Nadim Ali – Accepting Allah’s Decree
AI: Summary ©
AI: Transcript ©
Our praise belongs to Allah, the most high.
We thank him, and we seek his aid,
and we seek his forgiveness.
And we seek refuge with him from the
evil of ourselves and from our bad actions.
Whoever Allah guides, then there's no one who
can mislead him. And whoever Allah causes to
go astray,
then there's no one to guide
him. I bear witness we bear witness that
there is no deity except Allah who is
unique and without partners.
And I bear witness that Mohammed is his
worshiper and his messenger. May the peace and
blessings of Allah be upon him and his
family and his companions
and those who follow them with good intentions
until the day of judgment.
We who believe, fear Allah as he should
be feared and don't die except as Muslims
again. We who believe, fear Allah as he
should be feared and don't die except as
Muslims.
And all mankind, be careful of your duty
to your lab who created you from a
single soul and from it created his mate
and from the 2 of them spread forth
many men and women.
Be careful of your duty to Allah whom
you demand your mutual rights, and be careful
of your duty to the wounds that bore
you. Indeed, Allah is our al Akib over
you.
When you have believed, say Allah and always
speak the truth. He will cause your deeds
to be beneficial and he will forgive for
you your sins. And whoever obeys Allah and
his messenger, then he has truly achieved a
tremendous accomplishment.
For indeed, the best speech is the book
of Allah and the best guidance is the
guidance of Muhammad sallallahu alaihi wa sallam.
And the most evil of our affairs are
newly invented matters, which has no precedence in
Islam. And indeed, all innovations are straight and
each strays in the hellfire. And, oh, Allah,
save us from it. And, oh, Allah, accept
our du'a.
One of the things that we have to
remember
that's important for us
to accept the decree of Allah.
We have to ask ourselves,
why is it that we pray?
Why do we fast?
Why do we give charity? Why do we
go through the rigors
of the Umrah and the Hajj?
It's it's in order to shape our hearts
so that
we can accept the decree of Allah.
The prophet Muhammad peace be upon him said
that more than everything will rust.
Everything that
rust. And that which removes the rust from
the heart is is, of course, is the
remembrance of Allah.
And again, we don't want to be like
the the people who
pray as if like chickens feeding as the
prophet, peace be upon and describe
them. So we wanna be of those who
pray with sincerity
to be able to get to the point
of accepting
any of the decrees of Allah.
Allah tells us in the Quran,
for the assuredly Allah who is all embracing
and it is he who has power over
all things. Again, this verse reminds us that
Allah is in control of all things
and that his will will always be done.
And, you know, we
sometimes go through it intellectually,
but we don't internalize it. We don't hold
it in our hearts.
We don't hold it in our hearts. And
the law also says, no calamity before defiles
on earth or in yourselves, but it is
inscribed in the book of decrees
Before we bring it into existence, surely, that
is easy for Allah Subhanahu Wa Ta'ala.
And again, this teaches us that all things,
whether good things happen to us or bad
things happen to us, it's written in the
book already.
But as Allah says that the the pen
has been lifted
and the ink is dry.
You know, Allah has knowledge of it. He
talks about even having knowledge of each leaf
that falls.
And that's the understanding, the overstanding that we
have to get brothers and sisters.
The prophet Mohammed, peace be upon him, he
also emphasized
the importance of accepting the decree of Allah
in this hadith. He said, if anything bad
happens to you,
do not say, if only I had done
such and such a thing differently,
such and such a thing would have happened.
Rather say, Allah
has decreed
and what he wills, he does. For saying,
if only
only if if even saying if he opens
the door
to the work of the devil.
And again, we have to reflect on this
hadith
that we should not dwell
on the past or that we should not
think about what could have been, but rather
accept the decree of Allah Subhanahu Wa Ta'ala.
These are some of the things that we
have to look at. Because even when you
look at the the stages of grief, the
stages of grief in psychology, they talk about
when people have a major loss. You know,
they go through shock, denial, bargaining.
They go through depression. They go through anger.
And eventually, they get to acceptance.
But as Muslims, we have to go through
acceptance first.
But we are human beings first also.
And so we're gonna have to basically
find our way of processing
any losses that we suffer.
You know, it says that people feel, again,
that if this had happened, when you look
at the stages
that that if this calamity this calamity would
not have happened if we have done this
or we have done that. And again, this
hadith tells us, for instance, that when we
question the decree of Allah, it opens
up the heart to the
shaitan. It opens up the heart to the
shaitan. But again, we human beings first. We're
going to experience loss.
