Sulayman Van Ael – The Divine Names 18 Shaykh
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AI: Transcript ©
And it's a manuscript of 800, so more
than how many years ago?
It's more than 600 years ago that I,
by the will of Allah Jalla wa A
'la, deciphered.
First into Arabic, and then it was translated
into English.
So Alhamdulillah, it's a book about the intention,
written by a great scholar, who was a
Shafi'i scholar.
He was the son of a Qadi, who
was the son of a Qadi.
And he himself was a Qadi.
And he was the student of Al-Izbin
Abdus-Salam, who was one of the great
scholars.
And this is actually a book where he
summarized the book of his Shaykh.
So Al-Qadi Ibn Abdullah Al-Barizi summarized
the book of Al-Izbin Abdus-Salam.
And the book of Al-Izbin Abdus-Salam
was a summarized version of the book of
Al-Harith Al-Muhasibi, who was a Shaykh
of the 3rd century.
You see?
And so Alhamdulillah, it actually explains everything which
has to do with niyyah, how to overcome
the obstacles, and really the fiqh of it.
Like the priorities, the obstacles, the goals, the
means, the tricks, the tips, and so much
more.
So inshaAllah soon this will be inshaAllah out.
Because there are some things, as you see,
this needs to go a bit more there.
So much more.
So that's just the pilot version.
But then inshaAllah it will be there.
So those who want to, inshaAllah later on.
I would like to explain this book as
well.
As this book I've been working on for
a long time.
I think inshaAllah it will be nice.
Like I said, this is my book in
Dutch, which is Know Allah.
And for the moment we are translating it
into English as well.
Then I have another one which is out
in Dutch as well, which is Spiritual Pearls.
Which is also in Dutch, but it's being
translated as well.
Then I have another one which is called
Ar-Rida, Contentment, of Ibn Abid Dunya.
Also one of the scholars of old, any
more than a thousand years ago.
Which is being content with Allah's decree and
choices in life.
Which is in Dutch, it's also being translated
into English.
And then I just published another one in
Dutch, which is the Fiqh of Dream Interpretation.
Which is a research based on many, many,
many works and manuscripts.
It is one of the sciences I've learned
with the scholars.
It's the interpretation of dreams.
Which I don't do very often.
Because once you do it, you need to
open a bureau.
An office, no it's true.
And you will need to charge people because
that will become your full time job.
And explanation of dreams in reality is very
fascinating.
Because when someone tells you a dream, you
know exactly what's going on.
And then sometimes people think you're a soothsayer
or a fortune teller.
Because you say, for example, did your grandmother
die after your mother and this and that?
They say, how do you know?
I say, well it's not a jinn telling
my jinn, it's a science.
And this is what I try to explain
in this book, the Fiqh of Dream Interpretation.
It's really deep.
And you will see that interpreting dreams is
actually the same as giving Islamic verdicts.
A thing like, I'm going to take a
book and then I'm going to look for
a word and then I'm going to explain
your dream.
Or my dream doesn't exist.
To start with the book of dream interpretation
of Muhammad bin Sirin, which is very often
used, it's a dictionary of dreams.
To start with, it's not his.
He didn't write it.
The most strong opinion seems to be that
his daughter wrote it.
And the second thing is that these books
weren't written for people like the majority of
the Muslims.
They were instruments for the scholars to use.
Because like, okay, I dreamt of an apple.
Then you're going to look at an apple,
but there are so many things going on.
Was it day?
Was it night?
Was the apple in front of you, on
the right of you, on the left of
you?
Which color did it have?
Did it have two colors?
Was it beautiful on the outside?
Was it rotten on the inside?
Or was it rotten on the outside?
Was it beautiful on the inside?
Was it inside yellow?
Was it red?
Did you eat from it?
Did you smell it?
All of this changes the dream interpretation.
And this is why Imam Malik said that
no one without expertise should explain a dream.
He said, because someone doing so is actually
playing with the religion of Allah.
This is the opinion of Imam Malik.
And Imam Ibn Hajar said, and the interpretation
of a dream is equal to giving a
fatwa.
Done.
It's the world of the unseen, you see.
It's the world of the unseen.
And the Prophet s.a.w. said, I'm
sorry my voice is a bit gone, I
don't know, it's maybe hay fever or whatever.
So the Prophet s.a.w. made it
very clear that at the end of days
there will be nothing as truthful and as
straightforward as the dream of a mu'min.
And he said, the dream of a mu'min
is one of one and seventy, in another
narration one and forty, and so many parts
of Prophethood.
So at the end of days sometimes we
are desperate.
Desperately looking for people giving us advice.
Desperately looking for this divine connection where Allah
s.w.t. will tell us what to
do.
Maybe you have been communicated with by Allah
s.w.t. so many times, but because
you think it's nothing, you thought it was
just a dream.
And sometimes we say, okay that was a
dream from my subconscious.
And it's not true.
You think it to be as such because
you have no knowledge.
And if you look at the story of
Yusuf s.a.w., then you see that
those who interpreted the dream of the king,
at the end what did they say about
the dream of the king?
They said, abghathu ahlam.
They are just unclear dreams, dreams of the
subconscious.
And so they said, we can't explain it.
They said it themselves.
And we are not able to explain unclear
dreams.
But when Yusuf s.a.w. came, it
was actually a very clear dream to him.
Even though that the other people were scholars,
the king made them come from the entire
world to explain his dream.
And they all said, abghathu ahlam.
