Hisham Jafar Ali – Names Of Allah And His Attributes #11 The Independent
AI: Summary ©
The speakers discuss the meaning of Allah's name Al Ghani in Arabic, with Al praised in Arabic for being free of need and being a warshipsman. The importance of praise for individuals and the connection between Al Ghani and Shane is emphasized. The speakers emphasize the importance of gratitude and learning from one's own successes, prioritizing one's time and attention, and not giving things to charity at the beginning of the day. They also emphasize the need to show oneself to be strong and confident in oneself and not give things to charity at the beginning of the day. Finally, the speakers emphasize the importance of prioritizing one's attention and focus, and emphasize that everyone should have their own mindset.
AI: Summary ©
Last week we looked at the names of
Allah. Al Khaliq,
Al Bayri,
Al Musawir.
And today we're going to look at
3 names of Allah.
And I mentioned a couple of them in
the verse that I just recited.
Allah's names Al Ghani
and Al Hamid.
And there is a closely related name which
we'll introduce later in the lesson. Al Ghani
and Al Hamid.
Al Ghani.
When you use the word Ghani in the
Arabic language,
in popular
terms or on the street,
who is a Ghani?
Who can translate for me?
A rich person.
So people when they hear the word general
general populace, people who speak Arabic, they think
it means someone who owns a lot of
things.
This person who owns cars and watches and
wealth. So that person's rich. That's what Ghani
means.
But actually in the Arabic language,
the original word Al Ghani doesn't mean to
be rich.
But actually, Al Ghani means to be free
of need.
So the reason that somebody was given the
name Ghani is not just because he has
lots of wealth,
but because he has wealth, he doesn't have
to ask anybody.
Because he has a car, he doesn't have
to ask someone, can I borrow your car?
So it's because he's independent,
he's not needing anybody else, this name Al
Ghani is given.
Which is why when the prophet sallallahu alaihi
wasallam is asked
about Ghinah,
he asked his companions what does it mean
to be rich?
Al Ghinah.
He says,
Alayhi said, Alayhi is
being rich when you own many things, is
that what it means to be rich? His
companion says, yes.
He says, no.
Actually,
being rich
is something
it's a mentality. It's a mindset.
It's when you are content, you are happy
with what you have
such that you don't feel the need to
ask anybody else. Now you are Hani.
Not because you're rich,
but because you don't feel the need to
ask. You don't feel dependent. You don't feel
in need of other people.
And that can come through contentment as well
as it can come through request. Go ahead.
You had a question. Yeah.
Does it relate to the word Istirina?
Alistirina.
So Alistirina
in Arabic, who can tell me where is
Istirina in the Quran?
Which is in which Surah?
Correct.
We're gonna come to. We're going to come
to.
Istirna
is when human beings try to be Al
Ghani,
when we try to be them
independent.
When when human beings try to say we
don't need Allah, this is what Istirna means.
They're one of the biggest crimes a human
being can commit, one of the biggest problems
that we have in our mind, but we'll
come to that inshallah.
Al Ghani, we said, is the one who
who is free of need.
Not just that,
It means everybody needs him.
Everybody and everything and every atom and every
object is in need of him.
There's a similar name in the Quran,
similar in meaning.
Anybody can tell me what is this name?
It's in a surah that we read
everyday.
Hopefully.
Yes.
Arrahman not arrahman?
A Samat.
And for children and for young Muslim men
and women who are memorizing the Quran, but
they don't care about the meanings of the
Quran. I always ask them what is the
meaning of Allahu Samad. If you can't answer
this question, you are learning the Quran the
wrong way. Go back and learn the meaning.
Start
from
learn the meanings of the Quran.
Because the prophet
taught his companions 10 ayahs at a time,
but they would learn the meanings and the
actions before they moved on. That was the
sunnah of the prophet sallallahu alaihi wasallam.
And the reason I always ask Allahu Samad
as the example is because I had an
embarrassing moment in my life.
I must have been 12 or 13. I
had memorized maybe a third of the Quran.
And there's a famous
Muslim scholar, maybe many of you will know
who he is, but I don't want to
mention his name. I was in a conference,
and this Muslim scholar came to the stall.
I was standing. There was a stall for
the Quran Institute that I was studying in,
and he came to the stall.
