Hamzah Wald Maqbul – Virtues of Dhikr
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All praises to Allah
who brought us to this, who brought us
to iman, into Islam, into this Mubarak house
on this Mubarak hour, this Mubarak day, and
we were not to be guided. Was it
not that Allah had guided us? Oh Allah,
to you His praise as His commensurate and
the majesty of your countenance and the greatness
of your authority.
Oh Allah, we do not limit you with
any praise. We could come up with ourselves
rather we admit that you are the only
one who knows the true extent of your
praise worthiness.
And may the peace and blessings of
be upon his servant and messenger,
our master, Sayiduna Muhammad
may the peace and blessings of Allah
be upon him and upon his noble
progeny and upon his noble companions and upon
his pure wives and upon his Mubarik family
and upon all of those who follow all
of their way till the day of judgment.
Allah
gives the commandment
in his book
to
mention and to remember Allah ta'ala a plentiful
mentioning.
Right?
Allah subhanahu wa ta'ala says in his book.
He says,
That indeed the prayer forbids a person from
from indecency and from
from sin.
The question may arise in the mind of
a thinking person
that I know several people who pray promptly,
that pray maybe even in the masjid,
that may have a very nice beard and
wear a nice hat when they're praying and
dress well and be known as a pious
person except for their prayer doesn't forbid them
from doing sin. In fact, some of them
are the most decent people that I know.
This happens. This is something that happens as
well. The right
in the in the tafsir of this ayah,
right, that at least while a person is
praying they cannot sin.
Even the
the the the the the zani and the
thief,
and the,
the the the brute and the rude person
and the person who backbites,
all of these things, that person at least
during their salat, they can't do any of
these things. There's obviously a meaning behind that.
That's the least
benefit a person can get from their salat.
It's kind of like good thing about having
a job. Is what? That not only are
you making money but you're also doing something
so you can't spend it at the time.
Allah has something behind it as well. But
what's the next part of Allah? What's the
next part of the ayah?
That indeed
the remembrance of Allah subhanahu wa ta'ala is
greater. So the have a number of opinions
regarding what this means.
Okay? The the the first meaning that comes
to the mind is what? Is that of
all the components of the salah,
the component which is greatest is what? It's
the fact that you're remembering Allah subhanahu wa
ta'ala.
And the salat is mentioned in the Quran
in many places
not only to mean salat itself but to
mean the entire deen. This is from the
in the literary style of the arabs that
they'll mention something
based on what its most important component is.
So the commandment of
doesn't mean just to pray, but it means
to establish the the the prayer to establish
the entire deen.
The closest metaphor I can think of for
that is a phone. Right? People have something
they call a cell phone inside of their
pockets. If it's not off, please turn it
off right now. People have a cell phone
inside of their pockets and sometimes the the
the least thing they do with it in
the day is call. Why? Because there's internet,
there's texting, there's,
GPS, there's all of these different things, but
we still call it a phone. Right?
For the same reason Allah subhanahu wa siddhi,
Allah subhanahu wa ta'ala
mentions the salat in many places.
But what's meant by the salat is not
only the salat but the entire deen, the
salat, being the most important part of it,
component of it. It comes the hadith of
the messenger of Allah sallallahu alaihi wa sallam.
A salat or imad ad deen. The salat
is what? It's the imams the the pillar
on which the the the foundation of the
deen rests. And what's my proof for this?
Or am I only making a rhetorical
flourish because it's my job to do speeches
and massages? Look. There's proof. Right? What does
Allah ta'ala say? He said what does Allah
say in his book. Right?
Right? When you leave Arafat and Hajj, what
are you supposed to do?
Right? You're supposed to make mention of Allah
subhanahu wa ta'ala.
If you're done with all of the rights
of your Hajj, what are you supposed to
do? Remember Allah Subhanahu Wa Ta'ala. When you
meet the enemy on the field of battle,
what does Allah Subhanahu Wa Ta'ala say you're
supposed to do? You're supposed to be firm
and you're supposed to mention Allah subhanahu wa
ta'ala. And you will find that mention of
Allah ta'ala, the dhikr of Allah ta'ala is
and it comes hand in hand with all
of the ribada.
So what does it mean?
