Safi Khan – Soul Food for College Students The Du’a Series Class 10
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Okay
It's my lol hamdu lillah wa salatu salam ala Rasulillah vida. He was
heavy he edge Marian Salaam Alaikum Warahmatullahi Wabarakatuh
get to everybody. How's everyone doing? hamdulillah
hamdulillah How's everyone's week? Good. Everyone's Eid when good
dilla evil others always very interesting, right? You're like,
Oh, I just felt like I did this a month and a half ago two months
ago. But mashallah, mashallah, this, this aid is very special
because of just the significance right, the history behind it, and
the the theme of sacrifice that's involved with it and the story of
Ibrahim alayhis salam. So it's a very, very beautiful Eid,
it almost like, brings you back a little bit to some of the memories
you had in Ramadan, obviously, fasting, you know, through the Day
of Arafah, kind of synonymous with fasting during the during the days
and nights of Ramadan. So,
on the lunch Allah, hopefully everyone's either was eventful and
nice and relaxing.
sha Allah, we're going to continue on today with our Thursday night
series, and we're going to be kind of inching towards the finish line
slowly but steadily.
And we're getting towards this really immense topic, right? Which
is something that I kind of told everybody that we're going to end
up getting to sooner rather than later and hamdulillah here is the
date, which is addressing the question of the wisdom or what
happens or why or my dog has not responded to or why was the answer
to my dog delayed, okay.
This is like the all encompassing dog question, right? Every q&a
that we've done so far, these past two months, there's always been
like, eight people that are like, Well, why is my dua not being
answered? And so, today, Inshallah, we're going to address
the wisdoms behind why Allah subhana wa Tada may delay or not
respond to a dua the way that a person wants that door out to be
responded to, there's a lot of wisdom behind it, by the way, and
we'll go over inshallah each and every single one of them. As you
guys can probably tell through our series, this book is a book of
lists. Okay, so all of you like extremely organized color coded
notes, and people, you guys are digging this, you're like, yes,
great, another 10 point bullet point lists, here we go. But it
really is great, because sometimes a lot of these conversations are
kind of ambiguous, right? Some authors, they write about these
things, and, you know, they leave it open ended. But what I
appreciate about this particular book is that the author is
actually really methodically breaking down each and every
reason with an individual bullet point. And so in sha Allah, today,
we're going to go through each of the bullet points as to why
there's wisdom behind the delayed response to your Diaz. Okay, so he
begins and he says, a person's Iman is truly tested, whenever
their dua is not answered on time, or the way that they haven't
expected it. And here is the opportunity that shaitan uses to
try to sow his worst, his whispers, meanings that these are
the moments in which your loyalty to Allah is tested, right? Because
when Allah is giving you exactly what you want, and everything's
going your way, and every dua that you make is responded to your
gravitational pull towards Allah subhana wa Tada is much more
simple. But the moments in which Allah subhana wa, tada may not
give you what you want, is the moment in which shaitan tries to
maximise on the heart of a worshiper saying that this is my
chance, this is my chance to draw this person away from God. And if
I can get them far enough away from God, then I can truly,
completely take them away from this path that they were on. Okay.
And so he says, and plants, you know, shaitan plans, his doubts in
the believers heart. In this way a person might start thinking evil
thoughts about Allah or start doubting the wisdom of the Divine
Decree, right? Why did this happen to me? Why, you know, why would
Allah not want something for me that you know, I think is good for
me. All of these questions come into the mind of a believer,
right? Because at the end of the day, we talked about this
extensively in previous sessions, right
One of the prerequisites of DA is having the best thoughts of Allah
subhanaw taala in your heart, right? When a person makes dua to
Allah subhana, WA Tada, they're supposed to have conviction.
They're supposed to have Yaqeen in the heart, that Allah will take
care of them, Allah will give them whatever is best for them. And
this is the moment in which shaitan tries to maximize and say
that, you know what?
I can take this person away, I can pull this person away from ALLAH
SubhanA wa Tada. Okay. And so, he says, so whoever falls into this,
should immediately should immediately seek Allah's refuge
from shaitan and turn to Allah sincerely making it another dua.
