Nouman Ali Khan – 16. Are you Living a Dream?

Bismillah Alhamdulillah wa salam aleikum, which means peace be unto you. Welcome to another episode of the deen show. We're trying to humbly help you understand Islam and Muslims. Today, we're going to be talking about a very important topic. This is something now that is on some of the minds of the more serious people in life, people who have went through some of the things in life that many people go through parties, being invited to some of the big social gatherings and being around maybe some of the celebrities and you know what, they still haven't figured out the purpose of life. And now they're thinking and contemplating and getting a little more serious. They want to get serious

in life, but now, there's one hurdle. There's so many different ways out there. You got Tom Cruise calling you to Scientology you got these people calling you to Christianity and Buddhism and this ism and that ism. How do you know which is the correct way the religion the way of life the system that God Almighty wants you to live? We're gonna be talking about that when we come back here on the show you don't go nowhere.

Jesus was his messenger.

Why did that maybe, maybe it's just to break the ice. A salaam aleikum, wa salam ala, how you doing? Brother? Good, very good. Hurt me introduce it. Yes. And I introduced shooting another show. So we're not going to waste a lot of time. There. You are from the baina Institute, you know, the Arabic that's the original language that the Quran was revealed to you not to speak it? I'm a student of logical cell. Okay, you know, some Arabic, we're good.

Okay, look, we're breaking a little bit of ice. But this is serious. The guy has been to all the clubs, he's had all the girls, but he sees there's something missing. There's a void. She's been hustled, and she's made a little money. And she's sick of being used and abused, and all this stuff. And people are ready to get serious. Yeah, you know what, but there's a lot of things out there. A lot of confusion for some people, how do they find out what is they're smart enough to know, look, that there is a creator? But how is it that there's so many different ways in which is the correct one talk to us?

First, let's walk through the thought process of someone who comes to the right conclusions.

They already recognized that this world was not created without a purpose. That, you know, the intricate creation of even ourselves down to our very fingertips is something very profound and amazing. So it couldn't be that this has been designed without or without an agenda or cause a purpose. They acknowledge that there's a creator who designed this in such perfection. And any decent human being one characteristic of decency is gratitude.

When somebody does you a favor, it's human decency that you want to thank them. It would be very indecent and inappropriate of you that you had a flat tire somebody came in, helped you out, and you just turned the other way and walked away, or drove off, which is rude. It's just it's not appropriate. It's not it's not common decency. And human beings have a sense of common decency across religions and culture. So when you realize there's a creator, you realize that he's created you in such a powerful way. And he's given you abilities that he hasn't given other creatures. Yeah. And he's given you, you know, all of these faculties, not just your physical faculties, which are

amazing enough, like none of us paid for our eyes. And none of us, you know, bought our hands anywhere there was just given to us. And there are so many others that don't have these things. So you want acknowledges, first of all, that these things were given to him or her without them having to pay for them. And then on top of that, their sustenance, water, the air they breathe, the the the family, they enjoy the house, whatever, they may have just been poured upon from every direction with all sorts of favors, none of which they had to pay for. It was just kind of handed down to them. So the very least decent person will in some way in their mind, they want to be grateful. So

even you'll find the people that are very religious, if they win the championship, you know, was I thank God? Yeah, right. There's some sense of decency, right. But in addition, there's also a sense of appreciation, in addition to praise or rather gratitude, there's praise and appreciation, meaning he didn't just help us he helped us in such a profound way. And his creation in his creative power is so incredible, just the vastness of this universe. If you ever ponder over that, just look at the sky when then just look at it's flawless end to end. That in itself would make you in awe of the creativity.

