Hamzah Wald Maqbul – Return to a New Beginning Tawbah Urbana 516
AI: Summary ©
The speakers discuss the importance of forgiveness and the reward of Islam's actions, emphasizing the need for individuals to choose a path that is superior to their own personal values. They stress the importance of remembering Allah's commandment and not just to be present in one's life. The speakers also emphasize the importance of working hard and not being lazy, and advise individuals to make toba and not give up hope. They stress the importance of creating a positive ending and making a donation to cover people with addiction.
AI: Summary ©
All praises to Allah. May his peace and
blessings be upon his servant and messenger, our
master,
Sayyidina Nabi Sallallahu Alaihi Wasallam and his noble
companions and his pure wives and his
May the peace and blessings of Allah be
upon, Sayyidina Nabi salallahu alayhi wa sallam, and
his noble companions, and his pure wives, and
his Mubarak, and blessed family, and progeny, and
upon all of those who follow all of
their way until the day of judgement.
First of all, I wanted to again thank,
Simic for having me out and thanks Simic
for very graciously and generously opening its doors
to Islamic Relief also to
raise funds
as doctor,
Mohammed Amin has
pointed out that the table is there and
the boxes are still there, the donation forms,
pledge forms to sponsor orphans and to sponsor
Istar,
for for the poor in one of any
number of places around the world. They're still
there. InshaAllah, we'll leave the
the pledge forms and we'll leave the brochures
and the materials over there. I encourage everybody,
InshaAllah, to
InshaAllah, take a look at that and to
use the service Islamic Relief provides for the
distribution of zakat and zakatul fitter and other
sadaqat insha Allah,
as a very worthy legitimate cause amongst other
many other worthy and legitimate causes
that deserve your attention, inshallah. May Allah subhanahu
wa ta'ala, inshallah give His aid and help
to all of them.
I was asked to come and speak regarding
crossroads and new beginnings.
And the beginning of
every person's spiritual journey as an individual always
starts with the same thing, which is what?
Tawba.
It always starts with what? It starts with
tawba. It starts with returning to Allah Subhanahu
Wa Ta'ala.
Allah in his book, he commands the believers
to make tawba to
make a sincere
repentance. And in fact, even the act of
saying, la ilaha illallah Muhammadur Rasulullah and entering
into Islam is in and of itself an
act of tawbah. It's an act of returning
to Allah
Allah
His slave,
He loves His slave to repent to Him.
And the prophet sallallahu alaihi wa sallam in
a sahi hadith
constructed a very beautiful metaphor how how Allah
loves the slave to repent to him.
And that metaphor is what? The metaphor of
a man who
is journeying through the desert
on a camel and he has all of
his provisions on the camel. Now obviously, the
desert is not a place
that a place that a person has
a number of options to eat and drink.
In fact, the routes of travel through the
desert are not straight lines.
It's a route from well to well,
from water to water. And if a person
loses that route,
they're likely to be lost in a in
a place that,
is there something we can do about the
sound? It's kind of It's true. Is both
of them on or what's going on here?
If you hold your mind farther away, it
will work better or if you use that
one. Okay. Can I just use that one,
Incela?
I'm trying
So the Nabi
he,
constructs the metaphor of a person
who,
is traveling in the desert
and rests closes his eyes to rest. And
when he wakes up, he finds that his
camel that he tied up is gone.
And
he spends whatever energy he has left looking
for that camel and is unable to find
it in any direction.
And
that person tires themselves out in the heat
of the day looking for the camel
to the point where they have no longer
any
energy left to search for the camel anymore
because the camel has all the provisions. So
to give up that search means to give
up on life itself.
And so he finds a tree
in in the shade of which he just
lays down and closes his eyes and expects
maybe not to ever wake up again.
And then he opens his eyes again and
he sees his camel,
standing right in front of him. And he
he stands up and he exclaims out of
joy, oh Allah, I am your Lord and
you are my slave.
The only reason he says the the the
words he says is because of the overwhelming
nature of the happiness, the joy he
experiences causes him to invert the invert the
expression.
He says, oh, I am your Lord and
you are my slave, but he doesn't mean
blasphemy by it.
What it is is that the the the
happiness, the the the fervor of happiness, the
emphatic happiness that he feels overwhelms him. That's
how much happiness he feels.
Nabi says that Allah is happier
than that person would be in that state.
To see his slave return to him in
repentance
is happier than that to see a slave
return to him in repentance.
And repentance is not something that
happens like once in a blue moon.
Repentance is something that
the slave does again and again. Right?
What
Allah
commands the prophet sallallahu alaihi wa sallam through
him the entire ummah.
That follow the path of the person
who
constantly,
turns to me in in repentance,
who constantly turns to me in repentance. It
comes in a hadith of the prophet sallallahu
alaihi wa sallam, then he says,
Right? Seek forgiveness from Allah subhanahu wa ta'ala.
The seek repentance in Allah from Allah subhanahu
wa ta'ala. Seek forgiveness from Allah subhanahu wa
ta'ala.
Because indeed,
I seek forgiveness from Allah subhanahu wa ta'ala
more than 70 times in a day.
More than what? 70 times in a day.
And this is who? This is the Nabi
who by the text of the Quran,
The one who his his sins and he
doesn't have sins.
Right? This is an aqidah issue that when
when Allah ta'ala talks about the them of
the prophet sallallahu alaihi wa sallam, what does
it mean? Right? We as as a we
believe that the prophet sallallahu alaihi wa sallahu
alaihi wa sallahu alaihi wa sallam are all
masoon. They're all divinely protected from sin. What
then do you think about the one who
is the Sayyid al Mursalim, who is the
master of all the prophets
Rather the interpretation, the correct interpretation of this
expression, the damba of the prophet sallallahu alaihi
wasallam is not it's not sin.
