Accountability is a blessing

https://youtu.be/Mouyqr5_pUQ Auto-generated transcript: Alhamdulillahi Rabbil Alameen. Wa Salatu Wa Salamu Alai Sharafi Al-Anbiya Wa Al-Mursaleen. Muhammadur Rasulullah Sallallahu Alaihi Wa Alaihi Wa Sahibi Wasallam. Tasleeman Kaseera Kaseera. Fammabadu, my brothers and sisters, that is the moon of the 15th of Shaaban. And that's about as big as I can get it. We are at this place, very nice place, which is on the bank of this lake in Bidar, in Karnataka. There is a sanctuary, a black buck sanctuary there in Bidar. And that's where we are. Some forest. Photos also I will upload in due course, inshallah. It's a little bit of a misty morning. But across this lake, there is this beautiful pink forest of gliricidia trees, which are in flower. Looks very pretty, but it's an invasive species, which is destroying the grasslands here. And the grassland is where black buck live. So they are endangered. They're severely endangered. There are two things that are the biggest source of danger for them. One is the destruction of the trees. And the second one is... The destruction of Indian pie dogs, which prey on their fawns, especially newborn ones, which are completely helpless when they are born. Of course, once they stand up and start and then get firm on their feet, then dogs can't catch them. They're very fast. But that period of some minutes, maybe an hour or so, is extremely vulnerable. And dogs are dogs. I mean, they know they are pack animals. They're predators. They hunt in packs. They know when the deer are dropping their fawns. And they're waiting. And that is the tragedy that unfolds. Alhamdulillah. This also shows how much value water... adds to not just the picture, but to life itself. We are in a very dry, deciduous forest. If you look at it, if you look at here, this is how it is. Very, very dry and deciduous. This is a secondary forest. This is not the primary forest here. This is something which is partly what has grown up. And partly which has been planted. But anyway, forest is forest and it adds beauty to the whole environment. But if you look at it, if you take this water away, then what is left is very harsh and dry. And Allah Subh'anaHu Wa Ta-A'la, that's why when He mentions Jannah, He always mentions water. Jannah atin tajree min tahti al-anhaar. Flowing water. This is, of course, a... lake, not flowing, but Allah mentions flowing water. And there's a whole flight of... I'm trying to figure out now what that is. I don't think you can see it in this video. But, or you can. Okay, there you go. See that V formation. Most birds fly like that. It's not only geese. This looks like some kind of cranes or storks or something. This is a very, very dry forest. This is something... Birds which are bigger and longer, not the... not duck. This is a time in the morning when birds also start taking flight. Aquatic birds usually rest and spend the night on water because that's where they are safest. Others spend the night in trees. Others spend the night in trees. And then in the morning, they all take flight and they go into the fields where either they feed on post-harvest the grain that drops on the ground and which is left there accidentally, not deliberately, but it's enough to feed them. Or they feed on grass and other things in the fields which are surrounding these waters. Allah Subh'anaHu Wa Ta-A'la's Nizam, the system that He has created where everything gets what is written for it. No one gets what is not written for them. No one can take away what is written for them. And this is the lesson that we human beings don't see. We cannot be sad about anything. accountability to Allah subhanahu wa ta'ala, we may think of it as something which is frightening, which is terrible, which is, you know, I wish it wasn't there kind of thing. But I remind myself, yes, of course, it is frightening to some extent, because to face Allah subhanahu wa ta'ala with the kinds of life that we live, obviously, it's not something which is not frightening. But we rely on the tremendous mercy of Allah subhanahu wa ta'ala, which he has mentioned in the Quran many, many, many times, and much more than he mentioned his punishment and his anger. So we ask Allah subhanahu wa ta'ala for his mercy and for his forgiveness. And we ask Allah to correct our ways in this life so that we become eligible for his mercy and his forgiveness. And even if we are not eligible, we ask Allah subhanahu wa ta'ala to forgive us anyway, because it's only Allah subhanahu wa ta'ala who can be that generous, who can forgive even those who patently deserve punishment. The reason I say that accountability is a great ni'mah, it's a great blessing, is for two reasons. One is that the awareness of accountability, the fact that we are accountable. Okay. Okay. That we believe this and we try our best to live our lives knowing that we are accountable to the one from whom nothing is hidden, obviously keeps us on track. I'm not saying that necessarily threat of punishment is the only reason one should have to be on track. We should be on track for the love of Allah, for his mercy. But it helps to know that. You know, there is another aspect to this where we better watch out. The other reason why accountability is, is, is in my view, such a enormous ni'mah of Allah subhanahu wa ta'ala is that with accountability, when we look at accountability, accountability is not punishment alone. Accountability is also the mercy and the. The reward from Allah subhanahu wa ta'ala. And when we look forward to that and we say, well, there may be things that you are doing in this life where you feel that you did not get or. I'm stopping wherever some birds are making their zikr so you get to hear those sounds also. Now, the. The hook is the is the dove and the other sound you're hearing in the foreground are bubbles. So the Allah subhanahu wa ta'ala when we talk about accountability, we're looking also at the reward. So many times in life we feel that we did not get our just reward or somebody didn't get our reward. Somebody didn't get their just reward. What they should have got. They didn't get their contribution was discounted. They should have got more and so on. So we have these opinions and so on. The fact of the matter is that Allah subhanahu wa ta'ala will give everyone their reward, will give everyone the reward that they deserve. Nobody will be left. Unrewarded. Nobody will be left in a way where they did not get the reward. So therefore, that's the other aspect of accountability to know that Allah inshallah we will get our full reward. And the final reason why accountability is such a big blessing is the other thing, which is that today we are living in a world where we have people who are in power in different places. Yeah. Power in the world engaged in every kind of evil and brutality and every kind of oppression in order to enrich themselves and empower themselves. And for a lot of them, if you look at their lives and so on, they live and they die. And Henry Kissinger is a classic example, lived for 100 years and died, apparently without paying for all the means. misery that he visited upon the innocent people in the world. Now this is where accountability, our ideology and our belief, the Bidyaqeen on accountability also comes to help us to put things in perspective and not to feel despair, not to feel a loss of hope and say, you know, look at him, he got away. He didn't get away. Nobody will get away. That's Bulwul having an argument. Nobody will get away. Everyone will pay and everyone will be paid. And I think this is the beauty of the concept of accountability. And that's why I say that if the Day of Judgment and if accountability was not fact, if it wasn't Haqq, then humankind would have to be punished. We have to invent a philosophy of accountability to remain sane in this world. We ask Allah to help us and keep us safe and keep us sane and keep us in His care, fearing no one other than Him. Jalla Jalaluhu. Wa Salallahu Ala Nabeel Karim Wa Ala Alihi Wa Sahabiha Juma'in. Bi Rahmatullahi Wa Barakatuhu.