Aqeel Mahmood – 01 Living the Names of Allah
AI: Summary ©
AI: Transcript ©
Insha'Allah,
as you heard the announcement by,
the Sheikh,
we're going to be delivering a series of
classes, a series of talks over 6 weeks,
and
this series is entitled living the names of
Allah.
How to practically implement the names of Allah
in our daily lives based on the sunnah.
So
the idea with this,
series of talks
was to
talk about this category of tawhid,
the names and attributes of Allah subhanahu wa
ta'ala or specifically the names of Allah
and
the intention wasn't just to go over all
the names because as we know there's over
99 names. We're not gonna do 99 weeks
talking about each name.
The idea wasn't to cover every single name
and talk about the meaning of every single
name.
The idea
was to
contemplate
and
reflect
what these names
mean in our lives,
And how we understand these names
on a day to day basis,
and how we act upon these names in
our lives.
And this is because of the hadith of
the messenger of Allah sallallahu alaihi wa sallam,
which, maybe we've heard before.
Where he said that in
That verily Allah has 99 names,
100 except 1. Whoever
learns them by heart will enter paradise.
And the scholars, they said the word
doesn't just refer to somebody learning them, memorizing
them by heart, by memory, and that's it.
But they said it's somebody who memorizes these
names and is also somebody who understands
their meaning.
So it's not just a case of just
memorizing these names and that's it. Understanding their
meaning, but thirdly, acting in accordance with the
meanings of these names.
Acting upon these names.
So for example,
if we looked at for, for example the
name Ar Rahman, which we'll be talking about
today inshallah.
This name which is referring to the mercy
of Allah subhanahu wa ta'ala.
How much do we reflect this name in
our daily lives by us showing mercy ourselves
on a day to day basis to those
who are around us, family, friends, relatives
and so on and so forth.
So this is actually one of those things
which is required for us
when we are learning these names of Allah
in order for us to be able to
enter paradise
after learning these 99 names which Allah has
mentioned, which the messenger of Allah
has mentioned in the sunnah.
And we all know the virtues and the
benefits of the names of Allah and what
Allah
has told us in the Quran about these
names. Allah says,
to Allah belong the most beautiful and most
perfect names. So make dua using these names.
So we understand from this verse in the
Quran that the names of Allah subhanahu wa
ta'ala are perfect
and they're the most beautiful
and there's no deficiency in them whatsoever.
So for example,
if somebody is called kareem,
which means
which means what?
Generous or kind. If somebody is called Kareem,
does that mean he's always going to be
Kareem? He's he's going to be a generous
generous person all the time?
No. There's cases where he might be stingy,
even though his name is Kareem. Or he
might be the stingiest person you know and
his name is Kareem.
But with Allah subhanahu wa ta'ala, if his
name is Kareem, which is which it is,
Al Kareem,
then by definition because we're talking about Allah,
this name Al Kareem,
we understand it in its most beautiful,
in its most perfect way.
Because of who it's related to, because of
who it's attached to, which is Allah azza
wa Jal.
So because we know Allah subhanahu wa ta'ala
is perfect, all of his names become perfect.
And if Allah is al kareem, Allah is
the most kareem, the most generous, the most
kind.
And there's no deficiency with regards to Allah's
generosity.
And the second thing we learn from this
ayah,
to Allah to Allah the most beautiful names.
So make
using these names.
One of the ways we can implement these
names in our lives and hopefully inshallah in
the future,
we'll talk about
how the
prophets and the companions would actually
use these names in their supplications, in their
duas, even in the Quran. There's examples the
prophets of Allah making du'a, and they use
some names of Allah.
And the fruits of them using those names.
How Allah responded to their supplications.
So we can talk about that, in the
future when we talk about some other names
of Allah subhanahu wa ta'ala. But this shows
us the importance of simply using the names
of Allah in
our supplications, in our duas. And the reason
why
this topic was chosen
is because we
know and we hear of the names of
Allah. Like if I was to ask even
the youngest of those of you who are
sitting in front of me what those names
of Allah are, You'll remember, you'll know what
those names are. You've memorized them. You remember
them maybe from nasheed or something. You know,
Arrahman, Ar Rahim, Al Malik, Al Qudoz and
so on and so forth. So people will
know what these names are, but in terms
of how to implement these names, in terms
of how to live by these names on
a day to day basis, that's something which
we fall short in. That's something which we
don't do on a regular basis, if at
all.
