Hisham Jafar Ali – Names Of Allah And His Attributes #12 The Undefeatable & AllWise
AI: Summary ©
AI: Transcript ©
Last week we took two names of Allah.
Who can remind me what they were?
Everybody can remind me?
Al Ghani Al Hamid.
And we said that Al Ghani who can
remind you what is the meaning of Al
Ghani? Yes?
Someone's free of need. Doesn't need anything. Yes?
And deserves praise, even though he doesn't need
it. He deserves it. Okay?
And,
we talked about well, we didn't get time
last time to mention this, you know, something
about this
Allah says, human beings are rebellious
by trying to be free of need.
I'm just gonna talk about this as a
quick introduction before we enter today's lesson.
This ayah in the Quran at the time
was referring to people
who lived around the prophet
who said, we don't need Allah. We have
our idols.
They provide for us. They give us, etcetera.
But we live in an age today where
this is the slogan of most of the
world around us.
Most of the world around us are people
who think they don't need God. They don't
need Allah.
And this happened,
This happened this is a story. It did
not happen overnight.
You
know,
up to 16th
15th to 16th century,
most of the world, the way people made
money, they made a living was farming, cows,
cattle, rice,
plantations, mangoes, fruits, etcetera.
Most people were farmers. Majority of the world's
economy ran on agriculture.
Over time, something happened, the industrial revolution.
The human being discovered the machine, the steam
engine.
And so most people started to make their
living not from the farms but from
the factories.
And the human beings were then removed
further and further from nature. They discovered the
ability to make, to produce things.
They started to feel a bit proud about
themselves,
you know, a bit powerful
more than the farmer because the farmer is
so dependent
on the rain, on the sun, on the
soil.
But the moment they came into the factory,
they thought we make the machine.
We produce the raw materials.
We produce the output.
Human beings started to think that they are
the boss,
that they are the powerful, they are the
king.
And this started to show
in what happened with religion,
at least in Europe.
Started to challenge the church.
We don't need the church. The church is
oppressive. Religion is oppression.
Slowly but surely, the idea started to come.
We don't need God to make rules. We
can make our own rules. More our own
morals. What's right and wrong, we can figure
it out ourselves.
It's happened in about 17th or 18th century.
And then came the idea,
the idea of Charles Darwin,
that actually
all of this creation that we see around
us, it didn't need God in the first
place. It was like the nail in the
coffin.
So as humans started to think, oh, I
can make I can manufacture things myself, then
it became, well, I can make rules, morals,
right and wrong myself. Slowly it came to
the point when Charles Darwin
myself. Slowly, it came to the point when
Charles Darwin put his theory forward
that
people began to get convinced
we did not need Allah
for you and me to exist today. It
was all just it was a gamble.
It was all chance. It was all chaos.
One thing led to another
and human beings ended up today, but there's
no purpose behind them. There's no creation behind
them. And with this, the human being suddenly
said, now I have science.
I have science
proving
and philosophy and all of these proving to
me I don't need Allah.
And this became the new religion, The new
religion of the world today, of Europe,
and of majority of the world today is
people who think they don't need Allah.
This is where history has brought us today.
This is where everywhere you go,
you see progress, progress.
What is progress?
Material progress.
Fancier phones,
more sharp cameras,
faster cars.
This is what you are told. This is
progress.
I don't care how fast your car can
go. If you are an immoral person, say
you'll akhlaq,
then you have not progressed. You have gone
backward.
This is the Islamic standpoint.
Progress
is not does not mean something physical,
but progress is something in the heart. We
are progressing towards Allah.
Progress is about being virtuous, being someone of
taqwa. It doesn't matter how fast your car
is or how advanced your watch is, technology
doesn't give you progress. This is what Islam
tells us. But
with all of these things that we've made,
all of these technologies,
human beings are trying to say we don't
need Allah.
The first time someone made this statement, it
was on the Titanic, in the ship the
Titanic.
A big statement was made, this is the
ship that will never sink. Lo and behold,
famous story of the Titanic.
