Friday Khutbah at the Abu Huraira Center on March 10, 2017.
Moutasem al-Hameedy – Living A Life Of Gratitude
AI: Summary ©
The importance of gratitude and thankfulness in Islam is discussed, along with the use of words like " gratitude" and " arranging gratitude" to enhance understanding and appreciation. The speakers emphasize the importance of gratitude in life and how it can be turned into an act of gratitude by working in gratitude and doing things outside of obligation. They stress the need to be gratitude and use the freedom and space in one's life to make small changes, as small things can make a big impact. The importance of living in gratitude and not just for money is also emphasized.
AI: Summary ©
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all praises 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 leaves to go astray and uncon guide, I bear witness that no one has the right to be worshipped. None has the right to our ultimate love and devotion but Allah subhanho wa Taala alone, who has no partners and I bear witness that Muhammad sallallahu alayhi wa early he was selling them his his servant and His messenger or you who believe fear Allah as he should be feared and die not accept as Muslims in a state of submission to your
Lord, all mankind be dutiful to your Lord who created you from a single person. And from that person, 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 kinship. Surely Allah is and all watching over you. All you who believe keep your duty to Allah, fear him and speak the truth. He will direct you to righteous deeds and will forgive you your sins. And whoever obeys Allah and His Messenger has indeed attained the great achievement. The best words are the words of Allah and the best guidance is the guidance of Muhammad sallallahu alayhi wa early he was settled. And the
worst thing in the religion or the newly invented matters, because all the newly invented matters in innovation in religion are innovation and bid and every bidder is misguidance and it leads to the hellfire.
Allah subhanho wa Taala. When he talks about humanity, he divides them into two categories. The first ones are the ones who are thankful and grateful to Allah. The second one are the ones who live in denial
to Allah subhanho wa Taala in denial to his gifts, and denial to his bounties in denial to his overwhelming and countless blessings upon us. Then our last panel to add shows that
the second type or the second category, and that's the thankful ones, the ones that are grateful to Allah, they are the minority. They are a very small minority and Allah Subhana Allah says in the Quran what by Lee don't mean a birdie a shocker. And only a minority a small portion of my servants are grateful and thankful semi.
So that shows that the majority of humanity prefers to live in denial to the blessings and gifts. Allah Subhana Allah has given them
and the great part of Islam is about thankfulness and about gratitude. So when we practice and live into heat, we worship Allah subhanho wa Taala alone, we single him out in worship, and we don't associate partners with him. We don't take the angels as gods or as objects of worship or as objects of our and supplication. We don't take the profits as divine creatures, but we take them as human beings, noble human beings, we do not worship them. We do not extend any act of worship.
towards them, whether it's a salon or a sujood, or a dog, or whatever, and reliance, independence, all of this is due only to Allah. And we do not worship or associate in worship with a loss of animals either we do not associate peers and righteous people, because these are merely human beings. And if they were good, or if they are good, this is for their own benefit. It's for their own sake.
And they can hardly save themselves from the punishment of Allah on the Day of Judgment. When we engage into hate.
That's a great act of thankfulness.
It's an act of acknowledgement of Allah's oneness, and our greatness that he is the one who created us. He is the one who sustains us. He is the one who perfected our creation. He is the one who created this whole universe for us to be in our service.
So it is gratitude that we turn to Allah alone in worship and recognition, and acknowledgement and devotion. So the essence of our religion, that is the heat and the unity and the oneness of Allah is in essence, an act of gratefulness.
And when we practice our Salah, it's an act of gratefulness and gratitude to Allah subhana wa Tada, because it's a statement of gratitude or law. Thank you for making for creating me. Thank you for guiding me. Thank me, thank you for showing me the way that leads to you. Thank you for your countless blessings. That's what the Salah is all about.
And every other act of worship that we do is an act of gratitude.
One of the biggest problems that we're facing
these days and an old times
is that we reduce thankfulness a sugar, only two words, only two words. So we think when we say to Alhamdulillah, and oftentimes we don't even it doesn't even come from our hearts. We think that's what Allah requires of us. We are grateful to Allah, we have been thankful when we say Alhamdulillah a shukra Lila, and that's it.
But that's the minimum you can ever do in gratefulness.
