Suhaib Webb – Finding the Path Part Three Establishing the Obligations
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We praise Allah Subhanahu Wa Ta'ala. We send
peace and blessings upon our beloved messenger, Muhammad
sallallahu alaihi wa sallam.
Upon his family, his companions, and those who
followed them until the end of time.
So, alhamdulillah, we we started a series just
like on the qualities of the friends of
Allah
And we did a brief introduction
to who those people are. We noted that
Alhamdulillah anyone who says La ilaha illallah falls
under that designation, and then it's about taqwa.
So we say that wila'yah,
is based on 2 things,
iman and taqwa.
Iman, of course, is like
believing
and
saying it. And then taqwa is
our adherence to good and our avoidance of
evil. The word taqwa actually means a shield.
Allah subhanahu wa ta'ala says in
in Sur Tur.
Allah
protected them. Like he get he granted them
a protection like a shield.
So the idea is that
obeying Allah Subhanahu Wa Ta'ala and
submitting to him and avoiding sin is a
way to protect myself.
Like, from the physical mistakes that come along
with that, as well as those mistakes that
we may be accounted for in the hereafter.
So that's a
Taqwa. And, of course, we noted that Taqwa
goes up and down just like iman goes
up and down. So we mentioned that
the idea of being close to Allah
is not something that's always gonna be the
same. Like, there'll be moments in my life
where I feel strong. There'll be moments in
my life where I'm struggling
and so on and so forth.
And then we started to talk about what
are the steps. We mentioned,
like, the the habits of these people, the
three disciplines that these people carry with themselves.
And this is actually on my YouTube page
if you wanna go back and watch it
with some of the notes.
And then we started talking about the first
signs or the first steps
towards having this relationship with Allah Subhanahu Wa
Ta'ala.
And we mentioned the famous hadith
of the prophet salallahu alaihi wa sallam
who says that Allah Subhanahu Wa Ta'ala
said,
Muslim. You know, whoever
declares war against one of my friends,
then I have declared war against them. One
time, Sayyidina Umar ibn Khattab,
he came into the masjid of the prophet
sallallahu alaihi wasallam, and he found Mu'adh sitting
next to the prophet's grave. And Mu'adh was
weeping.
And
subhanallah now nobody will let anyone sit even
next to the grave of the prophet sallaihi
wa sallam. But we have to ask ourselves,
are those people better than Omar?
Who had no problem with the Sahaba,
the Salaf
visiting the grave of Sayna Nabi alaihi salaat
wa salaam.
So he found him weeping
in an authentic narration
next to the grave of the prophet, and
he asked him, like, Mayub Kik, like what's
causing you to cry? And we need to
realize that Mu'adh is one of the first
influencers in history in the Muslim community. Like
as we understand influencers,
he was very popular.
He had a large impact because Sayid Nawaz
accepted Islam Islam at a very young age.
So, people
were like
really, like, moved by him wherever he went.
Like, people would come to him and say
like, I love you, and,
you know, he he was able to influence
people
even in his,
like,
technically
limited
setting.
So he became famous
in those terms. And and the prophet said,
like the Hadith. Right? The most knowledgeable of
the permissible and the impermissible is
So he said,
like, what's making you cry? And he said,
I heard the prophet sallallahu alaihi wa sallam
say in that, like, the easiest form of
shirk is seeking fame.
So, like, the context of who he is
and why he's saying it is important.
Seeking fame, it doesn't mean fame is bad.
We talked about that in the past. But,
like, fame as the goal instead of fame
as the means. And sometimes that gets confusing.
So we always ask to keep his son.
And then he said, and I heard the
prophet say
whoever opposes the friends of God.
That Allah will
destroy this person.
Like there'll be like a war between that
person and God.
But the hadith in front of us is
very powerful because it's like the first steps,
and oftentimes we tend to ask ourselves like
where do I start?
And unfortunately, we may find
ourselves exposed
to like a keto diet religion.
I don't know how many people have tried
to do the keto diet, but you know
if you go online and you're like simple
keto recipes and they're like
almond marmalade
roasted turkey
basted in a butter filled crust. Like, I
ain't trying to make that. I just need
the mayonnaise
and the meat, man.
And some, like, it's always really complicated.
And so, sometimes when we try to start
a relationship with faith,
we run into like a lot of complications.
There's a study that's done in marketing now,
that
if you take credit cards online, if you
don't ask people to put the secret code
at the back, like 65% more people actually
buy it. Like people, by their nature, people
don't like
things that are overly complex, man.
So, this hadith makes it really clear
and it's very simple and it's very beautiful.
The job of of Islam is to simplify
and ease and facilitate an access to God.
Not to make it complicated.
So the prophet said that Allah said
like nobody will come close to me with
something I love more than the obligations. So
that's the first step
is to try to learn
and practice the obligations.
The foundations,
the fundamentals.
And that
includes areas
as Imam Ahmed Zoruk,
we, Insha'Allah, will do that in the future.
We didn't finish
the
when he said
He said
is to
establish what you've been commanded to do and
then preserve it.
And then third he said, what's
inside of liturgy
and outside of liturgy. Meaning like, the obligations
of worship are only in the mosque,
but also character, behavior,
how I treat people.
So when he says, uhab ilayi, like those
things which
which I have to al al shakkhs, those
things which God has obligated,
that doesn't just mean to be righteous in
the masjid.
I gave the example last time of like,
okay, read a book in Bed Bath and
Beyond then.
Right? It's easy to be pious in a
masjid. It's easy to be pious at a
convention.
It's easy to be pious
in Mecca.
