Ali Ataie – The Sin is in Despairing in God’s Mercy
AI: Summary ©
The crisis of knowledge and love in modern times is highlighted, with the success of Muslim culture addressing this crisis. Personal knowledge and edification are emphasized, along with seeking out the church's values and practicing their behavior. Prayer behavior is emphasized as a obligation upon every Muslim, with personal guarantees and the importance of showing mercy and love to others. The use of words and phrases to describe the Prophet's actions is also discussed, along with the need for mutual compassion and love towards one another.
AI: Summary ©
Allah
says in the Quran,
say, oh, my servants who have transgressed against
their own souls,
have utterly corrupted themselves.
Never ever despair
of the mercy of Allah
It is impermissible.
It is haram, just as haram as drinking
wine, eating pork and fornication.
It is haram to despair of the mercy
of Allah Subhanahu Wa Ta'ala, to be in
a state of of
Allah Subhanahu Wa Ta'ala. This
La in Arabic is called La annahiya,
the prohibitive la. You are not allowed to
despair of the mercy of Allah Subhanahu wa
ta'ala. Allah forgives all sins. He is the
forgiving
and he is the merciful. What we have
in our Muslim communities
is a crisis of ilm, a crisis of
knowledge.
And a crisis of knowledge is always correlated
with a crisis of love,
a crisis of Mahabah.
Because
you can judge a person's love for something
by how much knowledge that person has of
that particular thing.
This was particularly true of the pre modern
world. Right? Nowadays, unfortunately, a lot of people,
because there's a fear of poverty,
they feel like they have to study things
and they have to work at certain jobs
because that's what's going to put food on
the table. But no one not a lot
of people can actually follow what they love
to study.
So you have people who are getting degrees
in technical fields,
sitting in cubicles for 10 hours a day,
and it's paying the bills. But there's great
depression that's happening on the inside
because they've
been indoctrinated into thinking that unless
they're, you know,
in some sort of corporate position,
that they're not going to be able to
support their families.
And children,
you know, they're the best example of this.
You know, children, when they talk about something,
when they have a lot of knowledge about
something, it's an indication that they love that
thing. If they're talking about sports or comic
books or something like that and they have
a lot of knowledge about that, That means
they love that thing.
Right? So we have in our in our,
communities is a crisis of knowledge.
And like we said, a crisis of knowledge
is always linked to a crisis
of love. We need to be people that
are,
in-depth people that have substantive knowledge about this
tradition. There's a hadith of the prophet
in which he says, towards the end of
time, the umam,
the nations will invite each other to the
killing of Muslims
like they're inviting each other to a banquet,
like they're inviting each other to food. It's
interesting the prophet would use this analogy of
food, of ta'am,
because what do you do with food? You
know, you eat food, you devour food, food
doesn't fight back. Food doesn't resist. You can
do whatever you want with food.
So one of the sahaba, radiyaallahu alaihi wa
sallam,
he was very concerned when the prophet sallalahu
alaihi wa sallam said this. So he said,
We must be very few in number
at that time and he said,
You are many many many.
But you're going to be like the,
scum on the ocean.
There's a lot of scum on the ocean
and but it doesn't do anything.
It's it's very shallow. There's no depth to
it. There's no substance to it. There's just
a lot of it. Right? So we need
people that have
not just,
not just information about our tradition, but people
have in-depth knowledge
of this tradition.
And quality is always more important than quantity.
So there's a great
encouragement in our tradition
to seek out knowledge. The prophet Sallallahu Alaihi
Wasallam, he said we all know the hadith
alakuhfaridatun
alakuli Muslim.
He said, sallallahu alaihi wasallam, that the acquisition
of knowledge,
or the desire of knowledge
is
a obligation upon every Muslim. In another hadith
and there's weakness in this hadith, but the
ulama quoted for encouragement, for exhortation
and edification.
He said
to to seek knowledge even as far as
China.
In the hadith related by Abdullah ibn Amr
al-'As radiAllahu alaihi wa sallam, he says the
prophet sallallahu alaihi wa sallam one time he
passed through the masjid.
That he passed by 2 gatherings
in his Masjid.
Both of them are good.
But then he said one of them is
better than the other and he describes them.
