Moutasem al-Hameedy – Asking Allah for Help In This Life
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AI: Transcript ©
Inna alhamdulillah, nahmaduhu wa nastaeenuhu wa nastaghfiruhu, wa
na'udhu billahi min shururi anfusina wa sayyi
'ati a'malina, man yahdihi allahu fala mudhilla lahu
wa man yudhil fala hadi lah, wa ash
'hadu an la ilaha illa allahu wahdahu la
sharika lah, wa ash'hadu anna muhammadan abduhu
wa rasuluh, sallallahu alayhi wa alihi wa sallam,
ya ayyuha alladhina amanu ittaqullaha haqqa tuqatihi wa
la tamutunna illa wa antum muslimun, ya ayyuha
annasu ittaqu rabbakumu alladhi khalaqakum min nafsin wahidah,
wa khalaqa minha zawjaha, wa batha minhuma rijalan
kathiran wa nisa'a, wa ittaqullaha alladhi tasa
'alun bihi wal arham, inna allaha kana alaykum
raqiba, ya ayyuha alladhina amanu ittaqullaha wa quluu
qawlan sadeeda, wa yuslih lakum a'malakum, wa yaghfir
lakum dhunubakum, wa man yuta'illaha wa rasulahu
faqad faaza fawzan azeema, amma ba'du fa inna
asdaqal hadithi kalamullahi azzawajal, wa khayra alhadyi hadyu
muhammadin sallallahu alayhi wa alihi wa sallam, wa
sharra alumuri muhdathatuha, wa kulla muhdathatin bid'ah,
wa kulla bid'atin dhalalah, wa kulla dhalalatin
finna.
All praise is due to Allah, we praise
him, we seek his aid and we ask
for his forgiveness.
We seek refuge in Allah from the evils
of ourselves and the evil consequences of our
actions.
Whomsoever Allah guides, none can lead astray, and
whomsoever Allah leads to go astray, none can
guide.
I testify that there is none worthy of
worship and devotion but the Almighty Allah alone.
And I testify that Muhammad sallallahu alayhi wa
alihi wa sallam is his servant and his
messenger.
O you who believe, fear Allah as he
should be feared and die not except in
submission and surrender to your Lord.
O mankind, be dutiful to your Lord who
created you from a single person and from
him he created his wife, and from them
both he created many men and women.
And fear Allah through whom you demand your
mutual rights and observe the rights of your
kin.
Surely Allah is ever and all-watcher over
you.
O you who believe, keep your duty to
Allah, fear him and speak the truth.
He will direct you to righteous deeds and
will forgive your sins.
And whoever obeys Allah and his messenger has
indeed attained a great achievement.
The best words are the divine words of
Allah.
And the best guidance is that of Prophet
Muhammad sallallahu alayhi wa alihi wa sallam.
And the worst things in the religion are
the newly invented matters.
For all the newly invented matters in religion
are heretical innovation and bid'ah and every
bid'ah is misguidance and misguidance leads to
the hellfire.
Allahumma inni a'udhu bika min ilmin la
yanfa' wa min qalbin la yakhsha' wa min
nafsin la tashba' wa min da'watin la
yustajabu laha akhrajahu muslim.
Zayd ibn Arqam, the great companion radiallahu anhu
narrates that Allah's messenger sallallahu alayhi wa sallam
used to say, that he would frequently say
this du'a.
Where the Prophet sallallahu alayhi wa sallam would
say, Allahumma inni a'udhu bika minal ajzi
walkasal.
O Allah, I seek your protection from helplessness,
from inability and from laziness and inaction.
And from cowardice and from miserliness.
And from the trouble and the pains of
old age, the dysfunction of old age and
from the punishment of the grave.
O Allah, give my nafs, give myself the
taqwa that it needs, the righteousness, the piety,
the uprightness that it needs.
And offer it the tazkiyah, the optimization, the
purification of my nafs.
You are the best to offer the nafs
tazkiyah and this type of optimization and purification.
O Allah, I seek protection in you from
knowledge that doesn't benefit, knowledge that doesn't give
fruit.
And I seek your protection from a heart
that is not characterized by khushu'a, humility,
humbleness.
And from a nafs, from a self that
is insatiable, that is never satisfied, that is
greedy beyond limits.
