Khalid Latif – Begin Bismillah
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AI: Transcript ©
In the name of Allah, the gracious, the
merciful,
all praise is due to Allah of the
Lord of the universe, the master of the
day of judgment.
I bear witness and testimony to the oneness
of the law,
to his magnificence, his omnipotence, his might, his
glory.
To his being the creator and sustainer of
all things, the giver of life, the guider
of hearts,
the master of the day of judgment.
And I bear witness to the fact that
Muhammad is
a servant and final messenger. May the peace
and blessings of Allah be upon him and
upon all those who choose to tread in
his path until the last day.
It is said
that on one occasion,
a police commissions 2 of his Shayatin
to go towards 2 different individuals.
The one of the Shayatin as he comes
back from the end of his days work,
he's found to be someone who is very
content and very satisfied after doing everything that
he had done. And the second one looks
as if he is in a state of
misery.
And as they begin to speak to one
another,
he narrates the hadith to us. One says
to the other that how is it that
you are in the state that you were
in but I am in the condition that
I'm in.
That you look so satisfied. You look so
gratified. But here, I am in my situation.
What is the difference between us?
And the one says to the other that
in the course of the day, I found
myself to be very well fed
because the man who I was engaging, the
person who I was looking to be whispering
to when he would sit down to eat
a meal, he would not eat in the
name alone.
That this
was not something that was wet upon his
tongue. So as he ate, I ate with
him as well and when he sought to
drink something he did not begin, he did
not commence in the name of the divine
and so too as he drank I drank
with him also.
And when he sought to maintain himself physically,
when he sought to put oils upon his
own body, again, he did not invoke the
name of the divine and so as he
oiled his own hair, my hair too as
well was oiled and hence, I'm in front
of you in this way.
In the second shayabim, he said that the
person that I was engaged and the one
that I was whispering to,
every action that he undertook,
he did not fail to mention the name
of Allah.
And so I was not able to eat
from the meal that he was eating from.
I did not drink from the drink that
he drank from. When he sought to clean
himself,
he was someone who was cleaning on his
own. I could not participate
in that as well because each and every
action that he undertook,
he did so in the name of the
divine.
And we have to ask ourselves on a
motivation and attention that the decisions that we
are undertaking or the actions that we are
making are being done so in the name
of Allah. That over and over and over
and over and over and over and over
and over and over and over and over
and over and over and over and over
and over and over and over and over
and over and over and over and over
and over and over and over,
we
are being done so in the name of
Allah.
That over and over and over again in
our tradition, we find explicit mention with the
beloved of Allah.
He is telling us that when you do
something,
say.
Do what you do in the name of
Allah. Do what you do in the name
of the divine. Do what you do in
the
divine. Do what you do with an air
of
consciousness
that you are doing it for his sake
and his sake alone.
When you enter into your house, say, Bismillah.
When you sit down to eat a meal,
say.
When you drink anything, say.
When you are going into the restroom
are doing anything in the course of your
life that is worth
doing, do so when you say Bismillah before
you commence it.
But how often do we undertake this mode
of thought when we are going through any
of our daily actions?
Are we able to say that that which
I have done had been done with the
conscious exertion that I have done so in
the name of the divine?
And do I even understand what it means?
This word, this phrase, it is so weighty
on our scales.
When we invoke Allah, when we ask of
Him and we beseech of His help, All
of this is rooted in this phrase Bismillah.
And when we add on to it his
attributes of Arrahman and Arraim, it just adds
to the impact that we would derive benefit
from if we really said it and meant
it with an air of sincerity.
If we break it down, we find Bismillah
is made up of essentially 3 different words.
And when we add on Arachman and Arraim,
there are 2 more words that are added
to it. The that is there and this
can give to us three meanings or three
reasons if we were to really reflect on
it.
One of the purpose that this vow could
serve is that it gives us some kind
of closeness
to the thing that it proceeds.
Secondly, the ba denotes that you were seeking
the help or the aid of something.
