Mufti Menk – Ramadan 2021 – Verses of Hope and Healing #4 – Be Yourself

			[REVIEWED]
<<Wa nunazzilu minal quraani maa huwa shifaaa'unw..
		

			..wa rahmatullil mu'mineena>> [Q,17:82]
		

			Assalamu'alaikum warahmatullahi wabarakatuh. My brothers and sisters, the first instruction that
Allah has issued in the Quran is verse number 21. of Surah Al-Baqarah it's as follows:
		

			<<Yaaa aiyuhan naasu'budoo Rabbakumul lazee khalaqakum wallazeena min qablikum la'allakum tattaqoon>> [Q,2:21]:
		

			Oh people, worship your Lord who created you and created those before you in order that
you achieve consciousness of Him. In order to develop the correct relationship with Him. You need to
worship your Lord. If you look at the term 'Rabbakum', it is The One who has nurtured you; nourishes
you; cherishes you, obviously initially created you and thereafter insha-Allah you would be returning
to Him. So, whoever that is, He is our deity. He is Allah, Subhan-Allah. He is The One who is worthy
of worship, none is worthy of worship besides Him. So, if you would like to achieve that relationship
with Allah, you need to worship Him alone. And you need to understand that there is no doubt when it
		

			comes to worship in Islam. Because you worship only The One who made you, nobody else. No! No one
else and nothing else. You worship only He who made you, "Oh people worship The One who made you"
worship your Lord, worship your Rabb. He created you. He created those before you. In order that you
achieve taqwa you achieve the correct relationship with Him, the consciousness of Him, in order that
you protect yourself from the Wrath of Allah, from the anger of Allah. Now, people sometimes ask, why
does Allah have to become angry? To be honest with you, that is a quality of Allah, and He is The
One who decides what he will or will not do. If He says something will actually make me angry, stay
		

			away from it. It is probably an obviously because it's bad for you or for me. That's why He has
prohibited things. Allah does not just prohibit things when there is nothing negative about that
particular thing. Whatever he has prohibited, it is because there is something negative about it. We
will be broken when we follow our desires. If those desires are in the displeasure of Allah, one
day, it will break us. We will become hopeless. People say, Well, you know, I have there's a lot of
hopelessness here. And I'm so hopeless. Sometimes it's because we we've just been sinning without
batting an eyelid. And this is why it's important to read what we just read now that Allah says:
		

			"worship your Lord". And this is why verse number 25, Allah says, give good news to those who believe
<<Wa bashshiril lazeena aamanoo wa 'amilus saalihaati anna lahum jannaat>> [Q,2:25]:
		

			give good news to those who believe and do good deeds, that for them, we've prepared the paradise,
they're going to get the ultimate goodness forever and ever. So Allah Subhanahu wa Ta'ala here is
telling us in an amazing way, that when you do good, I will give you goodness and not only will you
achieve goodness in the Hereafter, but in this world, there will be lots of hope. What's the
ultimate hope? The ultimate hope is for me to attain paradise. And what is the ultimate healing the
ultimate healing is for me to be able to enjoy my relationship with Allah.
		

			That's amazing. My brothers and sisters, that is Allah.
		

			He says give good news to those who believe and do good deeds ... for them is paradise. We will never be
able to achieve any goodness to sin. And Allah is warning us to say, Don't commit sin, it's not good
for you. If I've told you not to do something and you do it, what will happen is short term or long
term, whether you see it or don't see it, whether you understand it or you don't understand it, you
will pay the price for it. If I have prohibited something and you are continuing to do it without
turning to me without regretting it, without feeling in your heart that what I'm doing is wrong.
Then Allah says, you will suffer the hopelessness, you will suffer the sickness, the disease,
		

			whatever else it may be, you won't be content because, imagine stealing, deceiving, cheating and the
list goes on and on of things that are prohibited. If we were to do these things. Allah Almighty is
telling us the loss is yours, not mine. So if you want healing, the first thing you need to do
		

			As you're turning to Allah, cut your sin, quit it, stop it. And make sure that you understand this
is Allah. Allah asked you not to do something because he wants to heal your heart. Allah asks you to
stay away from certain things because he wants you to be hopeful in the goodness that is coming in
your direction. We can't say I'm struggling. And I have no sustenance when we don't even have a
connection with Allah. And we're busy with intoxicants, and we're busy with adultery and
fornication, and we're busy with immorality and whatever else it may be. And then we want the
goodness from the one who told us not to do all of that.
		

