Hisham Jafar Ali – Names Of Allah And His Attributes #7 The Watchful Protector
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AI: Transcript ©
Last lesson,
3 Saturdays ago.
In this series of looking at the names
of Allah and His attributes,
we looked in some depth at the name
of Allah, Al Aleem. Al Aleem, the most
knowledgeable.
And we looked at some of the names
of Allah that are closely related to this
name, such as Asameer,
the All Hearing, Al Basir, the All Seeing.
Today we are going to continue this discussion,
but we are going to take a different
angle at Allah's name Al Alim.
Allah subhanahu wa ta'ala says in the Quran.
The heavens and the earth
in 6 days,
and then he ascended upon the throne.
He knows what enters the earth and what
exits from it and what descends from the
sky and what ascends up to it.
And he is with you wherever you are,
and Allah is for all things he's all
seeing.
In this verse, there's one portion, one sentence
of this verse that concerns us in this
lesson.
He is with you wherever you are.
So first question to the Masha'ikh. Does this
mean Allah is physically with us wherever we
are?
No.
What does it mean?
If Allah is not physically with us what
does it mean
he's with us in his knowledge this is
a consensus
an ijma'a of the salaf
that this verse does not mean Allah is
physically with us
wherever we are
people have mistaken this idea
they say God is everywhere or Allah is
everywhere it's a mistaken idea
but Allah's knowledge yes Allah's knowledge is everywhere
wherever we are
but there's something beautiful in this verse
He says in this verse,
he is with you.
And in other verses in the Quran, Allah
also mentions more specifically,
Allah is with the patient.
Allah is with
the God fearing.
What does it mean to live life with
Allah?
This is really what we want to understand
in today's lesson.
Allah has other names closely associated with Al
Aleem.
One of them is Allah's name Al Raqib.
Who can tell me the one ayah in
which Al Raqib is mentioned in the Quran?
Observe.
This is the meaning of Al Raqib,
the one who observes. We will go into
the meaning, but which ayah
in the Quran did the name Al Raqib
come in?
Famous ayah, most Jumaa Khutbas we say this
ayah.
In the beginning of
no. This this is too difficult.
And also elsewhere in the Quran.
Islam says to Allah, oh Allah, when You
took me away, You became the rakib over
them. What does it mean to be rakib?
Rakaba in the Arabic language. Rakib, rakib
is one who observes from a distance,
but
not observes from a distance in order to
some people, they watch you from a distance
because they're waiting for you to make a
mistake.
They want to catch you out.
Right? Like the speeding camera. The speeding camera
is not waiting to see who is the
most beautiful driver.
It's waiting to find out who is committing
the mistakes. That's what it's for.
Al Raqib does not look in this sense.
Al Raqib
is one who watches or who is looking
or who is observing
to protect
you, to keep you safe.
That's Al Raqib.
And so
tends to be in an exam invigilator
or a security guard. You use the similar
word for these ideas. One who is protecting
you. One who is watching to protect you.
And so
Allah's name Al Alim in this instance.
One way to live with this name Al
Alim is to know that as they say
in the English language
you know when there's somebody who's always looking
watching out for you looking to protect you
they say this person has got my back
One way to live with this name Al
Raqib is to remember Allah is always he
always has your back. He's always watching out
for you to protect you.
One of the examples of this idea in
the Quran is the Prophet Sallallahu Alaihi Wasallam.
He frequently,
he has a small group of believers,
and his enemies are many, larger in number,
more powerful in ammunition, more powerful in political
alliances,
larger geography that they own. So the prophet
salallahu alaihi wa sallam is always feeling
he is going to be overpowered. He's outnumbered.
How is he going to be able to
stand up to them?
And in the Quran, Allah subhanahu wa ta'ala,
he comforts him with this idea.
Allah says,
Allah is going to protect you.
Allah is going to suffice you. He will
be enough for you against all of them.
You may not have the tools. You may
not have the numbers. You may not have
the resources,
but Al Raqeb Al Aleem is watching over
you.
For innaka bi aa yunina, Allah says,
you are, we are watching you carefully,
oh prophet of Allah. And really it is
to understand this fact,
you may, you and me, we may be
alone by ourselves
away from every CCTV camera. Nobody is tracking
us.