It means the greatest component of? Your dhikr
is what? Your
is what? It's the dhikr. The fact that
you're remembering Allah subhanahu wa ta'ala.
A person in their salat struggles to do
this at first. A person may get old,
they their beards may become gray and it's
still difficult to do this. But a person
has to keep putting effort into this, keep
reminding themselves of this fact that the most
important part of the salat is what? The
remembrance of Allah subhanahu wa ta'ala. Our
he used to tell people who come to
him who came to him and said we
have a lot of. We're thinking about all
sorts of different things in the prayer other
than what we should be thinking about in
the prayer. He said whenever that happens, say
to yourself inside your heart, subhanallah, who made
the mind able to think of all yourself
inside your heart subhanallah who made the mind
able to think of all of these different
things. What is it? You use your enemy's,
energy and his force against him.
If you can't be that pious, there's always
something that you can still get out of
it. Right? So we have to remind ourselves
before the prayer that what what are we
here for? What are we supposed to do?
What are we doing this for? We have
to remind ourselves before we do anything in
the deen, whether it be our fasting which
is coming up right around the corner, our
zakat, our Hajj, all of these things. And
surprisingly, one would think that it's common sense
to know this, but I guess common sense
is not so common because we go to
Hajj every year and people complain about their
hotels and about,
the quality of their buses, and they don't
know they're supposed to be there for the
victor of Allah subhanahu wa ta'ala. And they
complain about this with regards to how long
the prayer is, how long the
is, how difficult the taweeh is, all these
things. And they don't remember that the reason
we do all of these things is for
the dhikr of Allah subhanahu wa ta'ala. But
there's another meaning deeper
and more profound.
Right? Because it's possible that the Quran may
say one thing and it may have several
meanings. The Quran will have one meaning you
understand understand as a young man. If you
get older, you'll understand it differently. It may
have one meaning before you study, and then
after you study, you understand something else. It
will have one meaning to you in this
life, and when the the angel of death
comes to you, you'll understand, oh, this is
what this ayah meant. When you're in your
qabbri, you'll understand this is what your ayah
meant what this ayah meant. When you're in
Jannah, you'll understand this is what this I
am meant. When a person aarhus may Allah
protect us from ever seeing the fire. When
a person in the fire, they'll understand. Everyone
according to their
will understand the Quran at a different level,
and it's possible that all of these understandings
are right. And this is part of the
and the of the Quran, part of the
high rhetorical style of the book of Allah
subhanahu wa ta'ala. So and and meaning that's
deeper than the meaning we just mentioned is
what?
Allah says in his book in a different
place, You
remember me, I'll remember you. Now tell me
something,
compared to Allah subhanahu wa ta'ala, what is
our our existence?
What is our existence? It's nothing. It's next
to nothing.
Our existence,
when compared to Allah ta'ala's existence is less
than the existence of the bacteria that's on
your skin
compared to your existence.
How many of us when we washed our
hands with soap, wept a tear for the
millions of bacteria that we extinguished its existence
by by rubbing our hands like this and
running it under warm water. Nobody.
Nobody. If there's somebody who weeps like that,
we'll probably take them for psychological help.
Why? Because it's not normal.
Now tell me something, what's more what's more
amazing?
You and me who Allah created us from
nothing. Who Allah gives us in every instant
air to breathe. Who Allah gives everyday food
to eat, water to drink, a family, parents
that loved us. Even if they weren't with
us for long or even if they're with
us for our whole whole lives. He gave
us all of these things. He gave us
Canadian
citizenship and free health care and that many
people on the other side of the border
are,
you know, will desire for themselves. He gave
us everything.
Everything, whether it's a big Ni'ma or whether
it's a small Ni'ma. Allah subhanahu wa ta'ala
gave us so many so many niyama in
every instant.
Every instant of our existence, he gave us
the existence itself without which we cannot live.
What's more, what's more strange or wonderful or
wondrous?
The fact that we remember him? No. We
shouldn't remember him. It's actually very strange that
somebody who have not created wouldn't remember him.
That's the type of defect that a person
would balk and wonder how is that possible.
What's strange and wonderful is not that we
remember him. Our very existence is contingent on
his favor.
