Ammar Alshukry – Allahs Beautiful Names – We’ll Be Held Accountable For THESE Thoughts – Al Raqeeb
AI: Summary ©
The speaker discusses Allah's watchful eye and his name, which is designed to observe actions. He emphasizes the importance of knowing who everyone is watching and monitoring one's actions, including their behavior and actions. The speaker also highlights the importance of trusting Allah's words and actions for one's success, particularly with mass destruction. The speaker stresses the need to monitor one's thoughts and intentions to avoid giving up on them.
AI: Summary ©
The watchful, the all observing.
Contrary to popular belief, there are some thoughts
we are accountable for like these. Allah says
describing the dialogue that will happen between Allah
and Isa on the day of judgment. Allah
will ask him if he told people to
take him and his mom as gods besides
Allah. And part of what Isa Alaihi Salam
will respond is he'll say, I only said
to them what you commanded me to say,
which is to worship Allah, my lord, and
your lord. And he says,
I was a witness over them as long
as I was alive, but when you took
me up, when you caused me to die,
you were the observer over them, and you
are over all things a witness. And Allah
says,
and Allah
is a watcher over all things. And also
in the first verse of that you've probably
heard in most of the that begin with
oh mankind. Fear your lord who created you
from a single soul until he says,
verily Allah is a an observer over you.
So what does this name mean? It means
he's the observer of all. Nothing is missed
no matter how small, no matter how slight.
And
he says, Allah is.
He's the observer of our thoughts. So what
then about our actions?
And so the fruit of this name
is the word
which is to observe Allah subhanahu wa ta'ala's
observance over you. And you know the prophet
tells us that there are 7 who are
going to be shaded on the day where
there is no shade except for the shade
of Allah. The first is a just king.
The second is a young person who grows
up in the worship of Allah
The third is a person or a man
whose heart is attached to the masjid.
The 4th is a man who's invited to
a woman of beauty and lineage
to Zina, and he says, I fear Allah
And the 5th is a person who gives
in charity so secretly that his right hand
or his left hand rather doesn't know what
his right hand is giving. And then the
6th are 2 people who love each other
for the sake of Allah. They gather upon
that and they separate on that. And then
the 7th and the last one is a
person who remembers Allah
in seclusion
and a tear forms on his cheek because
of that. Now what is shared between all
of these sebud who are in the shade
of Allah? The talk of Allah
recognizing that Allah
watches you. What else would make a king
be just when they can oppress other than
knowing that Allah Subhanahu Wa Ta'ala is watching
them? What makes a young person with all
of the passions of youth choose to instead
subdue all of that and commit to the
worship of Allah
What makes a person's heart attached to the
masjid? That they come to it again and
again and again. What makes a man or
a woman opt out of zina saying they
fear Allah subhanahu wa ta'ala?
What makes a person give so secretly?
Who do they know sees them when nobody
else on the planet sees them and knows
about what they're giving? Who are these people
who love each other for the sake of
Allah? Who are they loving each other for
the sake of? And when that person who's
remembering Allah Subhanahu Wa Ta'ala privately, what are
they actually engaging in? And so the great
fruit of this name is to know that
Allah Subhanahu Wa Ta'ala always sees you, and
that's a very important concept That we wanna
make sure that we we emphasize and we
continue to communicate to our communities, that we
continue to share with our communities, but there's
also another really important element that doesn't get
emphasized enough. And that is also very important
that we communicate to each other. And that
is that Allah
is not just the one who's always watching
you, but he is always watching over you.
And so it's not just the fruit of
taqwa from this name, but also the fruit
of tawakkud. Firstly, it's to monitor our thoughts.
And this is important to clarify because it's
widely believed that we're not held accountable for
our thoughts.
And that may lead a person to give
free rein to whatever comes up in the
domain of their mind. And a lot of
times you'll hear this in the framing about
Islam's position on homosexuality,
for example. You're not held accountable for your
thoughts, but you're only held accountable for what
you do. You're only held accountable for your
actions. But the reality is that there are
some thoughts that you are not held accountable
for. Sure. But there are thoughts that you
are held accountable for. Absolutely.
For example, is the person allowed to continuously
engage in lessful thoughts about someone that's not
allowed for them?
No. Is the person allowed to fantasize about
the spouse of somebody else? The answer of
course is no. But it's just a thought.
It's not allowed. So what you're not accountable
for is the fleeting thought. But after you
realize that it's a thought that's haram, then
then you have to engage it and you
must suffocate it and you don't give it
space to grow. Ibn al Qayim, he says
about the fleeting thought. He has a beautiful
passage about fleeting thoughts. He says repel the
thought because if you don't, it becomes an
idea. So repel the idea because if you
don't, it'll become a desire. So fight against
that desire Because if you don't, it'll become
an intention, a determination,
and a passion. And if you don't, repel
that. If you don't fight that, then it'll
become an action. And if you don't, replace
it with the opposite. If you don't fight
that, then it'll become a constant habit. At
that point, it'll be difficult for you to
change. Where did it start? It all started
with a fleeting thought. Ibn Masruk, he said,
that whoever observes Allah in their thoughts
will have their limbs protected in their actions.
