Hisham Jafar Ali – Names Of Allah And His Attributes #24 The Loving
AI: Summary ©
The speakers discuss the concept of shirteen, the love of Allah, and the importance of showing love for one another during the day of judgment. They emphasize the need to appreciate God's blessings and value his creation, and to show gratitude for one's love for Allah during the day of judgment. The importance of showing love for one another and testing one's love during the day of judgment is emphasized.
AI: Summary ©
Let's
take
a
look.
Today, I've been waiting for this name for
a while. I delayed it and delayed it
to keep the suspense.
But finally today,
we're going to talk about the name of
Allah, Al Wadud,
the loving and the beloved.
And today's recitation was longer than usual, and
you will find out why, inshallah, as the
lesson goes on.
Al Wadud in the Arabic language, what did
Yawad do?
To desire something, to want something.
In the Quran, this word is used very
frequently.
Who can give me some examples?
Al wood in Arabic is not just love
to want something,
but it's to want something with a strong
sense of hope that you're going to get
it.
And so this word is used in the
Quran to
type of love which involves
a yearning, a desire, a want to be
with the one that is loved.
And in the Quran, when Allah
talks about his love,
he uses this as a name,
which follows the Arabic
exaggerated form, which
means the one who is extremely loving
and extremely desiring to be with the ones
he loves.
Can you imagine that for a moment? That
Allah may want to be in the company
of you and me.
That Allah may love us to the extent
he misses us. That he he wishes to
see us.
He wishes for us to join
in the company of the gardens of paradise.
This is the connotation of Al Wadud.
When Allah names himself Al Wadud, this is
not a love for everybody.
Now this is something to break some people's
hearts.
Allah's name Al Wadud is referring to a
very special kind of love
for a very special kind of people.
Remember that.
Allah in the Quran uses another word to
describe the attribute of love, but not as
a name,
but as a as a verb, as an
action.
Anybody know what other words he used in
the Quran to describe his love?
Al Mahaba.
Al Mahaba.
Who can give me some examples in the
Quran?
Allah loves those that frequently return to him
in repentance.
Who can give me a negative example? Something,
somebody Allah doesn't love.
Allah does not love
those people who are proud and arrogant. Someone
had another example or same one.
I have missed you Sheikh. Where have you
been? Assalamu alaikum. Yes.
Yes.
Okay.
Allah does not love those who are oppressive.
And this is what where we differ with
the Christians of the modern day. You know,
modern Christian theology says God loves everyone.
Jesus died for our sins
in all of these lies.
And our version of Allah's love is not
that Allah loves everyone.
Allah explicitly says to us some people He
does not love.
No. Allah does not love some people.
Allah does not love people who are arrogant,
who are oppressive. And
Athena treacherous,
liars, cheaters.
Allah does not love such people.
And so there are levels of love Allah
has for his slaves, and then there's the
highest level.
And those Allah loves
the highest of all,
he uses his name, Al Wadud. This is
why Al Wadud, this name of Allah, the
loving, it only came in the Quran how
many times? 29.
Sorry?
29. 29?
Uncle has overestimated Al Wadud.
Much less, single digits.
Twice. Okay. The first one I mentioned
did I mention? I don't think I mentioned.
Where did the Al Wadud come?
Wahu Al Ghafoorul Wadud in which Surah? So
it's Al Baruj. That's the first.
Indeed, Allah is forgiving
and loving. Wadud.
Only came twice in the Quran.
Allah is very loving. How come it only
came twice?
Because Allah's name, Ar Raheem,
it encompasses some love.
Right? Every name of Allah, but Ar Raheem,
the mercy of Allah encompasses a meaning of
love, but is for very exclusive people.
Who are the people who deserve this name?
And what is it that will make us
people who deserve this special love of Allah
Subhanahu Wa Ta'ala? This is what we are
going to explore in today's lesson.
Before I answer this question, I want to
explain to you this passage that I just
recited to you.
