Islam From Scratch #4

Smart man Rahim Alameen wa salatu salam ala Shafi mursaleen Satan, the Mohammed Nagar only he also had big mine, my beloved brother and sister Sudan Warlick, Moroccan Loihi over cattle. I hope you will well and you had a good week since our last meeting

welcome anyone

as I said the terrible thing of these online classes is that you don't get to see your students and you know it's really difficult to interact live with and I really love interacting with with my students so fast before we begin got a minute or two are there any any questions comments concerns? Any one want to contribute something?

Obviously pray for the people of Ukraine and the rest of the world you know May May they be protected and what a terrible thing but beyond that there's anyone else would like to share before we begin anyone has a question maybe

I am audible right

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chain Well, our things in the UAE

the UAE you know all over the world to have your troubles and you'll have everything but you know, if you keep yourself consistent with your own life, and you know you make for others in

your life because they will love it for yourself and others. If you live in only for yourself, then you know you find yourself

a bit lost sometimes. Absolutely, absolutely.

Masha Allah says a wonderful philosophy

to ask everyone that, you know, just

you can just mute yourself unless you have a question to ask or whatever noise in the background.

So before we begin this evening's lecture, before I share the slides, there were some questions that one question particularly that came through, I think on the on the on the YouTube comment section. So again, just a reminder, for those of you who who are on the teams, you can interact with me live and you can obviously ask a question. But for those of you on YouTube,

you can only stream obviously, and but you can comment and you can ask a question in the comment section. There was a question and I mean, it's following on from last week's lecture about responding to certain questions that Atheists may may pose. And one of the questions was, is a very common one. Can God create a god bigger than him more powerful than him? You have many questions like that can can Allah create a rock? Or Can God create a stone so big? That it's so heavy that he can't lift it? Now? Obviously, the answer is, you know, no matter what you say, you find yourself in a in a bind, yep. If you say yes, God can do everything, he can create a rock so big, but he can't

pick it up, then that implies that he's limited, that there's something bigger than him more powerful than him. And of course, if you say no, no, such a thing is not possible, then it sounds like also God is limited again, in what he can do. Now, how do you respond to this question? Well, it's not a very difficult thing to respond to, because the question is nonsensical. And just because the question is nonsensical. Obviously, you're not gonna have an answer. It's like someone asking you can you draw a circle? With, with, with sides or three sides? Can you draw a triangle with two sides? Now? It's impossible, you can't do something like that. So it's not the fact that you can't

give the answer. The fact is, the question is, is nonsensical. And so by definition, you know, you know, God is all powerful, all knowing, all wise. And, you know, to say that, if he can, if he's limited in any way, then he cannot be God, then He cannot meet be God. Also, remember, our laws and our physics that we understand and we are surrounded by do not apply to the Almighty. He has,

of course, is not bound by our reality. And so those kinds of questions are only relevant to us, in our in our universe, and if he was limited in economy God

Right, if he if he was bound by the laws of physics, then he can't be God because He lives within our universe. Anyway, as I said, this is lecture number four. And last last week, and the week before, we sort of took a tangent, and we studied, discussed a bit of atheism, and it was quite heavy. And many of you have sort of expressed that not really my cup of tea. And I thought, it's really important that we discuss it, because you won't find a discussion on atheism really, within a religious setting. And while many of you might feel very comfortable in your relationship with with your Creator, it might be your kids, it might be friends that are struggling with it. And as I said,

before, one of the objectives of this class is that it's inclusive, and that we can invite everyone to ask those questions. You know, a question like like that, can God do this or not do that. I don't find it offensive and hard to find it, I encourage it. And I encourage you to have the high encourage you to have the freedom to ask any question that is burning. And you know, if we can answer it, we can answer inshallah we can discuss it. There are no taboo, comments or questions here, inshallah. So feel free. So the last two weeks, we spoke about atheism, we spoke about the proof and the evidence that isn't a lot. And some of the atheistic arguments that are there, we kind

of rebutted them. But that's not really the focus of our course, here. We see that Islam, Islam is and I'm going to share my slides quickly. Islam is by definition, submission to a higher power to a Supreme Being to your Creator, basically submitting to the Almighty. And we then asked, you know, what evidence do we have that he exists? And that was our discussion of the last couple of weeks, proving the existence of, of the Creator.

So now, now that we've moved beyond that point, and Alhamdulillah, you know, we are comfortable, that there is a Creator, that there is an almighty, that there is someone that put us here that there is a purpose to our life? Who is he? You know, who is this creator? When I speak to him? And, you know, I said this last week that leave all the arguments in the debates, the discussions Does God exist doesn't exist. Leave it aside. If you really want to know if God exists, if you have a creator, if you have a maker, if there is someone in control of the universe, when speak to him, raise your hands, sit in a corner, find a place where you feel at peace, and in your own language in

your own tongue. Just reach out, let your heart pour out and say, if you are out there, hear me, guide me helped me show me what I should do with my life.

