Fatima Lette – Exploring The Quran For Women Lessons From The Prophet’s Life #06
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The interviewer discusses the interviewer's "overlelf behavior" and how Facebook's du birth reminds people of hardship and desperate. They emphasize the importance of hardship and hard work in achieving success and building a successful life. The interviewer also emphasizes the importance of remembering the Prophet's words and walking in the footsteps of the Prophet.
AI: Summary ©
All righty, whoa, shocks me every time, it's
so loud.
All right, Salinkum, everybody.
How are you guys doing?
I am good.
I am back in one piece, so that's
all I can ask for.
I went to Costa Rica.
For work, because everybody that says that I
did, I did the applying, and a new
zip, and that was really cool.
But we'll talk about that later.
That was a, yeah, it was good.
And I convinced other people to do it
too, and they really hated me throughout the
process, but then at the end, they were
like, really love it.
Actually, they literally just sent me the halakha
right now.
That's crazy.
Alhamdulillah, welcome back to Exploring the Quran.
I know you guys didn't take a break.
I just took a break from last week,
alhamdulillah.
Last week, the topic that we've been covering
and talking about has been seerah through the
Quran, so learning about the life of the
Prophet, and some practical lessons that we can
take from his life.
And we're learning about it by looking through
the verses of the Quran, and also what
is known as sometimes like a sabah al
-nuzul, some type of circumstance of revelation where
a situation may have occurred during the life
of the Prophet, and then from there, verses
came down in reference to that.
But in the earlier stages of the life
of the Prophet, you're not gonna find a
lot of verses that come in direct correlation
with something that occurred, right?
So right now, we're not even in prophethood
yet.
We're still discussing his early life.
Last week, you guys covered his time with
Halima Sa'adiyah.
And in a way, being able to understand
by means of the verses as well, how
Allah SWT takes care of a person, right?
So in the places that we're not necessarily
at yet where the Prophets were receiving revelation,
we're still going through verses in correlation to
what has occurred in his life at that
time.
So today, inshallah, we're gonna talk about a
very important moment and time of his life.
And this is a, it was a very
pivotal moment and something that's happened two times.
And that is the splitting of the chest
of the Prophet, peace be upon him.
Now, whenever sometimes we have this particular conversation
and something that comes up in all of
the Seder books, a lot of times people
can't really relate.
You know, they're like, you know what, no
angels come to me and cut my heart
open and purified it.
So like, how am I supposed to be
a good person?
And I want us to, I'm gonna obviously
cover, not obviously, but I'm gonna cover what
exactly happened.
But as I'm covering it, I don't want
us to focus on the miraculous part of
it.
I want us to focus on what was
the reason, right?
What is the understanding?
Why did that happen?
And then figure out when Allah SWT tells
us, waqad kana lakum fee rasoolil laahi usootun
hasana, that without a doubt, you'll find in
the Prophet, peace be upon him, a very
perfect role model.
That means every aspect of his life, right?
So what does it mean that now we
can take this as an example and apply
it to our life, even though we don't
have an angel coming and cutting our heart
open and purifying it in zamzam water?
We don't have that.
But what was the essence of that situation
that occurred and why?
So when the Prophet, peace be upon him,
as you guys had heard from Mustafa Rabia,
when he was younger, they had a custom.
And that custom was to be able to
send their kids back to the countryside.
And it was for them to be able
to stay away from the diseases of the
city, because the city was like a melting
pot.
And in addition to that, to strengthen them
in health.
And then on top of that, that they
will learn the language, like the most purified
form of the language and all these different
things.
And you will find that still in practices
and cultures today.
Like my culture, I'm West African.
So a lot of people who have immigrated
here to the States or wherever away from
Gambia, they will send their kids back.
They'll send their kids back for a couple
of years to be able to learn the
language, to be able to really identify with
their culture.
And then they'll bring them back to wherever
it is that they immigrated to.
And even within Gambia, you will have that
there are times where they will send the
kids to villages to be able to memorize
Quran.
They'll send them there to be able to
learn actually what a hard life looks like
and teach them gratitude and all these things.
So you will find it in different cultures
today that people do these things.
And it's not out of any type of
resentment or any type of hate towards a
child or other than that, but more so
out of being able to show your child
different perspectives and for them to be able
to realize that like the life that you
may be afforded here in this one context
is not actually what life looks like.
So the Prophet shallallahu alaihi wasallam has this
time with Halima Saadiya and you have that
Allah SWT has blessed that family with so
many things, like the camels moving fast, they
have milk all of a sudden, they were
the poorest on the block that everybody wants
to live next to them.
It's just wild.
So Halima Saadiya, she takes the Prophet, it's
time for the Prophet to return back home
and she takes him back to Aminah and
she says to her like, we wanna keep
him for a little bit longer.
And we wanna keep him for a little
bit longer because he will learn the language
better, he'll become stronger.
The longer they stay in the village, the
better for them.
And ultimately, he's brought a lot of blessing
into our life.
And so Aminah says to her, do you,
it's perfectly fine, you can take him back.
Now within that timeframe, between the ages of
five, four to five years old-ish, and
think about a four and five year old,
like a really tiny person, right?
Even though at that time, people who are
around that age had a different, like you
would say, a different mental capacity than what
we will see a four or five year
old today.
But in terms of size, it was probably
about the same size, right?
So the Prophet, peace on him, was around
that age when a very intense situation occurs.
The only thing that we have many narrations
about it, but one of the narrations shows
us that Abdullah, the foster brother of the
Prophet, peace on him, so the son of
Halima, comes running.