And he said, Masha'Allah, what does your madrasah,
what does your markas do? So I was
telling the scholar we do this and we
do this and this and look we have
so many people who memorized the Quran. He
said, okay, come. All of the children who
memorized the Quran come and sit in front
of me, and we all sat down. We
thought he was going to give us a
prize or some cash. Sheikh Mohammed Ali is
not here for the cash, for those who
came for the cash. We thought we were
going to get some prize.
He sat us all down, and he said,
what's the meaning of Allahu Samad?
There was just silence.
He said really you memorized the whole Quran,
you don't know the meaning of Allahu Samad?
We're looking at him blank.
He said go and start from the beginning.
Just like the prophet
said to the man who was praying quickly,
he said go and pray because you didn't
pray.
What you did was not salah.
It was aerobics.
That's my words, not the words of the
prophet.
Similarly, the sheikh, he said to us, go
and learn again because you have not learned
the Quran.
So Allahu Samad is very important for us
to understand. A Samad in Arabic, Samad ayasmudu,
is when someone walks up a hill.
Is used is a term in Arabic used
to describe a hill. It's not as big
as a mountain, but it's a hill.
Right?
What does that have to do with Allah?
When it rains
and it's a hilly location or a mountainous
location like let's say in the peak district,
all the rain collects at the top of
the mountain and then it trickles down.
It comes the water comes down to everywhere
else.
So if somebody wants water, they have to
come and they have to climb up to
the source of water. They need to get
to the top. Yeah. So the top of
the mountain is like is providing water to
everybody else around,
and everybody needs to go up to get
some water if they're thirsty.
Similarly, Allahu Samad.
As Samad
is the name of Allah that means he
is the one everybody
needs.
They climb up the hill to ask him
for anything,
and he is the one free of need.
He is the top of the mountain. He
is beyond,
and he does not need anybody or anything.
So Samad and Al Ghani have very similar
meanings.
Now in the Quran,
Allah's name Al Ghani
most of the time comes paired with another
name of Allah. And we always said we
have to understand the names in pairs.
They didn't come single, so we shouldn't understand
them single.
What is the name that comes with Al
Ghani in the Quran? Yes?
Al Hamid. Al Hamid.
Okay. What does Al Hamid mean?
The one worthy of praise. Very good. Is
the one worthy of praise, Al Mahmoud.
Right? So let's say, for example, this brother
here,
he's put oil in his beard today. He's
combed his beard. He looks very handsome,
and he's wearing a nice thobe, iron thobe.
So he deserves he deserves some compliments. Right?
Brother, you got a nice thobe. You look
nice today. He deserves praise from me because
he's looked after himself.
Allah Subhanahu Wa Ta'ala,
what he has given us and what he
has blessed us with is so unimaginable.
The praise Allah deserves from us is much
more,
much more than what we give. This is
one meaning of Hamid.
The other connotation of hamid
is Al hamid, meaning
Allah appreciates what we do.
I'll give you an example. You come to
the masjid one day and you're broke. You
don't have any money. As they say, you
have no peace. And
you only have fine in your pocket, you
only have 10p
and you see the brother at the back,
you say look you know what this 10p
who knows what fayr will come in. You
drop this 10p in the box
and you come on the day of judgment
And all your salah and all your som
and all the stuff that you did in
this world is is in a small pile
because you didn't do it with focus, with
sincerity, with good quality.
But that 10p you gave, you gave with
so much sincerity that that is a mountain
on the day of judgment.
It's what it means, Al Hamid.
Allah appreciates
your little that you do.
Al Hamid.
So why does Al Ghani always come with
Al Hamid?
Why do they always come together? What's the
link between them?
When Allah subhanahu tell ta'ala tells you, I
don't need you. I'm Ghani.
You can sin. You can insult me. Mock
me. Be ungrateful to me.
Great. It's gonna it's gonna come back on
you. I don't need you.
None of that is I don't need it
for myself. That's for you. If you pray
salah, that's for you. If you give charity,
that's for you. If you're kind to your
neighbor, that's for you, not for me.
Now someone might hear this and they say
okay, Allah doesn't need me to do anything.
So I'll just I'll disbelieve, I'll reject Allah
and I'll go. He doesn't need it anyway.
Then Allah says actually I'm Hamid.
Even though I don't need it,
I deserve it.
It's like
imagine a very wealthy person, very rich person,
but not every rich person is generous.
In fact, you might find it's actually very
common. The most rich people are the most
tight *. They don't wanna spend their money.
