Johari Abdul-Malik – Belief Providing Safety and Security
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Alhamdulillah,
In the name of Allah, the most gracious,
the most merciful. We praise him. We seek
his aid and his forgiveness.
We send an abundance of peace and
upon our beloved prophet Muhammad sallallahu alaihi wa
sallam,
upon his family and his companions,
and all of those who follow in his
footsteps until the day of judgment.
Brothers and sisters,
Ibn Khaldun,
an 8th century Hijdi,
14th century scholar,
historian,
sociologist,
he said that
many people
many people
who are mistaken
look for the butter,
look for the goodness of something
without with avoiding the whisking process,
avoiding the difficult process in that.
Brothers and sisters,
this metaphor that Ibn Khaldun was talking about
was directly addressing
the core and the focus of Islam.
We often are oriented looking for euphoria. We're
often oriented by looking for feeling good. The
candy, the sweetness or as Ibn Khadun referred
to it as the butter.
But as Muslims, we understand that the only
way for us to achieve the goodness,
to taste this euphoria, to taste this sweetness,
to get the existential goodness that we're looking
for, janitor, firdos, or even higher riddha Allah
Subhanahu Wa Ta'ala, the pleasure of Allah Subhanahu
Wa Ta'ala.
We have to go through the churning,
go through the whisking process
of working on our souls.
And we are blessed as Muslims by mere
fact of us being here in Jum'ah today.
We're blessed
to have the best blueprint possible.
We've been blessed and given this
amazing religion
from Rubbila Alemeel. As we say in every
single salaam.
We praise Allah
The most gracious to most merciful,
whose mercy and grace we can't even comprehend.
The lord of the heavens and the earth.
So when we're talking about Allah subhanahu wa
ta'ala, it has to be we have to
frame it in this context.
Understanding
that this is the one, subhanahu wa ta'ala,
that knows us better than we know ourselves.
If we have small children,
we generally know our children
better than they know themselves.
They're young, inexperienced
in the world. They don't understand
perhaps their emotions. They don't understand how they
respond or why they responded to certain things.
When it left in Mathura'ah, Allah Subhanahu Wa
Ta'ala exulted upon all these examples. What about
the creator of the heavens, the earth who
created us?
The one who knows us better than we
know ourselves.
So when
Allah gave us
this deen, bless us to be Muslims,
it's not something that we can take half
heartedly.
And if we do, we won't be able
to glean
the benefits. We won't be able to reap
the rewards of it as it should be
done.
And when we're thinking about taking the benefits
in the Qur'an,
taking the benefit in Islam,
the way in which that we're able to
do that is through the Prophet Muhammad sallallahu
alaihi wa sallam.
The prophet Muhammad sallallahu alaihi wa sallam was
sent as Allah subhanahu alaihi wa sallam was
sent as Allah subhanahu alaihi wa sallam was
sent as Allah subhanahu alaihi wa sallam was
sent as Allah subhanahu alaihi wa sallam. The
prophet sallallahu alaihi wa sallam was sent from
amongst us, from amongst humankind.
Aziz alaihi
It means a lot. He deeply cares about
us.
And one example that we can take from
the Prophet Muhammad
to look at
this embodiment
of his care
was when he migrated to Madinah.
Before they built lamimbar,
he was giving the khutbah
close to or leaning on a tree stone.
This was where he gave the khutbah close
to.
But alhamdulillah, as the tawwur al umma, as
the ummal get grew and went forward,
they built some amimbar.
And one day they heard this weeping noise
coming from off in the distance.
Realizing that it was this tree stump. This
tree that the Prophet
prayed or gave the hultmanas to.
One narration says that he didn't he went
to this tree stump and hugged it until
it stopped crying.
The prophet Muhammad
cared about everything so comprehensively
that even a tree stump, something that we
know is inanimate object, it doesn't have a
soul. He
cared about.
The prophet we understand is the best of
creation.
He is our exemplar. He's the one who
we are striving to be like.
The question is, how much of ourselves are
we trying to be like this?
Allah
in his mercy gave us the prophet Muhammad
The best of creation, his habib
salallahu alayhi wa sallam
as a means for us to know how
to exist in this world.
Because we know that there are immense challenges
and difficulties that come in this world.
But a part of challenge for us as
modern people
is that belief, the construct of belief is
difficult.
We live in the modern world
where after Freud, the mind
and the body have been separated
And they have been secularized where the soul
doesn't even matter in the conversation.
When we think about belief, it's just something
the mind, our spirit, we're thinking it's like
a machine. We could make some some small
shifts. We do a little oil change. We
add this or add add that and it's
just gonna be fixed. We think that we
can get the butter as Ibn Khallun mentioned.
That we can get the sweetness to halawatul
iman
without having to go through that working process.
