Moutasem al-Hameedy – Jumuah 01-11-2024
AI: Summary ©
The importance of Islam in shaping one's behavior and beliefs is emphasized, along with the need to strengthen one's heart against one's nafs and strengthen their spouse's. The speaker emphasizes the importance of protecting one's family and spouse, as well as highlighting the need to be mindful of one's behavior and not to give back. The Prophet is calling for reform and reform, but is warned against conquering the external world and advising believers to be strong and diligent in achieving their desired fruit. The speaker emphasizes the importance of achieving the desired fruit in one's life, dedication, dedication, dedication, dedication, dedication, dedication, dedication, dedication, dedication, dedication, dedication, dedication, dedication, dedication, dedication, dedication, dedication, dedication, dedication, dedication, dedication, dedication, dedication, dedication, dedication, dedication, dedication, dedication
AI: Summary ©
Indeed, all praise is due to Allah.
We praise Him, seek His help, and seek
His forgiveness.
And we seek refuge in Allah from the
evils of our souls and the evils of
our deeds.
Whomsoever Allah guides, none can misguide him.
And whosoever He leads astray, none can guide
him.
And I bear witness that there is no
god but Allah, alone, with no partner.
And I bear witness that Muhammad is His
servant and Messenger, peace and blessings be upon
him and his family.
O you who have believed, fear Allah as
He should be feared, and do not die
except as Muslims.
O people, fear your Lord, Who created you
from one soul, and created from it its
wife, and spread among them many men and
women.
And fear Allah in Whom you ask for
help and mercy.
Indeed, Allah is ever watching over you.
O you who have believed, fear Allah and
say the right words.
He will correct your deeds and forgive you
your sins.
And whosoever obeys Allah and His Messenger has
certainly attained a great success.
As for what follows, the truth of the
Hadith is the word of Allah.
And the best guidance is the guidance of
Muhammad, peace and blessings be upon him and
his family.
And the worst of things are their innovations,
and every innovation is an invention, and every
invention is a misguidance.
I testify that there is none worthy of
our worship and devotion but the Almighty Allah
alone.
And I testify that Muhammad, peace and blessings
be upon him and his family, is His
servant and His Messenger.
O you who believe, fear Allah as He
should be feared and die not, except in
a state of surrender and submission 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 speech is the divine speech of
Allah.
And the best guidance is that of Prophet
Muhammad, peace and blessings be upon him and
his family.
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.
Imam Muslim collected in his Sahih from Abu
Huraira, may Allah be pleased with him.
The Messenger of Allah, peace and blessings be
upon him, said, The strong believer is better
and more beloved to Allah than the weak
believer.
And in all is good.
Be keen on what benefits you.
And seek help from Allah and do not
fail.
And if it is a matter, do not
say, if I did this and that.
But say, Allah has determined what He wills,
so do it.
For if you open the deeds of Satan.
The Prophet, peace and blessings be upon him,
says in this hadith, The strong believer is
better and dearer to Allah than the weak
believer.
And in both of them, there is good.
Then the Prophet, peace and blessings be upon
him, goes on to say, Be keen and
diligent in seeking what is good for you.
And never fall in despair or helplessness.
And if something happens against what you want
or what you wish.
Don't say, had I done this or only
if I did this or that.
Things would have been different.
Because the expression law, which means only if.
Opens the door for the work of Satan.
Collected by Imam Muslim.
This is a great hadith from the Prophet,
peace and blessings be upon him.
And if we understand it with a modern
mindset of what a strong believer means.
We will misconstrue the meaning.
The Prophet, peace and blessings be upon him,
says, The strong believer is better and dearer
to Allah.
Allah loves the strong believer more than he
loves the weak believer.
Although both of them have good.
But the good with the stronger believer is
greater.
That's why Allah loves him or her more
than the weak believer.
But what is the strength that the Prophet,
peace and blessings be upon him, is talking
about?
Since the term strong, here in this hadith,
is not qualified, is not limited to any
area.
