Hisham Jafar Ali – Names Of Allah And His Attributes #3 The Most Merciful
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AI: Transcript ©
Alhamdulillah.
Over the last few weeks, we have been
going through a journey
understanding and discovering
who is our Creator.
We started with the name Allah,
which means
the one who is most intensely loved,
the one who we resort to in times
of difficulty,
in times of tragic need. We then move
to Arrab,
the most personal name of Allah.
The name which we call out in times
of distress.
Arrab, the one who nourishes and nurtures
from 0,
from nothing, all the way to completion. The
one who looks after all of our affairs.
We then went to Al Hay
and Al Qayyum,
the ever living, the one who's never offline,
the one who's never absent.
Al Qayyum,
the one who makes everything in this earth
stand, move, evolve,
revolve,
breathe.
Al Qayyum.
And today, we are coming to the name
of Allah Subhanahu Wa Ta'ala, which is perhaps
many of you have been waiting for, we
are coming to Allah's name, Ar Rahman
and Ar Raheem.
The word Ar Rahman and Ar Rahim,
this name or this this pair of names
come from the root Arabic letters
Rahima.
And Ar Rahim in the Arabic language refers
to
the womb,
the womb of a mother.
What does the womb of a mother have
to do with?
Yes.
Okay.
Which was your name? Ahmed. Ahmed.
The womb of a mother is a place
where a child lives for 9 months.
From when it's nothing
to when it reaches full health and it's
ready to come out into the real world.
And while it's there in the womb, it's
got VIP service.
The child doesn't have to chew to eat,
doesn't have to drink, doesn't have to go
outside to look for halal meat. Everything's everything
comes to the child. It doesn't even have
to move. It just swims,
right,
in the amniotic fluid.
This is
Arrahim,
the womb of a mother, what is the
relationship with the name
of Allah, arrahim, or the concept of rahma?
This is where everything begins.
Arrahim, the womb, is a place where this
child, this this this fetus,
is surrounded
by
attention, care, love, mercy.
It's fully all of its needs are fully
taken care of. That's 1.
Number 2,
what this fetus receives is selfless.
The mother gets nothing in return. Instead, she
actually gets tired. She gets hungry. She's vomiting.
She's exhausted.
She might get pain. She might get disturbance.
She's carrying this very heavy sack around all
the time.
So the what the child is getting, it's
not giving anything back.
It's a selfless love,
and it's everything provided for.
This is the original meaning of ar Rahim,
the womb.
It's that safe space where you feel you
are not in need of anything. You don't
have to ask for anything. Before you ask,
your needs are provided for,
and all of this is done in a
seamless manner. And then when you're ready, you're
brought out into the harsh, cruel world
where you have to go and get things,
where you have to go and you have
to now go and fight. You have to
go and get into conflict. You have to
go and try, exhaust yourself.
But inside the womb, it is the safest
place. And this is why human beings, according
to some biologists,
human beings, why, when they want to feel
comfortable, why do they curl up?
Because the human body naturally feels safe in
the position that it was in the womb
of the mother.
You're never going to find in your life
a similar safe, soft,
enjoyable
place to live
than the womb of the mother. That's safe
space.
And therefore, arrahma.
A Rahma
is a kind of love, a kind of
compassion where you expect nothing in return. It's
selfless by definition.
Rahma
creates an environment where everything is provided for.
Ultimate Rahma is an environment where everything is
provided for and nothing is returned to the
one giving.
You're pouring, but you're not receiving.
This is ultimately what Rahmah means. It is
a selfless
love, an ultimate.
It is
a compassion,
it is a caring
that is received.
There's a receiver and there's someone giving.
And the giver expects nothing in return.
This is the meaning the initial meaning of
the word rahma.
Now
we take this root word of.
And I told you, in the Arabic language
imagine the Arabic language
like dough.
Right? I know South Asians, we eat roti.
We eat naan. We eat. I went one
of the nearby stores. You have anjera bread,
and you have other types of bread. Now,
all of it comes from the same dough.
Right?
From the same dough,
you can make roti. You can make naan.
You can make you can make different types
and shapes and forms of it, but they
all taste different.
Similarly, in Arabic, you have a root word.
You can put it in different forms. Each
form has a slightly different meaning.
So from Rahma comes Rahman, from Rahma comes
Rahim. What's the difference?
