Muhammad West – Am I a Good Person #03
AI: Summary ©
The speakers discuss guidance on being a successful person, emphasizing the importance of following specific guidelines and being a good person. They also stress the importance of gratitude and avoiding sh relevance, and provide advice on avoiding sh pattern and balancing priorities. The speakers emphasize the power of sh patterns and offer opportunities for parents to respect and be kind to loved ones. A brief update on a planning meeting is given.
AI: Summary ©
Always for you, we begin by praising Allah.
We testify. There's none worthy of worship besides
Allah Subhanahu Wa Ta'ala. And we send our
love and our greetings, our salutations to beloved
Nabi Muhammad to his pious and his pure
family, to his companions, and with those who
follow him soon until the end of time.
May Allah bless us to be amongst them.
Over the last couple of weeks after Ramadan,
we asked, how do I know if I
am on track to be a good person?
And
there are a few
blueprints or guidelines that Allah
gives or lists Allah gives in the Quran,
which shows you if you follow these steps,
these are the priority items.
The beginning of Surah Al Muminun, there's a
few ayaat that
require or or guides us as to who
the successful
people
are. At the in the middle towards the
end of Surat Al Ma'arij, there's another list.
At the end of Surat Al Furqan, there's
a list called the Ibad al Rahman, those
who worship Allah. We haven't discussed that list.
Today, it's another
guidance that we are going to get from
Allah
but on the tongue of a very special
person.
There was a great man, a very wise
person,
was not an Nabi,
and he's known as Luqman al Hakim, Luqman
the wise. A person
who is not a Nabi, but is the
only person who has a surah named after
him
as a besides being a prophet, only Sayidina
Luqman
and Sayidina Maryam,
2 people who are mentioned by name. They
or rather the Quran mentions a chapter after
them, and yet they were not Ambiya.
And
this man, Luqman, must have been a really,
really pious person
for Allah to mention him and name a
Surah after him. And when we think of
piety,
immediately
what comes to mind, tajjud, charity,
Allah subhan does not mention any of these
things with regards to Sayyidina Luqman. Allah doesn't
mention his acts of worship that he did.
Allah does not mention the devotion. Allah mentions
a context of him giving advice to his
son. Who does that advice? Him as a
dad giving advice to his son. My boy,
if you want to be a good person,
you want to be successful in life, then
take my advice.
And perhaps
a message to myself and to all of
us,
piety begins at home.
Guidance begins with ourselves and then our family
members.
And so here you have a dad speaking
to his son, and the Surah Surah Alukman
named after him. Allah begins you know, you
know, whenever you introduce somebody, you begin with
the credentials.
This person achieved this and that. He's got
so many PhDs. Allah wants to introduce Luqman
to us. Allah says, I want you to
listen to what Luqman said to his son.
He said, Allah, who's this Luqman guy? Allah
begins by saying,
We gave
wisdom. Allah says, this is a person I
have given
wisdom. What is wisdom? Wisdom as the there's
many definitions with regards to wisdom. We know
in the Quran, Allah
mentions that he gave Nabi Dawood or Nabi
Sulaiman wisdom.
And wisdom is the ability
to act appropriately
at the appropriate time,
to know how to act, how to speak
at each appropriate time. Sometimes it's better to
be quiet.
Sometimes you have to speak up. Up. Sometimes
you need to
be aggressive maybe. Sometimes you need to be
passive.
Wisdom is the knowledge of when to act
in what situation and then acting upon it.
This is what wisdom is.
And Allah says in the Quran, if
Allah has given wisdom to some, and if
he has given somebody wisdom, it is a
great great Ni'amah.
Wisdom is almost a level above knowledge.
You must have knowledge of how to do
something, and then wisdom is knowing how to
apply that knowledge in the right circumstance.
So Allah begins by saying the only credential
I need to tell you about this man,
Luqman, I'm not gonna tell you how much
tajud he made or how many how much
charity he's given. I'm going to say about
Luqman, we've given him a lot of hikmah.
Allah says, and indeed we had granted Luqman
a lot of wisdom.
And Allah says, be grateful unto Allah for
whoever is grateful is only grateful for his
own benefit. So Allah also reminds as if
the Allah is telling Luqman in all of
us. I've given Luqman. I've given you a
blessing of wisdom.
And whatever blessing I have given you, remember
that blessing should lead you to being to
to me, being grateful to Allah. Your blessings
should bring you closer to Allah. Allah grant
that our blessings bring us closer to him
and not further away. May our knowledge, our
wealth, our power, our prosperity
be a means which we become more grateful
to Allah. And so he says,
Anish is this is this is the introductory.
