This khutbah was recorded at the Bayyinah Foundation Musallah on April 6th 2018.
Nouman Ali Khan – What to Ask Allah
AI: Summary ©
The importance of forgiveness is discussed, including the need for guidance from Allah to avoid negative consequences and difficulty obtaining forgiveness. The speaker emphasizes the importance of forgiveness in resolving problems and finding a way to apologize for one's actions. forgiveness is a choice based on actions, and it is crucial to show oneself as strong and confident as possible before accepting forgiveness.
AI: Transcript ©
Bishop knee surgery with silly Emily Wagner orchidectomy listen if the holy war lahoma Surbiton in the multi Bella ilaha illa Allah, Allah maganda Amina Latina, Amina Amina, sorry heart, whatever. So be happy whatever sub sub Amina Robin, I mean,
Ramadan is getting closer and closer and as it as it approaches, you get reminders about how we have to engage in more acts of worship and get closer to Allah and reconnect with the Quran and I wanted to take a few steps back from that and deal with something very, very fundamental and basic that I think I need to hear for myself and I think all of us can benefit from inshallah Tada. One of the most fundamental relationships we have with Allah is that of asking him things, we need his help. We need his help in our matters of religion, we need his help in our guidance in, you know, committing to the right way, staying away from evil, of getting forgiveness, we need his matter, his help in
spiritual matters for our man. So we need his help for everything else in life, too. We need his help for our family matters. We need his help for our health issues. We needed his help for financial issues. Many of you are stuck in impossible situations that nobody else understands. The only one who understands is you and Allah, you even tried to explain it to somebody else, they don't get it. They don't understand it. Only the only Allah can know what it is that you're going through, and the trouble that it's causing you. And so all of us are in one state or another in some kind of difficulty, like South himself describes the reality of human beings, the color canal in Santa Fe
covered, we created the human being in exhaustive labor, either you're mentally exhausted, emotionally exhausted, materially exhausted, work, workplace exhaustion, you're physically exhausted, tormented, your health is exhausted, your age is exhausted, you know, your wits, you have a problem, you can't find it, you try this solution, this solution, this solution, no solution is working, your creativity is exhausted. We're constantly in a state of cupboard, we're stuck in one place or another or another. This is what preoccupies much of our mind. A lot of the time, you have to force yourself to think positive. Because if you don't force yourself to think positive, and
you're just driving around, or you have a few moments to yourself, all your mind runs in your head is all the negative things that are happening. Every problem that needs solving, everything that hasn't been done yet that needs to get done. This is what we are preoccupied with. And of course, part of our relationship with Allah is we want to be able to ask him to solve our problems, to ask him for the things that we need, that we want from him. What I wanted to start with today, is actually the one of the most important secret ingredients that you and I need to be able to ask a law successfully, whatever we want, and we all have things we want. And those are secrets between us
and Allah. But if you're really going to be able to ask him in a way that you're truly hopeful that Allah azzawajal will respond to what you're asking for, there are some things that have to be in place. And one of the most important things that the Quran keeps highlighting that has to be in place, is that you and I have to ask Allah to forgive us first. You have to ask Him to forgive us first before you ask him anything else. Anything else that you want, or I want? We need to be able to genuinely ask Allah to forgive us. And I'm saying today, you know, you might people ask which door can I make for forgiveness? or which one of the best words I can say to for this dollar? You
know, people have to ask for separate occasions. So when a woman is expecting she'll email me or he'll come up to me and say, Look, I'm going to have a baby, which door can I make right now? Or somebody will say, I'm going for a job interview, which do I can make right now. Right? I was always this give me the special dial for this special occasion. Let me tell you, those words are important because they're sacred and they're revealed, but do offer all occasions is actually seeking a less forgiveness. The daughter open up all of your problems, get rid of all of your problems. The one guy that dicks takes care of everything is genuinely seeking less forgiveness. Normally, saddam invites
