Hisham Jafar Ali – Names Of Allah And His Attributes #17 The Near & Responsive
AI: Summary ©
The speaker discusses the importance of honoring people with the word "we" in Islam, emphasizing the need for being present when needed and being mindful of one's actions. They also emphasize the importance of achieving a love letter and constantly communicating with Allah. The speaker also mentions various examples of Islam's use of social media, including Facebook shopping, WhatsApp, and online shopping.
AI: Summary ©
As we are approaching,
very shortly to the beautiful and awaited month
of Ramadan,
I thought today's lesson will be appropriate to
be about 2 names of Allah that are
very closely associated with the month of Ramadan.
When Allah describes the rulings of Ramadan in
the Quran in Surat Al Baqarah shahrul Ramadan
al Adi on those verses
He follows the verses with of Ramadan with
a separate verse.
And it is related to Ramadan,
but it's on a different topic. It's not
about the rulings of fasting. It's not about
who can and can't fast. It's not about
the penalty for missing a fast. Allah says,
oh, Muhammad, peace be upon him, if my
servants ask you about me, then I am
near.
I respond to the caller when they call.
So let them respond to me,
and let them believe in me so that
they may find the straight or the right
way.
Today we're gonna cover 2 names of Allah,
Allah's name Al Kareeb, the near, the close,
and Allah's name Al Mujib,
the one who answers, the one who responds.
And I want to start with this ayah
in the Quran.
And before for you to understand the beauty
and the majesty of this ayah that we
just recited,
I'm gonna ask you all to volunteer me
other ayahs in the Quran
where Allah starts with the word.
Who can tell me?
Okay. Give me another.
Gentlemen, be embarrassed. These little kids, be every
time when they respond, I see the faces
of the gentle the the old uncles. You
know, it goes purple.
I'll be actually proud of these youngsters. Yes.
In all of these verses, there's a pattern.
Some people, a group of people, or an
individual asks the prophet salallahu alaihi wa sallam
a question,
and he doesn't know the answer. He waits
revelation.
So Allah reveals,
they ask you about x, whatever it is.
Tell them
this is the answer.
All the verses in the Quran,
there's almost 10 of them roughly or more.
I haven't done an exact count. They all
have the same pattern.
They ask you about this, Mohammed, tell them
this.
They ask you, tell them. They ask you,
tell them. Except 1 ayah.
What Allah makes
in this verse in.
Oh, Muhammad,
if my slaves ask you about me, he
doesn't say. He doesn't say, tell them I
am near.
He just says, I am near.
What's the difference? Who can tell me?
Yes.
Telling is like
Mhmm. But then when you're when
you it's like it's exactly the truth. Okay.
It's exactly the truth. You're close. Yes. It
cuts out the middle man. There's no You're
cutting out the middle man. Yes. Whenever Allah
subhanahu wa ta'ala narrates this situation in the
Quran, oh Muhammad salaam, they're asking you a
question, Tell them this is the answer. There's
always a middle man.
There's the person with the question. There's a
prophet and Allah.
So it's like rebounding. The question rebounds from
the prophet to Allah. Allah's response rebounds it
from the prophet to the people.
Except in one situation.
When the companions ask the prophet salallahu alaihi
wasallam,
is Allah close or is he far?
And Allah Subhanahu Wa Ta'ala didn't say tell
them I'm close. He cut out, he removed
the messenger from the equation
to show you he really is close.
You don't need
the messenger, sallallahu alaihi wasallam, in the middle.
There's another thing there as well. When the
prophet when Allah
mentions
if he didn't say, if people ask you
about me, he said, if my slaves ask
you about me. He attributed us to himself.
You know when somebody gets angry with their
child or with their cousin, says look I
I have nothing to do with them anymore,
you're not my son anymore,
get lost, I don't wanna see your face.
But one of the ways of honoring someone
is to say you are from me, you
are mine, my son, my beloved.
It's a way of love for Allah to
say,
If
my slaves,
they are mine. They belong to me. They
are my beloveds. When they ask you, oh
Mohammed, about me, step aside. I'm going to
answer them myself.
I am near.
And then he adds to that.
He used the word dua 3 times.
I respond to the caller when he calls.
Whenever he calls, I'm going to respond.
Why don't they also respond to me?
Why don't they also believe in me?
In this verse of the Quran, as in
many others,
Allah
shows us
what it means when we say Allah is
kareeb, Allah is near to us.
We all have companions and friends in life.
Some of our friends, they are distant, like
distant relatives.
You know, the cousin's cousin's cousin,
and some of them are close.