We can spend the whole lectures talking about
the introduction.
He says Allah says that
wisdom
led him to being
Allah
that your wisdom, your knowledge should lead you
to be grateful to Allah. And then he
says, and whoever is grateful, not only to
Allah, Allah is saying in general,
anybody who is grateful to Allah, Allah, of
course, and to your mother, your father, your
whoever it might be, whoever is grateful,
you'll only find that being a a a
grateful person is for your own benefit.
It will benefit you in life.
Being grateful is not going to increase Allah.
Being grateful and being
appreciative to your mom, to your wife, it's
not really gonna it'll make them feel good,
but it is really for your own benefit
to have this character of gratitude. So Allah
says that you your gratitude will not increase
him, and gratitude extends to beyond Allah. You
need to be grateful to those around you.
Doesn't mean to disbelieve only.
Means to actually mean to to be as
Musa.
You are Musa.
It doesn't mean you're a disbeliever. He says,
you are such an ungrateful person, Musa. I
raised you. I did all these things. So
the strangest ayah in the Quran is Firaun
calling Musa, what a big kafir you are,
Musa. It's the strangest ayah in the Quran.
But what what Firaun meant by kufariyah, he
means how ungrateful. So Allah says, and whoever
is ungrateful,
for Allah is in not in need of
anybody, and he is
always praiseworthy. He's praised whether you praise him
or not. It does not your your shukr,
your sajidah,
our worship does not increase Allah's grandeur in
the least. It is only for our own
benefit. So now Allah introduced Luqman as a
man who has wisdom, and he was deeply
appreciative to Allah.
So now Allah
says,
Luqman said to his son,
and he is admonishing him.
He is giving him, like, a serious advice.
Allah says he didn't only speak to his
son, but it was like a family meeting.
He's calling his son. This is important now.
This is a serious admonition. He's calling his
son. Could be on his deathbed. It could
be somewhere a very critical moment in his
life. Maybe it's just before his son got
married. And now so Allah is saying take
note. Luqman is telling his son, this very
wise person is giving his son some serious
life advice. He begins so Luqman begins. Also,
So the way he addresses
just the means my dear beloved son. It's
a a term of endearment.
Is my my boy.
My boy.
That is mine. You you are mine. Yeah.
He says, oh, my son, no matter what
you have what happens to you in life,
whether you succeed in your your work, in
your business, where the money comes up and
down, ultimately,
at the end of the day,
do not
make shirk with Allah.
Doesn't matter what you achieve in life. If
you have shirk,
you have failed in life. You are a
failure.
And similarly,
it doesn't matter what you don't have in
life, what promotion you didn't get. If you
have iman,
you've succeeded.
So he says, my boy, the most important
thing is do not ever ever commit shirk
with Allah. For verily, shirk is the greatest
and the most awful thing of all sins.
Shirk is not just to worship an idol.
There are many forms of shirk. Shirk could
be
where you prioritize
your life, you prioritize
your desires, you prioritize your way of living
over that of Allah Subhanahu wa ta'ala. Shirk
could be where Allah is completely irrelevant in
your life and that is perhaps the shirk
of today. There is no Allah. I go
through my entire day
not making salah,
not making a dhikr. I don't care about
how I do my business. I don't care
what I eat, where I go, what I
do, everything. I am my own Rab. So
Allah subhanahu wa'ala says, anybody who does not
have a relationship with Allah and who does
not worship Allah sincerely, then you have failed
in life. And so you can see he's
prioritizing the most important stuff
that you have to
ensure
that your tawheed and your iman is intact.
And for every single person here, if I
were to ask you if your kids asked
you, dad, what is shirk?
And all we can say is worshiping an
idol is shirk or the trinity is shirk.
Then we have not understood shirk. The Nabi
Islam says, the most dangerous thing I fear
for you is shirk because it is like
that black ant on a black rock at
the middle of the night in the desert.
It is this most subtle of things. You
cannot notice it. Nabi Ibrahim, the father of
monotheism says, oh, Allah, save me and my
offspring from ever committing shirk. If Nabi Ibrahim
is fearful that I can fall into shirk,
we should not feel secure. And that's why
in the Luqman, who is a pious, obviously,
he's raised his children in iman, in Tawhid.
He says, my boys, my son, may be
scared of shirk. Avoid shirk. Constantly be out
the look on the lookout not to commit
shirk because, really, shirk is the worst of
all sins.
Now
Luqman is talking to his son. Luqman is
from a linguistic perspective,
Luqman is talking. Now the, what do we
call it? The the person giving the advice
changes. It changes to Allah. Allah says,
So Allah says, and then I have said,
Allah says now, look, man is standing his.
