Nouman Ali Khan – Get Me Closer
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athlete what was meaningful anime? In today's clip, I'd like to remind myself have an idea that teaching today after some time, at least teaching students right in front of me and also in, you know, an academic setting reminded me of and I thought that I can benefit from that reminder and inshallah Tada, all of you can also allows orogen revealed in select a half after teaching the prophets, I show them the story of the companions of the cave. He said, Well, hold on, let me see if I don't delicata don't you dare ever allow yourself to say that I am absolutely about to do something, this or that God, you know, that you can, whatever that is tomorrow.
In the statement, what's the connection to this to the story itself, the more literary connection, the more direct connection is that you had young people who did not know that their tomorrow was going to be generations later. Right? People had many, today's and tomorrow's. And they came and went, and generations came and went, and their parents came and went and their children and you know, new generations came up and went and became old and died and they're still in the cave. And for them, when they got up from the they're sleeping alone, raise them again, love it from your mind, oh, badly on me, we're here for a deer maybe part of a day. And what Allah is telling the
prophets, I said, I'm in one really beautiful way isn't just a threat. But actually, now you understand that the future is entirely in Ally's hand, he can put time to a stop for someone, he can offer a group for those who believe in Him, you can completely change the face of tomorrow. So think of it from the sleepers point of view, the entire world and everything that they knew to be the world has completely transformed within a day for them. For us, it's you know, your philosophy at NC Nina was dealt with this, you know, up to 300 years, or what, however many years, and there's, you know, lots of commentary about that i and what it could imply, but besides that point, they came,
they woke up in a new world. And in their mind, that just happened all in the course of a day. Human beings are going to go to bed inside of the graves, you and I were going to be buried once again into the earth, the earth, the dirt from which we were created. We're going to go back to it and when we go back to it, and we're raised on judgment day, in love with Camila yoma. We were going to feel like I think we were you were out for a day I think. I don't think we were sleeping for that long. There are people that have been asleep for 1000s of years already. And then there's us and there's people that have been asleep for hundreds of years. And God Allah knows when judgment is
coming, how close it is how far it is. That's in his knowledge. But we all wake up at the same time and we all think it's been a day since we died since we went into bed. What is Allah saying in this ayah first and foremost, is that you don't have definitive
No, you cannot make definitive plans about what tomorrow looks like. It's not just about whether you are able to do something or not, or I'm able to do something or not. But rather the entire world, the tomorrow, not just a view, but of the sun in the moon, the sky over our heads. You know, the trees are how does the mountain bear tomorrow depends on Allah, he can transform all of it, our entire reality can change. And something can become irrelevant. Many little example. You know, here on campus, I used to spend quite a bit of time with children in the community and their families. And we decided that we're going to do a road trip. And we're going to go from here in Texas all the
way to New York. And we were working on stopping by masajid along the along the road, like every town and kind of get to meet a community and keep going, keep going, keep going and learn something along that journey. We were working on that road trip, and then COVID-19 happened, right? So we had all these plans and everything was being worked out. And then Allah decides that something else is going to happen instead. And it doesn't just impact us impacts the entire world. A lot knows how many infinite numbers of plans there were for people. And you know, business plans, education plans, family plans, all kinds of plans that had been put to a halt. Because Alaska decided that tomorrow
will look different. But there's the the flip side of it. And the flip side of it is they went with these same young people when they went into a cave. They didn't know what tomorrow is gonna bring. They did not know if they're going to get found if they're going to get food. If they're going to get devoured by an animal did they know nothing? And they're heading towards a cave. And they said something to a lot. It's really beautiful. Well, hey, Emily, now Rashida facilitate the right course for us make the right course convenient for us and easy for us. They're walking literally up into inconvenience. And talking to Allah about convenience. Right? And taking the right course. Now the
word Russia appears again at the end of the story, where the Prophet is told in law in sha Allah sallallahu alayhi wa sallam don't say that you're absolutely going to do this or that tomorrow, except that Allah wills it. Meaning except you add the clause, that unless Allah will coincides with what I plan to do, whatever I need plan to do or think I'm going to do, it's not going to happen. And shortline our culture has become kind of the opposite of what it's supposed to mean, inshallah, for us nowadays means highly unlikely, but I'm going to put a last name on it. Hey, so my See you tomorrow at three o'clock sharp, right, inshallah, that means, don't count on it. And if it doesn't
happen, well, I did say in sha Allah right. So that means I got lateness insurance. So I should be okay. Right. So the idea of in sha Allah has been taken away from its original spirit, the purpose of it was that you and I have things we want to see happen, or things that we're going to do. And we have to understand that whatever we're going to do, we're going to have to make that intention and then turn to a line say yeah, like this is my will. This is what I would like to see executed in my will but my will means nothing if your will isn't coinciding with it.
