Mohammad Elshinawy – God Is Good AllahS Name Al-Barr
AI: Summary ©
The transcript describes Jesus's concept of goodness and generosity, using examples and phrases like "
" and "
" as examples." It also discusses the history of Islam, including the story of the Prophet Alayshi, who gave a sermon to a woman who was supposedly killed by a woman who was supposedly a victim of abuse. The segment emphasizes the importance of acknowledging one's mistake and apologizing for it, as it is crucial for one to achieve their potential.
" and "
" as examples." It also discusses the history of Islam, including the story of the Prophet Alayshi, who gave a sermon to a woman who was supposedly killed by a woman who was supposedly a victim of abuse. The segment emphasizes the importance of acknowledging one's mistake and apologizing for it, as it is crucial for one to achieve their potential.
AI: Summary ©
Brothers and sisters, after praising Allah subhanahu wa
ta'ala, the glorified and exalted and testify
to his unique oneness and to Muhammad sallallahu
alayhi wa sallam being his final prophet and
messenger, and after welcoming you all to the
house of Allah azza wa jal, the mighty,
the majestic, and reminding myself and you with
our ultimate duty and purpose in life, the
taqwa of Allah, to be conscious of Him.
Brothers and sisters, yesterday afternoon, as I was
studying along with my students the name of
Allah al-Barr, a name of Allah we
find in the Qur'an, one of his
beautiful names.
I was hit with a very heavy feeling
of deja vu, you know that notion of
like, I've been here before.
I reflected on the fact that every time
I come back to studying this name, al
-Barr, I have this deep wish inside me
that more Muslims knew what it meant.
And so inshallah, after today's khutbah, a few
more Muslims will know what it means.
What is al-Barr?
Al-Barr is most loosely translated or commonly
translated as the most kind.
And it is really one of the names
of Allah, and they all point to each
other in different ways, right, that reminds us
of his gentleness, reminds us of his generosity,
reminds us of his protectiveness, reminds us of
his kindness.
It is really about that notion that people
often say, even in English, that God is
good.
Like the epitome of goodness, the ultimate goodness,
overwhelming kindness and goodness is what Allah is
all about.
The name of al-Barr encapsulates all of
those meanings.
But to deepen our appreciation of where it
comes from, the Arabs use the word Barr
or Barari to refer to deserts, open lands.
So you say, I was in the town,
town is congested, I went out to the
Barr, I went out to the desert.
So something that is vast, right?
The vastness of Allah's goodness should come to
mind with the name al-Barr.
And also, the Arabs use the term Barr,
just the word Barr, the noun, in reference
to the shore, like the land meaning we're
out of the sea.
We're out of the dangerous, turbulent, topsy-turvy,
unstable sea.
Even the Qur'an says, فَلَمَّا نَجَّاهُمْ إِلَى
الْبَرِّ إِذَا هُمْ يُشْرِكُونَ Their lives are on
the line, they're screaming in desperation because they're
going through a storm at sea.
Then Allah brings them to the Barr.
And so it is about stability, this term,
and it is about vastness.
Now you bring that to Allah عز و
جل.
He chose the name al-Barr for Himself
so that we will have a placeholder, if
you will.
A representation in one of these beautiful names,
in our heart, a representation of how vast
His goodness is, unimaginably wide, boundless.
And how consistent, how stable His goodness is,
His kindness is, His generosity is.
This is why Imam al-Qurtubi رحمه الله,
when he was explaining Allah's name al-Barr,
he says it means that He is the
one whose kindness is not interrupted by the
corruptness of His slaves.
No matter how they treat Him, He treats
them differently.
And this is throughout the Qur'an.
Allah عز و جل says, وَلَوْ يُؤَخِذُ اللَّهُ
النَّاسَ بِمَا كَسَبُوا مَا تَرَكَ عَلَى ظَهْرِهَا مِن
دَابَّةٍ وَلَكِن يُؤَخِرُهُمْ إِلَى أَجَلٍ مُسَمَّةٍ If Allah
were to hold people accountable for what they've
done, their misdeeds, their misconduct, He would not
have left a living being left on earth.
Like if every time someone messed up, the
lightning bolt came immediately.
There'd be nobody left.
But the fact that He defers people, He
gives a grace period, He doesn't treat them
immediately.
The way they treat Him, it's because He's
al-Barr.
That's who He is سبحانه وتعالى.
He defers them.
