Ramadan 2019 Gems – Night 7 – Alhamdulillah

salaam aleikum wa rahmatullah wa barakato.

hamdu Lillahi Rabbil alameen wa Salatu was Salam. O Allah says ambia evil mousseline rather early he was a minister Nebuchadnezzar Hilo Medina Allah Jalla Minh home wamena Latina Amina Amina, Sati heart, whatever so be happy, whatever so be sobre manera alameen Ubud. Today inshallah tada I will share with you some things that we can help appreciate the phrase that we say so often that is the opening of the mother of the Quran Al hamdu Lillahi Rabbil aalameen and particularly the phrase that hamdulillah the essence of the entire Quran is the Fatiha, you can think of it as the entire Quran is being explained or is an explanation of what Allah says in the Fatiha and the Fatiha. its essence

is the first opening the opening of the Fatiha Alhamdulillah it's actually the essence of the entire Quran. And this phrase is something we say all the time. But like all those other of God that we make all the time are often not very aware or very conscious of the power and the depth of its meaning. So I want to inshallah dedicate these few minutes that we have together to just remind ourselves of some of the power and the benefits and the and the gift that Allah has given us inside of this very simple and very beautiful phrase and hamdulillah The first thing I want to translate help you translate this this phrase with is you know, often they translate this as praise belongs to

Allah. Or you know, All praise is due to Allah. The Arabic word for praise is something else. It's either Athena or Ahmed. Athena or praise. And some translations say thanks is due to Allah. And the Arabic word for things a shocker. It's something else. hamd is a unique word of the Arabic language. It combines both praise and thanks. That's the first thing everybody needs to know. That hummed is not just praise and hummed is not just thanks. It's both of those things together. And that's important. Because in life, sometimes you praise someone even though you don't think them or you praise something, even though you don't think it I I looked at Table Mountain for the first time and

I said what a beautiful mountain. I look at I praised it, but I don't thank you. It's not normal. If you're if you're leaving the machine, you see a beautiful car outside, you will have a nice car, but you don't go pack the car on the windshield and say thank you so much BMW, you don't do that. You can praise something without thanking it. On the other side, you can thank someone without praising them. That's also possible. So maybe somebody did you a favor. And actually, I'll give you some extreme cases. And for him, I think his salaams father used to build idols. What he does should never be praised. That's obvious. But he's still his father. And he raised him and he provided for

him and he took care of him and he sheltered him. And we all have to be grateful to our parents musante salaam was raised in the palace of Pharaoh

and fit Arlen nothing he does should be praised. But he's still raised him. And he lived in his house and even musante salaam acknowledges the favor till Kenya matamanoa Allah Yeah, that is a favorite unit for me. In other words, sometimes you even have to thank those who are not worthy of what? praise. So it's possible that you praise without thanks. And sometimes you think without praise. The other interesting thing that makes him difficult of different from mud and mud actually in Arabic can be done when you're not genuine. You know, and, you know, if a police officer pulls you over, because you were speeding, and he comes to the window, license, registration, insurance

nice, a nice hat officer.

or looking sharp. You don't think he has a nice hand, but you're praising him and that your praise is not genuine. You understand that praise is not genuine. And sometimes kids will praise their mom and dad because they're about to get in trouble. I love you so much. While you're the best mother ever. Let me see your report card.

The word hummed actually necessitates genuine praise. And genuine thanks. It can't be artificial. By definition, it has to be real sincere. So it combines both praise, and thanks together. Now what does that mean? Simply speaking, we say Alhamdulillah For example, when we eat a meal, or finish a meal, we thank all of you. So we praise Allah and think about hamdulillah maybe, maybe the food you ate didn't taste that good. Maybe the chicken wasn't very well done.

And you still say what hamdulillah and that has to be genuine. That has to be that you know what that means? Even if it didn't taste good. I know that Allah nourished my body with this food. And I'm still grateful for what I received. And I know despite my criticism of what I just received, what Allah has given me should still I may not praise that chicken I'm still gonna praise Allah.

