Aqeel Mahmood – Year the Prophets Ibrahim
AI: Summary ©
AI: Transcript ©
Insha'Allah, as was announced, we're going to be
talking about the
story of Ibrahim, alayhis salam, this great prophet
and messenger of Allah.
And
in this lecture today,
I wanted to focus on one specific aspect
of his life, which I feel is, very
important,
especially
in
this society that we're living in.
And that's
the relationship Ibrahim, alayhis salam, had
with his family members and how he
interacted with them,
and how he treated them, and how he
spoke to them.
And
as a result of
how he dealt with his family members,
how Allah Subhanahu Wa Ta'ala,
reacted
and how Allah talks about,
those incidents in the Quran.
And the reason why I wanted to talk
about this specific aspect of Ibrahim alaihi salam's
life is because, as I mentioned,
we're living in a society where
we don't really
have
as much of a close connection with our
family members
as maybe
we used to.
And I wanted to focus specifically on Ibrahim
alaihis salam's relationship with his father, first of
all,
and also
his relationship with his son Ismail alaihis salam.
And
the differences
between the two relationships, but also
you'll see that there's similarities
between those two relationships.
Ibrahim alaihis salam being the constant, he's the
one who is having this
relationship with his father and also with his
son, but also in the way that he
would deal with them, in the way he
would talk to them, and there's always lessons
we can learn. And as I mentioned because
of how
we aren't as close to our family members,
whether it's because
of the society we live in, you know,
social media playing a big part
of our lives, and we're
socially connected,
but
we're disconnected with our family members as a
result.
You know, we don't we don't
have as much of a connection
with our parents, possibly with our children,
and
you see a lot of breakdowns
in families,
relationships
breaking down,
and
when we look at the story of Ibrahim
alaihis salaam,
there's many lessons we can learn,
Not just in terms of his da'wah and
his steadfastness to his deen and to tawhid,
but also in terms of family.
And Allah subhanahu wa ta'ala in the Quran,
he
mentions the story of Ibrahim
and different aspects of the story in different
parts of the Quran.
And
we also have a connection with Ibrahim
because we're
mentioning the name of Ibrahim
in every single one of our salawat.
This prayer we just prayed, we're mentioning the
name of Ibrahim alayhis salam.
Oh Allah send peace and blessings upon the
prophet Muhammad sallallahu alayhi wasallam. Just like you
send peace and blessings upon Ibrahim and the
family of Ibrahim.
So
we're always
remembering or we're supposed to be remembering Ibrahim
in our salawat when we make these applications.
And Allah subhanahu wa ta'ala in the Quran,
he regularly
mentions
in different parts
the
status of Ibrahim.
Allah Azzawajal says,
Ibrahim
was
an ummah.
He was a nation in and of himself.
He was somebody obedient to Allah.
Obedient to Allah subhanahu wa ta'ala. Inclined towards
the truth.
Hanif. Somebody who would worship Allah subhanahu wa
ta'ala alone. He was inclined towards the truth.
And he wasn't from those who committed shirk.
And so Allah subhanahu wa ta'ala
he
talks about Ibrahim alaihis salam
being somebody
who used to worship Allah,
And as we know about the story of
Ibrahim alaihis salam, he grew up in a
time when there weren't any believers, there weren't
any muslims. Everybody was committing shirk, they were
worshiping idols. As we know his father used
to worship idols and make idols, and it
was a place where everybody was committing shirk.
And so out of all the people whom
Allah chose,
Allah
chose Ibrahim alaihis salam.
And the question has to be asked why
did Ibrahim why was Ibrahim alaihis salam chosen?
Why did Allah choose Ibrahim alaihis salam specifically?
In the next ayah, Allah gives us an
idea and Allah says
He was somebody who was thankful,
grateful for the blessings of Allah upon him.
He was chosen
and he was guided to the straight path.
So
you see this connection now between thankfulness,
he was thankful with the blessings he was
given,
and being guided and being chosen
and being guided to the straight path.
So one of the first lessons we can
learn from this,
aya about the story of Ibrahim alaihis salam
is the importance of showing thanks.
The importance of being thankful to Allah Subhanahu
wa ta'ala. Allah says
call out that verily if you are grateful
then I will increase you.
Meaning if you're thankful to Allah for the
blessings that you have, then Allah will give
you even more.
When you're not thankful to Allah for the
blessings you have and you just want more,
more money, more clothes, more fame, more popularity,
a better career, a better job, a better
car, a bigger house.
If you're always wanting more,
you're going to forget about all the blessings
which you have been given.
And when you're not thankful, Allah subhanahu wa
ta'ala won't increase you in guidance.
So sometimes, you know,
we might be driving in our cars and
we stop at a traffic light, and we
see the car next to us, and it's
a nice, you know, Mercedes or a BMW,
and we think to ourselves, and we're sitting
in our Nissan Micra's
or Citroen Saxo or Ford Fiesta,
and we think to ourselves, you know,
I wish I wish I had a car
like that. I'm this car and you compare.
You start comparing the cars. You look at
that car, you look at your car, and
you think,
and you're not happy.
Whereas,
you tend to neglect other people who may
be looking at your car and they're driving
a car which is 20 or 30 years
old.
And maybe they park up next to you
and they think, when they see your car,
they think, I wish I had his car.
It's all a matter of
perspective.