What's the difference between someone we consider distant,
far, and someone we consider close?
What's the difference between these two? Let's say
you have a somebody you work with but
you're not close to them. And somebody you
say, this is my best friend. What's the
difference between these two people? Yes. Communicate to
them more. Okay. You talk to them more
often if they're closer to you. Yes.
You know them more. So Mhmm. You can
ask them even more if you can
Okay. You know them even more and you
can ask them you can relate to them
more. Yes.
They meet
with
them more often. Yes. They are present when
you need them. They are present when you
need them. Yes.
Yes. They have a special place in your
heart. They have a special place in your
heart.
Yes. You share your secrets with them. Yes.
You share your secrets with them. Beautiful. Yes.
Yes.
You feel more connected to them.
Yes.
We trust them more. Sorry? We trust them
more. You trust them
more. Yes.
Quality time. You give them quality time.
Yes. Anything else?
These are the signs of closeness to Allah.
If someone is close to you,
if you're in a let's say, when you
have a car accident, who do you call?
That's the person who's close to you. Because
you don't feel shy to call them. You
don't feel any haraj, any embarrassment
to call on them. Amen. I'm stuck in
a car accident. I need your help. He
said, I'll be there in 5 minutes.
How many people are there like that in
our lives? There's very few. They're reliable.
This is what? Mujeeb.
Because not every close person is responsive.
We have people who are close to us,
maybe cousins, friends, best friends.
But if you say, salaam alaikum, I'm in
trouble. I need a loan. They say, I'm
really sorry. I'm busy. Call me next week.
They're close, but they're not responsive.
They don't reply to us as often. They
don't come back to us as often.
This is why Mujib is very important.
Mujib from Ajaba Yojibu
to respond, to reply.
Allah isn't just close to us,
but he responds.
Now you might think, hold on a second.
We all have that person in our lives
who is very close to us. We trust
more. We communicate more. We feel a special
connection. They have a special place in our
heart. When we're in trouble, we'll call them,
but Allah, Subhanahu Wa Ta'ala, is not this
for me.
And still Allah is near.
How?
You may not be near to Allah, but
Allah is still close to you.
You may not be near. You might feel
yourself far from Allah, but Allah is still
close to you.
Allah
says in the Quran.
We created the human being
and we know what what whispers what they
their self whispers to them.
We know what the voice in their head
is saying.
Things that nobody else knows, we know it.
And we are closer to them than their
jugular vein. The jugular vein in the human
body any doctors in the house can tell
us something about the jugular vein? Mohammad.
He's not here. Yes. The jugular vein, if
you cut that vein, a person will die
very quickly. The blood flow is very quick.
It's vital to the human body.
Just as this vein is needed to the
human body, Allah
is you need him more than that vein.
He's more closer to you than this vein.
Not physically,
but in his knowledge and the way he
looks after you and in his closest to
your thoughts. You know, to think that Allah
knows
the darkest thoughts that come to you, that
nobody knows,
that nobody could hear. And if people knew
that you're thinking those things, they'd run away
from you. Allah knows those things about you.
That's what it means. Allah is kareeb.
He's not a distant bystander,
but he knows each and every one of
us. He knows our secrets,
and he knows our what we openly show,
and he knows the real us.
He's near.
So he's near in one sense that he
knows everything about us and the whispers that
we have within us, but he's near in
another sense because when we call on him,
he will respond. This is Al Mujib.
This really
it comes about in a beautiful way in
the lives of the prophets Alaihi Musaam.
I'm going to take you to visit the
lives of some of the prophets of Allah.
How did they interact with Allah's name Al
Kareb?
Musa, alayhis salaam, is standing in front of
the sea.
Behind him, a cloud of sand.
100 and thousands of horses with their hooves
clattering on the sand.
The clashing of swords,
the screaming of roaring voices.
And behind him, as far as the eye
can see, he has a huge population of.
When they see the army of is coming,
they give up.
We are finished. We are drowned. We are
taken.
It is at this moment
while they feel Allah is too far to
help them, Allah is
beyond the situation. He's not gonna come and
help us. No one's gonna help us. We're
going to drown.
Musa alaihi salam feels Allah is with him
in this moment.
No, he says. Allah is with me.
You know, in some some of these,
you see in some of these documentaries,
police documentaries, action movies,
when the FBI or one of these police
agencies, they send an agent in the field,
and they put an earpiece.
Let's say they've gone to protect some high
value individual, or they've gone to, you know,
protect the public from something. They're wearing an
earpiece.