Now Allah is saying, and
I gave a wasiya.
Wasiina was wasiya is like when you die,
you give a You give fine my final
advice, my most important, and I advised mankind
to be good to his parents.
It's look at the beauty of the Quran.
If Luqman said to his son, my boy,
you must be good to your parents. Okay.
That's good. Your dad is telling you to
be good to me and your mom. But
if Allah is saying, you need to be
good to your parents, that's far more powerful.
So Allah is almost
say, Luqman, you don't have to tell your
son. I'm going to tell your children. You
need to be good to your parents. Be
good. Oh, and I commanded mankind
to be good towards his parents. His mother
bore him in agony and in strain and
in hardship. Your mother carried us. Our mothers
carried us physically for 9 months and then
gave birth to us and then weaned us
for years and raised us, put her life
on hold. And just when we became independent,
our younger siblings came along, and the process
started again and again and again.
His mother bore him by bearing strain upon
strain, and and his utter dependency on her
lasted for 2 years for 2 years, at
least while we were breastfeeding,
completely attached to the mom. So Allah says
you will not find unconditional love like that
of a parent.
Your wife, your kids, everybody can love you,
but no one is gonna love you like
your parents. And no debt that you pay
can you ever repay that of your parents.
No matter how much you give your mom
and dad, you will never ever be able
to repay what it is that they gave
you at your most helpful helpless state. And
we know, subhanAllah, when the tables turn, and,
our parents long healthy life. And when the
tables turn and mom and dad is dependent
on me
and I need to take care of them,
I,
are gonna change the nappies of our parents.
Are going to feed.
Babies feed all the day, the whole time.
At night, 2 o'clock. If your mom phones
you 2 o'clock, I'm hungry. Make me something.
It becomes difficult. This was us for 2,
3 years. So Allah subhanahu wa ta'ala says,
so
his mother
he he depended on his mother completely for
at least 2 years. So
be grateful towards Allah
and towards your parents.
Beautiful. And we have to end up for
the and we continue next week inshallah. Allah
now
began. Do you remember the first advice? Don't
come a shirk. The second advice is be
obedient and good to your parents.
So what happens
if your parents command you to come a
shirk?
What if your parents are the one that
says you shouldn't be a Muslim? Now it's
a conflict. What do I do? So Allah
says, and if your parents,
they make jihad against you, so not just
your parents are telling you, I don't want
you to be a Muslim. Stay on not
every religion. They actually
force you, pressurize you to commit shirk with
Allah
with something which they have no knowledge.
Then Allah says then, in that case, do
not obey them. Then only in that case,
it's almost Allah saying,
you should obey your parents completely. The only
time you should disobey them is where they
ask you to disobey Allah.
And if they ask you to disobey Allah,
how should you how must you disobey your
parents when they ask you to come at
shirk? If your parents are fighting you to
come at shirk, your parents are arguing with
you to come at shirk, how should you
reject them? Allah says, do not obey them,
but then still be a Sahabi to them.
Give them good companionship.
Still be kind to them. Now I just
end up with this topic.
We will argue with our parents. People are
people. Mom and dad, we might disagree, and
it's just normal. Especially as they get older,
the views and things might change. And Allah
says that if they were like, how many
times do we say, but mommy, you're wrong,
man. And it might be true that mommy
is wrong. Daddy is wrong. I know better
now mommy and daddy is a bit old.
Allah says, how wrong can mommy and daddy
be if they tell you to come a
shirk?
That is the uttermost being wrong. Allah says
even in that state where they are so
ignorant, so wrong,
you have to be respectful
and kind, obedient to them. Don't obey them
in their sin. Don't obey them. But it
you can never ever disrespect them, and you
can never ever hurt their feelings.
Very difficult.
But we continue next week with the advice
of Luqman to his son. Just one announcement.
Hajj season is upon us,
us, and many of the
are preparing for departing. We ask Allah to
grant all of them a safe, journey and
a Hajj mabbu alamin.
We will be having a short, a a
a one or half a day Hajj and
Umrah course. So this is for Umrah and
and Hajj because they go together. So if
you're going on Umrah or Hajj, you may
attend.
It will be on, next week, Sunday, 5th
May, half past 8 in the morning, and
we'll cover inshallah the a to zed Hajj
and Umrah
Another sorry. Another announcement here. I see grade
11 and 12. There's a planning for next
year in the future, so there's a a
meeting with at the Buqab Cultural Hub. So
the grade eights and grade elevens and twelves,
what are they gonna study next year? It's
good for them. Any of your kids who
want to participate in this, you can attend
as well, and we can start, you know,
planning your future. That's also the 11th May.
That's the following Sunday.