Why Knowledge Alone Won't Save You

Alhamdulillah.

[Silence]

I'd to share a narration with you this evening that helps us with something that is something that we are in dire need of. When you look at the world, you look at the problems that people have. You look at the confusion that people have. It's not because people don't know what's right and what's wrong. It's not because people have ignorance as to what's good or bad. In a macro sense, people know what's good and bad. In a general broad sense, people know good from evil. However, in a more specific sense, the Muslims because they are not going only based on societal norms and their fra but as well from the teachings of the prophet sallall.aii wasallam, the Quran and the Sunnah, they have an even more detailed understanding of right and wrong. And most people want in a general sense, most Muslims want what's right and want to avoid what's wrong. But the question is why is there so much chaos? Chaos in between people, chaos in society, chaos in single households, chaos even in a person's own self and in his own life. Why does a person contradict himself so much? Why is there so much confusion? And why is there this overwhelming sense of confusion that we suffer from? It's not because we don't know right and wrong. It's not because we don't know the general broad strokes of Islam law, Islamic law. It's because our priorities are not aligned properly. See, knowledge isn't really just about knowing right from wrong. Most people know that. True knowledge is knowing not only what's right, but what's better and what's good. And knowing the difference between what's bad and what's worse. Knowing the difference between priorities. Knowing the difference that if two potential goods, if they present themselves, which one is more worthy of a person's attention? If two evils present themselves, which evil is the lesser of the two evils? That is what knowledge is. and our priorities and the way that we have them structured, the very murky way that many people or even most people's priorities are structured is the reason why human beings suffer so much. It's because of our priorities. They're out of whack. We don't have a list in our mind where this is top priority. This is second from the top. This is third from the top. And if you have that, 99% of all of your decisions are already made before you even step onto the battlefield. 99% of all of your decisions are already made before you even go out into the world. Our prophet sallall.aii alaihi wasallam teaches us how to prioritize and the biggest problem is a lot of us are still at the first stage of our list of priorities. What is the first stage of the list of priorities? Which is primary dunya or the hereafter? Which takes precedence? the dunya or the hereafter. Which one do I embrace holy and in detail and the other in a general sense? Which is the one that is my primary focus and the rest fits into that? This is the priorities of the believer. In a general sense, the dunya is secondary. The hereafter is primary. What does that mean? That means that when we look at the world, we see it through the eyes or through the lens of the hereafter. When we look at this dunya and this world, what is permissible, what is impermissible, what is good, what is bad, we don't see it through the lens of this world. We see it from our perspective as standing in front of Allah on the day of judgment. And we look back at the world, what you would see in that instance, that is how the prophet sallall.aii wasallam taught his companions to see the dunya. The prophet sallallah.aii wasallam tells us about the dunya and the hereafter. He says in the narration of collected by Ahmed or Abdah Ahmed in his extension or addition to his father's Muslim.

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For.

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As an introduction. The scholars of Islam have ref have referred to the dunya and the hereafter. These two existences, the existence of the duny, the existence of the hereafter, they refer to them as anyone know what is. Huh? Is co-wives. Yes. Second wife, co-wives. They refer to the dunya and the hereafter as co-wives. This is a very good explanation description. Why are they co-wives? Because it's impossible to satisfy both simultaneously. It's never going to happen. It's never going to happen. Allah Subhanahu Wa Ta'ala tells us about co-wives and our wives that we can never fully be absolutely equal. 100% with them. Meaning that in our physical being, Allah tells us you will never be able to be absolutely equal with both of your wives or with each of your wives. Meaning that you can give each of them a gift at the same time. You can give each of them the same exact treatment, the same exact time. But what is not in your control, how you feel, how you feel is not in your control. And as we just heard in our prayer, the human being's heart is often very constricted. We can only experience things in small doses. And we only have our attention. Most people only have attention for one thing at a time. And so it's not possible to make both of them satisfied. So the scholars from this verse refer to the dunya and the hereafter as co-wives because you will only be able to fully satisfy one of the two, not both. You can't be equal with both. You can't love both with the same heart. Allah subhanahu wa ta'ala says we have never placed two hearts in the chest of one man ever. You get one heart. Which one does it belong to? And so in this narration, the prophet sallall.aii wasallam expounds upon this. He says whomever the dunya is his is preoccupied mainly with the dunya. Whomever's preoccupation is with the dunya. Whoever's focus is on the dunya Allah will make his affair scattered and unorganized. His affairs will become scattered and he will place his poverty in front of his eyes.