But be pious in Bushwick.
Or be pious in moments of
like test and challenges.
Or don't neglect
like family relations, friendship, being kind to people.
So that includes all that.
And then this beautiful narration continues and it
says,
and like, my servant will continue to draw
near to me.
With extra
good deeds
outside of the obligations. So they go the
extra mile
until
I love that person.
So as a, like as a GPS, if
we're going to like site map wilaya,
it starts with
starting to establish the obligations
and struggling.
Somebody asked a scholar
about someone who struggles to pray. He said
Like that's a form of Mujahir at the
nafs. That's why in the mosque, the front
of the mosque is called the mihrab,
the place of war.
Because
that's where we
make war on our soul, to be better
people
and refine ourselves.
And before that there's another step
that some some scholars talked about like al
Muhasibi.
And that's the first step just to care,
man.
Like sometimes people guilt destroys them.
So shaitan, sometimes he tries to, like, amplify
guilt in a way that becomes counterproductive.
But the fact that I care
is a good sign.
So instead of letting that, like, defeat me,
I should realize, like, there's something happening. That's
why in the end of 9th chapter,
something very powerful, man.
Allah subhanahu wa ta'ala talks about those people
who made mistakes in amongst the companions.
And then the verse says
If you understand Arabic it's like kind of
sounds strange.
Meaning,
God turned to them
first
so they were turned to God.
Imam Ibn Uayim said meaning the feeling of
guilt. He he gave them the awareness of
the mistake.
So the awareness
made them woke.
People like that word,
but the first actually the first station in
Tisauwuf is El Yaqavah. How do you translate
El Yaqavah?
To be what?
To be woke. Where where are we on
these issues?
We're busy arguing about music,
about meat.
We turned our message into meat, music and
mortgages.
But our scholars
1000 years ago said the first station
in spiritual awareness
and reform
is to be woke.
SubhanAllah.
So being woke is.
Allah turned to them,
meaning that in their hearts there was a
sense of regret and awareness. Oh snap, I
made some mistakes.
But that should not
disable me from that relationship. I should take
heart in that because
if someone, if I've wronged someone,
and they still take the time to tell
me you've wronged me and here's how you
can fix it, that means they love me.
Like if you fix it, you can be
close to me.
If you fix it, you can have a
relationship with me. We know how that plays
in human relationships.
Right?
Have I done something wrong? No. Don't worry
about it.
Right? Communication is hard.
But Allah subhanahu wa ta'ala yul himalqulub
like inspires the hearts
and then they turn to Allah
and then Allah forgives them.
That's why the hadith of Sayyidina Nabi salallahu
alaihi wa sallam, he said that Allah
yaf
Allah is more pleased with a person that
turns back to him with sins and mistakes
than a man who was in a desert
with his camel,
and he lost his camel,
and he lost all his provisions,
And he looked up, and he couldn't find
his camel.
And then, suddenly he found his camel after
like a last minute,
He realized he found his camel, he was
so happy, he said, Allahumma anta'abdi wa anarabuqin.
He was so happy, he said, oh Allah,
you're my servant, I'm your Lord.
The prophet said Allah forgave him because he
was happy.
The point is, like,
when we turn back to Allah, it's like
we were saved from the desert
of this dunya. So like don't
And sometimes we fear guilt too, you know
what I mean? Like we know it's there,
we like put it in the closet, shut
the door, lock it, I'll come back to
you later.
I'm not ready. That's okay.
And sometimes take it in doses.
But I mentioned it before,
Imam Al Khazari said, guilt is only good
as long as it inspires you to be
better.
Because
nestled in the foundations of Islam
is the goal of Islam
after worshiping Allah
is to achieve your best.
To find the authentic you.
To find who you really are.
So the first, it's not mentioned in the
text, but the first station is to actually
care, man.
To have concern.
And then the second is when I care
and I'm woke,
then how do I how do I solve,
how do I fix this?
So this hadith is telling us like, this
is how you start.
So we start, I love the musical accompanying
my time. So what if they're gonna do
kawali or something? That would be awesome. Maybe
some.
But,
yeah.
But like
making, repenting and then
slowly trying to start
doing things step by step by step.
And and there's ways to do this. Number
1 is recalibrating
how we see the obligations. Like how were
we raised? How were those obligations constructed in
our lives?
Did we see salah as as a moment
of opportunity
or as a moment to realize how bad
we are?
Were some of us like, our experiences with
the foundations of Islam through like abuse,
emotional intimidation,
or they through like,
like I told my son once, I was
like, you pray fajr, man, you can change
your whole life.
He's like, wow.
I really have to pray well. I was
like, exactly. I think this is an opportunity,
this is a key man, to become the
best you that you can be.
Instead of
pray or I'm going to smack you.
So how do I see it?
So one of the ways
to redefine it is to go to those
hadith
where the prophet, peace be upon him, was
called the Fada'il, the virtues.
So the best book, honestly, for people is
a book called Gardens of the Righteous, Rial
Salihim.
Of Imam Anawi, it's like 2 volumes.
He has like the virtues of Quran, the
virtues of prayer, the virtues of fasting.
And sometimes you may need to like go
through trauma, like let the words of the
prophet be that therapy that brings you out
of having those bad experiences.
I had a young girl, a tarot Quran,
many years ago in, Oklahoma. She is awesome,
man. She was from overseas.
She had a really really good memory, Masha'Allah.
I was in college at that time.
So I said to her like,
she would like read and then she would
go like, like she would move back,
Like she would kind of jump. Right?
