Abdul Rahman Chao – Lecture 2024-10-25
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The importance of being humble and humility in order to appear as a doGeneration for others is crucial, as it is the fruit of humility. Humility is also crucial for protecting reputation and reputation in public, as it is the fruit of being humble. A woman died and buried her in a dirt field, and a speaker challenges older people to be humble and reminds them of the importance of being humble in helping others.
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أشهد أن لا إله إلا الله وحده لا
شريك له وأشهد أن محمداً عبده ورسوله صلى
الله عليه وعلى آله وصحبه أجمعين وسلم تسليماً
كثيراً أما بعد Angel Jibreel عليه الصلاة والسلام
was one time sitting with the Prophet صلى
الله عليه وسلم and he looked up towards
the sky and then he remarked and then
there was an angel descending so Jibreel said
this angel, indeed this angel has never descended
since the day he was created except now
and this is the first time he is
descending to earth and when the angel descended,
it asked he asked the Prophet صلى الله
عليه وسلم a question and so Jibreel is
now providing guidance and counsel to the Prophet
صلى الله عليه وسلم so this angel said,
verily your Lord has sent me, oh Muhammad
do you wish that your Lord shall make
you into a king prophet a prophet who
is also a king or would you like
for your Lord to make you into a
prophet and a servant ملكاً رسولاً او
عبداً رسولاً which one do you choose Jibreel
looked at the Prophet صلى الله عليه وسلم
and he said تواضع لربك يا محمد be
humble to your Lord oh Muhammad so the
Prophet صلى الله عليه وسلم he said بل
عبداً رسولاً but rather I would like for
Allah to make me into a servant messenger
brothers and sisters, this encounter between the Prophet
صلى الله عليه وسلم and Jibreel and the
other angel this unnamed angel, teaches us about
the importance of humility of being humble, a
characteristic that is lacking during our times and
humility brothers and sisters, many people they mistakenly
think that if they are humble, then they
will become a doormat for other people to
step on, that if they are humble that
means they are weak that if they are
humble, that means they are a pushover that
they could be bullied but that couldn't be
further from the truth because the Prophet صلى
الله عليه وسلم he tells us in a
hadith مَن تَوَضَعَ لِلَّهِ رَفَعَهُ اللَّهُ مَن تَوَضَعَ
لِلَّهِ رَفَعَهُ اللَّهُ whoever is humble for the
sake of Allah, for the sake of God
not for people to look at you and
think what a humble person, but you are
doing it for the sake of Allah, except
Allah سبحانه وتعالى is going to elevate you,
in other words you are not trying to
elevate yourself or one up another person, you
are focusing on improving yourself you are not
looking at how do I appear better in
front of others and how others think of
you you are focusing on improving yourself, so
when you are humble for the sake of
Allah, Allah سبحانه وتعالى will elevate you, and
that is why the Prophet ﷺ chose to
be a prophet servant.
Brothers and sisters the Qur'an is full
of examples on the importance of humility, having
humility will allow you to learn, because if
you are not able to be humble, you
are going to think that you don't need
to learn anything new, if you are not
humble you will never be able to find
the courage and strength to apologize when you
are wrong it is not humility for someone
to talk in a very low voice and
to appear meek and to wear tattered clothes,
that is not humility, because if that was
humility, the Prophet ﷺ would have done so,
but the Prophet ﷺ when he spoke the
people that were furthest from him could hear
him as clear as the one who was
sitting in front of him.
Humility is easy brothers and sisters, when you
are calm and collected you want to know
if someone is humble watch them, watch them
when they are vulnerable when they are wrong
watch them, when you feel when that person's
status their reputation is at stake will they
side with the truth or will they preserve
their false dignity perhaps the greatest form of
humility brothers and sisters, is to be humble
towards Allah ﷻ, because when you think of
your position and your existence in this world,
in comparison to the universe we as humans
are nothing, knowing that Allah ﷻ is the
one who created you, knowing that Allah ﷻ
is the most powerful, knowing that Allah knows
everything, and so when you recognize this reality,
there is nothing for you to be arrogant
about, there is no justification for it, so
the greatest form of humility is by submitting
to Allah ﷻ, unlike Iblis who refused to
prostrate, what does Allah ﷻ describe Ibrahim as?
