Hamzah Wald Maqbul – What Has Deceived You In Regards to Your Generous Lord Islamic Center Of Akron Canton 09132019
AI: Summary ©
The speakers discuss the importance of not giving up hope in the mercy of Allah's power and avoiding blending oneself with others. They use the concept of forgiveness as a way to assert their claim of forgiveness and emphasize the need to avoid harming others. The speakers also discuss the negative impact of the nafs on individuals and the importance of acknowledging one's actions in order to resolve one's mistake. They stress the importance of avoiding addiction and finding a path of deateness.
AI: Summary ©
Allah Subhanahu Wa Ta'ala, he asked a question
in his book.
It is a very simple question and it
is
in the Juzamah.
Undoubtedly many of our children have memorized the
ayah. He says,
O mankind,
o insan,
o human being,
what has cheated you and what has
put you in a wrong impression with regards
to your Lord who is always generous?
Your Lord who is generous, who is completely
and thoroughly generous and was always generous with
you.
This is an important question.
This Allah
is the one who says in his book
as a commandment to his Nabi sallallahu alaihi
wa sallam.
To my slaves who have committed excess against
themselves.
Do not ever give up hope in the
mercy of Allah ta'ala,
because Allah ta'ala forgives all sins.
Indeed, he was always forgiven and indeed he
was all merciful.
This is not merely a motivational
expression
that you can put up on your Twitter
and on your Facebook in order to get
likes, in order to make you feel good
about yourself.
In fact, if a person understands the grammar
of the Arabic language,
it's a command. It's an imperative,
expression.
You are not allowed to give up hope
in the mercy of Allah subhanahu wa ta'ala.
What is the meaning of this commandment? Don't
ever give up hope in the mercy of
Allah Subhanahu Wa Ta'ala.
The meaning is explained in a hadith of
the prophet
You don't have to go to Madrasa to
read it. You don't have to read Sahih
Abu Hari Sahih Muslim. You can find it
in the
It's a hadith in
which the Nabi sallallahu alaihi wa sallam relates
to Allah subhanahu wa ta'ala says,
oh son of Adam,
even if your sins fill the horizons as
far as I can see,
If you seek my forgiveness, I will forgive
you.
It's not even a big deal. It's not
even a thing. It doesn't bother me in
the least.
What does it mean don't ever give up
hope in the mercy of Allah. It
means that your sins are nothing compared to
Allah. Allah
one who's Allah ta'ala is the one
who's
Allah ta'ala is the one that there's nothing
like unto him. Allah is the one that
there's no one like unto him.
Allah is the one who's that
The eyesights cannot see him even though he
apprehends all the eyesights,
That Allah ta'ala is transcendent over his creation.
There's nothing that you and I can do
as a sin that's going to bother Allah
to Allah.
Don't you see when you wash your hands?
You put soap on your hands.
We have some doctors here also like doctor
Ibrahim and other doctor
Hazrat.
When you wash your hands with soap or
when you get get a couple of pumps
of the, of the
sanitizer,
You kill bacteria by the 1,000,000,000,000,
God knows huge number of bacteria that you
kill.
Now tell me something. Is one particular one
of the bacteria is more offensive to you
than the other one?
Is it?
Have you ever, like, felt endearment toward one
of them and, like, been upset with the
other one? You produce too much toxin. You're
you're doing just fine. I like you. No.
If you have this problem, we write a
referral to psychologists.
You have some issues. You need to go
see the psych. Why? Because it's so irrelevant.
It's something that,
considered a type of mental illness, type of
mental sickness.
Allah says, even if your even if your
sins fill the horizons as far as the
eye can see.
We have some intelligent people here.
You know, your eye can see other galaxies.
Your eye can see, like,
1,000,000 and tens of millions and hundreds of
millions and probably billions of light years away.
Maybe there's some person who's such a Muslim,
such a mischief maker that they'll do some
sin that will literally fill the universe with
with the with the effect of their mischief.
For the people who have a literalist bent
in interpreting the kitab and sunnah, let them
know that Allah Ta'ala is the one who
says if you seek my forgiveness, I will
forgive you. It doesn't bother me one bit.
The idea that someone would give up hope
in the mercy of Allah Ta'ala itself is
a type of kafi. It's a type of
subtle arrogance. It's a type of subtle takabur.
That a person could think that they can
do something that's gonna bother Allah to Allah
that much. He's the one who wrote as
fixed as a commandment on himself that my
mercy outstrips my wrath.
He's the one who wrote as a commandment
and fixes a commandment over Himself that my
mercy outstrips all things.
