Ali Ataie – Each Morning, The Believer Puts on the Two Sandals of Hope & Fear
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AI: Transcript ©
I will keep the footba
short and simple, this being the youth the
youth, footba.
Just a few reminders
from the kitab of Allah Subhanahu Wa Ta'ala
and the words of his messenger Muhammad.
Allah Subhanahu Wa Ta'ala,
He tells us in the Quran in an
ayah,
which is called Ayatulintihan,
a verse of examination.
And tihan is the same word that's used
when you take
a exam or test in school,
except that we have to test ourselves.
Allah
says in this ayah, this is Surah Alaihi
Imran, ayah number 31.
He says, pull into the Prophet
and by extension to all of us,
if you really love Allah,
then you have to follow me.
So
Allah is telling the Prophet
to
tell the people that if you claim to
love Allah because there's a group of people
who came to the Prophet
We love Allah.
And the prophet
presented himself as the messenger of God, and
they rejected him.
Right? They said, no, we don't need that.
You know, we we we're good with God.
We don't need to believe in y'all ri
sala.
This is the sun of Abu Nuzul. This
is the occasion of this highest revelation.
That if you really love Allah, fattibi, early,
you have to have itibaq.
You have to have,
adherence
to the prophet salallahu alayhi wasalam.
Yuhbib kumullah. And then this verb, yuhbib,
in English, this is called
a justive mood.
Essentially this is a purpose clause. So if
you love Allah,
follow me so that Allah will love you.
You see? So the the the,
special love, special Mahabbat
of Allah subhanahu wa ta'ala. And of course,
there's a level of love that Allah subhanahu
wa ta'ala has for all of his creation.
You know? So we shouldn't listen to rhetoric
and anti Muslim propaganda
that characterizes our theology as being loveless. Muslims
don't have love in their religion.
You know, these people put up videos on
YouTube, you know, show me one verse in
the Quran where it says God loves anyone
in the Quran.
These all are akin to love. So there
is a general love that Allah
has for all of his creation. And the
reason we know that, according to Imam al
Hazari,
is because Allah
created the universe, and nothing can compel him
to create anything.
Nothing compels him.
He is the compeller.
Allah is Anjaba.
He's never Majbull.
So the fact that he made a conscious
choice out of his absolute volition to create
anything means that he wants a relationship, and
that's an indication that Allah subhanahu wa ta'ala
is a personal deity that he's loving. But
here we're talking about the special level of
Allah subhanahu wa ta'ala.
The special level of Allah subhanahu wa ta'ala
comes with itiva of the prophet
And Allah is wafurururrahim,
Allah subhanahu wa ta'ala is constantly forgiving
and he's
intimately loving.
So this is this is our barometer as
it were. The measuring stick
is not based on the amount of money
in our bank account or how much, you
know, how many square footage our homes are.
It's not based on the size of our
salaries.
It's not based on any of these, how
many children do you have, how tall are
you, how wide is your skin.
None of these types of things. At the
end of the day, the only thing that's
going to matter is our itivaq,
is our,
adherence to the prophet.
Right? So this is what we have to
be conscious of
in our daily lives. Allah in the Quran,
he has certain ayaat that are ayaat of
promise, of wa'at, and ayaat of threat, warid.
And these two words are related etymologically.
Allah makes a promise.
And we read these promises, and we should
be filled with hope.
That's the purpose of a promise. We should
have Raja.
Raja needs to have hope with action, not
just blind hope.
Right? A lot like the person who, you
know, doesn't want to work to wants to
be a millionaire.
If it happens, it happens. You have to
work for it. Right? Someone who wants to
go to Jannah. I wanna be in the
highest levels of Jannah. Oh, it's time to
pray. You know, whatever.
In
Allah So these are the purpose, this is
one of the purpose of these ayat, of
why,
these verses of promise.
But then Allah
also has promises of threat or sorry, a
a versus of threat of wahid. And the
threat of Allah is something that we should
take very seriously.
When a human being threatens us, we take
it very very seriously.
If someone calls your home in the middle
of the night and threatens you, you're gonna
call the police, you're gonna move out of
your house, you're gonna take precautions.