Then it means different types of strength.
But we need to understand this type of
strength according to Islam itself.
And Islam, the world view that Islam offers.
The Prophet, peace and blessings be upon him,
in another famous hadith, explains to his companions
what strength really means.
The Prophet, peace and blessings be upon him,
challenges a common notion among people about what
strength and power really mean.
Because people assume the strong among men is
the one who is physically strong.
The one who can beat others and put
them to the ground.
He can wrestle with them and defeat them.
So the Prophet, peace and blessings be upon
him, says to the companions, And a surah
is someone who is very known for physically
overcoming others.
Like he's physically superior in terms of his
physical strength to others.
So he can defeat them.
The Prophet, peace and blessings be upon him,
says the strong man is not the person
who can overpower others with his physical strength.
But the real strong man is the person
who is able to take control of himself
in moments of anger.
So the Prophet, peace and blessings be upon
him, says that don't think that strength is
about physical or external display of strength.
Real strength is when you win the inner
battle.
So you need to win the inner battle
against yourself and against your desires, and against
your weaknesses and base tendencies, before you are
able to win battles outside.
That's the order in Islam.
You have a battle within, against your nafs,
your base desires.
And then you have a battle, and you
have an inner battle against shaitan.
You have to win those battles before you
are able to win the battles outside.
And if you ignore this advice and decide
to win the battles outside, while ignoring the
battles within, you would bring your weakness, your
shortcomings, into your external battles.
And even if you win externally, the one
who wins is not yourself.
But it will be your shortcomings.
It will be your nafs.
What does that mean?
Because the nafs has tendencies.
It has greed.
It cannot be satiated.
It always wants more.
As the Prophet, peace and blessings be upon
him, says, if son of Adam has a
valley full of gold, he would wish for
a second.
If he has two valleys full of gold,
he would wish for a third, and so
on and so forth.
And nothing puts an end to the greed
of man but death.
As long as you are in this life,
there is greed within yourself.
There is this obnoxious nature of the self
that always wants for itself.
It is lowly.
And we call this self-centeredness.
You have a tendency to lie, to deceive,
to put yourself first, to cut corners, to
wrong others, to cheat, to seek means round,
and not to act optimally, to take the
easy way out, and violate the moral standards
of Islam.
We all have these tendencies, all of us.
This is a challenge that Allah put us
through.
And if you don't win the battle against
this immoral call of the self and the
nafs, when you fight the battles outside, you're
gonna bring this greed.
You will bring the short-sightedness.
You will bring the selfishness outside, and that's
what wins outside.
It's not your heart.
It's not the good side of who you
are.
It's not virtue.
So that's why when you seek to win
the battles outside first, all you're doing is
you're bringing that selfishness, and that greed, and
that false sense of loyalty.
You will bring it outside, and you will
make it win against others.
But that's not who you really are.
That is something that has defeated you within.
Something that has taken over you.
And you have become a soldier for it.
You have become an agent for evil.
Even when seemingly outside, you're winning the battles.
So the strong believer is someone who conquers
the inner enemy first.
That's what a true believer is.
You need to strengthen your heart against your
nafs.
Your heart needs to win the battle against
shaitan.
Once you dominate within, your presence in the
world will be a blessed one.
You will become a force for good.
And that's the meaning of the statement of
the Prophet ﷺ.
المؤمن القوي خير وأحب إلى الله من المؤمن
الضعيف The strong believer is better and dearer
to Allah than the weak believer.
And that means the one who has already
won the battle within.
And when you win the battle within, life
outside is not the same.
Every battle you engage in, even if you
lose it, you are the winner.
The Muslims had a setback in the battle
of Uhud.
70 companions were killed, were murdered.
What started as a great win by the
Muslims ended up being a great setback.
Yet, it worked in the advantage of the
Muslims.
And Allah says to the believers, ولا تهينوا
ولا تحزنوا وأنتم الأعلون إن كنتم مؤمنين Do
not be disheartened.
