Ammar Alshukry – Allahs Beautiful Names – How To REMOVE Fears and GAIN Security – Al Mumin
AI: Summary ©
AI: Transcript ©
Al Mu'min, the remover of fear.
How many things could have gone terribly wrong
today but didn't? Even a small decision, like
taking your next step, has some element of
doubt. Al Mu'min has two meanings. Linguistically,
the first is to believe.
The brothers of Yusuf, they tell their father,
after they lied to him about a wolf
eating Yusuf,
but you would not believe us even if
we were telling the truth.
You don't believe us. The second meaning is
to grant security. Allah says
and made them safe from their fear in
Surat Quresh recounting the favor over Quresh. And
so the name of Allah subhanahu ta'ala Mu'min
includes 2 things. Number 1, Allah subhanahu ta'ala
is the one who fulfills his promises. Allah
doesn't break his promises.
And we know that Allah promises the believers
with forgiveness and mercy in paradise, and Allah
promises those who do evil that they'll be
punished. Does that mean that every person who
does evil and falls under that threat will
be punished? Or are there some promises that
Allah subhanahu wa ta'ala makes that he does
not fulfill? You have to understand that there
are 2 types of promises. There's a promise
of reward, what's called a and a promise
of punishment which is called a. It's always
praiseworthy to fulfill your promises of reward and
it is blameworthy to not fulfill them. However,
fulfilling a promise of punishment
may at times be praiseworthy, and at times
it could be praiseworthy to not fulfill it.
For example, you have a father who has
a son who's not doing well at school,
and he says you're only doing poorly because
you are not applying yourself at all. You're
always wasting your time with this or that.
So this is what I'm gonna do. This
semester,
if you get the marks that I know
you can get, if you get me straight
a's, then I'll take you to that adventure
park that you always wanted to go to.
Right? That's the promise of reward. But if
I even smell the scent of a bee,
not only will you not go to that
adventure park, but you're gonna be grounded, you're
not gonna be able to go anywhere for
a month.
So the father has given both a promise
of reward and a promise of punishment.
Both.
Now, let's say his young son
is motivated
and he's working harder than he's ever worked.
And every time his father sees him, he
sees him exerting more effort than he's ever
exerted before. His nose buried in a book.
He's always working on his homework. And at
the end of the marking period, the boy
comes rushing home
with glee. He's so excited with his report
card. And when he opens it up, his
father looks and he sees a a
a a straight ace.
The child is bouncing off of the walls.
Baba, we're gonna go to adventure park.
And his father
looks at him and goes, just kidding. Sorry.
I was only kidding about the Adventure Park.
He's broken a promise of reward.
Is that praiseworthy or blameworthy?
Obviously, that's brayeworthy. There's no scenario
where breaking a promise of reward is praiseworthy.
But let us reimagine that the boy is
coming back home.
He's super excited and his father opens it
up and he sees
2 A's,
4 B's.
Now the father had swore that if he
smells the scent of a bee, that child
is going to be grounded.
But imagine he looks at his son and
he says to him, you know what? I
know that I promised that you would be
punished, but I just want to let you
know I'm still gonna take you to Adventureland
and I'm proud of you because you worked
harder than you've ever worked before and you
actually applied yourself. He still broke his promise,
but he broke a promise of punishment.
Is he praiseworthy in doing that? Yes, he
might be. So when the law subhanahu ta'ala
promises those who commit sins, when he promises
them punishment, it's a conditional promise that he
may fulfill or he may not, and he's
praiseworthy and not fulfilling it in mercy and
forgiveness.
The secondary meaning of Al Mu'min is the
one who grants
and aman, the one who grants safety and
security.
And so it's a name to be pronounced
on the tongue of anybody who's feeling fear.
Safety is one of the greatest blessings that
people forget to appreciate and pay attention to.
And yet, were it to be removed from
any society would cause massive displacement
and relocation. The prophet
says, whoever of you wakes up safe in
their dwelling, healthy in their body with enough
food for today, then it's as if they
have the world rolled out for them, the
hadithas in Timothy.
So after waking up, the prophet
mentions the blessing of safety.
Everything else that we do, everything that we
gather is useless without safety. War is the
great negator. I am from Sudan. And in
the past year, the city of Khartoum has
been emptied out by war, an image
that in my wildest dreams I could never
have imagined. There was a time in my
life growing up that I thought and I
would have believed 100% and I had reason
to that Khartoum was the safest city in
the world. Giving rights to strangers
in your car in a city that large
was normal behavior. Murders were unheard of. Armed
robbery, almost nonexistent.
But when war breaks out,
everyone leaves.
All of the retirement projects, all of the
assets, all of the homes,
everything that they were building over their lifetimes
or over multiple generations that they hope to
pass to their children or their children's
children becomes erased. And their entire existence, their
dreams, their history, their families, their stories
becomes enveloped by a single word, refugee.
A person who's seeking refuge from violence.
The gift of safety is one of the
greatest gifts that we can experience,
that you can go about your day going
to work or school and not worry about
the people you left at home. Allah says,
Do they not see that we made Makkah
a safe sanctuary
while people are being taken away all around
them? People are being snatched up all around
them? In falsehood do they believe or in
the favor of Allah subhanahu wa ta'ala do
they disbelieve?
As we look at much of the Ummah
and we see conflict and occupation and see
proxy wars and see the tension and oppression,
If you and your family are in safety
and security,
then make sure to be grateful. Make sure
to be grateful. Thank Allah
for that blessing. And so finally, how do
we interact with his name? How do we
interact with the name Al Mu'min? Give security
to others. The prophet
says in hadith, it's reported by
He says, By Allah, they don't believe. By
Allah, they don't believe. By Allah, they don't
believe. Three times the prophet
is saying he's negating perfection of iman from
this person. Who is it, You Rasulullah?
He says
He says the one who their neighbor does
not feel he does not
He doesn't feel safe. So the prophet
is using similar wordings, iman and aman. That
person who their neighbor does not feel safe
from their evil.
How can you expect
safety from Allah on the day of judgment
if your neighbor does not feel safe from
you? And so the Muslim neighbor is supposed
to be the best neighbor. I want you
to ask yourself this question. If I were
to survey
the neighbors
of the Muslims, our Masjid, our Islamic centers,
what would they say? Do they feel safe
from our evil? I hope so. I don't
wanna bring up the negative, but a a
memory that always stayed with me growing up
in New York was an elderly Italian woman
who was a neighbor to a masjid that
was just a small house. And so she
lived in the house next door. And every
Friday at 12 o'clock, she would go and
she would guard her driveway
because
Muslims were gonna start parking there as they
tried to get to Jumah. And I remember
one time I was walking to the Masjid,
I was a block away, and I could
see this man because he was rushing to
Jum'ah because the started, he actually blocked her
driveway. And he got out of the car
and he was rushing to the and it
was the moment that she had been preparing
for. So she started screaming and she's like,
hey. Hey. That's my driveway.
And he was like, okay. And then she
said, I'm gonna call the cops.
And then in that moment, he became defiantly
arrogant, and he said, We'll call them then.
And he walked into the masjid.
In that moment,
we failed
to protect our community's neighbor from our evil.
And the prophet
said, that person does not believe whoever's neighbor
is not safe from their evil. So if
you want to experience
security
and a man from Al Mu'min, then make
sure that you grant security
to others that people feel safe from your
evil.