Nouman Ali Khan – Ramadan 2019 Gems – Night 1 – Explaining Bismillah

Nouman Ali Khan
AI: Summary © The speakers discuss the use of "has been" in English and emphasize the importance of simplifying phrases like "opportunities" to simplify actions. They also discuss the use of "opportunities" in English and emphasize the importance of finding a genuine love for oneself. The speakers provide advice on finding one and emphasize the importance of finding a genuine love for oneself.
AI: Transcript ©
00:00:00 --> 00:00:02

Salam Alaikum warahmatullahi wabarakatuh

00:00:05 --> 00:00:20

hamdu Lillahi Rabbil alameen wa Salatu was Salam O Allah Ashraf al anbiya even more serene. While early he was happy for Minister nabeshima t laomi Deen Allahu Allah Minh home Amina Latina Amano amigo sorry hot water wasabi hottie water wasabi sobre manera but I'm in

00:00:22 --> 00:00:45

my back pocket Holla Holla Holla Nikita Karim bada Nicola rubella homina shaytani r Rajim Firth Kuru la cama lahmacun, Milan takuna. Moon rubbishy Saudi Arabia silly Emily, Luca melissani of Coco de la Mata Bittner in the multi v La ilaha illa Allah, Allah Muhammad alladhina amanu Amita sorry what Allah subhanho wa Taala Saba Saba amiable I mean,

00:00:46 --> 00:01:08

my intention this month, as much time as I can share with you in sha Allah is to go through two things. One night, I'm going to be talking about Allah azza wa jal, and the next night I'll be talking about his messenger sallallahu alayhi wa sallam, but I'll be taking a very specific road and talking about Allah and His messenger RNA slot was set on.

00:01:09 --> 00:01:50

When I speak about Allah I shared an ayah with you that is part of an IRA or belonging to certain Bukhara what Allah says you should remember Allah the way he taught you the way you didn't know yourself. Allah azza wa jal has taught us ways to remember him. And really remembering Allah is the foundation of our relationship with Allah. Allah azza wa jal is in the unseen to us. And the bind the rope that connects us to Allah is remembering him. And now remembering a lot can vary from one person to another. I can remember a lot my own way you can remember a lot your own way. But Allah mentions in this ayah that calls on all of us to remember him the way he taught us to remember him.

00:01:50 --> 00:02:32

And that way that we could never have known ourselves magnums aku, Nutella moon, you had no possibility of knowing how to remember Allah on your own. Part of that is the way he describes himself, you know, Muslims, non Muslims, anybody who believes in God has some image or some idea of what God is or who God is. ask anybody who believes in God, they'll say, yeah, God is good. God loves, Gods wise, etc, etc, they have some concept of some descriptions of God in their mind. But Allah azza wa jal goes far beyond that, describing himself in ways that we could never have imagined ourselves. That's what it means when he says, my limbs Hakuna and the moon in ways you could not

00:02:32 --> 00:03:10

have ever known yourselves. Human beings can have some concept of Allah, some concept of a God, but they can't go beyond their own imagination or their own limited thoughts are whatever Allah has put inside the fitrah some knowledge of Allah is there, some level of light is there, but the complete light can only come from Allah azzawajal. And that is the revelation that he gave to his final messenger sallallahu alayhi wasallam. So my intention is to actually first and foremost as I was trying to prepare for this series, you know, I, as I dive into the subject, there's so much to explore, and so much to learn that I have to take a step back and ask myself, what is my intention

00:03:10 --> 00:03:48

for you my job as someone who's learning, and then my job as someone who's trying to share and teach, my job for you is to be able to at the end of this month, take away something about Allah that you can keep with you in your heart. And if you and I can accomplish that, then we've accomplished some level of success. And so as a result of that, I want to start with something that everybody's familiar with some people here are much more knowledgeable than I am, and I know that is a fact. And I some people here have memorized the entire Quran and are, you know, experts in the Arabic language, and other people here barely know how to read the Fatiha. There are other people

00:03:48 --> 00:04:27

here that maybe have been Muslim for two days. So there are people at all kinds of levels here and I have to consider that someone listening and somebody's trying to benefit me belong to any one of those levels, and they need to be able to walk away with something regardless of what they know. So I want to start with one matter. And that is what I'm hoping to share with you isn't and if you can look at me isn't for up here. It's actually not knowledge that I wish to share with you. I'm hoping to develop something for here for myself and for all of you in the way Allah told us to remember because when Allah talked about remembering him, he says enough he that he kinda decra demon can