He's the one, jallallahualla, he named himself a
rahman, and he named himself a raheem.
He's the one who commanded the creation not
to give up hope in his mercy.
Brothers and sisters, the issue is not from
the side of Allah ta'ala. The issue is
from our own side.
Why? What happens?
A person commits a sin, and then when
they commit a sin, they're they're shackled with
guilt,
and people don't like guilt. And so what
do they do? They try to run away
from it because the nafs has a number
of bad habits, and one of its bad
habits is that it doesn't like blame.
Any nafs which is able to take blame
on itself, this nafs has
this soul and this self has attained a
great makam with Allah ta'ala.
Allah ta'ala swears an oath only by those
things that are great, by the sun and
by the moon
and by the,
the dawn when it breaks
and by all of these different things, by
the, by by by the sun when it
rises.
All of these things Allah takes an oath
by time. He only takes an oath by
great things. He also
Allah takes an oath by the nafs that
is able to accept blame.
The nafs that's able to accept blame. Why?
Because this is also something great in the,
in the,
in the book of Allah Subhanahu Wa Ta'ala
and in the court of Allah Ta'ala. That
nafs which is able to accept blame is
a great nafs. Why? Because once you can
accept blame, you can responsibility.
Once you can accept responsibility,
you can repent to Allah subhanahu wa ta'ala
from your sin. And once you repent to
Allah to Allah from your sin, you get
forgiven. Because Allah ta'ala has no need to
punish anybody.
Allah has no need to punish anybody. If
somebody takes your wallet,
you have to punish them. Why? If you
don't, they're gonna do it again next time.
If somebody tries to burn your house down,
if somebody tries to kill somebody, you have
to stop them. We have to have police.
We have to have courts. We have to
have all of these things in this world.
Why? Because if you don't try to stop
them, what's gonna happen? They're gonna hit you
again and again and again. Entire society will
break down. It will become chaos.
Nobody will be able to have the luxury
of sitting inside the Islamic Center of Akron,
Canton, in order to,
hear about spiritual discourse
with regards to,
repentance. Why?
Because everyone's gonna be busy trying to stay
alive. Everyone's going to be busy trying to
protect the small amount of,
material wealth and material possessions that they have.
They're going to be trying to keep their
food from being stolen etcetera etcetera. It's going
to destroy all of the the entire muxed.
The entire point of a person's life which
is to transcend the animal like nature and
the animal like existence
that a human being has a propensity toward
and try to raise one's heart and one's
mind into
looking into the angelic realm
and achieve something from, from from one's potential.
This nafs if it cannot accept blame, it
becomes like shaitan.
Shaitan made an Iblis made a mistake.
Allah commanded this Iblis to make sajdah in
front of Allah subhanahu wa ta'ala, and Iblis
didn't do it.
And then what happens? Allah subhanahu wa ta'ala
chastises him for
it. And so he has a choice now.
He can either say, yeah, it's my bad.
The angels ask Allah to Allah a question
when Allah created the man mankind.
Will you put this human being inside this
earth that will cause mischief and spill blood?
We're already here. We worship you. We glorify
your praises and and and consider you as
holy. We consider you to be holy.
Why would you put this insan in this
earth? Allah ta'ala stopped them. He said, look.
This question, there's no this is a dead
end question. I know something you don't know.
What did they say? They say, glory be
to you. We have no knowledge except for
the knowledge that you've given us. Indeed, you're
the all knowing, and you're the all wise.
Iblis also had an objection. Why should I
make sense that in front of this, Adam?
But instead of what? Turning around and coming
back
instead of walking it back.
Look. Even the angels, their objection is relatively
well founded
because if you open any, you know, credible
news site,
what are human beings doing?
They're causing mischief, and they're spilling blood. It's
a relatively accurate prognostication.
However, Allah subhanahu wa ta'ala still understood something
that they didn't. He reminded them and they
they walked it back before it became too
late. What did Iblis do?
He says, no. I'm not only gonna insist
on what I did, but I'm gonna try
to, like, destroy all of them too. I'm
gonna destroy try to destroy the entire world.
I'm gonna cause as much mischief as I
can before you stop me from causing that
mischief. This brothers and sisters, this is a
very strange a very strange propensity. Every nafs
has it inside me,
which is what if I'm wrong, everyone's wrong.
If I'm stupid, everybody's stupid. If I'm,
if I'm like not given what I want,
then no one should get what they want.
Every ego, every naf, every self has this
propensity inside.