But to feel
in that moment of loneliness, in the moment
of seclusion that Allah is still watching us,
and then in public to feel as though
Allah is watching us. Usually every single one
of us, we have a big difference
in how we look publicly, who we are
publicly,
and who we are privately.
And having this much of a difference
means
to some extent
we don't really think Allah
is Al Ali.
We don't think he's watching us. We don't
think he's hearing us. Because the moment human
beings are perceiving us, they're seeing us, they're
watching us, our behavior changes.
And the moment we're on our on our
own, our behavior changes.
This ayah, fasayakfi
kahumullah,
was one of the greatest sources of comfort
and reassurance and peace for the prophet salallahu
alaihi wa sallam.
And in fact,
Uthman ibn Affan radiAllahu anhu. Who can tell
me how did Uthman ibn Affan die? Anybody
know how he passed away? He
was killed.
He was killed. Anyone knows what he was
doing when he was killed?
He was killed reading the Quran. So imagine
this. Uthma'i ibn Affan is in his house.
He is reading the Quran. He has the
most have in front of him, and he
has been told that people are out there
to kill you. Many, many groups were out
there to kill him.
Somebody would enter the door of his house.
Imagine
someone freely entered the door of his house,
and he would say to this person, bayni
wa bayna ka kitaballaha.
Between you and me is the book of
Allah. You still wanna kill me? The Quran
is in front of me, and that person
would leave.
And another person came.
And he would say, between you and me
is the book of Allah. You sure you
want to murder me? And he would leave
as well. Until eventually,
they say the mister Ayun.
The mister Ayun came in,
and he came in, and he assassinated Uthman
ibn Affan.
And the blood of Uthman ibn Affan in
all the history books that we have access
to, the blood of Uthman ibn Affan fell
on one word in the most half.
The blood of Uthman falls on the verse
where Allah says,
we will look after you and protect you
from all of them.
Allah is enough for you, and he is
the hearing and the knowing.
That means,
however he died, whoever was against him, whoever
was whispering in the background
trying to plot against him, Allah heard all
of it.
And who was going to kill him that
day and how he was going to end
up and where he was going to go,
Allah was fully knowing of that.
Knowing that Allah is Al Al Aleem allows
you to let go of everything out of
your control.
We try to worry about so many things
that we can't control.
The economy
is not in your control. The weather is
not in your control. People are not in
your control. We cannot control the behavior of
other people.
Someone hurt you. Someone abused you. Someone's not
speaking to you. Someone scammed you. We cannot
control this.
But it is enough for us to know
and to sleep at night with peace knowing
what?
Al Aleem knows it all.
Yusuf alaihis salaam, when he's in the prison,
when this group of women is plotting against
him,
he keeps repeating this idea.
My Lord is knowing he's alim. He knows
every movement. You can plot, you can plan,
but al alim knows what you are doing
before you have done it.
And before you plan to execute it, he
knows how it was going to be executed.
Allah is sufficient for you.
Living with Allah's name, Al Aalim,
means that every time we wake up in
the morning,
we have to refresh in our minds this
idea
that Allah, Subhanahu Wa Ta'ala, is watching us.
He is protecting us.
He is recording every moment,
and there are things that we will never
say
in the back of our minds, and Allah
knows that as well.
And Allah Al Aleem is so powerful that
sometimes you don't even open your mouth to
ask Allah, but he will respond to your
dua.
And in the Quran, there is an example
of somebody.
They didn't even ask Allah for something, and
he responded to their dua. Does anybody know?
Somebody, one of the prophets of Allah in
the Quran, they did not even make dua
to Allah, but Allah knew deep down they
wanted something, so he gave it to them.
Who can tell me?
Allah says in the
Quran, O Muhammad,
we see you keep looking up at the
sky.
The prophet Sallallahu Alaihi Wasallam, when the qiblah,
the direction of prayer was towards Masjid Al
Aqsa, Palestine,
Jerusalem,
he used to deep down, he used to
want to pray towards the Kaaba, but he
never vocalize it. He never said it out
loud. He would just look up at the
sky and then he would continue his day.
He would not ask Allah for this explicitly.
Allah Subhanahu Wa Ta'ala said, we are seeing
you, O Muhammad, you keep looking up at
the sky. We know deep down in your
heart what you want.
