Hamzah Wald Maqbul – So Take Heed, O People of Vision! ICC 100022020
AI: Summary ©
The speakers discuss the importance of not overthinking actions taken by individuals, which are not the result of their initiative or desire, but rather their actions are a result of their actions. They also touch on popular culture in the Middle East where people recite poetry in the bus and a woman reciting poetry in the bus. The speakers stress the importance of acknowledging one's mistake and not apologizing for actions taken against others, as it is crucial for everyone to accept and not admit their guilt. They also stress the need for people to accept their mistakes and not admit their guilt.
AI: Summary ©
All praises to Allah and may his peace
and blessings be upon his servant and messenger,
our master Saydna Muhammad sallallahu alaihi wa sallam.
May the peace and blessings of Allah ta'ala
be upon him
and upon his pure companions and upon his
noble wives,
upon his noble companions, and upon his pure
wives, and upon his Mubarak,
and blessed family and progeny, and upon all
of those who follow all of their way
until the day of judgement.
As a matter of course,
because it's narrated by the messenger of Allah
sallallahu alaihi wa sallam in one of his.
This ayah is read in many
around the world weekly.
Oh, you who believe fear Allah
As he should be feared, as it is
his right that he should be feared.
Brothers and sisters, when the ayat of the
Quran are read,
even if you have heard them before,
even if you know more about them than
the one who is reciting them to you,
even if you have legitimate
questions about the sincerity of the person who
is reading those ayaat, for the sake of
Allah
rather than for the sake of his creation,
we stop and ponder and take heed.
What is the right of Allah subhanahu wa
ta'ala that he should be feared?
Allah subhanahu wa ta'ala says
Reponder, reflect,
take a warning,
oh people of vision.
Allah subhanahu wa ta'ala
who is the one who created the heavens
and the earth from nothing,
who is the one that everything is in
his control,
Not an instant,
not a moment,
not a frame
from the entire creation through its time or
its space
is he heedless of or is at any
time free of need of him or is
at any time happening in any way, shape,
or form other than that which he desires
for it. And so like I'd mentioned in
the first khutba that I had prepared in
the line of khutbaat with regards to the
I had prepared
a kutba for today as well.
But even myself, I was
overwhelmed
by the ajab and the wonders of
the father of Allah ta'ala.
The divine omnipotent
and the divine predestination.
That the man who was on top of
the world.
They say that the president of the United
States is the leader of the free world.
And then on top of that, even amongst
presidents,
he was a man who seemed like no
one is able to check his power.
My point is not to say that he's
a good person or a bad person or
you should vote for him or you don't
vote for him. It's really not my place
to say and I'm not interested in talking
about that right now.
What I am interested in saying is that
it hasn't passed
or escaped the attention of anyone
who understands
that literally the man used to get away
with whatever he wanted to. To the point
where he himself would quip that if I
murdered a person in broad daylight, I would
get away with it.
But nobody gets away with everything. In fact,
nobody gets away with anything. On this side
or on the other side, everyone is going
to have to come to terms with
what they did, what they said
at some point or another.
The issue is this, all of us know,
something very simple, all of us know.
Time moves forward automatically.
You don't have the ability
to hit pause on time.
Whether you do something or you don't, it's
going to move forward.
Whether you want it to or you don't,
it's going to move forward.
Whether you do what you need to in
order to prepare for what's in front of
you or not, it's going to move forward
and it will arrive at some sort of
conclusion at some point or another. It will
end.
And this is something we ourselves lose sight
of.
But our forefathers before us and the ancient
ones before them
all understood
that things are progressing towards some sort of
end.
And
this is something it's a wisdom that's been
repeated over and over again.
I mentioned there was a nazam actually one
of the munshid used to sing
in the majlis of our sheikh.
It was
a small poem in the Urdu language. The
Rasul
used to recite poetry in his majlis. He
used to appreciate himself. He never said poetry
himself, but he used to appreciate,
if a a righteous poet would say some
good words, he would appreciate it. And so
some of the companions used to recite poetry
in his majlis. This is something very strange
actually I find. First, when I first heard
it in other parts of the world, I
found it strange. Now I find it strange.