And he comes running to Halima and telling
her, my brother, my brother, my brother, he
can't get many words out, but he's saying
it.
And she says to him, what happened?
And he says that he died, he died.
But it's kids, you know?
A kid sees somebody on the floor, honestly,
their chest is open, okay?
He's like, there are two men, and they
kill them.
Like, he's done, he's dead, and so Halima
runs out.
When she runs out, the Prophet, peace on
him, gets up.
He's fine, he gets up.
So she asks him, what happened?
And the Prophet, peace on him, then began
to narrate to her what happened.
And there's many different narrations, but in this
particular narration, he says that there are two
people who came to me dressed in all
white.
And he said that when they got very
close to me, they asked, ahoo, ahoo, is
that him?
Like, is this the right one?
And then the response was yes, like, it's
the right one.
Then they came and they took him.
He says that they took me, they rushed
over to me, they took me, they laid
me on my back, and then they opened
up my chest.
And when they opened up my chest, they
removed my heart.
And when they removed my heart, they put
my heart into this golden, like, pot, like
a golden little plate, like a bowl, a
bowl plate.
And in that bowl plate, the water was
very cold, and it had zamzam.
And they washed his heart.
And when they washed his heart, before they
washed his heart, one of the people said,
tini bima in thaj, bring cold water, falasa
la bihi.
And then they went and they washed it.
And the first thing that they washed out
of that heart was they washed anything that
was like negative, like any type of evil
or any type of wrong, right?
And now the question comes, well, does the
Prophet Salaam have evil in his heart?
The reality of it is that people can
be swayed, right?
The reality of it is that the Prophet
Salaam was human.
And in him being human, they're saying that
they washed out any of these inclinations that
could have happened.
So it's not that he was this way.
It was that there's an inclination that could
have happened.
You have narrations, for instance, where there's a
time when Ayatollah Abdullahi Rahman, she was like
having a very bad day.
And she was having a bad day.
And the narration says that she was kind
of like being really snappy about everything, like
everything that came up, she had something to
say about it.
And so the Prophet Salaam asked her, are
you feeling jealous right now?
Like, are you being like, you know, because
you're not really liking, you know, like you're
feeling a little spicy, like what's going on?
So you ask her, are you feeling jealous
right now?
She says, yeah.
He said, that's your shaitan bothering you.
Okay, that is your shaitan bothering you because
every person has a shaitan.
What that means is that there's always something
doing some type of waswasat to you.
You ever been in a situation where perhaps
you want to make the right decision, but
you're so inclined to make the wrong decision?
Like you want to calm down and you
want to deal with this level-headedly and
you want to be kind and you want
to be nice about it.
And then you're like, actually, I don't.
Like, actually, I spent all this time talking
myself off the edge and I just want
to jump off now.
Like, I'm just going to go in, right?
So like, the worst crash out of all
time, that's because we're human.
And in being human, sometimes your emotion takes
over.
So Aisha radiyallahu ta'ala, she asked, then
asked the Prophet shallallahu alaihi wa sallam, she
said to him, does every person have this?
You know, and look at the beauty.
She didn't get defensive and to ask him
like, are you calling me the devil?
Like, blah, blah, blah.
She didn't say all that because she knew,
like maybe she couldn't identify immediately what that
emotion was and she was being snappy, but
he identified it for her.
And then he didn't get mad at her
and say, oh, look at you, you're being
like this.
He didn't say that.
He's like, seems like, you know, like we
know that you have a jealousy thing.
So it seems like that's what's acting up
right now.
And her response was, does everybody have this?
Like, am I broken?
Or is this for everybody?
And he says, everybody has it.
And then she says to him, even you,
ya Rasulallah, he says, yeah, even me, but
mine became Muslim.
And instead of my devil controlling me, I
control it, right?
But best because Allah SWT gave him that
extra level of strength, that extra level of
resolve.
But he didn't say, no, I don't have
it.
He didn't say that.
He says, yes, I have it too, but
mine is Muslim.
Mine doesn't mess with me.
In fact, I just guide it to what
it needs to do.
So here, when he's saying that the evil
is removed from him, it's like an inclination
towards doing wrong because sometimes your nafs calls
you towards that.
Now, what's interesting is that then the angel
tells the other angel, bring sakinah, bring tranquility,
and puts tranquility, like pours tranquility on the
heart.
And he says, bring rahmah, bring this mercy,
and pours that mercy onto the heart of
the Prophet.
When we talk about, we read the narrations
of how kind and how loving the Prophet
was, sometimes it feels like out of this
world.
You think to yourself, I don't know if
I could have been that person.
And truly, sometimes the answer is, you probably
couldn't.
You really probably couldn't, and it's okay.
No one is holding you accountable for that
because you're not in that situation.
And he's in that situation for a reason.
And sometimes you see the levels and levels
and levels of difficulty and hardship that the
Prophet has experienced, and you think to yourself,
no human can bear that.
And it almost makes it feel like he's
not attainable.
When truly what Allah SWT is showing us
is that being able to weather the storm,
being able to push through difficulty, being able
to have that strength and have resolve and
have good judgment, have wisdom, and all of
these things, they're truly a mercy from Allah.
It's truly a mercy from Allah.
Because sometimes you shock yourself.
Sometimes you're sitting down, you're evaluating a situation
that happened, and you're like, wow, I actually
handled that really well.
And I should buy myself something nice because
I did a good job today.
And you're shocked because you, Fatima, me five
years ago, Fatima 2.5 seconds ago, Fatima
maybe three minutes ago, would have been like
crash out queen.
