Sulayman Van Ael – The Divine Names 11
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AI: Transcript ©
By the grace of Allah, we will continue
our journey through the world of the Divine
Names.
And our scholars always differ about which knowledge
is the best knowledge, which knowledge should one
start with.
And everybody seems to be saying, you have
to start with me.
The Fuqaha say you have to start with
Fiqh, so that you know how to worship
the one you worship.
People of Tafsir, they say you need to
start with Tafsir.
Otherwise you can't understand the language of the
one you worship.
And the people of Hadith say no, wait,
you need to start with Hadith.
Because otherwise you don't understand the one who
invites you to the one you worship.
And others say no, you need to start
with Arabic.
So at the end, everybody says, what is
going on, where do we need to start?
Well, to be quite frank, without any doubt,
like Imam Siddiq Hassan Khan Al-Qinudi said
in his book Nail Maram, he said, and
the value of the study is connected to
the subject that you are studying.
So when we are studying the names of
Allah, the subject is the names of Allah.
So we can't say that there is anything
better than studying the names of Allah.
And as I said at the very beginning,
that I found it very strange, after becoming
a Muslim, that the majority of Muslims didn't
memorise the names of Allah.
And the strangest thing is that sometimes I
have students for a very long time, and
they hear me saying this over and over
again, and when I ask them five months
later, do you now know the names of
Allah?
They say no.
And this is really very, very dangerous.
Why?
Because knowledge, you know when the police stops
you in America, the cops, and they say
everything you say can be used against you
in the court of law.
Well, this is the same.
Everything which you are being told can be
used against you in the court of law.
Where the Messenger of Allah s.a.w.
said about that someone will not move his
feet until he is asked about four things
in another riwayah, five things.
And one of these things was, وَعَنْ عِلْمِهِ
وَمَاذَا عَمِلَ بِهِ And he will be asked
about his knowledge, about his knowledge and what
he did with his knowledge.
Either it was to show off, either it
was to forget and ignore it, or either
it was to put it into practice.
That's all what people do with knowledge.
Either it's to boast, say look at what
I know, one hadith, two ayat, here I
am.
I know three names of scholars, look at
me, listen to me.
Or either you're just forgetting it, like you
come to a class and you go away
and never give it a second thought, or
you put it into practice.
So this is what knowledge is about.
And knowledge is, when you go to circles
of knowledge like you are doing today, then
you don't come for the teacher.
You know, sometimes I had teachers who, when
they spoke, were quite boring.
The way they talk is like very monotone,
right?
Like, yes, and then you need to be
afraid of fire, and then you need to
go to paradise.
It doesn't matter how they say it.
Today, we want imams to be rock stars.
We want them to move us.
We want, you know, to have the feeling,
I just went to a concert, look at
the sheikh, you know, moving his hands, which
is not wrong, but I mean what you
are coming for is the essence, the core.
And that is what is being said.
So now when you come to the dars,
you are telling yourself, I'm going to a
tree, and this tree bears many fruits, and
I want some of these fruits.
I don't want a tree.
Like Imam Al-Ghazali said in his book,
من نهاج العابدين إلى جنة رب العالمين He
made very clear that knowledge is a tree,
and the deeds are its fruits.
And you don't want a tree for the
trunk.
You want a tree for its fruits.
Okay?
So now to come back, the most important
knowledge, without any single doubt, is learning who
Allah is.
This is the most important thing.
And without this, everything goes wrong.
Because now if you, for example, you believe
in certain rules that if you cross a
red light, then you will be fined, right?
You say it like this, be fined?
But you know if there are no cameras
and no police, and it's in a road
very far from central London, you look left
and right and say, whatever, I don't care.
Because the only reason why you stop is
because you don't want to fine, or because
you don't want to put people in danger.
And then you just go.
Because you know they cannot see you at
certain moments in time.
But when you know Allah SWT, there is
no moment where you can say, I won't
be fined.
But the strange thing is that some people,
they respect the law to a point, which
is good, to a point where even if
they were to be in the desert and
find a red light, they would stop.
Out of principle.
So can we then say that people respect
a red light more than we respect Haram?
This is the question we should ask ourselves.
When you drive your car and you see
this iron made sign, and how do you
call that?
When you have to...
No?
Please help me out.
No, when the road you want to take
is blocked.
Diversion, yes.
Subhanallah, you know sometimes, some days my English
is better than others, today it's my worst
day.
So, diversion, right?
And so I see no one saying, you
know what, it says diversion because danger for
rocks falling down on your head and snowballs
dropping from the sky.
You will say, okay, I believe this iron
sign.
It's made out of iron.
Without any explanation, you say diversion.
Without giving it a second thought, you do
it.
Now Allah SWT says, don't go this way,
go that way.
Sorry Rabbi, not now, and you go.
So are people now stronger in holding on
to stoplights and stop signs than we are
to halal and haram?
So what is going wrong?
Why do we know so much and why
is our crisis doing so little?
This is the first question we need to
ask because I believe that everybody has the
sincere feeling of wanting to put his or
her knowledge into practice.
I don't believe that there is a Muslim
who says, okay, I don't care doing haram
unless he's very far away from Allah.
We all yearn to be transformed.
We all desire to get to somewhere.
Being it praying on time, being it memorizing
the Qur'an, being it controlling your anger,
being it whatever that you are aspiring for.
And what is the reason that you cannot
do it because, not you in particular, but
why we cannot do it is because we
haven't got sufficient knowledge of Allah.
That's the only reason.
If the knowledge of Allah is there, then
you will find the energy and the taqwa
to do what he wants and to leave
what he forbids.
Because fiqh are dry rulings.
If they are not connected to a bigger
reason, then they are just, this is allowed
and this isn't.
I don't mind breaking hearts because that person
is weaker than I am.
So let me just shout at my wife,
make her cry, stress my children out because
I had a bad day.
I don't care.
Who will do something?
That's my wife, that's my child.
For example, you can also maybe have a
wife that says, I don't care about my
husband.
I do what I want.
So what is going to control us?
What is going to bring this ummah back
on track?
It's not the rules.
Because the rules are being taught the rules.
It is being taught how to please Allah
through these rulings.
And only then, when we know it's not
for the sake of the rule, but it's
for the sake of the ruler, that we
will be able to live up to these
standards and norms.
So a lack of knowledge of Allah subhanahu
wa ta'ala is the very reason, the
very reason why everything is going wrong.
Why we don't find enough energy to put
our knowledge into practice.
Why we keep on gossiping.
If you don't know that Allah is a
Sameer, or you forget it, or it's not
encrusted in your heart, then Allah is Sameer,
but I gossip anyway.
