Mohammad Elshinawy – Hearing AllahS Personal Call
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Brothers and sisters, we are told in the
Quran,
And
Allah
spoke
directly
with actual speech to Musa alaihis salam.
And so at times Allah may speak to
someone directly
and that's an exclusive gift.
Other times, he may address them in the
form of revelation,
like messages that are disclosed to them that
they must bring to the world and the
world must accept and that is the prophets.
However, there is
a level beneath this
in which Allah aza wa jal may speak
to anyone of us.
And so I want this khutbah to be
a little bit about us
understanding
how
we can hear
the personal call or the personalized
message
of Allah subhanahu wa ta'ala to us.
Because the prophet salallahu alaihi wa sallam,
he said,
There used to be
individuals among the nations before you that are
literally
spoken to.
And if any of this ummah of mine
were to have these people that are spoken
to inspired in a special way by Allah
azza wa
Jal for Umar ibn Khattab. Then it would
be Umar ibn Khattab
Before I move forward, ibn Taymiyyah Rahimahullah, the
great scholar, he says something
we must note about this hadith. He said
first of all,
why did the prophet sallallahu alaihi wa sallam
say the previous nations had it and if
if there is going to exist in my
ummah, he said that is part of the
virtue of this ummah.
That personal inspiration
is almost
unnecessary.
Like you can get yourself to a place
where you can see yourself in every verse,
in every hadith.
We have the most perfect book, we have
the most comprehensive message, and so we may
not even be in need of this
if we get to that level.
And then he said,
why did he say, if it would be
Umar? Why Umar?
He said, because Abu Bakr as Siddiq
had reached a certain level where he didn't
even need it.
This is incredible to think about. And
Because he was a sudikh and that is
the highest station, sudikh means a confirmer of
truth. He saw so much truth in the
revelation
that he did not need a support system.
He did not need a supplement
of help, a personalized intuition,
a personalized message from Allah azzawajal
swaying him one way or another.
Whereas, Umar at
times,
and there are many instances like this,
he was correct
but prematurely correct.
Like you say, you Rasulullah, you know,
why don't we do this?
Or why didn't you do that? And then
the Quran would come down confirming or quote
unquote agreeing with Umar.
But Allah
didn't send those verses down till later for
a greater wisdom. And so Umar was correct,
but he would be eventually found out to
be correct. The position was right, the timing
was a little bit off.
This is the difference.
Whereas Abu Bakr would never step ahead of
revelation.
He he was even more reserved. He was
sure the answer was there. Allah is never
late.
And I also need to say one final
disclaimer
that generations
after the best of Islam, the and
the and the salaf, the earliest Muslims, our
righteous predecessors.
Generations
came that gave too much value to personal
intuition, to personal inspiration.
You know what they call kesh.
Kesh is a concept. It's a real concept.
It's true. Kesh means to unveil. Allah may
unveil to you something personally, give you a
certain hunch. We call it sometime the 6th
sense.
You may get a certain dream that preps
you in a certain way for it. But
some people went so far
that they didn't put their
disclosures
on the same level as Quran and Sunnah.
They actually put it higher.
Some people went so far to say, Allah
told me This is Allah told me I
don't need to pray anymore.
Right?
Allah told me I've reached a certain status.
This of course,
they they they have phrases for it like
They say things along the lines of my
heart has told me on behalf of Allah.
So I have a direct link
that supersedes the link of revelation. And that
of course is great misguidance. Of course it
is. Because you are half right. That's the
problem. That your your heart did tell you
but you can't actually prove it told you
from Allah. That could have been the shaitan
whispering to you. Right? You are not greater
than a prophet to receive a revelation that's
superior to the revelation of the prophet. It's
a very dangerous place to be.
That these thoughts of yours,
you know, you think they're yours from Allah,
well maybe they're not.
Maybe shaitan or society
force fed you something.
Like people nowadays, by the way, not even
in religious language, people nowadays say, you know,
I don't believe it makes sense
to believe in something I haven't seen so
I will not believe in God.
Do do you think you're the genius who
thought of that?
The people in the Quran said,
Some of them said, we will not believe
until we see Allah with our own two
eyes.
That was a trick that got slipped to
you by shaitan like it was slipped to
you by slipped to the nations before you.
Very dangerous ground.
So with that in mind,
revelation first. But after revelation, to help us
in our journeys.
From Allah's generosity,
He made personalized messages for us to help
us commit to his purest truth, to his
Quran and Sunnah, to his wahi.
It helps the sincere in many ways in
their worldly decisions, in their religious advancement, whatever
it may be. For instance, you know,
when Allah azza wa Jal in one of
many places wanted to show the people the
rank of Umar ibn Khattab and also wanted
to protect the Muslims
through Umar ibn Khattab in a very special
way that would go down in history.
