Hisham Jafar Ali – Names Of Allah And His Attributes #29 The First, Last, One & Only
AI: Summary ©
The speakers discuss the importance of protecting oneself in the face of conflict, spending time on one's health, and not letting fear and anxiety control one's behavior. They stress the importance of finding one's own success in the field and not reciting the Quran. The speakers also emphasize the importance of knowing the meaning of "hasbiyallahu" and the importance of letting things happen in one's life. They stress the need to be aware of Allah's teachings and not relying on people.
AI: Summary ©
Ibrahim
And just before we start the lesson, I
just want to let you all know,
today we'll be covering the last set of
names from the names of Allah Subhanahu Wa
Ta'ala.
Next week I am out of town, I'm
travelling, so next week is a break.
Next week between today and next week, you
revise all the lessons you missed.
The week after is the khitam, the conclusion.
So we will be having quiz,
we'll be having awards,
and we will be having a small talk.
How do we live with the names of
Allah?
How do we live
with this knowledge of Allah we gained, how
do we live life with these these names?
This is the last talk, and then there
will be quiz prizes, maybe some halawah, maybe
some shay. We'll see what the management allows
us, inshallah.
In today's last set of names,
we'll actually be covering 6 names, but it
will go by quickly.
The first
four
is the first four names that comes
that I'm reciting sotulhadid
one after the other.
Means?
The first. Al Aqir means?
The last.
Who
said the open?
Yes?
60%.
The
apparent, the obvious.
The hidden.
He is Noah of all things.
These four names
came together
one after the other in the beginning of
this surah.
And I'm going to It's very beautiful to
explain and explore why did they come here
and why did they come in this way
and why did they come together.
Because the names of Allah, something very important
for us to realize,
when people teach the names of Allah, they
teach about who is Allah.
They teach one name at a time, but
the name on its own.
But Allah
never taught us in the Quran a name
on its own.
The name comes in a context,
in a surah, in a story, in a
set of ayaat. And you have to know
why did he put it there. That will
tell you more. That will give you the
full story.
Otherwise, you only have half of the story.
Al Awwal means Allah is the first.
The first to exist.
The one who was there before anything was
there. Hadith and comes,
Sahih al Bukhari, hadith of Imran Abu Husayn
The prophet sallallahu alaihi wasallam says,
Allah was there
and nothing else was there.
I want you to imagine a time before
time itself.
Before Allah
created anything in his creation,
before time and space existed, before humans, before
space, before everything existed,
Allah was there
and nothing else was there.
And there will come a time,
there will come a moment in time,
again,
when Allah will be there,
and nothing else will be there. It's his
name Al Akhir. He's the last.
When Allah Subhanahu Wa Ta'ala describes in the
Quran,
Surahman,
Allah Subhanahu Wa Ta'ala asks us look into
the future and imagine this moment.
Everything on this earth
will decay, will not be there.
This whole earth and this whole universe that
we see, everything we see from space to
the Milky Way to the stars, the planets,
the carpet, the walls,
everything we see
will not be there.
What will be there?
The only thing in existence would be the
face of Allah.
When Allah
shows you the start point,
there was Allah,
there was nothing else.
And he shows you the end point.
There will be Allah
and there will be nobody else.
Everything in between is explained by this start
and this end.
What is Allah saying to us?
What is Allah saying to us?
In the start there was only Allah and
in the end there's only Allah. What is
he saying to us about what happens in
the middle?
Look, what are you doing, yaki? Come in
the front, this is your space. Sheikh,
come come come come come come come come
come. Come come come. No no no.
You're not allowed to be in the back.
This is your space.
Don't do the walk of shame. It's a
walk of honor.
Yes, Bismillah, give us your while you're walking,
Bismillah.
Bismillah.
Yes, Amma. Where's Luqman? Not here today?
Luqman somewhere?
No. I think Khallas Bismillah. You Bismillah girlfriend.
Oh, okay. So
That that shows that
Allah.
Takbir.
Allah is the only thing that matters.
Even in everything that happens in the middle,
the only thing that matters in that whole
process is Allah.
This surah, Surah Al Hadid, what does hadid
mean in the Arabic language? Iron. Iron.
