God’s Unique Mercy & Compassion – IECPA Fall Conference 2022

We welcome you a new to the

annual formerly spring now fall conference.

And as you all continue to see and hear, our theme was centered around Islam being a mercy and a healing for our world, different dimensions of that.

And what I wanted to discuss, Inshallah, in the time allotted to me, was a profound dimension of how Islam heals people and remedies souls,

through its teachings and a very particular teaching.

And that is the teaching of the mercy that Islam offers a person, the compassion that Islam extends to a person, the redemptive power, the power to redeem you, no matter who you may be the redemptive power that Islam has, you know, because all of us have this sense of feeling conflicted about our past, we always will. And if we don't, that's a pretty bad sign. Allah subhanho wa Taala swears by enough Sula worm, I says auxin will be Neff Silla worm, I swear by the conflicted soul, that soul that is wondering, can I ever escape my past? Does my past have to define my future. And

I will never forget, I was invited to speak at a university in New York City. And they asked me to address the theme of God loves you.

The mercy and love of Allah subhana wa Tada for his creation and being emailed after I spoke on this subject, by a sister who said that I took a very dark path in my life. So much so that I was not able to sit through your talk. I got too emotional, and I had to leave. But I would like to sit with you. So I took my wife and we went over to the campus cafeteria A few days later, and we sat down, and I told her, where are you? Where are you at right now? How do you see life believe in God, she said, I'm not even sure if there's a God. And it blew my mind because she just, you know, feared or thought that she was, you know, lost on faith or entirely an atheist at that point. And she wasn't

he just had some doubts and her faith needed to flare a bit, needs to get dusted a bit. But what what blew my mind walking out of that conversation, is the fact that she got emotional about God's mercy being a possibility and inclusive of everyone, it can accommodate anyone and everyone, even though she wasn't fully certain that there was a God to begin with at that point in her life. And that's very telling to the nature of people's souls. You know, statistically speaking, it's one of the greatest appeals.

Now it's less romantic.

It is one of the greatest appeals of Islam. I was joking, do whatever you want, guys, I'm just

I deserve that.

But one of the greatest appeals of Islam and Islam teachings is that it has a very coherent, very evident, very generous doctrine on redemption.

One of the most common reasons for people to become Muslim is because upon becoming Muslim, all of your sins gets forgiven. So sometimes they don't even care to flesh out is Islam true yet? Certainly, it is for very good reasons, justifiable reasons, not blind faith, not wishful thinking. But the reason some people enter Islam is just they're so hopeful of the fact that I can actually put my behind my past behind me, even in the time of the Prophet sallallahu, alayhi wasallam. You know, an elderly man came to him. So old, the narrations mentioned that his eyebrows were starting to obstruct his eyesight. Like it just started beginning to dangle and he was that elderly. And he

said to him, oh, Mohamed, I have so many sins, that if we were to divide them across the people of this planet, they would do them all. I've done unthinkable things.

Can I be forgiven? He said to him, would you testify that none is worthy of worship of Allah, and that I am the messenger of Allah. He said, Yes, I'm willing to testify La ilaha illallah, Muhammad Rasool Allah. He said to him, then in that case, Allah who will not just forgive your sins, but transform them all into good deeds.

The man who was like well

harati What for jurati? What about all the betrayal I've done in my life? What about all of the heinous things I've done in my life? He said all of it, all of it gets replaced with good deeds. So the man turned around and kept saying Allahu Akbar, Allahu Akbar,

until he

failed out of sight basically faded out of sight, saying, God is great. God is great, and certainly he is. Allah's Mercy is perfectly befitting of Allah's greatness. subhanho wa taala. And

you think even the companions that did so much damage to the Prophet salallahu Alaihe Salam in the Muslims, you think of Hamilton the loss, almost all of the deaths, all of the wars I'm gonna go to us was a part of that. He comes to become Muslim, because he realized Islam is true, opposite scenario. Now, he already knows Islam is true. But as he's about to become Muslim, the Prophet salallahu alayhi wasalam tells him, you know, stick your hand out to pledge allegiance to Me upon, you know, the Islam, the teachings of Islam. And he sticks his hand out and he pulls it back because I just want to stipulate something. His What what are you doing? Like you've been agitating for all

these years in office enough. I want to stipulate he said, what he said, I want to stipulate that I'd be forgiven for everything I've done.

