Mirza Yawar Baig – Foundation of Faith
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The foundation of our faith.
What is the foundation of Islam?
I submit to
you that the foundation
of our faith is gratitude, is.
And its flower
is hub, is love.
The foundation is sugar,
and the flower of
that is hub of Allah,
love of Allah.
Love of Allah,
who alone
we worship
because he is alone,
And there's no one worthy of worship
except Allah.
I want to begin with the Hadith
narrated by Abu Ghurairah
where he said
that Rasulullah
said,
as he expects me to be.
I can do for him whatever he thinks
I can do for him.
And I am with him if he remembers
me.
If he remembers me within himself,
I also remember him within myself.
And if he remembers me in a group
of people,
then I remember him in a group that
is better than they.
And if he comes
one span
nearer to me,
which is this distance,
I go 1 cubit
towards him.
And if he comes one cubit
nearer to me,
then I go a distance of 2 outstretched
arms
nearer to him.
And if he comes to me walking,
I go to him running.
This is
Allah.
I remind myself and you
that
the biggest need today
the biggest need, number one need today
is for us to reflect
the.
Allah said, And the consequence of that,
or are their hearts locked?
It's not a question of reading. It's a
question of
So think about this,
that this
hadith jhuti which is this is this is
Allah speaking
through
He only has to give the. He has
to order us to worship him. He does
not have to give us anything to worship
him.
He can punish us for not worshiping him.
He does not need to reward us for
worshiping him because he created us to worship
him.
If we are fulfilling the purpose of our
creation, you don't get a reward for that.
But not only does he reward,
but this beautiful hadith
make a little effort
and Allah multiplies that effort in keeping with
his majesty and grace.
Allah
said in the Quran,
Allah is asking a question.
How can you deny Allah?
How can you pray for a kid? How
is it possible
that you deny
Allah? And you are not dead.
Allah said, has
the insar? Has the human being forgotten?
That there was a time when he did
not exist. He was not even a memory.
You are dead.
You are dead.
You did not exist.
So here,
he gave you life.
And he will kill
and He will give you life again.
And to him you will return.
This aya
encapsulates
our entire existence
completely.
We were nothing.
We were dead.
Allah gave us life.
We became alive
and Allah is reminding us one day you
will die.
Allah. Remember, Allah gave you life
and Allah will take it away one day.
And that period between the time he gave
you life and the time he would take
you away, live your life as He ordered
you to live it live your life
because
you will return to Him.
He will give you life again.
There is no escape.
You will return to him.
And that is why in the shire,
very beautifully,
He said about this,
The child is saying, I am nothing, I
was dead.
I have no knowledge.
I'm ignorant.
But
most there, I cannot take a decision. I'm
confused.
My allergies,
I'm helpless.
I'm blind.
I'm blind. I'm deaf. I'm
I cannot speak.
And then he says
to Zinda, to Khayim, to Hayyim,
And he says,
I sacrifice myself on you,
You.
And
he
says He said everything I have
belongs to
Mira in the sense of my possession
is nothing.
Everything belongs to you.
This is the essence of Islam to understand
this
that everything I have belongs to Allah and
therefore
my gratitude
to Allah.
Allah is the one
who gave me everything I have.
And when I have this gratitude, from this
gratitude comes love.
My brothers and sisters,
Allah subhanahu wa
ta'ala
mentioned
for us
so that we might be grateful to him.
He mentioned his niyamat.
He mentioned for us his
blessings.
His blessings generally on all of humanity.
Allah Subhanahu Wa Ta'ala said,
He mentioned the day he created for us
to earn our living. He mentioned the night
he created for us to rest.
He mentioned the rain that he sends now.
He mentioned the props that we grow from
this rain. He mentioned the sun that he
sent he he set up in the sky
to do its job and the moon to
do its job.
General
blessings
for all of creation, for all of humanity
so that we might be grateful to Allah
And then Allah
mentioned a very
special blessing for us as Muslims.
Only for us as Muslims.
Begin with us and it's a special blessing
for the muslims.
And what's that?
Allah subhanahu wa ta'ala said,
upon the mumineer,
upon the believers
a very special blessing.
And what's the blessing? That he raised from
among them his rasur.
So it's a a double blessing. 1, that
he raised the rasur
and second that the Rasul,
we will raise from the believer themselves. The
Rasul is not a different form of life.
He was not sent from Jannah. He's not
a malak. He's not an angel. He's not
some foreigner. He is one of yours.
Double
honor.
And He came for what?
He came to teach, to to recite for
you the revelation that He receives
and then He came
to
purify you,
to prepare you to receive that revelation.
Because this revelation is not music. It is
not song. It is not something which can
be given to everybody. This revelation This revolution
needs preparation
to receive it.
It's like preparing the soil to receive the
best seed.