But Fatima right now is deciding to make
a better decision, not because of her own
ability, but because the ability Allah gave her.
And so what we're learning actually from the
splitting of the chest of the Prophet, is
that Allah SWT is showing us that miracles
go far beyond only your du'as being
answered.
They have everything to do with who you
are in your daily life.
It has everything to do with how you
carry yourself.
It has everything to do with your resolve,
and your calmness, and your kindness, and your
compassion, and your love.
All of these things, to be selfless, is
actually a miracle from Allah.
Because there's nothing that the body or the
self wants more than to be selfish.
So when a person can put themselves to
the side and care about something else or
someone else, it is a miracle from God.
How many people have we seen over the
past year and a half who could care
less about babies getting killed?
How many people have we seen over the
past couple, the past two days, right?
The entire world is literally on fire or
freezing to death.
There's like on fire, freezing to death, or
being killed.
These are, this is what we're facing right
now.
And how many people are going about their
daily life and still PR promoting, even though
they're down the street from wildfires?
Because Allah has not given them that blessing
of resolve.
It has not given them that blessing of
akhla, like logic, and reasoning, and compassion, and
kindness.
So this is a moment for all of
us to say alhamdulillah.
Alhamdulillah, Allah has allowed my heart to be
awake enough to recognize the suffering of someone
else, whether it be big or small.
Alhamdulillah, Allah has given me the heart to
be able to recognize his blessing, because it's
not something that I could have had on
my own.
So the Prophet shallallahu alaihi wa sallam is
splitting of the chest.
You know, our chest is not being split
open, right?
In that way, but Allah has purified us.
And he has given us the means for
it to be pure, for our hearts to
be purified.
And it's something that we are meant to
learn from this.
Now, you can only imagine how Halima felt.
You can only imagine.
Someone else's child, okay?
She's looking at him, he's explaining this.
And in explaining it, he's shaking a little
bit, because it's not, he's a kid.
It's not like he's casually outside living his
best life, and someone comes and splits his
chest open.
And then he points to her, and he
shows her that he has the mark there.
And Halima, she then calls her husband.
And when she calls her husband, she says
to him that we have to take him
back.
We have to take him home.
So they rush, and they take him to
Amina.
When they go to Amina, they tell her,
you know what?
Our contractual time is up, and we just
want to give you your child.
If, you know, if you're a man in
law, like we want to give you your
child safe and sound.
Amina says, what happened?
Okay, they said nothing.
We just want to give you your child.
Nothing, no big deal, like nothing crazy.
She says, what happened?
Okay, she asked him a second time.
Then Halima Sadia starts to explain to her
what happened.
But the way that she's explaining, it sounds
very negative.
You know, like very like something evil happened.
She didn't say those words, but she's explaining
it in a way that's like scary, and
she doesn't feel very good about it.
So when she continues to explain it, Amina
then turns to her and says to her
that, do you think that something evil or
dark has happened to my child?
And Halima says, I don't know.
And Amina says, well, I'll tell you, I
have a very special child, and nothing evil
will ever come near him.
And Halima says, how do you know that?
And in the narration, Amina says to her,
and you remember we kind of talked about
her birth story a little bit, and this
is where we get the narration about her
birth story.
She says, inni ra'aytu hina hamaltu bihi
that I saw when I was carrying him,
when I was pregnant with him, anna hu
kharaja minni nurun, that there was so much
light that would come from me.
Like whenever he was gonna be born, I
knew that it would just be light that
would come up.
Adah at minhu kusuru sham, and the light
will be so bright that it will be
able to illuminate the palaces of Sham, the
palaces of the Levant.
And essentially what she's saying is that this
man, this boy, may seem like a child
to you, and may seem like an ordinary
child to you, but to me he's a
blessing that is going to be not a
blessing just for today, not a blessing just
for tomorrow, and not a blessing for the
people here, but a blessing for people as
far as I can see.
And so she says, I'm not worried about
him actually.
I'm not worried that something bad will happen
to him.
I'm not worried that something bad has happened
to him.
And Halima says, I see.
And she says that he's come with a
lot of blessing as well in our family.
But I think it's time to give him
back.
So the Prophet shallallahu alaihi wasallam ends up
staying in the care of Amina after this
point.
Now this is a place where I want
to stop.
Not stop because we just started, but more
so a place where I want us to
kind of see in other places of the
Quran what Allah shallallahu alaihi wasallam says to
the Prophet shallallahu alaihi wasallam, one, and two,
what does Allah shallallahu alaihi wasallam say about
other prophets?
The reason being is because we can derive
as many wisdoms as we want, right?
But there's nothing more wise, and there's nothing
more beautiful than the words of the Quran
itself.
And so one of the things that Allah
shallallahu alaihi wasallam tells the Prophet shallallahu alaihi
wasallam in Surah al-Muzammil is when he's
referring to the Quran, and he's referring to
the Prophet shallallahu alaihi wasallam's strength and the
type of strength that he needs to have,
he tells him, inna sanulqi alayka qawlan thaqeela
that indeed we're going to bestow upon you.
We're going to cast on you.
We're going to give you a very heavy
word, right?
The revelation of the Quran was not something
that any person could just bear, right?
So if in the case that the Prophet
shallallahu alaihi wasallam's heart could not handle how
heavy it was, that would be very problematic.
So some of the scholars say that one
of the reasons why the Prophet shallallahu alaihi
wasallam's heart was washed was so that he
can handle the weight of the Quran, right?
That there'll be times where the camel's legs
would buckle when the Quran was being revealed
to the Prophet shallallahu alaihi wasallam.