When somebody tells you, fear Allah,
and you say, look after yourself. Said, not
Abdullah ibn miss Erdal radiAllahu anhu narrates it
that that that this is something the messenger
of Allah salallahu alaihi wa sallam considered to
be a very bad sign in a person.
Considered to be a very bad sign in
a person.
Allah subhanahu wa ta'ala
again and again urges a person to humble
themselves. The messenger of Allah salallahu alayhi wa
sallam, again and again, urges a person to
humble themselves.
We've become so sensitive if someone gives you
the dua. May Allah guide you.
What do we do? We take it straight
on the we take it straight on the
cheek.
What are you saying? Are you saying that
I'm misguided? No. If they wanted to say
that, they would have said it. They might
even mean that you're misguided, but who cares?
They didn't say it. If someone says, may
Allah guide you, say, Amin. Without the guidance
of Allah to Allah, I promise you, you
won't even be able to find your car
in the parking lot.
Forget about being a Muslim and forget about
memorizing the Quran and all of those things.
You'll wake up in the morning. You won't
find your way from your bedroom to the
bathroom.
What's wrong with receiving this dua?
What happens? The nafs has this propensity inside
of it that, like, something small goes wrong,
and it just wants to destroy everything. It
wants to destroy itself, and it wants to
destroy everybody else as well. Who does that
remind
you of? Who does that remind you of?
Iblis.
One thing goes wrong, he destroyed himself. He
not he made the decision that now forever
I'm going to disobey Allah, and I'm also
going to make sure that everybody else goes
to the same jahannam that I chose for
myself.
If Iblis did it, that's Iblis. That's his
gig. That's what he does. Why would you
do that? Why would I do that? And
I'm telling you
we read the Aqidata Aawiyah in full. Not
in the Madaris and in the Jami'at Islamiyah,
but in MSAs and in different massages all
over the world. And the last 3 years,
perhaps, we've made khatam of the tahawiyah.
I think we're up to like 28 times
now. Masha'Allah.
People who don't believe in Allah. People who
say that they I was a Muslim. I
don't believe in God anymore. 9 out of
10 of them has nothing to do with
any sort of, theological issue. What is it?
You see somebody, they're an alcoholic. They're addicted
to drugs.
Someone has a girlfriend or a boyfriend or
God knows what other permutation of, friends that
people want to make friends quote unquote,
and they don't want to give it up.
They know it's haram. They don't want to
give it up.
And so you have 22 choices.
You can either admit that you're doing something
wrong,
and the rest of the world carries on
normal intact.
Or you can, what, try to rip the
entire world apart. You know, they see people
say this is, you know, this is a
a curse. You know, in in in in
in Hindi, they say.
You know what that means?
Satya is like the Sanskrit word for, like,
like, the reality that underpins the entire universe.
So Satyanas is like made reality
rip apart, unfold in front of your eyes.
It's a very philosophical way way of cursing
somebody out. Right? That's what they do. Satya
and Asha destroy. They they just everything becomes,
the entire creation should unravel just because you're
guilty about one thing that you do. Reality
itself logic should unravel because you're guilty about
something you do? Tell me something.
Why why do we believe in a lot?
Do we believe in a lot because we
pray 5 times a day? That's not a
proof of anything. Do you pray believe in
Allah because you fast in Ramadan? That's not
a proof for anything. Why do you believe
in Allah?
Why? Because if I was to tell you
this this phone that's like recording,
this lecture right now.
That you know what? One day, just, damn,
it appeared
on my dresser. You'd say you're an idiot.
You're a moron. Someone put it there. Nothing
appears on the dresser on its own. Right?
Right?
That's stupid. Like, you A cafe would agree
that that's a dumb thing to say. And
as a Muslim, you we would also agree
that's a dumb thing to say.
Now tell me something. Is what's greater, the
phone or the entire universe?
The entire universe is bigger than the phone.
Right? Yeah. I mean, you're not the grand
sheikh of the Azhar, but that much you
understood. Right? The universe is bigger than the
phone. The phone is part of the universe.
Right?
So if the phone can't appear on its
own, can the universe appear on its own
without any outside intervention?
No.
That's a very rational proof. Now, tell me
something. If a person were to never pray,
and a person were to be an alcoholic,
and a drug addict, and commit zinnah every
day, and, rob a bank, and, like, transact
an interest, and do every sin in the
book.
Does that change this logical,
this logical and rational reality, rationally
necessary reality at all?
No.
If a person commits a sin, does 2
+2equal5 because you committed a sin?
No.
This is that satanic stupidity that's inside every
nuffs,
which is what?
