Abdur Rahman ibn Yusuf Mangera – Qur’anic Reflections Living and Dying for Allah

Salam aleikum wa rahmatullah wa barakato. May Allah subhanho wa

Taala bless our Ramadan's. Let us start with the verse of the Quran

or will there be him in a shape on your Raji maybe SMIL he Rahmani

Raheem? Ghul in solidarity you are no Sookie wanna hear Yahweh Murthy

little he'll be learned I mean, luxury caller who Ibiza he got me

to a one mostly mean.

This is a very very, very well known verse and lots of you must

have seen it quote, quote in many, many times. So this is a verse

from Surah Al Anon verse 160, to 163 of sorbitol, an island, where

Allah subhanho wa Taala says, say, oh Prophet call that verily,

indeed, my prayer, my sacrifice, my living and my dying are all for

Allah. So my prayer, so my devotion, my sacrifices that I

make no Sookie and my living and my dying are all for Allah, the

Lord of the Worlds.

He has no partner. And of this I have been commanded. And I am the

first of the Muslims. I am the first of Muslims. I'm the first of

submitters, very, very totalizing and very, very powerful verse

going to show essentially in brief going to show what this verse is

telling us is that every aspect of our life, everything about us

everything that we say everything that we do, needs to be for the

sake of Allah subhanaw taala meaning it needs to be infused

with the remembrance of Allah subhanaw taala. So to be infused

with the remembrance of Allah basically also means that

everything we do be in accordance to what Allah subhanaw taala wants

and what makes Allah subhanaw taala happy.

Well, if we could, if we could actually attain that before our

death, that would be amazing.

You know, that's always the pursuit and that's the goal. That

may Allah subhanaw taala make everything that we do just like

the way the Prophet sallallahu Sallam used to do it. Can you

imagine the profit and loss of life that when you read his Syrah,

when you read the Hadith, the Sunnah, you see that everything

that he was doing was for the sake of Allah subhanaw taala. And I

know that we have so much distraction, and that becomes

very, very difficult that how do we make sure we focus on

everything to be for the sake of Allah, I think one way we could

start is actually looking at the spirit of the Prophet salAllahu

alayhi wasallam and see how he did it. But you see, there's more to

that. It's the remembrance of Allah and all of these things that

will eventually have our heart attached to Allah subhanaw taala.

And if our heart can become attached to Allah subhanaw taala

then everything that we do in sha Allah will ensue from a position

of sincerity. One of the biggest things that we're challenged by

today is absence of sincerity. We get distracted by why we do

things, especially if we even end up managing to do good things. Why

are we doing them? Do I do this for name and fame? Do I do this to

teach people do I do this so that people can be inspired? Do I do

this so that I can gain something especially again, something

worldly? I mean, I'd like to gain something for the hereafter to

follow in the footsteps of the messenger Muhammad sallallahu

alayhi wa sallam messenger sallallahu alayhi wa sallam. The

Prophet sallallahu sallam said that the best of you is the one

who, who studies the Quran, who learns the Quran and who teaches

it. So may Allah subhanaw taala make this as part of that. But

while we're doing this, it's so easy to say that okay, you know,

you know, your reflections are very good, or I found a benefit in

there and then you start thinking that there's something that you

did, at the end of the day, it's all given by Allah subhana wa

Tada. And that's why we must return everything to Allah subhana

wa Tada. The fact that I'm able to even raise my hand and pray to

Allah subhanaw taala that comes from Allah, the fact that I'm able

to sit now and listen or do this, this comes from Allah subhanaw

taala the fact that we're believers, comes from Allah

subhanaw taala the fact that we're in this world comes from Allah

subhanaw taala. So

what is it, then that we can show off about what that we can

attribute to ourselves about? This is the what you can say the

humbling factor. So I tell people that when you're standing in front

of if you're if you're a good recycler and you're leading the

prayer, for example, or you're giving a darts or something, I

mean, just think about who you're doing this for who you're reading

this for, rather than the crowd because if you're reading good or

you're speaking well, the crowd is going to enjoy it anyway. You

don't have to even intend that. Just make something good for the

sake of Allah, and please Allah and people will be pleased anyway.

