Abdur Rahman ibn Yusuf Mangera – Qur’anic Reflections Why Allah Makes You Forget Yourself
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Salam aleikum wa rahmatullah wa barakato.
Al hamdu. Lillahi Rabbil Alameen wa Salatu was Salam o Allah so you
didn't already know either early he was so happy he made a bad
error will the Wilhemina shame on you Raji, maybe SMIL hero Bernier
Rahim.
What are the CU Ken Levine and ASUW law her
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ICA Homoeo first Boone law yesterday us haben Rivas, Hubbell
Jen, US have Origen natty who will
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so like hola hola. Wiem Dear brothers and sisters dear
listeners dear friends Ramadan Mubarak to you all may Allah
subhanaw taala accept from us. Today I want to discuss this
particular verse or so little harsher it's verse 19. And that's
chapter 59 Verse 19, Surah Al hasher
Allah subhanho wa Taala says, And do not be like those who forget
Allah, do not be like those who forget Allah. And then Allah cause
them to forget themselves. So don't be like those who forgot
Allah Subhan Allah cause them to forget themselves.
And the people of hellfire, and the people of paradise cannot be
equal.
It's the people of paradise, who are going to be the victorious
ones who are going to be the champion champions.
So what we want to discuss in here is that the nature of man is to be
self centered and to be selfish, that's the nature of man is to be
self centered and selfish. Men, human beings, we're generally
occupied with ourselves more than anybody else, we first think about
ourselves.
That's why anything that benefits us, we love it. And anything that
we think is harmful to us or something, we don't like it. So
we're very self centered in that regard. That's why if there's
somebody who loves us, then we are drawn to them. And we weren't, we
were not drawn to people who hate us. This is just kind of human
nature.
This self interest in human beings, it's what drives us to
pursue a number of things, we do many things, you know, we earn a
living, we sustain ourselves, we seek pleasure, we seek survival,
we seek enhancement, we seek beauty, we seek benefits, and we
do many of these things.
Sometimes, though, our very selfish personal benefit, takes
over everything. When it gets too much. It takes over everything.
And a person will then neglect even their duties, even their
responsibilities. There's, I mean, we get these questions, we get
these issues all the time when dealing with marital conflicts and
people's relationships, that there are people who are willing to
disregard their spouse, their children, or their family members,
relatives, at the expense of ensuring their own welfare.
A lot of people do that. Now,
just a little point on that about two relatives. Today, we are
living in a time when people a lot of people actually relate much
more to their personal friends, who are not related to them. I
mean, who are not kin, who are not blood relatives of them, rather
than be related to their actual relatives who they are bound to,
who Allah subhanaw taala placed them among and who Allah subhanaw
taala has brought them from, and it's something I want to mention
that there's a huge benefits are Allah subhanaw taala has placed in
that regard. And there's a lot of virtues that have been mentioned.
And it mentions that whoever is good in their kinship, whoever
ties their kinship, you know, whoever wants to have the effect
be longer lasting. And that has been interpreted as the Prophet
salallahu Alaihe Salam meaning that whoever wants a longer life
or whoever wants to leave a legacy, whoever wants any effect
of this to enjoy the lives should be good with their kin. Now
there's nothing wrong with being good with friends and having
friends. I mean, there's nothing wrong with that. Absolutely. I'm
this is how we collaborate. We're humans. We are very social in that
regard. And that's fine, but we cannot neglect our family. So a
lot of the time due to personal interests, people negate a lot of
these kinds of people that are supposed to be a responsibility
for them. There are of course, some people totally on the
opposite side who would actually even disregard their personal
interest for the interest of others. There are the few who do
that. They're very selfless people. They are totally focused
on others, and in that they would even sacrifice
So many things related to themselves, and they would
sacrifice a lot of their own interests. Now, if we go back to
the verse where Allah subhanaw taala says that don't be like
those who forget Allah who forgot Allah and then Allah subhana wa
Tada
caused them to forget their own selves. And that's what we want to
understand what did he mean by forgetting your own self. And I
think the main understanding here is that a person forgetting their
own self is forgetting to actually do for themselves what is actually
really beneficial in the ultimate in the ultimate realm and the
ultimate level of things, especially in terms of the
hereafter. What is to my benefit, they forget about that what is
really going to be their benefit. In the long run, there are so many
people after they're 40 5060 years, and then they look back and
they say, I've neglected my family. I neglected my religion, I
neglected preparing for the hereafter. I was just indulgent. I
was just indulgent. In myself, it was just about myself. There's
many, many people who do that they've neglected or they've just
not even been married. Or if they got married, they didn't have
children. And now they're alone and they feel bad, and they feel
that it's too late. And there's not enough time, there's people
who wake up just about when they are when they become terminally
ill.