This is the only place in the world
that I see that the masajid, the olema,
and their gatherings, there's no recitation of poetry.
So this is what? Very simple bait. It's
not not going to it's not or or
any high poet. He says
Look.
You know pharaoh. You guys heard of pharaoh
before? He's like the archetypal bad guy of
the Quran. And in fact he's the archetypal
bad guy of the bible itself.
There's no evil human being that's mentioned more
than Fir'awn. Fir'awn is like, you know, the
parallel of shaitan from the humans.
He's the one who stood in front of
everybody. He says, you know,
I am your Lord most high. He says,
do I not possess the the
the the the dominion over?
Is the word for Egypt, but now Egypt
is like
a country. The word in Arabic language is
the word for a metropolis, for a big
city. Why? Because at some point or another,
itself becomes a
metaphor for civilization itself.
Because at some point or another, it was
what a person would think of when they
thought of city, when they thought of state,
when they thought of empire, when they thought
of might.
Do I not
dominate
Mysl?
And do does not this river flow underneath
my feet? Meaning by my command.
A person can talk about the arrogance of
fa'am to a very,
great extent and with a great amount of
detail. The poet doesn't waste any time with
that. What does he say?
He says look, Firaun, his armies,
and the water. The story is done.
That's the summary. If you have to summarize
in in what? In one sentence.
And the water. He drowned in the sea.
Didn't he drown in the sea? It's finished.
All of that arrogance,
all of that might,
the palaces,
the soldiers, the armies, the the killing,
the fear, the awe, the respect, the reverence,
the pump, circumstance,
all of it was drowned in water.
Abu Jahl himself who gave the Prophet sallallahu
alaihi wa sallam so much difficulty
so much difficulty.
It is a it is a a sign
Allah subhanahu wa ta'ala gave to the ummah
that he was killed at the battle of
Badr. And the ones who killed him were
not great warriors from amongst the companions
Rather there are 2 there are 2,
young men from the Ansar.
From from the Ansar, from the people of
Madinah.
They just heard that there's this Abu Jahl
from Quresh used to give our Nabi salallahu
alaihi wa sallam a hard time. He's made
our to do list.
They asked the the the elders from the
Muhajirun
on the battlefield, point him out to us.
They didn't even know who he was.
Abu Tal, it's narrated that he himself was
somewhat quick puzzled.
Who are these kids? Why they coming after
me? Not necessarily because he's concerned for his
safety.
He's far more ignorant than that.
Rather, he considers it beneath his dignity
that the sons of farmers should kill him.
In fact, they're the ones who
mortally wound him.
And the death blow is struck by
Abdullah bin miss Erdal alaihiallahu anhu who is
also not from Quresh. He's not a nobleman
from Quraysh. Rather, he was a herder.
And Abu Jahl looks up at him and
says, isn't there anyone better than you to,
like, kill me?
This is what? This is ignorance. Right?
A person is faced with their own mortality,
with the end of their life, and they're
still concerned about all of these trivial like
the the death itself is not as important
as who kills you?
What is it? It's ignorance. And Allah There's
something to take heed from in all of
these things. Which is what? No matter how
high you're riding, if the end is bad,
it's bad.
And Allah shows people Allah shows people by
somebody's end
what their value is, what their is with
him.
We value a lot of things, and Allah
values sometimes different things. Sometimes things we value
are worthless in front of Allah Ta'ala and
sometimes things that are worthless in our eyes,
Allah considers
them to be of great value.
Which valuation is more important? Ours or that
of Allah Subhanahu Wa Ta'ala?
Which knowledge is more perfect? Ours or that
of Allah Subhanahu Wa Ta'ala?
And Allah knows best.
This man, will he die from this sickness?
Will he live? We're not pulling for harm
to anybody. This is the hadith of the
prophet sallallahu alaihi wa sallam. Saying Anas bin
Malik
narrates that the Messenger of Allah
said,
He said, Anas was a young boy. He
said that the messenger of Allah sallallahu alaihi
wa sallam said to me, oh my dear
son, if you are able to wake up
in the morning and go to sleep at
night and you bear no ill will toward
anyone, then do so.