In this surah, Allah Subhanahu Wa Ta'ala asks
the believers, the mumineen, 2 things.
The first,
he tells them, the time has come when
you have to start defending yourself.
Allah
says, one of the things he created is
metal
for you to defend yourself.
Bullets, swords,
shields, armor, that all comes from metal. Allah
created that for a reason,
but human conflict is necessary and natural. It
happens.
And it's time for the believers, the Muslims
to start defending themselves. That's the context where
this surah was revealed.
But there's something very important about that.
In effect, Allah is asking the believers, you
have to give up your
What happens in war? What do you have
to risk? Life. Your life.
What's the most precious thing to you?
Is it your jacket? Is it your house?
Is it your children?
What's the most precious thing to any human
being?
The battery is your life. It's your life.
In effect, the surah is saying to the
believers,
people who believe you say,
right? Today's the test. Will you give your
life for his sake?
This is really what Allah is asking the
believers.
Are you ready to give your life for
his sake? This is the test.
And not just that,
Allah
war is expensive.
One of the core commandments in this surah
is what?
Spend in the path of Allah.
Spend for the sake of Allah.
What's the second most precious thing to human
being after his life? Money. His money.
This surah,
Allah subhanahu wa ta'ala is asking the the
most difficult
thing to every believer.
Give the things that are most
give the things most precious to you, give
it up for Allah's sake. And you know
what?
Many people cannot do it.
Many, many, many people cannot do it.
A whole host of people, when it came
time to work, they said, you know what?
We're a bit busy at home.
Oh, prophet of Allah sallallahu alaihi wasallam, we're
just a bit busy with our family, our
kids, you know the whole deal. You guys
go ahead.
That's why in this surah, what does Allah
subhanahu wa ta'ala say about those things that
keep us busy from giving, sacrificing for his
sake? What does he say about those things?
People,
this life is play, it's amusement, it's a
competition between people to gather
objects, trinkets, status items, promotions, money, houses.
This is play. It's a circus.
But there is something greater than this circus
that you can aspire to. It is the
pleasure of Allah.
It is such that in this surah,
this is probably one of the only surahs
in the Quran
where Allah
scolds the Prophet's companions.
Because the surah is revealed in Madinah,
after they got comfortable,
and in fact some of the narrations say
they started joking around too much, and they
got really comfortable, and they had an army,
and they had wealth, and they had protection,
and their hearts started to become hard.
They started to find it difficult
to give up things for the sake of
Allah. So Allah revealed in this
Hasn't the time come for the believers hearts
to be softened when Allah's name is mentioned?
This is the surah,
it scared the believers in Madinah.
Because Allah is saying to them, guys, what
time is it? It's time for your hearts
to soften. All this time, your hearts are
hardening now? No. Now is the time for
your hearts to soften for my sake.
So Allah is asking in this surah, he's
asking the believers to give themselves up for
his sake. Their lives, their wealth, their energy,
their families, whatever they consider beloved to them,
Allah is saying, if you truly are someone
of
If Allah matches to you and nothing else,
show me what you can give for me.
This is why
one of the greatest
verses in the Quran,
when Allah
says,
Some people are willing to give themselves
for the sake of Allah,
and Allah is most merciful to his slaves.
All of this
before Allah
tells the believers, you have to give everything
up for my sake. Are you ready?
He starts by reminding them who he is.
You will never be able to give up
something for the sake of Allah.
You will you will never be able to
give up something for the sake of Allah.
Whether it's your wealth, whether it's your life,
whether it's your time, whether it's your energy,
you will not.
Until you know who are you giving things
up for, who are you sacrificing it all
for, who is the one order this is
for? You will not be able to until
you know who that is.
Often, many of us, we make great sacrifices
for our family members, for our parents, for
our children.
We are willing to spend on them. We
are willing to give up things for them.
We are willing to move cities, countries,
nations,
do anything for them because we know the
value of this person to
me, so I'm willing to do anything for
them.
Somebody is standing in court.
Hello.
Somebody is standing in court, and they're about
to be the judge is about to sentence
them to prison or to death.
And this person is shaking.
This person is shaking in their boots. Why?
Because they know the power of this judge.