his people you know, for over nine centuries. He's doing constant Dharma to them. And at the end of that career, he looks back and he summarizes the the message that he was trying to give them of course, he didn't have one speech with them. He didn't talk to them once or twice. Leyland when a hora de alto call me Leyland when a horror night and they he didn't even take nights off. He's constantly inviting them constantly inviting them and in a sutra dedicated to his name sutra, new, the surah of new la Salaam. He himself summarizes the entire message he was giving his people this whole time. What is it that I want from you? In Nicola TAO to whom lithosphere Allah home every time
I was inviting them, I was only inviting them calling them to this faith so you could forgive them your job. So you could forgive them? And then literally says, here's how I invited them. This is what I exactly said to them over and over and over again. Quote, I said it stopped Futura back home. seek forgiveness of your master in the huka. I'll come back to this part later and know who kind of a follow certainly ally as someone who keeps on forgiving and keeps on forgiving and keeps on forgiving. And he does it repeatedly. But what he says after that is so remarkable. He said you people and
I need you to understand who he's talking to. He's talking to some one of the worst nations in history. Normally Salam is described as one of the worst nations of all the nations, places like a little calmer, where Allah destroy it. This describes different nations or even sort of very odd. Allah describes different nations of the past that rebelled against a law that rebelled against the prophets and were destroyed. When he gets to new la salaams Nation. What does he say? Well, Colma, New Haven come in the home can home of law, the nation of Newark for much before they they certainly weren't more wrongdoing and more rebellious than everyone else. Like he has the worst condemnation
of the people of New York, it makes sense. They had a messenger not from what for one generation, like every other profit, they have generated a profit three generations, four generations, every century, every two decades. There's a new generation of kids that have grown up. And he's seen that century after century after century after century, he's in 4050 generations of people, and they've all rejected him. And he's making the same invitation to all of them. So I'm not the thing I The reason I brought this up is for a purpose. He's talking to very, very bad people. He's talking to the worst of the worst. What offer does he make to them? He says It's futile to seek forgiveness of
your master in the O'Connor afara. He keeps on forgiving over and over and over again.
You guys have been messing up over and over again. Allah keeps forgiving over and over again. But he has offered doesn't stop there. He says you'll see this sama Allah, Allah Allah you see, it's actually Java amor, here what that means is, if you seek His forgiveness, then a level open up the sky for you, and it will start pouring on you. Now that could be a reference to rain. That could be a reference to rain. And ironically, it's not a reference that you will get flooded, they did get flooded, right? They did get flooded. But let's talking about a different kind of rain. Now. If you seek forgiveness, that same rain that destroyed them will be the rain that brings them life.
They didn't pray for rain. They didn't ask for rain. And they just Allah just asked them to make the art of be forgiven. But if you ask the art to be forgiven, the sky will open up and start pouring. Now Let it not say water will pour
a level of love did not say water will pour he said the sky will pour because the sky has a lot more than water.
The sky has forgiveness that comes from the sky. The sky has peace, tranquility, faith, your provision the solution to your problems, they come from the sky, he will open the floodgates and everything held from the treasures of Allah that you haven't been getting because you haven't been seeking forgiveness is going to open up. Just ask for forgiveness.
You're asking to solve problem a problem be problem see, there are problems you don't even know you have. Allah knows that you have them. If you and I just became genuine people of seeking forgiveness, then those problems will start getting solved by divine intervention. usili sama, la comida Lauren, and that's not even enough. You're asking forgiveness for who yourself is still fedorova come and seek forgiveness for yourself. He says, well, you'll need to come be unwell and we're Bernina and he will extend you by giving you money and giving you children he will further your good legacy with money and kids. It's not even money that will lead you away from Allah,
because it's in the context of you seeking forgiveness. He'll give you good money that will lead to you doing more good and benefit you in this worldly sense and in the Acela sense. And he'll give you good children that will give you goodness while they're alive. They will respect you show you love obey you make you proud. They will give you happiness when they're alive. And even when you're gone. They'll continue to do good deeds that become a continuous investment for you after you're in your grave. A love will give you all of these things by the way, this is the same two words, money and children. later on. We're in the home isone with tomorrow, malaria. Sidhu malu wha wha hoo, la casa.
