Omar Suleiman – How The Quran Talks About Hope And Fear
AI: Summary ©
The importance of balancing the flight of the plane with the weight of the plane, achieving the joy of the plane, and achieving the love of Allah subhanahu wa ta (the love of Allah subhanahu wa wa wa wa wa wa wa wa wa wa wa wa wa wa wa wa wa wa wa wa wa wa wa wa wa wa wa wa wa wa wa wa wa wa wa wa wa wa wa wa wa wa wa wa wa wa wa wa wa wa wa wa wa wa wa wa wa wa wa wa wa wa wa wa wa wa wa wa wa wa wa wa wa wa wa wa wa wa wa wa wa wa wa wa wa wa wa wa wa wa wa wa wa wa wa wa wa wa wa wa wa wa wa wa wa wa wa wa wa wa wa wa wa wa wa wa wa wa wa wa wa wa wa wa wa wa wa wa wa wa wa wa wa wa wa wa wa wa wa wa wa wa wa wa wa wa wa wa wa wa wa wa wa wa wa wa wa
AI: Summary ©
Assalamualaikum warahmatullahi wabarakatuh.
A'udhu billahi minash shaitanir rajim.
Bismillahir Rahmanir Rahim.
Alhamdulillahi Rabbil Alameen.
Wala adwana illa AAala adh-dhalameen.
Wa ala aqeebatu lil muttaqeen.
Allahumma salli wa sallim wa baraka ala abdika
wa rasulika Muhammadin sallallahu alaihi wa sallam wa
ala aalihi wa sahbihi wa sallim tasliman kathira.
I know that I have the last talk
of the evening and that is usually when
people have the hardest time paying attention.
So I pray that Allah Subhanahu wa Ta
'ala unlock from my tongue what will emanate
from my heart and reach your heart, bismillahir
rahmanir rahim, and be of benefit to you
in your journey to Allah Subhanahu wa Ta
'ala.
Allahumma ameen.
So I want to give you a visual.
I want you to think about the construction
of an airplane.
And I want you to imagine that that
airplane has been constructed beautifully and perfectly.
You have a body of the plane that
is phenomenal and you build the wings of
that plane in a way that will give
it the most sore time in the air.
And so those wings are at the perfect
angle, they're carved out at the perfect dimensions,
the plane is the right weight, and then
I want you to imagine that you took
that plane, perhaps another plane, picked up that
plane, and then dropped it in the air.
And it would soar on the basis of
how perfectly it's carved out without having any
engine if the wings are right.
If it's at the right angle, it will
still be able to fly for some time,
but eventually it will come crashing to the
ground.
Why do I start off with this visual?
Because I want you to imagine that that
plane does not have an engine.
And as beautifully constructed as that plane is
on the outside, so long as it doesn't
have an engine, it is merely a replica,
but it is not authentic.
It looks good, it's shaped right, but the
engine that is missing on the inside means
that it is a replica, it's a model,
it is not actually an authentic plane.
Now subhanAllah, why do I start with this
particular analogy to give you a visual for
the rest of this evening bi-idhnillahi ta
'ala?
You are that plane.
And for the next hour or so inshaAllah
ta'ala, we're going to build out the
dimensions and the dynamics of that plane, and
what that plane is supposed to look like.
And I start off in this talk about
hope and fear with a diagnosis by Imam
Ibn al-Qayyim rahimahullah ta'ala in Madaraj
al-Saliqun that has become very famous, where
he describes the two wings of the believer
as hope and fear.
Al-khawth wa al-raja.
Hope and fear are the two wings.
But he says that the mu'min fi sayrihi
ila Allah ta'ala, the believer in his
journey to Allah subhanahu wa ta'ala is
like a bird.
And he doesn't start off with the wings
because the most important construction of the plane
is not in the wings but is in
something else, and that is the engine.
And so he says, raasuhu al-mahabba.
His head is the love of Allah subhanahu
wa ta'ala.
The driver of that plane, the thing that
makes it function and move, what gives it
its thrust, and what allows it to go
from point to point in its journey to
Allah subhanahu wa ta'ala is al-mahabba,
is the love of Allah subhanahu wa ta
'ala.
And then janahai, the two wings of that
believer are al-khawth wa al-raja, are
hope and fear.
Why do we start with the engine first?
Where usually we talk about hope and fear
without the love of Allah subhanahu wa ta
'ala as the central component.
Why do I want us to start with
this tonight?
Because the key functions of the hope and
the fear are to keep you balanced in
your journey to Allah subhanahu wa ta'ala
but they will not be sufficient to drive
you to Allah subhanahu wa ta'ala and
the goal of the believer is not merely
to be balanced but to be efficient, to
be in motion, to attain as much qurb,
as much closeness to Allah subhanahu wa ta
'ala as possible.