Allah is Basir, but I show deeds that
I shouldn't.
Allah is Al-Khabir, He knows what is
in my mind, but I still think what
I want to think.
My own thoughts, sometimes very bad.
So if we know Allah, then everything, everything
will be fine.
And this is why Ibn Ajeeba said in
his book Iqad Al-Himam, he said, مَن
دَلَّكَ عَلَى الْعَمَلِ فَقَدْ أَتْعَبَكَ وَمَن دَلَّكَ عَلَى
الدُّنْيَا فَقَدْ غَشَكَ وَمَن دَلَّكَ عَلَى اللَّهِ فَقَدْ
أَرْشَدَكَ He said, مَن دَلَّكَ عَلَى الْعَمَلِ فَقَدْ
أَتْعَبَكَ The one that shows you the way
to deeds, the only thing he did is
exhausting you.
Because you see, there are so many deeds
one can do.
Praying at night, praying Witr, Sorry, Witr for
Hanafis is Wajibah.
So praying Duhaa prayer, fasting on Monday and
Thursday, memorizing Qur'an, visiting the Sikh.
I can't do all of this.
So now, Allah, why did I say this?
What was the sentence that preceded this?
Is there a cat?
Okay.
So he said, the one that shows you
the way to deeds has exhausted you.
Meaning, you will be performing these deeds and
they will stress you out.
You should know that if you do something
for a beloved one, it's never stress.
You're never tired.
If your beloved one says, like you just
got married, first two days, and you just
came home, she says, Oh, I really wanted
a pizza.
And you say, okay, I will give her.
No, not the one from behind the corner,
the one 100 miles away.
You say, darling, no problem, I will go
right now, even 200 miles.
You want me to go to Belgium, I
come back.
So why?
Because when you're driven by love, you don't
feel the burden.
You see?
So if now we feel the burden of
worship, Oh yeah, I got to wake up
for Fajr tomorrow.
Okay, no problem, I will do it.
We're driven by something else.
We're driven by fear, by being fined.
It's like stopping in front of the red
light because there is a cop.
That's it.
That's nothing.
You're driven by not a real emotion.
So now, he says, People that keep on
repeating, Do this, do that, do this, do
that, do this, do that.
They forget that we are human beings.
Because we will get tired because we're focused
on the deed.
And the energy is being focused on the
Lord of Deeds.
Subhanahu wa ta'ala.
And so then he said, And the one
that shows you the way to do dunya,
He has betrayed you.
Because you will find no happiness.
So behind focus on deeds, you will find
exhaustion.
Behind focusing on dunya, you will find betrayal.
And the one that shows you the way
to Allah, Has truly and sincerely advised you.
Because if you concentrate on Allah, deeds will
follow.
And this is what Imam Al-Ghazali said
in a book that should be read by
everybody.
It was his last book.
And he dictated this book.
So he didn't write it himself.
At the end of his life, when Imam
Al-Ghazali went back to Tuls, He had
his own garden.
And within that garden, he had built a
house for his students.
And then they would sit there, sleep there,
eat there.
And in his last period, Imam Al-Ghazali
would concentrate a lot on hadith.
Because he said about himself, like in Haya
Al-Madin, I don't have a large provision
of hadith.
Meaning it was not his strongest branch.
But then at the end of his life,
he started studying Sahih Muslim, Sunan Abi Dawood
and so forth.
So anyway, and this was his last book.
Min hajul abideen ila jannati rabbil alameen.
And he dictated this book.
And he said, the first thing Allah SWT
said in the Qur'an, One of the
things Allah SWT said, Fa'alam annahu la
ilaha illallah wa istaghfir.
Know that Allah is One.
And then do istighfar.
Meaning, first there is knowledge, then there is
action.
And this is why Imam At-Tabari mentioned
in his Tafsir about the verse, Wa ma
khalaqtul jinna wal-insa illa liya'budoon.
I have only created jinn and mankind, but
to worship me, Ali radiallahu anhu said that
the meaning of worship me, here means illa
liya'budoon, illa liya'rifooni.
I have only created them to know me.
But in the Arabic language, sometimes we use
a verb to get to something else.
Meaning to know me and knowledge of me
will eventually lead to worshipping me.
Because you can't worship without knowledge.
If you don't know who Allah is, you
can't worship.
So when Allah said, I have created them
to worship me, meaning they first knew him
and then they worshipped him.
Because worshipping that which you don't know, you
can't worship it.
So the stronger your knowledge is of Allah
SWT, the stronger your worship will become.
Is that clear?
But now when we look at the names
of Allah SWT, our ulema have categorised these
names.
And all in different ways, Imam al-Qurtubi
categorised them and so many other scholars.
But what they agree upon is that we
categorise them in two general categories.
One is Asma'ul Jalal and the other
ones are Asma'ul Jamal.
Asma'ul Jalal and Asma'ul Jamal.
The first ones are the ones of majesty
and the other ones are of beauty.
But they're all beautiful.
So they're not trying to say some are
beautiful, some aren't.
Meaning the names like the crusher, the punisher,
the one that takes things down, the one
that prevents you from having what you like,
the one that doesn't give you what you
want, you see.
The strong one, the great one.
This is Asma'ul Jamal.
And then on the other hand, we have
Asma'ul Jamal, like al-Wadud, the giver
of love, al-Ghafoor, al-Tawwab, the forgiver,
the protector, and so forth.
These are Asma'ul Jamal.
One of the reasons why we don't connect
to Allah is because, look, we have three
things, right, to plug this in.
You know these plugs.
If I put only two in, will it
work or not?
Does it or not?
If I put one in?
Okay, good, one.
In Belgium we have two.
We don't have three.
You drive on the wrong side, you have
three instead of two.
So let us say you have two, right?
And you just put one in, it won't
work.
We want to connect to Allah just through
Asma'ul Jamal.
I want to see Allah in my life
as the one that takes care of me,
the one that protects me, the one that
gives me, the one that elevates me in
rank, the one that forgives me, that is
never angry with me, the one that blesses
me, doesn't take away my blessings, just gives
me what I want.
Actually we want to be a spoiled brat
with regards to Allah.
That's it.
On the other hand, Asma'ul Jamal, no,
it's not for me, it's for other people.
I never get punished.
Allah will never take away something I have
and I like.
Allah will never prevent me from something I
love.
Then I don't Allah.
And we see this in our attitude.
Ya Allah, why?
Why this, ya Rabbi, I wanted that.
You see?
And this is why we don't connect to
Allah.
These 99 names are your keys to divine
presence, to divine nearness.
And if you start to be picky, cherry
-picking, like okay, here a bit, I want
this name with that, then what are we
doing?