Let's start with Rahman.
Rahman fits a template in Arabic called fa'alan.
You give a word the template of fa'alan
when it's extreme.
Who can give me an example?
Who does Allah say the word for in
the Quran?
Okay. When Musa, alayhis salam, returns to his
people.
Means extreme anger, rage.
Why does he get angry? Obviously, he left
them worshiping Allah. He came back and they
were worshiping
the golden calf. So, obviously, he gets angry,
but he doesn't just get angry. Angry is.
I'm an angry
person.
Rageful.
Intense anger.
What did you do after I left? That's
what he was saying. He is enraged by
this, not just anger. He's enraged. Now,
interesting thing about ghadban, about this template, fa'alan,
ghadban,
nasan, jawaan, abshan, rahman.
Any word you put in this form, it
means it's an extreme version,
intense,
but also that it's temporary. It suddenly came
because a few verses later,
His anger, it evaporates. It goes away.
So
means he's enraged now, but 10 minutes later,
he could calm down.
So ghaban doesn't mean it's a permanent trait.
It's a permanent quality. No. Even if it
came for 20 minutes, but it is an
intense version.
So when I say, I'm
extremely hungry. I need to eat right now.
But once I eat,
my hunger is gone.
Right?
So it's intense, but it's temporary. This is
faalan,
Rahman.
Rahman, therefore,
is the mercy, the selfless
compassion and mercy
that is so intense.
It is so extreme.
It is unlimited.
Every human being, animal, plant, bee,
bacteria,
microscopic
being, everything on this earth from the wall
to the trees receives the rahma of Allah.
This is Allah's being rahmaan. And not just
any rahma, they receive it in an intense
manner. There are so many things that Allah
gives them that shows his mercy to them.
Then you have
the second word.
This word, this frame, this template in Arabic.
Who can give me a word that fits
this template?
Aleem.
Aleem.
Can a human being be Aleem?
No?
Is there aya in the Quran where a
human being said that he is Alim?
Who said Yusuf? Free Alim. Who said Hafid
Alim?
Yes, Sheikh. Sheikh, we miss you. Come come
closer, please.
I need I need the huffad to be
close so I can,
I can get the input?
Yusuf alayhi salaam, when he goes to the
king to offer his services, he says,
hire me. I am hafeef.
I'm always trustworthy, and Ilim, I'm always knowledgeable.
This is basically his CV.
When you apply for a job, you have
to tell them what you're good at. Right?
You go, no, brother. No, I'm not. No,
I'm good at nothing. I'm a humble brother.
Okay. Go. We'll hire someone else who's good
at it then. Now you have to put
yourself you have to say, I'm good at
these things. Yusuf Alaihi Wasallam said, ini hafeel
alalim. Now,
hafeel from the word hivl, to protect, to
maintain, to look after.
Is someone who's always you can trust him
to look after your things, always.
Very rarely they make a mistake.
You call them
Another word in Arabic another good example is
from the word fiqh. Now we know fiqh
is deep knowledge.
Now, if I have deep knowledge
about wudu,
but when you ask me about inheritance, I
say, look, man, I have no idea about
inheritance. Would you call me a faqih?
No, you wouldn't.
Faqih is somebody who is consistently knowledgeable all
the time of most things.
They have they have a sense of a
level of mastery. They have mastered the subject.
You call them Faqih.
So the difference between rahman
and raheem
is that raheem
is a trait that is consistent
all the time.
And rahman is intense,
Allah Subhanahu Wa Ta'ala, when he says ar
Rahman,
he shows you how extreme and how unlimited
his mercy can be. That even the person
who disbelieves in him and curses him
and burns the Quran and insults his prophet.
Allah gives him oxygen and food and clothing
and
accommodation. He gives him everything while he is
abusing Allah.
Allah provides for them everything while they disbelieve
in Ar Rahman. He uses his word, his
name Ar Rahman.
You may reject. Kufr is to hide and
to reject something. They may reject and bury
Allah
but he still is Rahman for them too.
That's arrahman, Allah's extreme mercy. The animals experience
it. The birds experience it. The bacteria in
your stomach experience it. They all receive the
mercy of Allah. Then you have arraheem.
Because someone if you say rahman if I
say rahban, you might think he was angry
for 5 minutes. He was enraged 5 minutes.
But if I say hafiel,
you know he's always trustworthy. So when you
say rahim, you know Allah is
always merciful.