So I your until your will endorses my will, it won't happen. It's a dependence on Allah on the future, that a slave turns to a lion says that and even reminds others of it. That's Illa insha Allah, but what I wanted to dedicate this Hooda to is the conclusion of this ayah what's good Rebecca is Anna Sita. make mention of your master when you forget. That doesn't just mean Oh, I forgot to say inshallah. 30 minutes later, man, I said I'm going to go to that. I'm going to make sure I finish the assignment I promise I'll finish the assignment, and I didn't say inshallah 30 minutes later.
inshallah Allah can you please put that on record and childlike angels? Can you get that please? Because I didn't say it then. Now I'm saying it. Yeah, that's also remind remembrance. But actually, that you the remembrance of Allah and the remembrance of your master. Your master means the one who controls your fate, the one who controls your nourishment, the one who controls what you're going to do and what you're allowed to do what you're not allowed to do. That's your master. He says, what's called Rebecca, Master, make mentioned and remember your master. In other words, here you are thinking You and I are thinking because we're thinking about the future or projects got to get
finished, what task has to get done, what resolution you have to fulfill what decisions you made, whatever you would done, you and I, we we start thinking that we're in control, we're in charge. And in that moment, Allah says, No, this is the time where you think you have control is when you have to remind yourself, you have a master over you.
It's not just our tongue that has to say inshallah, inshallah is actually a declaration of how Allah has mastery over our fate has complete control over our fate. And he says event is easy in the CETA. So beautiful. He did.
Say make mention of your mastering remember your master, if you forget, he said when you forget. So when you forget, you know what that means that forgetting that reality is inevitable. If you say if it might happen, it might not happen when you say when it's gonna happen, it's going to, at some level, we are going to lose sight of a large role in what we plan on accomplishing what we plan on doing what we plan on seeing the results, we plan on seeing so many situations in which you want to say something to someone or deal with somebody or talk to somebody, and you're, you think the conversation is going to go this way, it's not going to go this way, it's gonna go some other way.
You think the negotiations are gonna go this way, they're gonna go some other way. You think you're going to, you know, for example, teach somebody you think the teacher class is gonna go, it's gonna go a different way. You don't you can't control how other people are going to perceive or react to what you're doing. That's the will of Allah also. That's also are you, you know, again, when when people don't respond to us in the way that we want to, or when people don't react to us in the way that we would expect them to. Then we get angry as if man I'm doing my side, how come they're not, they need to conform to, they need to get in line. No, that's that's the whole point of saying in
sha Allah, Allah insha Allah, not only is my ability to accomplish or do what I'm going to do dependent on a lot, but I have a rub, who doesn't just control whether or not I'll be able to do it, he also controls the results of it, the effect of it, everybody can the you know, the farmers can all plant the same seed in the same soil, and some of them will grow and some of them won't, maybe a level not even give some the ability to plant a seed, but the one who is able to plant the seed, maybe a level and give that seed the ability to grow. And if it grows, maybe he put the CD didn't intend to it, it's a different kind of plant. And he didn't even realize it. You You don't know you
can't control what Allah will bring out of it. And this is that that dependence on Allah. Now when you when you say that, then it's a kind of pessimism that comes with it, because then you might start thinking, well, it all depends on Allah, I'm hoping this works out. But since I'm saying, inshallah, then if Allah decides it's going to just go in a different way. So I should expect that things are not going to go the way that I want them to. Right. That's the whole point of saying, inshallah, it's not going to go your way. It's going to go Allah's way. Okay, so just know your place. And that's kind of a depressing, pessimistic view, because now you start thinking that my
hopes and my aspirations and what I want to accomplish in the future doesn't matter. Because when Allah decides he's just gonna just wash it away anyway. What is the ayah? Do it protects us from that kind of hopelessness. He says, make mention of your master when you forget. And then say, what good and say, Now, say is also important. Because saying, is usually to someone else. If I'm told, say this, that would mean say this to your mother, say this to people around you say this to your class, say means declare, talk to everybody. But there are situations in which there's nobody around. It's just you who made a resolution to do something, right. So there's no other audience.