Allah talks about the love of Allah, in
Surat Al Baqarah.
He talks about a type of shirk that
many people don't know about.
Shirk means to make some things equal to
God, equal to Allah.
This is shirkul Mahaba.
Allah says some people they love
others
equal to their love of Allah,
but true believers,
The love for Allah is greater than all
else. It eclipses everything else. It encompasses everything
else.
And how does that love of Allah show
is if anything else in this world comes
between them and their creator, they push it
to the side
whether it's a spouse,
whether it's a job,
whether it's a business idea, what happens to
us? We get tempted.
Our love of wealth distracts us. We get
the a business opportunity that's actually quite dodgy.
It's actually quite suspicious, quite dubious. We know
it might be haram or it is haram,
but our love and our greed and our
desire for the gold the gold coin
is greater than our desire for our creator.
So we push aside our values and we
take the business opportunity.
There's somebody you meet at work, somebody meet
at school, at college, at university.
You end up messaging each other. You end
up talking to each other. You end up,
you know, liking one another, but then eventually
your interest in this person and your desire
to be with this person
is greater
than your love of Allah.
So you are willing now to cross the
red line, to push aside the commandments of
Allah, the guidelines of Allah. Because your desire
to be with this person
right now, and that feeling, that good tingly
sensation you get when you are with them
is greater for you and for me
than being in the company of Allah. So
we prefer them in that moment. And so
many of us fall into this, the shirk
of Mahaba that we end up loving things,
people, objects, ideas, careers, etcetera,
equal to or more than Allah. And this
is such a dangerous form of shirk to
fall into this. Of course falling into this
it does not make you a kafir, does
not make you a disbeliever, but of course
start worshiping something that's another thing entirely start
making dua to something or someone that's another
thing entirely,
but that natural sensation of love
Why do people love? Why do we love?
Whether it's loving a person, profession,
an object, why do we love something? You
can give me some clues. Because love is
a human emotion.
Non Muslims and Muslims all experience this. So
it doesn't matter who you can ask, we
can collectively understand
why do we love a thing
or a person.
Yes.
Okay. There's a benefit to you, it gives
you something in return. Why else do we
love something? Sometimes we love something and it's
destructive to us, but we still love it
anyway.
Why do we love? Why do we desire?
Yes.
It makes you feel happy. It gives you
a feeling of happiness.
What else?
Yes.
It gives you a sense of purpose.
What else?
Makes you feel important. Makes you feel important,
status, prestige.
Sometimes people don't love money
because they love money but they love money
because it buys them things that makes them
feel important prestige status actually their love is
not of money it's a status
sorry
Sometimes you love something because of the whispers
of Shaitan. You desire.
You desire they say,
The forbidden is always desirable.
If I came here
and I put this bottle of water and
I said, there's something inside my thawb, you
can't have it. I'm not gonna tell you
what it is but you can't have it
because the younger children will straightaway want it
right
the forbidden is desirable
the more it's covered the more it's forbidden
sometimes the more desire one has for it
Yes.
Sometimes we we love this world and we
dislike death, but why do we love this
world?
It's the fitnah.
Yes?
Yes.
Okay. You put effort into
it. There's a sweetness.
There's an enjoyment. There's a pleasure when you
are with something or someone that you love.
Sometimes that is something we grew up with
depending on the environment you are in. Sometimes
it's something you develop at a later age.
You develop the desire for something or someone,
certain type of thing or certain type of
person.
When you are with this thing, when you
achieve this thing, you realize that love is
actually very short lived. That happiness that you
feel is temporary.
The problem is when it comes to the
love of Allah,
we do not physically meet Allah
until the afterlife.
So we have to wait
to be in the companionship of our beloved.
And yet,
in this world,
the best way to develop the love of
Allah, if you feel in your heart, I
don't love Allah, I don't love Allah,
I prioritize everything over Allah. My meetings come
before my salah,
and my homework come before my salah. My
job comes before my salah. I love all
of these things more than I love to
meet Allah everyday. What do I do? This
is my crisis. I do not love Allah.
