أعوذ بالله من الشيطان الرجيم
بسم الله الرحمن الرحيم
A muslim too wakes up in the morning and a non-muslim too wakes up in the morning, wakes up from sleep but the morning of a Muslim is not the same like that of a non-muslim. The dawn of the muslim goes like how the Prophet, SallAllahu Alayhi Wa Sallam, taught him. He recites kalimah as taught by the Prophet, SallAllahu Alayhi Wa Sallam, he offers salah, does hajj according to the teaching of the Prophet, SallAllahu Alayhi Wa Sallam. He says “Alhamulillaahilladhee ahyaana ba’ada maa amaatana wa ilaihin nushoor” when he wakes up, he then fulfills his needs, performs wudhu, and he performs tahajjud if he woke up before subah saadiq (dawn) or he performs fajr if he wakes up after subah saadiq. Our beloved Prophet, SallAllahu Alayhi Wa Sallam, prayed to Allah SWT to put blessings in the subah for his ummah. Our beloved Prophet, SallAllahu Alayhi Wa Sallam, asked us to recite Bismillah before commencing any work, be it related to deen or dunya for a work that is commenced without reciting Bismillah is incomplete. We would have seen when we visit some old women they will welcome us by saying, “Welcome, Bismillah”. In fact, the work will not just be incomplete but some work won’t be right without reciting Bismillah. For example, if we slaughter a sheep without reciting Bismillah, it would be haram to eat and it is as much haram as that of consuming alcohol or eating a dog or a cat. Such is the importance of saying Bismillah.
There is a powerful lesson in saying Bismillah while slaughtering the animal. The animal we slaughter has life be it the cow or the sheep or chicken and so do we. If someone slaughters us for enjoyment, that would be a zulm (oppression). Every living being be it the animal or the man wants to live. If you want to save yourself from difficulties, so is the every living being that wants to save itself from difficulties. You don’t like anyone to slaughter you with a knife and so is every living being. But when you recite Bismillahi Allahu Akbar when slaughtering that any living being dislikes, you in fact are proclaiming one reality saying that, “I am the creation of Allah SWT and so is this animal and Allah SWT is the creator of all. He SWT has the sole right to decide who becomes beneficial for whom. It is Allah SWT who created this animal for my benefit and it is by His command alone that I am benefiting from this animal.” We have the right to derive enjoyment from the animal and Allah SWT has permitted it so but He SWT created us mainly for His worship. So we also proclaim that we have the right to take benefit from the creations of Allah SWT only when we worship Him or else we don’t have any right to seek pleasure or benefit from His creations. Our purpose is to worship Allah SWT by taking benefits from these animals.
“And I (Allâh) created not the jinn and mankind except that they should worship Me (Alone).” Al-Quran: 51:56
The animals are ready to die in obeying the command of Allah SWT for the benefit of men for whom it was created but it is just we who are not ready to worship Allah for which we are created. We can cut the throat properly making the blood flow and even the lab tests can confirm this but in spite of all this if we do not proclaim the reality, “Bismillahi Allahu Akbar”, this won’t be halal for us, it will remain impure. Such is the importance of Bismillah in some instances. We do the wudhu saying Bismillah and without saying “Bismillah”, if we wash our hands, face etc with water, we might get clean but not pure. It is only in Islam, we have cleanliness and purity. We can see in other people cleanliness but not purity for purity is unique to the people of Islam. Our beloved Prophet SAW said any work commenced without saying “Bismillah” will be imperfect and remain adulterated. Our intelligence might not reach the understanding of the Prophet’s SAW words for his SAW words go beyond our intelligence and commence from there. So we should never judge his words with our intelligence. Our beloved Prophet SAW said when one does wudhu saying Bismillah and washes his hands, then the sins committed by his hands are washed away and so is the face, ears, foot and so on. Finally when he finishes his wudhu, he is cleansed of all minor sins and his heart is filled with noor and full of blessings.