And thirdly, the va is asking or it
is invoking
an idea of blessing, an idea of benediction.
You are asking for the Barakah from Allah
to be his action that you are undertaking.
The word Islam is something that is very
evident for us to understand
that it can be derived from the Arabic
which means to essentially rise or elevate something.
That we have the word
for example which refers to the heavens and
to the sky which is the same way.
We are bringing a certain rise to a
thing when we give it this name. We
give it this distinction.
Or you have the word
which when we have this word it means
to brand or to mark something.
And when you give something its name, when
you give it its ism, you are giving
it its mark. You are giving it its
distinction.
And then most importantly we have the name
Allah
himself.
That Allah is the name that we give
to that which we worship.
Allah is
what we call the thing that is the
object of our worship.
The entity that is the only thing that
is worthy of being worship. That entity that
we completely rely upon. The thing that is
the focus of our life. We are not
living the egocentric
world view but we have a god centric
world view and God in our tradition is
named Allah.
But we have to understand that as we
utter this phrase that carries this heavy weight
and we have to be able to mention
it implicitly or explicitly
upon every action that we are undertaking.
And we can see that when the
is put into a certain situation,
he too is recommended to have this understanding
that by invoking Allah
in this way, it will not only give
him a certain proximity to him, it will
give him a certain strength because he is
calling upon him for help and aid and
it will also introduce an air of blessing
into his life that he is most assured
that he need of.
We all know the story and we discussed
it before then when the beloved of Allah
goes
to seek solitude in the cave of and
his solitude is disrupted by the angel,
he comes to him with the revelation of
And the prophet
says my
that I'm not able to read, I'm not
a reciter.
He is someone whom we understand is not
able to read or write. Here the angel
Jibrael is saying to him, Iqra, read something
the prophet can't do.
And then he says to him, read in
the name of your Lord.
Read in such a way where you understand
you are deriving help and aid from the
divine.
Read in such a way where you were
asking the Allah
to be the source of your strength that
you were undertaking this action that you were
saying you cannot do and you understand you
can do it because you were doing so
with the intention of pleasing this Allah
And you were asking him to put an
air of blessing into it.
The prophet alaihis salam can't read.
It is not to undermine him. It is
not to belittle him. It's something that we
know he cannot do. And here this creation
of Allah is
Zohjal, is engaging him in this way saying
to him, do this thing that you cannot
do.
And he says, I can't.
And the angel says, do it and do
it in the name of your Lord.
And that will give you the means by
which you understand
how you can do it.
We have to be able to take on
certain challenges in our life with this understanding
as well.
Invoking the laws of Wajelle in this way
is the means by which we derive certain
strength.
We understand the value of it because we
understand the benefit that it will yield to
us if we actually do it.
But more often than not, we are exerting
an air of subconscious
understanding
when we carry out our daily activities.
I don't rely on my conscious being to
understand why I do what I do. But
I do everything that I do in such
a way where it's just my instinct, it's
just my habit that is yielding me the
manifestation
of my decisions.
Why is it that I get angry?
Can I be the person I am
and still do the things I do in
the name of Allah the
merciful, the compassionate?
Would I be able to do half of
the things that I do if I preceded
them by this understanding and saying,
I wouldn't.
But I don't say
it. It doesn't come wet on my tongue
the way that it is meant to.
Ar Rahman, Ar Raheem,
these are attributes of the divine that are
so powerful and things that many of us
have forgotten.
Compassion and mercy, these are the underlying elements,
the essential values of our tradition.
And more often than not, when we see
Muslims in a daily basis, we see a
harsh and somber and angry individuals.
Those who are commanding retribution
thinking that they are asking for justice. But
in reality, they are being more oppressive than
even the oppressor who has oppressed them.
Justice is not saying that don't carry vengeance
out on my behalf. That's not justice.
But even in the pursuit of our adult,
the prophet
was still compassionate in mercy
with an air of understanding that being recipient
of divine mercy means that you have to
exert an air of mercy between yourselves on
a human level. This is what the beloved
of Allah, alaihis salaam, motivated himself to do.