And so the person with the older car
looks at your car, which is like an
old 4 plate like mine, or you know
an early 2000 model, and they think this
car, I wish I had his car.
Because
for him,
what he has
isn't any good, and for us when we
have blessings from Allah and we see other
people with more, we think whatever we have
isn't very good. Meanwhile,
somebody beside that person
isn't even in a car,
he's riding a bicycle.
And he's looking at this 20, 30 year
old car and he's thinking to himself, I
wish I had a car like that.
You know, it's pouring down with rain, he's
getting soaked,
he's thinking I wish I had a car
like that, I wish I was in that
car, nice and dry and comfortable. I'd get
to my workplace quicker. I'd get to school
quicker.
And then there's somebody who's walking in the
rain, doesn't even have a bicycle.
So, again, it's all a matter of perspective
and he's complaining about the same thing.
He's thinking he's okay, he's on a bike
at least.
I wish I had a bike.
And then you have somebody else
who can't even walk,
somebody who is disabled.
He's not able to walk, he's in a
wheelchair.
Now this individual,
when you're in your car
and your car is not very new, you
compare and you look at in fact all
of the blessings of Allah subhanahu wa ta'ala
and how he's given you these blessings which
all of those people don't have.
That's thankfulness. You're thankful to Allah,
and this is why the messenger of Allah
sallallahu alaihi wasallam, he told us always look
at those who are beneath you, not at
those who are above you.
Except with regards to good deeds.
When there's good deeds to be done, then
always look at those who are better than
you so you can be encouraged.
Whereas with this dunya, always look at those
who are beneath you because then you're thankful.
And when you're thankful to Allah, you're basically
in essence worshiping Allah.
Thankfulness
is a type of worship, inner worship.
Just like fear of Allah. Just like hope
in Allah, etcetera.
So this
quality of thanks is what Ibrahim
had. And Allah increased him and guide us
as a result of this. Because when you're
thankful to Allah,
you're remembering the blessings which Allah
has given you, and you're hopeful Allah will
continue to bless you.
And you're not complaining to Allah. You don't
have su'udhan or bad thoughts of Allah as
a result.
So
Ibrahim alaihis salam
is someone
who, as we know, grew up in a
place where his father was,
someone
who
raised him initially
in the religion of
his own and the religion of those who
were around him, where they were committing shirk.
And in surah Maryam, Allah subhanahu wa ta'ala
talks about this
relationship
with his father. Allah Subhanahu Wa Ta'ala in
Surah Maryam he says,
Ibrahim.
Mention in the book the story of Ibrahim
alaihis salam. Mention Ibrahim alaihis salam.
Verily he was somebody
who was a righteous man and he was
a prophet of Allah.
And this shows us how
much Allah values righteousness
and truthfulness.
Siddiq. Siddiq is somebody who's truthful. Because Allah
could have mentioned many different descriptions to describe
Ibrahim alaihis salam, but he mentions truthfulness. 1
because
from the characteristics
of a prophet is that he's truthful, but
also because when someone's truthful,
it's a praiseworthy thing to have regardless of
if you're a Muslim or a non Muslim.
Nobody likes a liar.
It's something that, you know, causes a person
to lose that status, that respect,
regardless of if he's a Muslim or a
non Muslim.
And so Allah at the beginning he tells
us mention
in the book
Ibrahim alaihis salam.
And Allah here is telling us to constantly
remember and reflect and review
on the life of Ibrahim alaihis salam.
Mention the story. Think about what's happening in
his life. Look at the lessons that we
can learn from it. And there are many
lessons as I mentioned
that we can learn, especially about his family
and how he interacted with his family.
And
also Allah,
when he mentions Ibrahim,
he's mentioning Ibrahim, but he's also praising Ibrahim
as well.
And you could say that when a person
mentions somebody he loves,
when a person mentions somebody he respects,
when somebody has good qualities
and righteous attributes,
a person should mention those good qualities just
like Allah subhanahu wa ta'ala is praising and
mentioning the qualities of Ibrahim
alaihis salam. So he was a prophet of
Allah, and he was somebody who was honest.
He was somebody who was truthful. And Allah
specifically mentions
this attribute of truthfulness with Ibrahim alaihis salam.
And one of the scholars, imam al Sadiq,
he said
that siddiq
means the one who is truthful even in
his actions.
Because you have the sardik,
somebody who's truthful.
Sadiq is an emphasis on the word. And
it's somebody who's truthful not just in his
speech but also in his actions.
How can you be truthful in your actions?
Imam al Sadiq, he says, when someone
does something and it complements what he what
he says.
So saying something which is truthful and then
acting
in the opposite manner,
you're not really reflecting
your
your words. You're not really reflecting
the things that you say. You know, it's
it might be considered 2 faced. It might
be a bit hypocritical.
And if you're telling somebody, you know, smoking
is bad, you shouldn't be smoking, and then
he's smoking himself, and you're thinking, what's going
on here?
So when a person says something and he
acts upon what he says, that's a sign
of somebody who is a siddiq.
Allah subhanahu wa ta'ala continues and he talks
about the dialogue of the conversation Ibrahim alaihis
salam has with his father.
When he says to his father,
Oh my dear father,
Oh my dear father,
why do you worship something that can neither
hear
nor can see?
And you don't benefit from it in any
any way whatsoever.
And just simply the way Ibrahim alaihi salam
is talking to his father is something that
we can learn from.