Power of this one creator. We're not even going to name him yet. We acknowledge that this creator who made me who has a purpose well, who who is the the best person, or the best individual or entity rather, that can tell me my purpose. Think about this, if I made this cup, yeah. Well, I made it for a purpose. The manufacturer of something, manufactures something for a reason. You make a car, so it drives you build a house to live in, right? So when human beings construct something, designed something, then there's a purpose in mind for which they're designed. So when you acknowledge there's a creator, and he created me, and he created me quite well, with this profound intellect

that he gave me and all these faculties and abilities, then what purpose do I have? Where am I going to find my purpose? Well, you go back to the manufacturer, you go back to the Creator, to find your purpose, you can't figure it out yourself, you have to ask him, because he's the one who designed you. So you acknowledge that you are actually you are this Lord that's over you, the one who has been providing for you and sustaining you and taking care of you just like he's the lord of everyone else. He's the only one that can dictate your purpose. But you also come to another really powerful conclusion, that up until now in your life, maybe you're 2525 years old, for 25 years in your life,

you didn't live up to your purpose, because you didn't even know what it was. Right? So you've been in violation of your purpose. Now, let's take a step back. If you have, you know, if I own a computer, and it doesn't do what I want it to do, right, it crashes, I can check it out, I can throw it away. I own it, I bought it for a purpose. It didn't fit that purpose. So I got rid of it. Back in the old days, some farmer gets a cow. Right? A cow stops giving milk. He got it for the purpose of milk, it stops giving milk. What does he do? slaughters the cow? Yeah. But you come to the conclusion that you were created for a purpose. You there's a Lord over you, who expects that you

live up to your purpose. But for these 2520 1918, whatever years of your life, you've been violating that purpose, because you didn't even know there was a purpose. You didn't even acknowledge it. But did he punish you for it? Is it for example, one of your purposes? One one thing under your purpose is not to lie? For example, every time you lied, was it lightning that struck from the sky and cut your tongue off? Or every time you stole? Did your hand just fall off? Or every time you you know, engage in something evil Something wrong? Did you punish experienced a punishment right away? No, he lets you go, he let it slide. He keeps letting it slide. And human beings aren't like that, you

know, when we expect something from someone like an employee? Yeah. Right? If you if I hired you to be my accountant, and I expect you to show up at nine o'clock, and you don't show up for four weeks. And then you show up, you know, after at the fifth week, it's, you know, 3pm and say, Well, you know, where's my paycheck that you've already been fired? Right? So you acknowledge you've been in violation, and this Lord of yours is far more merciful than anyone else you've ever experienced. His mercy is unimaginable, His mercies unimaginable. But then you also realize as unimaginable as his mercy is, if I've come to this conclusion that I don't know my purpose, or I haven't sought out my

purpose. And I've been getting away with it all this time. Is it okay? If I should just forget about this purpose and continue to not think about this anymore, and move on? What or if I, if I've reached, if I've come this far in my thought, then I should realize that he knows that I've come to this conclusion, he knows that I realized I should be looking for my purpose. So if I stopped my search here, and say, I'm thinking to deep, better go back to the life of partying, then there will be consequences, I will have to pay for everything that I did. So once this, you reach this thought process up to here, and what's the next step? You turn to this creator, this mysterious creator that

you don't yet know, and you declare one thing to him, I acknowledge that you're my Creator, I acknowledge that I'm supposed to be in service to you. Whatever I do in this life is supposed to live up to your purpose that you set for me. But I cannot fulfill that purpose on my own. Because I don't know where to start. You need guidance? I don't, I don't have anything. So even if I want to serve you, how am I going to do so unless you helped me? Yeah, unless you helped me. So so far, you would mean the thought process. First, it was appreciation, then there was this amazing mercy that he lets you slide so far, then there was the idea that there's going to be consequence, so you

better get your act together. Then there's the idea that you asked him, you, I'm going to worship you. I want to turn to you, I want to give myself up to you need to write I need your help. We need direction, we need direction. So now when you ask him for direction, you ask him for guidance. You ask him for the way the clear, straight way that to go to live your life. But you also come to another conclusion. If in fact, he is as merciful. And if in fact this is the truth, then you can't be the only one. This must have happened before you. There must have been people before that asked for this guidance sincerely, and there must be people before

were given this guidance, right? So you asked him, instead of being left out and on your own, you asked him to show you a path that other people have already walked, people have already gotten that he favored upon, right. And then there must be other people who asked for that path and not listen to this carefully. They asked for that path. They got the path, it's like me asking you for directions, you gave me directions. But I didn't follow those directions. Right? I didn't follow those directions. You that's such a person who asks for the favor, gets the favor, and then disregards the favor is someone who the creator must be very angry with, you know, there's a person

who didn't even get the favor. But there's a person who got the favor and then disregarded it, saw the truth and then put it aside. This person is worthy of the Lord's wrath. And then finally, there's a person who asked, Who asked for the favor, got that favor, received that favor, but then mixed his own thoughts and desires into that favor. God gave him guidance. He gave him the truth, he gave him clarity, but he didn't like everything that he heard. So he put something of his own in there and became last. Now this thought process that I've explained to you actually, the reason I went in this route, is because this is the thought process of the Quran. The first.