If you're there, then respond to me. So who is this entity? Who is this beam? That is outside of our, our universe? Who created us? And when we think of him, when we pray to him, What should we think of now you'd find? I use the term creator, because I think creator is is is universal. Everyone understands when I say creator, you understand by the one who made the sun, the moon, the stars, the heavens, the One who created me Who created you, he is not bound by a specific religion, he is not bound by a group of people. My Creator is your Creator. And in that we also share that oneness in humanity. The same one who made the atheists to make the Christian who made the Jew is

the same one that made the animals and all of creation, that is the Creator. Of course for an Arabic perspective and an Islamic perspective. You hear the term Allah all the time, Allah Allah, what is this Allah? What do we know? What do we know about him from an Islamic perspective? Now?

Many people, especially if you're not from the Islamic back bracket, and if you're a Muslim, they might find the word Allah awkward here now you'll find people say, I believe in God, I don't believe in your Allah. Now Allah is an Arabic term that that refers to God basically. And if you go to, if you look at the root word, Allah, what does it mean and I think as Muslims you really need to understand this. Allah is derived from a word is a word inside the name the term Allah, which is Allah. And Allah is an a deity or something that is worshipped and there are many ILAs anything that is worshipped is an ILA. The an idol can be an either Jesus Christ isn't either because he's worship

Buddha, the statue is an Eli, the son is an ILA because some people worship the sun. Allah in the Arabic language is Al Isla, that elements the so it's the ILA the one and only worthy and deserving of worship, the one and only that you can turn to and ask and plead and speak to and he will respond. All other ILAs cannot respond cannot assist you. So the word Allah is the One and Only that is deserving of worship, and that can reciprocate that can respond to your worship, and they can answer and benefit you. So that one, that one, whatever name you want to give him, that is Allah, that is Allah, your Creator. And interestingly, if you from the Middle East, you

Well, if you are a Christian, Arab, Arabic speaking Christian, you are a Jew, you would find in the Hebrew texts in the Aramaic mean the language of Jesus Christ, they would refer to God as either Elohim Ilahi, you would find this in the, in the Bible of the Arabic Bible, when they speak about the God the Creator, they would use the term Allah. So we shouldn't be worried about a term, we shouldn't be worried about term, we're speaking about the Creator. Now from an Islamic perspective, as I said, Islam is about you submitting to this creator, you submitting to the ILA, and you speaking to him and worshipping Him and following His commandments. Now, when you want to have a

relationship with Him, that is what Islam is all about you and him having a relationship. The first thing before you can start having a relationship, like in anything, if I want to have a relationship with another person, you I want I want to have a relationship with, you know, an organization. The first thing is I need to get to know these people, I need to get to know this person, how can I be in love with somebody? How can I devote myself to some

to my Creator, if I don't know who he is? What are his names? What is his personality? Like if we can use that term land with Allah, Allah doesn't have, you know, personalities in the way we describe, but he has obviously he has described himself. So how does the Creator describe himself from an Islamic perspective? Different religions have different perspectives of the Creator, from an Islamic perspective, if you were to ask, Who is Allah? So you open the Quran, the Quran is the religious book of the Muslims. You open right at the beginning chapter number one.

It begins Bismillah AR Rahman AR Rahim, we begin reciting in the name of Allah with the permission of Allah. Ar Rahman AR Rahim. Allah is a Rahman Rahim, two more names of him are Rahman Rahim they sound very similar, right? They sound similar, they are both. They both refer to Mercy. Rama means mercy. So Allah is saying, in my name, the one who is eternally Merciful, the one who is merciful, in everything he does, is a very deep discussion between the exact difference between the meaning of these two names, they both mean merciful, but they the essence of it. Man is the one who is by his nature, he's merciful, that he's always merciful. He is, in every situation, he is merciful. And the

Rahim is the one who when he acts, he acts with mercy. I'll give you an an example. You can say, you know, Muhammad is a is a very funny person. You know, it's a very, you know, humorous person. He likes to make jokes, but doesn't mean him. I'm always in a in a in a humorous mood, sometimes you get angry. So Allah is saying, I am merciful in my nature, and also when I act, I am merciful, I am always merciful at all times. So the very first quality of your Lord, the very first introduction you have to him, he says, I am Allah. And if you want to know why am I am imbued, I am completely merciful in everything that I do. My Essence is one of mercy, my actions is one of mercy, the way I

interact with my creation is mercy. And so this is the first opening line of the Quran. He then says, Al hamdu, Lillahi Rabbil Alameen All Praise be to Allah or praise, worship Thanks all. You know, all our our gratitude is to him Allah, Who is he or Bill Allah mean the Lord, the Creator of all of creation. Atomy means all of creation. So He is Allah, the One and Only creator Sustainer designer, the one who controls all of creation. And then he continues R Rahman r Rahim, he repeated, the Most Merciful, the Most Gracious in his lordship in his control of the universe, He wants you to know, I am a node that controls the universe. And I'm alone that is very merciful, extremely

merciful, exceedingly merciful. If there's one attribute that you need to know about Allah, the one thing he wants to let you know about himself, is that he's kind, loving and merciful. We can when we think of God, when we think of Allah, we think of power might majesty, we think of knowledge and intellect and all those things. And of course, those are all things that belong to Allah. But he doesn't begin with those attributes. He doesn't speak about his mic. He doesn't speak about his knowledge, he speaks about this, this this divine quality of mercy, that his relationship with his creation is one of mercy. So remember, as I said, Islam is basically if you want to distill Islam

down to its core, it is a relationship between you and your Creator. You surrender to Him, and He responds to you with mercy. In fact, he doesn't only respond to you with mercy, even if you reject him, he still merciful to you, he's always merciful.