We will turn you in a direction that
you are happy with.
How do you get to this level where
Allah Subhanahu Wa Ta'ala responds to your duas,
your deepest,
most sincere requests
without even asking you.
In a hadith, the prophet Sallallahu Alaihi Wasallam
informs us that the way to get to
this situation,
he says
that Allah Subhanahu Wa Ta'ala conveyed to him
that the most beloved thing that we can
do to come close to Allah is his
obligations.
And then we continue to get closer to
him with optional acts of worship
until we reach a level where Allah loves
us.
And when we reach a level where Allah
Subhanahu Wa Ta'ala loves us,
the prophet sallallahu alaihi wa sallam
says,
If you are to ask Allah for anything,
He will give it to you.
And if you ask Him to protect you
from anything, He will protect you. It requires
a relationship.
To get that kind of response from Allah,
we have to up our game.
The greatest and the highest level of having
a relationship with Allah, Al Ihsan,
as the prophet sallallahu alaihi wa sallam defined
it. What did how did he define Al
Ihsan?
To worship Allah as though you see Him.
And if not,
then at least to worship Allah as though
He sees you.
In this world, we are watched by so
many people.
When we go out from our houses, we
beautify ourselves for people. Allah told us to
do this in the Quran.
Beautify yourself when you go to the Masjid.
Right? But we would never dress at home
the way we dress in public.
Right? It may even be that for some
of us, the way we treat our family
members,
our spouses, our children, our cousins,
we would never treat our friends and our
acquaintances that way.
We can get away with a lot of
that with our friends and family. They'll take
it from us because nobody else is watching.
We get away with it.
Who you really are,
really, really, and truly who you are, you
know it deep down because it is who
you are when nobody is watching.
What we are comfortable with doing or saying
or feeling when nobody is watching.
That moment we do something, we miss a
salah and we just check was anybody there
and we feel relief that nobody was watching
that is the sign we have not internalized
the name of Allah Al Aileen.
One of the Salaf,
they narrate this this report, this story.
I don't know if it's authenticity
that a man
came to one of the early scholars of
Islam
and he asked him he said to him
I have committed Zina, I have fornicated
is it possible for Allah to forgive me
so that he said of course Allah can
forgive any sin except shirk as long as
you come sincerely to him So he became
so happy he smiled and he walked away
and then he stopped in his tracks
and he turned around and he came back
and he grabbed the scholar by the shoulders
and he asked him
Allah will forgive me.
But while I was doing that deed, was
he watching me?
And the scholar said, yes, he was watching
you.
And this man who asked the question fell
unconscious in that moment.
The realization
that Allah was watching
us while we disobeyed him,
while we disregarded him,
this creates within ourselves
another idea.
To feel ashamed in front of Allah. To
feel embarrassed in front of Allah. To be
embarrassed of ourselves and who we are and
what we have done knowing that really Allah
was watching us while we were doing it.
And if we don't feel that feeling, if
we don't feel that consciousness, that pain that
Allah was watching me, really he was watching
me while I was doing that,
he knows really who I am. If we
don't feel that shame, then the prophet sallallahu
alaihi wasallam said,
If you don't have Haya, if you don't
have a shame from Allah, embarrassment,
shyness from Allah,
you will do whatever you want.
In the late 19th century, there was a
man by the name of Phineas Gage.
This man was driving a truck.
And while he was driving a truck,
I think a building fell down, and a
iron rod, a metal rod went through his
brain,
went from one side and came out on
the other side.
A real historical fact in the late
19th century. He was a truck driver, and
a metal rod
went through his brain from one side to
the other side.
Eventually, they removed this metal piece. They did
surgery on him.
After a few years,
they were monitoring him carefully. Everything seemed to
be fine.
Imagine, he lost a chunk of his brain.
But over time, he was able to heal.
Everything seemed to but one thing was different.
For some reason,
this man, he would keep swearing and cursing
using bad language in gatherings.
He would dress in a way at outside
the way he would dress at home.
He would behave strangely.
He would insult. He would abuse people, and
this was not his character beforehand. The scientists,
they looked at his situation, and they said
a metal rod went through his head. The
only thing he lost was his ability to
feel shame, his haya'.
