Shakiel Humayun – Forget Me Not 43rd Sermon
AI: Summary ©
The speaker discusses the importance of the Arabic word for man or heart, which is the state of the heart, and how it protects against the herd mentality. The "remedy" of Allah's subhan authorization is the ability to be a people that are truly genuine, and the "remedy" of Allah's subhan authorization is the ability to be a people that are truly genuine. The difficulty of recognizing Allah's actions is due to the lack of proper rememb payments, and the importance of remembering Allah's actions is discussed as a way to avoid becoming a Yokward.
AI: Summary ©
Some people ask,
why does Allah subhanahu wa'ala
want us
to remember Him?
Why does Allah want us
to make
remembrance?
And when we say remembrance in Islam,
we mean remembrance by the tongue,
like saying, subhanallah,
that Allah is flawless.
And a higher level
is by saying it with the tongue, saying,
subhanAllah,
and at the same time having an attentive
heart.
So this is remembrance.
Salah,
the formal prayer, is also remembrance.
As Allah subhanahu said,
Allah subhanahu said, proceed
to the remembrance of Allah.
And in this verse,
Allah calls
the Friday prayer the remembrance of Allah.
So the salah,
the formal prayer is a remembrance.
The Quran
is a remembrance.
Where it's organized
in a linear fashion.
You have an introduction,
you have the content,
then you have the conclusion.
But the Quran is not organized
in such a way.
The Quran
is organized in a symmetrical way
where the symmetry of the words and the
meaning
match one another
in one surah, in multiple surahs,
in parts of the Quran.
People expected to be an average book
where the events in an average book has
the mundane routine
where you have the beginning,
the middle, the end, it's chronological.
Whereas in the Quran, it's not chronological.
It's not organized as as such.
Allah gives snippets of a single story of
Moses or Abraham
throughout the chapters of the Quran without following
any chronology.
And the reason is that if you were
to pick up a book that is organized
or structured through a mundane way,
you would read it once, twice, twice, maybe
5 times and then get bored with it.
But this book of Allah
was sent to be a remembrance,
a reminder,
and such
it is structured.
Its composition
is unique and different.
With this symmetry and with this
spanning of events throughout the chapters where we
learn snippets
of a story
not based
on chronology,
but based by certain themes,
certain topics,
certain morals,
certain lessons.
We're able to pick up the Quran and
read it again and again and again without
ever getting
bored with it.
And as such,
it serves its purpose of being a remembrance.
The Arabic word for man or human
is insan.
It is linked with the Arabic word
which means forgetfulness.
So one of our limitations as a human
being is that we forget.
The Arabic word for heart is
which comes from
which means that something that changes over, transitions,
shifts.
And as such is the state of the
heart. Our heart
shifts, it's impacted, it's influenced easily.
We may have a certain intention,
and then there's an external influence, and we
change our intention.
And due to these shifts and changes
and due to our forgetfulness,
we are beings
that need remembrance.
We need reminders.
So the question,
why does Allah want us to remember him?
There are many answers.
Today, inshallah, we'll give a few.
The first reason
why Allah subhanahu wants us to remember him
is because through the remembrance of Allah,
we protect
ourselves
against
the herd mentality.
The herd mentality
where
our we're impacted, we're inclined
to do the behavior that the people around
us are doing.
Because the masses are doing something, because it's
the trend now,
we feel this pressure
to go with the flow and follow the
masses.
The remembrance of Allah protects
us from
just going
with the flow without any standards.
It keeps us genuine.
How so?
Take for example this remembrance.
When we say in the morning,
When we say this, remember, it's when we
speak it and our ears hear it and
our mindset is formed by it.
We say I rise this morning
on the innate
nature of Islam
and on this genuine statement,
this pure statement of
that there's nothing worthy of worship except Allah,
which keeps
us in check to be genuine
and upon the religion
of our prophet Mohammed
and upon the religion of our father,
Ibrahim Ibrahim
who was an upright Muslim and was not
amongst the polytheists.
When we say this,
it gives us a direction
of where we are, where we're headed, what
our standards and values are.
So it impacts
our mindset and protects us from being flimsy
and compromising our values because everyone else is
doing a certain thing today, so we might
as well just go along with the flow.
But we're reminded every morning and every evening
that we are rising and setting
during the evening
upon the innate nature
of Islam.
And when we say these these
terms and these words,
We are
to be a people
that when we speak something,
we do those actions.
Because when we speak
over and remind ourselves over,
it shapes
our mindset
and what our future actions will be.
Another reason why Allah wants us to remember
him
is because
Allah subhan'a
through the remembrance of Allah subhanah were able
to get through difficult times.