And so really think about this critically, the goal of a person
who has shaytans whispers take over their hearts temporarily
because of an unanswered dua to your mind. The solution to that
unanswered, dua in your mind is actually another dua. And the
immediate responses Oh Allah protect me from shaitan. Okay. And
this has proven several times, by the way, in the Quran, I'll give
you guys a very easy example to follow. In Surah Yusuf, the story
of Prophet Yusuf Ali has set up the chapter in which there was a
moment where this woman was trying to seduce profit use of out of his
setup, right? There are a lot of different methodologies as to how
you can handle that particular moment, you could try to explain
to that person that what they're doing is wrong. You could say
like, oh, like logically, you reason with them as to why this
isn't a good idea. You could also just kind of like, and again,
there's several different possibilities here. But what was
the sunnah of Prophet Yusuf? He literally says, Allah ma Allah,
Allah, Allah, Allah literally means Oh, Allah helped me. Okay,
oh, Allah helped me. As a believer, I want you guys to know
that the greatest weapon that you'll ever have is the ability to
call to Allah at the moment of distress. Okay? You don't have to
answer any questions logically. You don't have to break it down
via like a chart or a graph and think about make a Google sheet
about why this is not a good idea. The moment that something happens
to you that bothers you, call to Allah subhana wa Tada as use of
did Allah Allah, He called out to him right away. And then
literally, after he mentioned that in the Quran, then he told this
woman, how can you be disloyal to your husband, and to the one who
raised me right? And then once she didn't listen to him, then he ran
towards the door as the sutra says, right? But the first option
always is the moment that you feel any sort of whispering of shaitan
is you call out to Allah, Oh Allah protect me from this, Allah
protect me from this right? You want to protect yourself against
radon at every single interval that you can possibly call out to
Allah subhana wa Tada and okay, that will always be the first
response that you have as a believer, okay. So he says, making
it another dua that he or she be saved from shaitan is plots and
that he be granted patience to withstand the test that he or she
is undergoing. They should also ponder over their own limited
knowledge and intelligence and realize the infinite knowledge of
Allah subhana wa Tada and the extreme wisdom behind divine
decree. Okay. Now I wanted to I highlighted this particularly
because I wanted you guys to see this, he says, so every dua Allah
Rebadow remember the beginning of this series we talked about two
types of dua, dua Riba and to masala do Riba is whenever you're
making dua to Allah subhana wa Tada seeking a reward right? So
you say oh Allah reward me for my patience or Allah give me Jana or
Allah allow me to be XYZ this is like basically a duala Very bad
that you are basically worshiping while you're making dua. Dua LMS,
Allah is the Diaz that we make whenever we want something, okay.
So he says here that everyone should understand every dua Riba
is responded to by giving the doer rewards in this life and in the
Hereafter, anytime you call it to Allah subhana wa Tada for the sake
of worship, that dua is responded to. It is responded to the moment
you make a dua you say Robina Allah to Zulu, Bada, bada it had
data and our hub learner Milan Kurama in Africa until Wahab you
make a dua that was that was found in the Quran, know that that dua
will always be responded to because Allah promises and says
you make do out to me out of worship, I will give you the
reward that you seek from that worship. Okay, so anytime you make
do odd and think about this, think about like your favorite dogs to
make from the Quran or the Hadith, right? You say Robbie Sydney,
Elmira visit near El Mirage visit near Alma or you make the dua of
Prophet Musa Saddam, right? You say Oh Allah, you know, rugby
Neelima and delta lamb and Hayden filthier. You make these doors
that are found in the Quran, you know that that door has already
recorded because you are literally worshiping Allah and that dua.
Now, what about the DUA that you make where you're like, oh, Allah,
allow me to get married to this person? Like, I don't know, right?
Like, what is that? So you make this dua, and this is a dual
masala it's a dua of asking Allah subhanho wa Taala for something.
And so he says here, every dua Allah
Allah is responded to by one of a few things. Number one, is by
giving whatever was asked for. Allah will give you what you
asked, and I'm sure everybody in here has experienced of this. You
make dua to Allah for something, and Allah gave it to you. Allah
gave it to you. It's almost like, and sometimes by the way, those
experiences are almost tests, because it almost kind of leads
you into thinking that everything that you asked for will always be
given to you. And that's not how life works. And everyone knows
this. That's that's living and breathing in here right now. You
know that whenever you want something, you don't always get
it. We're teaching our two year old daughter, I have this right
now. You want crayons? No, you're in a bathtub right now. It's not
going to happen. Okay, like, you want you want you want, you know,
a juice box? No, it's 10pm that you're insane. Right? Like, it's
not going to happen right now you realize this is the hard part of
growing up is that not everything you want will always be satiated,
right? So but there are certain moments where you ask Allah for
something and Allah will give it to you, right? You worked hard for
something you may do all for it. You say, Oh Allah allow me to pass
that exam. And Allah gives you a great exam result the next week,
you got exactly what you asked for. Then he says, or Allah will
give you something equivalent to it. Allah will give you something
equivalent to it. Now this is interesting. Why because
to you, it may not be equivalent, but to Allah, Allah knows and
quality, this is just as good for you. Okay, so you make dua to
Allah for something specific. Allah might not give you that. But
Allah will give you a favor and another part of your life that is
just as good. And you need to find appreciation for it. Right? You
asked Allah subhana wa Tada to allow you to be friends with this
person. Right? And that friendship never blossomed. But Allah subhana
wa, tada gave you another friend that you never really sought out.
And that friend ended up being just as good as a friend that you
actually wanted or as you thought, right? This is what it means when
Allah gives you something equivalent, okay? And then the
last, he says, or Allah averts you from something evil that was to
befall the one that was making dua. And this is one of the most
beautiful ones, I think I kind of sort of, like gave you a glimpse
of it a while ago. But imagine Subhanallah, you asked Allah for
something and Allah didn't give you what you wanted. But on the
day of judgment, you find out that there was something that was
written for you, whether it was an illness, or like a sickness, or a
misfortune or whatever it may have been. And Allah changed your
cutter, he changed your decree. So you avoided that thing, but you
never knew about it, so you didn't ever appreciate it. And this is
why it's always a sunnah of a believer to thank Allah for
whatever they know, and for whatever they don't know. Because
there are so many things in your life that Allah could have given
you, or prevented you from going through, but you just had no idea.