I'm doing something wrong, so I wanna destroy
all of the other reality in order to
fit me being right. It doesn't work that
way. It doesn't work that way. And the
issue is this is that nobody's a pious
person. Allah. Minsha'Allah. Some people are.
Some people are Allah Ta' protects them. And
Allah Ta' screens their how more than other
people.
Even the and the alayhi was salah to
Islam who we consider to be infallible. If
you look at the word for infallibility in
the Arabic language, right? The person who's infallible
is Masum.
Masum is what part of what part of
speech?
Is it the isam fa'il or is it
the isam maf'ul?
Is the passive participle.
Meaning the isma, the protection isn't generated from
inside. It's given externally.
Allah is the one who protects them from
sin.
It's not they themselves that have any intrinsic
quality except for Allah. Allah protects them from
sin.
Nobody nobody nobody
is
protected from this sin at all. Some people
Allah screens them more than he screens other
people. So if I were to walk into
the masjid right now and crack open a
beard.
You might be disturbed, right?
You should be.
But if I walk into the Masjid, and
I'm sitting with whatever another brother and we
backbite somebody,
People won't think anything about
it. Even though backbiting is
actually a bigger sin than than than having
a beer in the sharia. This is not
a lesson in usool. So for that reason,
you know, we can you'd come to like
whatever my fiqhddars on Wednesdays in ICC and
Parma if you liked it. If you really
want me to explain to you why. But
this is something this is this is a
part of our Sharia. Culturally, we find certain
things more offensive than other things.
If someone were a banker and they work
at the bank and they walked into the
message, we wouldn't say anything. If somebody was
a prostitute and walked into the message, we'd
be like, stuff for a while. What is
this? Even though the transaction in riba is
a sin bigger than than prostitution.
Go look in the books of fit.
Certain things culturally are offensive to us and
certain things are not offensive to us. Allah
puts someone's fitna in in their sexual desire.
Allah puts someone's fitna in drugs and alcohol.
Allah puts someone's fitna in backbiting. Allata put
someone's fitna in transacting in riba. Allata put
someone's fitna in lying, cheating, stealing.
Some people their fitna is so subtle.
Their preoccupation with halal things stops them from
from,
getting any benefit from their worship. So they
may even pray 5 times a day, but
they're busy thinking about their halal business.
Allah test everybody in a different way. There's
nobody who walks into the 4 walls of
the Masjid who's an angel except for the
angels themselves.
If you're an angel, please make dua for
me. For the rest of us, what are
you gonna do?
You will ask this question like I go
and like give talks at MSAs or in,
you know, other youth programs and things like
that. So people will ask this question like
anonymously.
They'll say well, chef, you know, I I
don't pray some sometimes because of my sins.
And then when I want to come to
the master, I feel like a hypocrite. Because
look you know you're showing off how pious
you are, by coming to the masjid even
though you commit all of these sins all
the time.
I said that's the way everybody should be
in the salat. That's the way everybody should
feel in the salat. That's the way pious
people feel in the salat. Anyone who comes
into the masjid and thinks like I'm a
good person that's the worst person in the
masjid that's the worst person in the masjid
that's the person who comes to the masjid
just like at least
That's the worst person in the masjid is
the one who thinks that they're a good
person, that they're a pious person. Don't you
know our tradition? This is what our tradition
is. The messenger of Allah sallallahu alaihi wa
sallam was very clear
that the best of people are the ones
that see that their own faults. They're beholden
to their own faults, and they're blind to
the faults of others. And the worst people
are the ones who are beholden to the
faults of others, and they're blind to their
own fault.
Most of us are in the middle somewhere.
We see some of our own faults, and
we're blind to some of our own faults.
We see some of the other people's faults,
and we're blind to some of the other
people's faults. The best of us is what?
Is the one who weeps over their own
sin and is distracted from worrying about anybody
else's.
And the worst of us is the one
who weeps and cries and wails and screams
over other people's sins and forgets our own.
The spiritual world is different than the physical
world.
The poet says, Khosro. Remember that
the river of love
The flow of the river of love is
something that's like upside down. It's backwards. It's
inverted because the person who sinks in that
river that's the only one who, the one
who floats in that river doesn't go inside.
That one is sunk. And the one who
sinks in it, that's the only one who'll
get to the other side.
The
one who humbles himself for the sake of
Allah ta'ala That person Allah will raise them.
If you go to your work and you
humble yourself, you know, you're not gonna get
promoted when it's time for promotion.
But guess what? There's a difference between Allah
and your boss.
