eighth Ramadan Lecture Presented by Al-Sayyid Abdul Malik Badruddin Al-Houthi, 1443 A. H.
Taqwa
The Foundations of Brotherly Relationships and Eternal Happiness
I seek refuge in Allah from Shaytan, the outcast.
In the name of Allah, the Compassionate, the Merciful.
Praise is to Allah, Lord of the Worlds. I believe that there is no god but Allah, the Sovereign and the Manifest Truth, and that Muhammad, our master, is His servant, Messenger, and Last Prophet.
O Allah, confer Your salat and blessings upon Muhammad and the Family of Muhammad as You conferred Your salat and blessings upon Ibrahim and the Family of Ibrahim. You are Owner of Praise, Owner of Glory! And be pleased with Muhammad's good companions and all Your righteous servants and mujahidin.
Brothers and sisters, peace be upon you and the mercy of Allah and His blessings.
O Allah, guide us and grant us acceptance, for You are the All-Hearing, the All-Knowing; accept our repentance, for You are the Relenting and the Merciful.
The month of Ramadan is the month of obtaining Taqwa, which is a means that leads to success and salvation and makes it possible for a person to achieve what s/he hopes most and even what goes beyond what s/he might ever hope for: the Jannah that Allah promised, along with His love and great providence. All of that depends on Taqwa and is associated with it: {‘It has been prepared for the muttaqin’}; Allah also says about Jannah, {‘Such is the Jannah which We shall give as an inheritance to those of Our slaves who have been muttaqun.’} Taqwa is what makes Allah on your side or the side of a particular nation or society, so it is an important means of achieving the great success, the real profit, and the eternal happiness.
What keeps people from obtaining Taqwa is their inclinations, desires, whims, hopes, and ambitions, which can never be completely reached, no matter what they do and however far from Taqwa they get to achieve such things. There are many obstacles and irritants, and in the end, they will bear the consequences of neglecting Taqwa for the sake of their desires and inclinations. The conditions of this life in itself and of people are full with many obstacles, problems, and worries and make it impossible for people to always get what they want and have a stable life in which all their hopes and desires go fulfilled in the way they like and without irritants. This is impossible and can never happen to anyone.
The role of friends: Leading to deviation or enhancing Taqwa
What keeps some people from obtaining Taqwa is their intimates and friends with whom they enjoy strong relationships and warm bonds of love and friendship. This plays an important role in the kind of effect that prevails among them due to the feelings of love and trust and the emotional and psychological effects that usually occur between friends and intimates. The importance of this can be seen in two directions: The direction of deviation from Taqwa (the state of turning away from Taqwa and neglecting Taqwa) and its importance in enhancing the state of Taqwa.
That is why Allah (Glory be to Him) says in the Holy Quran, {‘On that day , close friends will be enemies to one another, except for the Muttaqin’}—those close friends who used to enjoy strong bonds of friendship, love, and intimacy to one another, who used to stand with one another in times of difficulty and hardship, who used to help one another in times of crises, worries, and problems, and who used to feel comfort and be happy around one another and for one another. On the Day of Resurrection, their relationship will completely change: Their strong bonds of love and intimacy and their close friendship will turn into fierce enmity and intense hatred. They will hate and abhor one another and be filled with grudge and enmity towards one another to the point that they do not want to see one another—but why? They will see in one another the reason that has led to their deviation from Taqwa and to their misery.
{‘Except for the muttaqin’}, as for them, the case is completely different. Their friendship, intimacy, and relationship in this life were based on Taqwa and faith, as they used to encourage one another to patience and what is right and cooperate with one another in Taqwa and righteousness. So their bonds of friendship, brotherhood, love, and intimacy helped them to obtain Taqwa as commanded by Allah and to keep to following His right path. They used to advise one another to what is right, which has helped them to hold to it more tightly, so their relationship with one another helped them to have a positive impact on one another: When some of them were about to abandon what is right due to some effects, advice was paid to them in an honest and genuine way that was based on Taqwa and did have a great impact on them, as it greatly helped them to remain on the right course Allah (Glory be to Him) guided to.