You had no idea. Maybe it was written for you that you were
going to get really, really ill from COVID 19, four years ago, but
hamdulillah you're one of those saved people, right? You are
interested, okay? Perhaps it was written for you to be tested, but
Allah saved you from it, right? Perhaps you were supposed to fall
and break an arm one day in your life, but you have no memory of
breaking any bones in your life. Perhaps Allah saved you from a
misfortune like that, right? So think about that as also an answer
to some of your Diaz and may not be exactly what you asked for. But
Allah subhanaw taala saved you for something much more severe in
another part of your life. Okay. So he says here, a Muslim should
understand that there are many wisdoms behind the delayed
response of a DUA, whether they realize it or not all of Allah's
decrees are wise and although it is not possible that we fully and
truly comprehend all of the Divine Wisdom of Allah, it is possible
that we can glean some of the benefits of a decree the following
points have been mentioned by some of the RMS some of the scholars
Okay, so number one, the first benefit of a delayed dua or a
delayed response to your DUA is appreciating that Allah is Allah
Malik. He is the true king. Okay, meaning no one can interfere with
the decisions of ALLAH SubhanA wa Tada and he quotes an ayah in the
Quran that's very powerful. He says, la use Urdu and ye Pharaoh
do well whom use Arun, he says he is not question regarding what he
does. Rather, you're the one that's going to be questioned
about what you do.
And there's a reason as to why you are questioned about what you do.
I want you guys to think about this right? Why are you and me up
for judgment on the day of judgment and why is Allah subhanho
wa Taala free from it? Because we are people from our actions can do
right and we can also do wrong. Allah as a Malik the king, we
testify that Allah cannot do any wrong. Allah cannot do any wrong,
even some of the most difficult, you know, moments in our life to
comprehend, know that that was not something that we attribute to
Allah as wrong or the biller or
Right. And this is why, by the way, Muslims heart is so tested
for loyalty, because we have to answer these questions to those
who do not believe in a God. When they ask questions like, Well, why
is their poverty? Right? Why? Why is their childhood illnesses? Why
are there natural disasters? Why is there a war and famine? Why do
these things happen because to the human logic, these things are bad,
these things are evil, these things are horrible, but to us as
Muslims, as as much as we acknowledge them as difficulties,
we will never say that Allah made something harmful.
Because even out of a natural disaster can come some incredible
good, even out of health issues can come something that is good,
even out of difficulty can come something that is good, right? So
understanding that. And so he says, so the Muslim does not
question the will of Allah. Rather, they accept it. And
they're pleased with it. One of the scholars they wrote, so there
is none of us who can escape from the will of Allah and his decree,
and no one can avert his judgment or his trials. Verily, We all
belong to Allah, and we are all his slaves and part of his
possessions he does with us as he pleases. And what He wills the
moment the first person the first step of questioning ALLAH SubhanA
wa, tada is the moment a person loses the understanding that Allah
is in control of my life.
Because for the first time, you're saying, Why me? Why did this
happen to me?
And when a person asked that question, there's a part of them
that subconsciously is saying,
Why didn't Allah do something better for me.
But when a Muslim reorients themselves back and they reorient
and recalibrate their compass, they understand that even this
terrible thing that happened to me is something that Allah
controlled. And this is, by the way, one of the points that I
believe a sudden Murphy made, like months ago, when he was teaching
the benefits of trials, right, when he was talking about the
benefits of difficulties and trials and tribulations in life,
that, you know, she is a demon under Saddam, he said that one of
the points of solace in the heart of a believer in calamity is to
note that the same one who allowed the calamity to take place is the
same one that will be the one to take you out of it. Right? So if
you ever got sick, know that Allah is the cure, if you ever went
broke, know that Allah is the One who will give you the wealth that
you seek, if you are the one who was denied from a certain job or a
certain school, know that it is only by the Federal, the will and
the blessings of Allah that you will be accepted into another
school or another job. These things are not you know, these
things are not you know, exclusive from one another. And this is why
ultimately In Islam we don't believe in God versus the devil.
You know, like in a lot of other religions are like they depict God
and they depict the devil. They're like, oh, good versus evil. We
don't believe that. The Shaitan is not a challenge for Allah shaitan
shaitan was created by Allah.
Right? We don't believe that there's this opposite polar evil
force that's working against Allah. That's not true.
And this is something that's such a beautiful part of our religion.
Because if you believe that there was a force that was opposing
Allah, then you believe that Allah can be challenged and our oath of
Allah, Allah cannot be challenged. Right? And so this person believes
that everything that happens in my life is under the decree of Allah.
Whatever happened happened for a reason. I may not know the reason.
I may not know the reason. And it may be hard for me to understand
the reason. But I know that there is one. I don't live a life of
coincidence. This is one of the greatest blessings for a Muslim.
We do not live lives of coincidence and chance and random
randomness. Everything that happens happened for a reason,
this past week, I'll tell you, my life was tested. I literally lost
my wallet in the middle of a road as I was driving home. Don't ask
me how it happened. Something to do with me putting the wallet on
the on the on the top of the car. Okay. And I literally was driving
home and I get home and I was checking, right? I was checking.
And I did like a scan of the entire you know, glove department
and the see the driver's seat and there's nothing there. My pockets
are empty. So I go home. Oh my gosh, panela. Right. Like five
minutes ago, I was pumping gas in my wife's car. Okay. And so I left
my wallet on top of the the car itself and I accidentally drove
off and the gas station was until at least like three four minutes
away from home. I got home I saw my wallet is nowhere to be found.