And he said, So Mama, you don't know that becoming Muslim. The hadith we heard with Jacob Rahim, right? You don't know that becoming Muslim, destroys everything before it. It's all gone. And so he sticks his hand out and it becomes Muslim.

The Prophet salallahu Alaihe Salam smiled from our arms doubts over being forgiven.

In fact, the Prophet alayhi salaatu wa salaam said to us, that Allah smiles, Allah laughs in a manner befitting his majesty, of course, and his transcendence, of course, but Allah Who laughs at the condition of two men, one kills the other and they both get to go to paradise.

Think of, you know,

a disbeliever who goes to war with a believer and in this Jihad the believer is martyred. So he goes to Paradise, and then he eventually becomes Muslim. And he gets to go to Paradise too. You know, if it were up to us to be like, No, why would he go to paradise? He didn't give the guy's life back. Well Mind your business, not your paradise. This is Allah not you. Allah's Mercy is not, you know, on our metric. In fact,

even the Prophet sallallahu alayhi wa sallam himself. When was she who was hired to assassinate or particularly single out Hamza and kill him at the battle avoid? You know, this was the most difficult day arguably of the Prophet's life sal Allahu alayhi wa sallam. Even Mr. Wood said, We never saw the Prophet sallallahu alayhi wa sallam cry, the way he cried for Hamza.

He was killed and he was gored. And at the end of the Prophet's life, where she comes forward to become Muslim, and the Prophet sallallahu alayhi wa sallam says, To him, we forgive you. But if possible, could you hide yourself from me?

He's not able Salallahu Alaihe Salam, to see why she without remembering the trauma of his uncle being killed and killed him that way in particular.

Because even the Prophet Alayhi Salatu was Salam whose mercy and compassion

are unmatched in the human race, unmatched, but they are still not Allah says, Allah is the only one who is a fool to do a dude as a fool means no matter how vast your sins no matter how, you know,

enormous your crimes, Allah's mercy and forgiveness are wider and greater. But Allah dude means the Most Loving You see, someone can forgive you. The way the Prophet SAW sent him forgive why she, but he's not able to get past the moment he's not able to forget. Yes, there's no grudge, but I can't at least forget the pain. Whereas Allah is Allah for Allah dude, meaning he forgives you and then loves you again, no matter who you are. Because Allah's mercy and his compassion and his love are unique. That is the idea that I wanted to try to

speak on in these few minutes. Don't worry, you haven't heard Allah with your sins. You know, you haven't been disowned by Allah Who by your ingratitude.

What they call the most hope filled Allah in the Quran. When Allah azza wa jal says, Could you say to them, oh, Muhammad, I want people to know. Yeah, a bad the Lavina Seraph, who Allah and footsy him, Oh, my servants who have crossed every limit against themselves. They've done the undoable, the unthinkable. Allah says tell them my servants, meaning you're still my servants.

I

haven't cut you off yet. He's initiating, and he doesn't get anything out of forgiving us. He doesn't get anything out of our obedience. He doesn't lose anything with our defiance. But go tell them because he loves to forgive. He loves to show mercy. Go tell my servants, they're still my servants that have crossed every limit against themselves. You haven't hurt me you only hurt yourself. Don't worry. You haven't hurt me against yourselves. Letter cannot woman Rahmatullah. The verse continues to say no matter what you've done, the biggest Haram is to lose hope and Allah's mercy.

Can you picture this that you think you've done a lot of haram?

losing hope in Allah's Mercy is haram and more haram than anything you've done?

How beautiful of an invitation, don't lose hope in Allah's mercy in Allah HYAH filled with the no but Jamia, certainly Allah forgives as the new the sins, you know the word the sins means it's categorical, all the sins, but then he adds the word Jemmy and all of them to double emphasize meaning entirely. In now who who Allah for Rahim? Why? Because that's who he is. He is for the vastly forgiving. He is on Rahim, the one who's compassionate with you. He knows he knows that children are double teaming. He knows your neffs and the shaitana can spy. He's Rahim. He understands your condition. He's considerate of your plight, and he loves to forgive you. subhanho

wa taala.

And, you know, with the

18 minutes I have left. Just remember the story of the man who killed the 100 souls.

