I Am Near – Quran Reflection [2-186]

Bismillah Bismillah Alhamdulillah wa salatu salam ala rasulillah who and early he will be here Manuela. So what verse did I pick for today? The verse that I picked for today is in sort of Al Baqarah verse number 186, second Surah of the Quran verse number 186. This is in the second jaws of the Quran. What does this verse say? To be lemna shaytani r rajim Bismillah R Rahman Rahim, Allah who spanaway to Allah says what he does, like a bird. The irony for in the creep law says and when my servants when they ask when they ask you about me tell them I am near meaning Oh Prophet, the Prophet Muhammad so I send them when they ask you about me I need about me. But in the corrib then I

am near Fuji Buddha with the day that I respond to the Dawa the call that do the prayer of the one who is praying the one who makes it there are the one who prays I respond to their prayer either on when they call upon me, felice deji Bulli, Allah says, so let them respond to me with and here this is let them respond. Let them submit to obedience, with obedience to me, while you may newbie and have them, believe in me, let alone your shoe that perhaps they may be guided. Now, there's a lot to break down here, but some of it I've broken out already, but let me just get through it. Allah says what you just said that guy by the name, that when my servants asked you about me, sent out who are

Allah servants? We are Allah servants, right? We want to know about Allah. Who do we ask? We asked the Prophet Muhammad sallallahu alayhi wa sallam, he is the one. Obviously, the companions were asking because he was alive. But we asked the prophets I send them in the sense that we go back to the tradition, the Sunnah, the authentic son of the Prophet sallallahu, its alum, and also the Quran, both of which are preserved for us. So that is how we asked the promises. And then by turning to the Quran, and turning to the sooner, the Quran gives us the answer. So in a way, this is a response to us. So we are asking the process, about Allah. And Allah tells us for any creep I am

near, Allah tells us that Allah is near.

And then the law says he would narrow it today that they're on, that when my servant calls upon me, I answered their call, a beautiful point to be understood here is that our relationship with Allah has pellet to Allah is not one sided, we have to make the call and the call will be responded to. So when we are talking about the art and I mentioned in the first session for those of you who are here, da as a postulant, he said, a dude who will do is worship the art. It's like the essence as a percentage and it is the essence of worship. So when it comes to worshiping Allah has pelota Allah, we have we put in the effort we worship Allah has penalised Allah, and that is our relationship with

Allah that is that is a that is a integral part of our relationship, but Allah has penalty on them. And so gee Buddha today at the end, Dan, that I answered, Allah says, I respond to the to the hour or respond to the respond to the prayer, when they call upon me. There is a lesson here for us also, to be proactive in our lives.

That when we want things to change in our life, we can't sit back and say, things should be different, that we have to go out and make the effort from our side from our part. Yes, things are in the hands of Allah has Penwith to Allah. And Allah is capable over all matters. And Allah has power over all matters. Absolutely. But we have to put in the effort and that is why you look at all of the prophets, including the Prophet Muhammad sallallahu alayhi wa sallam, they never sat in their house and did nothing and said Allah will help us. They were proactive, they went out and took the means that Allah who's peddling to Allah has given to them. Even on the eve of the Battle of beda,

the first battle in Islam, what we find is that the prophets have licensed them. He stood the night in prayer asking Allah subhana wa Taala, to protect the believers and to give them victory. He made the effort not only that, the Prophet sallallahu I knew he was setting them. He prepared the companions, they got the supplies and the training and everything else and the candles and the spears and the swords and whatever to protect themselves. Right? It wasn't that you know what Allah is going to protect us. And then of course, Allah has penalty to Allah sent the help. Likewise Moosa Allah, he said I'm Moosa, it said, I'm struck

The water with his staff and Allah parted the sea for him. If a loved one or two, a Lakota part of the sea without anything, but Allah instructed the Prophet Musa alayhis salaam to first strike his staff, and then Allah has pointed out a part of the sea for him. So the lesson here is that we have to be proactive when you want to see change, in a spiritual sense, and in other than the spiritual sense as well. Sometimes people complain of

I get this question a lot people say, you know, my Eman, my faith, the strength of my faith has been weakening, my man has been going down.

