Ali Ataie – Prepare Yourself The Blessings During the Sacred Days of Dhul Hijjah & on Arafat
AI: Summary ©
AI: Transcript ©
Allah says that reminders benefits believers.
So there's a hadith of the prophet in
which he says,
He says, There are no days more beloved
to Allah Subhanahu Wa Ta'ala that he be
worshipped in them than the 10 days of
Dhul Hijjah. And this is mentioned in multiple
books of Bukhari, and Tirmidi, and Ibnu Majah.
If you notice the phraseology that he uses,
he says, ma'amin ayamin.
So this denotes a very, very strong negation
that there are no days whatsoever,
not even the days of Ramadan according to
many, many that
are
in grammar is called an elative of comparison.
Of course, this word
is related to the word which means love.
There are no days more beloved to Allah
than the 10 days
of Dhul Hijjah. And when something is beloved
to Allah Subhanahu Wa Ta'ala,
then the believers must play pay close attention.
So Allah Subhanahu Wa Ta'ala, you know, the
the prophet,
he doesn't say here,
you know, acceptable
to Allah or pleasing to Allah
or appreciated by Allah. He says, beloved to
Allah.
Like he says in another hadith,
That the most beloved of places to to
Allah
are the Masajid.
Now we know that,
but many of us don't know what month
or even year it is according to the
Islamic calendar,
let alone specific days.
So not all days are the same, not
all days are created equal. We must be
cognizant,
of that. If we have a deadline due
for work, we're very, very cognizant of that
deadline.
It's in the back of our mind, we
keep looking at it on our calendar,
and that's for our work. So we should
be at least equally cognizant of
days that are especially described as being beloved
to Allah
what about the Quran? Allah
he says
Allah
says that we appointed for Musa alayhi salam
30 nights,
and we completed them with 10 more.
Thus, the appointment of his lord was complete
as 40 nights.
So Imam Tabari and Imam Azamakhshari
and many, many other
Mufasirin
or exegetes of the Quran,
They say that the 30 here, the actually
refers
to the entire month of
which is the 11th month.
And the final 10, when Allah
says, This refers
to this 10 refers to the first 10
days
of Dhul Hijjah. In other words, the revelation
of the Torah
was completed
on Turi Seenin on Mount Sinai
in Dhul Hijjah.
Allah
takes an oath in the Quran. He says,
by the dawn, by the 10 nights,
and by the even and the odd, many
exegetes of the Quran say here that the
10 nights mentioned here are the 10 nights,
the first 10 nights
of the month of Dhul Hijjah, and that
the even, As Shefri.
Right?
Means the even.
They say that this refers to which
is also called Yomun Nahar, the day of
sacrifice,
which is the 10th of Dhul Hijjah, which
is tomorrow. 10 is an even number, obviously.
While the water, the the
the odd
refers to Yomi Arafa,
the 9th of Dhul Hijjah.
So Allah
takes an oath by this, and we know
that if Allah
takes an oath
by anything, then that thing is truly
great. In fact, the prophet, he
says,
using the same type of phraseology.
That there is no day when Allah sets
free more servants from the fire
than the day of Arafa.
And then, he continues, says something incredible, that
Allah
draws near to His servants, and praises them
to the angels,
and says to them, ma'aradah
ulai?
What do these people want? This hadith is
in Muslim. Now, obviously, Allah,
he knows what we want.
The point of the hadith is to create
in us a desire to ask him.
What do these people want? So what are
the people doing then? Allah
is asking the angels, what do these people
want? What are the people doing?
They're obviously asking Allah for things. They're making
du'a,
and du'a is
a very important
part of our spirituality.
In fact, the prophet
he said, a dua muhl alibada. It is
hadith as in bukhari.
Dua is the essence of worship.
This hadith is in
that there is nothing more honored to Allah
than du'a, supplication.
And the ulama say there's two reasons for
this. Number 1, it fulfills the command of
Allah in the Quran.
Allah says in the Quran,
call upon me so that I might answer
you.
And number 2, it establishes
a very personal, intimate relationship
between Allah
and the supplicant, the rub and the marboob,
the lord and the servant. The prophet
had a very intimate relationship with
Allah to the point where he would stand
and
worship until his feet would be swollen.
And when he was asked about that, he
said,
shall I not be a grateful servant? He's
worshiping Allah
out of love for Allah
Sometimes we read the Quran,
and we don't understand the nuances of classic
Arabic, or we read a translation, and the
translation is not very good, very stilted, kind
of old fashioned.
But there are places in the Quran that
are that are incredibly incredible how they describe
the way that Allah
describes his relationship with the prophet
For example, there's an ayah in the Quran
where Allah
speaks directly to the prophet
and he says,
and some of the translations, they just it
sounds like King James translated this.
Like, you know,
so be patient as to the coming of
the command of thy lord,
for verily thou art in our eyes.
What does that mean? I asked one of
my teachers, what what does this mean? The
way that he translated to me in English
was, this is the gist of it. It
means that Allah
is is saying to the prophet, relax.
