Mirza Yawar Baig – We know you by your gifts
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My dear respected brothers, sisters, elders,
I remind myself and you
that Islam
is the name of the relationship
between our creator,
Allah,
the glorious and magnificent,
and us.
And so the topic of my
today is we know you by your gifts.
We know you by your gifts.
The
the affirmation of
that faith
is an affirmation
of that relationship
between the creator
and us who are his creatures.
And the one who accepts that
is a Muslim.
To accept this relationship means to believe in
it
in your heart,
to state that
with your tongue,
and to act upon it
with our limbs
and our faculties.
That is the definition of iman, faith.
Three things,
belief in the heart,
stating with the tongue,
and acting upon it with all our faculties.
Not merely to know,
but to believe
and submit our will
and to obey.
That is why
the first and foremost
demonstration
of that
faith
is salah, is the prayer,
which is the evidence of our iman. When
I say that I do I that I
bear witness
that there is no one worthy of worship
except Allah, then I worship Allah.
I don't just say that. I just I
don't just hold that in my mind as
an intellectual possibility.
I actually act upon it.
And that's why
also the first question that we will be
asked in our graves
when we transition from this world, whichever the
form it might take. You might say, well,
I
I'm not I wasn't buried. I was,
you know, atomized in a in a in
a in a explosion,
or I fell into the sea and 25
sharks ate me. Doesn't matter.
When we go
to the next world,
no matter how we go,
it's the same thing.
And the first question that we
will be asked is
mandra buk,
who is your rub?
Who is
your rub?
The angels will not ask, who is the
lord of the universe?
Who is the creator of the heavens and
the earth?
They know that.
They don't need you to tell tell them
that.
They want to know what is my relationship
with him.
Mandrub book.
Do we accept Allah
as our rub?
Do we accept
as our rub?
And believe me, on that day,
we have to produce evidence,
not just chatter.
Allah mentioned
a differentiating
characteristic
of the believers.
What is it that differentiates us? What is
it that sets us apart?
And Allah
said, that is
Allah said the believers are those who love
Allah with
great intensity
more than anyone and anything else.
Please notice, Allah is not talking here about
intellectual capacity. Allah Allah is not saying the
believers are those who have memorized the Quran.
The believers are those who know all this
all the hadith or know the of this
hadith and that hadith. The believers are those
who who know the Arabic language as at
at the expert level.
No.
The believers are those who love Allah,
and not just love Allah. I love Allah.
I also love this and that. No. No.
Love Allah supremely
more than anyone and anything else.
The question I asked myself when you is,
can you love somebody
or someone you don't know?
But how can we know Allah when we
cannot see him?
We know Allah by reflecting on his. We
know Allah by the way in which Allah
touches us in our lives.
Allah
indicated this connection
with gratitude.
We know Allah through gratitude, being thankful.
Allah mentioned this in the
where he said,
All praise and all thanks are for Allah,
the rep the creator, the sustainer,
the maintainer, the protector
of the alamin, of the universe, and all
that it contains.
The very first thing, therefore, that we must
thank Allah
for
is for introducing
himself to us,
for honoring us with his word,
the Quran,
for honoring us with his messenger,
Muhammad sallallahu
alaihi wa'ala alaihi, he will he will send
him peace and mercy and blessings be upon
him,
and for honoring us with guidance
with to himself,
which inshallah, we ask Allah to lead us
to Jannah.
My brothers and sisters and elders, the biggest
need of humankind
is not money
or political ability power or anything else,
but guidance to the way
of justice and compassion and charity and concern
for one another.
And when we die,
Jannah.
And that is why Allah
sent his messengers and prophets
who were the best of all human beings
with the greatest of all gifts,
guidance to the path of steadfastness.
And that is why we say this
counting only the 4th salawat, the a the
rakat,
17 times
every day
when we recite, which is a of the
and must be recited in every.
And so this is what we must first
and foremost thank Allah
for above all else, which is guidance
to him.
Sadly, for many of us, we take blessings
for granted,
and we do not express gratitude for them,
and we spend our time
complaining about any hardship that comes our way.
Allah
reminded us
to have an attitude of gratitude, not just
to say thanks once, to have an attitude
of gratitude.
Allah
said, and he has granted you all that
you asked him for. Allah gives you all
that you ask him for.
And if you try to count the blessings
of Allah,
just count him. You're not even talking about
being grateful and expressing that. Just counting. 1,
2, 3, 4. Allah said, if if you
try to count the blessings of Allah, you
will never be able to number them.
Indeed,
humankind
is truly unfair and totally ungrateful.
The encourages
us
to reflect on the creation and to learn
to see the glory and magnificence of Allah
reflected
in it and to thank and glorify his
praise.