Rather, it's the ability to have chose an
even more superior path,
and and having, you know, chosen something that
was superior but not the most optimally superior
path that a person could have done. We
make those kind of decisions in a day,
and we don't even blink. We don't bat
an eyelash. And who here is the one
who, like, prayed whatever,
8 rakaat
of
every day of their life. I mean, we
make these types of choices. We say, well,
I prayed fajr on time. I'm better than
everybody else in the masjid anyway because god
knows who's praying fajr or not and khalas
will pat ourselves in the back and move
on. The prophet
used to seek forgiveness from Allah subhanahu wa
ta'ala even for these things.
Why? Because the Haqq of Allah ta'ala over
his slave is absolute.
It's not a bargain that you and I
do with him. You say, well, I never
did anything Haram. Even if you did everything
in the book that was correct, you have
no right to ask for Jannah from Allah
subhanahu wa ta'ala because the Haqq of Allah
ta'ala is absolute over his slave.
If a person did everything right, abstain from
every haram, and did every commandment, fulfilled every
commandment, and and on top of that also.
It's a question of Aqidah, does Allah Ta'ala
have the right to
punish that slave? And the answer to that
question is yes, he does.
And perhaps no people are more,
well positioned to understand why than we are
because we live in a very materialistic and
very possessive society.
We have very, elaborate laws with regards to
the ownership of property.
So if you were to buy a car,
if you were to buy a Lexus,
with your money, brand new Lexus in cash,
and you took it to your, whatever, your
10 acre property somewhere, parked it in the
middle of the property, took a baseball bat,
and broke the windows, and broke the the
the headlights and the taillights, and then, you
know, smashed the hood and then smashed the
the engine and smashed the battery and
did all of these things. Right? Maybe there's
some EPA issue, but by and large, this
is not something that's unlawful. Why? Because it's
your thing. You could do with it whatever
you want. You get the newest iPhone
before anyone else does. Right? This a person
does this for, like, hits. I saw that
someone showed me the video on YouTube. He
buys the newest iPhone the day it comes
out, like, the first hour that it's out,
Then he takes it out and then takes
a high powered rifle, sniper rifle. And then
with a very high speed camera, shoots the
iPhone and then posts the thing on YouTube
just to get hit. And he actually makes
more money than the the the a lot
more money than, you know, the the iPhone
cost just by doing this. I think it's
beautiful. I think it's wonderful. One might say,
oh my god, you're it's a waste. But,
you know, in a time that people people,
like, worship, like, these things, I think doing
something like this is, like, kind of the
modern equivalent of, like, breaking an idol. Right?
And it's really interesting how like the bullet
hits the iPhone and passes through it and
then the iPhone jumps into the air and
the glass starts dancing
for a few seconds and then it just
go shatters in every different direction. It's like
really like a work of art. Right? So
if that person does that, what what do
you do? You call the police? Oh, my
God. That person did a little on the
iPhone.
What? Did they steal it? No. They they
paid for it. It was theirs.
Okay. Did the bullet hit somebody? No. It
was on their own land. So why are
you calling me? Because the iPhone didn't deserve
to get destroyed. What did it do wrong?
Said, No. That's his iPhone. He can do
whatever he wants with it. Call me again
like this and we're gonna arrest you for
wasting our time.
So that person who bought the iPhone with
money
from a job,
from an education that somebody else gave that
person,
Right? Their ownership on the iPhone is such
that they can just buy the new iPhone
and destroy it and we don't bat an
eyelash. We laugh at someone who thinks, oh,
Zulman iPhone. That's funny. Right? What about Allah
created the heavens and the earth, and you
and I from nothing?
When you understand things in that context, then
you understand why even a person doing a
good deed that they could have done another
good deed is also still something that is
worthy of seeking forgiveness from Allah subhanahu wa
ta'ala for. Why?
Because Allah created us from nothing. His right
over us is complete and absolute.
When you look at the size of the
infraction, you may not think it's a big
deal. But when you look at the the
the one
against who the infraction is is made,
then every deal is a big deal.
And this is the path of the prophet
sallallahu alaihi wa sallam that a person may
make tawba from kufr and enter into Islam
once.
But inside of Islam, a person,
if they want to follow the path of
the Nabi alayhis salaam,
they need to put their foot in the
neck of their nafs, in the neck of
their own ego, and be able to admit
I'm wrong again and again and again and
again in the day. If you don't do
that, you cannot do that, you you don't
have Islam, you have not submitted to Allah
subhanahu wa ta'ala, and your dean has a
very serious and severe,
defect inside of it. This is again and
again in the athaar of the prophet sallallahu
alaihi was, it's so difficult for people. This
is so difficult for people, especially in the
self esteem culture that we have now days.
It's so difficult for people to admit that
they're wrong. We have to be able to
do it for our our own good in
this world and to be able to meet
Allah subhanahu wa ta'ala in the hereafter with
a clean account. Why? Because what is the
what is the reward Allah gives to a
person for tawba? The reward Allah gives to
a person for tawba is that that person
is not just forgiven their sin, that person
is like a person who never committed a
sin in the first place, and there's a
difference between the 2 of them. The person,
the criminal whose sentence is commuted. Okay. Fine.
He's not in jail anymore, but he has
still check-in with the parole officer. Right? How
does Allah ta'ala forgive the sin of the
person who commits tawba? Because the
suspending of your nafs and the the the
ability to put your nafs down and admit
that I'm wrong, not only when you're clearly
wrong, even when there's just a
slight possibility that you're wrong. Right? It's a
hadith of the prophet sallallahu alaihi wa sallam
that whoever gives up an argumentation or a
dispute that they're in,
and they're wrong. Allah ta'ala will give them
give them what? A house on the edge
of jannah.
And the person who gives up argumentation and
disputation when they're right,
that person, Allah, will give them what? A
house in the middle of jannah.