If you find a rich person who's very
generous,
you think, masha'allah, what an amazing person. What
a generous person.
What a kind person. So you begin to
praise this person because they are they are
wealthy, but they're also giving and they're generous
and they're loving.
Allah subhanahu wa ta'ala is not just free
of need, he's the giving and the loving,
and he's the one who is worthy of
praise
even though he doesn't need the praise.
He's worthy of it. He deserves it even
though he doesn't need it from us.
Now
let us come to
al Ghani in the Quran.
Why does Allah
mention his name al Ghani?
There are a number of verses with one
theme.
Allah subhanahu wa ta'ala in many verses, he
says something very similar. Allah says in the
Quran.
If you're ungrateful or if you disbelieve, you
reject Allah.
He didn't need you in the first place.
But He's not pleased with your disbelief.
And if you're grateful, he becomes pleased with
you.
In another ayah, Allah Subhanahu Wa Ta'ala says,
Imagine Musa alayhi salam telling
Banu Israel.
He says, if you and everyone on earth
disbelieved in Allah,
what would happen to Allah?
Fa'in
Allah halaqani
yun Hamid.
Allah doesn't need your belief.
You're not doing him a favor. You're doing
yourself a favor.
Allah says elsewhere in the Quran.
We gave Luqman wisdom to be grateful to
Allah.
Whoever's grateful, they're grateful for themselves, for their
own benefit.
And whoever disbelieves,
whoever rejects Allah, Allah doesn't need them. But
he's still worthy of their praise and he's
worthy of their worship.
Understanding Allah is Ghani, the one free of
need, the one independent,
that means something for you and me.
If Allah is independent, then you are
dependent.
If Allah doesn't have any needs, then you
are you are needy.
And this is the verse I recited.
Allah says in the Quran.
Oh people,
you are fukara,
needy, poor.
You are in poverty
when it comes to your relationship with Allah.
Wallahu
Alhamid.
But Allah is Al Ghani. He doesn't have
any needs,
and he is Alhamid, the praiseworthy.
The mindset this name of Allah gives you
is that when you come to the masjid
to pray, when you come to give sadaqah,
when you come to fast, when you come
to do kindness,
sometimes we get this feeling,
I'm doing Allah a favor.
I did something great.
Wow. Look at me. We feel that a
bit of we look in the mirror. We
think, mashallah. Nice crisp thobe, nice hijab.
You know, I do all this effort.
We feel we deserve something. We are entitled
to something just because we are worshiping Allah.
Allah corrects this idea. He says, no.
Every time you give sadaqa, you're actually putting
the money in your own bank account. Every
time you pray salah, you are doing yourself
a favor.
Allah doesn't need you. It's like imagine you
visit the house of someone who is one
of the richest people in the world, billionaire.
You visit their house and you think, you
know, when I go to someone's house, I
should never go empty handed. Right? So I'm
gonna buy them a gift.
You think, what gift could I give somebody
who could buy a country with the money
they have? So you go to the shop.
You go to the pound store. You pay
a pound. You get a perfume bottle.
When you offer this perfume bottle to this
rich person
and you stand in front of their palace,
how embarrassed would you feel
thinking I'm giving them this unbranded cheap perfume,
and this person could probably buy all the
perfume shops in Manchester.
You feel embarrassed. Right?
You feel so low and small that what
you're giving them is nothing. It means nothing
to them.
So when we pray salah we should not
feel big about ourselves. When we worship Allah,
when we serve His deen, when we lose
our sleepless nights, when we serve our parents,
when we massage their feet, when we sacrifice
for his sake, we shouldn't feel big about
ourselves.
We should feel like a poor person taking
a small perfume bottle, a small ettar bottle
to the person who is a billionaire.
Who should feel what I gave Allah was
nothing.
It means nothing to him.
What I did was small. It was not
something great.
It was not something amazing.
I am not amazing.
I am nothing.
And I'm standing in front of the one
who doesn't even need me.
To the extent when Allah mentions this name,
Al Ghani, He says something powerful.
If Allah wants, He can just get rid
of you today,
and He can create somebody new tomorrow.
Imagine.
If we are not appreciative of Allah, if
we are not grateful to Allah,
if we are not giving him his due
respect and due praise,
tomorrow, Allah can send an earthquake that will
destroy all of us sitting here.
And next year, there will be 50 new
people in this masjid.
