My Favourite Shaykh

Salam aleikum wa rahmatullah.

smilla unhandled. In Tao Salatu was Salam ala rasulillah whether it was hobbies, my brothers, my sisters, I met brothers laughing

a few years back in Sri Lanka.

And he is a member of your community, some of you may know him.

And he kept telling me to come to Melbourne.

And I kept telling him that I have a very, very good friend by the name of Robert Harun

from the coffee shop called I think it's called the corner store coffee shop, if I'm not mistaken.

And he's been telling me he was the first person to invite me to Australia many years back. And that's not the issue. The issue was, I had promised never to come to Australia.

And the reason is, you know, applying for visas and procedures and whatever, it's a headache, it just puts me off.

But Alhamdulillah my daughter decides to marry somewhere in Australia, and some Allah.

Allah brought us along.

And then I have brother Hafiz, who's sitting here on the right with the

is it Maroon folk? Who also from Sri Lanka has been pushing me a lot, please come to Melbourne come to Melbourne, you know, so I thought I have lots of brothers and friends here. And now I have family too. So inshallah I would visit

and the

reality is, it was very possible to have higher the stadium or something big or a big hole or something. And I chose not to do that. The reason is, you know, I prefer something in the house of Allah subhanho wa Taala where we're closer we have something that we can actually

consider the most blessed of places in that community, you know, so I told brother Harun, I said you know, we can just have two times when inshallah we will meet

the brothers inshallah and perhaps say a few words.

In the meantime,

as I'm arriving here, I start getting these requests one after the other, and I promise you they probably exceeded 30 exceeded 30 requests. Now what to do, you know, so you hear the first time inshallah next time inshallah there will be a next time if Allah wills if Allah wills

and then I decided to ban all of his brother Ahmed sitting in the back they also a friend of mine from Zimbabwe would now settled here in Melbourne, he has been pushing me like crazy, you can't believe it, Mashallah, look, he's smiling now, because I didn't say his name, you know, and his name should have been first because since he was a kid, we've known each other Mashallah.

So I really have to apologize to those whom I was unable to actually respond to, and those places I was unable to go to. But you know, there are two things one is, we're all human beings, we're all the same. And we all know that we cannot achieve everything overnight. Number two is, what's important is not mean.

Just remember this, what's important is not mean it's more the message of a line is

delivered by me or by anyone else.

And inshallah, for that, I need to stress and reiterate that, you know, I'm very conscious if you notice, I quietly walked in and I will quietly walk out and when the brother says Salah will be a to my brother, we need to change each other, it will be at 145.

The reason is, I don't I don't want to prolong this, I just want to speak to you about one reminder.

And I've already started that reminder.

I will get to it in detail.

But we don't want to delay the Salah normally what time is the Salah Hey, oh, it's normally a two. So Han Allah.

Okay, then we will keep it at two.

Well, I'll make it easy,

then we will keep it at two. So I don't like to change timings of Salah because of someone because of me Who am I? I mean, why should you change the time because of me? You know, the time of Salah is more important than anything else, according to me. And why should we inconvenience people because of me?

So like I say, my brothers, my sisters, what's important for us and that's the message I have for you today is it's the message ask yourself how close Am I to Allah? That's what will make you shall a successful person. And I do know

that definitely.

Every one of us has a favorite.

I think the battery's going here so is that telling us that perhaps we speak for a little bit less? We can use this in Sharma

testing, okay.

No one's giving this to each other. Okay, take that away.

Okay, so what's of importance my brothers and sisters

Chip. I still like that one. I still like that one.

It has, you know,

maybe.

Okay, I like this shot.

Where is the receiver for this? Can you push it out? So

it's not it's not a function. It's just this thing here is catching some way that

it has to turn the corner. So that's why it's not

impossible to push it out.

Oh, it's stuck in the wall. Okay, that's fine. That's fine. I can move a little bit forward, perhaps maybe. Let's see how it goes.