It is reported that Umar was in Medina
and his armies were 100 of miles away.
And in the middle of the Khutba,
he stopped out of nowhere and said,
Oh, Saria, his commander who's not here.
The mountain, the mountain. Meaning flee for cover
under the mountain.
So Allah sort of inspired him that the
army was in trouble. They were about to
be ambushed and he found himself interacting with
them by Allah's permission across time and space
for all of these things are in Allah's
hands, and the army actually heard the word.
And they came back and said, immediately, we
changed our position and put our backs to
the mountain, and we almost didn't. In the
nick of time, it was saved.
Or in another incident that remember, Zahabi rahimawla
calls
a highly authentic,
clearly established.
Means of honoring that Allah disclosed
to a great scholar of the Tabi'in, Sufyan
I Thawri
Ithawri.
You know, Sufyan Ithawri was on the run
from the government
because he didn't want to work for the
government.
And so Sufyan
was in Mecca in hiding.
And Abu Jafar al Mansur who's credited with
being the major founder of the Abbasid Khilafa,
he sends the carpenters ahead to Mecca to
set up an execution
contraption, basically device
to hang Sufyan there because they're sure they're
gonna find him at Hajj.
And so when the carpenters arrived and everyone's
saying, Sufyan, hand yourself in now or never.
Sufyan he
was
napping
in the Kaaba,
and his head was in the lap of
Al Fudayl ibn Aayl rahiimahullah.
And his feet were in the lap of
Safya ibn Iyayna Rahimahullah.
And they're waking him up and telling him,
please,
trust please for our sake if not for
your own sake. If you don't care about
our lives, we're the ones hiding you here.
Right?
Fear Allah and don't allow the enemy to
have their way with all of us.
So
he gets up and he walks straight to
the Kaaba,
and he grabs onto the garbs of the
Kaaba, the fabric of the Kaaba.
And he
says,
or
Abu Jafar.
I have nothing to do with him, meaning
with Allah.
If Abu Jafar Mansur enters this city,
enters Mecca.
Of course, this is like a very risky
statement, but he was that sure of the
dream or the message that Allah
inspired to him. I promise you he will
not be able to grab you.
So he said, I have nothing to do
with Allah. Because he knows Allah keeps his
promises. So it's a hypothetical. Right? I have
nothing to do with Allah if he, the
khalifa, the sultan, enters Mecca.
And then the news comes to them
shortly thereafter
that Abu Jafar al Mansur
dies outside of the boundaries of Mecca on
his way to Hajj.
And so they mention this Sufyan and Sufyan
doesn't even act surprised.
Right? Because Allah
had inspired within him such peace,
such contentment
in the middle of the chaos.
Right? Through this disclosure.
But I wanna say brothers and sisters, there's
only a few minutes left in the khotba,
the greatest
inspirations you will get from Allah,
may we all be deserving,
are not what we would classify today as
supernatural events.
Right? Just so for people to recognize our
rank in the duniya. No.
They are the messages, they are the motivations,
They are the disclosures
that will up our rank in the hereafter
where it really matters.
And you know the scholars, they say that
there are different types of inspirations that Allah
may send or allow to happen to you.
One type is is like This
is a message from God himself
And basically, this is an award for you
trying. This is not just a message, meaning
an idea that pops in your head. It's
pure of course
Allah would never instruct you with something evil
or immoral, but it's also powerful.
You get up and you pray fajr or
you pray whatever you pray, and then you
have this overwhelming experience of sweetness and joy
and pleasure that
Allah You're just sure Allah pick brought me
up right now. Allah pulled me from my
bed right now. And so you're just overwhelmed
by this feeling of all praise be to
Allah who guided me to this. I would
never have been guided had Allah not guided
me. The answer to the alaf. It's almost
like a glimpse from Jannah. Right? Because that
statement is said by the people of Jannah
once they're guided to Jannah.
So that's the first kind when it it
actually immediately produces action in you.
That's from Allah. If it's from Allah, you
will not be able to ignore it. It
actually moves you.
They said there is another type of
that Allah sends people,
and this is
When he sends the angels to inspire you.
Meaning to suggest to you.
And these angels are almost
fighting off the shaitan for you. They tell
you, come on, pray.
Pray well. If not, they'll say, okay, then
just pray.
If not, then go to sleep. They'll suggest
you go to sleep so that you at
least don't get busy with haram things. Right?
It's a back and forth
but they're trying to move you forward in
the right direction.
And on the other hand, of course, there
is inspiration from Shaipan
that he tries to get you to do
the wrong thing. And it's a negotiation. If
he can't get you to disbelieve, he'll get
you to doubt. If he can't get you
to doubt, he'll get you to disobey.