They know the ability of this judge, the
strength of this judge. The consequences are great.
Halftime break, brother
In order for Allah to inspire the believers
to be ready to give them up for
his themselves up for his sake, he starts
with his names.
Remember who are you doing it for,
because the most dangerous thing for a believer
is to run into battle. And what what
are they doing it for?
For praise,
for bravery,
to get war captives, to get money, to
get items.
This is the most dangerous thing. So Allah
starts the surah.
He was there before anything was there.
Everything you are fighting for, you are giving
up, you are working hard for day and
night.
None of it is going to exist at
some point in time.
It doesn't matter.
Only Allah matters.
He's the last.
Before any after everybody is gone, Allah will
remain.
These scholars of language said it means Alghalib.
As Allah mentions elsewhere in the Quran,
To be
overwhelming, to be the winner, to be the
dominant.
And he is the closest to his creation.
Nobody is closer to us than
Allah. And he knows
every single thing.
He knows why you're doing what you're doing.
So don't just follow the commandments of Allah
outwardly and inside something is dead inside. That
insincerity is not there. Stay in your place
better. Don't come out.
Don't come out for the sake of Allah.
If you're going to do it for the
sake of bravery,
status, sake of prestige, or anything, just stay
at home.
This idea,
Allah is the only thing that matters. It
is captured
in another name of Allah.
The name of Allah
that comes in one of the shortest surahs
of the Quran.
So one of the names of Allah is
Al Ahad.
Now it's very hard to translate Al Ahad.
Al Ahad is not the same as Al
Wahid.
There's a few differences.
Wahid in the Arabic language means
1. Right?
1, 2, 3, 4.
But ahad is different.
The word can be used for an object
or for a person.
This is one phone.
But you cannot say
you cannot say
rather.
Can be used for an object and a
person.
But is only used for people,
not for objects.
Rather, not just for people, but for any
living being ahad can be used.
When you negate something,
when you negate something,
you
can say,
for instance,
I don't have one pen.
You could have 2 pens, right, or 3
or 4 or 5?
So when you say, I don't have one
pen, you could still have more than that.
Whereas if you say,
that means there is nobody here.
Uhad
is not just one,
it is unique.
It is not just one,
it is best translated as the one and
only.
Allah is the one and only thing that
matters to me.
Such a small word was so deep in
meaning.
The prophet sallallahu alaihi wa sallam is reported
to have said,
Whoever makes all of his worries,
all of your worries in life, you just
combine them into one concern,
the concern for Allah
The prophet is reported to have said, if
you only have one worry in your whole
life,
the worry is Allah pleased with me. If
this is your only main, main, main worry,
main concern in life,
all of your other worries will feel like
nothing.
But if you have so many worries,
so many things that matter so much to
you, you're pulled in all directions,
Allah does not care which valley in this
world you die in.
This hadith is reported. It's disputed in its
authenticity, but its meaning is sound.
We we have so many things that pull
our minds and attention these days. They call
it the attention economy.
Every moment you spend on the news feed
scrolling on TikTok, on Instagram, on Facebook, every
minute you spend,
somebody is earning 100 of dollars in advertising
income.
Your attention is the new commodity.
Everyone is trying to get your attention. From
the billboards to the signs, to the mobile,
to the note everyone's trying to get your
attention. But here,
when we say Allah is al ahad, al
wahid, the one and only thing that matters
in this world to me,
my attention should be going to him.
Everything should go back to him in my
mind.
And everything else I worry about will start
to matter less. I'm worried about my job.
I need to pay my bills, cost of
living. My energy bills are going high.
How do I relate that back to Allah?
Go on Yamar.
Help us because nobody is willing now. They
all given up answering questions.
Provided that you come with the means Allah
will take care of it. Which name of
Allah is related to that?
Al Razzak.
I'm struggling
I'm struggling to find a spouse.
I can't I don't know where to find.
Before they used to say, look, marry your
cousin. That's your cousin? Finish.
You come and find out who you're marrying
on wedding day.
Maybe it was simpler. Who knows?
Today, there's like 50 different apps, and still
you can't find someone. You find someone, your
parents say wrong ethnicity.
Find someone else, it's a wrong height. Find
3rd person, they said, look at the rice
she cooked, it's not boiled properly.
