Mohammad Elshinawy – Prophet Ibrahim & Breaking Our Inner Idols
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AI: Transcript ©
With the first
days of Dhul Hijjah now being upon us,
the days of the month of Hajj,
we cannot
overlook
the feet
of the legacy of Ibrahim alayhi salam.
Featured
in the Quran. Ibrahim alaihis salam
is the only human being in Allah's greatest
scripture
that our prophet
sallallahu alaihi wasallam was told to follow in
his footsteps.
And for the ummah of the prophet sallallahu
alaihi wasallam, we are told
that the very best days of the year,
where good deeds are more beloved to Allah,
no matter how small these deeds are. More
beloved to Allah than deeds done in any
other time, meaning even Ramadan,
are the days that are centered around the
month of Hajj, meaning the month of the
legacy of Ibrahim
alayhi salam.
Allah
says, And recall
always, recurrently, keep recalling
when your lord tested Ibrahim
with many many instructions.
They were challenges related to social challenges, his
family relationship.
They were financial challenges. They were actual physical
challenges.
And he passed all of these tests with
flying colors.
So as a result, the very next statement
in the verse,
I have set you up as a result
of this. I have set you up for
all of humanity as an imam, as a
role model, as a leader to be modeled
after.
And you know it is not just the
sacrifices
of Ibrahim alaihis salam that we should be
recalling,
but what they were generated by. They were
empowered. They were generated
by the purity of his sahid,
of his recognition of Allah and his unique
oneness subhanahu wa ta'ala. You know you can
think even like what is the relevance
of the legacy of Ibrahim alaihis salam now.
People in pre modern times,
ancient times used to worship idols. He destroyed
the idols, tried to bring them to their
senses. They tried to kill him and what
is his relevance for us now?
Well, he took on the world.
And one of the signs,
right,
of us needing to revive the legacy of
Ibrahim alaihis salam
is our inability
to sustain
just the pressures of our little world, our
individual lives.
The unrealistic
fear. Sometimes the paranoia we live in nowadays.
You know, even when we speak about the
example of
standing up for justice,
pushing back against the genocide happening in different
parts of the world,
people are prematurely
afraid. Immediately
assuming that any little bits
of a stance
will mean I'm getting cancelled, I'm getting fired,
I'm getting arrested, I'm getting a criminal record
automatically. Right?
And look at the flip side also.
The people that were courageous,
more courageous than before in these last few
months,
a part of that was because we're all
doing it together.
Like there's unprecedented
awareness, unprecedented
activism,
but compare that with Ibrahim alaihis salam.
He said to his wife Sarah one day,
there is not a single believer on the
face of the earth except me and you.
It's me and you against the world.
It's incredible to think that he took this
on
alaihi salam.
You know, even the Quran tells us that
when they try to actually threaten him,
very realistic fears,
very real threats, and they acted on them.
Right?
He would say to them, you're trying
to make me afraid of your imaginary gods,
these gods that you claim are gods,
when you are not afraid
of the almighty and your defiance to Him,
and then he says,
Which of the 2 parties is more entitled
to security?
Meaning if you think I'm afraid,
there's no way I'm afraid if you're not
afraid.
That can't be the case.
And then the very next ayah says,
And likewise for every believer,
those who actually believe
and don't pollute their belief with wrongdoing,
don't weaken their own faith.
With wrongdoing,
they are those that have the truest share,
the biggest lot of security
and being rightly guided.
Because you know the others, when their faith
weakens, this opens the door for shaitan
to create in them unrealistic fears, imaginary fears.
It is just shaitan, Allah said, that is
causing you to be afraid of his allies,
those aligned with him.
Don't fall into that trap
of fearing them
and fear me. Allah says if you're actually
a believer.
And so the relevance of Ibrahim alaihis salam
here and now, let us ask ourselves, what
is our share of that
fearlessness?
Our lives are not on the line.
We are simply told or assume we will
be told or are worried about thoughts that
are gonna float in some onlooker's mind
because we're going to pray in public and
so we won't. Or we're gonna say this
or that or the third in public and
so we don't. Or we're
not going to have their approval if we
dress this way and don't find the middle
solution
between our dress code and their liquid culture,
and so we don't, right? Where is our
share in saying, I am not here for
your approval.
I care not and I fear not if
you don't accept me.
You know there's another element to this brothers
and sisters. This is not just thinking too
highly of others when you become this way.
There is also the element of an invisible
idol.
Indulge me.
The idol The inner idol within ourselves, you
know, sometimes
it is an inflated
sense of self regard, self concern,
self importance. Too much
that I have to be accepted.