Because,
there's ways in which we talk to people
depending on who they are.
So if we met a total stranger in
the masjid and he approached and he gave
us salaam, we would be very nice, respectful,
shout our best side.
If he was a friend, you know, we
would relax a little bit and maybe we
wouldn't shout our best side necessarily, because he's
like, he knows you, you know him, you've
known him for years.
There's less care there and attention.
When you're with your family,
unfortunately, the case is nowadays
that you don't really care as much as
you would if you met a stranger.
You'd show more etiquette and manners with somebody
who you've met who you met the first
time as opposed to people in your own
family.
Whereas true
manners and true akhlaq
is how a person behaves with his family
members.
Because the messenger of Allah sallallahu alaihi wasallam
he told us,
He said the best of you are those
who are best to their families.
And another narration,
the best of you are those who are
best to your women's folk, to your women
folk. So in fact, how do we know
a person has good because, you know, everyone
can have good
character and good akhlaq with somebody they don't
know. You know, the first time you meet
somebody, you're not gonna treat them badly,
isn't it? But true akhlaq is when a
person treats his family members, those people he
meets day in,
day out, his wife, her husband, the children,
the parents, the cousins, the relatives, nieces, nephews,
etcetera.
Those people you meet on a regular basis,
when you show to them that's a sign
of true true etiquette and true manners.
It's also the hardest thing, which is why
Ibrahim alaihis salam, when his father was committing
shirk, his father was
making idles for people to commit shirk.
One of the worst greatest sin may want
the major sin that a person can commit.
Ibrahim alaihis salam is showing this akhlaq and
showing this etiquette.
And if we reflect on,
you know, our own family members and if
they committed sins,
and how would we react if we saw,
you know,
our child stealing,
or we saw, you know, our sibling or
somebody else swearing?
How would we respond?
We'd get angry.
So what did you just say?
And you embarrass them, you shout at them,
isn't it? It's just it's just it's just
it just becomes part of nature.
The way you deal with your family, it
just it just becomes normal
to speak in a certain way, which might
not be considered to be good
or
showing the best akhlaq and the best etiquette.
Yet Ibrahim alaihis salam, and this is his
father, is not a stranger to him. The
Babesir live together.
Okay. He raised him. He's a young boy.
He's coming into adulthood,
and he has this akhlaq and this etiquette
even though he knows what they're doing is
the worst sin they could ever commit. But
he's showing this akhlaq.
When you say abi, it means my father.
When you say,
it's an affectionate it's a it's a it's
an affectionate
way of saying, oh my father, oh my
dear father.
It's like saying my dear father, my beloved
father.
There's affection.
There's this respect,
even though he's somebody who's committing shirk. And
this shows us, you know, just because somebody's
committing a sin,
it doesn't mean now that you'd be harsh
with that person just because he's committing that's
that's sin.
You know, even if it is shirk. Because
even when Musa alaihi wasalam was sent to
Firon, Allah said to him,
He said to him, go and speak to
Firon and speak to him with soft words.
Be soft towards him.
And that's something which,
you know, it's it's not something that we
we used to doing when we see somebody
committing a sin today. We're very judgmental, we're
very harsh, we're very strict.
And, you know, Iran is basically, you know,
committing shirk, claims to be god himself.
He murdered and massacred,
babies
because he never he never wanted his kingdom
to be threatened.
So just imagine, you know, imagine someone imagine
if it was Hitler,
for example.
You know, say to him, be be nice
to him, be soft towards him.
It's not easy it's not as easy as
we think,
you know, for someone to show this akhlaq
and this etiquette. So he has this patience
when he's giving
dawah to his own father.
There's this element of patience when he's talking
to his father.
And
it's mentioned that once a man came to
Abu Al Khattab and
this man
was complaining about his son's disobedience towards him.
And so Amr
called the boy,
and he said, why
are you doing what you're doing? Or your
father's asked, mention that you're disrespecting him or
you're disobeying
him. And so the boy replied, he said,
oh,
does a child have rights over his
father? He said, yes. He said, what are
those what are those rights?
And the boy said that he should choose
his mother, give him a good name, and
teach him the book, teach him the Quran.
He said, oh Amirul Momineen,
my father didn't do any of those things.
He never gave me a good name. He
never chose somebody righteous to be my mother,
and he never taught me how to recite
the Quran, how to read the Quran.
My mother was
a a major and a fire worshipper, and
he gave me a name Khun Fassa.
And Khun Fassa is like a dung beetle.
So he gave him this kind of, you
know, bad name.
And he said, he never ever taught me
not even one letter of the Quran.
And so Umar radiallahu an turned to the
father,
and he said, you've come to me complaining
about your
son being disobedient
to you, yet you failed in your duty
to him
before he has failed in his duty to
you.
You have done wrong to him before he
has wronged you.
And so we were talking about this relationship
between Ibrahim alayhis salam and his father.
And, you know, sometimes
we
tend to recognize
certain things in our own children, for example,
that we're not happy with.
They may be disobedient, they may be bad
doing bad things, whatever the case may be.
But at the end of the day, when
we don't give
our children their rights,
or when we don't fulfill our obligations,
when we don't
have and show
them
the best example of what it is what
it means to be a father, what it
means to be a Muslim,
then, of course, they're just going to imitate
what you do and how you speak and
whatever it is that you do on a
day to day basis.
