Alhamdulillah, had an opportunity to attend “Husnul Khatimah” by my beloved mentor and teacher, Sheikh Wael Ibrahim.
It was my first time physically attending islamic course since pre-COVID. I am reminded of how refreshing it is to attend islamic classes in person: The surrounding atmosphere of learning, the satisfaction of handwritten notes, the energy of the interactive atmosphere. Plus, it was a nice opportunity to meet people too, meeting and getting to know new friends, as well as meeting some face to face for the first time, including
Personally, my favorite highlights of the course are those which Sheikh Wael shared some sobering, real-life true stories surrounding death, some of which were really shocking and eye-opening. Among some of them:
✅ A drunk person wanted to enter the masjid, insisting that he wanted to pray but was initially blocked from entering. When he finally was allowed to enter, guess what happened next? He prayed in the masjid and died in his sujood. Never be too quick to judge others!
✅ During his “young days”, a good friend of Sheikh died of drug overdose - becoming a reminder that “this could have been us - yet Allah gave us a second chance”. How many second chances are we squandering?
✅ Sheikh’s own mother-in-law, who, despite them giving da’wah to her, and her rationally “agreeing” and “accepting” that Islam was the truth, but procrastinated her decision for syahadah seventeen years. Anything could happen - yet Alhamdulillah, Allah determined that she would finally say it, before her passing away… Allahu Akbar.
✅ A person whom the locals refused to handle his janazah - it turns out that he died while performing zina, and the girl just left him. Because he died in a state of disobedience to Allah, Allah made him die in that state.
✅ Sheikh’s uncles (brothers) who were disputing over an apartment but their animosity grew so great that they brainwashed their children not to mix with their uncles. For 20 years, they were responsible for splitting ties of kinship, until one of them died. Then the other said in regret, “subhanAllah, he died while he was angry at me”. This became a constant reminder to sheikh, never to procrastinate to reconcile and make amends with people. Don’t wait until tragedy to change!
✅ His grandmother-in-law who said the syahadah right before she died, repeating in Arabic and her mother tongue (Tagalog) even though she had no idea what it meant.
Other highlights:
✅ Make marriage easy! “Parents: if you don’t make marriage easy for your children, you are RESPONSIBLE for the ZINA they commit”
✅ How to die upon Husnul Khatimah? Consistently Live your lives with the habit of being in the state that you would like to die in! As the Arabic saying goes, “Whoever lives upon something, will die upon it. Whoever dies upon something, will be resurrected upon that deed”.
✅ Sheikh Wael’s aspirations: “I want to die doing DA’WAH”
✅ “In this dunya, don’t expect things to be easy - expect HARDSHIP and TOIL!”
✅ The Key to Success in Da’wah is to LISTEN
✅ Food for thought: A song can make us cry, but the Qur’an can’t?
✅ Feeling the religion is heavy? “It’s okay to feel it’s heavy. But don’t quit just because it’s heavy. Push yourself, even f you don’t like it. Once you keep pushing, it becomes who you are, and eventually you can’t live without it!”
✅ Find Accountability Partners to Help. That family member who consistently wakes up for fajr/tahajjud? Stick to that person. BEG THAT PERSON TO HELP YOU!
🤲🏽 May Allah make us live our lives with Istiqamah, living upon the Path that He is pleased with, and grant us a beautiful death in a state of consistently performing righteous deeds, and to die upon the best of our deeds.
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