So

my brothers and sisters, the point I was raising is we have to ask ourselves how close we are to Allah subhanho wa Taala

it's the batteries If nothing else,

we have to ask ourselves how close we are to Allah subhanho wa Taala

and we have to ponder over our link and relationship with Allah subhanho wa Taala. If it is strong, then we have succeeded. And yes, every one of us does have a favorite reciter of the Quran. Can I ask you some of you to answer me who is a favorite recycler of yours?

Abdul Basit of the summit Does anyone else? Check Mahmoud kalila Oh, sorry. Yes.

Oh my Subhanallah Yes, anyone else wants to tell us who's their favorite reciting

Mashallah, Yusuf Subhana Allah, I want to ask you a question. Why?

Why is Chef Muhammad Ali lol ha sorry, your favorite reciter tell me

the he says the tweet of his right. Sugar. Thank you so much.

So we all have a favorite recital or most of us do. The brother says oh, sorry Mama. Mama disease name. And I asked him why? He says because of his schedule. Okay. The brother who set up the bus at Where are you? Okay, why?

He touches your heart. Okay. The brother who sits your Yousuf Yes.

It hits your heart, right? Does that mean you are listening to them?

Not for the sake of Allah. Are you listening to them for the sake of Allah?

When you listen to share mozzarella, sorry. Are you listening to him for the sake of Allah just for the sake of him himself?

Say it again.

Now it's the touchscreen. But what's your intention? I'm listening to chef Mahmoud for the sake of Allah, why am I so that he can so that it moves me? Or am I listening to chef Mahmoud because of chef Mahmoud himself?

Because of the sake of Allah? Right? I'm sure the same applies with you. Sure. The same applies with you. Okay. Anyone likes the reader rather Cody. Rather, could be anyone knows him. Robin, Mohammed could be there. So if the recitation of a certain person affects you, in a way that the recitation of other people does not affect you, there is nothing wrong in having a favorite reciter whom you listen to because you feel that it impacts you. You are listening to him but for the sake of Allah, you follow. There is no contradiction in the two. We all have favorite reciters when I was young, it used to be sedation. shuraim Subhana. Allah, a lot of people used to listen and they used to get

excited. And as time passed, and the end the technology progressed, we have 1000s of reciters on the internet.

You have Okasha Khamenei of America. He's originally from Africa from West Africa, beautiful reciter. People say that's my favorite and we just play one in our car. Do you agree? Sometimes two or three? Does it mean you're emotionally?

You might want to know what does that mean? Because some people say you have to listen to everyone. You can't just have a favorite. I think that's wrong. That's wrong. Every one of us by nature, we are affected and impacted by different recites as we listen to them. And sometimes we listen to them alone, only because of the sake of Allah, because they draw us there recitation is, you know, heart rendering. It brings us closer to Allah. It softens our heart. The way they recite there is a chef who reads beautifully. His name is Chef Mohammed Sadiq, admin chavi.

Absolutely amazing. Chef Mahmoud de la serie is known as chef on camera. He's one of the top readers of our age, he passed away. Many years ago, he taught top readers like the Basset and all of those were his students. Some people they love shut up

Madina munawwara there's nothing wrong with it on condition that you're listening for the sake of Allah and it is definitely a given. Nobody would say I'm not listening for the sake of Allah. But you know, I'm just listening for the sake of this guy. That's, that's foolish. So, in the same way that you have a favorite reciter, who's rested recitation you like to listen to because it softens your heart because it brings you closer to Allah. In the same way, you might have a favorite speaker, a favorite lecturer, not to say the others are bad, but I don't want to listen to them, because maybe they do me when I sit and listen to them. They make me feel like I'm not even a good

Muslim, and they make me feel like I don't want to do any more good. They make me feel like I'm already in jahannam or the way they talk makes me sleep.

So therefore, I have a favorite speaker, who perhaps may be the way he speaks, the way he encourages me to get closer to who?

to Allah.

If that is the case, well law he there is nothing wrong. Don't let anyone confuse you. That you're not allowed to have a favorite speaker. You can.

