Mohammad Elshinawy – Purification Of The Soul Special Event

AI: Summary ©
The speakers discuss the importance of Islam and forgiveness in the United States, as well as the use of god in one's life. They also touch on religion, including the importance of strong faith and love for God, expressing one's love for God, following natural rhythm, and following the natural rhythm of the heart of faith. They stress the importance of expressing one's love and deeds in public, as well as the use of god in one's life. Additionally, they mention the wide range of meaning for "has" and "has" to describe a situation or situation, and emphasize the importance of understanding both the meaning and context of "has" to avoid confusion.
AI: Summary ©
Assalaamu alaikum everyone, bismillah walhamdulillah, wassalatu wassalamu ala
rasoolillah wa ala alihi wa sahbihi ajma'in,
we begin in the name of Allah, all
praise and glory be to Allah and may
his finest peace and blessings be upon his
messenger Muhammad and his family and his companions
and all those who adhere to his guidance
while asking Allah azza wa jal to make
us among the best of those who adhere
to his guidance, Allahumma ameen.
Jazakallahu khairan for the gracious invite extended by
VRIC and the men's committee in particular and
as our brother mentioned this event has taken
place in collaboration with Mishkah University which is
the Islamic University of North America which is
a wonderful opportunity for all of us whether
we are seeking a bachelor's or master's degree
in Islamic studies from the comfort of our
own homes or simply seeking to see where
life will take us, just starting on the
path of sacred knowledge, enhancing our ability to
align ourselves with Allah's pleasure in our everyday
lives, Mishkah University for instance has two semesters
dedicated to tazkiyah, tazkiyah one and two are
together a one year program dedicated to the
how of spiritual purification, spiritual refinement, spiritual development,
healthy Islamic spirituality.
Tonight's program will be essentially a snapshot from
that course that I teach at Mishkah University
but also in hopes of setting us up
in the best way possible for the incoming
month of Ramadan inshallah ta'ala.
Allow me to begin here, Allah subhanahu wa
ta'ala says in the Qur'an and
warned them all oh Muhammad sallallahu alayhi wa
sallam about the day of regrets, the day
of regret is the day of resurrection, the
day of judgment and it was called the
day of regrets because every single person even
the people of paradise at least until they
make it into paradise they will be recalling
their regrets, I had wished I had done
more but not just that, on that day
people will not just wish they had done
more they will also wish that they had
loved Allah more, they wish they had loved
him the way he deserves to be loved,
Allah the glorified and exalted, the mighty and
majestic, the one who creates and others are
worshipped, the one who provides and others are
thanked, the one whose goodness and generosity and
favors descends upon humanity unending stream while the
sinful acts that fill the scrolls of humanity
are ascending up to him at the same
time constantly, Allah who afflicts at times people
with adversity, suffering, some difficulty so that he
can even against their will sometimes bring them
closer to a state of piety, a state
of cleanliness from within, a state of purity
azza wa jal, the one who was drawing
closer to his servants even though he has
no need for them and they flee from
him even though they cannot fend for themselves
for a moment, Allah subhanahu wa ta'ala
who every time he saw good in any
person he guides and he forgives and he
loves them all over again because that's who
he is, al-ghafoor the most forgiving, the
unimaginably forgiving, al-wadood the most affectionate, the
most loving, the one about whom the Prophet
sallallahu alayhi wa sallam said, inna allaha yabsutu
yadahu bin nahari liyatuba musi'ul layl, Allah
extends his hand every day so that those
who sinned by night may redeem themselves, may
repent and he extends his hand by night
so that those who sinned by day may
repent and he continues to do this until
the Sun rises from the West, he continues
to do this until the demise of the
universe, you know brothers and sisters there comes
a time when even your parents stop extending
their hand, there comes a time that even
your parents stop waiting for you, Allah azza
wa jal does not, could be 20, could
be 30, could be 40 years, the moment
you begin to U-turn, it's as if
nothing has happened, a person recalls all of
this on the Day of Judgment, perhaps begins
to think how can the human being, right,
get Allah subhanahu wa ta'ala or have
that Allah subhanahu wa ta'ala do all
this for them, the human being who came
from what, from a handful of dirt, right,
the human being who was produced by a
drop of flimsy fluid, the human being who
only arrived at this world after passing through
two passageways, out of their father, out of
their mother, the passageways that impurities pass through,
Allah subhanahu wa ta'ala says, no, they
know full well what they were created from,
they know how it all started, they know
how you began and you entered this world,
how can a human being that was so
weak, that was so fragile, that was so
momentary, how can they ever have value, Allah
deemed it, that those who believe in Him
and those who seek His pleasure, they become
the most valuable of His creation, they become
people that He commanded His Prophets to pray
for even before they arrived in this world,
right, the Prophet Nuh Alayhi Salaam Noah said
what, رَبِّ اغْفِرْ لِي وَلِي وَالِدَيَّةِ O my
Lord, forgive me and my parents, وَلِمَنْ دَخَلَ
بَيْتِيَ مُؤْمِنًا and for every believer that entered
my house, وَلِلْمُؤْمِنِينَ وَالْمُؤْمِنَاتَ and grant your forgiveness
to every believing man and woman, we got
in on his dua, Allah made him make
dua for us and then the Prophet Muhammad
Sallallahu Alayhi Wa Sallam, Allah subhanahu wa ta
'ala said to him, فَاعْلَمْ أَنَّهُ لَا إِلَٰهَ
إِلَّا اللَّهُ وَاسْتَغْفِرْ لِذَنْبِكَ وَلِلْمُؤْمِنِينَ وَالْمُؤْمِنَاتَ
know, be certain, know for certain that none
is worthy of worship but Allah and seek
forgiveness for your sins and for every last
believing man and woman, not just them, the
throne bearers of Allah, the angels that bear
His throne, He told us in the Quran,
وَيَسْتَغْفِرُونَ لِلَّذِينَ آمَنُوا they seek forgiveness for the
ones that have believed, that was for you
too, not just that, the Prophet Sallallahu Alayhi
Wa Sallam told us that when you go
visit your sick brother in the daytime, Allah
sends trailing you 70,000 angels praying for
you until the night and if you visit
them at night, He sends behind you 70
,000 angels that stay after you and continue
praying for you by your side, making dua
for your betterment until the morning, all of
that, Allah who after you spent one hour
at night for Him, even in Taraweeh, He
brags to the angels that don't sleep for
the blink of an eye, don't stop worshipping
Him for an instant, He brags about you
to them, look at my servants, look at
them, fighting off fatigue for me, Allah the
one who you fast a few short hours
for Him in Ramadan, may Allah allow us
to see Ramadan and He brags to the
angels that don't eat or drink ever, look,
look at how the scent in their mouth,
the odor of their mouth is sort of
changing a bit, look at how they're inconveniencing
themselves for me, look at how they're discomforting
themselves for me, a person may recall all
of this on the day of judgment, he
did so much for me, I did so
little for him or when Allah subhanahu wa
ta'ala said in the Quran, so mention
me and I will mention you, you know
both of these are amazing, the fact that
we can mention Allah is already amazing, right?