And one of the questions that I usually ask someone like this is, how much time are you spending trying to strengthen your Eman And there's many reasons why a man may go down. But one of the most obvious reasons is that is simply a person isn't putting the right amount of effort into their faith. And and just to make it real. Sometimes, this is the question that I'll ask, I'll say, Look,

how much time do you spend on things that distract you from your relationship with Allah, versus the time you spend on things that actively bring you closer to Allah? So somebody you know, watching Netflix, for example, let's just assume you know, giving them the benefit of the doubt is how they're watching hideout stuff right on Netflix, but is watching Netflix bringing them closer to Allah? No, is it taking them away, like we said, we're making the assumption that they're watching the hell out on Netflix, right, so they're in the neutral zone, they're stagnant, they're not getting closer to Allah. And then you add to that everything else that a person does in life and

everything else that not only is neutral a person, it may be something that is actually taking us away from Allah subhanaw taala time we spend on the internet, a lot of time we may spend on the internet, even if it's something like not outright, like in your face major sin.

But there may be other things like you know, talking about rumors, talking about people gossiping and things like that, which can be major sins, by the way. But the time we spend online all that time versus how much time we spend, for example, in our Salah, or the cup, or, or you know, going out and giving charity or helping people for the sake of Allah subhanaw taala things that will actively bring us closer to Allah to Allah, and you weigh the two. And often there's no comparison there. The time we spend in things that are either not bringing us closer to Allah or taking us away from Allah is usually far greater than the time I'm talking about you write down the number of

minutes, right? So I prayed for a job that took me whatever, four and a half minutes. And then I didn't think about you know my relationship with Allah and do anything until maybe they'll have time. And they'll have time. I pray in eight minutes. So you add up that time versus the other time, there's always going to be a big discrepancy there. So, you know, sometimes it's just a matter of, you know, how much effort have we put into increasing our faith, this surge of Eman that you feel in the month of Ramadan. And that drop in a man that you feel after the month of Ramadan is surprising for a lot of people it should not be surprising, simply based off of this one factor that I just

gave you. How much time do we spend in them? albana worshipping Allah versus the time we spent outside of the month of Ramadan worshiping Allah, and it is straight up the next day. I mean, I'm not even joking here and I'm Oban ends, and Madrid time, right? And we talk about the day starts at Madrid. Madrid time hits. Oh, there's no data we have tonight. Oh, you know that we saw the moon. It's a tomorrow, let's go party time, boom, boom, boom, everything else, everything like this, all the stuff we're done immediately just drops. Right. And so so of course, of course, we're gonna feel a difference in our email. Right? Of course, you know, a week after the month of Ramadan, we're

like, Whoa, what happened? You know, I don't feel the same way that I felt in Milan. Yeah, you know, it shouldn't be a surprise to us. And that is why, by the way, in order to counter that the son of the processor is the fastest six days of show well to so that we don't forget, and that we try to worship Allah. Because what's amazing about fasting is that even if you're doing nothing, you're in a state of worship. If you sit there and stare at a wall, like literally, if you sit there if you just sat there staring at a wall like so there's a black wall behind me, right? If I sat there and stared at this wall, I did nothing but I'm fasting. I'm in a state of worship to a loss to honor

because I'm fasting. As long as you have that intention that I'm you know, this is an act of worship, that is the Baraka of the month of Ramadan that work. So all this time we spent worshiping Allah, you know, of course our amount is going to go up and look at you here right now. online at I don't know what time it is.

For you, but you know, people here on the east coast on a Tuesday at 6:30pm. I don't know when people are actively increasing their email, right? Maybe they try to fit in or something like that. But how many people actually, but look at the amount of people I don't even know how many people are attending right? over 300 people at least, are here actively increasing their email, of course, our email is going to go up. And so that is one of the big lessons here of this verse is that we have to when we call, then Allah has pointed out there's a response there. And so Allah Subhana Allah says, so that's an indication there's Allah says funny Yes, the G booty. So Allah says, because of what

I've just mentioned, right? So Allah just said, Eg Buddha today at the end, and the message here is, when they put in the effort, there is a response. Don't think that Allah will leave you hanging though don't think that if you're putting in the effort, that Allah will not respond, if you're putting in the effort, Allah will take care of you. And the word the letter foot means that it is tied to what is just been mentioned. For fun, yes, the G booty so tell them to tell them to respond right respond in this way that once again an act of obedience and act of worship to Allah has penalty honor, what do you mean to be and have firm faith in me? I love your shoe so they may be

guided and this is what we seek right in every single prayer. In every rock, we ask Allah Subhana Allah for this guidance that we guided that we be shown the right way the right path and so this is once again in this is so beautiful, so beautiful panel on the Quran and the tissue of the Quran is so amazing. panela but you know, this there are we making every prayer. Right? We ask Allah to guide us we asked a lot to Goddess basketball, a goddess, here's the guidance. Allah saying, number one, you have to make effort. You're like, what effort do Ah, that's the effort that you have to make. If you don't know what to do. Make da likewise you have free time in the month of Ramadan, you have

nothing to do you're staring at that blank wall back there. Right make do to add worship upon your worship. And that is the beauty of da and calling out to Allah to Allah. Obviously, it should not also it shouldn't escape us the context of this verse. This is verse number 186. Those of you who wrote that down 186 let's let's go back a couple verses right? Verse number 183 says what? Yeah, you have Latina amanu katiba la como siyam kamakoti by Elena de la mina cubberly con la la come to Taco all believers. Fasting has been prescribed upon you, just as it was prescribed upon those who came before you, so that you may attain taqwa. The context here is fasting and the month of Ramadan Allah