If you sit with yourself and you feel
this,
Allah has given you the recipe to develop
the love of Allah
in this passage in Surat Al Baqarah.
Before he talks about the love of Allah,
the whole ayah Allah Subhanahu Wa Ta'ala talks
about his creation.
In the creation of the heavens and the
earth,
and the ships that
sail in the seas,
and the rain that falls from the sky.
Here are the signs
of something to think about for people of
a sound heart. This next verse, and there
are people who love Allah, they love things
more than Allah.
What what is the link between the two
verses?
These two aya's.
If you want to develop the love of
Allah and you want to love him more
than anything else,
you need to start falling in love with
his creation,
and you need to start appreciating the blessings
he gave you in his creation.
Our love for our parents partly because they
did so much for us.
Nobody did more for us more than our
mothers. Nobody gave us more unconditional love than
our mothers.
As we see the effects of someone's love
and their their the things they have gifted
us out of no request of our own,
we begin to love them more and more.
Similarly,
if we want to develop the love of
Allah, we have to start appreciating His blessings,
small and large,
the seen and the unseen.
One of the greatest sunnahs of the Prophet
Sallallahu Alaihi Wasallam that is lost on us
today, is not practiced anymore,
is the sunnah of reflecting on the creation
of Allah.
I've said it before, but I will say
it again and I will say it till
the dying my dying day. The prophet, salallahu
alaihi wasalam, spent so much time alone
in the wilderness,
in a cave
with sheep.
That's how he grew up, the prophet Sallallahu
Alaihi Wasallam, his profession growing up. He used
to look after sheep.
He used to took take a flock of
sheep and used to be in the middle
of nowhere in the desert looking at the
stars, looking at the moon,
looking at the animals, alone by himself, the
sound of silence in his ears, the smell,
you know, the smell of nature in his
nose and he is thinking and reflecting about
the creation of Allah and the blessings Allah
has given us.
In Surat Al Rahman,
when Allah reminds us every verse,
how many blessings of Allah will you reject
and deny?
He keeps showing us,
everywhere you look,
Allah has done something for you which you
don't deserve.
From the oxygen you breathe,
to the heart beating inside your chest,
to the white blood cells fighting disease,
to the eyes that show you colors, people
large and small.
Every inch of your body is a gift
from Allah.
But the thing is we don't realize that
we have been gifted this.
Every inch of the world around us is
a gift from Allah but we don't realize
this is all gift for us. Because we
become desensitized, we become used to it.
We think, oh, Adi, water. Yeah. Every day.
I drink water every day. Who drinks water
thinking
about how this water reached this bottle? Allah
sent rain from the sky.
How the clouds developed. How they formed. How
the water fell. How it went into the
dam. How it was filtered and how it
was processed to reach this bottle.
We don't know, so we just drink. Glug,
glug, glug, glug, glug. And never we say
alhamdulillah.
To reach and develop the love of Allah,
we have to develop a love for His
blessings and appreciation for what He has given
us.
If we don't do that, we'll never love
Allah.
We will live life like zombies.
We will live life on autopilot.
The real lover of Allah is the one
whom every moment
they are saying, amazing.
I didn't deserve this. Look what Allah gave
me. Look what Allah gave me. Look how
amazing is my Creator.
And this, look how amazing is my Creator
is constantly on their lips.
When you appreciate this, but to appreciate this
you need some time to yourself.
It's hard.
It's hard because of
these devices that we have.
They don't leave us alone.
Never are you alone. Before humanity,
you know, we're sitting in a waiting room,
30 minutes, you're waiting for something, you're by
yourself. You're traveling from one place to another
on your camel for 10, 15, 20 days,
you're by yourself. Nobody's bothering you. No notifications.
Nope. You have time to yourself today. We
don't have time to ourselves.
So little do we reflect on what Allah
gave us.