And so to talk about the believer only
in terms of balance without belief and meaning
can be deeply problematic.
And the way that I want you to
envision this bi-idhnillahi ta'ala, is I
want you to think about what hope looks
like without love.
What fear looks like without love.
And to think about how problematic that could
be.
You can have hope in someone without loving
them.
Why?
Because they have access to what you want.
Or they're able to benefit you in some
way.
And that's actually at the heart of an
-nifaaq.
That's the heart of hypocrisy by the way
with people.
Is that you curse them in your heart
but you show them something different because you
want something from them.
That's why an-nifaaq became very incentivized.
In al-Madinah al-Munawwarah as the power
of the Prophet salallahu alayhi wa sallam grew
it became beneficial to say ansitoo li rasoolillah
sit and listen to the Messenger of Allah
who you curse in private, who you disobey
in private, who you disbelieve in, who you
seek to undermine.
But you know that he is in a
position to benefit you and to give you
something and so you now pretend to love
the Prophet salallahu alayhi wa sallam.
You appear to follow the Prophet salallahu alayhi
wa sallam only to the extent that it
benefits you because your hope in the Prophet
salallahu alayhi wa sallam is not driven by
love but instead by greed.
The hope is flawed.
Doesn't make sense.
Doesn't come from love.
And so if you have a hope without
love then you will present yourself to that
one to the extent that you can benefit
from them and the moment that you get
what you want is the moment that your
hope dissipates.
I no longer need you therefore I will
not call upon you nor present myself to
you in a certain way because I've already
gotten out of you what I wanted.
SubhanAllah, think about this in terms of a
distinction between the believer and the hypocrite at
the root of it is also that the
hypocrite doesn't believe in the akhirah.
The hypocrite doesn't believe in the hereafter.
And so they are seeking maximum benefit in
this life because they believe that once they
die that's it.
And so there is no wrongdoing that they
can commit that actually will have repercussions or
accountability for them in the hereafter.
And so they will do what is necessary
to get what they want.
The believer has their hope in Allah and
in the hereafter.
So that hope as far as a Muslim
is concerned that maybe has a da'if,
that has a weakness in their love of
Allah subhanahu wa ta'ala or a weakness
in their pursuit of the hereafter is that
when they want something from Allah subhanahu wa
ta'ala and they faintly believe or maybe
they genuinely have in their minds the concepts
that Allah subhanahu wa ta'ala is Ar
-Razzaq.
Allah is the sustainer.
But they don't love Ar-Razzaq but they
know He is Ar-Razzaq.
Is that when they want something from Allah
subhanahu wa ta'ala they'll watch a series,
they'll read a book, they'll try to get
the right du'a to make from Allah
subhanahu wa ta'ala.
And then they will make that du'a
and once they get what they want from
Allah subhanahu wa ta'ala in that du
'a in terms of a worldly thing they
will resort back to their ugly ways that
weigh them down to this dunya and prevent
them from flying towards the paradise that Allah
subhanahu wa ta'ala has guaranteed and promised
for His loyal and loving servants.
So there is hope without love.
There is fear without love.
You can hate someone and fear them.
You can despise someone and fear them.
You know, subhanAllah, when they talk about the
era of the strongman, of politicians, I'm not
going to bring my politics here.
I'm going to keep it inshaAllah ta'ala
general and ambiguous enough.
They'll talk about world leaders, populist world leaders,
fascist world leaders, strong world leaders and they'll
say everyone hates this person but they fear
this person.
And so they have to act a certain
way with that person and so they're able
to use that fear as a leveraging tool
over the rest of the political arena to
exercise them.
You can hate someone but you can fear
them.
You know, subhanAllah, one of the things that
makes tyrants so insecure is that they know
that their entire inner circle that cozies up
to them and that smiles in their faces
and that bow down to them, that if
the element of fear that they would be
the first to relinquish them, the first to
leave them.
So it's not legitimate.
It's not real.
They're afraid.
And that fear drives a certain obedience but
the minute that the power is gone, the
fear too will go.
You can fear someone and run away from
them.
That when they come towards you or when
you know that you are in their presence
and you know that there is no way
for you to access their benevolence, you run
away from them and you try to run
as fast as you can and you live
your life on an escape mission.
That's fear without love.
But there is a hope that is derived
from love and a fear that is derived
from love.
And as believers we can't talk about either
of those two concepts of hope and fear
without first embedding in ourselves a deep mahabba
of Allah Subh'anaHu Wa Ta-A'la.
A deep love of Allah Subh'anaHu Wa
Ta-A'la.
And what is the fruit of mahabba?
What is the fruit of love?
How do you derive love?
In a very simple way.
How do you derive love?
You know Allah Subh'anaHu Wa Ta-A
'la.
To get to know Allah Subh'anaHu Wa
Ta-A'la is to love Him.
The more you know Him, the more you
will love Him.