And there's a group of people
sitting in a caravan somewhere or in a
high security area, and they're looking at all
the CCTV cameras. They're saying, walk left, walk
right, be careful. Somebody's coming front. Somebody's coming
from behind.
All of this is happening.
And although those people are sitting far away,
for this man or this person, as they
run about the streets,
they're in their ears. They're. They're close to
them. And they're their eyes and ears. They're
telling them everything that's happening, left, right, center,
someone's coming from behind. Duck now. Someone's coming
from the right. Watch out for the next
street. They are telling them everything. They have
a full view of the situation.
What happens to that one individual who's running
around trying to do something?
They feel safe
because a group of individuals with all the
cameras in the city are protecting them, telling
them where to go, left, right, and center.
What's happening? What's happening around them? And so
they feel safe.
This is one of the mindsets that we
have when we remember Allah is close,
Allah is near.
That means
Allah Subhanahu Wa Ta'ala,
he doesn't take he is not someone distant
from the situation.
When we are stuck,
when we have no way to turn,
when we are in a situation, sometimes, you
know, a friend or a cousin or a
parent or a sibling might ask us, tell
me what's going on? You say, look, you're
not even going to understand my situation. I
can't explain to you. Allah Subhanahu Wa Ta'ala
knows.
We don't have to explain to him.
We just have to look. We just have
to raise our hands. He knows the situation.
When we say Allah is Qariq, it is
reassuring
for those of us who are stuck, for
those of us in difficulty,
for those of us in this difficult situation.
That no matter how difficult the situation,
Allah
knows all, and he sees all, and he's
protecting us, and he's showing us which way
to go in that situation. We have to
wait for the signal from Allah.
When we say Allah is kharib,
Allah is near,
we have to understand another thing.
How can we become near to Allah?
And how can we experience this closeness to
him?
When Allah Subhanahu Wa Ta'ala talks to the
prophet Muhammad Sallallahu Alaihi Wasallam.
Allah Subhanahu Wa Ta'ala says to him,
Be patient for the ruling, for the decision,
the decree of Allah
because you are within our eyes.
You are within our sight. We can see
you.
And glorify the name of your Lord when
you stand up at night.
You think about the prophet
standing in the cave
As he looked up, a group of men
out to kill him.
As he looked to his right, just one
man with him, Abu Bakr as Siddiq.
In this moment, even Abu Bakr as Siddiq
forgets.
Allah is close to the situation.
But the prophet reminds him, oh, Abu Bakr,
What do you think if I told you
we are 2, but Allah is the 3rd,
he's with us right now?
When Allah Subhanahu Wa Ta'ala talks to Musa
alaihi salaam.
When Musa alaihi salaam
expresses his fear, Allah tells him go and
speak to Firaun. He says, I'm scared. I
can't do this.
Allah says,
Don't be scared. I'm with you. I hear
and I see.
In this situation,
Musa alaihi wasa was reassured
there is never a moment in his life,
in your life, in my life, except Allah
is with us. In his knowledge,
in his sight, in his hearing. He's close
to every situation, never far.
But if we feel in our heart a
little bit of distance towards Allah,
we should realize something.
Allah
never went anywhere.
It is you and me that went far
from him.
How do we become close to Allah just
as he is close to us?
The prophet sallallahu alaihi wasallam informs us in
the hadith Abu Hurairah in Bukhari and Muslim.
The prophet
says
Allah Subhanahu Wa Ta'ala informs us
I am going to be as my slave
expects me to be.
What does that mean? If you expect Allah
to be
unforgiving,
to be harsh,
then will your sins be forgiven?
If you expect Allah to be forgiving, He
will be forgiven.
If you expect Allah to fulfill his promise
and to grant victory and support and aid
to the believers, he will grant his aid
and his support.
We have to have a good expectation of
Allah
But the more the point of this hadithiri
that we should pay attention to is what
I'm about to say.
Is the Karani,
and I am with him when he remembers
me.
Imagine one day you are
in some
rural place in the countryside driving on your
own,
and one moment you say,
You remember your lord.
To imagine
when you remember Allah that he he is
with you.
In that very moment Allah is with you.
But listen more.
If my slave Allah says mentions my name
by himself,
I will mention him or her by myself.
Imagine when you say the name of Allah
that Allah Subhanahu Wa Ta'ala mentions your name.
Can you imagine this honor?
You know, when sometimes we see these awards,
the Oscars,
the global awards for this and that, people
feel so honored
that their name has been mentioned such that
when they get the award, they come, they
start the the thanks. I want to thank
my cat.
I want to thank my cousin for all
of his help. I want to thank,
my aunt for all of the time she
saved.
Everyone's name is mentioned. Why?