A pig can be brought up in a clean environment and fed with clean things but it will remain impure for us as Allah SWT and Prophet SAW said that it is impure. Alcohol can be tested in a laboratory and graded to be pure made from high grade ingredients but it will remain impure for us and it is as impure to us as that of urine or stool. When we recite Bismillah while drinking water, we acknowledge the fact that it is only by Allah’s SWT grace and favor we got the glass of water in our hand. All the living beings are dependent on water and that is why Allah SWT made two-thirds of this world into water and one-third as land where we live. There are so many living beings right inside the sea that live and even die there but Allah SWT has so organized that He SWT made the sea water very salty to prevent the water turning out bad giving out bad odor. He SWT didn’t ask us to turn the salty water into drinking water by ourselves and if we were left like that, it would have cost us millions but He SWT so arranged that the sea water evaporates leaving the saltiness and reaches the clouds raining the water benefiting even the poor. He SWT didn’t ask us again to move the clouds and He SWT does a free cargo service moving the clouds and showers the rain. He SWT didn’t ask us to build tanks to save the rain water but He SWT so made that the rain is reserved in the mountains in the form of ice and it doesn’t melt altogether but in accordance to the sunlight falling on it forming rivers and streams flowing to different regions. He SWT so organized the earth that we can dig the path for the flow of water to any region we wish. Right inside our body, Allah SWT has placed very expensive organs. For example the kidney is such an amazing organ that filters and separates the water needed for our body and expels the rest. In these modern times, when technology is at peak, it is found impossible to make an organ like kidney. Even if the minute filter like in kidney can be made with millions of dollar, who can make the sense that Allah SWT put in the kidney with which it decides how much a body needs water and how much it needs to expel. What a great blessing!
Just think, if we acknowledge the bounties of Allah every time we use it by reciting the relevant duas taught to us by the Prophet SAW, how much we will love Allah SWT! Definitely we will love Him SWT and obedience to Him SWT will become very easy. When someone continuously does some favor to us, won’t we love him? There was Behlul Raheemaullah, a pious slave of Allah SWT and Harun who was also a righteous slave of Allah SWT. Harun was also given kingdom and in spite of having wealth, he made a regular schedule of spending some time with pious slaves every day and loved them, and because of its blessings, he remained righteous. In the earlier times, even the weak mulims used to have more respect for pious slaves and love them and sit in their majlis, because of which Allah SWT blessed them also. Our beloved Prophet, SallAllahu Alayhi Wa Sallam, said that a man will be raised up with whom he loves. The most unfortunate thing of today’s time is that the shaitan has so made us that the mistakes of others won’t fall in our eyes but a minute mistake of pious slaves is highly amplified in our eyes and we filter them with an ultra-filtrate when they didn’t descend from heaven but just human beings. All this is because the shaitan wants to deprive us from their companionship and righteousness.
Now as Harun was sitting with Behlul and he was about to drink a glass of water. Behlul asked Harun to answer him one thing and then drink water. When Harun asked him what he wants to ask, Behlul said, “If you are in a situation where the sun is scorching and the earth is very hot and you are extremely thirsty and you see a man selling a glass of water asking people to fix price for this water, how much will you fix?” Harun thought for a while and replied, “Behlul, if I have to fix half of my kingdom as a price, I will do so for what is the use of wealth, power and position without life.” Harun then drank the water and now Behlul asked him again, “Say that the water you drink doesn’t come out of your body and there is a doctor who can save you from this problem, then how much you will give him?. We know how much restless we will become if urine stays inside our body. Harun replied, “If I have to give half of my kingdom, I will do so for life is more precious.” Behlul then replied, “The whole of your kingdom goes for just one blessing of Allah SWT, a glass of water”. Have we ever said Bismillah from the heart when we drank water for how many drinks Allah SWT provides us every day? Our beloved Prophet, SallAllahu Alayhi Wa Sallam, taught us beautiful duas after using every blessing of Allah SWT so we gain His SWT love and His close proximity. Just think if you keep thinking of a person who does you some favor often, won’t your heart get inclined towards him? It is the nature of man to incline towards one who does favor to him. When we thank Allah SWT from heart after using every bounty, we would definitely love Him. This is a simple deed but it will get us His SWT love.
