Numan Attique – The Difference Between Shukr And Kufr
AI: Summary ©
The concept of shukr is not a matter of recognizing it and is favored by Allah for us to live in a certain perspective. The speaker emphasizes the importance of living in a lifestyle that benefits everyone, breaking the cycle of shackle, and protecting from evil. The speaker also discusses the Prophet's teachings and the importance of helping others achieve their goals and dreams.
AI: Summary ©
All praise is for the one who is
beyond complete praise.
The one who needs none, yet all need
Him.
All praise is to the one who accepts
so little from us, and in return gives
us with unlimited abundance.
So I testify and bear witness, that there
is no deity, no God, worthy of worship,
of love, submission, with humility and devotion, except
Allah subhanahu wa ta'ala.
And I testify that Muhammad sallallahu alayhi wa
sallam is the last and final messenger, the
bringer of glad tidings, and the harbinger of
the warning, for all of mankind till the
end of days.
May peace and benedictions be upon the blessed
Muhammad, upon him, upon his family, the righteous
mothers of the believers, upon the companions, and
those who follow in their footsteps till the
end of days, and may Allah make us
from them.
Ameen.
Thereafter, dear brothers and sisters, I ask of
myself, for my ears are closer to me,
and all of you, to struggle and attain
the taqwa, the consciousness, of Allah subhanahu wa
ta'ala, in our lives.
And from one of the many ways, that
one can achieve this consciousness, and by achieving
it, attain taqwa, and happiness, in this world
and the next, is to have shukr, gratitude.
Gratitude, when we think of it today, we
have this very, like, secular perspective, where we
think that, you know, you're meditating, and you
wake up in the morning, and you say,
I'm grateful for this, and I'm grateful for
that, you know, like, the self-help mantra,
or, you know, we have, like, just saying,
Alhamdulillah, Alhamdulillah.
But shukr, shukr is much deeper than that.
It's a state of being.
Not only is it a state of being,
it is from the highest levels of belief,
and on top of that, one of the
highest levels of tawheed.
And so if it is the highest levels
of belief, the best of states, and one
of the perfections of tawheed, then that means
it is an act of worship.
And it is a type of worship that
is incomparable in nature.
Because what's the opposite of shukr in the
Qur'an and Sunnah?
It is kufr.
To be a shakir is to be a
believer.
And the opposite of it is to be
a kafir.
And so from the dichotomies of the Qur
'an, in terms of kufr and iman, is
shukr and kufr.
When Allah subhanahu wa ta'ala says, in
the famous ayat that we all know of,
لَإِن شَكَرْتُمْ لَا زِيدَنَّكُمْ If you're grateful, we'll
increase you in goodness.
وَلَإِن كَفَرْتُمْ But if you disbelieve, if you
deny my favors, my blessings, my punishment is
severe.
So, now we know, we've always known, shukr,
shukr, shukr, great.
How do we achieve it?
How do we actualize it?
From one of the most important ways of
actualizing shukr, is what the Prophets told us.
وَعَلَيْهِمُ الصَّلَاةُ وَالسَّلَامُ Where when they said in
the Qur'an, again and again to their
people, Allah tells us, they say, فَذْكُرُواْ عَلَىٰ
اللَّهِ Remember the blessings of your Lord.
Remember His favors upon you.
And Allah says to us in Surah Ar
-Rahman, from one of the reasons why it's
so beautiful, is Allah is continuously telling us,
هَبِي أَيِّ آلَىٰ يَرَبِّكُمْ أَتُكَذِّبًا From which of
your Lord's favors can you really deny?
Can you actually deny?
And so to remember that this world is
not an empty world.
It's not a meaningless world.
We are not here reading meaning into it,
but rather it is a matter of us
being able to recognize the meaning of God
in His world.
Who is the one who gave us clothing
when we had them?
Who is the one when we were a
fetus in our mother's womb that fed us?
Yes, your mother was the means, but Allah
was the cause.
When you were a drop of liquid, Allah
made you a morsel of flesh.
And from there, He made you a whole
human.
Who is the one who's had your back
every single time you thought you had no
one?
Who has been there when you weren't even
there, and was there for you, and will
always be after you?
It is none other than Allah subhanahu wa
ta'ala.
So when we do shukr, it's not a
matter of seeing, it's a matter of recognizing.
When you do shukr, when you recognize that
it is Allah who holds the birds in
the skies, and keeps the heavens afloat, and
makes the earth our bed, and brings down
rain from the heavens, and gives life to
the earth, and made us the stewards of
this land.