There's one difference.
Intense
but sudden,
consistent but firm. Raheem is Allah's mercy that
is always consistently there. Rahman is Allah's mercy
that is extreme.
It's sudden.
It is unlimited. You cannot even compute. Your
mind cannot even realize how much of Allah's
mercy you receive.
That's one difference. The second difference about Rahman
and Raheem is the scholars some scholars mentioned
that Rahman is Allah's general mercy which every
being experiences.
Human, like I said, bird, bacteria,
car, vehicle, moving, unmoving, everybody experiences the mercy
of Allah.
But Raheem is a special mercy only for
the believers.
And we're going to talk and ask that
question. What is that mercy that Allah has
saved just for those who believe?
Now, Allah Subhanahu Wa Ta'ala says elsewhere in
the Quran,
This is uncle has come to a similar
ayah.
Allah says, especially with the believers, he is
raheem.
He is consistently and especially merciful.
So you can say Ar Rahman extremely merciful,
Ar Raheem especially merciful. You can say Ar
Rahman unlimited mercy and Ar Raheem consistent mercy.
This is the way Allah
began to introduce us
Himself in the Quran.
Why is the name Rahman so important? I
want to focus on the name Ar Rahman.
Who can tell you what makes the name
Ar Rahman so important? How do we know
it's a very special name? It deserves more
attention.
Ar Rahmanu Al Alashistawah.
And?
So it was mentioned in this verse?
Yeah. Because
Okay. That shows that. That shows that one.
Okay. The name it's the name Allah uses
when he describes that he ascended above his
throne in a way that befits him. Okay.
Anything else that makes you think this name
is important?
There's a whole surah.
Is there a surah to Malik? Is there
a surah to Rahim? Is there a surah
to Jabbar in the Quran? No. But there's
a surah?
Arrahman.
A whole surah dedicated to this name.
Now, go on. What else?
Bismillah,
rahman, rahman, rahman. You repeat it in every
salah. Who can tell me what else?
Okay. Yes?
Mhmm.
Which means?
Okay.
You should ask Allah because He's a rahman.
Now
Yes.
Very good. This is not a point I
thought of. What's your name, Mahi?
Sorry?
One of the most beloved names to Allah
in children is Abdul Rahman.
And that shows the name of Rahman is
beloved to Allah. Now
interestingly, the scholars of tafsir, they
differed. Is this name an Arabic name? Or
is it a Hebrew name?
Because actually,
there is the same name in Hebrew,
Rahim
and Rahman
with the instead
of So they said, was this name taken
from Hebrew and inserted into Arabic? Was it
borrowed? Or is it an originally Arabic word?
That being aside, whether it's Hebrew, whether it's
Arabic, it is the name of Allah. But
interesting point, the Arabs that the prophet Sallallahu
Alaihi Wasallam was sent to, they did not
know this name Rahmah. It was unfamiliar to
them.
How do we know that?
When they are informed, they are commanded, prostrate
to Ar Rahman, they say, who's Ar Rahman?
There's another thing that happened
in the treaty of Hudaybiyyah when the prophet
sallallahu alayhi wa sallam makes an agreement with
the disbelievers in Makkah and Ali ibn Abi
Talib begins to write.
What did the Makkan say? We don't know
what Ar Rahman. We don't know who Ar
Rahman is. This is a name we don't
know.
Right? Bismillahumma.
So it was a name that was strange
to them. Now, what effect did this have?
We know that the Quran was revealed over
23 years. Right? Bits of it in Makkah,
in the Makkan period before Hijra, before migration,
and bits of it in Madinah.
In the Makkan period,
Allah emphasizes this name Ar Rahman so much.
I'll give you one
very surprising example.
There's a verse. It was revealed in Makkah.
And a verse, very similar wording in Madinah,
but Allah swaps the name.
Who can recite for me the verse from
Surat Mulk? Why do they not not look
at the birds in the sky?
Okay.
Carefully listen to this.
Why do Allah says, why do they not
look at the birds above them?
Nothing holds them up in the air except
Ar Rahman.
Now there's another verse in the Quran about
the same thing.
Allah. Why do they not look, Allah says,
at the sky, the birds in the sky
above them? Nothing holds them up except Allah.
In this ayah, same ayah, he says ar
Rahman. In that ayah, same ayah, he says
Allah.