Like in Surah Yusuf, they are just disturbed
dreams of the subconscious.
It doesn't mean anything.
And then they said, and we are not
able to explain the dreams of the unconsciousness.
But then Yusuf s.a.w. was freed
and he made it very clear.
He said, your dream has a meaning.
So now if we go like this with
our dreams, you should consider your dream to
be a form of divine connection with you.
That's what it is.
The Prophet s.a.w. said it was
a part, a good great deal of prophethood.
And then he said, as I said, the
greatest or the most trustworthy thing at the
end of days is what the dream of
a mu'min.
So now when you know this, then you
also understand why the Prophet s.a.w.
used to explain or interpret dreams in the
early morning.
After Fajr, very often, not only once, many
times or many occasions, he would say, who
dreamt a dream?
I mean, who saw something during the night?
And then they would say, me Rasulallah, me
Rasulallah.
And Al-Hafidh Ibn Hajar, he says in
Fath al-Bari, and from this we take
away that the Prophet s.a.w. was
teaching the companions how to interpret, do you
understand what I mean?
Interpret.
Okay, how to interpret dreams, you see.
So he was actually teaching them how to
do this.
Exactly like the Prophet s.a.w. used
to teach them so many things, like Al
-Istikharah.
The Prophet s.a.w. said, or the
companions said, like he used to teach us
Al-Istikharah, like he would teach anyone amongst
us Surat al-Fatiha.
So the Prophet s.a.w. had these
teachings.
Al-Istikharah, because it's connected to the world
of the unseen.
You ask Allah s.w.t. to make
your dreams come true.
And then on the other hand he used
to teach the people to watch out for
the meanings of these dreams.
They are telling you so much.
I mean, subhanAllah, in so many dreams Allah
s.w.t. is telling us different things.
And this is Al-Alim s.w.t.
Al-Alim is the one who knows everything
and he decides how you come to know
things and when you come to know these
things.
And this is why we today, we have
electricity and we have light bulbs and we
have airplanes and we have so many other
things.
Even we saw things in the last 10
years or 15 years which we didn't see
before that.
Just think about the smartphone.
Just think about tablets.
Just think about these special watches that keep
track of your health and of your heartbeat
and of so many different things.
So we keep on inventing things but in
reality we are not inventing things.
It is Allah s.w.t. unveiling to
us a part of his knowledge.
So inventions are actually no more than Allah
s.w.t. lifting the veil so that
we could see a part of his knowledge
that we can use.
You understand?
So this is Al-Alim s.w.t.
because he is the king.
So he decides what you are allowed to
know and what you aren't allowed to know.
And he decides when to know it and
when to forget it.
And this is why Allah s.w.t.
says in the Quran وَلَا يُحِيطُونَ بِشَيْءٍ مِّنْ
عِلْمِهِ إِلَّا بِمَا شَاءُ They will not encompass
anything, any part of his knowledge apart from
that which he wants.
And this is why sometimes now you know
and then when you are sitting behind your
exam, examination papers all of a sudden I
have a blackout.
I have no blackout.
I have my memory being taken out by
Allah s.w.t. so that we would
always be humbled in front of he who
never forgets.
And sometimes when we get frustrated because we
forget something not because we don't take care,
not because we didn't take our precautions and
so forth.
No, just because we forget.
And then how could I forget?
And this is actually driven by kibr, by
pride.
Because how do you expect from yourself not
to forget?
SubhanAllah.
I mean Allah s.w.t. sometimes shows
that he is so powerful.
I mean you have a Google agenda, right?
Google calendar where you liaise with people and
so much more.
Well, Google and Facebook and Instagram and you
know that they crashed, right?
So now people are so dependent on other
things to know what they should do that
we have got ridden of our brain.
We don't memorize anymore.
It's all outside so if tomorrow internet breaks
down, then we have a problem.
So that day everybody who was relying on
social media to be able to keep track
of what they had to do that day,
they actually came to know that there is
nothing that can encompass knowledge at all times.
Apart from Allah s.w.t. Because he
is al-Qawiyy al-Mateen.
Al-Qawiyy, the powerful.
Al-Mateen, the ulama say, he is the
one whose power never decreases.
Exactly as his power doesn't increase.
Because increasing means that there is an evolution
going on.
That you were strong but now you are
stronger.
Allah is al-Qawiyy, done.
Nothing of his attributes went through an evolution.
And this is also why the people of
Sunnah say that Allah s.w.t. after
creation was created, he didn't all of a
sudden now become the high, the most high.
I mean, he was always the most high.
So it's not, okay, now creation is there.
Oh, Allah is there, so now he is
most high.
It doesn't work like that.
He was most high, he always was, before
anything was created.
And if we say that he has to
thank his names, or he needs to thank
creation, or that he got these names thanks
to creation, then we are having a problem.
And this is why Imam al-Tahawi says,
كان رازقا قبل أن يرزق He was a
razik, even before there were people that needed
to be provided for.
He was always razik, subhanAllah.
So anyway, to come back, now Allah s
.w.t., as I said, he is the
king.
And that's one of the names we are
going to discuss today.
And I told you that I had grouped
these names in my Know Allah book.
The scholars of old did this as well.
And you can see the scholars now today,
they also do this.
So a lot of them are actually grouping
these names from their understanding.
How they look at these names.
There is nothing wrong with this.
But all the scholars agree that the names
of Allah jalla wa'ala can be divided
into two main categories.