In fact,
the moment we open our phone and we
go to Facebook, we go to Instagram, TikTok,
what are we looking at? What Allah didn't
give us, but he gave somebody else.
Look at that car, that dessert place. Oh,
look at that, Marshall. Oh, look where they
are, Morocco, Spain.
You are constantly exposed to what you don't
have, so you increase in ingratitude to Allah,
and you start to dislike your Creator.
The love of Allah
comes from appreciating
the handiwork of Allah.
It's what Allah is showing us.
In this verse, in Surat Al Baqarah.
And when you love someone,
when you love, you start to follow. You
don't even realize.
How many children here?
You 2 boys, boy with the red shirt,
red Adidas shirt. What football team do you
support?
It's okay. Sheikh, we'll let him we'll let
him we'll let him off. He said Manchester
City.
We don't apply capital punishments in the masjid.
Okay. Who's your favorite football player?
Ronaldo. Christian or Ronaldo?
City. Where's the loyalty to City?
Khalas. No problem. Okay.
So whose t shirt are you wearing today?
Is there a name on the back?
Ronaldo. Ronaldo's name on the back. You see
this gentleman?
When you love someone, you want to
follow them. You want to wear what they
wear, walk what they walk,
play like they play. This is this is
the living evidence.
This is why after this verse in Surat
Al Baqarah, 3 verses later, Allah
talks about people who followed other people blindly
that they loved and then led them down
the wrong path.
Because there will come a day,
everybody's following someone whether you like it or
not, you love and you follow someone on
this earth or someone outside this earth.
Because human beings, it is a human instinct
to love and to follow.
Those who followed other than Allah, who loved
other than the prophet of Allah, they continue
to follow the though they're beloved, and they
took them down the wrong path.
And then on the day of judgment, they
stand there.
And the ones they followed, the leaders will
say, we don't know who these guys were.
Our followers? I have no idea who these
guys are, so I have nothing to do
with them.
Tabarra'a.
They
disassociated
themselves from them. Christiano, Rauda, and Dev Jahan
will say, I have no idea who this
young man is. I'm sorry.
I don't know who he is. I have
no idea who he is.
And this is it. Love leads to following.
As the airport used to say.
If you loved if you really loved, you
would be following them.
And this is why the secret behind the
ayah of Surat Al
Oh, Muhammad, tell them
If you really love Allah,
then you have to follow me, and Allah
will love you in return.
It's not just a commandment. He's not saying
you must follow me. He's saying if you
really loved Allah, you would automatically
find yourself following me.
That is the nature of love. Love leads
to following, leads to imitation, leads to obedience.
And any love that doesn't lead there is
a fake love. It's not a real love.
You know,
the pre Islamic Arabs, classical Arabs,
when they would start, they love poetry.
And these these poems have been memorized by
the Muslim scholars for centuries
to preserve the Arabic language.
The poem starts with a lover standing
at the ruins of the house of his
beloved.
His beloved is not there in the house.
The house is destroyed,
and he is standing there and reminiscing, remembering
nostalgically the days when he used to see
his beloved.
As the famous Majnoon, Imre Al Qays used
to say,
I walk around the houses of Layla,
and I'm kissing the walls of this house.
And it is not that I am in
love with the walls, this piece of cement,
but I am in love with the one
who used to live in these walls.
This is what love brings about in a
person.
It brings makes you love everything that
was touched by the beloved, every effect that
was left behind by the beloved. Today, people
tell me somebody here who had a parent
who passed away the last couple of years,
A mother or father that passed away. Yes,
Sheh. Who passed away in your family?
More than a couple of years, who passed
away? May your father, may Allah have mercy.
Was he here in the UK?
He was not.
What reminds you
you were here?
What are the things you do to remember
your father?
Your beloved.
Yeah?
Or what are the things that remind you
of him?
All the good things.
Go
for a walk with him,
learning things.
He remembers the memories.
Yes? Going for a walk with his father.