I love you.
Relax. I love you. That's the meaning of
it.
In du'a, you can speak to Allah
in your own words,
in your own language,
in love, longing,
and hope.
Allah
says in the Quran,
When my servants ask you,
this is the Prophet sallallahu alaihi wa sallam,
when my servants ask you concerning me, indeed
I am close to them. Allah is Qareeb,
and this closeness, this Qurbah of Allah Subhanahu
Wa Ta'ala
is in knowledge,
awareness,
and concern.
Has nothing to do with space or physicality,
because Allah subhanahu wa ta'ala is transcendent over
physicality.
Allahu mawjudun billam Makan.
Allah subhanahu wa ta'ala exists,
without any type of physical space or
or spatial concerns or physicality.
In fact the Prophet sallallahu alaihi wa sallam,
he said the
closest a servant is to his Lord is
when that servant is in sajda.
So this has nothing to do with physical
space or distance.
Closeness in a relational sense.
I answer,
I respond to the supplication of the supplicant
whenever he calls upon me.
Sometimes you hear somebody say, well, my duas
are never answered.
Right?
There's a hadith in Bukhari and Muslim,
where the Prophet sallallahu alaihi wasallam,
he said, your prayers are answered as long
as you do not become impatient.
Your prayers are answered
as long as you do not become impatient.
And the Sahaba asked him, who is the
impatient one?
And he said, the one who says
The one who says I made supplication to
my Lord and He never answered me.
Right? So he's breached adab with Allah
So it's important that we have a good
opinion with Allah.
That we have This is very important. According
to our theology, when you make Dua, one
of 3 things will happen. Either Allah
will give you what you want in the
dunya,
or he won't give you that thing, but
he'll give you something better. And sometimes we
don't know that what he's given us is
better because
Allah is Al Hakim, he is wise. Allah
has.
He is omniscient. He knows the future, but
we don't know that. So we complain if
we don't get exactly what we want. Or
this also entails that Allah
will deprive you of something, but by depriving
you of that thing, he averts you from
a Musiba
that could have destroyed you.
Or the third thing will happen, which is
the best, that Allah
won't give you anything in the dunya, but
on the Yom Al Qiyama, you'll see the
reward of that dua in the form of
Jibal, mountains.
And people will see these mountains, and they
will wish I wish I wish that Allah
never accepted a single one of mine, at
the in the dunya because I could have
these mountains.
So they as better.
The afterlife is better than the present.
Ibn Ata'illah, he said, if Allah gave you
the treasure of being able to make du'a,
if Allah
gave you the treasure of being able
to make du'a, he said, even raising your
hands to Him, then know that He'll give
you whatever you ask Him.
Right? Of course, with the condition
that you have a good opinion of Allah
Subhanahu Wa Ta'ala.
Ibrahim ibnu Adham was a little more strict.
He was
a great zahid from the Tabi'in. His students
came to him and said, why doesn't Allah
answer our prayers?
And he says, you read the Quran, but
you don't implement it. You claim to love
Allah, but you don't implement the injunctions. You
claim to love the prophet salallahu alayhi wa
sallam, but you don't follow him.
How can Allah
answer your du'a?
You don't follow the Habib of Allah. You're
asking Allah for things, but you don't follow
his Habib, his beloved. How can Allah answer
your du'a?
I remember back in the the day, as
they say, I used to play a little
flag football.
We were on a flag football league, and
the league was basically all Muslim.
And,
and, we got to the championship game 1
year,
and so our team and the and the
team were going to play, we prayed Asr
together. Everyone was there praying Asr, and after
Asr people were making Dua, I'm like, oh,
masha'Allah.
Very religious people here. Then we play the
we we played the championship game,
and my team aloft,
and now it's Maghrib time, and almost everyone
from my team is walking away, and the
other team is praying Maghrib.
So I asked one of my teammates, I
said, where are you going? Didn't you pray
Asr?
And he said, we lost the game.
This was his response.
I said, what?
And he said, yeah. In my du'a after
Asar, I asked Allah to give us victory.
He didn't. Why should I pray to him?
This was his response.
SubhanAllah. I said, yeah, with an attitude like
that. No wonder why we lost the game.
So du'a is the essence of worship and
the most honored of things. Now in addition
to this, the prophet, salallahu alaihi wasalam, he
said,
that the greatest du'a is the du'a on
the day of Arafah. This is in the
Muwata of Imam Malik.
So this is the time right now to
ask Allah
for what you want.
Allah is asking the angels
this moment, what what do they want?
So what what do we want?
So, there'll be a time for you to
make private
Du'a, InshaAllah Ta'ala,
today.
But, let's read now
corporately
together some of the Adaiyah
in the Quran itself,
because the best of speech is the speech
of Allah
Allah in the Quran
actually,
gives us the words
as to what to say. Allah taught us
how to make Du'a. All we have to
do is say them.
Right? It's like a a professor giving you
the answers to the test, and saying just
come to the test day and fill in
the blanks.
So the following are most of the Adria'
that begin with a vocative,
Rabbanah.