You are dispensable.
You are replaceable.
You are not special and I am not
special.
And the only thing special in us
is how much of how much in our
hearts we respect and we devote and we
praise Allah Subhanahu Wa Ta'ala.
Human beings, they like to they like to
feel independent. You know, when you're small, when
you're 5 or 6 or 3 years old,
children need their parents for everything. They can't
go to the toilet. They can't change their
clothes. Everything has to be done for them.
But as you grow older and as you
mature and as you become an adult, people
become dependent on you. You have children. They
depend on you. You have old parents. They
depend on you. Maybe financially, maybe physically. You
have a job. You have a role.
Other people, colleagues, products, business is depending on
you. You start to feel like I'm the
boss. I'm the man. Everyone's depending on me.
You feel the world, the burden on your
shoulders.
It is at this time that Allah
reminds us that actually
you are not independent.
You need Allah.
And everything that depends on you is actually
not depending on you. They're depending on Allah.
Imagine
this is my iPad.
Yes.
My iPad is leaning
leaning on this stand.
This stand
has a little bar, metal bar here. It's
leaning on this wood.
This wood is leaning on this table.
Yeah. My iPad is dependent on this.
This wooden
wooden,
plat is dependent on this.
This metal piece is dependent on this groove.
This is dependent on the table. The table
is dependent on the floor.
Everything is leaning on something.
If I take away all of these things
really,
this iPad, this piece of software, this technology,
it needs the flow. It needs something stable.
It needs something independent.
Otherwise, all of these things is like dominoes.
Like this, when we realize,
I need food to live.
The food requires rain. The rain requires this.
This requires this. Ultimately,
ultimately, if you can't follow the chain,
you end up with Allah.
Everything needs Allah.
You need Allah.
Right now, you put your hand on your
chest.
It's beating.
The blood is flowing.
What's making it beat?
Can it stop at any second?
Does that happen to people?
Young people, old people, people with who are
perfectly fine? They just wake up one day,
their heart stops beating?
We forget that we are dependent on Allah.
We think that we need our landlord, our
boss, our family, and we forget that ultimately
Allah put them all in place. Allah subhanahu
wa ta'ala describes this in the Quran.
Allah says,
When there's a group of people on a
ship, and there's a storm, and nobody can
help them, then they make dua to Allah
desperately
only to Allah.
But when he saves them and they reach
safe land, what happens?
They go back to their old ways. They
forget Allah.
Allah mentioned this in many parts of the
Quran. This is one of the signs, one
of the mindsets, one of the proofs. You
and me, we think we don't need Allah.
We don't speak to him. We don't converse
with him. We don't ask him.
The prophet sallallahu alaihi wa sallam said in
hadith in Tilmidi,
Allah loves that you ask him for every
need of yours. Even if your shoe strap
is broken, ask Allah.
Because that forces you to break it down
in front of him and show you need
him.
To show him that you are in need
of him. You are dependent upon him.
So many times
when the prophet
would invite people to Islam
and he would spend so much time inviting
them to Islam they would start to feel
look he needs us.
He needs us to join his team so
he can be more powerful with us. We
are the kings, we are the palaces.
And that's why when a group of Bedouin
Arabs became Muslim,
they came to the prophet sallallahu alaihi wa
sallam, they said, see, we did you a
favor.
We become Muslim. We join your team now.
Now you're stronger. Allah says in Surat Al
Hujurat.
They came and they said, oh, Muhammad, we've
done you a favor because we're Muslim.
Oh, Muhammad, tell them, you did nobody any
favors.
Allah did you a favor by guiding you
to iman,
to safety, to belief in him when you
were lost.
If we understand that we are fakir, we
are needy, we are poor,
I said one of the mindsets that we
realize is that we are dependent upon Allah
for in every moment. That means we become
grateful to him. He's the one sustaining us.
But there's another thing as well. We start
to see whatever we are giving Allah as
very small. Like that perfume bottle in front
of that palace,
we realize however much kriamul lay we do,
sadaqa we do, it's nothing for Allah. But
there's another mindset.
It is the mindset
that if we realize Allah is Al Ghani,
it makes us more sincere
because we give all the credit to him,
not ourselves. I'll give you an example.
Muhammad came to me yesterday, for example. This
didn't happen. I'm giving you a story, just
as an analogy. Let's say Mohammed came to
me yesterday. He said, look, Hisham,
I'm going somewhere
but I don't have a suit.