So it's a very important thing to remember
how these akhlaq,
that we see in our children, which we
don't like, could be the
could be as a result of how we
were behaving,
in front of them.
Allah subhanahu wa ta'ala he says that Ibrahim
alaihi wasallam continued and he told him,
Oh my dear father,
verily some knowledge has come to me.
That hasn't come to you. That hasn't reached
you.
So if you follow me, I will guide
you to a straight path. I will guide
you to the straight way.
So Ibrahim alaihis salam, you know, doesn't say
to him,
you don't know anything.
You don't know nothing. What do you know?
Ibrahim the way Ibrahim alaihis salam speak to
speaks to him, he says,
some knowledge has come to me
that hasn't come to you. You haven't received
some knowledge
that I have received, that I've been given.
So look at the way he structures the
words.
Nowadays,
if a son knows something the father doesn't
know, he's gonna use it to his advantage
and say, I'm gonna teach my father today,
teach him a lesson. So he'll argue with
him, and he has this
new piece of information in the back of
his mind, And he'll bring it out and
he'll say, yeah, that that'll teach him
to talk to me like that. Yeah, and
it might be vice versa the same thing.
Okay? We use knowledge sometimes
as
a weapon, knowledge is a weapon, but you
know in the right way.
But Ibrahim
he's not trying to show this arrogance to
his father.
He's trying to show this humility.
That some knowledge has come to
you. Means some knowledge, from knowledge.
Some knowledge has come to me.
That hasn't come to you, hasn't reached you.
Maybe some information has come to you that
you haven't had before. You haven't had it
yet.
Just the way that Ibrahim alayhi salaam is
speaking to him shows the and the etiquette
that a man should have towards his parents,
towards his family members.
And, you know, it's in the nature of
parents
to feel like they know more than their
children. That's the nature of of parents.
And Ibrahim alayhi salam, of course, understands this.
And so this is why he's speaking in
this way, so that the father doesn't feel
threatened. But of course, the nature of this
man who was committing shirk
shows us
his response.
And Ibrahim
continued first of all, and he said,
Oh my dear father, don't worship shaitan.
Verily the devil is disobedient
to the most gracious to our Rahman.
And it's interesting how Ibrahim alaihi salam doesn't
say
that shaitan is
that shaitan is to Allah
the most disobedient.
But he says to the most merciful.
He uses the word the name of Allah,
al ar Rahman, the most merciful.
In the shaytan, akhani al rahmani asiyeh. Earlier
shaytan is to the most merciful, the one
who is disobedient
to the most merciful. Why does Ibrahim
alayhi salam use the name ar Rahman here?
Why didn't he just say Allah?
Because he's trying to make his father understand
the mercy of Allah that if you turn
to Allah, Allah will forgive you for the
sins you've committed.
So look at the detail in terms of
how Ibrahim alaihi wasalam is structuring his sentences
and the things that he's saying,
and reflect on how we speak to our,
you know, family members, and we just say
whatever we want to say, whatever comes out
of our heads, you know, without even caring
about the consequences of those things that we
say. You know, sometimes we might swear in
front of our children, and then our children
start swearing,
you know, a week later, 2 weeks later,
sometime later, and we become furious with them,
we become angry with them. We were just
swearing in front of them like 2 weeks
ago.
What are you so upset about? Who do
you think who do you think they learned
this from?
And the child now is confused.
He's thinking, why is
he he was saying this 2 weeks ago.
Why is it so bad for me to
say? Why is he, you know, shouting at
me? Why is he hitting me for saying
this?
And then you're giving confused mixed messages,
and so he'll feel like he's being oppressed.
So you see the importance of being able
to say the right things and being careful
about what you say in front of
your children and your family members.
Allah subhanahu wa ta'ala, he tells us that
Ibrahim continues and he says,
oh my dear father, I'm afraid.
I'm
afraid.
That the most merciful will afflict you with
a punishment.
And so you'll become an ally of the
shaitan instead.
So again, look at the words.
I'm afraid for you. Nowadays, we don't say
that to our kids or to family members
who are committing sins.
We also say I'm afraid for you. When
you say I'm afraid for you that something
might happen to you, it shows his care
and concern.
When you say you despicable
child,
you,
you know, the when you did when you
disgrace them in that way, okay, they're not
gonna gonna listen to you in the first
place.
You know, when the whole approach is wrong,
they're just gonna ignore you.
You're humiliating them.
When you show your concern
in the uhaf, I'm afraid for you. I'm
afraid what's gonna happen to you as a
result of this.
You're showing you have a concern for them.
You're afraid
for the consequences
of the actions that you might do.
So again, it shows us the beauty of
how Ibrahim alayhis salam is speaking to his
father.
And then
you see the response of his father. Look
at the effort Ibrahim alayhis salam is making
in terms of how he's trying to speak,
how carefully he's using his words.
You know, how he's being soft and gentle
and show his love and affection, even though
his father's committing shirk.
His father replies and says,
Are you renouncing our God's O Ibrahim?
Are you renouncing my God O Ibrahim?
If you don't stop this I'm going to
stone you alive.
So leave me alone for a while.
Look at the response of his father, and
look at the effort Ibrahim made.
And,
you know, imagine if we made this effort
with our parents, with our children, with our
relatives, We spoke in a nice way. We
were careful with how we spoke, and we
were soft and kind and loving and gentle
and had Hikma.