Rabbanah means, oh, our Lord.
It's a very personal address. That's why I
chose these, a very personal address
to Allah
because your Lord, your Rabb, is the one
who takes care of you.
It denotes the Imminent Deity, the God that
is close to you. The God that is
Kareeb is close. There's Korba.
There's imminence.
You probably know some of these, or most
or even all of these, had their Iya,
but might not have reflected upon their meanings.
So the first one is in Surat Al
Baqarah. It's very well known.
And interestingly, Allah subhanahu wa ta'ala in the
Quran, he says that there are some people
who stop here.
Full stop.
He says this in the Quran,
and he says,
and they have no portion in Al Aqhira.
If they want the dunya, that's what they're
going to get.
Oh, our lord, give us good in this
world
and good in the afterlife,
in the and
save us from the fire.
The next one is the du'a of the
army of Dawud alaihi
salaam, and this is a du'a you can
make you should make when you face a
tremendous challenge like his army
did.
Oh our Lord, bestow upon us patience.
Metaphor literally means plant our feet feet firmly.
It means give us Isthekamah,
uprightness,
in the Deen.
Fortify our faith,
and give us victory over the unbelievers.
Victories of different types, physical, moral,
and spiritual.
The next one is from Khawati Mal Baqarah,
the very end of Surat Al Baqarah. Imam
Musayuti says that the end of Surat Al
Baqarah
was revealed to the prophet
through direct discourse, what's called interior locution without
angelic mediation. In other words, Allah
placed these ayat directly into the heart of
the prophet
without the agency of Jibil alaihi salaam
when he was at the Sidirahatul Muntaha, little
Israel Miraj.
Oh our lord, do not take us to
task if we forget or make mistakes.
Oh our lord, do not lay upon us
a burden like you laid upon those before
us.
Oh, our lord. Do not impose upon us
what we do not have the strength to
bear.
I love that part.
And pardon us.
So Allah is
means the one who
forgives the sin and then erases every trace
of the sin. It's obliterated,
gone completely.
And forgive us. Allah is
All of these mean forgiving.
And have mercy upon
us. Have compassion for us. Allah is
You are our master,
so give us victory over the unbelievers.
Amen.
The next one is very crucial nowadays.
Oh, our lord. Do not cause our hearts
to waver after you have guided us,
and bestow upon us from your own self
a special mercy.
Verily, you are the bestower of gifts.
Amen.
The next one is the prayer of the
disciples of Isa alaihi salam.
Oh, our lord, we have believed in what
you have sent down. And they were talking
about the Injil. We're talking about the Quran
and all of the
and we follow the messenger.
So, record us among the witnesses.
The next dua is the dua of the
Ulul al Baba,
the people of Lub,
the people of
core essential understanding of the religion,
the people of deep understanding.
Oh, our lord, you did not create this
in vain.
This creation has a purpose.
There's a Telas, there's an end to this
creation.
Things are
created things are signs, ayat, of the greatness
of Allah
There are some people who believe that all
of this is meaningless, random
matter in motion. It doesn't mean anything.
Oh, our lord, you did not create this
in vain.
Glory be to you. Save us from the
torment of the fire.
Oh our lord, whoever you cause to enter
into the fire, you have disgraced.
And for the oppressors, there is no help.
Oh, our lord, indeed, we have heard
the the caller call to us. Who is
the Munadi?
It's the prophet, sallallahu alaihi wasallam.
Call us to faith,
saying,
telling us to believe in our Lord.
So we have believed.
Oh our lord, forgive us our sins,
and absolve us our evil actions.
And cause us to die with the pious.
Give us personal,
a good ending.
Oh our lord, give us what you promised
us through your messengers,
and do not disgrace us in the day
of resurrection.
Verily, you never break your promise.
The next one is the supplication of Adam
and Eve,
which really shows the difference between the Adamic
and the satanic paradigm.
Right? Satan, he he just blames Allah for
everything.
Oh, this is because of what you did
to me. It's all you.
Whereas Adam and Eve, and this du'a is
in the plural.
Oh, our lord,
we have wronged ourselves. If you don't forgive
us and show mercy, then indeed we'll be
from the losers.
Amen.
The next one is the prayer of Bani
Israel while being
oppressed by the pharaoh.
Oh, our lord. Do not make us a
tribulation for oppressors.
Save us by your mercy from the unbelievers.
The next one is the du'a of Ibrahim
Alaihi Salam.
Oh, our lord. Forgive me and my parents
and the believers
on the day of reckoning.
Next one.
Oh, our lord, bestow upon us spouses and
children that will be a comfort to our
eyes,
the coolness of our eyes,
and make us leaders for the God fearing.
The next one is the Dua of those
who became Muslim after the Hijra,
which includes all of us.
Oh, our lord,
forgive us and our brethren
brethren who preceded us in the faith,
and do not put them on fire.
Verification on the day of Arafa
is what I and the prophets before me
have said.
This is the best invocation
for today, Yomie Arafa,
which is one of the most blessed days,
according to the Islamic calendar.