So I had to retrace my steps two times a one back and forth between
the gas station on my house two or three times. And then the last
time around, I was driving back okay, I literally did exactly what
like a normal person would do. I would go back to the gas station,
check the surrounding areas, check maybe like near my house, my
driveway. My my second or third time going back and trying to do
another run. I kept my eyes open for the opposite side of the road
and I saw from probably 50 feet away my wallet on the opposite
side of the road. Like the opposite way of traffic. And so
like I will I was ready I call my wife and I was like I'm ready to
cancel
My car is ready to like restart my my citizenship in America I don't
know like
all these terrible ideas right? And I go and I look at my wallet I
actually have a picture of it. I opened my wallet and humble I
never ever have any cash on me ever it's always my cards I'm like
a super Boomer Okay, so I are not Boomer I'm a millennial. I never
have I never have cash on me. So I opened my wallet just to make sure
that all my cards are there everything's there handle all my
cards are there but the 120 bucks that were in cash was gone.
And I I thought to myself, I was like, Wow, this dude drove up to
my wallet saw it took the cash out and said I don't want to deal with
the pin the PIN codes right to left the cards there. But then I
thought to myself and I went home I said man Subhanallah maybe that
cash was nevermind to begin with.
Then maybe it would have been something that was held against me
if it was kept with me.
And so Allah with his decree took that cash away from me hamdulillah
right. You know, these are moments in which your your, your, your
belief and your, your your reliance upon Allah is severely
tested. Okay. Number two. Number two is he says, the understanding
that human beings do not have a right over their Creator, rather
it is the other way around that Allah has rights over us. Okay? So
he says, the one making dua should realize their lowly status and
know that they do not have a right over Allah, that his dua be
responded to. You know, and this is a great analogy that I give to
people don't think that your DUA is like a restaurant order, right?
We have like this restaurant mentality, right? We go to
Chipotle, and if they skim us on all of the food there, we send it
back and make a crazy tech talk about it to the point the CEO has
to come out and make a video. Okay, y'all don't think I was that
locked in? Did you? Okay, so. So it's not a restaurant order,
right? It's not like you go up to some counter and say, I want this
exactly the way it is. And if I don't get that way, I want my
money back. That's not That's not how do our works. That's never
been how do our works. To think that I have this right to be
responded to that. If Allah does not respond to me, then
something's wrong. Okay? The author is saying, Don't ever let
your head think like that. The moment you think that Allah owes
you anything, this is the first mistake that you've made. In fact,
there are 8 billion reasons as to why Allah does not have to answer
your DUA. But Allah answers you out of his immense mercy. Sorry, I
don't know why that happened. So think about that particular point,
okay, that Allah does not have to respond to any of you to do as in
fact, when you go back in your own life, and think the amount of
mistakes that you've made in your life, the amount of times that
you've neglected ALLAH SubhanA wa Tada. And you translate that over
to like a human relationship. And you think that you've neglected
this person, day after day, month after month, year after year, they
deserve to be treated better than they're treated by you. And you
keep asking them for things. Don't you think in that relationship,
that person has the right to never give you anything that you want.
It's like having a friend that you like, visit once every once in a
while. You know, you only talk to them, when you need something. You
remember them during bad times. You never remember them during
good days. But then you're like complaining about how they never,
they never ever answer you the way that you want to be answered. I
mean, this is illogical, right? So but again, Allah is not like that
Allah responds to us out of his extreme. Rama has extreme Rama, He
answers us. But he says, Don't ever think that you have this
right for your dogs to be responded to. They should be wise
enough to contemplate their own many faults and shortcomings with
regards to the rights that Allah has over him. This will make them
appreciate that he does not have any rights over Allah. Now I want
you guys I'm going to read this quote out to you guys. It's
extremely profound. I was reading this a couple of weeks ago, and I
was like, subhanAllah my eyes almost like, teared up because of
how incredible eminent acclaim or human the law really encapsulated
this, this concept. He says, one of the greatest matters of
benefits of the heart is that it looks into the rights that Allah
has over his slaves, thinking about how Allah has rights over
you, because this will cause him to look at his own self in a
despicable and lowly manner. Like whenever you feel proud or like
haughty or like, you know, arrogant over anything. You just
remind yourself you're like, Man, how many things does Allah do? i
Oh, Allah and I actually failed to give to him. Okay, it will really
make them look in the mirror. You know, there's always a famous
statement that whenever something's wrong, a person looks
in the mirror, and they clean their mirror, they clean the
mirror, they try to clean the dirt off the mirror. After all of that
time cleaning the dirt off the mirror, they realize the dirt was
actually on them. Right? It's a very profound teaching, right? We
always look exterior, right? Oh, it has to be them. It has to be
him. It has to be her it has to be my surroundings. But in reality,
if you just pointed the finger back to yourself, we'd realize
well, this is this is actually a much more, much more logical
conclusion that there might be something wrong with me. This is
why Allah says in the Quran in Allah
Hola yo yo MobiCom in Hatha Yoga yo maybe unfussy him. What does
Allah say? He says that Allah does not change the state of a people
Hatta until they change the you don't meet a euro. We unfussy him,
they change what's within themselves. That's the greatest
lesson here is looking internally. Don't be like, Oh yeah, like,
Allah is not responding to my dua. No. Think about all those moments
that you fail to pray.
Think about all those moments where we failed to be kind to our
parents. Think about all those moments where we failed to be
generous in moments in which Allah gave us the provisions to be
generous with.