And they responded in the worst kinds of
ways, you know, swearing at us, saying, who
do you think you are talking to me
about,
religion and leave me alone and you're a
despicable person and maybe swearing?
How would we respond?
We'd say, how? Look at the effort that
I made. How dare you talk to me
like this? And we'll we'll respond with words
worse than he even said to us.
Mostly that's his dust gone out the window
now. I didn't that didn't work.
Now now the gloves are off,
isn't it?
But look at how Ibrahim alaihis salam responds,
and this shows you, you know, we took
we live in a society where
strength is defined by how
how much you can lift in the gym,
you know, how many moves, you know, in
martial arts or,
you know,
how you how you talk.
That's how strength is defined.
But anyone can can can speak tough, anyone
can, you know, throw a punch or throw
a kick to a certain extent. Everyone can
do those things.
But true strength is as the messenger of
Allah said,
that the
strong one isn't the one who can take
the other person down, wrestle the other person
to the ground. But the strong one is
the one who can control his anger.
And controlling your anger can be using refraining
from saying something or refraining from doing something.
So when someone responds to you in a
despicable way and you refrain, you hold your
tongue, you stop yourself from saying something bad
back,
that's a sign of true strength.
That's real strength. That's mental strength.
And, you know, stopping yourself from harming somebody
if he decides to harm you. It's hard
it's easy to hit somebody.
You know, throwing a punch, throwing a kick,
throwing something at them. But it's harder to
stop yourself, especially if you've been hit. That's
the sign of real strength. Knowing you're capable
of doing something
to somebody, but stopping yourself.
You know? Somebody hits you, somebody smaller than
you, a sibling, a family, somebody a family
member, someone younger than you, weaker than you,
and they hit you,
and they hit you when you respond. You
think you made a big mistake. You don't
know what's going to happen to you now.
You're in trouble,
because
we know what we're capable of.
And so we hit them or, you know,
beat them up twice as bad as they
did to us, if it's a sibling or
whatever the case may be. But, you know,
refraining from,
harming somebody,
you know,
keeping your hands and your tongue safe from
others is something which is part of Islam.
And so we see the
the the response of his father, and look
at how Ibrahim alayhi salam now responds.
Ibrahim alayhi salam,
he
says
peace be with you.
I will ask my lord to forgive
you. Verily he has been kind to me.
So he's responding by giving salaam,
saying peace be with you.
You know, it's not responding in a harsh
way. And on top of this, he's saying
I'm gonna ask Allah to forgive you.
Now what's interesting is, you know, if this
happened in our in in our lives, in
a in in
in a scenario
related to us and somebody else, and somebody
was very harsh and cruel and rude towards
us,
and we responded by saying, you know, peace
be with you, you know, I hope things
work out for you. I'll ask Allah to
make things easy for you. I ask that
Allah forgives your shortcomings.
How would you think that person would feel
after being rude to you and hearing that
response?
He's gonna feel a sense of
guilt,
a sense of shame,
isn't it? He's gonna think, I wasn't expecting
this.
And so there's a psychological effect that it
has on a person. When a person shows
good akhlaq to a person,
even though
you're being rude to even though you're being
rude to them. If you're rude to somebody,
if they continue to show good akhlaq towards
you,
eventually you're going to soften towards that person,
because it's just not expected.
It has that effect on an individual, and
that really shows the beauty
of ham,
which is being easygoing.
You know ham, you know a person having
good akhlaq and good character.
So Ibrahim alaihis salaam, he says to him,
and I withdraw, I dissociate
from you and from what you're worshiping besides
Allah.
And I'm gonna make supplication dua to Allah,
to my Lord.
And I hope
that
I won't be disappointed
in my prayer to my lord. Meaning I
hope that Allah subhanahu wa ta'ala will respond
to my supplication.
So he only left
really when his life was in danger because
his father was threat threatening him to be
stoned.
And it also shows us this constant good
akhlaq and etiquette
that one should have, especially with one's parents,
and also keeping relations
with your family members as close as you
can, as much as you can. And obviously
every single,
relationship that you have with a family member
is different,
and it it's different from person to person,
you know, and by, you know, on a
case by case basis,
or every single one of us has a
different relationship with our fathers, mothers, brothers, sisters,
children, whatever the case may be.
But a person should do whatever he can
to keep his end of the bargain.
You know, just keeping that contact as best
as he can, whether it's visiting, whether it's
calling, whether it's texting, whether it's emailing, whatever
whatever it is. A person does whatever he
can from his side. As for that person
and the way he responds or even if
he doesn't respond, that's between him and Allah.
But you do whatever you're able to do,
and this is why the messenger of Allah
sallallahu alaihi wasallam he told us,
Whoever is pleased that he is given more
in terms of his wealth,
and that his life is prolonged,
then let him keep his ties of kinship.
Let him keep relations with his relatives.
And of course the closest are those who
are closest to us, our parents. So again,
it shows us the benefits of keeping ties
of kinship close.
Allah will increase
your longevity in life. Allah will increase your
wealth.
Allah subhanahu
wa
ta'ala
then
says,
When he withdrew from them
and from what they used to worship
from other than
Allah.
We granted him and we gifted him and
we blessed him with and
we made all of them prophets of Allah.
When Allah, subhanahu wa ta'ala,
called Ibrahim alayhi sallam to leave his home
and his family and everything
that he possessed,
when he left everything behind for the sake
of Allah,
Allah replaced him with something even better.
