Who is Allah – Understanding Allah’s Names and Attributes #17

Bismillah

Alhamdulillah

wa salatu salam ala Ashleigh almost Sabine Vina Latina Mohammed Ali Abdullah Salah is good to Sneem hola hola Elena we may in fact on that one found out the map and antenna was even an element yeah I don't know that I mean it's Saturday night

that means we're talking about Allah subhanaw taala and his needs from Shikarpur as often but as book understanding allows Beautiful Names

that I'm pretty far we are on the 19th chapter mashallah

about a third to a halfway through probably around the halfway halfway through the book

and as is the

methodology of the shake the group's names and chapters around a certain central theme.

So tonight we have to have Allah's name's al Kabir and allow the

Caribbean

and allow the

the Prophet salallahu Salam, he said that Al Kibriya al la de This is a Hadith

okay Kibriya reader I will Earth Ma is

Allah subhanaw taala says, and this hadith Coetzee and Hadith could see as the province of Lama lucidum narrating something

that Allah said that is not before and

that's

grand jury, which we will call

let's call that out Kibby grant

is a laws reader read that is your, your upper garment. You know how many

people from Yemen and Somalia and even other places in the Muslim world dress like Indonesia and Malaysia they have kind of the lower garment wrapped around their bottom halves, and the upper garment wrapped around their upper hands right. So the top is called the ease is called battery that and the bottom is called the result and this is actually this the typical style of dress at the time of the Prophet sallallahu the ascendant not necessarily the commies, the long kind of what we call the thug now, which has now become kind of the popular, the popular style. Okay, so we have these two garments. So Allah subhanaw taala, he says, That's grandeur, is his weadapt is upper garments

and erythema greatness

is his ease out

is his lower garment to communicate, the idea that Allah subhanahu wa Tada is great is grand

in such a way that it covers his entire being.

And all of his activity, of course, Allah gives us an example, that is based in something that we can understand, which is

garments that cover a physical body. Of course, we know that a lot does not have a physical body, but it's meant a little bit of man, he's giving us something in a language that we can understand, to communicate,

that there is no discussion about Allah subhanaw taala except that you are at the same time simultaneously, talking about the utmost extent of grandeur and greatness and perfection.

This greatness, this grandeur,

we can divide it into different sub types or at least constituent elements, things that are the ingredients of grandeur and greatness. We should know if we asked maybe we'll turn it back upon you all. If we were to say that such and such a person is great

or they are grand or some thing within this creation is grand, what are the qualities that we are usually referring to? What makes up greatness and grandeur? If you had to describe a person or thing like that

ah, Mashallah. A sense of awe.

That's a good one.

What else

Power

Very good. Others, everybody chime in the largest best most integrate, Mashallah.

So it's not just the size, I like that you added the most intricate, because it's not just the size, it has to do with the, the complexity, or the quality of something, right? Because quality is not only in the size of something, something can be big and useless. But if something is of quality, and then it's also

the biggest, or the largest and the best, then that is something that is that adds to that adds to its greatness.

Unique from the safe family unique to only few.

So, oh man, Mashallah. That's a really nice one. So there's a degree of exclusivity, right? Like we have, like in the hospitality industry, or with hotels, and so on and so forth. Anything that's exclusive, or even within journalism, right? This is a New York Times exclusive. This is a BBC exclusive. We've got the inside scoop, nobody else has it. That means we're the best.

Very good. exclusivity and grandeur are related. That's very good.

The details, make it special.

Mashallah, so, so not just the general things that are easy to see, but the finer points are attended to as well.

Okay, so the difference between going to McDonald's and going to a fine, let's say Italian restaurant, or whatever you want, whatever is your favorite cuisine is the attention of the details, maybe you're going to get the same calories out of both.

Now, one of them might be healthier for you than the other. But what's the difference in experience? What's behind the difference in the price point? It's that it's in the details. The fine Italian restaurant has, you know, the white napkins and the waiter and the atmosphere the ambiance

higher quality food?

Mashallah, a lot of Taj Mahal? Yes. For a second, I thought you're talking about the restaurant in New Hartford, the actual full Taj Mahal

had to think for a second largest not that big. Oh, he means the actual.

Masha Allah, Allah bless our brothers, that Taj Mahal, my local restaurant. Yes, exactly. The details the intricacy, someone I think mentioned Yes. Intricate. Right? You see the inlaid work of something like pottery, or even some of the massage at the tile work that goes that goes on, especially with the

the construction and the artists and kind of crafts like that. Yes, not necessarily about the size, but about the level of detail and the intricacy. So the same thing with food, right? You might have a huge meal at McDonald's. Right? You might get three, three Big Macs, and, you know, Supersize Me on everything. Wow, it's been a lot and thought about those words in a long time. But, but you might eat less at the fine Italian restaurant, but the quality, the intricate details, the homemade, cannoli, and the whole the pressed yaki with the pork. And I'm only giving references that maybe I'm familiar with, but you guys can make analogous comparisons with your own favorite cuisines.