The first little of the Quran is actually the thought process of someone seeking the truth. We say Al hamdu, lillahi Rabbil aalameen The first thing Yeah, Praise and Gratitude belong to Allah, the Lord of all the peoples of the world. Yeah. All the Worlds. Okay. So we talked about praise and gratitude. Then we say R Rahman r Rahim, the unimaginably exceedingly merciful, constantly merciful. So this was the mercy part. But then we say Maliki Ahmed, the the Master of the Day of Judgment, there's going to be consequences if I if I try to take advantage of His mercy. Yeah. Then we talked about you reaching the conclusion you want to worship Him? Yeah. Cannot we worship only you, but we

can't worship him ourselves. We have we need help. So yeah, can we seek your help? We seek your help, what helps specifically do we seek guidance? So what's the next ayah? In the theme guidance to and along the straight path? Then we said this path must not be us alone, there are people that have gone down this road before. So we asked to find the road of those who have succeeded before us the path of those who you favored, not those who earned your wrath, not those who went astray. Right. So this thought process is what we are asking people to consider. It's universal, I didn't particularly put on first, I showed you the logic of that path first, right?

Once you understand this path, nothing I have said is directly saying except us now. All we're saying is be sincere to the Creator. Be grateful to him, accept Him as your Lord asked him to show you the path sincerely, and ask him to show you those who walked down this path before and succeeded and keep you away from those who walked down this path. But then that last, then went astray or earned God's wrath and de luz wrath right. Now, for people who are seeking this truth, what is the measuring stick, the first measure is your own conscience. That's the first measure. The second measure is, if in fact, it is from God, then it has to meet one primary standard. And that primary

standard is, there can be no one between me and the worship of that one true God, nobody in the middle, nobody in the middle, there can be those who show me that path.

But I'm not gonna worship these people that are showing me the path, I'm only going to take their teachings to get to the path because they may be the ones a lot favored. Just like I asked to show me some role models, some guides. So these are people that are role models, not wants to be worshipped, but rather to be looked at as role models as guides. So this sincere attitude, this measuring stick with with this standard, when you try to seek a path, and you try to filter out what is it that's out there, what are the things that are people that people are calling towards, and you find and then in that quest, when we asked you humbly to consider just sincerely look at Islam,

sincerely look at the Quran. What is it asking you to do? What is it asking you for? What is it demanding from people, you will find it's essentially saying one thing, we created you for a purpose. Right? And Allah says, will not hold up to Agenda well.

We didn't create general human beings except that they should worship me what's the we hear? When you say we, so people are flashing that specific is I Yeah, actually caught up to I didn't create, but in operon V is used as a royal v. What that means is some some people might think because they might come over from a Christian background and you say Trinity does have anything to do you know, to understand that better. In the Quran, when God is exceptionally merciful or angry, he says I

put the analogy even though there's no parallel to

But in language, if you think of a king, yeah, right. A king normally speaks of himself in royal terms we have declared, this is our land. I see I you know, yeah. So and come and kneel before us, right? So the king speaks of himself in royalty. And this is very true in Semitic culture. Arabic is a Semitic language. But when the king is exceptionally angry, like some guy comes up to him and talks to him in a disrespectful way, you dare speak to me like this. He goes from v. To what? Me? Right? So the singular eye is used in the Koran in cases of anger, yeah. And also in cases of mercy, but in when whenever Allah is talking about his royalty, His Majesty, his kingship, his dominion,

His provision, these grand things, then you will find the word we so it's not in the literal sense. It's in the sense of royalty and other proof that it's not literally we is that the Quran uses the word he for God. Yeah, cool. He, but there's no mention of they, you see, I and we use first person, right? But he is third person. So if this was truly plural, we will find plural in the third person, too. So this is the one God not the three and one god absolutely one. God who created all of us. And this is the guy that we need to ask for guidance, as you were saying, absolutely. How do we get people to see the urgency of this? Some people say, you know what, I'll wait until I 4050. When I

get a little gray hair, I still got some time I want to chase the girls. I want to, you know, look good for the boys. I want to hang out. Is this a good thing? People are doing delaine we'll be

back. You have to pray as if everything depends on

but you must work.