And from a da'wah, from a call,
from a cry that does not get answered.
So the Prophet sallallahu alayhi wa sallam would
often recite this du'a.
And one of the beautiful things about our
Prophet sallallahu alayhi wa sallam is that he
sometimes would teach the companions in very straightforward
ways.
So he would point out facts, lay them
out as they are in a straightforward fashion,
clear language, definitive and simple and to the
point.
And although this type of knowledge and education
is clear and gives clear results, but it
doesn't always sink to the depth of the
heart.
The Prophet sallallahu alayhi wa sallam would teach
through his example, through the way he carries
himself, because the action holds within it beliefs,
truths, human behavior.
Within it there is embedded beliefs and convictions.
And the Prophet sallallahu alayhi wa sallam would
use his own action and his own example,
his behavior to teach his companions on certain
occasions.
And sometimes the Prophet sallallahu alayhi wa sallam
would teach the companions about principles by making
du'a, just like the example that we
have today.
The example we have today is something that
captures major realities in the life of the
believer and important aspects of our life.
So we will try to visit them, hopefully
that we would see the wisdom in them,
benefit from them, because these points are crucial
for our well-being as individuals and for
the well-being of our community and for
the well-being of our ummah as a
whole.
It has to do with your personal life
and it has to do with the social
life.
It also has to do with the political
life.
It has to do with the life of
your children and your family.
And it has to do with how life
unfolds.
These are powerful principles, yet the Prophet sallallahu
alayhi wa sallam teaches the Muslims about them
by means of making du'a.
And that's a beautiful aspect, as we said,
of the life and the example of the
Prophet sallallahu alayhi wa sallam or his teaching
style.
So the Prophet sallallahu alayhi wa sallam first
seeks protection in Allah.
He asks Allah to shield him from what?
From al-ajz.
And al-ajz is inability.
Al-ajz is helplessness.
It is when you are overwhelmed by circumstances
that you cannot push back.
Circumstances you cannot change.
So there is a state of helplessness.
You are overpowered.
And in another hadith, the Prophet sallallahu alayhi
wa sallam seeks protection in Allah from, وَغَلَبَةِ
الدَّيْنِ وَقَهَرِ الرِّجَلِ.
And these are two points, two major phenomena
that when they happen in someone's life, the
person experiences inability and helplessness, al-ajz.
These two sources are غَلَبَةِ الدَّيْنِ.
When someone is overpowered and overwhelmed by debt
and financial need, lack of resources, the person
is unable to feed their family and take
care of their children.
And they find themselves having and pushed to
approach others, put themselves in a non-ideal
position where they ask people for help.
And for people who have dignity, which is
the trait of a believer, iman by its
very nature gives the human being dignity.
It gives the person a sense of honor,
a healthy sense of honor.
For a person who has honor, death is
easier than putting themselves down to ask someone
for help.
It breaks their back.
And had it been for their own sake,
they would have probably endured the pain and
the hunger, the extreme limits.
But when there are dependents, when there is
a wife that you have to take care
of as a believer, when there are children
that you have to take care of, a
real man sacrifices everything they have for the
sake of taking care of their dependents and
not humiliating them.
They would take the heat, but they would
protect their family.
That's ghalabat al-daym, being overwhelmed by debt
and financial lack.
Wa qahri al-rijal.
Qahri al-rijal is in a state where
you can't push back against oppression and injustice.
You're overpowered by oppressors, by people who don't
observe the limits of Allah and they violate
your rights.
You can't do anything about it.
That state of inability breaks the back of
a true believer.
And all Muslims today are experiencing that today.
When we see the oppression, when we see
the crimes, when we see the injustice, when
we see the lies and deception in daylight,
and we know that we are not in
a position to change the situation.
We start looking for ways to make a
difference, but we know we're helpless.
This is a state that is difficult for
a believer to deal with.
And it's a compromise on one's dignity.
And the Prophet ﷺ said, لَا يَنبَغِي لِلْمُؤْمِنِ
أَن يُذِلَّ نَفْسَهُ That a believer should never
allow themselves to be humiliated.
So the person, the believer never invites such
situations.
But when you find yourself in such a
situation, know as a believer, this is extreme.
This is an extreme trial by Allah subhanahu
wa ta'ala.
He allows it to happen, happen to test
you.