Because who are we with these tongues that
do so much wrong, how do we ever
qualify to be allowed to mention Allah, think
about it, you know when like someone mentions
your cousin and you don't even like your
cousin, you tell him don't you dare put
my cousin's name on your filthy tongue, right?
How this sort of lying, sort of showing
off, backbiting, suspicion spreading, rumor circulating tongue can
just, without Clorox, without anything, you can just
mention the name of Allah, it's already amazing,
what a privilege, but what's more amazing than
that is what, I will be mentioning you
every time you mention me, the Prophet sallallahu
alayhi wa sallam told us that Allah azza
wa jal said, I am right there with
my servant, when he mentions me, when he
remembers me and his two lips part with
my remembrance, Yahya ibn Mu'adh al-Razi,
rahimahullah, he used to say about this, he
says, oh oblivious person, oh foolish person, like
you have no idea what's going on, he
says, if you could just hear the scraping
of the pens, meaning in the heavens, writing
your name down when you mentioned your Lord,
you would have died out of longing for
your Lord, in other words, that's just the
pen, imagine you would hear Allah speaking about
you, subhanahu wa ta'ala, he did all
of that for us, and then we turned
away, and then we hesitated, and then we
foot dragged, may Allah forgive us and rectify
our condition, this will be a great source
of regret for us on the day of
judgment, even those of us that will be
admitted into Jannah, may it be all of
us, not the regret, but rather the admission
into Jannah of course, one of the poets,
he captures this conundrum between man and his
maker, in poetry form as if Allah is
speaking, and he says, servants that have turned
away from us, even though we did not
commit any crime against them, nor is there
any logic to them turning away from us,
can they like survive without us, nor any
logic to it, he says, and they suspected
the worst of us, they think if we're
going to get closer to God, we're going
to be miserable, being religious means being uptight,
right, being restricted, being limited, they suspected the
worst of us, if only they had assumed
better, he continues to say, and if they
turn back to us, we already turn back
to them, over, done, let's not even talk
about it, it's over, right away, and if
they have betrayed us, we have never betrayed
them, we would never betray them, and then
he says, and if they have no need
for us, then we have less of a
need for them, oh you who has turned
away from us, know that you're turning away
is because of us, sometimes it's a punishment,
if we wanted you, we would have made
every ounce of you want us, Allah Subhanahu
wa ta'ala is not in need, brothers
and sisters, for anyone to love him, the
entire universe glorifies him, the clouds above our
heads, the deer in the forest, the crustacean
in the oceans, the righteous in every time
and every place, he does not need it,
and this is why he says, oh you
have believed, whomever of you turns his back
on his religion, then Allah will bring about
another people, he will replace them with another
people, that he loves them and they love
him, and notice he mentioned his love for
them, before their love for him, because it
is out of Allah's love for us, that
he extends for us opportunities to love him,
that he invites us to love him, but
the invitation needs to be accepted, the response
needs to be meaningful, and the response begins
of course with asking him, as the Prophet
sallallahu alayhi wa sallam taught us to ask,
look this dua up, commit it to memory,
chant it in your sincerest moments, he would
teach us to say, oh Allah I ask
you for your love, and the love of
those who love you, and the love of
actions that will bring me closer and closer
to your love, and of course brothers and
sisters, Ramadan is an opportunity for everyone to
renew their faith, but especially in the capacity
of tonight's reminder, I want you to think
about renewing your faith, in line with renewing,
reviving, repairing your love for Allah subhanahu wa
ta'ala, because that is the most precise
definition of faith, didn't Allah say in the
Quran, وَالَّذِينَ آمَنُواْ أَشَدُّ حُبًّا لِلَّهِ and as
for the believers, they are those who are
more intense in their love for Allah, it's
an open-ended sentence, more intense in their
love for Allah than what, doesn't say, because
that blank, you fill it with anything, it
still stands true, more intense in their love
for Allah than their children, more intense in
their love for Allah than their career, more
intense in their love for Allah than their
lives, it becomes their ultimate love, that is
the definition of the believer, as for the
believer, they are more intense in their love
for Allah than anything and the Prophet ﷺ
said to us, no one will taste the
truest sweetness of faith, until Allah and His
Messenger are more beloved to them than everything
else combined, and for the remainder of these
short few minutes we have together, I wanted
to read to you summarize for you, Ibn
Al-Qayyim's discussion in Al-Madarij, Madarij Al
-Saliqeen is a book that is discussed in
this course at Mishka, The Ranks of the
Divine Seekers, you can purchase it, excellent translation,
has been produced by Dr. Omer Anjum and
his team, but the station of muhabba, the
station of love, this is a hundred stations
of those seeking at heart, nearness to Allah
and His pleasure, so this station of muhabba
as Ibn Al-Qayyim captures it, is one
of the most soul-stirring discussions you will
ever come across, I have ever come across,
every time I revisit it, in the past
20 years, on this topic, of the core,
the nucleus, the heart of faith, which is
muhabbatullah ta'ala, loving Allah the Exalted, so
he strikes this parallel between the tree of
faith, you know the Quran speaks about the
tree of faith, this blessed tree, its roots
are very firmly entrenched, firmly established, anchored in
the ground deep, and its branches extend all
the way into the skies, it gives, offers
its fruits, all the time, year round, by
the permission of its Lord, so he speaks
about the love of Allah, essentially being the
seed of that tree, you get it, so
he says, when you plant, let us now
say in the capacity of Ramadan, when we
replant, right, that seed, correctly, into the heart,
he says, it becomes firmly rooted, and then
emerges into a tree, that its end, its
pinnacle, is at Sidratul Muntaha, you know what
Sidratul Muntaha is?
