Ali Ataie – God Suffices for Us Eid ulFitr ’20 Virtual Message
AI: Summary ©
AI: Transcript ©
This is just a
very short reminder
on this,
blessed day of Eid,
a very joyous occasion
for Muslims all around the world,
a reminder to myself and by extension,
to all of you.
Allah
says in the Quran,
that whoever places their trust
in Allah subhanahu wa ta'ala,
Allah is
enough for him. That all we need is
Allah. Allah suffices him.
God suffices us, an excellent guardian
he is.
Allah
tells us, this is what the believers said,
what the Sahaba said in Medina
when the Munafiqeen
in the city of Medina,
they were telling the Sahaba
that a great army is gathering against you.
The people are gathering against you,
so be afraid of them.
Allah
tells us that this only increased them in
their faith, in their iman.
What the were
telling them only increased the believers in faith.
And they said, Allah suffices us.
An excellent guardian,
he is.
Allah subhanahu wa ta'ala says,
That if Allah
that if you that if Allah
gives you victory,
no one can overcome you.
But if he forsakes you,
who
who can possibly give you victory after that?
And upon Allah,
let the believers
place their trust.
Allah
is our protector.
Allah
is our protector. Allah is our protector. Allah
is the one
who protects us and guards us
and guides us.
And he is sufficient. He is wholly sufficient
unto us.
It is related that Imam Ali al Ridha,
he came and he visited a major city,
and thousands of people came out to to
meet him.
And,
they asked him, give us something. Give us
some words of advice.
And he said that I heard from my
father, Musa Al Khaldim,
who heard from his father, Jafar al Sadiq,
who heard from his father,
Muhammad Al Bakr,
who heard from his father,
Hussein ibn Ali, Zain ul Abideen,
who heard from his father,
Hussein ibn Ali,
who heard from his father,
Ali ibn Abi Talib,
who heard from his father, who heard from
his from his father-in-law,
the prophet Muhammad Sallallahu Alaihi Wasallam,
who heard from
Jibril Alaihi Salam, the angel Gabriel,
who heard from Allah
That
there is no god or Allah is
my fortress.
So whoever says
with sincerity
has entered my fortress.
And whoever enters my fortress
is safe, is secure
from my punishment.
And
the adab mentioned in the statement is the
adab of the next life, the adab of
entering
and abiding therein.
The ummah of the prophet sallallahu alaihi wasallam
will achieve salvation.
This is the promise of Allah subhanahu wa
ta'ala.
The promise of Allah subhanahu wa ta'ala is
true. Allah never breaks a promise. He never
breaks the trusts.
A trust
who is more, truthful in his speech than
Allah
The ummah of the prophet sallallahu alaihi wa
sallam will achieve salvation
in the form of paradise
and spiritual proximity to their lord.
The prophet, sallallahu alaihi wa sallam, he said,
This ummah of mine is an ummah that
has been granted mercy,
and its punishment is in the dunya, in
the world.
And that is, when you think about it,
in and of itself,
a form of mercy.
Therefore, being in Allah's fortress
of La ilaha illallah
does not mean that we will not experience
hardships.
Allah
says
Do you expect or do you reckon that
you're going to enter paradise without experiencing,
you know, struggle and showing patience?
The Sahaba came to the prophet sallallahu alaihi
wasallam, and they asked him,
This hadith is related by Imam Ahmed and
Imam Tirumadi
or messenger of God,
who has the greatest of tribulations
from from, the people?
Who experiences the the most severe of tribulations?
And the prophet said,
the prophets.
He said in a hadith related by Imam
I have been tortured
for the sake of Allah as no one
else has.
And I've suffered fear for the sake of
Allah Subhanahu Wa Ta'ala
as no one has. You have to understand
now that the prophet
has the Maqam Mahmood, the praiseworthy station.
He is the habib of Allah
This is not a form of punishment.
Allah is not punishing the prophet sallallahu alaihi
salam. Allah is raising his degrees.
You see the prophet
is the great teacher.
I was only sent,
as a teacher. So he's teaching us how
to deal with adversity.
You see.
So the point here is to have hope
in Allah
This is very, very important.
Never lose hope. No matter what happens in
the dunya,
this is the testing ground.
We should never lose hope.
You have in the messenger of God a
beautiful example.
Remember I told you that he teaches us
how to deal with
adversity. And Allah says in this ayah, you
you have in the messenger of God a
beautiful,
virtuous exemplar. And then he says
for whoever has raja, hope in Allah.
And who has hope in the day of
judgment, the final day, and makes frequent remembrance
of Allah
So raja, you see,
is to have hope with action, though. It's
not blind hope.
Right? It's to have hope that's backed by
action.
Blind hope with no action is called.
Right? That's a bad type of hope. That's
more of a delusion.
The prophet he said
The intelligent one is the one who subdues
his nafs, his lower self.
Right? That that soul, that mortal soul that
pulls you down towards the earth, that loves
the world,
that that loves, you know, gluttony and lust
and and avarice and these types of things.
The intelligent one is the one who who
who who conquers the nafs, brings it down,
and works
for that which comes after death.
And the unintelligent one.
This
hadith is in. Amazing hadith.
And the unintelligent one is the one who
puts his lower self in the pursuance of
its desires, of its
and then has hope in God. I hope
this happens. I hope that happens. I hope
I go to Jannah, yet his food is
haram. His clothing is haram.
He looks at the haram. He listens to
the haram.