Is the opposite of
is that you should sincerely wish well for
everybody, everyone.
Gish is the opposite. If you're able to
wake up in the morning, you don't have
this gish ill will toward anyone. You don't
want anyone to fail. You want everyone to
do as best as they can.
Then do so. Then he said, oh my
dear son, and know that that's my sunnah.
And whoever
loves my sunnah, that person has loved me.
And whoever loves me, that person will be
with me in Jannah.
We don't wish ill to anybody. InshaAllah, everybody
recovers. One might say, well, Sheikh, you know
somebody, you know, may be a a cause
of great harm to the creation of Allah
to Allah and maybe a cause of great
evil in the world. We say inshallah, what
how does it harm you? Make dua Allah
Ta'ala heal all of the sick. The sickness
is not only in the body, it's also
in the hearts and the minds. Allah Ta
heal all of those sicknesses
for you to see that same Joe Biden
and Donald Trump that were, yelling at each
other like children, not even like children, like
people from, like, old folks ward
Just down the street, just in Cleveland.
For you to see both of them praying
jumuah.
Sincerely.
Stranger things have happened.
It's not difficult.
So this is not about him. But what
is it? It's about Ibra. It's about pondering,
taking heed, taking a sign.
Which is what?
One of the tales of destruction that's in
the Quran.
In such a short surah
that it's taken by people as a nursery
rhyme almost
That Allah tells a story in his book.
Did you not see what your Lord did
with the companions of the elephant?
That the,
Yemeni client state
of Ethiopia
sent an army in the year that the
Messenger of
Allah was born to destroy the Kaaba for
political reasons we don't have time to discuss
right now.
The army
included elephants,
a cavalry of elephants.
They weren't sitting around watching Animal Planet. They've
never seen an elephant before. It's like a
dinosaur to them.
It's something that they heard about and imagined
but never saw before and it's truly terror
it's truly terrifying.
So this army which is a huge army
and on top of it, there's a cavalry
of elephants coming toward them.
The elders of Quresh,
they had consulted with one another
and decided that we have no
no ability to stand up to this army,
so we will retreat
to the
mountains around Makkumukarama and tell
these people leave because we really don't have
any other choice. No one can hang out
over there for too long. There's nothing to
eat, nothing to drink. There's no agriculture. Nothing
can
sustain them. They'll go, they'll cause problems and
then they'll leave.
So much so that Abdul Muttalib, the grandfather
of the Messenger of Allah sallallahu alaihi wa
sallam, he actually met Abraha, the Abyssinian general,
commander of this army.
And he said, I just want to talk
to you about one thing. What is it?
So your soldiers, they, you know, they caused
me to lose one of my herds of
camels and I want to be compensated for
it because I'm not a party to your
dispute.
And, Abraha was like, you know, he was
astounded. He says, this is like your most
sacred temple. We're about to trash it. All
you care about is your camels?
He says that the temple the temple has
a lord, he'll take care of
Part of it was trust in Allah to
Allah. Undoubtedly, part of it is what? His
own inability to do anything in face in
the face of this army. So what's coming
at them?
Elephants. Elephants are very big. Amongst other things,
it should not escape attention from someone no
matter how
little their scholarship is that elephant is very
big.
And how did Allah deal with them?
He sent a flock of birds.
What kind of birds?
Is it a a an eagle?
Is it a condor?
Is it is it is it a pteranodon,
you know, from like, you know, Jurassic Park
times?
What is it?
It's none of those. There are some birds
that are very big and extremely dangerous. The
Mongols used to be able to train. They
used to train eagles.
You guys will find this cool. They used
to train eagles that on the battlefield they
could point out to the eagle, a person
from the other army.
And the eagle would fly really high up
in the air in circles and just dive
so fast at such a speed and then
talon that person in the neck and then
take off in the air again, that person
wouldn't wouldn't even know what hit him.
Is it is it a flock of those?