There is no god but Allah. He is
one. He has no partner. To him belongs
the dominion.
To him belongs all of the praise, and
he has over all things power.
So in addition to Dua,
one of the best things you can do
today is fasting.
And,
according to the Hanafi school, fasting on Yom
I Arafa is a sunnah mu'akada,
highly emphasized sunnah.
The hadith of the prophet
is in Sahih Muslim
You've asked about fasting on 9th
of Arafah. It's obviously for people that are
not
Hajj.
And he said that it is an expiation
for the sins of the previous year
and the coming year.
So why are these days so blessed?
Why are these days so blessed?
So these are the days of the Hajj,
the pilgrimage.
The pilgrimage hearkens back to the very primordial
origins of our deen. The rights of the
Hajj go back to our master Ibrahim alayhis
salam.
Allah
commanded him
Hajj,
call people to the pilgrimage.
Ibrahim alaihis salaam, a man whose very name
in the Hebrew language, Abraham,
means the father or patriarch of many nations.
A man who was revered and loved by
over 3,000,000,000
human beings on planet Earth. So Eid ul
Adha is a commemoration
of our master Ibrahim alaihi salaam. It is
kind of our origin story.
Ibrahim alayhi salaam,
he's called the friend of God, Khalibullah,
in the Quran.
He's called the friend of god in
the Tanakh, the Hebrew Bible. He's called the
friend of god in the New Testament. In
all three books, all three scriptures,
he's called a friend of God.
This is a man who is known as
the great iconoclast,
the breaker of idols,
the man who was called the imam of
mankind,
the one about whom Allah
says,
that he brought to his Lord a sound
heart, a heart free of spiritual maladies and
diseases.
The one about whom Allah says
in the Ibrahim
was a nation unto himself
devoted to Allah,
the primordial
and quintessential
monotheist.
He was not an idolater.
So the centrality of the Abrahamic
tradition is very clear in the Quran.
The Quran says that they say
They say become Jews or Christians if you
want to be guided. What is the response?
Say to them, no. I'd rather follow the
tradition of Ibrahim,
the quintessential
monotheist.
He did not associate partners with Allah.
Ibrahim
Alaihi Salam was not a Jew or a
Christian, a Christian, but a quintessential
monotheist
and a Muslim in the literal sense.
You see it's anachronistic
to call Ibrahim alaihis salam a Jew or
a Christian.
These terms are later. They are tied to
specific
people.
Judaism
after Judah, Yehuda, one of the sons of
Yaqub Alaihi Salam.
Right? One of the progenitors of Bani Israel.
And, of course, Christian and Christos in Greek
after Christ.
But Islam and Muslim
as a transchronic
concept
that,
certainly existed
at the time of Ibrahim alayhi salaam. This
is what the Quran is drawing our attention
to.
Allah
says,
say Allah speaks the truth.
Have of Ibrahim alaihi salam.
Means means to adhere to him, follow upon
his footsteps.
Now in another ayah in the Quran, famous
ayah Ayatul Imtihan, Allah subhanahu wa ta'ala he
says to the prophets of Allah
Tell the people, oh prophet, if you really
love Allah then you have to follow me.
And it's the same verb,
So in one ayah, Allah says
have
follow Ibrahim, alayhi salam. The tradition of Ibrahim,
alayhi salam. In another ayah, Allah
says,
follow the prophet Muhammad
So the ex digits deduce from this that
the prophet Muhammad
is upon
that primordial
Abrahamic
path. And in fact, this is exactly what
the Quran says.
Indeed the closest of people to Ibrahim Alaihi
Salam are those who follow him.
As are this prophet.
So the prophet
is the great restorer of the millah, the
tradition and creed
of Allah's Khalil.
The prophet Muhammad sallallahu alaihi wasallam
restored and perfected
the, the deen,
of Ibrahim alaihi wasallam.
This is why he is Habibullah. In fact,
the prophet said
in the hadith in Tirmadi,
he said
Ibrahim. He said, I I saw Ibrahim alaihis
salam. This is on the night later to
Israel.
And he
said,
He
said, the one that looks the one that
resembles him the most is your companion,
meaning himself.
So the prophet
resembled Ibrahim alaihi salam
Even physically,
he resembled Ibrahim alaihi salam.
Allah revealed to the prophet
on the day of Arafah, 9th of Dhul
Hijjah,
during the final pilgrimage.
This day I have perfected your religion for
you, completed my favors upon you, and I'm
pleased,
for Islam
to be your deen, your religion.
There's a hadith in Bukhary that says a
Jewish man,
came to Sayid Omar,
and he said to him, if that ayah
was revealed to us, we would have made
that day a day of Eid.
And Sayidar Umar said,
We know the time and place this ayah
was revealed to the prophet,
it was revealed to him
at Arafah
on the day of on Friday, on the
day of Jummah. Of course, Abu Bakr as
Siddiq, when he heard this ayah, he began
to weep because he knew
that this meant that the prophet
was
going back to his lord
So what does this perfection
and completion refer to
that this ayah speaks
There's
in It's perfection
and completion.