Well, what about when the
Lord of everything, when the creator of everything
threatens us, so we should be cognizant of
these. Allah
says in Suratul Tawbah,
ayah number 24,
he says in meaning that if any of
these ephemeral things, all any of these dunyawe
types of things, And he mentions, you know,
houses
and spouses
and children
and money
and, you know,
any type any possessions that we have, whatever
they are. If any of these types of
things, your career, whatever it may be, if
any of these things are dearer to you
or more beloved to you,
If any of these things are more dear
to you than Allah, his messenger,
and striving
in his cause,
then just wait.
Yet, dear lord, we'll be hungry. Then just
wait and see what happens. See, wait till
the the arbor of Allah comes. This is
a threat. We don't want to wait. The
purpose of this ayah is to shock our
nafs out of its complacency.
Right?
Oftentimes, we get comfortable in our lives,
And,
one of the reasons why we read the
Quran is to fill us with hope and
also fear of Allah
Hope of his mercy but also fear of
his wrath. And this is a healthy place
to be spiritually.
Not so much hope that we start acting
irresponsibly.
There's some people in the world who believe
that they have an unconditional covenant with God
irrespective of obedience.
Why? Because I'm born born of a certain
race. There's certain people who believe this. I'm
born of a certain race. I'm chosen by
God. It's not even based on obedience.
I have the upper hand. There are other
people in the world who believe that if
you believe one time and have no action
whatsoever, it's okay. You're totally okay. It has
no effect on your iman. You're gonna go
straight into Jannah.
We're these these are extreme positions.
We have to be careful. That's not to
have so much hope in Allah subhanahu wa
ta'ala that we start to become irresponsible in
our actions.
We leave the prayer. We don't guard our
eyesight.
We're not watching what we're doing. We're not
watching what we're eating and drinking. We're loose
with our tongues to our parents.
Allah, the prophet,
he says in a hadith, he says, the
greatest of sins, and he names them
is to in partner with Allah
to say Allah has some sort of partner.
There's a there's a different person of God.
Something like that.
Right? Where someone has the attributes of God.
This person who's other than God has attributes
of
This is the biggest sin. It's spiritual treason.
And then he says,
disrespect of parents disrespect
of parents. And we know the hadith Jibril
alaihi salaam when the prophet, sallallahu alayhi salam,
it's a foundational hadith in our tradition. When
the prophet, sallallahu alayhi salam, was asked by
Jibril alayhi salam, this is Sahib Muslim al
Bukhari.
He said,
tell me about the hour.
And the prophet said,
the one being questioned knows no more than
the questioner
because the the urm of the sa'ah is
only known to Allah subhanahu wa ta'ala. Nobody
knows it. No messenger, no angel, only Allah
Subhanahu Wa Ta'ala. So it's a good idea,
it's a lot of sense there. Then tell
me about its signs, what are some portents
of it. One of the first things that
prophet
mentions
is that a woman will give birth to
her master or mistress.
What does that mean?
The unam must say this means that children
will immediately begin disrespecting their parents.
This is a major sin in the eyes
as it were of Allah.
Right? So if hope of Allah
proper hope, hope with action,
we also have fear of Allah.
Kouth. Be between kouth and rajah.
Kouth and rajah. Fear and hope. Wear the
2 sandals of fear and hope, the prophet
said.
But not so much fear that we begin
to despair on the lost mercy.
We begin to despair. I talked to a
man who admitted to me that he's killed
a lot of people. He was under orders.
He told me I've killed a lot of
people. He said I've killed a lot of
children. I was under orders. This is what
he said. I said, why did you do
that? He said, I don't know.
I don't know. You know, there's a sign
of the end of time.
The the one the one killing doesn't know
why he's killing.
Right? And he said to me, do you
think God will forgive me?
And he was non Muslim, so I quoted
an ayah of the Quran to him.
Allah
says, oh, say, oh, my servants
who have completely debased themselves.
Completely debased their own souls.
Never ever be in despair
of the mercy of Allah Subhanahu Wa Ta'ala.
It is haram.
It is wrong. It is incorrect to ever
be in a state of despair of the
mercy of Allah.
Allah Subhanahu Wa Ta'ala, if we make Tawbah,
Allah is at Tawah. How many names of
Allah? How many of his blessed names deal
with this
idea of Allah forgiving us. He is al
Sawam.