I have to be approved of. I have
to be comfortable.
Who said you do? Right?
That means nothing of inconvenience
is deserved by Allah subhanahu wa ta'ala. That's
what it means.
And that's why Allah caution people against this.
And he said,
Have you seen the one
that has accepted as his god, the ultimate
objective. Right?
Accepted as their god, their fancies, their vanities,
their desires?
Or the other ayah answered Ali Imran. Notice
the link in this ayah. Allah says,
There was a group Where was the downfall
of this group? That they were too concerned
about themselves,
and so they began to suspect about Allah,
inappropriate things like people used to suspect before
Islam.
So people's faith weakened to a point. Why
is God asking for all of this?
When all of this could be a fraction
of a fraction of what he gave you
and he deserves all of this anyway. Subhanahu
wa ta'ala. And so it was their over
concern about themselves
that made them what? That made them suspect
ugly things about Allah subhanahu wa ta'ala.
This is why brothers and sisters also,
the greatest
manifestation,
the greatest display
of demolishing that inner idol is called what?
It's called shahada. It's called martyrdom.
Because You know like with Bilal radiAllahu an,
ibn Mas'ud was explaining to the people how
different Bilal was. In the early years of
Islam when they were being persecuted for being
Muslim, he was saying,
As for Bilal, you wanna know why Bilal
not only
didn't take the
the cop out or take sort of the
easy route, even if it was permissible. Mind
you, if if your life is on the
line, you can pretend to sort of walk
away from Islam so long as your faith
is settled in your heart. But Bilal refused
to even give them an inch.
He would spite them and he would say,
if I knew anything that would provoke them
more than my statement,
there's only one God, there's only one God,
I would have said it. Why? Ibn Mas'ud
says because Bilal
considered himself
dispensable
for Allah. That's the idea.
He didn't even have to do this much.
And this also shows you the power, the
legacy of Ibrahim alaihi salam. The power of
tawhid,
the oneness of Allah, the exclusivity of Allah
when it is fiery in your heart, when
it is pure in your heart, look at
the heroics it can create.
More heroics
that are even pass fail line necessary.
Brothers and sisters, because I don't know if
time will allow me to
mention the 2 other examples, but let me
try.
There are also other forms of
setting equals to Allah
without realizing it, or sort of bowing to
our own inner idol, or this sort of
thing exists on many levels. And the prophet
alaihis salatu wa sallam warned about it. And
there's no time like Dhul Hijjah to remember
it.
He said that shirk, setting equals with Allah,
crowding Allah's oneness and uniqueness and his exclusivity,
right? His
stand alone right, his distinguished right, he said,
it will crawl up on my ummah.
On my ummah. Meaning, this is not the
type that will remove you from Islam. It
happens within the ummah. It's a lesser form.
It's a stepping stone.
He said, we'll crawl up on my ummah
like a black ant on a black rock
in a dark night.
Then he said He gives you an example
of it. He said,
And
The most subtle form of this is when
you love someone
because of some unfairness they committed
that was convenient to you. Favoritism.
Right?
Or for you to resent someone
because of
some fairness
that was not in your favor. Right? Some
inconvenient They stood against you to stand for
justice. Right? They upset you
because they took a fair stance.
Or So, of the subtle forms of shirk
is for you to hate to love someone
because they were unfair but in your favor.
Or for you to hate someone, didn't feel
a certain way about someone
because they were fair at your expense.
And then he said
in the same adid,
adid
What else does it mean to be upon
this religion? To be upon the legacy of
Ibrahim alaihi wa sallam. To be upon the
religion of Muhammad sallallahu alaihi wasallam? What else
is the deen? He said, except to love
for Allah and to hate for Allah
To accept that you are not the center
of the universe, brothers and sisters. Which means
what? Which means people don't have to bow
down and I'm gonna use that term deliberately.
To bow down to your opinions,
your preferences.
By the way, not even your opinions in
Islam sometimes.
You know, there is a great wisdom in
why Allah
made certain things in Islam crystal clear. Allah
is 1 and Muhammad is final prophet and
the Quran is his book, and wine and
fornication are prohibited
and being good to your parents and giving
in charity are virtues. Those are constants, closed,
definitive.
But then there are aspects that Allah didn't
forget when he left them open to some
interpretation.
To test you, are you gonna stop yourself
and say, wait a minute. This is open
to interpretation.
Let me stop acting like everyone is being
arrogant and rebellious and hard headed and stubborn
because they don't follow my opinion on these
issues.
They're Allah left them that way by design
for a supreme wisdom.
Let alone our personal opinion. So you you
stop yourself.