Children who are going to be prophets of
Allah.
And of course, he didn't know this at
the time
that his, you know, descendants will be prophets.
In fact, Ibrahim alaihis salam is called Abu
Anbiya,
father of the prophets, because every single prophet
or messenger that came after Ibrahim was from
his descendants.
Every single one of them.
Through his through his heart,
Yaqub and Yusuf and Musa, Isa, Dawood, Soleiman,
etcetera.
And through Ishmael, the prophet Muhammad sallallahu alaihi
wa sallam.
So look at this blessing.
And he sacrificed
leaving his home and his family and where
he was comfortable. And you have to remember,
he's young in age.
You know, he's just turned into an adult.
You know, you could see around in his
teens, and he's leaving home. What a big
sacrifice he's making. And this also shows us
his faith and how much Allah
guided him. So it also shows us not
to be afraid
of doing something haram
because Allah will take care of you if
you leave something which is wrong, just like
Allah took care of Ibrahim alaihis salaam.
So you know those of us who are
involved in haram things, whether it's business or
whether it's bad habits or whatever the case
may be, when you leave those things Allah
will
always reward you with something better. Allah will
give you something better as a result.
So this is the conversation Ibrahim alaihis salam
had with his father.
And there's this, you know, kindness and affection,
and this with this wisdom when he was
talking to his father in this way.
And
in Surah Safat,
Allah Azzawajal
talks about the conversation Ibrahim alaihis salam had
with his son now.
Allah says
Ibrahim alayhi salam, he left
home and he said verily I am going
to my lord, he will guide me.
Meaning leaving for the sake of Allah.
He's leaving for the sake of Allah, and
he's asking for Allah subhanahu wa ta'ala's aid.
So he's reminding himself, I am leaving
for the sake of Allah.
As a result of which
he will guide me to the truth.
Because I'm sacrificing,
leaving behind everything that I know for the
sake of Allah.
And when a person does a good deed,
he should always remember consciously
the reward he will get as a result
of doing that good deed.
Because it makes those good deeds the quality
of those good deeds is is better. He's
more sincere.
For example,
when a person gives charity,
he remembers the hadith,
That wealth doesn't decrease by one giving charity.
When someone prays
his prayers.
The 10 or 12 rakat that a person
has to pray in the day. The recommended
nawafi,
Rawatib, the recommended sunnah prayers in the day.
And the reward of how Allah will build
for him a house in paradise when he
offers those prayers.
When those things are conscious in your mind,
then
as a result of this, Allah subhanahu wa
ta'ala will be closer to you. You'll be
closer to Allah because now there is this
connection
between you and those righteous deeds.
Allah subhanahu wa ta'ala then says
that Ibrahim alayhi salam he said,
Oh my lord give me one of the
righteous.
Bless me
with
righteous offspring.
So you see he's leaving for the sake
of Allah,
he's doing this good deed and he's asking
Allah for something, he's supplicating
to Allah,
as a result of him
leaving for the sake of Allah.
Meaning when a person does a good deed,
in fact it's recommended
when you do a good deed, to supplicate
to Allah
after a person does a good deed.
One of the times a person's dua is
accepted is when he does a good deed
and then he asks Allah subhanahu wa ta'ala
for something after doing a good deed. Because
he's making this link now. Ibrahim left
everything for the sake of Allah and then
he says,
oh my Lord give me from righteous offspring.
When Ibrahim alaihis salam was building the Kaaba
for example, while he was building the Kaaba,
he was making dua.
Oh Allah make this oh my lord. Make
this place a place which is safe.
And provide for its people.
And he's supplicated for a prophet and messenger
to come from these people.
So while he's doing a good deed, he's
supplicating to Allah. So when a person does
a righteous deed, he should make supplication, make
dua to Allah, and that's a time when
a person's supplication will be responded.
Then Allah subhanahu wa ta'ala says,
So we gave him good news of a
forbearing boy, a righteous boy, a boy who
has this patience.
Halim.
Meaning
because he's supplicated to Allah after doing this
righteous deed,
Allah responded.
And the word the letter at the beginning
shows that Allah subhanahu wa ta'ala was swift
in his response to this supplication.
So we gave him glad tidings of a
forbearing boy, a boy that was that had
him.
He was forbearing. He was somebody who had
this patience, this softness about him.
And this was
this was his child. Ibrahim alayhi salaam
was blessed with his child, and he was
described as haleem.
Ibrahim alayhi salaam was also described as haleem.
In another part in the Quran, Allah subhanahu
wa ta'ala he says,
verily Ibrahim
was forbearing. He had and
he was grieving
and frequently returning to Allah subhanahu wa ta'ala.
He would always return back to Allah. Whenever
he was distressed, he would turn back to
Allah. And he was somebody who was forbearing.
You know, he could handle. He he would
always return back to Allah. When he was
whenever he was in a difficult situation, he
would turn back to Allah. He was forbearing.
He had this element of of patience. Halim
means to be patient. It means to be
forbearing.
To control yourself
in times of anger and rage. And so
this quality of Ibrahim
was also given to his son.
So when Ibrahim showed this good quality, this
good character towards his par his father for
example,
this character of Helm,
showing forbearance,
controlling his anger and his rage
with the way his father spoke to him,
Allah subhanahu wa ta'ala blessed him by giving
the same good attributes and good qualities to
his son.