He says one of them is calling on
Allah Subhanahu Wa Ta'ala. They're making dua to
Allah Subhanahu Wa Ta'ala,
Right? And Allah subhanahu wa ta'ala, he said
he could forgive them or he could not.
And then he said as for the other
one,
that they are learning. Fiqh. Fiqh in this
context doesn't necessarily mean they're learning jurisprudential
issues. Fiqh as used by the salaf
means to have a deep understanding of the
religion, an essential understanding of the religion. Or
he said they're learning ulma. Right?
And they're teaching
the ignorant. They're teaching the ignorant ones.
They are better.
And then the prophet sallallahu alaihi wa sallam,
he sat amongst them.
And learned people know
that they have to seek repentance from Allah
subhanahu wa ta'ala. There's another hadith of the
prophet sallallahu alaihi wa sallam. And again, this
is a weak hadith. It's in a Tabarani.
And we can quote weak hadith as long
as we're not we're we're not making a
hukum. We're not trying to make some sort
of legal ruling from it. You can quote
according to the Jumhul of the ulama, we
can use weak hadith for,
Fatha'il ul Amal in order to encourage righteous
action. So the prophet sallallahu alaihi wasallam is
reported to have said that Ramadan is divided
into 3 parts. The first part is mercy,
the middle part is forgiveness, and the last
part is freedom from the fire.
So what do we gain from this hadith
is that we have to be in a
in a constant state
of istighfar,
asking Allah
for his forgiveness
in the blessed month of Ramadan.
Allah Subhanahu Wa Ta'ala, He teaches us what
to say. There's beautiful adaiyah in the Quran,
supplications in the Quran, there's beautiful
prophetic invocations from the prophet salallahu alaihi wasalam.
So he's given us all the tools on
what to say. One of the most beautiful
of istighfarrs
is mentioned in the Quran, Surat Al Anbiya,
ayah number 87, 2187.
Make a mental note of that insha Allah
if you don't know this already. This is
the dua of the saytna Yunus alaihi sallam.
And the prophet sallallahu alaihi sallam, he praised
this dua of Yunus alaihi sallam. He said
the first part of
it is tahleel, the middle is tasbir and
the end is a recognition of the sin.
What did he
say?
He cried out in the darkness,
there is no God but you.
Glory be
to
you. Indeed, I was of the wrongdoers.
Indeed, I was of the wrongdoers.
To memorize this du'a inshaAllah ta'ala in Suratul
Anbiyaayah number 87, it's praised by the prophet
sallallahu alaihi
wa'ala alaihi wasallam.
So the prophet also said to wear the
2 sandals of hope and fear.
Hope and fear.
So we don't have so much hope in
Allah
that we become sanctimonious
and we start judging other people.
And we become self aggrandizing
and we have personal guarantees. We give ourselves
personal guarantees
of Jannah. Nobody has a personal guarantee of
Jannah. Even if non muslims, they claim to
have personal guarantees of Jannah, we don't counter
that by saying, well, I have a personal
guarantee. What did the prophet salallahu alaihi wasallam
say? He said,
Whoever says
with sincerity will enter paradise. But I am
I that one
who is going to say it with sincerity?
I have no personal guarantee. Insha'Allah, I have
hope that when I say,
I have sitq when I say that. So
we have to be hopeful in Allah Subhanahu
Wa Ta'ala. We don't have so much hope
in Allah Subhanahu Wa Ta'ala
that we start acting irresponsibly and saying, well,
Allah will forgive me.
This is what people do in the midst
of their sin, in the midst of their
smoking of their cigarettes or drinking other alcohol.
They're not fasting during Ramadan. They say Allahu
gufur Rahim. Of course, Allah subhanahu wa ta'ala
is gufur Rahim, but we haven't looked at
the whole picture. Allah subhanahu wa ta'ala is
shadeedul iqab.
He is severe in retribution. He is al
muntaqim. He is the revenger on the yomun
al qiyama. He is Salir al Hisab. He
is the one who's quick to accounting.
We forget about that other aspect of Allah
subhanahu wa ta'ala. His overarching aspect, of course,
is his mercy. But we have to have
we have to be between hope and fear
and Allah Subhanahu Wa Ta'ala. Not too much
fear and Allah Subhanahu Wa Ta'ala because that
will lead to what? It'll lead to despair
And we will say things like, how can
God even forgive me? Look what I've done.