they disobeyed me. And they only follow the people whose money and his kids do nothing but cause them more lost money and kids are a means of loss. But when money and kids come from Allah, after you seek forgiveness, they become game. CVR. It's the same money in kids. It's the same money in kids. The only difference is now they have the blessing of a less forgiveness on top of them. It's like they were contaminated until Allah purified them with his forgiveness is still filled with a back home and look seek Allah's forgiveness. What doesn't open up, the sky opens up in ways you can imagine. Guidance opens up for you understanding opens up to you, your personal internal problems
started going away. You know, anger for example. Anger is a very hard thing to get rid of. Some people live a miserable life because they can't get rid of their anger. Something is eating inside of them and they're just not able to fight it. So much so that they
Recognize I cannot get rid of my anger. And I bet Allah will not forgive me because I'm such an angry person. I'm not able to forgive
Sahaba were really angry at about love at the at the occasion of what they do. What did the law say about the removal of anger? He said unzila Sakina toffee Hulu, meaning he sent peace, calm tranquility down from the sky, into the hearts of the believers. calmness doesn't come from you. It doesn't come from you and we can't calm ourselves down. Moses mother was dying of nervousness of fear when she was putting her baby in the water. And Alicia has no law or Robert na Colby, who had been not tied her heart and kept her strong ally made her heart strong. She's not capable of that herself. She's too scarred for that. She's too traumatized for that a lot. There is such a thing as
divine intervention that will help you heal. There are things that you have tendencies that you have, some people are very tempted by paksha. Some people are very tempted by their anger, they can control their anger. Some people are overrun with greed, constantly thinking about money, they can even help themselves. The the solution to these problems comes from a lot. This is how the sky opens up. The sky opens up for things that are deep inside you and it comes and it solves that problem inside you. It cleanses you just like the water cleanses the earth. So you did come in. But that's not enough. He says, Well, look, I'm Jonathan with jellico Manhattan. He'll put in place for you
gardens, he'll make rivers flow for you. This is a last way of saying what will I not give you if you just ask for forgiveness? You and I think when we asked for forgiveness, the only thing we're getting is forgiveness. Allah is telling us when you ask for forgiveness, there is nothing I don't give you. It's like, it's almost like you can ask for other things. Or you could just ask for forgiveness and everything's covered. Everything's included. What's left, money, children, the skies opened up for all of your problems, gardens, rivers, all of it's ready to go. And by the way, seeking forgiveness, you weren't learning Now you would think normally a person would think when
they're asking forgiveness, then you know it's going to help them in their aka, it's going to help them in their afterlife. These are telling us know Allah is not only going to help you in your assets, he's going to help you we're in this dunya think about Hajj. The biggest motivation You and I have for going to HUD and getting our HUD accepted is that we are past sins are forgiven we get a fresh start that's the reason you go you literally go into closed you're supposed to be buried in even in HUD itself when we're gonna make the march for a few boom in high school fogginess was the federal law go where people go follow the people follow the crowd and seek Allah's forgiveness. Pour
in and seek a loss forgive the essence of Hutch is seeking forgiveness. That's the purpose of it. That's the fundamental goal of it. And even in that at the occasion of what do we ask about Ravana atina, Fredonia Hashanah Warfield occur at the
same blah blah from Quran that describes what you should do at Hajj woman Hama, yaku Ravana. Athena dunya, orphan Aphrodite,
Salah phylloxera to Hassan Okinawa give us good in this life and the next life. In other words, give us the kind of good in this life that guarantees the good of the next life. There is such a thing. And you can get all of it when you and I are genuinely seeking forgiveness. Now I've taken this much portion of the hook, but just to highlight the benefit, the purpose of you and I seeking forgiveness. But we still haven't yet gotten to how do you do it? Like what do you do? When you see forgiveness. There's the artificial kind of seeking forgiveness and stuff for livestock for livestock for law stuff for livestock for law, which for some people is so artificial, like a little
the law who saw somebody doing it and said to him, your stepfather needs a stepfather. Right?
Because that's just it's just rolling off your tongue.
I want to tell you, there are some things that keep you and me from seeking less forgiveness. It has to do with expectation. Some people deep in their mind, have internalized that I have done way too much messed up stuff. A lot probably doesn't like me very much. Some people even go as far as to say I've heard them say Allah hates me. Allah hates me. Allah doesn't like me. Allah is angry with me. I've done a lot of bad things. unless Allah told me, I knew Allah doesn't want me to do this. This is and I did it anyway. And I did it over and over and over again. So I am basically off of a lot of good books.
My prayers don't mean and when people internalize that you know what they do? I'm a bad person. Could you make the offer me?
Because I'm disqualified already. So you need to make the offer me because I'm hoping at least Allah will listen to you. Maybe I have a chance because there's no way I can listen to me. You seem to have a much better connection with Allah than I do. Let me take you back short reminder. Who was the offer made to buy new holidays around the new holiday so I made this offer to people that spend their entire night
The machine and go to HUD every year and fast. And no Halesowen was making this offer to one of the most rebellious nations on Earth. Continuously rebellious, and he said, if you can just come ask forgiveness, not only will I give you forgiveness, He'll open up the world for you.