Do not be discouraged.
You will be the uppermost as long as
you hold on to faith.
And that's why the Prophet ﷺ said in
the authentic hadith, in Sahih Muslim, also narrated
by Abu Hurairah.
عَجَبًا لِأَمْرِ الْمُؤْمِنِ إِنَّ أَمْرَهُ كُلَّهُ لَهُ خَيْرٌ
Amazing is the state of a believer.
All his affairs are good for him.
إِنْ أَصَابَتْهُ سَرَّاءُ شَكَرَ فَكَانَ خَيْرًا لَهُ وَإِنْ
أَصَابَتْهُ ضَرَّاءُ صَبَرَ فَكَانَ خَيْرًا لَهُ وَلَيْسَ ذَلِكَ
إِلَّا لِلْمُؤْمِنِ If good comes to the believer,
a blessing comes to the believer, he's thankful
or she's thankful, and that's good for them.
But if a hardship, if a loss, if
pain, if a disease, an illness, if harm
comes to the believer, they are patient, he
is patient in the face of it, and
that ends up being good for him.
And this feature is exclusive to the believers.
That's the strong believer.
That's the strong believer.
So we need to win the battle with
them first and foremost.
For Allah subhanahu wa ta'ala to love
us, then Allah will aid you.
And then outside, you have so many battles
to win.
You have the battle with your family.
And don't take that on face value.
Your family is a big challenge.
Your spouse is your responsibility to deal with
and give them their rights.
And keep them upon the path of Allah
subhanahu wa ta'ala.
If they cross the boundaries of Allah, you
have to remind them of Allah subhanahu wa
ta'ala.
If they fall short, you have to bring
them back to track.
You have to give them their rights even
when yourself says no.
You need to provide for them when you're
trying to win something for yourself.
You need to put them, many times you
need to put them first.
You'll have to sacrifice many of your dreams,
many of your wishes, a lot of your
luxuries and favorite engagements.
You have to sacrifice that for your spouse
many times and for your children.
You have to discipline your children.
You have to organize your life around taking
care of them.
يَا أَيُّهَا الَّذِينَ آمَنُوا أَنفُسَكُمْ وَأَهْلِيكُمْ نَارًا وَقُودُهَا
النَّاسُ وَالْحِجَارَةِ O you who believe, protect, safeguard
your family, your children from a fire whose
fuel is humans and boulders.
A person who is a man who is
able to be a man in his house,
who takes care of his family and keeps
them on the path of Allah subhanahu wa
ta'ala.
He acts with mercy and compassion when the
situation calls for that.
He acts with decisiveness and manhood when the
situation calls for that.
And he acts with justice and insight and
devotion to Allah subhanahu wa ta'ala.
That's a man who has won the battle
within.
Not the man who plays or tries to
be a man in front of a weaker
person in front of him.
Or the person who makes so much noise
and they get things their own way.
That's a man who is championing the weaknesses
within himself and making them public.
And spreading corruption in the world.
That's a strong believer.
You know there is a temptation for the
battles outside.
They have their pull.
They are a powerful temptation.
And they seem to promise an easy victory
or success.
And there is also another source of the
temptation.
Because if you win outside, you get recognition
by others.
And this is something our self craves.
And shaytan wants us to celebrate that.
Because he knows he can pull us in
any direction he wants.
As long as we follow the desire for
recognition.
Social recognition.
But you have to win that battle.
Then you become free from shaytan.
Because if you don't win the inner battle,
you become a slave for shaytan.
The battles outside that you are fighting.
No matter how virtuous they are.
You will be fighting on behalf of shaytan.
You would be bringing more damage to them.
To the causes that you are fighting for.
Because you are bringing the filth and the
weaknesses.
And the shortcomings that you have not been
able to conquer.
You will bring them to the public arena.
And you would be clueless about how harmful
they are.
And that's what Allah subhanahu wa ta'ala
referred to the...
