Continuation of the explanation of the saying of Allah the Exalted: “O you who believe! Shall I direct you to a trade that will save you from a painful punishment? You believe in Allah and His Messenger and strive in the cause of Allah with your wealth and your lives. That is the best for you, if you only know. Allah will forgive your sins and admit you into Gardens beneath which rivers flow, and fine dwellings in Gardens of Delight. That is the great triumph. And [there is] another [reward] that you love: victory from Allah and a near conquest. So give good tidings to the believers.”

The reader: In the name of Allah, the Most Gracious, the Most Merciful.
All praise is due to Allah, Lord of the worlds, and may peace and blessings be upon our Prophet Muhammad, and upon his family and all his Companions.
He said, may Allah have mercy on him: “The Book of Jihad. Allah the Exalted said:

⁽¹⁰⁾ O you who have believed, shall I guide you to a transaction that will save you from a painful punishment? ⁽¹¹⁾ [It is that] you believe in Allah and His Messenger and strive in the cause of Allah with your wealth and your lives. That is best for you, if you should know. ⁽¹²⁾ He will forgive for you your sins and admit you to gardens beneath which rivers flow and pleasant dwellings in gardens of perpetual residence. That is the great attainment. ⁽¹³⁾ And [you will obtain] another [favor] that you love - victory from Allah and an imminent conquest; and give good tidings to the believers.

يا أيها الذين آمنوا هل أدلكم على تجارة تنجيكم من عذاب أليم * تؤمنون بالله ورسوله وتجاهدون في سبيل الله بأموالكم وأنفسكم ذلكم خير لكم إن كنتم تعلمون * يغفر لكم ذنوبكم ويدخلكم جنات تجري من تحتها الأنهار ومساكن طيبة في جنات عدن ذلك الفوز العظيم * وأخرى تحبونها نصر من الله وفتح قريب وبشر المؤمنين

[As-Saf 61:10-13]

”

The Shaykh : In the name of Allah, the Most Gracious, the Most Merciful.
Al-Nawawi, may Allah have mercy on him, mentioned in his book *Riyad al-Salihin*, in the Book of Jihad, several verses regarding this, among them is the saying of Allah the Exalted: Allah prefixed these verses with this noble address directed to the believers in order to stir their enthusiasm and energize them to accept what they hear of the words of Allah, Mighty and Majestic. The One who says, “Shall I direct you?” is our Lord, Exalted and Majestic. This interrogative is for the purpose of arousing desire; our Lord, Exalted and Majestic, arouses our desire with this trade to which He directs us. It is derived from His saying: that we have no path to this trade except the path that Allah, Mighty and Majestic, has prescribed, for He is the One who directs to it. This trade is not the trade of this world, for the trade of this world may save one from painful punishment, or it may be a cause of painful punishment. A man who has wealth and does not pay its zakah, his wealth becomes a punishment for him, may Allah protect us from that. The trade of this world may save one from punishment or it may cast one into punishment. But this trade which Allah, Mighty and Majestic, has presented to us—and we ask Allah the Exalted to make us and you among those who accept it—He says: meaning a painful punishment, for there is no punishment more painful than the punishment of the Fire. May Allah protect me and you from it. What is this trade? He said: This trade is belief in Allah and His Messenger, and this includes all the legislations of Islam. However, he specifically mentioned jihad because this Surah is the Surah of Jihad, from its beginning to its end it is all jihad. Then he mentioned what is related to that. So here he says: meaning: you exert your effort in the cause of Allah by spending wealth and sacrificing the self. It is better for you than anything else. Meaning: if you are among those who possess knowledge. In this verse and its like, it is appropriate to pause at the phrase: and not to continue. Do not say: because if you continued, you would convey a false meaning in the verse. The meaning would become: “That is the best for you if you know, and if you do not know, it is not the best for you.” This is not the intent of Allah, Mighty and Majestic. Rather, the meaning is: “That is the best for you,” and then He said, “if you are among those who possess knowledge,” as if He is saying: “Know that, if you are worthy of knowledge.” This is the action. So what is the reward? Gardens are what Allah, Mighty and Majestic, has prepared for His righteous servants, and especially for those who strive in the cause of Allah. For this reason, He gathered together meaning: rivers flowing from beneath their palaces and trees. They are rivers not like the rivers of this world. There are four names: meaning: it cannot change, unlike the water of this world, for if it remains stagnant, it changes. Rivers flowing: rivers of honey did not come out of bees, milk did not come out of the udders of livestock, water did not come out of a spring in the earth, and likewise wine was not made from grapes, dates, barley, or anything else. These are rivers that Allah, Mighty and Majestic, created in Paradise, flowing as a river flows. It is mentioned in the hadith that these rivers do not need to be dug out or dammed, meaning you do not need to dig a channel for the river to flow, nor do you need to place a trench to prevent it from seeping to the right and left. Ibn al-Qayyim said in his *Al-Nuniyyah*:
“Rivers flow in no channel, *** Glory to the One who holds them back from overflowing”
Then this river comes at your will and choice. You request that it go right, it goes right; it goes left, it goes left; it goes forward, it goes forward; it stops, it stops, as you wish. And His saying: Yes. Fine dwellings, fine in their construction, fine in their rooms, fine in their appearance, fine in their residence from every aspect. And in them are the dwellers: houris in pavilions, pavilions of pearls, elevated, the most beautiful thing you see with your eyes. The Prophet (peace and blessings be upon him) said: The brick is a brick of the builder, not of brick and clay, but of gold or silver. For this reason, Allah described them as fine. And among their fineness is that their resident does not desire to move from them for a year. The dwellings of this world, however beautiful they may be, you will see something better than your house and say, “I wish this were mine.” But in Paradise, one does not desire to move from one’s dwelling, and one will not compare. Every person sees that he is the most blessed of the people of Paradise. Oh, by Your grace, so that his heart is not broken if he sees someone better than him, but he sees that he is the most blessed of the people of Paradise. The opposite is the case for the people of the Fire. The people of the Fire, may Allah protect us from them, see that they are the most severely punished of the people of the Fire, even if they are the least punished among them. So these dwellings are fine in the Gardens of Delight. The scholars said: “Al-Adn” means residence, and from this is the “ma’dan” (ore) in the earth, because of its long residence in its mine and place. Meaning: in Gardens of residence that will never be removed forever, forever. We ask Allah to make me and you among their people. Yes. The triumph is that a person attains what he desires and is safe from what he fears. The Great [triumph] is that which has nothing greater than it. A profit above which there is no profit, a compensation above which there is no compensation. For those who believed in Allah and His Messenger and strove in the cause of Allah. I ask Allah the Exalted to make me and you among them, and not to deprive us of this favor due to the badness of our deeds, and to treat us with His pardon. Indeed, He is Able to do all things.