Suleiman Hani – Four Principles of Qadr
AI: Summary ©
The speakers discuss the importance of belief in Allah's pillars, including the Day of Judgment, the prophets in the messengers, and the final revelation of Islam. They stress the importance of knowing everything and finding one's way to achieve one's goals. The speakers also touch on the psychology of religion and mental health, alcohol, and the creation of life. They emphasize the importance of forgiveness, learning from the past, and being mindful of hardship. They stress the need to be humble and modest, and to not let the devil trick them into thinking of the future.
AI: Summary ©
Many Muslims are familiar with
the pillars of iman. belief in Allah. You know about the angels. You've heard about the Day of Judgment in detail, my paradise and hellfire in the Day of Resurrection.
As well as being familiar with our belief in the prophets in the messengers Prophet Musa salaam Prophet Ibrahim Ali Salam, Prophet Isa Jesus it his Salam and Prophet Muhammad sallallahu alayhi wa salam, as well as being familiar with the original scriptures to those prophets and messengers, as well as the final revelation of Allah that is preserved and timeless, the Quran
but one of the pillars of Eman that often times many Muslims are not familiar with or their understanding of it is not exact, is the very last one mentioned in that famous Hadith, the hadith of God, daddy sinner.
Belief in Canada,
the good and the bad, the sweet and the bitter. Canada, in the English language, this word might be translated as decree as predestination. You might use it in everyday language as fate. You might say something is written for you, you might tell your son or your daughter or you heard from your parents, it was written this way this was meant to happen.
One time as I was flying, connecting in Paris, back to Detroit.
I got into my seat. And it's a window seat. And right next to me, you know, the middle seat that people usually try to avoid and sometimes stays empty for a long time. Finally, right before boarding finished, a man came and sat there. And I noticed as he's putting his things away and shuffling around, I noticed the book.
He was Arabic, French translation.
And this was the perfect opportunity with my curiosity to start up conversation. So I asked him, Are you learning Arabic? He said, Yes. He said, Why do you speak Arabic? I said, Yes. And so we started talking, he asked, What do you do? So I travel, I give lectures on religion on Islam, on how to better society through Islam, on philosophy of religion and the pursuit of truth. And as we're talking, he's listening and listening and listening. And then he gets quiet for a moment, and starts looking in front of me at the people sitting in front of me also on the window.
And then he says, MK tuba.
I said, sorry. He said, MK tuba. He said that I have had so many questions for the last few months,
especially in the last few months about Islam.
And so many misconceptions, especially coming from France.
He said, and as I'm sitting here, listening to you, and knowing that you're able to answer my questions, I'm just thinking it was written for me. MK tuba, is that not the right word? I said that is the right word. I said, I just didn't know that's what you were referring to. He said of all the people sitting on the window seats. I don't think any of them are Muslim. And if they are, I don't think they would have answered my questions. But I believe it was meant to be for me to be randomly assigned a middle seat and to be sitting next to you, so that I can ask you these questions. And as he did, we spoke for hours about Islam on that file hamdulillah it was a very fruitful conversation.
But this notion, this concept, your belief, when you say in everyday language, it was meant to be it was written this way it was decreed for you do you have choice Do you have free will? And what is the overlap between telecoil and fedora many other things. This concept is topic of other by the way, and Paola, while Coda can be one of the most complex and one of the easiest depending on how you learned it. And it is one of the topics you are not supposed to complicate in Islam. Some people go to extremes and there have been deviant movements in the past who went to extremes philosophizing. Cada
but as Muslims, we can understand all of us old and young and refresh our memories as well. Very basic principles every Muslim needs to know about an Eman belcarra Every Muslim needs to know this because it will impact you in the way you live your life and what happens to you in the next life. The first principle that we can cover
and everyone here knows this is our emphasis that Allah is allowed him Allah Aleem, what does that mean? Allah knows everything. Allah subhanho wa Taala knows about every cell in your body. Allah subhanaw taala knows about every grain of sand on Earth. Allah subhana wa
Allah knows about every leaf that falls every tree in the world. Allah subhanho wa Taala knows about all of the stars and all of the galaxies in every celestial object, not just the ones we recently discovered with the James Webb telescope, but the ones that humans are still discovering and the ones that perhaps we will never discover Allah subhanaw taala his knowledge is infinite, eternal, his knowledge Subhana wa Tada includes your past, your present your future, and every alternative option you could have taken, you decided what you wore today, it's possible for you to have warned something else Allah subhanaw taala is aware of what would have happened if you were the other
thing. If you took a different path. If you had a different career if you made a different choice, every single choice you make. Now multiply that by every living being out there. Allah subhanaw taala is knowledge should humble us that we do not know anything. Allah Aleem is the one you turn to with full trust Tawakkol you trust in Him? You cannot see your future. So what do you do you pray staccato, knowing that ALLAH SubhanA wa Taala will guide you to what's best, and that you can rely upon him because you know who Allah subhanaw taala is. So the first principle that every Muslim should emphasize when we talk about the word fate, decree or other in the Arabic language. It's a
very rich word.