So even though we know what these names
are, we just know them by name. We've
just heard these names or we've seen them
hung up on walls or something. You know,
we see these names around, but we don't
know actually how to implement these names. So
with this series inshallah, the aim, first of
all, is to learn about how
to
embody where possible the names of Allah in
our lives,
depending on the name of Allah.
So of course if we're talking about Allah
subhanahu wa ta'ala being
the most powerful,
then of course
the way Allah subhanahu wa ta'ala is the
way Allah
is powerful isn't like the way we are
strong and powerful.
There's no comparison.
So
how do we show and how do we
embody the names of Allah subhanahu wa ta'ala
in the right, in the permissible, in the
correct understanding, in the correct way
on a day to day basis in our
lives.
So learning about how to live the names
of Allah, how to embody the names of
Allah in our lives. That's the first thing.
The second thing is learning about the and
the lives of the prophets and the righteous
through this series. Because the aim was to
give examples
of how the writers of the past
would
embody these names in their lives by mentioning
incidents, mentioning things which happened in their lives.
And also because we lack this knowledge of
sira in the 1st place. You know, we
don't understand that much about the sira. We
haven't read the sira from cover to cover.
We many of us haven't really, you know,
studied the sira in detail. So it's something
which will reinforce our,
you know, our understanding
of the seerah, what happened in the life
of the messenger of Allah sallallahu alaihi wa
sallam. Generally, the lives of of the righteous
of the past and increases our love for
the messenger of Allah
And also as we know
that the greatest example we have is the
messenger of Allah alaihis salatu wa sallam. And
the greatest example of mercy,
the greatest embodiment of rahma of mercy is
the messenger of Allah salatu wa sallam.
Because what does Allah tell us in the
Quran?
A
messenger has come to you
That whatever happens to you, he feels the
grief.
It it affects him when you when you're
suffering, when you're feeling the grief.
He's somebody who's very
watchful over you. He has this concern over
you. With the believers,
He is caring, He's kind and He's merciful.
He shows mercy, He shows rahma.
So the messenger of Allah is the greatest
embodiment of mercy and the greatest one who
showed,
how to represent the names of Allah subhanahu
wa ta'ala on a on a daily basis
in his life. And there's so many examples
of so many different names that, you know,
he represented.
Also from the from the from the Quran,
Allah says
that I never sent you except as a
mercy to mankind.
I never sent you except as a mercy
to the whole of mankind. And the scholars
they say this this refers to human beings.
It also refers to generally, it also refers
to animals as well. So it refers to
not just human beings but all of everything
in existence.
Everything which exists.
Thirdly,
after
talking about,
the names of Allah, living the names of
Allah, and learning about the through the names
of Allah, the third thing which I want
to hopefully
put across in these series of talks is
the which
some of the which we'll mention, which will
have the names of Allah in them, and
why they were revealed or
the basic understanding
or benefits or tafsir of those verses.
Because of course the names of Allah was
the primary source for the names of Allah.
It's the Quran.
And so we're gonna be using ayat from
the Quran. And some of these ayat
have
some of these have interesting stories behind them,
about why they were revealed.
Some of them have incidents which took place
as a result of which Allah revealed these.
Some of them refer to stories of the
past,
of previous prophets,
and messengers.
So
reading these ayat
and touching upon and talking about the, you
know, their meaning and the explanation of these
verses will give us a better understanding of
the names of Allah subhanahu wa ta'ala.
So today inshallah, we're going to be talking
about,
a couple of the names of Allah. Ar
Rahman and Ar Rahim.
And because it's only 6 weeks, we're not
gonna be covering all the names of Allah,
but we're going to be covering
specific names. And those names which are similar
or they have a similar meaning, we're going
to be compiling and putting into one one
lecture. So for example, today we're gonna be
doing ar Rahman, ar Rahim. Maybe next week
or the week after, we'll do and
and because they basically
have the same roots.
Then the meaning might be slightly different, but
the root of it of them is is
the same.
So today, inshallah, we're gonna be covering.
Now,
and,
the scholars talked about what these words mean.
And in English, when we read these these
names of Allah, they normally translate it as
the most
beneficent, the most merciful
or something similar, something along those lines.
But the scholars say they give numerous,
meanings to these
to these names.
One of those meanings that they give is
they differentiate
between the 2 by saying
refers to
the strongest and the most extreme type of
mercy. The strongest and the most extreme type
of mercy.
A mercy which no human being can encompass.
This type of mercy, no human being can
have. He can't handle having this amount of
mercy and showing this amount of mercy.
So none of the creation can have this
type of mercy which is being referred to
when we say ar Rahman.