Allah is the boss of bosses. In front
of Allah Subhanahu Wa Ta'ala,
the one who lowers themselves and humbles themselves
in front of the Lord. That's the one
who Allah Ta'ala lifts up. And there was
no one more humble in front of the
Lord than the Rasul Rasool who literally didn't
commit sin, and he'd still make tawba
70 times and a 100 times in a
day.
Why?
Just so that we could see this is
what we're supposed to do if that's the
one who Allah protected him from sin. And
the thing that's mentioned as quote unquote sin
for him sallallahu alaihi wa sallam in that
in the Quran is like small things like
if you miss like the the the sunnahs
of salatul Asr or whatever,
which are not even sins in our sharia.
Those things he used to feel pain about
them that if my Lord asked me on
the day of judgment, what am I gonna
say? Why did you miss me?
And he used to cause him pain. Allah
gave him tasali. Allah gave tasali. He said,
don't worry about it. Don't mourn. Don't grieve
about this thing. I've forgiven you even for
this much even though there's nothing to be
forgiven according to the Sharia. There's nothing to
be forgiven.
Allah even consoles him from this from this
law. Brothers and sisters, this is what a
person needs to do every day again and
again that a person should make this their
wird. They should make this their their daily
zikr that they make tawba to Allah to
Allah again and again from their sin. That
a person
be happy in front of the Lord, not
in front of other people, right? We're not
like Catholics that we confess our sins to
a priest. What is the priest gonna do?
He's a man. He's a human being just
like you. At best, he's a human being
just like you.
Rather you confess your sins to the Lord
and Allah ta'ala gives you forgiveness.
A person wonders in front of Allah ta'ala,
how do I know if I'm forgiven or
not?
It's interesting the ulamati mentioned like
you can read in the
amongst the
you know a standard formulation of what tawba
is of what repentance is amongst the number
of olamah.
He mentions that there are 3 conditions or
possibly a fourth one that a person stopped
the sin that they're committing. That a person
feels bad about it and they resolve not
to return to it again. And if the
sin involves the right of another person that
that right be recompensed
or forgiven.
This is a very mechanistic definition of tawba.
This is like a legalistic definition.
According to the law. It's a checklist 1,
2, 3.
But a person perhaps of Tawba still isn't
accepted. Why? Because Islam is more than just
the law.
Every time someone says something, you know, people
say is it far? Do I have to?
Do I not have to? No. You don't
have to. You know, you can go, come
to the you know, you can get the
jamazukba without without your shirt on you if
you want to. You don't have to wear
a shirt, but it's not a good idea.
Why? Because Islam is more than just the
law.
Islam is more than just the law.
There are so many things if a person
were to do them in a bare minimal
fashion, it would result in catastrophe. Why? Because
Islam is more than just the law. So
if legally the toba that a person makes
requires these three things and possibly a 4th,
then know that the inner reality of the
tawba inside of the heart is also mentioned
in the hadith of the prophet sallallahu alaihi
wasallam.
That that he said sallallahu alaihi wasallam that
Tawba is what? The Tawba that repentance is
nadama. It's nadam. It's that a person should
feel
feel feel remorse for what they did. They
should feel genuine remorse. What kind of remorse?
One of my asat is
from whom I read a number of books.
I read,
the sununav Abu Dawood from him. I read
the front half of the Tirmizi from him.
I met read the Shamal of Imam Tirmizi
from him. Elad Musal Salat,
Mujallad of the Hidayah. I I read the
front half of Mishkaq al Mahfabi. A number
of books from him. He mentioned this that
the inner reality of tovah is what? The
inner reality of
of repentance is what? That imagine a person
goes hunting.
Marcel, we're kind of in the backwoods here,
you know. I kind of I wanted to
avoid the paying a toll on the on
the turnpike, so I I took the back
back road here from from, Parma.
Alright. So you maybe you guys some of
you guys go hunting on the weekends or
anyone went to school. Probably this seems like
the type of area the kids in high
school go duck hunting or whatever. Right? So
you go hunting,
and you have your prey in in your
sights,
in the sight of your gun, and you
pull the trigger,
and bam. In the
the
the the loud
noise of the,
of the discharge of the, of the gunpowder.
A person blinks just for a moment, and
when they open their eyes again, they see
that instead of having killed the deer or
killed the duck or whatever they're hunting, they
ended up killing, their only child.
Now what's the feeling a person has in
that moment?
Is it a good feeling or bad feeling?
It's a bad feeling. Right?
A person wishes
I could would give everything I have if
I could just take this one moment back.