I can't find anyone.
Which name of Allah would you call?
Yeah.
You razzak. From any way, You Allah, provide
for me.
All of your worries,
all of your concerns,
all of the things that stress you out,
it can all take you back to Allah
or it can all take you away from
Allah.
And the purpose of Allah's name, alwahid al
ahad, the one and the only,
is that all of these things should make
you turn to him.
When we think of all the things that
worry us in our life, we think of
it like a big heavy boulder, a rock
someone placed on our back.
Right?
But it's not a boulder, it's a bulldozer.
It's pushing you. Where is it taking you?
It's taking you slowly, slowly, slowly back to
Allah. That's how we should think of it.
And actually there was somebody
in the time of the prophet
a very big boulder was placed on his
back,
in 50 degrees Celsius heat of the Arabian
desert.
And what did he say when that was
done on his back?
I had an I had.
Ibn Ishaq reports in his seerah
that Bilal ibn Raba radiAllahu anhu,
one of the greatest of the prophet's companions,
the torture that he went through for the
sake of Allah,
such that a massive rock
is placed on his back and he's whipped
and slashed in the sun.
And he is told, disbelief in this Lord
of Muhammad
or you will continue to be tortured. And
what's the only word imagined? You know when
a boulder is placed on your back, you
can't speak.
You can barely breathe.
And what is he saying
under the squeezed lungs that he has? With
this much oxygen, what is the only word
that comes out of his mouth?
There's only one thing that matters to me.
The one and only matters to me.
All of that doesn't matter to you, my
friend. I can give up all of this,
only Allah matters to me.
This
this word from Bilal,
this
this really is the lived version of tawhid.
A lot of people, they think that tawhid
is about memorizing
definitions
and memorizing categorizations.
Tawhid is of 2 types, of 3 types.
The first type is this, the second is,
the third is this. The definition of tawhid
is this.
Tawhid,
yes, has a theory,
but tawhid has a practical application.
And if you want to imagine in your
head what is a practical application of tuhid,
just imagine Bilal al Nurabbah
under the hot desert sun,
suffering,
struggling to breathe, and the only word that
escapes is lips
is ahadun ahad. You can do anything to
me, my friend. But Allah is the only
one that concerns me. I don't live for
you, I live for him. I will suffer
for him. I will be tortured for him.
I will do anything in my living existence
for his sake. This is tawhid.
This is what tawhid is about. It is
to live for Allah. Who can give me
an eye in the Quran
that expresses this meaning?
Allah
asks us to say this sentence, and this
sentence, really?
It is the pinnacle of tawhid, of this
expression.
Allah commands Muhammad say, oh, Muhammad,
tell them
my prayer,
my sacrifice,
my life, and my death is just for
Allah, Lord of the worlds.
Nothing is equal to him in my eyes.
I have been commanded from that and I
have submitted to that.
That's it.
One of the beautiful
real life situations
of these four names,
You know, real life practical situation.
The prophet
gets his daughter married Fatima radiAllahu an.
Now who is Fatima married to?
Alib Nabi Talib. Now, who can tell me?
Is Alib Nabi Talib a rich man?
He's not a rich man. He can barely
afford the mahar for his marriage.
So Fatima
gets married.
And every day she has to grind the
wheat with her own hands.
Every day she has to scrub and grind
and work.
Alib Nabi Talib is going, pulling water out
of a well, pulling, pulling, pulling, working hard.
Till it gets to an extent they both
are burnt out, they cannot continue.
And they hear
that the prophet sallallahu alaihi wasallam received some
war captives.
Now prisoners of war
in Islamic law, what happens to them
is
they get employed in the community,
so that they can slowly but surely become
normalized, integrate into normal human life. So first,
work.
So the prophet, salallahu alaihi wa sallam, would
take these war captives and he would give
them employment.
So Ali ibn Abi Talib and Fatima
come.
Now the thing is, this narration
is narrated in Bukhari and Muslim and Bayhaki
and Tirmidi, and various places.
Most of the in Kitab Ad Dhikr by
Jafar, Kitab Ad Dhikr by Tabari,
in,
Marjima Tabarani, so many different places. Ibn Hajar
al Azkalani brought all of these together, and
he actually says the situation,
it was actually multiple incidents.