He is al Ghafar. He is al Ghafar.
He is al Ghafoor. He is al Ahfum,
one who erases the sin. There's no trace
of it left. Al Ahfum.
This is Allah
This is our lord. Allah will never go
tired of forgiving us unless we grow tired
of asking
for Tawba. And of course, he never grows
tired. This is a matter of speaking.
As long and in other words, as long
as we keep making Torah, Allah will keep
forgiving us.
But when we make Torah, it's very important
that our Torah is correct.
Right?
As one of my teachers said, sometimes a
toma requires a toma.
He's not really a toma.
A tawba has requisites. 1 must have nadaba.
1 must have remorse for the sin and
a firm
a firm resolve
that this person will never return to this
sin again. Even if he does return at
the time of Torah, he has a he
has fair resolve that he won't return to
the sin.
Right?
This is a true toma.
And
again, our,
role model is the prophet
This is what Allah says in the next
part of the ayah. For those who have
hope,
those who have raja.
The messenger of God is a beautiful power
of conduct for those who have hope, and
Allah
and in the final day. And remember Allah
with much remembrance.
So it's important for our young people to
have role models.
Right? As we should study the Meccan period
of the prophet's life. When the prophet sallallahu
alaihi wasallam was living in Mecca, a lot
of young people became Muslim.
There's a very young companion of the prophet
sallallahu alaihi wasallam,
Sometimes twice a day, you'd have a new
thawmark.
Very wealthy,
you know, very beautiful looking young man.
He was like a a a superstar in
Mecca.
And he became Muslim, and his parents cut
him off financially.
And
he was in dire straits,
And the prophet
sent him to Al Habashah, Abyssinia,
to live for a while.
Many years later, the prophet
was sitting in the Masjid in Mecca,
and Mus'an even America's back to Mecca. He's
wearing rags
with patches sewn into into them.
His skin is just
tattered. His hair is disheveled.
No shoes on his feet. And the prophet,
sallallahu alaihi wa sallam, began to cry.
Not because he felt sorry for him. And
the and the the the moral the the
moral of this story is not to go
walk around with with rags on. You've missed
the point, if that's what you think.
The prophetess of alaihi sallam began to cry
because he saw this
this this superstar
amongst the kafar
just reduced to this humble slave of Allah
subhanahu wa ta'ala.
He was crying because he saw the power
of the revelation, the power of iman. Right?
This is why we should never despair of
Allah's mercy,
and we should treat our neighbors and friends,
as if they're potential Muslims.
They're human beings. The fact that people are
human beings means that these they deserve respect.
Allah
says in the Quran that we have ennobled
these sons and daughters with Adam.
So it's important for us to have good
attitude with people.
Right? Even if people are fed false information,
which is happening all the time.
Look at the prophet in Mecca. There was
a propaganda
campaign out against him. The leaders of the
Quraysh met in the dawn of Midwa, their
city council.
Right?
And they decided that they were going to
spread propaganda about him, and they were mulling
this over. What should we call him? They
said, let's call him a liar.
And then they said, no. We can't call
him that because we called him Assadi Gul
Abin. Now they're gonna it's gonna make us
look bad if we call him a liar.
So let's call him a sha'er. He's a
poet.
Right? He said, well, that's not going to
work either because he's not known for composing
poetry.
It's not going to work. So then al
Walid even Molena, he said, let's call him
a sahel, a sorcerer.
He's a sorcerer because he can divide families,
and so that's a good one. So the
Quraysh would send out these rioters to intercept
people coming into Mecca.
Right? Welcome to Mecca.
Enjoy the festivities,
but stay away from this man, Mohammad, Somal
Ali Islam. He's a sahir. He's going to
bewitch you.
Right? So people were told propaganda about him
even before meeting him, even before hearing him
one time. So a lot of people
in our neighborhoods are like this,
In our lives, they're like this.
They've never actually heard from the prophet sallallahu
alaihi wasallam. How can they hear from him?
They hear from him from us
because we are ambassadors
of the prophet sallallahu alaihi wasallam.
And when people, whether you like it or
not, our behavior,
right, our behavior, whether it's good or bad,
informs others of Islam.
This guy's a Muslim. Look what he's doing.
Whether you like that or not, that's what's
going to happen.