The beauty about gratitude and about thankfulness and about sugar is something that Allah reveals in the Quran when he says, and he speaks to Prophet dawu le Salaam and to his family.
When Allah Subhana Allah says to him, mailloux, Buddha, shukra ml Allah de una shukra Oh, that would and your family your household, acts in gratitude. In other words, live your life in gratitude. The beauty in Islam, and this is a prospect that Islam offers us as a very beautiful prescription for life is to make your life a statement of gratitude to Allah, everything good. Everything inherently good you can engage in can be done within the frame of gratitude and should go to Allah subhanho wa Taala. And that's how we should live our lives. This is how we should live our lives.
So when you work, you can turn that into an act of thankfulness to Allah. When you walk, you can make that an act of gratitude to a lot. Even when you eat, you can make that an act of thankfulness to Allah. When you
exercise and work out and look after you, buddy, you could turn this into a great act of gratitude to Allah. When you're wearing clothes, you can turn this into a great act of thankfulness to Allah. When you are approaching your family, when you are as a man approaching your wife, you can turn that into an act of gratitude to Allah and you will be rewarded for it.
When you feed your children, you can turn that into an act of gratitude. When you play with your children. When you educate your children and help them do their homework, help them learn how to read and write, and how to learn the Koran and teach them about life. When you give them an advice, when you direct them and orient them. This could be an act of gratitude. Literally speaking everything you do in life, as long as it is inherently good. You can turn it into an act of gratitude, which means it's an act of worship. And it's something that Allah subhanaw taala loves. And the reason Allah loves it is that he himself is grateful. He himself is thankful. And that's why
one of his names is a shocker. One of the names of Allah is a Shaku The one who is grateful, the one who acknowledges even the little things you do for him
and he's thankful and he will pay
Do you back many fold
and because the light is grateful, he loves for a monkey servants the ones that embody this beautiful trait and live by it. And the prophet SAW Selim indicated this. And he clarified to us that some of the names and attributes of Allah if we humans embody them and emulate them, Allah subhanho wa Taala will give us more of, of the consequences of those of his names and attributes. So Allah, the prophet SAW Selim says, A Rashi, Monet or hammer Humala, the ones that are merciful, Allah will be merciful to them, because these people embodied this name and attributes of Allah and that is of mercy, that Allah subhanaw taala will give them more of his mercy, more of his mercy,
because they are merciful.
So when we are grateful, and we are thankful to unlock and to his creation, Allah will be more thankful to us. And when Allah is thankful, you can't even imagine what he's going to give you. You can't even envision what he will offer you in return. Because Allah subhanaw taala will always give you better than when you work then what you offer him. And that's the, that's the ultimate investment that we can do.
So what we are going to talk about today is how to turn gratitude into a way of life instead of limiting it to our tongues, instead of just saying Hamdulillah, which we should do more of. But
we should turn everything we do the casual routine work and actions that we do on a daily basis, instead of making them dead, instead of them instead of approaching them from a position of obligation and burden. Why not give that twist to them which will gain you so much reward and connection to Allah subhanaw taala. So the work that you do in order to survive and support your family.
Instead of doing it out of a sense of obligation out of out of a position of need, and lack, why don't you look at that, as Allah Subhana which Allah has given you a family.
There are people who tried to get married, but it's been very hard for them. They never found the right spouse, or last minute which Allah did not right for them to find a good spouse so they suffer in their marital life. How many couple that Allah subhanaw taala did not give them children.
So look at the blessings that Allah has given you a spouse, Allah has given you children and has given you a family. Isn't that a great gift? How many lonely people there are in the world.
How many women who don't find husbands who are suffering in loneliness,
but Allah subhanaw taala is giving you a family has given you a spouse has given you children. You find the atmosphere at home cozy and homely and beautiful and warm when others are feeling desolate or feeling lonely and left alone. But Allah subhanaw taala has given you something special, something to warm your heart, something to bring happiness to your chest, something to give you tranquility and peace, something to look forward to at the end of the day or on the weekend. When you see your children playing around with their innocence and their beauty, this gift from Allah subhanaw taala these children that carry your name,
this beautiful gift, you can be thankful to Allah how when you go to work,
put it within the context or within the frame that I am doing this in order to support this family that Allah has given me. And I'm doing this to be grateful to Allah to be thankful to Allah subhanaw taala thank you for giving me a gift. The way I will say thank you will not be limited to my tongue. But it will be limited to how I handle this trust, how I handle this blessing, how I deal with this gift. So I'm going to take care of it.