Maybe now when he walks by himself, he
remembers
when he used to have a companion his
walk.
This what happens when you there's a beloved,
when you love someone,
you miss the traces that were left behind
by this person.
And when we love Allah, what did Allah
leave behind for us in this earth? He's
not here. What did he leave behind for
us? Yes.
He left behind his creation.
Everything you see is a trace of Allah.
It's the names of Allah in real life
is everything you see. There's one more thing
Allah left behind, the closest
possible way to reach him.
Yes.
The prophet,
there's something,
the Quran. What is the Quran?
It is the words of Allah.
Imagine
your father passed away, your mother passed away,
may Allah grant all your parents a long
life.
And when they pass away, you find that
they left some letters in a closed box
inside your cellar.
A series of letters addressed to you, dear
son, dear daughter.
And in those letters, they have left behind
the advice from their whole life.
What will you do with these letters? Will
you throw in the bin?
Will frame it on the wall. Right? You
keep them in a safe place. Right? Every
time you remember your father, your mother, you'll
go back to read these letters.
Do you know what is the Quran?
As the prophet said in the Quran,
it is a letter from Allah to you.
Allah left a letter for you.
There's a letter addressed to you and to
me.
Those are his words.
Allah may not be here physically,
but he left with us. The closest thing
possible to the company of Allah
is to be in the company of the
Quran.
Because when you recite the Quran,
Allah subhanahu wa ta'ala is speaking to you.
If you want to develop the love of
Allah,
get used to developing the love for His
words.
Anybody who has no connection with the words
of Allah, how can they have a connection
to Allah?
The Prophet SAW sent a small group of
people on an expedition
and he sent amongst them one man and
he made him the leader of that expedition
and the leader is also the leader of
Salah
that's why our imam is our general
and
our sheikh and our ministers were
the leader in salah is a leader in
all matters and so this man he was
left he was leading salah
and every time he prayed salah he read
the same surah. Anybody know what surah did
he read? Yes? Surah al Ikhlas. Surah al
Ikhlas.
Every single time you know if Sheikh Muhammad
Ali did this every single time?
Maybe you wouldn't give a 5 star rating
for Masjid Al Furqai.
I need to change the station, you know,
I need some variety. Okay.
Every time he's reading sotul Ikhla, so they
went back and they complained to the prophet
sallallahu alaihi sallam.
The prophet sallallahu alaihi sallam didn't say anything,
he said go bring him, let me ask
him why did you do this? He brought
the man. Why did you do this? The
man said,
because it is the description of the most
merciful.
And I love to recite
something that describes Allah.
Who loves whoever loves Allah,
will love to hear Allah being described to
him.
And there's nothing that describes Allah better than
Allah himself.
Those who love Allah, there's another secret to
them
and that's the reason why I recited a
long passage today.
Who can tell me what did that passage?
What is the first ayah recited today? Who
can remember?
In Nasafa wal Marwata min shaa'ilillah.
When Allah is talking about the love of
Allah,
a few verses before that, He is talking
about Safa and Marwah.
Those who love Allah
have a strange desire to go and visit
his house.
And the moment you see his house,
you'll realize it is the greatest moment in
your life, in your lived existence today.
Not because it is a box,
there's nothing special except that Allah Subhanahu Wa
Ta'ala made it and honored it as His
house.
It is just a marble floor, there's nothing
special but this is the floor that the
prophets walked on, but not on the marble,
on the sand, underneath the marble.
This is the place of the prophets of
our beloveds. This is the land. This is
the house of our beloved, our creator. And
because it is the house of our beloved,
what are people doing at the walls of
the Kaaba?
They're crying, they're pulling,
they're kissing, they're doing everything, and why?
Because of their love for Allah
Those who love Allah, love His creation.
Those who love Allah, love His Messenger.
Those who love Allah love His speech.
Those who love Allah love His house. This
is the summary.
Now we're gonna come to the second part.