I'm going to a wedding.
The wedding that's after the door tomorrow. Let's
say he came to and he said, look,
I'm going for the wedding, but I don't
have the right clothes. I only have my
my sudani thawb, which is a thawb that
can have 6 people can fit inside it.
Let's say he came to you and he
said, look, I don't have a suit. I
need to dress nicely
so that, inshallah, someone can find me a
wife. I said, okay, Habib, don't worry.
I I don't have a suit, full suit,
I have the coat.
I gave him the coat. He went to
my neighbor. He said, look, I got a
nice coat from Hisham, but I need matching
trousers.
I can't go with a coat and Bermuda
shorts. People will laugh at me. They'll kick
me out with the masjid. Okay. Neighbor said,
no problem, Haliby. Blue coat, I'll give you
blue trousers.
Then he went to one of the uncle's
houses nearby. He said, look, I got a
nice coat and trousers. I have no shirt.
I can't wear a coat and trousers on
top of my my vest.
That's not gonna
fly. So someone says, okay. You know what,
Habibi? I'll give you a nice shirt. I'll
iron it for you. Crisp, starched.
Brilliant.
Now he's ready. You know what, though? He
doesn't have a belt.
How is his trousers gonna look on him?
It's gonna fall when he wears it. So
he goes to another another person. He said,
look, I have everything. I just don't have
a belt. Someone give him a belt.
Then he comes to the wedding. And the
moment he steps in the wedding,
the groom, the person getting married says, wow.
You look better than me.
How does Mohammed feel in his head?
Can he take credit for how he looks?
Someone gave him a suit. Someone gave him
trousers. Someone gave him a shirt. None of
it is his. It doesn't belong to him.
He's living on borrowed clothes. He can't take
the credit. He can't say, yeah. Thank you
very much. That was 6 months of savings
to buy this. No. He can't say anything.
He looks down at the floor. He twiddles
his thumbs, and he says, I have some
nice neighbors.
I can't take the credit.
When you realize Allah is Al Ghani,
you realize that everything that you have was
given to you by him.
You were enriched by him.
What does Allah say in Surat Duha?
Allah found you poor. You had nothing and
he made you rich.
When someone comes and praises you, mashallah,
nice Quran recitation.
You think, that's not even mine. Allah gifted
it to me.
When someone comes to you and says, mashallah,
nice car. You think, that's not even my
car. Allah just gave it to me. I
didn't deserve it. I didn't work for it.
The credit goes to Allah for everything.
So when you realize Allah is Al Ghani,
you never claim credit for anything.
You give the credit directly to Allah. That's
why when your life, Insha'Allah, one day someone
makes a movie about your life, when the
credits come at the end of the movie,
you know all the names? Director,
producer,
actor 1, 2, 3, 4. You only have
one name. The credits all go back to
Allah, not to you and me. You see
everything in your life.
You have fadl glasses. You know fadl glasses?
It's a new brand.
Better than Ray Ban.
Fadl glasses is when you look at everything
in your life as a fadl from Allah.
It's a gift from Allah. It's not from
me. I didn't deserve it.
You know why the opposite mindset is very
dangerous?
Karun
what what was the punishment given to the
gentleman named Karun in the Quran? Who can
tell me?
He got swallowed in the earth. You know
what was one of his ideas?
Opposite to what we are saying now?
When all of his wealth was in front
of him, his treasures, his money, his car
his his horses no. His cars. His horses,
everything. He said, this is all my hard
work. Sometimes you feel like that. Right? You
work hard for something. You buy a house.
You buy a property. You buy a nice
car. You think this is my hard work.
No.
When you start thinking that way, it's very
dangerous.
The earth might swallow you up just like
it swallowed qaroon.
When you look at everything, you say
this was Allah's gift to me, and my
working was his gift to me, And my
breathing was His blessing on me. How can
I claim how can I claim this was
for me? Me claiming this is my hard
work is like Muhammad claiming that's his suit,
and we all know that wasn't his suit.
The credit goes to Allah. The credit doesn't
come to me. This is why
when Yusuf alaihi salaam is the minister of
Egypt or if he's in the bottom of
the bottom of the well,
he feels the same way towards Allah,
regardless what position Allah puts him. And that's
why when he is at the minister's level
and he reaches this level of mastery and
this honor and this wealth and his family
comes in front of him and he has
everything he wants and he needs in life,
what does he say?