Being above certain things.

In what sense? Do you mean being above certain things? I don't quite follow.

Talking physically, we talking in quality?

I mean, they're both true.

Right? To have grandeur. This is why in some, yes, of course.

like to say that he's above certain things. So it's not appropriate to say that he could say this, or he could do that. That's what I meant. Like he's above that. He's too great for that. I see. I see. So speaking about a lost power to audit. We wouldn't say, right. We wouldn't put words in his mouth. Okay, is that similar to, to what we're getting at? Right. Oh,

We can't

represent him without a seal, or some sort of authority, or else we would be committing some sort of grave Act. As an example, we, it would not be appropriate to say that he could have a son. He's too great for that. That's That's what I meant. Above. He's above having a fun. He's too great. Okay.

Very, very good. Yeah. So the grand tour eliminates certain possibilities. Right? So imagine that let's, I'll keep rolling with my Italian restaurant analogy. Let's imagine I go into the fine Italian restaurant. And I asked, like, where's the kid's meal? Or does the kid's meal come with a little plastic toy? Right? This is a very quaint example. But you would be laughed at, someone would laugh at me for asking that question. Because to go to such a restaurant in the first place, eliminates the possibility that they would do things like that that's below them. Right? That's below them. Similarly, certain deals and discounts that might apply to certain places that are just

your kind of fast food.

Right? You wouldn't expect that from an upper level restaurant. So it's a quaint example. It's a quaint analogy, I should say. But it is very, very true when it comes to a loss power to Allah. We would not dare to assume certain things about a loss power to Allah, that we would assume of lesser creatures, right? His grandeur,

necessitate that some things are impossible to him.

When we get into 10, Z, the concept of

distancing a loss Pousada from any imperfections, not that he needs distancing, but you understand what I'm saying, like distancing in the minds of people, any association between a laws, attributes and any sort of shortcoming.

Right?

Yes, of course. And so certain things such as worship, such as Reliance to what could all have the kind of

the internal, the worship of the hearts, there's a level of it, and this comes back to what the sheikh family said about unique, and I tied to that, the word exclusivity.

These certain things are exclusive to Allah, I might love everyone. In my family. I might love every all Muslims with a particular level of love. But above and beyond that, there's a certain level of love that is exclusive to Allah subhanho wa taala.

Because there's nothing, I'm dependent upon a lot more than I am upon anybody else. It's an existential need. It's an absolute need.

And furthermore, his grandeur, and his greatness, necessitate that exclusivity

and so on and so forth for every other action of worship that comes from the heart. such as fear, yes, fear. There are certain things that we might fear in this world. It's a rational, normal fear, to fear getting torn apart by lions in the in the Serengeti, to fear falling out of a tree and hurting yourself, or falling from a high place to fear even catching a disease or something like this. Yeah, this is all rational fear. But there has to be a level of fear beyond and above that, that's exclusive to Allah subhanaw taala because of his greatness, and his grandeur.

Also, as is being mentioned in the chat, correct, level of submission, right? We submit to all sorts of things all the time, this the speed limit, hopefully, you're listening to the speed limit, and all the sorts of laws of you know, you can't park too far away from the curb, you have to, you know, park your vehicle this way, not on the streets between four and 6am, whatever the local rules are, but there's always got to be an extra level of submission, obedience.

Humility

that goes beyond what we have for the creation.

Yes,

very good. Allah is the only one we fear him and run to him. Exactly. Very good. So all of these things are are very greatly better than what I had mashallah, this is why it's beneficial to listen to what everyone has to say. What I had and much of it overlaps with what was already mentioned the ingredients, or the constituents of grandeur and greatness.

strength has to be there. Right? We wouldn't call something great or grand, if it was weak,

it has to have strength. It has to be able to defend itself. It has to be, it has to be able to defend others, the weak, the oppressed.

We would never call a leader, a great leader.

Or let's say this,

we can often tell a great leader from a poor leader by how they treat the most vulnerable people that they are responsible for. Isn't that true?

A poor leader

in times of difficulty will only be concerned with saving their own selves and reputation.

I don't need to see any that say anything further about that. Whereas a true leader, like the Prophet sallallahu alayhi salam

is going to put the most vulnerable first and protect them.

Like how the prophets of Allah Allah, he has some sense all of the companions on his words on Medina first, before he and Abu Bakr made the journey themselves. And how he sent the most vulnerable of the Muslims even to have a shirt to Abyssinia bar before that.

Because he couldn't guarantee their safety. Exactly why.

And so any leader that is grand or has grant your has to have this ability to not just protect themselves, but to protect the vulnerable. That's why we have leaders in the first place. So Allah subhanaw taala can be an all the, the possessor of the most greatness on the most grander,

has to have that strength. And of course, he does somehow has the strength to defend against himself. Nobody can even come close to harming him in any sort of way. They've tried, that Alan has tried. Some other people are under the delusion that they harm a lot in some way. And it doesn't harm Allah at all.