You know, for as long as you are listening to this person, for the sake of Allah, nothing wrong. And because they drawing you closer to Allah, nothing wrong. If they're drawing you closer to themselves, there's something wrong. There is something wrong if someone says, You know what, I'm a big man. You need to kiss my toes. So hon Allah, I'm a big man, you need to treat me like a king. No, that's very, very dangerous. I'm a big man, I'm better than you. And I can you know, I'm the one who owns paradise, I will take you to gender. So you've got to worship Me, you've got to give me money. You've got to give me this Give me that. If that's the case, you are heading in the wrong

direction, my brothers, my sisters. But if they are bringing you closer to Allah, so now after you listen to a speech, you started thinking, hey, guy, I need to become a better person, man, one day, we're going to go and meet Allah, then it's there's nothing wrong, you're happy. It's the right thing you're doing. So there is nothing wrong in having a favorite person whom you want to listen to. And the reason I say this is today,

we have people who confuse the woman sometimes and they start saying no, you're not allowed to have a favorite because

that shift. How can you associate partners with Allah, my brother, Fear Allah don't use that term sheet. For free, meaningful, nothing, no reason no purpose.

You need to understand if someone is saying something, and they are speaking in a way that makes me a better Muslim, it makes me more conscious, it makes me proud of my Islam. And it makes me Come closer to Allah subhanho wa Taala than by all means, listen to it. I have a favorite speaker. I have a favorite speaker and sometimes it's not just one, but a few people whom when they talk Allah, He they move me, I want to cry. I we, I go back to Allah and I look at myself and say I need to be stronger. I need to do more.

Then inshallah we're heading in the right direction. However, the point I raised at the beginning, and the main point I want to raise now is my beloved brothers and sisters.

Remember, all this should draw you closer to Allah, it should make you conscious of who you are. It should make you conscious of the Sunnah of Rasulullah sallallahu alayhi wasallam. It should not bring you closer to an individual or to something or to someone. And what you need to also realize is it needs to make you conscious of the day of piano. The Day of Judgment, the day when you're going to go back to Allah What did you prepare? Yeah, I live in

Nevada, oh, you who believe be conscious of Allah and every one of you needs to look into what you have prepared for tomorrow. What have you prepared to hand to Allah your deeds your Amal, what have you done? Have you done good deeds? Have you done them for the sake of Allah? If you've done bad deeds, have you sought the forgiveness of Allah? If the answer is yes, then indeed you have succeeded? If the answer is no, then we all need more attention, inshallah. And you know what I can, I can let you in on something else.

The same way

that we feel encouraged when someone who reminds us in a nice, beautiful, strong way of Allah and His or soon, the person who is speaking needs to be reminded that the message is for you to follow.

So if I'm talking to you, and I make it seem like you know what, guys, you guys all need to eat salad. What about me? I'm already there. Then I've lost Who am I?

NASA bill Binney, what

do you remind people to do good and you forget about yourself?

Is that what's happening? If that is the case, then there is something wrong.

A person who's speaking, you respect him. A person who's taught you something, you respect him, even if it's a female taught you something, you respect her.

You respect them, but you must remember, they're human beings just like you.

They're human beings just like you. They also need help. They also need protection from shaytan shaytan also comes to them. So when you make someone as though they are now an angel, they don't make mistakes. They're above whom they actually are, when you need help, and they need help too.

And when someone portrays himself to be a person who is above those whom he is trying to address, then he needs help first.

So this is why it's very dangerous because I do know I'm talking about myself for example, I'm weak like I told you, I'm just like you May Allah protect us all and give us one day when we get the intercession of Mohammed Salah Salam and we are sitting around inshallah, that how by the will of Allah we will be smiling and saying Mashallah, now we've succeeded somehow Allah grant that to us. I mean, when I tell you something very interesting.

