Ammar Alshukry – Seeking Guidance From The Quran
AI: Summary ©
The importance of guidance from Allah and the use of the Quran for policy and healing is emphasized. The presence of wicked people in political and social environments is also discussed. The speaker emphasizes the importance of listening to the Quran and reflecting on the reflection it provides, as well as avoiding promises and desire for people to make choices based on their emotions. The success of Assyrian expansion and the villain of the Middle East is highlighted as examples of the greatest emergent creature in history.AI: Transcript ©
All praise is due to Allah. We seek
His guidance and His forgiveness that we seek
refuge in Allah from the evil of ourselves
and the whispering of our desires whom Allah
guides no one can misguide and whom he
allows to be misled no one can guide.
And I bear witness that there is nothing
worthy of worship except Allah alone having no
partners and that Muhammad sallallahu alaihi wasallam is
his slave and his messenger to proceed.
Allah Subhanahu Wa Ta'ala
in Surat Al Fatiha,
we learn to make a request.
That request is
Guide us the straight path.
Guide us the straight path.
That is a request that you make
17 times a day
and when you make that request,
the next chapter
of the Quran,
Surat Al Baqarah, Allah subhanahu wa ta'ala begins,
Allah begins this is the book about which
there is no doubt,
guidance
for the people of Taqwa.
And so it is as if
you are asking Allah subhanahu wa ta'ala for
guidance, you are asking Allah for the straight
path, and then in the next chapter it
begins by saying you requested it, here you
go.
That guidance is this Quran.
This Quran that has been revealed, this book
about which there is no doubt, there's no
mistakes, there's no flaws,
there is
no false statements,
it is the response to your request, it
is guidance.
And
when the scholars talk about
the concept of abandoning the Quran,
They mentioned the abandoning of reciting,
they mentioned the abandonment
of legislation,
they mentioned the abandonment
of
even
healing yourself with the Quran.
But one important concept
is that a person does not refer back
to the Quran for guidance.
I want you to think of all of
the pressing matters,
all of the political engagement,
all of the debates
and when we are researching
our positions
on whatever current affair is happening,
do we go back to the Quran to
read through it?
Do we go back and seek guidance from
the Quran?
You know, right now,
specifically in the context of
what we're seeing and continue to see play
out
in the arena of Gaza. May Allah subhanahu
wa ta'ala bring healing to our brothers and
sisters there in security.
And all of the passion, and all of
the discussions, and all of the positions.
When a person goes back to the Quran
and something that we need to be reminded
again and again and again,
one of the things that this arena has
exposed
especially for young people is the presence of
wicked people.
That there are shayateen and ins that do
exist
and just like the heroism
of the people of Gaza has become displayed
on in 4 ks,
the wickedness,
the masks
coming off of the faces of evildoers
has also become displayed in 4 ks. And
so for many people, especially young people, this
is their rude awakening
to the idea that there are people that
hate you truly just for the fact that
you are you, just for the fact that
you worship Allah Subhanahu Wa Ta'ala.
All of these old stories of persecution
of the believers
that they learned in Sunday school, that they
learned in the seal of the Prophet salallahu
alaihi wa sallam, they see it being enacted.
And so how do you deal with that?
And how are you guided?
When you return to the Quran,
you see so much
and Allah Subhanahu Wa Ta'ala He
says,
Allah Subhanahu Wa Ta'ala says, and we present
to you the signs,
we clarify for you the signs
that
the path
of the wicked become apparent.
The path of the wicked. You want to
learn the blueprints of the wicked? Look in
the Quran, you'll find it there.
And I wanna give a few short examples
but the the the theme of this kutba
that I want us all to take away
is very very simple, That we go back
to the Quran for guidance and that we
don't make our recitation of the Quran simply
for the barakah of the Quran, but that
when I'm looking at the political landscape, that
when I'm looking at the social landscape, when
I'm looking at current events that I go
back to the Quran for guidance and seeing
what gems I can pick up. Allah subhanahu
wa ta'ala says,
Do they not reflect over the Quran or
their locks upon their hearts?
You know when Allah Subhanahu Wa Ta'ala says
that if not only were they to receive
a sign but if we were to lift
themselves to the heavens
and they would ascend, they would say,
The disbelievers,
they would say, Our eyes have become bewitched.
Even if they were to ascend to the
heavens and I always used to think about
this like how is it possible that people
would see science, a person would literally be
levitated into the heavens and they would still
disbelief.
But again,
the landscape of Gaza.
A sister from Bosnia who survived
the genocide in Bosnia, she was sharing and
she was reflecting and she said, you know
when we were going through it in the
nineties in Bosnia,
we would imagine
that if only the world knew what was
happening to us,
if only the world could see what was
happening to us,
they would undoubtedly
interfere.