There'll be times where the Prophet shallallahu alaihi
wasallam would be sweating so much, like I,
shallallahu alaihi wasallam, her leg would be drenched
because of the sweat.
There'll be times where the Prophet shallallahu alaihi
wasallam would have to sit down after the
Quran was revealed to him.
And when we talk about first revelation, we're
going to talk about Jibreel alaihi wasallam having
to bear half of the weight of it.
So imagine that.
But even in those cases, like all of
that seems, okay, fine, we carry heavy things
all the time.
But what does Allah swt say about the
Quran himself?
Allah swt tells us about the Quran that
had it been revealed on a mountain, you
will find that the mountain will crumble out
of recognizing how heavy it is, out of
recognizing the reverence of God's speech, the speech
of Allah.
And so part of the reason why the
Prophet's heart was split open was in order
for him to be able to bear the
weight of revelation.
The second time his heart is split open
is during the journey of before, right before
the journey of Israel and Mi'raj, which
is like another pivotal switch in the life
of the Prophet shallallahu alaihi wasallam.
It's a different type of revelation that he
gets because now you're going into Meccan Quran,
which we'll talk about, Medina Quran, which we'll
talk about a little bit more.
So it's a different type of revelation that
he's going to get, but it's a different
type of difficulty that he's going to experience.
After this moment, this first moment in the
life of the Prophet shallallahu alaihi wasallam, here
in this miraculous situation, we're going to, it's
almost going to feel a little depressing, okay?
Because we're going to say his mother died,
his grandfather died, this person died, this person
died, and you're going to be like, man,
how many more?
But think about the resolve that Allah has
given him now in his heart and how
he's able to continue on.
The second thing is that Prophets are Masoom.
Okay, they're Masoom.
What that means is that they have been
protected by Allah from committing sin, okay?
Now, when we think about that, we think
live your best life.
God tells me I can't sin, oh, I'm
going to do whatever I want now because
I have nothing to think about because I
know that I would not make a mistake,
but that's not what it means.
What it means is that Allah swt gave
them this wisdom and he gave them the
ability of judgment and he gave them the
ability to make the right decision, which is
why they exercise markers of leadership and different
qualities of leadership for them to be able
to make the right decision all the time.
It is actually a lot more difficult because
now they are buying, they are legally bound
to making the right decision.
There are a number of places in the
Quran where Allah swt talks about this wisdom
that he's given to Prophets, and I thought,
because I'm chaotic, I thought, okay, at 536,
that would be so nice to pull all
the verses.
So I'm probably missing some because I am
not a hafidha, okay?
So I pulled all the ones that I
can remember and the ones that I didn't
remember and someone else had to remind me,
but I thought that we could go through
these different Prophets because this is their own
splitting of the chest in a different way.
So Allah swt says in Surah An-Anbiya
when he talks about Lut alayhi salam, Lut
alayhi salam was sent to a nation of
people that did not know how to control,
they didn't want to learn how to control
their desires, even if it meant the violation
of the rights of Allah and the violations
of the rights of other people.
And so Allah swt, in talking about Lut
alayhi salam, he says, walutan, and when we
talk about Lut, ataynahu hukman wa'inna.
We gave him hukman, which means like judgment,
and judgment in the sense of like, it
comes from the same root as hakeem, which
means like the all wise, right?
So judgment in the sense of like, being
able to make the right wise decision, wa
'inman, and we gave him knowledge.
And then Allah swt says, wanajaynahu minal qariyati
allati kaanat ta'manu khaba'ith.
And we saved him from a nation, from
a city, a group of people who used
to always act on their most evil type
of desire.
innahum kaan lukum masaw'in fasiqin.
That indeed, there were a nation of people
who were so evil, that they wanted to
be defiantly, they wanted to be defiantly disobedient
to Allah.
And then Allah swt says, what is the
result of this hukman an inna, wa adkhalnaahu
fee rahmatina.
So we entered him into our mercy.
innahu minas salihin.
Because indeed, he was amongst those who were
righteous.
And that's Lut alayhi salam.
When Allah swt talks about Suleiman, and this
part also includes Dawud, but we're gonna cover
verses on Dawud individually as well.
Allah swt says about Suleiman, and remember Suleiman
was the prophet that had control over animals.
He was a prophet that had control over
religion.
He was a prophet that had control over
things that we can't even imagine, what does
that mean?
And Dawud alayhi salam also had control in
a very different way, subjugating mountains, and like
all these things that you think to yourself,
like someone can move a mountain, that's absolutely
insane, right?
But remember that prophets were sent to their
people in the way that they could understand,
right?
So the people of Suleiman, they had like
incredible kingdoms, like they were all kings and
queens, and they had so much at their
own disposal that he had to come with
something that was even more amazing than that,
right?
So Allah swt says, fa fahamna ha Suleiman,
that we gave Suleiman understanding of causes, like
different situation, the case, but it's talking about
Suleiman in particular, but more so different situations
that would arise.
Wa kullan atayna hukman wa ilma.
We see those two words being revealed again,
that both of them, we gave them this
judgment and wisdom, and we gave them knowledge.
Wa sakharna ma'a Dawud jibala yusabihna wa
al-tayra.
And we allowed for Dawud to have the
ability to subjugate, to move, to be able
to like make the mountains putty to him,
honestly.
So we subjugated the mountains and the birds
for Dawud.
Wa kullan fa'inin, and that is what
we did in their action.
And what Allah swt is saying, that these
people have these amazing miracles, right?