And this is the case. Human beings always
want to pretend that they know more. They
don't need Allah. But Allah
always proves to us we are needy of
him.
One of the benefits of COVID
is that something so small
that even the human eye cannot see
brought the entire world to its knees and
locked all of us up in our houses.
To remind us from Allah,
You may have made whatever technology,
cars that drive itself,
shuttles that go into space,
wherever you go, Habibi,
in the end, you have to kneel to
the will of Allah. You have to bow.
You have to bend.
You have to break down in front of
Allah.
And that is why when we know Allah
is Al Ghani,
our slogan should not be
that we don't need Allah,
but rather we don't need anything else except
Allah. Allah says in the Quran,
Isn't Allah enough for you?
People scare you with things less than Allah.
With an army, with a police force,
with ideas, they scare you. Oh, if you
say it like this, then,
Say Allah is enough for me. Bring your
army.
It is upon him I trust and upon
him I put my reliance.
And speaking of this
and speaking of this arrogance that human beings
have ended up having today, we come to
the two names of today.
One of the most frequent pairs in the
Quran,
Al Aziz Al Hakim.
Al Aziz,
from the root word in Arabic, aza.
In Arabic,
if there's an earth, if there's a land
that is Ardu Nazaz,
they call that you know, like, when you
have cement on the floor,
If you have cement, can rain go through
the cement? No. No.
They call that,
a firm
impenetrable
ground.
Nothing can get through it. This is what
Azaz means.
Imagine when you go for an MRI scan.
You go to the hospital on x-ray.
What material is the door made of? Who
can tell me?
Yes. Sorry?
Wood? No. Not wood.
Sorry?
Lead.
Lead.
Why is it made of lead?
Nothing can get through lead. Lead is a
material. It's a.
The x-ray
waves cannot go through this.
It hits a wall.
Right?
This is where the word
comes from. Something
which nobody can get through. Nothing can get
through.
Everything that tries to get through it gets
stuck.
And this is where the name Aziz comes
from and comes
from another connotation of this word is one
who's honored,
one who's dignified one who's up high
and one who cannot be beaten
just like Manchester United right?
Maybe not
maybe Manchester City
cannot be beaten. Nothing can get past them.
Like Yacine Buno in the World Cup, Morocco's
goalkeeper.
It was like no no football could get
past him into the goal. Right?
Yes. These are just examples, and I'll just
for you to understand.
Is the one who overwhelms, dominates, and nothing
can dominate them back.
Morocco was dominating until halfway halfway point in
the semifinal. Then after that, unfortunately, that's another
story.
So I'm giving you these examples for you
to understand. When we say Allah is Aziz,
we mean Allah dominates. Nothing can get through
him. Nothing can get past him,
and he dominates for eternity.
This is a shift
in all the names we have been discussing,
the names of Allah. Because all the names
we have been discussing so far, the merciful,
the loving, the gentle, the kind,
now we are talking about the dominating.
You see, people don't like this idea, especially,
you know, our non Muslim friends today,
our colleagues, our neighbors.
There's this idea God is love.
God is nice. God is kind.
But God cannot be wrathful. God cannot be
dominating.
They don't people don't like to associate these
things. They have kind of
removed Allah of
his strength and power,
and weakened Allah
just as they have done for men. I'm
asking. Right? Who is the man today?
You know, we all know what's happened to
men today in the way men have been
framed and the image of men been pushed
out. Similarly,
the same has been tried they've tried to
do the same thing with God himself that
Allah subhanahu wa ta'ala, mercy, kind, love, no.
Allah subhanahu wa ta'ala is kind and he's
merciful. But look at this verse of the
Quran.
Allah says,
This verse of the Quran, there's something very
special about this ayah.
The prophet, sallallahu alaihi wa sallam, when he
was praying at night, he recited this ayah,
and he stayed reciting this ayah again and
again the entire night.
The entire night.
One ayah.
What does this ayah mean?
The prophet says in this ayah, oh Allah,
if you punish them,
they are your slaves. You can do that
if you wish.