Some of the ulama say that this is
indicative that this is the final
portion of the Quran revealed to the prophet
sallallahu alaihi sallam.
Imam Sallallahu Alaihi Wasallam. He surveys several ulama
in his seminal text called Al Kitkan, Filum
in Quran,
And he says that while that might be
true with respect to the,
the legal injunctions of the Quran, there are
no more legal injunctions after this point,
Allah
still continued to reveal
Quran to the prophet
praising the prophet
as well as reminding people of the
There's a strong opinion that the final eye
the final portion period of the Quran
revealed to, to the prophet
is the very end of Surah
A beautiful description of the prophet
There is probably even a stronger opinion
that the very last ayah
revealed to the Prophet salallahu alaihi wasallam, revealed
to him just a few days
before his passing,
is ayah 281
of Al Baqarah.
For the note takers,
281
of Al Baqarah.
Baqarah.
Fear the day
upon which you will be returned
to Allah
and you will be repaid.
Every soul will be repaid
But what it did, and no one will
be wrong.
So the Quran the Quranic revelation in the
early days in Mecca, it began with descriptions
of the Yom Al Qiyamah, These are describing
Yom Al Qiyamah, and it ends with a
description or a reminder of Yom Al Qiyamah.
This is called, in rhetoric, this is called
a concentric
composition.
The Quran is concentric.
This is a an element of its ijaz,
its inimitability.
This this is a
an an aspect of how it's impossible to
imitate
the Quran that flies way over the head
of a lot of people.
It takes deep structural analysis.
Yet according to other exigits,
this perfection and completion,
this Iqmal and this Itmaan
refers to the establishment
of the rights and procedures
of the final Muslim
ritual obligation,
the final pillar, Hajjubaytillah,
pilgrimage to the house of Allah Subhanahu Wa
Ta'ala. And that the mushrikeen are decisively barred
from making the Hajj.
Such is the importance of the Hajj.
It perfected and completed the religion.
It brings us back to Ibrahim alayhi salam.
The prophet
said, whoever performs the Hajj for Allah without
engaging in inappropriate talk and transgression,
will return like the day his mother gave
birth to him. This is Bukhari and Muslim.
You'll become a born again Muslim, to use
a Christian
term.
Now given the high status
of Ibrahim alaihi salaam in our deen,
it pains me to say
that
mainstream
media, especially Hollywood,
as well as the ever increasing
monoculture
of the academy,
Colleges and universities,
by and large, have declared
open
ideological
warfare
on Abrahamic tradition
and Abrahamic morality.
They're not shy about it.
It's open.
It's brazen.
And if you don't know that this is
happening, then you've been asleep.
And I encourage you to watch a lecture
I gave sitting right here about 2 years
ago
on Postmodernism.
The dominant epistemology
in Western Academy is called Postmodernism.
It's important for us to know what that
is.
To make a long story short, college students
are constantly told
by their social science professors
that traditional value systems
are inherently
oppressive
because they are hierarchical.
There's a hierarchy,
and they're patriarchal.
They love this word, patriarchy.
Some even say that before
these oppressive Abrahamic religions existed,
the world was this, you know, this utopia
of peace and justice.
It is a total false narrative.
This is postmodern
philosophy.
It rejects ultimate
and absolute truth. They say there's no absolute
truth.
There's no such thing as the truth. There's
no such thing as al Haqq. This is
one of the names of Allah
Allah subhanahu
wa ta'ala
was ordered by Allah to speak the truth.
This philosophy says there's no truth. There are
truths,
lowercase t, plural.
Truths. You speak your truth. I'll speak my
truth.
As if there's there's my truth and your
truth. There's only one truth, an objective truth.
So truth is subjective
according to this philosophy.
This philosophy, postmodernism
rejects
objective morality.
They are moral relativists.
So this has led many Muslims, young and
old, to leave the religion altogether.
It's a pandemic
of,
of apostasy.
They are led to believe
that atheism
is better for societal well-being
than theism.
They're led to believe that atheism
is better for societal well-being
than atheism. There was an 18th century French
philosopher,
believer in God.
He said it like this. And this is
mentioned by, there's a there's a philosopher named
Jew, Jewish philosopher named David Berlinski,
and you should get his book. It's called
The Devil's Delusion,
Atheism and its Scientific Pretension.
This is a robust and sound refutation
of Richard Dawkins, The God Delusion. Everyone's heard
of Richard Dawkins, the most famous atheist in
the world. Everyone's heard his book, The God
Delusion. His book has been refuted by David
Berlinski,
The Devil's Delusion. So this 18th century French
philosopher, he this is what he said. He
said imagine you had a magic button.
A magic button.
If you press this button,
you'll be given wealth beyond your dreams.
But there's a catch.
A human being somewhere in the world will
fall down dead.
It could be your next door neighbor.
It could be a civil engineer in Beijing.
You have no idea who it's going to
be.
So he says, who would you entrust this
button to?
