Dear Family of Believers: Lessons from the Haramain

The next few weeks I'll share some reflections on my visits to the sacred houses.

Dear Family of Believers,

I’m a bit late on this week’s newsletter, but I promise I have a reason. You see, I’m currently back home after spending the last week in Madinah and Mecca. As I started writing this, I was sitting on the train heading back to Madinah from Mecca, and the mountains and plains were all green. It’s a beautiful sight considering it’s typically thought that this entire area is usually just desert. And yes, I’m aware that it is one of the signs of the end of time. However, it doesn’t mean we can’t recognize its beauty.

Abu Huraira reported: The Messenger of Allah, peace and blessings be upon him, said, “The Hour will not be established until wealth is so abundant and overflowing that a man will go out with his wealth to give alms but not find anyone who accepts it from him, and until rivers and meadows return to the land of Arabia.”

This past week, I led a group of men from around the world on an Umrah trip. It was a relatively small group, but I’d like to share a bit about it and then end this email with some advice to you.

How it began

This group of men is about 2 years in the making. It started as me deciding to get off social media, and after advice from my family, I decided it would be best to have a male-only community so that I could still teach and be of benefit to a demographic that not only needs it but would be appropriate for me as a man to be intimate and close to.

For the last two years, they’ve asked me to do various things, including organizing an Umrah trip, but I had always felt it wasn’t something I could do. Earlier this year, we decided it was finally time. I landed in Madinah about a week ago, and with a group of 6 men, I introduced them to some of my shayukh, and was blessed to meet new ones. From Sh. Murabit Isa, Sh. Ahmad Mawlud Al Shinqiti, Habib Ubaydullah, Mufti Irshad (a senior student of Mufti Taqi Usmani), and others.

Interestingly enough, I didn’t plan to teach the entire time, but while we were there, I ended up going through Imam Nawawi’s 40 hadith, Ibn Ashir’s text on Fiqh, Aqidah, and Tasawwuf, and other texts.

How it went

We also had some strange experiences. For example, once we were walking around Masjid Nabawi, and one of the men connected with a Sudanese man. He spoke so eloquently, and when he spoke, he often quoted lines of poetry. While I translated his words to the group, he stopped and quoted from a poem I studied years ago on the foundations of the Maliki school. At that point, I knew this was someone well-studied, I just didn’t know how much until he later came to our hotel room. Let’s just say that nothing I write here will do justice to the light he brought into our hotel room, but that light will continue for some time.

I guess the point of this is to say you don’t need to plan, Allah is the planner and all you need to do is have trust that what needs to happen will.

Being connected

This leads me to my next point. So many times during the trip, we connected with beautiful people simply because we knew someone, and that person connected us to others. Your good companionship will connect you to good people. I daresay the reverse is also true. If you surround yourself with evil people, people who complain, people who are always depressed and angry, then you’ll probably very soon find those kinds of people occupying your life and those characteristics becoming your own.

Good friends are everything. The Prophet ﷺ truly was correct in saying a person is on the religion of his friend. Friends not only connect you, but they increase your ambition, whether for good or for bad. May we be surrounded by good.

Abu Huraira reported: The Prophet, peace and blessings be upon him, said, “A man is upon the religion of his best friend, so let one of you look at whom he befriends.”

Source: Sunan al-Tirmidhī 2378

Don’t delay what you need to do

On this trip, we had a convert; he converted in Ramadan, and on his 18th birthday, he jumped on a plane and joined us. Do make dua for him and his 14-year-old little sister, who also accepted Islam. However, what I want to focus on is, he came.

This 18-year-old man, who never met me in person but recently joined my group, who had never been to Mecca and Madinah before, and who honestly knew very little of the merits of visiting this blessed land, understood enough. He understood enough to make a massive decision, and I commend him. Sometimes we know enough, but we drag our feet towards that which is good and specifically that which would please Allah. There are some things we can’t delay.

For example, Ibn Ashir reminds us that repentance at the moment we realize our fault is mandatory, and if we don’t, we are sinning twice. First for the actual sin and second for the delay in repentance.

The Prophet ﷺ told us to take that which he orders us to do and do it to the best of our ability, and to leave that which he tells us to leave.

The point is, whatever is good, do it to the best of your ability. Give your all. As for the bad, we have a concept of “going cold turkey.” None of this business of weaning off when you need filth out of your life.

Faith goes up and down depending on your deeds. The more good deeds you do, the higher your faith will ascend. It’s not rocket science, so if you feel you’re not in a good spiritual state, ask yourself what more you can do?

But more to my point, we gain Taqwa by leaving sins and by doing good deeds. There is a need for prioritization. The goal should be to focus on leaving sin and then gaining good deeds. We tend to do the reverse, with good intentions, of course. It’s just easier to do more good than to leave the sins we may enjoy. But the goal is to leave them, not to wean off, but to straight up leave them, knowing Allah will replace them with better.

I honestly have so much more to say about this trip, so much. But I think I’ll leave you with this for now,

It’s never about you, it's always Allah.

You did nothing.

You are no one.

It’s always Allah, and for that, we thank Him.

Your servant,

Naseer

P.S. If you or someone in your life thinks they may benefit from being in my Rijaal group just respond to this email with, “Rijaal up.”

It’s corny I know, but apparently, I’m filled with corny dad jokes, so it’s all good.