If Allah is all, if all these names
describe us who Allah is, then eventually this
will be manifested in our lives.
This will be manifested in our lives.
Sometimes He will take away what we love,
sometimes He might not allow us to, He
will not even answer our prayer.
He doesn't have to.
You see?
He doesn't have to.
So now what we need to know, if
you are travellers on the path to the
Hereafter, we need to be ready to accept
all the godly divine names in our life.
And as long as we hate, not the
name, because we're never going to say, I
hate the name, but the manifestation of the
name.
There where we say, why?
Why couldn't it be different?
Why did it need to happen to me?
We all do this.
But now we are aware that this is
wrong.
Is that clear?
He can't even crawl, but he's moving forward,
sitting.
That's my son.
Say Shukran Ya Rabbi.
Why?
He's laughing.
Okay, so, do you understand what I'm trying
to say?
So we have the Asma'ul Jamal, and
we have Asma'ul Jalal and Jamal.
Jalal and Jamal.
So these names have to be present in
our lives.
The problem is, when there is a blessing,
we recognize these names.
When the opposite happens, we say, this is
life.
SubhanAllah.
While that which happened was a way for
Allah to make us know Him.
Through the happenings of life.
Wa taqullaha wa yu'allimukumullah, says Allah in
Surah Al-Baqarah.
And fear Allah, be God conscious.
And you will, what?
And you will be taught by Allah.
SubhanAllah.
So, not even revelation.
Fear Allah, wa yu'allimukumullah, and Allah will
teach you.
SubhanAllah.
Direct teaching.
What is this?
The Divine Names.
So now we need, and this is dangerous.
Why?
Because the moment you say, I will accept
these names, you expose yourself to danger.
But a danger wherein you are protected.
Nobody ever said that knowing Allah is easy.
I mean, you are trying to plug in
into a world unseen.
Landscapes not yet discovered.
Depths unknown.
Shallows far away.
How are we going to move through this
world unseen?
Protection of Allah, subhanAllah.
So today, we need to, it's going to
drop the camera.
Today, we need to tell ourselves that we
are going to accept all names of Allah,
subhanAllah.
And that we are not just going to
be pleased with the beautiful names, but also
with the manifestation of His other names.
Because one of the scholars said, don't you
dare to gossip about Allah.
He said, how can we gossip about Allah?
He said, by complaining to people what the
Creator does in your life.
This is what we do.
This is what we, the majority of Muslims,
do.
We complain to people about what happens in
life.
But when we disconnect what happens in life,
the bad things, then we don't find the
energy and the positive vibes to carry on.
We will become depressed.
Because we detach it from its maker.
We say, oh, why did they do this?
Why did they take away my, I don't
know, my honour, my life, why did they
stab me in the back?
I helped them all the time, this, that.
The more Allah loves you, the more He
will turn people against you.
Because He wants you for Himself.
When Allah loves you, then everything which is
between you and Him, He will take it
away.
If you like it or not, He will
take it away.
Because it's your fitna.
So when He loves you, He doesn't want
you to give this love to someone else.
And this is why we protect our beloved
ones through love for Allah.
Loving for Allah's sake.
He accepts this.
You love this for Allah's sake, it will
last.
And this is why they say, مَا كَانَ
لِلَّهِ نعم دَامَ وَالتَّصَلْ وَمَا كَانَ لِغَيْرِهِنْ قَطَعَ
وَانْفَصَلْ That which is for Allah, dama, will
last, wattasal, and will stay connected.
وَمَا كَانَ لِغَيْرِهِ And that which is for
others than Him, for others' sake, in qata
'a, it will be disconnected, or it will
be broken and disconnected.
Friendships, why do they end?
It's not lillah.
Marriages, very often, why do they end?
It's not lillah.
Because if something is lillah, you will adhere
to what Allah wants you to do in
a particular situation, and then it can only
last.
Even if you are the one that wronged
others, and you say, this is what Allah
says, this is what the Prophet says, you
say, this is lillah.
I am wrong.
You are right.
How can you go in your stubbornness against
what you know to be right according to
Allah?
This is where fiqh rules, and so forth.
So now, when you are on your way
to Allah, Allah will take in the way
many things.
You just need to be prepared.
Look at our Prophet, alaihissalam.
Away from his country.
Khadija, radiyallahu anha, taken away.
All his sons died very early.
All his daughters, apart from Fatima, lost them
in his life.
Uncle, gone.
Father, gone.
Mother, gone.
Country, gone.
Honor, not for the Muslims, but in public,
they tried to take it away.
Honor of his wife, away.
Money, gone.
Health, they hurt his noble faith.
So what was left?
Allah.
Allah.
And this is why when the Prophet, alaihissalam,
was with Abu Bakr in the cave, and
Abu Bakr said, they will see us, ya
Rasulullah.
Of course, Abu Bakr was frightened.
This is a natural fear.
Some people say, don't you dare to fear
others apart from Allah.
Well, fear is something healthy.
If we don't have fear, then I will
be warming water in my hands over a
fire.
And I say, I wait until it heats.
I don't fear pain.
So fear is something good.
But fear which is haram is a fear
that will allow you to do haram.
Is that clear?
But normal fear is, so anyway.
So now Abu Bakr, he said, they will
see us, ya Rasulullah.
And then the Prophet, alaihissalam, said, Ya Abu
Bakr, he said, O Abu Bakr, don't be
afraid.
Ma zannuka, what is your thought?
Ma zannuka, bithnayni Allahu thalithuhuma.
About two of whom Allah is the third.
You see this?
So when you are with Allah subhanahu wa
ta'ala, like Ibn Rajab rahim Allah mentioned
in his Jamil Uloom Al-Hikam, he attributed
this to one of the Salihin.
He said, amma ba'd in kana Allahu ma
'aka famanta khaf wa in kana wa in
lam yakun ma'aka famanta rujoo.
And if Allah is with you, who do
you fear?
And if he's against you, in who do
you put your hope?
So now you need to know, on your
way to Allah, he might take away what
you love.
Just look at the Prophet, alaihissalam.
Did you see what I just mentioned?
He's not the only one.
Nuh alaihissalam lost his son in Kuf and
his wife in Kuf.
His wife didn't follow.
The wife of Lut neither.
Allah subhanahu wa ta'ala says that they
went to hellfire.
Look at Yusuf alaihissalam, he lost everything.
His father, his mother, at the very beginning,
his father was alive of course, and then
his brother put him in a well, then
he was sold as a slave, then he
was falsely accused, then he was in prison.
All of this.
He lost everything.
Until Allah gave him back everything.
You see this?
So this is why we need to be
prepared.