The wonderful thing and the strange thing and
the thing that we should marvel at is
the fact that when we remember Him, He
remembers us.
You remember me, I will remember you.
This is what Allah means when he says,
That don't think you're remembering Allah ta'ala is
a big deal. The big deal is what?
Is that when you remember him, he's remembering
you. That's the big deal. The fact that
you say Allahu Akbar and face the Qiblah,
and Allah is the one who remembers you
at that time, that's the big deal. This
is something that's mentioned again and again in
the book of Allah and the sunnah of
the
That when the slave reads the, how Allah
dialogued with him. This is such a short
time we have for Jumuah, and we can't
read all these. Otherwise, We won't get through
the khutba, but it's mentioned in
the in the books. It's a Sahih narration
that every ayah you read from
Allah is responding to you. He's saying something
to you as well. This is an honor
that Allah subhanahu wa ta'ala gave us this
ability to remember and call upon him directly
and he speaks to us. Otherwise, everything in
the heavens and the earth is arranged with
ranks and with order. I don't know if
you remember. There's a hadith, a very well
known hadith of the messenger of Allah sallallahu
alaihi wa sallam,
and it is it's narrated by Bukhari amongst
other narrators
about a man who killed 99 people, and
then he felt bad about it. So he
said I want to make toba. So he
went to he asked the people who's someone
who knows about about being. So they took
him to a worshipper, someone who worships by
day night. I do it to a person
aesthetic, a person who has separated himself from
society to worship Allah ta'ala. That person that
person says, oh my god. You
what should you do? If you have a
question about deen, you should go to an
island. That's part of the moral of the
story. He goes to a worshiper and the
worshiper doesn't matter how beautifully you write and
read Quran, the knowledge is something else. It
doesn't matter how much,
you know, how how much prayer you pray
or how much fasting you do. The knowledge
is something else. So they go to a
worshiper and say, oh my god. You you
killed 99 people. How will Allah forgive you?
Why? Because he's overwhelmed with the state of
of of of of of
of witnessing Allah's greatness. So that person goes
into a rage and kills him
because he gave him no hope.
Then the person feels bad again. Says I
killed a 100 people. Who's the person
faqid, a person who understands the deen properly.
That person, he he asked him, is there
any way I can repent from my sin?
And that person asked a rhetorical question, who's
the one who is going to get in
between a person and his his toba. Nobody
can get between a person and his repentance.
And so he says, repent and I give
you another piece of advice. Go to a
far off land where there are righteous people
and leave the people that you're you lived
with because they're unrighteous. Live with those righteous
people and worship Allah with them. And so
that person goes out and makes his journey,
hijra peace of the land, he dies on
the way. So his his he dies. The
angel of death removes his soul. So 2
groups of angels show up to to
to take him. One is the angels of
mercy and the other the angels of wrath.
What happens? They dispute with one another. Now
they dispute. What do they do? You Allah,
what do we do? No. There's something called
chain of command. Anyone who's been in the
military or in police or whatever?
If you're a soldier in the army, you
can't call the president for every problem. You
call your immediate commanding officer. And if he
thinks it's important, he'll send it up. If
not, it will die right there. So what
do they do? There's another angel who is
of higher rank that comes by and they
say, you settle our dispute for us. Right?
The idea the point of mentioning the story,
right? To finish the story that the angel
the the the kind of presiding officer,
that angel, says measure the distance between that
person in between, the place they left and
the place they were going. Whichever of the
2 is closer to that person, you,
give you know, that group of angels can
take them. So they measured and they found
that he was just a hand's breath closer
to the place he was going and so
the angels of mercy took him. But notice
this, even the angels themselves, pure beings of
light that never disobey Allah subhanahu wa ta'ala,
what do they have to do? Even they
have to follow this chain of command.
This is a great mercy and blessing of
Allah upon us. We we are like the
spoiled brats of Allah creation.
Why? Because what does a brat do? Right?
If your father is the if your father
is the king and you want something, you
say what? Abu give me this thing. And
what does he snap his finger and he
makes all the asbaab happen in for that
thing to happen? Whereas if a person walking
down the street side sees the royal entourage
and says, hey, I need this and that
and another thing. What will they push him
to the side? In the old days, they
would have beat such a person. Even now,
if you try to tell a president something,
a prime minister, especially looking like this, someone
will tackle you and you know, and then
they'll find out what the I think that
what the reality of the matter was, like,
next week, you know?
