Mirza Yawar Baig – Position of the Muslim
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In the name of Allah, the Most Gracious,
the Most Merciful.
All praise is due to Allah, Lord of
all the worlds.
And peace and blessings be upon the most
honoured of Prophets and Messengers, Muhammad, the Messenger
of Allah, peace and blessings be upon him
and his family and companions.
Peace and blessings be upon him and his
family and companions.
My brothers and sisters, our relationship with Allah
is based on two things.
One is love for Allah.
And the second is the fear of displeasing
the one we love the most.
I want you to listen to this carefully.
Our relationship with Allah is based on two
things.
One is love for Allah.
And the second is the fear of displeasing
the one we love the most.
So, who is the one we love the
most?
Allah, the Most Gracious, the Most Merciful.
So, one is the love for him.
And the second one is the fear of
displeasing the one we love the most.
Now, between these two is the place of
the Muslim.
Between fear and hope.
Allah, the Most Gracious, the Most Merciful, said,
mentioned in Surah Al-Sajdah, Arabic Allah,
the Most Gracious, the Most Merciful, said about
the people who love Allah, he said, they
are the people who forsake their sides, their
beds from their beds.
They get up in the night and they
stand before Allah, the Most Gracious, the Most
Merciful, Arabic They call upon their Lord,
Arabic Arabic And they spend in the path
of Allah, the Most Gracious, the Most Merciful,
from what Allah has provided them.
And then Allah, the Most Gracious, the Most
Merciful, gave them the great Bashara, the great
glad tidings, the good news.
And Allah said, Arabic Allah said, if they
knew what we have kept for them in
terms of reward, this would be the coolness
of their eyes.
This would make them very, very, very happy.
We ask Allah, the Most Gracious, the Most
Merciful, to include us among this list of
people who stand before Allah, the Most Gracious,
the Most Merciful, between fear and hope, between
fear and hope.
And we ask Allah for Him to forgive
us.
And we ask Allah, the Most Gracious, the
Most Merciful, to enable us to do all
that which pleases Him and save us from
all that which does not please Him.
Because what Allah promised is a reward which
is forever.
Between fear and hope is the position of
the Muslim.
So it is not fear of Allah, right?
It's not fear alone.
Because even the Shaytan said, Arabic He said,
I am afraid of Allah.
But his fear did not save him from
doing something to displease Allah.
And therefore, he paid the price for that.
So it's not just the fear of Allah.
It is the fear of displeasing the one
we love the most.
So it's not the fear of Allah.
It is the fear of displeasing Allah.
And why are we afraid to displease Allah?
Because we love Allah the most.
I don't deny here the punishment of Allah.
Allah said that He will punish.
For example, Allah said that He will forgive
all sins except shirk.
Except somebody joining partners with Allah.
So meaning if somebody dies of shirk.
Even shirk and kufr, even denying Allah, even
joining partners with Allah, Allah will forgive him
in this life.
If a person has been a mushrik, if
he has been somebody who has been worshipping
idols and whatnot for his entire life, and
before he dies, no matter how close to
his death, maybe five minutes before he dies,
because he doesn't know that he will die
after five minutes, but meaning that he makes
istighfar and tawbah, he genuinely repents his actions,
he asks Allah for his forgiveness, and then
five minutes later he is dead, this person
is forgiven.
Allah will forgive him, everything.
The one who is not forgiven is the
one who insists on this path of joining
partners with Allah, of worshipping the creatures, those
creatures may be creatures that Allah has created,
or creatures of the mind of the person,
theories and philosophies and imaginary gods, so-called
gods and goddesses, and a person dies on
that, he dies in a state of shirk,
then he will not be forgiven, and that
person will then face the wrath of Allah
and will face everlasting punishment, so we do
not deny the punishment of Allah, Allah Himself
said that He will punish.
Allah said, but we focus on the love
for Allah, because we are believers, we are
mu'mineen, and Allah mentioned this as a characteristic
of ours.
Allah said, and the believers are those who
love Allah, most, more than anyone or anything
else.
In their lives, the number one focus and
attention of their love, of their complete and
total devotion, expressed by complete and total obedience,
is Allah.
This is a very important thing to understand,
how do we express the love of Allah?
We don't express the love of Allah by
singing a hamd and singing a nasheed and
dancing in the streets, we express the love
of Allah by completely and totally obeying Him
and living our entire lives, and walking and
talking and deciding and speaking, and doing everything
with only one thought in mind, does it
please Allah?