So when a person has bad attributes that
he possesses,
and he behaves in a bad way, he's
rude, he swears, he's greedy, he's stingy, he's
selfish, he's arrogant, he's you know, he has
pride,
then his child will also have those bad
characteristics.
And if a person has good characteristics like
Ibrahim alaihis salam had, Allah will bless the
child also to have those good characteristics.
Allah subhanahu wa ta'ala, as we know,
ordered Ibrahim alaihis salam to leave his wife
and his son Ishmael
in the middle of the desert.
And
he had trust in Allah that Allah will
provide for them,
even though this is one of the most
difficult things a person can do.
And when he was old enough,
when Isma'il was old enough, Ibrahim alaihi salam
you know the story of how they were
left in the desert and Mecca was eventually,
established as a result of Allah
blessing them with water, which made them, able
to settle in that area and eventually Ishmael
alaihi salaam married into the Arabs. When he
became older, Ibrahim alaihi salaam would visit him
regularly and his family and and his wife.
Allah azza wa jal, he says,
that when he was old enough, meaning when
Ishmael was old enough alayhis salam,
Ibrahim alayhis salam said to him,
oh my dear father.
Verily I see in a dream that I'm
sacrificing you.
So what do you think?
Now
this is very interesting, because
dreams are some of those things. We might
have a dream, and
those dreams, we may not even tell our
own spouses about those dreams.
When you tell somebody about a dream,
what does that show you about their relationship?
That they're very
close.
They're very close,
because, you know, no random person is gonna
come to you and say, oh, I had
this dream and,
you know, he'll start talking about his dream
and opening up about his dream. It's a
very personal thing.
So when you tell somebody about a dream,
you're telling somebody that you trust.
Somebody you you love.
And so Ibrahim
telling his son about this dream shows us
telling him about this dream shows us the
relationship that they had,
and how close they were to one another.
This father and son relationship.
And also he says,
what do you think about this dream?
Even though we know that prophets, whenever they
were
given dreams,
those dreams those dreams were true.
They were true dreams,
And they were commands which had to be
carried out carried out because they were revelation
from Allah in the form of a dream.
But yet he's still asking his son, what
do you think about this dream?
He's asking for his opinion.
And again, this shows us how important it
is to,
talk to our children, and when they reach
that age,
when they become adults,
the age of puberty, when they reach the
age of, you know, when they're teenagers,
to ask for their opinions in certain matters
that we see fit and that we think
are appropriate for them to be able to
discuss and to respond to and give their
opinions on.
Because it gives them a sense of
maturity, make it makes them feel like they're
adults.
Even for adults, even for us, if somebody
was to ask our opinion about something, how
would we feel? We'd feel valued.
We'd feel like, you know, this person values
my opinion.
He's respecting my opinion, what I think.
So imagine the effects this would have on
somebody who is young, on a teenager,
asking for his opinion. What do you think?
You'll think, wait. My father's never asked me
something like this before.
You know, I better I better be careful
about what I say. I want to say
something good. I want to impress my dad
now.
It gives him a sense of maturity.
And again, subhanallah, there's so many lessons we
can learn from this about their relationship.
And if you think about this dream,
and him sacrificing his son,
look at the response of Ismael alayhis salam.
Because imagine, you know, your father comes to
you and says, I had a dream that
I was sacrificing
you.
You'd you'd run amau, you'd you'd call your
call the authorities and say, look, my dad's
threatening me. He's gonna kill me.
But look at what Ishmael alayhi salam says.
He says,
oh my dear father, do whatever you've been
ordered to do.
You'll find me God willing from those who
are from the patient.
When
a person is obedient to Allah,
just as Ibrahim alayhi salam was obedient to
Allah,
in terms of obeying Allah, worshiping Allah, leaving
shirk,
leaving his homeland,
building the Kaaba,
leaving his family before that in the middle
of the desert.
All of these things,
when when a person obeys Allah,
the more a person obeys Allah, it's one
of those things which causes his own children
to end up
obeying
him. Just like we see in this example.
Ishmael alaihi salam says, oh my dear father,
do whatever you've been told to do. You'll
find me from those who are patient.
And patience here
is when a person,
you know, patience isn't just waiting. Sometimes we
think patience is just waiting,
you know, and not saying not not doing
something that we shouldn't be doing. Patience is
refraining
oneself, alimsak. It's stopping oneself
from doing something which is wrong.
You know, swearing,
backbiting,
gossiping,
you know, harming somebody. When a person stops
himself and refrains himself from doing those things,
that's the sign of somebody who has patience.
So of course patience has levels,
but that's true patience.
Because you're having patience over,
you know, something which has happened to you,
something you've been afflicted with. And you're not
complaining to Allah in a negative way,
You're not asking why did Allah do this
to me?
You know, why did this happen to me?
And you're not complaining to Allah in a
negative way as a result of what's happened.
You're showing this patience.
You're waiting for the relief of Allah subhanahu
wa ta'ala to come to you as a
result of this patience that you're showing. So
Ibrahim alaihi salam, as Allah says,
when they both submitted to
and Ibrahim put his forehead down on the
ground because he was gonna sacrifice him as
he saw in the dream.
Again this shows us the submission to Allah
that they both had.
Ibrahim.
And then we called out to him, oh
Ibrahim.