I said, what's wrong? Like, are you okay?
I was an ed major, so I was
like, Ritalin, you know, stuff allowed, like ADHD
and all this stuff.
So I was like, no, this is definitely
not that kind
of challenge.
And then she said, well, aren't you gonna
hit me?
Like why would it hit you? She's like,
well, my Quran teacher used to hit me.
I was like, I can give you some
candy.
And she started crying, man.
She's like, I never knew Quran teachers could
be nice.
Like people come out of those kind of
experiences, and then they hear through the platitudes
of the community like, Islam is peace. Like,
yeah, right.
Islam loves girls. Okay. Islam cares for the
youth. Well, I was getting smacked
as a child every time I'd had a
relationship with religion.
And that needs that needs like
First of all, God bless those people that
they maintain their Islam. That in itself is
like a miracle. Their commitment is still there.
And then secondly, reformatting it, man.
So finding those texts
where the prophet shalaihi wa sallam is talking
about what these things really are.
So like salah,
when the prophet salalahu alaihi wa sallam said,
if you took a bath 5 times a
day, like, would you be dirty?
That's how he defines salah for the Sahaba,
and in their in their days
a bath was
like amazing
because water wasn't everywhere.
So it was like, now we're thinking about,
now I'll be ashy dude, take bath 5
times a day. But in their time
a bath was like a luxury.
Sallallahu alaihi wa Salam. When he talked about
fasting, fasting protects you.
When he would talk about zakah,
he would mention how zakah
like blesses people's property, blesses their wealth,
purifies their soul.
So the prophet is defining these things on
those terms.
And the second is finding a community where
you're able to be valued.
Like it's okay.
Some communities we may go to and have
bad experiences. That doesn't mean you're a bad
person.
You're evaluating.
Right? You're yelping it yourself.
How does this work for me?
Do I feel valued when I come here?
Did people say hi?
If, if you guys can scoot forward, it'd
be awesome, Insha'Allah,
up this way.
So like, yeah, I think, yeah, here too.
Masha Allah.
So,
what we're gonna do right now,
we're gonna take a little break. We're gonna
do one of those corny things I like
to do. Anyone bring graham crackers and marshmallows?
No, I'm just joking. But,
what I want you to do is find
find someone that you don't know,
and I want this conversation to happen.
How can I make you feel valued?
So it could be just like
like to for me today, my day is
like super super busy.
Like, super super busy, from, like,
edif to yeah, we say.
It's like, my my my
way of feeling value might be like, man,
I just need to decompress.
I just need to, like, decompress.
Yes.
Yeah. Yeah. We'll try to find a mic
while you're you guys are doing this. So
you wanna try to find like a group
of people.
If you know everybody in the room, watch
out
loud. We need you to be our our
fundraiser,
but like try to find someone that you
don't know,
introduce yourself, and then don't share something overly
personal. Right? Again, you don't know the person,
you know what I mean? So it's like
see you like a blog post something later.
And also that we have rules for this
gathering. Right? Like don't yuck my yum. Right?
Nobody what they share, we shouldn't like make
them feel bad because they shared something.
Number 2 though is the Vegas rule.
Right? What happens in Vegas
stays in Vegas,
right? Step up step back, like if you
feel in this gathering with this person you're
talking too much, you probably are.
So it's important to learn that we can
also talk without talking. Like we can communicate
some place more powerfully
just by being great listeners.
And then number 3 is,
4 is
when the person says, hey, this is like
what I need to it might just be
a hug or something. Like, this is what
I need to feel valued right now.
Try to somehow see if you can help.
All Also, what happens when we do this
exercise, and this is even more interesting,
is people often say, I don't know what
I need to feel valued.
That's that's okay.
Like we're busy.
But maybe take a step back
before we jump into a group. Maybe take
a minute for each of us to think
like,
man, this is what I need to feel
valued within the parameters of this gathering.
Like, don't ask anyone for a loan or
something.
I'm thinking about the parameters of the gathering.
Right?
Something that's within the reach of, like,
us broke people. Right? Who are paying
20 times rent.
And then after that minute, find someone, introduce
yourself.
Assalamu alaikum.
My name is such and such. I'm blah
blah blah blah blah blah, and this is,
like, what I need to feel valued today.
And see where that takes you inshallah. And
then we'll come back in, like, 10 minutes
insha Allah. And we're gonna look for a
microphone,
for everybody,
in the back insha Allah.
Okay.
Bismillah, hamdulillah, salaam,
Ala
Saydina Ola Surillah.
That was really cool, Masha'Allah.
There's a lot of,
important conversations happening. And the reason that,
I I took it there is because
the process of establishing a relationship with the
obligations is learning. It's of course,
kind of trying to fix it, maybe a
little sense of guilt that inspires,
and then trying to learn what helps us
practice
and then finding a community
that we can we can be a supporter
and we can also be supported, it's reciprocal.
And then we talked about the idea of
reconstructing relationships based on empathy.
So that takes us to the second quality
of
the friends of Allah
and that's a quality that is one of
the deeper emotional qualities.
And often times,
I think people neglect something,
and that is if you if you look
at the context of
how
the Quran engages
educating the prophet sallallahu alaihi wa sallam. So
like Allah Subhanahu wa Ta'ala
teaching the prophet,
We tend to find that we may be
missing something important.
That is first of all, of course, Allah
taught him cognition
like how to think about God, how to
feel about God.
The Quran says
like we taught you
what you didn't know.
Say in the Ibrahim, for example,
Like, we showed
Abraham, Ibrahim the the secrets of the heavens
and the earth
so that he would achieve certainty, so he
would, he understood like,
in
in a in a prophetic way, like God's
power.