Even if there's a sliver of a chance
that you're wrong. Right? You have to we
all have to be able to and it's
not easy. It's very difficult. It's easy to
preach about it on the mic, but maybe
you'll say, well, that one time you did
such and such thing. How come you didn't
admit? I say I say it's it's it's
you know, it's difficult. I'm just the messenger.
Don't shoot me. Give me a a
a friendly reminder like I'm giving to you
inshallah when when it's my turn. Also, I'm
not making any claims regarding my own conduct.
But this is the that we were given
from our and from our
that comes in a chain from the the
the
from the prophet sallallahu alaihi wa sallam that
we have to be people that can do
that.
And what's the reward? Is the reward is
what? That that person will be like the
one who never committed any sin at all?
So it comes in the hadith of the
prophet sallallahu alaihi wa sallam. A person who
commits a sin and then makes tawba afterward,
what happens? Allah subhanahu wa ta'ala doesn't merely
erase the sin for strike the sin out
in His book of deeds,
so that the other people can read the
sin on the day of judgment.
Why? Because that in and of itself is
a type of punishment.
Allah doesn't merely erase the sin from the
record,
so that everyone can see that brother, so
and so, and sister, so and so from
1998 until like 2,006,
has a large gap in their audit.
Right? A numbered book like a like a
like the legal briefs that they submit in
court. Right? That you have just like a
big several, like, the, like, the Bush administration
gave, like, all these redacted files from, like,
weird torture and, like, Guantanamo type,
you know, legal records. They're all redacted. They're
all blank. You have, like, a 100 page
report probably only, like, a page and a
half is, like, like, left and most of
it is like and and if and or
and things like that. It's not like any
useful information. It's not gonna be like that.
Why? Because people say, you're up to something,
weren't you? The angels will see you're up
to something, weren't you? Allah ta'ala is
the one who covers over the faults of
his of his slave.
What is the what is the forgiveness of
Allah ta'ala for a person who makes tawba?
Right? It's a hadith that comes in the
hadith of the prophet
sallallahu alaihi wa sallam. This kind of ties
in with all these things, like with Islamic
relief and with Ramadan, all this stuff. Right?
That on the David Eid, right? Right?
That
That Allah on the day of eat eat.
It's eat in the earth and it's eat
in the in the heavens as well.
And he boast to his angels. He says,
oh my angels, what is the reward of
a person
who or of a worker who does the
work that they're given? Okay? And Allah, subhanahu
wa ta'ala,
asked this question. The angels say that if
a worker does his work, the reward is
that they should receive their pay. And he
says, oh my angels,
bear witness that my slaves, they fulfill the
the the obligation I put put on them.
Right? They fulfill the obligation I put on
them, which is what? The fasting of this
month. And they wake up early in the
morning, and they they,
have choked the streets,
and they call upon me, and they they
they praise me on this morning. Oh, my
angels,
So I swear an oath by my by
my by my by my dignity, and by
my jalal, my majesty,
and my loftiness, and the the the superiority
of my status over every other status. I
swear an oath by all of these she
fat, all of these, attributes
of mine that I've accepted what they have
have done this day. And I have not
only accepted what they've done, I have forgiven
them their sins,
and I have written in the place of
their sins good deeds.
This is the this is the reward of
Tawba. It's not easy. This is the reward
that Allah ta'ala imagine that his generosity and
his forgiveness is such that even your even
your your sins you'll be rewarded for them.
Right. There's a ather about Sayyidina Musa alaihis
salatu as salam that the prophet sallallahu alaihi
wa sallam says that Sayyidina Musa alaihis salam,
he he would wake up and and pray
tahajjud. He would wake up and this was
his appointment with Allah
that he would make the and call upon
Allah
and bothered him in such a way that
what cannot cause a prophet to forget his
or to
miss something that's far, but he bothered him
in such a way that caused him to
miss
waking up for
waking up in the night to to pray
to Allah
and commune with Allah
And so what happened? He woke up in
the morning, he lost his and he cried
so profusely, and he was so broken hearted
and asked Allah for his forgiveness, and and
and he had so much fear in Allah
subhanahu wa ta'ala that Shaitan left him. Shaitan
left him and said that I can handle
him reading tahajjud. I can't handle him doing
this everyday.
I can handle him missing the tajj. I
can't handle him doing this every day. Right?
If you ask the ulama what's the definition
of tawba,
they'll say they'll say a mechanistic
definition. Imam Nawi, you can look it up
in the rialasalaimin.
He mentions either 3 or 4 points. The
first point is what? That a person when
they wanna make Tawba from a sin, they
they stop doing that sin,
and they feel regret for doing that sin,
and they make resolve to never do that
sin again. And then the 4th point is
if it involves, the right of another person,
then they return that right to that person
as well.
But this is a very mechanistic definition.
Right? There's a hadith of the prophet sallallahu
alaihi wa sallam that regret is tawba. Right?
Sincere regret is tawba.
And in explanation for this our mashaay taught
us what? One of my mashaay
his name
is, Sheikh Mohammed Hassan.
He's a villager, very simple person. Masha'Allah, wonderfully
learned in the hulum but he's like his
disposition is that of a villager. So he
says, imagine it makes it very good for
him to teach things.
Why? Because he makes he breaks down things
to very simple example. He said, imagine a
person goes hunting
and they have a gun and they have
in the sights the prey like deer or
whatever thing they're hunting. They have it in
their sights, and then they pull the trigger
and then when they blink and when they
open their eye again, they see instead of
killing the deer, they kill their only son.
The ah that comes from
that person's
inner core, from the depths of that person's
lungs, and from the inside of their heart.
That wish that I could do anything I
could just to go one second back in
time and and not do what I just
did.
This is Toba. If you have this, you'll
stop doing the sin. If you have this,
you'll never want to do it again. If
you have this, you will
consider this sin a bad thing. If you
have this, all of these things will come
part parcel parcel for free as a package
deal.