Because the story of the man who killed the 100 souls leaves no doubt in anyone's mind or heart a lot of times we self project, our feeling of patheticness that I'm not worthy of Allah's forgiveness, Whoa, don't project your view of even yourself on Allah, Allah is not you.

And so it leaves no doubt in you, that Allah can and will forgive you if you are sincerely seeking that and lead and it also shows you the framework in that same story. Storytelling is so beautiful as per the Quran and the Sunnah, the way it's done, it shows you how to make sure you get it. So all of you know right Bukhari and Muslim the height

of the Allah Allah and he narrates that the Prophet sallallahu alayhi wa sallam he said that a man from among the nations before you had one time killed how many people

know not 100 yet 99 You gotta build up Don't ruin my store.

Killed 99 people. What nation was he from?

He was from the Israelites and that's irrelevant. It's not useless information. Why is it relevant? We know he's from the Israelites because the story mentions are all hip a monk and monk ship was invented by well intending followers of Christ or Rabbani at NAB 2001 Americans have an AHA Allium. Allah says with the Hadith, after the time of Christ, peace be upon him, his followers, they invented this monk ship, this is not allowed. Allah did not legislate this. We don't separate the best of society out of society and only the worst of us make babies that would be horrible, right? And the rest of society needs to continue to keep the worst of society in check. We're not isolation

it says Muslims as the default at least right. And so Rabbani tells us that they were from Ben it was slightly so what that different Bennett was right, you know, it makes a big difference. Because we know that bento is straw eel had gotten very violent in their later stages, very hostile with each other. And so Allah has ramped up the severity of murder on Benowitz la eel. In the Quran, we are told min Edgerly they're like because of their hostilities, and their infighting and all of this. The ruthlessness Khattab inna I lay him we wrote on them on the Israelites that whoever commits one murder, whoever takes one soul without it being in the course of justice, it's as if

they have murdered all of humanity. So Allah ramped up that's why even you send Moses to investigate the murder of mon man and the story of the cow, right? And so I'm building all this why this man killed all of humanity 99 times. That's what he did. You understand? Why this story is so important? I don't think any of you have ever done that yet. Yes. So he kills 99 people mean he's committed genocide of the human race 99 times.

Film avviene Allahu Allahu be told by the Hadith says and then Allah permitted for him to repent. There's a huge lesson here and that line.

Many people come in, they wonder they ask a chef, can I repent? Can I still be a good person? After all, I've done that, can I be forgiven? And the answer is

Is your question is proof that you can be forgiven? Because you seeking to repent, you wondering who interested you in repentance, it was ALLAH, he could have blackened your heart and you would have just kept going down the dark path. Allah is a web of His Names that tell web to web, you know tilba Repentance, it actually means you turn that's what tilba means. And Allah's name at the web, it means he's the one that's always turning back to His servants. And that's why our scholars say, this is gonna sound so weird and English. But our scholars say that your tilba when you repent, your Toba is actually sandwiched

between two tubers from Allah.

What do they mean? They mean, when you turn back to Allah, Allah already turned back to you, to entrust you to get you to wonder, can I Right? And so if you accept the invitation and turn back to him, then he turns back to you a second time and accepting it. Does that make sense? And so the fact that the man wanted to be forgiven meant that he could be forgiven. The fact that you still want you still have enough suited a worm, you're approaching yourself about things you're kicking yourself about stuff, capitalize, those aren't Unlimited, Allah permitted for him to be interested in repentance. So he said to the people guide me to the most knowledgeable man on earth.

For the LU who Olara hip, so they directed him to a monk. And that's like the mistake that everybody does, right? Right. You just you see someone who's a worshiper, and you assume they're automatically a scholar. And between, you know, the two is a world of difference. The Prophet sallallahu alayhi wa sallam, you know, he said, the difference between a scholar and a worshiper worshiper only benefits themselves for the most part, the scholar benefits humanity with prophetic sacred knowledge, right, he said is like the difference between the sun and the moon on the day when it is full, on a clear sky, see how radiant it is, with all these other stars that basically are nothing but a distant

flicker of light?

No comparison. So people think worshipers are scholars all the time and you shouldn't make that mistake. You see some guy who like I don't know has a cofee on or has a beard. Right? Or like scrying and prayer right after the saliva shift. Listen, I told her you're divorced. You're divorced, you're divorced. But then I said, insha Allah

doesn't count. Just he was crying. He had a moment with Allah. What does that mean? He's a scholar. Humans always do this. And the Prophet alayhi salatu. Salam is telling you this incident in this way. He's not a storyteller. There's no fillers here. Anyway, this worshiper made a huge mistake.