In other words, you don't get to write yourself off. You don't get to say about yourself, I'm too far gone. Forgive seeking forgiveness is not for you, maybe for somebody else. But I'm a lost case. I'm a terminal case, I'm beyond hope. I'm already done for if anything my mom will make doll for me, or this one will make dogs and this is where shaitaan comes. Chapin uses that when she's done. He takes advantage of the hopelessness of people. And that's one of the doors to shift. You know that one of the doors to ship Why? Because then religions come false religions come that say, You're too messed up, let Jesus forgive you. You'll be good to Jesus, he'll take care of God for you. You know,
he'll be in between, or somebody will ask us something, they'll play somebody else in between. So we have this saint, go to his grave, go ask him, be good to him, put some chocolate in front of his grave. And he'll ask a lot to take care of your problems, because you're too messed up. You can deal with a lie. He's too angry with you. He however, was in a less good book. So you go through him. This is how Chicagoans are. In other words, the essence of our direct connection with Allah, which is what a man is, which is what he does, which is what Laila heilala is, the essence of it is you get to ask Allah directly for what you need. And I'm telling you, I'm reminding myself, the thing we
need the most because it will take care of all of our needs, is seeking forgiveness. Now, there's a seeking of forgiveness by the tongue, and there's a seeking of forgiveness by the heart. Human beings tend to be defensive
if I criticize you for something Hey, I saw you said that Why did you say that? I didn't mean it like that. You don't understand what I was going through. Excuse me.
You don't even understand the whole story. The whole story. Hey, I noticed that you did this this you get defensive immediately.
Believe in Sano LLC, Heba. Sierra, welcome idea. Human beings have a good view of themselves, but they make lots of excuses. They keep throwing excuses. If you're going to make if you're going to seek a less forgiveness, you have to find a time. And I don't I doesn't matter if you don't know Arabic, and you only know Punjabi, and you only know Bangla or Bahasa, or English, or it doesn't matter. You speak to Allah, and you genuinely admit to him what you've done wrong and Don't make excuses. It's really hard to do that. Because even when you stand in the mirror, you lie to yourself. You tell yourself, I'm not that bad. I have reasons for what I did. I have justification.
I've been through a lot. But when you're going to come in front of Allah, you have to forget about justifying because all of your justifications, he knows them already. He knows what you were going through. He knew it was a tough time he knew that this was overwhelming you that was overwhelming you I was under a lot of stress yet. That's why I drank.
Don't give him the reasons he knows your reasons better than you do.
You need to come to him openly without any filters without any hesitation with no guard. With no shame. Like, you're embarrassed to even admit this to anyone but you until you completely openly admit to Allah, how messed up you've been and how you've messed up completely openly. And as you do it, let me tell you as you start verbalizing those things, I would be hard pressed to think you're not tears are not going to roll down your eyes.
It's impossible for a human being to open up so vulnerable before Allah before anyone and especially Allah to open up so much. And then not believe that not have tears roll down their eyes because that's it's it's a moment of weakness to the world, you have to show yourself as strong and confident and you're just fine. Everybody sees you and thinks everything's okay. But the only one who gets to know nothing is okay. There's a lot of problems is a law.
And you get you have to open up to him completely and then you're going to be in a position to ask for forgiveness, then you get to beg in such that then it turns into something else. That is not just a sufferer last offer last offer Allah it's a real conversation with Allah. It's a real confession with Allah zodat that's how powerful powerful thing, try it for yourself. You have to find a loan time alone to yourself. You have to make sure nobody else is listening. You can't even do it in the middle of the night. You get up from the bed the wife is still in bed. You sit on the side of the bed y'all love forgive me and she's listening. You can't do that.
Be in the car by yourself. Doesn't matter. Be somewhere alone. This is just your time with Allah. You're alone time with Allah and verbalize it. hear yourself say it. There's one thing there's just whisper it. And if you're just gonna memorize a bunch of doors in Arabic, and you don't even know what they mean, and just recite them.
If you're gonna keep doing that, and those dogs are beautiful, they're powerful. But if your heart isn't speaking them, your tongue is speaking them then you're not thinking is the father yet
May Allah reward you for the job that you're doing for every half that you're reciting. But that's not as far as so far as something else. And when these tears come down, when this starts opening up, then the sky opens up.
That's when that opens up. There's a connection between those two things. The last thing I want to share with you just having hope with Allah. And for some people, it's very hard to accept that a level actually listen. They've been going through a problem for a long time. And they start assuming Allah is not listening. Allah doesn't care. What's the point of making dawn anyway, the first thing is the greatest, the greatest gift you will ever get from Allah, you know what it is? forgiveness.
That's the greatest gift you'll ever get. Whether you realize its price or not. Everything else that Allah says he will give you is an added benefit. Everything else. Now, let me give you an example. I have kids, let's say one of my kids made me very upset. He did something wrong. I got very angry. You should not have done that. You should not have spoken like that. I can't believe you did that. And I scold him.