This is what we're missing because we don't
think of our sins as sins anymore.
Rather what happens is when somebody tells us,
fear Allah subhanahu wa ta'ala, we take it
as an insult.
Maybe someone says to us, fear Allah ta'ala,
as an insult.
Don't worry about the person. Worry about the
Allah.
This is the way of our our forefathers,
the salaf radiAllahu anhu. Imagine the the arrogance
and the the the the the pompousness that
a person would have to have to come
to a Sahabi of the prophet sallallahu alaihi
wa sallam.
Someone who was there with Rasulullah sallallahu alaihi
wa sallam who heard in Badr, and then
tell them,
tell them fear Allah ta'ala.
But say, Abdul Abdul ibn Masrudi says that
that that that when people would say say
to us, fear Allah ta'ala,
we would we would thank them. We would
thank them. Even though they know they're intelligent
people, they're more intelligent than we are. They
know that sometimes people say these things and
what they mean by them is an insult.
They don't care about Allah ta'ala,
and they definitely don't care about us.
But what they would thank them Why? Because
they would take it as a a a
time to remember Allah subhanahu wa ta'ala.
And this is something that that this is
a a a lesson we have to learn
again and again, and this ties into what?
This ties into a whole bunch of things.
Right? What is the what is the, what
you call it?
The Hikma behind the zakatul fitr. Right? What
is the Hikma behind the zakatul fitter? So
hadith of the prophet sallallahu alaihi wa sallam
that zakatul
fitter is is legislated what? Right?
It
It has an outward reality and an inward
reality. The outward reality of it is something
that everybody has figured out that it's to
feed the poor. Right?
Right? That the poor, you need to enrich
them so that they this day they can
have an Eid like everybody else.
The poor, you need to save them from
the humiliation of having to ask on the
on the day of Eid, so they can
celebrate Eid as well. That's the outward reality
of it. What's the inward reality?
Right? The heart of Allah
is that every moment of the fast, every
moment of the fast, the eyes don't look
at anything that's haram. The tongue doesn't speak
anything that's haram. The ears don't listen to
anything that's haram. It comes in the hadith
of the prophet sallallahu alaihi wa sallam that
the person who cannot abstain from from from
looking, listening to, speaking the haram, Allah has
no need for their hunger or thirst.
But who of us can claim that we
we go in the day without seeing any
of these things, without saying any of these
things? Who can claim it? Whoever of you
can do it,
Make dua for me too while you're at
it,
A person just I challenge you to sit
for 30 seconds without thinking of something haram.
It's like don't think about an elephant. What
did you just think about? Right? What are
you gonna do? Right? It's Allah's hap that
that that our fast to be like that.
So out of his mercy he gave us
what? He gave us this ability to do
what? Okay. Give, like, $10 ahead.
Right? Zakatul fazakab means tazgia means purification.
Right?
That you purify all of the stuff, the
dirtiness, the impurity of your deeds,
of your fast, of your your
qiyam in the nights of Ramadan.
In this $10 Allah, ta'ala, give us a
way of even cleaning it so that it's
also worthy of being accepted. Right? So this
is this tawba is what? We have to
constantly be cleaning and grooming our our state
and our deen. Right? And it's not the
sign of a sinner that the person makes
so many times in the day. Rather, it's
a sign of a person's righteousness.
That tawba is a state that they're constantly
in. It's not a hal of theirs, rather
it's a maqam of theirs. It's not the
a place that they go and visit every
now and again. It's where they live. That's
their permanent address is to make tawba to
Allah subhanahu wa ta'ala.
This is what this is the new beginning
of the Muslims. So I give congratulations
and good news to myself and to all
of us that no matter what happened in
the past,
don't ever Yeah.
Who knows
the 100 people or this 50 people who
are in simic right now? There's a 1,000
people who don't wanna come to the masjid
because of some sin that they're stuck in.
And if they had known, they would be
the ones that should be here first.
Allah ta'ala asks, oh mankind,
what has deluded you regarding your noble and
generous Lord? That to admit that you're wrong
in front of anyone else will give you
a problem, to admit that you're wrong in
front of Allah subhanahu wa ta'ala makes him
love you even more.
It makes him makes him give you even
more help, it makes you have even more
nur in your day, it makes your your
heart even cleaner, it makes your rest at
night even sweeter,
it makes your daytime even better, it makes
you more beloved to Him, and makes you
more beloved to His creation as well.
Whoever humbles himself for the sake of Allah,
Allah Ta'ala will raise that person. So,
Yeah. Yeah. Islam.
Great news, glad tidings to all of us
that we have this option. It's cost absolutely
nothing to make tawba and have a new
beginning in every moment of our life, in
every moment of our life.
With regards to the crossroads,
I don't see so many university
students here, but
you know we have
many people who are young and young at
heart young slash young at heart.
So with the whatever, like, you know, 10,
15 minutes left,
I wanted to share just a couple of
thoughts regarding the the crossroad. We talked about
the new beginning,
and now let's talk about the cross road.
Because every beginning starts in here, it starts
in your heart. Doesn't start with a new
job, doesn't start with new money, doesn't start
with masha Allah, young people getting married, it
doesn't start it starts where all of that
stuff is wonderful inshallah Allah, I give you
all those good things and this is through
the end the year after. It all starts
here in your heart. That's part of our
as well. Right? Comes to athaar of the
prophet sallallahu alayhi
wasalam, That the the intention of the believer
has a greater status with Allah subhanahu wa
ta'ala than even the deed itself.
Why? Because the intention is more closely tied
to you as a person than the actual
deed itself. The deed is something that Allah
gives tawfiq to do, and if he wishes
to prevent you from doing it, no amount
of wishing to do it is going to
change that. Right? It It all starts from
here inside the heart.
Remember,
if you graduate right? Because we always have
you did you go to your high school
graduation?
Did you?
Right?