It is the tree, the Prophet ﷺ was
brought to, after he was elevated through the
seven skies, the utmost tree, it is the
brink of the universe, as we know it,
it is the end point, before the world
of the hereafter, paradise, right, so he says,
it's so deep in his heart, you know,
only when it gets deep, the foundations of
a building determine how high the building can
rise, right, so he says, deeply rooted in
the heart, such that its branches reach Sidratul
Muntaha, the tree at the apex of the
universe, so imagine now, your heart now is
connected with the heavens, nothing in this world
can break you anymore, of course, right, he
says, and this tree now is watered, of
course, you don't water a tree once, you
have to keep watering, continuously, with sincere devotion
to Allah, sincere devotion, dedication to Allah, he
says, that is when it bears its fruits
all year round, you know, there's no off
-season for the believer, there's a high season,
it's called Ramadan, it's called Hajj, okay, but
there's no off-season, that's why it renders
fruits, yields its harvest all year round, what's
also very beautiful to incorporate here, is the
fact that hubb, love, comes from the same
root as the word habb, which is seed,
you see, it's not just intellectual gymnastics, it
is all tied together, right, the seed, of
course, needs a fertile earth, it needs a
good environment, so does your faith, by the
way, right, and it needs constant watering, it
needs this devotion, remember, it's sincere devotion, and
it also needs what?
Sunlight, regular sunlight, and the light that Allah
sent down is what?
The light of the sun and the light
of revelation, so you need the right environment,
you need to be watering it, putting in
the work, and you need constant exposure to
the revelation, right, that's the way your seed
is going to blossom, and the tree of
faith, the tree of loving God is going
to thrive, but he doesn't stop there, he
says elsewhere, but I'm going to pull it
together for you, the word ins, like ins,
insan, human being, comes from the word uns,
some say nisyan, forgetfulness, but perhaps the more
correct opinion grammatically, it's from uns, uns means
what?
Company, the human being loves company, he loves,
he's social by nature, or social creatures, but
it's not just our need to socialize with
people, we have an inherent need to feel
near to God, we're built to have a
relationship with him, I need to know he's
with me, I need to see his face,
that is a whisper inside the soul of
everyone, some people act on that claim, and
some people they bury it, so loving Allah
is not just at the core of faith,
it is not just the seed, love is
the seed of faith, and the tree of
faith, it is also what it means to
be human, it is to respond to your
innermost reality, the ghaybi, the metaphysical, the spiritual
yearning that is hardwired in every human being,
everyone would say generally, I love God, but
are you true in your love for God,
will you put in the work to really
build a relationship with God, what's more important
than you loving Allah is what?
Him loving you, so he continues to say,
the claimants who said they loved God were
many, and so he sent them an exam,
in the form of his words, say
to them O Prophet, if you really love
Allah, then follow me, follow the Prophet Muhammad,
if you love Allah, Allah will love you,
he starts with the more important one, Allah
will love you, and forgive you your sins,
you don't have to be perfect, but you
got to follow Muhammad Sallallahu Alaihi Wasallam, you
got to try your best, right, and forgive
you your sins, you'll still have sins, and
Allah is most forgiving, most merciful, he says
so Allah declared in that ayah, you can
claim whatever you want, but the only currency
we will accept is sacrifice, are you going
to sacrifice to follow Muhammad Sallallahu Alaihi Wasallam
or not, because you know that's what it
means, if you love someone, you give up
what you like for what they like, you
know, if I love my kids, I'm not
going to think too much about, oh it's
2am, I'm really not going to get him
his medicine right now, because I have work
in four hours, it doesn't work like that,
why?
Love makes sacrifice a no-brainer, selfless for
the ones we love, not selfish, and then
claim that we love, so Allah said if
you really love me, you follow Muhammad Sallallahu
Alaihi Wasallam, Allah will love you, he says
so when he set that standard, very few
among humanity rose, yes we will follow Muhammad
Sallallahu Alaihi Wasallam, so the believers are few,
but he's about to explain that among the
believers are those whose belief is compromised, whose
hypocrisy has flared, who the disease has spread
inside of, may Allah cleanse our hearts and
yours, he's a few among humanity rose and
said we will follow your beloved Sallallahu Alaihi
Wasallam, so Allah says back to them, are
you sure you will follow him, he just
went off into the battlefield, prove to me
you will still follow him, where does he
get this from, this storyline from?