That's the way Allah described the hypocrites.
وَإِذَا قِيلَ لَهُمْ لَا تُفْسِدُوا فِي الْأَرْضِ قَالُوا
إِنَّمَا نَحْنُ مُصْلِحُونَ أَلَا إِنَّهُمْ هُمُ الْمُفْسِدُونَ وَلَكِنْ
لَا يَشْعُرُونَ When it's said to them, do
not spread corruption and evil in the world.
They say, we bring reform.
We're doing good.
We're helping this cause.
We're calling for something good.
Allah says, indeed they are the ones who
are bringing corruption.
But they realize it not.
They can't realize that.
Why?
Because they are blind.
What is the source of blindness?
The fact that they lost the battle in
their heart.
And they came out too early trying to
conquer the external world.
Then the Prophet ﷺ, other than the battles
that you need to win, other than your
greed and selfishness, your ignorance.
Allah says about man, إِنَّهُ كَانَ ظَلُومًا جَهُولًا
Humans have two powerful tendencies.
A tendency for injustice, and a tendency and
a natural state, default state of ignorance.
جَهُولًا These are battles you have to conquer.
Your natural tendency for injustice, for aggression, for
oppression, to put yourself first, is a tendency
you need to overcome.
Then your ignorance is a battle that you
need to fight.
And if you come out into the world
before you win those battles, you will be
a source of corruption even when you don't
realize it.
You think you're doing good, but you will
be causing damage.
But you are so confused within that you
can't even understand the world outside.
That's what the Prophet ﷺ is telling us.
Then when you add to this, physical strength,
intellectual strength, skills that you have in the
world, that becomes a bonus.
But if you have all of the external
skills that people celebrate, but you have lost
the battle within, you are a weak believer.
And you are a soldier of shaitan, even
when you don't realize it.
You're whacking at the good that is in
the world, thinking you're doing good.
And that's the irony of people who act
too early.
People who decide not to fight the battle
within.
Then the Prophet ﷺ says, وَفِي كُلٍّ خَيْرٍ
All believers, strong or weak, there is good
in them.
What is the good?
Iman.
Belief in Allah.
But it's weak in the weak believer.
So the strength of a Muslim, and the
Prophet ﷺ is going to explain where this
strength or part of this strength, where does
it come from?
So the Prophet ﷺ advises us how to
navigate the world and be strong in it.
احرص على ما ينفعك Be keen, be diligent
in attaining the things that are good for
you.
And here when we say good for you,
we also need to reconfigure what that means.
Because if we understand it with a modern
mindset, we're going wrong.
People think that whatever profit I can get
in the world is good for me.
Not necessarily.
The good in this world is whatever brings
you closer to Allah.
Whatever guarantees or helps that you are on
the path to Allah, pleasing Allah subhanahu wa
ta'ala.
Any blessing that takes you away from Allah
or slows you down on the path of
Allah is not good.
It becomes a curse.
It becomes a curse.
So the meaning of whatever happens in your
life is contextual.
So the Prophet ﷺ says, be keen and
diligent to get what is good for you.
What is good for a believer?
To attain the acceptance and the pleasure of
Allah.
To worship Allah.
To dedicate every part of your life for
Allah.
There's no duplicity in the life of a
Muslim.
I have a life at home and a
life at work, and then I have a
life at the masjid.
Sometimes I'm religious, but I have a split
personality, where I just act like everyone else.
That's a textbook definition of hypocrisy.
So the believer lives here for Allah.
You were created for Allah.
The livelihood around you, all the details of
life, they are part of the journey and
they are meant to be something that helps
you get closer to Allah.
If they don't help you get closer to
Allah, there will be hurdles and obstacles on
the path.
وَلَا تَعْجَزُ And that's how you navigate the
world.
You do not fall in despair.
You do not fall in a sense of
helplessness.
Why?
Because yes, you are supposed to do the
work in this life.
You're supposed to seek.
You're supposed to put in the labor.