He saw that.
So that's something that we tend to focus
on, we talk about learning
in the community or mosques, nonprofits,
MSAs,
halaqas
tend to be largely rooted in the idea
of the acquisition of knowledge.
The second is that Allah Subhanahu Wa Ta'ala
taught the prophet
peace be upon him how to be devoted
to God,
How to be a worshiper.
Right? Allah when he talks about prophet Muhammad
peace be upon him he describes him as
the ultimate worshiper.
He doesn't say al Abda.
He says Abadan. He doesn't use a definite
article on purpose
to show, like, the prophet in his worship
cannot be defined, cannot be restricted. It's amazing.
So from the very beginning
right? Cognition learning, and then
like
3 chapters after Iqra is revealed,
Allah immediately tells the prophet pray at night.
Establish tahajjud.
So the idea of being like a worshiper.
So also we find communities, we tend to,
like, facilitate
people perfecting worship, which
is important.
We'll have like, we're gonna This year we're
gonna have like a Ramadan dry run.
Like a few days before Ramadan, we're gonna
act like it's Ramadan. So, especially for new
I know when I converted like Ramadan was
really really intimidating.
I told you, I thought you've fasted all
day.
So I was like, I was really confused.
I was like, when am I gonna die?
You know,
like, you don't know. Right? So we're gonna
do like a day, and people have like
family members and friends, coworkers, they're like, you
know what's Ramadan, Mohammed?
You know, like,
in those moments,
right, in those moments,
right,
I can make fun of my people, you
know what I'm saying, like, in those moments
wanna bring Caleb
to the mosque. Say, hey, why don't you,
Masha'Allah, fast with me? We're gonna do, like,
a Ramadan dry run. We're gonna call it
the Fast and Furious. That has kinda played
out. So we do the Ramadan dry run.
And then like, you can bring your parents,
especially non Muslims, like bring your parents, your
family, your friends, your your
partner, whoever it is. Right? This is Ramadan,
it's what we do. One day we're gonna
fast, we're gonna go
break fast together,
then there'll be a short like, discussion on
answering questions, what Ramadan is, we're gonna do
like a mock, are we?
So alhamdulillah, like, we plan to do that.
And,
we tend to facilitate that, like how to
worship, prayer workshops,
Hajj workshops.
But there's a third component of prophetic education,
there's actually a 4th too and that's the
arts and beauty.
We don't talk about that the prophet is
eloquent when he talks.
I joke, but I don't lie.
Say to Aisha said, you know, the prophet
loved the feel and look of Yemeni cloth.
So the prophet
Allah loves beauty.
So there's an appreciation
for aesthetics
That is off the table really unfortunately in
our in in the American Muslim community.
Overseas you find like Muslim culture
in many ways,
but what I wanted to focus on is
the prophet, his emotional and psychological
capacity
is increased.
His overall well-being.
So
Allah says to say
We gave you insura,
like we opened your chest.
We expanded your ability
to love,
to forgive,
to care.
Allah says
You know like if you were harsh on
them they'll leave you.
Meaning in your in your heart if you
were harsh on them.
And then Allah describes him,
alaihis salatu salaam in the 9th chapter of
the Quran,
That with the believers,
he's forgiving, he's tolerant.
Sometimes we see religious people, they may have
knowledge,
they may have the physical,
but they don't have that emotional health. So
they're harsh on people, they break people,
they're rough on people.
So it's important when we think about our
religious growth and development,
we think about knowledge like cognition, of course,
Ibadah and worship.
We think about the arts, how do we
express and show
as a seed he told me, this famous
calligrapher
from Tunis he's like man,
like when I'm on one of those minarets
painting like that's my dhikr,
like that's my expression of love
to Allah.
Someone who designs clothes, someone who whatever,
music,
whatever.
Don't ask me, but whatever.
Right?
That's that's the act of love. How do
I turn that? When we shut down the
arts we don't let lovers have a voice.
And then
the 4th thing is that the prophet, sallaihi
wa sallam,
over and over in the Quran
is taught
the importance of, like, having a strong,
healthy, emotional
capacity.
I don't think we do that part very
well, man.
We don't teach people. We don't facilitate.
So I've noticed, like, whenever we have programs
with one of our mental health providers, man,
you can't find a seat in this room.
We've had programs with like Sister Hala, Sister
Minahel, Khalil Sen, or whoever.
Like, it's like wall to wall packed
because we're hungry for that.
Why would the prophet salallahu alayhi wa sallam
say if you love someone you should what?
You should tell them. That's a order actually.
You must tell them.
Why would the prophet say
to
his wife, say to Aisha, in front of
everybody, like, I love you.
Why would he say to Fatima
Do you love who I love? Yes. Then
love, say to Aisha. In front of everybody,
he doesn't care.
Why would he say to say to say
to say to like on numerous occasions, I
love you, I love you.
Because
that
role of prophethood demands
maturity, man.
It can't be petty.
And I think, I'm saying this to someone
who went through a traditional system,
it's missing in the traditional system. How to
be lovers.
How to care for people.
How to truly invest in my own emotions.
So asking you to talk about what makes
you feel valued,
there's something going on there.
Because sometimes we don't even love ourselves.
So that's why the next station
is love.
And the prophet said
he said there are servants of God.
Like
they're not angels
and they're not martyrs.
But the angels and the martyrs will be
jealous
of
them.
On the day of judgment.
Because of their
nearness to God.
So people who are not prophets, people who
are not
martyrs for justice.