Imagine Suleiman has the ability to control the
animals, but ra'udu billah, like Suleiman is
not, doesn't have good judgment.
Can we see that go downhill really quickly?
Exactly.
When we think about the people in power
now, exactly, right?
So these two things, somebody can know everything,
like I know that one plus one equals
two, I know that this is how things
are supposed to run, I know that this
is the right thing, I know that we're
supposed to put this in this perspective or
make this in this way, but when they
don't have wisdom, what happens?
They do it all wrong, because you can
know something, but in order to actually make
something work, in order to actually mobilize something,
you need wisdom.
If I were to have all of the,
you know, like leadership training in the world
on how to lead a team, but I
don't have any wisdom in how to lead
a team, I would not be able to
work with a single human being.
Because my logical response would be, well, it's
logical to ask them to do their job,
it's their job.
But if I come to somebody and be
like, hey, did you do your job today?
They're gonna be like, you're literally terrorizing me
in the workplace.
You know, like it wouldn't, it's not wise.
It wouldn't be wise for me to give
my team a rundown of like the 100
,000 things I don't like.
Let's start off with blah, blah, blah, blah.
What is one thing I did good?
I don't know, today I'm not really, I
don't really know if you did anything good.
It's not wise.
That is not a wise way to lead
anyone.
Why?
Because wisdom, being knowledge requires wisdom in order
for it to amount to anything.
Aisha radhiallahu ta'ala she tells us in
a narration, that had the first things to
be revealed, be the prohibition of drinking, the
prohibition of fornication, right?
Had those been the first thing to be
revealed, or even hijab, nobody would believe.
That's what she says.
Nobody would believe.
Even though in the beginning stages of Islam,
the prohibition of drinking was not prohibited, would
we still say that it was something that
was not good?
Yeah, we will say something that is not
good.
But Allah did not reveal the prohibition of
that first.
Why?
Because it wasn't wise.
He wanted for people to believe and to
bring people into the fold of Islam and
to get them to understand why it's not
good, and then he revealed the prohibition of
it.
Because that is what wisdom looks like.
So Allah subhanahu wa ta'ala says about
Sulaiman and about Dawud, they have these incredible
types of miracles from God.
They have these incredible miracles from Allah, but
they didn't have those miracles untrained.
They have those miracles with their hearts corrected.
And then Allah subhanahu wa ta'ala says
about Dawud, wa shadadana mulkahu wa ateinahu hikmah
wa faslil khitab.
And we strengthened his kingdom, the kingdom of
Dawud, and we gave him wisdom.
Here we don't see hukman, we see hikmah.
We gave him wisdom, wa faslil khitab, and
we gave him the ability to make decisive
speech.
Like when he would speak about something, it
would be very decisive.
But when you think about a decisive person,
you think about a person who's blunt.
You think about a person who's blunt, who
says, it is what it is, this is
what we're gonna do, and you have to
follow it.
But Allah subhanahu wa ta'ala first said
we gave him what?
Wisdom.
So that decisive speech that he's able to
give, it is very wise in the way
that he lands the plane.
Allah subhanahu wa ta'ala says about Yahya
in Surat al-Manyam, ya Yahya khudil kitaba
biquwa.
He gives Yahya a command.
And he tells, oh Yahya, hold this book
and hold it with determination, with strength.
Wa a'taynahu l-hukma subiya.
And we gave him this judgment from a
very young age.
Like he had a very good head on
his shoulders.
And then Allah subhanahu wa ta'ala talks
about Musa alayhis salaam in Surat al-Qasas.
And he says, walamma balaga ashuddahu, when he
reached his full maturity, when he reached his
full strength, wasta wa a'taynahu hukman.
And he became like someone who had like
stature.
We gave him hukman, judgment, wa ilma, and
knowledge.
Wa katharika najz al-muhsineen.
But we say something different here.
Allah subhanahu wa ta'ala says this is
how we reward those who do good.
We reward those who do good by giving
them what?
Knowledge, ilman, and hukma, this resolve.
This is not the only time Allah subhanahu
wa ta'ala says that.
Allah subhanahu wa ta'ala then goes and
he talks about Yusuf alayhis salaam in Surat
al-Yusuf.
And he says, walamma balaga ashuddahu.
Sounds very similar.
And when he reached his age of maturity,
when he reached understanding, a'taynahu hukman wa ilma.
We gave him this logic, this understanding, this
judgment, and knowledge.
Wa katharika najz al-muhsineen.
Thus this is how we reward those who
do good.
So the point of me bringing all of
these verses was to show that when we
talk about being a better person, right?
Sometimes we focus on a lot of the
other external things.
You know, like if only my life was
set up in X, Y, and Z way,
I would be a better person.
But honestly, that was not the cards I
was dealt.
Therefore, this is how I have to live.
You don't have to be that way.
Ultimately, ultimately, the journey of being a better
person is twofold.
It is twofold.
The first part of it has everything to
do with you.
It has everything to do with you.
It is about your action that you put
forward.
It is about the ability that you, it's
about putting into, holding yourself accountable with the
ability that you have, right?
Making effort towards it.
It is about using the resources around you
that O.S. Fontana has given you opportunity
or opened up doors for you.
And in giving you that opportunity and opening
up those doors, what have you done to
be sure that you made good use of
that, right?
It is about also making the effort towards
it that you can't just say, okay, I'm
gonna wait for the opportunity to come.
How do you go out and you really
seize the moment?
How do you go out and you really
search for the opportunity?
So the first part has everything to do
with you.
But our action that we do, okay, stay
with me.
Our action that we do is just that,
is our action.