From the Quran, the ayah I recited earlier,
it says, O you who have believed, whoever
reneges on their deen, Allah will bring about
another people, he loves them, they love him,
what does it say, they are humbled with
the believers, but they are ferocious with the
disbelievers, of course those who are at war
with them, no one's going to outdo a
believer in his civility, in his compassion, but
on the battlefield, no one's going to outdo
the believer in his fearlessness either, in his
valor, in his courage, so he says, ferocious
with the disbelievers, meaning in that context, they
fight in the path of Allah, and they
fear not the blame of the blamers, they
couldn't care less about the criticism of those
that are criticizing them, you know also when
someone's in love, they don't care what you
think about them, or if they should not
or not, should have or should not have
eloped, ran away with their beloved, right, I'm
in love, I don't care about the blame
of the blamers, it's irrelevant to me, so
long as I have my beloved, secured, so
Allah is saying they fight now, behind their
Prophet Sallallahu Alaihi Wasallam, in the path of
Allah, and they don't fear the blame of
the blamers, Ibn Al-Qayyim says, so then
when he set the standard higher, you say
you follow, well now are you going to
follow only when it's convenient, are you going
to be a selective follower of Muhammad Sallallahu
Alaihi Wasallam, or are you going to follow
him through thick and thin, he says that
at that point, most of the few who
rose, most of them stepped back, and only
the warriors stepped forward, the warriors who went
to war with themselves, and their emotions, and
their fears, went to war with the enemy,
if the context sanctioned that, and so when
the warriors stepped forward, Allah said to them,
your souls no longer belong to you, your
wealth no longer belongs to you, now come
sign the contract, you've agreed that no matter
what it's on the table, you're going to
sacrifice it, now come sign the contract, what
is the contract, that Allah has certainly
purchased from the believers their lives and their
wealth, so that for them will be paradise,
souls he created, souls he does not need,
he still buys them back from you, in
exchange for paradise, and a person is to
stop here of course and say, if I
have not sold, do I deserve the payment,
what proof do I have that I have
actually sold, the rights to my soul, the
rights to my wealth, the rights to my
decisions, I've truly unconditionally submitted, so long as
I get that Jannah, and if you have
not sold, why have you not sold, have
you found a better buyer, so Ibn Al
-Khayyam says, that when he said to them,
come sign the contract, they realized that the
contract was no flimsy contract, you see, Allah
did not accept anything but advanced payment for
this contract, he said, Allah purchased lives and
wealth, so that for them will be paradise,
you got to pay up front, you know
when something is cheap, they tell you, take
it off the lot, I need to get
rid of it, and payment installments, because it's
losing value, I need to bring the new
wave of cars in, right, this is not
one of those items, it's not a flimsy
thing, Allah said, but the payment has to
be, do you trust me or not, do
you believe or not, you got to pay
in advance, so that for you will be
paradise, Ibn Al-Khayyam says, so the coward
stepped back, I don't know about this contract,
and the stingy, no, I want immediate payment,
right, the stingy stepped back, it's as if
Allah was telling them, this is the contract,
if you're a coward or you're stingy, stand
down, this contract is not for you, the
love of Allah is the grand prize, you
need to be ready to pay for it,
and I'll read to you here this final
line, he says, when they realized at that
moment, the greatness of the buyer, and the
superiority of the price, and the majesty of
the one who sealed the contract, he's the
one that brought us the contract, they understood
the value of the commodity, and its significance
became clear to them, and they recognized that
it would be a great loss to sell
it for some trivial price, and so they
swore their allegiance, and when the contract was
completed, and when the goods were surrendered, they
were told, since your souls and wealth now
belong to us, we return them to you
many fold better than ever, in this life
before the next, only through dedication to Allah
can you live the best life here, now
that you've sold it, now you can enjoy
life here, and then at the end of
your term here, your life will only be
upgraded there, you know, subhanAllah, brothers and sisters,
the reality is that this world demands from
us so much, and returns to us so
little, whereas Allah subhanahu wa ta'ala demands
from us so little, and he is offering
us so much, and may Allah subhanahu wa
ta'ala allow us to realize, and continue
to realize, and keep remembering the weight and
depth of those words, Allahumma ameen, and then
he says, and I will not be able
to expound on this much, I'll have you
explore it on your own, and with your
families, he says what is it that generates
the love of Allah, that gets us started
on this road, out of his love he
gives us an opportunity, now how do we
generate some love, and then it becomes a
virtuous cycle, he'll love us more, and enable
us to love him more, and love us
more, and enable us to love him more,
and it becomes this beautiful virtuous cycle, he
said there are 10 things, for those of
you writing, or those of you who will
come back to the recording, take note of
them, 10 things that will generate the love
of Allah, he says the first of them
is the Quran, there's nothing like it, it
has no equivalent, deep reflection on the Quran,
look for while you're reading, even the translation,
how do I act on these words, let
me figure out a way, understand these words,
exert an effort to explain the Quran to
yourself, as if you were explaining it to
a crowd, trying not to embarrass yourself, right,
I gotta, I can't like look like I
don't know, I'm gonna, explaining the Quran to
yourself like that, don't skip a word, or
don't skip a phrase, say it's not important,
I'll get back to it some other time,
next Ramadan or something, don't do that, Quran
with deep reflection, that's number one, number two,
he says is to do deeds, nafl, beyond
the obligatory deeds, but of course beyond he
means after, in addition to, because Allah Subhanahu
Wa Ta'ala said in the authentic hadith
Qudsi, my servant does not come closer to
me with anything more beloved, love, beloved to
me than what I have obligated him with,
and my servant does not stop coming closer
to me with these nafl deeds, meaning every
rak'ah, every sadaqa, every sajda, he'll continue
to get closer to me with those nafl,
after the fara'id, until I love them,
meaning in an exceptional way, in a distinguished
way, number three, constant dhikr, never allow your
tongue to go dry from the remembrance of
Allah, subhanallah and alhamdulillah and la ilaha illallah
and allahu akbar, you're not trying to remember
someone absent, you're trying to revive yourself from
the coma, you're trying to resuscitate yourself to
the actual reality that Allah is more real
than us, we're just being absent-minded, he's
not absent, this is the purpose of dhikr,
the more dhikr you make, the more glorification
of Allah will land in your heart eventually,
and we are born to love what is
glorious, we love glorious things, we love powerful
things, we love mighty things, we love perfect
things, we love beautiful things, Allah is the
epitome of all of that, so the more
you recall it, the more your love for
him will grow, subhanahu wa ta'ala, number
four, he says and this was the summary
of today's topic, but sacrificing and jumping hurdles
to prioritize his love, there's going to be
roadblocks, that's your booster moment, that's how you
get closer than ever, you're going to be
tested, are you only going to do it