Allah gave you a tongue How should you be thankful for him, giving you a tongue
by using it to say good things, for using it to recite the words of Allah for using it to give goodly advice for using it to comfort someone who's in trouble.
To use it to compliment someone who's in need of some kind of feedback.
To use it when you remember the name of Allah
to use it when you give advice and you give benefit and information that is needed by someone else.
So even when you talk, you can turn that into an act of gratitude because that's how you are thankful. So thankfulness means every gift that Allah has given you, you should first acknowledge it, recognize it, embrace it, appreciate it, and then use it in a good way because that's how you can be thankful. And this by this you fulfill the command of Allah
He's given to that wood and to his family, it Malou Allah de woulda shukra.
Allah has given you as something as simple and might seem silly to some people, Allah has given you a hair, hair, beautiful hair, take care of it.
Take care of it, or in it, nurture it.
COVID in a beautiful way, don't use don't make a sin with it, following all of these hippies and all of these trends that are against Islam.
Use it to beautify yourself. The prophet SAW Selim actually directs us to this he says, Man can Allah who share our fellow chrimbo whoever has hair, let him dignify it, treat your hair. Well. The prophets of Salaam says this Yes, indeed.
Yes, indeed. But we have taken Islam we have taken some times we have sucked the life out of Islam, who made it into a robotic style of life, which is not the profits are seldom appreciated his hair, he would oil it, he would comb it, he would perfume it and he would look after it, and he let it grow wrong because he loved it. He appreciated it.
That's the prophet SAW Salah was that luxury. Was that silly to do on the contrary, that means you're just a human being. And you are thankful to Allah the prophets of Salaam in another Hadith says in Allah how you had one the other I thought I never met you here Allah Abdi, Indeed, Allah loves to see the consequences. And these, Allah loves to see how his blessings show on his servants.
So the gifts that you have been given whether they are talents, latent talents, or a natural gift to do something, or a skill, or a personal strength, or anything special about you, it's not random. A lot did not throw gifts, and talents and skills and fit and strings randomly, just like that a lot doesn't do anything random. He said, Hakeem, he puts everything in its right place. So the set of skills and gifts and blessings and orientations and
strengths that you have as a human being, they are meant for a reason. They are treasures that Allah puts within you, and most of us, don't bother discovering these treasures. Looking into them.
You are supposed to look into yourself and see what Allah has given you see what Allah has put inside you. So we can use this gifts, you can use this because there is so much potential in every human being there is so much potential.
And when you do not turn to that, you know when you do not turn your attention to these, this potential and these gifts, you live in denial, you live in denial to what Allah has given you. If I gave you some kind of perfume, you put it on the shelf, and you never look at it. I won't feel good about it. I won't feel good about it. You don't appreciate my gifts. You don't even give attention to it. You don't appreciate it. You don't value my good gesture. I as a human being would feel offended.
What about the gifts that Allah has given you, and you never bothered looking into them? We think it's some kind of wastes. Or we think it's not even manly to look into what Allah has given you.
Where is all this nonsense came to us from. And some people have the guts to call this Islam. Some people have the guts to call this Islam.
So in order to be grateful, in order to be thankful to Allah and live your life in gratitude and thankfulness to Allah, the first step is to turn into yourself and see what Allah has put in you that you need to be grateful for. And the way you are grateful to these things is that by acknowledging them, recognizing them, embracing them, appreciating them, recognizing their value, and what you can do with them and their potential, then you decide to use this in a good licos providing for a family, raising your children, helping the needy, helping people in the streets, helping the youth take them out of drugs and gangs and drinking and all that stuff. Showing them
something constructive to do about their life.
Helping people who have any kind of need any kind of discomfort or disadvantage in their life. There is something inside you that you can offer to them, use it. And that's how you live in gratitude.