00:04:27 --> 00:04:59

Allah who called in it, there's a powerful reminder in the Quran, there's a powerful reminder for anyone who has a heart. So first of all, he said, remember Allah the way you couldn't have known. And then he says remembrance is actually something that is done by people who have hearts. So we're trying to benefit our hearts as we engage in this in this exploration. So what I'm going to talk to you about the next couple of days today and actually skipping after today, the day after just about Bismillah R Rahman r Rahim something everybody knows, I would think

00:05:00 --> 00:05:39

If you don't know it will be easy for you to learn in sha Allah Allah tala, this phrase that Allah azzawajal gave us, that is at the opening of every surah just some things about that phrase, you know, if you if you notice the the writing in the script of the original Muslim and the early Messiah have the bar used to be written long the by is a flat letter like this, but the opening bar in the muscle I have, like, even argued and instructed the others, you know, in the early generations to write the bio long when you read Bismillah Why? Because this was out of glorifying and magnifying the magnificent letter ba with which the Quran begins. This was out of their, you

00:05:39 --> 00:06:18

know, appreciation of the power of this letter. Now, what did they understand about the bar that we don't know, we just say Bismillah and we keep moving along. But somehow the Sahaba and the early generations were mesmerized, were overwhelmed by the power of just that letter. But when we say Bismillah R Rahman r Rahim, you know, that bar occurs before that too, when we say our Billahi min ash shaytani r Rajim is above there also. And that's also a winner. But there's a difference between our ob La Habana shaytani r rajim. And this will allow him rubella does not begin with the BA It begins with a federal rule which you if you don't know, that's okay. Well, that'll come at a later

00:06:18 --> 00:06:59

time. But this this phrase that we that we refer to, that we opened the Sooners of the Quran with and do so much else with everything else you do. That's a good thing you start with Bismillahirrahmanirrahim Why is this so important? The buffer D You know, scholars used to call it by an insult the cool friends used to call it you know, button Allah what that means in Simple English is as follows. It means whatever you're doing, when you say this word, when you call on this button, Bismillah R Rahman Rahim, whatever you're doing is attached to this phrase, like they become one thing. They're not they cannot be separated anymore. This is there's an SOC between what you do.

00:07:00 --> 00:07:39

And what this bar does. It's fusing the two things together. So and inshallah, as I in these few minutes, I'll explain what does it mean that what I do, for example, I'm eating, I'm eating simple tasks. And before I start eating, I say Bismillah R Rahman r Rahim. Now what the what the early scholars are arguing is that my eating has been combined with a last name, calling on a last name, it can't be separated from that anymore. So now we learned something important. There are things we do that are not attached to the last name. And there are other things we do that are attached to the last name. There's a difference between them now, because sometimes we forget to say what this

00:07:39 --> 00:07:39

means.

00:07:41 --> 00:08:27

If we forget to say it, then the last name is not attached to our act. And if we do say it that a last name is attached to our act, what difference does it make, if you attach a last name or you don't attach a last name, you still eat a burger, you still eat and you still drink orange juice, it still tasted the same, nothing changed except Allah says Allah subhanho wa Taala, the Baraka small Arabic, the Baraka surah big, when you call on Ally's name and attach a last name to any act, then that act becomes full of something called Baraka. And Baraka in Arabic isn't just blessing. Baraka actually means something that becomes stable. Something that stays in its place, like bidco was used

00:08:27 --> 00:08:33

for when a camel sits in the in the sand and won't move, and it's sort of sinks into the sand, that's Baraka.

00:08:34 --> 00:09:12

That's actually from where the word comes from. And it also means increase, meaning the same orange juice, but because the last name is attached to it, you will get more nutrition from it, more benefit from it, your mind will open up, things will come out of this drink benefits will come from this drink in the seen world and in the unseen world benefits for your body benefits for your heart that you could not have experienced. If you didn't say Bismillah R Rahman r Rahim, that attachment changes everything. So now we're learning that our tasks are actually in a sense, incomplete without Bismillah. That's just a little bit about the bond By the way, but is also called by the goofy

00:09:12 --> 00:09:13

scholars, they call it button.