Today,
we wanna thank all our teachers for these
18 years and
it's not the end of, our high school,
but the beginning of the rest of the
days of our life. It's everyone. It's the
same one. It's the same thing. Trust me.
They vet the the principal, vets all the
speeches. Just in in case the the the
student, like, decides to say something actually substantive.
Talk about something like little that's happening or
talk about No. No. Just stick to the
script, kid. Right? I won't I was gonna
say stick stick to the script, son, but
rarely do you see a valedictorian who's a
male anymore, but Allah help us all. Right?
Okay. That stuff is wonderful. That's great. InshaAllah.
Congratulations,
with all of those things. I myself had
my, graduations that I went to. It's
it's a rite of
save you a couple of things that they're
not gonna mention at your graduation.
Okay?
That is, if you have a degree in
engineering or if you have a degree in
medicine or if you have a degree
in sociology
or in bioengineering or whatever
drama or philosophy or whatever.
Okay? As a Muslim, as a person who
says La ilaha illallah,
okay? Your job is the the service of
this deen, and your job is to worship
everything else you do is a side gig.
Every artist, every visionary, every person who is
ever anything. Right? Do you think that do
you think that,
they were, like, whatever, you know, wonderful renaissance
painter. You think that they just, like, you
know, became an adult and someone's like, here,
just start painting and I'll,
you know, I'll pay you for it. No.
Many of these people, they actually died broke
and their paintings,
now fetch 100 of 1,000,000 of dollars after
their death.
After their deaths because they died what? Broke.
What happened? People who have vision and have
love and drive and attachment to something,
they do whatever they need to do in
order to do that thing.
So your job at whatever corporation,
at whatever office is what it is your
side gig.
They will try to convince you that this
is your job.
Sleep at work,
Here's your,
your long life together with this corporation.
We will contribute to your 401 k. We
will grow old and die together. We will
this is this is it. This is like
your your wife. This is like your kid.
And people do that. They, you know, like
start ups and things like that. They expect
you to sleep at the office, and they
expect you to do, you know, all sorts
of stuff like,
you know, like
over what a normal human being would do.
And it's interesting the rest of the world
laughs at us. In Europe, if it's not
if it can't get done by 5 o'clock,
you know, it can get done 9 o'clock
tomorrow morning,
which I praise the American worker for being
as hard working as he is, but the
thing is, okay, you should work hard. No
Muslim should ever be lazy. Our forefathers and
deen were not like that. I very much
dislike seeing the Muslim world during Ramadan for
this reason. Nobody does anything. Alright?
Badr happened during Ramadan.
The Fath Ham Makkah happened during Ramadan. The
conquest of of of Andalus happened. Right? The
21st of Ramadan. Right? The ships crossed with
the Berber commander, Musa bin Musayr, with an
army of 10,000 people. It was foretold in
the hadith of Haram, narrated in the Muwata
of Imam Malik
that 10,000 people will ride the the seas.
Their ships will be like a king sitting
on thrones. They'll ride the seas in the
path of Allah
They cross the Strait of Gibraltar,
and and they burn their ships behind them,
at least according to, whatever
the 27th of Ramadan, and Allah gave them
victory. Right? The 27th of Ramadan, and Allah
gave them victory. Right? The, Shaykh Uthman, we
were talking about Ibn Adil Bar. Right? His
his hundred books that he wrote are just
one drop in the ocean of sadaqah that
that that that pious group of people went
out in the path of Allah Subhanahu Wa
Ta'ala. You know that that goes in their
account for their sincerity and their
their their drive and their hard work in
that day. And now try getting something done
in an office in the Muslim world in
Ramadan.
You know, usually you can't get anything done
but drink tea. In Ramadan, you cannot drink
tea. Alright?
Don't be like that.
Don't be don't be like that. So anyway,
what happens? Your work your job is going
to what? They're going to yoke that that
that latent creative potential energy, drive,
ability to do hard work, that ability to
attach your heart to something and save your
heart and soul in your life into doing
some work.
Right?
It's not your life's work. It's just a
job.
It's not your life's work to make money
for a corporation.
It's just a job.
Corporations,
despite how much they yell and scream, they
are not people.
Your service of them is like the service
of an idol. If you think that servicing
the corporation is a virtue in and of
itself, it it it is not.
Okay?
If you were to serve anyone
from the creation, serve your family.
If you were to serve the creator, that's
what Allah made the people of
for.
What am I saying? Am I saying don't
get a job? No. Am I saying don't
make money? No. Your heart cannot be sunk
into that job.
Understand what you need. What do you need
from this life? If you need a a
a Honda, no need to buy an Acura.
If you need a Toyota, no need to
buy a Lexus.
If you don't have a Tesla, even though
all the other doctors have a Tesla,
you'll get over it. Right? It's a pretty
sweet car. It's I I I have to
admit it's a pretty sweet car. I'm just
saying that because I'm not like anywhere near
being able to afford it. If I could,
I'd totally buy 1. Right? So you guys
can like, whatever. Forgive me for that. Right?
I don't wanna be that way, but I
also like don't wanna,
over advertise my own piety. Right? The thing
is this, the fact of the matter is
we all know, all of these things, if
you need a certain level of house, buy
the one that you need. You know, if
you have more children then buy a bigger
house.
If you have less children buy a smaller
one. You know. Right? Be responsible. Plan what
your needs are for this life.
Okay? If you can get by in the
year
making $50,000,
the mere fact that you can make $200,000
a year is not a reason to make
it.
Right? The money is not there just because.
Right? The only one who's worshiped just because
he is who he is is Allah ta'ala.
Every single this is part of our aqeedah.
Every single other thing has the right to
be questioned after Allah subhanahu wa ta'ala and
his messenger sallallahu alaihi wa sallam.
Right? If you can work
6 months, 5 months out of the year,
do it, spend the rest of your life
doing what you were created for. What were
you created for? It's a text of the
Quran.