He defers His anger.
He allows for U-turns.
You're going in opposite direction.
For 20, 30, 40, you still can make
a U-turn on the path of Allah
عَزَّ وَجَلَّ.
Because why?
Because He's al-Barr.
Or even Ibrahim عليه السلام.
You know when he placed his wife and
his newborn child in the barren desert, He
said اِجْعَلْ هَذَا بَلَدًا آمِنًا Oh Allah, make
this a safe place for them.
It's the wilderness, right?
وَارْزُقْ أَهْلَهُ مِنَ الثَّمَرَاتِ Make this a safe
land and provide its people, whoever happens to
take up residence here, provide them منَ الثَّمَرَاتِ
from the produce, the vegetation, the means of
life and sustenance.
مَنْ آمَنَ مِنْهُمْ بِاللَّهِ وَالْيَوْمِ الْآخِرِ Provide them,
whomever of them believes in you and in
the last day.
So Allah عزَّ وَجَلَّ responds to Ibrahim عليه
السلام and He says what?
قَالَ وَمَنْ كَفَرُ And those who disbelieve.
Not just those of them who believe I'm
going to provide.
And those who disbelieve, meaning I will also
provide for them, even if they refuse to
recognize me, they refuse to accept me, refuse
to submit to me, refuse to admit that
I exist, I'm still going to provide for
them.
I'm still going to grant them health and
shelter and food and water.
Why?
Because he's Al-Barr, consistent in his kindness,
stable, vast, open-ended in his grace or
his graciousness.
سُبْحَانَهُ وَتَعَالَى And it's not just disbelievers who
reject him, it's also disobedient people who don't
comply with him, the non-compliant, the sinful
being that many times the believer finds himself
in that state.
You know one person, very eloquently, brilliantly, when
he's capturing this concept, he says, think about
it, you know that moment when you close
the door behind yourself to commit that sin?
And he saw you, he didn't hear about
this, he saw you himself committing that sin.
And not just that he see you, he
saw your heart non-caring about what he
thought, because the door was not for him,
the door was for the people.
So he saw that you cared more about
your image in front of people and had
no care of him.
In that whole moment, you know what he
did?
He kept oxygen flowing under that door, so
that you would suffocate, so that you would
not suffocate until you repented, to give you
a few more chances, few more days, weeks,
months or years.
That's al-barr, subhanahu wa ta'ala.
You know, it is even mentioned, reported from
some of the historians, they pass on the
story about Musa alayhi salam, they say that
one time he brought all the people out
to the desert to make a collective dua
out of desperation, supplicating to Allah to give
them rain, because they're all going to die.
And they're making dua and they're pleading, and
Allah reveals to Musa alayhi salam, and he
gathers the people and gives them a sermon,
and he says, Allah has revealed to me
that there is someone amongst you that has
been defying him for 40 years straight, and
so long as he remains in our midst,
Allah will never give us rain.
So whoever you are, whatever you've done, no
matter how many crimes you've been committing, let
this be your one good deed, right?
Let the one crime you don't commit be
the crime of getting us all killed.
Just leave.
Spare us.
And nobody leaves.
Everyone's wondering, who's it going to be?
Nobody leaves.
And then after some time, they receive rain.
So Musa alayhi salam says, Ya Allah, I
don't get it.
No one left.
He said, He repented to me, O Musa.
And because of his repentance and his sincerity,
I granted you all rain.
So Musa alayhi salam said, This is amazing.
Ya Allah, let me see this righteous servant
of yours.
All of us were saved because of his
righteousness.
His transformation.
He said to him, O Musa, for 40
years he defied me with his sinful behavior
and I didn't expose him.
The day he gets it all forgiven, I'm
going to expose him?
No, you can't find out who he is.
Because he's al-Barr, Subhanahu wa ta'ala.
And so, what happens now?
How do we check how much of that
name we've internalized?
The reality of Allah being al-Barr.
And al-Barr being Allah, right?
Always and forever.
The first thing you need to do is
to never stop asking him.
Sometimes we forget, right?
No, you need to remember that Allah is
as he is because that's who he is,
has nothing to do with me.
Whether I realize it or not, he's always
been giving.
So I should never stop asking him to
give me.
It's not like, Oh, is Allah going to
give me?
He's already giving you.
You know, as they say, the human being
gets and forgets and Allah gives and forgives.
He's al-Barr.
Ask.
Keep asking.