If he can't get you to disobey,
he'll get you to do something minor or
to aim low. The prophet sallallahu alaihi wasallam
actually said all of this in the famous
hadith
where he told us
that the shaitan sort of tries to
hover around the son of Adam. He tries
to not let the angels in basically. Right?
And the angels also try to hover around
the human being. It's a contention.
He says,
As for the the gathering where the angels
are present,
he says,
Then this is them encouraging you to do
good things and you pushing you to believe
in the truth. And as for the gathering
of the shaateen, the devils, this is you
them encouraging you.
Them encouraging you to do evil
and getting you to doubt the truth.
And so how do you interact with these
different inspirations? Obviously, if it's from Allah
we said there's no interaction.
Allah awards you enough
inspiration
to light the fire under you because you
tried. Because you tried. The angel suggests for
instance, and you respond, you try to be
receptive, you try to be appreciative,
and so he pushes you forward. The prophet
said,
whomever
pursues good will be given it will be
given it.
And whomever tries to protect himself from evil,
tries to resist evil will be protected externally,
will be protected from it. And with the
angels, you try to see to seize the
opportunity.
Do as much as you can when you're
thinking here or there.
And when it's the shayateen, this is your
opportunity
to fight
restraining, repenting if you slip. Fight for the
sake of Allah azzawajal
And I'll end with the hadith of the
prophet sallallahu alaihi wasallam
about these inspirations being such gifts,
but it's
your crossroad at that point each and every
time.
He said,
There is never a servant of Allah.
That there comes to him a wake up
call
from Allah for their
religion.
Except that it will be evidence for him
or against him. I am paraphrasing here. I'm
loosely translating it
here. It will be for him if he
appreciates it. He accepts it with gratitude. Meaning
he makes use of it. He acts on
it.
Otherwise, it becomes Allah's evidence against him. It
actually came to mind. I actually sent you
the wake up calls. Right? It will be
evidence That wake up call, that inspiration
will be evidence of Allah against him.
To increase him in sin
and for Allah to become angrier at him.
May Allah grant us the first and protect
us from the second.
Brothers and sisters, once again, we are at
the cusp of the annual downtime
known as the summer, the summer breaks.
And I find a good analogy in this
moment,
Our chasing after risk all year round, because
the summer break is usually a break for
those in school, not those earning a living.
And so all year round, we are actually
consistent
in chasing our risk, chasing our income.
And you know we chase it even when
there's hiccups. Like even if I'm sick, I'm
gonna power through and try to get to
work. Even if I'm sort of a businessman
and one business venture fails, I don't throw
in the towel, I give in and I
try the next one. We don't just give
in.
Likewise is the fight that Allah wants to
see from you when he throws these sparks
that we spoke about today.
The rizq of the hearts is the same
way. You gotta just keep pursuing. You gotta
keep pushing. You gotta keep chasing because that
is the more important of the turisks. There
is the sustenance that maintains our bodies
that will fall apart eventually anyway, and there
is the sustenance that maintains our hearts. And
you know, if the heart is not interested
in its nutrition, in in its food, drink,
and water, which is the dhikr of Allah
azza wa jal, which is a relationship with
the creator, then that is a sign that
the heart
is sick or has died. That's when you
don't wanna eat. That's when food doesn't matter.
And and in that vein, we want everyone
to recommit.
I'm going to use this time to keep
chasing
a better personal relationship with the Quran.
I'm going to keep chasing, renew my energy
to chase,
respecting, better respecting the boundaries of Islam,
Renewing my resilience, my push, my drive to
use my voice for everything happening in the
world. Use my energy. Use my time. Harness
my resources
for better causes.
I'm going to commit now to a new
found fight to have minimal regrets on the
day of judgment.
As the prophet sallallahu alaihi wasallam would say
in his dua,
Oh Allah, protect me. He wants to renew
his commitment and he's asking for Allah's help
to be protected
from the things he did
that could be potentially wrong. Right? He's teaching
us. He did no wrong.
This is the part. And from the things
that I have not done. I don't wanna
be that person that regrets, regrets, regrets. I
wish I would've, I wish I could've, I
wish I had done. May Allah
make us of those that have the least
regrets on the day of judgment. May Allah
propel us to the highest ranks of paradise,
us and our parents and our loved ones.
May Allah azza wa Jal enable us to
amplify our voices for the voiceless
and to amplify our devotion for the one
most worthy of our devotion. May Allah azza
wa jal forgive us and cure us and
have mercy on us and strengthen us and
guide us and guide with us and make
us a reason for people to be guided
in the future.