Those are just two of the names of Allah, the Most Merciful and we get to know about someone with something by the names by the description, and Allah has many many names, many names which he has named himself. Now, sidenote, Islamically, we are not allowed to name the

Creator with a name that we decide we know we can't call him the father. He didn't call himself that. We can't call him the architect or the designer, or the engineer. I mean those names he has given himself, so only names which he has named himself with an EFC. And he said, this is one of my names. That is a name which we can utilize. So out of the names that you find in the Quran, that he calls himself he calls himself the highly the creator, the Creator of all things, or rob the Lord. R. Rahman r Rahim, we spoke about these two names. These are the most frequent names, He is the Most Merciful, that especially merciful, He is a lot of food and alfalfa, he is the one that protects you

from your mistakes, and he forgives you when you commit a sin. So these two names refer to his capacity of forgiving, but his content remember, when it comes to the attributes and the names of Allah, these imply continuity, you know, like he's always all powerful. He's always all knowing there's nothing that he doesn't know. He's all seen, with nothing that he can't see. He's always all merciful. He's always forgiving. He's always kind in all situations in all

circumstances. One of his names and I feel is the highest form of forgiveness. He basically removes all sin. So not only does he forgive your sin, but he expanded it as if though it never existed to begin with. He removes it, he sort of undos and does your sin completely obvious names are Latif, the very gentle, the very, when someone is called Latif actually means soft, so the very gentle and kind in the way he interacts with his creation, when he only deals with his creation in a very subtle and soft manner. Allah word who is the one who is deeply loving to his creation, very, very intimate and affectionate with his creation, I'll help him the most forbidding was forbidding mean,

forbidding means when you are harmed. Now we call home the Creator. But when we do something, when you in our terms, forbearance is when you are harmed, and you are you are given your shape, you hold back, you don't reciprocate harm with him. So he says, of his name's al Hareem. I don't respond to my creation, in a way in which they responded to me. So even though they deny me, even though they curse me, even though they disobey me, I don't respond to them with with harm. I lit and I pardon those things. And so these are of the names and the many, many names of the Creator. There's a beautiful narration where the prophet peace be upon him, he would pray, and he says, oh, creator,

oh, Allah, I call you and I invoke you on all the names, which you taught me, and all the names which you taught any other of your other creations. I mean, I didn't know all of them, maybe you gave your names to someone else. And all the names which you have hidden with yourself only, which you exclusively know, I invoke you, and I call upon you on all those names, to help me and assist me and forgive me, right. So when we call upon Him, this is the one we're talking to, when you close your eyes. And you have that moment this evening. And you asked for that guidance. Imagine the Most Merciful, the Most kind, the most loving, the, the creator was with you before you were born, who is

known every detail of your life, who knows the secrets of your heart, who knows the things that make you sad, who ensured that every moment while you're sleeping, your heart is beating, that every breath is taken, that has given you life has given you oxygen, and does not, you know is not one that holds people

accountable for their sins with another one, He is Allah, the One and Only that deserves worship only Him only he who possesses these qualities, he is the only one deserving of your worship, why should you worship anyone else who is not the Most Merciful, the Most kind? Now,

let us go a bit deeper into the qualities and the attributes of Allah as we see it the one quality that he Allah stresses and he wants to make it known. So if you want to take anything from this lecture, if you want to know what Allah is who he is the quality which he says, If you want to know me, get to understand my mercy, comprehend a little bit of My Mercy. And so we're going to talk a bit about the Mercy of Allah. Before we continue any questions? Just jumping quickly on to the

to the team's chat.

Any questions from anybody?

Nope. So far, so good. Okay. All right. Any questions on YouTube?

Nothing. All right, Pamela. So then we continue in asking.

Let us understand a little bit about the Mercy of Allah. And it's something that you know, and I must pause you and as you know, humbling, I grew up in a Muslim household. I went to Montreal, I lived a long period of my life in Saudi Arabia as a child and I studied formally and you do and from an Islamic perspective, we very seldom really talk about the Mercy of Allah as is deserving. If this is the opening, you know, the opening introduction Allah gives you of himself is