You read about His names, you read about
His attributes, you actualize that connection in forms
of dua, you develop a relationship with Allah
Subh'anaHu Wa Ta-A'la through His
names and His attributes.
So to know Him is to love Him.
And the second thing is what the Prophet
Sallallahu Alaihi Wasallam said in the authentic hadith,
Ahibbullaha lima yaghluhkum min ni'mihi Love Allah for
the blessings that He provides to you.
You thank Allah Subh'anaHu Wa Ta-A
'la for every single thing in your life
and you're in this place where others around
you might be in a state of ghafla,
heedlessness.
Where the major blessings in their lives they
don't attribute to Allah Subh'anaHu Wa Ta
-A'la.
You on the other hand are thinking of
Allah because you know who Allah is and
thanking Allah because you know that He's the
one that provides for you on such a
regular basis that you're connecting to Allah Subh
'anaHu Wa Ta-A'la as the source
of all sources of ease for you.
As the source of all sources of joy
for you.
You thank Allah for the people in your
life.
You thank Allah for the small things in
your life.
You thank Allah Subh'anaHu Wa Ta-A
'la for the things inside of you that
you can't see.
You thank Allah for the process.
You thank Allah for everything.
And that engenders the love of Allah Subh
'anaHu Wa Ta-A'la inside of you.
What that produces is beyond obedience of Allah.
You see when we talk about khawf and
rajab, when we talk about fear and hope
in isolation, we naturally are speaking about how
to use fear and hope to incentivize obedience
to Allah Subh'anaHu Wa Ta-A'la
and to repel disobedience to Allah Subh'anaHu
Wa Ta-A'la.
Al-mahabba however bears something higher than that.
It bears al-ihsan.
It bears excellence.
The fruit of mahabba is ihsan.
The fruit of love is excellence.
The fruit of love is extra.
The fruit of love is going above and
beyond what's required of you.
The fruit of love is not just your
five prayers.
It's your tahajjud.
The fruit of love is not just fasting
Ramadan.
It's fasting Mondays and Thursdays.
The fruit of love is not just calculating
your zakah and getting it done.
It is giving because you know who gave
you on a consistent basis in pursuit of
his love Subh'anaHu Wa Ta-A'la.
The pursuit of love is not just trying
to make hajj.
It's dreaming constantly about your next umrah and
how to get back to the house of
Allah Subh'anaHu Wa Ta-A'la and
increase in your rank with Allah Subh'anaHu
Wa Ta-A'la.
The fruit of love true love is ihsan.
It's excellence.
And the incentive is different.
You see when the Prophet Sallallahu Alaihi Wasallam
was praying at night and his feet were
swollen and we know the famous narration to
the point Alaihi Salatu Wasallam that you could
see the blood the accumulation of blood at
the bottom of his soles Aisha radiAllahu ta
'ala asked the Prophet Sallallahu Alaihi Wasallam why
do you do this when Allah has already
forgiven you for all of your sins.
You see the incentive because for a believer
you're crying to Allah Subh'anaHu Wa Ta
-A'la asking Allah to forgive you for
your sins and you're hoping for his mercy
Aisha radiAllahu ta'ala is saying that the
hadaf that the goal of that has already
been achieved in your case you're already forgiven
meaning you've met the mercy of Allah Subh
'anaHu Wa Ta-A'la already you're forgiven
for all of your sins the response of
the Prophet Sallallahu Alaihi Wasallam was not Ya
Aisha don't you know that if I pray
this much more I'll get this many more
houses in paradise even though that's a noble
goal to raise your rank in paradise it
wasn't Ya Aisha but I want to use
this Qiyam to ward off some of what
is still to come in this world even
though that's a noble goal Ya Aisha I
use this Qiyam to build resilience in me
and strength even though that's a noble goal
it's not what the Prophet Sallallahu Alaihi Wasallam
said though He said Ta-Fala Akoonu Abdan
Shakoora but shouldn't I be a grateful servant
anyone on the outside would say what you've
already done is gratitude but to the Messenger
of Allah Sallallahu Alaihi Wasallam I will never
be able to thank him enough therefore I
will never be able to pray enough therefore
I will never be able to worship enough
and I do that with love not like
a person who's captive or who's imprisoned and
told pray more or else but instead that's
Mahabba Mahabba drives the extra it drives the
excellence it drives Ihssam and then after that
you have the incentives which undoubtedly remain in
the life of the believer which is to
pursue Paradise and to be protected from Hellfire
may Allah Subhanahu Wa Ta'ala protect us
from Hellfire and enter us into the highest
level of Firdaws Al-A'la Allahumma Ameen
but a person who loves Allah Subhanahu Wa
Ta'ala you know before they even know
that something is haram before they even read
in a book or hear from a scholar
that something is haram their hearts will already
be so in tune with their fitrah, their
disposition that they'll find themselves leaning in that
direction where it will be a confirmation and
if something is in the gray area to
them it will be in the area of
no go and for them if it is
merely beneficial merely bringing them closer to Allah
Subhanahu Wa Ta'ala they will make it
obedient upon themselves they will make it obligatory
upon themselves and treat it like an act
of obedience for which they have to move
closer, closer, closer to Allah Subhanahu Wa Ta
'ala you raise the standards when you're driven
by Mahabba you raise the standards when you're
driven by love of Allah Subhanahu Wa Ta
'ala to where you will undoubtedly capture in
the process what hope and fear drive you
will undoubtedly capture in the process the obligatory
and you will undoubtedly capture in the process
leaving off that which is not praiseworthy Al
-Mahabba and there is no way that someone
can claim that they love Allah Subhanahu Wa
Ta'ala in the Islamic conception of it,
that they have Mahabba without Ta'a without
obedience, no way it doesn't exist as Imam
Al-Shafi'i Rahimallah famously said you disobey
Allah and you claim to love Him what
wishful and weird and flawed thinking is that
why?