They'll after you've been in jail and whatever
for so long. But what is it? Allah
Subhanahu Wa Ta'ala says, if you you remember
me, I will remember you. Right?
Right? Call upon me so that I may
answer you. Even the angels themselves don't have
this privilege that we have, that at any
time and any place we can call upon
him, and he answers us. But this is
something Allah
gave to the the believing people from the
children of Sayna Adam alayhis salatu as salam.
Just like animal has a trick or or
a speciality.
The lion is ferocious.
The elephant is huge. The giraffe has a
long neck that it can reach. The leaves
on the top of the tree that like
a goat or or or a rabbit can't
reach. Just like that, what's the trick that
we do? We're not the fastest animal. We're
not,
we're not the most powerful animal. We're not
even the smartest according to many scientists, although
that's something debatable. What is it? Our trick
that we can do that a lot on.
Doubt us with us, we can call upon
him and he answers us. Sayyidham Musa alaihis
salatu wasalam said in a in a in
a hadith narrated
by,
of saying the Musa, alayhis salam, narrated by
Ka'ab al Akbar,
who was a rabbi, a great rabbi of
the Jews who converted to Islam during the
And Sayyidina Umar used to keep him as
an advisor because he was such a learned
person. Sayyidina Musa alaihis salatu wasalam once asked
You Allah, are you are you are you
close so that I when I speak to
you, the adab is speaking to you that
I should whisper?
Or are you so far away that the
adab is speaking to you that I should
call out, scream out? Right? This is a
very interesting question. And the answer to it
is that both are true at some in
some sense. Right?
He's closer to a person than their own.
Carotid artery.
Right? And Allah subhanahu wa ta'ala,
So one of the meanings of that of
of of tasbih is what? To be exalted
on high. The understanding that a person of
sanity and aqul would understand is that we're
on low and Allah is as far away
as as as can be from us. Right?
The the ideas that both of these are
extremes that separate the slave from the master.
So sayydan Musa asked, are you close by
that I should whisper and speak in a
low low tone with you? Are you far
away? Should I call out to you, cry
out to you? What did Allah say to
say to say to Musa alayhi salaam says?
He says, Oh
Musa, I'm the one I'm the the when
you when you sit, I'll be the one
sitting with you as long as you remember
me.
I'm the one who'll be with you as
long as you remember me. Why? Because
being
is something a person cannot fathom.
And being
is something by definition that a human being,
a creative person cannot fathom. If you want
to be in a level that you have
some sort of relationship with Allah ta'ala,
that you can you can you can, interface
with, What do you do? You remember Allah
It comes in a hadith of the messenger
of Allah What?
That that I am with my slaves. The
hadith puts, I'm with my slaves as long
as his his tongue is moist with with
my remembrance.
This is an honor for all of us.
We think about it. We have
better things or more important things to do.
Right? We do our salah quickly and we
run away,
then get back to the actual business of
our life. But this is an honor
gave us. Only a person deprived
of intelligence would give this honor up, rather
it's something a person should
long for by day and by night. This
is the way the Sahaba radiAllahu anhu worked.
Adib Nuhatim, the son of Hatim Afai, the
legendary hero of the Arabs in Jahiliya, he
accepted Islam. He was a Christian. He accepted
sallallahu alaihi
wa
sallam. It's a very interesting story. But one
of the things he comments is that, after
I accepted Islam,
never was the adhan called, never was the
adhan called except for I had a longing
to
go and to fulfill the prayer. We look
for our ways of ducking out and avoiding
going to the prayer. This is the house
of Allah subhanahu wa ta'ala. If you try
to show up at the prime minister's mansion
in Ottawa,
you know what will happen. He doesn't I
mean, he cares for your vote but he
doesn't he maybe he cares for the country
but he doesn't care about you as an
individual. How could he? He's just a human
being.
But Allah
every one of us has an open invitation.
Don't be
don't be,
what like deluded by, oh, this building is
simple and then we'll build a nicer masjid
or what. It has nothing to do with
any of that. All of this money and
dunya. If dunya is what? Made something
beautiful or spiritually worthwhile, then the greatest of
the oliya and the greatest of salihim would
be Donald Trump.