Because when the name is mentioned in that
gathering,
a person feels honored. When you open a
book, what's the first page in the book?
Acknowledgments. I want to thank my mom and
my dad for helping me write this book.
Why? Why mention their names? Because when you
mention someone's name, it is a honor. It
is a respect. It is an appreciation of
them. And when you remember Allah
to even fathom that Allah mentions your name,
your name.
And when you mention Allah in a gathering,
Allah mentions your name in a better gathering
in the gathering of the angels.
And then Allah Subhanahu Wa Ta'ala goes on
to say
And if you come to Allah,
close to Allah, if you come closer to
Allah the length of a hand,
Allah will come closer to the length of
an arm.
And if you come to Allah
closer to Allah the span of an arm,
he will come closer to you, the span
of
the span of an elbow, He'll come to
the span of an arm.
And if you come to Allah walking, He
will come to you running. Of course,
this hadith is not to be taken literally,
according to the vast majority of the scholars.
What does it mean when Allah says, if
you come to me this much, I will
come to you that much? What does it
actually mean? Do you see physically walk towards
Allah?
Yes.
It means
following,
what Allah says. Okay. Following what Allah says.
Yes? What about you, young man?
Yes? If you
if you remember most high wa ta'ala Mhmm.
And get close to him. Mhmm. He'll get
even close to you. Okay. If you make
the effort to get close to Allah, Allah
will get even closer to you. Yes.
If you remember Allah all the time, Allah
Subhanahu Wa Ta'ala will remember you as well.
Anybody else? What does it mean to come
closer to Allah, to walk to Allah, to
run to Allah? What is what do these
words actually mean? Practically, how do we do
this?
Yes.
Answering the call of Allah. What kind of
call?
The prayer for example. Okay. For example, the
call to prayer.
Ishaq?
Good. Very important. Taking practical steps, going to
reminders, going for salah, etcetera. Yes? Do anything
that pleases Allah. Ah. Shuhat, salah, anything that
Doing anything that pleases Allah. You know what
the point of this hadith is? That if
you want to if you want to feel
the closeness of Allah to you in your
life, with His help, and with the peace
of mind that He gives you, and with
his tawfiq, the ability and the strength that
he gives you. And in your times of
distress, if you want him to come to
your aid and your assistance,
you have to make some effort.
As they say, you cannot clap with one
hand. Have you seen anybody clap with one
hand? How many hands do you need to
clap? You need 2 hands.
Yeah. Maybe with your face. That's called a
slap. It's not called a clap.
Yes? Washa'Allah.
Binti liked the joke insha'Allah. It's good. You're
gonna say something?
Good. Making Allah the priority in your life.
Yes.
Beautiful. There's another hadith about this, yes, the
optional prayers.
Another hadith explains to us,
yes Habibi.
You both put your hand up. Let the
let the older one go first. That's adeb.
You cannot be out Allah subhanahu wa ta'ala
is not gonna be outdone by you. Yes.
Yes.
Beautiful. I'm going to tell you all hadith
that will explain to us how can we
come closer to Allah just as He is
close to us.
The Prophet Sallallahu Alaihi Wasallam says in hadith
Abu Hurayrah
So how do I become one of these
close people that gets the protection of Allah?
If someone comes after me, Allah's gonna be
at war with them. How can I how
can I achieve this status of closeness to
Allah? The hadith continues.
The most beloved way for my servants to
come closer to me is to do the
things I commanded them to do, the things
that are obligatory for them to do.
You know, when you come for salah, maghrib,
dhor, asr, when you fast in Ramadan,
some of us we do with the attitude,
oh gosh, I've gotta do this. Obligation,
I have to do it. Oh man.
We don't realize this obligation that we think
is a chore, it's a burden.
This is the best way to attain the
closeness to Allah.
Now you're doing all the obligations.
You are enjoying the obligations. You're doing them
with the with the soul of happiness, with
the pleasure.
What's next? I want to know what's next.
How do I achieve a higher status with
Allah? Allah tells us.
And my slave will continue to come closer
to me with optional acts of worship. The
prayer at night, fasting the Monday, charity which
you are not commanded to do, you are
not obligated to do. The more we do
these optional deeds, we get closer to Allah
until we reach a special status.
The status that all of us should be
aiming for,
to reach a state where Allah loves us.
What happens when Allah loves you? So what?
Allah explains.
When I love someone,
may Allah make us all of them.
I become the hearing with which they hear.
And I become the eyes with which they
see.
And I become the hands with which they
strike.
And if they ask me, I promise I
will give them.