And yet Allah still says oil. You know what that means? say this to yourself, don't just remember it in your heart, verbalize this, the Quran also teaches us to have a spiritual conversation with ourselves. like to talk to ourselves. By the words, Allah commanded us to say, this is something that Allah is teaching us to actually say, not just to someone else, but actually to ourselves, and not just in our head with our tongues, hearing ourselves, say it. Now, what is it that Allah wants us to say, and you know, when you verbalize something like that, those are not normal moments. When you're driving in the car, you're usually quiet, you're listening to the radio, listening to a
podcast, or you're lost in your thoughts and your quiet. attendees are moments and times in your life. When you're in the car and a nobody there and you're talking to yourself, or you're talking to Allah. And that happens, oh, man, I'm gonna like there's nobody listening you crazy who you're talking to. You know what those moments indicate? Those moments indicate a
times of great reflection, and self realization or determination. Those are powerful moments in a person's life, when they're moved so much by something that it actually gets them to talk to themselves, to have a conversation with them. So some people, they talk to themselves all the time, meaning talk under their breath all the time. Well, that's I'm not talking about that, like people that are making comments at you, but they're making them under their breath. So you know, they said something, but you don't know what they said.
That's what you say, Al hamdu Lillahi Rabbil aalameen is what I was saying. Right? That's that's not what I'm talking about. But here he says declare to yourself, have a realization about yourself. And what's the first thing you should say Assa
sighs you know, it's a, it has a few things that are gtalk or it has, it means possibly, but it also means hopefully, and I'm expecting it is expected it is hoped. So Allah is now telling us what to say about the future, not just that it's in the hands of Allah that only fellows will endorses it will it happen. But the first thing I have to tell myself, the first word is hopefully, it is hoped.
And this is powerful because now Allah has told his servant to have hope in the future.
Before anything else, you have to be hopeful about the future.
Doesn't matter what the circumstance doesn't matter. You're walking away from your family going into a cave, you're hopeful.
Doesn't matter. We'll say sometimes opposition every single day is getting worse. He's hopeful he's commanded to be hopeful.
And then he says, Assa and yet the lobby.
It's hoped that my master will guide me.
It is hoped, and there's an expectation, and there's a longing, there's a positive, there's an optimism about the future. And once the optimism that my master will guide me. Now, this changes our view about insha Allah, it guides our view about inshallah inshallah was, if Allah decides it will happen if Allah decides it won't happen. But now we're learning something about what kinds of things that Allah decide. Allah likes to decide things that help guide his sleep.
That's what he likes to decide, allows will, is actually the hope that's embedded that Allah Himself said, Tell yourself this, the hope is, and my expectation is, even though I don't know what Allah wills, my expectation is, if I've learned anything about my Arab, from his own words, from the way he describes himself, he wants me to expect from him that he himself is going to guide me,
he's going to be showing me a course, you know, of course of action, I think of the analogy of a ship, you know, the waters are calm, and the captain is able to steer the ship in whatever direction and whatever course that he meant to steer the ship in.