Look what I've done. I'm such a wretched
person.
Allah
He says, do not despair of the mercy
of Allah
Be between hope and fear. In the hadith,
in Tirmidhi, the prophet sallallahu alaihi wasallam has
reported to us said,
He said all of the children of Adam
are sinners. Everybody, they're all sinners.
But the best of those who sin are
those who make Tawba. He said in another
hadith at Ibnu Majah and at Tabarani,
The one who was repentant of his sin
is like the one who did not sin
at all and there's actually a difference of
opinion.
And between the They say, who's actually better?
The one who never sinned in the first
place or the one who sinned and had
the presence of mind to come back and
make toba to Allah subhanahu wa ta'ala? It's
amazing that there's actually a difference of opinion
as to which one of these 2 is
better. Ultimately, the ulama say, the one who
never sinned is better because his station is
closer to the station of Al Anbiya, to
the prophets who are incapable of sinning against
Allah Subhanahu Wa Ta'ala. But this just shows
the Maqam,
the station of the one who engages in
Istighfar
And another hadith that's related by Abu Ayub
Al Ansari Radhi Allahu Anhu, he says,
That if you did not sin, Allah
will create a creation that does sin.
And they will make istighfar.
They will repent to Allah subhanahu wa ta'ala
and he will forgive them and he will
forgive them. The prophet salallahu alaihi wasallam gave
a beautiful parable
of the Maqam of the one who was
making istighfar,
the one who was attaib, the one who
was repenting, reorienting,
turning back to Allah Subhanahu Wa Ta'ala. We
might have mentioned this in previous khutbas. This
is in Sahih Muslim, a beautiful parable. He
says a man He says, imagine a man
is traveling in the desert, and his conveyance,
his animal bolt bolts away from him, and
he sits underneath the shade of a tree.
And just as despair
is about to overcome him, he sees his
conveyance and he grabs its reins
and he lifts up his voice towards the
heavens and he says, you Allah.
He says, you Allah.
He says, Oh Allah,
you are my slave and I am your
Lord. And the Prophet Sallallahu Alaihi Wasallam said,
This man is so overjoyed.
He is in such a state of ecstasy.
He
is so happy
that his life has been saved, that he
lost control of his speech. He doesn't even
know what he's saying anymore. He said, Oh
Allah, you are my slave. I am your
Lord. The prophet sallallahu alaihi wasallam, he said,
Allah
experiences
greater joy
when a recalcitrant sinner, when a sinner turns
and makes toba towards him, then that man
at that moment, he's so overjoyed he lost
control of his speech.
This is the station of tawba with Allah
And there's 3 types of tawba according to
the spiritual masters.
The first type is called tawba, and tawba
is repentance.
And all 3 of these types of repentance,
they require
contrition
and resolve.
Nadama.
Nadama means, you have remorse for what you
have done. Contrition, you're contrite. And you also
have a firm resolve never to go to
that sin again. Even if you go to
it again, at that time of tawba, you
have a firm resolve that you have a
remorse that you won't return to the sin.
When we make tawba, the olema say, our
tawba requires a tawba.
Our tawba requires a tawba. Because we make
tawba with the tongue, there's nothing in our
heart. There's no azeema in our hearts. There's
no nadama in our hearts. There's nothing in
the heart. We just say
on the tongue with fully knowing ourselves that
we're gonna return to that sin, like we're
trying to fool Allah subhanahu wa ta'ala.
We have to make true Tawba to Allah
subhanahu wa ta'ala.
So the first level of Tawba or repentance
is called Tawba. And the ulama say here,
this means a person who repents to Allah
subhanahu wa ta'ala out of fear for his
punishment and desire for his reward. That's the
station of Tawba. But then there's a higher
level of Tawba, which is called Inaba.
It's mentioned in the Quran. Inaba
means that we repent to Allah Subhanahu Wa
Ta'ala because we have shame before Allah Subhanahu
Wa Ta'ala. We have shame. The Prophet Sallallahu
Alaihi Wasallam, he said from the ancient message
of the first prophets
is that if you don't have shame, then
do whatever you want. And you'll notice in
today's
postmodern,
atheist culture,
we hear this thing all the time. Do
whatever you want. Do whatever you want as
long as you don't hurt anybody. Do whatever
you want. No. You can't do whatever you
want. What about the rights of Allah
What about the rights of the people?