And this is why this is one of
the names of Allah subhanahu wa ta'ala. Because
it's only Allah subhanahu wa ta'ala who can
have this name. And interestingly enough, this name
wasn't known by the Muslim in Mecca.
And this is why in the Quran, Allah
talks about what the Muslim said. And they
said
They said why are we prostrate into something
which is? What is?
We're prostrate into something called.
They had no understanding of what the word
actually meant.
Because they hadn't come across this word. It's
an Arabic word, but they never understood and
they never they never heard of this word
in Arabic before.
And because the Quran was so rich in
Arabic language, it had words in there from
Arabic, which the Arabs themselves didn't even know
about at the time.
So it's one of the strongest forms
of the word
rahma,
ar Rahman.
When the alif and noon is added to
the end of the word, it becomes the
strongest form.
An individual who has a strongest or something
which has a strongest sense of mercy. And
this can only be applied to Allah subhanahu
wa ta'ala.
And this is why scholars they say
refers to the mercy of Allah which has
encompassed everything.
Human beings,
animals,
muslims and non muslims.
This quality of this extreme mercy
is something which encompasses
every living thing on the face of this
earth.
And this is why
when the messenger of Allah alaihi wasalam talked
about the mercy of Allah, he told us
that one portion out of out of a
100
of Allah's mercy is on the earth.
So everything that we see around us from
the mercy that
we see or experience or we have for
others, is from the 1%
or from the one portion of the of
the 100 portions that Allah sent down to
earth. So the mercy we have towards the
young,
the mercy we have towards our brothers and
sisters, our spouses,
the mercy we have towards those who are
weaker than us, those who are being oppressed,
those who are being harmed. The mercy we
have towards those who are sick, Those who
are,
the elderly or those who are disabled.
The mercy we have to animals for example.
Okay? All of this type of mercy, any
type of mercy we can think of on
this earth is the is the 100th
portion
of mercy which Allah Subhanahu Wa Ta'ala has
distributed on the earth.
And the other 99, Allah Subhanahu Wa Ta'ala
has saved for the day of judgement.
And this is why the messenger of Allah
subhanahu wa ta'ala he told us about the
mercy of Allah, and he said that if
the if the disbeliever
had seen if he saw
the amount of mercy which Allah subhanahu wa
ta'ala had,
even he would be hopeful that he'd enter
paradise.
Even he'd think he'd enter paradise because of
how much mercy Allah subhanahu wa ta'ala has
and he's not even a Muslim.
So
this shows us the meaning of rahma
and the power of the word, the amount
of mercy which Allah
has. And the word
refers to the mercy of Allah
which is specific to the believers. Specific to
the muslims.
The fact that he guided us to Islam,
and then each and every single one of
us he's blessed us with so many things
as a result of us being Muslim.
And Allah has blessed us with Quran and
blessed us with the salah and blessed us
with fasting and being able to fast, being
able to pray, being able to recite Quran.
Allah has given us the ability to be
able to work so that we can make
money and we can, you know, give this
money into charity. We can give this money
to charity As a result of this blessing
which Allah has given us. So all of
these things, this rahma, this mercy,
okay, is
specific to the believers
from the things which they're able to do
as a result of them being Muslim.
A blessing which Allah subhanahu wa ta'ala has
given them. And
the messenger of Allah was
once with the companions,
and umradillahu anhu said that we were with
him
and after one of the battles took place,
a woman was breastfeeding a child.
And there were other people there.
There were prisoners there and there were children
there as well. They were very young children,
they're babies.
And she would go to each
baby,
and she would pick them up and she
would start to breastfeed them. She will start
to suckle them.
And she would go from person to person
and she would nurse them. Not only her
own child but other children.
And so the messenger of Allah sallallahu alaihi
wa sallam, the companions are watching her do
this. And of course this is something which
is from the nature of, you know, a
woman who's who's had a child and this
woman specifically is showing so much, you know,
mercy to these children, so much kindness
and so much care.
And so the messenger of Allah sallallahu alaihi
wa sallam, he said to the companions, he
said, do you think this woman could throw
her own child in the hellfire?
And the companions they said, no. Not if
she was able to stop it. So the
messenger of Allah he said,
That Allah Subhanahu wa ta'ala. By Allah, Allah
Subhanahu wa ta'ala is more merciful to his
servants than a mother or than this mother
is to her own child.
Meaning the amount of mercy this woman is
showing
to her child,
the connection between a mother and and her
child, the amount of love and care and
mercy she has to a child, she doesn't
show anybody else.