This produces
joy in the heart
that is unequaled
and unsurpassed.
Allah
said, say,
oh prophet Muhammad
if the ocean were ink for writing the
words of my rub,
it would certainly run out
before the words of my rub were finished
even if we refilled it
with its equal.
Allah
reminded us to be conscious of his blessings
and to thank him and said that those
who are thankful,
for them, he would increase his blessings.
He
said,
Allah said and
remember, when your
when
your lord proclaimed,
if you are grateful,
I will certainly give you more. I will
increase my blessings. But if you are ungrateful,
surely my punishment is severe.
We recognize Allah
by his gifts.
Allah
Let me enumerate some of them as Allah
mentioned in the Quran.
For example, the first one, Allah
said,
Allah mentioned his own personal name, Ar Rahman,
the most merciful,
the most compassionate.
And he said, Ar Rahman.
It is the most compassionate lord, the most
compassionate rep who taught
you the who taught you the kitab of
Allah.
Allah did not Allah said, Allah Allah
did not say. Allah did not say. He
sent the either we taught you the Quran.
And he created humanity and he taught them
speech.
One of my lectures maybe next Friday, I
will do that.
When they count the number of years of
human
presence on the earth,
they start counting from the time when we
had writing,
because everybody has speech.
The animals talk to each other.
It is writing which captures
the essence of civilization. Allah is saying we
taught you language.
Allah drew our attention to the world around
us
so that we can recognize his bounties and
favors upon us and thank him
for them.
And he said,
Allah Subhanahu Wa Ta'ala said in Surah Al
Naba and see the examples. He's given us
such simple examples, things which we can see
around us every single day outside us and
within us.
Allah said, have we not smoothed out the
earth like a bed and made mountains as
its pegs? They hold down the tectonic plates
so that they don't you don't have earthquakes.
And we created you in pairs
and made your sleep forest
and made the night as a cover, and
made the day for livelihood,
and built above you 7 heavens, 7 mighty
heavens, and placed in them a shining lamp,
and sent down rain clouds pouring water,
producing by it grain and plants and dense
orchards.
The purpose of all this is to remind
us that no matter what our present looks
like, no matter how wealthy and powerful or
poor and powerless we may be,
no matter whether we are black, white, or
anything else, no matter whether we live in
America or Brazil,
no matter anything,
one day, we will meet him, our our
creator,
and then we will be called to account.
Which means every soul will taste death.
If you are born, you will die,
and you will only receive your full reward
on the day of judgment.
Whoever is spared
from the punishment, from the fire,
and is admitted into Jannah, into paradise,
will indeed triumph.
Whereas the life of this world
is no more
than the delusion of enjoyment.
It's not even enjoyment. It's a delusion of
enjoyment.
My dear brothers and sisters,
this is our reality,
and reality is something that does not depend
for its existence on belief. It doesn't matter
whether you believe it or not. That is
the reality.
So why does belief matter?
Belief matters because when you believe in the
reality, you prepare for it.
If you refuse to believe in the reality,
it will bite you still
and harder
because you're not prepared.
So believing or not believing has no impact
on the reality. It has impact on me
and my life.
Why don't we know it now?
Why is it that we are
deceived, or why is the deception so powerful?
Many years ago, this thing actually happened to
me. I'm explaining to you. Imagine that you
are in a IMAX
3 d theater,
and you're watching this fantastic 3 d movie,
and you are wearing the 3 d glasses
laying back in your seat totally
engrossed in the film.
And if they monitored your vital statistics, if
they attached sensors to you, they would get
some very interesting, even alarming results
on your heart and the brain scanners.
Your emotions would be in full flow.
Depending on the film, you would be laughing
your guts out or weeping the rivers of
tears.
You'd be terrified out of your wits. You
fall in love. Your heart would break.
You would hate someone enough to want to
kill them, yet, cognitively,
you know that it's all make believe. It
is all acting.
It's all a show. Nobody died.
Nobody fell in love. Nobody fell out of
love.
Nothing happened. All of that is show.
Call acting. Nothing real.
But at that time, when you are in
the grip of your emotions,
if someone called out to you and said,
beware all of this is false, I don't
advise you to do that. You will have
some interesting results for yourself if you do
that.
Go into IMAX theater and shout, all of
this is false.
If you do that, if somebody stand there
and say, all of this is false. Beware
this is false. The reality is outside the
theater. Did you lock your car,
or you may have to walk home?
What do you think will happen?
That is why people fought
the Anbiya, the prophets, and the messengers.
They fought them enough to want to kill
them. Some they killed, some they could not
kill.
For what?
Which which prophet harmed anybody?
Which which prophet said give me the earth
and I want to be your king.
Give me authority. Give me military. Give me
government. Nobody.