The result of our action is not in
our hands.
The result of our action is in the
hands of Allah.
Allah is who out of his compassion and
his mercy gives us more from that effort
that we put forward.
O.S. Fontana says that this is a
reward of those who do good.
He didn't say it was a reward of
those who are perfect.
He didn't say it was a reward of
those who spent their entire life in a
certain way.
He didn't say that.
In fact, each of those verses, like especially
the last two with Yusuf alayhis salam and
Musa alayhis salam, they were all pre-prophethood.
So this is before they've received prophethood.
It's before they received divine revelation from God.
You have that the prophecy of some splitting
of their chest is before he's received prophethood,
which means what?
That they just had goodness in them and
Allah blessed them because of that goodness.
They put in effort, they did the best
they could, and O.S. Fontana said, you
know what?
You are trying, let me give you more.
Let me give you more, right?
But if you don't hold yourself accountable and
you say, okay, I wanna be a good
person, and you have like good company, you
have all the resources that you need, but
you just don't do it, you just didn't
do it.
That's the reality of it.
And O.S. Fontana talks about this in
Surah Tahrim.
In Surah Tahrim, O.S. Fontana gives us
two examples, two different types of people.
And he says, for the first example, Daraballahu
mathalan lilladhina kafaru, that Allah has provided an
example for those who disbelieve.
And when we talk about disbelief, a lot
of times, again, our brains turn off because
we're like, I'm not there, so I'm good,
when really, what is that?
And it means to bury the truth, right?
Kafar, kufr means to bury the truth.
And burying the truth can be different things.
Burying the truth can be you burying the
fact that you have anger problems, okay?
Burying the truth can be burying the fact
that you have a spending problem.
Burying the truth can be that you're burying
the fact that you're ungrateful.
These are all aspects that lead to kufr.
Part of being a believer is a person
being very straight up and forward with themselves.
You have to be honest.
If you're not honest with yourself, not come
down on yourself and be depressed, no.
You have to be honest.
Because when you start at your honest point,
you can do what?
Build.
If you don't start at your honest point,
what are you doing?
Not building, making it more difficult.
So Allah SWT says, dharaballahu mathalan lilladhina kafaru
that Allah has given an example to those
who bury the truth.
Imra'ata nuhin wa imra'ata lut.
The example of the wife of Nuh and
the wife of Lut.
Kanata tahta abdaini min ibadina salihin.
That these two women used to be in
the company of our very righteous servants.
So it's the wife of Lut, alayhi salam,
which we've talked about already, that he was
given this immense level of knowledge and he
was given good judgment and all these things,
which means that he obviously did what?
Treated his wife well.
And then you have the wife of Nuh,
alayhi salam, who Nuh used to, was building
an ark because Allah SWT commanded him to.
And his wife would walk around and tell
people he was Sinab.
When they would ask him, when they would
ask her, what is wrong with your husband?
Why is he doing this?
She was like, oh yeah, that crazy man,
he's just crazy.
He better lost it.
That's what she would say.
She would say the same things that other
people were saying about him.
And when Lut, alayhi salam, he's literally trying
to protect people's rights and she, his wife,
is telling them, actually, no, it's okay.
He's also crazy.
You guys can do whatever you want.
And so Allah SWT is saying that these
two people had the best company.
They had the best company possible, okay?
And they, he says, they both were so
deceitful.
They were so deceitful.
And their husbands, their spouses, the people that
loved them and cared for them could not
help them when it came to Allah.
They could not help them.
Why?
Because Allah would say to them, enter into
hellfire with those who have entered.
Why?
Because the opportunity was there.
The opportunity was there.
The knowledge was there.
The wisdom was there.
Everything was there.
But they didn't take, they didn't have the
resolve, okay?
They didn't have the strength.
They didn't take that.
And they didn't hold themselves accountable and do
better.
If you don't hold yourself accountable in this
world, Allah's going to hold you accountable in
the hereafter.
That is the pure reality of it.
And then Allah Subh'anaHu Wa Ta-A
'la gives us another example.
He says, وَضَرَبَ اللَّهُ مَثَلًا لِلَّذِينَ آمَنُوا And
Allah has presented an example for those who
believe.
امرأة فرعون, the wife of Firaun.
She was in the company of the worst
person, okay?
She was in the company of the worst
person.
Someone who claimed to be God.
Someone who claimed to be the highest.
Someone who killed babies.
Someone who did not care.
Someone who was so evil.
That was her company.
And then Allah Subh'anaHu Wa Ta-A
'la says, اِذْ قَالَتْ رَبِّبْنِي لِي إِنْدَكَ بَيْتًا
فِي الْجَنَّةِ When she said, Oh my Lord,
build for me a home in Jannah next
to you.
Now a person, like for me at least,
I'm not going to say us.
I'm making du'a for Jannah.
And some days I feel confident.
I'm like, Oh Allah, Jannah to Firdos, that
is all I want right there.
I'm a little nosy.
I want to see what everybody else is
doing and what everybody's wishing for.
I want that.
I want that middle place, okay?
All right?
Some days you feel confident.
Some days you're like, if I can get
in on the bottom floor, honestly, like I'll
take it.
You know, like, if I'm just right there,
like just get me through the gates.
Like whatever gate, I don't care.
Whatever gate, I just want to get in.
Some days you're not confident.
Allah preserves the du'a of Asiyah in
the Quran.
And she doesn't just ask for the highest
level of Jannah.
She didn't ask for that.
What did she ask for?
A home next to God.
Why?
Because she knew her sacrifice.
She knew it.
She knew it.