But if you forgive them,
then you are the indefeatable,
al Aziz,
al Hakim, and the most wise.
And because of how much he loved his
ummah, you and me,
he kept saying this aya again and again,
oh Allah. You can punish them, but please
forgive them. Again and again and again and
again until Fajr.
So we are shifting now to the names
of Allah that don't just show his mercy
and his love,
but show His dominance and His power.
Yes. Allah
is the one that shapes the beautiful soft
child from the mother's womb, but He's also
the one that sends the tornadoes that rip
apart the cities. He's also the one that
sends the earthquakes that rip apart the earth
like it's tissue paper. He's also the one
who will tear the sky apart on the
day of judgment.
The heavens will be rolled up in his
right. This is Allah, the powerful, the dominant.
Some names of Allah invoke love and hope,
and other names of Allah invoke
fear and reverence. Yes. We must fear Allah
just as we love Allah. And these are
the two wings of the bird.
If you have too much fear of Allah,
you start to lose hope in him. And
if you have too much love of Allah,
you start to get comfortable. It's okay. He's
gonna forgive me anyway. It's alright. It's okay.
Whatever I've done, Allah will forgive me. Allah
will have mercy.
So Aziz
is the one that can never be defeated.
Any commandment of his will happen whether you
like it or whether you don't. He is
the honorable, the dignified, and also he is
the source of honor. If you want honor
and you want dignity
and you want high status, take it from
Al Aziz.
What does Allah say in the Quran?
Whoever wants prestige, status, honor,
all honor and dignity belongs to Allah.
Don't take it from anyone else.
Don't take it from people sometimes.
How do we try to get status?
Branded cars,
Rolex watch,
job title,
tribe,
lineage,
family name,
the restaurant I'm meeting in, the company that
I keep. Sometimes we do these things because
we want to be respected. We want to
be seen. Oh, this person is a, you
know, respectable figure. This person is of this
level.
Allah, subhanahu wa ta'ala, says all of these
things are temporary,
and they don't mean anything about your status.
Your status
belongs with Allah.
Don't try to please anyone. You please Allah,
and he will raise your status in the
afterlife.
This is the meaning of Al Aziz. Now
we come to a second name, Al Hakim.
Who can tell me what is Al Hakim
mean?
Wise. The wise. What else?
This is the popular translation, the wise,
but there are three meanings for al Hakim.
The just,
good, al Hakam or al Hakim.
Right?
Close to Allah's name,
the ruler, the just ruler.
Yes. What else? Judging.
Allah judges
to judge between his slaves, to send judgments
down.
Yes.
It's quite different from the wise.
Anything else?
Sorry?
Beautiful. This is the meaning of al hikmah.
There's another connotation of al Hakim
is the one who puts everything in the
right place. This is what wisdom is,
to say everything at the right time, to
do at the right time, to give at
the right time, to take at the right
time, to be firm at the right time,
and to be gentle at the right. This
is what hikmah is. This is part of
it. So he said al Hakim
is the wise who puts everything in its
right place.
He is Al Hakim. He is the ruler,
the judge
who tells you this is how it is
and this is how it is not. He
judges things as they are.
And he is also
whatever he produces is with ihkam,
perfection,
precision.
Nothing Allah does is random. Nothing Allah does
is chaotic.
Everything Allah does is exact.
Okay. These are the meanings of Al Hakim.
Now tell me something. Why does Al Azid
and Al Hakim always come together?
What do they have to do with each
other? We talked about Aziz, the honorable, the
powerful,
nobody can defeat. We talked about Al Hakim,
the wise, the judge, etcetera.
What's what do they have to do with
one another? Yes? He tells us God there's
all this power
Allah,
subhanahu wa ta'ala, first tells you he has
power.
No one can defeat him. No one can
overcome his commandment, al Haziz.
But he also knows where to use his
power. This is where Al Hakim comes
Let me tell you, all the tyrants in
the world today, they may be Aziz. They
may be dominating.