He said, they will in fact look at
these people and be like, yo, who are
these people?
Not really jealous, it's more like,
who's
that? Wow.
Right?
The Sahaba, they said, man whom you Rasulullah,
and who are those people?
Here we see something about the education of
the Sahaba. It's not just theoretical,
it's like who are they and what do
they do?
There's 2 narrations like, one is like, we
maybe we can also love them and be
near them or another narration says like, we
can do what they did.
We can reach that place.
And the prophet said,
He said the lovers, man.
They love for Allah.
They love actually means by Allah, by Allah's
will and permission
they became lovers.
Like literally you mean by the spirit of
God. Here it means by
Or they love each other as they are
inspired by Allah. It could also be a
meaning.
And yet, means
like, it was a burden.
Like,
they they trained themselves to do this.
They they worked on it, and it was
reciprocal.
It was
a two way street.
Without any family relationship,
they just loved men.
And it wasn't because like there was money
between them, some kind of agency in the
love.
Their faces will have light,
meaning
celestial light.
And they will be on like
thrones
made of celestial light.
Not like light we see here.
And they're not gonna be scared when people
are scared, meaning in the hereafter.
And they won't be sad when other people
are sad.
Then the prophet
said
Then he read this verse, that indeed the
auliya, the friends of Allah,
are those who will not fear
in the hereafter nor grieve because they failed
to utilize this world in a way
which would serve them in the hereafter.
The love of Allah is mentioned in the
Quran.
The hadith is a good hadith.
In the 5th chapter verse 54, Allah says
They love Allah and
Allah loves them.
And the prophet said,
Like whoever Allah loves,
Allah will not allow that person to be
permanently punished in *.
Habibahu,
who he loves.
Subhanahu Wa Ta'ala.
Instead of defining
the love of Allah, because I think each
and every one of us has our own
definition, man.
Like, depending on our context, Allah is adhim.
So because he's
adhim,
the definition of his love is going to
be like endless and infinite.
But let's talk about some of the signs
of Allah's love
in our life
that we can just, like, reflect.
Number 1
is caring about your iman.
Like, to care about yourself,
to be worried,
to think like we saw we talked about
it earlier,
guilt can be a great thing
as long as it's not counterproductive.
And that's why like
when you think about it, iman is something
special.
It's hard, man. We've gone through a lot
as a community, man. It's crazy nowadays. It's
rough.
Like,
it's it's easy to be confused and lost.
And then when when when you have a
community that may be like really stale,
Like, do you know how many people in
this room may change the world?
Or how many people may change a block?
Or how many people may just change the
life of their kid. It's still amazing.
I did a halakha like 14, 15 years
ago in Berkeley.
And like, every once in a while like
I'll run into someone who like was in
the Halakha. It was crazy.
And you see people like, whether they're fighting
like we saw a sister here, like deal
with like sexually trafficked human beings, whether some
of them are like working for YouTube or
Google, whether some of them
wrote for like teen people, all kind of
stuff, professional athletes,
whether they just raise their kids, man, hamdulillah,
and their kids are her father.
But like,
everyone has a great story that tells of
what I'm saying. It doesn't have to be
like
a massive impact.
We'll talk about that when one of the
qualities of the auliya is the akhfiyah.
They're hidden.
So it doesn't necessarily have to be out
there.
But, faith is a blessing
man. Listen to this narration of of Sayna
Muhammad salallahu alaihi wasallam.
Actually, this is a very beautiful statement.
He said
Allah
gives dunya to who he loves and who
he doesn't love.
And sometimes man, it's hard to accept your
good because people around you have been telling
you
you're bad.
It's tough, man. And that's why I said
earlier like go back to the words of
the prophet, sallallahu alaihi wa sallam.
So the hadith says,
Allah
gives the world to who he loves,
who he doesn't love.
That faith is only given to the one
he loves.
And within all these practices, there's levels. Right?
Like, some people are gonna be like,
Some people are gonna be like,
Some people will be like,
Some people are gonna be like,
Right? But, Alhamdulillah.
They're there.
And that's why one of the beautiful
scholars said like every believer is loved by
God.
But that iman, that love that the believer
has for God will be based on his
or her faith at that time. So it
goes up and down. Sometimes it's hard, man,
to find that strength.
The second
sign of so the first is like actual
concern,
fiqh.
The second
is repentance.
We'll talk about that later in the future.
But that's one of the signs, because like
we said,
if you ever been married, or in a
relationship, you know,
it's it's tough when someone's mad at you
and they don't tell you why.
You know what I mean?
It's like, what did I do wrong? Nothing.
It's like, this doesn't happen to me by
the way, so I'm just saying. But like,
we all or even siblings. Right? These issues
with our parents,
like passive aggressive,
mad. I hate that stuff man.
He like, I know I did something wrong.
What did I do wrong?
Nothing. I'll get over it. Oh, so there's
an it.
Right? You know, just that's like torture. Right?
But sometimes people need space too.
So the idea is that Allah Subhaana Wa
Ta'la, when we've sinned against him and made
these mistakes,
still there's this, like, feeling in our hearts
to come back to him.
Communication is there.
So the prophet said,
I want you to think about this statement.
The prophet said if Allah when Allah loves
somebody, their sins don't hurt them. What does
that mean? Some people are like, oh,
write that down.
That's not what that means.
Right? But
Allah loves somebody, their sins don't hurt them.
What do you think that means in the
context of what I'm talking about?
So they like, they've sinned.
But what would they do so their sins
wouldn't hurt them?