And know that just because I forgot or
I don't know how to identify how he's
giving me or going to give me doesn't
mean he's not giving me.
You know, the Prophet ﷺ said that when
the believer makes dua, invokes Allah, so long
as it does not involve sinfulness or the
breaking of family ties, right?
Allah always gives them in one of three
ways.
One of them is he gives you what
you asked for immediately.
Meaning in this life, because this whole life
is immediate and short-lived.
Or he reserves it for something better.
On the Day of Judgment, you're going to
see I didn't get this so I could
get that.
That's why I didn't give it to you.
And you're going to be so happy that
Allah didn't give you what you asked for
in the way you asked for it in
the shallow, short-lived worldly life because he
just gave you a superior alternative.
Or the third way, the hadith says, or
Allah offsets something negative, some adversity you're going
to face, some misfortune you're going to face.
Your dua gets accepted in the form of
it offsetting in the skies the fate.
A fateful event that was on its way
down in the near future.
He's always giving, Subhanahu wa ta'ala.
And sometimes we don't forget that Allah is
giving.
Sometimes we forget that it's about his generosity,
not about my piety.
You know I committed a lot of mistakes.
I'm too shy to ask Allah.
Who else are you going to ask?
You're not going to ask Allah.
Do you have alternatives?
You think Allah only gives the righteous?
Of course the more righteous you are, the
more rightly guided your dua is for sure.
But no one has any other option.
So for you to make dua to Allah
after you've repented from the sin is a
great act of righteousness.
That I recognize that you are who you
are.
You're not held back or you don't withhold
simply because of my mess-ups.
It's not about me.
You know, think of Sulaiman Alayhis Salaam.
Though this is not an example of someone
being corrupt.
Audhu Billah.
But Sulaiman Alayhis Salaam, there's a verse in
Surah Saad, so powerful.
It says, We put Sulaiman through a difficult
trial.
And we cast upon his chair, his throne,
a corpse, a half body.
Corpse, a deformed baby, a miscarriage essentially.
And he returned to Allah in that moment.
There is a story behind this.
The Prophet Alayhis Salaam mentioned that Sulaiman Alayhis
Salaam one time, in Surah Al-Bukhari, he
vowed to Allah that I am going to
produce 100 sons.
All of them will become knights, horsemen, like
warriors in the path of Allah.
To spread Allah's goodness and Allah's justice, right?
And so someone said to him, say Inshallah.
He didn't say Inshallah.
Of course, this is a prophet.
He was not being stubborn.
He just forgot.
He got busy with the kingdom.
And so he didn't say Inshallah.
So Allah only granted him one son that
did not come full term.
It was a stillbirth.
And maybe because he's the king, the son
of the king gets honored in a symbolic
way.
They put him on the throne.
Here is your heir to the throne would
have been, right?
So the verse says, we tested Sulaiman by
granting him this event in his life.
And so he returned back to us and
he said what?
Here is what I want.
قَالَ رَبِّ اغْفِرْ لِي وَهَبْ لِي مُلْكًا لَا
يَبَغِي لِي أَحَدٍ مِّن بَعْدٍ He said, Oh
Allah, forgive me.
I messed up.
He reviewed about what happened here, right?
I messed up by not saying Inshallah.
Of course, this is not a mess up.
This is human.
Forgetting is not a sin.
But from his great humility, his great piety,
he considered it a sin.
He said, Oh Allah, forgive me.
And grant me a kingdom that no one
after me will ever have.
You have to capture what's happening here.
I messed up and in the same breath,
can I have something amazing?
This is the believer, right?
He doesn't, don't ever get, sort of feel
the sense of I'm unworthy to ask Allah.
Sulaiman is apologizing and aspiring from Allah in
the same breath.
وَهَبْ لِي مُلْكًا لَا يَنْبَأْ Give me a
kingdom you've never given and will never give
anybody.
Bigger than my dad's kingdom.
Dawood, right?
Bigger than everyone.
Then he says, إِنَّكَ أَنْتَ الْوَهَّابُ Because you
are the gift giver.
No one gives gifts but you.
Everything is from you anyway.
That's the recognition.
Who made my mother's hug warm?
You did.
I'm not numb to that.
Do I have anything except that it's from
Allah?
No, I don't.
Has he ever stopped giving?
No.
He is Al-Barr.
The vastly, consistently kind.
عَزَّ وَجَلَّ سُبْحَانَهُ وَتَعَالَى Always and forever.