And gratitude is never ever a luxury. Because when you turn to Las panatela on the Day of Judgment, Allah will ask you about everything. Everything he has given you, you will be asked about it. The prophet SAW Selim
when he ate one day with Abu Bakr, radi Allahu anhu. Another companion had invited them when they ate
There was just a little bit of meat, they ate the Prophet sallallahu Sallam says, whether to sell neoma, even under name, you shall be asked about this luxury, about these blessings from Allah, just a piece of meat. The prophet SAW Selim eight. So don't you think Allah is going to ask you about a gift about a talent that you put inside you, and you turned away from it, you lived in negligence to it.
completely ignored it when other people use it and made a difference in the world.
It's not a luxury, it's a must. And if you do not respond if you do not turn to Alan's gift gifts and appreciate them and use them, in a goodly cause in a beneficial cause, you will be turning to Allah in a state of ungratefulness ungratefulness and denial and allow and asked you on the Day of Judgment alone asked you about every minute in your life. And the law will ask you about everything he gave you and he put inside you. Why didn't you turn to it? Why didn't you appreciate it? When you live your life thinking that Allah has given hasn't given you but has given all of those successful people. You live in denial to Allah as much Allah has given them he has given you, but you have
failed to look into yourself to appreciate what Allah has given you and realize its full potential and make that potential a reality. That's the whole thing. That's the whole story. Don't blame Allah don't blame circumstances. Every human being as a potential. You can make a difference in your own way unless you live in denial. But we live in denial and we blame it on a lot. We blame it on governments. We blame it on circumstances. We blame it on spouses, we blame it on relatives, we blame it on people who envy us on the evil eye on magic. And we play victim all our lives and we will wake up only the moment the angels come to drag your soul out of your body would be too late by
then.
cola cola was the full body Welcome to them.
hamdu Lillahi Rabbil alameen wa salatu salam ala Sayyidina Muhammad wa ala alihi wa salam
other than standing in the presence or before Allah subhanaw taala on the day of judgment and being asked about everything you were given in this life, did you acknowledge it? Did you recognize it? Did you embrace it? Did you use it? Did you benefit others with it? Apart from this, there is a very important consequence to lack of gratitude that takes place in this life. Allah subhanho wa Taala says, What is better than not a book Hamlet in Chicago Toma as he then accom and your Lord declared he made a clear declaration that if you are grateful, if you are thankful to Allah, He will increase you. He will increase you
will not incur any liability. But if you live in denial, in denial to the blessings of Allah, then the punishment of Allah is severe in this world and in the next.
What clarifies This is another verse what Allah Subhana Allah says in the law, now you have a euro, maybe you have a euro maybe unfussy him, the majority of them have Assyrian, they say the meaning of this verse, Allah will not take away a blessing that he has bestowed upon a people until they change something within themselves, that makes them act in denial to Allah.
So if we have a blessing, Allah will not take it away, unless we have changed something serious within ourselves. And that's an evil kind of change.
And looking at us Muslims living in the West these days, previously, Muslims had so much freedom. So much freedom, a lot of a lot of us came from other countries, where we suffered from lack of freedom, from challenging circumstances, financially, politically, socially, etc. Even professionally, so a lot of people came for a better life a better prospect of life here. But it seems a lot of Muslims did not appreciate it. We brought some of the dogmatic thoughts, some of the authoritative way of forcing things on people, we did not appreciate the gifts of freedom that that we managed, that we managed to tap into in these countries. We didn't use it for a good cause.
We didn't use it for a good cause. A lot of people came here. And they kept the knowledge of Islam that they had away from the people in an attempt to protect themselves.
When the people needed it badly. When people at a time were open to it, and they were willing, they were receptive and they were willing to accept it.
And hamdulillah we still have lots of freedom, we still have lots of space. We still have lots of mediums where you can spread the truth and you can share the truth, not necessarily by preaching.
But by simply being a good Muslim. By simply being a good Muslim and not even showing because it would show the nature of goodness is that it shows by its
Self and inspires. It's a spark that connects to the soul and awakens it.
And if we do not use this freedom and the space and any kind of advantage that we Muslims have in these countries, unless we use them wisely, for a good cause, and for a good reason, they will not last for long. And we are seeing the early signs of this.
We're seeing the early signs of this blame no one but yourself as individuals, and as an oma,
Allah subhanaw taala made it a rule that he does not change a blessing that he has on people until they have changed something within themselves.