What's the difference?
This ayah was revealed in Makkah.
So atulmulk.
The other ayah was revealed in Medina.
The the surahs that were revealed in Mecca,
Allah constantly mentions ar Rahman, ar Rahman, ar
Rahman, ar Rahman. For example, the Surah in
the Quran with the most mention of arrahman
is who knows? Mariam.
Mariam.
I sent accent.
I wish I had some sneakers to give
our dear brother here some chocolates.
So, Maryam begins with Allah's rahma.
And it ends with Allah's rahma.
Surah Mariam was revealed where?
In Mecca.
And Allah's name, Ar Rahman, is mentioned in
the Surah between
over 11 times.
So many times.
Why?
Because the Arabs did not know this name.
So Allah keeps mentioning this name again and
again and again until they get it. Allah
is Ar Rahman.
Allah's mercy is unlimited.
It is
it's unimaginable.
And so this name is constantly repeated in
Surah Maryam. And this is some this is
an observation not from me but from Al
Imam Taher ibn Ashur Rahim Allah, the Tunisian
scholar of tafsir.
And so the believers in Mecca, they didn't
have to pray salah. They didn't have to
fast Ramadan. They didn't have to give zakah.
No hajj. No obligations.
Right? Or very few laws.
The focus in Mecca was them learning about
who is Allah.
And the focus in who is Allah was
on this name Al Rahman.
Why?
If you understood Allah is Al Rahman, that
will change how you treat other people.
That will change how you see Allah. And
we're going to see that now shortly. What
effect does this name have in our daily
lives?
There's a tradition.
A tradition which has been going on for
14 centuries.
Which is that whenever a student comes to
learn hadith,
Who knows what is this hadith?
Not Innamal Amal Lubin Niya. Innamal Amal Lubin
Niya, actions are by their intentions. In the
books of hadith, tends to be the first.
But when you come to learn from a
Sheikh, from your teacher, and you ask him
teach me that what did the prophet say,
he will teach you the first hadith he
heard from his teacher, and the first hadith
he heard from his teacher, and the first
hadith until
Sophia Nathoori
who started this tradition.
And that is,
Sorry?
Lab. You got your close. You're close.
Those who are merciful to others will receive
mercy from the most merciful.
If you are merciful to others, Allah will
be mercy will be merciful to you.
Be merciful to those on the earth.
The one in the heavens will have mercy
on you. Why is this the first hadith
we should know?
Because sometimes
people learn Islamic knowledge, and it makes them
angry. It makes them divisive. It makes them
attack others.
But if this is the first hadith you
learned in your whole life, the first thing
you heard your teacher say,
people who are merciful to others, Allah will
have mercy on them. The way you take
knowledge and the way you express your knowledge
and the way you act on your knowledge
will be completely different. You'll be focused. How
can I make this mercy of Allah fill
this earth
until it reaches the fish in the sea?
And that is why in the hadith about
seeking knowledge, the prophet says,
Even the fish in the sea make dua
for forgiveness of the seeker of knowledge. Because
your mercy reaches the fish in the sea.
Even the environment. You look after the environment.
You don't throw trash on the road because
you know this plastic is gonna reach the
sea.
And because of that, the fish make dua
for you.
Knowledge is supposed to fill you with rahma
for other people.
If it fills you with hatred and division
and bigotry and attacking,
you didn't take knowledge.
You took desires.
You took something which filled you with worse.
If the knowledge is not filling you with
mercy, this is not the knowledge of Allah
This is some other knowledge. You have to
go and find the right knowledge.
This is knowledge that doesn't benefit
you. And so,
going back to the main point, Ar Rahman,
Ar Rahim. Allah
He calls himself Ar Rahman, the one of
unlimited Masih.
And this is where a question may arise.
Does Allah if Allah Subhanahu Wa Ta'ala is
the most merciful,
what about all the pain that I have
in my life? What about all the difficulty
that I have in my life? Is Allah
Subhanahu Wa Ta'ala still Ar Rahman in that
moment? Is this still part of his mercy?
When Ayub, alayhis salam you have an answer?
Go on.
So good. Allah Subhanahu Wa Ta'ala when he
tests us, when he gives us difficulty trials,
he uses that to raise our rank in
the afterlife. So it's a form of His
mercy. Very good answer. Let us look at
in the Quran how did the prophets deal
with their trials and this name, Ar Rahman,
specifically.