There's no harm in in feeling sadness. There's
no harm in shedding tears. The prophet, peace
be upon him, would shed tears and and
his companions, they were some of the supermen
on the planet.
They shed tears.
And so but, you know, we get this
black man disease for the most of us,
you know, that we we don't wanna feel
sensitive. We don't wanna cry. We don't wanna
feel certain types of emotions.
We have to be able to express ourselves.
Otherwise, we will implode.
I always tell people, some of the clients
that I work with, that the mind can
create medicine or it can create poison.
Just like, for instance, you can think yourself
into an ulcer.
You can think yourself into a headache. You
can think yourself into a stroke.
That's how powerful the mind is.
But we, as Muslims, we have to work
from the heart. We have to work from
the heart
in the salah, the prayer.
It it helps us.
The fasting, it helps us. Giving charity, it
helps us. Was the law said you giving
one act of charity is like planting 1
seed of corn, and you get a stalk
from that one seed of corn. And each
so each stalk has maybe 10 ears, and
each ear has 100 seeds. And that's the
return of each act of charity.
Each act of charity. So again, we have
to start to internalize
these messages that Allah has given us. And
as he transmitted them through the prophet Muhammad,
peace be upon him,
while we're accepting the coup of Allah, it
brings peace and tranquility to the heart because
as I state all the time, this is
just the middle womb, brothers and sisters.
True life begins
when we pass the barrier of barzakh, the
barzakh, the barrier between life and death.
True life begins then, and then there's no
time. Time is dead.
How are we preparing for that?
Just like if we were in our mother's
womb and mom
smoke crack and drink alcohol and smoke cigarettes,
what kind of condition would the the baby
be?
And so what
are you
feeding your soul?
What are you giving your soul? How are
you nourishing your soul so that when the
hereafter comes, you're in a good condition.
You're in Jannah as opposed to in Jahannam.
So we have to look at
this is the true reality that Allah shares
with us, that this is just a temporal
place,
a temporal dwelling place.
The prophet Muhammad also said,
how wonderful
is the situation of the believer.
For all of his affairs are good and
this applies to no one except the believer.
If something weird happens to him, he is
thankful for
it and if and and for it, and
that is good for him. And if something
bad happens to him, he bears with it
with patience, and that is good for him.
Accepting decree of Allah
also brings us closer to Allah. And again,
it's an act of submission to his will.
And as Muslims, we know, again, the translation,
one who submits to the will of Allah.
The prophet
says that the most beloved slave to Allah
are those with the most excellent manners and
the most beloved of those to Allah
are the ones who are most constant in
performing prayer.
And the most beloved of those in Allah
are those who stand in prayer during the
night the hours of the night while people
are asleep.
And the most beloved of those to Allah
are those who are furthest from worldly life.
And the most beloved of those to Allah
are those who are the most patient.
Again, we have to
learn to accept
the decree of Allah in
all aspects of our lives and in everything
that we do in everything that we do.
And Shaitan's job is to make us forget.
Shaitan's job is to, you know, make us,
you know, basically question our own existence. That's
his job.
So we have to be of those to
to be able to,
as they say, roll with the punches.
Roll with the punches.
And if Allah brings some hardship on you,
if Allah brings some sickness on you, again,
that's a means of expiation.
Just like when we pray, that's a means
of expiation of sins. Prayer to prayer, expiation
of sins. Jummah to Jummah is expiation of
sins.
Ramadan to Ramadan is expiation of sins.
Umrah to Umrah is expiation of sins, and
Hajj to Hajj is an expiation of sins.
So we have to look for ways of
cleaning ourselves
so that we meet Allah
in a clean state.
We just can't be like the people who
say, well, he should die for our sins.
No.
No. We have to bear responsibility
for our actions. We can't engage in behaviors
and say, well, you know, I'm k. I'll
I'll become religious when I get old. That's
what I used to hear when I was
in Saudi
Arabia. If I met people who lived in
Mecca and never made Hajj. Oh, I'll I'll
become religious when I get old.
Again, I have to tell you all the
time. I'm the I don't even know how
to make it to 30 in my family.
And we've had
brothers
and sisters who have died, you know, in
in their youth.