Brothers and sisters, this working process is gonna
look different for each and every one of
us. What we do to rectify our souls,
what we do to earn Allah pleasure
is going to be different. The prophet Muhammad
told us, Ehris ala nayim vaaq. Be diligent
in what benefits you. And
seek the aid of Allah
and do not tire.
We have to figure out what it is
that's gonna be.
If you're gonna give salatah,
give salatah.
If you're gonna pray,
pray.
If you're gonna fast, fast.
Do what's easy for you. Do what's easy
for us. Figure out what that is and
work hard, as the prophet Muhammad
said.
Islam, the prophet Muhammad
is the metric, is the bounds that we
have to know the limits of how we're
supposed to live our lives.
Through Islam we know where our hudood are,
where what we cannot do, what we can't
do. But it's so expansive of what's in
between that. We have to challenge ourselves to
figure out what it is that we're going
to do. How can we live our lives
to make that work?
And like I said before,
we have to remove and get out of
this thought that we can just make a
small shift and it's going to work. It's
not just a oil change.
If we're not praying, we need to pray.
If we're not giving our zakat, then we
need to give zakat.
But we have to be committed to doing
more than that. Figuring out how we can
make our entire lives Ibadah
by making our intention for the sincerity for
Allah Subhanahu Wa Ta'ala. What is it that
we need to do? How can we prioritize
our lives
so that every single thing is a form
of Ibadah?
So that every single thing is earning Allah's
pleasure. That requires work. That requires
challenging ourselves. That requires introspection
to know what it is about me that
makes me tick. What do I like to
do and what do I not like to
do?
By doing this work brothers and sisters, this
is how we can earn Allah Subhanahu Wa
Ta'ala's pleasure. This is how we can work
against ourselves. And this is how we can
have the churning process, the real difficult process
alayhi wa sallam. Oh, you who believe, send
an abundance of peace and citations upon the
prophet Muhammad salawat alayhi wa sallam.
And the bare minimum, when we hear his
name, we should send salawat alayhi wa sallam.
This process
of working on ourselves, the churning process, earning
Allah's
pleasure,
is one that is not easy.
We have to be honest with ourselves.
It's a process that's going to have ebbs
and flows.
It's going to have peaks and valleys. There
are going to be times when we feel
the euphoria, we feel the goodness, we feel
the energy
to pray and to have the spiritual orientation,
but there are going to be times when
it doesn't feel good.
Times that we don't want to give.
Times that we don't want to push.
But that's where, brothers and sisters, where it
requires the most work.
That's where it requires the most dedication, the
most prioritization.
And this concept of prioritization is one that
we have to ask ourselves.
When we think about our personal lives,
family and children,
what is it that we're going to prioritize
is something that we think about. Am I
going to go have fun with my friends?
Am I going to spend time with my
family? Am I going to spend time with
my children, help them with homework or am
I going to watch TV? It's a very
important thing that we need to make sure
our priorities are in line.
When we think about business or we think
about our lives and our careers, we go
to school and we dedicate ourselves or we
work hard and we endeavor in entrepreneurship. We
risk the ease by getting up early in
the morning and challenging ourselves. We do all
these things on a worldly level.
When it comes to material things, this is
easy. We understand that the only way to
have success materially
is that we have to do better than
jihad. We have to tire ourselves out to
get it.
But what about the aspect, the other dynamic
of our lives?
The most important dynamic of our lives of
earning Allah Subhanahu Wa Ta'ala's pleasure.
All of these material things with the proper
intention
can be imadah.
Spending time with our children. If we're doing
it so that we can nurture them and
help them grow up to be good, valuable
members of our community. Muslims who are strong
in what they believe and how they conduct
themselves, then all of this is Ibadah.
If we go to school and and get
a career so that we can be successful
members of the community, we can lower the
goal so that we can take care of
our families.
Emadah.
Every single day throughout the process.
When we get up in the morning to
go to work and we tie ourselves up
or we're getting ready and we're eating clothes
or we're getting haircuts and all of these
things. If we do it remembering our purpose
in creation,
it's all ibadah.
All of it is something that can be
comprehensively
looked at as achieving Allah's pleasure.
So brothers and sisters,
what is it that we can do?
What is it that we're going to do?
Do we have the courage
to challenge ourselves?
To make the intention
to earn Allah Subhanahu Wa Ta'ala's pleasure?
Make the intention today
to make one small step. As the prophet
Muhammad sallallahu wa sallam said,
The most beloved actions to Allah Subhanahu Wa
Ta'ala are those that are most consistent even
if they're small.
So make the intention today to be a
little bit more introspective,
to be a little bit more thoughtful, to
be a little bit more sincere and
diligent and dedicated to doing what we need
to do.
Because that's what it requires. It requires that
intention and constantly renewing our intention. As one
of the set up said that the,
intentions
are like a leaf blowing in the wind.