Ayub, alayhis salaam.
Ayub, alayhis salaam has a horrible illness.
It paralyzes him for years.
It paralyzes him for years. One of the
worst illnesses possible.
And when he makes dua to Allah,
he says,
rabbinmi
masaniadurruwa
antaarhamurrahaimeen.
Oh Allah, illness has struck me and You
are the Most Merciful.
How?
In his illness,
in his cancer,
in his leprosy,
in his paralysis,
he can't move, he can't breathe, there's boils
all over his skin, How does he see
Allah as Arhamur Rahimi?
It's not about the illness. It's about how
you look at the illness.
It's not about the death. It's about how
you look at the loan. It's not about
the divorce. It's how do you see the
divorce. It's not about the death that you
experience. It's how do you see the death.
You can see everything as a rahma from
Allah
if you just wear the right glasses.
You know somebody wearing sunglasses?
Everything is dark in this room. Even if
red color, green, yellow, everything is black.
Right? There is rahma glasses that we have
to wear.
So we can see everything as a rahma
from Allah. Are you
He doesn't say, Allah, you struck me with
this illness. Why did you give me this?
He says,
harm has touched me. Not you, harm has
touched me. He never attributes the harm to
Allah.
How is Allah merciful?
Allah's mercy is not just in healing him.
Allah's mercy was also in making him ill.
Because when Allah made him ill, he realized
the value of his health. Isn't it true?
Who here in this room knows somebody that
passed away in COVID?
You can put your hands.
Brother, who passed away?
Your uncle passed away. 2 uncles passed away.
What about you, brother? Who passed away? My
friend. Sorry? My grandfather.
Father? A friend. Friend.
Grandfather. Your grandfather. May Allah have mercy on
all of them. I mean,
when a grandfather passes away, when a uncle
passes away, when a friend passes away, then
we realize
we could have done more.
Right?
We didn't call them enough. We could have
spent more time with them.
When Allah Subhanahu Wa Ta'ala takes away things
we own, things we value, we realize,
I should value it more.
In this, there is a Rahmah.
Because if he hadn't taken it away, we
would have never realized.
We would have never treated them well.
We would have never sought forgiveness from Allah.
So when Allah takes something away, it doesn't
mean he's being
harsh.
It doesn't mean he's punishing you. It means
he's having mercy on you.
This is one way to see it. Another
way to see it.
Allah Subhanahu Wa Ta'ala never gave it to
you in the first place.
I'll give you an example how to think
in this way.
Urwa ibn Zubair. Does anybody know who's Urwa
ibn Zubair?
Son of Zubair ibn al Awam from the
Tabi'in, from the generation after the prophet's companions.
Urwa ibn Zubair, radiAllahu Anhu, is one of
the greatest scholars of Islam. He was a
close student of Aisha,
his aunt.
Always in Sahih al Bukhari, in the hadith
collection, you'll see Anurwa and Aisha. Arwa, he
narrates from Aisha all the time. Now, Uwa
ibn Zubair,
one day, he's called the caliph calls him
to Damascus, to the,
he's called to the, he's called to Damascus
to meet the caliph.
On his way to Damascus,
his leg gets poisoned and it gets amputated,
gets cut off.
So now he has one leg.
And he has 7 sons. He takes his
sons with him. And one of his sons,
he gets injured by a horse, and he
dies.
He loses a son.
He reaches the caliph.
The caliph says to him, I'm so sorry
for calling you.
You lost your limb, you lost your leg,
and you lost your son just to meet
me.
He says, no. This is not how I
think. This is we should pay attention to
this.
Allah gave me 4 limbs,
and he only took away one.
Allah gave me 7 sons, and he only
took away 1.
This they call this type of thinking, the
glass half full.
When you have a cup of water and
it's half full, there's 2 ways to see
it. You say, look, my glass is half
empty.
It's a negative way of seeing it. You
say, the glass is half full.
Today today someone messaged me.
He said, I don't know why Allah is
doing this to me.
I used to have a net worth properties
worth £3,000,000.
And this happened, this happened, this happened. Now
my property is only worth £1,000,000.
How has Allah punished me?
First, I thought, if only he realized how
many people here would love to have
£1,000,000.
He's complaining about his £1,000,000 worth of property.
Imagine.