It is not a matter of us accepting,
it is merely a matter of us recognizing
that we, in the creation of Allah, are
one.
And it is His favor that allows us
to continue.
To be able to live that type of
perspective is what shukr is in essence.
It's a state of being.
And then from that state of being, everything
else flows.
From it you say, alhamdulillah.
From it you do actions of ibadah.
From it is when the Prophet ﷺ would
stand at night until his feet would get
swollen in prayer.
And then Aisha radiallahu ta'ala anha would
ask him, Ya Rasulullah, you are forgiven.
Why do you stand at night to pray
to this extent?
Like, okay, pray.
But to this extent, it's almost as if
you're seeking your own salvation when you're already
given it.
You are the Prophet of Allah.
You're promised Jannah.
Like usually, you do something so severely is
when you want to pass, is when you
want to attain and gain.
So Aisha radiallahu ta'ala anha is asking
the Prophet genuinely, sincerely, wanting to know, why
go this far?
It would have been enough for you to
stand a part of the night.
Why stand most of the night?
Why all of it?
Why do this to yourself?
In your old age, in your 50s, in
your 60s, why do this?
The Prophet salallahu alaihi wa sallam simply said
to Aisha, he said, Ya Aisha, athala akoonu
abdan shakoora?
Shall I not be a grateful slave?
aqoolu qawli hadha ustaghfirullaha liulakum fastaghfiru inna walghafurrooh
Bismillah alhamdulillahi
rabbil alameen wa salatu wassalamu ala ashrafil anbiya
'i wa sayyidil mursaleen alayhi wa ala alihi
wa ashabihi ajma'een wa ba'd If shukr
is one of the greatest acts of worship
that one can do, then the opposite of
it, by logic, would mean that it is
from the greatest of sins.
And we are all victims, not victims, we
are all accused of this sin.
Which is to live a life where you
allow the blessings of Allah, His favours, to
become habits.
You make them so habitual, so normal, so
regular, that you forget that these are favours
and blessings.
To live a life of heedlessness, of ghaflah,
of unawareness, is in reality a state of
kufr itself as well.
Of course not a kufr that will leave
you out of Islam, but effectively kufr is
that, to reject Allah in totality, in His
favour upon you, in His rights.
And then below it there are levels.
And we are guilty of this.
We are guilty of living lifestyles, lives where
we start the day and end the day
with so much kufr, so much ingratitude towards
Allah subhanahu wa ta'ala, where we've habitualized
His favours, and they're not favours for us
anymore.
I have this car, I want that car.
Why can't I get that car?
I have a small home, I want a
bigger home.
Why can't I get that home?
I have food that's available, I have fruits
that I can eat, that would only be
available to kings in the past, in a
specific season, and now I can get them
outside of the season.
I don't need to travel more than 5
minutes in a car that has air conditioning,
to get to a grocery store, to have
everything I need.
And if I really want to, I can
just order food at home, or go to
a restaurant.
These ni'm that we take for granted, it
becomes kufr at some point.
And Allah subhanahu wa ta'ala speaks of
these people, He speaks in the Quran, where
He says in surah al-anbiya, وَضَرَبَ اللَّهُ
مَثَلًا And Allah strikes an example, a parable,
قَرْيَةً of a village, a people, a society,
كَانَتْ آمِنًا They were in safety and security.
مُطْضَئِنًا Please, they're happy.
They have it easy.
يَأْتِيهَا رِزْقُهَا رَغَدًا مِن كُلِّ مَكَانٍ Their rizq,
provision comes to them abundantly from everywhere, above,
from their sides, from below, you name it,
they get it.
So openly and from everywhere.
فَكَفَرَتْ بِأَنْعُمِ اللَّهِ And they disbelieved in the
favors of Allah.
They met it with ingratitude.
How did they respond to Allah?
With ingratitude.
فَأَذَاقَهَا اللَّهُ لِبَاسَ الْجُوعِ وَالْخَوْفِ بِمَا كَانُوا يَصْنَعُونَ
So Allah then made them taste the clutches
of hunger and fear because of what they
would do.
Dear brothers and sisters, my beloved Muslims, we
are that society that has everything.
And yet we feel like we have nothing.
Let us not be the completion of this
parable of Allah where Allah takes away everything
from them and leaves them with emptiness.
A reality of this life is that living
the modern lifestyle pushes you towards ingratitude.
A capitalistic lifestyle will always tell you the
more you have, the better you are, the
greater you are.
To be able to break those shackles is
simple.
Have shukr.