Adolf Hitler was dominating.
Mussolini was dominating.
Stalin was dominating.
Firaun was dominating.
But were they Hakim?
Did they know where to use their power
and where to be gentle?
Who to use their power with and who
not to use their power with? Was there
abuse of their power?
Absolutely. Does that happen to you and me
sometimes?
For example, men Allah gives men certain responsibilities,
certain rights,
certain authorities.
Do some men abuse this authority?
Yes. In the house, outside the house?
Yes. Not every Aziz is a Hakim. Not
every powerful one knows how to use the
power.
Which of this young generation can remember a
quote
about this?
With great power comes
great responsibility. Yeah? And that's why I said
young generation, I don't think Dankars are gonna
relate to this. With great power
comes great responsibility.
Why was this quote said? Because many people
have power, but they don't know how to
use it responsibly.
But Aziz
and Hakim. Now here's a trivia question to
keep you all awake. Allah
uses the word Aziz for other than himself
in the Quran.
Aziz. Sorry? Okay.
The minister of the king of Egypt, he
calls him Aziz
because he was a king, the dominating king
of Egypt. What else does he call Aziz?
One person and one object.
Yes.
Say again?
I didn't even think of this one, actually.
This is a third example.
And in in the afterlife, out of sarcasm,
Allah mentions that
there are people in Jannam, in in in
hellfire,
and they are being punished. And the angels
are saying to them, taste this punishment.
Didn't you think that you are Aziz?
You thought you were powerful.
Now see.
Taste taste the effects of your abuse of
power. Yes.
Okay.
That's not the name Aziz. The name Aziz
is given to one more person and one
object in the Quran.
Okay. Four Suras,
3 maybe 3 Suras. The second ayah
includes
Aziz,
describing an object, not a person.
3 Suras in the last
7 Jews of the Quran.
Starting with hamim.
Thank you. Khalas. It doesn't count, guys. You
guys are sleeping.
Or
Aziz. Allah calls the Quran
Aziz.
He calls the Quran Aziz. The Quran dominates.
Al Quran and the Quran, the message of
the Quran is a message that dominates, and
it will dominate this
earth. Any ideology,
any philosophy, any idea comes against the message
of this Quran, it gets decimated, it dominates.
That's why we should never water down the
message.
Give it as it is. We have something
powerful.
It's
It's a dominating
book. Nothing can beat it. Nothing can surpass
it. There's one more person in the Quran
called Aziz.
No. That's reached the king of Egypt which
was already mentioned.
Oh, Oh, Who said the prophet sallallahu alaihi
wa sallam? Yes.
Allah says a messenger has been sent from
amongst you.
Your problems
are Aziz for him. They're a big deal
for him. When you have an issue, the
prophet, he
hurts because you hurt. Aziz.
He's so keen for your guidance,
and he's so merciful and gentle with the
believers.
Okay.
Enough of trivia.
Let us come.
How does Allah introduce himself to us in
the Quran? With what names does he introduce
himself to us? The first time you hear
about Allah in the Quran, how does he
introduce himself?
Hi. My name is Hisham. How does Allah
introduce himself to you? Yes?
Arrahman
Rahim. The most extremely merciful, the especially merciful.
Now there's one time in the Quran Allah
introduces himself to someone,
but not with Rahmaan Rahim,
with Aziz al Hakim.
With Musa alayhis salaam.
Allah says,
Yeah, Musa
and
I want you to tell me why.
I'll give you the context.
40 years, Musa alayhi salaam has seen oppression,
punishment,
destruction, genocide, killing in Egypt. He escaped Egypt
for 10 years. He's returning back to Egypt,
and he sees a fire. He goes to
the fire, and then Allah begins to converse
with Musa.
And he first says, it is I, Allah
Al Azizul
Hakim.
Why Azizul Hakim?
Yes.
Which name is this relating to?
Hakim. Okay. So one good point.
Mhmm.
Was a big strong person. But when it
comes to physically, he can pretty much
allow a chant to be show him that
he's more dominating. Allahu Akbar. Jameen, beautiful.