Without preparation, the seed will not germinate. The
seed will not give you a crop.
Purification,
external purification, internal purification.
And he sent him to teach you the
book.
Well,
Hikma, I sent you to teach teach you
the wisdom of what He sent.
Quran
and the sunnah of Rasulullah
Special benefit and special blessing
for the Muslims.
My brothers and sisters, I want to ask
you to do a little exercise.
That is list, you don't have to tell
me, in your mind and when you go
home, do that tonight. Sit down,
take a piece of paper
and actually list down
all the blessings that Allah subhanahu wa'ala that
I gave you.
Right? All the blessings, number 1. Number 2,
when you list them down, I want you
to separate them into 2 parts.
List the blessing which Allah
gave
you because you asked for them
specifically. Right? Specifically, I asked Allah what is
Allah gave me. Okay.
And then list down what Allah gave you
without your asking.
Make these 2 risks. Right?
Something I'm not saying that you Allah did
not give you something you asked. Maybe give
me. So learn that. What did Allah give
me that I asked? Allah give me this,
Allah give me that.
And then write down what Allah
gave without asking.
When I look at my life,
Not only did Allah
give me every single blessing that I can
count without asking. I'm not I'm not trying
to be polite or modest. This is the
reality, and Allah is my witness.
Every single thing in my life which I
consider to be a blessing, I didn't ask
for it.
I got it.
So do this as an exercise.
Right?
And that is why Allah said in
Allah Subhanahu
Wa Ta'ala said that He has granted you
all that you asked Him for.
And if you try to count Allah's
blessings, you will not be able to count
them. You would not be able to number
them. Forget
even forget about even that. You can't even
count the number of blessings that Allah has
given us. And indeed,
humankind is truly unfair and totally ungrateful.
And that is why the principle of gratitude
is to express the gratitude. Say you are
thankful.
Express this gratitude.
Don't take it for granted.
And that is why Allah subhanahu wa ta'ala
said
if you are grateful I will certainly give
you more, I will increase my blessing but
if you are ungrateful
surely my punishment is severe.
Even in this duasir, the rahma upon us,
Allah is saying if you thank me, I
will increase the blessing.
But Allah is not saying if you don't
thank me, I will punish you. No.
Allah is saying if you are not grateful,
remember my punishment is severe.
There is a difference
between saying I will punish you and saying
punishment is severe. I may punish you, may
not punish you, but watch it. Don't do
that.
Be grateful. Show gratitude. You will get more.
And if you are a great if you
feel a great for make a step forward.
Don't fall into the trap where you might
get punished.
But if you are thankful,
and that is why
he said,
The one who has not
thanked the people has not thanked Allah. He
has not thanked Allah
who has not thanked the people.
Sometimes when I say this to somebody and
say, be thankful, thank people.
People sometimes say, you know, what is it?
Why should I thank? I mean, you know,
usually, it's a a lot of times, this
is between husband and wife conversations
or it is parent or children conversations. Did
you thank your mother? Thank you oh, no.
She knows.
Why should I have to say, go thank
you, mom. God.
So my my answer always is, does Allah
not know?
Allah doesn't know? So why is Allah saying
you could thank me? Why should you thank
Allah knows.
Because
showing gratitude is about you. It's not about
the other.
Do that with the people in your life
because if Allah Subhanahu Wa Ta'ala should be
thanked for this reason, the people in your
and my life need to be thanked even
more.
I was doing a course, teaching a a
leadership course in in Chennai, in India
for a bunch of geomedical medical systems people,
and all of these were
Tam Brahms. They were Tamilian, Brahmin, Hindus.
Now in the Tamilian Brahmin culture,
there is something which they do every Tamilian,
Brahmin household. This is this is universe that
you will see.
They make the best coffee in the world.
They make this filter coffee,
freshly roasted filter coffee,
and this the the custom in the house
is that the lady of the house, the
mother or the wife or whoever,
she wakes up first.
She
goes and has a shower.
She does her pooja,
and then she goes into the kitchen, and
she makes this coffee. By then, the men
wake up, and she gives them all the
coffee
and they read. We have a newspaper called
The Hindu,
which English newspaper. They read The Hindu. So
this is a custom. You go to any
Tamilian
Brahmin house, you'll see this.
So this course, this which I was teaching
was a 2 day leadership course.
So on the 1st day when they were
going just before the end of the course,
I told them about being thankful. And I
said asked them. I said, tell me,
one day if you don't get that morning
coffee, what will happen? I said, oh.
I said, what do you mean? They said,
like, you know, life is finished. I mean,
I don't get that coffee in the morning,
I'm dead.
That is like
the
rule in the dead body. Right?
So I said to them, if that coffee
is so important, who makes it? Somebody said
my mother. Somebody said my wife.
I said, did you thank your mother or
your wife for making that coffee?