She was in the company of the worst
human being possible.
And when Fir'aun came to her and
said, I heard you're a believer.
And do you believe in what Musa is
sending and talking about?
She confidently said, yes, I do.
And she suffered.
She didn't suffer in the death.
But if you look at her death, it
was a horrible death.
Fir'aun threw a boulder on her.
And the narration said that Allah took her
life before that so that she wouldn't feel
the pain of what was to come.
So she had that confidence where she's saying,
listen, my environment is not gonna deter me
from God.
Actually, when a person is given all of
these extra things, that is a blessing.
It's out of God's compassion and His mercy.
But we're not owed it.
Allah SWT does not owe us the environment
to learn about our religion.
He doesn't owe it to us.
In fact, it's called talib ul-amr for
a reason.
Going out and seeking the knowledge for a
reason.
Why?
Because you saw a job.
Your job did not fall into your lap.
You saw it.
You sent that application.
You sent that resume.
You sent your resume to your friends to
fix it up.
You sent it to other people to look
at it and say, okay, should I add
this, should I not?
You went to school.
You did some type of program.
It didn't just fall into your lap.
Yes, the blessing of Allah, the result came
because of Allah.
But you put an effort for it.
Now, all of a sudden, when it's time
to do things that pertain to Allah, all
of a sudden, it's supposed to be handed
to us?
That's not right.
But Allah is so merciful.
Why?
Because He still gives the opportunity.
He still opens the door.
He still gives you the heart for it.
He still makes you incline.
He gives you all these things and all
you have to do is walk through it.
Then Allah SWT gives us another example.
And He says, mariama ibnata imrana, Mariam, the
daughter of Imran, allati ahsanat farjaha.
She was someone who protected her chastity.
Fanafahna feehi minroohina.
And we blew into her from our spirit,
meaning we gave her a child.
Wasaddaqat bikalimati raabiha.
And she confirmed and affirmed and believed in
the words of her Lord.
Wakutubihi, in his books, wakanat minal qanitin.
And she was amongst those who were ever
so devout.
She was so devout to Allah.
Because another aspect, right?
A person gets this knowledge.
They get a heart that is like awake,
right?
They get a heart that's awakened by God.
They get this knowledge.
They get this wisdom.
But you ever heard about a person's faith
being shook?
Something has come and it's shaken their faith.
That's what happens when difficulty comes.
Someone's tested with something.
Someone has something that they never thought would
happen to them and it happens to them.
And all of a sudden it's like, man,
I thought I knew it.
I thought I knew God.
I thought I knew this.
I thought I knew that.
And it's this shaytani thought in your mind
that maybe Allah does not actually love me.
And that's why he's giving me this.
And it makes a person, like someone that
you may have been around before, who's had
such an immense level of righteousness and all
these things, and you look at them and
they're taking a different path and you're like,
how could that have happened?
Or this one thing, someone in their family
died or something happened to really shaken their
faith.
But Maryam alayhi salam, her entire worldview of
what it meant to be a faithful person
revolved around her not being in any type
of scandal.
That's what it revolved around her.
It revolved around her being in the masjid
all the time to the point where her
family would kind of be a lot and
she would leave from there to go worship.
It revolved around her being known as being
righteous.
That's what it revolved around her.
Now what happens when that reputation is pulled
from underneath her feet?
What happens when people develop a different, though
false, but different perspective on her?
Does she run away from Allah?
No, she didn't.
She went further to Allah.
That's where she went.
How?
How?
Did she say, you know what, God?
I'm your strongest soldier.
This is so easy, I got this.
She didn't say that.
She didn't say that.
Ya laytani mittu qabla hadha wa kuntu nasyan
mansiyah.
Oh, how I wish I died before this
moment and I was long forgotten.
That's what she says when she's in labor.
And Allah swt tells her, nope, not going
away like that.
He tells her, eat, drink the water, eat
these dates, relax, it's gonna be okay.
You're gonna be fine.
Have a snack, take a nap, and drink
some water.
And when other people come and talk to
you, tell them you're minding your business and
they should mind theirs.
That's it.
That doesn't sound like a logical thing for
any of us.
If that is what we're experiencing in our
life, and Allah shows us signs that it's
gonna be okay, and you're trying to put
one and two together and one and two
are not matching, and you're like, hmm, this
is not working out, and maybe like, obviously,
we don't say this, but in our minds,
the way that we carry ourselves is as
if we think God doesn't know what he's
doing.
That is interfering with our judgment and our
wisdom.
It's interfering with our understanding.
It's interfering with our heart.
There are times where things are not gonna
logically match up and you have to just
do something called submission.
Because if you don't submit willingly, God will
make you submit.
And so Allah subhanahu wa ta'ala calls
Maryam alayhi as-salam al-qanit, that she
was ever so devout.
Why?
Because when Allah subhanahu wa ta'ala told
her to eat and drink and mind her
business and relax, you know what she did?
She ate, she drank, she minded her business,
she relaxed.
Why?
Because she knew that Allah would take care
of it.
But what did she do with that?
How?
She didn't run away.
She didn't went to her people carrying this
child as if it was just normal.
Why?
Because she knew that Allah will look out
for her.
So I say all this to say that
all of these verses that we've gone through,
we find that shortly after this, these people
go through difficulty.
They go through hardship.
Right after the verses of Yusuf alayhi as
-salam, the person who was supposed to take
care of him and be there for him
and protect him and tries to seduce him.
Right after the verses of Musa alayhi as
-salam, you find that he's there trying to
protect somebody.
He accidentally kills somebody and he's a fugitive.