because the one who loves another obeys you
can't claim to love Allah Subhanahu Wa Ta
'ala and disobey Him and so the one
that claims that they love Allah Subhanahu Wa
Ta'ala while disobeying Him does not love
Allah Subhanahu Wa Ta'ala they love themselves
they're narcissists you know why?
because they have captured what is the most
beautiful journey of love to Allah Subhanahu Wa
Ta'ala and somehow used it to the
benefit of themselves and only to that which
is pleasing and embellishing to themselves it's not
real love that's not true muhabba to Allah
Subhanahu Wa Ta'ala it doesn't make sense
now we talked about what a loveless hope
looks like and what a loveless fear looks
like how does hope derived from the love
of Allah Subhanahu Wa Ta'ala look like
how does fear derived from the love of
Allah Subhanahu Wa Ta'ala look like when
you love and you have hope that Subhanallah
I want you to think about when you
when you prepare that gift when you prepare
that presentation towards someone that you love when
you know that you are going to meet
someone that you love and you want to
prepare something to let's say your mother someone
deeply deeply beloved to you I hope she
will like it I hope she will love
it you put in all these extra little
things all these extra little pieces of meaning
and you can't wait to present it and
to say and there is this and there
is that and there is this and there
is that and I know you like this
so I went ahead and I did that
and I know you like this so I
went ahead and I put this and I
included this and I included that and you
have all of these hopes about how it
will be accepted and because you love that
person and you love their noble attributes you
know that they will accept it from you
in that way but then there is also
the fear what if I didn't do enough
what if I missed out on this detail
you know I'm still not able to give
to that person what they gave to me
now by the way to Allah belongs the
greatest example as the Prophet Sallallahu Alaihi Wasallam
has taught us to Allah always belongs the
greatest of examples but at the same time
the Prophet Sallallahu Alaihi Wasallam taught us that
there is potency at times in imagining the
most noble person in your life and how
you would act with them and then compounding
that with the noble one Al-Kareem who
you will never be able to put on
a human transactional level and then driving your
deeds beyond such as when the messenger of
Allah Sallallahu Alaihi Wasallam said in the authentic
hadith istahi min Allah kama tashtahi min ar
-rajul salih min qawmin be shy of Allah
the way that you would be shy from
a righteous person of your people of course
that means you should be shyer in the
sight of Allah Subhanahu Wa Ta'ala but
sometimes using those human relationships that represent what
your max has been in terms of human
transaction is a way for you to drive
yourself to the divine in a way that
you would not drive yourself even for the
most beloved and noble human being in your
life sometimes it's good to use that as
a barometer to say I've reached here and
I need to go beyond it but if
you do the other side as we learn
from the athar Abu Jandal Rahimahu Allah Ta
'ala Radhi Allahu Ta'ala Anhu when he
mentions then why do you make Allah Subhanahu
Wa Ta'ala the lowest of your observers
ma ja'altumullaha ahwanan nazireena ilayk why do
you make Allah the lowest of your observers
and so when a person is shy of
committing a sin in front of people but
then when they are alone with Allah Subhanahu
Wa Ta'ala they know that Allah is
observing them, they reduce Allah to the lowest
of their observers so sometimes it helps to
use that as part of your barometer stranger,
how would I act in front of a
stranger, complete stranger how would I act in
front of someone who is family, how would
I act in front of someone who is
noble and Allah is so much more than
that to push myself up on that barometer
to unlock the greatest of my potential mahabba
is the engine, the love of Allah Subhanahu
Wa Ta'ala is the engine, the hope
that is derived from love cannot possibly become
the delusion that is condemned by Allah Subhanahu
Wa Ta'ala because to the left of
hope is wishful thinking delusion, ghrooh right there
is ghrooh, there is wishful thinking wa qalu
lantamassan an naru illa ayyaman ma'dooda they said
we will only go to * for a
few days qala wala inrudittu ila rabbi and
if I go back to my lord I
will find even better with him, this is
the man in shu'tul kahf who disobeys Allah
and expects even more from Allah Subhanahu Wa
Ta'ala so to the left of hope
is delusion, right wishful thinking and to the
right of fear is despair where you're constantly
running away and despairing and digging yourself deeper
rather than using what causes you fear to
bring you back to Allah Subhanahu Wa Ta
'ala how can you possibly have wishful thinking