So what happens is that, uh, one of the things that a lot of people
are forgetting about today, you know, in our materialistic world,
consumer world, capitalist world, secular world, rather secular
world is Allah subhanaw taala, and God who's our Creator, and is
exactly what Allah subhanaw taala says that don't be of those who
forgotten God who forgotten Allah subhanho wa taala, then he'll make
you forget yourself. So there's many people who have banished God
from their life, I mean, whole communities whole people of
countries have done this, even though they may consider
themselves to be Christian, they may consider themselves to be
Jewish, they may consider themselves to be Muslim, but the
materialistic side of themselves have taken over to such a degree
that they don't think about Allah subhanaw taala they don't think
about God that they actually profess to even believe. And then
of course, there's a rise in atheism, there's a rise in people
who deny God who don't believe in a supreme being, who believe it's
only about, you know, humans, and it's only us and there's nobody
else. And we should only do that, which is for ourselves. So
material things, material objects, material pursuits, it's what
becomes the objective of their life, and they become an end in
themselves. Now, missing material objects are absolutely necessary
in this world for us to function and for us to lead a life. And for
us to, to lead a life in this world. They're absolutely
necessary. But the material objects that we have, the clothing
that we wear, the cars that we have, and the other monies that we
amass, and all of this, they're not a means in themselves, that's
not the objective. And today, we're living in a time when
everything becomes an objective. So for example, when buying a
stock in a company buying shares in a company was supposed to be an
interest in that company, you find out what this company is doing,
you find out what kind of their,
what their balance sheet looks like, what their future looks
like. And then you buy in the in the hope that you know, you become
a partner in that business, however small. However, what's
coming today is this whole aspect of day trading, where you hardly
even look at what the company does, it's just the name many
stock traders is what they do is just the name for them. And all
they're buying is that they've seen that it's they've just seen
that it's riding high right now, it's going high. And that's why
they buy in there and they want to sell immediately. So the actual
share, which is not supposed to be a commodity, which is actually
supposed to be a partnership has actually become a commodity of
exchange. So it's just a piece of paper. It's just something that
somebody's going to tell you the stock exchange is going to tell
you that you own this now, right? That's what people are trading.
Today people are buying and selling NF TS basically. Now I'm
not saying here that it's maybe halal or haram. That's not the
discussion here. The discussion is that you've got so much self
centered, egotistical ideas here. And emotions hear that you're
actually just willing to buy something to have bragging rights,
right? Or in the interest that that might become property that
might become something that becomes something of value, even
though it has no
it has no substance. It's just the fact that that's the first tweet,
or that's a particular design. Everybody knows about that design.
Everybody can access it, they can download it, they can use it, but
because you're the owner of it, right, so you can see where this
is going that it's the reality is getting blurred. There's a
blurring of reality as to what reality is. And this virtual world
is actually overcoming us and overwhelming us in in various
different in various different ways. When we get lost in this
mais of materialism, right, which is essentially what shaytan wants
from us, and that's what it is when a person forgets Allah,
because when a person is centered on Allah subhana, WA Tada, their
focus is centered on Allah, they generally balanced, they're not
going to have that even if they do get distracted once in a while,
they'll they'll actually come back. So what happens is that,
ultimately, while we make a mess, many material things in our
pursuits and everything, eventually, what's going to happen
is that it's going to result in a crisis, because goodness, and
virtue and solace and comfort has not been written in these things.