So he said 2 things. 1 is all
the struggles and difficulty Musa alayhi wasalam went
through.
The second is Aziz
his brother is saying is because Musa is
a strong guy
and he's a dominating guy right it's not
easy to point someone and kill them he
must have been a strong guy so Allah
is saying you might be strong but I
am the dominating
good
There's one I I want to hear more.
Yes.
Oh, yes.
Absolutely.
To give reassurance to Musa, alayhis salaam, because
of the task ahead of him.
What task is ahead of Musa? Where is
he going?
Firaunu.
What does he need when he stands up
to Firaun?
He needs the dominating one, Al Aziz.
He needs Allah's 'izzah, Allah's power, and Allah's
dominion, Allah's might because the man he's going
to is the mightiest man on earth.
One more? Any more for any more?
Yes.
Beautiful. Masha'Allah. That's another beautiful point. Masha'Allah. You
know, I always learn when I come here.
Really.
I always learn what our young brother just
said.
Right after Allah says Al Aziz Al Hakim,
the first thing Allah says to Musa after
that is throw your stick down.
He gives him a commandment.
If Musa, alayhis salam, doesn't realize the one
he's talking to is Al Hakim, he's the
commander.
He's the one who commands. He judges. He
tells you what to do.
Then after that, if Allah tells him throw
down your stick, why
is this tree telling? Why is this fire
telling me what to do?
The prophet says, no. An al Hakim.
Al Hakim, one of the meanings of Hakim,
that Allah tells you what to do and
what not to do. Al Hakim, the judgment,
the ruling.
He guides you.
And one thing I forgot to mention is
in Arabic, to give you a picture,
there is something called al Hakama, which is
the bridle of a horse. You know a
horse, if you see a horse, when someone's
riding a horse, there's something around the mouth
of the horse. Right?
Something around the mouth, and this is connected
to the reins.
So you pull left,
and the bridle moves the horse's face left
and right.
This bridle that covers the mouth of the
horse, they call it hakama
in Arabic,
because it restricts the horse.
It forces it right or left. It pushes
it right or left for its own good,
right, or for some kind of benefit. And
the same way,
Allah is
Al Hakim Al Hakim. He is the ruler.
He tells what's right and wrong. He restricts
us, but he does so for wisdom, for
a benefit.
He doesn't restrict us because he hates freedom
and liberty.
No. He restricts us because freedom is not
good for us. Not every freedom is good
for us. Not every freedom is moral. Not
every freedom helps society function.
If there was ultimate freedom and people did
whatever they want, what would happen? A road
with no traffic lights. Imagine?
That's how people drive on Rumslow Road.
Where are the rules?
Where's the Hakam? Where's the Hakam? Where's the
judgment? Where's the CCTV? There's no rules. Watch
how people drive on Rumsler Road. You're stuck
there for 35 minutes, inching along.
People are coming in and out. They're blocking
roads, blocking side streets. This is what happens.
When there's no rules,
when you have freedom,
there's chaos.
So Allah sub one of the meanings of
al Hakim,
al Hakim
is Allah restricts
for a purpose,
He gives us restrictions for a reason.
Okay.
I'm gonna give you another part of the
Quran where Allah uses Al Aziz Al Hakim,
and I'm gonna ask you why does he
use this name in this place. Everybody ready?
Ready? Rub your eyes.
Bismillah.
Stretch.
Allah says in the Quran,
on the tongue of Lut alayhi salaam,
Allah commands
to migrate from Babylon to
To?
Yes?
To somewhere else.
Go on.
From
Sodom to elsewhere.
When Noot Alaihi Salam starts to migrate,
rather than mention the location, he says I
am migrating
Muhajir.
I'm I'm immigrating
to Allah.
He is Al Aziz, the undefeatable,
Al Hakim,
the wise, the just, the ruler.
Why does he use these two names?
I haven't seen you before. Insha Allah, I
want to keep seeing you in the front
row. Yeah? From next time, insha'Allah.