and that type of delusion with someone that
you love would you treat someone in your
own life that you love like that and
have that type of wishful thinking where you
do nothing for them, no, because you love
that person and mahabba is the driver, therefore
love driven hope and love driven fear are
naturally protected from wishful thinking and from despair,
what is to the left and what is
to the right the extreme left and to
the extreme right, it will keep you within
those boundaries because the driver is salim the
driver is without fault, without flaw and so
when the Prophet Sallallahu Alaihi Wasallam mentions that
inna fil jasadi mudgha, that verily in the
body there is a vessel, an organ, if
it is good, everything else will be good
and that is the heart everything else will
follow, the heart of the matter in your
journey to Allah Subhanahu Wa Ta'ala is
al-mahabba, is love then you have al
-khawf wal-raja, fear and hope, that balance
now Subhanallah, the Arabic language is rich and
Islamic concepts are deeply, deeply profound and rich
the word khawf can have good connotations and
bad connotations fear can have good connotations and
bad connotations, hope can have good connotations and
bad connotations but there is a word that
encompasses that love driven hope and that love
driven fear and the word is khashiya khashiya
innama yakhshallaha min ibadihil ulama' if you're reading
a translation it'll all say fear but a
better translation is awe awe, to have awe
of Allah Subhanahu Wa Ta'ala to be
so overwhelmed by his sight to be so
overwhelmed by the thought of his presence on
the day of judgment and your presence and
his presence as he's asking you to be
so overwhelmed by the potential of not just
being rewarded with his Jannah but at the
top level of his Jannah and seeing him
day and night for eternity awe of Allah
Subhanahu Wa Ta'ala khashiya ilmu khashiya the
fruit of ilm, the fruit of knowledge is
khashiya, is awe there are some people that
know about Allah but they don't know Allah
Subhanahu Wa Ta'ala and that's why Imam
Malik Rahimallah said the famous words that laysal
ilm, that knowledge is not an kathrat riwayat,
it's not because you memorize a lot of
narrations you have textbook textbook people that memorize
a lot, they read a lot but ilm
is nur, it's a light that Allah puts
in the heart of the believer ilmu khashiya
it's what humbles it's what puts you in
awe of the Divine Subhanahu Wa Ta'ala
khashiya is overwhelming, it's awe inspiring, it's greater
it's deeper and then you come to the
fear and the hope, the first question that
I wanted to answer for tonight Subhanallah I'm
already low on time the first question I
wanted to answer from tonight is what drives
your hope and fear where does your hope
and fear come from if it comes from
love you've passed the first trial, the first
test the second question is how you have
hope and fear in Allah Subhanahu Wa Ta
'ala you see when Allah Azawajal tells us
surah az-zumar قُلْ يَا عِبَادِيَ الَّذِينَ أَسْرَفُوا
عَلَىٰ أَنفُسِهِمْ لَا تَقْنَطُوا مِنْ رَحْمَةِ اللَّهِ إِنَّ
اللَّهَ يَغْفِرُ ذُنُوبَ جَمِيعًا إِنَّهُ هُوَ الْغَفُورُ الرَّحِيمُ
Allah says O My servants who have transgressed
against themselves do not despair from the mercy
of Allah Subhanahu Wa Ta'ala verily Allah
Subhanahu Wa Ta'ala forgives all sins verily
Allah is the most forgiving and the most
merciful by the way I want you to
appreciate in this the beautiful coherence between the
ayaat of Allah Subhanahu Wa Ta'ala and
the ahadith of the Prophet Sallallahu Alaihi Wasallam
because Allah is the one who inspired the
Prophet Sallallahu Alaihi Wasallam in word and deed
beyond the word of Allah in the Quran
He doesn't speak from himself Sallallahu Alaihi Wasallam
everything he speaks is produced by revelation and
that's why there is great deviation and delusion
in trying to separate the concepts of the
Quran and the concepts of the sunnah of
the Prophet Sallallahu Alaihi Wasallam because the source
is one and the same the source is
one and the same and so if you
take this aya قُلْ يَا عِبَادِيَ الَّذِينَ أَسْرَفُوا
عَلَىٰ أَنفُسِهِمْ لَا تَقْنَاتُهُمْ مِن رَحْمَةِ اللَّهِ Surat
Az-Zumar and then take an authentic hadith
from the Prophet Sallallahu Alaihi Wasallam and put
it next to it كُلُّ بَنِ آدَمْ خَطَّاءُ
وَخَيْرُ الْخَطَّائِينَ اَتَّوَىٰ بُونَ The Prophet Sallallahu Alaihi
Wasallam said all of the children of Adam
make mistakes first part of the hadith first
part of the aya قُلْ يَا عِبَادِيَ الَّذِينَ
أَسْرَفُوا عَلَىٰ أَنفُسِهِمْ قُلْ يَا عِبَادِيَ الَّذِينَ أَسْرَفُوا
عَلَىٰ أَنفُسِهِمْ O my servants who have transgressed
against themselves the Prophet Sallallahu Alaihi Wasallam is
saying every son of Adam has some level
of transgression against themselves every son of Adam
has some level of transgression against themselves right?