And any human being who loses
that, shame and embarrassment and shyness, and that
feeling that I'm being watched, I should behave
differently, I should behave appropriately,
I should be respectful,
If you lose this, you have really lost
a part of your brain. You have lost
a part of you. Your soul is broken.
And we live in a society where there
is no haya anymore.
There's no shame anymore. There's no shyness anymore.
People tell you do whatever you want. Don't
worry.
Don't
fear, but really what Al Aileen is telling
us
is are you really comfortable
that while you did what you did and
you saw what you saw and you said
what you said
Allah was watching you the whole time.
Does that sit well with you?
And this is where that feeling of shame
when you look at the prophets of Allah
Subhanahu Wa Ta'ala.
All of them, although they are perfect, although
they are free of sin, they all had
that shame.
The prophet, sallallahu alaihi wasallam, he stands up
at night,
and he prays the entire night
until his feet are swollen.
And when Aisha radiAllahu anha asks him the
golden question,
why do you pray at night when your
previous and your future sins have all been
forgiven?
What does the prophet salallahu alaihi wa sallam
say?
How can I not be grateful to Allah?
There is a deep sense of shame in
front of Allah, that no matter what we
do, we can never do enough.
And Allah, Subhanahu Wa Ta'ala, is watching and
recording everything that we do.
Any company in the UK, every year, they
have to submit their accounts, their finances.
What did they spend,
and what did they save, and where is
the money every year?
And because they know that there is a
date in the year when the taxes have
to be filed, they start to run to
collect all of the information.
But because they know that they can get
away with some things, every company across the
world, they try to avoid paying taxes as
much as possible.
Because they know
every shop that you go to that says
cash only, you know why they are accepting
cash only? You don't have to show everything
to the tax man.
If it's cash, it's invisible. It's not in
the records. It's not in the papers.
We do this in every aspect of life.
We are we are scared when it comes
to the regulators,
when the Charity Commission has to visit a
charity,
when the HMRC has to visit
a company and see where is the money
and where are the taxes, we shake. When
Ofsted visits a school, I still remember this
from my primary school days. I'm sure all
of you remember this. When the inspectors come
to the school, that is the best day
of the year in the school.
The teachers are dressed differently,
the lessons. I had one teacher.
Every year when the inspectors would come, he
would teach the same lesson.
I said, sheikh, we are in grade 9
now. You are teaching the same thing from
grade 7. That was the lesson. That was
the day for the inspectors. When they come,
this is the lesson he wants to teach.
All of us as human beings, we are
like that.
When the inspectors come, when the regulators come,
we jump and run. We
act. We pull out all of the tricks
in the book to impress, to look good
in front of the inspectors.
Think about this in your own personal lives.
The first day that a man goes to
visit a woman potentially for marriage,
the way she is dressed that day and
the way he is dressed that day is
they are never going to dress the same
way again in their lives.
They want to
impress they dress to impress your best face
forward the tea that is made that day
for this potential suitor the curry the rice
that's made it's never gonna taste the same
way again in the household
that is the best version you are ever
going to see
if even it was cooked by the wife
in the first place.
We always try to impress people,
but it should shame us that we never
try to impress
You can hide from people, but you can
never hide from Allah.
And he was with them in that moment
where they were speaking words that didn't please
him. He was with them. He was watching
them.
But not for a moment did they try
to impress him.
Not for a moment did they try to
please him.
Not for a moment did they dress up
for him.
This is the tragedy of not knowing Al
Aleem.
And Al Aleem in the Quran sometimes
Allah brings it in pairs with another name
Al Halim,
the tolerant.
It's amazing. He knows so much about us,
and he tolerates so much about us.
He watches our movements. He sees our behaviors.
He sees our speech,
and still he gives us oxygen to breathe.
This is Al Halim.
He's so tolerant.
Allah Subhanahu Wa Ta'ala says in the Quran.
If Allah really were to punish us for
the deeds that we did, there would be
no human being on this earth.
No living being would exist on this earth
if we got what we deserved.
But Allah Subhanahu Wa Ta'ala is so tolerant,
so generous, so forgiving, he gives us time.
He delays. He lets it go.
We
are scared of the tax man because we
know that no penny will not be accounted
for.