There's a beautiful answer. You know, I have
to say something. Never underestimate these young young
kids. Don't underestimate them. Sometimes they give you
something which even the grown adults would never
think of.
Allah, he uses the word Hakim, the name
Hakim, because Lut alayhi salam doesn't know where
he's going or what's going to happen to
him, but he knows Allah has a plan
for him. From
the wisdom of Allah. Yes.
Beautiful.
He uses the name Al Aziz because when
Lut alayhi salam is traveling in the middle
of nowhere in the desert, it's not like
today. You don't have a nice car and,
you know, SOS and 999. No. Your traveling
means you're in the middle of nowhere.
You're walking,
or you're on a cow or a horse
or a,
camel.
Anything can happen to you. Highway robbers can
attack you. And if you don't have an
army, you don't have weapons, you're finished.
But Al Aziz is the dominating one. Al
Aziz cannot be defeated. Al Aziz, no one
can overcome him. So Musa Aluth alayhi salam
knows if I'm going somewhere, even if it's
a 1000 miles, Al Aziz will protect me.
No one can stop me when Allah is
with me.
Al Aziz Al Hakim.
These are 2 of the usages of these
two names in the Quran.
It's very important to understand Allah's name, Al
Hakim.
Allah says in the Quran,
ruling, legislation,
laws
are ultimately
that's Allah's domain.
We live in a world today where
you will always hear the idea of freedom.
Right? Freedom of speech, freedom of this, freedom
of that, freedom everything.
People are calling this out for the slogan
of freedom.
And in comparison to this, it might come
across as though the laws of Allah are
restricting,
and they are.
Because what happens on Luzah Road? You all
know. I don't have to tell you. What
happens to a road with no traffic lights,
with no rules, with no restrictions?
Madness,
car accidents, killing, fatalities.
When Allah Subhanahu Wa Ta'ala,
he is gives us hukum, he gives us
a ruling, remember he is Hakim, he is
wise.
Imagine today you buy a washing machine.
Buy the washing machine. You bring it home.
And you think to yourself, you know what?
I've got I've had so many washing machines
before. Let me just operate it. Surely, I'm
I'm gonna then you put all the clothes
in, and it come out pink.
You think?
Maybe I should have read the instruction manual.
Allah subhanahu wa ta'ala,
just as you would go to the manufacturer's
instruction manual,
Allah subhanahu wa ta'ala made us, and he
know us inside and out. And he knows
what ticks us and what helps us. And
so he gave us the manual that is
these laws,
a sharia.
And these laws are not new.
These laws are old.
These laws that we follow today are 4000
years old. They predate Muhammad salallahu alayhi wa
sallam. The the sharia came to Ibrahim, alayhi
salaam,
came to Musa.
The tawra came to Musa.
Allah calls the tawra
Torah
It has guidance and light inside it. This
is the Torah.
The Injeel, the scriptures of Isa, alayhis salaam,
they were the same laws.
The laws were amended over time, edited. Allah
made changes to them to suit the profit
and the time and the place.
Now I'm gonna ask you a question.
The laws that were sent to
Isa, alayhis salam
and Musa, alayhis salam,
and then to us,
is the Sharia that came for us, the
laws that came to us to govern our
lives,
is it more strict than the ones before
us, or is it more
liberal than the ones before us? Or is
it more strict, or is it more easy
than the ones before us?
It's easy. It's easy. Who can give me
an aya?
This is where we hit the wall.
Sorry?
Some Quran is good, but specifically with halal
and haram.
Well done.
Oh, you're very close.
The prophet says, Allah commanded him to say,
I came with laws, and one of the
things I came with, I made halal, some
things that were haram for you. There's the
update, version 3, version 4, version 5 of
the Sharia.
It's update, and it's easier than than the
one of Musa, alayhi salaam, and the one
of Asa. Come on, guys.
But the core of the law stays the
same.
They will just edit some changes made.