They said I have come here to help
you
to get out of the rut that you
are in and save yourself,
and for that, we get to be killed.
For that, they get to be killed,
and that's because nobody wants to
nobody likes
those who want to wake them up from
their stupor.
That is why intoxication
is so powerful,
and that is why it is Haram privated.
Our life in this world is the biggest
and the giant Imax, and we are all
sitting in it. It's the biggest intoxication.
I remind myself and you that it's time
to wake up
before the show ends,
and we are woken up.
I was enumerating for you the gifts of
Allah
which Allah
mentioned in the Quran.
Allah
mentioned all of these things, but he didn't
call any of them a gift.
But then he said this,
There is only one who Allah
called his gift, his niyama, his blessing.
And he said, indeed, Allah
has done the believers a great favor. He's
given them a gift and a blessing
by raising a messenger among them from among
them.
Reciting to them his revelation,
purifying them,
teaching them the book, the Quran,
and imparting to them wisdom.
For, indeed,
they had previously
been clearly
astray.
He was Mohammed,
alhamiibulmustafa,
Rasulullah
Sallallahu Alaihi Wa Salaam.
Allah
greatest gift to humanity and to the universe.
The receiver of the revelation,
and the key to its power and majesty
without whose whose teaching and guidance
the revelation
could not be understood or acted upon. I
say this clearly
with Allah as my witness
on the member of
Muhammad
The revelation
cannot
be understood
without the key, and the key is Muhammad
He is the one who connected us to
Allah,
and through him, Allah
opened his word to us.
He introduced Allah
to those who did not know him, and
he taught those who knew Allah
how to approach him.
Muhammad
is Allah
greatest blessing for us.
I ask Allah to enable us to recognize
this blessing
and to honor it
and to be thankful for it and to
express our gratitude
and to be blessed by genuinely
as was the intention of Allah
Thanks to
him,
Allah made and blessed us with a promise
which I invoke
for all of us.
Allah said,
Allah made a promise and Allah said,
yeah,
Muhammad
but Allah will never punish them while you,
oh Muhammad sallallahu alaihi wa sallam, were with
them.
As long as I'm as you are with
them, Allah will not punish them. And Allah
will never punish them as long as they
seek forgiveness.
I remind myself and you to continuously seek
forgiveness.
Continuously.
Constantly make that your.
If you are speaking to somebody for somebody
to speak, otherwise, keep asking mister Paul.
And I remind myself, I knew that Muhammad
is with us
to the extent that we follow his sunnah.
The sunnah of the Rasul is the Rasul.
To the extent we follow the sunnah, to
that extent, he is with us.
How much we want that
is up to us.
How much we want that is up to
us.
But if we keep him with us,
we are protected from the anger
of Allah.
Allah
said, it is not only about being thankful,
but follow him.
Truly,
you have in the messenger of Allah, you
have an excellent example
for whoever has hope in Allah who wants
to meet Allah
and who remembers Allah
often.
Who will want to meet Allah
on a day about which Allah actually frighten
us?
Only the ones who know that they will
be protected.
And we ask Allah to make us all
of us among those who will be protected
on the day of judgment
when there will be no protection except the
last protection.
So let us do that
and then
be with those
who will be honored by Allah
on the day of judgement.
About such people,
may Allah make us among them.
Allah subhanahu wa ta'ala in his infinite mercy
he said,
Those angels who carry the throne, the Amal
El Narsh,
those angels who carry the throne and those
around it glorify the praises of their
up. They have faith in him, and they
seek forgiveness
for the believers.
Just reflect on these things.
The angels do not do anything of their
own volition. They have no irada. They have
no decision making power. The angels do what
they are commanded to do by their
And Allah
says, the angels, what do they do? They
are seeking forgiveness for you,
for the believers, for you and me.
Who? The angels who carry the throne. The
angels who circum where circum choose who go
around the top half of the throne. They
praise and glorify Allah,
and then they seek forgiveness. Why? Because they
have been commanded to do that by Allah.
How can we thank Allah?
How can we adequately thank Allah
Allah said the angels, those who carry the
throne and those around it to glorify the
praises of their love, have faith in him
and seek forgiveness for the believers. Praying our
love, you encompass
everything in your mercy and knowledge, so forgive
those who repent
and follow your way,
the way of Muhammad, salaam,
and protect them from the torment of the
alphire.
Our
rabbi our lord,
admit them into gardens of eternity,
which you promised them along with the righteous
among their parents and spouses and descendants.
You alone are truly the almighty, the all
wise, and protect them from the consequences
of the evil deeds.
For whoever you protect from the evil of
their deeds on that day
will have been shown your mercy.
That is truly
the ultimate
triumph.