I may not praise the food I'm still praising Allah azza wa jal, because everything I enjoy in this life, whether whether I understand it or not, whether I can taste its goodness

or not, I know one thing olara must always be praised and must always be thanked. Praise and things have to go together. Sometimes people say things like Alhamdulillah. And they mean the opposite.

How are you doing? Brother? hamdulillah?

What can you tell? How do you know?

you're complaining by saying Alhamdulillah that means your heart is in a different direction, and the words are in a different direction. When we say Al Hamdulillah, our heart and our tongue have to line up, we have to line up. And we have to acknowledge that we it's a lost way of teaching us that we have to look at the positive and things, we absolutely must look at the positive things. Now let's think about praise for a moment. We praise things that are beautiful.

We praise things that are pleasing. You know, people praise a beautiful child, what a cute baby. What a beautiful city. What a beautiful day. These are all kinds of what Praise, praise are things that are when you find them, you're impressed by them. You're not critical of them, you're impressed. Because if you're if you're not impressed with something, you criticize it. And when you're impressed with something, you praise it. Nowadays, we live in a critical society. Right? And the Internet has made criticism very easy. So no matter what is out there that people are buying, or people are saying, somebody posts a video on YouTube, somebody makes a comment, somebody writes an

article, somebody writes a book. And when they write a book, and they post a book online, or they write an article, what do you find underneath comments? And the comments are mostly what kritis I like the article, but there's one thing I want to criticize, criticize, criticize, we've been programmed to criticize so much. So in everything in life, you know, when students go to university, and they're going to take a class in the university, this happens in America, they when they take a class in university, after the class, there's a survey, how did the professor do rate your professor.com? You know, and you're the professor gets two stars, or three stars or four stars, like

he's shoes you bought from Amazon, you know. So everything is being criticized, and everything is being critiqued, and we've programmed our mind to find the flaw in something, constantly finding the flaw in something as a matter of fact, we're so programmed. Now we even find the flaws in ourselves, you look in the mirror and say, oh, little bags, too many bags under the eye, I'm getting a little fat, or this or that my skin, or this shirt doesn't look right. Or you're constantly thinking about criticism, and you look at someone else. And that's what you're first thinking about criticism, criticism, criticism, we're big, we've become so programmed to criticize that even when somebody

shares something good with you. Because your brother really good advice. But let me tell you something, you can add this and this will be better. You can't just take the good you have to give some kind of further criticism, it's we've been we've been injected with this thought. And this is actually the opposite of the idea behind Alhamdulillah. First and foremost, we acknowledge that we have to find something and focus on something that will make us praise Allah.

You have to train your mind to focus on things that are beautiful. Focus on things that are positive, focus on things that you must appreciate. That's not easy to do. Because our minds are constantly attracted towards the negative. Our thoughts are attracted towards the negative, you have a few minutes to yourself, you're thinking about all your problems. Are you thinking about why you hate this person? Or are you thinking about what they did wrong? Or this one did wrong? Or that one did wrong? Or what's around what's messed up around you? or How come you don't have enough money? or How can you what are the problems when your job, every human being is surrounded by problems. That's

how Allah created life. In Santa Fe cupboard, human beings were created, drowned in exhausting labor, difficulty, stress, anxiety, that's how Allah created us. And yet, when we feel humbled enough, we fight all of that. And we find something to be grateful for. You find something to be grateful for. I'll tell you something before I came here. A matter of fact, I was in another country, I won't name for the privacy of the of the family. I met a fellow who was diagnosed with a disease and he didn't have many days, the doctors told him he doesn't have many days to live. And his family came in came to me and met with me and said, I'd like to, for you to speak with him. And

you know, the meeting, he listens to you and things and I said, Okay, I'd love to go see him. So I went to go, you know, just listen to him and talk to him and just say Salaam. And I'll tell you one thing. When I make a trip like that, I'm not doing anybody else a favor. They're doing me a favor. One door out from a person like that can change your life. Right? That's the most valuable thing you can get. You know? So anyway, then I go and I'm speaking to him and he said something so beautiful to me. He said, you know, before, I used to be busy at work, every day on the phone, even when you're leaving the work, you're still taking your messages, stressing out and then there's problems

at home. And there's this issue and this issue and all the time either I'm thinking about things, money, job, car, house, things, or I'm thinking about people, problems with people or problems with things donia