Allah's name Al Wadud, only used twice in
the Quran,
and only used in a very very specific
context.
Suratul Buruj.
This is the context it was used in.
Who can tell me what is Suratul Buruj
about?
Asba Ashabul Uhdud.
Anybody can tell me the story? Yes.
A group of people who believed in Allah,
and their people rejected this belief from them.
They were outcast,
And because they rejected this belief,
the people of that city of that area,
they dug a huge ditch, a huge hole.
They threw these people in, and they burned
them alive. This is the story.
In these verses in Suratul Buruj, Allah Subhanahu
Wa Ta'ala mentions a list of his names,
one after the other, and he has not
done that in this Juzama,
other than this part of Suratul
I swear by the sky with its constellations,
And I swear by the day that is
promised.
And I swear by the witness and what
was witnessed.
The people of the ditch were murdered.
A blazing fire full of fuel, coal, and
stones.
And there were people sitting,
watching,
and enjoying the sight of the believers burning
alive.
And they are witnessing and watching what is
happening to the believers.
They had no issue with these men, these
people who were in the ditch.
There's only one problem.
Why do you believe in Allah?
Allah Aziz Al Hamid,
the most mighty,
the one who is worthy of praise.
Allah Subhanahu Wa Ta'ala is describing a people
who are suffering and burning alive. Why?
Why would they do
that? Why would they give their life
for Allah?
Because of their love of Allah.
This is the secret.
How many people are there in today's world
today?
In the north of India
being slaughtered because they are wearing hijab.
In Uighur in China
being
put into concentration camps to reprogram them.
How many people in Algeria died under the
French occupation
out of their tawheed of Allah?
How many people are burning alive,
being chopped to pieces, being tortured,
and nobody here knows a single name from
these people's names?
We don't know them.
We have no clue who they are.
Their whole life was a life of misery,
burning, being killed, being tortured
until the day that they died.
Surat al Buruj is a story about these
people exactly,
the people who suffer and sacrifice for the
sake of Allah.
There was a story in the news
about 30 years ago,
and this happens often,
that there was a young man who needed
a kidney transplant.
And
because of the blood type, it was impossible
to find any match,
anybody to donate this the kidney to this
person.
And this person's father had one kidney,
and he knew if he donated this kidney,
that means he will take his own life.
But out of the love of his son,
he gave a part of his body
so his son could live
and he let himself die.
How many parents there are in this room
who would give their life for their child,
would give their heart for their child? Take
my kidney, take my arm, take my heart,
take my take it.
How many parents think like that?
The greatest
form and expression of love, the greatest
is sacrifice.
And we are now coming to the month
of,
the
month of sacrifice.
And that is why
the prophet of Allah who described as the
greatest lover of Allah, Khaleel ur Rahman,
is who?
Ibrahim
alaihi salaam. And how do you know that
Ibrahim alaihi salaam is the closest to Allah
of all the prophets?
And the greatest
and he's named the father of the prophets.
How do we know? What is it that
made his love of Allah so special?
Is the s word?
Sacrifice. Sacrifice. This is today's lesson.
If you would like to reach the level
of Allah
loving you more than He loves any of
His creation,
you have to be willing to sacrifice.
This is the lesson in
My son, I saw in a dream Allah
revealed to me that I am slaughtering you.
Slaughtering you.
My father,
do as you are commanded. Do you know
what this shows?
This child loves Allah.
He is willing to sacrifice himself
for the command of Allah. Himself. Why would
this child grow up as someone who loves
Allah?
This is for the parents. If you want
your children to love Allah,
they have to watch you sacrificing for the
sake of Allah.
Tell me tell me, what did Ismail, alayhis
salam, see growing
up? What did he see his father doing?
He did Kaaba.
He saw his father building the Kaaba. Before
that, what sacrifice did his father make? Yes.
He left his newborn baby
in the middle of the desert. Why?
Because Allah ordered him to.
He sacrificed
his most loved ones. He left them here
because Allah told him to.