And these two main categories are Asma'ul
Jamali Wa Asma'ul Jalali Asma'ul Jamal
And Asma'ul Jalal The first one, Asma
'ul Jamal, they mean the names of divine
beauty.
But all the names are beautiful.
So what they mean is the gentle names.
The names that we fancy.
The names that we like in a certain
way.
And then we have Asma'ul Jalal, which
are the names of his majesty.
That show that he is majestic and powerful
and ruler and so forth.
So they divide them into two categories.
What the problem is for us Muslims very
often is that we want Allah subhana wa
ta'ala to connect to us through the
Asma'ul Jamal only.
So we want him to show us that
he is the giver, that he is the
forgiver, that he is the provider, that he
is the protector, that he is the one
that loves, the one that takes care of
you and so much more.
So we like these names.
So when the names of Jamal come into
our lives, they are manifested through things we
see in our lives.
We are not allowed to disconnect anything happening
in our lives from the names of Allah
subhana wa ta'ala.
So when these things take place, we say
Shukran Ya Rabbi.
Say thank you my lord, oh thank you.
You are always on my side.
I love it when you give me, I
love it when you protect me.
I love it when you show people that
they are lying about me and that which
they are saying about me is not true.
So these are Asma'ul Jamal.
But when the difficult things take place in
our lives, then all of a sudden we
seem to disconnect them from Allah.
We just look at them as afflictions.
We look at them as difficult things.
And the reason why afflictions break us and
don't make us is because we disconnect them
from Allah.
You see?
So if we now were to understand that
these names of Jalal, meaning the one that
takes away what you like, the one that
crushes your ego, the one that sometimes allows
people to talk rubbish about you, to talk
badly about you, and that people believe them,
and you are there being falsely accused.
Think about Aisha radiyallahu anha.
Everybody is talking, that's Jalal, that's heavy.
It's not the same like everybody praising you,
is it?
Like you come out and everybody, Nohman, yes
Nohman, you know, with banners and bells.
And then you are happy, and the next
day you come out, not you, me, and
they throw rotten eggs at me, and they
start insulting me.
It's not the same feeling, is it?
You know, the first one says, Oh, mashaAllah,
good.
Thank you Rabbi, keep on going.
But when this happens, you feel alone.
You feel in these times where everything goes
wrong, where everything seems to be against you,
you actually feel that you are without Allah.
While He is with you through the affliction,
just in another way.
He is showing you, and this is why
when you are afflicted, that you should try
to, and I'm giving this advice to myself
in the first place, that we should try
to look for the names that Allah wants
us to connect with.
This is what we should do.
Because He is still doing this, exactly as
He is blessing us.
Here He is blessing us in another way.
He is telling us, look, now get to
know me.
Get to know that I am Al-Qadir,
that I am Al-Jabbar, that I choose
what I give and what I take.
Your ego is beloved to you, I know,
but that's the reason why now I crush
your ego, so that you can come to
me.
So they say that as long as you
want to get to know Allah Jalla wa
Alaa in the place of Jamal, you will
not connect to Him.
The majority of people connect to Allah through
Jalal.
It is when everything leaves you.
When everything gives up on you.
When nobody seems to be able to give
you a helping hand, or a nice word,
a kind word.
When all the doors are closed and you
are in need of money and nobody wants
to help you.
It is there when you are patient in
that oven, like the Prophet sallallahu alayhi wa
sallam said that the tests are the oven,
are an oven to take away our mistakes,
like gold is being placed in an oven
and takes away all the filth.
So now to come back, it is there
where people get to know Allah, but that's
where we flee away from.
And that's why we never make this connection.
It's like someone putting, how do you call
this?
How do you call this?
The socket?
No, the thing that you put inside of
it.
It's like when you plug it in the
socket and you see some electricity, you take
it out again.
But it was actually not dangerous.
You just had to continue and then it
was connected.
And this is what we do, and we
get back, you see?
So we always take it out again.
We just have to go.
No, it won't hurt you.
You will find Him behind this.
And this is why our scholar said, he
said, أوقات الفاقات أعياد
العارفين أوقات الفاقات أعياد العارفين Which means times
of despair and need are the feast of
those who know Allah.
Because they know that it only happens to
connect to Him.
But this is where we run away from,
which is human.
Because the human being was created to look
for peace, to look for safety.
This is what we were created for.
This is what we are looking for in
our lives.
So we can't accept that something outwardly bad
is actually inwardly good.
We were not created like that.
We see a rotten apple, we say, I
don't want this.
We see a twisted crooked car, we say,
sorry, I don't want this.
We see half a house, we say, no,
it's not a complete house, I don't want
it.
This is how we are here.
But the soul has eyes too.
But as long as the soul is being
blinded by the ego, it will not see.
You know, there is damp.
Like, go like this.
And the same as when you have a
bath or a shower, you see on the
mirror, you go like this, but when you
go like this, it immediately comes back, right?
Until all the steam is gone and then
you see clearing.
And this is tawbah.
We do tawbah, we see a little bit,
but not yet.
And then because we commit the next sin,
there is damp again.
So if now we were to refrain and
abstain ourselves from sins, all while repenting, then
all of a sudden we will see that
our soul has eyes too.
فَإِنَّهَا يَنِي لَا تَعْمَلْ أَبْصَارًۭ Allah says, It
is not the eyes that go blind, وَلَكِنْ
تَعْمَلْ قُلُوبُ الَّتِي فِي سُدُورٍۭ But it is
the hearts within the chest that go blind.