so يَا عِبَادِيَ الَّذِينَ أَسْرَفُوا عَلَىٰ أَنفُسِهِمْ means
every single person in here means every single
one of us not just the adulterer and
the alcoholic and someone that's gone far away
from Allah Subhanahu Wa Ta'ala every single
one of us has some level of transgression
and so it applies to all of us
قُلْ يَا عِبَادِيَ الَّذِينَ أَسْرَفُوا عَلَىٰ أَنفُسِهِمْ كُلُّ
بَنِ آدَمْ خَطَّاءَ لَا تَقَنَطُوا مِنْ رَحْمَةِ اللَّهِ
إِنَّ اللَّهَ يَغْفِرُ الذُّنُوبَ جَمِيعًۭا do not despair
from the mercy of Allah Subhanahu Wa Ta
'ala indeed Allah forgives all sins وَخَيْرُ الْخَطَّاءِينَ
التَوَّابُونَ the best of those who make mistakes
are those who repent back to Allah Subhanahu
Wa Ta'ala second part of the ayah
Subhanallah, deeply profound Iblis the devil he has
fear he has fear and he has hope
but what he does with that fear and
that hope is he distances himself further from
Allah Subhanahu Wa Ta'ala as a result
of it so his fear أَبْلَصَ مَنْ رَحْمَةِ
اللَّهِ he despaired from the mercy of Allah
Subhanahu Wa Ta'ala شَطَنَا الشَّيْطَانَ he digs
himself deeper into the whole many of us
may embody these blameworthy traits at different points
in our lives where we commit the sin
and we know we committed the sin and
we feel so dirty as a result of
the sin and guilty as a result of
the sin but instead of using it to
drive us towards Allah Subhanahu Wa Ta'ala
through المحبة we go further from Allah Subhanahu
Wa Ta'ala by the way, Subhanallah I
was thinking about this you know with المحبة
it's something else, Subhanallah if you love someone
and you committed a mistake, you did something
wrong and you hate that you did something
wrong you hate that you messed up your
love of them will not allow you to
try to deceive them even though consequentially it
looks worse for you if you admit to
it so you made a mistake you can
hide it maybe from a person you can't
hide anything from Allah Subhanahu Wa Ta'ala
your mom won't notice, your dad won't notice,
but you love them too much and so
you'll put your head down to that person
that you love even if consequentially you know
that it would have been better for you
to try to deceive them and you'll say
mom I love you, dad I love you,
I messed up and Subhanallah the instinct of
that person who knows that what brought you
to them is out of love could turn
that mistake into a means by which you
actually brought closer to them you know they
say that a bad argument is the best
thing that could happen to your relationship sometimes
it's true if it produces the right type
of outcome, if it's driven by something sincere,
it's true but sometimes we embody a satanic
type of quality where we commit the sin
we know we messed up and we go
further and further and further away from Allah
Subhanahu Wa Ta'ala why?
because we don't find ourselves worthy or we
don't find it to be possible to come
back to Him Subhanahu Wa Ta'ala and
to make the changes so that's fear that
has transitioned into despair Allah Subhanahu Wa Ta
'ala is telling you that come back to
Allah Subhanahu Wa Ta'ala because Allah forgives
all sins, the Prophet Sallallahu Alaihi Wasallam is
saying khairul khattainat tawwaboon the best of those
who make mistakes which is everybody are those
who repent and Allah Azawajal actually elevates the
rank of the repentant Adam Alayhi Salam was
elevated after his mistake Yunus Alayhi Salam was
elevated after his mistake Fajitabahu Rabbuh Allah chose
him, Waja'alahum minas salihin Allah made him
from the righteous, his rank was elevated in
the sight of Allah Shaytan tells you that
you have no means back and that you
will only degrade yourself in the process Wa
aneebu ila rabbikum wa aslimu lah so that's
a verse of hope, Allah gives you hope
but now there's fear Wa aneebu ila rabbikum
wa aslimu lah turn back to your Lord
and submit yourself to Him, min qabili an
ya'tiakumul azab thumma la tunsaroon before the punishment
comes to you and then you will not
be helped it will be too late at
that point you will not find anyone to
help you Allah will help you even though
you have transgressed in regards to the right
of Allah upon you to come closer to
Him and to be elevated that's hope but
the fear Allah azawajal is giving you healthy
fear now that there is a time box
here, after you commit that sin the longer
you let that sin persist, Allah is telling
you I forgive all sins, hope fear, the
longer you let that sin persist the more
rusted your heart will become the less possible
muhabba will be to engender inside of it,
the more distanced you will be from Allah
subhanahu wa ta'ala even if you don't
commit a single sin after it which is
impossible and so, you know, when you every
single time you sin there's a black spot
that's put on your heart, right?