Right?
As Musa alayhi salam said to the Bani
Israel, do what you've been commanded.
Islam works if we do it right,
if we do it according to our tradition,
if we do it according to
the hikmah
of the prophet sallallahu alaihi sallam. Don't forget
the prophet sallallahu alaihi wasallam, according to the
Quran, was given Al Kitab and the Hikma.
Right? He's given the Quran and also given
the Hikma the wisdom. The ulama say this
is the sunnah.
This is how he lived the Quran, the
the wisdom
of the Quran.
Allah says,
He says that, oh, you who believe,
seek help, seek Allah's help with
patience in prayer.
Right? This is 153.
Read those sequence of ayaat and al Baqarah.
It's an amazing sequence. Right there,
in in the middle of al Baqarah.
Right? Seek Allah's help with patience and prayer.
Many of our mufasareen, including Imam al Razi,
ibn Kafir,
Imam Tabari, they say there's 3 kinds of
patience.
Right? Three kinds of patience or three aspects
to sabr, to patience. Number 1, being resolute
in avoiding sins.
Right? Being resolute in avoiding sins. In other
words, having self discipline.
Doctor Leonard Sacks, he said that the greatest
indicator
of later life success in children is self
control, being able to control yourself.
That's an aspect of sabr, being resolute and
avoiding sins. The second aspect of sabr, constancy
in virtuous actions.
Right, being devoutly consistent.
Even if it's small, the prophet sallallahu alaihi
wa sallam said
The most beloved actions
to
Allah,
are those that are consistently done even if
they're small.
Right? And then the 3rd aspect,
contentment in the face of affliction.
Contentment
in the face of affliction.
That,
you have the spiritual maturity
to know that the affair of the believer
is always good. The prophet
said, indeed the affair of the believer is.
It's always good. All of it is good.
And that we accept the qadr of Allah
subhanahu wa ta'ala.
And if
Allah is punishing us, then we make tawba
and we rectify our behavior.
Right? And we thank Allah that the punishment
was in this world. And if Allah
is raising our degrees, alhamdulillah,
you see it's a win win situation. The
affair of the believer is always good.
And Allah
says,
what?
Don't say about those who are killed in
a lost path that they are dead.
They're alive.
But you don't perceive.
And indeed indeed,
we will test you. Be
with something.
Wal naksimminal
amwalwal
anfuswat
tamarat.
We will test you with something from fear
and hunger
and loss of, wealth
and loss of lives or selves
and loss of fruits.
But give glad tidings to those
who are patient. Ibn Kaffir suggests
that when
Allah says
that relates to the fear of Allah
Right?
And the urnama, however, they transcend
because there are two ways of saying fear.
And, of course, fear
is the beginning of wisdom as it is
said,
in the biblical tradition, even in our tradition.
But kashiyah is to have fear of Allah
with with knowledge of Allah.
Hashiyah, a fear that is that is grounded
in in substantive knowledge to be in awe
of Allah subhanahu wa ta'ala, but is still
there.
Right?
And that's something that the Quran talks about.
And then he says that that
hunger so we're gonna test you.
That hunger refers to the fast of Ramadan.
Right? We fasted
30 days during the month.
And it's, for in for some people, it's
more difficult than others. But that's something. It's
only 30 days.
Right? And it's only from,
from,
from dawn until dusk.
So that's something of hunger that we're going
to experience. And then loss of wealth
refers according to to
zakat.
Right? And then loss of cells refers
to, death due to sickness
and loss of fruits, Famaraat refers to the
death of children.
And the prophet, sallallahu alaihi sallam, he can
he experienced
all of these
consistently.
He experienced all of these consistently, all of
these tests,
all of these types of,
adversities.
Yet he taught us to say
praise be to Allah
praise be to Allah
in every state,
you see. So know the nature
of life in this world. Be patient.
Settle yourself settle yourself
firmly in the fortress
of Allah
which
is Then place your hope and trust in
Allah
and Allah
is the best of protectors.
Okay. Now as far as Eid prayers go,
I was asked to give a short sort
of note on what to do about Eid
prayers. According to the dominant opinion of the
Hanafi school,
the Eid prayer is not performed at home
by individuals
because it has the same, conditions as the
Jum'ah prayer. That's under normal conditions, however.
However, it is permissible and recommended,
to pray 2 units of superogatory
prayer in lieu of the Eid prayer.
So that would be your intention would be
for salatul duha.
And usually this prayer would not be done
in congregation,
but there's a difference of opinion. Some of
the olemas say that a small household, a
small family
may may perform,
this prayer in congregation, extra taqbiraat. Right? So
it's performed like nafila. However, there is a
minority opinion in the Hanafi school
of scholars who permit the performance of a
prayer at home with your family,
stipulating that there must be a minimum of
4 people in a congregation. This is not
the preferred opinion
of the school.
However,
given our unprecedented
situation
with COVID 19,
the ulama
are now encouraging people
to actually pray,
salat al a'id
at home,
whether
individually or in congregation.
So go ahead
and pray at home, pray
with your fam with your families and rejoice
together with your families.
Spend that time,
with your families.
So basically then in the first rak'ah, you'll
give 3 additional takbirs
before al Fatiha and the Surah.
In the second rak'ah, you'll give, the 3
additional,
Takbirs after reciting al Fatiha
and the Surah, although there's different ways of
doing it. So may Allah
bless all of you and accept all of
your prayers and supplication and fasting.