Right. So the sin inspires repentance,
or they repent. They're guided to repent. Yes?
When Allah loves you, he doesn't
necessarily give you material wealth. He gives you
that belief and that iman, and that
takes you away from sin. Masha'Allah. But here
he's saying, a person sinned,
but their sin doesn't hurt them, meaning
it's beautiful what you said too.
They repented, like they go back.
So the idea is like repentance.
The Quran says, like, whoever doesn't repent is
the one who's made the mistakes.
The next,
and this is really beautiful,
is to humanize Allah's blessings in your life
by acting on his names and attributes.
But there are certain names and attributes, like,
we can't act on, like Al Kabir.
Like, the one who has pride, of course.
Like, I'm so proud. Why? Well, you know.
No.
There's certain attributes that we shouldn't,
of course, like, act on.
But here it means that those actions which
are benevolent, those actions that have impacted us
in a positive way, those attributes of God.
And there's a beautiful narration of the prophet.
He said,
That Allah Subhanahu Wa Ta'ala loves to see
the signs of his blessings
on or in the life of his servant.
Like you can expand that to like endless
things.
So it could be like my character,
I try to be more forgiving.
It could also be in the content that
I produce,
that I'm trying to, like, be excellent in
the work I do.
Like this hadith
like, that's endless.
So, like, when one of the Abdullah brothers,
remember when he intercepted Tom Brady? Although we
all kneeling
here,
but I hope, but
when he made sujood. Right?
Like that's that kind of meaning too.
It's not just to restrict it to like
personal conduct,
but through my job, through my passion.
So that would inspire me to like not
be shy of being good. Not be shy
of having excellence in my life.
As the Quran said to say to Muhammad,
like, mention the blessings
that Allah has given you.
So the next is, like, to humanize.
So if I if I've experienced Allah's rahma,
I reciprocate that.
If I have experienced
blessings through kids, through
education,
I can calibrate that maybe to making sure
like where head start has been cut. Maybe
I go and help
teach people how to read.
I don't just restrict it to, like,
the masjid.
I expend it.
The next is being tested.
That's tough, man.
The prophet said, whoever Allah loves will be
tested.
Once a man he came to say to
Muhammad, and
he said, I love you.
And the prophet said to him, prepare for
poverty.
He said, I love Allah. He said, prepare
to be tested.
What's the difference?
I'm asking you, I don't know. I'm just
a convert from Oklahoma.
But, like,
why would he say if you love Allah?
Of course, like adhering to the prophetic life
may put us in situations where we may
be compromised.
And we may have to struggle and sacrifice
a little. It doesn't mean ask for poverty,
but it means just like, if you're gonna
go down this road man,
you may suffer.
Anyone who lives a prophetic life
has to be tested in their family like
Adam.
They have to be made fun of like
Noah.
They have to be isolated like Yusuf.
They have to walk through the metaphoric fire
like Ibrahim.
Right? They have to
stand and face power like Musa.
They have to be ridiculed and slandered like
Sayeda Mariam and Sayeda Yusuf.
They have to be disowned by their people
maybe,
like Sayeda Isa.
And they may have to migrate like Sayeda
Muhammad.
Sallallahu alaihi wa sallam, like prophethood isn't necessarily
easy. Right? The office of prophethood.
I said maybe. Yes? Is this
only referring to hardship in the conventional sense,
but also on the flip side of being
tested with wealth, with fame, with prestige.
So
we'll we'll get to that. So
with within the prophetic sphere we're talking about
poverty. He could also meant poverty to God.
Some Ulema said you know, when the prophet
said oh Allah raise me with the poor
doesn't mean poor, means those who felt
in need of Allah.
Fakr. So one of the stations is faqar.
Iftakar
to Allah.
The second thing he said is, I love
Allah.
And the prophet
said, be ready to be tested.
What do you think
that means?
Yes, sir? It could possibly mean that, you
know, whether it comes
whether it's just a word saying the fucking
Allah or whether the person
person. Yeah. You're gonna make the right choices
that,
you know, don't create a contradiction in what
you've said.
To love Allah means to live
a a life of purpose.
Okay?
Quran says, what do you say what you
don't do?
Yes?
Yeah. Right? Every day
has that constant effort of improvement.
Beautiful.
I'm a let you guys think about that
because of of time I don't wanna keep
you,
too long Insha'Allah.
Another sign of the love of Allah
is that we remember Allah.
Prophet said
Okay. Maqal,
you know, like, increase your remembrance of God,
and God will love you.
Another sign of of the love of Allah
is loving to meet Allah.
Man, that's tough.
When Abu Bakr
gave
Sayidna Omar this really powerful advice about, you
know, being equitable,
treating the poor kindly,
don't giving in to the rich,
you know, a lot of really powerful kind
of nasiha.
He said to him at the end, the
last thing Abba Baqarah said to him was,
if you have lived what I've told you,
you will love to die.
But if you don't, you will hate to
die.
Like how he ties it into
like activism as being
not just simply corporal,
like it has a spiritual
output.
And of course, you know, the famous hadith
of the prophet,
man ahabbaliqa
Allah, ahabbalahu liqa'a.
Whoever would love to meet god,
god will love to meet them.
That doesn't mean that we wish for death.
We know the
like
nobody should wish for death.
Most scholars said what that means is nobody
should wish for death because of the hardships
around them.
And nobody should seek death in general.
But to have a hope to meet God,
that's a good thing.
That's why sayin Ibrahim,
when Malakomot came to
him, when the angel of death came to
sayin Ibrahim, Imam Khortubi mentions
that satan Ibrahim, he said,
like, what?