00:09:14 --> 00:09:56

Which means the bar of a means, like a tool, meaning you know how you say I use the key to open the door, right? I use the key or use the hammer to put the nail in the wall. I'm using Bismillah to get this done. That's actually what that means that I need this phrase and without it whatever I need to get done will not get done. I do not believe it will yield the intended results. If the if the customer isn't there, if this phrase Bismillah R Rahman r Rahim isn't there. Now let's talk a little bit about the word Islam Bismillah. The word Islam, though there's lots of arguments about that. And this is not the time to discuss complex Arabic, but it's argued that it comes from Sumo or someone

00:09:56 --> 00:09:59

or sim one, meaning height or elevation.

00:10:00 --> 00:10:40

That the wild moves over. What that means simply is, you know, when you call somebody by their name, you've elevated them. And you're supposed to give people honorable names. When we call on Allah. And before we say a last name, we say the word Islam, we say Bismillah, we're actually acknowledging that allows names are high, that they are lofty, that they are of grand status, that we have to have respect and regard and appreciation for these magnificent Names of Allah. And that just saying those names, just saying them is that is an honor for us, just to be get to say that, you know, and then after that, we say the word Allah Bismillah. By the way, the people that came before us who were

00:10:40 --> 00:11:22

given the book before, a slight boost, ie, many of them actually went the opposite direction, they would actually even argue in their religious tradition, a last name should not be said, it's too sacred to be said don't they don't call on the last name, he shall not be named. And they would have code names for God and not us allies actual name, some of their scholars even considered it blasphemy to call on God by his name, and ally begins his crime. And he tells us call on his name, call on and use his name, and attach everything you do with his name, because without that name, it will be incomplete. And that's Bismillah. And since I was giving you the example, of eating, you

00:11:22 --> 00:12:02

think about this when you and I are eating, we thank Allah for being the provider. We thank Allah for sustaining us. We think of Allah as primarily we think of a loss attribute as the LASIK, the one who provides that's one of our last names. But we don't say Bismillah Razak, we don't say in the name of the provider, I need the name of the provider to eat, we say in the name of who Allah, you say In the name of Allah, you know, when a doctor is trying to treat a patient, and as they're treating before they treat the patient, they don't say, you know, for Allah, you know, misma Shafi, like in the name of the healer, because Allah heals, but he's not gonna call or bismil you know what

00:12:02 --> 00:12:17

he, in the name of the one who gives life the patient is, you know, in intensive care, and allies, the only one who can preserve their life. So you call on allies, the one who gives life or the one who is the living and Hey, are you but we don't say that we say what

00:12:19 --> 00:12:31

we just call on the word Allah. Why? Because the word Allah unique to all the other names of Allah, the word Allah includes every description of Allah in one word,

00:12:32 --> 00:13:09

it includes a less love, it includes a less power, it includes a less wisdom, it includes a less planning, it includes a less healing, it's it includes a less anger, it includes a lot of knowledge, all of the names of Allah that you can think of. And you and I, our minds are not that sharp, we can't think of all of the last names, even the ones we know don't come to mind. Even they don't come to mind. And yet Allah has given us a mercy, that when we start something, we don't know which name of a lot we're going to need. I don't know if I need a lot to be my healer, because I may have a sickness, I don't even know I have it.

00:13:10 --> 00:13:28

I may have a problem coming ahead of me, I don't even know what's coming ahead. I don't even know if this task is going to lead me into trouble. And I will need a lot to be my protector. Maybe a lot, I need a lot to be my welly. Maybe I need a lot to be Hakeem. Maybe I need a lot of knowledge. For now I need a lot to be.

00:13:30 --> 00:14:11

I don't know which Name of Allah I need. And so Allah knows better than we do. When we call them Allah by his name Allah, then Allah has covered all of the names we can't even think of. We don't even know what we need. Allah says, Allah Who is the movie that is sure. Allah knows the nature of the chest, you know what that means? He knows what I'm thinking. And he knows my subconscious. And the things I don't even know that I need. He knows those two, and I called on all of them just by using the word Allah, just by using the word Allah. When I say Bismillah, I told you, I'll need two sessions to do this, because I wanted to dedicate an entire session to just a Ramana Rahim. Why that

00:14:11 --> 00:14:48

addition, because you know, for short, we just say Bismillah Bismillah. And we get started. But Allah azzawajal encouraged us to say what rely on Rahmani Raheem. So of all of his names, he added those two. And there are so many of the names and descriptions of Allah. But he added those two in particular in this phrase, and that's important for us to study and understand. But before we do that, I want to take a little bit of time talking to you about just some some things about this phrase, some more things about this phrase from a grammatical point of view. And even though I know you know, most of you don't know the Arabic language, and that's okay. I'm going to try to make this