You know not to her brothers or sisters
or to her husband, you know, or to
anybody else.
But when it comes to a child,
the amount of affection and love and mercy
she shows, you can't compare it to anything
else. It's incomparable.
Yet Allah Yet the messenger of Allah is
telling us the mercy of Allah subhanahu wa
ta'ala is even more He's even more merciful
to his slaves than this mother to her
own child.
So this shows us the amount of mercy
which Allah subhanahu wa ta'ala has,
to his slaves.
And
you know when we look at the life
of the messenger of Allah sallallahu alaihi wa
sallam, and we understand that he was somebody
who had rahma, he was somebody who had
mercy.
And he had mercy to the believers, but
he also had mercy to the disbelievers.
Like we said Allah shows mercy.
Al Rahman
is an extreme mercy.
It's a it's a it's a mercy which
encompasses
everything.
Muslims and non muslims.
And
is specific to the muslims, but the fact
that Allah subhanahu wa ta'ala shows mercy to
the non muslims, that in of itself is
a lesson to us.
Because sometimes,
you know especially in the kind of climate
we're living in, we become very hostile
towards non muslims.
Partly because of the kind of situation we're
in, but also because we become defensive and
also as a result of us living in
societies where it's only Muslim. You know sometimes
when we're living in a in a bubble
or in a in a community which is
very close together, close knit and it's just
Muslims,
we don't tend to interact or mix with
non muslims. As a result of that, sometimes
we don't know how to interact with them.
And we don't have experiences in dealing with
them. And wisdom, we don't have the wisdom
in how to talk to them and converse
with them. That's just nature of, you know,
sometimes living in close knit communities where it's
just muslims.
But if you look at the messenger of
Allah, alaihis salatu wa sallam, he was somebody
who showed rahma to to the non Muslims
at the most extreme times.
Because some of us could make the excuse
and we could say, look, we're living in
a situation where non Muslims are harming us.
They're physically harming us. You know, they're humiliating
us and they're harming us and they're, you
know, trying to they're trying to kill us
in certain situations.
We all know about, you know, our uncle
who passed away who was murdered outside of
the masjid a few year a couple of
years ago. Rahimahullah, may Allah, shower his mercy
upon him. And we all know about the
situation, generally speaking, in this country. So we
think to ourselves, these people don't deserve rahma.
Why do they deserve any mercy? Look at
what they're doing to us. That's the last
thing they need.
But in fact if you look at the
life of the messenger of Allah alaihi wasallam,
he showed mercy to them in situations which
were much more extreme.
If you look at the battle of Uhud,
we understand and we know from the that
the battle of Uhud was the first defeat
that the muslims experienced,
okay, on the battlefield.
And it was it was a defeat in
the sense that
they never
overcame
the non Muslims, and the Muslims
the the Muslims
weren't
victorious.
Because the battle of Uhud,
you could say was a draw.
And you could say it was a draw
because the non the muslims weren't the ones
to leave the battlefield first. So the plains
of Uhud where the battle was taking place,
who left the battlefield first? It was actually
the non Muslims who left the battlefield first.
So from that perspective, it could be argued
that the Muslims, okay, drew with the non
Muslims because they never left the battlefield, they
stood their ground.
But scholars, you know, talk about this battle
and whether it's a defeat or it's a
draw. The point being,
the battle
with the non muslims
caused the messenger of Allah alaihi salatu wa
sallam
not to show feelings
of animosity
and enmity towards the non muslims, which is
the natural thing to do in a situation
like this.
But there were glimpses of his rahma and
his mercy over them.
When they were being attacked
the fighting became so severe
that
people thought that the messenger of Allah sallallahu
alaihi wa sallam had been killed.
The non muslims thought they had killed the
messenger of Allah sallallahu alaihi wa sallam and
even some of the companions thought he had
been killed. That's how much confusion there was,
and it was hectic because we know, Khaled
and Walid,
okay, he flanked the muslims, went around the
the mount,
and he attacked the muslims from behind and
there was confusion.
And one of the reasons why there was
this confusion is because
the non Muslims, they were throwing arrows, they
were shooting arrows at the messenger of Allah
sallallahu alaihi wa sallam who was only being
protected by a few of the companions.
And he suffered injuries. One of those injuries
was an arrow came
from the enemy,
it came down from the sky and it
landed
into his cheek. It hit his cheek, went
through his cheek
and broke his tooth, broke his molar tooth
on his side.