Right?
So a lot of people have negative perceptions
of us, not only because of negative media
that they're hearing,
but because of their bad experiences of Muslims.
Because we haven't actualized
that beautiful khulik of the prophet sallallahu alaihi
wasallam.
Right? So the prophet sallallahu alaihi wasallam is
Ghayhi alil Allah. He is the caller to
Allah, our excellence. How did he call people
to Allah?
What was he doing in Mecca? He went
about his business. He was being a good
practicing Muslim.
People wanted to hear from him, he would
speak of that. So Chafa'l ibn Abdulsi came
into Mecca. He heard about his propaganda
about the prophet shalallahu alaihi wa sallam. He
saw the prophet shalallahu alaihi wa sallam at
the Kaaba reciting Quran.
He said, I was so afraid. I brought
into the propaganda.
I put content in my ears
and made my tawaf because I didn't wanna
hear him because he would bewitch me.
So to Fedun Naderi said he passed by
the prophet, sallallahu alaihi salaam. He said, Allah
will that something of his tera'a enter into
my head.
Something of his tera'ah.
And I said, subhanallah.
That was beautiful. So I took some cotton
out and I went around again. I passed
them again
and I heard more.
And I said,
this is incredible.
So he took all of the cotton out.
And I just stood there and was listening
to his taraha.
And then he said to himself, he relates
to Habib. He said, I thought to myself,
I'm a grown man.
I'm a grown man.
Why should I listen to propaganda?
I'm gonna sit with him.
I'll make up my own mind.
So he sat with him. He said, who
are you? What is this that you recite
it? So this is the Quran, the messenger
of God. And he immediately became Muslim.
Immediately, this is the way of the prophet
sallallahu alaihi said.
Right? Somebody comes, he gives them guidance. And
Shufayr ibn Amr, he went back to his
people, but that he does.
And he started making Dawah.
Right? And the prophet
is da'ayr illallah, usilajal Mulira, but nobody else
really is.
And he's a young Muslim. So he's trying
to make ta'wa,
and it wasn't working very well.
So he came back to the prophet,
he said, yeah, Rasoolallah, I'm calling these people
to Islam, but they're laughing at me. They're
rejecting me.
Can you curse them?
Curse them.
Yeah?
The prophet said, no. We're not gonna curse
anybody.
The prophet
said, I was sent as a gifted mercy.
Mercy gifted mercies.
And he said, let's go fight and let's
go fight against them and force them to
convert.
They said, no. We're not going to do
that either. He said,
So go back to your people, O Tufay,
and shepherd to them
and have rift, have gentleness with them.
So, okay. So he goes back,
he implements
the,
the training, tarbia, of the prophet salam alaihi
salam,
And he shepherds to them and takes care
of them. He's a pastor to them.
Right? He shows gentleness towards them, and there's
convert after convert after convert. Eventually, a man
named Abu Huayra becomes Muslim,
who becomes a fountain of prophetic knowledge.
This is the way of the prophet salam
alaihi wasalam.
There was a man in Mecca named Arkam
who became Muslim
and the Muslims would go to his house,
in a very large house. He would go
make vikir and pray there and listen to
the lectures of the prophet, sallallahu alaihi salaam.
So one of the mushrikeen,
he would sit on the way to Donald
Alkom,
and he would,
bring these singing and dancing girls.
And he,
distract Muslims. We're going to see the prophet
with these singing and dancing girls, and he
tells stories of, you know, the great
Persian conqueror
and the great stories of the Romans and
the Greeks.
So young Muslims
go into the house of of Arkam to
listen to the prophet sallallahu alaihi wasallam We'll
say, yeah, let's just stop here for a
minute. We'll go there eventually. We'll sit here
and relax, listen to some stories, see some
dancing girls, hear them sing a little bit.
It's okay. We'll make tawba later.
They sit down.
An hour goes by. 2 hours go by.
3 hours go by.
4 hours go by.
9 hours go by.
Generally, average American
spends the average American youth, which includes our
youth obviously,
spends 9 hours a day
on media.
Whether it's television or computer or
games,
9 hours a day.
That's a full time job.
So we're very distracted.
So we have to learn how to be
disciplined enough.
Walk by these distractions
and go to the prophet
and take the guidance from him.