Yes, there is excitement sometimes, because you want to meet someone who perhaps might have helped you somewhere down the line, you need to meet them, you need to see them you want to perhaps listen to them. Like today, some people might be here because they say, you know, I've, I've benefited I want to listen to this lecture live, right? There's nothing wrong. from the shediac perspective, from being close to Allah perspective. There's zero wrong, zero. Remembering the points that I just raised. Now. You see,

and this is why I say it's tricky because in our excitement, sometimes

we tend to lose focus a little bit here and there in the excitement, no big deal. So people say

oh, did you manage to shake the shakes hand? And you say know how then you went there for nothing. You know?

That's not true. You don't need to shake the shakes hand because the shake sand will be shaking himself. May Allah subhanho wa Taala, grant us ease.

You need to be shaken by the message. The message is more important if you are shaken by a lion. He's a soul. So Solomon the message that came from them, then definitely you are moving in the right direction to touch someone's hand some hand Allah

you follow? So someone might say, Well, you know what?

It's good to shake hands. Yeah, if you're passing by Mashallah you shake your hand. And you know, I I am very

conscious of this sometimes where people come in, they want to hug you and hug you and kiss you and they want to, you know, get excited about Relax, relax, leave the kisses for my wife, my brother.

But

I hope you get the point. I'm saying when we have a llama, we have scholars, we're lucky we respect them. And we must, those who've helped us not just to alumni and scholars, we respect everyone here. Your gender is determined by a few things. Number one, your closeness to Allah. That's Coca Cola. He has his own agenda. Yeah, the rights of Allah. Number two is your closeness or your service of the rest of the creatures of Allah ha Coco a baddie. You How did you treat the rest of the people? And what happened? And how did you talk to them? And how did you? You know, communicate with them? How did you treat them. So when you treat people unfairly, even if you think you're reading a lot of

salah and so on, I spoke about it in Sydney, that Salah, the reward of it goes to someone else,

the people whom you've wronged.

So, my brothers and sisters, the point being raised in our excitement, sometimes we start lifting a person higher than the normal human being that he or she is, and that is dangerous.

So you might ask me, why am I saying this today here in Harlem, because I have a chance to say it. It's the truth. It's from inside my heart. I'm just telling you talking. I didn't prepare a big speech when I came here. But I'm just talking to you as my brothers and sisters to say Guess what? I'm just like you the same.

I remember when I met brother.

Come on, Sally. You know who he is. from Sydney.

He's a spoken word.

I was also excited to show you I'm a human being right. Because I've heard him quite a few times. I was quite impressed and I met him and he's not

My son in law by the way, so some people think he's my son in law No, my son in law is another guy. But he's a very very good brother. I attended these walima and his nikka Mashallah. And I can tell you something, I was happy I was excited

when I met for example, quite a few of the speakers and so on, I'm also happy I'm excited because you know what, a lot of the times some of them are the favorites of my own family members. And I'm glad that Allah use them to help my children you know, when you are somebody's father, and I know my son is sitting here but it's okay. When you are somebody whose father I can tell you something sometimes you might not impact on them in as big a way as someone else.

So when I see a speaker say Oh, Mashallah a my family will be so happy that I met you so panela and you know, they will be you met him or Mashallah, did you give him our Salam? Yes, we did. Mashallah. And did you meet this guy? Oh, I didn't. There were too many people. Subhana Allah. Okay, and hamdulillah It's okay. We are human beings. I didn't need to, you know, chef is not a hazardous word and hazardous. What is more important to go and kiss? Do you agree? And yet with the hedgerows? What do you know what we are taught that there is a greater reward in being considerate when there is a lot of people so that you don't hurt the people, because to hurt the people is haram and to kiss the

harder is the sooner

you follow? It's a very interesting point. And we are less important, we are not as important as the harder but you got an opportunity and handle Life was good. You didn't? Well, it's okay. Never mind, we will meet in general inshallah. So we all have these favorites, we all get a bit excited. But remember to contain that excitement, don't let it make you start believing things that you know, I remember one day there was a chef,

good guy.