Today the disease of ingratitude is spread in our society that Allah SWT has deprived us of the blessings of the bounties and worst is that the doors of bounties are also shut. If we want more blessings and if we want the doors of bounties be opened for us, then be grateful to Allah SWT. Thank Allah SWT that He SWT has kept us better than thousands and lakhs of people. When we see the people lying on platform, let us thank Allah SWT how He blessed us with home, when we see a woman knocking the car door, let us thank Allah SWT how He SWT feeds our women and children with much honor, when we see people suffering in the hospital, let us thank Allah SWT that He granted us health. Our beloved Prophet SAW has asked us to look those who are lower to us in wealth or any worldly thing when we will get tawfeeq to thank Allah SWT. It is very unfortunate today we have only complaints and complaints against both the creation and the Creator. We look at those who have wealth, family, position better than us and get worried. We are so worried that we even lose the enjoyment of the blessings we possess. Shukr (showing gratitude) is such a great blessing that it preserves the blessings of bounties we possess and also the shukr hunts down those bounties that we do not possess and throws in our lap. Even when we are in difficulty, remember thousands of bounties of Allah SWT that we are enjoying. Muawiyya RA was suffering from severe fever that the water becomes hot when he puts his hand in it but his tongue was saying Alhamdulillah and when asked about it, he said that Allah SWT has kept all other limbs healthy and he is grateful for that. Once there was a theft in a pious man’s house and he told the neighbor Alhamdulillah, Allah SWT protected our eeman, honor and it is only the wealth that was stolen. If one is granted the blessing of being with pious people, with heart attached to the masjid, enough gratitude can never be shown to this blessing alone even if he remains in sujud as a sign of gratitude. Today when people are so distressed everywhere, the people who have such pious contact with hearts attached to the masjid remain content and much peaceful compared to anyone else.
Wudhu is the weapon of the believer for it cleans him from outside and purifies him from inside absolving him of his sins and keeps him protected from shayateen. In earlier days, people pray even tahajjud in masjid and on their way to masjidun-nabawi, they will hear women reciting the Quran from every house in that early hours and the recitation would come like the buzzing of bees. Thus their lives were filled with blessings, their time was blessed, their health was blessed, their family was blessed, their children were blessed, their markets were blessed and their whole environment was blessed. This used to be the face of the muslims, ascent of muslims and happiness of muslims. Today adversities descend on the houses where muslims sleep without offering fajr and muslims are deprived of all the blessings. The Sahabahs (RA) used to say that other than a kafir who openly proclaimed his kufr, none even thought to abandon salah. Muslims so used to attend the fajr salah in masjid as if they are gathering for eid but we gather more for eid salah, a wajib salah but abandon the fajr salah, which is farz. Muslims used to give more importance to farz than wajib and here things have turned upside down. When Prophet SAW returned from me’raj, he asked Bilal (RA), “O Bilal! Tell me of the best deed you did after embracing Islam, for I heard your footsteps in front of me in Paradise. Bilal replied, “I did not do anything worth mentioning except that whenever I performed ablution during the day or night, I prayed after that ablution, tahiyyatul wudhu.” Prophet SAW then said this was the act that Allah SWT loved the most in you because of which I heard your footsteps in Jannah.
Our beloved Prophet, SallAllahu Alayhi Wa Sallam, said fajr can be difficult for a munafiq (hypocrite) but it cannot be difficult for a muslim. How blessed is fajr that Allah SWT says, “Recite the Quran in the early dawn. Verily, the recitation of the Quran in the early dawn is ever witnessed.” Quran-17:78. Here the scholars explain that the recitation of Quran is used here because muslims hear more Quran in fajr salah and they read more Quran during fajr and it will be witnessed by the angels who are in charge of recording the deeds. There are two groups of angels appointed to record our deeds. The group of angels staying during the night will leave us during fajr and how blessed is that the last thing they record is that we are in worship during fajr salah and the group of angels for the day come to us during fajr and the first thing they will record is that we are in worship when we pray fajr. As said before, a muslim’s morning is different than a kaafir’s morning but today unfortunately a muslim’s house cannot be distinguished from a kaafir’s house where a kafir too doesn’t pray fajr and muslim too doesn’t pray fajr. There is no remembrance of Allah in the house of a kaafir and so has become the house of a muslim. Music is heard in the kafir’s house and so it is being heard in a Muslim’s house. Our beloved Prophet SAW prayed to Allah SWT to put blessings in the mornings of his ummah and the earlier muslims got the blessings of the Prophet’s duaa by commencing the morning with wudhu and salah. They in fact used to wake up before dawn and pray tahajjud. They considered wudhu as such a great blessing that they used to thank Allah SWT for that by offering two rakats tahiyyatul wudhu or they enter masjid and pray together tahiyyatul wudhu and tahiyyatul masjid. Let Allah SWT grant us all such a blessed life, let Allah SWT help us to act on what we hear, read and write. Ameen.