When we think about those moments, all of those kinds of allegations,
oh, Why did Allah not respond to my dua, they all come crawling
down? Why? Because you remember all the moments where you fell
short. And he says, it will make this person avoid self conceit and
vanity concerning their actions and instead open him the door to
humility and meekness. He will be submissive before Allah and give
up hope of his own self, for he will realize that success will
only come about through Allah's mercy and His blessings. For
Allah's right, is that Allah be obeyed, and not disobeyed. And
Allah be remembered and not be forgotten, and Allah be thanked
and not rejected. So whoever looks into this, right, sorry, into this
right that his lord has upon Him, then He will know I'm most certain
knowledge and that certain knowledge is that he is not
fulfilling the rights of his Lord in a way that he deserves to be
fulfilled. And that nothing can save him except divine aid and
forgiveness. So if he were to rely upon his own actions, he would be
destroyed. So this is what those who have knowledge of Allah look
upon. And this is what he has caused them to give up hope of
attaining any good for themselves, then made them put all of their
hope in the mercy and forgiveness of Allah subhana wa Tada. And this
is why you know, this quote by claimants are powerful. This is
actually kind of this is a little throwback session, right? For if
you guys were in our last series that soulfood, the entire series
that Sophie we did last time was about how you can never not rely
on your own beats to get you to Jannah. Right? A person who thinks
that Well, every good thing that I did is enough for me to get to
Paradise. They are extremely mistaken about their status with
Allah. If you think that just because you're a little bit
generous, just because you pray sometimes, just because you, you
know, brought your mom one cup of chai this past week. Just because
you know, you smiled at your neighbor one time as you pass by
them, like cursing them out in the car as you drove away. Like just
because you did small little small acts. Does that mean that you get
gentlemen? Oh, no. But Jana comes because Allah is a ramen, and
Allah food. That's the only reason any of us have any hope in tasting
the sweetness of Paradise is that on the Day of Judgment, we will
stand before Allah and Allah will present a record filled with all
of the mistakes that we made. But then he will say, yeah, a baddie.
Oh, my worshipper, I forgive you.
And at that moment, is the moment you realize, I got into paradise
hamdulillah because of Allah's generosity, and not because of
myself.
And this is such a stark difference from people who think
that oh, why can I just be good for the sake of being good? No,
no, you can't be good for the sake of being good. Only your goodness
is limited. I told you guys this last week, there will come a day
where your generosity will not be so generous anymore. There will
come a day where your kindness will turn into a little bit of
rudeness. And when that happens, you have to turn to Allah and say
your Allah please forgive me for me being short with my friend
today. Please forgive me. For me being short with my mother today,
please forgive me for being rude to my brother today. Those are the
moments that your agenda is actually made. So raise your hands
as much as you can then ask for Allah's forgiveness. And those
moments and you'll see Jana coming closer to you because of those
reasons. Okay. So number three, we'll only go over like six of
them today because we don't have time to go over all of them.
Number three, a delay in response is actually a trial. Okay. And as
I said before, in our series, trials are not things that we
actually hate. Trials are things that we as Muslims see as
opportunities to prove our iman. So he says, when the response of a
dua is delayed, this is a type of test and trial that is inflicted
upon the servant. This necessitates his or her being
patient during this trial. So a person should realize that just
like their entire life is a trial and a test for him. So to is a
delayed response.
Don't think that this is any different. If you've been asking
Allah subhanaw taala for happiness and again, this is a very serious
serious dua by the way. We have so many people in our community that
ALLAH SubhanA wa Tada has challenged, has tried with
with, you know, mental health issues and physical issues and
emotional issues and so many trials and tribulations, okay? And
you make dua to Allah, Oh, Allah helped me, help me become happier
helped me become healthier helped me become more stable. You make
these two hours.
The delay in the response to those two hours could also be trials as
well.
The delay to those responses could also be trolls as well. Okay. And
he says, We're not blue or can be Sheree? Well. Heidi fifth, nuttin.
We're Elena toto Jarrell, and we touched you with good and with
evil as a fitna, don't think that everything that is good is just
automatically good. What does Allah say in the Quran, that
sometimes your family, your children in your money or test for
you? Now look around?
Don't you think that you are possibly a test for your parents
at one point in your life? You're like, Yes, last year, right.
Like, think about it. Think about, oh, trust me, I have horror
stories in my life of like me going to my mom's room and she's
like, I remember this really faint memory. Don't judge me for this.
This memory when I was like in seventh grade, I the classic like
my stomach hurts. I can't go to school. You're like, oh, really
for the eighth time in like this past like month. And I remember I
was at home watching the prices, right? Just like every kid does,
right? And I remember my grandmother who was like,
mashallah, she was like our second mother. Okay. She was like,
crying. I was like, something happened, like, what's going on?
And she goes, No, I'm just worried about you. You always came school,
she was literally crying. And I'm like, Oh, my God.
And that they will I actually checked into school the second
half of the day, because I felt so bad. I was like, my stomach feels
better handle that, right? I mean, you see sometimes like, and by the
way, like, Well, my grandma would never she would never complain
about me. She will never complain about me. Okay. But at that
moment, I was a test for her.