He made a bunch of mistakes. He basically told them 99 People, no way Allah forgives you. So he killed him too. And he made it 100 clean.

He finished off 100.

Of course, speaking without knowledge of huge crime. Speaking without intelligence is also a big, big problem. Right? Like the guy just killed 99 people. You think like limb? Can I ask a friend? Give me a minute. Let me just take somebody get out of there. Why would you upset the guy who killed 99 people doesn't even take a scholar to know this. But you know what happened actually there. This monk was so focused on purity, that he could not imagine Allah purifying someone that impure.

This monk wouldn't hurt and and what do you mean, you killed 99 people?

And so he's he slipped and spoke about something he had no right to speak on, which is who is forgiven and who is not forgiven? Yes, we judge between people based on their outward actions. We have to we have no choice life would stagnate. If we weren't able to relate to people on Google and Yelp, right? We all judge people originally justly or menu wise we do. It's normal. But you don't ever pass a conclusive judgment on someone's hereafter that is only for Allah.

In Saleh al Bukhari, the Prophet sallallahu alayhi wa sallam

said to us that a man once said to his brother Wallah, he loved will not forgive you. And so the prophets of his time was told by Allah, the Prophet of whatever period that was, was told by Allah, Allah is said to him, men the Lydia to Allah Allah who is the one swearing about me.

Go tell this man, I have forgiven that person. And I have invalidated all of your deeds start over.

And then another narration soon be the route. The Prophet sallallahu alayhi wa sallam said there used to be two men in the past that were very close brothers are like brothers, one of them. So righteous, one of them so wicked, and the righteous one is always telling the way

Good one fear Allah shape up until one day the wicked one snapped at him and said la can you get out of my face? Did Allah send you as my supervisor about I think Allahu Allah, you are a diva. And so the man the righteous man, the otherwise righteous man said wala He Allah will not forgive you this time.

For and so Allah took their two souls.

And he said to the righteous one,

I couldn't be Alima am Allah mafia, the Akkad era?

Do you have knowledge about me that I tell you that? Or are you capable over what is only in my hands you own forgiveness, you own paradise? And how far How dare you speak on these issues? I have forgiven him and I have forfeited your life of good deeds take him to the fire.

And so this month messed up and so he was killed. filmer Evian Allahu Allah who will be Toba. And then the Hadith says Allah opened his heart again, to be to wanting to be forgiven.

And of course, there's a there's an important lesson here, no matter how many signs times you've sinned,

Allah who will never get tired of forgiving you, even if you're tired of yourself, Allah who will never get tired of forgiving those who seek forgiveness. Do you know the difference between Allah's Name Allah food, which we said is the vastly forgiving, and Allah far, Allah far means the recurrently, forgiving, over and over and over and over again. In fact, if Allah knows, at the moment, you're seeking forgiveness, that you're going to commit the crime again in five minutes, or in five days, he's still going to forgive you this time, because you don't know that.

Can you see how beautiful Allah is? How incredible His mercy and forgiveness are, like, how many names of Allah have we even covered so far, just on this one theme of how unique His mercy and compassion are subhanho wa taala, the Exalted and glorified, so then he goes to the scholar.

And he says to him, Listen, man, I've killed 100 people. Can someone like me be forgiven?

And the scholar doesn't just give him what he wants, like, yeah, sure, no big deal. Just say stuff for a lot, right?

He gives him what he needs in the way he wants. True scholar. He says to him, and what could ever prevent you from Allah's forgiveness, but leave this land of yours, for it is an evil land, it's a bad place, and go catch up with these other people in that area, who work righteous works, and live with them live like them, be among them?

How did he know this man was from a bad land? Because think about he said, direct me to the most knowledgeable person on earth. So they could have sent him like four countries down. Right? So how did this man know that he lived in a bad place? Think about it.

You know how he knew. The scholar said because he knew in the man statement that killed 100 souls, the fact that you have been able to kill 100 souls in that place, means there is not one upright man in that place to stop you. That's not a good place.

Nowadays, we could call them echo chambers, right?