So if you just even think about viewing
or seeing this injury
actually happening, actually taking place in front of
you,
okay, you think a person would be killed
from, you know, from just seeing something like
this happening in front of you.
And when this happened, people thought that the
messenger of Allah sallallahu alaihi wa sallam had
been killed. The the non muslims, they said
Muhammad
Muhammad Muhammad has been killed.
And so people thought that he had been
killed. And he also suffered an injury
at in close in close proximity,
with a sword,
via a sword.
So as a result of this,
he's physically now being harmed by the non
muslims.
The companions they said to
the messenger of Allah sallallahu alaihi wa sallam,
they said, oh messenger of Allah, make dua
against non muslims.
Make dua against them. Against them.
Make dua against them. And so the messenger
of Allah alayhi wasalam, he made dua
and he said, Allah
Oh Allah forgive my people. Oh Allah guide
my people.
Oh Allah, guide my people because there are
people that don't know.
They don't understand.
So
instead of cursing them,
instead of making dua against them, he's supplicated
to Allah
to guide them because there are people who
don't know. They don't understand. They don't know
the truth. They can't distinguish the truth from
the falsehood. And there are people who don't
know. They're ignorant.
And what's what's amazing is not just the
dua
but the situation in which he's making this
dua.
And that shows real strength.
That's real strength.
Because anybody can curse, anyone can swear, anyone
can say something evil or bad or retaliate
when someone swears at them or says or
says something bad to them. That's easy. It's
not it's not difficult to do. What's hard
is respond with that which is
better. That's always a harder thing to do.
If someone's cursing you and swearing at you,
the harder thing is always to respond in
kind you know, is to respond with something
better.
It's, you know, someone's swearing their head off
towards you, swearing their head off at you
and you reply and you say, you know,
masha'Allah, you're such a good brother, such a
kind, generous brother. That's not an easy thing
to do. It's not the first thing that
comes into your mind.
And that's why when Ubaka radhiallahu an
was with the messenger of Allah and
a man came and started cursing Ubaka radhiallahu
an continuously,
eventually Ubaka radhiallahu an responded.
And so the messenger of Allah as salam,
he left the gathering. And Abu Bakr radiallahu
and ran after the messenger of Allah sallam,
he said, oh messenger of Allah, did I
do something wrong? What did I do? I
was just defending myself. I was responding to
this man who was cursing me. So he
said to him alaihis salatu wa salam, he
said the first couple of times he he
cursed you and you were silent, the angels
respond on your behalf.
Because of the strength that you had in
not responding, you controlled your anger, you controlled
your tongue. And then when you responded, the
angels left that gathering.
And any gathering in which the angels live,
who takes the angels the angels place?
Shaitan.
So shaitan came into that gathering. Shaitan came
and thought to himself, this is interesting nice,
back and forth. You know there's people going
back and forth and swearing,
you know. Voices might get raised and what
might happen next?
There might be fights, it might get physical.
So it might get worse. And the messenger
of all alaihis salami, he said I don't
sit in a gathering in which the shaitan
sits. So he left the gathering. The point
being,
in a in a situation where you're being
physically harmed,
no doubt a person has to defend themselves.
No doubt it's from, you know, Islam for
a person to defend themselves and to take
care of themselves and their family and to
protect themselves. Okay. Islam isn't a religion where,
you know, a person just, you know, allowed
to, allowed to have others run over him
and to do whatever they wish to him.
That's not the way Islam is. A person
should defend themselves,
but at the same time, this idea of
self control
and showing mercy
in the way one speaks
and showing true self control,
that's something which has merit. It's something which
has status. It's something which is significant in
the sight of Allah subhanahu wa ta'ala. Just
as we've seen with, the messenger of Allah
alaihi wasallam.
Also the messenger of Allah alaihi wasallam,
he told us in another hadith
about the the meaning of the word or
the root of the
of the word
from which
and derive, where they come from, where these
words come from.
And
he said that
He said that verily the womb,
rahim,
is derived
from rahman.
Rahim is derived from rahman.
And the rahim is the womb.
The mother's womb.
And when someone says
in Arabic, it's referring to keeping the ties
of kinship.
Keeping ties with your parents, your children, your
brothers, your sisters, your relatives, your cousins, whoever
they may be.
Means ties of kinship, but the word used
is rahim, which means a womb.
And the idea is because everybody is
related to your your cousins, your brothers, sisters,
they're all there's some kind of relation there.
So keeping ties of kinship is called
And in this hadith, the messenger of Allah
says
that
the womb
is derived from
It come comes from
It come from the most merciful.