Now I'm in this hospital bed, and I can't even get out. And there's nothing to look at, I can't even see out of the window over here. And I have so much time to think about Allah. I have so much time to remember Allah.

I am grateful for what Allah has given me. He finds this as an opportunity to remember a larva, anybody else sees him, and they pity him. I'm so sorry, you're going through this, you're in so much pain, you can't even stand up right now. They have to clean you up, they have to feed you, you can't even feed yourself. I am so you know, mellow, you know, give you ease and comfort. And he decides that he's gonna see his reality through this is you put these glasses on those glasses are called Alhamdulilah. And your view changes. Your view completely changes. He's finding things to praise Allah for. He's finding reason to be grateful to Allah Sahaja you know, and so this is a this is a

mindset. And what does that mindset give you? Let me tell you when you praise Allah azza wa jal, you and you know, you could say but you know, how do you want me to praise Allah? I have so many problems. How do you want me to be positive? How do you expect me to be positive? Ron tells us a unique story. The story of unison is Eunice la Salaam got swallowed by a whale that's not a normal jail cell

inside of a will even if you escaped, you're going to be in the ocean.

You understand? And the food you're going to receive has already been chewed by an animal.

You understand? That's not an easy place to be. And what does the law say about him? When I'm kinda mean Elmo, Sabine. And the speed isn't just the perfection of a love like I talked to you about before, unless at some big Arabic, declare a less perfection by being being appreciative of Allah by praising a lot and also by thanking Allah, Allah is telling us if he wasn't in that belly of that will, thinking a lot and phrasing a lot and being positive, unless as he would have stayed in that whale's belly in iomega. Soon until the Day of Resurrection.

Allah says he took him out of there, because he was positive. Because he was finding reason to think Allah know if he can find a reason to be positive with Alaska, well, in that situation, I'm not sure you can tell me I'm drowning in problems that men are there, he said, I was literally drowning.

And he found a reason found ways to declare a loss, perfection. And thank online praise Allah. And so the first benefit of thanking and praising Allah is Allah will remove your problems. You want to remove your problems, stop complaining, and actually start thinking aloud, praising allies finding reason to think and praise Him Alhamdulillah. The second thing I'll tell you, this is the most remarkable thing I told you, there's two pieces of him, there's praise. And there's also what thanks, let's talk a little bit about things. The Arabic word for things is sugar. So sugar is included inside the words Alhamdulillah gratitude towards Allah is included. And gratitude happens

when somebody does you a favor. So you had a flat tire on the road, you pulled over some stranger stop their car, and they helped you lift the car, they helped you change the tire. The least you should do is say what? Thank you, the least you can do is say thank you, because they did you a favor. In other words, thank you can never exist until you acknowledge that a favor has been done.

As a favor has been done, which means by single humbling that we are training our minds to actually scan and search. What am I grateful for? What am I grateful for? You see, our mind is usually thinking about what am I going to complain about today? Why am I miserable? Why am I who's making me upset? Who do I want to destroy today?