And if they ask my protection,
I will definitely protect them. This is
reaching the state of closeness,
the close friends of Allah.
And the way to that closeness and to
achieving that nearness to Allah and to experiencing
the closest to Allah
is the things he told us to do,
the obligatory acts of worship, the optional acts
of worship.
And to give you an example,
a
to give you an analogy to our life,
to love that we experience in this life
is not comparable to the love of Allah.
But let me give you an example.
When one of you loves a lady
and you want to marry her,
first,
you buy her flowers.
Yes. The flower is. It's obligatory. It's not.
It's not option.
You provide the flowers.
When the flowers make them happy, you take
them on a holiday.
You take them first to Skegness,
not abroad. It's the first step. We're still
in the faribah.
Right? This is all the the obligatory part.
And you want to attain more love from
this person? You want to attain more closest
to this person? You buy them gifts.
You give them special gifts, tokens,
a nice note, a special this, a special
that, the things that they especially like.
You get closer to them, you take them
abroad on holiday. You take them for umrah.
You buy them more extravagant gifts.
You do more sentimental things for them. You
sacrifice your time, your sleep for them
until you get to a level where you
love one another.
And this is an analogy
for our relationship with Allah.
But in reality what we do is we
give Allah subhanahu wa ta'ala a few pennies
from our back pocket.
And then we say why doesn't Allah love
us?
For our wife, our husband, our friend, our
best friend, we will do a lot more.
How much thinking goes into the present, the
gift, the kurbah, the thing we do to
attain their love? And how much thought do
we put into the things we give to
Allah?
We put a lot less thought. Allah subhanahu
wa ta'ala is the afterthought.
It's a quick thing.
You
know. That's for Allah.
But for my beloved a love letter that
is 3 pages long, Allah.
Appreciating
all of the things from this person and
all of their beauty and describing all of
this for the person to attain the love
of someone, a human being. But for Allah
Subhanahu Wa Ta'ala, we can only speak with
the most brief of words and we give
him the least of our minds.
When we talk about closeness to Allah and
we go to the life of the prophets.
The prophet Sallallahu Alaihi Wasallam, Allah tells him
to say in Surat Saba.
Oh, Muhammad tell them, if I am lost
then I'm only misguiding myself.
But if I am rightly guided
then that is only because of what my
Lord has revealed to me.
My Lord is hearing and He's near.
In this moment the prophet Sallallahu Alaihi Wasallam
warns the disbelievers. So now Allah's name Kareeb,
it has a different light.
Yes. Allah is close to you. Allah responds
to you. Allah is with you in your
difficult situations. Allah is reassuring you but it
has a different meaning as well.
When people reject Allah Subhanahu Wa Ta'ala, when
they look at his signs and they say
there's no God.
When they look at his signs and his
reminders and they say I don't really need
to pray, I don't need to fast, charity
is not my thing.
There's another meaning.
Allah Subhanahu Wa Ta'ala threatens people with the
name Al Kareb.
In this verse, in Surat Saba, the prophet
tells the disbelievers around him. Look,
if you think I'm misguided,
then I'm only misguiding myself.
But if you see I am rightly guided,
you think I'm doing the right thing, if
it all makes sense to you, then that
is all from Allah.
My lord is hearing Sameer ul Karib
and close.
He's hearing your response to my reminder,
and he is close to you, close enough
to cause a complete wreckage to you if
you reject it.
Allah subhanahu ta'ala has two sides,
the beauty
and the might,
the fear and the hope. And even in
this name, Al Kareeb,
Allah Subhanahu Wa Ta'ala says in Quran, he's
he's
close to the doers of good. Inna Rahmatullah,
he's he's close to the doers of good.
Inna nasrallahi karib, his victory is near, his
help is near. Yes. But also the punishment
of Allah can also be near.
Don't think that you and I are far,
and that we will never be accounted by
the punishment of Allah.
Don't think that you and I are above,
are beyond
being punished,
being severely taken by Allah. We are.
It can happen and it can be close,
closer than you and I think.
That gives us the sensation, the idea, the
mindset that we should never feel safe.
Never feel safe.
If you sit for too long, you'll start
to develop
nice kash as this in Arabic, a nice
belly.
But if you're always insecure about your weight,
you always go exercising,
you'll never be overweight.
Never feel secure about yourself,
about your deeds,
about your,
your pathway, your ticket to Jannah.
You know, one of you, one of us,
we register for something. We say, look, I
don't have to worry. My seat has been
booked.
My seat has been booked. But is your
seat in paradise booked? Is there a guarantee?
Is there a reservation?