Because we compare to yesterday,
we don't compare to 0.
When you lose an eye, we say, subhanallah,
I had 2 eyes, now I lost 1.
But the positive way of looking at it
is, subhanallah, Allah could have given me no
eyes, but he still gave me one.
Positive. The glass is half full. I said
to him, Habibi, imagine this. Imagine today you
woke up, and you woke up. You had
no money in your bank account, and Allah
put £1,000,000 in there. How do you feel
now? He said, wow.
I feel very rich? I said, yes, you
are very rich. If you want, you can
come to Mashil Al Furqan, and maybe you
can distribute the wealth if you get bored
of it. Yes. Many people will be excited
to have it. Imagine you have nothing, and
Allah gave you everything you have. You feel
rich.
This attitude is in the hadith of the
prophet sallallahu alaihi wa sallam. In in Surah
Al Tirmidi, he says,
Whoever wakes up in the morning, you wake
up in the morning, you rub your eyes,
you're safe
you're safe in your shelter. You have a
roof.
You have health in your body. You're alive.
You have enough food just for today, the
prophet says if these things happen. You have
roof, you have health, you have food for
today, you are the King of the world.
It is like the whole world has been
given to you. You have everything. What more
do you need? Why are you worrying about
tomorrow?
The food for tomorrow is written from Allah
subhanahu wa ta'ala. It will come.
You see, we have become subject to such
a different attitude of looking at the rahmah
of Allah.
We become over thinkers. We want everything planned,
everything sorted, the kids college, university education
saved for everything saved, hoarded, investments, everything. Allah,
the prophet sallallahu alaihi wa sallam teach us
think as though you have nothing and Allah
made you rich.
That is
the meaning in Surat Al Duha.
And where do we learn this from, this
attitude from? Surat Al Rahman. Who can tell
me which aya keeps repeating in Surat Al
Rahman?
This is the homework before next week go
home. Read Surat Al Rahman
with its meanings.
Think carefully.
What is Allah saying to you about Ar
Rahman? What does it mean to appreciate Ar
Rahman?
Which of the blessings of Allah will you
both deny?
Who's you both?
Sorry?
Humankind and jinnkind.
Now beautiful
situation.
When this surah is revealed, the prophet sallallahu
alaihi wa sallam goes to his companions and
he recites to them the whole surah.
And you recite till the end of the
Surah.
He sees them, they're quiet.
He says, what is this reaction?
I recited this Surah to the jinn,
and their reaction was better than you guys.
Authentic hadith and Surah Tell Me.
I recited Surah Al Rahman to the jinn,
and their reaction was better than you guys.
Every time I said,
they said, oh, Allah, we will never reject
your blessings.
Every time I said it,
they couldn't help themselves.
But human being
human
beings
human beings argumentative, human beings are weak, human
beings are foolish, they're petty. They don't appreciate
Allah's blessings.
Allah says how few of my believers, my
slaves are grateful.
Part of understanding Allah as ar Rahman
is to look in the world around you
and to see Allah's mercy everywhere.
Allah says in the Quran,
Go and look and search
for the effects,
the traces
of Allah's mercy.
Look at how Allah revives the dead earth,
and he gives it life.
Someone who understands the name of Rahman, they
don't look at the world like anybody else.
Number 1, when they have tests, we said
they look at a glass half full.
SubhanAllah.
I woke up this morning. I had no
clothes. Now Allah gave me one thawb and
an overcoat. I am blessed. They don't think
about the rest of the wardrobe.
They don't compare themselves to others. They imagine
I have nothing. Allah enriched me. This is
arrahman. The second thing,
they look carefully at the world that Allah
created.
Nature,
plants,
animals, and they look for the mercy of
Allah in all of these. Because in hadith
and Bukhari and Muslim, the prophet sallallahu alaihi
wasallam said, when Allah created the heavens and
the earth,
Allah ordered the pen to write
that I am going to give
portion of my mercy.
I'm going to divide this mercy into 100
parts.
99 of them I'm going to keep with
me, and 1 I'm going to give
in this dunya.
And this 1% of Allah's this mercy that
this part portion of Allah's mercy,
1% of it
is all the mercy in the world. Every
mother, how much mercy they have for their
child, and every animal, how much mercy they
have for their children, And every plant,
all the mercy we see in the world
is just 1%
of this mercy Allah created for us.