أَقُولُ قَوْلِ هَذَا وَاسْتَغْفِرُ اللَّهَ الْعَظِيمَ لِي وَلَكُمْ
Brothers and sisters.
Another important sign that you've internalized Allah's name
Al-Barr is that you commit your life
to Birr.
Birr is righteousness.
Loosely translated it's the righteousness.
But Birr now that you know what Al
-Barr means, right?
It means that you be consistently righteous.
You be comprehensively righteous.
Not selectively.
Not stop and go.
The Quran says that.
لَيْسَ الْبِرَّ أَنْ تُوَلُّوا وَجُوهَكُمْ قَبْلَ الْمَشْرِقِ وَالْمَغْرِبِ
Birr is not that you just simply face
east or face west meaning just the right
Qibla in the ritual act.
No.
But Birr, Allah says in the ayah.
It's called the most comprehensive ayah in the
Quran.
Birr is that you believe in Allah and
the last day and the angels and the
scriptures and the messengers.
And you spend of the wealth that you
love.
That's what the verse says.
On your relatives and on the needy and
on the orphan.
And you are patient through adversity and through
poverty and through suffering.
And you are truthful in speech.
The verse ends by saying أُولَٰئِكَ الَّذِينَ صَدَقُوا
These are those who are truthful in their
commitment to Allah.
Commitment to Al-Barr, Subhanahu wa Ta'ala.
And so while we can never be consistent
in a perfect way only Allah is perfect.
We earn His love by trying to be
a reflection of that beautiful divine quality.
And the Quran also uses the term Birr
in a very foundational act of righteousness.
That by itself needs to be comprehensive.
Brother, please turn off your phone.
بِرُ الْوَلِدَيْنَ The Quran calls the treatment we
should have towards parents, Birr.
Not just kindness.
Not just obedience.
Birr.
Why?
Because it's expensive.
It needs to be vast.
Right?
It goes down to even regulating the sounds
you make in their presence.
Right?
وَلَا تَقُلْ لَهُمَا أُفْ Don't even say to
them, that's Uff.
Don't blow out expressing your irritation.
So whether you're young or you're old, whether
you're irritated or you're not, if you're a
person of Birr, it will show up with
parents very evidently.
That's why even the Prophets of Allah, you
look at Yahya Alayhi Salam and then you
look at Isa Alayhi Salam.
Both in Surah Maryam, Allah had them declare
with Isa, with Jesus peace be upon him,
from the cradle in a miraculous way of
the many things he could have said, Allah
made it so that one of them be
وَبَرًّا بِوَالِدَتِ Allah has made me a person
of Birr with my mother.
Of course with both parents but he only
had a mother.
Right?
So this is why he said mother.
Birr though, with my mother.
What is Birr with your mother mean?
The other half of the ayah explains it.
وَلَمْ يَجْعَلْنِي جَبَّارًّا شَقِيًّا By not making me
someone that is a miserable tyrant.
Tyrants are not just heads of states that
are ruthless.
There could be a tiny tyrant inside all
of us that we allow to come out
with our parents.
What do you think of a tyrant?
The stereotype of a tyrant.
Someone that does not respond unless they're begged,
right?
At the feet of the tyrant, begging the
tyrant, repeating yourself that he spare you, right?
That he have some compassion towards you.
Do you make your parents repeat themselves?
You have a semblance of tyranny in you.
Or think of the image of a tyrant
that is just lounging around all the time
doesn't serve, only gets served.
Do you serve your parents or not?
Do you sit while they stand or not?
That's what the tyrants do.
You know the Prophet ﷺ with his followers,
when they stood as he was seated, he
said, careful, you almost did with me like
the Persians and the Romans do with their
emperors, that they stand around while their emperors
get to sit.
Don't do that with me.
Likewise with your parents.
Be like Yusuf ﷺ.
He was no tyrant.
رفع أبويه على العرش He lifted his parents
up on the throne with him during the
reunion.
You don't just stay sitting on a chair
or a couch or your corporate desk when
your parents walk in.
You get up and you put them in
your seat or else this is not birr.
You see how wide-ranging birr is?
This is why it was used with parents
because there is a spectrum that you have
to account for.
So may Allah عز و جل help us
better internalize this great name and albeit in
our imperfect human forms, be a perfect reflection
of it as best as we possibly can.
Allahumma ameen.
Ameen.