You know, you might have someone in your family that you’re really proud of, like your dad, your mom, your uncle, your husband, your wife, your kids, brother, sister, maybe? Maybe your local Imam? Or maybe not. But the point is that the Prophet (SAWS) used to brag about one particular person in his family. He said, “Let he who has someone that he looks up to look at who my uncle is. My uncle is Sa’d ibn abi Waqqas radiyaAllahu ta’ala ‘anhu (may Allah be pleased with him). The Prophet (SAWS) loved this man. He, peace and blessings be upon him, adored him. And he counted him from those who were guaranteed as the 10 promised paradise. And on top of that, Sa’d radiyaAllahu ‘anhu was given the guarantee of paradise on more than one occasion. So he was given the guarantee of paradise in the Battle of Badr. The Prophet (SAWS) once guaranteed him paradise individually and the Prophet (SAWS) gave Sa’d a very very special gift. The Prophet (SAWS) made du’aa to Allah (SWT) to accept Sa’d’s du’aa. So everything Sa’d would make du’aa for, Allah (SWT) would answer his du’aa.
Now you might wonder, how is it that a person can have that special quality? and by the way, it is a proven quality. In fact, the sahaba were afraid of offending Sa’d ibn abi Waqqas because they were afraid that he might make du’aa against them. And there’s an incident that took place in Iraq one time where there was someone, and Sa’d radiyaAllahu ‘anhu was a governor in Iraq at that time under ‘Umar ibn al Khattab radiyaAllahu ‘anhu and other times he led delegation in Iraq. And someone once cursed ‘Ali ibn abi Talib radiyaAllahu ‘anhu in his presence. And Sa’d radiyaAllahu ‘anhu said, ‘Don’t curse ‘Ali or I’ll curse you.’ And the guy continued to curse ‘Ali radiyaAllahu ‘anhu and Sa’d made du’aa against that man and there are various narrations that say that a beast came into Iraq and people had never seen that beast before and it stomped that same man to death.
So this was a guy that you did not really want to mess with. But you know, that’s not what I’m going to talk about today. What is the special quality we can extract from Sa’d amongst many? And I was thinking about this subhanAllah as Muslim communities, what is it that we suffer with most? Some would say it was ego, some would say it was too much politics in the masjid. But you know, the problem is not that there is too much politics in the masjid. The problem is that those people that could be productive sometimes, engage themselves in negative politics and they don’t do what they need to be doing. So they don’t allow themselves to be productive. With Sa’d radiyaAllahu ‘anhu, he lived for a long time and he lived to see the fitnah that took place when ‘Uthman radiyaAllahu ‘anhu was murdered and the fitnah that would follow after that.
Now Sa’d radiyaAllahu ‘anhu, his approach, although he was someone possibly in line to become Caliph, he was on the shura (council) of ‘Umar ibn al Khattab to decide the next Caliph which was ‘Uthman, he decided that he wanted to avoid the negativity. And in fact, there’s a narration from a man by the name of Al-Hussain ibn Kharija al-Ashja’iy radiyaAllahu ‘anhu who said that, “I made du’aa to Allah SWT when ‘Uthman radiyAllahu ‘anhu was murdered to give me a sign as to what I should do. So he said, I had this dream that I was between the dunya and I was between the ‘akhirah, I was between the life of this world and the life of the hereafter and I came across a group of angels. So I met the angels and I asked them, ‘where are the martyrs?’ and he was asking because he wanted to see ‘Uthman radiyaAllahu ‘anhu. So the angels said, the martyrs are even higher. So he said I went up and I was looking for the martyrs until I kept on going up until I met the Prophet of Allah peace and blessings be upon him and the Prophet Ibrahim ‘alayhi al salam. So he says I heard the conversation that was taking place between Muhammad (SAWS) and Ibrahim ‘alayhi al salam. The Prophet (SAWS) said to Ibrahim ‘alayhi al salam, ‘ “إستغفر لأمتي” [istaghfir li’ummati]- make istighfar and seek forgiveness for my Ummah.’ So Ibrahim ‘alayhi al salam said to the Prophet (SAWS), ‘you do not know what your Ummah did after you left. They killed their Imam and they started to spill each other’s blood.’ So Ibrahim ‘alayhi al salam then said something very powerful in this dream of Al-Hussaid ibn Kharija radiyaAllahu ‘anhu, “ألا فعلوا مثل ما فعل خليلي سعد؟” [ala fa’alo mithlama fa’al khaleeli Sa’d?]- I wish they would have done as my khaleel, my close friend Sa’d. And we know Ibrahim ‘alayhi al salam is the close friend of Allah SWT and Ibrahim ‘alayhi al salam is saying ‘I wish they would do as my close friend Sa’d had done.’ So Al-Hussain woke up, radiyaAllahu ‘anhu, and he went immediately to Sa’d radiyaAllah ‘anhu to tell him about the dream. And what was Sa’d doing while this was taking place? Sa’d radiyaAllahu ‘anhu decided to buy some sheep and to avoid the fitnah all together and to raise sheep avoiding all of the politics and avoiding all of the negativity. So Al-Hussain ibn Kharija went to Sa’d to tell him about this dream and Sa’d radiyaAllahu ‘anhu became so happy and overjoyed that he said, ‘what a loser a person would be if Ibrahim ‘alahyi alsalam would not take him as a khaleel.’ So Al-Hussain said, ‘I took this dream to mean that I should seek advice from you. What should I do?’ So Sa’d asked him, ‘do you have any sheep?’ Al-Hussain said, ‘No.’ So Sa’d said, ‘Go buy sheep and busy yourself with the sheep until the fitnah is over.’
Now does that mean that Sa’d radiyaAllahu ‘anhu became unproductive? I mean after this entire life of good deeds, of striving with the Messenger (SAWS) and fighting alongside him, of spreading the religion of Allah (SWT) all over the world – does that mean that Sa’d radiyaAllahu ‘anhu took a back seat and said, ‘when this is all done then I’ll go back to being productive?’ No. And in fact, we can find a very interesting narration that Sa’d radiyaAllahu ‘anhu actually went to China. Sa’d went to China in the year 650 and he actually met with the emperor there and he actually built a masjid there in Gung juaua which is still in Gung jo, and I know I’m butchering it, so I’m sorry if you’re from China, and he built that masjid there almost 1400 years ago and until today that masjid is still there and Sa’d radiyaAllahu ‘anhu proceeded to do da’awah in China until he found that the fitnah had calmed down. Then he came back and he continued to do the good deeds that he was doing before.
So the point that I want to draw from all of this is and the quality of Sa’d that we can take from this is persistence and being productive. Sa’d radiyaAllahu ‘anhu insisted in being productive. Productivity. D’awah. If you truly have sincerity and you truly have a passion nothing will stop you from doing good. “فافعلوا الخيرات” [faf’aloo al-khayraat]- so go ahead and do good deeds whenever you can. If you’re living in a community where you have some negativity, where there are two uncles cursing each other out, or where this group of people is calling this group of people deviant or people have shut you out of the masjid because you’re too young and they don’t think you have anything to offer, you will never let anyone allow you to keep you out of the da’wah if you’re truly sincere.
So we learn from this great companion radiyaAllahu ‘anhu that truly the one who loves Allah SWT will always find a way to serve Allah SWT and you have no excuse whatsoever because the opportunities to serve the da’wah of Allah SWT are unlimited.
So we ask Allah SWT to allow us to be like this great companion Sa’d radiyaAllahu ‘anhu and to implement this advice in our lives.
Insha’Allah next week we will continue with another one of the Companions that are promised paradise.
Wasalamu alaikum warahmatu Allahi wabarakatohu.
LIFE 