We know intuitively that's not the case. We
know intuitively these are people of very little,
very little uh-uh worth unless Allah
changes their life around. Allah Allah give everyone
including us guidance. You say, Amin, ask for
guidance for other people because if such crazy
people can receive it, then we have a
chance as well. But the idea is what?
Don't be deluded by these things. This is
the house of Allah ta'ala. You'll understand when
you're great how beautiful this place was even
if you can't see it right now. You
should be happy, Allah ta'ala call. We should
all be happy. Should we honor Allah subhanahu
wa ta'ala call us in to stand in
such a noble place, even if there's not
enough place to sit, even to stand in
such a noble place, is an honor from
Allah subhanahu wa ta'ala. It's a hadith of
Sahih Muslim that the angels there are certain
angels Allah subhanahu wa ta'ala has made. That
their their entire job, their entire, wadifa is
to do what? To travel through the earth
and just look for places where Allah is
being remembered and to join those gatherings, to
join those maja'as. Whether it's the salah, whether
it's
learning, whether it's elm, whether it's someone saying
a good word, whatever type of vigor there
is, that wherever gathering where Allah is being
mentioned and remembered, they're supposed to look for
them. And so when they see when one
of them sees such a gathering, cries out
to the other angels,
come close. Come close. This is what you
were looking for. So the angels will crowd
that that majlis
until it's finished. They'll crowd that that sitting
in that event until it's finished. And then
after This is Hari's al Sahih Muslim by
the way. He said, Afterward, they'll go to
Allah subhanahu wa ta'ala in the highest court
and he'll ask them to give a report.
What did you see? What did you hear?
They'll stand in front of Allah subhanahu wa
ta'ala. They'll say that we saw people making
your mention, making your zikr.
He'll ask them questions then he says, Have
they ever seen me? Said, No, our lord,
they've never seen you. Said, what do you
think they would have done had they seen
me? The angels say, if they had seen
you, they would they would have been even
more fervent in their calling upon you. So
what did they ask for? They said they're
asking for your jannah. Have they ever seen
my jannah? No, my lord. They've never seen
my jannah. What do you think they would
have done had they seen your jannah? So
they would have been more fervent in asking
for it. They would have been more eager
for it. Said, what were they seeking refuge
from? Said, they were seeking refuge
from your fire. So have they seen my
fire? No. No, our Lord. So what do
you think they would have done if they'd
seen your fire? They would have been even
more scared and begging more earnestly to be
saved from it. And like this, Allah will
ask them several questions and they'll give the
answer for it. And after it, Allah
will say what? Allah
will say what to them? He'll say that
bear witness that I have accepted what they
did and I've forgiven all of their sins.
The angels are this is a hadith of
Sahih Muslim Badi. It's not over yet. Right?
This is not even the punch line. The
punch line is coming. Right? The kicker is
coming. The stinger is coming. What is it?
1 of the angels, they're very they're very
intelligent. They know what's going on. Allah said
we're gonna I'm gonna create Adam and put
him in the earth and say, well, yeah,
we don't understand. They're just gonna kill each
other and do all this crazy stuff, which
is what we're doing right now. We're killing
each other and doing all this and all
this in the earth. So they were perceptive.
They knew what was going on.
I
know something about them that you don't know,
that you haven't figured out yet. So just
leave it alone. Right? What is it? The
angels the angels will say to Allah subhanahu
wa ta'ala will say, Yeah, Allah, we understand
these are good people, pious people. Someone else
is in the club, we're getting drunk or
doing God knows what. Right? These people we
understand are pious people, but so and so
person, we know that they came to this
majlis. We know that they came to this
gathering.
They came to this gathering,
and they did it for some other reason.
Right? Someone's here for another reason. Maybe someone's
mommy and baba made them come. Maybe someone's
here because, you know, it'll make them look
good in the next election for the Muslim
board or for the whatever local, local, parliamentary
elections or city municipal election. Someone's here because
it's just their habit. It's what they've been
doing for you. They don't know how else
to do it. And they get the 2
hours off from work anyway and lunch only
takes 30 minutes to eat. People have all
sorts of reasons that they come. So they
say so and so and so and so
were in that gathering
and they were only there for another reason.