If a person ever feels that burning feeling
inside of their heart about something that they
did, then inshallah. Inshallah, take a sign from
Allah to Allah that inshallah your tawba has
been accepted.
Why? Because in that feeling, wrapped up inside
of it is what?
Wrapped up inside of it is stopping the
sin right away. Wrapped up inside of it
is what? Is,
thinking it's bad. Wrapped up inside of it
is what resolving never to do it again.
Is this person gonna say, oh, no. You
know, if I get another chance, I'll shoot
my my child again. No.
Wrapped up inside that feeling is the desire
to undo the harm of that sin right
away.
All of these, like, legalistic
components of the definition of tovah. They're all
wrapped up inside of that how. Inside of
that that state that passes over the heart.
This is what This is a prerequisite to
making any progress in Deen. This is a
prerequisite toward making any progress in Deen.
If a person wishes to pray and they
haven't made Tawba from their sins, their prayer
is useless.
If a person wishes to fast and they
haven't made Tawba from their sins, which Allah
are you going to ask to accept your
fast from? If you're still rebel against him
and then you're just like, but by the
way, here's a fast. By the way, here's
salah. By the way, oh, you know, I
became a Hafiz.
What is he? Allah
Allah is pure. He doesn't accept anything other
than that which is pure. Allah is this
is a this is a hadith of Sahih
Muslim.
In case a person people like oh, you
know some people they quote hadiths in their
talks and we don't know what to say.
It's from Muslim. It's a Sahih hadith.
Allata is pure, and he doesn't accept anything
except for that which is pure.
You don't have to do a lot, but
it has to be clean.
Allata won't accept it if it's not clean.
This Tawbah this is why the Messenger of
Allah, Tadas sallallahu alaihi wa sallam, it's not
something that you do like, you know, when
you go on Umrah every 3 4 years.
It's not something that you do like, in
Ramadan and you know the night that the
Imam makes khatam in like hour long du'a
in the masjid after taraweed.
It's not No. It's what? It's 70 times
a day. It's a 100 times a day.
A person has to constantly be doing this
lest what? Lest all of the other things
that they do for the sake of Allah.
All of them go down the drain. None
of them be be accepted.
Don't you know? You can do everything.
Nowadays, people don't even have concern to do
their their deeds correctly. You say to somebody,
You're not doing your wudu correctly. It's a
stuff for Allah, brother. Don't say anything to
me. You you don't have the right to
judge. Only Allah judges. So, yeah. I mean,
you're right, and technically, it's not an incorrect
statement,
but Allah is the one who said that,
you know, you have to wash your feet.
Allah is the one who said that you
have to do wudu in this way and
not that way. He's the one who said
that you have to follow the obey the
messenger sallallahu alaihi wa sallam.
Who
said,
Allah doesn't accept
a prayer without proper purification, and he doesn't
accept, sadaqa,
for,
a charity from ill gotten wealth.
Right? People won't even accept that you tell
them to do things properly, but this is
another issue
that the Usuli,
scholars, the
mentioned in particular the the the the scholars
of usul of methodology that there are 3
things that are separate from one another. Whether
an act is valid or not, whether an
act is rewarded or not, and whether an
act is accepted or not, these are 2
3 completely separate issues.
You can do something that is
valid, but it may not be accepted by
Allah ta'ala.
Somebody may fast and pray. Allah ta'ala says,
I don't want it. Find somebody else to
accept it.
When you go to the mall, if you
look at somebody's shop, are you obliged to
buy from there?
No.
If you don't want it, you don't buy
it. If Allah doesn't want what you have,
what are you gonna do about it?
Are you gonna force him?
He himself says he's not obliged to accept
it. What is it? The Sifa what is
the attribute of that thing that
Allah accepts?
What is the attribute of those people who
Allah accepts from? He mentions it in his
in his book
in the story of Habil and Kabil and
Cain and Abel. The 2 brothers
they they,
they both made a sacrifice to Allah, and
Allah accepted from one of them, and you
didn't accept from the other.
It means what? That the clause that comes
after is true to the exception of other
possibilities.
Allah only accepts from the one who fears
him. Allah only accepts from the one who
fears him.
This this,
this fear of Allah drives a person to
what?
To to to repent to Allah to Allah
not just from sins. Just you know if
you did something right technically legally it's right,
but you still don't feel like you did
it in the best way possible.
You weren't standing straight in your salah. Miktoba
to Allah to Allah.
Don't be like who are you to tell
me like why do I I don't have
I did it right. I did it right.