A very devout,
God fearing,
Abrahamic
theist
who believes in the day of judgment,
in moral accountability,
supernatural
accountability,
or a very committed atheist
who believes in natural selection,
survival of the fittest,
there's no afterlife,
There's
no supernatural accountability.
Can you imagine if people did not believe
in a moral and supernatural
accountability?
Who would you entrust this button to?
We need to advocate a strong return to
Abraham. This is what Islam essentially is. It
is an Abrahamic,
Theo Ethical, Judeo Christian reform movement
at its essence.
It is a reformation
of Jewish legalism,
formalism,
and ethnocentrism,
and a reformation of Christian theology.
Thus a restoration
of the true
of the great patriarch Ibrahim alaihis salaam.
Allah subhanahu wa ta'ala says at the end
of Suratul Hajj,
appropriately titled Surah Al Hajj.
Strive in Allah's path as you ought to
strive.
He has chosen you and has imposed no
difficulties in the religion.
It is the tradition of your patriarch,
of your forefather.
When you hear postmodern types railing against the
evil, evil patriarchy,
We need to smash it and bring it
down. Who is the patriarch?
The patriarch, the ruling father, is Ibrahim alaihis
salam.
We should know that
next time you take your
gender studies class.
The most famous of the postmodern philosophers.
This is what he said, and this this
man is
a rock star
all around the world. He's he's dead. He
died of AIDS.
He led he led a certain lifestyle that
caught up with
him. So he's been dead for a while.
But he said it is meaningless to speak,
quote, it is meaningless to speak in the
name of or against truth,
reason, or knowledge.
Truth, reason, and knowledge,
or mantik,
haqq, and
are meaningless.
And this is someone who's very, very influential
in the Muslim world. He actually taught at
University of Tunis
for years in the 19 sixties.
So this philosophy is not just in the
West, it's everywhere.
Now reason is limited,
but is it meaningless?
Can we really not know anything?
So how many times we find in the
Quran
phrases like,
don't they use their intellect?
Use your Muslim theologians like Ibn Taymiyyah
said that and the reason and revelation are
not in conflict because the proper use of
the former will lead to the recognition
of the latter. Proper use of reason will
lead to the recognition of revelation
Because they come from the same source, people
have warped ideas of what the Quran is.
People think the Quran is a book of
injunctions,
do's and don'ts, prescriptions and proscriptions.
There are only 600 ayaat or so in
the Quran that contain akham, legal injunctions.
There are over 700 ayaat in the Quran
that command people to think
and use reason
and to reflect.
Right? It's not the code of Hammurabi.
The Quran is completely different than the covenant
code of Moses and Exodus,
completely different.
Imam Al Khazali says in the
that
the Quran itself appeals to logic
through syllogistic arguments. This is long before any
type of
Greek or Hellenistic influences
upon Muslim theological discourse.
The prophets used logic and reason
to appeal to their respective communities
because logic and reason have efficacy.
Right? Allah
wants us to use our brains,
and Sayna Ibrahim alayhi salam is a prime
example of this. Give you an example
in the Quran.
Allah
says in meaning in the Quran,
thus did we show Ibrahim, alayhis salam,
the dominion of the heavens and the earth,
so that he might be among those possessing
certitude.
He might become for the people of Yaqeen.
Now the word Yaqeen in the Quran, there's
another famous I in the Quran where Allah
says,
Worship your lord until
certitude comes to you. And almost all of
the here, Imam,
you name it. They say that here means
death.
Worship your lord until death overtakes you because
then you're going to have certainty.
But Imam al Bikay, he says, that could
be true, but he says, possibly the meaning
here is yaqeen
is the
sapiential station
of certitude in this life. It is to
experience
Allah
here and to know that there's no god
but Allah.
This is the meaning here,
with Ibrahim alayhi salaam.
When the
night grew dark upon Ibrahim,
he saw a cokem, a star. He said,
hada rabbi. This is my lord.
But when it's set, he's,
but when it's set, he said, I love
not things that set.
Then he saw the moon rising, and he
said Hadar Rabbi. This is my Lord. But
when it set, he said,
if my Lord does not guide me, I
shall surely be among the people who are
astray.
But then he saw the sun rising. He
said, hada rabbi, hada akbar. This is my
lord, this is great.
Alright. But when it set, he said, oh
my people, I am free of the partners
you ascribe.
Truly, as a Hanif, as a quintessential
monotheist,
I have turned my face towards him who
created
the heavens and the Earth. Don't get the
wrong idea here. What's going on here?
This is Ibrahim alaihis salam's rhetorical
argument
against the idolatry of his people,
the ancient Babylonians.
He is drawing out
through intellectual
deduction,
through reasoning,
the flaws of their beliefs.
He ascends, he says, yes, there's order and
predictability
in nature. The Greeks call this logos. They
say the cosmos,
the universe has logos, has order, predictability.
Right? But natural phenomena
also changes.
It's called.
It's mutable. It sets.
The cocob.
It changes, and that which changes
cannot be the eternal,
cannot have
an essential pre eternality.