Oh, Allah. You gave me all of this.
You gave it to me. I didn't earn
it. I don't own it. It was from
you.
And you taught me how to interpret dreams.
It's not my skill.
You created everything from nothing.
You are my closest protector in this world
and the next.
Look at the mindset.
When Allah describes the people of paradise, He
says they are people who give
what was given to them.
So if I pray salah, it's like this
brother came and gifted me this iPad, and
I then gifted it to this brother. I
can't take credit. It's his. I just I
just passed the buck. I'm the middle man.
I'm the waiter. Can the waiter you come,
you sit in a nice restaurant. You order
a nice pasta arrabbiata, nice Italian restaurant.
It's nice made in the kitchen. The waiter
comes. He gives it to you. He puts
some Parmesan on top. Masha'allah.
You take the first bite. Can you say
to the waiter, Masha'allah, you made a great
meal.
Can the waiter take credit? This is what
all the husbands here try to do. People
come to their house. They host them. They
serve them food, and then the brother says
very nice food. Yes. It was me. I
stirred the pot in the end. No. You
can't take credit, Habibi. You are just a
middle man. It came from Allah, and it
went back to Allah. That's what it means
when we say,
We belong to Allah.
We will go back to Him. Nothing is
from you and me. This, ibn al Qayyim
Rahimahullah, Maidari jas Saliki in his book Stations
of the Travel as he says, this is
the ultimate fakr.
The ultimate
feeling of dependence and neediness is to realize
nothing you do, you can take credit for.
Everything just came from Allah. You have to
buy the fadl glasses.
I'm selling them for £10 apiece. You can
come afterwards, inshallah. All the proceeds go to
al Masjid al Furqah.
Yes? You have to buy the glasses of
fadl. Everything you see in this world is
just from Allah, is from the fadl of
Allah. And this forces you when you realize
this, you can you just break down into
sujood in front of Allah.
Great out of gratitude.
When Suleiman, alayhis salam,
he is about to trample the ecosystem of
of ants,
And one ant says to the other ants,
go and hide. Make sure Soleiman
doesn't trample you.
What does Soleiman, alayhi salam, say in that
moment? He has a realization. I can hear
the ant speak.
What does he say?
Motivate me to be grateful for your favors.
This was Soleiman alaihisam's gift. Right? He could
hear the animal speak. When he hears the
animal speak, immediately he says,
It came from you, not from me.
Dawud and Soleiman,
what was their gift? Who can tell me?
Both of them.
Yes.
And,
what a mulk.
Good. Allah gave them mulk kingdom and Allah
gave them knowledge.
We gave Dawood and Suleiman knowledge.
When they realized they have a special knowledge,
what did they say?
I studied so much. I memorized so many
books. It was me all those nights in
the library. No.
They
said. Gratitude belongs to
Allah. Alhamdulillah,
he
chose me from so many others.
You know when you realize this?
When you realize Allah is Al Ghani and
you are the Thakir.
Sometimes religious people, we are the worst when
it comes to this.
We pray salah. We do all this hard
work, and we think that we are entitled
to something. We think we put in the
hard work. We deserve something.
Do you know that you could have been
right now in a nightclub somewhere
smoking something illegal?
You could have been right now in a
war zone committing crimes. You could be right
now in prison.
What brought you here to this masjid at
this time to hear this reminder?
It wasn't you.
It wasn't your parents.
It was Allah who brought you here.
And this is what Allah said to Musa,
alaihis salam.
After 40 years of Musa, alayhis salaam, seeing
killing, murder, genocide,
running away to another country, exile, loneliness,
and all of this. And then Allah reveals
to him the first revelation. What does Allah
say?
You came here to this point because I
brought you here.
I brought you here.
You didn't come here out of your own
strength, your own intelligence. You don't deserve to
be here. Allah
is doing you a favor.
You have to feel that.
I don't deserve this favor of Allah. Everything
I have, I don't deserve it. Allah has
been so generous to me. And when you
feel that and when that breaks your heart
and when that realization sets in, you find
yourself no choice. You find yourself in sujud
thanking Allah for his blessing.
Oh, Allah, make us grateful for your favors.
There's another
important connotation of this name of Allah.
Allah
says in Surat Al Baqarah.