And so you're not promised tomorrow, brothers and
sisters. So we have to be of those
to live each day as a prophet, peace
be upon him, said, live each day as
if it's gonna be your last day. Live
each day as if it's going to be
your last day. Again, let us continue to
strive
to accept the decree of Allah Subhanahu Wa
Ta'ala in all aspects of our lives and
in everything that we do. And again, if
I've said anything that's inconsistent with what Allah
has given us and the prophet, peace be
upon him, has brought us, I take full
responsibility for that. And if I've said anything
in which you have gained some new insight,
as always, all praise belongs to Allah.
Oh, Allah, send peace and blessings upon our
beloved prophet Muhammad, peace be upon him, his
family and his companions.
Allah increase his honor and elevate his station.
Grant him the highest place in paradise and
bless him with your divine mercy. I know
Allah bless us with his intercession on the
day of judgment and forgive our sins.
Again, we must remember
that Allah is in control of all things
and that his will will always be done.
And again, let us also remember that everything
that happens to us is already written in
the book and that the law has knowledge
of it before it happens. And may Allah
guide us to accept his decree and may
Allah
grant us the patience and strength to bear
whatever trials and tribulations
that may come our way.
And many of us have gathered here today
to again pay our respects to our brother
Sabir,
brother Sabir Mohammed. We've suffered a great loss
in our brother Sabir Mohammed. As you know,
he would sit right in that chair right
there in the front.
And my relationship
goes back
with him to about 1979.
And, yeah, I just arrived in Atlanta, and
I I remember calling Imam Jamil. Heard about
Imam Jamil had a community in Atlanta. There's
Muslims living around the mosque. Oh, wow. You
know, because I feel that we had the
storefront thing going on. And
I called him on. I said, can I
get 3 days in the mosque?
And he said, sure. And I came down
there and got 3 days, and I called
my then my fiance and my mother back.
He said, I ain't coming back. I came
down here originally for a week.
I said, I ain't coming back. You know,
because I enjoyed what was trying to be
done here,
And,
I started working. My background is worked as
a jazz DJ,
a communicator,
and did that for a few 30, 40
years. And
I was working at a radio station, all
night jazz station.
And brother Sabir, he was a firefighter, an
EMT firefighter during that time, and he would
call me every night,
you know, almost every night, you know, and
he would, you
know, just talk to me. He was still
in the nation of Islam at that time.
And he would, you know, try to feed
me bean pie, and I would try to
feed him couscous. You know?
And,
and
I mean, we were always patient with one
another,
You know? And and so
and and I'm not I don't have a
problem,
you know, with the the fact that, you
know, he was in the nation and he
heard me giving salams on the air and
playing the athan on the air.
And,
you know, so he, you know, he would
always call and talk and, like, say, you
know, I was I would give him Dawah
and give him information and give him directions.
And, eventually,
he came and met Imam Jamil.
And,
you know, he took a shahada,
and it was his nature to always contribute.
You know, whenever,
you know, you a conversation
about,
brother Sabir, you know, it's, you know, he
did always say he was the the the
word soldier. That was always come up in
somewhere in the comp in the,
in the conversation.
And and brothers would complain, well, you know,
he you give him so much deference and
respect.
He he not making fights or regular. He
not coming around a lot. And my mom
Jamil would say, at least when he comes
around, he cuts the grass. You know, you
have brothers who just walk past paper on
the floor.
You know? But, that that was his nature.
You know? Again,
he was a soldier.
You know, he sold it for uncle Sam.
He sold it for the nation of Islam.
He sold it for Islam.
And may Allah
expand his grave and forgive his sins
and grant him to Paredos.
And, again,
may Allah
accept our,
you know, prayers for him, you know, and
and give us contentment
and and and acceptance of his decree. And,
again, may may he grant us mercy and
forgiveness. You know? Yeah. And, again,
we'll be doing
at 3 o'clock on the basketball court and
next across to the front of Masjid and
then immediately going down, to Lovejoy to to
bury our brother. And later, there will be
a memorial service.
We we will keep you posted on that
because,
brother Sabir is bigger than, the community mosque
here. You know, the Muslims of Atlanta
and own him the Muslims around the country.
I mean, he he's known throughout the country.
And so we want to give people who
are not yet Muslim an opportunity to plead
their respects as well. So there'll be a
memorial service, but we'll, you know, keep you
posted on that.
Our lord, take us not to task if
we forget to fall into error. Our lord,
lay not on us a burden such as
you did lay on those who have gone
before us. Our lord, lay not on us
a burden such as we do not have
the power to bear and overlook our faults
and forgive us. Have mercy upon us, and
you are our protector and grant us the
victory over the disbelieving people. Be common and
father.