About his mercy. Why do our kids know more about his punishment? Know About help know about Janam. And if you do this and don't do that, almost going to punish you. That concept must be it is an injustice against Allah. It is actually haram. It is a type of denial of him to only think about the things of punishment, rather, he must be thought about in the context of mercy. That's what he wants you to think about when you interact with Allah subhanaw taala. So Allah says in the Quran, Rama at my mercy was the Aquila che, that My Mercy embraces every single thing in all of existence, even the worst of sinners, even the devil himself. Allah says, My Mercy embraces all of creation. There is

not a single atom, not a single person, except that ALLAH knows who you are, and he is merciful towards you. He is aware of you and he shows you mercy in a manner sometimes you realize it sometimes you don't realize that sometimes we appreciate his mercy. And sometimes we don't appreciate his mercy. But he says, My my my mercy, embraces hugs covers everything in creation, that is who I am. Allah says cutterbar, Abu Comala and AFCEA Rama, Allah says, I have made compulsory on myself, I made it a law upon me to always be merciful to everyone. I have to be merciful, like you and I have certain rules and laws that we have to live by. Allah says, the law I need to live by is

the one of mercy and no, man. I mean, I mean, come Sue and Allah says, so that in the event that one of you were to commit a sin, so metabo embody no matter how bad the sin is, and you come back to me and you repeat to me we also have a new reform yourself for ANOVA four and Rahim then most certainly, indeed. You will find me extremely forgiving. I will forgive that sin, and I will show you my mercy. Allah says kuliah Abadi. Allah says to the Prophet peace be upon him, say to my slaves, AlLadhina asafo Allah unfussy him, not the good ones say to my slaves, the sinners, the ones who have rejected me, the ones who deny me the ones who steal and murder and take drugs, all of them

say to those ones, what was he saying? You're gonna burn in hell forever? No, c'est la takana Tolman Rahmatullah. Never, ever give up. Hope in the Mercy of your Lord. Don't ever forget that your Lord is merciful. Don't ever feel disconnected from Allah never no matter how, how bad you are, no matter how long you sit, you know? Yeah, Allah. I've been an atheist. I've lived my life for the last 50 years. I haven't seen your name once. Allah says to you love talking to don't ever give up mean Rahmatullah in the Mercy of your Lord. Don't ever lose hope in Allah's mercy in Allah, Luba jamea, that Allah says, I forgive every single sin, irrespective of how big how bad how many, I forgive all

of them in the who Allah for food or Rahim, He is the Most Forgiving, the Most Merciful. Allah says, what he does I like anybody any. And if any of you ask about about me for iniquity bin shoot, then I am definitely very close to you. I am

very aware of what you are doing in your life, what is going on in your mind what is happening in your life in your marriage, I am nearer to you. Allah wants us to know that even though yes, he is not part of our creation, He is not made up of this creation. He is intimately connected to this creation. He's never far away. He's never distant. He's never unaware. He says, If you want to think of me, I am near. You know, as one one scholar puts it, Allah subhanaw taala is not someone that you need to shout and call out to. You know, you don't have to scream when you pray, you don't scream, you speak very softly. And in fact, when you in prostration it's a conversation between you and your

Lord. He is very near and he says in the crib, I'm already near to you. So I'm there even though you haven't invoked me in years, you haven't spoken to me in years. I'm still the OG without a day that day and I immediately respond to anyone who calls out to me I respond to them, but let's the Jubilee so you also respond to me well, you know will be and so believe in me allow me or should own so that you may be successful in your search you may be successful in life.

Some technical difficulties Yeah. Am I still audible? gasps Can you still hear me see me? Just a thumbs up from somebody.

The guys on teams

from the law school so much change seems like you're the only one

awake over the

right. So we're speaking about Allah spinalis mercy. And he says

that whenever you think of him, I am near and I respond to you when you call out. Now look, the reality of life is life is difficult. We all go through tests and trials and hardships. And many times you know, people you will always hear a person say you don't understand what I'm going through. You don't know what burdens I carry. I smile I go to work I do that. I can never tell my kids my wife my you know my

My parents, the struggles that I have in my life, Allah says, I am the one that you turn to, I am the one that you beseech I am the one that you talk to. And I will respond to you. Maybe I won't give you exactly what you want, you know, you are praying and begging for that specific thing. But I have something better in mind. But speak to me continuously. Just speaking to your Lord is a type of is of course we know that it's a type of worship, but it's a type of therapy. It's a type of, of comfort to your heart, that when things are bad, you speak to him and he comforts you, knowing that he's the he listens, and he responds is the greatest form of security. And when things are good,

don't forget him. When things are good, and you feel, I feel like the luckiest guy in the world, then you thank him, because you know, we could have gone another way. And he's watching over you and caring for you. So Allah says, I am nearer to you, and I want to have this relationship with you. And I respond to you when you talk to me. So talk to me to speak to me, call out to me

in a hadith and a hadith is a Prophetic narration. So all the things I mentioned so far are verses from the Quran. And maybe as we get deeper into this course we'll talk about the difference between Quran and Hadith. We've simplistically Quran is the word of God. That is what Allah revealed. hadith is the word of the Prophet peace be upon him, it is inspired, it has been revealed to him, but it's not the word of God verbatim whereas the Quran is the verbatim Word of God. Muslims believe that not a single letter of it was written by Muhammad or by any other scholar. Rather, it is the word of God as he spoke it to Muhammad peace be upon him. And then you have of course, the Hadith being the