[Silence]

He says whomever is whomever's preoccupation is with the dunya. In other words, whomever the dunya is primary and the hereafter is secondary. You give the meat and potatoes as we say in America in the south. You give the meat and potatoes to the dunya and you give the scraps to the hereafter. Right? Whomever is that that is his situation. His Allah will make his affair scattered and unorganized. And he will place his poverty right in front of his eyes. Anywhere he looks, he can't see what he has. All he can see is what he wishes he had. All he can see is what he doesn't have. All he can see is what he needs to go get before time runs out. He says, "And after all that, the only thing he will receive of the dunya is what Allah had already written for him." After all that punishment and stress and tears and sweat and blood and what did you get at the end of all of that? Exactly what Allah had written for you. 50,000 years before the creation of the heavens and the earth. He says sallall.aii wasallam. Conversely, whomever the hereafter is his primary, whomever's focus and preoccupation is with the hereafter, Allah will organize his affairs for him. And he will place his wealth in his heart for him. and the dunya will come to him in spite of itself. Now notice how he's saying this because the human being our state of being is constantly what? Mali marry me. My money, my money, my wealth, my dy. We're always afraid we're missing out. Why do you think people can't leave their phone in the car when they come in the masid? I'm not picking on anybody here, but why do we think that is? Marry, I'm afraid I'm going to miss something of the dunya. Something of the dunya is going to happen. Logic plays no part of this. The first thing someone will tell you is, well, what if there's an emergency? If there's an emergency, unless you're a fireman or a police officer or you're a paramedic, right? They shouldn't be calling you. They should be calling 911. What are you going to do from where you are at the masid? Right? all these years of these hypothetical emergencies that are are intruding in our lives. How many of us have really gotten a phone call in the masjid during an emergency in our entire life? Ever. A true emergency. Most of us never. I would wager most of us, if not all of us, never. Th This is the trick. We we we have this feeling in ourselves that we're afraid to miss out. But Allah subhanahu wa ta'ala has made it to where the human being has one heart. You have to give this heart. You can only let into this heart one at a time. You can't be with both wives at the same time. It does not work. They're too jealous of each other. They demand your all. And so you have to choose one. Which one is it? You can't let both of them into your heart. It's either the dunyas in your heart or the hereafter's in your heart. They are mutually exclusive of one another. It's either nighttime or it's daytime. They are two opposites. So you have to choose one. Which one is it? And when we say choose one, it doesn't mean that you're going to completely miss out on the other. No. What it means is you will miss out on things of the dunya. You will you'll miss out. But that's okay because what you're missing out on Allah subhanahu wa ta'ala has for you. Allah tells us you all give precedent. You all give precedence to the dunya in spite of the hereafter being better and more extensive. It's eternal and it in itself is better. It's not built on deprivation. And so the thing here is that the prophet sallall.aii wasallam promises you that if the hereafter is your primary focus, you will miss out of the dunya and you'll be preoccupied. But he promises you the dunya will come to you in it in spite of itself. Don't worry, you won't starve. If you follow the path of Muhammad Sam, you will not starve. Instead, you will flourish and your heart will be wealthy, which is the greatest wealth there could ever be. The prophet sallallah.aii wasallam tells us He says true wealth is not a wealth of possessions. True wealth is wealth of the heart. And that's what Allah means when he says, "And you were poor before and he made you wealthy." What does that mean? One could argue the prophet sallallah.aii wasallam never saw the kind of physical poverty after he was a prophet that he saw before or that he saw before after. He was never that poor. After he was a prophet, poverty and famine took hold so much that they had to tie stones on their stomach from hunger. That didn't happen in the days of Jahya. So what does that mean? Well, what it means is they had empty stomachs, but they had full hearts. As opposed to many or most of mankind full stomachs.

[Arabic recitation]