Emphasize that Allah knows all things. The next step, what's the second principle? That knowledge is placed into something that is written in Arabic Allah homophobe, the Prophet sallallahu alayhi wa sallam told us 50,000 years before you were created, or before the creation of the heavens and the earth, Allah subhanho wa Taala had already written out what will happen until the end of times. In one of the authentic hadith one of the authentic reports, Allah subhanaw taala created the pen. It's not the first thing that already existed but the pen was one of the first things of quality and Allah subhanaw taala commanded it to write the pen asked What should I write my lord, write
everything that will happen until the end of times. So the knowledge of Allah subhanaw taala about the future is now placed into something called a low hanging fruit that's written out. Don't overcomplicate your understanding of where it's written and how know we establish what Allah subhanaw taala tells us what we learned from the messenger sallallahu alayhi wasallam it's all written out and it is preserved, it cannot be tampered with it cannot be changed. Hello, hello, my phone does not change. And then there's the third principle.
And this is the one that I want to emphasize the most so pay very close attention. It is the will of Allah subhanaw taala the word will in English is also weak translation in Arabic language we're using the word mushy or Iraida. All I want you to remember from this is the following.
Whatever Allah subhanaw taala will wills happens whatever he does not will does not happen.
In addition to this, there are things that Allah subhanaw taala allows people to do, because you have choice you have freewill, but he does not like those things. For example, if I were to ask this question, I think the youngest people here who understand what I'm saying would be able to answer Does Allah subhanaw taala? Like when people hurt each other? Or when they disrespect each other? When people violate the rights of one another? Absolutely not. We know this. And yet do people do it? Yes. So are you thinking Allah's Will means Allah wants you to do that? No. Allah allows people to make choices in this world. And that's the test of this life. The Free Will the choice that you
have old and young. Is the exam question that you are given Leah blue welcome a young son Ramona, to test you to test all of us to see who's best with their choices, their actions, their conduct.
While they are a bad Hill cuff, Allah subhanaw taala tells us he does not like he's not pleased with his servants choosing Kofoed disobedience. Allah does not love that. And yet, does he allow people to do that? Yes. Allah subhanaw taala allows us to have free will and that is the test of this life. Some people will abuse it, they will do a lot of evil, but they will be paid for it in the next life. There'll be given their compensation for it. And some people will persevere and be patient and do what's right, what's correct. And Allah will reward them for it as well. So the concept of will is important here why?
One time at Hajj? I overheard May Allah grant us all an accepted journey to his sacred houses along the Amin. I overheard two brothers talking I've shared the story before one of them was trying to explain his answer the answer he would give to a non Muslim about the following question. What is our belief as Muslims when there's a natural disaster and when
The innocent children die. And usually people emphasize children because they think what Oh, they've not gotten to the age in which they've caused their own evil or their own harm. So they'll think about children. So one of them said, I'm not sure. Maybe they were gonna grow up and be evil people, so they had to die now in our halala.
As I heard them talking, eventually I turned around I said Salaam Alaikum, if you don't mind, can I just chime in with some quick insight? I heard what you were saying. And I just want to correct what you were saying from the Islamic perspective. When you go through hardship, you cannot automatically assume hardship equals what the anger of Allah displeasure otherwise the Prophet sallallahu wasallam would never go through hardship. Hardship is a part of a dunya it is a test. You cannot say why someone died or why someone went through hardship you don't know you can see, maybe for some people, some people may be dealing with hardships because of something evil that they did. Yes, verhaal
facade, you'll feel better you will, but people have caused corruption in the world to spread because of their evil actions. But for the most part, you cannot say definitively why someone like a young child died, you cannot say why an animal in the forest that you cannot see or hear or know about why that animal had to die, you can't. So at the end of the day, you're not supposed to pass judgment. Rather you say Allah subhanaw taala in his eternal infinite, perfect, complete wisdom, and knowledge knows best why things happen, and allows things to happen without us fully understanding. Why can you imagine? Can you imagine the burden of knowing every single thing that's going to happen
to you in the future? The mental weight and the anguish of that? Forget just yourself. Imagine knowing all of the factors of the people around you, and the things that you do the places you go what's happening in society. This is called the interweaving the intertwining, the earthly box. Even Tim Mala says the tying in together of so many things in the universe, things you can't see. So how can you claim I know why this happened? I know why that happened. That's why the believer responds with ponder Allahu wa Masha Fahad, in early Allah Wa in a in a hero's journey to Allah we belong tombs are returned. That's why the believer does not live in the past. The Muslim does not live in
the past, that Muslim does not dwell on the past except to take lessons lessons of wisdom. What can I take from that hardship or that experience so you can move forward? You have to move forward.