And if something is not eternal,
then it is
it is created. It came into being.
Thus, it cannot be worshipped in its right.
This is the argument. It's a sophisticated
argument. To say it another way,
that which is perfect
cannot change
because a thing either changes for the worse,
which is problematic,
or it improves.
But if it improves, then it could have
been better,
therefore not perfect.
So he's he he finishes the argument here.
Indeed, I have turned my face towards the
creator
of the heavens and the earth,
Hanifa,
as a quintessential monotheist.
Imam Tabari even says that there's a hint
of sarcasm
in Ibrahim alaihi salam's argument,
and that this adds to its rhetorical power
as if to say, come on, you know
better.
You know better than worshiping these mutable celestial
bodies.
Worship the immutable,
eternal,
supernatural
creator.
Worship.
One of the names of Allah
is.
What does
mean? The peace? No. Allah is not the
peace.
Means the perfect one.
This is this is related to
means the perfect one. One of the names
of Allah is Al Mu'min. What does that
mean? He's a believer?
Allah's a believer.
And Mu'min means the one who gives you
safety. These names have different meanings when applied
to Allah Subhanahu Wa Ta'ala. He is the
perfect one.
In another place in the Quran, have you
have you not considered the one who debated
with Ibrahim about his Lord? Because Allah had
given him sovereignty. Who is this man debating
with Ibrahim Alaihi Salam about his Lord? According
to the Mufassareen, this is a man named
Nimrod,
Nimrud,
the king of Babylon.
When Abraham said, my lord gives life and
causes death,
He said, Nimrod, his interlocutor he's debating with,
I give life and death. And according to
the tafsir,
Nimrod ordered 2 slaves to come, and he
said, kill this one and release this one.
I give life and I cause death.
Ibrahim alayhi wasalam responded,
truly Allah brings the sun from the east.
Bring it then from the west.
Thus, he who disbelieved was confounded.
And Allah does not guide a wrongful people.
In this debate,
Ibrahim alayhi salam points out the limitations
of human volition,
the limitations
of human choice, of Ikhdiar Insani.
Nimrod claimed to be God, in fact many
of the exegetes say that the first human
being in all of human history who claimed
to be God, who who claimed to be
Allah was Nimrod.
That's why in modern English slang,
you call a stupid person, you say, what
a Nimrod?
You ever heard that before? That guy's a
Nimrod. He claimed to be God.
The Mufassid also mentioned that
a mosquito went up into Nimrod's nose
and
bit him, and there was an infection. And
it caused so much pain that, you know,
he had to he had to keep slapping
his own face just to sort of relieve
the pain. And it came to a point
where he had his servants beating him over
the head with a shoe,
until they beat him to death.
This is what happens when someone claims to
be Allah.
But here's the point,
If Nimrod, and one time I was walking
I just remember, I was walking to Arabic
class years ago when I was overseas,
and Middle Eastern flies have no Adam.
So this fly was going in my ear,
and I actually contacted it,
and then it went into my other ear.
I'm like, why aren't you dead? Why aren't
you, like, on the ground? You go up
my nose, and so I got to my
class and I asked my teacher. I said,
why did Allah create
flies?
Why did he create them? And then he
went to a book on his shelf, a
book of Aqidah, and the ulama talk about
it. It's mentioned. And he said, oh, right
here right here. Allah created the fly to
to
to taunt and and
annoy the oppressors.
He
said, stop for,
here's
the point. If Nimrod is limited in his
choices
and potential,
then he is not perfect.
If he is not perfect,
then he is ontologically,
essentially
inferior to a deity.
Therefore, his that
Allah describes his sovereignty
could not have originated with him. It must
have been given to him.
And
this is exactly what Allah says. Allah gave
him this
sovereignty. Ibrahim alaihis salam demonstrates this quite dramatically
by demanding Nimrod to bring the sun from
the West. You think you have power over
life and death? Let's say you have power
over the sun. Of course, this is easy
for Allah
because Allah
has absolute unrestricted volition within his nature. Allah
is omnipotent.
He has
This is one of the qualitative attributes of
Allah
in
This is what you study when you study
Nimrod can't Nimrod can't do it. He has
no rejoinder in this debate. For
he is confounded.
We are told that
Ibrahim alaihi salaam
destroyed the idols of his people. And the
say this happened when Ibrahim was a very
young man, a teenager,
living in a very
populous city called Ur in Chaldea in ancient
Mesopotamia,
ancient Iraq.
So Ibrahim alayhi salami, he said to his
people, do you worship that which you carve?
Allah created you and your actions.
The argument here is,
how can something you made
be worthy of your worship
when it only exists because of you?
You are its efficient cause.
Thus, you must be greater.
Yet Allah made you.
Thus, Allah is greater.
And since Allah is the only real creator,
there can only be one real creator,
or else we're stuck in this intellectually
repugnant
paradox
of infinite regress. You ever heard that what
came first, the chicken or the egg?
Why is this a paradox?
Because both are made of matter.
Therefore, both require time and space.
Allah subhanahu wa ta'ala is spaceless, timeless, and
immaterial.
