What Makes an Ummah - Portal Gems #75

Est. Read time: 3 min
Edition Number: 75
Adapted from: Inevitable Delights & Horrors: Life in the Grave
Instructor: Mufti Abdul Wahab Waheed

Assalamu Alaykum,

Today’s gem is from Mufti Abdul Wahab Waheed’s course, Inevitable Delights & Horrors: Life in the Grave. In this gem Mufti Abdul Wahab explains the state of our pious predecessors when they would go to janazas and how feeling for one another is part of what makes us an ummah.

Hope you enjoy!

We begin in the Name of Allah ﷻ, the Most Merciful and Compassionate,
We ask that He ﷻ sends Peace and Blessings upon our noble and beloved
Prophet Muhammad ﷺ

It is mentioned by Sufyan Thawri (Rahimuhullah) that when they would go to a janaza that on that day everyone that went to the janaza would would not eat at home. No one would have a meal that day because of the sadness they were experiencing.

Another scholar mentions that when we would go to a janaza, we would not know who we should console from amongst the people. We didn't know who needed to be consoled because it seemed as if everyone lost their brother or sister or mother or father or child. We could not tell who the actual family was because of how everyone was responding to that death.

That is an Ummah.

An ummah is not an ummah simply because we break bread together or go to a carnival together. An Ummah is an Ummah because of the way that we feel for one another, even if we can't be there for the person, how we feel for them and how we attach our hearts to that individual and that family that is going through that pain/struggle. You don’t need to say much, but simply being present.

Another scholar mentioned that when we would enter into a janaza, every single person would have their heads lowered in their chests, and it was as if every single person just lost a family member or a parent or a son because we just couldn't tell. And this is the state that we should be in as we are standing in a janaza.

May Allah ﷻ grant us tawfiq to feel for our fellow brothers and sisters in Islam.

أقول قولي هذا وأستغفر الله لي ولكم، فاستغفروه إنه هو الغفور الرحيم

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