But your focus is not the people. But if your focus becomes the

people and you start to do things for them, then Allah subhanaw

taala is not pleased because Allah wants to be the one that you know

that we do everything for. He deserves it.

And he's entitled to it, but he deserves it as well. He, we owe

everything to him. So, let's look at this verse in a bit more

detail. Essentially what Allah subhanaw taala is saying here is

that the worship here in the Salah t when Nozaki this is basically

encompassing all forms of worship, worship essentially and devotion

is to do something to when Allah subhanaw taala pleasure to attain

Allah subhanaw taala is pleasure, but it has to be in line with his

command. There's many people who are very sincere in terms of their

approach that they want to do something for the deen, you know,

they want to do something for their faith, but they go the wrong

way about it shaytaan takes them over at this point, making them do

something wrong, and that's actually harmful and that's

antecedent to the faith.

Basically, you can say in other ways that everything that is done

in line with Allah's command, according to spiritual Sharia but

for the sake of Allah subhanaw taala, to please Him, that would

it confirmed conforms to the Sharia, then that's an act of

worship. That means that if one emulates an authentic sunnah, for

example, right in the hope of winning Allah's reward by that, so

you do something like the prophets of Allah, some did, even though

it's not obligatory, but you do it because you think that's the best

man who lived, he's the most beloved to Allah, and Allah

subhanaw taala had guided him to be a certain way to dress a

certain way to behave in a certain way and to do things in a certain

way. So I want to do it according to his way, right, as long as a

circumstance allows, right, then I should be rewarded for that. I

should be rewarded. And that should also please Allah subhanaw

taala.

Because if that sentiment is not there, then even if you if you

actually do a good deed, but you don't have that sentiment to do it

for the sake of Allah, then it is devoid. It's not worship, it's not

devotion. So if I'm praying literally just to show others that

I'm praying, and I don't want to be praying, I'm only showing my

parents that I'm praying, or I'm showing somebody around me that I

pray or that I fast, but I don't really want to do it, then I get

no reward for that. That's why the Atmel and the deeds are sewer

their forms. What's really important in there is the spirit

and the emotion that that comes in there.