On the Day of Resurrection, they will see the outcome of this kind of brotherhood, love, faith-based relationship, and intimacy that was based on Taqwa. It will be a good outcome and great success, for they will never feel enmity towards one another; rather, they will see in their bonds of friendship, brotherhood, and love that were based on advising one another to what is right and on cooperating in Taqwa and righteousness one of the reasons that have led to their success and salvation. As a result, their intimacy and love for one another increases, so does their feeling of comfort about and pride of this kind of faith-based relationship, brotherhood, friendship, and love that is based on Taqwa.
When they arrive at Jannah, Allah says, {‘As brothers they will be upon settees facing one another’}: They will be meeting one another in the gathering places of Jannah, which are incomparable, and drinking of the wonderful drinks of Jannah. They will keep remembering their days in this life and will speak about the eternal bliss and happiness they enjoy in the mercy and generous hospitality of Allah.
The sensitive and effective role of the bad intimate
The Holy Quran has greatly focused on this, on intimacy, which can have an impact on many people to the point that some of those who used to move in the right path and the path of Taqwa (the state of Taqwa that has to do with adhering to the path Allah prescribed and with carrying out the responsibilities that we should pay attention to) may take a new friend as a close friend at certain point and start to get affected by him/her. And as the relationship gets stronger, this friend begins to tempt and invoke them (s/he may succeed in affecting them in some circumstances when talking with them), and when they face some problems or particular issues, s/he exploits that to have a greater negative impact on them. Indeed, s/he keeps tempting and affecting them and attracts them into the wrong direction, and s/he may present what has an impact on them and sometimes may lie.
The role the close friend plays is a sensitive role, so if s/he was not of the muttaqin and of those who advise you to what is right and help you hold firm to what is right, to the path of truth, and to right and good deeds—his/her role is an effective and sensitive role due to the importance s/he has to you and the effect and love s/he enjoys—s/he will affect you. Your love for him/her will be the bridge for him/her to get into the depth of your soul and have a particular impact on you. That is why the Holy Quran warns against bad intimates and people of inclination, yet some persons do like having bad intimates because they keep pace with his/her psychological state: Whenever s/he gets angry, they get angry in solidarity with him/her, even when wrong, and push him/her more into what is wrong. So s/he sees them willing to adapt themselves to his/her mood and mental state and to follow his/her desires regardless of the nature of these desires, even if not consistent with Taqwa.
There is this kind of person who does like this kind of friends and even finds him/herself getting more attracted to them, for they always keep pace with him/her. They are in total agreement with his/her anger and never seek to make him/her change course or advise him/her to what is right. There is also this kind of person who may even hate those who do not always keep pace with him/her at times of anger as well as at times of desire and satisfaction. S/he cannot stand them or consider them true friends; s/he only likes those who are always in agreement with him/her even when adopting a wrong or bad position. It is this kind of people whom s/he is comfortable with and to whom s/he gets more attracted. S/he may see in this as an indication of strong relationship and true friendship and believe that this how friendship should be. In fact, this is absolutely wrong.
The true friend is the one who is honest with you and never lies to you. S/he truly wants what is good for you and is mindful of what can bring goodness: the state of Taqwa. Indeed, the state of Taqwa is the key to all that is good. So s/he never seeks to keep you from Taqwa, and this is an important matter.
The Quran has warned against those who encourage you to follow your inclination and keep you from the state of Taqwa and the guidance of Allah (Glory be to Him). It has also made it clear how great the loss of one will be on the Day of Resurrection if s/he follows this kind of friends. On the Day of Resurrection, while experiencing deep regret and grief and seeing the great loss, this kind of person will, according to the Quran, says, {‘Woe to me! I wish I had not taken so-and-so for a close friend. He definitely made me stray away from the reminder after it had come to me’}. This is how his/her regret and grief will be. After the chance has gone, s/he will regret taking so-and-so for a friend, and s/he will mention him/her by name: ‘It is so-and-so who made me stray away from the reminder, who kept me from following the Quran, and who pushed me into rejecting guidance and Allah's verses.’ This could be about one of the main matters that can lead to serious consequences (any great responsibilities and deeds that have to do with Taqwa) or about doing what is forbidden and neglecting some of the most important faith-based responsibilities.