And regularly we find ourselves in a place
where we are not engaging Allah
by these attributes because we don't live up
to them.
Being Rahman is something that is uniquely for
Allah
himself.
Allah is not a name that you can
make plural. It is not a name that
you can find with a duel. Allah exists
as a name. As a word unto itself.
And the word Brahman as well as a
word that you can't do those things to
because it is a unique attribute that only
Allah
possesses. It is something that is only for
him. We can't be Rahman.
But Rahim is something that we have the
ability to encompass.
That even in the Quran, the prophet alaihis
salam, he is being referred to as Rahim.
It is something that human beings have the
ability to do. It is something that they
have the ability to possess.
That the distinction that is being made between
Rahman and Rahim is that Rahman is a
Rahma, that it is am in nature. It
is a Rahma that is for everybody.
Everyone can participate in it. Whether you are
young or you are old. Whether you are
black or white or brown or yellow. Whether
you are from any part of the world,
you are a male or a female,
even if you are Muslim or you are
not Muslim, the rahman of Rahman is something
that you have access to.
And Rahim, it is a kind of mercy
that is more complete in nature.
It is something that is dumb. It is
something that it has its fulfillment to it.
But there is a relationship between
them.
He says that Rahman
is such
that when you ask of him, he gives
to you.
And Rahim is such that if you don't
ask of him, you will get upset with
you.
And this is what we want to be
able to understand,
especially when we are saying this phraseology
of bismillah al Rahman al Rahim.
We wanna really understand
what we are asking of Allah
why we are invoking him, what is this
benediction that we are putting in front of
an action. And we also have to understand
that there is not an explicit action that
is being mentioned in this phrase.
That you have in the Arabic grammar a
term that is called.
And what it denotes is that there is
a word that is missing but it is
implicitly
understood. It is something that you know should
be there.
There is a verb that needs to happen
before Bismillah.
And you are the one who supplies that
verb.
You are the one who puts it into
the phrase.
I sit in the name of Allah.
I stand in the name of Allah. I
speak in the name of Allah.
I do everything I do in the name
of the divine.
I have a deep understanding that without invoking
him in this way, there is no blessing
in what I do.
And if I'm not able to do that,
I'm not going to get everything I can
out of it.
And then I wanna take it to a
different step where I understand
those deeds and those actions that I'm not
able to undertake in the name of the
divine.
There are certain things that if I truly
exerted an error of consciousness and when I
did them, I wouldn't be able to do
that because I could not defile and belittle
the name of Allah with
those filthy actions.
Can I say
before I hit my wife?
Before I yell at my child?
Can I invoke Allah
by his name and by his attributes of
mercy and compassion and take the lives of
innocence?
Can I find myself in a place where
I don't own up to the responsibilities
that I have been endowed with?
If I was just, in fact, saying this
thing that I'm taught I need to be
safe.
Many of us don't know why we do
what we do.
We just do it.
And the benefit of us making this explicit
intention for us doing the actions that we
do
puts us in a place where we can
catch ourselves before we do something we know
we shouldn't.
I say and
then I ask myself
if the verb is gonna follow
something that I can actually couple with the
name of the
divine. I use my mind. I use my
brain. I use my that Allah
has given to me. I move away from
my carnal self. I move away from my
animalistic self and say that I'm just doing
things out of instinct.
I'm able to see whether or not I'm
living a life that is God conscious
or one where I'm catering to the winds
and desires of myself?
How often do you start any deed or
any action
with this phrase?
On a daily basis, how often do we
remind ourselves of the presence of the divine
in our lives.
And even after we failed to utter to
mention his name in a way that we
are supposed to mention it, when we seek
forgiveness from him, are we doing so again
with the intention that we're doing it, seeking
his pleasure and seeking his rahman?
You rob, I forgot to ask of you
or think of you or be with you
in such a way where when I did
that which you did not want me to
do, I will not put myself now in
a place that when I invoke you for
your mercy, I will forget to do so
beginning with your name.