Okay. Let me do
in Masjid Al Furqan, right? Every second person
in Furqan is half of the Quran usually,
so we'll ask
a question.
In Surat Al Baqarah, Allah
says, who al Ghani?
Who can tell me the beginning of the
ayah?
No cash prize today. Sorry, guys.
Next time.
Afona made a mistake. This is why I'm
not from the people of Furqan. Allah subhanahu
wa ta'ala says,
Who can give me the beginning of the
ayah?
Something to do with spending for Allah's sake.
In Baqarah.
Okay. I'll give you the
Yes, Sheikh. All of us have to donate
for this prize.
We'll donate with dua. May Allah make you
the people of the of the people of
the Quran. May Allah make you the people
of the scholars and of those who act
on what they know.
Allah says, believers, that's you and me, spend
from the best of what you have.
And don't give in charity things that you
would never even use yourself.
And know that Allah is free of need.
He doesn't need you. All your money, all
your clothes and He still deserves your praise
and your devotion and your respect.
When Allah is asking us to spend,
specifically, he's saying don't spend anything.
Spend from the
the best of what you have. Tell me,
when we go to the charity shop or
when we go to the recycling, what kind
of stuff goes to the charity shop?
Brand new clothes?
Used. Secondhand.
We've become used to this idea that what
we give to Allah has to be the
secondhand stuff, the stuff we don't need anymore.
But Allah tells us,
You will never reach righteousness
until you give the things that you love.
What do you love the most?
Try giving it away.
What what item do you love the most?
You prized possession. Some people, they're really into
phones. Some people are really into their cars.
Some people are really into
x y clothes, x y z. Try giving
it away.
Can you do that?
Try it.
And if you do it secretly for the
sake of Allah, you will feel in your
heart a level of sukhun, of contentment
and happiness and gratitude you never felt before.
Now
how does this link with Allah's name Al
Ghani,
the free of need?
When we are giving to charity,
we don't realize we are giving this this
we are giving to Allah.
Those clothes we took to the charity shop,
those worn out clothes, we're actually giving that
not to the charity shop. We are giving
that to Allah.
Allah mentions this in the Quran. When Allah
asks us to give charity in the Quran
sometimes,
he tells us who is going to give
Allah alone. Who can tell me the ay?
Who can give Allah a loan that has
no end term? Meaning pay me back whenever
you want.
Masha'Allah. Good. Who can give who Allah is
asking, who can who can give me a
loan?
Can you imagine?
Allah
is asking you to give him a loan.
What is that loan? He's asking you to
give in charity.
And if you spend from what you have,
Allah will give it back to you in
multiples.
You'll get interest on your loan. This is
the only halal
interest bearing loan. It's the one you give
to Allah in charity.
Now apply this not just to money, to
every other aspect of our lives. Let's look
at time. For some of us, our most
valuable asset is time. They say time
is money.
What time in our day? What time do
we give to Allah?
After work,
I've done all the chores. I put the
kids to bed, and there's like 3 IQ
points left in my brain. Now I'm gonna
sit, and I'm gonna use the time to
make dua to Allah. And actually, I'm too
tired, so I end up going out to
get get some food.
We give to Allah the least, the lowest
priority, the least of our time, of of
our calendar. Look at your calendar.
Somebody for somebody,
let's say, for example,
seeking knowledge,
let's say that's your highest priority.
That should be the first thing we do
in the day before Fajr, after Fajr, before
the day begins.
That's that is when the psychologist say your
brain is at its peak. Your mind is
at its peak. What do we give that
time for usually?
That's what we do.
In that time where our brain is at
its peak performance, we are snoring.
And when the brain the brain is finished,
there's nothing left in it, Now I'm going
to pray Maghrib salah. What Maghrib salah was
that? That was a Maghrib salah where I
was thinking about the groceries and the meat
and how many lamb how much lamb I'm
going to buy and what my
cousin was doing on Snapchat. And that's the
Maghrib salah that we give to Allah.
The worst of what we have.
We give to Allah, we spend for Allah's
sake, and we give him the worst of
what we have.
But Allah asks us, step it up.
Step up your game.
Give me the best of what you have.
Tell me,
of the optional prayers,
what is the greatest salah we can pray
in the sight of Allah?
Salah at night,
in the last 3rd of the night before
fajr. Why? What's happening in the brain at
that time?