First Fatima
goes to the house of the Prophet, The
house of Aisha and She
knocks the door.
She says, where
is the Prophet, Oh, he's not at home.
Okay.
Look, Aisha,
I have this problem. Look at my hands.
Literally, she shows the mother of the birivasa
hands.
Look at how coarse and cut and scratched
and gashed my hands are.
I need help. I need help at home.
And I heard the prophet
has some servants ready for at his disposal.
Aisha says, okay. When he comes, tell him.
The prophet
arrives.
Fatima
goes to him.
He says, yes, what's wrong?
She says, nothing.
Everything's fine.
She goes back, Aisha says,
what happened? Did you tell him? No, I
felt shy to tell him.
She went home. She came back to the
prophet
or rather the prophet found out from and
he came to their house.
He comes to their house,
and when he comes to their house, it's
late at night and her and are
in bed, they are sleeping, they are ready
for bed.
The prophet
enters
and he sits between them. She says, until
I can feel the
the coolness of his knees on my chest.
I can feel the coolness of his presence
next to me.
And he says to them,
shall I tell you something better than having
a servant at home?
What?
Better than a servant? Maybe 2 servants? Maybe
3?
He says every time now when you are
sleeping like this, you're about to go to
sleep,
say subhanallah
33 times and alhamdulillah
33 times and Allahu Akbar 33 times, and
then you sleep. And this will be better
for you than having a servant.
I want you to explain this to me.
In what way,
in which world
saying these adkar
can be better How is it a solution
to her problem? I want you to tell
me.
How is this will this solve this problem
of Fatima
She has a practical problem. Her hands are
destroyed from graining corn and graining wheat, and
her back is hurting, and is
finished. How is this gonna solve their problem?
Sorry?
Allahu Akbar.
He's saying, the remembrance of Allah gives rest
to your heart.
I need more.
To seek help from Allah.
Anybody else?
They have a practical problem, they are tired,
they need a servant, and he came and
he said do Imagine you went to your
boss, you said, look boss,
here's my energy bills, I need a promotion,
I need money. He says to you, okay.
When you go to sleep, say, subhanAllah, 30
times,
will you be happy with that? How is
this gonna solve their problem? Tell me.
Yes, sir.
Explain. Okay. The prophet is saying to them,
don't look for the benefit in this dunya.
Work hard in this dunya, but look for
the benefit in the akhirah instead.
Or to do the same thing for the
servants?
Allahu Akbar.
This is what many of the scholars said.
Remembering Allah
gives you a psychological power, a strength.
Suddenly you find yourself able to do the
work of 2 people and 3 people and
4 people.
Rather than giving you a physical person,
he is giving them something that will allow
them the strength to do the work of
2 people.
Today,
so popular. Productivity, everybody wants to be productive.
They want to do the work of 3
people in one day.
Do you know what is the secret to
the productivity of Fatima, be allahu, and her?
To remember Allah.
Because when you remember why something is being
done, you are willing to put in double
the effort for it. You are willing to
take the pain for it, because you know
why it is being done.
Done. Now, there are multiple narrations of this
incident, so really what Ibn Hajjar says is
that she went to the prophet to complain
multiple times. So a few days later, she
goes back to the prophet
Look, I tried these adkar.
Right? I tried this, subhanahu, alhamdulillah, it's not
helping. I need help.
The prophet
tells her.
He teaches her dua. This dua is in
Sahih Muslim, and Tirmidi,
and Abneb Sheba, and Bayakl, haltha Abu Hurirah.
This dua,
the prophet
is teaching her, is worth its weight in
gold.
Oh Allah, Lord of the 7 heavens.
And you are the Lord of the glorious
throne.
You are our master
and our nurturer and you are the master
of everything.
You sent down the Torah and the Injeel
and the Quran.
Quran. You split the small seeds when they
grow.
Protect me from every evil
that you are in control
Oh Allah you are the first, there was
nothing before you.
And you are the last,
there's nothing after you.
And you are the dominant,
nobody can overpower you.
And you are the closest and there's no
one closer than you.