What did they say about me today? Who wrote what? Who said what we're constantly thinking about what we should be ungrateful about what should we be complaining about? And Allah azzawajal when he teaches us how to render, he's forcing us to think about what am I supposed to be grateful for today? Let's start with where we begin our day when we open up our eyes. When we open up our eyes, the most known door the door of the prophets, lights and Alhamdulillah Allah de yada dama matana Alhamdulillah is positive Yes or no? that's positive. Now you let's say you had a terrible day yesterday, and a terrible day the day before. And then terrible day the day before. And you were

depressed and you were sad and things didn't work out and your job interview failed and you failed the exam and the first thing was too hard and the authorities did terrible all of everything was going bad. Everything was going bad. And you wake up in the morning and you make to the Al Hamdulillah hinder the ohana by the Mamata now what does it mean? you're thanking Allah and you're praising Allah for what? For giving you life after he gave you death meaning Allah gave you a new life today that has nothing to do with yesterday.

completely new life and you thank Allah Allah thank you for a new start. I pray

You Europe, you brought me to life once again. Because there was no way I deserve to be woken up from my sleep. Plenty of people died in their sleep. Just last night, plenty of people in the world died in their sleep. I could have been one of them, you could have been one of them. But a lot decided that you should get an I should get a new life. So we actually every day we thank Allah and we praise a lot for giving us a new life, a new life. You know, I've met some people that say some very strange things to me. I've met young people and say, why does Allah want us to thank him?

I mean, why does he Why does he need that from us? Why does he keep asking us to thank him all the time? And I say so you're saying that that sounds what you know, self obsessed or something that what you're saying? Because you know in life when somebody really wants thank you all the time. You know, if somebody gives you something and say, by the way, you're welcome. So what an arrogant person, this guy just wants me to thank him all the time. That's what you expect. You know, that they think about this about people and then they take take these thoughts and they have these thoughts about who Allah is. Why does the Lord want me to thinking? What does Allah want me to thank

him? First and foremost, Allah wants nothing from you. And Allah needs nothing from you. Allah describes himself well Lahore honey Yoon Hamid, Allah is free of need. And he has hummed, meaning praise and thanks, whether you exist or not,

he doesn't need you to praise or the thing, think about the words of hamdulillah for a moment. You know, we don't say we praise Allah, we thank Allah. If the ayah was never dolla dolla, we praise Allah or I praise the Lord, I think Allah, then the focus is on me, I'm doing it. And it sounds like if I'm not doing it, it won't happen. If I don't do it, it won't happen. I didn't say that. He told us to say Alhamdulillah, which means Praise and Gratitude belongs to Allah, whether I exist or not. Whether humanity exists or not, whether the skies in the earth exist or not. 100 still exist for a loan. He doesn't need anybody for him to exist. He even tells us in Surah Rahman, he says, you know

everything good lovin they have fun. Everyone on this earth is going to be dead everything will be dead. Death will be experienced by all and by the way, if nobody is around to praise you, how can you say I'm praised?

You know if nobody's ever praised you and you say By the way, I'm glory. I'm very glorified who glorified you bro.

You need someone to glorify you to for you to be glorified. You need fans for you to say that I'm appreciated. If no, if you live by yourself on a mountain and nobody ever knows you and Sam much appreciated who appreciated you. You know? Well, less as when all existence dies. all living beings die. Everything experiences death. Well, God was Europe because of

his glory, he still remains. He still praised He still thinks he doesn't need creation to thank him. So actually, when he taught us Alhamdulillah that wasn't for him. That was for who else for us? The first thing I told you is praise will get us out of trouble. But what does thanks do? What is what will give you a real thanks to a lot what does it give you? Musa alayhis salam teaches us this in the Quran. husana salam told the Israelites and this will take me five minutes I promise I'll stick to my time You know, a lot of times speaker said just two more minutes and is 20 more minutes. I'll stick to five minutes inshallah. So I don't know people have work and other things, other

obligations so so bear with me. masala Salaam helped the vanilla sly eel, the children of Israel escaped from the clutches of Iran who was slaughtering them and torturing them and treating them as slaves. And they come into the desert. They cross the water and they're in the desert. The desert is a nice environment or a harsh environment, harsh environment. And they have men, women, children, old people, sick people all have no homes, no homes, and they're out in the desert. And everything. They owned their homes, their property, their clothes, everything is left behind, not even time to pack a suitcase. They're all around the desert in the open desert, no water around, no nothing

around, and they're starting to complain. What are we going to do? We're all gonna die here. We don't have enough food in the desert. We can't even find one tree. How are we going to feed all these people 1000s upon 1000s of people, this is a bigger problem than fit our own. That would have been a quick death. This is a long painful drawn out death. This is bad.