Tests are not only things that are bad, sometimes tests, are there
things that you consider good. Y'all ever got like a bonus from
like your work? You're like, wow, yes. Right? And then you go and do
something really dumb with that money. That money was a test for
you. Right? That best friend that you love and you cherish there was
an evening where you may have gossip with them. And that
relationship at that time was actually a test from Allah. So
things that you even consider that are good, maybe test from Allah.
Right? So know that all of these things are test from Allah. So the
delayed response in a dua is a test from Allah even though it may
be good for you it's a test from ALLAH SubhanA wa Tada. Okay,
number four, knowing that Allah is Al Hakim, and this is beautiful.
He says here of all of Allah has many beautiful names is Al Hakim,
the most wise so to Allah belongs the greatest wisdom okay. And he
says in the Quran, he says, Allah is described as HC Merton
Balikatan he is has what we call perfect wisdom, okay. So, it is
possible that what a person desires is not wise for them to
have and because of this, Allah has not granted them this or it is
delayed until such a time that it is suitable for them. It is
possible that the DUA might be responded to at a later time due
to factors that Allah alone is aware of, okay, and I put this
here and I don't want to forget this. No, particularly I want you
I want us to kind of go through this. Think about the story of
Musa and his mother. When Musa added his setup, he was literally
like floated down a river by his own mother. Where did Musa end up
being in? Who picked him up? Anyone?
Yeah, Arsia Arsia. May Allah be pleased with her? Because she was
a believer. She believed in the in the concept of la ilaha illa.
Allah was the one that picked up baby Musa from that basket. Okay?
If you were to watch this movie without knowing the Quranic
narrative behind it, you'd be like, is this like some sick joke
like, the mom out of fear of her son being killed by the Pharaoh
pushes her child in a basket down a river, and that basket ends up
being in the courtyard of the one who's trying to kill him? How does
that make any sense? What world is that fair, right? But think about
this. Perhaps, if it wasn't for Musa being raised in the home of
federal own himself, maybe Musa would not have lived long enough
to see the time where he would actually overthrow the throne.
Don't you think that there was some sort of wisdom and Musa being
raised in the house of Pharaoh himself?
That Musa was under the protection of Ostia? And if you all have seen
this in your life, who is like the one person in any husband's life
that will melt their heart so their wife, I did this today? My
wife was like, Let's go mattress shopping. I was like, Alright,
cool. Like this mattress is $6,000. I was like,
he really liked it. Like if it was, she asked us like she told me
I
versus like what do you really think about this mattress? Like
it's it's a bed like it's great I sleep in bed like it's a nice long
it's not like a wooden like I'm fine but I will get her what she
wants because she's my wife I will do it for because because she
She's the love of my life and again and frown as cruel as he is
Don't you think that the one relationship that he would not say
no to was his own wife?
Don't you think of Musa ended up in the arms of anyone else for her
own would have killed Musa but it was by the mercy of Allah that
Musa ended up being in the arms of ossia the one person for all and
could not say no to.
And by this decree, Musa was allowed to live and Musa grew up
became a prophet of Allah. And then he is the one that caused the
drowning of Quran himself.
So you see, like to us, we're like, wow, that makes no sense.
And I want you guys to now translate that story of Musa over
to some normal experiences in your life, where you're like, yeah,
that made no sense to me. Why did I have to get into a car accident
that day?
Why did I have to be late to that meeting that day? Why did my mom
have to yell at me in front of those people that day?
Like, why did that guy like reject me that day? Why did that happen?
Right? And you can ask yourself a billion questions.
But when you look back in retrospect, and you say, Allah
being al Hakim, there must be some deep embedded wisdom that is
beyond my human comprehension.
There has to be, I refuse to live a life that I do not believe that
Allah is always because then everything happened to me. I mean,
I don't blame people. Subhanallah you know, I'd be really with you
guys. I actually don't blame people who do not believe in God.
being miserable. I don't blame them being like being miserable
people. Because what other reason is there? All of the cruelty in
the world all of the hardship, all of the difficulties in the world,
they happen for no reason? Yeah, I would lose my mind as well.
I will lose my mind as well look at the things that are happening
in
the families being harmed and children being taken away from
their families. I mean, this, if I believe truly that this all
happened out of random nature that I would lose, my mind will lie.
But because I choose to believe in Allah, I know that there's hope. I
know there's a reason when the rest of the world may not believe
I believe that there is something behind it. Okay, so this is an
extremely important part. He says, you know, he gives an example a
couple, a couple might be praying for a child and their daughter has
not answered for a number of years since Allah knows that it would be
better for them to be blessed with a child at a later date. And
there's Quran that that talks about this prophet, zakat. iati
his sunnah. Prophet Zakaria made a DUA, oh Allah give me a child.
Give me a child to, you know, carry on my legacy. He was
complaining about how his hair is becoming white. We talked about
this in the first session.
He was literally in his 80s or 90s when he had his first child.
Don't you think he could have been like, Yo, Allah? Why not on my
30s? Like everybody else, one on my 20s Why not in my 40s? Why when
I'm 80 years old? Why when I'm 90 years old, why? Why this late in
my life, I only have a few years to enjoy my child's life and they
pass away. Why? No, no. That Zecharia was the pinnacle of the
best father, he could be at that time.
Perhaps you were not given something at a time because you
would not have been ready for it at that time.