Oh Allah, relieve us of our loans and
save us from our poverty.
I want you to remember Think of this
dua.
90%
of this dua is what?
It's the praise of Allah.
And how much of the dua is making
the request?
It's 5 words at the end.
Five lines in the praise of Allah
and 5 words making the request. This is
how dua should be.
He teaches her this dua.
And what is he saying to his daughter?
You have a problem of being poor. You
can't afford a servant. Don't take the shortcut
by coming to me. Don't take the shortcut
because I'm related to you, I'm going to
give you the servant. No.
Do it the hard way.
Beg Allah for it. And Allah will give
you better than you can imagine.
I will repeat the dua.
O Allah, lord of the 7 heavens,
and lord of the glorious throne.
Master
of everything in this world.
You send down the Torah and the and
the
You split open the little seed when the
plant grows.
I ask you to protect me from anything
that you are in control of.
You were the first and there's nothing before
you.
You are the last, there's nobody after you.
You are the dominant and nobody can super
super can, can overpower you.
You are the closest to us, nobody can
be closer to you.
Save us from poverty and relieve us of
our debts and our loans.
After this dua, Fatima
doesn't come back to the prophet
Why?
What mindset has Fatima learned from this experience
with the prophet, salaam alaikum?
For the physical power. Uh-huh.
As a source of physical power. And dua.
And dua.
Dua,
deeper than that.
Yes. Seeking help from Allah before you
Yes.
This is what the prophet is teaching his
daughter.
You only need
Allah.
As the poet says, don't ask a human
being for something, ask the one who provides
for them, he will provide for you as
well.
When the prophet, salAllahu alaihi wa sallam, is
sitting with Abdulaihi wa Abbas on on the
back of a camel, he says, young boy,
let me teach you some important ideas, some
important sentences. And from them he says,
ask Allah.
If you wanna seek help, seek help from
Allah.
Try not to rely on people.
This is one of the teachings of the
Prophet Try to not rely on people, try
to rely upon Allah.
This is what he's teaching his daughter. Before
you come to me, did you go to
Allah? You didn't. Go to Allah first.
Beg Allah first. Remember Allah first. And when
you can't and everything fails, then come to
me.
And keep asking Allah. This is what he's
teaching his daughter. This is the meaning of
It means he's the only one we should
be thinking about, and the only one we
should be going to. And this is why
Allah says in the Quran, Allah
is Allah is Allah not enough for you?
People will scare you with other people and
other entities
less than Allah.
What should you say in response?
Kul,
ul hasbi Allah.
Say Allah is enough for me.
Allah is enough for me, hasbi Allah. Who
said this sentence?
Ibrahim alaihi salam in the
while he was burning in the fire.
Hasbiyallahu.
I want you to say after me, Hasbiyallahu.
You could be burning in any fire from
the fires of this world.
You could be burning in the economic fire
of the recession,
the fire of a difficult marriage, the fire
of family issues, the fire of stress, of
depression, of anxiety. You could be burning in
any problem in this world.
But the moment this idea takes seed in
the depths of your heart that Allah is
the only one I need and the only
one who can get me out of this
and the only one I turn to and
the only one I seek,
your fire will become cool.
Your fires in your life will become cool
and easy for you,
because your heart is filled with Allah.
Whoever's heart is filled with the remembrance of
Allah,
everything in his eyes becomes small.
Imagine when somebody's taking off on an airplane,
and as they ascend in the airplane higher
and higher,
and the pilot makes the announcements,
fly 341 to Jakarta.
Please tighten your seat belts.
And as you feel
the shudder and the push of the airplane
as it sends the air,
and you look out the window, what do
you see?
Everything gets?
The higher you go,
the smaller everything seems.
This life which we live, in which we
get to know Allah,
the more we know Allah and the more
we remember Allah and the more we ask
Allah, the higher we go to him.
And when the you go higher and higher
to Allah,
everything else in this world will become
it will become small
until you find yourself in the clouds.
You don't even see anything else.
You don't even see the people and the
cars and the ferries and the trains. None
of that is even there.
All that you see is the whiteness
and the glory or the remembrance of Allah.
And this what I'm telling you, this analogy
I'm giving you is not bid out from
my pocket.