I did not create the mankind, I did
not create the jinn. Allah ta'ala says, except
for what? To worship me. And however many
doors there are for that, somebody you study
knowledge, somebody you serve the masjid, somebody you
gather money for the poor, somebody you're serving
Allah to Allah has to do with your
spending time teaching your children about the deen.
What can I say? What can I say?
One thing is people like myself, Pakistani, Indian,
but Bengali,
non Arab people, if our kids don't know
how to read the Quran, one might say
it's not even their language. What do I
tell you now that the children of even
the Arabs come to me and they don't
know how to read the Quran? What do
I tell you now?
What money was worth that? Which room of
the house was worth selling that for?
That's not happening to other people's kids, it's
happening to our own. And if you say,
well, my children all know how to read
the Quran. Guess what? The other kids, they're
your children as well.
They're the children of the Ummah, Sayid Muhammad
Which one of them was worth expending to
get a Toyota Lexus instead of a Toyota?
Which one of them was worth I'm not
saying you can't buy a car, but I'm
gonna say, which one of them was worth,
you know, writing off for any of these
things. Allata created us. Let me tell you
something. Just like just like your life until
this point has passed and it was like
a blink of an eye, all of us
will leave sooner rather than later.
All of us will leave sooner rather than
later.
Right? All of us will leave sooner rather
than nobody was born in this world except
for today.
Nobody. Everyone will stand in front of Allah
subhanahu wa ta'ala And on that day, when
people say, well, brother, you know, you're talking
all of this stuff, but you have to
be practical. On that day when people are
giving their hisab in front of Allah ta'ala
and people are screaming in the fire. On
that day when people are giving hisaab in
front of Allah to Allah, there are people
who are going to be in Jannah. You
know the the the person that you thought
was in the masjid praying all the time?
They're not gonna win any border election, no
one's gonna marry their daughter to that to
that person, people think this guy must be
in the masjid because they have nothing better
to do. And the day that that person
is higher than yours and mine. Right? Then
we'll see what what's practical. You wanna talk
about practical? We'll see what's practical on that
day.
The akhirah is more real. It's there's more
intensity in it, and it lasts forever.
And it lasts what? Forever.
Remember, don't be seduced by the serpent of
of your corporation,
or by the serpent of your job. Don't
be seduced into thinking that this is what
Allah created you for. Allah did not create
you for this.
The Sahaba radiAllahu anhu look at them. They
conquered the entire known world. What did they
spend their day and what did they spend
their night doing? They spent their day propagating
the deen of Allah subhanahu wa ta'ala and
they spent their night in communion, in sacred
communion with Allah subhanahu wa ta'ala. That they
should wake up in the middle of the
night and talk to Allah subhanahu wa ta'ala.
This is something I have every one of
us have, that they used to cry and
complain about the breaking of fajr because of
the sweetness of their communion with Allah subhanahu
wa ta'ala. And we don't even wake up,
we don't even care about it anymore. We
don't even talk about it anymore.
There's a generation of people didn't wake up.
At least they talked about it. They said,
I prayed to Hajj at one time. It
was nice.
Maybe we should do that. We don't even
talk about that anymore.
We don't even consider it to be a
benchmark of piety and righteousness.
This is what Allah ta'ala created for you
for.
Imagine a person will enter into the You
you know when we enter into our graves,
this ruha is going to be separated from
the body.
If you don't have a spiritual life, your
time in the grave will be very awkward.
It will be very awkward.
You you you have to stay there for
a long time.
Have some sort of spiritual life, so that
once your body is gone, you're not like
completely like, what do I do now?
Have some sort of lie There are people
literally, their entire identity is just They define
themselves by what they're the shawwat of their
nafs. How good I look, what I eat,
they take photos of it and put it
up. Fine. You wanna put a photo up
on Twitter? Great. That can't be all that
that you are. That can't be all that
I am.
Right? All of these things, you wanna know
what's practical that day. You have to have
vision. You have to know what's practical. That
day, we'll see what's practical. It will last
forever. It will not have any end whatsoever.
So
plan. Use the tools of your job. Use
the tools of your degree. Use the tools
of your dunya. Use the tools of your
good looks and your your intelligence, and your
youth, and your stamina to do work right
now.
Right? So that you can plan that I'm
right now 25 years old, graduating from university.
By the time I'm 40, I should be
able to, what, go on Hajj every year
and read this many times the Quran in
the year and know how to understand the
Quran in Arabic and
and whatever khidma I wanna do, service I
want to do for the deen, I want
to do that service. Trust me, believe me
Allah will bring someone to do all the
rest for you. You don't believe me? Tell
me tell me which one of the sahaba
radiallahuan who knew how to build a building.
Not one of them knew how to build
a building. The prophet sallallahu alaihi wa sallam's
masjid didn't even have a roof.
The only buildings that survived from the time
of the Sahaba to now are are the
ones that the Greeks the Greek Christians built.
The Jamia Umalia,
in in in in in in in in
Damascus, in in Sham,
and and the different massages that are there.
Many of them have been destroyed in in
in war. They're built by Greek Christian architects
in the form of Greek Orthodox churches. You
ever wondered why Masajid have a dome?
Right? Why does Simic have a dome? Do
you think that we'd show me the hadith
of the prophet sallallahu alaihi wa sallam's masjid
having a dome.
The the Masjid Haram and Makkamukaram, does it
have a dome?
The even the dome in the Mas'id of
the prophet sallallahu alaihi wa sallam, the green
dome was built by the Sultan of Baher
Babers, who was a Turkic slave king.
Right? That's relatively late. He what did he
do? He cleansed the holy land from the
the the the blight of the crusades,
and from the the the money of Hanima,
the pure money of Hanima from from from
from that
service that he performed for the Ummah, he
came back and rebuilt the Masjidil
Prophet sallallahu alaihi wa sallam. You know the
the the
the
the the the the self what not in
Seljuk, the, which from Mamluk part of the
of the masjid is the most beautiful and
colorful part. He rebuilt it from the spoils
of war from from from from casting the
the Crusader armies out of the holy land
in the middle ages. Right?