Right? For example, Yusuf, alayhi salaam, some scholars
say in his Sharia, in his law that
he came with, it was permissible to prostrate
to a human in front of a human.
That's what happens at the end of the
Surah. Right?
But that is no longer for us.
These laws and these restrictions, you know, people
call for freedom.
What happened with freedom? Let's start with the
most popular one of the most popular freedoms
today,
is what people call sexual freedom.
Anybody
can sleep with anybody. You don't need to
get married, have relationships, girlfriend, boyfriend. No rules.
No rules. Just protect yourself.
That's it.
What what has that led to today?
That freedom, what has that led to today?
AIDS. AIDS. That's just one thing.
That global epidemic, that disease that has affected
millions of people, 100 of millions of people.
What else? Destruction of the family. This is
the main thing. Destruction of the family.
You don't know whose dad is whose
whose child is whose.
People think that other people, this relationship between
man and woman, is a play. It's fun.
No commitment.
There's nothing serious about it. You have it
today and tomorrow.
I had breakfast and I'm gone.
There's no commitment.
Right? And that is that is ihana. That
is
a humiliation, an insult to the other gender.
There's no respect for each other.
There's it's a joke. It's a plaything.
This what does Allah call marriage in the
Quran?
A
serious
a serious contract. You're not getting into something
easy. You have to respect the other, commit
to the other person.
It's created a world where people are afraid
of commitment. They like casual relationships.
Freedom doesn't always beget good for humanity.
Sometimes it destroys.
This destroyed the family.
How many other freedoms?
The freedom to view and do whatever you
want. Yes.
Freedom of speech.
Freedom to offend. Today, what's happening in Sweden?
Someone's burning the Quran.
It's part of freedom of speech. Right?
Now someone doing something like this, is that
going to create a response?
Absolutely.
Someone might do something severe back, and then
and then and then and then what? People
will die. People will be injured. People will
be upset. People have people can will get
offended.
One of the most beloved things to Allah
is
is marriage,
is halal.
Right? Because these restrictions,
we should never see them as obstacles and
we should never be shy of them. This
is one part of Izzah,
when we say Allah is Al Aziz.
You know what happens to us? We have
inferiority complex.
We feel small. You know why we feel
small? Ibn Khaldun said it many years ago,
the historian.
What did Ibn Khaldun say? Anybody know the
famous saying?
He said,
anyone, any people
who are colonized,
they become the
the the lower. Right? They become dominated by
somebody else.
They then
start wanting to imitate and copy the ones
that dominated them.
So when we have this complex in our
mind that, oh, we are far behind,
we haven't progressed, our cars are not fast
enough, our shoes are not shiny enough, we
don't have these technologies,
our factories are not as fast.
When you start to think though the Muslim
world is behind, we're inferior, we're slow, or
we don't have anything, look at this, look
at that country, look at this country, when
you start to feel that,
you start to think,
hey.
Maybe I shouldn't just copy and imitate them
in these things.
Maybe I maybe their values as well.
Maybe there's something there in their beliefs, in
their values, in their ideas. Maybe that's what
freed them.
You know, I have so many experiences of
young Muslim men and women.
They come up with a doubt. I answer
the doubt. Another and another. And I realize
after
a few months of conversation that inside,
the reason they have these questions is they
feel low and small in front of the
grand civilization of the West. They think Islam
slowed us down.
And so they want Islam to be they
want Islam to conform, to copy, to be
the same as the other
because they think it's superior. It's better. It's
more advanced.
Look.
What kind of superiority? What kind of advancement?
Material advancement?
Is that the only thing, the way to
measure things?
Faster, stronger, better? That's the only way to
measure things? No. Let me clarify. Allah, Subhanahu
Wa Ta'ala, wants us to thrive in this
world as well as the hereafter.
He doesn't want us to struggle in this
world. He wants us to thrive.
Allah wants us to be wealthy, wants us
to be honorable, wants us to have the
best of this world and the hereafter.
But
that does not mean we give up our
values.
A machine gun is an advanced technology.