Furthermore, when we talk about the will of Allah subhanaw taala, some people misunderstand and they ask a very common question. One of the most common questions we receive is the following. How do we reconcile what you just said that Allah knows what everyone will do? Including their actions, their decisions, whether they die as believers or disbelievers? And where they end up in the next life? With freewill? Where's our wheel? Where's our choice?
So somebody will think and say, well, it was written this way, I had no choice. Is that true? Do you not have the choice right now to pray? Did you not make the choice to come to Juma prayer and obligation upon men? Do you do not make the choice to respect your parents, your spouse, your children, and have good character in society? You made that choice. You don't know the future. Allah subhanaw taala knows the future. But Allah created you for the test of being able to choose furniture for your oven shuffle yuck for whoever chooses decides to believe and those who choose to disbelieve will disbelieve, the whole point of life in a dunya is that we're not in Jannah. This
life right here is the life of choice. But there's no accountability yet. When you die in your soul leaves your body and you're resurrected. Yeomans to Yama. That's the life of compensation, the life of accountability, but there's no opportunity then. So make the right choices today. Allah knows what you're going to do, but they're not forced you to do it. You're choosing right now to do what is correct. In addition,
oftentimes, when people think about others, and they start to blame others for their sins, or that is not used to justify laziness, it's not used to justify sinfulness. For example, one time, a young man said, Well, the reason I don't pray my five prayers, even though they're an obligation, even though lol asked me first about that before anything else, he said is because Allah did not write it for me.
Allah did not write it for you. What do you mean? He's like, Look, I'm not praying, so it wasn't written for me. Do you have a misunderstanding of God? Perhaps? Are you not understanding that you have the choice right now to pray and you chose not to pray? You're making that choice, a young woman who said she wasn't wearing hijab and the Sheikh said to her, this was in a class of many students. She said, The reason I'm not wearing hijab, even though I believe in is an obligation. Allah did not write it for me. He said, What do you mean? Do you have the ability to go to the store and buy a hijab? Or headscarf at least? She said, Yes, but Allah did not write it for me. He said,
If you were to go right now, right after this class after the summer, go to the store. If you got struck by lightning on the way maybe I'll tell
Audio was not decreed for you because you were prevented, but then even then, supposed to continue. And he was of course being light hearted.
You make the choice to do what's right. And that is the choice you'll be asked about. How does this help us psychologically, according to a number of researchers, studying the psychology of religion and mental health and the overlap between mental health and your beliefs, your athlete or your worldview?
People who believe
in Allah subhanaw taala believe in the Creator.
And they know that they cannot change the past that things were decreed and determined that way, meaning that's how things happened. You cannot change it now are happier than people who are fatalist or people who do not believe in order altogether. fatalist are those who think there's no point I can't change the future. It's all written down. So I might as well not do anything. But fatalists fatalism does not have first of all room in Islam. fetalis make the obvious mistake of thinking what? Only with religion, only with religion, because when you ask them, do you go and drink water yourself? Or do you wait for the water to magically come to you and quench your thirst?
No, I'll go and drink water. A young man here in Michigan one time at an event. He said as Muslims, we should never be worried about any kind of diseases, because we'll never get them if we trust in Allah subhana wa Tada. I said, yes. But we have to take precautions based on those who are knowledgeable. For example, during the last two and a half years, pretty much the entire world learned about some things dealing with diseases, what's contagious, what's not how to prevent how to limit transmission, the effectiveness of masks or not, and so on and so forth. So I said, don't you agree that there is something we should do? He said, No, because we're Muslims, we believe in other.
I said, this is a misunderstanding. Do you lock your door when you leave your house? He said, Yes. Do you put on a seatbelt? Yes. Do you study for your exam? Yes. Okay. When you drive your car, why don't you leave the keys in the ignition the window, open the door open, and say I believe in God, and I believe in telecon, whatever will happen will happen. You don't do that. He said, No, of course. I said then take measures with everything. Tell what code is not for you to just wait for things to happen. You take action every day you wake up, you move around, you go about you go to school, you work, you raise your children, you drink water, you sleep, you take actions. You can't
say that's how it was written and not take action. Nobody does that. That's not telecom. That's not belief. In Poddar, Allah subhanaw. Taala knows what you're going to do, but you don't know the future. In addition to this, there's a liberation or psychological liberation that comes from belief in whatever you want to be liberated. You know, you can turn to Allah subhanaw taala. You call upon the one who knows all things, you pray for a prayer, and you ask Him for guidance. Why? Because Allah subhanaw taala knows and you don't know.