And Allah knows it's painful.
Allah knows that it burns your heart, breaks
your back.
But Allah wants to see, do you submit
to the power of Allah and to the
word of Allah and to the Qadar of
Allah subhanahu wa ta'ala, knowing that Allah
has wisdom even behind situations like this.
So this is Al-Ajz.
Allahumma inni a'oodhu bika minal ajz.
This is inability due to external circumstances.
On the other side, Al-Ajzi wal-Kasal.
Al-Kasal is laziness.
It's a state of inaction, lacking the drive
to do what needs to be done.
A person is too laid back to do
anything.
That's a very low self because a self
that has dignity, a self that aspires after
the pleasure of Allah subhanahu wa ta'ala,
always looks for great matters to do, for
something to do, to get into action, to
be constructive, to have a positive life, to
engage in constructive work.
Umar ibn al-Khattab said, inni la'ara
al-shaabba fayoo ajeebuni faas'ala anhu fa
'in qeela li la'amala lahu fee amri
dinin aw amri dunyaa saqata min ayni.
He says, I see a young man and
I admire how they look like.
I admire the demeanor of this person.
But when I ask about them and I
know they are not busy doing something for
the deen, for Allah subhanahu wa ta'ala,
or seeking a living, a business, some kind
of worldly constructive work, I lose all respect
for that person.
When someone has iman in their heart, iman
gives the energy to do something.
It gives you the drive, the inspiration to
do something good, to look around in the
world, to use the gifts and the skills
that Allah has given you, to develop them,
to engage in something meaningful, something fruitful, something
productive, something that can make the situation better
for the creation of Allah subhanahu wa ta
'ala.
So the Prophet sallallahu alaihi wa sallam sought
protection in Allah from al-ajzil and al
-kasal.
And from cowardice.
Because when iman enters the heart and it
grows, cowardice leaves the heart.
And Allah says to the believers, Don't fear
them.
And that's in the battlefield.
Don't fear them.
Rather fear me, fear Allah.
If you are truly believers, the level of
cowardice in the heart of a Muslim corresponds
to the weakness of their iman.
When there is more iman, there is more
courage, there is more tawakkul, there's more belief
that Allah is in charge and that nothing
happens except what Allah wrote for you.
Many people think iman is just something to
have, something on the side to have, and
it has nothing to do with personal traits.
Iman transforms your personal traits.
It optimizes us.
It completes us.
It pushes us to function and to live
at the highest standard ever available to humans.
And the cousin of cowardice is miserliness.
To be tight-*, to be so petrified
to spend money or to give money where
it's due, wanting to hold on to it
and hoard it.
And unfortunately today this is something that is
praiseworthy.
Under the pretext of what?
Under the pretext of saving to become rich.
And something known among the scholars who spoke
about the Arabs of the Arabian Peninsula, especially
at the time of the Prophet ﷺ and
even before, they said they could put up
with any personal or character defect but al
-bukhul.
Miserliness, they could never tolerate it.
They would never marry their daughters to someone
who is a miser, who is a bakheel,
who's tight-*.
They would never marry their daughters no matter
how rich that person is, how courageous that
person is, how noble that person is.
They would never build relationships with such people
at all.
Zero tolerance for that.
Why?
Because Allah says, وَمَن يُوقَ شُحَّ نَفْسِهِ فَأُولَئِكَ
هُمُ الْمُفْلِحَونَ Those who are able to transcend
the greed of the self because miserliness and
bukhul comes from the greed of the self.
Fear of losing money, fear of losing the
wealth, this attachment, this greed for the wealth
that it becomes the highest value in the
life of someone that they'd rather suffer, that
they'd rather their family suffers, that they'd rather
other people suffer but they can't take a
penny out of their pocket.
It's easier for them that their soul departs
than a penny departs.
That's what the Prophet ﷺ sought protection in
Allah from.
And why?
Because it's a form of cowardice.
Bukhul is a form of cowardice and they
usually come together.
Why?
It's the greed of the self.
It's the low self that is infatuated with
this dunya and this life and has no
place for higher standards of morality, of dignity,
of courage, of generosity.
That's how you know a good person from
a bad person.
What are their values?
What are their character standards?
Are they the material things?
That's a clear declaration that they have a
low life and a low standard of character.