Subhana Allah and the next verse mentions a young a young dude that that these are specified days and a lot mentions, you know, traveling and so on and so forth. And then the 185 the verse right before today's verse, Allah says Shahada Ravana Lady zerafa Hello Quran, the month of Ramadan in which the Quran has been revealed, who the linas Subhana Allah guidance for mankind once again, we're going back to the guidance that we are seeking the right path one four called the criterion basically for con being that which gives us the ability to tell the difference between right and wrong. And then Allah says those of you who are who are basically you know, able to fast them into

mobile and you should fast them through mobile and if you're not sick if you're not traveling and so on and so forth. Allah says you read you read a lot hobbico Yasser Allah once ease for you, while you really become a Yasser Allah doesn't want difficulty and hardship for you. Right? So all of this goes in together it is tied in together this aspect of worship, and specifically for us this is and that's one of the reasons why I pick this verse because it is specially especially relevant for us. In the very beginning of the month of Ramadan, this verse can guide us for the rest of our automobile and we're gonna fast and shout out I'm gonna fast the month about our bond, how do we go

about the month of Ramadan, this is a good place to start. This is how we start setting goals for ourselves when it comes to the month of Ramadan. That is some of the context some of the meanings.

I okay, so one of the things that I always do, and I did this in the Quranic vibes seminar is, as I research these verses, and I, you know, I prepare my notes and everything, I always write down my personal reflections as well. So something that is personal, from from from my life or something that, you know, I might have been my reflection that came upon me. So, I wrote down a couple of things that I'll share with you, child tiada. So number one, a lot of times when we're not feeling good about our faith, right, we're down. We're hard

ourselves, we're feeling down and we're like, you know, I'm just not a good Muslim. And, you know, is there any hope for me and so on and so forth?

When I'm feeling down, when it comes to my spirituality or my faith,

I try to make Doc, because it's very easy. And it's, it's, it's the best solution because you're like, I feel like things aren't good. How do I fix it? Well, I have to ask Allah. Now, not only does that give me some, like, it allows me to seek help, because I'm looking for a solution. It also I know now that if I am making dua, to Allah, that means I'm a good most, at least in this moment of da, I'm a good Muslim, because a DA who and Eva da is worship, right? So at least no matter how bad like, I might have had a terrible day or someone who may say, you know, someone may say, you know, I didn't pray my prayers today, or I did this or, you know, whatever sin a person committed. But the

fact that you're making right now means in this moment, you're a good Muslim. Number two, you know, how they say Time is money. Y'all have heard people say that, right? So, I was thinking about how if someone makes the offer you, like, that's an amazing gift. Because from their time, which is money, as we know, they're taking the time to make the offer you to ask a lot to get to do an act of worship for you so that you benefit, right. So that's something that I thought about as well. You know, sometimes people say like, duckula head, or may Allah reward you, or May Allah bless you. And we're like, yeah, okay, cool, whatever, right? We don't think of it as a DA, we don't think about

the value that this has an even something that we may not think of as the Salaam, someone says, Sarah, more la calm. We're like, you know, it's we get used to it as a greeting. But in actuality, this is a job that a person is making for you in this way, you know, there's so much emphasis from profits or sell them on spreading the system and replying to the sentiments on and so forth. Lastly, personal piece of advice that I have for all of you.

Have you ever has everyone has anyone ever said to you make the offer me, I get that a lot you can imagine, you know, especially as a public speaker, whatever, people are, like, you know, please make dog for me, you know, please don't die for me. So one of the things that I that I learned to do, because I know that like, for example, I'm at a conference, some dude that I've never seen in my life before, you know, he's walked up to me and said, I'm gonna go, I said, whatever, please make to offer me You know, my, I don't know, my exams are coming up and I gotta, like, whatever. There's no way that I'm gonna like go home and like the next day I'm like, No, so that guy who came up to me,

he's got exams coming tomorrow. He definitely has a biology exam. So Oh Allah allowed him to get an A on his biology exam but that's not going to happen. So my habit is that when they say make the offer me I make the offer them right there in front of them. And I know Mike my part is done. So someone asked you to make the offer them make the offer them right then and right there.