			It's about time we pushed ourselves a little bit more, to become better in all of these things in
order for us to feel that healing, in order for us to appreciate the hope and to be able to realize
that dream of ours in this world, Allah says, I'll give you contentment, don't become a slave of
men. become a slave of Mine--Allah says.
		

			Allah says, When you become a slave of Mine, I will liberate you from being a slave of men. And when
you are enslaved by man, or you've allowed yourself to be enslaved by man, then you need to know
that you will never be free. In reality, take a look at those who are always worried about what
others are going to say, what happens to them, they end up so broken because people's standards are
never the same. And people would like to see you *, people would like to see you, perhaps in a
way that you don't even like to see yourself. But in order to live up to that standard, you end up
compromising and making life so difficult for you. Unless as I've liberated you, I've asked you not
		

			to do a lot of these things that you're actually doing. So if we're going to be strong enough to
stop some of these things that we've been doing all along to please people, Allah becomes pleased.
You are allowed to please people within the pleasure of Allah but you're not allowed to please
people outside the pleasure of Allah. Similarly, we would please Allah, even if it is displeasing to
some, even if we lose a few friends, no problem, I have hope in the mercy of Allah. And Allah is The
Owner of my soul, He will grant it healing Subhan-Allah, this is the relationship we should be
having with Allah. This is the instruction, the first instruction that Allah has granted us when He
		

			tells us about the story of Adam 'alaihissalam, verse number 38 of Surah Al-Baqarah where Allah speaks
of the guidance, and Allah just before that He actually blames shaytaan, for the deviation of Adam.
Amazing. Allah says, <<Fa azallahumash Shaitaan..>> [Q,2:36]: it was shaytaan who actually made them slip from
what they had. shaytaan on causes our slipping, if you want to, he'll recognize the plot of the devil.
He wants you to slip; he wants you to fall; he wants you to drop and Allah wants to strengthen you.
Allah wants you to stand tall and high, Be yourself! Allah wants you to be proud of how He's made you
and created you, your race, your color, the type of hair you have, the eyes you have, the nose you
		

			have is beautiful. Allah is made that way. If anyone is trying to make you feel like it is not
acceptable. You've become a slave of a person. Obviously, unless there is something abnormal, unless
you're suffering with a sickness, which you would be when you are allowed to correct and rectify,
but a lot of people don't like the way they look. They don't like their race. They don't like their
color. They don't like their tone, their skin, their hair, their eyes. Allah says free yourself of
all of that, We created you; We made you, love yourself as you are and you are truly liberated. Be a
proud human being exactly as you are. That's Allah ... healing. Allah giving you hope to say you're worth
		

			it, no matter what people can call you what they want. The sin is this, brothers and sisters abstain
from calling people bad words, because those words will rebound and affect you, negatively. Don't
call people and your own children
		

			with derogatory terms don't use derogatory terms to refer to your children. Remember that is
dangerous. We end up building a mindset that is so negative in our children and we are responsible
How will we achieve hope when we are making others hopeless our own children and family members
spouses and whatnot hopeless because of words we say towards them. You're ugly, you're this you're
you're this color, you're likely as your hair is like this, you're like that I don't want to this
and that. Why I say bad things. Appreciate people. Allah is The Maker. He made you, He made them,
appreciate them, compliment them and Allah will grant you goodness. Allah gives you contentment when
		

			you go out of your way to make others feel appreciated the way Allah made them. I can feel appreciated,
pray for them. And Allah will grant us every form of goodness. So, here Allah Subhanahu wa Ta'ala is
showing us how He
		

			is blaming shaytaan for what happened to Adam, at something amazing, insh-Allah we will speak about this
in the next episode. And insh-Allah we pray that Allah grant us all healing and hope. Aqulu qauli haza, wa Sallallahu wa Sallama wa Baraka 'ala Nabina Muhammad.
		

			<<Wa nunazzilu minal quraani maa huwa shifaaa'unw wa rahmatullil mu'mineena>> [Q,17:82]