00:14:48 --> 00:14:59

as simple as I can in English so that it's easy to understand, and I'll throw in some technical terms here and there, but I'll simplify them I promise. If I say using this key I see

00:15:00 --> 00:15:48

Start my car. Simple example. I'll repeat it using this key, I start my car. And I change the sentence and I say I start my car using this key. It's the same ideas in it. One time, I said, using this key, I start my car. And the other time I said, I start my car using this key, there's a difference, a little bit of a difference. And normally you don't start with using this key. You start with one, I start my car using this key, you start with what you're doing. And then you mentioned what you're using. You understand? But if we think about this, man, Nah, man, Rahim. Does our act come first? Or does what we're using? Unless name does that come first. And last name comes

00:15:48 --> 00:16:27

first. You know what, when you are heading to work, the only thing on your mind is I gotta get to work. I gotta get in the car. When you're getting laid, the only thing is I gotta finish this plate. When the kids are getting late for school, hurry up finishing breakfast, we got to go the buses coming. There's the the task in front of you is all you're thinking about. And a law changes that for us. And he says before you think of this task, before you think of what's right in front of you, using a last name, first, meaning give due to Allah the Creator, first give him do first and then think about your task, your task and my task and whatever we're preoccupied with becomes secondary,

00:16:27 --> 00:16:52

Allah becomes primary. Because if Allah wasn't there, if a law is that we just love and His mercy and His guidance and his power wasn't there, nothing we have to do in front of us would actually get done. It's a conscious awareness of our dependence on the laws of origin. You know, for grammar students, this is something remarkable The first time I learned this, I was overwhelmed. They say inaho they teach you about demons?

00:16:54 --> 00:17:34

You know, this is the demon and jarwin mature and unfair in so for example, Bismillah R Rahman r Rahim. Aku. But it's actually Aquila, Bismillah R Rahman r Rahim. When you move Bismillah in the beginning, like in English, when I say in using this key, I just start the car. Why don't you want to use the strange order like that? You know what, what I've done. I'm actually saying this key and only this key. I there's no other way I could have done it. And it's as if, as if when we say Bismillah R Rahman r Rahim. It's a team suggesting we could never have gotten anything done in our faith, nothing good. would have come of it. Had it not been on us calling on a loss blessing name.

00:17:37 --> 00:18:16

Hello, remarkable acknowledgement. From a believer than everything. Everything depends on us just calling on his name. The last thing because I won't dedicate a second session to the word ILA. I'll share it with you now. In the phrase, La ilaha illAllah La ilaha illAllah. Some of our scholars believed that the word Allah comes from the word Illa. Like they're, they're connected to each other. But there are other scholars that make very good argument that the word Allah is separate. And the word Allah is separate. They're two separate things, meaning the word Allah is the original name of Allah, it's even more stuck. It doesn't go back to anything. It's the original name of Allah

00:18:16 --> 00:18:50

in all of the Scriptures from before, regardless of language, that is the original name of Allah. You can even find a definition or a translation for it. But then what about the word Allah? What about the word Allah when we say la ilaha illa line, your English translation said, there's no god except Allah, or there's no one worthy of worship except Allah, you've heard these translations before. I just wanted to give you an appreciation of what you and I are saying not just in Bismillah but also in the in the law very briefly just on the word Allah. And I'll conclude for the day inshallah, hold on.

00:18:51 --> 00:19:27

The first thing I want you to know, is Allah Hi, an Arabic also means to worship. And so Allah actually means there's no possibility of anyone to be worshipped except Allah. That's a good translation. That's it. That's a fair translation. But anyhow, also in Arabic means Fatah, LA, or Willie IV. What that means is when someone is desperate, and they don't know who to turn to, like if, for example, you know, if there's a knock on the door, or there's somebody trying to break a window and you immediately Who do you, who do you call first, do you call the authorities do you bring the alarm, that first alarm that you do in a time of desperation, that's actually the facade

00:19:27 --> 00:19:59

in a in a in other words, when we are at our most desperate moments, when we think that we are completely alone, and nobody can help us? There is no one to turn to except Allah. There's no possibility of anyone that we can ever turn to, except a line that's captured inside the words La ilaha illAllah. He says, really happy to be obsessed with someone to be in need of someone to feel like you cannot do without them. They call this in psychology, a dependency

00:20:00 --> 00:20:40

Have you know if someone feels I can't be alone I need to have someone with me. That's actually a law. When someone has a law with them they're never alone can law in Europe visa de Musa says Ali salam, my Rob is with me he'll guide me. A person who feels that the loneliness can be the scariest. Loneliness can be the most painful experience. And a lot takes that away from us loneliness away from us. Because he says, doesn't matter if the people leave you. Doesn't matter if your family leaves you it doesn't matter if your friends leave you. Doesn't matter if society abandons you, but when you have La ilaha illAllah you'll never be alone. You have a lot of turn to. And so finally I

00:20:40 --> 00:20:56

share with you something so beautiful about the word Isla. It was in Texas many years ago, that a that a missionary I was speaking to. I happened to meet him on a flight he came to me and told me Our God is love. But your god he's not love.