If the prophet alaihis salam is being told
that when you read and when you recite,
do so in the name of Allah as
a judge. And he himself is recommending to
us over and over and over again.
Everything that you do when you were doing
it, do so in the name of Allah.
Why is it that we have left it
behind?
Our stories, they are meant to start in
the name of Allah.
Our narrative, the one that we are seeking
to cultivate and the one that we are
seeking to share with the people, it has
to begin in the name of the divine.
It doesn't start from any other place. And
when it ends, it also ends with this
next world.
But if you're not mindful of him here,
what will you do when you were standing
in front of him there?
Miss Mirza ir Rahmah el Rahim,
5 words that carry very deep impact and
very deep meaning.
So important that they come with an imperative
in the first revelation
to the beloved of Allah alaihis salam.
Do this thing in the name of your
Lord.
And all of us know this verse,
but all of us don't do.
And the prophet
he
tells us in that foundational hadith that
that indeed actions are because of their intentions.
We are getting a deep understanding of the
importance of making an explicit intention
before every action that we undertake.
So that we can't get caught in a
frame of mind when somebody ask why did
you do what you did to me? We
would say that I wasn't in control of
myself.
I wasn't in a place where I was
in control of my emotions. Rather, my emotions
were controlling me. I wasn't controlling myself. Myself
was in a place where it dominated me.
No. I have a understanding that all of
my
deeds are because of some intention
whether it is implicit or explicitly mentioned and
the best of intentions that I do what
I do for the sake of the law.
And when I ask myself, is this what
I'm about to do? Gonna be something that
will make him happy and will obtain his
pleasure?
If the answer is no, I need to
stay away from it.
And if it's something that I know is
going to be something that will bring not
only benefit to me because I am doing
something that will make him happy, but it's
something that will be of a benefit to
the people around me. It is what I
have to go towards.
But I have to be able to understand
that in a very, very individualized way. And
if
not being done for this reason, I need
to be able to reevaluate
them.
There are many people in this world right
now who are claiming to undertake actions in
the name of our deen that don't find
any any evidence within Ishmael.
The Muslim world is full of all kinds
of atrocities. It is full of all kinds
of issues that people are using to justify
through our tradition.
And this is something that the likes of
you and I have to offer a different
narrative for.
We cannot let people believe that it is
okay
to undertake certain actions and certain mislead
especially in the name of Islam.
When you go out on a daily basis,
when you wake up in the morning, understand
with the air of appreciation and gratitude and
everything that you have been given, start your
day off in the name of the divine.
And when you go to your beds at
night, ask of him for forgiveness of the
shortcomings that you had undertaken
and put yourself in a place where you
praise him and thank him for each and
every blessing that you were given to be
a part of on that day.
But you start with his name, you end
with his name and everything in between goes
back to him.
And at that point, the satisfaction that you
were looking for will not be complacency
any longer. It will be contentment
because you are living your life in such
a way that you know the entity that
you were doing the things that you were
doing for looks for a reason to accept
from you, doesn't look for a reason to
push you away.
We cannot put qualifications
and characteristics
of the human level on the laws of
each other.
Human beings live in such a way where
we look to point out the shortcomings and
the flaws and the mistakes of one another.
Then we put ourselves in a way where
we abuse and we mistreat. We are condescending.
We are obnoxious. We are arrogant.
And we have forgotten what it means to
be compassionate and merciful.
That Allah is
al Rahman and he is al Rahim.
And we are told to remember this day
in and day out.
And the prophet sallallahu alaihi wa sallam and
his companions,
they tell us this in the hadith over
and over and over from the smallest of
actions to the ones that are the most
important and the most serious.
Do it in the name of Allah.
And we have to ask ourselves
what are we in fact doing in his
name?
May Allah,
subhanahu, god us and protect us. May he
bless us with knowledge that benefits us. May
he bless us with the tawfi to understand
and implement that knowledge into our daily lives.
And may He guide and bless us all.