If you want to know Allah, then you
have to allow him to be who he
is.
Not allow him in your heart, because he
will be who he is.
Is that clear?
And that's very difficult.
Because at a certain point you know that
you have to let go.
That you don't control all the strings in
life.
And don't disconnect ever.
Because then you will be weak.
Then you will despair.
Don't disconnect any affliction in your life from
Allah.
Don't look at the hand that moves, but
at the power that makes the hand move.
Otherwise, Wallahi, you will despair.
Is that clear?
So now, when we know this, so that
we need to have a look at, that
we need to know Allah through the Asma
'ul Jalali, and Asma'ul Jamali.
Yes?
Then we will get to Allah.
Otherwise, we won't.
Imagine yourself, and this is just an example.
You come to someone and he says, can
you please turn?
You say, why?
I only want to talk to your right
side, not to your left.
You say, brother, if you like me, you
love all about me.
No, I don't like your nose.
Cover your nose, please.
So you start saying, this I like, this
I don't.
It's not physically the same, of course.
But we are picky.
Ya Rabbi, don't manifest your power in my
life.
Don't manifest that you are the taker.
That you are the ruler.
That you are the one that sometimes doesn't
give me what I like.
Because then I will disconnect it from you.
No.
Connect it to the one.
SubhanAllah wa ta'ala.
Is this clear?
And to the one, this is the name
that we are going to talk about today.
The one.
The one.
Well, Al-Ahad and Al-Wahid.
Al-Ahad and Al-Wahid are two different
things.
The first thing we need to know when
we say Al-Wahid, the one, or Al
-Ahad, it's not a numeric one.
It doesn't mean one, two, three.
And this is why the Messenger of Allah,
or even in the Qur'an, but the
Messenger of Allah ﷺ said, he is the
first one and the last one.
What does it mean the first one and
the last one?
There's nothing in between.
He's the only one.
There's no competition.
He's unique.
He's the one.
Al-Wahid.
And you have Al-Ahad.
Al-Ahad and Al-Wahid.
Allah.
So the first thing we need to know
when we look at Al-Wahid is that
Ahlus Sunnah divided Al-Wahid, the oneness of
Allah.
So I'm talking about the oneness of Allah
into three categories.
The oneness in His being, the oneness in
His deeds, and the oneness in His attributes.
So this is a oneness of Allah.
The first thing which is incredible when you
look at the oneness of His attributes.
Like Allah has knowledge, right?
We say Allah has knowledge.
But His knowledge is one.
Meaning He knows everything at the same time.
He always knew it and never forgot it.
And He knows everything in all its possible
combinations.
How many hairs you have in your beard
and I have in mine.
And then how many hairs in your eyebrows
you have.
And then how many teeth Laith has in
his mouth.
All possible combinations He knows them at once
without having to figure it out or to
count it.
Because everything is in His dominion.
So when you speak about the oneness, you
don't only speak about the oneness of His
being, but the oneness of everything.
He doesn't have two knowledges.
He doesn't have two powers.
If I want to now take Laith, then
I will have to stop doing what I'm
doing.
Sorry guys, my son is about to fall
down.
So I go, I take him, then I
come back.
I'm always divided between things.
And I can't concentrate on one thing.
Multitasking only goes this far.
Allah subhanahu wa ta'ala does everything at
the same time.
And for Him there is no time.
So this is, when we speak about oneness,
it's something incredible.
And this is when we say one, when
we go on a journey, what did the
Messenger of Allah tell us to say?
Allahumma anta sahibu fil safar, wal khalifatu fil
ahl.
SubhanAllah.
O Allah, You are the companion during my
journey, and my protector in my family.
Well, I can't do this.
Either I'm the protector in my family, or
either I'm on a journey.
But He is the protector of the family,
and at the same time, the companion in
the journey.
He can be the one that punishes you
and forgives you at the same time.
He punishes you for this sin, while He
forgives you for that.
SubhanAllah.
His oneness means that He can do everything
at all times without it being divided.
The one subhanahu wa ta'ala.
So now, one of the attitudes one needs
to have towards this name is that we
shouldn't be ego-tripping.
We shouldn't be, you know, directing people to
ourselves.
Here I am is the disease.
And there is a book how the West
became self-obsessed.
It's not by a Muslim.
It's not a hate imam, a hate preacher.
How the West became self-obsessed.
This is the disease that we are coping
with.
If Imam Ghazali would have written Ihya al
-Madin today, it would have been bigger.
Believe me, it would have been bigger.
Because there are new diseases that didn't exist
before.
Now we can invite to ourselves day and
night.
If I look at Muslims today, and I'm
not excluding myself, but in general, Allah, as
I said, I think that 95% of
the Muslims don't memorize the names of Allah.
But here we are, on the internet, inviting
towards ourselves.
Look at my, I always give the example,
look at my cupcake.
Look at my new car.
Look at my child's new shoes.
If it were only this, but even our
Ibadah, we show off with our Ibadah.
This is terrible.
Like here I am, circumambulating around the Kaaba,
with my selfie stick, reminding people of God.
So what are you doing?
Everybody, you know, has seen Hajj before.
The only reason why you do it is
to show your face.
So here I am, yes brothers, Alhamdulillah, I'm
in the best place on earth.
Yes, I see this, that you really understood
it's the best place.
You're still connected to people and not to
God.
So now, then when I'm reading Qur'an,
profile photos, Qur'an, or with my Subhan.
You know, with this pose like, I'm really
deeply thinking and this picture was taken without
me knowing it.
So, I mean, what's going on?
What is going on?
And while we are inviting towards ourselves, we
actually forget to remind people of Allah.
SubhanAllah.
And then I sometimes ask myself, what if
Allah were to ask us, oh my slaves,
why were you reminding people of you while
they were forgetting about me?
That's a Musiba.
That's really a Musiba.
So this is why it is very important
when you believe in the name, the One,
that you don't want to be the One.
You want to work for the One.
This is what it entails, right?
You want to work for the One.
Just when I look at people who are
in MMA for example, everybody wanted to work
for Conor McGregor.
I want to tie his laces.
I want to pour out his drink.
I want to carry his bags.
I want to drive his car.
I want to take his pictures.
Everybody, and he says the notorious me.
Yeah, that's how he calls himself.
So anyway, so everybody wants to be at
his service.
That's why people want to be at the
service of a Shaykh as well.
If a Shaykh doesn't watch out, he will
find people doing everything for him, which he
shouldn't allow.
You know people, they say, can I carry
your bag?
Well then I carry yours.
We're all subjected to the same Lord.
We're all subjected to the same Lord.
Which doesn't mean that we as students, we
can't do this.