So, this is the side of the believer,
we fear to displease Allah, because we love
Him, more than anyone or anything else.
Now, we obey Allah because of four things.
One, we know that Allah loves us.
Number two, we know that Allah knows best
what is good for us and what is
harmful for us.
Three, that Allah ordered us to do what
is good, because He is interested in us
for our benefit, not His benefit, because nothing
benefits or harms Allah.
And four, because we know that when we
meet Him on the Day of Judgement, we
will be questioned about whether we obeyed Allah
or we chose to disobey Him.
So, four things.
We know that Allah loves us.
Two, we know that Allah subhanahu wa ta
'ala ordered what is good for us, because
He knows what is good for us and
what is harmful for us.
And three, that Allah ordered us to do
what is good, because He is interested in
us, and that is for our benefit, not
Allah subhanahu wa ta'ala's benefit.
And four, because we know that when we
meet Him on the Day of Judgement, we
will be questioned about whether we obeyed Him
or we chose to disobey Him.
Now, these four things work hand in hand.
They are not four independent things.
They are four things which work hand in
hand and which define our position as the
slaves of Allah, Ibadullah.
It is very critical and important to understand
that we are Allah subhanahu wa ta'ala's
slaves.
We have no choice in the matter.
He, Jalla Shanahu, created him.
We are sustained by Him.
He developed us and gave us whatever we
needed, fulfilled all our needs.
And He gave us whatever we desired.
And He said that He gives us whatever
we ask for.
He said that He gives you whatever you
ask for.
He gives you whatever you desire.
And that if you try to count His
blessings, you will never be able to count
them.
Subhanallah, I was just thinking today.
I had to go somewhere and I was
choosing a thobe, which thobe to wear.
And I thought that came to my mind
was, subhanallah, if somebody asked me, how many
thobes do you have?
Right?
Just a number.
I don't know.
The truth is, I do not know.
I don't even know how many.
If you ask me, describe all your thobes,
you know, colours and styles and whatnot.
Forget that.
If you just ask me, how many do
you have?
I don't even know how many I have.
How can I thank Allah subhanahu wa ta
'ala?
Think about that.
Just one style of clothes.
I don't only have thobes, right?
Alhamdulillah, I have all kinds of stuff.
But just the thobes alone.
If somebody says, how many do you have?
I don't know.
So how can we even count?
When Allah subhanahu wa ta'ala said, you
cannot count the blessings of Allah, this suddenly
struck me.
That we don't have to go into philosophising
and saying, you know, okay, let me start.
How many faculties I have and how my
blood runs and how there are non-return
valves in the veins so that the blood
doesn't all settle down in the feet, you
know, how the neurons in the brain function,
and this and that and so on and
so forth.
You don't have to go all that.
Just look in your closet.
Just look in the fridge and say, if
somebody says, list for me what's in your
fridge.
Believe me, you don't know and I don't
know.
Just the stuff that we have, we don't
even know how much we have.
How can we even begin to count the
blessings of Allah subhanahu wa ta'ala?
So when Allah said, وَإِن تَعُدُوا نِعْمَةَ اللَّهِ
لَا تُرْصُوهَا This is no exaggeration, believe me.
This is no exaggeration at all.
We are seeing this in our lives on
a daily basis.
So therefore, it is through our gratitude to
Allah subhanahu wa ta'ala that we must
make sure that we obey Him jalla jalaluhu
in everything.
We do that because we are grateful.
We do that because we know that our
best interest lies in obeying Allah subhanahu wa
ta'ala.
You know, love for anyone is expressed, love
for different people and things is expressed in
different ways.
You love your car but you don't kiss
your car, right?
You love your child but you don't punish
your child, and so on and so forth.
You might have a fantastic pair of shoes,
you love them but you don't kiss them.
You don't put them on your head.
If you did that, you would be considered
exceedingly stupid.
How would you show your love for Allah?
We show our love for Allah subhanahu wa
ta'ala by obeying Him, by accepting that
we are the slaves of Allah subhanahu wa
ta'ala and behaving like slaves, not behaving
like kings, by complete and total unquestioning obedience
which comes out of total and complete trust,
which comes out of a deep understanding of
who Allah subhanahu wa ta'ala is and
a deep appreciation of all that He has
given us.
And we show our love for Muhammad sallallahu
alaihi wa sallam by our emulation of him
and his ways, by following him, by imitating
him, by emulating him.
This is why we are created, this is
why we are here in this life.