This is how infinite regress is solved.
So since Allah is the only real creator,
and there can be only 1,
and the efficient cause of all creation,
then only he is worth worthy of worship.
And of course their response to this is
Let's throw them into a fire.
Threats,
violence,
ad hominem attacks, this is normal.
Allah subhanahu wa ta'ala tells us, and I'm
finishing up here. There's an amazing ayah in
the Quran that ties us all together.
Allah subhanahu wa ta'ala says,
Oh you who believe, if you turn renegade
or if you leave the religion,
If you engage or enter into a state
of,
apostasy
soon will Allah
bring another people.
Another people whom he will love, and they
will love him.
And now Allah describes them. They are lowly
among the believers.
They are respected among the disbelievers.
They strive in Allah's path and they are
not afraid of people who reproach them.
So the ulama say there are 2 main
reasons for the
There are 2 main reasons for the apostasy
that we can glean from this one ayah.
Number 1, lack of love. Because Allah says
here that if you turn away, I'll bring
another people, Allah will love them. You're
So they have lack of love.
If they have lack of love of Allah,
that means they don't have to Allah because,
notice of God, leads to love.
Now Allah Subhanahu Wa Ta'ala says Ibrahim
alaihis salam is from the in
the Quran. And at least 3 times in
the Quran, Allah Subhanahu Wa Ta'ala explicitly says
that he loves the Muhsini.
The people of Ihsan, a spiritual excellence.
The prophet sallallahu alaihi wa sallam, he did
he defined Ihsan in the famous Hadith Jibril,
to
worship Allah as though you see him.
So imagine
your CEO
asked you to make a sales call
and then sat in your office as you
did it, and he said put it on
speaker.
How excellent
would that sales call be?
That's some CEO,
some human being.
So that's one reason for the Iftidat,
lack of love. What's the what's the second
reason?
Lack of intellectual
sophistication.
The Quran says here, describing these people,
They're not afraid of people who reproach them.
Why aren't they afraid? Because they are intellectually
formidable.
They're intellectual warriors.
They will engage in dialogue with the reproachers.
There
are certain you don't you don't transgress.
Means with wisdom,
with
with proofs, rational proofs, scriptural proofs.
With beautiful exhortation,
and with, according
to the good character.
Aristotle says this in the art of persuasion.
You have logos
when you try to persuade, use rational proofs,
and ethos. You have good disposition.
So this is the way of our master
Ibrahim alayhi salaam. This is the way of
our master Muhammad sallallahu alayhi wasallam. Love of
God rooted
in the knowledge of God,
a marifa of Allah
that leads to a Mahaba, a love of
Allah,
mind and heart.
Postmodern philosophy rejects revelation
and distrusts human intellect. So Naqal and Aqal,
both of them are out.
This is the dominant prevailing epistemology
in colleges and universities. There's no and you
can't trust This
philosophy
is satanic.
And what's the conclusion of this philosophy?
There's no god,
so no revelation,
and reason
can't get you to absolute truth. There is
no absolute truth.
So just follow your Just
do you.
This is what they say.
Just get yours. Get it.
There's a philosophy called volunteerism.
This is when the will of the Hawa
takes primacy over the intellect.
The intellect's job is to keep
the will in check.
The word in Arabic means to hobble something.
And
in Arabic is a cord you use to
tie your camel down so it doesn't run
away.
So when the and the
are doing whatever they want, do what thou
wilt, this is the mantra of Satan. This
is the, in the Book of
Crowley,
the book of the law of Satan,
he says do whatever you want. This is
the whole law of man. This is what's
happening.
So
it's exactly 7:30,
so I have to stop.
So we ask
Allah
to accept our
on this blessed day.
We ask Allah
to,
will for us to go to Hajj if
we haven't been to go again or to
be with the Hijaj in spirit.
And we ask
Allah to fortify our faith
and to make us exemplars of the mankind.
To make us follow
the footsteps of Ibrahim Alaihi Salam,
and and
and and follow the footsteps of the one
who perfected the of Ibrahim Alaihi Salam, the
prophet
I mean, all of these things people do
at Hajj. All of these things are tied
to Ibrahim Alaihi Salam.
You know, Safa and Marwa.
Right? Lady Hajira, she ran between them.
And then when Allah
ordered his,
gave that dream to Ibrahim alaihis salam,
Shaitan would come and he'd say, what did
he order you to do? What? Are you
kidding me? And then, Ibrahim picked up some
pebbles and threw them at the shaitan. This
is the origin of the jama'at.
Imam al Razi, he says that
he says that
because the Quran
says that Allah says to Ibrahim
that you have fulfilled your vision,
He hadn't killed his son. So Imam al
Razi says that by demonstrating complete obedience to
God, Ibrahim alayhi salam was true to his
vision.
And this is what Allah
ultimately wanted, a willingness to obey, not the
actual slaughter of Abraham's son.
That was clearly a test.
Allah did
not want the blood of his son.
And, you know, it's interest anyway, I don't
wanna get into that.