What else did Ishmael see from his father?
Building the Kaaba, sweating in the heat of
the desert.
If your children will see you sweat for
the sake of Allah,
and sacrifice the sake of Allah, and stay
awake at night for the sake of Allah,
and tire for the sake of Allah,
they will love Allah just as you loved
Allah. This is the lesson.
Isma'il alaihi salam, don't underestimate this young boy,
he's ready to give himself
because of the command of Allah.
Ibrahim alaihis salam is about to kill his
son, about to slaughter his son. At whose
command? At Allah's
command.
The journey of Hajj and the month of
Dhul Hijjah
and the story of Korbani is the story
of a person who loved Allah so much,
he was willing to sacrifice the thing most
beloved to him.
Not himself,
his child.
Because parents love their children more than they
love themselves.
A parent will take a bullet for the
child, a parent will give their kidney for
their child,
but they won't do that for their sister
or their brother, only for the children.
And this is why,
when Allah Subhanahu Wa Ta'ala talks about His
love in the Quran,
when He says in Surat Al Buruj,
who can tell me the ayah before it?
The punishment of Allah is severe.
He will He creates the things from scratch
and He will return them to Him on
the day of judgment.
When Allah talks about Al Wadud,
right after He's talking about
bringing them back on the day of judgment.
Because in this life, these people burning to
death, they did not see love.
They only saw pain.
But when they are returned to Allah, they
are going to meet Allahu Adud.
And this is why the prophet sallallahu alaihi
wa sallam said,
man ahabbalika
Allah.
Whoever loves to meet Allah.
Allah loves to meet them.
Can you imagine Allah loves to meet you
if you desire to meet him?
Can you imagine this?
Can you imagine that some one of the
Prophet's companions,
the Prophet sallallahu alaihi wa sallam asks him,
or rather he asks the Prophet
when is the day of judgment?
The prophet asks him
what did you prepare for it? Don't ask
me when it is, are you ready?
What did you prepare for the day of
judgment? I can ask you the question, are
you ready for the day of judgment if
it came now? And this man just says
one thing,
I love Allah and His Messenger.
The prophet gives beautiful response,
You will be with the one that you
love.
The people who are burnt alive,
who give their life for Allah, who die
Jihad who give themselves for Allah,
they are the greatest lovers of Allah, and
there is nobody like them.
And this is the secret behind the question
that people ask all the time.
If Allah loves me, then why?
Why does He test me? If Allah loves
me, then why doesn't He just give me
a good time?
Why doesn't He just give me enjoyment? Why
does Allah test me if He loves me?
The number of times I've been asked this
question.
The prophet sallallahu alaihi wa sallam asks answers
this question himself.
The people with the worst of tests were
the prophets.
And then the greatest of people have the
worst of tests.
Because Allah, when he loves someone,
he tests them.
Because only by passing the test do you
raise in your ranks on the day of
judgement.
Only by passing the test will you get
your deeds forgiven.
Only by jumping through the hoops of fire
do you avoid the final fire.
Allah tests the ones He loves.
Because the ones who had the worst of
tests, who died for the sake of Allah,
how does Allah describe them?
Don't think that they really died a death.
They are alive with Allah being provided.
The most beloved people to Allah are the
ones who sacrifice for His sake. We have
to really ask ourselves the question, today Islam
has become so convenient to us.
What have we given for Allah's sake? What
have we done sacrificed, sweated for His sake?
This is the sign of our love of
Allah, nothing else.
When Allah subhanahu wa ta'ala in the Quran,
He gives us the, a test. If you
want to know, am I someone who loves
Allah, yes or no, He gives us a
test.
I'm gonna tell you the test, Surah
at Tawba.
Tell them O Muhammad
If your fathers and your sons and your
brothers and your spouses,
It's called the 8 over 3 rule.
If you love 8 things more than 3
things, you are doomed.