You got rejected, good Hamdulillah
that rejection happened because if you were given acceptance of that
moment, you would have been tried severely without acceptance, Allah
actually helped you avoid something really terrible. By
rejecting you. And by rejection. You just thought to yourself,
yeah, this is a bad thing. And another rejection from the law was
actually good. Okay, number five, the matter might bring evil. Now
this is interesting. Okay, he says here, following up from the last
point it is possible that Allah knows that a certain matter
although apparently might appear to bring good in reality will lead
to evil consequences. So a person might desire to have money and in
his heart or her heart, they feel that they will spend this money
for the sake of Allah. And yet Allah knows that if this person
was given that money, they will spend it in impermissible ways
that would ruin their Iman. So he would become like the one that was
mentioned in the Quran and ALLAH SubhanA wa Taala talks about this
woman whom men or women who men had Allah let in Tana min Falvo Li
and of them are some who made a promise with Allah Subhan Allah
Tada. If he bestowed on us blessings, then we will surely
give charity we will surely be amongst those who are righteous.
And then when Allah gave them the blessings they became miserly,
they became tight * and turned away and averse out of
arrogance. So because of this Allah punished them by putting
hypocrisy in their hearts okay. And so he says, Beware old
believer of getting angry or complaining against Allah other
for it is possible that the matter that you'd so desire might be the
very cause of your own destruction. So this right here,
okay, this is the one I wanted you guys to read. This is powerful.
Anybody want to read this? Actually, I want to give you guys
the honor of reading this, this is the one I'm actually going to
like, like literally print out and keep with me forever this line or
this poem or not poem, but this paragraph that I wrote is
extremely beautiful. Anybody want to take a shot at reading? Look,
man, are you good at reading?
Okay, go ahead. The Divine decree
is always about, even if it's in the form of withholding, something
that is designed. And there's a blessing even if it appears to be
a trial, and the affliction that had to fall on him is in really a
few. Okay, so he says.
So he says here, Divine Decree related to the believer is always
a bounty, even if it's in the form of withholding. Even if Allah
withhold something from you, you say this is a fuddle from Allah.
This is a blessing from Allah. Okay? Something that is even
though if it's something that's desired, and it is a blessing,
even if it appears to be a trial, and an affliction that has
befallen him, is in reality a cure. Can you imagine that
mentality someone's like laying in bed sick, they got like the flu or
like a fever and they're like hamdulillah hamdulillah you're
gonna Oh, there's another vicar for it's like a slit for Allah. So
I'm like those 100 Allah right? No, no, a believer says and
hamdulillah why? What's the reason why a cure may be a blessing or
sorry, a sickness may be a blessing to certain people. Give
me something Why do you guys think? Why would a sickness be a
blessing for certain people?
Think go into your bag of Islamic knowledge about what Yeah.
I don't know if that's right or wrong. But like, it's like, if
you're inflicted pain, then like, you're
beautiful. It's a hadith the Prophet saw something he said that
there's not even a thorn that pricks the finger of a believer
except that sins are shed from their body. Right? So even if I'm,
I'm laying in bed and I'm sick, I have like a 103102 Fever. It's
like, pounding my head is like I have a headache. My body's warm,
I'm achy. The true believer knows every moment I'm experiencing that
throbbing headache. Allah is shutting sins away from my soul.
Allah shutting sins away from my soul. you stub your toe, you're
about to like, say something ungodly. And you say subhanallah.
Right. Because as much as that toaster being hurt after that
three seconds of not feeling anything, you know that Allah just
took away something really, really bad from you at that moment. Okay.
And so he says, even it's in reality, a cure, even though it
appears a disease. Unfortunately, due to the ignorance of the
worshiper and his transgressions, He does not consider anything to
be a gift or a blessing or a cure unless he can enjoy it
immediately.
Think about how many of us fall into that category?
If it's immediate, it's a blessing.
But if it's not immediate, yeah, I don't know if I don't I don't know
if this is good, then or things that are immediate, I'll actually
do the inverse of this. Things that are immediate, may not always
be blessings.
Right? You go in for that job interview. And the person is like,
When can you start? You're like, Hamdulillah. Here's the best day
of my life. No, maybe if you were delayed a little bit, perhaps you
would actually appreciate that a little bit more. I'll give you
guys a story of my life. Personally. I worked for several
years, as a youth director in a masjid don't know much the
politics. You know, like how that works. Right?
I was a youth director in a mosque for several years. It was always a
dream of mine from when I was like a young person to come and be at
column and be at roots always. And I used to always talk to shuffle
the Nasir, who's one of my teachers here. And I used to say
shave, I need to come to column I need to move to Dallas and he
goes, Just wait. Just wait. You just started. I'm like, What do
you mean, man, like, save me? Like reaching out, save me from this
place. And Sheikh was always like, no, no, just wait it out. I got
you. I got you. You're gonna get here, you're gonna get here. Just
be patient.
And long story short, I worked in this place for about four years,
and then hung the line and moved to Dallas in 2019. And I began my
my tenure here at roots.
And one time, I had a conversation with Jeff and he was like, Well,
how do you feel being here? And I said, Shay, thank you so much for
allowing me to be there for four years straight. Because why? He
knew that he knew the answer because he was just testing me.
He's like why do you say that? I said because if I didn't go
through those four years I wouldn't appreciate the blessing
of being here.
If I got this right away, I would have nothing to compare it to.
I will think that this is the standard and by the way guys
routes is not the standard.