And if we look in the Quran,
whenever the prophet Muhammad
sallallahu alaihi wasallam
had a difficult time,
we usually find that Allah subhanahu tells the
prophet Muhammad sallallahu
alaihi wasallam
to remember him.
For example, Allah subhanahu
said,
We know
that you are in distress,
speaking to the prophet Muhammad
That you are in distress because of what
the people are saying.
Difficult time for the prophet Mohammed, sallallahu alaihi
wasallam.
What's the solution?
How do you get through this difficult time?
Allah subhanahu says,
And so declare
that your Lord is flawless
through his in through his perfection
and praises,
and be amongst those who make sujood
prostration.
So getting through this difficult time,
the remembrance of Allah
is what carries us through.
Again,
Allah Subhanah says,
Where Allah Subhanahu Wa Salam said, be patient
with what they are saying. Difficult words and
difficult dealings
that the prophet Muhammad Sallallahu Wa Salam
went through.
The solution again, Allah Subhanahu
said to declare
that Allah is flawless
through his perfection.
Before the sun rises
and before the sun sets
and amongst the night declare that Allah is
flawless.
And also after the prayers.
How does that get us through
these difficult times?
How does declaring Allah flawless
help
us get through difficult times?
How does remembering that Allah is perfect
get us through difficult times?
We'll take
a portion
of a certain remembrance
to analyze this.
We'll take for example,
Where Allah subhanahu wa'ala said to him belongs
the ownership,
the dominion.
That
Allah owns
perfection.
And he is over all things extremely
able.
So someone someone is having a hard time
declaring that Allah is the owner of the
universe
reminds the individual
that all affairs and all difficulties and all
challenges that are happening
are in the hands of Allah subhanahu.
That's number 1.
That he owns perfection, that he is flawless
and that this difficulty that I'm facing,
this challenge that I'm going through,
I cannot in any way ascribe any injustice
to Allah.
No matter how
big the pain is,
I can't say Allah
is unjust,
that I am being wronged
by Allah
because Allah does no wrong to anyone.
Because when we say he is flawless
and he is perfect,
we can't ascribe any injustice or wrongdoing to
Allah
What's the solution?
That I have this firm belief that no
matter what my challenges are,
he is over all things extremely able.
So I'm able
to declare Allah free from deficiencies and injustice
and wrong
And that Allah is in control and owns
the universe.
And so the source of the solutions to
my problems
is making sujood going into prostration
and asking Allah to get me out of
this way.
So as human beings,
we need
the remembrance
of Allah Subhanahu.
The remembrance of Allah Subhanah and anything in
Islam, any commandment, any prohibition
can never be analyzed in isolation
to the unseen.
Sometimes we come across a commandment and say,
well, I don't understand what's the hikna, what's
the wisdom behind this.
There are certain commands and provisions
whose wisdom we are told about by Allah
and his prophet
There are certain commands and provisions whose wisdom
we can derive.
And there will be certain commands and prohibitions
whose wisdom we will not know.
Because we have something else in the equation,
which is the unseen. And so whenever we
analyze something,
for it to be analyzed properly, how it
impacts us, we have to include the unseen
because the unseen is part of our reality.
But analyzing the unseen is difficult because we
can't see it. So we turn to Allah
Subhanahu.
And so why does Allah want us to
remember him
also has an impact in the unseen.
Saying the remembrance of Allah
drives angels towards you, angels of mercy.
As we know from the Hadith and prophet
Muhammad sallallahu alaihi wa sallam.
Remembering Allah repels
the shayateen,
the devils away from us.
There's no way to put this in a
lab and to to analyze and test and
figure this out.
This is the impact of the unseen.
The prophet Muhammad
said do not make your houses graveyards recite
for shaitan.
We'll not come to the house where this
the the the Surah is recited.
An impact in the unseen that we can't
put through the scientific method to prove.
So there are impacts. There are there are
results that happen
in the unseen. And if you take this
recipe of these, just three reasons I gave
you today,
it's a recipe for success.
Number 1, you remember Allah
You're you have strength in your values.
You're protected from the herd mentality.
You don't just follow the masses. Your values
are intact
regardless of what the behavior of people around
you is.
That's number 1. Number 2,
you're able to get through difficult times.
Number 3,
you have a greater understanding of how the
unseen world works and how it impacts you.
Imagine having these three components.
These three components
are the recipe for success and thus Allah
subhanahu says,
Remember Allah much so that you may become
successful.
So success is directly proportionate
to the amount
of remembrance
we do to Allah, Subhanahu,
Subhanahu,
Subhanahu, Subhanahu, to make us amongst those who
remember him
as he likes