The prophet sallallahu alaihi wasallam has said
Quran.
The person whose heart was filled with the
Quran will be asked on the day of
judgement. May Allah make you and me from
these people. Say, amen.
Read and recite and
rise.
Your status with Allah
is going to be at the last ayah
that you stop at. Keep reciting.
When you recite the Quran,
and you recite these adkar,
and you recite these duas,
You are going higher and higher and higher
and everything in your life, your problems, your
job, your family issues, your economic issues, everything
is becoming smaller
and smaller and smaller
until you reach the point where they don't
matter to you.
And the only thing that matters to you
is the pleasure of Allah.
When this hadith when this was taught to
Fapim and Ali,
Ali ibn Abi Talib radiAllahu anhu is sitting
towards the end of his life, just before
his death,
and he's teaching his students.
The prophet taught me before you sleep, don't
forget to say
33 times,
30 3 times, Allahu by 34 times. And
then Alibn Abu Talib says something even more
scary than this.
I never forgot to say this
from that day
till the till today.
Decades have passed.
Wars have passed.
Deaths have happened in my family, and I
never forgot to say this before I sleep.
1 of his cheeky students asked him,
Siffin?
What about the battle of Siffin? Who knows
what happened in the battle of Siffin?
It's the war that was fought between the
Sahaba.
Yeah. Yeah.
The battle of Siffin was the worst day
in the life of Alib Nabi Talib.
Yeah. You can do your adkar before sleep
on a nice day,
on a nice shiny sunny day. But what
about the day in which the prophet's companions
were fighting each other?
Student asks him, oh, Ali, surely you forgot
to say your adkar on that day.
He says, even that night I didn't forget
them.
Why?
This statement
became the companion of Ayur ibn Abi Talib.
It became his best friend.
He took him with him everywhere he went,
whether he was in the market, whether he
was a hot day or a cold day,
a hard day or an easy day. Never
could he rest. He could not find sleep
without saying this remembrance of Allah.
And really this is the state we are
in. This world today is riddled with anxiety,
with depression,
with so many disorders and so many malfunctions
in the human mind.
And a lot of this comes down to
this one thing.
If we forget Allah,
we will start to forget ourself. We will
lose sense of who we are.
This is the century we live in, the
century of the self, the century of the
forgetfulness of Allah. Today, everything around you is
a distraction. Today, you have Netflix, you have
Amazon Prime, you have TV, you have movies,
you have cartoons, you have From the smartphone
to the television, everything in this world
is there to distract you from Allah.
And so the greatest person in this world
is the one, despite this whirlwind, this storm
around him pulling you in all directions from
Allah,
Oh Allah, you are the first and there's
none before you. You are the last. There's
none after you. You are the only one
my mind is upon. And you're the only
one whose pleasure I seek. In my fires,
I call out to you.
In my distress, I beseech you.
In my pain, I seek your healing.
In my lowliness, I seek your company.
All have abandoned me but you.
None can help me but you.
None I can turn to but you.
I was not in existence, and you were.
You fed me when there was none to
feed me. You clothed me when there was
none to clothe me. When I got injured,
you healed
me. When I healed, you strengthened me.
In my birth, I was helpless. You provided
me with my parents.
And today I am strong,
I am wealthy, I have everything, but I
am still in need of you.
Oh Allah, the times move quick,
and age comes fast,
and death comes near.
But just as I was in the beginning
alone with you, so too in the end,
I will be alone in my grave with
you.
There is no company but you.
There is no happiness but with you.
There is no pleasure I seek but yours.
All sadness erases and evaporates when I think
of you.
Everything becomes small when I'm in your company.
Oh, Allah, allow me to live in your
remembrance
and die in your remembrance,
and raise me in your remembrance. This is
what Yusuf
says.
And with this remembrance of Allah, and with
these adkar and these duas, I remind you
all brothers and sisters,
knowing Allah's names
is not a theoretical lesson.
We have to live these names in our
lives,
in our fires, in our distress, in our
difficulty, before we sleep and as we awake,
reminder again, next week I'm
away traveling. The week after is the conclusion
and the final lesson. Please come.
Please bring your kids especially. There'll be a
quiz and some prizes.