They're not inherent in these things. They're just for quick
fixes. They're just for quick excitement. The point of material
things is to give us a bus straightaway is to fulfill a
particular need. It does not answer all the questions of our
life, the the longing of the soul for happiness, and rest and
comfort. And it doesn't, it doesn't give that that's why God
becomes replaced with all of these things, even for believers, even
those who consider themselves to be believers. And then eventually,
that leads to a self destruction. And that's what Allah subhanho wa
Taala is saying that we're going to cause them to
answer home and foster home, we're going to cause them to forget
themselves. So what really benefits them, they will, they
will stop focusing about it, they'll be focusing on just
instant gratitude, just quick things that they can get a quick
buzz by now. So what you have now is just not a few people who are,
who are, you know, it's just not a few people in the community who
are self centered.
But rather, you know, whole community, sometimes whole
civilizations are like that, that everything runs on on these
things.
And what's going to happen is that based on that, there's just newer
forms of entertainment, newer forms of luxury and comfort that
are produced for us each day. And even though what we have is
completely satisfactory, you know, we'd want the next thing because
it just looks slightly different, it looks a bit more modern, it
looks a bit more sleek, or it just looks different. To be honest, it
just looks different. That's why because humans do get tired of
things, they do get tired of things, especially if they're
people who always like to be who like new things. That's when it
gets very, very complicated. So people don't pay much attention to
the ultimate end, they forget about that. And that's Allah
subhanho wa taala, making them forget because they forgot about
Allah subhanaw taala there's another verse in the Quran where
Allah subhanho wa Taala says, Well, I mean, yeah, Shu, and
Vickery, Rama and Enoch Aida, who shaytaan. And for whoever, who
Corinne, which complements this verse that whoever remains away
whoever shuns and stays away from the remembrance of Allah, then we
will designate a shaytaan for them, a devil for them, who will
become their Corinne and a very close accomplice. Now, you know,
you may have seen people who have sometimes become, have come under
the spell of someone. And despite all reasonable explanation, they
don't understand because they like, no, that person is correct,
because they just saw bewitched by somebody, and their explanations
of something, or their understanding of something, and
everybody else knows that you're totally lost, right? It's that
kind of a thing where a person becomes so under the spell of
shaytan, that they actually don't even think about anything else. So
this is a really interesting verse, the person eventually
becomes like a robot, right? What they're doing is they have no real
feelings and emotions, their feelings and emotions have been
overcome by sense of self entertainment and self
fulfillment. And so gratitude, which are really not the kind of
emotions that a person wants to live this life with, because we
live with other people, we live for another life, you know, there
is another life to come. And a self centered life in this world
doesn't give us any benefit in the hereafter.
So basically, life will become mechanical in that regard. And as
long as a person's basic needs are being met, that's all they're
worried about just waking up in the morning to go and do that. And
then after to enjoy what they have. And then and then I'm not
saying you can't enjoy, but that's all their focus becomes, right.
Another part of this is that when a person becomes totally bound,
right, ruthlessly bound by social custom, custom, which is wrong
custom of their tribe, custom of their community custom of their
country, right to such a degree that they feel debilitated, that
they can't do anything different, even though sometimes when they
wake up in the morning or last thing at night, they do realize
that they're being suffocated, that they'd rather do something
else they'd rather be free. However, they don't understand
that. So these customers, they obliged them to live a certain
life,
to work for themselves to work for others, and all of this energy is
then spent for the sake of others to make them happy, so that they
can approve of you. Right. So a person then lacks, you know, to
have spiritual solace and spiritual come
That's right. They're not their own person. They're always worried
about other people. They're always worried about what others will
think. There's no peace of mind. And there's no love and joy.
There's no true love and joy because it's always tainted with
something. A person has little time for the higher aspects of
life, for the future, for the hereafter, which is so important
for the for the Muslim for the believer, the hereafter, which is
our real life, and we shouldn't be the eternal life. So this sense of
general apathy is everywhere. And very few people are actually
concerned about this open rebellion against Allah, it's an
open rebellion against Allah because Allah has given us so
much, and yet we've disregarded him in that regard.
A person, all of these things will blind us to the noble objective.
What's really interesting about the modern world is that mashallah
we have an abundance of good medicine, health care, and food
items. And yet, we don't enjoy good health. There's a problem.