Teachers are scared of the inspectors because they
know their job is at stake.
But when we think of Allah Subhanahu Wa
Ta'ala, do we know the consequences
of his ilm?
Do we know that there will come a
day in which he will stand in front
of him?
Not a tiny deed, not a large deed
will be forgotten. It'll all be recorded.
Really imagine yourself in this situation,
that you get your book of deeds, this
book that you and I have authored, you
will get it.
And every single thing we did is written.
We never realized that to that extent it
was written. The smallest things,
a small glance, a white lie,
a word, a sentence that was said, everything
is there.
Imagine your feeling as you take that book
of deeds. Imagine how you will feel as
you read on that moment, on that day
that you and me, we displeased Allah. We
knew he was watching us. We did not
care. Imagine how you will feel on that
day.
That is what we need to remember every
moment.
The standing in front of Allah.
Al Aleem
reminds us
that while we may get away in this
world,
that our judgment and our inspection and our
auditing and our taxes will be counted on
the day of judgment.
Rama Abu Khabab, he used to frequently remind
us,
You inspect yourself now before the biggest inspection.
Weigh your deeds today before they will be
weighed. This is very important. Allah Subhanahu Wa
Ta'ala doesn't look at the quantity of deeds
that we do.
He looks at the weight of these deeds.
This part of Al Aleem,
As Sami al Basir.
Al Aleem
does not just look at the outward deed,
but he looks at really what's inside the
heart. I'll give you an example.
Many of us, we think Hajj is a
very big deal.
How much does Hajj cost today?
Right? Over £5,000.
Yeah. £8,000,
parallall, I'm before the inflation curve.
Someone saves for years years years, and then
they pay all of their money, and they
go to Hajj.
We've done this big deed.
Weeks in the heat,
tired, exhaustion,
shave our hair.
We come back. We think we've done such
a huge thing,
but
we know that Hajj has very strict conditions.
Hajj. No. Don't argue.
No intimacy.
Right? No sin while you're in Hajj. How
many of us? How many mistakes you make
at Hajj? And how many of us go
to Hajj only to arrive at the Kaaba
and to start a live stream?
Yes. I reached the black stone.
It's not about experiencing the Hajj, but it's
about taking selfies with the black stone while
being punched in the face. If you got
close to the black stone, definitely you would
be punched in the face.
This is there's no way to escape it.
There's a wrestling match next to the black
stone.
You cannot get away from this. But how
many of us go to Hajj, this big
deed? We think it's big. On the outside,
it's a very big deal, a lot of
money, a lot of time, but we are
not there really for the sake of Allah.
We're there to tick a box. I went
to Hajj. Now call me Hajji from tomorrow.
And on the contrary,
how many people do very small deeds,
small things,
but Allah Subhanahu Wa Ta'ala gives it a
very heavy weight on the day of judgment.
Allah says in the Quran
actually, you tell me, where does Allah say
this in the Quran? That you may do
something small, but Allah may consider it very
large.
You may consider it small
And what was Allah referring to in Suratul
Noor was when all of the believers in
Madinah were backbiting about Aisha radiAllahu anha. They
were slandering her behind her back.
They thought it was just a word, just
a rumor that was spread. You know, you
meet your neighbor. Do you know what was
happening? Do you know what that person did?
Do you know those 2 got divorced? And
it's a small thing, a small story. You
don't think you don't think very much of
it.
But Allah
thought very much of it. And how many
more of those deeds are there? Al Aleem
doesn't look at the outward deed. He looks
at what was inside your heart when you
did the deed.
Allah does not look at your images
nor your bodies.
He looks at the depths of your heart.
How sincere were you when you did that
deed?
When you gave that sadaqah,
when you smiled at that person, when you
came for salah?
How much in your heart was this is
for Allah, and how much was this I'm
doing this because my friend told me to?
I want someone to think of me in
this way. How much of it was for
Allah? Al-'Alim knows.
He knows
the depth and what is hidden within the
hearts.
Sometimes we lie to ourselves. We tell ourselves
we're doing this for Allah. We tell ourselves
that we're sincere. But deep down, when we
are on our own, we know the real
reasons why we did what we did. But
Allah knows before that, and he knows after
that.