No. It's like the little birds that, like,
if you got hit by the windshield wiper
on your on your car, it'll probably die.
And what are they how are they how
are they destroying that army?
They're they're throwing like little clay
pellets at them. Does that sound dangerous?
It's not even a rock.
The ulema, they mentioned in the tafsir of
this short surah
that the message Allah ta'ala one of the
messages Allah ta'ala gets across in this very
small story is what?
Do you wanna fight you wanna fight with
Allah
who created the heavens and the earth from
nothing?
Forget about that for a second. Why don't
you fight with the birds? If you can
if you can deal with the birds, then
like think about like You know if like
in UFC or in boxing or whatever, I
can't just say, like, oh, I wanna fight
Habib today. No. You gotta work your way
up through the through the ranks and show
that you're worthy of the fight.
People want to fight with Allah subhanahu wa
ta'ala. Why don't you fight with the birds?
Let's see if you can get past the
birds and we can talk about who's like
the next
rung in the ladder.
How did they fare against the birds?
They were wasted
like a field
that has been plowed and the plants are
dead and its stocks are withering and breaking
in the in the in the heat and
in the dryness,
just like just like that field is wasted,
laid to waste. That's how they were laid
to waste.
The irony of the whole thing is what?
Is how insignificant the thing that destroyed them
is.
Now look,
the leader of the free world,
the man who literally the law can't even
stop him from anything.
The same sickness that destroyed the entire world
and brought the entire world to a standstill,
it's also brought him to
a standstill.
Yesterday,
it's injecting chlorine and these things are overblown
and we're gonna have to suffer some losses
for the sake of the economy.
Now has turned into we're all gonna get
through this together. Right?
Together.
There was no together yesterday.
Together is today. And
we hope that he this inshallah, this is
his tune until the day allata
takes him. The Nabi salallahu alayhi wa sallam
said what?
The fortunate one is the one who takes
a lesson from other people's misfortunes.
So instead of this being
about, oh, Look, someone else got sick. That's
their problem. They'll have to deal with it.
Think about your problem. Me think about my
problem. How are we gonna deal with it?
We also are obliged to Allah subhanahu wa
ta'ala instead of having a stiff neck
filled with arrogance.
That we should humble ourselves in front of
the lord
That we should make tawba to Allah subhanahu
wa ta'ala. That we should repent to Allah
ta'ala and change our ways.
For the sake of the Lord, don't be
people who are immune to benefit.
Don't be people who are benefit proof
that every sign of the Lord can come
to you,
and still you don't take heed. Still it
doesn't have any effect. It doesn't change
you. You don't shed a tear. You don't
cry.
This is something you know, we were raised
in America. I didn't You know, I wasn't
born with a beard.
This is something that those people who are
raised in America know, it's not considered manly
in this culture to cry.
It was very difficult
to come to terms with this fact that
it's it's not actually a bad thing for
a man to cry. That the greatest of
men, the prophet salayahu alayhi wasalam,
the sahaba radiAllahu anhu,
even the ancients, even people have nothing to
do with Islam. There's a a person reads
the Odyssey,
there's a a a plea that Telemachus, Odysseus'
son, makes in front of the chieftains of
the Greeks in order to help him find
his father. He weeps in it. And it
was a footnote I remember reading in the,
Odyssey that they didn't consider it to be
a sign of weakness or a sign of
being effeminate that you cry.
If the eye is not moved to tears,
then at least the brain should know something
is wrong.
Don't come to me and confess in front
of me. I'm not a Catholic priest.
But if you know this, then think, how
is it that I can move the eye
to tears?
So it can be a sign for the
heart that the heart is still alive,
that when the heart repents, it's not just
moving, prattling of the tongue and the lips,
but it's a reality inside of the heart.
That those tears, they wash away the evil
and the black effect of sin from the
heart.
Whoever is unable to bring that forth, let
them know you have some work to do
and the good news is you still have
time.
The
are not bombarding you right now. You're not
on a ventilator yet.
Whatever the means is, one day it will
happen to all of us. We know that.
But take a sign, don't be benefit proof.