They would undoubtedly come and save us. The
only thing
that's missing is that they haven't seen what's
going on.
And so 30 years later,
she's seeing
the world watching
another genocide.
The destruction of the masajid,
the slaughter of families,
the the the hesitation of the international community,
all of it is reminiscent of Bosnia in
the nineties.
And here she is realizing
that it doesn't matter if people see.
It doesn't matter if people watch. It doesn't
matter if it's videos, it doesn't matter if
it's sound, doesn't matter if it's
that when people's hearts are turned off. Allah
says,
It's not the eyes
that become blind
but it's rather
the hearts that are within the breast that's
what becomes blind.
And so
the Quran gives us inspiration, the Quran gives
us reflection, and I'll share with you
two examples of one of the greatest tyrants
that's mentioned in the Quran when we speak
about the wicked and one of the greatest
messengers. And undoubtedly the story of Musa. Musa
alaihis salaam is the prophet who's mentioned the
most in the Quran and Firaun is the
villain that's mentioned the most. Because of the
constant conflict of good and evil and the
need to refer back to the stories and
the different angles that that story takes.
Could you imagine that?
Says to Musa, didn't we raise you?
Didn't you grow up in our palace
for years and you did that thing that
you did?
Meaning you killed the Coptic man.
And you are from the ungrateful.
And Musa alaihis salaam responds until he finally
says,
He says I did it, I was wrong
until Musa says and that is a blessing
that you're trying to recount to me
You've you've enslaved the children of Israel.
You've enslaved my people and you're here talking
to me about how you raised me in
a palace? What about my people?
What caused me
to be put in a basket in a
river in the first place? Why was my
mother so afraid
that I was separated from her?
Who caused my mother that fear other than
the fact that you were killing
the children of Bani al sala'e?
You don't get to claim to fix me
when you caused my brokenness in the first
place.
You don't get to claim favors upon me.
And And so that idea
is
carried
by every child of privilege
who does not forget the brokenness of their
people back home.
It is the same attitude that is carried,
it is the same sentiment that is carried
by the child who goes to the most
prestigious of schools
but does not forget their brothers and sisters
whose only share of education was a school
to prison pipeline. It is that refugee
who travels to a country and does not
forget their brothers and sisters who they left
behind in a war torn place caused by
a proxy war by the country that is
now hosting them.
What caused me to come to your country
in the first place?
That's a blessing, a favor that you're accounting
for me when you caused destruction in my
homeland in the first place.
And so those people who do not forget
where they came from, those who do not
forget the people that they left behind, those
who even though they are in a state
of privilege continue to engage on behalf of
the broken,
they are preceded in that regard by a
mighty messenger of God.
And I'll just share another thing
to conclude.
But Faraun, he says to Musa,
he says to him,
Musa alayhis salaam he comes with a very
clear message, this is this is what I
want.
He comes to Faraun and he says, send
with me the children and Harun, send with
us the children of Israel and don't don't
torture them. That's it.
I don't want to stay in Egypt. I
don't want Egypt. We don't want to stay
in Egypt. We want to leave. Just let
our people go. Let us leave.
What does Siraun say when he receives that
clear message from Musa?
Musa
Musa, did you come to expel us from
our land with your magic?
Musa didn't say any of that. Musa said
I want to leave your land with my
people. Farrahm says no no, you're trying to
expel us from our land
with your magic.
That distortion of the reality
is something that you see the wicked do
in every time and place.
When people are chanting free Palestine, they're saying
that's anti semitic.
What's anti semitic about me asking for my
freedom? When Martin Luther King said, let freedom
ring from the mighty mountains of New York,
let freedom ring from the curvaceous slopes of
California, let freedom ring. We learned that in
school, we celebrated in school, I have a
dream.
From every mountain side. Let freedom ring. And
yet we were never told
that when Martin was saying, let freedom ring.
That he was calling
for violence against anybody other than seeking the
freedom of his people.
But that is the methodology of the wicked
and you see it in the Quran and
you see it play out in real time.
This Quran guides to that which is best.
We ask Allah subhanahu wa ta'ala to allow
us to hear the speech and follow the
best of it.
As you can imagine, this is a long
discussion, and it's a lifetime journey
for a person to engage the Quran
and to be able to reflect on the
Quran and to be able to see the
imprints
of the realities that the Quran describes in
the world around them. But it is a
journey worth taking. And so this is simply
a reminder for my brothers and sisters that
we need to be a people who continue
to read the Quran, continue to reflect on
the Quran, and continue to seek guidance in
the Quran for the realities around us. We
ask Allah to allow us to hear the
speech and follow the best of it.
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