Everything depends on you.

That's my point. You see what I'm saying? And I don't like that I don't like are sitting here. What are you waiting for? What are you waiting for right now? What are you waiting for all these people to come to you? What are you waiting for? What are we waiting for right now, when they're gonna come? They're gonna come along and bring these people last put in our hands the ability to do your job.

You know, from the Islamic point of view, yeah, all human beings are rich in one asset.

Okay, the sick, the healthy, the man, the woman, the you know, the the wealthy, the poor, the educated, the uneducated, everybody has one thing that they have some authority over his time. Now, that time is constantly being taken away from us. Our bodies are withering slowly. But surely, we're maturing, we can't help our growth. And as we're getting older, our bodies are decaying. And we can't help that we can stop it. We can slow it down. If we try, we can stop it. And we're all running in this stream of time. Nobody can run backwards. Everybody's headed forwards. In Macaca de Haan, elliptica cotton, you are marching forward, it's like the imagery of, you know, those

escalators, you're standing on it, there's no going back, you just got to keep going straight forward for for it. Now Alice swears by that time that you and I are running out of. And he says one thing. No doubt every single human being is drowning in loss.

So now think about this allows this chronic view the Islamic view for all human beings. I don't care if you're rich or poor, wealthy or not famous or not, you know, healthy or not doesn't matter. All human beings, no matter what their worldly life is like, no matter how much they think they're enjoying themselves. The Quran says they are drowning in loss to help you understand this imagery. I mean, I when I explain this to children, I use this image because it helps a lot. Imagine that you're drowning.

But you're asleep. You're something you're unconscious. Yeah, you're drowning. What is the first of all, do you have a lot of time? When you're drowning? And you're conscious? You don't have a lot of time. Time is a big asset here. Yeah. So you got to take care of business immediately. But what is the first thing you have to do to have any hopes of saving yourself? For a person who's subconscious and drowning? What's the first step?

They have to wake up? If they don't wake up? There's no discussion of anything else. Right? You gotta wake up. Now. Imagine that your dream is life is good. It's all great. Everything around you is wonderful. You're partying, you're living it up. You've got all the time in the world. But that's the dream. Reality is you're actually drowning. Yeah. Now, when you when you're drowning, and you wake up, let's say you do wake up. And you realize, in fact that you are drowning, that that was a dream. This is reality, that reality is actually unseen. And what do you see around you is deception. Right? When you come to that conclusion, then necessarily the person who's drowning,

whether they know how to swim or not, they're going to try to flap their limbs and try to get out of the water. They're going to do whatever in their capacity. We said in the beginning discussion. The person who truly seeks guidance says I want to worship you

I want to do something, I don't know what to do. Show me what to do, how to get out of this water, right? So this person starts, you know, flapping away, trying to get out of this water. But this attempt to get out of your drowning state will not happen unless you do one thing first, you wake up, what do you wake up to? What's the reality that time is running out? That is the ultimate loss of all human beings is time. And people who think they have all the time in the world. And, you know, Allah speaks of this. He's he, you know, there's a person whose attitude is, yes, and Amanda who he thinks his money is going to give him eternal life. He thinks his money is going to last him

forever. You know, there are people who will build their house and mansion, and they'll reach an age where they can't even walk from one room to the other without help. How who's enjoying that mansion? yet, right? So there's this false hope that this world brings with it, and people get completely sucked into it, and forget to open their eyes. There. The dream is to sweet, the dream is to sweet. So if you if for a moment your eyes have opened, don't let them shut again. Don't let them shut again. The last thing I'll say about this, which is really important to her, is, there's a poet who gives an analogy of this reality. I mean, think about it. We are saying that all human beings are

running out of time, and they better get their act together. Unless, otherwise, they're in real serious trouble. But do you see that trouble? No, we can't see it with our eyes. It's only gonna be visible to you. As soon as your eyes closed forever. Yeah, you go into that ground. And now you see what you did, right. But for now, you don't see it. For now you don't see it. So the poet complains, he says, I'm in the middle of the ocean. I'm hanging on to a raft. And it's raining. And I'm being expected not to get wet. And let me tell you what the poet's actually talking about. The poet is talking about us living in this world.