When you think about other our belief in it. And when people ask, basically, what is the point of life? What is the meaning of life? Do I have meaning in life? Do I have purpose in life? Yes, you do. Even if you're young, Allah subhanaw taala created you to worship Him, created you to know him, created you to obey Him, do not choose any other path.
And as you think about powder, and what it does for you mentally, you also recognize what the things that have passed, yes, cannot be changed. But there was some benefit in you from those experiences, you might not see it now, you might not understand it. And in fact, you may never understand it in a dunya. But on the Day of Judgment, when people are being rewarded for their patients, for all the hardships that they dealt with, they will come to appreciate their contentment with Allah's decree.
In addition to this, this was the third principle, the will of Allah subhanaw, Taala and mushy. Radha, in addition to this, there's the fourth principle, which is alcohol, the creation,
Allah subhanaw taala is the creator of everything, law, Hollywood coalition, or who other coalition working ALLAH SubhanA. Allah created everything someone might ask, including our souls and our bodies, yes, including our actions, even your actions. What does that mean? Some people misunderstand this. And in fact, there's an authentic hadith about this, that Allah subhana created us and our actions, meaning nothing can exist, including human agents, including actions including motions, including the laws of nature, nothing can exist without the will of Allah subhanaw taala. Allah subhana gave you the ability to do to make choices, and he gave you the freedom to make
choices that are good and the choices that are bad, and that's the test.
The test of life is not based on the person who's sitting next to you. Every single person in this world has a unique test for him or for her. The hardships that you go through the blessings that you had, the place you grew up in. There are things you are tested with that you did not choose. Did you choose your parents? No. Did you choose where you were?
Born in which country? No, you did not choose the year in which you were born either. So there are a number of things outside of your choice outside of your will. And Allah subhana allow these things to happen. This is the way that the world took place. This is the way that things manifested, that you were born at this time in this place to those parents in our country.
And in life, many things will come to you that are outside of your choice. We know this outside of your control. And in fact, even outside of your plans. You will not be questioned about the things that happened to you outside of your control, you will be questioned about how you dealt with it. How do you proceed? How did you respond? What did you do to move forward? Did you dwell on the past and lose your faith? Or did you get closer to Allah subhanaw taala. The believer is the one who immediately accepts the results the other and then tries to learn lessons so we don't repeat our mistakes or allow ourselves to be stung twice from the same source. But when it comes to further, do
not philosophize, do not make it complicated. Even when we talk to our children. We teach them these basic principles without making a complicated thing that we trust in Allah subhanho wa taala. And we believe in our responsibility, our accountability for the choices and the actions that we make on a daily basis, and that everyone at the end of the day will be questioned about that choice, as you work, for your job for a livelihood, for your studies, for your family, for food and drink, even, or to wear your clothes. As you strive and you put in effort you put in effort as well towards the athlete. Again, we are not featureless, we do not believe that because everything was written a lot
on my food that you should not take action. In fact, you should take action and it was written that you made the right choices and the right action. And the way that powder works, there are some things we know and some things that we don't amongst them is that the soul as it's being blown into the body, the father of this person in terms of their lifespan is written out commanded to the angel to write out the things about this individual. And on a yearly basis the father comes down to manifest how we don't know it comes down from Aloha unmuffled that to this world. And as it's going to manifest it's your decree your fate your father for the next year. When does it come down on an
annual basis on Laylatul quarter. This is the annual decree. And then in addition to this, of course, there is the weekly powder and then there's the daily powder that you experience. At the end of the day. It should be a topic that causes us to turn back to Allah subhana wa Tada and to ask of Him for help for relief for guidance to what's best for steadfastness upon that which is good. We ask Allah subhana wa Tada to protect us to guide us into forgive us for all of our shortcomings. Aloma Amin, ask Allah subhanaw taala to forgive you he is the oft forgiving the Ever Merciful of portofolio that was stuck to the Lord you are not comfortable Pharaoh in who who will have a voodoo
Rahim.
hamdu lillah wa Salatu was Salam ala Rasulillah what are the early he was Sufi woman who Allah.
The next time you hear someone say, it was written for you. It was written this way.