teachings, the sermons the lectures of the Prophet peace be upon him. And he of course, we will talk more about Prophet Muhammad peace upon him. He is our teacher, our guide our leader, he is of course not a partner with Allah, He is not to be worshipped Muhammad peace be upon him, is a servant like you and I are servants. He worshiped Allah He bow was before him, like all the prophets as Jesus bowed as Moses about Hamlet Salam is just a prophet in the line of many, many prophets. So the Prophet peace be upon him says, in one of his statements, he says, Allah, the mighty and the majestic, possesses 100 mercies. So Allah he says, so the problem is giving an analogy he says, that

when Allah created the universe, in the created creation, he took all of mercy, every ounce of mercy. And he divided into 100 pieces like 100%, they need to 1% of that mercy of his divine mercy. And he gifted it to his creation. And he sent it down to the creation. So that mercy became part of His creation. So much. So in the Hadith, it says, the mother, the mother animal, even animals have mercy, you would find that an animal an elephant, for example, if a cub is walking, she wouldn't trample on her baby, that if you know the kittens are being in a bit of hardship, the mummy cat comes and she protects the kittens, this mercy that you have, even in animals, the profit usually

comes from that 1% of mercy. So all the mercy in all of creation, the Mercy your mother feels for you at the mercy you feel for your kids, from the beginning of time until the end of time, all of it together is only one piece, the other 99 He kept for himself. That's what he has. He has the 99% of mercy is with Allah subhanho wa Taala with him. Allah says, when Allah or the prophet is when Allah created when Allah decreed the creation, when he created the creation, he then set up knows the law, Allah created laws. And he said,

by writing in his book, which he laid down, he and Allah proclaimed, he then said to his creation, My Mercy will always exceed my punishment, My Mercy will always encompass all things, but my punishment is very, very minimal and selective, only a few of the creation, deserving of it, and we'll talk about punishment as we get through this course Inshallah, but what he sees is My Mercy prevails over my my punishment, that Allah subhanaw taala there's a beautiful narration, you know, as we talk about the qualities of the Creator, so many of you can, you can identify whatever your background is Muslim, Christian, whatever it is, that God must be knowledgeable, he must have

knowledge, he must have power, he must have mighty must have kindness. Islam says there's an attribute that Allah is generous, he loves to give any shy. Now shy, being shy, being bashful is not a quality that you ascribe to the creator of the universe, the one who has the power in all things, yet Allah describes himself I am shy, how are you shy? Oh, Lord, he says that if he servant if someone raises their hands to him, he becomes shy to return them empty. So that whenever you will raise your hands, the Almighty does answer in some way, you will, it is not within his divinity, that he will not respond to your invocation. So never ever feel that my dua

Son of my daughter, Dominic, my prayers are being answered. They are definitely being heard by him. And he responds, of course, in his own way, and his own majesty. So the Lord of the universe becomes shy when you invoke him, and he lets those hands full, empty. Allah says, Allah. So there's a beautiful narration This is a small narration, but it refers to a very long story, and we have time to talk about that story. So the Prophet peace Jana was on a journey. And, you know, a fight ensued,

you know, at the town, and this lady is screaming, she's frantic, you know, so you imagine what like mela protecting Allah protect the people of Ukraine. But imagine you're in Ukraine. And you know, you don't know what's happening, you see the tanks rolling and you know, bombs are falling. And all of a sudden, you you your kids are, you know, playing in a certain Park and the this bomb falls and you just see the smoke. And you shoot it in your mind that, you know, my kids have just, you know, been obliterated, what would go through your mind as a parent. And so this lady sees her child almost basically dying in front of her, he begins to scream, and she runs frantically towards the

child. And when she gets to her child, she picks up the baby, and the baby is fine. Nothing wrong with a scratch on the baby. And so this lady now you can imagine the scene, she picks up this child and she hugs this child and kisses this child, you know, all her love and all her you know all her mother which he holds his child so tight. And the Prophet peace be upon him is looking at the scene. And he says to his companions, he says to the, you know, the followers that are within his disciples, do you see this lady? Do you? Can you imagine Can you fathom that this lady could ever take this baby and coerce it into a fire? Can you imagine that? That is even possible a mother, I

think of your own mother? Would your mom ever be able to throw you into a burning into a fire and this competitor of impossible, never could a mother do never could this mother or any mother do such a thing. And so then the Prophet responded, Allah is more merciful to his slaves than this woman is to a child, and he is more reluctant to to punish his servants, then your own parents are going to bring you home. And one of the beautiful narrations of the scholars. They said that if you understood the mercy of the Lord of Allah, you will be more comfortable, you will be more you'd be happy, knowing that Allah is the one that's going to judge you, when your own other than your own

parents, because his capacity for love and mercy and his reluctance to punish you to punish you is more than that of your own parents. Allahu Akbar. Allah says,