So there was one older man sitting in
front.
He started laughing. So I said, why are
you laughing? What's what's so funny? I I'm
not talking. He said, no, sir. But, you
know, if I thank my wife, she will
die.
So I said, let her die happy. You
know?
Go and thank her.
So now this day finished.
Next morning,
I usually go half an hour early to
start. I'm sitting there, 1 young guy comes
in
and he tells me, sir, my mother said
to thank you.
I said, your mother said to thank me
for what?
I don't know who's your mother.
He said, no, sir. I look at his.
He said, no, sir. Yesterday, I went
home, and I said to my mother, thank
you, mom, for this coffee which you make
every day. My mother said to me,
He said, in Tamil, who told you to
say this?
So he said, I tried to pretend. He
said, no, no, mom, you know, I should
have said, don't don't don't give it. He
said, you are my son. I know you.
Right? Somebody told you this. Don't give me
this garbage.
You you feel thankful.
Someone told you. Who told you to say
this?
So he said, I had to say I
said, our teacher, we were doing this in
dealership course, and our teacher said, did you
thank your mother for making the coffee? That's
it. So she said, tomorrow morning, the first
thing you do is go and thank your
teacher for telling you this.
Connections.
You build connections by expressing gratitude.
I wanna tell you 2 stories and we
finish.
The first story is the beautiful Ayat
recited where Allah
told
us about 2 incidents in
one after the other, I had number it
is, 259
and 260. Right?
Allah subhanahu
wa
ta'ala
said,
or are you not aware of the one
who passed by a city? This man came
by a city which was in ruins. The
city was abandoned in ruins.
And the man says, how can Allah bring
this back to life after its destruction?
He's asking a question
but see the tone in which he's asking
the question is how can Allah bring this
back to life after its destruction?
So Allah caused him to die.
Allah said die.
He died.
And
Allah caused him to die and left him
there for 100 years.
Me at the aamin, 100 years.
And then brought him back to life.
And then Allah
said, how long
were you in this state?
The man said, maybe one day, maybe part
of a day.
Allah said, no.
You
were here
in this state for 100 years.
And Allah said, look at your food. The
man was carrying some food and water. He
said, look at your food and drink.
They have not spoilt.
For 100 years, his drink and his food
was not spoilt.
And Allah said, but now look at the
donkey that you are riding. The donkey is
finished.
Bones and skin maybe even that is gone.
And so Allah said we made you into
a sign for humanity.
And Allah said, now look at the bones
of your donkey, how we bring them together
and clothe them with flesh.
Imagine what kind of a freak experience the
man is having. He sees his donkey coming
back to life in front of his eyes,
the bones coming together, the skin and the
flesh is filling up and donkey is standing
up.
Right?
And Allah
said when this was made clear to him,
he declared,
now I know Allah is most capable of
everything.
Now my question to you is this. That's
what I meant
reflect on the Quran. Think about this.
What year is this?
2024.
100 years from now, what what year will
it be?
21/24.
Right?
100 years,
2124,
yes?
Let me tell you something.
100 years from now,
every single one of us who is alive
sitting here today will not be here.
Every child of every one of us who
is sitting here today will not be there.
All our siblings,
all our friends,
everyone
would be finished. 100 years from now, nobody
will be here. Yes?
Now imagine this man, he comes back to
life after 100 years.
So Allah made a point. He asked the
question, he got an answer. Right?
But now what about his life?
He's alone in the world.
He has no family.
He has no friends.
He has no relatives.
He has no job. He has no career.
He has no business. His money probably doesn't
work. His credit card is dead if he
had one.
His house is probably gone because 100 years
from now, who's gonna live live in the
house? We don't know. Right? He has no
shelter,
and he still has whatever life Allah has
written for him to live.
That's hard, right?
Very hard.
All the man did was ask a question.
How can Allah bring it back to life?
It is the tone of the question. It
is the way He asked the question because
His question reflected internal denial. He's saying almost
this cannot happen.
This cannot happen.
Allah said, they say, how can this come
back to life after it has become part
of the earth? Allah says, they are denying
Allah.
They are denying the meeting with Allah.
The man asked him that tone of voice,
how is it possible with Allah? He's asking
a question in a challenging tone, in a
denial tone. The second man has a connection.
He's asking a question.
What did he say?
See the tone of that question
and see the way that question is answered.
Allah says and remember when Ibrahim said,
my Rabbi,
my Rab
show me how you give life to the
dead.
This man says, how can Allah
bring back those people alive? Allah says, die.
Leaves him for a 100 years then he
says, come back to life.
Now you know.
Even when I said, I'm saying, how do
you bring that to life? Allah said, Don't
you believe me?
Allah
said, You don't believe?
Allah did not say that. No.