What was the effect of Allah's name, Al
Aleem, on the Prophet's companions?
One example. Just one example.
The Prophet Sallallahu Alaihi Wasallam,
in front of him, Abu Bakr and Umar
Radhiallahu Anhu, they have an argument. They raise
their voices.
One narration states
that a tribe came to the Prophet, and
the Prophet sallallahu alaihi wasallam told his companions,
you choose a leader from them. So Ubakaar
said, that person. Ubakaar
said, you just like to disagree with me.
And Amurs said you just like to disagree,
and they started shouting in front of the
prophet.
So what did Allah subhanahu wa ta'ala reveal
at this point in time?
I haven't raised your voice while I talk
to the person. Good. Do not raise your
voice in front of the prophet.
Don't raise your voice in front of the
prophet, Sallallahu Alaihi Wasallam. Don't talk in front
of him like you talk to each other.
Now,
this verse came down as Quran. Do you
know what happened the next day?
Ubaka Sadiq Radiallahu Anhu
in all of Medina,
whenever he spoke, he would whisper.
Allah said don't raise your voice just in
front of the Prophet Sallallahu Alaihi Wasall.
But him knowing Allah is watching when every
moment, him cautious and fearing that any moment
in time the Prophet may be near him,
wherever he went in Madinah, he would whisper.
He would whisper
out of consciousness
of Allah Subhanahu Wa Ta'ala. This is really
the definition
of Ihsan,
the highest spiritual state
to live in this world knowing Allah is
watching you.
Knowing that our deeds count,
knowing that our sincerity matters, not just the
outward deed, but really the sincerity of that
deed, and most of all, knowing,
Fassayakfi
kahumullah
Allah Subhanahu Wa Ta'ala is watching out for
you.
I wanna focus on this last point for
a little while.
While the Prophet
is in the cave of Thawr,
and he sees on top of him
a group of disbelievers who have been on
a bounty hunt for his head.
And who is with him in the cave?
Abu Bakr Sadiq.
And in this moment in time, this happens
to all of us. When we get stressed
out, when we get scared, when we see
an enemy,
we forget Allah Subhanahu Wa Ta'ala is watching
and looking after us. Our wakr al siddiq
in that moment he gets scared
and he says o Prophet of Allah, if
they look down at their feet we are
finished
and the prophet Sallallahu Alaihi Wasallam reminds him
What do you think if I told you
that we are 2 but there's a third
one amongst us? Allah. Allah is with us.
Knowing Allah is with you is a comfort.
When all the enemies gang up against you,
when all of the world is telling you
things are going to go bad,
you knowing
that there is the almighty protector, Al Raqeb,
who is watching and he has your back.
He's looking after
you. In that moment, Allah was watching out
for the prophet salallahu alayhi. But
sometimes to teach us and to show us
that he's watching out for us, Allah brings
the evil this close to us and then
he takes it away.
How many of us have stared death in
the face? It happened to me once. I'm
standing on the edge of a road
and I'm about to step on the road
and a truck smashes into a car.
I'm 1 I'm about to step onto the
road
By a hair Allah Subhanahu Wa Ta'ala saved
me. How many of us we've all experienced
things like this
where Allah brings us close to death,
close to destruction, close to the thing we
fear the most and then he saves us
And he does that only to remind us
Allah is watching, and he's looking after you.
Many people, they live underneath these conspiracy theories.
They think that there's a small group of
people who are running the world.
This pyramid, one eye, this group of people,
they control everything. They control the rents and
the economies and the banks and everything.
And when they discuss this idea
and they share it with their friends,
it creates in them this fear,
this fear that there are a small group
of people who control everything. But Al Aileen
teaches us something different, a rakeem, a shahid,
a samir, al basir,
is that no matter who we think is
in control,
however small, however large, however powerful, however powerless,
really ultimately Allah is the one in control.
Allah tells the prophet sallallahu alaihi wa sallam.
The prophet Sallallahu Alaihi Wasallam, he's watching from
Madinah
and he's seeing
groups of disbelievers.
Large armies, 150 people going here, going there,
and he's thinking I'm so powerless.
They're so strategic, and I have nothing. Allah
says to the prophet, don't be deceived and
fooled by their movements.
They can move as much as they want.