Is it this category or is it that
category?
And if you hold everyone to your
opinions when the matter is open to opinion,
then you should suspect that there's an idol
inside that you're trying to get everyone to
bow to.
This is an inflated sense of self. Right?
And Ibrahim alaihis salam used to ask Allah
a zawajal to protect him, to distance him,
not just protect him from every idol. He
would say,
Oh Allah, protect me and protect
my offspring
from worshiping
the idols.
One of the lesser forms of idol worship
is self worship. You are your own idol.
Ibrahim used
to say about this ayah,
Ibrahim.
Who can ever feel secure?
Who can ever guarantee?
After Ibrahim alaihi wasalam was insecure, was worried
about this component.
Right?
And this is why the prophet sallallahu alaihi
wasalam said to the people,
would you like for me to tell you
something
that will get rid of all of these
forms of shirk of setting equals to Allah
rivals to god? He said it's for you
to say and look this up and learn
it after the Khutbah.
Oh Allah,
I seek your protection. Protect me from setting
equals to you while I realize
and forgive me for the times that I
do it while I don't even realize.
Brothers and sisters, the third and final
point is that it is not just
holding people to our opinions
that could be a dangerous sign.
It could be also
us blurring the line
between the goodness, the truth, the righteousness we
are all seeking
and ourselves.
What do I mean by that?
The early Muslims used to often say
that the brokenness of the sinner
is more beloved to Allah than the arrogance
of the obedient person.
You know a sinner, when he feels broken,
regrets and brokenness because he sinned, that brings
him closer to Allah, brings him back.
And the obedient person meaning outwardly obedient, if
he gets arrogant,
that's the Iblis virus. Right? The virus of
shaitan.
If you start noticing yourself, you can start
getting conceited, you get full of yourself,
the the arrogance of the obedient
doesn't bring them closer to It brings them
farther than Allah because then the arrogance becomes
a greater sin than them all.
This is the idea. And so none of
us are at the top of the mountain.
We're all pointing to the top of the
mountain. And just because you are right now
apparently a little bit ahead, that doesn't guarantee
anything. You can actually tumble down faster. Acceleration
due to gravity. Right? It's This is what
happened with shaitan.
And then you go to the story of
Ibrahim alaihis salam and it is mind blowing.
How he was able to never lose sight
of this from the purity of his heart.
Go to Surat Mariam. You find him talking
to his father who's committing the greatest crime
ever, worshiping an idol that he carved out
with his own hands just to appease the
rest of the tribe. What does he say
to him? He says, You Abedi.
My He doesn't say, Hey you or like
call him Even use him by his first
name. You should never call your parents by
their first name
even if they're mushrik. Right? He says, Oh
my dear father. Not even ebi, my father.
Ebti, my dear respected father.
Then he says,
Why are you worshiping? He doesn't say don't
worship. He even understands, I'm not my dad's
dad. I understand it's very hard for my
dad to accept advice from his son.
Look look at why are you worshiping.
Something that cannot hear you and cannot
see you and cannot benefit you in the
least.
Oh my dear respected father, I am afraid.
This is purely out of concern.
I am afraid
that you be touched because even being touched
is unbearable. Being touched by the punishment of
Ar Rahman,
the most merciful. Oh my father, if you
can't find room in the mercy of the
most merciful, who's gonna have mercy on you?
Right?
I'm afraid for you. Then what does his
father do? His father says to him, not
just I disown you, you're not my son
anymore. He says to him, I'm gonna execute
you myself.
I'm gonna be the one to stone you
to death.
So what does he say? He says,
I will seek forgiveness
from my lord for you.
And then, you know, I will close here
brothers and sisters, but you know you go
to Surah al Shura,
you find the same
precision and purity in Ibrahim alaihis salam.
That when he did
fulfill his promise
and seek forgiveness for his father,
And Allah said to him, it's a non
negotiable. Case closed. He used up his chances.
You know what he also said? After
and forgive my father, he also said in
the same dua,
and don't humiliate me either on the day
that you resurrect everyone.
On the day that no wealth nor children
will benefit anyone.
Except for the one who
comes to Allah with a pure heart.
Pure of the major shirk, pure of the
minor shirk. Right?
Pure of it all. And he was certainly
pure of it all and that is his
relevance, his timeless relevance
in Dhul Hijjah and beyond. We ask Allah
subhanahu wa by his most beautiful names and
lofty attributes to protect us from every evil,
the outward and the inward.
And we ask Allah azza wa jal to
protect us from their dangerous
consequences. We ask Allah to give us the
ability to stand in front of the world
if we must
by teaching us how to properly bow in
front of him.