And Allah says about the hearts, لَهُمْ قُلُوبٌ
لَا يَفْقَهُونَ بِهَا They have hearts with which
they do not reflect and ponder or understand.
So here we see that the heart has
been created to make that connection.
But we keep on making it with our
minds because our soul is not alive yet.
And this is why Imam Qurtubi r.a
described these people who have these hearts buried
in their bodies as if they were coffins
to their souls.
And he said, أَجْزَامُهُمْ لِأَرْوَاحِهِمْ قُبُورٌ قَبْلَ الْقُبُورِ
Their hearts within their bodies or their souls
within their bodies are buried in their coffins
before they are buried under the soil.
So if your soul is not alive, subhanAllah,
your body is but a coffin.
You're carrying around a dead man or a
dead woman while walking, while sitting, while talking.
And then Allah s.w.t. says that
they can be revived.
He says, أَوْمَنْ كَانَ مَيِّتَا Is the one
who was dead.
فَأَحْيَيْنَاهُ And whom we have given life.
نَمُّ أَحْيِنَّاهُ وَجَعَلْنَا لَهُ نُورًا يَمْشِي بِهِ فِي
النَّاسِ And whom we have given light with
which he walks amongst men.
SubhanAllah, it's the light of the soul.
It's the one that was dead without faith,
without guidance, without all of these things, without
connection to Allah.
Is he equal to the one that we
have given life and provided with a light
with which he walks amongst men?
نَمُّ أَحْيَيْنَاهُ As the one who is in
the obscurity of his own self.
كَمَنْ مَثَلُهُ فِي الظُّلُمَاتِ لَيْسَ بِخَارِجِين مِنْهَا While
he is not even able to escape from
this obscurity.
They are not the same.
They are different.
So, to come back, these names of Jalal,
we need to accept them.
And that's our last task, to get to
Allah.
It's exactly as this curtain right here.
أَسْمَاءُ الْجَمَالِ So, I'm saying Jamal and Jalal
or Jalal and Jamal.
So, not with a reason, okay?
So, you have أَسْمَاءَ الْجَمَالِ الْجَلَالِ and أَسْمَاءَ
الْجَمَالِ الْجَلَالِ I mean, whatever.
And you have this right in between.
You see?
And you need to cross the line.
And you need to say, يا ربي, سبحان
الله They said there was a man, سبحان
الله about everything he thought, he would see
it in front of his eyes.
So, if he would see, he would just,
the Shaykh would talk about like arrows coming
down from the sky, he would see them.
He would know they're not true, so it
was not like he was running away, but
he would see it, like see it in
front of his eyes.
And he got so disturbed by it.
And he was fighting it all the time.
Until one day he said, يا رب, if
this is what you want from me, then
I accept it.
That same moment where he said this was
the moment that Allah subhanahu wa ta'ala
stopped him from seeing these things.
Because what Allah jalla wa ala wants at
a certain point, how painful it may be,
is for you to accept.
And they say, someone will not attain the
highest levels of spirituality until his soul and
honour and status are crushed by creation.
SubhanAllah.
And then they give the example of Ayub
a.s. Ayub a.s. He had everything.
He had pieces of land, he had cattle,
he had many children, and his wife, status,
honour, everything.
Until a certain moment where Allah subhanahu wa
ta'ala wanted to test him.
And he wanted to test his Prophet, منذ
القدم Allah doesn't make up his mind, Allah
doesn't make choices now.
Oh, I think now I make a choice.
Allah always knew.
That's al-'aleem.
There was no moment that he didn't know.
So now when Ayub a.s., he all
of a sudden was tested.
So first his friends left him.
And then he would walk down the street,
all of a sudden his money, he was
testing his money, his wealth, his pieces of
land.
So he was not as rich anymore amongst
people.
So now people started looking down upon him.
So he was walking down the street and
someone insulted him.
And he went home.
And he said, Oh Allah, I ask you
to forgive the one that insults me.
So anyway, time went on, then his own
brothers left him.
And he heard them.
They said, Ayub must really have done something
bad.
Because you should know, in Arabic we say,
مغني الحي لا يطرب Meaning the singer of
the town doesn't make people dance.
The singer of the town doesn't get people
on their feet.
Like if you grew up with, I don't
know, with Ed Sheeran, you've always known him
and you were, you grew up with him
and then all of a sudden you see
him sing.
It's just, you know, it's Ed, Hi Ed,
how are you?
Nothing special.
But for people who didn't grow up with
him, special.
So this is an Arabic saying, مغني الحي
لا يطرب Meaning the singer of the town
doesn't make people dance.
So that was the same with a lot
of prophets.
Within their midst, people would say, You?
I mean, amongst all of us, you?
Why not رجل من القريتين العظيم Why not
one of the big, you know, leaders of
the two states, of the two cities?
So no, they didn't like it.
It was too normal.
So Ayub A.S., people, some people looked
down upon him and then the brother said,
Ayub must have done something wrong.
I mean, if he stays like this, that's
due to something very bad.
And Ayub A.S. heard this and he
said, Ya Rabb, He said, You know that
when I used to hear people insult me
that I would ask you to forgive them.
When I saw two people fighting, I said,
Ya Rabb, bring them back together.
And so much more.
So now, his brothers left him as well.
Everybody left him.
Apart from his wife.
His wife was the only one that stayed
with him.
And wives are strong in this.