Why allow me to accept from the one
who fears him. This is this is what
how how foundational you said okay. This guy
is coming to make make a talk about
toba, so he's gonna pump up toba, make
it sound like the most important thing, and
then the next guy who comes next week
is gonna talk about Siam, and then he's
gonna make pump up Siam and make it
the most important thing. What's what's your proof
other than what I mentioned?
Grab the rial of salahim. Do you know
what the first chapter in rial of salahim
is?
It's Tawba.
And there's a Muqaddama as well, but it's
what? The first chapter of the actual the
actual mas is what? It's Tawba. Why? Because
all of the other lessons you're gonna learn
from the book.
They're all useless if a person doesn't repent
to Allah to Allah. If they're still in
the state of rebelliousness,
if they're still in the state of rebelliousness,
then it's not going to be accepted. It's
not it's you can do it. There's no
point to
it. It's not gonna benefit us. This is
a problem that we have. We try to
take the deen, you know, Allah to Allah
is the one who says in his book
enter into the deen completely with submission completely.
Enter into submission to Allah Ta'ala completely, and
we're the one who pick and choose like
it's smorgasbord. It's like a la carte. It's
like the nineties Burger King ad. You have
it your way. Doesn't work that
way. Does not work that way. You do
it the way Allah to Allah wants it.
Otherwise, go do it yourself on the Yomot
Yama entire nations will be burned in the
garbage heap of the hellfire. Those people you
and me were impressed with in this dunya.
They mean nothing to Allah subhanahu wa ta'ala.
Go and help yourself on that day.
This is brothers and sisters the point of
mentioning this is not to be fiery brimstone
or negative overly. Although sometimes perhaps my own
slant as a demagogic creature pushes me toward
that direction, but remember this whenever someone says
something in the deen that's really negative there's
always a flip side to to the coin.
That if not making toba is so bad,
that means what? That making toba is what?
It's so good. How good is it? Allah
subhanahu wa ta'ala. What is the reward of
tawba? It's not simply that a person's sin
is forgiven. Imagine someone did something bad, you
know, like your parents told you to pray.
Obviously, you would never do this. Right? But
imagine if some kid, like, their parents told
them to pray and then they're like, okay.
And then, like, after, like, an hour, you
know, their parents like, hey, did you pray?
And they're like, yeah, I did and you
really didn't. It's bad. Right?
You didn't. You skipped the prayer. You lied
and all that other stuff. And imagine, okay,
you go to the master then you hear
this talk about repentance and about toba and
you're like, man, that's bogus. I shouldn't have
done that. Then you go and you make
the prayer up afterward and you feel bad
about, yeah, Allah. I'm sorry I did that.
I shouldn't have done that. That was like
a dumb thing to do. Right?
What is the reward for that?
Not just not just that the sin is
erased from your record,
But that Allah to Allah will turn the
thing that was you'll get the reward for
the prayer and on top of that the
thing that was a sin, even Allah will
reward you for that as well.
So imagine there are people who are going
to go to Jannah. They'll be rewarded for
their theft, and they'll be rewarded for their
drug abuse. They'll be rewarded for their zina.
They'll be rewarded for all sorts of sins.
Why? Because a day came where they broke
down and wept in front of the Lord.
And said, you Allah, I thought it was
cool. I thought it was worth it. It
wasn't worth it. It really was in no
way shape or form worth it. The day
that person breaks down in front of Allah
Ta'ala and admits this, what does Allah Ta'ala
do? He forgives them their sin, and then
he
turns the sin into itself into reward.
This is ajeeb. Like these types of things,
a human being couldn't think about these things.
This is the proof that Allah subhanahu wa
ta'ala is unlike his creation.
Allah is unlike his creation.
People think about this tawbah as well. They're
like, well, you know, you know, especially people
who have addiction issues. People are addicted to
all sorts of different things.
Addiction issues.
Behaviors,
substances,
speech.
All sorts of different issues. Power.
A person may make tawba from an addiction,
and then the addiction overwhelms them again the
next day. And shaitan will come to him
and say, like, oh, you're gonna make tawba
again? Your tawba is fake because you know
you're just gonna come back to it.
Even that's bogus. Even that's nonsense. Make toba
again.
Imagine if you can make toba for 5
minutes, it burns you that you did something
bad. I know people who are like these
alcoholics.
There was one alcoholic used to be next
to a Musalla,
that I prayed in one time. And the
guy one day he came because they all
know they all When they see us, they
they know we don't drink.
Alcoholics when they see Muslims don't think they
don't know. They know we don't drink. It
mesmerizes them. They're fascinated by this idea that
how could someone get through life without drinking?