Right?
Know that we have shame before Allah
So the one who is doing Inaba is
turning to Allah
repenting towards Allah
because of his shame, fear of displeasing Allah
Subhanahu Wa Ta'ala. There's also the difference between
kawf and kashia.
Right? Kawf. We have kawf of Allah Subhanahu
Wa Ta'ala. We have kawf
of Jahannam, fataqunur.
The Quran says, be afraid of the fire.
What is what is Khawf? Khawf is afraid
of bodily harm.
Right? A child doesn't disobey his parents because
he doesn't wanna be beat by his father.
Right? That's kof. But then there's a higher
level called kashiya,
a fear of displeasing one's father. You don't
wanna disappoint your father. Right? This is the
level of inaba. You don't want to displease
Allah subhanahu wa ta'ala. You feel shame. You
don't wanna disappoint disappoint him. And then there's
the 3rd level, the highest level, which is
called Oba. And Oba means that the person
is making Tawbah, is repenting to Allah Subhanahu
Wa Ta'ala because he has not fully submitted
has not fully submitted to Allah Subhanahu Wa
Ta'ala. The Prophet sallallahu alaihi wa sallam
said,
None of you truly believe
until his Hawa.
You know Hawa, when people want to go
on vacation, they go to this place called
Hawa'i. Right? Hawa, right? His caprice,
his desire. None of you is a perfect
believer until his desire is in accordance
with what I have brought is perfectly aligned
with the kejab of Allah Subhanahu Wa Ta'ala.
It's perfectly aligned with the sunnah of the
Prophet Sallallahu
wa sallam. The prophet, sallallahu alaihi wasallam himself
70 times a day would ask forgiveness from
his lord.
Why is the prophet, sallallahu alaihi wasallam who
is ma'asum? He's incapable of consciously disobeying Allah
subhanahu wa ta'ala? Why is he in a
state of istighfar to Allah subhanahu wa ta'ala?
The ulama say, because
of his inability
to praise Allah subhanahu wa ta'ala as Allah
praised himself.
This is why he's making istighfar. Sometimes you
read in these anti Muslim, sometimes they're written
by these evangelical Christians
attacking the Prophet sallallahu alaihi wasallam because we
claim that the Prophet is sinless. He's Ma'asum
like all prophets And they say, oh, if
he's sinless, then why does Allah Subhanahu Wa
Ta'ala order him the Quran saying, ask forgiveness
for your sin, for your dhamba. So obviously
he's a sinner. Because they misunderstand what it
means. What is the dhamb of a prophet?
What is the sin of a prophet? It's
leaving an act of great virtue for an
act of lesser virtue. The worst thing that
the prophet sallallahu alaihi wasalam ever did was,
This is the worst thing he ever did.
When he was making dawah to the zu'amah
of the Quraysh, a blind man came and
sat next to him, Abdullah ibn Maktoum radiAllahu
anhu. And the prophet sallallahu alaihi wa sallam
did not raise his voice. Walasakhabanfilaswak.
He never raised his voice. So he's speaking
very gently towards this this mushrikeen of the
Quraysh. The blind man came and pulled at
his thobe, at his garment. And the prophet
sallallahu alaihi wa sallam turned to him,
And Abu's simply means that he went like
this with his forehead. He didn't do with
his face. He simply dropped his eyebrows a
little bit
and he's reprimanded by Allah subhanahu wa ta'ala.
What is he doing? He's making dawah, leaving
an act of great virtue for an act
of lesser virtue. This is why he's making
istighfar.
Also for his inability to to praise Allah
as Allah praised himself. And later, according
to the hadith, our mother Aisha Radhiallahu Alaihi
Wasallam
in Sajda Al Laylatul Bara'ah. What did he
say?
What did he say? Glory be to you.
How can I praise you as you have
praised yourself?
This is why he's making istighfar after the
prayer, Astaghfirullah, Astaghfirullah, Astaghfirullah.
This is his station, sallallahu alaihi wa sallam.
But we do much worse than that. We
need to make sincere Tawba to Allah subhanahu
wa ta'ala and know the station of Tawba.