You know, sometimes today there are some budget
airlines, some, you know, very cheap tickets you
buy, where you don't even get a seat
on the airline. You have to pay extra
to choose your seat. Jannah is like this.
When we are believers, we have iman.
We know we're gonna be somewhere in the
airplane, but you cannot guarantee your seat.
Always be worried about yourself.
Always be concerned about your deeds. Always look
at the shortfall in your deeds. Never think
I'm relaxed. I'm gonna be fine.
Because
just as the mercy of Allah is close,
Adabullah is also close. The punishment of Allah
is close.
Say, O Muhammad
This economic crisis,
an earthquake,
you could lose your job, you could lose
your means of living,
you lose your your marriage, your spouse, your
family, your child passes away in a car
accident.
The punishment of Allah can come at any
moment.
We have to be on our toes.
If we are not moving closer to Allah
with our actions,
are we moving closer to the punishment of
Allah with our actions?
In surahood,
Allah Subhanahu Wa Ta'ala talks about his name
Al Kareb in a different light. We talked
about Allah Al Kareb, the close, the near.
His mercy is near, His support is near,
His help is near. We said Allah's punishment
it can also be near. Now we're gonna
talk about Allah's name Al Qarib in a
different light. And I'm going to ask you
to tell me. I'm gonna ask you to
tell me what can we draw from this
Aya. You're all ready? Is you all falling
asleep because the radiators are always on the
heat, it's always nice and cozy.
Sit on the back, relax on the walls,
and then slowly but surely,
we have a nice nap.
You know?
When I first started delivering Khutbas a long
time ago, there was one person I had
designated to be my critic, to tell me,
is the Khutba good or bad?
And every time I'd stand on the mimbar
and start in, I'd look and they would
be snoring.
And at the end I'd ask them, how
was the khutbah? Great, very good.
Yeah, of course. Of course, very good. Because
you were dreaming about the khutbah. Right?
So
they call this raflatasalahim,
you know, the heedlessness of the righteous, you
know, when you just have a nice nap.
But we're not here to nap, so you're
gonna tell me what can you draw from
this ayah. Allah says in the Quran, and
the context is that Allah
sends his prophet
Hud to the people of Ad.
And the first thing that Hud says to
the people of Ad,
he says to them,
He tells his people,
seek forgiveness of Allah and come back to
him.
Indeed Allah is close
and he will respond to you. He's talking
to non muslims, he's calling them to Allah
and he's saying to them ask Allah's forgiveness
and come back to him because Allah is
close and he will respond to you. What
can we take from this ayah?
Uncles, you wanna let the kids always win?
Are we gonna are we gonna go home
embarrassed once more?
Yes. You go you don't qualify as uncle
but we'll let you start.
And is it
Mhmm. Come back to Allah. Okay. He's telling
the non Muslim to come back to Allah,
Allah is always ready to accept. Yes. What
else? Yes.
He describes himself as
even even if you've,
you've gone so so far away from Allah's,
Allah's is still close to you. So Allah.
You can
so within
so
oh, 1,000
steps away from Allah. It only requires
Yeah.
If you go 1,000 steps from
Allah,
it just takes one step to come back.
When the prophet speak to their people
and they call them to believe in Allah,
what's always in the back of their mind
is we have done so much wrong.
So many sins.
So much crime.
Really? Is there really a chance to come
back to Allah?
And so when the prophet speak to their
people, they don't speak to them with harshness.
You all going to hellfire? No. They speak
to them to give them hope. Whatever you
have done my friend, whatever crime you have
committed, everybody has skeletons in the closet. Everybody
has sins. Everybody has done wrong. Who who
can say that they can stand in front
of Allah with what they have done? Who
can say who can say I have done
enough good that I can stand in front
of Allah and say, where's my seat in
Jannah? We are all sinners, but
Whatever you have done, however far you have
gone, it is only one step to come
back to Allah. You Allah.
And this is why the message of the
prophets, alayhi wasalam, the
the the message of the prophets, the default
was they would give people a message of
hope.
They would not just be warning them with
scary punishments, they were giving them hope because
people are always conscious.
When the prophet sallallahu alaihi wasallam,
when,
I believe it was Amr Bilas when he
came to accept Islam. Now remember, Amr Bilas
Khaled ibn Walid. These are names we know
as prophets' companions. Right? They are people who
plotted against the prophet.
They cause the death of believing believing men
and women because of their deeds.
And one, I believe it was Amrul Ras
came to the prophet sallallahu alaihi wasallam, and
the prophet sallallahu alaihi wasallam says, give me
your hand to accept Islam. He hesitates.