So we need to live in gratitude. The way to make it practical is to look around at your life. You don't need to change the oma, all you need to do is look after yourself. start living your life, make a lifestyle based on gratitude. You don't need to change so many things in your life. Just change your frame of reference, change the way you look at your life, you go to work, don't do that out of a sense of obligation, it is there, the obligation is there, but keep it in the background. Do it as gratitude to Allah Allah thank you for giving me this family as a sign of appreciation and acknowledgement and gratitude to you, I will look after them. So I will provide for them and I will
work hard for them. I will educate them and I will call them cultivate them in the best of ways out of gratitude to you. So you see how, how appreciative I am.
Allah has given you an easy life and little bit of space, a little bit of luxury when it comes to financial situation, use it to help out someone who's in need. And don't do it just out of obligation. Don't do it just out of maybe Allah will give me more that's still good. But you can take your game to the next level by saying Oh Allah, I appreciate it. I had a went through times in my life when it was very difficult and now allow you have bestowed upon me ease financial ease.
I want you to know that I appreciate it. And because of that, I'm going to help your service. I want to see someone who's in need, who's in a situation like I used to be in before I want to help them out for your sake of Allah. Just to show you my gratitude, please accept it from me. Just do it like this. When you eat instead of eating out of desire.
Just look at that food as a gift from Allah look at your body as a gift from Allah that you need to look after and sustain. tend to Allah say Allah, thank you for this beautiful buddy. Thank you for putting in me that ability to taste and experience food in that way
I want to eat and I want to experience that gift from you. I want to show my appreciation just in enjoying it. For you or Allah alone, I will wear my clothes because I need to look after my body.
Because that's the gift of Allah, I want to look after my body, I'm gonna dress it up even nicely. I'm going to dress it up even nicely. The problem is to love good clothes.
That's part of the Xena beautification that we Muslims are supposed to have.
When you sleep at night,
don't sleep like a log to just go to bed because you're completely tired.
Central Osceola, thank you for creating this wonderful, beautiful machine that is my buddy. It helps me go through the day and do so many things. So many great things. I can do physical things, I can do intellectual things, I have feelings, I can experience things at different levels. Such a beautiful experience. Thank you for this beautiful buddy, I appreciate it. And I want you to know that I appreciate it. And I love it, I'm going to look after it. And I will give it the rest that it needs.
Because I appreciate it. It's your gift, I will look after it. And I want you to know that I will look after it. It's your trust. until the time comes that I return it back to you. As simple as that. You can look at everything you do when you are studying. When you are reading the can the intellectual gift that Allah has given you the ability to grasp information, decipher principles and ideas and relate to them and create a mind map about them and be able to relate to life, all of this beauty within you. thank Allah for it. So when you read a lot, I'm going to nourish my mind I'm going to learn more every day, I'm going to expand this beautiful, this beautiful gift that you have
given me and I want to reach with it the full potential and I want to use it for something good. You have social ability, use it, appreciate it as a gift from Allah, expand it. take courses, take workshops, read books, take courses and develop yourself for the sake of doing something good. You have some kind of political ability and influence go ahead and use it.
You have skills in sports, and any kind of athletic endeavor. develop that within yourself and use it for a good cause. The world has an open field of gratitude where you can use it and get closer to Allah and everything that small twist will make your life more meaningful will connect you to align everything you do.
So you stop that robotic routine way of approaching things your work becomes an act of worship. Your the time you spent with the kids becomes an act of worship, the way you're dressing up becomes an act of worship, combing your hair becomes an act of worship. It's beautiful and sweet and lovely. And it assumes beautiful meaning.
It's just by being grateful to Allah, just by turning to Allah subhanaw taala saying, Thank you, Allah, I know acknowledge everything is from you. Thank you so much. I appreciate it. I want to just be good to your gifts and use them in a good way. In the during the hotbar, the prophets of Solomon the companions, there is no authentic narration at all that they raise their hands in German during the football that's specific to the football. So what my advice would be, make the dua in your heart. And you can say I mean, and feel the link to Allah subhanaw taala but you do not have to raise your hands. That's closer to the way of the Prophet sauce lamb and his companions. Aloma
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