How nice would my life be without drinking?
So this guy himself came to us when
on the 27th of Ramadan, 27th night. He
said, you guys don't drink. Oh, man. You
know, this alcohol, this bottle destroyed my life.
I lost my job. My wife left me.
My kids left me. This, that, and the
other thing. You know, Islam is great. Blah
blah blah. I'm gonna you know, I wanna
become a Muslim, and so we gave him
the shahada. We said go up to your
apartment and then come and take a shower.
Come back downstairs. We'll teach you how to
pray. So we're waiting,
you know, like, 5 minutes, 10 minutes, half
an hour, an hour. Like, 2 hours later,
he comes back completely pickled. He's completely drunk
out of his mind.
Now tell me something. The guy I mean,
really he he he took the shot in
sincerity.
There was a brother who was, like, with
the Jamat Tabligh came a Moroccan brother who
was in the Jamat. He said they said
just he said leave him alone. He said
I'll admit something to you. I don't admit
it to many people. He said I used
to live in he said I lived in
Russia for 10 years, and I was an
alcoholic.
So I lived in Russia for 10 years,
and I was an alcoholic. He said, sometimes
I would go to the masjid, and I
would hear a talk, and my iman would
be like a kite in the air. I
thought I'll never touch the bottle again. That
very night, I'll be drunk.
These addictions are very they're very,
powerful.
You know? It's not just an easy thing
to let them go. That's why it's better
don't get involved in them in the first
place because if you're you never drank before,
it's easy to say, like, I don't drink.
Once you become an alcoholic, you can those
people are the ones who hate the alcohol
the most.
And it's why? Because they know how it
is, and it's the hardest for them to
give it up. So imagine a person like
that make toba, and then they lapse back.
They make toba, they lapse back. Imagine just
you make toba, and you're good on it
for 5 minutes.
Those are like the best 5 minutes of
your day. Why would you not want those
5 minutes?
Why would you not want those 5 minutes?
Take whatever you can get.
The
is going to be a very rough day.
Take whatever you can get.
Don't be like Iblis that your pride prevents
you from taking it. Nobody has pride in
front of the Lord on the day of
judgment. People will be roving around like madmen
looking for just 1 subhanallah and 1 Allahu
Akbar 1 la ilaha illallah. Take whatever you
can get. Who knows? Maybe by the barakah
of embracing those 5 minutes Allah to Allah
will give you tawfiktir.
Keep it going for longer than that. Who
knows?
Imagine someone knows 5 minutes. This is such
a, disease. I can't pull myself away from
it even though I hate it more than
I hate anything else in the world.
And the person across the street and gets
hit,
like minute 3 and a half, they get
hit by a car, and they die. Did
they die in
Tawba? Did they die in Tawba? With Allah
Ta'ala, that person is the one who has
repented to Allah subhanahu wa ta'ala.
Take whatever you can get. If you have
to make tawbah a 1000 times and it
breaks a 1000 and times, make it 1,001
times in the hope that this is the
time that Allah is gonna help me, that
I'm going to get over this. Don't be
like the beast that runs away from it.
What a shame would it be that you
did it a 1000 times and then you
left when you were so close to receiving
the prize that you wanted.
This process itself is a a process by
which Allah makes a person into a good
person. The good people that you know in
your life, they're not the ones who are
born like, you know, like, you know, by
the way, you know, since I was 5
years old, I would, like, shoot light out
of my fingertips.
And I was born, like, when I was
7. I like to create a hundred for,
like, 3 hours.
Nobody's born like
that. Extreme extreme difficulty
push pushes them into these positions where they
have to submit to the Lord and then
Allah opens doors for them that wouldn't have
been opened otherwise.
Why would a person fear this path? A
person should love this path. A person should
open their heart to this path. A person
should ask for this. That, You Allah, I
want to make tawba. I want you to
accept it. Please give me that tawba. Make
this one the time that you accepted from
me. How much better than that is is
it to how much better is it to
do that than to take the path of
Iblis that that you should for,
for for a 1000 years make israar and
and and and be, stubborn
in in doing something that has no benefit
for you. All of this is destruction for
you and for those around you. This is
not the path of Islam. This is not
the path of deen. Allah subhanahu wa ta'ala
give us all the tawfiq to be from
the taibim. Allah ta'ala make us all from
the ones that he himself writes from his
mercy that he turns to us so that
we can also turn to him in toba
and in repentance. There's so much more to
talk about,
with regards to this topic, but I've already
gone on for too long and I, would
like to thank you for your,
for your attention.
I was told that, by the imam