Women leave the husband in desperate situations much
more difficultly than men leave their wives.
In general.
So, not saying that all men are bad.
And not saying that all men, because you
know, that all men would run away.
But in general.
So now she stayed with her husband who
didn't have money, who didn't have an income,
who didn't have health.
But the thing that worms would eat from
his body and that they would fall down
and he would take them back up.
And then they would eat from his body.
We don't allow this.
It's not a narration.
It's from the Isra'iliyat.
And we say that our Prophets are never
repulsive.
Their outward state is never repulsive.
This is one of our Aqidah.
So that's a part of our Aqidah.
That our Prophets don't lie.
That our Prophets are intellectual.
That our Prophets are free men.
That our Prophets also are not repulsive.
Their khilqah, their outward appearance, is never offensive.
Or I mean repulsive.
So we don't accept this.
So anyway.
So now, Suhana, he lost everything.
So now Shaytan was even doing some waswasa.
Like, you're a loser, you're this, you're that.
So even in his mind, he was strong,
he was a Prophet.
So one day, Allah subhanahu wa ta'ala
said, اركض برجلك هذا مختصر اندار وشرب This
is something, refreshing and curing water.
SubhanAllah, all that time, during all these years,
he was just laying down on the solution.
There where he was laying down, he was
actually, the water was right beneath him.
And this is very often what we see
when we are tested, through these Asma'ul
Jalal, we see that very often, the answer
to our problem is so easy.
And this is once again, he didn't want
to show us, where the way out was.
So sometimes, the big problem that you see,
that you've been, you know, coping with for
five years, ten years, destroying you on the
inside, all of a sudden now, you see,
oh, it was just this.
SubhanAllah.
When time comes, it comes, right?
So now Ayub A.S., Allah said, just
hit with your foot on the ground, with
your heel, and khalas, you're cured.
So when the water, you know, went over
his skin and body, he was cured again,
he was healthy again.
And then when his wife came back, because
she went to sell her hair, she had
two, how do you call this, braids?
She already cut off one, and she sold
it.
And now she went to sell the second
one, so she didn't have any hair anymore.
And this is the moment where Ayub A
.S. asked Allah SubhanAllah to cure him, because
it had touched his wife.
It was not for himself.
Because when his wife used to say, you
know, why don't you ask Allah to cure
you?
Why don't you ask Allah to cure you?
He said, I was healthy for so many
years, shouldn't I now, you know, be thankful
that I was healthy for so many years,
and now be patient for the other years
that I'm not as healthy?
So he got angry with his wife just
because she said this.
So now she came back, and she saw
Ayub A.S. standing, and she started talking
to him.
But he was like this for, what's the
plural of decennia?
How do you say ten years in English?
Decade, okay, sorry.
We go for the original word in Belgium,
we say decennium, decennia.
Anyway, so decade.
So he was in this state for decades,
so she forgot what her husband used to
look like.
So she came back and found him standing
there, and she said, how?
She said, and these narrations are authentic, mentioned
by Shaykh Khalidi in his Qassas min al
-Qur'an.
So he mentioned, she mentioned, you remind me
of someone.
He was talking to her.
She said, how much do you remind me
of my husband when he was young?
And he said, oh really?
He didn't, like in the narration, he didn't
immediately go like, hey, I'm your husband.
She said, oh, tell me more.
And she explained him, and then she said,
it is because I am your husband, and
Allah has cured me.
So now the ulamas say, like Ibn Ajeeba
mentioned in his Iqad al-Himam, and in
al-Usul from Ibn Ata'illah, they say
that at the beginning, on your path to
Allah SWT, everything which is there to you
will be taken away.
That is if you really want Allah.
That's the beginning of all beginnings.
You know, Ayub was given back everything afterwards,
and there was a sign in it for
us, like sometimes you need to go through
Asmatul Jalal.
One, to know your true friends.
In times of affliction, many people lose many
friends.
And when, imagine yourself, an imam being falsely
accused of being a terrorist, for example.
All of a sudden on the news, BBC
news, imam, I'm not going to take myself
as an example.
Can I take you?
So, imam of, I don't know, Masjid A,
big terrorist, and you know, he was planning
something, and I don't know what.
You knew this imam for so long.
You yourself, you can't believe it.
That's impossible.
You just feel it, you know it.
But, now, what will the mosque do?
Imam, sorry, you know, we don't believe it,
but you know, mosque comes first, house from
Allah SWT.
Imam says, but what about my family?
I mean, I have children to feed.
I know, maybe we can, you know, fix
an income for a month or something, and
then, you know, there is social care.
Like social care is going to take care
of the terrorists, anyway.
So, he's there, and then, gently, oh, imam,
alhamdulillah, they want him out as quickly as
they can, which is normal if it would
be true.
But what comes on the media, very often
is not true.
Very often, things go to media before they
go to court.
And then people judge based on media, and
then after something goes through the media, a
year and a half later, or two years
later, the half is only true, a third
is only true, or nothing is true, or
everything is true, you see.
So now, then the imam has friends.
Now, the courageous friends of the imam that
were always saying, Shaykh, Shaykh, oh Shaykh, you're
so good, oh Shaykh, I look up to
you, you know, these people.
Now, what do they do?
They go home to their wives and say,
I don't know what to do, you know,
he was always a good man, but you
never know, you know, what people do behind
the screens.
Oh, subhanAllah, the imam, we're talking about someone
unguilty, right?
Who's not guilty.
So then, what do you think?