Right? Allah doesn't say no, you're wrong. What
does he say? He says,
These are such a people, the people of
Allah's remembrance are such a people.
The one who sits with them will never
be retched. Meaning what? I forgave that person
also. Why? By the barakah of those the
first meaning is what? That these are such
people
the one who sits with them and keeps
their company, that person will always be happy.
That person will never be wretched. Right? But
think of what's the deeper meaning.
Allah ta'ala said, what? To say to Musa,
I am the the companion of the one
who sits with me. Tell me how is
the one whose companion is Allah subhanahu wa
ta'ala ever going to be wretched?
This is not just something that we do
from time to time or 5 5 times
a day, or at a certain gathering, or
on
or during the month of Ramadan?
What is the commandment of Allah subhanahu wa
ta'ala?
Remember Allah subhanahu wa ta'ala. Remember your lord
inside of you, inside of your nafs, inside
of your very being. Remember your Lord. This
is this is from the Quran. This is
not something I'm making up as a preacher
who's trying to run his business. You'll never
see me again maybe after this day. Right?
What is it? He says, Remember your Lord
inside of your nafs, inside of your very
being.
In in humility
and in fear.
Even if it's not on your tongue, even
if your tongue is not saying, Allah Allah.
Your heart is always saying what? Allah Allah.
There are people from this Ummawalai I've seen
from my own teachers. Masha'a, I told my,
Mawlana Nafees, masha'Allah. I said that it's so
I'm so happy to meet you. One of
my teachers his name was Nafeez also, rahimuallahu
ta'ala. I literally saw him used to make
dhikr when he's sleeping. He'd be sleeping with
his mouth open and snoring.
Even louder than that. And I saw his
mouth is moving and his fingers are moving.
This is something this is this is not
like the Sahaba and Tabi'in. What they must
have been on is something we can't even
imagine. There are people alive like that right
now. I know people several people they read
Quran in their sleep.
Remember your Lord inside your very being
and and in humility and in fear of
him.
Even if it's not saying something, let it
be saying something inside. If it's not saying
something on her tongue.
By morning and by night, is there any
third time of day?
And just in order to make more takid,
make more emphasis, it's
a prohibition. Just like it's haram to
to eat eat and drink pork. Eat pork
and to drink alcohol. Right? This is this
is a nawi. This is a prohibition that
you are not allowed. You are not allowed
to what? Be heedless of him ever.
Someone might say, Oh my God.
It's difficult. Well then get to work. If
it wasn't possible, Allah Ta'ala wouldn't have.
Right? You wouldn't have made it made it
an obligation on you. And know if you're
making hijrah toward him, jadao'ala, if you want
to change from where you are right now
to this noble state of remembering him, I'm
not going to claim I'm in that state
right now
because it would be a lie. But if
you're making hijrah, you're pushing your life towards
that state that you never are human.
If you die in the middle, what happens?
Right? Whoever goes
for for the sake of Allah subhanahu wa
ta'ala and he dies in the middle of
his path.
Takes the responsibility
of fulfilling that person's ajr on on top
on on himself, on his noble self, mighty
and majestic is he. The only loser is
the one who doesn't try. If you wanna
write it off and say this is just
hocus pocus, Alan Lagocus, and this is now
a new time and a new modern age,
and my phone is ringing all the time.
How am I gonna remember Allah ta'ala? Say,
you chose your phone instead of Allah ta'ala.
There's a choice you made it. Abide by
it. But know that the help of Allah
ta'ala, there's certain things are difficult. The only
thing that's greater than their difficulty is the
greatness of Allah's help. And so be a
person who asks Allah for His help and
makes an effort. If you get there, imagine
how wonderful and glorious will that be.
And if you if you don't make it
and you're at least on the road to
that, Allah Subhanahu Wa Ta'ala is merciful. Allah
Subhanahu Wa Ta'ala gives from his father and
from his grace. The thing that we never
deserved and the thing that we never did
anything to earn. May Allah
make us amongst those 2 groups, the one
who either make it or bad crying. And
may he never never make up amongst any
3rd or 4th group.