But the results are not with you.
There is a bigger plan.
There are bigger dynamics.
And that is the word of Allah subhanahu
wa ta'ala.
The qadar of Allah subhanahu wa ta'ala.
You still have to try.
But your actions are part of the plan
of Allah.
They're just one ingredient.
And this bigger context of the qadar of
Allah is so powerful that you cannot control
it.
But still you have to strive and do
your best.
أقول قولي هذا وأستغفر الله لي ولكم فاستغفروه
الحمد لله رب العالمين والصلاة والسلام على أشرف
المرسلين نبينا محمد وعلى آله وأصحابه أجمعين وبعده
So the Prophet ﷺ continues to say وَاعْلَمْ
أَنَّ مَا أَصَابَكَ وَلَا تَقُلْ لِشَيْءٍ كَانَ لَوْ
أَنِّي فَعَلْتُ كَانَ كَذَا وَكَذَا Do not say
if something happens against your plans and against
your work you're so keen to get what's
good but your plans don't work out.
The Prophet ﷺ said don't resort to only
if.
Why?
Because only if opens the door for Shaytan
to start his work.
So only if opens the door and Shaytan
comes in.
Shaytan comes in, he wreaks havoc in your
heart and in your mind.
Because when you say only if, you are
saying things are not in the hands of
Allah, they are in my hands and I
messed up and that's why things go wrong.
That's why it opens the door for Shaytan.
It opens your heart for Shaytan.
Because you are cancelling Allah, you're ignoring Allah
and how He animates the universe.
You think your works, your actions get the
results.
Allah says no.
What happens is the Qadar of Allah.
You put in the work but Allah decides
whether things happen or not.
But Shaytan wants you to believe that you
are the one who makes things happen or
you are the one who messes up and
then loses.
And that's why a lot of Muslims now
they say, Oh, I made a million dollars.
You didn't make them.
Allah provided you with that.
Yes, you strove and you worked, but it's
Allah who is Ar-Razzaq.
That's our Aqeedah.
That's our world view.
Because you could put in the work ten
times over and if Allah doesn't want to
give you a million dollars, He will not
give it to you and you would never
get it.
So never attribute this causality to yourself.
See yourself as a force that tries to
do good, but things are in the hands
of Allah.
So when you strive, when you seek Allah
subhanahu wa ta'ala and you strive to
do your best, always hand things over to
Allah.
Whatever Allah brings into this world, Allah is
merciful.
Allah knows what He's doing.
Everything in this life happens for a reason.
Everything in this life is a result of
Allah's wisdom.
Don't question that.
Even if it's painful, if it's uncomfortable, this
is a test for you.
And sometimes as the scholars say, There are
people that Allah forces into Jannah.
There are people that Allah forces into Jannah.
With what?
With so much hardship in their life.
So even hardship could become a blessing if
you trust in Allah subhanahu wa ta'ala.
We ask Allah to guide our hearts and
open our minds and keep us on His
guidance.
May Allah's peace and blessings be upon you.
Just a reminder, you know, that the new
pipe that had to be installed as per
the regulations of the city, it cost the
masjid quite a bit of money.
And alhamdulillah, with the fundraising last week, we're
only $16,000 short.
So please be generous.
And inshallah, let's hit the target because I
think time is running out.
Let's help the masjid inshallah, hit the target
and get this done without any issues, without
any hiccups.
Bi-idhnillah ta'ala we'll have a better
wudu area.
And don't forget, I don't need to repeat
all the talk about the reward that you
get bi-idhnillah ta'ala.
Once you do this for the sake of
Allah, win this resistance within yourself, win this
inner battle within by going over the self's
desire to hold on to what we have.
Do that sacrifice for the sake of Allah.
Wallah, Allah will never shortchange you.
We ask Allah subhanahu wa ta'ala to
accept from all of you.
Jazakumullahu khairan wa sallallahu ala nabiyyina Muhammad wa
ala alihi wa sahbihi ajma'in.