Ali Ataie – Gratitude For Being in a Beloved Place & Amongst Believers

Just a few words

and then we'll

pray. Just,

being in prayer and,

being filled with incredible gratitude to Allah Subhanahu

Wa Ta'ala,

for being in the masjid.

The masajid are the most beloved places

to Allah Subhanahu Wa Ta'ala,

to be with, the company of the righteous,

many of my teachers,

many of my beloved ones.

This is a tremendous niyama,

and sometimes we,

we don't stop and think about

these these niam. Allah subhanahu wa ta'ala tells

us in the Quran that if you were

to

even try to enumerate

the the blessing of Allah subhanahu wa ta'ala,

one blessing of Allah subhanahu wa ta'ala, you

would not be able to do so.

And above that, I mean, we're listening to

the beautiful recitation of Fari Amar. May Allah

Subhanahu Wa Ta'ala preserve him. The story of

Musa alaihi salaam, and it reminded me of

something I read

in a book called the lives of men

by Imam, Abdullah ibn alaihi alhadad,

in which he said that

he said on the authority of Ibn Abbas

radiallahu ta'ala anhu,

he said the prophets of Muhammad sallallahu alaihi

wa sallam. He once came to a group

of Sahaba,

and he said to them,

What do you say about this

Ayah?

That you were not at the side of

Mount Sinai when we called out

in the Sahaba said, Allahu Rasoolahu Anam, Allah

and his messenger know best.

And then the prophet he

said, this was when

Allah Subhanahu Wa Ta'ala,

he revealed

the Alwah,

the the tablets

to Musa Alaihi Salam,

and he described

the Ummah of the prophet Muhammad sallallahu alaihi

wasallam

in the Alwa,

and Musa alaihi wasallam was so absolutely mesmerized

by what he was reading

that he requested to Allah subhanahu wa ta'ala.

Oh Allah,

make this my Ummah.

Make the Ummah of Ahmad sallallahu alaihi wa

sallam my Ummah. And Allah subhanahu wa ta'ala

said to him, no your Ummah is Bani

Israel. And then Allah subhanahu wa ta'ala continued

to describe the virtues of this ummah

in the the,

scripture of Ahlul Kitab, and there are many

many descriptions of the prophet Muhammad sallallahu alaihi

wasallam

to this day in their books.

And Musa alaihi wasallam, he was so smitten

by what he was reading and at one

point according to the hadith,

Musa alaihis salam said to Allah subhanahu wa

ta'ala, Oh Allah make me a man of

that Ummah. Just a just a believer, a

Muslim in the Ummah of

Ahmad sallallahu alaihi

walaealhi wasallam.

Musa alaihis salam wanted to become just one

of us. We were the envy, good envy.

This is a good envy.

We were the envy of prophets.

This is the niyama that Allah subhanahu wa

ta'ala has given us. And then Allah subhanahu

wa ta'ala said to Musa alaihis salam,

he said, no your Ummah is Bani Israel

but you can hear their voice if you

wish. You can hear the voice of this

great Ummah.

And Musa alaihis salam he said, I would

I wish to hear their voice. And then

Allah subhanahu wa ta'ala said, You ummah to

Ahmedah.

Oh, Ummah of Ahmad sallallahu alaihi wa sallam.

In all of

us, all of us we said, Labayk your

up, Labayk at your service.

And Allah subhanahu wa ta'ala said, Praise me.

And we said, SubhanAllah.

And Allah subhanahu wa ta'ala said, Give me

praise. And we said, Alhamdulillah.

La ilaha illallah.

And Musa alaihis salam heard our praise, heard

our tasbir,

and our tahmid, and our tahleel.

He heard us say, SubhanAllah.

Wa alhamdulillah, Wa la ilaha illallah. And the

Prophet shalallahu alaihi wa sallam said, This is

the meaning. Wamakuntabi

janabituriivna

dayna. That you were not at the side

of Sinai when we called out, when we

called out to the Ummah of the prophet

sallallahu alaihi wasallam,

and Musa alaihi wasallam heard our voice.

This is a tremendous niyama. We have to

think about these things.

May Allah subhanahu wa ta'ala increase us in

this beautiful

virtue. It's called the theological virtue. Imam al

Ghazali

he enumerates 19 theological virtues.

And towards the top of the list is

shukr,

gratitude to Allah Subhanahu wa ta'ala.

This is the epitome of the akhlaq nabawiyah,

the prophet sallallahu alaihi wasallam. When he is

praying all night long and his feet were

swollen red or his heels were cracking and

his beloved wife our mother Aisha radhiallahu ta'ala

Anha. She said, Why do you do this?

Allah subhanahu wa ta'ala has forgiven your past

and future transgressions and the transgression of a

prophet is completely different than our transgression.

A transgression of a prophet is leaving an

act of great virtue for an act of

lesser virtue but he's always virtuous.

What was his response, O Allah radiya salam?

Afala aqunu abdan shakura,

shall I not be a grateful

servant?

He was shakura which is different than the

shakir. The shakir is the one who praises

Allah in times of prosperity

but the shakur is the one who continues

to praise Allah subhanahu wa ta'ala whether in

prosperity or in times of deprivation.

He praises Allah Subhanahu wa ta'ala because he

knows,

he has the wisdom

that Allah Subhanahu wa ta'ala if that if

someone is asking Allah Subhanahu wa ta'ala for

something and he doesn't get it.

The wise person knows that Allah subhanahu wa

ta'ala is insha'Allah he is he is he

is, taking something,

possibly dangerous or harmful away from me. I

don't deserve this thing. It's not good for

me. And he continues to praise Allah Subhanahu

Wa Ta'ala. This takes spiritual maturity. May Allah

Subhanahu Wa Ta'ala increase us in in sugar

to him.