Yaqeen Podcast

For over 1,400 years, one clan has guarded the most important key in history. And ironically, it reached them through a man who once rudely denied the Prophet ﷺ entry into the Ka’bah. 

But even as his own parents vehemently opposed the Prophet ﷺ, Uthman ibn Talha (ra) inched closer to Islam. His excellent character in escorting a Muslim woman (ra) to safety, and his joining two other great Companions as they finally headed to Medina to accept Islam, became turning points in his life. 

And on the day of the Conquest of Mecca, the Prophet ﷺ honored him and his descendants with a duty that remains theirs until today. 

0:00 - His name and title of Hajib al-Ka’bah (Custodian of the Ka’bah)
2:18 - A rude comment when the Prophet ﷺ tried to enter the Ka’bah 
5:00 - How he escorted Umm Salamah (ra) to safety 
10:15 - Losing his father, uncle, and 5 brothers at Uhud 
13:21 - His mother’s vow to drink wine from a Muslim’s skull 
14:43 - Embracing Islam along with Khalid (ra) and Amr (ra)
15:58 - Receiving the keys to the Ka’bah

You were still in your mother’s womb when all of this was already written for you by an angel: your rizq (provision), your lifespan, your deeds, and whether you will be among the blessed or wretched. 

So does it matter what you do with your life? Can you still change your destiny? What kind of plot twists might still happen at the end of an apparently good or evil life? And how deep are the risks of getting involved in bid’ah (innovations) in the religion? 

“Anchored: 40 Hadith for Today’s Muslim” is a new series by Sh. Mohammad Elshinawy which draws insights from Imam an-Nawawi (rh)’s collection of 40 hadith and applies them to some of the most pressing questions Muslims face today. 

Tune in every Saturday at 9 AM CST/3 PM GMT for a new episode of Anchored!

Episode 3 covers the 4th and 5th hadiths of Imam an-Nawawi’s collection. 

0:00 - Introduction
3:55 - The first half of Hadith 4: What’s written for you in the womb
5:42 - The first 40 days after conception: How the embryo forms
11:35 - Is there tension between Islamic teachings and modern science? 
13:03 - Ensoulment: When an embryo becomes a person 
16:24 - Can you change your destiny? 
22:59 - The second half of Hadith 4: Does destiny disregard your effort? 
26:12 - Some of your true colors surface at the moment of death 
33:31 - The 4 types of hearts 
37:09 - Hadith 5: The importance of avoiding bid’ah (innovation) 
41:48 - The definition of bid’ah (innovation)
45:01 - Reasons why bid’ah is dangerous

Hosting guests at home has become rare. Most of us have friends we’ve known for years and never had over. We meet at cafés and restaurants, keep up in the group chat, and save our homes for some day when the house is clean and there’s time to cook. That day rarely comes.

Sh. Mohammad Elshinawy argues in this khutbah that the feast is part of the problem. When hosting means a week of cooking and a table nobody can finish, the guest feels the weight of it, the host dreads doing it again, and the invitations stop. 

The Prophet ﷺ told his Companions not to go to great lengths for guests, and they served what they had. 

Your friends came for you. A cup of tea on the floor and one extra dish is enough to keep the door open, and an open door is how friendship, and the faith that grows inside it, reaches your children.

0:00 - The perfection in every word of the Qur’an
2:41 - The first person to host guests at home 
4:13 - How we meet each other today 
5:35 - Visiting each other is an act of worship 
7:30 - How the Prophet ﷺ and Companions hosted
9:19 - It’s your guest’s rizq and your reward 
10:12 - How we made hosting a burden 
11:33 - Does keeping it simple mean you’re not generous?
13:55 - Complicating visitations breaks us apart 
16:10 - Brilliance in how Ibrahim (as) hosted angels

NOTE: This lecture discusses Islamic teachings about the trials of the end times, including the prophecy that people will wish for death. It is a discussion of Islamic eschatology. Nothing in it is encouragement toward self-harm. 

If you are struggling with despair, hopelessness, or thoughts of harming yourself, please contact Naseeha Mental Health for free, confidential, faith-sensitive support. Call or text 1-866-627-3342 or visit https://naseeha.org. 

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A narration says that before the Hour a man will pass a grave and say, “I wish I were in his place,” and that it will not be out of longing for Allah but out of exhaustion with life. 

The emptiness is the sign, not the hardship. What the same tradition carries is the correction: everyone already in a grave would trade everything they owned for one more day to seek Allah’s pleasure.

Dr. Omar Suleiman reflects on what is left when this world is no longer fulfilling. He is explicit that this is a religious diagnosis of one specific cause and not a statement about mental health or why anyone experiences these thoughts. 

Find out which wish for death the Prophet ﷺ forbade, which one he allowed, and the du‘a he taught in relation to this: 

اللَّهُمَّ أَحْيِنِي مَا كَانَتْ الْحَيَاةُ خَيْرًا لِي وَتَوَفَّنِي إِذَا كَانَتْ الْوَفَاةُ خَيْرًا لِي
Allahumma ahyini ma kanat al-hayatu khayran li, wa tawaffani idha kanat al-wafatu khayran li. 

“O Allah, keep me alive so long as life is good for me, and cause me to die if death is better for me.” [Sahih al-Bukhari no. 5671] 

0:00 - What’s left when nothing is fulfilling anymore
2:43 - Why disbelief in the Hereafter empties everything
3:47 - What held Ayyub (as) together
4:15 - Why are you wishing for death?
5:42 - Ibn Hajar (rh) on the paradox of wishing for death
9:47 - Fleeing a confusion you cannot correct
11:42 - What Ali (ra) said near the end of his life
15:22 - Umar ibn Abd al-Aziz (rh) and the du’a of longing
18:08 - What the dead are wishing for
19:39 - The istikhara parallel
20:14 - When a du’a becomes transgression

Abdullah ibn Sa'd ibn Abi Sarh (ra) was honored with writing the revelation down as it came to the Prophet ﷺ. Then he left Islam. 

He returned to Mecca and claimed he could tamper with or forge the Qur’an himself. It was the worst lie one could tell, and Allah (awj) responded in Surah al-An’am, ayah 93. The punishment set for him was severe, even amidst the general amnesty in the conquest of Mecca. 

Dr. Omar Suleiman traces how a man whose apostasy was answered by revelation came to command the right wing at the conquest of Egypt, replace Amr ibn al-As (ra) as its governor, and lead the first Muslim campaign west across North Africa. 

The record that survives him does not open with the apostasy. It opens with the commander, the leader of armies. Find out what he asked Allah for at the end of his life, and what he was doing at the moment he died.

0:00 - The foster brother of Uthman ibn Affan (ra)
3:59 - Leaving Islam and claiming to tamper with revelation
5:22 - Why Islamophobes misuse weak narrations about the scribes
8:29 - How he was pardoned by the Prophet ﷺ
11:20 - Leading Muslims armies across North Africa 
15:47 - The du'a to have Fajr be his last deed