That dome is from that time. It's not
from before that. Why do our messiahs have
domes? Because the Sahaba didn't
even know how to make a building. Did
you know that?
They didn't they were not advanced in,
science and technology.
They're not advanced even in in military tactics.
If you read Islamic history from that time
until now, Muslims always do
good on the open field of battle and
they always do horrible in sieges. Why? Because
the sieges require the most advanced level of
tactics and technology.
This is something if you read history, you'll
see it again and again. What did they
had? They didn't have much. They just had
the taluk with Allah subhanahu wa ta'ala. And
it was enough to take care of all
of these other things. So, oh my god,
this guy is saying what? We're your husband's
gonna do anything. No.
Do your do your life, go to the
marketplace,
have your job, get by just like that
painter. What did what did the painters and
musicians, what did they used to do? They
had a day job, and then they did
the thing that they love at night. Right?
And what was their thing they love? They
love painting and music. What do we love
Allah That's
what the sahabah did.
Get by. Get by and remember what your
real job is, what your real calling is,
what your real vocation is, what your real
profession is, the real thing that Allah
created you for. And the rest of it
inshaAllah, we don't turn our back on the
means because if this, you know, if the
prophet sallallahu alaihi wa sallam and the did
that, we would have done it like them.
But they didn't
They lived in this dunya. That's why it's
a test. They lived in this dunya just
enough to get by, but they understood what
the time is to draw the line and
to do what you're actually created for. May
Allah
revive the sunnah for us. May Allah give
us barakah in our time, in our in
our in our wealth. Give us barakah in
our in our professions, in our careers.
Give us barakah in our states that we
don't have to constantly be running pillar to
post worrying about our daily bread. Rather, Allah,
deliver it to us easily. And exchange, give
us tafir to be able to spend our
days in His service and spend our nights
with with His holy essence.
Give all of us so much tawfiq.
We'll open it up for a q and
a.
Well, I have a question.
So
it said that
prophet Yunus,
his voice
was heard
in the heavens
when he was in the depth of the
ocean
in the whale in the belly of the
whale
when he was calling upon Allah.
So this was a familiar voice
is what
what's been said.
In other words, he was calling upon Allah
before
he made the mistake, and when he called
upon Allah, the angels recognized the voice.
So
how important is it to remember Allah in
times of ease, and
do you have any advice on how to
do this?
The remembrance of Allah is,
it's something that Allah by his mercy, he
gives us good times and bad times because
some people will remember him. They'll remember to
remember him in good times. Some people will
remember to remember him in
hard times.
But look at the commandment of the book
of Allah
It's a commandment. Right? That all and remember
your Lord. It's a commandment. It's an imperative
to Right? And remember,
inside of your very essence, inside of your
very being. Remember your Lord?
Inside your very being,
in humility and in fear of Him.
Right?
Meaning what?
Dhikr sometimes means to say something, to mention
something, and sometimes it means to remember. Allah
ta'ala is saying what? It means not just
to stay on your tongue but to remember.
Right? Why? Because
it's.
Nobody has a tongue inside of their essence.
They have the tongue inside your mouth. Your
mouth is not your essence.
Right? Inside of your inside of the the
spiritual apparatus that you have. Right? Remember your
lord inside of your spiritual apparatus
in humility
and out of fear.
And he explicitly says that that remembrance can
take the form of what? Of of of
saying that the
and and the different.
But it should take what? It should take
a a transcendent place also that you should
remember in
even when your tongue is not saying his
sacred name. You should also
have inside of yourself the remembrance of Allah
ta'ala.
By the morning, and by the
evening.
Is there any other time?
By the morning, and by the night.
And as a kid, as a double emphasis
on this point,
Allah says, and what? And he forbids
it. It's a it's it's a prohibition. It's
a
don't ever be don't ever be heed this
of this remembrance.
This is the standard and the benchmark that
the Sharia has said for the remembrance of
Allah
And this is our own shortcoming that we
forget Him.
And just like it's a shortcoming that a
person may go years without remembering Allah, it's
also shortcoming that a person should go up
blinking of an eye without remembering Allah
It in and of itself is something that
that a person should make tawba from. If
they do that, then even that blinking of
an eye, they won't be free from the
remembrance of Allah Can you imagine what it's
like to be in that state?
That that a person will not even be
able to sin anymore. The sweetness that a
sinner finds in his sin will become
become bitter for that person if even inside
the sin they remember Allah
Can you imagine that state? This is the
state of our our forefathers. This is a
commandment of the the book of
Allah. And the thing is we don't talk
about these things, and we don't,
strive
to see, you know, see these things in
our life, So we don't see that. But
if you go and travel through the Darul
Islam, the the the homeland of the Muslims
from its east and from its west and
from its north and south, you'll see people
like this. When I was in Mauritania, I
I met many of not just the Masai,
the students of knowledge would literally recite Quran
in their sleep. I've seen it before.
They recite Quran in their sleep. Many of
them. Right? I've seen I've seen from the
that in their sleep making vikr. One of
my that I studied from in Pakistan.
I remember he was sleeping because the the
it's not like people have separate corners. Everyone
just kinda loose together in the madrasa. Right?
So the sheikh is sleeping with his head
cocked back and his mouth is open, he's
snoring with his mouth open.
It's very awkward, right? And I see his
lips moving, and I see while he's sleeping
his his hands, his fingers are moving like
this.