And he was like, I've I've come to
take your soul.
And then he said,
like you would love to take the soul
of your friend.
So then Allah inspired the angel and said,
tell him what kind of friend would hate
to meet his friend.
And of course, like being able to be
in that place
means to live a fulfilled life.
Like a faithful life
is a fulfilling experience. It just takes some
time. You gotta have some keto flu.
I'm doing keto if you can't tell. It's
tough, man.
Bring on the butter, man.
Anyways,
but I got a baby on the way.
I gotta be fit. You know what I
mean?
Chase her
around.
So
thank God for me. But but,
there's gonna be like stages of ups and
downs.
And that's why Allah says
like if what you say is true, if
you're really the beloved of God, then you
should hope for death, but you will live
forever.
The next,
is to be socially just.
And and to not see through the lenses
of
think of a word
that will
through the material,
not to get caught up in, like, human
constructions as much as possible.
So there's a number of really powerful examples
of this. Huthayfah ibn Utbah
was a Sahabi. He was from the Quraysh.
And his sister, she married their freed slave.
After they became Muslim, they freed their slaves.
Salem, he was an Arab. So she they
ask her like, who are you gonna marry?
She's like Salem. They're like, okay.
Hosefa was like, no problem.
Of course the Quraysh
still had some baggage.
Right? And this is a very cosmopolitan
community for that time. So they began to
like talk.
You know, like you know who she married,
stuff like that.
You know, they could've married someone else. Blah
blah blah blah.
And,
they finally approached him.
And they asked him like,
how did you marry Fatima,
been to Utbah,
to sell him?
You know their Islam was still they were
still a little drunk with dunya.
Still a little tipsy.
So he said,
I heard the prophet sallallahu alaihi wasallam say
He said I heard the prophet sali alaihi
wa sallam say,
whoever would like to look at a man
who loves Allah with the entirety of his
heart should look at sali.
And they got quiet.
But it should force us to look at
the world in a different way. Not to
be naive in in like, you know, make
bad decisions, of course.
But not to get caught up in the
cult of consumption. Like I believe it's like,
must have to buy at used clothes stores.
Like seriously man.
I think we have to start framing our
spirituality in like really serious acts that are
going to preserve community. I wrote an article
yesterday upon Instagram, how not to be a
gentrifier.
Like what good is our faith if all
we talk about is stuff in the our
faith is in the clouds, man. We have
like an endless amount of space with Amazon
on face cloud.
Like, when are we going to like apply
it to real issues in our cities and
where we live so that people find value?
We still ride on
the
you know, accolades of the black Muslim community
in America who got us social capital
through Malcolm
and through the NOI.
How do we recalibrate
to solve and answer real issues?
Here's one.
Like everyone in this room knows you're scared
to say who you want to marry.
A lot of people are like that.
For issues that are not religious.
I get it a lot from people.
Sadim is like
low end of the totem pole.
Economically,
he has no family,
but
And also like they matched. Right? There was,
you know, obviously the other,
you know, just to find someone. Do you
love Allah? Okay. Let's go. No. No.
That'll be a problem also. But there there
was an affinity that they knew each other
and they were compatible. And then they
loved each other for the sake of Allah.
Another sign is to love service.
To be service oriented.
Allah subhanahu wa ta'ala said
The people in Medina loved people who migrated
to Medina.
They they they had Ithar. How do you
translate Ithar Ishaq?
Like, they preferred others to themselves.
They they they were able to serve.
The next is,
what if I'm a sinner? You know? Like,
I'm listening to this or I'm watching this.
And I I talked about, I love doctor
Sherman Jackson says like, people's Islam is here
and their lives are here.
You know, but we wanna try to
create wellness and a holistic life.
A life of sin, a life of obedience.
That's how it is.
But when Nuaiman,
who is a companion of the prophet, and
he had a substance abuse issue.
So, he continually would get in trouble. Like
he would come to the mosque, basically he
would come to the mosque lit.
Like it's in it's in the narrations. Like
it's in Bukhary.
He would come to the mosque
intoxicated,
but he would always ask for the prophet.
Because he knew
that's where redemption lies.
That's why I can eventually be healed.
And one time, Nuhayman,
he came
to the mosque of the prophet sallallahu alaihi
wa sallam and he was intoxicated
and they punished him. And then the Sahaba
began to ridicule him.
As though like they discredited the sinner, like
we discredit sinners.
Sometimes you need the sinner to remind you
of Allah's mercy.
So the prophet sallallahu alaihi wa sallam said,
latafalu,
like don't do that to him.
He
loves Allah,
And he loves his messenger.
So all of us fall into mistakes, and
all of us are going to have our
moments of success, and we're going to have
our moments of failure.
That doesn't necessarily mean that we don't love
Allah or love his messenger.
We're just going through a moment.
The next is
struggling
for the objective of our love. That's a
sign.
The idea of like sins,
not meaning I don't love Allah, or if
I see a sinner, I shouldn't judge that
person. Oh, they don't love Allah.
Don't do that to him. He loves Allah
and his messenger.
Man, imagine imagine what the prophet just taught
them. Like, this is the ultimate religious community.
This is the best generation. This is the
sunnah.
This is Sahaba.
And he's telling them like,
don't destroy this person. There's another narration he
said,
don't let shaitan destroy him.
Like, don't go too hard on him,
because you're gonna break him.
The next is to struggle
for what we love.
Imam Zarook, he said
meaning, like, if you cling to what takes
you somewhere, it'll take you there.
That's how you translate it.
