This video discusses a poem that deeply affected Imam Ahmad ibn Hanbal, exploring themes of shame in disobeying Allah, the world as a test, hiding sins, the afterlife, and seeking Allah's forgiveness.
Mufti Abdur Rahman covers the famous poem which is related to have made Imam Ahmad cry.
Poem:
I will be asked, what have I sent forth
in my life to save me
So what will I answer,
after I've been neglectful in my faith
Woe to me, did I not hear the
words of Allah calling out to me?
Did I not heed what has come in Qāf and Yasīn
Did I not hear of the day of gathering, of assembly and retribution?
Did I not hear the caller of death
Calling me, summoning me
So my lord, this is a slave who has come repenting,
Who shall grant me refuge,
Other than a generous forgiving Lord,
To the truth he will guide me
I have come to You, so have mercy on me,
and make heavy my scales
And lighten my reckoning, for you are the best
of those to reckon with me
If my Lord asks me
"Have you no shame in disobeying me?
You hide your sins from my created beings
Yet full of disobedience you come to Me"
So how will I answer? Woe to me,
Who shall protect me?
I keep distracting my soul
With false hopes from one time to the next
And I forget what is to come after death,
What is there after I am wrapped in my shroud
As if I am guaranteed to live forever,
And that death will never come to me
Then the harsh pangs of death overtake me,
Who will now protect me?
I look at the faces, is there not among them
one who will ransom me?