And then a storm comes that is from a lie, it's not in the hands of a captain who can weather a storm. And the whole, the only objective of the captain now is not to stay on course, but to survive the storm. And when the storm comes, the ship will be tossed and moved and moved off course it can be moved off course, by hundreds of miles, it will be taken wherever the storm takes it, right.
And it so happens in the storms of our lives, when a lot takes our ship in any which direction that we had never expected. We are never expected to be thrown in that place, or to be pushed into that place. That even those are ullas acts of guiding us. And even as you're being smacked by the storm, what's coming out of your mouth is It is hoped that this is Allah guiding me that this must be a course of action that is meant for me to be guided.
It's not the course I was choosing. Or this was the course that's heading somewhere else. It's pushing me into some other direction. But it's him guiding me, guiding me to watch. And that's one of the most beautiful places I've ever read in the Quran. For my personal self, the akara Burman hadash Allah, please, I've talked about this several times, but I don't get tired of talking about it and thinking about it. And you know, since Allah says in desire, say to yourself, so before I'm even saying it to you, I'm saying it to myself.
He says, guide me all the way de la Muslim. In the heart. This is London, Ohio. You know, when I say, Hey, could you give me directions to the house? That's ILA. But if you say Could you give me directions all the way to the house, that when you say all the way it's kind of like saying that is my ultimate destination. That's where I want to get to that's my end goal. And that's the Arabic expression lamb the preposition can serve that purpose. So here the servant is saying to his master, the slave is saying about his master is hope that my master will guide me all the way to the destination. Now what's that destination? He says the Aqaba all the way to closer
than this this is the expert question all the way to closer than this economic nada.
So weird thing to say in English. It needs a little bit of unpacking. And that's that's really the purpose of mahoba is this, this concluding phrase? What does that mean? All the way to closer? Think of it this way.
Your goal when you're traveling on any journey, if I'm traveling from here to my parents house, my goal is not to get closer to my parents house. My ultimate goal is to reach the house itself.
I don't feel any sense of accomplishment. If I try
10 steps, if I traveled to blocks, if their house is 20 blocks away, I only feel like I accomplished something when I get there. The end that's the alarm should be associated with the destination, not the journey. In the ayah. The person talking about the future says the slave talking about the future says, my hope in Allah is that He will guide me all the way to one more step closer, not the destination. But closer means you've made progress towards your destination. It's a strange thing to say as if Allah is telling us making progress in your journey. Taking a step in your journey is your ultimate goal.
That's your ultimate goal. And how do you know you've taken that? How do you know you've achieved the ultimate goal for that day? What's the How do you know minha from where I am, from this, where I'm standing now, my hope is the situation Allah has brought me to, or the circumstances Allah has created, or whatever he wills for me in the future. My hope in Allah is that the whole point of that circumstance is to take me a step closer than this than where I am right now. step closer to what? step closer to what to what, okay, fine. I'm making closer and closer to the end. Is it Jana? Is it heaven? What is it that I'm getting closer to and that's qualified in the in the moment is Russia
than
closer than this? When it comes to uprightness.
It's like I have a crookedness inside me. I have slants and biases and brokenness inside me. And every time a lot puts me through an experience, I am one step closer to being unbroken, to being mended to being corrected, to being corrected, emotionally to being corrected spiritually to be corrected in my in my reliance on Allah, to be corrected in my character to be corrected in my ability to be patient to be corrected, in my gratitude. One step, it is hoped, whatever experiences Allah has packed for me, whatever he plans to do,
that allows will, over and above my will, is about guiding me to take one closer step to that which is good to that which is righteous, towards righteous, that's all. That's my goal. That's the ultimate goal. You know, it's it's something that definitely applies to students, which is why I thought of it today. But it's not limited to students at all. How does it apply to students? As students as man, I want to finish this book, I want to finish this course I want to get this degree. I want to memorize these these disorders, I want to memorize the entire Quran. I want to learn all of this, I want to learn all of that, then I'm going to study this, then I'm going to study that,
did you finish this and you get your ijazah in this? Do you finish this book? Did you finish this paper? Do you finish this knowledge to finish that knowledge? And the it's always milestones, and it's important to have milestones. But in our journey into the Quran, like in you know, if you're studying engineering, it's absolutely critical that you have milestones. You're getting a bachelor's degree every year is a milestone. Every several number of credits or milestones. If you're working towards a financial goal, savings, buying a house, whatever, you have financial goals
the same way, there are something there's goal setting when it comes to our spiritual goals. But in our spiritual goals, every step we take that brings us closer to being upright is a goal by itself. That step was a goal, not the destination for Quran, my my foreign students, my Arabic students even What do I tell them? I tell them, if you made some progress today, you have achieved your ultimate goal.