But if what they cherish and what they
sacrifice everything for is higher moral standards, courage,
generosity, selflessness, mercy, compassion, justice, then you know
that person is of a high standard of
khuluq and character.
And that's like gold, even if they are
poor.
Because that's real richness.
That's real wealth.
And old age.
Old age often comes with weakness, disease, inability,
sometimes even mental impairment.
So the Prophet ﷺ sought protection in Allah
from having to reach that state where after
being at a peak state, after being productive,
after being good, after having your senses, starting
to lose that, becoming dependent, becoming a burden.
The Prophet ﷺ because of the dignity of
a believer, they don't want to be a
burden on someone else.
They don't want to be dysfunctional to the
point that they are unable to take care
of themselves.
Now if Allah tries a person with this
and they are patient, they get rewarded by
Allah ﷻ.
But if someone has a choice, it's better
that they die with their dignity.
It's better that they die in a good
state.
Sometimes people do things, do the unthinkable.
When they grow to old age and they
start losing their ability, their capacity for judgment
and for taking care of themselves.
And the punishment of the grave.
And that shows you the believer not only
thinks about this dunya.
When we are dealing with this world, when
we are thinking about our life, it extends
beyond death all the time.
It's not like I have to switch to
start thinking of the grave.
I have to switch my mindset to start
thinking there is jinn and there is the
hellfire.
But with my normal day-to-day functioning,
I'm just thinking of the dunya.
That's not the Muslim mindset.
That's not how believers think.
When iman is in the heart, you see
it as one entity, as one timeline crossing
from the moment you are born, actually the
moment that Allah ﷻ destined you into existence
50,000 years before the creation of the
heavens and the earth in His eternal knowledge.
That's where your journey starts.
Going through the moment of your birth, going
through childhood, adolescence, adult life, and eventually probably
old age, and then death, and then the
life of the grave, and then the day
of judgment, and then either ending in paradise
or the hellfire.
It's one entity.
It's one journey.
And this kind of thinking about life that
it starts with birth and ends with death
is not authentic to Islam, is not native
to the Muslims.
But this is just the emphasis and the
programming of the non-believers forcing their way
on us.
With so much indoctrination and so much repetition,
we've swallowed that.
When we think of life, when we think
of our future, we always think in worldly
terms.
And that blinds us to Allah.
And that impairs us in terms of judgment
and morality.
And that's a deficient view of life.
Life is a long timeline that extends to
eternity.
And you should always see it like this.
These are just different stages.
And death, the life of the grave, is
just as an important part of your life,
if not more important than even your adulthood.
Prophet ﷺ, as he asks Allah for protection,
he asks for things that we have to
deal with in this worldly life and the
next.
They're all at the same level of conception
and engagement.
Then he says, اللهم آتِ نَفْسِ تَقْوَاهَا وَزَكِّهَا
أَنتَ خَيْرُ مَنْ زَكَّهَا O Allah, give myself,
my nafs, which mainly is made of desires
and is made of ambitions and is made
of capacities that Allah has given us.
But they are blind.
They need guidance.
They need proper management.
They need good control.
They need vision, which comes from faith, comes
from the heart.
When the heart dominates over the desires, over
the nafs and the potential that Allah put
in the self, they are put to good
use.
Your desires are put to good use.
Allah doesn't wipe out your desires, but Allah
wants to regulate them where they become productive,
where they are fruitful rather than destructive.
Desires have a place in Islam.
These are potential that Allah put within you.
Allah doesn't want to take them away from
you, but He wants to regulate them so
they serve you and they help you make
it to Allah rather than destroy you.
اللهم آتِ نَفْسِ تَقْوَاهَا Knowing that taqwa comes
from Allah.
Only Allah guides.
Your intelligence, your goodness, your family, your ethnicity,
your language, none of that gives you taqwa.
None of that guarantees iman in your heart.
Iman is a gift from Allah.
You ask for it, you work for it,
but it's in the hands of Allah and
Allah puts it where it belongs.
And the Muslim is always, you know, aspiring,
is always asking for guidance from Allah.
He never loses hope.