It was meant to be reflect if you will, on the things that we mentioned again, the four points number one, the knowledge of Allah subhanaw taala he knows everything. Trust in Him, turn to him call upon Him pour your heart out in dua to Allah subhanaw taala not just in the last 10 nights of Ramadan not just on the day of Otto for the entire year have the habit of always connecting to the Creator number two, ALLAH SubhanA wa Tada teaches us and tells us through His Messenger SallAllahu Sallam as well as through revelation in the Quran. About a lot in my father everything is written, the choices that you will make. The third is that Allah subhana wa Tada has a will, allows things to
happen for many wisdoms. We cannot know all these wisdoms. And as we reflect on that the next time you go through a hardship, do not let the devil trick you into thinking Allah is angry with me. Why one time my brother called and he said, You know what? I feel like Allah hates me is angry with me. He's punching me. I said, why he's like, because there's this thing that I want that I'm not getting. And this is a very common sentiment. Many people say this, and it's a misunderstanding. I said, How do you know that? He said, Because I'm not getting what I want. Said who said you're going to get what you want and that that is equivalent to Allah loving you. There are many possibilities.
The first is that maybe the thing you want is not good for you, and Allah is protecting you. Maybe Allah is doing it for a better time for you. But most importantly here, going through hardship should not cause you to think first and foremost, Allah is angry with you. Otherwise, the prophets would not have gone through any hardship. And the disbelievers who reject the message of truth would only go through hardship. But that's not the
Reality you're not in gender, you're not in the athlete. You're in a dunya. And Allah tells us about a dunya called Luna Fs in the effort to emote, every soul will depart from it will experience death. When blucon will test you, Miss shutter the will Heidi fitna with hardship and with ease as a trial for you, that's your test what you lean towards your own, and then everyone will return back to Allah subhanaw taala. For accountability, your test in this world could be hard, and it could be something of ease. Maybe you grew up with rich parents, and they give you everything you had, and they spoiled you. So you grew up to the extent that you never knew hardship in life. And then as you
started adulthood, whatever that may be, you found yourself struggling more mentally, because you're not accustomed to it. For some people, there is a test in wealth. And it's important for parents who already have wealth, may Allah subhanaw taala, preserve them and bless them and what they have. It's important to teach our children about hardship at a young age to expose them to what other people are going through as well. That this life, you are not entitled to anything in it. And that is a guarantee. Nothing is permanent in this world. May Allah subhanaw taala protect us in what we have and grant us off in this life. And the next alone, I mean, when something happens, do not
automatically think Allah wants you to go through a punishment because you're a bad person, no, rather think Allah subhana is purifying you, helping you protecting you that there's some played in it. As difficult as it may be that there is going to be something you will find in this life, and especially on the Day of Judgment, that will out balance all of the hardship that you've gone through in this life. And the last point was about creation, Allah created everything. So turn to Him, call upon him, put your trust in Him. How does this benefit us on a daily basis number one, peace of mind tranquility, when you know that what's written is written, it cannot be changed. You
don't dwell as much on the past. You don't dwell as much on what has passed and cannot be changed you of course, learn lessons from it. You can grieve over if you must, and then you move on.
And the second is that you start to think about what's ahead. When you study the topic of further, you start to, or you stop saying things like, If only I did such and such, which is a trap of shame on you don't say low, if only I did something different it happened now. Yes, you can say I'm learning from, let's say a bad choice, a mistake. I should study harder next semester, I should work harder, I should be more cautious, but we do not live in the past. The third is that it gives you the willpower, the submitter the determination, the perseverance, to move forward without as much fear about the creation, without as much fear about other people. And the Prophet sallallahu alayhi
salam taught, even our best that if everyone were to try to harm you, and Allah did not decree it for you, nobody can harm you, if the entire world tried to harm you. And it was not decreed for you not written that you could be harmed, but nobody will harm you. And if all of the world tried to save your protect you from something that was written for you, they cannot do so meaning in other words, what's written is written, the pens have been lifted, the ink has dried. And the very last point here is that the topic of others should humble us. You never become arrogant. You take precautions you put in measures, but you never become arrogant, you're humbled and you're modest in
the sense that you cannot see the future you cannot see behind the scenes you cannot see everything that's happening. So if you have anything good in this world, praise Allah subhanaw taala for it. If you have any success at all, any blessing that you feel something you should be grateful for, the things we know of and the things we don't know of give the credit where it's due to Allah subhanahu wa Tada May Allah subhanaw taala levy our affairs in the affairs of our brothers and our sisters in every land in every place and utilize us for relief for other people. And may Allah subhanaw taala make us a people of contentment or people of resilience of people of optimism wherever we are Aloma
Amin