You don't say, you know kids, kids do this when they're memorizing something because then the mother assigns stuff. I kinda like I know this much now. And then the other kid goes, but you don't know this much. And he goes,
That's a lot. I don't know. Your goal was one step closer is joy. I know one more word of Allah. I learned about one more ayah
I implemented one new thing. I found one more reason to be grateful to Allah. I'll open one more drop of wisdom from his word on me. One more. Yeah, there. If you start thinking about what you don't know you're going to live a life of anxiety and never appreciate what you actually do know, are the steps you actually are taking. as a learner, taking even the smallest steps or moments of joy. They're absolutely moments of joy. The same way as a believer taking small steps away from darkness as a believer taking small steps to better yourself to better myself.
taking small steps to better your environment, whatever small steps you're taking, even if it's a little bit, that itself was an ultimate goal achieved. And sometimes we don't want to make changes Allah wants us to make. So he puts us in very uncomfortable situations.
So we can humble ourselves to what change we need to make. So we can realize that he, he wants to take a step back and say, Allah put me in this situation, what are you teaching me here? And it's not he's punishing me. That's not the attitude. The attitude is this, he put me in the situation to guide me to something closer towards goodness, people that are mindless about Allah,
you know what to let us they mess up. And a lot of times what Allah does is they mess up and Allah makes the world even more convenient for them.
He likes he opens life up for they get happier, they get happier, and then they do more things and opens up another door and they get even happier. They get validated in their wrongdoing,
you know, could lead them into how
we each of them we extend in this way these people, we we extend and extend and extend amount of time with raffia. Sophia, many places in the Quran, Allah describes this concept. But
they, he extends them in their rebellion.
You want to try one illicit drug, I'll open up the door to 20 more here, take a choice. Go ahead, you want it you want to make those choices, here you go. And then for some of the slaves he loves, when sometimes he makes them fall and slip or mess up. And conveniences and comforts are taken away from them. protections are taken away from them. Because that's when they there was a small half war from them, there was something missing in there turning to a lot. And that became a favor from a lot of them. Because that changed the course of action in their hearts. And they found the need to turn back to a law and correct something and make it more upright. The acaba mahadasha.
So even in in difficult circumstances, we think a lot that is giving us he may be taking something worldly away from us, but he may be giving us something so much more powerful, and so much more timeless and valuable. And that is a step closer to being guided a step closer to him a step closer to righteousness, goodness, hey, we needed that refinement, you know, you can have delicious meat, but it needs cooking before it's the literally delicious otherwise it has bacteria in it. It has diseases in it, you can eat raw meat, you have there's some you know materials that in order to be refined, they have to be put under the heat. This is a process of the believers refinement, that you
and I have to go through and we have to understand that allows xojo whatever, you know, path he takes us on is going to be for our own benefit. And the ultimate benefit will be that we become upright allows origin because people that benefit and from having hope and optimism and allows origin and really ultimately benefit by by increasing our faith and our reliance on Allah and changing our course towards a more upright way of living. As the days go by, as Allah teaches us to the experiences and the trials that he wants us to go through to come out stronger barakallahu li walakum pukalani Hakeem monophyly
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