00:20:57 --> 00:21:33

Cuz cuz you know, Jesus is love. And I said, Where did you learn that our God is not love. You don't have you have Allah and you have ynab but you don't have love, you know? And I said, Okay, well I could show him you know what we're doing. Quran says Allah is extremely loving. He says that, but even in the word Allah what people don't know, the Arabs are really a remarkable people. The ancient Arabs used to have 14 different words for love. How many did I say 14 different words for love. Like if they it's like 14 different kinds of virus which one is infected with.

00:21:36 --> 00:22:21

And so for each one of them, they had a description. So they would have an Hauer a supernova, a shot of alleged alkyl najwa show called wasa ballistic Allah. And would Elijah. And then towards the end, they have two more and well Ah, and then the last one number 14 is when love kills you. Number 14 is the kind of love that you just just just dead. Okay, the love that kills. And you don't wish that on anyone but the one before that is actually called a winner. And a winner is a kind of love. They describe it. Your Abu Dhabi reablement maboob. They say, when the one you love isn't there, you can't be happy,

00:22:22 --> 00:23:07

that love that when they're, you're happy and when they're not there. You can't be happy and the word for that in Arabic is whether and when I is argued by many grammarians as the origin of the word. From Lila it actually becomes more called the wild became a left and became a law. In other words, there is no genuine love. And there's no real happiness in life that a human being can find with Allah absent from their heart. Happiness cannot exist. Joy cannot exist. Love cannot exist without a lie in the heart. That's part of the meaning of La ilaha illAllah and that's the Ulla we're calling on when we say Bismillah R Rahman r Rahim. How often we we think of Allah is the one

00:23:07 --> 00:23:17

who punishes and the one who's going to get you there when we teach kids that it's so scary. We teach our children things like don't eat that cookie, Allah is going to be very angry.

00:23:19 --> 00:23:58

And I can guarantee you if that child died, Allah will not be angry and not ask him about a cookie. I can guarantee you unless you're angry, Allah isn't angry with a child not over any cookies. They're there now assume I know they're not going to be questioned about what they do. But we teach people early on even Muslims teach Muslims early on that ally is angry or a level punish or allies watching and you better watch out and you better fear Allah Yes, fearing ally as part of the equation. But where does Quran begin with this Quran begin with scaring us about Allah or making us love the one who gave us this life, making us fall in love with him and making us feel like we will

00:23:58 --> 00:24:38

always be alone without him. There are people that are literally afraid to turn to a lot because they're too scared to remember him. Our fear should be overrun by our love for him and our desperation for him. And I pray that this is the month that you and I find that love that genuine love for Allah azza wa jal that wouldn't be called on the last name, and we say Bismillah Bismillah R Rahman r Rahim. Let me recognize how much Allah is giving us out of his love. How much he's taking care of us. How many of his names are being utilised by us and we don't even know we don't even know. May Allah azza wa jal make us a people who say Bismillah R Rahman r Rahim with their with

00:24:38 --> 00:24:46

their tongues and they also say it with their hearts barakallahu li walakum Quranic Hakim when I finally read it with Kim Samadhi Kumar,

Ustadh Nouman Ali Khan delivers a mesmerizing lecture on Allah SWT and His Messenger ﷺ.

Remembering Allah is the crux of our existence and Allah has told us to remember Allah the way He has guided us to do. Allah has described Himself in ways which is unimaginable to us given our limited knowledge and imagination.

The next point of discussion is the explanation of the magnificent word – Bismillah. The difference between Aoozobillah and Bismillah is also beautifully explained. Why is the letter ‘Ba’ so important in the Arabic language? Nouman Ali Khan elaborates.

The next word that we are acquainted with in a new light is ‘Ism’. The Names of Allah are magnificent, praiseworthy and are reminiscent of the sacredness of Allah.

Share Page

Related Episodes