And this just shows you what does he want in return from us? Allah says, Whoever believes that there is none worthy of worship but me that I am the one and true God worthy of worship. And in his heart, and in his in his heart, there is only that goodness equal to an atom, he hasn't done. much goodness in his life. He has a drop of goodness in his heart. Allah says I promise that personal into paradise, I will give him paradise, so long as you believe in me, and you have the smallest atom of goodness in your heart, there is something good in your heart, you will enter paradise. It gives you a great amount of hope. You know, in a world that feels very hopeless sometimes, and we feel like

you know, there's no way I'm gonna get there this place called Jana. It's perfect. It's carefree. It's why are you free? No Mondays, no sadness. Allah says to get the, just have a relationship with me, acknowledge me and have the lowest form of goodness in your heart, and you will enter that place

of my

you know, you know, favorite narrations, this is this is not a Quranic ayah but it is a conversation that Allah has with us. Allah says,

a servant of Mine committed a sin. And then he said, Oh ALLAH forgive my son. So you did whatever Senate was big or small. These are not only small son, sometimes we imagined Oh, it's only small sons, you know, you you know, or you forgot to you told the White life he's now we talking about the big sins thinking fornicate. Whatever it is murder, even Allah says, My servant, my slave created committed a sin. And then he invoked me, so I forgave you sin. And He, God Almighty, Allah said, My servant again, my servant has committed a sin. And He knows that he has a Lord who forgives and punishes for those sins. So my servant acknowledged that there is a God and he acknowledged that I

merciful and that I can also punish. So then I forgave him, then the sinners sinned again. Then he did the same sin again, he went back to that same mistake again. And then he comes back to Allah and He says, My Lord, please forgive my sin. And Allah, this one's my servant committed a sin. But he also knows that he has a Lord who forgive sins, and who has the ability to punish the sins so I forgave him again a second time when the man

Send the third time and he did the same thing after sending he comes back Allah same story, same mistake now, for us, you know a person, you know homes you one time you said okay fine, I forgive you second time, okay, third time your patients running right? Allah says My servant again the son, same mistake, he needs it I'm sorry, I'm sorry, forgive me. And Allah responds, my servant acknowledged that I'm here as the Lord who forgives and he's merciful and he can punish. So I forgave him. And then Allah says, so continue doing as you wish for I have forgiven you do what you wish for I have forgiven you now, very carefully. This is not Allah giving the green light sin as

much as you want. But I was saying, no matter how much sin you do, the door of repentance is always open. No matter how many times you come back through the door of repentance, you will find forgiveness on the other side, no matter how many times you repeat that same mistake daily day in day out, Allah doesn't get tired or frustrated. Or say, well, you're taking me now for a joke now. You know, it's my I have a limit. No, there is no limits. So long as you come back, and you walk through the door and you raise your hands you say, Look, I've seen your Hola. I've left you I've, I haven't acknowledged you forgive me. Allah says I guarantee you I will forgive you, no matter what

it is. In perhaps my favorite. One of my favorite narrations. Allah says, Oh, son of Adam. So he's talking out to me to you, he says, Children of Adam, as long as you call upon me, and put your hope in me. I have forgiven you for what ever you have done. And I also don't mind. I don't hold the grudge. No matter how badly you've lived and messed up in your life. So long as you come back to me, I will forgive you wipe the slate slate clean, and I won't even mind at all. Then he says, oh son of Adam, if your sins were to reach the clouds of the sky, and then you were to seek my forgiveness. So this is a person who lived his life, completely in the disobedience of his Lord. He did all the

wrongs. So it became so much like reaching the clouds in the sky. And now you know, he's gotten the diagnosis. Look, you've got a few months to live, you've got cancer, and now he rushes to the mosque. Now he rushes to, to speak to Allah. Allah says, if you come to me like that, I will forgive you, and I don't mind. Then Allah says, Oh, son of Adam, if you were to come to me with sins that are close to filling the earth, and then you would make me meaningful, this is a so each one is a different category. The first person is a person who sins and repaints regularly analysis, he loves this person. Then Allah says, they are those people who sin a lifetime. And then they get a wake up

call. And then they want to come back to me and Allah says, I will except you, you come back. The third kind of person, very dangerous, is a person who lived a terrible life.

And they didn't even repent in this life, and they died. Then Allah says, Oh, son of Adam, if you were to come to me, meaning you died, and you came to me with so much sin, that it folds the world, a world full of sin, and then you would meet me meaning on the Day of Resurrection, you come to me, without ascribing any partner with me, without rejecting me, you come to me, and you said, Yeah, Allah, I have not done much good in my life. And I have done a terrible, I have lived a terrible wasted life. But the only thing I can say is that Allah I still believed in you, I acknowledge that you existed, I still been acknowledged that you are my Lord. And I didn't worship anyone other than

you than Allah will say, Allah says to this man, then I will certainly bring to you forgiveness equal to fooling the world. As you grow a life of sin that falls the world. I'll bring you mercy and forgiveness equal to filling the world. Now, when you when you think of these things, and these are not talking about small sins, these are like murder, right? These are huge since Allah says everyone has the capacity to be good, my forgiveness. It should make us and we don't trivialize our sins, but there are degrees in sin that we should all feel. I can raise my hands to him. And he will listen and He will answer any respond and he won't become tired or frustrated with us. And he genuinely

loves us and wants us to draw nearer to him. Are there any questions before we go on to the last part of this about our slides?

Any comments that anyone would like to make?

Yes, Jane.

Jane, you can go you on mute. Salam aleikum.

I can hear you.