It is at its peak at 4 AM,
5 AM. Your brain's focus ability to focus
at its peak. When Allah is asking you
to pray qiyamulik, he's just asking you give
me the best part of your attention and
your brain before everything else starts to *
you away from me. That's what he's asking.
Give me your best. Don't give me your
worst.
Right? There are some things for us, our
priorities.
And the way we know they are priorities,
if something else comes in there, we say
sorry. I'm busy with this. Some people, it's
work. Some people, it's guests or socializing.
Someone says to you, Habibi,
let's go to Sheikh Mohammed Ali Muhlid's class
on after Maghrib on that day. He said,
look. Sorry. That's the time I have a
chai and chill with my friends. He said,
okay. That's your priority.
That's your priority
over seeking knowledge. Fine.
We have to assess what are our real
priorities and look where does Allah and His
Messenger come on that list.
And if it's at the bottom,
we should fear.
We should worry. We should be concerned about
ourselves
because we are giving Allah
pennies,
and we are giving everybody else from our
boss to our spouse to our friends
our interests, we are giving them the bulk
of our time, the bulk of our attention,
the bulk of money. Do you know
who or what gets the most attention
and the most priority and time
in this world today, according to statistics.
Our mobile phones.
The average person between the ages of 16
and 35 spends
4 to 6 hours a day on their
mobile phones.
That is the best part of our attention.
And that brainpower and that time, we've given
it away to TikTok, to Instagram, to Snapchat.
You've given it away.
That's why because we're so used to flicking
video to video and notification to notification,
when salah comes, our brain is still it's
traumatized from all that flicking and switching. It
can't focus.
We've given away the best part of ourselves
to something which is only using us for
advertisement revenue, for money. They make money from
our attention.
Every second you spend on TikTok or Instagram
or Facebook, there is a business that is
paying them for your mind, for your attention.
You saw an advertisement for 3 seconds.
Somebody's earning money from you and me, from
our mind.
Allah
doesn't ask a lot for us of us.
He asks us for 3, 4, 5, 6
minutes dour salah. We can't give him 6
minutes of undivided attention
because we give him the worst of what
we have.
Allah still doesn't need us.
He doesn't need it. It's us who are
in need of it. Those 6 minutes, we're
going to see it on the day of
judgment. We're gonna see those deeds on the
day of judgment. And those 6 hours we
spent on the phone, we're gonna see that
too on the day of judgement. And it's
not going to be a beautiful sight.
Allah Subhanahu Wa Ta'ala with his name Al
Ghani
in the Quran,
he teaches us a number of mindsets. We're
going to summarize.
Who can tell me what are the mindsets
that we should have from the name Al
Ghani?
You tell me now since I'm putting you
to sleep. Bismillah.
Whatever you do,
it's for your own benefit. Allah is not
going to benefit from it. Yes. You feel
always humble. You never feel like I've done
something great. Yes.
Yes. You realize we have nothing.
The glasses.
Yeah. They're on discount, by the way. 10%.
Yes.
Allah subhanahu wa ta'ala doesn't mean he can
replace you tomorrow.
You know in football,
substitutes,
if you don't perform on the pitch, what's
going to happen?
You're going to be switched.
That's the idea.
If you turn away from Allah,
your time is limited on this earth. Someone
you'll be replaced. Yes?
Good. Lack of arrogance. You wouldn't go and
boast because you've done something. Because that thing
you did was?
It was from Allah. It was inspired by
Allah. Yes.
Yes. It makes you grateful
because you realize that everything you had came
from Allah,
and he's free of need.
As the prophets were, when Allah gifted them
with something, they would say, alhamdulillah.
They would appreciate where it came from. What
else?
Duha.
When you realize
Allah is.
He doesn't need you, but you need Him.
When you realize you need Him
you know my my children,
masha'Allah,
every day they ask me for things. I
need this toy. Can you buy me that,
baba? What about this? Can I have that?
When are you gonna take me to Masjid
Al Furqan? Yeah. They need me, so they
have to keep asking me. They can't drive.
Right? Sometimes my my son, he gets upset.
He said, if you don't take me to
Furqan Masjid, I'm gonna go myself. I said,
how? Are we gonna walk?
He needs me. He's dependent on me to
drive him, so he keeps asking me. If
we really need Allah, then what would we
do day in, day out? We would ask
him.
But the fact that we don't ask him
means we think
we don't need him.
We're just fine on our own.