إِذْ قَالَ لَهُ رَبُّهُ أَسْلِمْ قَالَ أَسْلَمْتُ لِرَبِّ
الْعَالَمِينَ Allah said to Prophet Ibrahim, submit because
you cannot submit if you are arrogant, you
can only submit when you are humble, إِذْ
قَالَ لَهُ رَبُّهُ أَسْلِمْ Allah told Ibrahim, submit,
Prophet Ibrahim what did he say?
قَالَ أَسْلَمْتُ لِرَبِّ الْعَالَمِينَ I have submitted to
the Lord of the worlds, so what makes
Prophet Ibrahim special is how swift he was
in submitting and being humble to Allah ﷻ
he submitted to every commandment that Allah has
ordered and he submitted and stayed away from
all the prescriptions and all the haram that
Allah ﷻ told him to stay away from,
and that is why Aisha رضي الله عنها
she says that the greatest form of عبادة
that people forget is to have humility because
it starts with your humility towards Allah ﷻ
the Quran tells us about the behavior of
those who are humble وَعِبَادُ الرَّحْمَٰنِ الَّذِينَ يَمْشُونَ
عَلَى الْأَرْضِ هَوْنَ and the servants of the
merciful, how do they walk on this earth?
they walk in a humble way, when you
are dealing with other people, you deal with
other people in a humble way وَخْفِضْ جَنَاحَكَ
لِمَنِ اتَّبَعْكَ مِنَ الْمُؤْمِنِينَ Allah tells the Prophet
ﷺ and lower your wing, metaphor for lower
your guard down, يعني be easy going be
down to earth, that side of humility show
it to those who follow you from among
the believers, the Prophet ﷺ never ever used
to behave like he was a king, in
fact the companions said that whenever someone from
outside who did not know the Prophet ﷺ
that he would come to the masjid to
look for him, he wouldn't even recognize what
the Prophet ﷺ would look like the Prophet
ﷺ didn't have a high throne for him
to sit on, a grand crown on his
head, they couldn't recognize him because he was
with the people, in a man came to
the Prophet ﷺ and he started speaking to
him and out of awe he started trembling
in fear and so the Prophet ﷺ calmed
him down and he said هَوِّنْ عَلَيْكَ يعني
take it easy, إِنِّي لَسْتُ بِمَلِكَ I am
not a king, إِنَّمَا إِبْنُ مَرَأَةٍ مِنْ قُرَيْشِ
كَانَ تَأْكُلُ الْقَدِيدِ I am but a son
of a woman from the tribe of Quraysh
who used to eat dried meat, and during
that time that was considered the poor food
for the poor the Prophet ﷺ he describes
himself, he says أَاكُلُ كَمَا يَأْكُلُ الْعَبْدِ وَأَجْلِسُ
كَمَا يَجْلِسُ الْعَبْدِ I eat just like any
other servant eats, and I sit just like
any other servant sits Before we close for
the second khutbah, to show you the humility
of the Prophet ﷺ, the Prophet ﷺ had
this camel called Al-'Abba and it was very
very fast it could not be beaten in
any race until one day a Bedouin came
out from the desert and he challenged the
Prophet ﷺ to a race, and the Prophet's
camel lost, and the companions felt so bad
for the Prophet ﷺ They felt bad that
the Prophet ﷺ had lost this race, and
so when the Prophet ﷺ saw that he
immediately addressed it, he said it is the
right upon Allah ﷻ, it is God's right
that nothing is raised in this world except
that Allah ﷻ will lower it down In
other words, there is nothing that is staying
up forever, it will always come down.