Allah says, tell them, O Muhammad,
if you love your fathers and your sons
and your brothers and your spouses and your
families
And money that you worked hard to earn,
and business that you wouldn't want to lose,
and houses
that you love to enjoy.
These eight things are more beloved to you
than Allah and his messenger
and struggling for his sake, then wait.
Wait. The punishment of Allah is coming for
you.
Because the greatest punishment of Allah is not
a lightning bolt from the sky. No. That
is the least.
The greatest punishment of Allah
is to be far, to be distant from
Allah.
This is the worst punishment.
As the Arab poet said, O Allah, if
I receive love from you, everything becomes small
for me,
because everything above the sand will eventually be
sand as well.
Allah in this verse describes the most beloved
things to every human, family,
money,
business,
homes, and houses.
And if we are willing to sacrifice,
if these things distract us from Allah,
then they become an enemy to us.
Can you imagine that your spouse, your wife,
your husband, or your child can become an
enemy to you? Yes. Who can tell me
the verse from the Quran that tells us
this?
Allah says
your wealth and your children are a fitna
attest.
And elsewhere,
they can become an enemy to you. Be
careful.
Never let anything come between you and your
beloved.
And in fact, the more we wait to
see Allah, the more we should look forward
to seeing Him.
And we know that the Prophet Sallallahu Alaihi
Wasallam, he informed us.
What are the signs of somebody who loves
Allah? We're going to end with this.
If Allah loves you, he calls Jibril.
And he tells Jibril,
oh Jibril,
I love this person so you have to
love him as well. So Jibril loves this
person.
Then the angel Jibril calls out in the
heavens.
He calls out in the heavens, O angels.
Allah loves this person, so you better love
him as well.
Everyone in the heavens now loves this person.
And then the people on the earth start
to love this person as well.
This is what Allah says when he says,
Those who believed and did good deeds, Allah
will place in their hearts love for each
other because they loved Allah.
Allah. When Allah talks to Musa Alaihi Salam,
and he's telling him you were thrown in
the sea, you grew up in the palace,
you ran away, you killed somebody, all the
difficult things you went through, Allah
sneaks in there a word.
All of this I did, oh Musa, because
I love you.
I love you, so you were thrown in
the sea. I love you, so you grew
up with the tyrant. I love you, so
you killed someone by mistake. I love you,
so you walked in the hot desert for
months to Madyan. I love you, so you
left your family behind. I love you, so
you worked in somebody's house for 10 years,
for 10 years,
milking cows and cleaning the house and serving
10 years, all of this Musa, alayhis salaam,
because I was preparing you
to struggle and sacrifice for my sake.
If you could not sacrifice a day of
comfort, a day of air conditioning,
if you could not sacrifice one evening, how
could you become prophet of Allah?
Those who love Allah
are the ones who sacrifice for his sake.
And so if we love Allah, we have
to ask ourselves today,
what am I willing to sacrifice for his
sake?
You will never become righteous until you give
away the things that are dearest to you.
Because when you give them away, Allah becomes
the dearest to you.
I'll end with one hadith. The prophet sallallahu
alaihi wasallam in his house,
an animal is slaughtered,
an animal is cooked
whether it was lamb, etcetera.
And it was given away.
Everything was given away except the lamb shoulder
because the prophet salaam love to eat lamb
shoulder.
And he came and he asked Aisha radiAllahu
ano. Oh Aisha what is left of the
lamb? She said everything is gone except the
shoulder. He said no Aisha, no.
We have everything else
we don't have to shoulder
because what I have my asset
is what I gave for the sake of
Allah. That's my assets.
Maybe today people calculate the net worth, how
many houses, how much bank balance.
Your greatest asset is not the things that
you own, it's the things that you gave
away, that you sacrificed for the sake of
Allah.
Those who love Allah, Allah is waiting to
meet them.
May Allah make all of us of those
who love Allah and those who receive the
love of Allah. May Allah protect us from
his wrath and make us of those who
meet him when we all meet each other.