It comes from the most merciful, the the
word itself.
So it's being literal here and it's also
being metaphorical. In the sense that
Allah is the one who has told us
to be merciful and to have ties of
kinship with those who are related to us.
So he says
the womb is from the most merciful.
And Allah subhanahu wa ta'ala said, I will
keep good relations
with the one who keeps good relations with
his relatives.
I will keep good relations with the one
who keeps good relations with his relatives.
And whoever from amongst you cuts it off,
I will cut them off.
I will cut him off.
Meaning when you keep your ties of kinship,
Allah subhanahu wa ta'ala will keep his ties
with you.
And Allah subhanahu wa ta'ala will show mercy
towards you. But when you start to cut
people off and you don't talk to, you
know, your relatives and your friend your family
and your your cousins and those who are
close to you and the closer they are,
the more right they have for for you
to keep your ties with them.
The more you cut off from them, the
more Allah subhanahu wa ta'ala will distance himself
from you and the less you will have
the mercy of Allah subhanahu wa ta'ala.
And
also
from the Quran something which shows us the
the importance and the beauty of the mercy
of Allah subhanahu wa ta'ala is a surah
which is actually called Ar Rahman. A famous
surah.
Ar Rahman. Surah Al Rahman. And this surah
begins with the word Ar Rahman,
the name of Allah. And interestingly enough, from
the names of Allah subhanahu wa ta'ala which
appear just on their own. This is from
the from those rare names of Allah which
appear on their own.
Without another one.
Because sometimes it's ghafur Rahim
or Azizul Hakim
or another name of Allah.
But Ar Rahman is one of those rare
names and also Allah.
Allah and Ar Rahman,
which come on their own.
And this is why Allah Subhanahu Wa Ta'ala
says, put,
Call upon Allah or call upon.
He uses both names showing the blessing and
the status of both of these names. So
Allah subhanahu wa ta'ala in this surah, he
begins the actual surah by saying.
He starts by saying, the most merciful.
And then he says
Quran.
The one who taught the Quran.
He created insan. He created man.
And
this shows us the status of the human
being
and how from the mercy of Allah subhanahu
wa ta'ala is that he gave us the
ability to be able to learn and Allah
subhanahu wa ta'ala is the one who has
taught us everything we need to know, everything
we do know from the beginning.
And also at the end of this surah,
Allah finishes the surah by mentioning his name.
The last ayah. What's the last ayah of
the surah?
Allah says blessed is the name of your
lord. Which name is this?
Ar Rahman. Scholar says referring to the first
name in the first ayah of the surah.
Blessed is the name of your lord, owner
of majesty and honor.
So the name is mentioned right at the
end, showing us the importance of the name
of Rahman
and how everything we know Allah subhanahu wa
ta'ala has taught us.
Because when you're a child
or even before you start to learn from
your parents or from others, when
you're a baby and you and you start
picking things up, who's the one who's teaching
you as a baby?
For example, when you leave the womb, we
all know when you're in the womb,
you're breathing
you're inhaling water.
There's no air in the womb, it's liquid.
So when you leave the room, you start
to breathe the air.
Who is the one who gives the child
the ability to be able to breathe the
air?
Ultimately it's Allah subhanahu wa ta'ala.
And after a period of time, the child
starts picking words up. The child starts hearing
things.
The child starts being able to move his
hands.
You know it's amazing when you see a
baby first recognizing
his hands are actually his own,
and he's actually in control of them. There's
a a period of time when the baby
starts learning about, you know,
the mechanics of his own body. And he
starts to realize that, you know, that his
own arms and his hands are actually his
own. He's actually in control of them.
It's It's amazing because they start looking at
their hands. Those of you who have children,
you may know. They start looking at their
hands and they can they can start moving
their hands and they're recognizing that they're actually
in control of them. And that's an amazing
thing because
there's nobody teaching them these things from the
human beings. It's Allah subhanahu wa ta'ala who
has taught the baby all of these things.
There's no human being who's actually teaching the
baby
these specific things.
So this in of itself shows us from
the blessings of Allah, from the rahmah and
the mercy of Allah, as Allah tells us
in the second ayah of the surah,
is the fact that he's taught us things.
From the greatest things which he could have
taught us is the Quran.
Also,
from the benefits of this,
of this name of Allah subhanahu wa ta'ala,
and especially this this verse
of,
Allah telling us that he was the one
who taught us the Quran, and and he's
the one who taught us,
is having patience with those who don't know
when we do know.
You know when we know something and somebody
doesn't know what we know,
sometimes we tend to make fun of them.