A fugitive for 10 plus years, he's a
fugitive.
Right after Allah subhanahu wa ta'ala talks
about giving them this knowledge, this alman wa
hukman and this resolve and being able to
have wisdom and all of these things, so
much difficulty befalls them.
Why?
Because that was Allah strengthening their heart.
And if you want your heart to be
strengthened, you have to make du'a to
Allah to give it to you because it's
not something that we can do on our
own.
We put in our effort, but the result
of it is in the hands of Allah.
The result of it is in the hands
of Allah.
Everybody in this, not everybody in this room
because some of you guys are new and
I'm happy to meet you guys, but a
lot of you guys know what my favorite
du'a is and it's the du'a
of Musa alayhi as-salam because I feel
like that was a very pivotal moment.
I don't know Musa alayhi as-salam personally,
but I feel like we're friends.
And it was a very pivotal moment in
his life.
Like Allah subhanahu wa ta'ala is giving
him such a difficult task, such a difficult
task.
And I can only imagine someone who's quick
to rush into dealing with the situation like
Musa alayhi as-salam was someone who does
not like for people to just not be
on the straight way, which is how Musa
alayhi as-salam was.
Someone who was known for their strength, which
is how Musa alayhi as-salam was.
I can only imagine the anxieties that he
was feeling when Allah subhanahu wa ta'ala
gave him this responsibility.
But one of the things that are so
beautiful about this du'a is at the
end, he gives us, he gives the reasoning
why he asked Allah for what he asked
Allah for.
So he says, Rabbish rahli sadri, expand for
me my chest, right?
Like make it, like right now I'm feeling
really stressed, you know, and my heart's beating
and it's beating against my chest.
So expand for me my chest, wa yassin
li amri, and make my matter easy for
me, wahlul uqdat min lisani, untie the knot
from my tongue, yafqahu qawli, so the people
may understand my speech, wa ja'al li
wazeeran min ahli, and give me a helper
from my family, haruna akhi, harun, my brother,
ushdad bihi azri, strengthen my backbone with him,
wa ashrikhu fi amri, and allow him to
share my task, kay nusabbihaka kathira, so that
we can glorify your perfection a lot.
So that we can do what?
Glorify your perfection.
So that whenever I stress and I'm like,
is this gonna work out?
I have somebody that's gonna remind me and
say, well, Allah's perfect.
Allah's perfect.
Allah put you on this journey, he put
you on this path, and he's not gonna
put you on this journey and this path
without any help.
Allah has your back.
And then he says, wa nathkuraka kathira, so
that we can remember you a lot, innaka
kunta bina basira, because you've always looked over
us.
And I find this to be so beautiful
because a person would not pray for God
to give them resolve, or to give them
wisdom, or to give them determination, or to
give them this level of knowledge, of understanding.
A person would not pray to God if
they don't know Allah.
That's just the reality of it.
And so ultimately, the splitting of the chest,
all of these verses, what it was meant
to do, is to give the Prophet, give
all of these prophets, a central point that
this is how you remember Allah.
It is just a reminder.
That was what it was.
Taking out all the things that would incline
you towards other people to help.
Why?
Because Allah is the one who can help
you.
Only Allah can help you.
Does Allah send people in your life?
Yeah.
Will Allah send help in different forms?
Yes.
But who do you go to first?
Allah.
So when we look at all of these
prophets, and we see them experiencing what they're
experiencing, and the difficulties that they're going through,
what is the first thing that they do?
They talk to God.
Not just make dua.
Because when we say make dua, we're thinking,
sit, put your hands up, say the things
you've been taught since you were a kid,
and then you close your hands, and then
you get what you want.
That's not dua.
It works sometimes, because God is merciful.
Dua is having a conversation with Allah.
So what do we see them do?
We see them talk to God.
Why?
Because Allah put that in their heart.
So what do we get from this?
We get that Allah Subh'anaHu Wa Ta
-A'la has brought every single one of
us here together.
To listen to his book.
To talk about the words in his speech.
Which means that Allah has purified every single
one of our hearts in this room.
Every single one of us.
And he has given us the ability to
have that knowledge.
He's given us the ability to have that
wisdom.
And we just have to step into the
opportunity.
We cannot worry about the outcome.
How much of this is gonna change me?
How much is it not?
I need to focus on, okay, this time
I need to do more, because if I
don't do more, then I'm not gonna become
this person.
No, you focus on what you can do.
And you will find that Allah will give
you so much more.
You wanna stop lying?
Just focus on, today I'm not gonna tell
any white lies.
And before you know it, you're gonna even
forget that this is something you were working
on.
You wanna stop being angry?
You say, okay, today I'm gonna actually process
and work through my emotion.
Why?
Because this is what Allah wants from me.
And before you know it, you're gonna be
like, wow, I really handled that in a
very good way.
Not because of me, but because that is
the blessing that Allah has given to me.
So I pray that Allah swt allows us
to always have hearts that are connected to
him.
I pray that Allah swt allows us to
always walk in the footsteps of the Prophet
salallahu alaihi wa sallam.
I pray that Allah swt purifies each and
every single one of us.
Allah swt allows us to gather in a
gathering much better than this.
That Allah swt blesses us all to meet
in Jannah for a dose and that we
drink from the blessed hands of the Prophet
salallahu alaihi wa sallam on the Day of
Judgment.
Subhanakallahumma bihamdika nashadu wa la ilaha ila anta
nastaghfirukuna tubu ilayk jazak wa khayran Assalamu alaikum
wa rahmatullahi wa barakatuh