Why did Allah Azzawajal
wait until he had his head down on
the ground to see the commitment of Ibrahim
alaihis salam. Sometimes
relief doesn't come straight away when we're tested
by Allah. Sometimes relief will come,
you know, as we're going through those trials
and tribulations
and those struggles and it gets harder and
harder,
Allah wants to see our breaking point. Whether
we're gonna crack, whether we're gonna break.
And when we continue to show that persistence
and that patience,
then
just when it's something which is too difficult
to bear, Allah subhanahu wa ta'ala will show
us respite, Allah will show us relief, Allah
will give us a way out. There's a
story of this man who asked another man
who was who had this quality of patience,
show me how how do you get this
patience?
How do you have this
this steadfastness?
He said I'll show you.
I'll bite your finger and you bite my
finger,
and then
I'll show you about patience.
So they bit each other's fingers,
and they were biting harder and harder.
This is an interesting story. So somebody's thinking,
what's going on here? Biting against his fingers.
So they bite each of his fingers harder
and harder,
and the one who was asking
screamed out.
Screamed out because it was it was too
much for him to bear.
And he moved his own finger out of
the person's mouth.
And so
the man
who had this quality of patience, he said
to him,
the reason why you screamed, or in fact,
when you screamed,
I just had that extra bit of patience
and steadfastness
and tolerance
that you never had.
Meaning, it was just that much more.
As soon as you screamed,
okay, you took your finger out, I took
my finger out just, you know, just as
soon as you took your finger out.
Meaning,
it's just that little bit extra that you
show,
that other people maybe don't show.
It's just that one more step.
You know, you're showing that extra patience,
that extra
halm, forbearance,
that maybe others won't show, and it's just
something extra that you do as opposed to
giving up
your showing that steadfastness.
Allah Subhanahu wa ta'ala he says,
we called out to Ibrahim.
Oh Ibrahim.
Verily you have fulfilled the dream, you have
fulfilled the vision, the dream that you had.
This is how we reward the doers of
good. Ibrahim
did what he could to carry out the
commandments of Allah. He tried his best. And
when we do this, Allah subhanahu wa ta'ala
reward us for our efforts.
This was clearly an evident test. It was
a clear test.
This was a test for you.
Because this life, every single one of us
for every single one of us, this life
is also a test.
And
every single thing that happens to us, we
should remember,
it's a test from Allah azza wa Jal
to see how we're going to respond, how
we're going to react.
And we redeemed him with a great sacrifice.
Allah rewarded him for passing this test by
replacing his son with a ram, with an
animal that was sacrificed instead.
And we left him for later generations,
meaning he will be loved and respected by
people who came after him. Because these stories,
you know, we we've had them,
and and these incidents took place 1000 of
years ago.
And again this shows us Allah Subhanahu Wa
Ta'ala
specifically chose
incidents,
stories,
examples
of things which the prophets and the messengers
and the righteous did in their lives, as
an example to us. Allah could have chosen
anything,
but Allah chose these specific things.
And this shows us the quality
of the obedience of Ibrahim alaihis salam to
his father. To
to Allah Subhanahu Wa Ta'ala. Allah says
peace be upon Ibrahim.
So Allah is praising Ibrahim
now as a result of him doing righteous
deeds.
This is how we reward the doers of
good. Allah will only reward
those who do good deeds and those who
strive to do good deeds. The more a
person strives for the sake of Allah, the
more Allah subhanahu wa ta'ala will reward him.
Verily he is from our believing servants.
Iman. When somebody has faith. Not just he
wasn't just a Muslim, he was.
He was a believing slave. He had iman.
He had faith.
And we blessed him, we gave him the
good news of another child, Ishaq.
Another prophet.
Somebody who was from the righteous.
So look at how when a person does
righteous deeds Allah rewards him.
As a result of his perseverance, as a
result of his good deeds. And Ibrahim alayhi
wasalam was gonna sacrifice his one and only
son,
who he had at an old age, some
say around 80 years old.
He had his child Ishmael alayhi wasalam.
Look at how Allah
through his test with his son, Ishmael alayhi
salam, Allah blessed him with another child
as a result.
So again, this shows us the importance of
doing righteous deeds and how Allah rewards
people
depending on the types of deeds that they
do.
We blessed him and we blessed Ishaq. But
among their descendants
are those who are righteous and among those
are those who are unjust to themselves, they
were oppressors.
So not only did Allah bless, Allah bless
Ibrahim alayhis salam and his son, but
Allah blessed him by giving
him descendants who are prophets of Allah. And
some were righteous and some weren't.
But when a person obeys Allah and is
obedient to Allah, Allah will bless him with
righteous offspring the more one obeys Allah subhanahu
wa ta'ala. So insha'Allah,
we'll conclude here, but one of the most
important lessons we can learn here is how
important it is to conduct ourselves a certain
way when we speak and when we behave,
and how we speak and how we behave
with our family members,
and the results,
how it can affect us,
our lives, how it can affect our children's
lives,
how we how we can affect our connection
and relationship with Allah subhanahu wa ta'ala. So
we ask Allah subhanahu wa ta'ala
that he
gives us this
forbearance and steadfastness
with regards to our worship towards him, and
that Allah subhanahu wa ta'ala makes us,
people who are a good example to our
family members.
Yeah. If there's any questions, then I'll do
my best to answer them inshallah.
Any questions?