I do this for my Shaykh.
So I don't say it's wrong if you
do that for them.
But to come back, we even want to
serve, be at the service of my Shaykh.
And sometimes we're more at service of people
than we are at service for the Lord
of people.
If you truly believe that Allah is the
One, then be proud that you can come
near to Him.
Be proud that you can serve Him.
Be proud that you are from the elite
that can knock His door at any time
and that will be open at all times.
You know, this is an elite, isn't it?
Like when you want to knock the door
of a Hollywood star or a king or
a president, you need months in advance and
you get two minutes.
You get 24 hours if you like.
But we forgot that it's such a big
thing that we even don't care.
When I have spare time, I won't use
it to connect to the One.
Just where is my phone?
Here I am scrolling, looking at what I
can do.
You know, oh, maybe a brother, did they
WhatsApp me?
Oh, they did WhatsApp me.
Why didn't they WhatsApp me?
Okay, let me WhatsApp someone then, you know?
If you have time in your spare time
to be connected to the One, then why
don't you do it?
One minute.
So, one of the attitudes towards the One
is that you show Him that you know
that He is the One.
Meaning that He is everything you need.
You want a shoulder to cry on?
Figuratively speaking, He is the One.
You want to be encouraged?
He is the One.
You want peace of mind?
He is the One.
You want a friendship that will never be
broken unless you break it?
He is the One.
You want a friend that always comes back
even if you turn your back?
He is the One.
Do you want to meet someone who makes
you happy?
He is the One.
So you find everything in Him.
That is what it means, the One.
You want somebody helping you financially?
He is the One.
Protecting you, bodyguard, figuratively speaking?
He is the One.
Teaching you?
He is the One.
Giving you health?
He is the One.
Giving you a child?
He is the One.
He is the One.
You see this?
And the more that you understand that He
is One in all of these things, the
more we will understand our neediness.
How dependent we are.
Because if He is the One, then we
are the nothing.
There can't be two Ones.
And this is why once I...
JazakAllah khairan, thank you so much.
This is why once I asked one of
my mashayikh, I said, sometimes we talk about
Allah SWT, we talk about the Qur'an
and knowledge, and then we scholars or students
of knowledge, we feel that we are zero.
He said, yeah, we are.
He said, when a zero places itself behind
the One, it becomes ten.
When a zero places itself behind the One,
it becomes ten.
And if the Ummah, all these zeros, place
themselves behind the One, they become a billion.
You see this?
As-salamu alaykum.
The problem is he doesn't call yet.
He wants to come to me, but he
can't.
So he is frustrated.
Yes, InshaAllah.
SubhanAllah.
So yeah, the One.
The One is also the One that is
in need of nothing.
Our existence is dependent on two things.
That everything inside of us goes alright, and
everything outside of us goes alright.
If I malfunction on the inside, or if
I am threatened on the outside, my existence
can come to an end.
The One doesn't have this.
He doesn't depend.
His existence is independent.
It doesn't depend on anything.
Because He surpasses time and space.
So if you look at it from this
perspective, then you connect to Allah subhanahu wa
ta'ala knowing that everything you need, you
will find it with Him.
Is that clear?
Everything.
And as long as we don't understand this,
we won't be happy Muslims.
And at the beginning, when we said Asma
'ul Jamali wal Jalal, remember?
If we don't understand this concept, we won't
be happy Muslims.
Do you know that a Muslim is happy?
Today it seems that the more pious you
become, the more saddened you must be.
This is our perception.
It doesn't mean that we don't feel, for
example, for the people in Yemen, for the
people in Palestine.
Yes, that saddens us.
But we have different parts where we are
allowed to rejoice with the blessings of Allah.
So sometimes people think, SubhanAllah, the more pious
I become, the more sad I should appear.
The more I should sit like this.
And how are you brother?
Alhamdulillah.
I mean, the Muslim is happy with his
Lord.
He found what he loves.
If you find what you love, and you
have access to the one you love at
all times, why don't I see these happy
Muslims?
Because we are not connected to Allah, we
are connected to Islam.
We are connected to the rulings, but not
to the ruler.
And then the rules become very harsh, they
become like a mechanism, because we are connected
to the rulings.
And we need to adhere to these rulings,
but we need to connect to the ruler.
So, when did you meet a Muslim?
He says, brother, how are you?
Alhamdulillah.
Oh, what's going on?
You should say Alhamdulillah.
So, Alhamdulillah.
I say, what?
You know, I just realized that I can
talk to Allah anytime.
You know, I was walking, and I looked
at the sky, and I knew that He
gave this color, He made it like this
for us.
And I was sitting down, and I was
digesting my food, and I didn't even know
what was going on.
My heart is beating.
He's doing this for me, while I was
actually sitting five seconds ago.
But when did we see this?
And then the problem is, when we talk,
because we have a certain kind of complex,
we always want to express fear.
Always fear.
Which is not wrong, we need fear.
But like, oh man, hellfire.
But in our heart, you know, once I
said, when people talk a lot about Palestine
or Yemen, for example, may Allah subhanahu wa
ta'ala remove their tragedy, and uplift them,
and restore their peace of mind, and their
peace of land.
And may Allah subhanahu wa ta'ala erase
all these traumas, and strengthen the widows and
the orphans, and help every man that needs
to protect his family.
Now, so I used to say, don't talk
about Palestine, and don't talk about Yemen, until
you, when you are alone in your room,
that you put your alarm clock two at
night, that you cry during the night, and
that you make dua for them, while no
one sees you, even your own wife or
husband, and that this is your night, and
you say Allah strengthen them, Allah please be
with them, Allah ya Rabbi I can't sleep,
it has torn me apart.
If you are like that when you're alone,
then talk on Facebook, otherwise it's fake book.
We need to be true to ourselves.
Because Allah subhanahu wa ta'ala, like the
Messenger sallallahu alayhi wa sallam said, in Sahih
Muslim, يَنظُرُوا إِذَا قُلُوبِكُمْ وَآمَالِكُمْ He looks at
your hearts, and looks at your deeds.
And very often today, we are empty boxes.
Here everything is talking like, but actually there
is, you know, what is on the inside?
How are we connected to Allah subhanahu wa
ta'ala?
This is what it's all about.
So now the one, subhanahu wa ta'ala,
makes us happy as well.
Why?
Because if you know that the one is
in need of no one, why did he
choose you?
Why you?
It's not because your parents are Muslim.
Nope.
No it isn't.
Say yes I'm Muslim thanks to my parents.
Nope.
You're Muslim thanks to Allah, and your parents
were sebab.
If people were Muslims thanks to their parents,
then the son of Nuh would have been
a Muslim.