when it's smooth sailing or are you going
to power through on the day you're feeling
a little heavier, a little more sluggish, a
little more down, I'm still going to pray
my fajr, I'm still going to restrain my
anger, I'm still going to keep my pledge,
you know when Allah says, those who fight
towards us, fight to come closer to us,
fight to please us, we will surely guide
them to our paths, that means what, if
you don't fight, you will not be guided
to the paths, number five, he says meditating,
meaning spending a long time reflecting on his
names and his attributes, for whoever does that,
loving him becomes inevitable, you are incapable of
not loving Allah, you will not be able
to resist loving him, if you spend time
reflecting on his names and his attributes, what
makes them perfect, what makes him so unique,
number six, is noting his favours, again, it
is irresistible to love, to not love, right,
those who give you gifts, even when you
have a problem with someone and they give
you a gift, you start developing a soft
spot for them and that's why the Prophet
sallallahu alayhi wa sallam said, exchange gifts, it
will increase the love between you, it'll break
the ill feelings, break the grudges, give gifts
and this is why Allah tells us about
his favours, his gifts to us on every
page of the Quran, so just note them,
most of the gifts of Allah go unnoticed
and most of those few that are noticed,
get forgotten again, so push back against that,
number six, number seven, expressing one's brokenness before
him, as this is the greatest shortcut to
God, it's true, he used to say, there
is no path between a servant and his
Lord that is shorter than expressing your brokenness,
because you know, when you say, oh Allah,
I can't, it's you saying, you can, it
is the other part of glorifying him, so
express that there's nothing glorious about me, you
are the one who validates me, you are
the one who maintains me, you are the
one who mends me, you are the one
who saves me, so expressing one's brokenness before
him, you know, even if you don't know
what to say, that's part of it too,
say, yeah Allah, I don't know what to
say, yeah Allah, forgive me, I don't know
how to speak to you, yeah Allah, I
don't know, I don't care, find the words
in any language, say these things, hear yourself
saying them, number eight, seclusion with him during
the sacred hours, the sujood time, the end
of the night, right, because this also creates
an awe inside you, that's why it's part
of our sacred framework, our sacred devotional framework,
this wasn't just someone's bright idea on this
is how you can try to get closer
to God, Allah sent his Prophet, peace be
upon him, to show you how to get
access, these times where you have intimate conversations
with him, at the same time you are
ultra reverent of him, you're making your wudu
and you're facing the qibla and you're in
private because you're certain that he hears you
as you whisper into the carpet, so times
of seclusion, number nine, adhering, meaning keeping the
company of genuine lovers of Allah, people who
are very cautious, guarding of their relationship with
Allah, people very vigilant, afraid to fumble their
status with Allah, because it's contagious, right, it's
inspiring, he says people who pluck the finest
fruits of their words, meaning they pluck their
words the same way they choose a fruit,
I don't care how long it takes, I
need to pick the word that Allah is
going to hear me say, right, who pluck
the finest fruits of their words and they
only speak after confirming that speech outweighs silence
or it is of benefit for them or
for others, and number 10, avoiding all that
counteracts the heart's progress and hinders it from
Allah, you're flushing in the fresh water, you're
rinsing out the residue, you're sort of detoxing
the heart and the pollution in the heart
with the love of Allah, you got to
plug the holes and sort of make sure
it doesn't come in from the other side
or else you build one day and destroy
another or build one moment and demolish another,
may Allah subhanahu wa ta'ala grant us
his love and the love of those who
love him and the love of actions that
will bring us closer to his love, Allahumma
ameen, may Allah allow us in these final
days of Rajab to plant our seeds and
to water them in the month of Sha
'ban and to harvest the best of the
best of Ramadan, Allahumma ameen, may Allah subhanahu
wa ta'ala make the Quran and our
daily reflections on it a means of having
our sins forgiven, having our hearts purified, having
our minds illuminated, having our burdens lifted, having
our anxieties and our grief and our distress
dispelled, Allahumma ameen, ameen, ameen, wa sallallahu wa
sallam wa baraka an nabiyyina Muhammad wa ala
alihi wa sahbihi ajma'een.
Jazakallah khairan.
Yes, there can be questions, if you need
to leave, leave, take your time and hurry
up, go quietly, you're not insulting me, please,
I will not be offended in the least,
but whoever wants to stay behind for questions,
we'll leave some time for questions as requested.
Anybody have a question?
Can I run away?
Oh, there is a brother that has a
question here.
Jazakallah khair brother.
I just want you to expand on khushu
and seclusion.
Khushu and seclusion.
Seclusion.
You have one too, can I answer his
question first?
One second.
So khushu and seclusion.
Seclusion means to be alone, to be secluded
means to be separated, like secularism, to separate
church and state, right?
So seclusion means to be alone, okay?
In our deen, we are not isolationist, we
are not told to separate ourselves from society
altogether, because then what?
The bad people get worse.
No one's checking them anymore, right?
So no, it's not what we're taught.
We are taught that there are moments that
are necessary for seclusion.
You have to step away for some moments
to make your five salah, and you're encouraged
to step away into the darkness for qiyam
ul-layl, and if you can, to step
away altogether for just 10 days out of
the year perhaps, in the last 10 of
Ramadan, that's seclusion.
Because it helps what?
Khushu.
It helps the presence of heart.
Khushu is a word that is translated as
concentration, it's translated as humility, it's translated as
awe.
I like translating it as stillness.
Stillness.
It's what helps the heart become still and
focused.
That's the linguistic roots of the word khushu.
Khushu means to be present and to be
poised in your interactions with Allah subhanahu wa
ta'ala.
There's no interference, there is no noise.
You're trying to get as much of that
as possible, that's what khushu is, and Allah
knows best.
Who else has a question?
The sisters have questions too, by the way.
There's some hands going up on that side.
I don't know who's the the mic wielder.
Question, and this may seem odd, but I'm
a reader.
So you know the dua in Surah Ibrahim,
where we're supposed to pray for our parents,
since my parents are not Muslim, how does
that work?
The sister is asking about the dua of
Ibrahim alayhi salam for his parents.
How does that apply to someone whose parents
are not Muslim?
So in Surah Ibrahim, we have that Ibrahim
alayhi salam prayed for his parents.
Elsewhere in the Qur'an, Allah subhanahu wa
ta'ala says that Ibrahim alayhi salam's dua
for his father was not except for the
fact that he promised to pray for him.
Then it says, but then when it became
clear to him that this was off limits,
he stopped doing that.
And so it is important to note that
when someone passes away and they're not Muslim,
even though we will not be praying for
them, we are also not allowed to conclude
anything about their fate.
Meaning they are with Allah subhanahu wa ta
'ala and he is the ultimate judge.
Just as you are not allowed to pray
for them, you are also not allowed to
say this individual is doomed.
That is also prohibited in Islam.
But it is just a matter of we
have no ability in this world except to
judge on what's apparent.
Otherwise we would be paralyzed.