Now, you know, you speak about Allah as Rama was mercy. And you have now illustrated through the things of how Allah subhanho wa Taala has different categories of mercy.

Why is it that you know, I'm so saddened by it that at this age you year how colors are of My mercy coming from you as an island, but other islands out, they haven't taught us these things, that we may find comfort in Allah subhanaw taala I mean, as a life coach, I coach a lot of people and I say, you know, rather Matoba consistently, because if you might die

Two seconds before you have made Tober in you have known that Allah subhanho wa Taala has mercy is upon you. Now when you go into classes and then they say don't make a joke of Allah in October, October, October, we are human, we make mistakes, we falter. And that's what I feel that we need to know that Allah's Mercy is greater than what we are taught by lessons. And these are the things that open people up to turn to Allah subhanaw taala a lot more.

Why are we are we are we in this world? That question, why are we in this world taught that we must fear a lot more in not committing a sin? Because then a man would think you know what? I've committed so much. So why must I repeat, ALLAH is not going to have mercy, because I was taught that, you know, I'm going to go to Johanna basically. Yes, Shane Switchcraft. And that is why, you know, this is lecture number four. And before we talking about pray, before we talk about salah, we talking about fasting, the most important thing or the way the thing that aligns with use himself is mercy. And we forget that. Because once you acknowledge that you have a load that is merciful, and

you have, you can then begin to have a relationship with Him, it becomes easier for you to live a life in His obedience. But I know many times, you know, when we preach it sort of, we want you to not do the sin and so you're almost with a stick, you know, this punishment, and this damnation and his hellfire. And those things are part of, you know, Islam, and we'll talk about those things. But Allah Subhana Allah does not begin with do this while punishing, Allah is telling you, no, I am no My Mercy, understand my mercy so that we can have a relationship. And so I should read for that. And, and I really want everyone Yeah, and I say, most of you, you have perhaps, you know, senior,

older people in your life, I really want you to have a relationship with your Creator. And I want and part of that correct. That thing is, it is built on you speaking to him. So speak to him in your language into your heart to Him and believe that he listens, and he's merciful and his kind, and he wants you to have a happy, fulfilled life. That's what he wants. He did not place you here to make your life difficult. Yes, the life is difficult, but he's always with you every step of the way.

The last part of our lecture is, as I said, Now that you know Allah, Allah wants you to have a relationship with Him. And so this is long, not very long, but a bit of a narration again, that Allah speaks. So Allah says, Now now that you know why I am, you know who you are, I made you I created you, I put you on the earth. You know, I am, I'm the Most Merciful. I'm the all powerful. I'm the unknowing. Allah says, Oh, my servant, Allah speaks to you, Shane, Mohammed, everyone, your own name, whatever your name is Aisha, oh my servant. I have forbidden oppression for myself. I've made it forbidden on me to oppress anyone. And therefore I've made for oppression forbidden amongst

you. So not oppress anyone. Allah says, I have forbidden Myself from harming anybody. So you should not harm anybody. Look at how he begins, that they should be no harm. Part of your relationship with him is how you treat everyone else. When he says, Oh, my servants, all of you are astray, you are lost. You're just wandering through your life, except those who I have guided. So asked me of my guidance, and I will guide you know, whatever wants to be guided, whatever wants to end up with God with Allah, if you want it, ask him and he says, I promise you, I will guide you, oh, my servants, all of you are hungry, all of you are poor. All of you are struggling in your jobs. All of you,

those of you don't have any jobs, except for those who I feed and nourish. So seek of me provision and I will feed you, all my servants, all of you are naked, all of you are weak and exposed, except for those who have closed and protected. So seek clothing from me alone, and I shall clothe you, all my servants, you send by night and by day, every day, all the time, you're disobeying me, and I forgive all sins, and I forgive all sins. So ask me continuously of forgiveness. And I guarantee you I shall forgive you. All my servants, Allah says Again, you will not look at this really Allah says, Listen, you will not you will not ever attain harming me, as to harm me, you will never be able to

harm me or my creation, you can never harm me. And you will never be able to benefit me as you can never do anything that enriches Allah that makes him better. But that enhances imposes you can't harm him and you can't benefit him. Your relationship with Him is completely dependent on him. And he is completely independent of us. So he says, Oh, my servants, were the first of you and the last of you and the human and the jinn. We'll talk about gene Perhaps another time, but basically all of creation, the humans, the angels, the animals, all of you want to be as the most pious and possess the most pious heart of any person, have you? That would not increase my kingdom anything Allah says

Your Worship, your play does not be enough.