They
will have a a short term of power,
and then they will come back to Allah.
Any powerful person, any powerful group,
any bank, any institution, any government, whoever it
is,
on this earth they may get away with
zulm, oppressing other people.
But there is a time in which they
will have to face
Don't ever think that Allah is unaware of
what the oppressors are doing.
He is just making them wait for a
day in which their eyes will tremble in
front of Allah.
When we look at the situation in the
Muslim world around us, we see so men
so much oppression,
so much oppression in the world around us,
and our heart breaks. It may be our
homelands that we are talking about, the places
of our fathers and our grandparents.
And when we look at them and the
situation they're in and the destruction they're in,
it breaks our heart. But this is the
ayah that comforts you. Al Aileen knows what's
happening, and he knows what is going to
happen, and he's not going to let them
go for even an atoms worth of oppression
on the day of judgment.
Don't think Allah is unaware of what they
are doing.
Living with the name Al Aleem,
the last point I want to say,
it gives you confidence in life to go
ahead and charge.
When the Muslims are in battle, whether it's
a battle of Badr, whether it's a battle
of Uhud, whichever whichever battle they are in,
what gives them the confidence knowing that they
have the lower hand, they have less less
power, less ammunition, less resources?
It's only one thing.
Allah
is with them.
He is helping them. He is supporting them.
Allah says,
remember when Allah helped you in badr when
you were small in number.
How did the believers win?
How did the believers win at Uhud? How
did the believers win at Hunain?
Was it power? Was it marketing skills? Was
it ammunition? Was it money? What really got
them across the line?
Allah reminds them, it was me who was
with you. That's why you passed.
Many of us, we have many obstacles in
front of us in life.
We're trying to pass an exam. Some of
us trying to get married. May Allah help
you all. Some we're all trying to climb
a different mountain in life.
Don't forget,
every obstacle, every enemy, every difficulty,
the only thing that's going to make us
succeed and win and pass is the help
of Allah subhanahu wa ta'ala. He is a
Halim.
He knows what it's going to take. And
the moment we think it's me that's going
to get us through, this is when we
will fail.
This is one of the reasons why the
Muslims failed at Uhud. They started to think
that strength was in numbers, not with Allah
And so knowing Allah is Al Aleem,
it gives us reassurance and comfort in front
of our enemies.
Knowing Allah is Al Aleem, it makes us
prepare like our inspection, our M. O. T,
our regulation,
our tax assessment is tomorrow.
Because it is tomorrow. It is today. That
assessment is going on every second.
Knowing Allah is Alalim,
we reach out to him in dua because
we know he is a Samir Alalim. He
hears even the words that we don't have
the strength to say to him.
Knowing Allah is Alalim,
the all knowledgeable.
We feel as though he is with us
even when we are alone. Just as the
prophet salallahu alaihi wasallam all by himself in
the darkness of the cave he remembered Allah
is with him even though he is alone.
Knowing as Allah, Allah is Al Aileen,
it helps us to try be sincere
because we know that we can wear as
many hats as we want,
have the longest beard that we want, try
to show our religiosity as much as we
want, but Allah knows what is hidden in
the heart, the real reason we are doing
what we are doing, and we can never
escape that reality in front of Allah.
He knows the true you.
He knows the true you, not the you
on social media, not the you that people
think you are, but he knows the real
you. And when we realize that, Al Ali
makes us ashamed in front of him.
He makes us break down in front of
him,
Makes us have haiya,
embarrassment in front of him. Knowing that whatever
we do,
whatever we sin, however we disobey,
Allah Subhanahu Wa Ta'ala was there,
and he knew every detail of that while
we did it. And if that isn't enough
to break our heart, if that isn't enough
to make us tear up in front of
Allah, then our hearts are hard
beyond savior.
This is how we can live with the
name Al Alim. And there are other names
similar. We said Al Raqib, the one who
observes and protects, the watchful protector. As Sameer,
the all hearing. Al Basir, the all seeing.
Al Khabeel, the one who knows the hidden
information that you keep.
All of this comes around the same idea.
We should live like today is our inspection.
We should live like today is our MOT,
and nothing will slide by.
Nothing can be hidden. No tax can be
avoided in the sight of Allah.
Weigh your deeds before Allah weighs them.