but there's also a consequence to just letting
that spot grow and grow and grow and
grow and not doing anything about it and
so the fear is necessary to inject the
urgency of tawbah how does Allah subhanahu wa
ta'ala use the tool of fear in
the Quran to inject urgency how does Allah
subhanahu wa ta'ala use the device of
hope in the Quran to inject excellence strive
fear now, urgency complacency shows itself in a
person's laziness in a person not doing anything
so Allah uses the element of fear, the
device of fear to inspire a nowness, a
presence quickly false hope false hope is to
say after you commit the sin not that
Allah will forgive me if I repent that
I have time or that perhaps Allah's mercy
will handle this anyway, therefore I have no
urgency which brings us to the last thing
where is it coming from?
Love love what do you do?
Repent what do you do?
Repent turn back to Allah subhanahu wa ta
'ala urgently the third thing which is so
important is how you act after the repentance
how you act after the repentance see the
Prophet sallallahu alayhi wa sallam told us to
fear Allah subhanahu wa ta'ala wherever you
are ...
...
follow the ...
follow the sin with a good deed and
it will wipe it out the hope is
not just that you can be brought back
to where you were before you committed the
sin the hope is that you can actually
be brought higher and closer after you commit
the sin the hope is that not only
will I not be punished for my previous
sins but that my previous sins can be
a means for my future good deeds drive
to Allah subhanahu wa ta'ala replace the
sin with a good deed when you're in
a place and you commit a sin don't
leave that place as Sayyiduna Umar radiyallahu anhu
said until you commit a good deed in
the same place that you disobeyed Allah subhanahu
wa ta'ala replace the disobedience with an
act of obedience drive to Allah subhanahu wa
ta'ala as a result of it I
want to give you one more verse bismillah
ta'ala since this is a Quranic drive
it's an interesting part of a verse in
surah al-a'raf and I just want
you to focus on it and I want
to use it particularly to answer a doubt
that some people have the doubt is can't
Allah just forgive us all anyway?
if Allah's mercy is so expansive why can't
we all just go to Jannah?
why can't He just treat us all the
same way?
why can't we all go to a happy
place?
and let me tell you as a child
of the naqbah as a child of displacement
and as a witness like many of you
to a genocide I don't believe that an
Israeli soldier should be treated in the akhirah
the same way that a child from Gaza
should be treated that doesn't make sense to
me that's not mercy to me in fact
that's the epitome of cruelty that the oppressor
and the oppressed are the same and that
is not because of a deficiency in the
mercy of Allah subhanahu wa ta'ala that's
because of the perfection of the mercy of
Allah subhanahu wa ta'ala and so let's
not play into these slogans that when they
are scrutinized at a very basic level can
fall apart and so the ayah in surah
al-a'raf a part of the ayah
I just want you to focus on a
part of the ayah I'm not Dr. Zakir
I think it's ayah 156 if I'm wrong
then you'll excuse me inshallah Allah azawajal mentions
wa rahmati wasi'at kulla shayb my mercy
encompasses everything Allah has enough mercy for everything
and everyone my mercy encompasses everything fasa aktubuha
lillazeena yattaqoon my god subhanallah how perfect this
ayah is I will write it for those
who fear me I'll write it for those
who fear me taqwa you see taqwa is
not the fear of Allah that drives you
away from Allah s.w.t. taqwa is
the fear of Allah that drives you to
Allah s.w.t taqwa is a fear
of losing the love of Allah s.w
.t taqwa as Umar ibn Abdulaziz rahimullah said
is tarqul maasi is leaving off sin he
said after that is ihsan it's excellence doing
the extra good deeds is excellence taqwa is
tarqul maasi it's leaving off sin because you're
too afraid to violate the boundaries of God
the boundaries of Allah I don't want to
overstep the boundaries of Allah s.w.t
I'm afraid of overstepping and I'm afraid and
I love Him which makes me even more
afraid because it's not just the consequence of
punishment that I fear it's the consequence of
losing His favor that I fear even more
than that of finding myself cast out of
His favor wa rahmati wasi'at kulla shay
my mercy encompasses everything fasaaktubuha lilladhina yattaqun but
I'll write it for people of taqwa and
those who give zakah and those who believe
but I start off with just that part
of the ayah saaktubuha lilladhina yattaqun and I
leave you with this thought from Umar ibn
Abdulaziz rahimullah ta'ala one of the greatest