And one of the best ways to have
shukr is to give the small things in
life their due attention and connecting them back
to Allah subhanahu wa ta'ala.
There are two people walking through a trail.
One sees the beautiful colors of fall, the
natural bouquets of Allah on display.
He sees Allah's majesty and beauty in His
creation.
And within him stirs Allah's greatness.
And he says, Subhanallah, Allahu Akbar, Allahumma ghfirli,
O Allah, forgive me.
Ya Allah, save me from your torment.
He connects it back to Allah subhanahu wa
ta'ala.
Not because he needs to, but because it
is a fact that he is simply able
to recognize that he is a part of
that.
Then there is another who thinks he is
the master of his own free will.
Who thinks he has it all figured out.
Who thinks man-made structures and concepts and
ways of life are equal if not superior
to the way of Allah subhanahu wa ta
'ala.
And when he goes out to nature, he
only sees just that, dead nature with no
meaning and no purpose, disconnected from what is,
who he is, and what he is from
his own identity.
And that, in essence, is the highest level
of kufr and admashukr.
And this is why the Prophet sallallahu alayhi
wasallam, every night, every single night, would make
the dua before going to sleep.
Alhamdulillah, all praises to Allah, Alladhi kafani, who
has protected me from the evils of this
world.
Wa awani, and gave me a safe haven,
gave me a roof from which the cold
and the heat, I can be secure from.
Fakam mimman la kafiya lahu wa la mu
'uli.
For how many are there who don't have
one to safe haven them, or give them
protection.
In another narration, the hadith continues from the
dua of the Prophet sallallahu alayhi wasallam for
going to sleep.
And where he says, after saying, Alhamdulillah alladhi
kafani, wa awani, he says, Alhamdulillah alladhi ata
'amani.
All praises to the one who gave me
food.
Wasaqani, and gave me a drink.
And then he says, what does the Prophet
sallallahu alayhi wasallam say after that?
To get the wording right, he says, Allahumma,
ya Allah, inni as'aluka, I ask from
you, bi'izzatika, by your honor, and tunajjini,
to save me.
Not just tunajjini, tunajjini.
To severely save me, minannar, from the hellfire
and everything that will lead to it.
Everything that will lead to it.
There is the connection here.
Why is the Prophet sallallahu alayhi wasallam saying,
Ya Allah, save me from everything that will
lead to the hellfire.
Because he's recognizing that all of this is
yours, it's not mine, I don't deserve it.
I didn't deserve to even live, I didn't
deserve to breathe.
And if you had decided to have your
wrath overrule your mercy, you would have been
just.
Because you are the one who gives, and
I have no rights.
It is through your rights that I exist.
It is through your recognition that I am,
and my life has value or meaning by
knowing your rights.
Your haqq of worship.
And only you and nobody else with you.
So Allahumma, inni as'aluka, bi'izzatika, and
tunajjini minannar.
Faqad hamidallaha bi jami'i ma'amilil khalqi
kullihim.
The Prophet sallallahu alayhi wasallam says, whoever reads
this at night, then he has praised Allah
with all of the praises that one can
possibly do.
Remember when we say, Ya Allah, we can
never praise you enough.
But by recognizing his favor, recognizing that you
will never be able to truly praise him,
just by recognizing that and living by it,
you have praised him completely.
Ya Allah, we ask of you to make
us from those who when you give us,
we are grateful.
By heart, by tongue, and by action.
Ya Allah, make us from those who when
you inflict them with trials in this world,
we persevere and we are patient.
Ya Allah, make us from those who when
we sin and we always sin, make us
from those who constantly repent and do istighfar.
Ya Allah, give us happiness through these means
of worship in this dunya and the akhirah.
Allahumma ghaffar lana.
Allahumma najjina min adhabin nari ya rabbil alameen.
Allahumma ansur ikhwanana fi firstin.
Allahumma ansur ikhwanana fi ghazza.
Allahumma ansurhum ala aduwika wa aduwihim ya rabbil
alameen.
Allahumma ansur ikhwanana fi lubnana ya rabbil alameen.
Allahumma ansurhum ala aduwika wa aduwihim ya rabbil
alameen.
Al-zalimin, al-qahireen.
Allahumma alina fihim ajaiba qudratika ya rabbil alameen.
Wa salallahu wasalamu ala sayyidi Muhammad wa ala
alihi wa sahbihi ajma'iin.
Subhana rabbika rabbil izzati amma yasifoon.
wa salamun ala al mursaleen, walhamdulillah, walhamdulillahi rabbil
alameen, wa aqeem as-salah.