There's flies landing on him. I've seen this
before. This is not just one person. These
things you see this in people. This is
a goal of what if you wanna be
if you wanna do that's a goal to
do. If you wanna tell me something, ask
me what has impressed you in your life,
I'll tell you these are the these are
the people
that,
you know, that that you're talking about whatever,
Justin Bieber and, like, Britney Spears and God
knows whoever,
Michael Jordan or whoever. He hasn't Jordan hasn't
played for a while. Who's, like, the new
basketball guy? Whoever it is. Right? The the
guy in the Blackhawks who made the most
touchdowns or whatever it is. Right? Whoever these
people are. Right? You wanna talk about
who are gonna be the people who have
made it. Right? It's gonna be people like
that.
It's possible. It's doable.
If you don't it's a commandment of the
Quran.
Okay? If you attempt to do it and
go down you go down before
it's fulfilled,
right, the person who makes hijrah and dies
on the path of hijrah,
That person the the reward for that person
the fulfillment of the rest of the reward
for that person,
Allah takes it upon himself to fulfill it.
But what's the real what's the real sad
part? It's not the one who didn't make
it, it's the one who didn't try.
The sad part is not the one who
didn't make it. The real sad part is
the one who didn't try. This is from
the fable of Allah subhanahu wa ta'ala. Sometimes
we're so far away from this that he
will send us good things or hard things
or this thing or that thing. Some experience
in our life that if we were to
choose, we wouldn't choose for ourselves, but it
makes us remember
remember Allah Subhanahu Wa Ta'ala. Those things in
in themselves are are blessings.
If if a person should win a $1,000,000
if a person should win a $1,000,000,000
and it removes them from the the remembrance
of Allah,
I seek refuge in Allah
from even one cent of something some some
like that. That should separate me from Allah
and make me a loser in this world
and a loser in the akhirah.
Any questions from the audience?
You talked about the importance of cover.
Is it recurring Taaba that has value still?
I mean, I might do something, repent to
Allah over and over again. So is there
value in that or is it
that, you said with the same intention, right,
that you would not want to repeat that?
What if you're a recurring
person who keeps on doing tabao and over
again?
Mark, that's a good question.
So the theme from the theme from the
from from people like you and me, what's
required in Toba is the feeling of guilt
and the feeling of
of of of not, you know, of of
of just
how do I say this? I apologize my
after I talk for so long,
my mind starts to shut down. But that
feeling of,
the feeling of wishing you didn't do what
you did, alright, that's your job.
And then a person should ask Allah
to make them steadfast on the Tawba.
If a person because people, for example, struggle
with addictions. Right? Do we have any, like,
neurology
people here?
Any psych people here? Right?
The weird, like, dopamine reward cycles that happen
in the brain with addictions.
I seek refuge in Allah Ta'ala from for
them being wired for something bad because once
you're stuck in that thing, it's really hard
to get out of.
And my experience is the people in, you
know, the people in America that hate alcohol
the most are alcoholics.
The people who hate drugs the most are
the people who are addicted to drugs.
And, for those people, such a person may
make, you know, you know, they may make
toba and it will not even be 24
hours until they break their toba again.
And,
what I say is that that means you
should make even more toba.
That means, you know, all of us start
struggle with something, like, we should make even
more toba for that. What what does it
mean? What does it mean? Right? At least
in the moment that a person makes
they wish that they could get away from
it. Even if they know I might end
up coming back to this again,
just to state in their heart that I
don't even want that. If I could get
rid of this thing, I would get rid
of it. I don't even know how to
get rid of it. Ask Allah ta'ala for
help.
Every one of those a person will receive
reward for for from Allah ta'ala.
And Allah ta'ala
one day will
give
you victory over your sin in 1 of
2 ways,
and they're really the same. Okay? One is
maybe a person who's addicted to something wrong
or has a bad habit will actually give
it up and they'll change their life for
the better.
Maybe Allah accept that du'a and and and
give them that.
For the rest of us, imagine if you
make tawba after every time you commit the
sin.
And again, the toba is it's
conditioned on actually feeling bad for it. It's
not like, oh, it didn't suffer a lot.
You know, I'm gonna, whatever, smoke another joint
tomorrow night. I already made the plan. I
already bought the weed. I already have it
sitting on my dresser drawer. I already roll
roll the joint. I made toba. I'm gonna,
you know, whatever, do my thing and no.
You actually feel bad about it. You actually
feel bad about it. And it's possible to
for a person to have some addiction to
something or another and, like, really genuinely feel
bad about it. Right?
Feel bad about it. Struggle with it every
time as much as you can. You know,
do do whatever you can to get away
from that thing. You know, constantly, you know,
do keep trying. Never give up hope on
on Allah that you'll be able to get
away from it. Imagine a person does that
and they make tawba for it and then
they die 2 hours later. Did they not
die in tawba?
Did not Allah Ta'ala write them that that
person made made made repentance from the sin
and left it before they left this world?
Rather, the the thing we should seek refuge
in Allah from is that that that that
we should be have a
bad ending.
That Allah should catch us in a in
a time with death, in a time that
we're not prepared for it. And the person
who is constantly has a fear of that,
that person will make tawba quickly from their
sins, and that person, it's hoped that Allah
will give them a good ending. And the
person who feels like, no, I'm sad, that
person should fear from Allah bad ending.
Go ahead.
Why were you singing to singers?
Why would I say what? You need to
sing singers.
Because I was we were saying who, we
don't wanna be like when we grow up,
and we're also we make dua for them,
give them guidance so that they all should
come to the masjid one day and pray
with us too.
Yeah.
And
then after that, then we can say we
wanna be like them. Yeah.
How do you find, sincerity in your actions
and what are the signs of sincerity?
Oh, man. We're gonna have to make that
the next,
next to make, talk to y'all. Oh my
god.
It's actually it's okay.
We we're gonna break here
and,
pray
everyone.
Again,
the,
the donation,
there's pledge forms and on the senate relief
table.
And lastly, I, there's the announcement
I wanted to make is next Sunday, there's
a picnic
at,
Kickapoo State Park at 11 AM. So join
us there.