Many people don't enjoy good health, even though we have such
sophisticated foods, such sophisticated ingredients. And yet
people before in many, many other places, even now have just simple
foods, and they have less diseases. Subhanallah, right. We
have so many comforts, we have so many comforts. But,
for example, we can travel the world, we can speak to the world,
and we're doing this exactly right now, this would have been unheard
of 100 years ago, you know, three 400 years ago, totally even
unfathomable. Today, I'm speaking to people all over the place, we
can communicate, right at the call of a button, you don't even have
to pay for it, you know, for each minutes anymore. It's so easy to
get your message to the world to understand what other people's
messages from around the world. If there's a person who dies, the
news gets everywhere, mashallah, there's some potential, there's
some good benefits to that as well. But despite all of that,
what we've seen as is that human relationships are becoming more
and more devoid of love and affection. It's confusing people.
So the people who you're supposed to be close to, sometimes you're
breaking up with them, and yet you're fine with others. There is
a narration which actually says that one of the signs basically
before they have judgment is that you will bring your friends close,
and you will distance your parents, you will distance your
close ones. And that's exactly what's happening. People are
sitting in the same room in the same house, and they can't hold a
conversation with them. And yet, they can hold a conversation with
all the world in on places like Twitter, and Facebook, and
Instagram, and they can display to the whole world their lives in
that sense, or at least one aspect of their life. You know, before in
a simple village, it was difficult to get information, right from the
next village. Today, you can get knowledge and information and news
from around the world. You know, you have your BBC and CNN and
everything else yet you don't trust the news. This is such a
weird relationship we have that we many, many people do not trust,
the do not trust the news. They don't trust many, many news
outlets, but yet they still have to go to them for the news because
they dominate.
And it's like when we read the news, we have a mixed emotion and
mixed reaction should I accept the shouldn't accept this, we forget
many of the times that the news could be tainted.
Good news is difficulty. Good news is very difficult.
And people are tired of false news. They're tired of abundant
news. They're tired of spin. They're tired of new spin. They're
tired of politicians, they're tired of many, many different
things.
Life has pretty much lost its purpose in that sense, and its
direction and its meaning.
That's why Allah subhanaw taala is reminding us here, that the only
way out of this malaise the only way out of this problem and this
decaying problem that we have is by remembrance of Allah subhanaw
taala the benefit of the remembrance of Allah subhanaw
taala is that it will ground us and it will give us an
understanding of where we're supposed to go it will remind us
of who our Creator is, it will humble us, it will keep us humble.
Inshallah, it will it will stop us from being so self centered, and
SubhanAllah. I mean, how many a problem there is today? How many a
problem there is today, right? People have people have so many
things that they have. Netflix, Amazon Prime consumerism Black
Friday sales.
Ramadan is probably the only time when this heedless diminishes a
bit. Where you see so many more people in the masjid. Right the
neighbors of the masjid you suddenly start seeing them in the
masjid. Right, you suddenly start seeing people a bit more
religious, a bit more generous, a bit more giving a bit more focused
on others because the shaytaan is out of the way. That's a proof
itself that the shaytaan is the shaytaan is causing much of this.
A person who has a heart attack at the age of 70 years old as soon as
he can
It's out of his coma as soon as he comes out of his operation, his
surgery is worried about where his stocks are.
There are land grab issues, right brothers, fighting with their own
brothers and sisters, you know, brothers and sisters fighting with
one another over their father's wealth, just to get that bit
extra, sometimes actually children fighting with their parents for
for a greater share in something just disputed properties. What
kind of a life of reliving the only way an anecdote is as Allah
subhanaw taala is saying is that don't forget Allah. Don't forget
Allah because when you forget Allah, Allah will make you forget
yourself and forget what's in your best interest. So may Allah
subhanaw taala make us of the people of paradise and those who
remember him and those who are grateful to him and those who
focus on the Hereafter. May Allah preserve us from all of these
ills. It's a really a time of reflection Ramadan is and may
Allah subhanho wa Taala give us reality in this. Well, I can read
that one and Al hamdu Lillahi Rabbil Alameen May Allah subhanho
wa Taala bless you all. And please pray for us as well. As salam o
aleikum wa rahmatullah wa barakato.
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