Allah (Glory be to Him) also says, {‘And whoever turns away from the remembrance of the Merciful, We appoint for him a shaytan , and he then becomes to him a companion’}. So whoever becomes blind to Allah's guidance and turns away from it (no longer interested in following, seeking, accepting His guidance and adhering to it at the practical level) will be forsaken by Allah (Glory be to Him) and lose His support. What will replace Allah's guidance, which is light, is a shaytan, whether a human or one of the jinn, who becomes his/her companion—the shaytan that is a human is often worse and more dangerous than that one of the jinn: {‘And he then becomes to him a companion.’}
{‘Such really hinder them from the path’}: They hinder them from the path of Allah, the right path, and the right direction. They even seek to make what they present look attractive in order to convince the person that s/he is right in his/her deviated path and position; they also provide him/her with justifications so as to make him/her think there is nothing wrong in sticking to his/her position. {‘Such really hinder them from the path, but they think that they are being rightly guided! When such a person comes to Us, he will say , “If only you had been as far away from me as east is from west. What an evil comrade!”’}: On the Day of Resurrection, s/he will realize that his/her wicked friend has driven him/her away from the path of victory, salvation, and eternal happiness.
Those who reject bad intimates and their great triumph
Of what the Holy Quran mentions about this is a story of one of the Jannah dwellers. He had a friend on the earth who had worked hard to keep him/her from following the truth and the direction of faith and believing in what is true; however, s/he managed to overcome that by the grace of Allah and His mercy, Who saved him from the effect that friend had on him/her. In the Hereafter, in Jannah, while the people of Jannah are talking about their first lives, the reasons behind their triumph and salvation, and the dangers everyone passed through and could have affected them if it wasn’t for the grace of Allah, Who has saved them from those dangers: Allah says about them, {‘And they will approach one another, inquiring of each other. A speaker among them will say, “ Indeed, I had a companion ”}—a close and intimate friend in the first life on the earth—{“who used to ask , ‘Do you actually believe ? When we are dead and reduced to dust and bones, will we really be brought to judgment?’”’}. So this intimate friend questioned, ‘After we die and become dust and bones, is there judgment? Is there reckoning? Is there Jannah and Fire? Do you believe when we turn to dust and bones, this will happen to us?’ {‘He will ask, “Would you care to see ?”’}: It is likely that in Jannah there will be means and facilities through which the people of Jannah can see the people of Jahannam.
{‘He will say, “Would you look?” And he will look and see him in the midst of the Hellfire’}: S/he will find his/her intimate friend in the midst of Jahannam (we seek refuge in Allah). {‘He will say, “By Allah! You nearly ruined me. Had it not been for the grace of my Lord, I would certainly have been among those brought ”’}: When s/he sees his/her friend in the midst of Jahannam, s/he will be certain that if he had remained with that friend on the earth, continued to befriend him, accepted what s/he was saying, and deviated with him/her, s/he would have been brought to the torment and eternal damnation with him/her. Then, s/he will realize how very serious the consequences could have been for him/her!
Therefore, one should be careful; s/he should take care not to set his/her friends' habit of always keeping pace with him/her as a criterion for close friendship and intimacy. S/he also should not hate those friends who advise him/her to what is right and help him/her adhere to Taqwa. S/he should not be frustrated with them or turn away from them, considering them unreal friends—s/he should guard against falling into such a state.
The foundations of good relationships and the reason
of success: Taqwa
{‘On that day, close friends will be enemies to one another, except for the muttaqin’}: The state of Taqwa that gathered you with others and was the foundation upon which you built your relationships and bounds will always continue to remain so, even on the Day of Resurrection.
On the Resurrection Day, the Day of Horrors and the Greatest Terror, Allah (Glory be to Him) will call His pious servants , {‘O My servants, no fear shall be upon you today, nor shall you grieve’}—{‘no fear shall be upon you today.’} On the Resurrection Day, Allah (Glory be to Him) will direct this call to His pious servants in the gathering ground. In the midst of great horrors and after Jahannam has been placed in full view, in the midst of this horrific situation, this great call will come from Allah (Glory be to Him). He will call His pious servants and assure them, {‘No fear shall be on you today’}: There is nothing to fear because salvation is now your fate. {‘Nor shall you grieve’}: You shall not grieve, for the life of grief is now something of the past. So He will set their minds at ease on the Day of the Greatest Terror. This reassurance in the midst of that serious situation and great horrors is one of the greatest blessings; it is in fact one of the first and the greatest things they will win: to receive reassurance on the Day of the Greatest Terror.