Where people just you know, capitulate to you. People just you know, nod and acknowledge and out of fear of you or out of being just like you or whatever it is. And that's an important reminder for everyone. Don't you dare allow yourself to get comfortable in a place where there aren't thoughtful, dissenting voices, people to help you stay in check people to help your heart, not fall asleep, then die.

He told him this is a bad place you're in clearly you killed 100 people there must be a bad place. Go replace that environment with a better environment.

And for every one saying they want to repent from this, that and the third everyone's saying they're locked into this sin or that it's your environment.

Get out of that room where you visit that site, right? Get out of that place where you get dragged into those behaviors get out. The fear of Allah is genuine if you actually place between you and what you fear, real barriers. You're really resolute determined? I'm not gonna I'm gonna put a million roadblocks between me and that.

If you are somewhere bad friends, if you are with them, let's Let's not lie to ourselves, it means you approve of their behavior. Let's be clear. If you're there, you approve of their behavior. And if you approve of their behavior, that means you're only a hair away from doing it.

yourself.

He told him gotta get out. No such thing is I'm gonna stay there in the bar and not drink anymore. No, no, it's ridiculous. You gotta leave your land. So he made that huge sacrifice. And he walked out of his homeland

and Midway to the new place that befalls him.

The narration says Fana Abbey Sodre he. And so he stretched out his chest, he leaned forward, to get as far as he could before he collapsed.

And then Allah sent the angels of mercy and the angels of punishment.

You see, the angel of death only holds your soul for an instant that hadith mentioned. Then he has to hand off.

And then they start arguing the angels of mercy are saying, we deserve him, he left his home seeking redemption. And the angels of punishment are saying, No, we deserve him. We're more entitled to him. He's never done any good in his life. He hasn't even started on the reform project. He's not even there yet.

Why did Allah do this, right? Like why the angels so that we can hear about this, so that he can reveal it to the Prophet SAW Selim? I can people can continue to mention it in their sermons, so people never lose hope.

Hope is powerful. And hope is endless, so long as you're breathing,

and we will return to that point in a second. And so Allah sends a third angel in the form of a man. And it's very interesting. The same way he said to Adam Alayhis Salam go teach them what they don't know. He sent the third angel looking like a man

to referee between these two. And he said that, here's what we're going to do, we're going to measure the distance between this land and that land and whichever he's closer to.

He'll be associated with that part of chapter of his life.

And then Allah reveals to this land of righteous people move a little closer.

Allah changes the formation of the earth for the sincere and He reveals to that land where he can wreaked havoc, move off a little bit. And Tucker, Robbie went into the rd, until the angels found him closer to the land of righteousness by a ship. A ship it is the distance between your pinky and your thumb, just that much. And so he was forgiven.

So I'm out of time. But no matter who you are, no matter what you've done.

One of the truly healing aspects of our Islam is that Allah tells us your past does not have to determine your future.

Inside Muslim, the Prophet sallallahu alayhi wa sallam said Allah extends his hand every day,

during the daytime, so that those who sinned that night may repent and extends his hand that night, every night. So those who sinned by day may repent, and continues to do this day in and day out. Imagine like if you would leave someone with waiting, even a parent will stop waiting on you. Eventually, they'll just give up on their child at some point.

But Allah for weeks and maybe years and maybe decades, he sticks his hand out. And then when you finally repent,

it's behind us. It never happened. Right? He says, And he continues doing this until the sun rises from the West, meaning this universe comes through to the mice. And of course our demise could be before that so it's worth mentioning.

He said in Allah Hi arcobello tilba della Abdi ma la musica Allah will continue to accept the repentance of his servants, so long as he does not gargle. You know what gargoyle means meaning the soul rattling here at the collar as it's exiting any moment before that you're eligible.

You know why it's not accepted at this point. Because if you are truly regretful sincere in your regret, you have an intention to reform. But when you know you're dying, there's no room for an intention. There's no more line. There's no more space on the rope. But so long as there's an intention. So long as you just embark with your knee, you stretch your chest out a little bit, just reach for the new you, Allah azza wa jal promised to take 10 Steps though towards those who take one towards him, and to run towards those that walk towards him, because he is the greatest subhanho wa Taala Zack Aloha masala Salah water kind of Vienna, Muhammad Ali he was Sofia drain water coffee

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