And so musar they said I'm gathers all of them. And he gives them a football. He gives them a sermon. And when he gave them the sermon, part of that sermon is the following. What is

that in Shackleton? That as he the knuckle Allah masala Sam says to them. Allah has declared for you. Allah has decreed for you and Allah has opened up

opened up for you a gift that could be described as even meaning Allah has allowed for a gift to be showered on you. And these people are thinking pessimistically What gift is this?

You see a gift around here.

And what's the gift Allah gave them? He says in Shackleton, if you could even be the least bit grateful, if you could be thankful that in Shackleton, if you were even in the least bit grateful, allows promise that as he then nutcombe, I swear to you, I will absolutely, absolutely, absolutely give you more and more and more and more and more. The Absolutely, I said three times because in the Arabic it's three times,

Allah is guaranteeing the one who can be grateful, Allah will give them more and more and more and more. The question is more, one more, why is he gonna give us more food, more water, or protection? Allah didn't say what? Because if I say, I'll increase you, you say increase mean what blood pressure increase mean, what headache. You know, sometimes when my students, some of them graduated, I said, Alhamdulillah all of you have increased me. Some of you have increased me in gratitude. Some of you have increased me in patience.

You know,

but Allah says, I will increase you, you know why he didn't specify increase you and what? Because each one of them needs something else to be increased. And Allah knows who needs what kind of increase and he didn't limit the increase to one thing. So he will increase you in guidance. He will increase you in strength, healing, increase you in inner peace, he'll increase you in risk, he'll increase you indien he'll increase you in dunya. He'll increase you in children. He'll increase you in anything that you want that is best for you. And all you have to do is what? Just be grateful. Just be people will hamdulillah just that and all these doors will open up let me shocker, Toma

azita. Naco in Shackleton Dyson, and it's conditional. It's a conditional statement, Allah is guaranteeing more and more and more and more for you, so long as you can be grateful so you can be thankful. That's it. You know, we're in the month of Ramadan. When the month of Ramadan, and the eye of Ramadan, that tells us about the spirit of Ramadan, you know how it ends, we need to compute a la la vida como la la con.

All of this exercise so you can declare how great Allah is the way he guided you. And so you could become grateful. So you could become grateful. Ask yourself as the days of Ramadan are going by, are you becoming more grateful? Or are you becoming more of a complainer?

And nobody can answer that question for you except you. Because what's going on in your head and your heart only Allah knows on the toe, you can just say Alhamdulillah that's easy. Allah will not be judging what's on our tongues. Allah will be judging what's inside our hearts. And this is the last bit of my five minutes are up one more minute.

Last one, I'll leave you Alhamdulillah is a statement of fact. But they say that there are limits it's Colombia in sha Allah. So what that means is Alhamdulillah is a emotional statement. You know, when somebody says, Hey, by the way, the flight arrived on time, I'm safe. I'm okay mom. And the mother says what?

She's not just saying words of a fact. Like praise belongs to Allah. In fact, she's actually declaring her feelings. She's declaring her feelings. Alhamdulillah is meant to be felt not just said Alhamdulillah is meant to be not just known, but to be experienced. It's a it's the speech of the heart, not just the mind. That's what hamdulillah is. May Allah azza wa jal make us a people that see and hamdulillah with their hearts and every time they stand before a large origin and recite the Fatiha their sense of gratitude and thankfulness to Allah and appreciation of Allah and praise of Allah only increases barakallahu li walakum wa salaamu Alaikum wa rahmatullah.