True?
Yes.
If parents were Muslims thanks to their children,
then the father of Ibrahim would have been
a Muslim.
True?
If women are Muslims thanks to their, what?
To their husbands, then the wife of Nuh
would have been a Muslim, or the wife
of Lut.
And if husbands would have been Muslim thanks
to their wives, then Firaun would have been
a Muslim.
So Allah set all these examples to show
you that your iman is because he loves
you.
Is that clear?
So this is the feeling you need, when
you know that he is the one, and
he doesn't need you, but yet he chose
you, to give you the key to paradise
in your heart.
Wallahi you should jump out of joy.
Just knowing this, doesn't that make you happy?
When you wake up in the morning, with
La ilaha illallah in your heart.
And La ilaha illallah is the key to,
if I were to give you a key
now, and I say brother look, this is
the key, I found a very rich guy
in Saudi, Qatar, why do I mention these
countries?
There are rich people in other countries, right?
Anyway, so Saudi Arabia, the Emirates, Doha, and
so forth.
And he gave me a key to a
palace, a halal palace.
You know, it's a halal key, a halal
palace.
And I will give it to you, you
have your Bentley and your Rolls Royce, and
you have your Jacuzzi, you have waiters working
for you and everything, you can move into
this house in a month.
Here is the key.
And you know it's true.
How will you feel during that month?
Not a day, maybe not an hour will
pass, you know, without you thinking about it,
looking at this key, Allah, Ya Rabbi, almost,
you know, you will be talking about it,
because do you know what they gave me?
Do you know?
You will start doing dawah.
Because you love that.
You remind people of what you love.
This is how it works.
You love something, you talk about it.
Being it football, being it tennis, being it
whatever.
So during that month, you will even dream
about that palace.
Now you woke up with La ilaha illallah
in your heart this morning.
Where was this feeling?
What happened?
Is our faith in His promise so weak
that we do not experience any joy when
we know that He doesn't break His promise?
What happened?
Where is the connection between knowing and feeling?
Where is that connection?
Where has it gone?
And this is where we need to work
on.
We believe, wallahi we believe, but we don't
feel what we truly believe, wallahi.
If we were to feel it 100%, and
I would say, naarullah, the Sahaba radiallahu anhu,
when they heard naarullah, khalaas, boom, they fall
down.
Like Abdullah ibn Saud radiallahu anhu, like Imam
ibn Kathir, Rahimallah mentions in his tafsir that
he was looking at, how do you call
a smith?
You say an iron smith?
Blacksmith.
A blacksmith who, he put a sword in
the oven and it melted away.
It became red and started trembling.
And then Abdullah ibn Saud, he just lost
consciousness.
And then he woke up again.
He said, what's wrong, ya Abdullah ibn Saud?
I said, if iron, which is stronger than
I am, melts away in the heat of
an oven, what about me and naar?
Sometimes people would drink water and they would
start crying.
I said, why do you cry?
He said, because I know that this is
exactly the thing that the people of hellfire
would desire and will never receive.
So these people's hearts were connected to what
they believed in.
And this is our problem.
We want to feel again.
We want to experience again.
We want to be transformed, not only on
the outside, but also on the inside.
How are we going to do this?
Asma'ullah.
Names of Allah.
Names of Allah is the injection we are
in need of.
If it comes into your heart, mashallah, you
will come alive again.
But how now will we allow this to
happen?
Or how will we be sure that there
are no obstacles?
The biggest obstacle between the injection and the
effectiveness of this injection is that you are
free of sin.
That we are free of sin.
And in harmony with the quantity of your
sins or the absence or presence of them,
the names of Allah will transform you more
or less.
So if you really want knowledge to transform
you, then the first thing is repentance.
How are we going to do this?
Well, like Ibn al-Jawzi said, if you
really want to repent and know what's going
on, then lay down in a dark room.
When nobody sees you, when nobody hears you,
lay down, do dhikr of Allah.
Lie down or lay down?
Lie down.
Please, please correct me because I'm not an
English native speaker.
If I say something wrong or something which
is not correct, you have to correct me.
So it's...
If I...
They're both right.
They're both right.
Okay.
Mashallah.
Do you know that the Arabs at the
time, at the beginning when grammar was written
down, they used to engage in literal war
because of these kinds of words.
Even if they say they're both right, one
of them is more right than the other.
Then they would write books about it.
So Alhamdulillah that you scholars are fine.
Both are right.
So then you just lay down, he says,
close your eyes and imagine yourself, the angel
of death now coming to you and saying,
I'm going to take your life in 24
hours.
What are you going to rectify?
Who are you going to tell sorry?
And for what are you going to say
it?
Because everybody has this little voice in his
mind saying, I need to rectify this.
I've wronged someone.
I need to correct it.
But because we're ashamed.
Because, you know, like Imam Ghazali said, if
you had courage enough to go against Allah,
have courage enough to come back to Him.
SubhanAllah.
You see?
Like, if you have had the courage to
sin, well, have the courage to repent.
So these things, we delay them.
And the only reason why we delay them
is because we think that we still have
a long time to live.
If we thought that we were going to
die in an hour, Wallahi, everybody would start
making phone calls.
You would remember things that you have forgotten
right now.
So many things that we need to rectify.
So this is why he said, lay down
on your bed.
Imagine the angel of death coming to you
and saying, you have 24 hours and then
look sincerely at what you would do.
And do it.
And that's difficult.
That's very difficult.
Because we don't want to lose our face.
But the problem is, if we don't lose
our face here, then we lose our hasanat
there.
That's the biggest problem.
The Messenger of Allah said, do you know
the ones who are bankrupt?
They said, no, Rasulullah.
The one who has no dirham and no
dinar.
He said, no.
There are people that will come on the
Day of Judgement and find mountains of hasanat.
Mountains of hasanat.
Many.
He says, okay, I'm in.
He says, but no.
He says, then people will come and they
will take away from his hasanat.
He has gossiped about that one, slandered that
one, didn't give back something to this one,
and so forth.
So he started mentioning sins until all his
hasanat are gone.
But there are still people left.
So now they will start throwing their siyat
in his camp.
And then the Messenger of Allah said, until
he will eventually be thrown into hellfire with
their siyat.
So yes, it's good thinking about all these
hasanat and doing all these good deeds.
But one of the conditions that our scholars
had at the beginning, where there was still
tarbiyah, spiritual education, was you can't reach Allah
if you still have sins you didn't repent
from.
It's impossible.
And this is why very often we want
to go there.
We climb, we climb, we climb, we climb,
without knowing why we fall.
Say, I didn't commit a sin, well, maybe
ten years ago.
You know, like these balloons.