Who are these muttaqin? They are {‘those who believed in Our revelations and submitted ’}: They are those who believed in Allah's verses, believed in them, trusted them, trusted what the divine promises contained in them, believed in what they contained of truths, and obeyed Allah. So these verses were what they adhered to and stuck to in their actions. They followed what they guide to and direct to. {‘And submitted ’}: They submitted to Allah (Glory be to Him) and to His command. This faith that was based on submitting to Allah's command and practically responding to Him resulted into obtaining Taqwa.
{‘Enter Jannah’}. Allah says to them, {‘Enter Jannah’}: After He reassured them and gave them good tidings in the gathering place, He (the Almighty) calls them to enter and head to Jannah. What a great success! What a great happiness! What a great joy! It is the joy of entering Jannah. At that moment, the muttaqin enter the world of Jannah. At that moment, even those who were friends in this world head to Jannah after meeting one another on the Day of Resurrection, knowing each other, rejoicing with each other, and feeling happy for each other that they succeed and gained salvation. They all will move together and enter Jannah. That moment of entering the world of Jannah is a moment in which the level of joy is beyond any description. Some narrations describe the moment when a person enters and sees the world of Jannah, saying that if it was not for the fact that death has gone forever, that person would have died from the intensity of his/her joy—s/he would have died at that moment when s/he entered Jannah and saw its world.
{‘Enter Jannah, you and your wives’}. Also, a person enters with his wife and family who were with him on the path of Taqwa. So the family will reunite, and one will enter the world of Jannah, filled with joy, happiness, and comfort. S/he will feel triumphed: {‘filled up with joy’}. You will go to the place of eternal happiness where you live in a state of great and eternal happiness and great bliss whose effect will appear on you, your face, your adornment, your conditions, and all your life. Jannah is the home of eternal happiness and joy.
This cannot happen to anyone in this world: No one can always live in a state of happiness and joy without experiencing sorrow, boredom, worry, anguish, agony, or grief. In this world, happiness never lasts; people often experience sorrows, worry, irritants, and many annoyances. Almost always, a person can never enjoy one day of pure happiness without any sorrows falling upon him/her. Indeed, life is full with many sorrows, so many of them. There are also many worries.
A glimpse at the bliss of Jannah and what Allah prepared
for the muttaqin!
In Jannah, there is permanent joy; there is all that can bring the state of joy and make a person happy—every pleasant thing and every desire. Its atmosphere is an atmosphere of joy that fills the person with joy. Everything there fills you with joy and happiness, for there is nothing there makes you sad, disturbs your life, makes you worry, gets you bored, harms you, or bothers you. Therefore, Jannah is the abode of pure and eternal great joy, everlasting satisfaction, endless comfort, and the greatest joy that knows no end and always gets renewed, magnified, and multiplied. Comfort there knows no end.
{‘Golden trays and cups will be passed around to them’}. The dwellers of Jannah are honoured, and they do not need to pay any physical effort or seek to serve themselves and look after their needs. Even wives do not need to spend their time cocking in Jannah, for {‘Golden trays and cups will be passed around to them’}: Their servants will come to serve them with trays that contain fruit and food from Jannah, from the great bliss in Jannah, from its fine food. {‘Golden trays’}—the trays themselves are made of gold. What a great way that reflects honour and bliss at the highest level. The trays cannot be matched in their decoration, beauty, and splendor. So even the containers of Jannah are greatly wonderful, as they are made of gold and come in the highest quality and in the most perfect, beautiful, wonderful form. As for the food in them, it is excellent and very great. The same goes for cups. They are made of gold. There is another verse that shows the variety of the vessels available in Jannah: Some are made of gold; some of silver. Also, there are those cups that are made of gold, and those of silver. They will come from Allah at the highest level of perfection.