You don't believe? He says, of course I
believe you Allah,
but for the
tongue. Rasulullah said,
if
Ibrahim had to say for the of his
car, we have even more right to say
for the of our
So Anasulullah says,
he says, show me how you give life
to the rest. Allah says, don't you believe?
Ibrahim Alaihi Salam said, yes, of course I
believe, but just so my heart,
my heart has been reassured.
So now Allah
gives him a project. Imagine
Iba at this time is a boy.
Maybe he's 8 years old, 10 years old,
something like
Before before.
He's not Khalil, yet he's on the way
to become
a.
So Allah
gives you a project.
Allah says go and
catch
4 wild birds. Allah did not say get
4 chickens and 2 and or 2 chickens
and 2 ducks. No?
Four birds. Wild birds.
And Allah did not say cattle and put
them in cages. No. Allah said raise them
and tame them in a way that when
you call them, they come to you. Free
flying birds.
Now what does it mean?
Four different
species,
they all have different gestation period for the
eggs. He has to go find those nests
where the nest are.
He has to watch the nest to see
if the eggs are there. He has to
watch when the fledgings are hatching.
He has to catch them, take them out
of the nest at the exact time because
if he leave them too long, they become
older. They will fly away. They won't come.
If we take them too early, it's probably
they will die with him because he can't
feed them.
Exact time. Then he must know what to
feed them. They ought to eat different things.
All of this project Allah has given this
this little boy the whole project.
So when he finishes all this, maybe it
takes months.
When he finishes all this and his birds
are not tame, imagine this little boy is
running around with birds and some one is
sitting here, one is sitting here, they're his
friends. He calls them with a free flying
birds. Then Allah
says, now
slaughter them,
chop them all up, mix it all up
and then put
a lump of this on
I we don't even know how many how
many hills. Whatever number of hills, put them
there
and then go stand in the middle and
call them, they will come to you flying.
Put yourself in that position. Now this boy
does all this and he stand there. He
calls about they come flying. Imagine, what's happening
to his heart?
How how much he feel?
This is Allah.
This is the
power of connection.
This conversation,
This is an odd combination between 2
who talk
over them.
It's not new. This is not Ibrahim when
he's praying
and starting and making dua. No, this is
an ordinary conversation.
Here's this boy running around, he gets a
thought in his mind. Yeah, Allah, tell me.
Build the connection with Allah.
Talk to Allah.
Allah subhanahu wa'am said, understand every language.
Allah did not put any conditions on talking
to him. Allah did not say he must
be wulu, he must feel guilty. No. Nothing.
Talk to Allah.
Ask Allah whatever you want.
Knowing that he can give.
Make dua and say, you Rabbi give me
because you can give.
Give me because I'm asking.
Give me because I don't ask anybody else
and you know this, you are my witness.
I do not ask anyone, ask for you
so give me.
Build a connection with Allah.
My brothers and sisters,
this is the key
of
Islam,
the connection
with Allah
And then we have this connection
which comes out of gratitude,
which comes out of thankfulness.
And then we are grateful to Allah and
we have the connection,
it produces hope,
love of
Allah. And because of love of Allah,
it produces the desire to obey Allah.
We bring and we make Allah first in
our lives because Allah is first in our
lives.
We factor Allah into the equation in every
decision because he is in it anyway.
This produces
the desire to obey Allah.
What is the name of that desire?
And
is the key to
success in this life and the art.
But Allah
said that
for the,
Allah
will remove him from his difficulties.
Allah said Allah for the muntaqi Allah will
extract him from his difficulties
and He will provide him from sources he
cannot imagine.
Why should Allah say this? Tell me.
If Allah says, I will give him whatever
he needs. I will fulfill his needs. It
is enough. No? No. Allah wants to amaze
you.
Allah wants to show his.
Not only will I give you, but I
will give you from places you cannot even
imagine. You look at the wall and say
this is the wall, lassen, this is the
door.
This wall will open for you.
When you strike the water, the ocean will
part for you.
When you fear for your child, you will
throw him in a basket into the river,
into the Nile, which is 4 of the
biggest crocodiles in the world.
Allah will make this boy go into the
home of the one who sworn
to kill this particular
child
and then Allah will cause the particular child
to be recognized
and confirmed
that this is the actual one you should
kill. You killed 70,000
innocent ones, but this is the one He
is in your hand and then Allah will
make the same person
the guardian of that child.
You will not be able to imagine from
what
to provide us in ways which we which
amaze us and where we found out in.
We ask
to make us
and the and the and the and the
people who are who seek the forgiveness of
Allah
and we ask Allah
Muslims of us, we ask Allah
to help those who are supposed to help
them are not helping them. We ask Allah
to make them help them so that when
they stand before Allah,
they will have something to say that I
did what I was supposed to do. We
ask
Allah to be pleased with us and to
enable us to do that with pleases him
and to save us from that, which does
not please him.