Subhanallah so why was this verse revealed? I mean, one of the

purposes of this verse is that during humanity's decline, and the

ignorance and Joe Hillier, across the world before Islam came, you

know, because the world had been without a prophet for, you know,

over 550 years, because between the prophets, Prophet Sid salaams

time and the Prophet Muhammad Sallallahu Sallam is about 570

years or so. And there was no prophets in between, it was the

time of the cessation of prophecy. So a lot of policies and bad

Krypton, a lot of superstitions had crept in, right, and lots of

false beliefs in false deities. So what that eventually led to is not

just a belief, but actually to then show devotion to these false

deities, idols, stones, objects, right, this is what happens when

there's no revitalization of the faith, people mess up, and they

degenerate into this way. A lot of people actually what they had is

two compartments in their life that two facets in their life they

had, what they would do is, I mean, for example, the Christian

faith, for example, what they did was, they allowed many, many

things, they, they basically disregarded many issues in the

Bible, for example, dietary requirements, right? That doesn't

apply to them. Right, even though swine is considered to be, you

know, wrong, and swine is considered to be blameworthy and

problematic in the, you know, in the testament, right? However,

they've decided, I think, as the third century or so that we will

not have any dietary requirements. So they've done a lot of chop and

changes like that, and being very selective in what they do. So

essentially, you got two compartments in your life. And

essentially, that's where you get this idea of the holy and the

secular. So you've got a holy aspect, and you've got a secular

aspect, whereas in Islam, it's all holy, you know, it's all related

to Allah subhanaw taala, even the what others would term a secular,

there's a way to make that religion and make that a source

of, you know, a source of devotion to Allah subhanaw taala. And you

get the saying, from there, which says, one should give unto God

what is his unto Caesar? What is his, you know, this takes us back

to the Roman, the Roman era, you know, the Greeks before that, it

was full of mythologies. I mean, the Greek Empire was, was eclipsed

I mean, I've been to I've been to Greece, I've been to Athens, I've

been to Delphi just to get an idea of what is it that drove these

people you know, having this whole you know, soap opera, like idea of

Gods you know, that we're doing these crazy and strange things,

you know, with one another and their fights and arguments and you

know, the challenges to one another, and Subhanallah just

wondering like, how did it impact such a civilization that is

considered to be such a great civilization. Anyway, the Greek

civilization was

eclipsed by the Roman civilization. That's why you see,

even in Greece, you see a number of Roman, a lot of Roman heritage,

following the period of Greek heritage. I mean, and then you see

the Romans pretty much throughout the world. I mean, you go into so

many different countries, North Africa, Carthage, you go to

Morocco, you go to the UK, you go to many other places, you see

Roman, you know, you see a lot of Roman, you know, a lot of Roman

remnants of many of their buildings and empty theaters and,

and, and temples and all of these other things. There was a lot of

mythology there, though, right? And eventually, many of the face

even the true face, that is the kind of direction that they went

into that there was superstition. There was there was superstition,

they were wrong things like this. So

that's why what Allah subhanaw taala is telling us through the

prophet sallallahu alayhi wa sallam this person and what Allah

commands are so awesome to do is that every aspect of you needs to

be for your faith, everything, even to be honest, even when a

person goes to relieve themselves, if they read the DUA, right? Allah

Khomeini will be coming. Hopefully we'll have a if. Right? And they

go and they relieve themselves in the proper way not facing the

Qibla for example, which is the command right not back towards the

cupola, that's another command that we have.

Making sure we do is the bra. Right sitting down and doing it

making sure there's no splashes doing is the bra is the Brahmins,

you know, ascertaining that we've everything has basically we've

been relieved completely, and we're not going to have any drops

afterwards. Right, you know, minus OCD issues. I mean, that's a

separate topic. And then after washing up and cleansing oneself

coming out and seeking forgiveness from Allah subhanaw taala, for

having had to spend that time without any remembrance, and

thanking Allah subhanaw taala for removing the dirt from our body

and relieving us that whole act there, even though it's such a

mundane act, unnecessary act that we have to do, we're going to be

rewarded if we had intended to do it in the way of the Sunnah and

follow the Sunnah procedure. Now we know this, we know about this,

for when you eat, when you drink milk that the Prophet sallallahu

Sallam has, don't ask for all of this as very specific dua even for

when drinking milk. So even the act of drinking milk milk is such

a wholesome food, it's a fitrah, right? It's the natural food. And

that's why there's even a dua for that, right? A Baraka you do to

our Baraka, Allah bless us in this. When we do this, when we

finish eating, we think about Allah subhanaw taala every aspect

of ours, I mean, you know, the did used to say at that time and the

prophets lie, Selim that, you know, the prophet teaches

everything, including how to relieve oneself. And that's an

absolute truth because Islam is totalizing, it doesn't want any

superstitions to come in. And remember, one thing is that when

you don't do something, according to the deen, when you do something

against it, rather than what you've done is that you just

implemented a bidder. And whenever you implement an innovation, and

innovation just means anything that is contrary to the faith and

disregard. I'm not talking about the proper technical definition.

But I mean, this is probably worse than that. Then what you've done

is you've replaced the Sunnah for the wrong way. And that's the

problem. And that's where a lot of people when they have this

attitude that oh, what difference does it make us a little issue

here and there? Look, we're not all perfect, right? And we we

definitely struggle, we can't all it's very difficult for us to be

the life like the Prophet sallallahu alayhi wa sallam,

that's not easy. I mean, the road is awesome. Life was just so

balanced, so perfect. So in tune, such equilibrium and perfection,

that's going to be difficult, but we try to get as close as possible

to the Prophet salallahu Alaihe Salam, and we ask Allah subhana wa

Taala for help. And when we make a mistake, we seek forgiveness,

right? There's a lot of things that I would like to do that I

can't do Allah subhanaw taala forgive us for that, that I do in

a different way. The religion saying that you have to do

everything for the sake of Allah, a lot of people get frightened.

And they think that when you have to do everything for the sake of

Allah, it must be very, very tough. And it must be very, very

complicated and it must be very, very challenging. And that's not

true. The Deen in our religion, in our Sharia, we have certain

criteria, we have certain junction we have certain principles, and we

have certain boundaries, and we have certain limits. As long as

you're within that there's a lot of scope. So for example, Allah

subhanaw taala has allowed us to dress right in any way we want, as

long as we follow the specific boundaries, and we don't go

overboard and we don't do it for extravagance, otherwise, there's

so many things that one can wear, right as long as it doesn't

contribute any principles.