It's constantly changing.
We have to make an intention,
but we also have to put in the
work.
Making intention is not sufficient in making change.
I can't just say I'm going to lose
weight and keep eating the same way and
keep not exercising the same habits that are
going to happen. I can't think that I'm
going to run a marathon and not go
through the training process in order to work
my way up to that.
We have to commit, but that commitment has
to be a gradual one. Just like the
metaphor, if I think or lifting weights or
any other exercise as I referred to spirituality
as
the exercise of the soul.
You can't lift the gym, the whole, all
the weights today and think that you're going
to have the energy to work tomorrow.
We can't fully exert ourselves
right now
and think that we're going to be able
to continue tomorrow. It's small gradual shifts.
And like the example or the metaphor of
running, the most successful marathon plan
comes with the most consistent things, not running
the long race.
We're working at this brothers and sisters to
reach Allah Insha'Allah. May Allah bless all of
us with long healthy lives.
But the goal is to reach old age
in a way that's pleasing to Allah
If you feel that you've already reached old
age, what are you going to do with
what you have left?
So, after sincere intention
and dedicating ourselves,
we need community.
We need people around us. People that are
going to encourage us. People that are going
We're together for righteousness and piety.
Brothers and sisters, we're coming right out of
the pandemic.
We're coming right off the time where it
was very easy for us to stay in
our homes. It was very easy for us
to live in isolation.
It was easy for us to order everything
on Amazon and just stay at home and
we've acclimated to this,
which is only further challenging when we think
about the fact that we brothers and sisters
are atomized. Community is something that's secondary in
the minds of most of us.
But, if we're going to really
work,
dedicate ourselves to earn Allah's pleasure.
We can't be that long sheep. We can't
be by ourselves. We need people that are
gonna You should lubazuha bahu, the prophet Muhammad
said. They're gonna strengthen each other. They're gonna
push each other to earn Allah Subhanahu Wa
Ta'ala's pleasure. What are we going to do?
Who are the people that are gonna be
in our circle?
As the famous aphorism and statement says that
we are the average of the 5 closest
people to us who are in our circle.
What are the people that are going to
encourage us? The people that are going to
motivate us when things are good and when
things are difficult. They're going to pull us
and bring us to what we need to
be doing.
But it also
in community.
As we know with business or every other
aspect of our lives,
the most successful and the easiest way to
achieve that success is having mentorship.
Having people that we have accountability to. People
that we can check-in with and say, listen,
I've got this going wrong. I need to
improve here. I need to do that.
How is it that we're going to do
with someone who has just perhaps a little
bit more experience with
us? Someone who maybe has gone through what
we're going through? Whether that be marriage or
work or business or salah or whatever it
may be.
Devotion
is only the first aspect. It's only the
door into earning all salhamahu alayhi's pleasure. Devotion
is only
the avenue in. We learn fuq to learn
how to pray. We learn fuq to know
insala what do I say and how do
I do it. What we're talking about today
brothers and sisters, taking a step deeper. How
can we have lushu in our salah? Whereas
like the Prophet Muhammad said it was the
the coolness of his eye.
How can we achieve that though? These stories
of the companions of the Prophet Muhammad and
those that came after them are not just
stories.
These were human beings just like you and
I. The difference was their dedication and commitment
to it. The only difference was how much
they were willing to sacrifice for.
The famous narration of Muhammad Khattab where he
came to the problem Muhammad
and he said, I love you more than
everything in this world except myself.
Think about that.
Think about us in our daily lives. How
much else do we love
for Allah
except ourselves?
What are we willing to sacrifice
except our comfortability?
What are we willing to challenge except our
ease? What are we willing to put on
the line except our financial security?
What did the prophet respond to him saying?
Not yet.
Not yet, You Umar.
But what was the response of Umar? This
is the biggest shat in all of this,
I believe. This is the point. Oma Khattar
He immediately changed.
I love you more than Allah than everything
else in this dunya, including myself.
That level of spirituality, that intentionality,
that sincerity is what we're missing brothers and
sisters.
When we hear aya, when we hear hadith,
when we recognize a fault within ourselves or
we recognize a strength, are we willing to
commit like this? Myself included.
All of us are in this together.
So, what are we going to do? How
are we gonna challenge ourselves? How is it
that we're gonna work to earn Allah's pleasure?
Brothers and sisters,
this is something that's not easy.
I understand.
And And what makes it even more challenging
is our modern circumstance
intellectually
and socially.
But as we mentioned in the beginning, we
have been blessed with that Islam. We've been
blessed with this beautiful
amazing tradition
that when applied correctly,
we've seen its fruits from West Africa
to Spain
to Iraq
to India to Indonesia.
Across the world,
when applied sincerely,
it raised people.
And one of the beautiful things in in
focusing on the difference in all of these
places
was that in the uniqueness of it,
if you just go and look at them,
they all look different.