Being here grabbing some coffee, sitting in legs floor backtrack,
seeing like the glass walls and seeing projectors and you know
being with people you love and care about and cherish and being
able to walk over to the masjid not feeling judged not feeling
unwelcome. This
is not the standard. And sometimes in order to appreciate real
blessings in your life, you have to go through those moments of
trials. Right? Why do people who you guys are watched that? That
movie I'll call this movie a lot the pursuit of happiness with Will
Smith. Why at the end of that movie did he was he in tears at
like an entry level job. Because he knew what it was like to not be
able to pay rent and afford to keep your lights on.
Because of that, you you understand, even if I'm making
like $15 an hour, $13 $12 an hour. I know what it was like to not eat
food. You ever see people that are that are that are less fortunate
than you look at a meal as though it's like a filet mignon and you
look at it, it's like Herbison, like Lebbon
it's like literally bread and milk. Like, that's all it is. And
they're like, thanking Allah for it extensively. And you're like,
why are they so because maybe perhaps this person has a memory
of the previous week where they didn't eat for two days straight.
But because we eat every day, and by the way, either aloha is a
great reminder about it. Sacrificing an animal you know why
the Prophet was amused to sacrifice, he made it a tradition
to sacrifice what abahani Why Why was it a thing, the prophet by the
way, didn't used to eat meat very often. Y'all know this. He wasn't
a vegetarian, but he didn't used to eat. He didn't used to eat meat
very often. Sometimes nowadays, we're like, bacon, egg and cheese
for breakfast, you know, chicken sandwich for lunch biryani for
dinner, right? Like, we're eating meat three times, three times a
day, the Prophet used to not eat meat every day because he never
wanted to let himself be convinced that this is something that's just
normal.
Every time you eat something you are, Allah has provided you a life
of an animal that was sacrificed in order for you to enjoy and be
grateful for it. It's not something that you should take for
granted. Right? So he says here, and it is in accordance with this
worth his nature. If he were only given a little bit of
understanding, then he would have counted being withheld from as a
blessing and the sickness as a mercy. And he would relish the
trouble that befalls him or her more than he relishes his ease,
and he would enjoy poverty more than he enjoys richness, and he
would be more thankful when he is blessed with little than when he
is blessed with a lot. This is a profound paragraph that have no
playing wrote about the reality of perspective, right? When you have
a little be happy about those little moments that you have.
Right? Y'all y'all remember, I mean, y'all are getting to the
stage now where the you go back and think about your life. You're
like, life was so simple. I used to come home from school and nap.
I used to like eat like the cheap food and not have to worry about
FAFSA and like applying for student loans. I mean, golly man,
like my school bills were taken care of by my parents taxes word
like that, man. Life was simple. And now you're like, gas ain't
cheap, right? Like, you're like taking like the inner roads to
avoid like paying a gazillion dollars and George Bush turnpike
tolls, right. You're like, that's okay. I'd rather drive an extra 52
minutes I'm fine. Like, the struggle is real man. The struggle
is real. Life was simple. But how did we ever take for granted those
moments where we would just sit in our parents rooms as like 12 year
olds
and we dreamt of being older right now man I want to be older I want
to have like my own car and now like the car is like breaking down
in the middle of the road and like, God, I wish I was 12
Never ever take for granted the simple things in life. These are
moments that ALLAH SubhanA wa Tada has really really blessed for
everybody. Okay. In sha Allah with that we will wrap up for today I
don't want to take too much longer as 806
Next week in sha Allah, we will continue on with the list he makes
of the reasons and the wisdoms behind the delays of response and
dua. Allah's choice is better than that truth of the servant, it will
go through man does not know the result of the result of his dua
will go over trials bring that one closer to Allah. We'll talk a
little bit about something Hadith sometimes brings good I believe
there's 11 or 12, it causes the believer to reflect on himself.
The DUA might actually have been responded to already and you just
didn't know about it. We'll go through some of these inshallah
Tada next Thursday, Okay, one last thing I want to do Inshallah,
we'll we will do a q&a today, but inshallah we'll do q&a next week
because we will wrap up the chapter and allow everyone's
questions to be a little bit more well rounded. But I did want to do
it for everybody is in sha Allah, if you have not already joined the
telegram chat that we have for our Thursday night community, you can
inshallah just scan the QR code and be added to that chat in sha
Allah through telegram. This is a way that we keep up with like, you
know, all of our announcements when it comes to programming for
this demographic will insha Allah do a lot of cool stuff. I'm really
excited by the way. A good friend of mine I'm sure you guys how many
of y'all attended the kalam Diem night this past Ramadan? The 27th
night I mean, some of you
As we're here, so there was a person who was speaking with me, a
stud moved from Minnesota. He's finishing up his PhD and
University of Pennsylvania. He's going to be joining me in Sharla
in August September to join forces in terms of like the college
demographic here in Dallas. So we're going to be doing a lot of
cool stuff not only Thursday nights at soul food, but actually
going out to campuses and doing like outreach stuff on like UTD.
SMU UTA Un t insha. Allah, Allah allows us to travel that far I was
getting, we will Inshallah, reach out to all of those campuses, and
we'll do stuff in house on college campuses being the last starting
in the fall inshallah All right, but definitely join that telegram
chat to keep up with all the stuff that we do in sha Allah for the
demographic here on Thursday nights. We'll see you all in sha
Allah next Thursday, said I'm on a camera to Allah He better
Catherine