Now that I scold him, he was, he goes home, he goes back and he's he was drawing something for me. He was making me a card of I love you. And here's a house I drew or something. He drew something beautiful for me.
And when he drew it for me, who was he supposed to give it to? supposed to give it to me?
But he crumpled it up and threw it in the garbage. And before he threw it in the garbage? His other brother asked him Hey, why didn't you give it up? Why did you throw it away? I was so angry at me. He doesn't care about that.
He doesn't he doesn't really care. He doesn't love me anymore.
If I knew that he felt that way.
What would I do?
Yeah, that's right. You better throw it away.
No, I'd be in tears. How did you think I don't love you anymore. Yeah, you messed up. You did something bad. But you're my baby. You can mess up a million times. I'll still love you.
Even if I'm angry, I still love you. Give me that paper. Why would I frame that paper? Forget putting it on the fridge, I'll put it behind the glass. I'll take it out of the garbage. I'll cherish it forever. Why? Because I love my child despite their mistakes. Even when they make me upset. That's just me and my child. When I'm not talking about me and my child, I'm talking about me and a lot. I mess up with Allah.
I make mistakes. Allah doesn't even scold me. He didn't strike lightning lightning from the sky. He didn't push me into *. He didn't make my heart stop beating. Every time I lied. I didn't develop an inability to speak.
Every time I ate something around my hand didn't become paralyzed. It didn't happen. Every time I looked at something Haram, I didn't go blind. He still kept giving. He still kept providing. And I start thinking about Allah doesn't really love me anymore. He used to be good, but now that I'm bad, the love is gone. So what Steven the point of making dua to Allah.
Nobody will love you like Allah does. every ounce of love I have for my child, every ounce of love you have for your child or you have for your parents, that love is only a fraction of something Allah put in you. You're not capable of loving anyone. The love we have is actually revealed from Allah. It's a gift from Allah. And if that's a little fraction of the love between two of us creations, we can't imagine the love Allah has for us. Don't let anybody tell you otherwise, the only one who believes Allah hates him. And that's it, their stories over it shaitan
he believes it. There's no reason for him to ask for forgiveness because he's a lost cause. He's accepted that about himself. If you accept that about yourself,
whose footsteps are you following?
Think about that.
If other merlini salam was in Jannah, you couldn't have a better home than Jenna and he made a mistake
and allows them to just put him on the earth.
If he starts believing I have been given such a huge demotion. Alo so upset with me, brought me all the way to the earth. How can I ever speak to a login after I've disappointed him so much? One of the first thing what Allah taught him what to do, how to fix his heart, whenever I'm Dan forcella. While I'm Tom Phelan, our handle an akuna Namaha city, you could be in a really good place and you fell to a really bad place. You know, compared to john Nardone has nothing. He went from general to dunya. And as far down as he came, he's still just as close to Allah.
Just those words are enough to connect them to Allah don't give up on da make this month this coming month even from now preparation, how you're going to make genuine genuine desire to Allah know that Allah will listen to every one of your daughters even without a doubt either. There is an announcement of Ramadan I immediately respond to the one who calls on me whenever they call on me.
And that's, that's the promise of Allah. And the number one do are you make the number one do I make is going to be for forgiveness May Allah azza wa jal
said people have genuine forgiveness. And lastly we can make our hearts feel the desire the earnest desire to seek His forgiveness. May Allah bless our hearts to move our eyes to tears and melasma which will open up the doors of visitors and solutions to all of us that seek His genuine, genuine forgiveness. One last thing I'm reminded of I know I'm over my time allowed says about nations that he won't destroy. You know, there are nations that deserve to be destroyed, and Allah wouldn't destroy them. You know why? Because among them, there are people who still seek forgiveness.
Just because there are some people who still seek forgiveness. Allah wouldn't destroy some people. So I mean, the entire nation, become people of St. Fabiola protect all of us barakallahu li walakum Santa Monica
hamdu lillahi Wa Wa salatu wa salam O Allah Abadi Latino Safa Hassan Abdullah Mohammed amin, Muhammad Ali, he was happy he has been called Allah azza wa jal
Nakula, rubella human energy in the la luna Allenby, Latina amanu, sallu alayhi wa sallam, Lima Allahumma salli ala Muhammad Ali Muhammad
Ali Ibrahim al al Ameen. In the middle Majid Allahumma barik ala Muhammad Ali Muhammad Ali Ibrahim Ali Ibrahim Avila Filomena in the middle Majid about Allah. Allah. Allah, Allah.
Allah, Allah, Allah, Allah Akbar, Allah Allah.
Allah in the salata, mini Nikita makuta