وَزَكِّهَا أَنْتَ خَيْرُ مَنْ زَكَّاهَا زَكِّهَا Tazki is
more like optimization of the self, growing it
to a high level and part of that
is purification, to remove the evil, to remove
the evil tendencies, to remove the misjudgments, the
ignorance, the misunderstanding, the sins that we have
committed, you know, the intentions, the bad intentions
that we have, the bad feelings that we
have, envy, jealousy, hate, our tendency for injustice,
for selfishness, all of these things are contaminants,
they're evil, they're poison, and we ask Allah
to remove them and optimize the good that
is in us.
And only Allah can do this.
أَقُولُ قَوْلِ هَذَا وَأَسْتَغْفِرُ اللَّهَ لِيَوْلَكُمْ فَاسْتَغْفِرُوا الحمد
لله رب العالمين والصلاة والسلام على أشرف المرسلين
نبينا محمد وعلى آله وأصحابه أجمعين وبعده then
the prophet sallallahu alayhi wa sallam says اللهم
إني أعوذ بك من علمنا ينفع Oh Allah,
I seek your protection from knowledge that doesn't
benefit.
Is there knowledge that doesn't benefit?
Yes.
Where do we find it?
Everywhere.
Everywhere.
And you come across it most of the
time here.
With this.
And how much time do we give it?
A lot.
We are very generous when it comes to
time that we give to sources of knowledge
and that knowledge doesn't benefit you.
It doesn't benefit you.
People think knowledge is good.
No, some knowledge is harmful.
Some knowledge can take you to the hellfire.
Some knowledge can slow you down on your
path to paradise.
So some knowledge by its nature is harmful
and corrupts and it corrupts your heart and
it poisons your system and you shouldn't engage
in it.
That's why Muslim scholars said don't engage when
it comes to the matters of the religion
with philosophy.
Philosophy of the Greeks, philosophy of the Arabs,
philosophy of the other nations, all of that
stuff.
Allah has completed his religion.
There's a lot of knowledge that is spread
around that doesn't really have true benefit and
benefit doesn't mean financial because the world that
we live in is set up in a
way that you get finances and that you
get you can make a lot of profit
by doing stupid things.
That's the nature of our times.
Things that benefit you with Allah.
Are there things that make you a better
Muslim or things that help you take care
of yourself and your family and the necessities
of your life or helping others in a
good cause?
That's knowledge that is beneficial and sometimes knowledge
is beneficial but it's not suitable for you.
That's also non-beneficial knowledge for you and
a lot of the Muslims, a lot of
the dawah that you'll find online now consume
and steal the time of the Muslim population
taking them into petty issues calling it dawah
online and a lot of it is what?
Fights, backbiting, so-called refutation that benefit no
one.
It's all about, you know, self-aggrandizement and
infatuation with oneself and when you look there's
very little benefit.
People who try to benefit, try to educate,
remind you of Allah, teach you about Allah,
try to help you learn and practice the
things that will lead you to Allah and
help you navigate this life, that's it.
But those who engage you with so many
ways in politics and in society and in
the politics of the dawah and in this
area and that area, if it doesn't benefit
you, even if it's, it might benefit someone
else but it's not suitable for you.
That's why Ali ibn Abi Talib said, If
you teach people knowledge that is higher than
their level or they don't need it, they
can't fathom it, they can't understand it or
use it, then you are putting them in
fitna, in a trial of confusion.
A heart that's not connected to Allah, the
heart can have khushu' only with connection to
Allah, will be humble, will be peaceful and
it will be guided and it will be
a generous heart.
So when the heart, and this is a
constant state of the heart, it goes up
and down but it should always be there.
Khushu' is humility before Allah.
There's no tactics, there's no techniques, there's no
way to hack khushu'.
Khushu' is a matter of sincerity and true
genuine connection to Allah subhanahu wa ta'ala.
That's the only way to get it.
That's the one, just be sincere and humble
and genuine in asking Allah for guidance and
if Allah is number one in your life,
you'll have khushu'.
But trying to learn it here, looking for
tricks, you're not going to find it, you're
just fooling yourself.
A nafsun la tashba'a, a greedy self
that never, never gets enough.
And we know the destruction of our world
today and the destruction of the economy is
all the result of this, is all the
result of this greed.
People who can't get enough when people can't
find food to eat or an accommodation to
live in and from a da'wah that
is rejected by Allah.
And there are reasons why da'wah is
rejected inshallah in the future we might talk
about that.