The clothing,
the style
of West Africa
was different than Sweden.
Which is very different than Iraq.
Which is very different than
South Asia. Which is very different than Indonesia.
In style, in Malab and Phuk, in family
orientation, in family dynamics,
in educational
style. All of these are different.
Brothers and sisters,
what are we going to do? Can we
take the same tradition here in America, in
Virginia? Can we take the same tradition and
make it one that uplifts us as a
community?
One that makes us better, that makes us
better community servants, that makes us better fathers
and mothers. Whatever trauma that we may have
or difficulties that we have experienced
is not sufficient of an excuse for us
not to work to get over it.
Perhaps you didn't grow up with a father.
Perhaps you survived war.
Perhaps you lived through sexual trauma.
Whatever it may be. Yes. As someone who's
pursuing graduate studies in mental health, seek therapy.
Yes. Speak to an imam of spiritual help.
But we also have to commit. We gotta
work brothers and sisters. We have to challenge
ourselves.
In my humble opinion in closing,
is that spirituality
brothers and sisters,
true spirituality
is finding the resonance,
finding the harmony
between our internal states, what we believe,
our emotions,
what we think and feel
and our external states.
Making those 2 in line.
Making it where our external
is beautiful, but our internal is equally beautiful.
We need both of those.
We need to believe in Allah
We need to believe in Islam. We need
to work against ourselves. Challenge what we believe.
Challenge what we feel, but we also have
to do the work externally.
Go to the masjid. Give the sadaqa.
Pray at night. Challenge ourselves.
Something I read this week is that one
of the Anamal was saying that you haven't
re spirituality
until you've fought yourself against fudul and known.
Extra sleepy. And immediately hit me scratch my
head. How many hours am I sleeping?
What am I doing?
Do I get my 8 hours but then
say, let's get a couple more on the
weekend?
Or do I use that time for something
good?
Do I need 8 hours
and distract from it because I'm on my
phone at nighttime?
Brothers and sisters,
this work, this project is the project of
Prophet Muhammad salallahu alaihi wa sallam. It's the
project of Islam. We know our beloved sallallahu
alaihi wa sallam will say to all of
mankind
until the end of time.
The prophet Muhammad sallallahu alaihi wa sallam cared
about our well-being.
As his dying words were, sallallahu alaihi wa
sallam, ummati, ummati. He was concerned about his
Ummah.
Do we care about ourselves the way the
prophet Muhammad cared about himself
or cared about us?
Do we care about our existential salvation earning
Allah's
pleasure the way the prophet Muhammad did?
Hazid al Khadun said in the opening statement,
how often do we want the butter?
How often do we want the candy, the
sweets?
Do we want the goodness of Islam without
being willing to put in the work? We
ask Allah Subhanahu Wa Ta'ala
to make us people of sincerity,
people of true iman. We ask Allah Subhanahu
Wa Ta'ala to make our iman something that's
not only internal but permeates externally. We ask
Allah Subhanahu Wa Ta'ala to make us people
of dedication and commitment and courage, willingness to
work all for Allah subhanahu wa ta'ala against
ourselves, against our shortcomings and our weaknesses. We
ask Allah subhanahu wa ta'ala to make us
a community
truly working together for Allah's sake
with ta'aw and aladiriwatatawah.
We ask Allah Subhanahu Wa Ta'ala to allow
us to overcome
our insecurities,
our deficiencies,
our negligence,
our arrogance for his sake and his sake
alone. To allow us to be committed to
this to this work of spiritual refinement,
of the tazkits and nafuz so that we
can earn Allah Subhanahu Wa Ta'ala's pleasure. We
ask Allah Subhanahu Wa Ta'ala to not even
make our tazkiyah, our working on ourselves superficial.
Make it something that makes us truly better
people. We don't need You Allah spiritual people
but horrible human beings. We need holistic human
beings You Allah, make us these people. We
ask You Allah to make us people who
love the Prophet Muhammad sallallahu alaihi wasallam. A
true love, a sincere love. They strive to
be like him sallallahu alaihi wasallam because we
know as he said, almaq mumamin
ahab, that the believer, the person with the
one whom he loves, You Allah make us
like the Prophet Muhammad alaihi wa sallam. Allow
us to be who will love the Prophet
Muhammad alaihi wa sallam so that you can
love us. In closing, we ask Allah Subhaana
Wa Ta'ala to make things easy for all
of our brothers and sisters who are struggling
in the world, whether it's Ethiopia,
Palestine,
Afghanistan. May Allah Subhana Wa Ta'la make things
so easy for them internationally, but also easy
for us not locally and nationally. May Allah
Subhanahu Wa Ta'ala make things easy for us
each and every one of us. And if
anyone is looking for to get a vaccine
shot, we have them outside.