And the people were so so you know, excited about him being there. Someone told me that you know what, this shift is so close to Allah. Right? It's possible, but who can gauge that? I'm not engaged that not you and I, I don't know who's close to Allah who's not. I am listening to the message here. If the message is called Allahu Allah Rasulo and it's a good message bring me close to Allah and my deep. It's a powerful message. If it is not, it's not a powerful message. That's it. So

they said the chef is so close to Allah, he knows he knows who has Voodoo and who does not have. Okay, now you're getting a bit excited.

Now, I was a bit younger. And I asked the question, I said, Chef, I need to ask you a question in front of everyone. Is it true that you know who has Voodoo and who does not have?

So he said, No, I don't know that. That is the unseen, only Allah knows. And the people who have who do and don't have who are the ones who know. And sometimes those who don't have Whoo, don't even realize that they don't have Voodoo. But Allah knows they don't have Voodoo. So there are rules and regulations governing that too.

So the brother next to me, told me know a few moments ago, he told the brothers on one side that you guys go and make Hulu. How did he know that they don't have Hulu and the other guys have Hulu? So I said, Chef, how did you know that these people have Hulu and these people don't have Hulu and these have Hulu? He said I didn't know. But these guys are sitting here for three hours. And these guys just came now. So he says I know that in three hours, most probably you will do is over. So I told them go and make boo. So the chef clarified it. But you know what? The guy sitting next to me still told me now he's just being humble.

Now, being humble doesn't mean you follow him. I'm not mad being humble,

obviously, but it means that the person is just trying to be like, sort of, you know, cool about things. And I said, No, Allah, you're wrong. You're wrong. Now Now this is the limits beyond which you don't cross we cleared it for you in front of you. I cleared it. She doesn't know all of this. This is called going beyond the limits. Going beyond the limits. May Allah subhanho wa Taala protect us. That's why if you notice today, I'm speaking to you and I'm sure you can feel that I'm just casual myself.

Because I want you to know and I want this message to go far and wide that you know what my brothers my sisters. I'm just exactly a brother and the sister. You know, meaning a brother to the brothers and the sisters. That's who I am. So Hannah, and we should not raise those who come to remind us about the deen beyond the level and at the same time, we should understand that we should respect each other the same way you want to respect me respect these people. They are all VIPs everyone here these children here seated here. That little boy with a bottle of Allah bless him and I can tell you what they are all VIPs

we should greet each other that's what makes the oma right it doesn't mean be

There's one person we consider important he's the only guy we will greet nicely know.

Your family Your brother is a VIP, your sister is a VIP. Your mother in law is a VIP Mashallah.

It's not so easy but you need to treat her with really and guess what she needs to treat you to with utmost respect because you are a vvip Masha Allah.

May Allah grant us happiness. So I hope that my message was direct, straight. There's nothing wrong in having a favorite absolutely unconditioned that you bear certain points in mind with that we spoke about today and in sha Allah, if that is bringing you closer to Allah and his lawsuit, so Salah, then you're heading in the right direction, and inshallah Remember to love one another for the sake of Allah subhanho wa Taala I enjoyed myself here and I still feel the bond Mashallah, I like the size of the masjid and I love you, my brothers and sisters in Allah. And I do see the excitement sometimes but try and contain it inshallah, just remember that we should be excited by

the Fatah of Allah, who will be for Mila Mati. He will be the lingua franca for

my agenda.

Allah says, tell them oh Muhammad Sallallahu sallam, that it's the virtue of Allah and the mercy that should make you excited. It's better than everything that you can gather. If you've gathered the wealth of the whole world, but you don't have the virtue and mercy of Allah, you have nothing. And if you don't have anything material, but you have the virtue and mercy of Allah, you have everything. So inshallah the virtue and mercy of Allah is the closeness to Allah, the closeness to your deen the consciousness of the Salah, to work on yourself and those around you to resolve matters with those whom you may have doses to you to start with and then with the rest May Allah

subhanho wa Taala bless us all. Give us all genital fair dose May Allah give us reason to smile and to be happy. akuto Kohli has our sallallahu wasallam Obara Kala Nabina Muhammad wa salam aleikum wa rahmatullah wa barakato.