I wouldn't know who's Muslim and who's not
Muslim, who's a believer, who's not a believer,
because I don't have access to people's hearts.
So I leave the hearts to their maker
and I leave people's ultimate destination to Allah.
Right?
But in this world, these rules are judged
based on what is apparent to us.
He's apparently Muslim, so he can apparently marry
my daughter.
Right?
He's apparently Muslim, so I can apparently eat
his meat.
I need to know these rules, right?
This person is not a Muslim, so I
can pray for them.
They become Muslim and be forgiven of their
sins by becoming Muslim.
They're non-Muslim and they pass away, then
I don't make dua for them.
But at the same time, I don't have
to believe, rather I am not allowed to
believe that they will certainly not be saved.
We trust Allah's justice and his judgment, even
if we're not allowed to pray for the
forgiveness of someone that has apparently passed away
a non-believer.
Does that help?
Does it answer the question?
Tabna, ask your question.
You know, this is a dua we make
after Salah.
We make it, you know, like we're, it's
like Prophet Muhammad Sallallahu Alaihi Wasallam, you know,
it's like a sunnah.
But because my parents are non-Muslim, do
I still say this for like my forefathers
who were brought over here on slave ships
that were Muslim?
I mean, how does this work?
That's what I guess.
I'm trying to understand.
I got it.
So you can pray for the forgiveness of
a non-Muslim who is alive, intending by
that that they become Muslim and be forgiven.
Because the Prophet Sallallahu Alaihi Wasallam said after
the battle of Uhud, when he was gashed
by them, he said, Allahum maghfir li qawmi
fa innahum la ya'lamoon.
Oh my Lord, forgive my people for they
do not know.
Forgive them means what?
Guide them to Islam so that they would
be forgiven.
That's what's meant by it.
And so you can do it that way.
And Allah knows best.
Or there are many alternate duas, if this
is sort of problematized in your head, that's
that's fine as well.
Just there's a reason why there are so
many duas and we're not just held to
one.
Because sometimes that one either may not be
applicable in that moment or your heart will
not be present due to your reluctance to
say it, like your uncertainty about its implications.
Assalamualaikum Sheikh.
Waalaikumsalam.
Who's talking to me?
Here.
There we go.
Jazakallah khair for your time and your efforts.
May Allah increase you, bless you for your
efforts and make you of the people that
Allah loves and make you of those that
love Allah as well.
We've talked a lot about things that we
can do to come closer to Allah and
love Allah.
Are there certain signs that a person can
take that Allah loves them as well?
What are the signs that Allah loves a
person?
So the hadith that we mentioned, that my
servant does not come closer to me with
anything more beloved to me.
This is called hadith al-wilaya, the hadith
of being loved by God.
And so it begins, I'm going to have
to rush through it, but at least I'll
give you something.
It says, Whomever shows aggression or enmity to
those that I love, I have declared war
on such people.
So Allah is declaring already that he's very
protective of his cherished servants, of his beloved
servants.
Then he speaks about how to get closer
and become Allah's beloved by saying, and my
servant does not come closer to me with
anything more beloved to me than what I
have obligated upon them.
And my servant continues to come closer to
me with the nawafil, with the voluntary deeds
until I love them.
Here it comes, the signs.
And then when I love them, I become
their hand with which they strike, their foot
with which they walk, their eye with which
they see, their ear with which they hear.
So that's the first sign that Allah loves
you, that you are aligned with the things
he loves.
Allah gives this world to those he loves
and those he hates, but he gives guidance
to who?
The ones he loves.
He gives faith to the one he loves.
So the more aligned you are with Allah's
guidance, that is divine grace.
That's a gift because he loves you.
That's number one.
Then it continues to say, وَإِنْ إِسْتَعَاذَنِي فَأُعِيدَ
وَلَا إِنْ سَأَلَنِي لَأُعْطِيَنَّهُ وَلَا إِنْ إِسْتَعَاذَنِي لَأُعِيدَنَّ
And when he asks of me, I give
him.
And when he seeks my refuge, I grant
him refuge.
So Allah answering your dua more often than
others is of the signs that he loves
you.
But the first sign is stronger than the
second sign because Allah may accept your dua
and you're not even a believer as a
means to bring you to faith, as a
means to humble your heart, to give you
another chance.
It doesn't mean you're loved yet.
The Quran says among those who disbelieve in
God are those they wind up on a
ship and it becomes topsy-turvy and they
start calling upon Allah, if you save us
we'll be better, we'll be monotheists, we won't
ascribe any partners to you.
Then he accepts their dua, the dua of
the disbeliever.
It doesn't mean the disbeliever is one of
the awliya of Allah subhanahu wa ta'ala.
So the number one sign, the number one
sign is your alignment with Allah's pleasure.
You hear what he loves for you to
hear.
You see what he loves for you to
see.
You do with your faculties, your hands, what
he loves to see from you.
That is of the greatest signs that he
loves you.
And of the signs also is the dua
that he accepts from you.
Those are two signs.
Yes, go ahead.
If there's no mic just project yourself.
Oh there is a mic.
Yes, so my question is that by point
ten I understood that we must avoid all
kinds of harams to gain Allah's love, but
if it's not what I think it is,
could you please clarify the point with an
example?
Thank you so much.
Yeah, so some people they say, you know,
I've been reading Quran, I've been reading Quran,
I've been reading Quran, but my iman is
not growing.
I don't feel my iman stronger.
Well maybe you're reading Quran or listening to
Quran from one ear and you're still listening
to music and backbiting from the other ear.
Right or wrong?
That's what we mean, that it's not just
about doing the right things.
It's also about stopping to do the wrong
things, avoiding the wrong things.
That's what we mean.
When will the building's construction ever come like
into full form if every time you build
someone behind you comes and knocks down?
That's what we mean.
Go ahead.
Oh here.
Okay, alaikum salam.
You said that jannah people will regret there,
so how is explained in Quran?
Yes, yes.
Okay, second thing, if there is...
No, the first question is free.
The second question you have to do Ramadan
pledge for the masjid here.
Okay, go ahead.
No, I'm joking.
Go ahead.
So we said the people of jannah will
regret.
Let me try to reword that.