The the Matan al Aqdari, it's the book
that they teach small children
in the Maktab
system in North Africa. And there are books
like it in
in all parts of the Muslim world. Unfortunately,
we have become
satisfied and happy
that our children should become doctors and lawyers
and people of wealth and people,
of means
Despite the fact that they cannot recognize the
letters of the Quran
and they don't know how to read it
properly. May Allah subhanahu wa ta'ala give us
something better. If you're in that position, I'm
in that position, you can we can still
learn. And if not, at least we can
make some time and some space for our
children to learn.
The first book that was taught to the
children of Maktab after them learning how to
read and write. The Matan al Ahdari.
Literally the contents of it have to do
with what?
How to make
and how to pray. That's all. Very simple
book.
It has like a couple of paragraphs
before teaching people how to make in
which it talks about basic concepts
of Islam.
And so what does it say? It says,
It's not permissible for the slave to delay
their repentance.
If you did something wrong, if I did
something wrong, denying it doesn't make it go
away.
The fact that you hate feeling guilty,
it doesn't make it go away.
Embrace feeling guilty.
Anyone who doesn't feel guilty, this is a
sign of arrogance. Allah never says in his
book, nor does the Prophet
ever say that the believer is the one
who never
sins or the believer is never the one
who never makes a mistake.
Don't confess in front of me I'm not
a Catholic priest.
Don't put up a Facebook post so I'm
a horrible person. Keep it together in front
of other people, but between you and the
Lord, have enough humility to accept your mistakes.
Denying them,
not coming to terms with them, not acknowledging
them, it's not gonna help anybody. Neither here
nor in the in the other side. There
are people who hate the feeling of guilt
so much,
so much that they will literally leave Islam,
they will stop talking to their parents, they
will stop talking to their spouses, they'll stop
talking to their family members, they'll abandon their
friends
just because they don't wanna come face to
face with guilt.
And don't you know this is one of
the bravest things a person can do is
admit their guilt.
Don't you know Allah ta'ala, His Nabi salallahu
alayhi wa sallam said that he said,
You will find me where you find the
one whose heart is broken.
The one who admits in front of the
Lord his sins,
that person, you'll find Allah with them. It's
an act of incredible bravery, and an act
of incredible and light,
and incredible faith and spiritual grace and effluence.
Forget about what other people are suffering from.
Before we
suffer suffering from. Before we suffer from what
they suffer from, we also should take this
opportunity to return to Allah
And don't be one of the people who
says, oh, I'll repent when Allah guides me.
This type of speech is what? It's a
sign of wretchedness. It's a sign of being
from the hellfire.
I don't have health insurance. I suspect there
are people here that don't.
It's a problem in this country.
We have a free clinic, Masha'Allah. People come
that don't have insurance.
Imagine even if I'm seen seen in the
free clinic, I have to go and pay
like full price out of my pocket for
a medicine.
If there was a dispensary in this country
that gave free medicine, forget about Parma in
Cleveland. People would be coming from Akron. People
will be coming from Youngstown.
People will be coming from Pittsburgh and Detroit
and Chicago to get medicine.
Allah ta'ala and his rasulullahahu alaihi wa sallam
in this Tawba gave you the medicine.
It's delivered to your door
and it's absolutely free.
Can you imagine if a person had a
sickness
that will cause them great amounts of pain
and perhaps death one day?
And it's in a bottle and someone came
to their house and handed them the bottle.
And they say, oh, inshallah, I'll take it
when Allah wants me to take it.
He says this person is an idiot. Maybe
a non Muslim would say, you know, you
need to, like,
hang out with those Muslims a little bit
less
because they've warped your mind.
It's not Islam or Muslims that have warped
the mind brothers and sisters. It's the nafs
itself.
Allah
give us tawfiq. Allah
give us tawfiq not to waste this opportunity
and not to obsess over other people's misfortunes
and not to think about them except for
in the amount that it will
give us something to ponder and take heed
from so that we can benefit ourselves.
After that, we wish Allah
give everybody a cure. And if he takes
them, he takes them in a good way.
And that he guide us and he guide
others to that which is best.