Muslims who ever lived as Umar radiAllahu ta
'ala anhu wa rahimuhullah stood on the minbar
to give his last address to this Ummah
his farewell address to this Ummah he has
a line in his farewell speech qala laqad
khaba wa khasir man kharaja an rahmati Allah
allati wasi'at kulla shay wa hurima jannat
arduha assamawatu wal ardi that verily he has
failed and is miserable who managed to escape
from the mercy of Allah although its expanse
covers all things you have to try to
miss the mercy of Allah because it's that
expansive it's not expensive, it's expansive it's easy
to access covers everything qala laqad khaba wa
khasir man kharaja an rahmati Allah allati wasi
'at kulla shay verily you have failed when
you find yourself missing the mercy of Allah
though it encompasses all things wa hurima jannat
arduha assamawatu wal ardi and missed out on
a jannah that is more expansive than the
heavens and the earth there is space in
paradise for you in fact you already have
a home in jannah with your name on
it if it is destroyed it will be
destroyed because of your sin not because Allah
needed to make space for somebody else it
will be because you made yourself unworthy of
it not because Allah did not give you
an opportunity to inhabit it there is space
in the mercy of Allah to forgive even
the most wicked man on the planet I
say it also as that same Palestinian whose
blood boils at the moment that even if
Satan not yahoo Satan yahoo was to repent
to Allah subhanahu wa ta'ala sincerely Allah
azawajal has the capacity to forgive him I
will make dua'a for his punishment in
the meantime but I don't question Allah's mercy
that Allah azawajal has enough mercy to forgive
even the most wicked man on the planet
should he sincerely repent to Allah subhanahu wa
ta'ala I'm not tasked with having to
make dua'a for that but at the
same time I believe in a Rabb, a
Lord that encompasses all of that and we
could go on and on as to what
that sincere repentance would actually look like to
be sincere but ya Allah, Allah's mercy so
expansive, so vast so wide, how do you
miss it?
if you're driven by the love of Allah
subhanahu wa ta'ala the hope and the
fear will be balanced and so that's the
last thing I share with you today is
when to have hope and when to have
fear, we talked about the what we talked
about the why, we talked about the how
let's talk about the when before you commit
a sin shaytan will inspire you with hope
go ahead, Allah will forgive you anyway you're
okay, don't you know that Allah is ghafoor
rahim, before you commit a sin shaytan will
tell you go ahead, you already know Allah
is merciful after you commit a sin the
same devil will tell you, don't you know
Allah is shadid al-iqab Allah is severe
in his punishment don't even think about repenting
because you will never be forgiven, he gives
you fear after you commit the sin so
an unhealthy dose of hope and an unhealthy
dose of fear and there's a time component
here before you commit a sin, after you
commit a sin the believer on the other
hand before you commit a sin fear Allah
ittaqillaha ittaqillaha fil maharab fear Allah before you
commit that sin, before you think about committing
it, you better remind yourself of hellfire, and
remind yourself of the severe penalties that have
been spoken about in the Quran and the
Sunnah of the Prophet Sallallahu Alaihi Wasallam about
that sin but if you fall kullu bani
adam khattab ya'ibadi alladhina asrafu ala anfusihim,
if you fall and you will fall to
various degrees and gravities at that point Allah
calls you back to him and says whatever
it is that you've done nabbi'i ibadi
let my servants know that I am al
-ghafur rahim I am forgiving and merciful that
you still have a place in Jannah that
you can attain and that you have a
Lord that will forgive you if you have
hope enough to drive back to him Subhanahu
wa ta'ala and at the end of
our lives dear brothers and sisters the Prophet
Sallallahu Alaihi Wasallam visited a young man and
he said how do I find you, how
are you he said to the messenger of
Allah Sallallahu Alaihi Wasallam, arjullah I have hope
in Allah but I fear my own sins
see how short yet vast I have hope
in Allah but I fear my sins the
Prophet Sallallahu Alaihi Wasallam said that no person
dies in this state except that Allah will
give him what he hopes for and will
protect him from what he fears may Allah
Subhanahu wa ta'ala allow us to be
driven by mahabba by love of him may
Allah Subhanahu wa ta'ala allow us to
be balanced and sustained with healthy hope and
healthy fear may Allah Subhanahu wa ta'ala
give us the highest of what we hope
for may Allah Subhanahu wa ta'ala protect
us from everything that we fear Allahumma ameen