They float and then you take them back.
They float, take them back.
As long as we didn't repent from every
sin, then we won't reach our final destination.
Impossible.
So if you want Allah, you need to
free yourself from these sins.
It's very important.
Because they stop you.
Is that clear?
So that's why if we want this journey
to work, this journey to Allah subhanahu wa
ta'ala, the first thing is to repent
from all our sins.
Even tonight before tomorrow.
The question is at the end.
Even tonight before tomorrow.
Write them down.
Write your sins down.
And don't be ashamed.
Allah knows them already.
Write them all down.
And then you look at the sins that
are between you and creation.
You need to rectify this to start with.
Because the sins between you and Allah, if
you die, Allah can say, I forgive you.
But the sins between you and creation, no
way.
It depends on that person you are on
the Qiyamah.
But believe me, nobody will forgive you on
the Qiyamah.
They are too much in need of your
hasanat.
Okay?
So that's the first thing.
The second thing, if you want these classes
about the names of Allah subhanahu wa ta
'ala to work, then from now on, you
don't talk about creation, about people.
Don't be concerned with what people have to
show on social media.
This is very difficult.
Because it turns into a disease.
Social media is a jungle.
It's a street without an end.
You go for this, it's created in such
a way, they observe what you search for,
what is your interest.
This can be the deen as well.
But then you go from one to another,
and before you know it, you're lost.
So you are going to concentrate on real
people in real life.
The time that you are looking at, oh
poor people, oh these poor sick people, oh
look at that poor boy, sick boy, visit
the sick person in the hospital, for example.
So try to step out of unreal life.
Social media is not real.
It's fake.
Some things are good, but the majority of
things are bad.
So I'm not saying social media is haram.
But it is more bad than good.
Okay?
So that's point number two.
And the last one I want to share
with you is, and it sounds like a
cliche, but dua.
Make a lot of dua.
You know Allah loves dua.
Allah loves it when he is asked.
And the Prophet sallallahu alayhi wa sallam said,
Allah subhanahu wa ta'ala, if he is
not asked, he will become angry.
Allah is angry with the one that don't
ask him.
So the thing you really need to do
is, at night, the last third of the
night, is there where all calls are answered.
Put your alarm clock, two at night, three
at night, you wake up with one goal.
Dua, making or asking Allah, that he allows
you to be connected to him, through his
names.
So let us start with these three things
already.
Repentance, meaning a lot of istighfar.
At the beginning, don't look for too much
other athkar.
Astaghfirullah, astaghfirullah, astaghfirullah, astaghfirullah.
No, try to do a lot of istighfar.
And then secondly what?
Dua, I said the third thing.
Don't concentrate too much on creation.
Don't spend unnecessary time with creation.
So this is in brief, what I want
to say about this.
Are there any questions that you would like
to ask?
Yes.
There is no problem with the people doing
it.
It becomes a problem when people desire it,
for others to do it for them.
So it was just an example to say
that we want to serve people, we serve
our parents, that's not wrong.
But the problem is we serve creation, but
very often we serve creation more than we
serve the creator.
And that's where the problem is.
Yes, so I didn't say there was a
problem.
What I mentioned was that the problem was
if people expect this.
Like you're a sheikh and you expect people
to do this.
That's the one I was talking about.
But if you do things for Allah, there's
nothing wrong with it.
Because then it's still for Allah.
You had three questions I think.
It will come back inshaAllah.
Yes.
When you say you ask Allah, do you
have to put your hands up or can
you just all the time walk and talk?
You can all the time.
But it is good to really sit on
your knees during the last day of the
night, evening sujood, during your prayer to ask.
But the Prophet ﷺ even said when you
hope for something, then hope for a lot,
because in reality you are asking Allah.
So even what you wish for is actually
a dua.
So do it a lot.
When you walk, when you whatever.
Just a second question.
Yes.
You said we have to free ourselves from
the sin and do istighfar.
We do.
Yes.
Yes.
Of course.
The prayer doesn't feel the same after that.
Yes.
To do a tawba nasuha.
Allah SWT says in the Qur'an, توبوا
إلى الله توبة النصوحة So repent a nasuha
tawba.
And a nasuha tawba, like Umar ibn al
-Khattab said, like Imam At-Tabari mentioned in
his tafsir, is a tawba after which you
don't commit a sin.
And if you commit a sin after your
tawba, it means that your tawba was not
strong enough.
When do you know that your tawba is
strong enough?
When your tawba is painful.
When a real tawba, like very often we
say, Astaghfirullah, Astaghfirullah, Astaghfirullah.
We're not really saying anything.
But a true repentance is a repentance where
you do not only tawba, but where you
also observe the reason why you are committing
the sin, which is your keystone habit.
Meaning, you are going to look at what
causes me to sin and I will stop
that as well.
So very often we repent from the sin,
but we don't look at where the sin
comes from, what pushed me towards the sin.
And this needs to be cut off as
well, because otherwise you will keep on sinning.
So it can be wrong companionship, it can
be so many different things.
This is for a person to find out.
So a real tawba shouldn't be followed up
with a sin.
Otherwise it's tawba, it will be accepted by
Allah SWT, but you will commit a sin
again.
And this is why we repent tawba naswaha,
meaning a painful tawba where you really cry
your heart out, where you are desperate, where
you are on your knees, begging, yearning.
It's so painful that next time when you
want to sin, you think about the pain
you had when you were repenting, and you
say, I don't want to go through this
again.
And this is tawba naswaha.
It's any time, but the best one, the
Messenger of Allah SAW said, the closest that
servant will be to his Lord is when
he is in sujood.
So ask, beg, and make a lot of
dua in your sujood.
Both.
Yes.
Yes.
Dua after prayer is also a moment that
dua is accepted.
All times, but sujood is the best one.
In sujood, and if you can do it
in sujood, during the last third of the
night, in your night prayer, that's even better.
You can do dua in any language.
But in the Hanafi fiqh, for example, they
say that the dua you make shouldn't be
asking anything that creation can give you.
Meaning you say, for example, Oh Allah, give
me a Mercedes.
Everybody can give you a Mercedes.
But it would be rather forgiveness, paradise, protection
against *, and so forth.
So this would be typical for the Hanafi
fiqh and some other madhabs of the opinion
as well.
But yes, you can in your own language.
There's no problem.
Yes.
Yes.
That's okay, of course.
Because it's also something, as long as it
is something that only Allah can give, Oh
Allah, give them prosperity.
Oh Allah, give them your protection.
Oh Allah, cure them.
This is all from Allah SWT.
For myself, to
learn new languages, and to learn new words,
would that be the best course?
That would be the best thing, inshaAllah.