Oh my Habib, you know, we're not allowed
to judge, but you know, life is difficult.
I mean, if you're connected to him, you
know what they're going to do.
I don't want to scare you, but don't
forget Guantanamo.
So, okay, so now the wife is afraid,
which is normal, she doesn't want to ruin
her life with her children.
So now, imam from Masjid A calls people,
oh, they changed their number.
He mails them, doesn't get a reply.
Goes to people at home, they don't open
the door.
And now he's all alone.
The one that they used to applaud for
yesterday is the one they've run away from
today.
If now a Muslim is true to his
belief, he will say, the Prophet sallAllahu alayhi
wa sallam said, البيينة على المدعي واليمين على
من انكر Which means, proof needs to be
provided by he or she who claims something,
and it is sufficient for the one who's
being accused, without proof, to say, Wallahi, it's
not true.
The Prophet sallAllahu alayhi wa sallam said, if
people were given by that which they claim
to have a right on, then the blood
of people and the honor of people would
be destroyed.
So now, sometimes things like this happen, where
people go through things they can't explain.
They're too big, and especially when someone is
a wali of Allah jalla wa ala, and
comes very close to Allah, that is where
the most strange things happen.
Where were things, like Maryam alayhi salam, who
wasn't a prophet, is it?
She came back, and she had to try
to explain to her people that, well, I'm
pregnant, but I never did something wrong, I
didn't have a secret marriage, I wasn't married,
but it's just there.
So now, this is why she said, إِنِّي
نَظَرْتُ لِلرَّحْمَٰنِ صَوْمًا فَلَنْ أُكَلِّمَ الْيَوْمَ إِنسِيًّا I
have promised my Lord that today, I will
not talk to anybody, I'm saim, meaning I
will not talk to people, because it was
too difficult to explain.
But who would have believed her?
Really?
A prophet?
A wali?
The normal practicing Muslim, in these days, might
say, Oh, Maryam.
Yeah, because it were the believers who told
her this.
They were not the disbelievers, who said, يا
مريم لقد جئت شيئا فريا They said, Oh
Maryam, you came with something very very strange.
ما كان أبوك مرأسوء وما كانت أمك بغية
Your father wasn't an evil man, and your
mother wasn't a woman without norms and etiquette
and good behavior.
فأشارت إليه So she pointed at him like
that.
She didn't know that he would answer, but
this is what she did.
So is it clear?
So now people go through this jalal, and
look at the story of Aisha radiAllahu anha,
when everybody accused her falsely, of not being
true to her husband, and when her father
said, يا Aisha, if you admit it, maybe
Allah will forgive you.
Her father.
Prophet ﷺ went to Ali radiAllahu anhu and
said, What do you think?
He said, There are many women in the
world who are divorced.
But Aisha heard it.
So this is why Aisha radiAllahu anha sometimes
refers to Ali radiAllahu anhu and the man.
She says, Yes, so there were two people
carrying him.
This man, and then she mentions him by
name, and a man.
Because it's normal.
She had something here, which is normal, right?
But at the end, when the two armies
met, and they were about to fight one
another, then she took the bay'ah with
Ali radiAllahu anhu, and everything was alright, which
is normal, her feeling.
So now Aisha radiAllahu anha, not knowing anything,
her proper husband, I mean, this was the
climax, I think, of the test of a
Muslim being in the household of Rasulullah ﷺ.
And she was the most beloved wife to
the Prophet ﷺ, because of her deen.
Not because of beauty.
They say that Juhairiyah radiAllahu anha was the
most beautiful wife of the Prophet ﷺ.
That Juhairiyah was very beautiful.
She was from a Jewish tribe.
So now to come back.
So you see, I think this is the
climax of being tested.
She was also the one that was very
attached to the Prophet ﷺ.
She was very attached to him.
So now he doesn't talk to her anymore.
Imagine, Prophet ﷺ coming in.
She said, As-salamu alaykum Ya Rasulullah, As
-salamu alaykum Zawji, As-salamu alaykum Hamad, whatever
she said.
And she said, I had to look at
his lips to see if they were moving.
He wouldn't sleep next to me, he wouldn't
eat with me, and he wouldn't talk to
me.
So I became sick for a month, and
I didn't know what was going on.
I didn't know what was wrong.
So one day, someone took me out, we
went for a walk, and said, Aisha, do
you know what they are talking about?
Do you know what the people in Medina
are saying?
She said no.
And then they told her.
She told that people were accusing her.
So now this was too much for her.
Now she said, Now I know why the
Prophet ﷺ is not responding.
The thing is, the Prophet ﷺ didn't believe,
neither did he.
He was neutral.
He was waiting for Allah SWT, which shows
how strong of a man he was.
You see, just waiting for revelation.
And this is one of the proofs, because
you should know that the worst thing, one
of the worst things in the Arabic tribe,
within the Arabic world, was your wife cheating
on you.
That was the worst thing.
So the Prophet ﷺ still being married to
her, not divorcing her, and waiting for revelation
is one of these many proofs that revelation
was happening.
Because within the Arab world, a man would
let go immediately of his wife.
You see?
But no, because that was a shame to
stay with someone who was accused.
No, leave.
So now he stayed with her.
And then during this period, the father of
Aisha ﷺ said, Aisha, if you have done
it, just admit it.
Maybe Allah will forgive you and the Prophet
ﷺ will ask Allah to forgive you.