You know we ask them, don't you know
this? And they say, no. And you say,
how can you not know this? Everyone knows
this. This is common knowledge, this is general
knowledge. You ought to be dumb not to
know this.
But in fact there was a time in
your life when you yourself didn't know what
what you knew.
There was a period of time when you
didn't know it yourself.
So when Allah
tells us,
the most merciful who taught the Quran, Allah
is telling us he was the one out
of his own mercy who taught us.
Because,
you know, there was a time when we
didn't know.
And there's times when other people don't know
and we know.
And there's things that other people know that
we don't know.
So all of these things are from the
mercy of Allah subhanahu wa ta'ala.
Imam al Hasan al Basri, the famous scholar,
it was said that he would cry a
lot in prayer.
Excessively.
He would cry a huge amount.
And
they would come to him and they would
say to him, why do you cry so
much in your prayer? Why do you end
up crying so much?
And so he replied and he said, what
else would a believer do if he doesn't
cry?
Crying is a call for mercy.
Crying is a call for mercy. You're hoping
for the mercy of Allah when you start
to cry. So if you're able to spend
your life crying then do so. Maybe Allah
will have mercy on you and you'll be
saved from the fire as a result of
the mercy of Allah subhanahu wa ta'ala.
So this was how Imam al Hassan Basri
would spend his time. He would spend his
time crying, understanding the mercy of Allah, Hoping
to attain the mercy of Allah because when
you cry,
as we know when you cry,
a person is more merciful towards even human
beings.
And so when you cry to Allah subhanahu
wa ta'ala, it increases one's it increases one's
chances of his dua also being accepted.
Imam Al Tabari, one of the scholars of
the past,
he would show examples of mercy in his
life,
and he said that if he was explaining
and teaching a book in the masjid,
and he had his students who would come
to learn from him,
If any particular day one of his students
was absent, he wouldn't teach that book.
And he would wait until all the students
were present so he so that everybody could
benefit, so nobody would be left out.
So this was the amount of mercy Imam
al Tabari would have. Imam al Tabari the
famous scholar who wrote the one of the
first books of tafsir, tafsir Tabari. Before he
be kafir, before the other books.
So this was the amount of rahma he
had for his students.
And practically you can't actually do this today
because otherwise I'd be waiting for like 2
years before everyone actually came back together again.
That was a different time. But again it
shows us the the rahma and the mercy
these scholars and the righteous of the past
would actually, you know, show and the way
they would embody this mercy.
Now before we conclude, I wanna just quickly
talk about how as Muslims,
we can earn Allah's mercy.
How can we attain Allah's mercy?
How can individual
hope that Allah will increase their mess
hope that Allah will increase his mercy upon
them over them.
And we'll mention a few things inshallah.
First of all by showing mercy to others,
By just generally being merciful to others. And
we know the famous hadith,
or a number of our hadith,
where the messenger of Allah, in one of
them he said,
The most merciful
is the one who shows mercy to those
who are merciful.
Those who are merciful
to others,
the most merciful
shows them mercy.
Those who are merciful to others,
the most merciful
shows them mercy.
The messenger of Allah continued and he said,
show mercy to those who are on the
earth.
The one who is in the heavens will
show you mercy.
So showing others mercy
will be something which as a result of
which Allah subhanahu wa ta'ala will show you
mercy.
And also the famous hadith when he was
with his grandchildren, Hassan and Hussain.
And he was playing with them, he was
holding them, cuddling them, he was kissing them.
And so a companion saw saw this and
he was surprised.
And he said, oh messenger of Allah,
I have 10 children.
I've never ever kissed them in my life.
And so the messenger of Allah he said,
whoever doesn't show mercy won't be shown mercy.
Whoever doesn't show mercy won't be shown mercy
by Allah subhanahu wa ta'ala.
And also the hadith where
the messenger of Allah SWAMI told us about
the young.
And he said he's not from amongst us
the one who doesn't show mercy to those
who are younger than him.
He isn't from amongst us the one who
doesn't show mercy
to those
who are younger than him. Also,
as we said that the messenger of Allah
sallallahu alaihi wa sallam was someone who
had mercy and was sent as a mercy
to all of mankind, even to animals.
And he said once in a hadith,
when he was telling the companions about the
rights of animals and being kind to animals
and showing mercy to animals, he said whoever
kills even something as small as a sparrow
or anything bigger than that,
then
that individual,
Allah subhanahu wa ta'ala will hold him accountable
for it on the day of judgment.
