Abdullah Oduro – Invocations of God #24
AI: Summary ©
The fight for Islam is a reward for patient and preparedness, and a struggle for small time frames. The Muslim's "anythood" mindset and belief in the day of judgment is important, and investing in one's health and hardship is crucial. The importance of hardship and trusting oneself is emphasized, and sh cycle is not related to the "anythood" mindset. Visits to sh cycle and evil ways of shaitan are a result of a small window of choice, and individuals need to trust their abilities and values to fight against them.
AI: Summary ©
Last a couple of days ago on this
book entitled
the guardians of the excuse me, entitled,
Invocations of God by.
We spoke about,
the weapons for the inner war, the inner
battle
when we spoke about how Allah
was speaking about the inner battle, how it'll
be our nuffs, our desires,
that will speak to us or our desires
will call it call us to something that
is not beneficial for us. Or will speak
to the,
and they will all intertwine one another to
cause us or to influence one to do
the bad deed. Then we spoke about how
the individual
needs to fight themselves and, basically,
which we know as the inner battle, which
is known as.
Is going to talk about when the battle
is over, this inner battle that we all,
each and every single one of us, face.
He says,
He said when
the servants is tested with what they are
tested with,
he has helped and assisted with an army,
and with preparations
and a fortress.
And it is said to him, fight your
enemy and,
you
know,
fight your enemy and battle against him.
So he says here he's he's, again, making
the metaphor.
So he's saying here
that the the it'll it'll be said to
him,
these are your your, troops.
Take from them as you wish. This is
your armor. Wear for it as as you
wish, and this is your fortress. Protect yourself
with and with any any way that you
wish.
And and tighten up or get ready until
death.
The situation is close, basically meaning that the
the the affair is close, and one could
understand that the end of time is close.
He said in the in the the time
frame of fastening oneself or being prepared
is easy or is a small time frame.
So
it is like you are with,
a
a king, a great king, and he has
sent to you his messengers.
You to his
house.
And then he says, and you have,
relaxed from this hardship, hard ship, hard war.
Now he's talking about after the battle is
after the battle is over,
the inner battle that allies equipped you with,
and you fought. And he's saying it's like
you're going to the great house of the
king, and he has and he has transferred
you to his house.
He says, and you have relaxed with, from
this jihad, meaning the jihad that we fought
in this life, this physical life.
And
then you you have been separated from you
and your enemy.
And then he says, and you have left,
and you were left,
in the noble house,
and you can move in it as you
wish.
And since Shali, he's talking about like Jannah,
when the king left you, gave you his
messengers, and then you relaxed from this this
fight, this battle, he gave you the armor,
he gave you the fortress, he gave you
all that you needed. You fought, and after
the fight, you're relaxing in this you're relaxing
in the house that he has given you.
Right? And you can move in it as
you wish.
He says, and you have been or your
your enemy,
has been jailed in a highly
sealed and secure place, and you see him.
He says,
He says, and the jail that this enemy,
your enemy, wanted to call you to, he
was entered into it, and the door was
closed upon him. The doors were closed upon
him.
And he gave up from rescue or relief.
And you are in a situation now and
that which you desire, which you are full
fully joy you're fully joyful of and in.
And and this is the important part.
So so
he says here as
a reward
for your patience
in this small time frame?
Patience in what? The patience with what? In
this time.
In this struggle. The struggle of what?
You had enough. You had enough in what
time frame?
This morning.
Life. Life.
But you say
as a reward
and as a reward
When you say
is what?
It is patience. As a reward for your
patience,
is time frame. But then he says,
What does means?
Simple.
Simple. Small.
So he compares the time of the dunya
as a small time frame.
Small time frame.
Right? Allah subhanahu wa ta'ala says,
says, Allah says in the chapter of,
Najm.
He says in the chapter of the star,
he says, and our affair is not but
the time span of the blink of an
eye.
The time in this dunya is small in
comparison to what?
But the next life is better and what?
And what?
Everlasting.
Baqi. Abdul Baqi, the everlasting. Say it with
Abbaqa,
everlasting.
That's why the Muslim, it's important to have
the akhirah mindset,
The akhirah mindset.
And when when the majority of your thinking
and time and pondering and and investment
is in this life, for this life, you
have fallen short.
You've fallen short.
Right? Allah
says, and this is interesting. I wanna see
if y'all can extract this. Allah talks about
the day of judgment.
He says, the day of judgment
has come,
so don't so don't rush it. But really,
if we were to literally translate it, it
is not the day of judgment has come.
He uses the past tense,
The day of judgment is
well, has come is past tense. Right? But
it's showing
means has already came.
Already came. So what is that showing?
Life is short because he used the past
tense to show that it is what?
Very close.
It is as though it is already here.
Right?
The day of judgment is very, very close.
The prophet mentioned this in the hadith. Right?
The day of judgment is very, very close,
and we don't know when it is. That's
why it's important for the Muslim to believe
as a pillar of his or her is
to believe that there is a day that
everything will perish.
Fan.
Right? The prophet makes a beautiful comparison.
He says, what is my affair in this
dunya?
He said, verily, the parable of me in
this dunya is like a traveler
that sits under the shade of a tree,
relaxes,
then gets up and continues
his
journey.
So the prophet
compares the dunya to what?
What?
He compares the dunya to the shade of
a tree. And what's interesting, what do you
do in the shade of a tree?
You take a rest. You relax.
But then you're on a join you're on
a journey.
You're not going to live there.
You have to get up and continue on
your journey.
Right?
And that's how he compares it.
Umar ibn Al Khattab,
he was with some of his companions,
and he said he looked at a trash
can
and he said,
He said, this is the dunya that all
of you cherish.