But what we are going to do, because
we were maybe with three or four people
in this class today.
We're about twenty-something or more.
So I would like to cover the names
we've seen already in very brief so that
the meanings will be explained.
And then we will cover the other names
that we haven't seen yet.
So if you keep on coming to these
classes, inshaAllah, then we will cover these names.
Yes.
Yes, please.
There's nothing wrong with that, of course.
But every name is connected to three things,
as we said at the beginning of this
course.
And that's ta'alluq, ta'khalluq, and ta
'haqquq.
Meaning it should change the way you behave,
the way you feel, and the way that
you look at life.
So every name should inspire you with three
things.
With the way that you connect to Allah
SWT, with the way you behave towards people
and towards your environment, and the way that
you look at life, perception of life.
So every single name is connected to these
three things.
So if you go over the general meaning,
you won't find these things, it will just
be a general explanation.
On the other hand, very often the translations
are not very good.
The names are very often translated in the
wrong way.
Well, I believe that the book of Imam
al-Ghazali, Naqs al-Asna, that he gives
an explanation, a brief explanation of these names,
so that will give you a deeper understanding
of the names.
So I would advise you to go over
that one.
That's really one of the core books of
the names of Allah SWT.
And it has been translated into English.
And ta'haqquq, yes.
And the ta'haqquq is the realisation of
the name, but we refer to it as
reflection, as you said, tadabbur.
It can be tadabbur as well, yes.
Ma'am, yes.
You're saying istighfar constantly, even if we're not
remembering it.
Okay, that's a good one.
Well, Imam Ibn Hajar, Rahim Allah SWT, in
his Fath al-Bari, in chapter the beginning
of Revelation, he spoke about this.
And one of the things he said was,
is it better for a person not to
do dhikr, like istighfar, for example, because he's
absent-minded, or is it better to do
it nevertheless, even though he or she is
absent-minded?
And then Imam Ibn Hajar referred to Imam
al-Ghazali, which is very beautiful to see,
and he said Imam al-Ghazali actually replied
to that question, so I won't do it.
And he said it is better for a
person to do dhikr, even when he or
she is absent-minded, than not to do
dhikr.
Why?
Because at least one of his limbs or
her limbs is in worship, which is the
tongue.
And then he also mentioned in detail that
at the very beginning, when you start with
a certain dhikr, you start it with an
intention.
Like, I'm going to do a lot of
istighfar, for, for example, something I've said about
this person.
And then you do the istighfar, at a
certain point, you won't be completely with your
heart into the istighfar, but it will still
be counting, because your intention was at the
very beginning.
Exactly like with Ramadan, right?
Like, if I start at the beginning of
the day, I had the intention, you know,
before Fajr, and then during the day, sometimes
I forget that I'm fasting.
But does my fasting still count?
It counts.
So that's the same with the dhikr.
Like, I started it with an intention, and
everything until its end is seen as a
whole.
Tawbah nasuha.
Yes.
Nam.
Yes.
Well, the Prophet, alayhis-salam, he answered that
question, and he said that if someone has
forgotten about whom he has spoken bad of,
or if he has wronged someone, that you
ask Allah to give that person hasanat.
So you say, for example, Oh Allah, if
I have gossiped about someone that I've forgotten
about, Ya Rabbi, give them barakah in their
rizq.
Ya Rabbi, keep his wealth safe.
Give him a good health.
If he's married, Ya Rabbi, save their marriage.
You're going to make dua until you feel
that you have freed yourself from this sin.
So, making dua for these people.
Is that clear?
Okay, so that's very important to do this.
In English, I don't know the title, but
it's Maqsid al-Asna.
Yes.
So it's a book of...
If you look it up, Book of Ghazali,
about the names of Allah SWT.
Yes.
You can.
It can never be wrong, but it's not
as strong as being, as saying it with
presence of heart.
So, saying istighfar without thinking about anything.
Yes.
There's nothing wrong with that.
Yes.
Yes.
That's okay.
But it's always stronger when you think about
something.
Because the istighfar is for something in reality.
Because you're asking Allah to forgive you.
So, it is always connected to something.
But even if you wouldn't have anything in
mind, it's still okay.
Somebody else?
Yes.
Yes.
Yes.
Yes.
Yes.
Yes.
Yes.
Yes.
Yes, we will.
Yes, we will.
I briefly referred to the one that we
shouldn't use social media to represent us as
being an important one.
But we will definitely do that, inshallah.
We always do.
Yes.
If he does it out of love, or?
Okay.
Punishment, they say, if an affliction happens in
your life, and then you need to look
at the result to see if it was
a punishment, or if it was a reward,
or if it was an education.
So, there's always three things.
Either you're rewarded, it's a reward.
Even taking away something can be a reward.
Or it can be a punishment, or it
can be to teach you something.
If it's a reward, then the affliction in
your life will draw you closer to Allah.
If it is a punishment, then it will
push you away from Allah.
And if it's to teach you something, it's
a new perception that you get into your
life, or an insight that you see that
you have to work on something.
So, an affliction in life always comes from
these three things.
So, it's by looking at the result that
one knows.
Yes?
Yes.
No.
No.
No.
I understand what you mean.
I will try to give a very brief
answer, because I think we need to elaborate
on that.
But if the person before the affliction was
strongly connected to Allah, he will be strengthened
when you talk about Allah.
But if a person in question wasn't disconnected
to Allah before the affliction, then reminding that
person of Allah might actually not do anything
to that person.
Or you can say, why are you even
talking about this?
It might even frustrate the person.
So, this person will then be in need
of a different kind of counselling and approach.
So, this is why the Messenger of Allah
said, and that's the last thing inshallah I
want to mention, because I think Alaysha has
to sleep, is that the Messenger of Allah
said, Know Allah in times of prosperity, and
He will know you, preserve you, assist you,
help you, in times when things go wrong.
Meaning that if you were connected to Allah
in good times, where everything goes good and
you're really connected to Him, then you will
find your strength in your connection with Him
when everything goes wrong.
But on the other hand, if you're not
connected to Him when everything is okay, you
will not find your strength in Him when
everything goes wrong.
So, this is why very often when things
go wrong, you remind people of Allah.
It almost frustrates them, or they might even
become angry with Allah, so it all depends.
So, it doesn't mean that you can't help
these people through another path inshallah.
Because you're the object of His deeds.
Okay, Jazakumullah khairan everybody.
So, we will go over these names.
For the ones that entered later, it's recorded.
At the beginning we gave quite some important
points about Jamal and Jalal, and so much
more.
So, inshallah we see each other next week
bi-idhnillah.
Make dua that we can finish all these
names.