The people that are jannah bound, the people
that are going to go to jannah at
the end of this day, the day of
judgment, will regret until they get into jannah.
Then they will forget.
Does that make sense?
The prophet sallallahu alayhi wasallam said in the
authentic hadith of Anas, the people of jannah
will not regret anything except a moment that
passed by them in which he did not
remember Allah.
I could have got a higher level.
I could have had a higher level.
I could have gotten a higher level when
they realized the disparity between each level.
So they will regret that until they get
to jannah.
Then they will be made content even if
they don't have the greatest of its enjoyments.
All right.
They will not regret inside.
I'm sorry if that was unclear.
Sister, go ahead.
Why do we pray five times a day?
Very important question.
We pray five times a day for many,
many, many, many reasons.
The number one reason is what?
It's what Allah loves most, to have a
conversation with us.
The most beloved, the most loved act to
Allah, the prophet sallallahu alayhi wasallam said this,
is praying on time.
That's the number one reason.
And it will be the first thing he
asks us about on the day of judgment.
Did you do the thing that I loved
most?
Did you make it first?
Did you make it most important?
Did you prioritize it?
This is why we pray.
And because if we don't pray, we're not
going to be able to be good Muslims.
Right?
Allah subhanahu wa ta'ala wasta'eenu bis
-sabri was-salat.
Seek strength in prayer and in patience.
If you're not able to handle the prayer,
you will not be able to handle everything
else that's built on the prayer.
That's why the hadith says, as-salat amudud
-din.
It's the central column of Islam.
If it falls, everything else falls.
I hope some of those answers got through.
Any final question?
Someone new that hasn't asked?
Go ahead, Sheikh.
As-salamu alaykum.
Walaykum as-salam.
So yeah, being loved by Allah, it's a
very good category.
It's a very?
Good category.
Of course.
There's also a category of Ibadur Rahman.
Is this like a special category?
I'm pretty sure it's a higher category.
Can you explain that?
Yes, of course.
These are not separate categories.
Right?
Ibadur Rahman.
Okay.
You remember how we said the tree of
faith and faith is love and hub is
from hab seed.
It's the seed of the tree.
Ibadah, to be the abd, means to be
the lover.
Ibn al-Qayyim, he does like a beautiful
explanation in one of his books on there
being 60 words for love in the Arabic
language.
The highest of them is Ibadah.
We translate Ibadah as worship.
Of course, the problem with worship, there's no
good word, but the problem with worship is
that it runs the risk of you thinking
Ibadah is all about some exterior, external ritual
that we do.
That ritual is supposed to be an expression
of our love of Allah and also a
generator of more love of Allah.
But Ibadah, at its core, is loving God,
adoring God.
Even, by the way, in English, when they
say the fans worship...
A long time ago, they used to say
they worship Elvis or they worship Michael Jackson.
I'm sorry that they say that stuff.
It was a very common phrase.
What do they mean by worship?
Do they mean like sujood?
No.
They mean like their head over heels in
love with him.
They obsess over him.
They adore him.
So likewise, worship Ibadah means to adore Allah
above all else.
That's the root of Ibadah.
Even if you go to the dictionaries, you'll
find that the lexical root of Ibadah is
complete humility, complete love.
Those two only get combined for who?
For him.
Everything else is the fruit.
So this is the root of Ibadah, the
seed of Ibadah.
Then there's the fruit of Ibadah, which are
the expressions and the actions and the compliance
and the deference and the ritual.
All of that is the fruit.
But the root of it is what?
Humility and love.
That helps.
So Ibadur Rahman are those who have captured
this, embodied it.
And Allah knows best.
I'm not in charge.
Can someone tell me how many more questions?
I don't mind.
My flight isn't until 10 a.m., but
I need permission.
Should I go?
One, one.
So sister and then brother.
Okay, sister first.
I have to behave, Sheikh.
He bought me lunch today.
So I'm actually reading this on behalf of
another sister.
It's known that Allah tests those he loves.
What are some tips you would give someone
going through an emotional draining test?
What would you give as a tip for
someone going through an emotionally draining test?
So Ibn Atta, he used to say, No
one reads Surah Yusuf in a state of
sadness except that they will find comfort.
That's one.
And the Prophet ﷺ also said, مَنْ أُصِيبَ
بِمُصِيبَةٍ فَلْيَتَذَكَّرْ مُصِيبَتَهُ بِي فَإِنَّهَا أَعْظَمُ الْمَصَائِبُ
Whomever is subjected to some tragic event, let
them consider, let them recall the tragedy of
my death.
For that is the greatest of tragedies.
This is objectively true.
You know how humble the Prophet ﷺ was?
You know how hard it must have been
for him to say that?
But Allah told him to say that because
if he didn't say that, we wouldn't know
it.
The worst tragedy in human history is over.
It was called the death of the Prophet
ﷺ.
Everything else is lighter, right?
This is not me invalidating your suffering, your
experience, but telling you that your experience can
change.
It can be contextualized.
It can be tempered, right?
And Allah ﷻ said to the Prophet ﷺ
himself when he was suffering so much, we
know that it saddens you.
لَيَحْزُنُكَ الَّذِي يَقُولُ It saddens you, all the
things they're saying about you.
So what do you do?
فَسَبِّحْ بِحَمْدِ رَبِّكَ وَكُمْ مِنَ السَّاجِدِينَ So glorify
the praises of your Lord and be among
those who prostrate.
So do not drift from the community.
Stay near good brothers or sisters from the
community that can carry this load with you
and glorify Allah.
The tasbih of Allah ﷻ alleviates all of
these burdens.
It truly does.
And recall that no one is actually spared
of anything.
Like we're all going through something and Allah
chose for you a particular test for a
wisdom that He ultimately knows.
He chose for you because He loves you,
Azza wa Jal.
You know the poet he says, اصْبِرْ لِكُلِّ
مُصِيبَةٍ وَتَجَلَّدِ Show patience at every calamity and
some toughness.
وَاعْلَمْ بِأَنَّ الْمَرْءَ غَيْرَ مُخَلَّدِ And know that
the individual, the human being, is not immortal.
Right?
Like the problem will either go or you
will go and leave it behind.
It's not staying.
Right?