Let me or increase me, even if all of you were like saints, it would not increase me in the least. And analysis, if all of you, every single person from the beginning of time to the end of time, were the most wicked of people, all of you were like Hitler, all of you at like devils, it would not decrease me in all Allah in the least, it won't, it won't diminish me, in the least he says, Oh, my servants, were the first of you. And the last of you and all of creation, were to assemble in one area, and continuously asked me Give me this give me that you were asking me nonstop of whatever it is that you want, I will give an I will be able to answer all those requests. And it will not

diminish me any more than a needle. When put in the sea. When you take that needle out, there's only a drop on that. On the on the edge. That's you know how much you take out of the ocean. Allah says, Every single person from the beginning of time till the end of time were to ask all the hearts desires out fulfill all those desires, and it would not listen me like a dropping list taken from the ocean. Then he says, Oh My servants, it is now he concludes. He says I'm the one that guides you, that protects you that forgives you that if you ask I respond that if you do good, it doesn't benefit me. And if you do bad, it doesn't harm me. If you want anything, I can give everything to

you. And it won't diminish me. So then he says to you, oh my servants. At the end of the day, it is only your deeds, only your life, the life that you loved, that I will judge. And then I will repay you for what you have earned. So whoever finds goodness in his life and goodness in the year after, let him praise Me, let him thank me for what I've given him. And we will find anything other than that you don't find goodness on the other side. They don't blame me, but blame yourselves. And so this is our relationship with our Creator. And our life. As we said, You're here for 50 6070 years, maybe less, maybe more it counts and will be judged it will be weighed. And Allah is going to ask

you, what was your relationship like with me? What was your How did you live? Where did I fit in into your life. And Islam is basically to say that I hope and I pray all of us, I hope and you can know that when we pass away we can say I was a Muslim, I submit it to you to the best of my ability, I will imperfect. But I acknowledged you, I turned to you regularly, I spoke to you. And I submitted that you are my Lord and I am your servant. And that is what it means to be a Muslim. Before any questions are coming up. We've concluded our lecture for this evening. Are there any any questions? Maybe a minute or two for questions? Let's hear from from from you know, the rest of you.

Anybody

because I'm gonna say something.

Sorry.

For this one, that some connectivity issues, I think it's the winning the workout area.

But the windows also important as we'll get to the reasons why the wind is the

subject, you know, I caught the latter part of the, you know, the Merciful, you know, how creative being so merciful

you know, with a sinner, it also opens something, you know, that boggles the mind. That, you know, certain is not advocated, but the person living the life.

You know, I'm just gonna put it differently, like riding the luck.

habitual sinner, knowing

full

well, I've lost you the,

the dose of Mercy's Yes, yes.

Mr. Bakshi? Yes, using the habitual sinner, no matter how much you sins, yes, the sinner will find, you know, not solace, but he will write his luck in the sense of, you know, even if I die, if I don't repeat,

just because I didn't ascribe any part this hour. So be guaranteed a place some way in Jannah, then even as a testament as to unpack that one.

We know sin is not cannot be condoned. But the Mercy it's also on the other side, and the doors are open. How do we correlate that to them? So we need to abstain from sin, it's a given but yet, the Mercy fullness is the parent will will knock you off the one you know transgression, Allah subhanaw taala will give you

was almost like infinity. Is that the message that we can take away from you? So it's a good question and I mean, what what basically you linking and is when we listen to the mercy and how much Allah wants to forgive and interesting to Jana, it almost says, Well, I will get a free, jail free card. I can live my life however I want and there's no consequences. Now the East there are consequences. And maybe the law Miranda, we don't give analogies to Allah. But what do you see

You must always have the hope in my mercy. Now, I want to think you think of your own mother. You know, there are things, no matter how bad our life turns out, in the back of our minds, we know even if I end up my law protecting jail, whatever, my mom will still love me. My mom would still care for me, my mom, but she will not condone my son, and she will not fail to reprimand me and tell me where I made a mistake and even punish me. But her love for me is one that you never, you never lose that you always feel comfortable that no matter how bad things are, her love is always going to be there. And so Leila Mata Allah, Allah is beyond the kind of analogy but he wants you to know that yes,

there are repercussions. They up there is something as punishment, we'll talk about sin and punishment, but never lose hope that you can get the Mercy of Allah that's what Allah wants you to, to, to bank on and use the people in the Day of Judgment who will be punished the people who will deserve punishment and they'll be forgiven. And perhaps when we get the chance we'll talk about sin and punishment, life after death all those kinds of things. One more question maybe from the sisters. I like to hear from the any any of the sisters we'd like to ask a question before we conclude

I see an idea and a villa Anna Zima Leila Lindy, any questions from anyone?

No, right. So then does UCLA fade once again, just a reminder for those of you who have any questions, you know, if you feel want to, you can email me with [email protected] If it's urgent, you can WhatsApp me as well. And then just a message reminder, we are doing a marriage seminar, another seminar marriage workshop over a couple of weekends, called the tunica this for married people and people are looking to get married and people you're looking for a partner. This is going to be a workshop we're not only going to be myself talking about the rules of marriage and having private counseling in terms of are you you know, right for each other. We're also going to have a

psychologist a therapist who will teach you about the love languages and how to communicate all the fluffy stuff that I'm not an expert on. And so we hope inshallah this this marriage course will be a little bit more fulfilling and for anyone that is looking to get married, or is married and like to improve your marriage, please join us. You can obviously email me or you can comment and then inshallah we'll get back to you. Inshallah. Nila Zack Hello Hi, thank you so much all the best year was ALLAH Cena Muhammad Ali Salam Islamic Selena hamdulillah but Alameen wa sallahu wa Lincoln Warahmatullahi Wabarakatuh