Then she said, if I were to say
that I did it, you would believe me
and Allah would know that I didn't do
it.
And if I say that I didn't do
it, you would not believe me.
If I say I do it, you believe
me.
If I say I didn't do it, then
you wouldn't believe me.
She said, so I will say exactly like
the pious man, she was referring to the
father of Yusuf ﷺ, فَصَبْرٌ جَمِيلٌ which means
I will be patient in a very beautiful
way.
Okay.
So now when everything was behind the back
and when everything happened and then she was
declared innocent by Allah ﷻ, then her father
said, go to the Prophet and thank him.
She said, it is from Allah and I
will thank only Him.
She came at a level where in this
Jalal, where she was shivering, shaking, crying, it
doesn't mean that we are not feeling any
pain.
We are not angels.
When you are in Jalal, you have Qabd.
You know you feel tight, you feel narrow,
maybe you can't breathe, maybe you can't sleep,
you cry.
But you still have Allah.
But it wouldn't be a test if you
wouldn't be feeling it, is it?
So you have to feel it.
But at the end, when everything was cleared
up, she said, only Allah.
Came from Allah.
And this is the result of Asma'ul
Jalal.
That you, khalas.
Say now even if people like me, they
don't like me, people accuse me, they don't
accuse me, whatever, I'm with Allah.
And this is where we need to get
to.
And that's the most difficult thing.
Imam Mu'adh al-Razi, may Allah have
mercy on him, just said, like Imam al
-Sha'arani, may Allah have mercy on him,
just said in his book, Tanbeeh al-Muqtareen,
he said, someone will not be a truly
sincere slave until he's like a baby.
As long as he gets his milk, he
doesn't care about what you say.
You know, you feed him, you shouldn't do
this, it's just an example.
You feed him, with the same voice you
say, oh you beautiful baby, you're so nice.
Or with the same voice you say, oh
you most ugly baby in the world.
It will keep on smiling.
Whatever you say, he doesn't care.
As long as it gets its milk.
And this is the slave, as long as
you get Allah's attention, you don't care what
the people say.
As long as you know that you're on
the truth.
But how difficult is it?
Because we want to be SubhanAllah, look at
Yusuf Alayhi Salaam, when he was in Jalal,
in prison, and the king said, take him
out.
He said, I won't get out.
He said, until the people what?
Until the people declare the truth that I
am innocent.
This is one stage.
Now what did the Prophet Sallallahu Alaihi Wasallam
say?
Because we understand the hadith in a wrong
way.
He said, if I were Yusuf, I would
have gone out before asking people to declare
my innocence.
Now people say, oh, that means that Yusuf
had a lot of sabr because he was
firm.
No, it means that Muhammad Sallallahu Alaihi Wasallam
didn't care.
They say it, they don't say it.
They are in prison.
I am not.
I go out.
Talk, or don't talk.
Do you understand?
And very often we understand the hadith in
another way.
Oh, the Prophet Sallallahu Alaihi Wasallam then weaker
than Yusuf who said, I'm not going out
of prison, I'm getting out of prison until
my innocence is declared.
And then the Prophet declared.
And then the Prophet Sallallahu Alaihi Wasallam said,
if I were Yusuf, I would have what?
I would have gone out.
Meaning that he's so strong that even if
people wouldn't believe in his innocence, he knew
that Allah Subh'anaHu Wa Ta-A'la
knew it.
But to be quite frank, is this easy?
The most difficult thing.
Ya Rabbi, look at how crazy people go
when today they only have two likes and
they were expecting 50.
People get depressed.
No, it's true.
If you post a post, how many times
a day are you going to look how
many people like my post about my milkshakes?
No, it's true.
Like, oh, only two today.
Maybe I should change the color of the
shake.
I mean, Allah Ya Rabbi.
People go mad if Ronaldo makes one goal
less a season.
So, yes, we are attention seekers.
So now, to come back.
So, Isma'ul Jalal, as I said at
the very beginning, is something you need to
connect to.
All these names.
Al-Qahhar, Al-Jabbar, Al-Azeem, Al-Mani
'a, Al-Khafid, Al-Mani'a, the one
who prevents you from having things.
Al-Khafid, the one that brings and smacks
you down.
You need to go through this.
I mean, there were Prophets that were tortured.
Prophets that were killed.
قَتْلِهِمُ الْأَنبِيَاءَ بِغَيْرِ حَقٍ And because of their
killings of the Prophets without any reason.
Can you imagine Prophets being killed?
So, I mean, if it goes till killing,
then everything else is easy.
You know, killing is the highest.
Can you go worse than kill someone?
So, they were killed.
Prophets were killed.
So, everything before killing is okay then.
If you understand what I mean.
I'm going to have a bit of coffee,
because these Isma'ul Jalal are quite heavy.
SubhanAllah.
Yes.
Yes, yes.
Yes.
Yes.
This is why scholars, when they go home,
I'm not talking about myself, but scholars or
students of knowledge, when they go home, they're
just a husband, you know.
They don't have the Shaykh privilege.
You go home and you're late, you need
to tell why you are late.
You come home and you forgot to bring
the cheese.
You need to say, why did you forget
the cheese?
You see what I mean?
Or you will be put on your spot,
on your place.
Like, why did you say this?
Which is normal, because you have a wife
and husband.
But it can be a veil.
And this is why usually the children and
the wife or the husband of a male
or female Shaykh, they are blind for that
knowledge, because they live with the person.
They don't live with the knowledge.