وَمَنْ لَمْ يُصَبْ مِمَّنْ تَرَى بِمُصِيبَةٍ هَذَا سَبِيلٌ
لَسْتَ عَنْهُ بِأَوْحَدِ Then he says, and who
has not been afflicted from any person you've
ever seen in your life?
This is a path you're not walking alone.
He says, these are all pinches or fangs
that bite into you today and they disappear
tomorrow.
You know like your best day in this
world, whatever that is, it ended that day.
The feeling went away like 24, 48, 72
hours max.
Right?
Likewise, your worst day in this world, it's
going to be gone in a day or
two.
It's going to start dissipating.
Right?
He says, تَنُوبُ الْيَوْمِ It bites today وَتُكْشَفُ
فِي غَدِي He says, وَإِذَا ذَكَرْتَ مُصِيبَةً وَمُصَابَهُ
فَذْكُرْ مُصَابَكَ بِالنَّبِي مُحَمَّدِ And if you want
to remember a tragedy and how much it
hurt, remember your tragic event of losing the
Prophet Muhammad ﷺ.
So I hope some of these are helpful.
Surah Yusuf and remembering the Prophet ﷺ and
all he went through and the prescription of
Allah for him and realizing that it's a
moment, it will be gone, you will swear
it was nothing once you pass through the
gates, inshallah.
And the last question was, how do you
differentiate waswas versus your own negative thoughts?
Oh, no.
How do I answer this in brief terms?
Who's the brother that told me he's a
psychologist?
Where is he?
Show yourself.
He's like, I check out at 5 p
.m. I don't know you.
He's not here.
Well, alhamdulillah, you have sort of mental health
professionals in the community and psych specialists in
the community.
There is Yaqeen Institute's paper called Imams, OCD
Imams and Satanic Whispers.
Something along those lines.
Google Yaqeen, Imams, OCD, Satanic Whispers.
But ultimately, or briefly should I say, the
Prophet ﷺ, when people came to him and
said, we hear certain suggestive thoughts, he said,
أَوَجَدْتُمُ الْحَمْدُ لِلَّهِ الَّذِي رَضَّ كَيْدَهُ يَلْوَسْوَسَ Praise
be to Allah who limited his schemes, the
schemes of shaitan to simply whispering.
إِذَا وَجِدَ أَحَدُكُم ذَٰلِكَ فَلْيَسْتَعِذُ بِاللَّهِ وَلِيَنْتَهِ One
of you experiences these thoughts, seek refuge with
Allah and just ignore them.
Ignore them, self-interrupt.
Because if you try to silence them, you're
already validating them.
You're giving them too much attention.
So they'll get louder and louder.
The trick is to ignore them.
The trick is to not believe they're you
because they're not.
If they were you, you wouldn't be complaining
to the Shaykh about them, right?
This is why another narration, the Prophet ﷺ
said to the man who said I have
whispers, ذَلِكَ صَرِيحُ الْإِمَان This is a clear
sign of faith.
What's a clear sign of faith?
Whispers?
No, your complaint, you're being bothered by the
whisper is a sign of your faith.
So don't buy into the lie that this
is you doubting the faith or otherwise.
As for if sometimes people need intervention, they
need someone like an external party to help
them self-interrupt so that it quiets and
disappears these whispers, seek out professional help.
Nothing wrong with that.
InshaAllah, we'll take one final question.
You promise?
Yes.
Okay.
I'll take your question offline, Shaykh, inshaAllah.
Onto the table.
Yeah, this is regarding your first point, which
is Qur'an.
So as an average Muslim, right, how should
I go about reading the translation of Qur
'an?
So when I start with the translation, we
see there are many versions of translations with
commentary from Sahih Al-Bukhari, but in many
of the verses, we miss the exegesis.
Now if I go back to the exegesis,
like Ibn Qasir, it is extremely verbose actually
and sometimes it gets tricky to comprehend the
context.
Suppose if you take the context of Surah
Al-Imran with the Battle of Uhud.
So unless and until we go through the
Seerah series, it gets a bit tricky.
So if I am a working professional, I
can't go through a course, what would be
the ideal way I can approach this?
If you suggest I have to go through
a course, then what would be the best
steps?
JazakAllah khair.
Okay, inshaAllah.
So two things quickly about the meanings of
the Qur'an.
First of all, the translation of the Qur
'an is an interpretation of the Qur'an.
So he selects a meaning, the interpreter, and
then he translates that meaning that he has
chosen into English.
So you can read the translation as an
explanation, as tafsir.
It is.
Number two, unlike the differences we often hear
about in Islamic law, different interpretations that are
often conflictual in Islamic law, so much of
the differences in Qur'anic explanation, when you
go to the traditional explanations, they are not
conflictual, they are not contradictory, they are not
mutually exclusive, they are compatible.
They mean all of that at once.
There are layers of meaning to the Qur
'an, as many of the early Muslims, Sufyan
al-Thawri and others used to say.
So if I can be so witty, clever,
intelligent that I can say something and mean
two things by it, Allah, who created human
intelligence, can say something and mean multiple meanings
by it?
Of course He can, Subhanahu wa ta'ala.
And so the Qur'an, much of it
is like that.
You don't need to pinpoint which one it
is and isn't to move on to reflecting.
You're reflecting upon an established meaning, and that
is available to you through a translation.
The last thing I'm going to say is
how to reflect.
There is a Yaqeen paper called Keys to
Tadabbur.
Everyone here has to read it.
Okay?
And if you get the AI summary, we're
not friends.
Read it.
Keys to Tadabbur.
How to deeply reflect in the Qur'an,
it's extremely pragmatic.
It is one of the best resources you
can ever come across in the English language
so far, especially going into the month of
Ramadan.
Okay?
By Sheikh Yusuf Wahab, and I assisted with
the paper, but he's the lead author.
Yusuf Wahab, W-A-H-B.
I'm going to stop here, because you guys
are being very courteous and you don't want
to leave, even though I gave you permission
to leave.
Get out.
I mean, get home safe.
And whoever wants to stay behind, I'll stay
behind for a bit, inshallah, for private questions.
Jazakallahu khairan wa salamu ala alihi wa sahbihi
ajma'in.