So for any living thing, even for something
as small as a sparrow and the reason
why sparrow is mentioned is because it's small
compared to other big animals.
So it's something fairly and relatively small. So
he says whoever kills a a sparrow without
any just cause,
Allah subhanahu wa ta'ala will hold him to
account for this on the day of judgment.
So all of these things show us
having mercy towards others, even towards animals,
is something which will show us mercy from
Allah on the day of judgment.
Also from the things which
increases Allah's mercy upon us is having patience.
Having patience. Because Allah
says
Advise with patience and and advise with mercy.
And
sometimes
patience is needed in order to show mercy.
Sometimes it's very hard to show mercy without
being patient first.
If a person's impatient with somebody,
he'll lose his he'll lose his rag, he'll
get angry with them, he'll get annoyed by
them, and he won't show mercy. He'll become
angry. He'll say things. He'll do things to
harm them or to upset them.
So sometimes
patience is something which is a prerequisite. It's
something which you need in order then to
show mercy to other individuals.
Also number 3,
trying your best in everything that you do.
Having
in everything that you do.
Making sure you have.
Trying your best and having excellence in everything
that you do. And this is actually from
a ayah from the Quran. Who can tell
me which ayah this is from?
Excellent. Say
Verily the mercy of Allah subhanahu wa ta'ala
is close
to those who are from the muhsinin, those
who have ihsan.
And the one who has ihsan is the
one who does lots of or who who
tries his best in everything he does.
And of course this is especially the case
with regards to acts of
worship.
The greatest thing you can do and the
greatest thing you can excel in is
is worship.
So Allah says
the mercy of Allah subhanahu wa ta'ala is
close to those who show mercy.
Also,
something to do with the Quran
and the mercy of Allah subhanahu wa ta'ala.
Any ideas?
Over there. The brother over there. Any ideas?
How the Quran can show an individual mercy?
Okay. You be patient by reading the Quran.
Okay.
Okay.
Anyone else?
Okay.
Something to do with listening to the Quran
and reciting the Quran
or listening to the Quran specifically.
When the Quran is being recited,
then listen to it
and remain
silent. What happens when a person does this?
What's the benefit of a person listening and
remaining silent when the Quran is being recited?
So that you can be shown
mercy.
So that Allah's mercy can be
enveloped around you and Allah can send his
his mercy upon you.
So from the ways a person, you know,
and sometimes you know we listen to Quran,
but we're not really listen to Quran.
We're just hearing the Quran.
So we're in the car, we're at home
and the Quran's playing,
but we're not really listening to it. But
in fact Allah tells
us that this is from the etiquettes of
the Quran when it's being recited that a
person should listen and remain silent. And when
a person does this,
Allah's rahma will descend upon that individual.
So these are just some of the ways
in which a person can,
increase
Allah's mercy upon him.
Inshallah, we'll conclude here
and
I'll take a couple of questions if there's
any questions. And inshallah, next week, we'll carry
on with this series. So if there's any
questions, then I'll do my best to answer
them inshallah.
So the brother's asking if there's any books
I can recommend, on this topic.
No.
I can't. I've been looking myself for a
book specifically on this. So if you find
anything,
then
it's called
yeah. I've I've had a website as well.
There's a book in Arabic.
It's called,
An Nahjul Asma
by somebody called.
And in this book, there's a section. It's
basically covering the names of Allah. So it
covers all the names of Allah,
and it talks about how often these names
come in the Quran and the linguistic meaning
and the Islamic meaning. But it has a
small section on each name about how this
name should have an effect on our iman.
But it's, it's only a part of the
the section of each name of Allah.
But, I'm I'm looking,
for specific books. There's many articles online
on this topic, but I haven't found a
complete book. But I'm still looking around. If
I do find something, inshallah, then I'll be
sure to let you know.
Any more questions?
Every Wednesday for the next 6 weeks, inshallah.
InshaAllah.
Any more questions? One more.
So we mentioned the hadith about the names
of Allah at the beginning.
What was the hadith?
Remember the hadith at the beginning?
No?
Whereverly Allah has 99 names except one. Whoever
memorizes them
will enter paradise. We said it's not just
about memorizing them, it's about understanding their meanings
and acting upon them. Also with regards to
the names of Allah,
scholars said there are more than 99 names
of Allah. There's more than 99 names.
But whoever memorizes
99 specifically,
okay, that person and understands them and he
he benefit he acts upon them, this person
will enter paradise.
Okay. Inshallah, we'll conclude here, and we'll carry
on next week.