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Charity Put in a Saint's Hands Reaps the Highest Reward

Mawlana Shaykh Hisham Kabbani

23 September 2010 New York, New York

A`oodhu billahi min ash-Shaytaani 'r-rajeem. Bismillahi 'r-Rahmaani 'r-Raheem.

Nawaytu 'l-arba`een, nawaytu 'l-`itikaaf, nawaytu 'l-khalwah, nawaytu 'l-`uzlah,

nawaytu 'r-riyaadah, nawaytu 's-sulook, lillahi ta`ala fee haadha 'l-masjid.

Ati`ullaha wa ati`u 'r-Rasoola wa ooli 'l-amri minkum.

Obey Allah, obey the Prophet, and obey those in authority among you. (4:59)

Prophet (s) said, "The `amal of Bani Adam (Children of Adam) are cut when they die except through three things; sadaqatun jaariyah, `ilmun yantafi`u bihi, and waladun salihun yada`u bihi." Sadaqatun jaariyah is a donation that continues until the Day of Judgment; Allah will reward you for it. It could be a sadaqah you gave to a mosque, school, hospital, or to someone you know that doesn't have water and you provided them water. The second one is `ilmun yantafi`u bihi, that is also sadaqatun jaariyah. And the third one is waladun salihun yada`u bihi, a pious son or daughter that prays for you as you raised them in the way of Allah and Islamically well.

So according to that hadeeth, Sayyidina Abdul Khaliq al-Ghujdawani (q) thought about how he could help his shaykh. Alhumdulillah, Allah had given him wealth. There was a village where it was very difficult to get water; they had to go up on the mountain with donkeys to get water from a spring or waterfall. And it was a long way, it would maybe take one day to go, draw water, and return. So he decided to pull water from the mountain to the village and there were no pipelines then, so he had to hire people to cut through the rocks and bring the water to the village. When he finished he was so happy, and he invited his shaykh to come and make the opening.

His shaykh said, "My son, this is sadaqatun jaariyah that will be written for you until the Day of Judgment. But if you would have put that money in my hand, because my hand is inheriting its power from the hand of Prophet (s), you would have been given unlimited rewards! What you did was with your ego, but I know where to put that money in its right place, and that is what I would have done. It is as if you know more and you did better than me, and that is where you failed. So if you would have put that money in my hand and let me decide, I would have decided by the wish of Prophet (s). But you did this, so you lost."

Grandshaykh (q) mentioned this story to let us know that we are in the Last Days. Prophet (s) brought the Sahaabah (r), Sayyidina Ali, Sayyidina Abu Bakr, Sayyidina `Umar, and Sayyidina `Uthman, and asked them to build up an army to defend Islam from aggression. They gave a lot of money. Because Sayyidina `Umar was asking Prophet (s) a lot of questions, Prophet (s) said, "There will be people coming in the Last Days who are better; they are my friends." Then he (s) asked, "Who has imaan (faith)?"

"Is it the angels?"

Prophet (s) said, "How do they not have imaan when they are in Paradise?"

Then they said, "Prophets."

He replied, "How do they not have imaan when they are seeing Jibreel?"

Then they answered, "Is it us?"

Prophet (s) said, "And how do you not, when you are seeing Muhammad?"

Now the Sahaabah (r) asked, "Then who?"

Prophet (s) replied, "Those people who will come in the Last Days. They believe in me, but they never saw me."

Sayyidina `Umar (r) said, "Show them to us."

Prophet (s) showed them to the Sahaabah (r) and they fainted from their appearance.

Grandshaykh (q) said, "If someone gives sadaqah in my hand, it is as if you put it in the hand of Prophet (s)." That is the prediction of the Last Days. So always know where you are putting that money; give it to someone who knows where they are putting it, that is better than putting it yourself. For example, Mawlana Shaykh Nazim (q) sent me to Kenya. He said, "Here is some money, go and dig some wells." I went there. He sent others but they said, "We are digging this well and that well," one-by-one. When he sent me, I took five very well-known, high-level people from Kenya and gave them that as "seed money," to put it in an organization in Mawlana's name, then we collect donations, not like I gave it to someone and we don't know what happened. So I told Mawlana, "Besides digging wells, I would like to make a Ramadan Program for food for refugees, many of whom are coming from Somalia to Kenya and Uganda, and they have no money."

So I divided the money for the Ramadan Program, digging wells, and giving funds to an Islamic girl's school. When we did the Ramadan Program, we decided to do 2,000 boxes of food, that would cost $30,000 dollars. When people saw that we reached our goal of 2,000 boxes, we got another 5,000 boxes from donors. They saw it was organized, so they knew it was going to be distributed well. That was a campaign in Mawlana Shayh Nazim's (q) name. And so when we began a discussion of the digging of a well, who knew it would be in Mawlana's name? We would put a musallah (designated place of prayer) by the new well and give people the Qur'an, like missionaries. We were going to build a hut. But one man said, "I can put one hut made from steel. It will fit 50 people, the cost will be $1,000 for each, and we did it. The next day, he came and said, "I saw a dream. I will offer it for free." So we put 35 wells and he offered 35 mosques for free, all under Mawlana's name! If that money was given to one person, he would have dug the well, made the food, and then would have made others cooperate. So you don't know. You can give, but give in the right hands.

Wa min Allahi 't-tawfeeq, bi hurmati 'l-habeeb, bi hurmati 'l-Fatihah.

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