And they will take you into account for
your bad behaviour or your shortcomings much quicker.
Because they know that you preach, right?
So you preach things and if you don't
do it, even if it's something small, they
will talk about it.
So yes, it's a veil.
This is why a lot of people, a
lot of Mashaykh, they don't like to live
close to their students.
Because then the awe, which is needed in
a certain way, and respect, evaporates and goes
away.
And so sometimes it's better to just see
the Shaykh in times of teaching and so
much more.
Because you see this also with children.
When you laugh too much with them, and
you play a lot with them, then at
the end of the day, I don't mean
your own children, I mean children in general
that you teach, who you teach, then they
respect might, you know.
I don't know, just talking.
What do you take away of what we
have said?
So the Asma'ul Jamal and the Asma
'ul Jalal are clear for everybody what it
really is?
So at the beginning of your way, as
I said, Asma'ul Jalal come on your
way.
But never disconnect, how painful it may be,
the difficulties in your life from Allah's names.
Because then you drown.
If you don't perceive His names and witness
His names behind what is happening to you,
it will be nothing but a very cold
prison where you are locked up in isolation,
and where you have no hope whatsoever.
But if you know that Allah SWT also
moves people, or brings people on your path
who are evil or bad, or make you
sad or stab you in the back after
you have been good to them, or accuse
you while you have been talking good about
them.
I know a Shaykh who was always talking
good about a student, he introduced his student
to the people, like he's a good man,
he's a very good student, he's this, he's
that, he's such, then the student felt big
and important, and all of a sudden he
behind the back of the Shaykh started talking
to the students of the Shaykh, started talking
bad about the Shaykh.
So the students bit by bit left the
Shaykh and started going with the student.
So they became the students of that student.
And these kind of things just happen.
These kind of things happen.
And then I always think of what Cristiano
Ronaldo did actually.
I don't know if you know, I'm sorry
I talk about him, it's not haram to
talk about him.
Maybe be a Christiano, Christ.
So Cristiano Ronaldo, I mean, when I think
about how he made it, when they scouted
him, there were some scouts, right?
And there were two, he was playing with
his friend, and the scout said, the one
who makes a goal, we will take him
to play in England.
So now they were going, and there was
an open goal, and his friend passed the
ball to Ronaldo, and Ronaldo scored.
Ronaldo said, why did you do this?
And the friend said, because I know that
you're a better player than I am.
You deserve it.
So he was in front of an open
goal, could have done it.
So later on, an interviewer, some years ago,
they found out about someone who had a
villa in a car, and they didn't know
where it came from.
So they visited his house and said, where
did you get this from?
You're living in a nice villa, good car.
And he said, this is Cristiano Ronaldo who
gave it to me.
They said, why?
He said, because I gave him a pass.
Because I passed the ball to him.
And he said, he has never forgotten it.
So he took care of me and my
family.
Now you can say, yeah, but that's because
he got millions.
Well, some people with millions don't do anything.
And if you have a hundred, you can
give five.
Some people don't give the five.
So if you think about this, and I
think, why sometimes do non-Muslims keep certain
values very high?
And why don't we Muslims do this all
the time?
That's a question I ask myself, especially when
I look at Usain Bolt, for example.
This man inspired me.
In which way?
I mean, for a year, this guy is
training for, now he's not training anymore.
He's living somewhere in Jamaica maybe.
So he's training for a year to improve
his world record.
And his world record, how much is he
going to improve it?
A fraction of a fraction of a second,
a microsecond.
Training one year.
He's sleeping, he's eating, he's training, he's resting.
Everything, his movements, his gym, during one year
is constructed around improving a microsecond.
And we are going back to Allah with
atom weights of good and bad.
He trained so hard for a microsecond.
If we were to train so hard to
get rid of atom weights, of evil, subhanAllah,
that would be so beautiful.
Then it won't be the public, the masses
shouting, wow, microsecond, quicker, you are a hero.
Then it will be Yawm al-Qiyamah, the
angels, well done, tibtum fadkhuluha khalideen.
Allah says in Jannah, the angels will say,
tibtum, well done, fadkhuluha khalideen, enter into it
forever, the gardens of Eden.
So if we can work on our atom
weights as he worked for microseconds, Allah says,
wasabiqoon, asabiqoon, those who run fast, who compete
with others.
So yes, we can be inspired.
This is what Imam al-Ghazali says, look
at the experts in dunya and do the
same in your deen and you will be
a strong believer.
Look at the experts in dunya and do
the same with your deen.
Benchmarking before your akhira.
You will become strong.
So I ask Allah SWT to be quite
frank.
These are just thoughts that I share that
I'm in need of myself.
I'm in no way preaching.
I'm just reminding.
And I don't say this to be humble.
Wallahi, I mean it.
Everything I say is a reminder for myself.
I'm speaking out loud to people who know
better, who do better, who are better, whom
I hope when Allah SWT decides to throw
me into *, I can reach out a
hand to.
And that they will say, Rabbi please don't
throw him there because he was teaching us
in the mosque.
We ask Allah SWT to make today better
than yesterday and tomorrow better than today.
We ask Allah SWT to remove poverty from
the face of the earth, oppression from the
face of the earth and to help everyone
who is in need.
We ask Allah SWT to make our stay
in this dunya like fasting and our meeting
with him like Eid.
لا إله إلا أنت سبحانك ربي إني كنت
من الظالمين وآخر دعوانا الحمد لله رب العالمين
الله