Prophet says what's wrong?
He says, oh prophet of Allah, what about
everything I have done?
Sometimes this is what holds us back from
worshiping Allah, from praying at night, from ascending
the ranks to the closeness to Allah that
we all want to have that experience, that
closeness. What holds us back is we always
think,
there's no point. Look at me, I'm such
a mess.
Look at me, what I have done. Is
really Allah going to give me some spot
with the VIPs in paradise?
Yes, He can. And yes, he will.
These very people who are criminals against the
believers,
Amribu'as Khaledin Wali today, we can't say their
names without saying, radiAllahu anhu. May Allah be
pleased with them. Because when they said, O
Prophet of Allah, what about everything I've done?
He said, al Islam
will wipe everything that you have done.
And this is the dua we make in
Ramadan.
Oh Allah, free our necks from the fire.
Make us of those you have wiped. There's
a meaning of We talked about Allah's name.
In Arabic is to wipe something such that
there's no trace of it behind.
So the prophets of Allah, when they would
talk to the people around them, the non
Muslims around them, they would remind them that
whatever you have done, whatever life you have
sometimes you come and you meet a non
Muslim. Once it happened, you know, I was
young, I was a teenager,
and, I went for 3 days, right, with
Jamata Tablik. I was in 14 years old
and I was trying to learn my deen
and I went with my local Jamata Tablik.
And I remember going there and there was
a gangster
from Thailand with tattoos all over his body.
And I was thinking, Subhanallah, what is this
guy going to do in 3 days? And
he was still a non Muslim.
Right? And he didn't speak he didn't speak
English.
So there was, you know, somebody speaking Urdu
and someone's translating for him in German and,
you know, I said, this guy, he's so
far. How is he gonna come close to
how how is it going to happen? And,
you know, I still remember, I'll never forget
the image on the 3rd day,
in the darkness of the night, I'm snoring
in my, you know, my peaceful sleep, and
I just wake up, you know, sometimes in
the middle of the night you wake up,
and I see everybody's asleep except this guy
standing in salah
with all his tattoos.
He convert to Islam one day before. He's
standing in salah
the whole night until Fajr.
And I'm just hearing his sobs and his
cries.
The path to Allah is not is not
long.
It is just one word.
One moment of genuine istighfar,
of genuine repentance and Allah Subhanahu Wa Ta'ala
is closer to us than our jugular feign.
The name of Allah, Al Kareem Al Mujib.
Ultimately, one of the greatest things it reminds
us is that we have to be constantly
in conversation with Allah.
Al Mujib means Allah is responsive. There are
people in this gathering,
they have a WhatsApp reply rate of 5
working days.
You see they're online, but you get the
reply after 1 week.
Allah Subhanahu Wa Ta'ala is not like that.
Allah says
I will respond when you call at that
moment.
But the what is the difference with Allah?
When we ask Allah Subhanahu Wa Ta'ala how
do we deal with Dua?
We treat dua like Amazon shopping shopping on
Amazon. You go on Amazon dot com. What
do you want?
T shirt? Click add to basket. What do
you want? Mobile phone? Click add to basket.
Next day delivery. Next day you look where
is my delivery?
When we make dua to Allah, we deal
with dua as though it is a transaction.
Allah, I want this and this and this.
After 1 week,
the clock is ticking you Allah, where where
is the Lamborghini
that I asked for?
Where's the next day delivery class? Okay. Not
next day, at least 3 days.
This is how we deal with Dua.
Dua
is not a shopping basket.
Dua is a con heartfelt conversation with Allah.
Anybody in your life if you deal with
them like this they'll stop talking to you
if you only spoke to your wife when
you needed food, salaam alaikum
this this and this I'll see you on
the table 1 hour you'll come home
you'll find nothing on the table maybe.
Yes? If everything is transact your parents, Assalamu
alaikum Baba, pick me up this time, this
place.
Boom.
Transaction. How would you be not ashamed to
speak to your father or your spouse or
your cousin like this that you only speak
to them when you need them?
The du'a
du'a, when you know Allah is Kareeb, He's
close, Allah is Mujeeb, He responds. The du'a
is a heartfelt conversation with Allah.
And one of the greatest conversations in the
Quran sorry, you had your hand up. I'm
just gonna comment on that. Yes.
Beautiful.
Beautiful.
Yes. In this in this eye, when you
say
it means any color, a nakira.
Tufid ul Amum as the linguist say, any
person can call upon Allah.
But sometimes we think, you know, we meet
somebody, we say make dua for me please.
Why? Only the special people can talk to
Allah.
That's what we think, right?