And the other 99%
is saved for the afterlife.
Imagine
all the mercy in this world is just
one part
and there's 99 saved for the afterlife.
Say again?
Allah's mercy upon us is over and above
the 1%. The 1% is our mercy for
each other. Animals, plants, human beings. Allah's mercy
is unlimited.
What's the evidence that Allah's mercy is unlimited?
That's Allah's blessings.
Ascent. This is why, Sheikh, I need you
in the front, Sheikh.
Allah says my mercy has encompassed everything.
Everything receives Allah's mercy. So Allah has a
general mercy that encompasses everything and Allah has
a specific mercy. Now how does a believer
see ar Rahman, the effects of ar Rahman
in the world around him?
When you watch nature documentaries
and you see how so many animals are
born inside an eggshell,
why weren't they born into the open? Who
protected them in the eggshell? Rahmah from Allah.
They have to crack the eggshell when they're
ready.
Why didn't Allah create human beings outside?
Why did he create them inside? Protected.
Rahma from Allah
When you look at the earth, the soil,
it's dead. It doesn't move. It doesn't operate.
But from this comes living plants.
They provide fruit, different colors. Rahma from Allah
Allah could have given us all the food
with the same taste.
Even the tea that we enjoy.
Yes. If you go nearby, you'll find some
very nice Somali tea. Highly recommend.
If you go to some parts, you'll find
karak tea. It's a Indian tea.
Go other parts, you'll find adani
tea. Just in tea, you have so many
flavors.
Why didn't Allah make all the tea taste
the same?
Rahma from Allah.
When you look at people,
so many different shapes and sizes. Rahma from
Allah
If you don't get along with 1, you
can get along with the other. It's fine.
Rahma from Allah
And from Allah's Rahma is he gave Rahma
within us for each other.
Allah describes His Rahma in nature, very often
in the Quran.
Allah asked this question, Surah Al Qasas. He
says, imagine Allah gave you night time forever,
no daytime,
always dark.
Who's gonna give you light for you to
do your daily activities?
Then he says, imagine Allah gave you daytime
all the time permanently. It's always sunny. I
know the British will be very happy. We
need a bit of sun. Right? Allah says,
imagine it was always sunny.
There was no nighttime ever for you to
rest and relax.
From Allah's mercy, you get day and you
get night.
See, this is part of Allah's rahma. If
we want to appreciate Allah's rahma, we have
to start looking at nature.
Take a trip to the peak district.
Watch a documentary about nature.
Go and see the creation of Allah and
think what is this beauty that Allah has
made. Yes.
Go Bismillah.
Beautiful.
That's arrahma from Allah. He's saying, when a
mother experiences contractions
and pain and kicking of the child in
the stomach, and you know all all of
this stuff that's happening, if any other person
received this treatment from someone, you would kick
them out. You know, you'd have a fight
with them. But the moment the child is
born, the mother's crying. The mother's filled with
love for this child. That's arahama from Allah.
It could have been diff whenever you see
anything this world, imagine
it could have been different.
Allah could have made it a different way.
All the fruits could have tasted the same.
All the imams could have sounded the same.
All the teas could have been the same.
Mothers could have hated their children. Husbands could
have hated their wives.
People could have been all uniform like robots.
Every element of this world is a form
of Rahmah from Allah
When you start to see this, you are
fulfilling Allah's command.
Go and look. Allah commands us. Go and
look.
Go and
look with your eyes,
and go and find where are all the
effects of Allah's mercy in the world around
you.
If you don't appreciate it, you have not
appreciated who is ar Rahman. Look at Surah
Al Rahman.
Most of the verses in Surah Al Rahman
are about what?
Allah's creation.
In the Quran, there is something that is
always called Rahma. The great the greatest form
of Allah's mercy.
Who can tell me what is the greatest
form of Allah's mercy upon His creation?
What is the greatest form of Allah's mercy
for us?
You get to see Allah Subhanahu Wa Ta'ala
on the day of judgment. I mean in
this dunya.
Just existing. Just existing is not the greatest
form of Allah's mercy. Because the kafir also
gets this.
There is a special mercy only for us
in this world, not in Jannah, in this
world.
Islam. Islam, iman the Quran. This is the
special mercy only for us. Allah says in
the Quran.
The prophets,
they say to the people, oh people,
can't you see if Allah has given me
clear guidance?