Just think about this, that if you are
on a path where you don't know what
is ahead of you, and nobody knows what
is ahead of them in their life, there
is no one in the world who knows
what is ahead of them.
It's not only us.
So you are on this path and you
don't know what is ahead of you, but
you have with you a guide who knows
what is ahead, who knows the dangers, who
knows the benefits, who knows all the shortcuts,
he knows the safety features of this path,
and he is with you and he is
showing you the way.
How comforting that would be!
I don't have to make any decisions, the
person who is guiding me knows what to
do.
How comforting that would be!
You know, I mean, many of you who
know me, you know that I travel a
lot.
Alhamdulillah, Allah swt has given me the advantage
of travelling all over the world.
So on one of these travels, I was
not feeling too well, so I asked for
a wheelchair, not knowing what would come.
So the check-in clerk, the check-in
counter, they said, we'll give you the wheelchair,
but do you want the wheelchair to...
do you want them to come and literally
pick you up physically from your seat and
take you out to the wheelchair, or can
you walk up to the door of the
plane?
So I said, no, no, I'm not that
sick, I can walk to the door of
the plane, but from there I would like
to have a wheelchair, so it's fine.
And it was a long journey, I was
going to London to speak at the International
Conference on Education, on faith-based education.
I was the keynote speaker in Oxford, so
I was flying to London, and I was
feeling very sick.
So I had to deal with Heathrow Airport,
I had to deal before that with Dubai
Airport, and I was travelling from India, from
Hyderabad, so Hyderabad Airport is small and very
compacted, I know my way around that way,
but Dubai Airport, I know my way around
it, but it's massive, it's huge and long
walks and all that, and Heathrow is like
a city by itself.
So as soon as I get to Dubai,
I walk up to the door of the
plane, the man is there with a placard,
I sit in the chair, and then I
realised the beauty of that, because this guy
who's taking me, he knows, not only does
he know all the ways, but he knows
the shortcuts, and he has access to doors,
which I as a passenger do not have
access to, but he as an airport employee
has access to the door, so as we
were going, at one point he took a
right turn, and I'm thinking to myself, where
is he taking me, and because there's a
locked door there, but he has a key,
he opens the door, he takes me through
that, so I said, this is fantastic, he
said, this is a shortcut, it will get
us quickly to the gate.
At the immigration counter, he goes straight through
to the immigration desk, doesn't have to stand
in the queue, because of the wheelchair, takes
me straight to the immigration desk, that immigration
thing passes in a couple of seconds, and
we are through.
Now as we were going, he realised that
it was a very short time in Dubai
airport, so he tells me, sir, please have
no fear, they know I have picked you
up, and they will hold the plane for
us, and if for some reason we don't
get there in time, don't worry, I will
take you to the lounge, they will put
you on the next flight, and there will
be no extra charge for you missing the
flight, because the responsibility is on me.
And I'm thinking to myself, Subhanallah, what a
fantastic deal this is, just asking for a
wheelchair, because now I have a guide with
me, who is taking care of me, who
knows the way backwards, literally, he knows all
the shortcuts, and he has access to places
and to people to whom I have no
access.
If I'm getting delayed on my way from
one gate to my boarding gate, I have
no means of contacting the people at the
boarding gate and saying, please hold the flight
for five minutes for me, even if I
did have that, they would not do that.
I missed a flight in Manchester just like
that, because we got delayed in security, there
was a very long line, and quite literally,
as we were looking at the gate, they
shut the gate.
But in the wheelchair, they would never have
done that.
So in this life, Allah subhanahu wa ta
'ala, not only showed you and me the
way by giving us a map, which is
His Kitab, but by sending for us a
guide, Muhammad sallallahu alaihi wa sallam, to hold
us by the hand and to take us
with him through the difficulties of this life
on the path of safety to a destination
of glory and bliss.
Now, why would we not follow that guide?
Why would we ignore that map and insist
on doing things our way, even when our
way goes against the way shown to us
by the guide?
Just ask yourself this question, why would you
do that?
If we did this in our lives, in
a worldly context, you would say this is
a sign of insanity, it's a sign of
senility, it's a sign of complete and total
stupidity.
They would say that you have lost your
senses, but we do this in the Deen,
we do this in Islam.
We do this in the Deen, which is
far more important than this life, because this
life will end, but the Akhira is forever.
I remind myself and you, let us ask
these questions before we are asked, and let
us make some changes in our lives before
the time comes when the door to change
will shut.