No problem.
Hussein's mom is looking for him. Hussein. Yes.
Hussein's Mujib, he he responded. Good.
He responded to his mom's call, but that
there's a consequence if he doesn't respond. That's
a different different kind of call.
Yes. Allah Subhanahu Wa Ta'ala responds to anyone
who calls him when he calls. One of
the greatest examples if you want to see
a model dua.
An example, how do you speak to Allah?
There's 2 that I can ask you to
go and see. The first is the Dua
of Zakariyah.
Now what is Zakariyah's need?
Alaihi Salam. Who knows? What's his problem? What's
his situation? Yes.
He wants a child. How long has it
been since he's had a child?
Sorry? He's never had a child. How how
old is he? Anybody know? Roughly.
Yeah. He's very old. You know, 80, 90,
a100. We don't know exactly what age. All
he wants from Allah is a child.
But look how Zakaria alayhi san talks to
Allah.
Who can start start the ayah, Surah Maryam?
Yes.
Beginning of Surah Mariam.
Mhmm.
But I will never give up in asking
you, you Allah.
And all I fear, nobody will be there
after me.
And my wife is unable to have children.
But still, it's impossible, oh, Allah, biologically impossible,
oh, Allah, please give me a son.
Let him inherit from me prophethood
that I inherited from Yaqob.
And, O Allah, make him pleased with me
and make me pleased with him.
You know, he doesn't start the dua saying,
oh Allah, I want a son, please.
3 day delivery, please. He starts, oh Allah,
my bones are weak, my hair is gray.
He is breaking down in front of Allah.
He is confessing to Allah. He is raw
with Allah. Be raw with Allah.
Don't be don't be fake with Allah.
Don't give any one line orders to Allah.
Be raw, be you, be genuine. Break down
in front of him, and you see the
response will be nothing like you imagined.
The way you ask Allah,
so too the response will be the same.
You ask Allah like this, oh Allah, I
want this tomorrow.
The ijaba will be just like the dua.
The response is going to match the way
you asked him.
You ask him
with tears,
breaking down the last third of the night.
Pouring out your heart to him, and you
see you'll get a response you never expected
before. Try it.
Al Mujib, the one who responds, but he
doesn't respond the same way to everyone.
There are different ways in which he responds.
And the way you ask dictates the way
he responds.
Allah does not accept dua. Allah does not
respond well to dua that is lazy.
He only responds to the dua that is
asked with genuineness from the bottom of your
heart. Make a plea to him, beg him,
and you see the response will be different.
Whenever the prophet Ibrahim alaihi, this is the
second model dua in the Quran. Look at
the dua he makes in Makkah.
As he leaves his children in the middle
of nowhere,
Allah, I've left my children in the middle
of nowhere,
but they are next to your sacred house.
Look at the way he talks to Allah.
But the first thing he asks Allah is
not food, not survival.
He prioritized what Allah wanted him to prioritize.
Today you go to Makkah, it's all the
response to the dua of Ibrahim.
Everything you see there is a response to
the dua of 1 man who asked Allah
in a genuine way.
Never limit your ambitions when you ask Allah
Al Kareeb Al Mujib.
When Suleiman, alayhis salam,
when he makes a mistake,
he asks Allah.
Oh Allah, forgive me, and give me a
kingdom, you give no one after me. This
is ambition.
Look at the scale at which he asks
Allah.
Don't ask Allah for a peanut. Ask him
for a farm of nuts.
Don't ask Allah for something small. You are
asking one who has his reserves
do not end, and he has no limit
to his supply. So why are you being
small, modest in the way you ask him?
One day,
a group of companions were walking with the
prophet sallallahu alaihi wasallam.
And
whenever they would get to the top of
a valley they would loudly say Allahu Akbar
and they would make dua to Allah. And
the prophet Sallallahu Alaihi Wasallam says, you you
Hanas o people, Irba'u Ala and fusikum
speak calmly
You are not talking to someone blind or
deaf or absent.
He is with you.
He is hearing and he is close to
you.
Say to Allah the things you never say
to anybody else.
Share with Allah the secrets you never share
with anyone
else. State talk to Allah when everybody has
turned away from you.
Turn to Him when everyone has turned away.
Call upon him when no one else is
responding.
This is what Musa Alaihi Salam did in
front of the sea, what Yunus Alaihi Salam
did in the belly of the whale, what
Muhammad Alaihi Salam did in the darkness of
the cave, what Yusuf Alaihi Salam did when
standing in the prison. Call upon Allah
because there is no impossible situation
except that he will make it real.
He is near
and he is responsive.