And he gave me a rahma from him.
What is this rahma? Is it Somali tea?
Is it capsicum? Is it shawarma?
What rahma is the prophet talking about? That
Allah gave a special rahma only for him?
It is guidance.
Ad Din al iman al Islam. Do you
know why this is the greatest rahma from
Allah?
Why is this the greatest mercy from Allah?
Because you might think to yourself,
if Allah has a special mercy for the
believers because when Allah says in the Quran,
my mercy has encompassed everything,
but I will make it especially for the
believers. What is the special mercy?
In this world, there is a special mercy
from Allah.
The special mercy from Allah in this world
is that Allah makes
this world
like a jannah for you.
You might be tired. You might be hungry.
You might be in debt.
You might be divorced. You might be alone.
You might be in pain.
But because of this guidance from the Quran,
you feel like you are enjoying this life.
This is arahma from Allah
Compare yourself.
Celebrities,
they have all the material goods in this
world, but they commit suicide.
Every day of their life is a miserable
depressing existence.
It's depressing.
They have everything,
but there's no they don't live a life
of rahma.
Allah says whoever turns away from remembering me,
they will live a miserable life.
The greatest Rahmah of Allah upon us believers
is this guidance He sent from the sky.
Allah says we reveal from this Quran that
which is a healing,
a therapy,
a medicine,
and a mercy
only for the believers. Why is it a
mercy only for the believers?
What about the disbelievers?
Because the believers are the one who take
this Quran and they want to follow it.
They take this Quran and they understand it.
This Quran makes them see the glass half
full. They are always happy.
As the prophet says, how amazing is life
for a believer? He sees everything as good.
If something bad happens to him, he's patient
and it's better, it's good for him. And
if something good happens to him, he's grateful
and it's good for him. They see everything
as the glass is half full. This
living this kind of a life is like
experiencing Jannah in this world.
Because trust me, there's other people, they don't
express Jannah like you. I'll give you a
very real statistic.
A very real statistic.
1 in 10 people
have thought of or have attempted suicide.
1 in 10 people. How many people in
this room? 60, 70 people?
10%
of everybody in the world have thought about
killing themselves.
Why?
2 centuries ago,
in Europe and in most of the world,
they decided they don't need God anymore.
Most of the Christians stop believing in God.
When you live a life like that without
Allah Subhanahu Wa Ta'ala, it is a miserable
life. You are empty. You may have everything
in this world, but you will feel empty.
Anybody know how much time I have left?
Half an hour. Finish.
Sorry?
How much
time?
Okay. I'm sorry. 27 minutes inshallah.
I won't take till 27 minutes. Don't worry.
Coming. I'm wrapping up. Don't worry.
The disbeliever,
life is meaningless.
If something bad happens to them, they have
no explanation.
That's why they call it the problem of
evil. Anything bad is a big problem for
them.
It doesn't make sense. But for us, when
something happens, we know Allah
behind this test, there's something good. We see
Ar Rahman.
Musa and Khidr.
Now imagine, look at this story.
They are 2 orphans.
They have no money and their father has
passed away.
How do they see their life?
Eventually,
Musa and Khidr, alayhim as salam, they go
and they uncover
that underneath a tree and underneath a wall,
there is inheritance their father left for them.
When Khidr is telling the story to Musa,
he says,
As for the wall, it was for 2
orphans in the city.
And their inheritance was hidden under this wall.
The wall is the test. The wall is
the pain. The wall is the struggle.
But underneath the wall is always
the treasure.
This is how you have to look at
life.
Behind the wall, the pain, the difficulty, there
is a treasure.
Allah wanted them to reach
adulthood before they got their treasure.
He had a wisdom.
And when they reach adulthood and they get
their treasure, what does Allah call all of
that situation?
The
whole thing was rahma.
Living years without their father, living years of
loneliness,
having no money, having a big wall, all
of that was rahma.
And even when they found their wealth, even
that was rahma.
If you understand arrahman, you see everything in
this world as a rahma of Allah. It
doesn't make you bitter. It doesn't make you
angry. You make peace with it.
Many people,
they live a life where they harm others
because they don't see the world in this
way. They were harmed, so they go and
fight with others. They were hurt by their
parents, so they hurt others. They were wrong,
so they wrong others. If you see all
of it as rahma, then you will have
rahma on others.