Never ever despair of the mercy of Allah
subhanahu wa ta'ala. In the hadith of Abu
Hurayra radhiallahu anhu,
famous hadith, he says the prophet sallallahu alaihi
wasallam said,
Mal Allah subhanahu wa ta'ala,
He has divided his mercy into 100 parts,
100 parts.
And he has kept for himself 99 of
those parts. 99%
of his mercy, he kept for himself Subhanahu
Wa Ta'ala.
And he sent down 1%
to the earth.
From that 1%,
all of creation
shows mutual compassion and love and mercy towards
one another. Think about it. How much do
you love your child?
You will willingly give your life to save
your child in this dunya. Willingly give your
life. On the yomulkayama, you will flee from
your child, but that's the maqam of the
yomulkayama.
In this world, you will willingly give your
life. Imagine all the people in the world,
all of the animals, the jinn, all over
the creation, showing mutual love and respect and
and and and gentleness towards one another. That's
not even 1%
of the mercy of Allah subhanahu wa ta'ala
that he will show 99 parts on the
yomul qiyama. This is how merciful Allah subhanahu
wa ta'ala
is, subhanAllah.
There's many many ahadith of the Prophet Sallallahu
Alaihi Wasallam demonstrating this through different types of
analogy. One time after one of the military
expeditions, there was a woman running around, she
had lost her son. I think I mentioned
this before in this masjid as well.
She lost her very young son, barely a
toddler
And this was in front of the Sahaba.
She was hysterical and screaming and then she
finally found her son and she picks him
up and hugs and kisses and breastfeeds him.
And the prophet sallallahu alaihi wasallam he said,
Can you imagine this woman throwing her child
in a fire?
Can you imagine this woman throwing her child
in a fire?
They said, by Allah, no. We can't imagine
that. He
said,
Allah Subhanahu Wa Ta'ala is more merciful to
his servants
than this woman is. To her,
many many times. In traditional Muslim world, this
was the first hadith that children would learn
in kindergarten at 5 years old.
The
prophet shalallahu alaihi wa sallam said in a
hadith where there's 5 or 6 mentions
of the word rahma.
He said,
the most merciful shows mercy to those who
show mercy. Show mercy to those on earth
and the one in heaven will show you
mercy. How many times did I say mercy?
Right? This is very interesting that this hadith
was chosen by our traditional ulama to be
the first hadith to teach our children because
it repeats mercy, mercy, mercy, mercy, mercy because
we're trying to set the tone of their
entire Islamic education. The first thing that children
were taught about the prophet sallallahu alaihi wasallam
is that he is rahmatan
lil aalameen and Allah Subhanahu Wa Ta'ala calls
him rahmatan. But this is called an anarthrous
noun, an indefinite noun, a noun that is
nakira. There's a tanween. And according to ibn
Malik, if you study, rhetoric balaqa, when Allah
subhanahu wa ta'ala uses the indefinite article in
the Quran with with nouns or adjectives to
describe the prophet sallallahu alaihi wasallam. This denotes
something unbelievable, something you can't even imagine, something
totally unique. Allah
did not say,
or something like that. He did not use
a verb. Allah
uses rahma tan, we did not send you
except that you are a mercy.
A mercy that is unfathomable.
A mercy that is inconceivable. This is how
Allah subhanahu wa ta'ala speaks about his Prophet
Sallallahu Alaihi
Wasallam.
In the hadith of Abu Musa ashari radiAllahu
anhu, he
He says,
on the the Muslims will see
sins
like mountains. They're dunub, sins, transgressions
like mountains, and Allah Subhanahu Wa Ta'ala will
forgive them. We should never ever downplay.
We should never considers anything insignificant in our
lives. There was a woman who used to
come into the masjid of the prophet sallallahu
alaihi wasallam.
She was a very old black woman and
she would come and she would clean the
mosque
of the prophet sallallahu alaihi wasallam. Just passed
by people, no one noticed her, an old
woman in the masjid.
And she passed away and she was buried.
The next day, the prophet salallahu alaihi wasallam,
he's sitting with his companions in the in
the in the machilus, in his masjid and
he says, where is that woman who cleans
my masjid?
And they said, she died and he was
very upset sallallahu alaihi wasallam. He said, you
considered her insignificant
but you don't know what she was with
Allah subhanahu wa ta'ala. We should never we
should never consider any act of transgression against
Allah subhanahu wa ta'ala to be insignificant.