I say this, and I ask Allah ﷻ
to forgive me and you and the Muslims
So ask His ﷻ forgiveness, He is the
Forgiving, the Merciful Alhamdulillah and peace be
upon the Messenger ﷺ and his family and
companions There was a woman that used to
clean the masjid of the Prophet ﷺ and
no one really paid much attention to her
until she passed away, and when she passed
away people prayed over her, a quiet ceremony
and they buried her.
When the Prophet ﷺ noticed that she was
not present cleaning the masjid he became concerned
and he said, where did she go?
They said, oh she died and we prayed
over her and we buried her The Prophet
ﷺ was upset, he said, why didn't you
inform me of her death?
They said she's just the woman that cleans
the masjid, she's the janitor The Prophet ﷺ
said, show me her grave, and he left
the masjid and he went all the way
to the grave of that woman who used
to clean the masjid of the Prophet ﷺ
and he made dua for her.
Having humility, brothers and sisters, will teach you
to have empathy like we see here in
this story When the Prophet ﷺ used to
pass by young children he used to say
salam to them.
Far too often the older generation is always
ranting about how the younger generation don't have
manners.
Perhaps it is true in some circumstances, but
I challenge the older folk to think and
how many of the older generation have humility
We as immigrants have been taught to look
at kids and think kids are to be
seen and not heard We think of kids
as like these little pets running around and
we don't think much of them, just like
little cats running around We don't want to
talk to them, we don't want to say
salam to them The Prophet ﷺ used to
go and he used to say salam to
the children, that's humility The Prophet ﷺ when
he saw a young boy who had a
pet bird that died, he went to console
him, he didn't say it's just a bird,
who cares, it's just a little kid, grow
up, forget about it it's just a bird.
The Prophet ﷺ had humility Think about that.
When it comes to how to be humble,
that is a difficult question and the Prophet
ﷺ instructs us, look always at those who
are less fortunate than you Don't think of
those who are above you, because when you're
always comparing to those who are above you,
then you're never going to stop, you're going
to actually become ungrateful Some of the scholars
of the past, they used to give advice
to people on how to be humble and
they used to say, if you see someone
older than you then you should think, Alhamdulillah
Allah has blessed them with an age older
than myself and Allah has blessed them with
the opportunity to do more good deeds than
you and if you see someone that is
younger than you you should be thinking, Alhamdulillah
Allah has saved them from committing sins that
you have done yourself One of my good
friends, he used to say this beautiful quote,
he used to say, if you see someone
doing something wrong, and in your heart you're
thinking that's wrong and it's clearly manifest it's
wrong, say this to yourself Perhaps they are
doing something else, that is so beloved to
Allah that you're not aware of, and if
you think like that you will refrain from
constantly looking for the mistakes of others, why?
Because it is part of the human nature
to create classes and statuses, based on race,
based on skin tone based on how much
wealth they have, whatever it is, they are
always trying to create levels, caste systems Brothers
and sisters, the Prophet ﷺ, he tells us
in a hadith, Allah has revealed to me
that all of you should be humble حَتَّى
لَا يَفْخَرْ أَحَدٌ عَلَى أَحَدٌ وَلَا يَبْغِي أَحَدٌ
عَلَى أَحَدٌ All of you should be humble,
so that no one will boast over another
person, and none will treat another person less
than them and oppress them.
Brothers and sisters in closing remarks, we look
at the humility of the Prophet ﷺ, it
was not just outward facing, it was even
towards his family members.
When Aisha was asked about how he was
in his own house she described the Prophet
ﷺ as mending his socks and patching his
clothes and milking his goats and that he
would serve himself you are not a king
in your house, dear men وين الشاي وين
القهوة, sitting there where is this, where is
the food, the Prophet ﷺ never did that
ordering the women around to do everything, he
used to clean, he used to do everything
he used to help with the household chores,
not because they asked the Prophet ﷺ to
but because he liked to do it therefore
brothers and sisters, let us learn from the
example of the Prophet ﷺ and how to
be humble ...
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