Likewise,

Allah subhanaw taala has allowed us to eat pretty much he's already

Lokomotiva that Allah subhanaw taala has made all good things

permissible. There's certain boundaries though, animals have to

be stroked in a particular way. And when we're living in a non

Muslim country, it is difficult sometimes to find halal meat and

it is difficult to find

Sometimes halal foods, but that's just, you know, based on our

circumstance, I mean, we could change the circumstance. I mean,

if that's a possibility, I mean, if it's so difficult, we can

change our circumstance. But yeah, there will be difficulties. But

Inshallah, I mean, as they have in England, if they can strengthen in

many of the other countries of the world, non Muslim countries in the

world,

if you can strengthen the meat industry and the Halal industry,

the way they have in the UK, the way the Jewish people have done in

the US, for example, when main mainstream products, even though

Jews are such a minority, they've managed to certify ultra orthodox,

you know, kosher products, is just requires effort to get to those

levels. And the other thing is that we don't want to become like,

other faiths, where for them the faith is, as I was saying earlier,

the faith is just something that they do once a week, for example

of Christianity, they go to church once a week. And you know, when

you speak to many of our Christian friends, we see that that's pretty

much their faith for them. Right? That's what they do. They don't

really think about it in terms of the way they dress, in terms of

the way they interact with one another necessarily all the time.

I mean, in some cases, there's some there's definitely some

ethics in there, the 10 commandments and so on. They try

to observe that these the observant ones, right, but in

terms of many of the other things, it's pretty much just the devotion

for one day of the week. Whereas for Islam in Islam, it's five

times a day that we're remembering Allah subhanaw taala we're told to

remember Allah subhanaw taala. So our prayer becomes for him, and

we're told to remember Allah subhanho wa Taala several times a

day, right? Let's not just in the prayer, that's just the formal

worship that we do, but we're told to remember Allah subhanho wa

Taala as much as possible throughout the day, so that Allah

subhanaw taala then praises those people and He glorifies those

people meaning he shows them to be the, the archetype that should be

followed this livina years kurunegala piano workers who don't

wanna you know, be Him, those who remember Allah subhanaw taala,

standing, sitting and on their sides, so may Allah subhanaw taala

make it such that we can also declare like the Prophet

sallallahu alayhi wa sallam did that in the Salah, it will no

Sookie mama, he is a woman, Marathi lillahi, rabbil aalameen

The very my prayer, my sacrifice, my entire living and my dying. So

when I die, I want to die in a state that I'm pleased with Allah

and Allah is pleased with me that I'm observant of him and that I'm

satisfied with him and I gain my peace and tranquility through

Allah. That's how I want to die in May Allah subhanaw taala make our

deaths like that. If we make this die in Ramadan, we ask Allah

subhanaw taala he accept these days of Ramadan? And then we

affirm our faith and say that there is no partner to Allah

subhanaw taala and then we'll be that he got omitted and the reason

I do it is because this is what I've been commanded to do anyway,

and I want to be one of the first submitters in this regard. Just

like Allah here may Allah subhanaw taala bless everyone, please

please remember us all in your doors, and our families in your

doors and the entire domain in your doors. May Allah subhanaw

taala relieve the problems and sufferings of this world. Allah

bless you all, just ask Allah here AsSalamu Alaikum Warahmatullahi

Wabarakatuh the point of a lecture is to encourage people to act to

get further an inspiration and encouragement, persuasion. The

next step is to actually start learning seriously to read books

to take on a subject of Islam and to understand all the subjects of

Islam at least at the basic level, so that we can become more aware

of what our deen wants from us. And that's why we started Rayyan

courses so that you can actually take organize lectures on demand

whenever you have free time, especially for example, the

Islamic essentials course that we have on there, the Islamic

essentials certificate which you take 20 Short modules and at the

end of the inshallah you will have gotten the basics of most of the

most important topics in Islam and you'll feel a lot more confident.

You don't have to leave lectures behind you can continue to live,

you know to listen to lectures, but you need to have this more

sustained study as well. JazakAllah Heron salaam aleikum wa

rahmatullah wa barakato.