Imam Zain ul Abidine, one of the descendants
of the prophet Muhammad Sallallahu Alaihi Wasallam, he
said,
Allah
has hidden 3 things and 3 things.
He said that Allah
has hidden his,
his joy and acts of obedience to Him.
He has hidden his wrath and acts of
disobedience to him, and he has hidden his
aulia amongst the creation. Remember that woman who
was a
pious practicing woman, she had good outward religiosity
but she was,
very course towards her neighbor and what did
the prophet sallallahu alaihi wa sallam say? She's
he said that he said that she is
in the nar, Inna Hafidnar, she is in
the fire. Nasulallahu alafi wasalamah. We ask Allah
subhanahu wa ta'ala for her health and well-being.
Never ever consider any act of disobedience to
Allah subhanahu wa ta'ala to be insignificant.
There's many many ahadith of this and we'll
end with this Insha'Allah ta'ala because we're out
of time but we're coming toward the month
of Ramadan
and the hadith of Tilmidi,
in the Shema'il at Tilmidi,
he says that the Prophet Sallallahu Alaihi Wasallam
was the most ajbadan nas. He was the
most generous of human beings.
And during the month of Ramadan,
he was more generous
He was more generous
than the
rain laden winds.
Sallallahu alaihi wa sallam. Give you one example
of this. We'll close with this InshaAllah Ta'ala.
There was a man who came to the
Prophet Sallallahu alaihi wasallam during the month of
Ramadan. He said, You Rasulullah,
I intentionally broke my fast.
I'm not sick, I wasn't a traveler, I
intentionally you know, muta'amidan,
I broke my fast intentionally, I taught you
and muta'amidan, I broke my fast. And the
Prophet sallallahu alaihi wa sallam, he said you
have to fast for 60 consecutive days. This
is the kafara.
60 straight days you have to fast. And
the man said I didn't even get to
the 5th day.
I can't do that. I'm not strong enough
to do that. And the prophet sallallahu alaihi
wasallam, what did he say to him? He
said, oh, too bad. Big deal.
Go. Do 60 days. What did he say
sallallahu alaihi wasalam? What
did he say? He said, well you have
to free a slave. You have an option.
You can free a slave. And he said,
I I can't afford that. I don't have
any I don't I don't have any wealth.
And then the prophet sallallahu alaihi wasallam said,
well you have to feed 6 60 masekeen,
60 poor people. And he said, I don't
have anything.
How am I supposed to feed people?
So the prophet salallahu alaihi wasalam himself, he
goes out and he purchases a huge basket
of dates.
This hadith and bukhari Muslim. And he gives
it to the man.
And he said, Here take this and feed
people. And he said, Who? Who feed who?
And he said,
The poor people go feed them.
Listen to what he said. The man said,
there is nobody more poor
in the city of Medina
than my own family.
There is nobody more poor in Medina than
my own family.
And the prophet sallallahu alaihi wasallam, he
smiled and he said, take it and feed
your family with it.
Take it and feed your own family with
it.
This is what we're talking about.
We have to be people of mercy. We
follow the Sharia. There's no bifurcation of law
in spirit. Sometimes Muslims, they inherit the sort
of Christian worldview
where the spirit and the law are bifurcated.
They're seen as antagonists. No. We follow Sharia.
We are not antinomians.
There's no way to trans transcend the Sharia
and come into the knowledge of spirituality, and
you don't have to pray anymore or fast.
No. 1 of the great Sufi, Sheikh Abdul
Qad Al Ajilani, there's a story related about
him, that he was walking down the street
and he saw this vision and the skies
opened and a voice said, you, Sheikh. You
have transcended the salah. You don't have to
pray anymore. You've transcended it. You've reached Al
Maqam where you don't even have to pray
anymore. He said, enter Mal'un.
You are accursed in a way shaitan trying
to play with him. He said the Prophet
sallallahu alaihi wasallam prays 6 times a day.
Salatul Tuhajjud is wajib. 1 third of the
night is wajib and the Prophet sallallahu alaihi
says, who am I that I've that I've
transcended the prayer?
So don't downplay.
Do your your
your fard.
Make sure we implement the Sharia.
Implement the fard, the fard
5 times a day at certain times. Pray
during fast during the month of Ramadan.
This is a struggle. Plan your day around
the Farahid, not the other way around.