As soon as you step out of your house, as soon as you flip on the TV, or surf the web, there are things that you're bombarded with that you want.

Car, house, girls, men, whatever it may be, right? Different desires are being pushed and blasted to you billboards everywhere, ads everywhere, you know, the talk of money and what to do with it, and what to get and what not to get and career and this and that you're constantly being blasted with what you want to get. Yeah. And you people are convincing you that this is success. If you have this, you will have success. Tell me something, if you are in a room that is on fire, or you're drowning, and somebody comes and talks to you about what kind of car you want to get, or what kind of house you want to live in, or when you're gonna get your next promotion. Doesn't that sound

crazy? Yeah. Before you talk about success, you have to talk about survival. Right? Yeah, we are saying, Yes, we want you to succeed. But before the discussion of success even becomes relevant, you have to make sure you're doing what surviving. That's the current picture and what I what the imagery I just shared with you is actually from Susan loss, you know, a lot swears by time all human beings are drowning in loss, except those who believe believing is like waking up. Yeah. And, and do righteous deeds, and then it goes on. And that may be another discussion what they do next, after that, we're almost out of time, give us the people, the people who are watching horses here who are

honest with themselves, and you know, what you give them the first thing that they can do is as the crater alone for that guidance, for the instructions on how to live their lives, give us some more of a formula that people can follow, to find the truth and to be on the truth. First of all, we did allude to time, just a few minutes ago, this search and this effort takes time, you have to sincerely put time into doing this. You have to take yourself away from the distractions and delusions that take you away from this quest. And sincerely, you have to look at

another dimension of a formula, if you will, is a kind of religion in which in its text, and its sacred literature, there are some obvious things aren't there? Or what are some obvious things? racism, injustice against people? tyranny, oppression, right? These things aren't there, from the very getgo you know, and there, there isn't some, like dark history, that you know that that comes with religion, and people are saying, Yeah, it's there, but it's not that big of a deal. No, you it has to be a religion that appeals to your human decency. Yeah, and this is what we're arguing for on is nowadays, in Islam, there's a lot of propaganda about, you know, certain misconceptions that are

highlighted and propagated. My claim with full confidence is every one of those allegations that are made on the song being inhumane or being intolerant or anything else. If you study them

with sincerity, and if they're presented properly to you without any watering down in their truth and honesty, I don't see any decent human being will say this doesn't make sense. They will say it makes sense. Because what God reveals is better for us. And it appeals to our human decency. This is the essence of the matter. But in the end, my final advice would be, and this is the last part of it, if you sincerely ask for guidance, be ready for what you get you it may not be something you like, you may have to give up your desires for it. Because you're not the one in the position of making demands. He's the one who places the demands, you accept them. Don't think of religion as Why

is God not telling me what I want to hear? Why isn't Why don't I have to do what I Why don't I get to do what I want to do? It's not about you, you've already acknowledged you owe him gratitude. He doesn't owe you anything, so be sincere and submissive in your search. So when you find the truth, you submit to it, you put your ego before it and you put it on the ground basically, and you give into the Lord of the worlds.

Thank you very much.

And we hope to see you back here again on the deen show. And we'd like to thank you for sitting tight to another episode of the D show hope you got to benefit he has given us the formula is very simple. Ask the one who created you to guide you and be ready to submit to what he tells you to do is very simple. And come back here every week on the deen show. We look forward to seeing you next time until then, Salaam Alaikum. Peace be unto you. I just want to say very simple, massive.

One of the beautiful things about our religion of Islam is the emphasis on direct ritual and prayer to God directly. There is no intermediary the lights will go on after the party and the party will end. It's very simple and very clear. There are no superstitious rituals, no strange incantations Time is running out. We might not make it till tomorrow. And this is something that we need to think about.

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