{‘There will be whatever the souls desire’}: In Jannah, you can find whatever your soul desires. Of course, the souls of those who obtained Taqwa are good and purified souls that desire what is good and fine due to their spiritual transcendence. So their desires there can never be in contrast to the purity of their souls and what is good, elegant, and great. These words indicate every bliss: {‘There will be whatever the souls desire and the eyes delight in’}—it is a comprehensive verse. This is not available for anyone in this worldly life: Neither a king nor a merchant nor the wealthiest person in this worldly life can always have whatever his/her soul desires without irritants—this is impossible. Some people, even they have a lot of money, suffer health problems that make it impossible for them to do whatever they like with their money.
{‘And the eyes delight in’}—the very magnificent and wonderful sights that fill a person with joy and comfort. There are all types of decorations. In Jannah, everything is at the highest standard: dwellings, gardens, orchards, farms, and all types of decorations. Everything a person sees there fills him/her with joy, comfort, and happiness; and at the same time, everything is within his/her reach: {‘and the eyes delight in’}.
{‘And you will be there forever’}: There is no fear that this great bliss might be temporary and that it might come to an end, as it is the case in this life, where everything is temporary. In the Hereafter, Allah says, {‘And you will be there forever’}: You will never die, grow old, get ill, or lose this bliss, and you will live in this bliss, great joy, and wonderful comfort forever and enjoy whatever your souls desire. Therefore, everything is available for you, and you will live forever and know no death or ageing: {‘And you will be there forever’}—no death, aging, or illness.
{‘That is the Jannah that you have inherited for what you used to do’}. {‘That is the Jannah that you have inherited’}: That is because Allah will make them inherit palaces, farms, and gardens. Indeed, He makes them inherit the marvelous things that He has prepared for them. {‘So no one knows the delight of eyes that has been reserved for them in secret, as a reward of what they used to do’}: This bliss is beyond all imagination and goes beyond what a person could hope for. In this life, nothing can get a person's desires and ambitions completely fulfilled: ‘If the son of Adam had two valleys full of gold, s/he would wish for a third one.’ However, there is in Jannah what is more than a person could ever hope for.
One there will not live as a guest who has nothing, a guest who may feel shy to ask for things that s/he wants or may find it embarrassing to keep asking for more and more and saying, ‘Give me this one, that thing there, and also this! ‘ S/he owns : {‘You have inherited.’} These palaces, orchards, farms, and those things are yours—all that Allah has prepared in the world of Jannah. In a way that shows great respect, it will be said to you, ‘This is the fruit of your work, Jihad, patience, generosity, giving, and effort.’ This is a source of great honour to them.
{‘Therein for you will be fruits in plenty, of which you will eat ’}. They come in many varieties, and they are abundant and never run out. And the fruits of Jannah are among the greatest blessings in it, for they are too many, too wonderful, too delicious, and too beautiful. Moreover, it comes high on the list of food preferred by people—{‘of which you will eat.’} Fruits there are abundant and never run out.
It is a happy and satisfying life full of endless pleasure and joy that keep getting renewed and know no end. This is the real bliss. The key to this great bliss is Taqwa, and one, after enjoying this great divine bliss, will realize that all the suffering, agony, and anguish s/he experienced in this life is nothing when compared to what s/he will gain in this great bliss. And if s/he lose this great bliss and enter the Fire (May Allah forbid) due to his/her habit of turning away from Taqwa, s/he will realize that nothing in this life deserves losing this great bliss.
The dwellers of Jannah feel content, and friends will meet with one another in the best places ever, the great places for gathering in Jannah, where they will have drinks and keep remembering how their conditions were in this life and how their state of Taqwa and their habit of advising one another and cooperating with one another in Taqwa and righteousness played an important role in making it possible for them to win and achieve this.
Therefore, a person should never let anything distract him/her from adhering to Taqwa and moving in the way Allah has prescribed: {‘those who believed in Our revelations and submitted ’}. S/he should go by what Allah's verses say; seek to follow and obey His guidance, instructions, and commands; and stand in submission and obedience without allowing him/herself to get distracted by intimates, whims, or desires.
That is enough for today.
We ask Allah (Glory be to Him) to grant us success in seeking what pleases Him in order to obtain that great bliss and success. O Allah (Glory to You), lead us to what pleases you, have mercy on our martyrs, heal the wounded among us, set free our captives, and grant us victory. You are All-Hearing!
O Allah, accept our fasting, night prayers, and good deeds. You are All-Hearing!
Peace be upon you and the mercy of Allah and His blessings.