And the second thing to monitor are your
intentions.
To ask yourself the question, why am I
doing this good deed? Who am I trying
to please by doing it? When a person
makes their intention Allah subhanahu wa ta'ala, they
will do and not do for Allah. I'll
say it again. They will do and not
do for Allah subhanahu wa ta'ala. And what
I mean by that is, you know, I
was once in a class with Sheikh Hamid
Shadi and he was being asked by a
sister
who was describing how her community just exhausts
her.
She was their go to volunteer. She was
the one who everybody calls for everything, The
Sunday school, the Masjid activities. And she would
always find herself saying yes.
And she'd be doing things even when she
didn't really have the time.
And so when she described
her situation to him, his answer was one
that I never forgot. He said, if a
person find themselves
never being able to say no, then what
I would tell them to do is to
focus on their
to work on
their. And everybody's like, what? You know, when
a person is always monitoring Allah and their
intentions, they'll do and not do for Allah.
I may not do this event or this
program or teach this class or do this
act that other people really think is a
good idea and it's worth my time, but
I'm not concerning myself with what you think
is good. I'm concerning myself with what I
believe is the most pleasing to Allah
for me to do with my time. Everybody
every one of us is going to be
responsible
as to how we spent our time, and
it may be more pleasing to Allah that
I simply spent with my family or in
the service or simply company of my parents
at home or even working on my health.
I am responsible for using that time that
I have to do the things that I
know are most pleasing to Allah
not what is most pleasing to people.
The third thing for you to monitor is
your tongue.
And I could have said monitor your actions,
which is the 4th month. We're gonna get
to that, but
the tongue gets its own special shout out.
You know why? Because it is a weapon
of mass destruction.
People really don't consider what they say to
be a source of sin. But the prophet
said when he was asked by
are we held accountable for what we say?
Said, may your mother lose
you, Like, it's an expression. And he says,
what
else will cause people to be dragged on
their faces
or on their noses into the hellfire
except for the harvest of their tongues. Like,
what else will cause people to enter the
hellfire
other than what they said or what they
tweeted or what they wrote in a group
chat somewhere?
The prophet, sallallahu alaihi wasalam, he told us
about the tongue. He said that when the
son of Adam gets up in the morning,
all of the limbs
all of the limbs speak to the tongue,
and they say, fear Allah
for our sake because we are with you.
If you're straight, we will be straight. And
if you're crooked, we will be crooked. Now
hadith is reported by a timid. And Abu
Hurair said, I heard the prophet
say, a person utters a word thoughtlessly without
thinking about it, not thinking much of it.
And because of it, they fall into the
hellfire deeper than the distance between the east
and the west. You know that hadith? It's
in Bukhari Muslim. It's very, very scary because
the keyword is.
He doesn't pay attention to it. So it's
a statement that they made. It's just a
tweet. When people consider their sins, they don't
consider a word that they said to be
something major. It's major with Allah subhanahu wa
ta'ala. It's so light, so easy, so fleeting,
and you don't realize it. But it may
cause a person to sink into the hellfire
deeper than the east and the west.
And fourthly, the 4th thing to monitor is
your actions. You know, I was once driving
with my friend Bilal Khan. I was riding
shotgun. He was driving so slow. So So
then I asked him, you know, what's the
deal? Why are you driving so slow? And
he said, this is a 25 mile hour
zone, and it's camera enforced.
You won't get stopped if you drive faster
than that. You'll just get a nice ticket
in the mail.
Even in the absence of the police,
people were still obeying the law because the
belief in that which they couldn't see. Taqwa
of a ticket.
Taqwa of Allah is similar in that it
commands us to stay in our lanes and
obey the rules of the road because if
we don't, we may not be stopped along
the way, but we won't like what we
receive when we finally come home. And the
second fruit we said is not just taqwa,
but taqul to rely upon Allah subhanahu wa
ta'ala because he's the one who always sees
you. Allah subhanahu wa ta'ala says a beautiful
passage, seeking your he says,
and rely upon the mighty, the merciful.
The one who sees you when you arise.
And your rotation amongst those who prostrate.
Allah is the all hearing, the all knowing.
Allah
mentions all of these attributes
so that you can rely upon him. He's
the mighty, he's the merciful,
he sees you, he hears you, and he
knows.
All of these attributes are mentioned in these
names in that sequence of verses so that
you can rely upon Allah
If nobody sees you, Allah sees you. If
nobody knows where you are, Allah knows where
you are. If nobody hears you, Allah
hears you. So rely upon him. May Allah
grant us a tawakkul that he loves.