That doesn't mean the one using it
knows how and where to use it. If
you don't have morals, qiyam, uhlaq, sharia,
doesn't matter what technology you have, you'll destroy.
What has social media done to us?
What has it done to the human mind?
To children? Yes.
It's damaged the intellect of so many people.
Yes.
Made
the victims look like criminals. Yes.
It's desensitized us from so many things. We
are not sensitive to the poor, to the
needy, to haram. Yes. You can say the
attention span of children.
The attention span of children outside of these
6 children is very low.
So we made a technology.
Does that mean we've advanced? We've gone forward?
No. We've gone backward.
We have to stop feeling low. We have
to stop feeling small. We have to stop
feeling inferior.
You have something powerful.
Allah tells this Quran is dominating. It's powerful.
This Quran shook the earth.
This Quran brought down the Persian Empire,
the Egyptian empire,
the greatest empire, the Spanish empires of the
day. It broke from the Quran,
from this Islam,
from people whose fires in their heart were
lit by the Quran.
If you believe in this Quran, you will
be Aziz. You will be powerful as well.
And if you don't, and if you think
it's backward, it's prehistoric,
it's outdated,
you will be outdated too. You will fall
behind too. You will be in the rat
race, the next technology, the faster car, the
taller building. And so what? Your building is
3 inches taller than the other.
Pat on your back. Go home.
What have you achieved?
If morally,
your heart is degraded and gone behind, it
doesn't matter how tall the building is.
We have to realize what Allah says when
we say Allah is Aziz.
That if you want honor and dignity,
we have to take it from Allah and
what Allah revealed. Nobody else.
Don't let everybody, anybody make you feel you
are behind.
You are ahead
because you are walking with wahi, with revelation
that is a light from Allah.
It is brighter than the LED light of
this shining thing above me. It is faster
than the fastest electric vehicle you can think
of.
It is stronger and more powerful than the
biggest nuclear bomb you can think of. This
is the Quran.
Allah says
when he talks about the Quran,
he describes it.
He says,
Have you seen someone who was dead and
we brought them to life?
And we gave him a light that he
walks amongst the people with this light beaming
from him.
Is he like someone who is in darkness
upon darkness and he's never going to come
out?
That is how
people's evil deeds have been made beautiful to
them.
These things I'm talking about, this kind of
progress, it's not special. It's nothing beautiful, but
the shaitan makes you think. He beautifies it
to you.
The Quran
is more bright
than the brightest light you can find. When
you walk with the Quran in your heart
and in your limbs and you live with
the Quran and the teachings of this Sharia,
you are Aziz.
You are a person of honor and dignity.
You have something nobody has. When you see
other people with all of their materials and
their tall skyscrapers
and their nice machines,
remember
they are in darknesses
because they don't have the Quran.
They don't have the Quran. Why do they
wake up in the morning?
How do they deal with their difficulties?
Where are they going in the afterlife?
They don't have the Quran.
We have to feel Aziz because of this
Quran.
Umair Abu Khattab, radiAllahu anhu, famously said,
we are people.
Islam. Allah honored us with Islam.
If we look for honor and dignity, status,
prestige, and something else,
Allah
will humiliate us.
Don't forget that you are Aziz,
that you are powerful beyond measure with the
Ayat of Allah. When Musa alayhi salam, when
Allah subhanahu wa ta'ala makes him a prophet,
and Musa alayhi salam expresses his fears,
he's scared. I have no army, no ammunition.
They have so much against me. Allah
says to Musa something very important.
With my ayaat, my signs, my miracles,
you will be dominating.
Doesn't matter if you're 1 or you are
0.
It's my ayaat which will dominate.
And according to how close you are to
these ayaat and how deeply you understand them
and the wisdom behind them, you will be
dominant as well.
And with that, we come to the end,
to the end of our session. Allahu azeizun
Hakim, the mighty, the dominant, the one no
one can defeat, the wise, the just, the
judge, the one who lays the rules and
the laws down. That is for our betterment
in this life and the hereafter.