Right?
He mentions that the dunya is like like
he said, be from the
and don't be from the the be from
the children of the
and do not be from the children of
the dunya. Preferably, the dunya is a place
of amal,
action, and the place of is a place
of reward.
It is a place of investment for the
next life. And, again, I think we mentioned
the hadith a couple of days ago. I
hope we did this recording so we can
record this for the fundraisers.
Right? To invest in,
to invest in your your.
Now
now and then he concludes here. He says,
so he says here,
in this dunya, and he says
So this again, he's saying, it's it's a
reward that you're in this palace roaming as
you wish, and you see your enemy locked
up and caged up, and he cannot get
out to the degree that he gives up,
Shaitan.
And he says, this is a reward for
your patience in this short time frame that
you were you were you were in this
battle and your adherence
adherence
to the line
and to the the the, I guess, the
the army or the the,
when they say hold the line in in
battle, your adherence to that preparation,
in the in the war. And he says,
and he ends here. And he says,
and what was really this this time frame
except an hour? You know?
Then it passed by. Then it elapsed, this
time frame.
And then he says, it is as though
the hardship didn't even exist.
The hardship how many if we were to
sit back now and think of 1 hardship
in our
life, you say, wow,
It was a short time frame or, wow,
I got through it when I thought that
I would never get through it.
No?
And that's why it's important that in any
hardship,
the Muslim, when they do,
They seek assistance in Allah through the hardship.
They remember
verily with hardship comes ease. The ease comes
from who?
Allah.
So when the hardship
matters, hardship comes ease. My boss will bring
the ease.
The ease,
Allah means
the boss.
Come from my father, my mother.
The heart the ease comes from Allah.
The hardship comes from who?
Shaitan?
The hardship comes from Allah ultimately from Allah
Shaitan could be a means of make it
depends on the hardship, come on. But the
generality
of a hardship of something that you didn't
want,
right,
something that you didn't anticipate,
right, that you did not
want, that could be a hardship.
All of that is under the other of
what?
Allah
You do not well accept that Allah Subhanahu
Wa Ta'ala has will that you will.
Everything that happens, fill the cone,
in our existence
is from the Qadr of Allah Subhanahu Wa
Ta'ala.
And he allows
certain things to
and that's why he uses the, you know,
the the the the beautiful way of the
Arabic because he understands the that he says,
When the servant is tested with whatever test
and affliction,
he is assisted
with the army and the fortress and the
and the and the, the artillery or the
the armor.
So he gives us all of that. What
was the armor? We mentioned in the previous
lesson.
The nur,
the insight, the
intellect,
some of that armor
is the fitra
that we
have.
The some of that armor
is the nur, the fact that we believe
in a god,
the fact that we have a Quran for
guidance.
But if you don't take that Quran for
guidance, it is like you're going in the
battlefield and
you're you're you're you're taking the armor off
and you're throwing it on the ground.
You're you see your fortress for protection and
your enemy is
coming, and you take your artillery,
and you throw it down and run towards
the the the enemy.
When there is a there is a fortress
there for protection, there is an army and
there is there is armor and there are
weapons, and you use neither of that. Right?
You don't use the Nur. You don't use
the kitab, the Quran. You don't use the
sunnah of the prophet sallallahu alaihi wa sallam,
and you don't use the aql
that is
that is you do not you do not
submit
your
to the nur, your intellect,
to the Quran,
for an example.
Or we don't use our insight for that
which is good. Someone is very insightful, but
they use it for evil.
They don't use it to worship Allah
They don't use it to be good to
people,
or
they use it to be good to people,
to be appreciated
and thanked by people
without that person that is served,
ultimately to thank Allah. Did y'all catch that?
Sometimes you may do good good for someone,
but you want all of the respect. You
don't you don't internally at least
thank Allah that he has facilitated for you
to do this for that
person. Right?
Does everyone understand?
Or it may be someone that does the
good,
and they thank
gods.
Polytheism.
No. No. There's no no evil is attributed
to Allah. As the prophet
Right? You know, Allah says,
We don't know.
Was evil wanted for them on this earth,
or did Allah want for them guidance? You
see, Allah didn't attribute.
No. So evil is not attributed to Allah,
but Allah
will put something in front of you,
and then there will be the shayateen that
will try to test you and tempt you.
And the small window of choice is what
Allah has given you, and he's giving you
the armor
in this battlefield of the dunya,
this battlefield of this worldly life. That is
a small time frame
To where when you face that trial or
tribulation and you pass it
or you fail it, did you ask for
forgiveness?
Right? That's this one. But then Allah Subhanahu
Wa Ta'ala,
he's watching. He knows.
And this is even deeper. We don't wanna
cause a trial, but there's a series that
we can watch it. Allah knows the outcome.
No?
Allah knows the knows the outcome.
Right? So this is what's beautiful with
making this this analogy again. And this is
a good analogy that if we could tell,
you know, our children, for example, if we
want to make a comparison of evil versus
good and the tofik of Allah subhanahu wa
ta'ala, like, if Allah is giving you all
of this
and he gives you the he gives you
all of this and he says just for
a short time frame, you're going to go
in this battle. This is what you need
in order to
fight him. Right? But it's going to take
some heart literally
internally and bravery to fight this battle of
shaitan. You think of the name, the provider.
You think of the name, the abundant Ar
Rahman, the merciful,
the strong. All of these names and attributes
you can think of in regards to this
internal battle against the shayateen and
against fighting our nafs. May make us to
those
that fight against the evil ways of shaitan.
Make us to those that trust in his
in his will, in his strength, in his
honor.