So he's saying, like, if you love Allah,
if I love Allah, then if I know
what Allah loves, we talked about the first
step,
then I'm gonna work on that.
And we talked about this before, you don't
have to have a special feeling man.
Like it's not about a special feeling. If
Imam Malik said, if Allah has guided you
to stand in front of him, like that's
enough for you to know like,
the relationship is there. Imagine like if our
relationships with our our spouses were based on
feelings.
So you go home, you sit with your
wife,
you're watching, I don't know whatever,
Birds Eye, whatever that show is.
Bird Box.
You're watching Bird Box, man. And then you're
like, I don't think you love me. What?
I don't know, I don't feel anything.
What's wrong with you? You wanna feel something?
Get some
go get some ice cream or something,
like, but we've made our relationship with God,
we're like, if I don't feel anything inside,
then like obviously then God doesn't love me,
like,
it's No.
But
sometimes that happens, sometimes it doesn't happen.
But the fact that
presence is there
is everything.
We'll hit the next steps maybe in the
future, but
let's also talk about being lovers.
It's a reciprocal thing.
And there's this cool thing online. If you
take the word empathy, you can turn it
into this really nice acronym.
And it really hits like 7 areas of
being
someone of love.
The first is when we're around people we
should enlist our faculties.
We should pay attention.
Allah says, like people benefit from the Quran
who listen and their heart is present.
They throw
like I threw my hearing. It's rhetoric.
And like I threw it over there to
be right up on you.
So the first is like I enlist my
faculties.
I'm there, man. I'm present.
Number 3 is that I move in physically,
emotionally, and verbally.
Yes?
You said what's number 2? Number 2, sorry.
It's been a long day.
1st is enlist You guys are listening?
1st, enlist your faculties.
Make sure to prepare yourself for the moment.
Yes, sir.
Yeah.
Pay that toll.
Number 2 and and we know that Satan
Anna said when people talk to the prophet,
he listened to them.
Alaihi Salam.
Even
he's saying things to the prophet that are
super offensive. And the prophet's quiet,
quiet, quiet. And then when he finishes, he
says,
did you finish?
Even after he said some ratchetness,
he said to him, are you done talking?
Then you read
The second is
to move into that situation
using my my physical presence.
Like people know I value them. Right?
My verbal expressions,
and then internally
like valuing people.
We'll just do a few.
If for some reason,
we need like, it's normal. Ask,
but ask like caring questions.
Ask questions that show understanding and
and investment and value.
Not the question like, I know I wasn't
listening, so let me ask a question to
make it sure like I was listening. Then
it's all It just gets ugly after that.
Right? But like,
if I've been listening, then I'm gonna care,
so I ask caring questions.
When the prophet sallallahu alaihi wasallam
notices Bilal,
he says,
in my dream
I saw your footsteps in Jannah in front
of me. Like, what are you doing? It's
like a very caring question.
The next is to think deliberately
about that person.
Like how can I bring deliberate value to
that situation?
It doesn't mean I have to agree with
them by the way. I can be an
interloker and still bring value to people.
The 5th,
5, 4,
help in meaningful ways.
The prophet said,
Allah will help you as long as you
help people.
Doesn't mean grandiose moments of help, it could
be very simple things, but
there's a lot of Barakah.
Be ready in the last
to yield your convenience,
pride, and resources.
We missed one actually. We'll go back to
it because empathy.
Okay.
Alright.
I said a ask carrying questions.
Oh.
Somebody
didn't follow the acronym.
No. I'm just joking.
Let me yield in my compassion.
Oh, it's gonna be like that. Pastor Grace
and empty his bombs. Alright. Alright. We'll go.
Number 1, enlist your faculties. Right? Number 2,
move into the situation completely.
Number 3, pray.
And that's p like pray to Allah. Helps
you be of an asset to people.
So e,
my internal faculties are there.
And 2, my physical,
my verbal, and my emotional presence is there.
So e and m, move.
Enlist, move. 3rd, pray.
I remember one time, there's a great Sheikh
Sheikha Abdul Fattah Buhuda.
If anybody here is from Syria, she researched
Sheikh
He's from the great scholars from Syria. He's
a teacher of one of our teachers,
And, he came to Canada. His family lives
in Canada. Ibrahim, his son, although he likes
the Toronto Raptors, may Allah guide him and
forgive him.
And you'll see Insha'Allah. You know, we all
make Again, we all it's up and down.
Right?
But one time the sheikh, he doesn't speak
English, and there was an auntie.
She came to him and she was like
telling the people around sheikh, Sheikh had like
a really nice presence about him, you know.
From halib, mashallah.
And she's like, I need to talk to
him. I have to talk to him. I
need to talk to him. Right? Like she's
bothering people. And he noticed her
and he said like, who's this person? He
said, I don't know man. This lady like
He said, no no.
I'll talk to her. And they're like, you
don't speak English. He's like, no you'll translate.
So, one of the guys he translated and
she was saying to him like, I lost
my son to
a chemical addiction.
And Sheikh is coming from a place where
he he can't really imagine that. Right? It's
from a small area,
but then he just started crying.
And then she said, why is he crying?
And he was like, because I don't know
how to help you, but I cry to
Allah to help you.
Like that's what I can do, like I
can give that to you. That's what I
can do. I don't know how to rectify
the situation, so I'm a But this is
what I can do.
So the idea of like praying that no
matter where we are,
we can be of some kind of help
to that person.
And not also burdening ourselves in a way
where maybe we can't be of assistance. Right?
But what I can do,
I'll give you.
You know?