But then Allah subhanaw taala has to be able to protect the most vulnerable. And has he demonstrated time and time again, that he has done that we were talking in the hood, just last week about Musa alayhis salam, and how he was part of the most vulnerable category of people, slaves, and slaves because of their ethnicity and ended slaves because of their faith.

And how ALLAH SubhanA wa Tada, he will the to reverse their fortunes, he will that they would become the leaders. And that's your own, and Hamilton

and his cohort, his posse, that they would be destroyed in a very, very undignified way.

So Allah subhanaw taala is able to defend himself and he's able to defend the most weak, he's able to take the absolute most weak

and make them the strongest, many of the elements, they said that this is why Allah chose the atoms

for sending the Prophet Muhammad Sallallahu is,

is that if you go to the history of the atoms before the the prophets of the La Jolla, salam, you find

the most amount of tribal warfare, the least civilizational cohesion.

Right. It wasn't, for example, like Persia, or like Rome, who have had success of large civilizations before that. That's not of course, any knock on the out of the out of 10 poetry, they had certain things, their generosity and stuff like that. But when it came to their ability to come together as a unit and build a large civilization, it hadn't really happened.

And they were constantly worrying at each other and these sorts of feuds, that's how they go. It's tit for tat, everybody's constantly retaliating against the other. And so some of them are they might they said a lot took these people on purpose, and made them masters of the entire world in just about 50 years.

As an area as a proof to the people of Allah's ability, his ability to defend the poor and the weak, his ability to raise who he wills, and his ability to lower and debase only wills.

So strength is, is a key ingredients of grandeur and greatness, just like honor and nobility. Right? Because strength can happen in a right way and a wrong way. Right. Fit Island was strong. Iran had strength. So did Nimrod so that all of the great tyrants

past and present they had strength. But what was the difference between their strength? Or I should say, what what's the difference between the strength of a tyrant and the strength of a righteous person or a righteous ruler, such as the for Aquila thought

the Prophet Muhammad sallallahu alayhi wa sallam himself

is that their strength was applied in righteous ways.

Yes, masha Allah. And we have an example.

Islam has that political dimension where we have the example. As opposed to the Christians, for example, they don't have any sort of roadmap to follow. They have no qualifier or washi

they were on the defense hiding from the Romans from day one.

Whereas us Alhamdulillah we had nothing Rafa after we had the prophesy, Salam and the state in Medina, and then we had the,

the righteous successors after him for about 30 years. And so we have a roadmap. Even if they had extreme difficulties, even if maybe we could even say that

there were some things that

maybe even could have been done better. That's all open for debate. And that's a distraction from the point that

we see the benefits of strength applied righteously, with righteousness, tempered and focused and discipline, by righteousness that results in honor and nobility. That's what enabled Rama, Ravi Allahu anhu, to walk into Palestine, and convince so many of the people of Palestine to become Muslims. You know, the story, he came with his slave. And they were taking turns. So they had one animal between them. And they would take turns, one of them would take a turn riding, while the other one walks next to it. And then they would switch and they had a certain way that they were counting the turns. So it was almost turned to walk

when they actually made it to

the Palestine.

anybody, any leader who was too concerned with optics, who was not tempered by righteousness and piety

would have said to a slave, Alright, get off.

Inside for me to get up there, I gotta make the photo op, right? I've got to be the boss, I've got to get the respect of the people. And, you know, the devil would be there to provide all this

justice, justification and rationalization for why my name has to be up in lights, I have to be get credit. My name has to be on here and there and everywhere. No, no, no, no, no, no, I would have walked into Jerusalem, rather the Aloha. And the people were amazed. Because they had never seen leadership like that before.

And it conquered people's hearts and people became Muslims very, very, very quickly. That's the difference between mere strength and honor, and nobility.

Similar to strength, but a little bit different. A little bit more general is ability. Okay, in order to have grandeur and greatness, you have to have ability, you have to be able to do what you will what you want, if you have to ask permission first. If you have to struggle really hard, against some sort of opposing force,

or something like this, then this is not something or someone that has greatness. This is someone who lacks grandeur, that they can't simply we don't want to say impose their will in the sense of coercion, but impose their will in the sense of realize, bring into reality, what they will or what they wanted to do.

Similarly, in order to have grandeur and greatness, one has to have expansive knowledge this scholars have talked extensively about knowledge as the most significant thing that gives honor and takes away honor. You can have all of the money in the world, you can have all of the political power. If when you open your mouth, you are a fool.

It will throw your greatness and grandeur out the window. Everyone will see through you in an instant.

Whereas you could have someone who is poor and somebody who is insignificant on the societal level, but if that person has knowledge,

then he will get respect she will get respect even despite their social standing a lot of pee

pool will be attracted to that person

in the sense that they will want to converse with that person, they always find that they benefit from that person. Whenever they have a conversation, they learn something new. People have this natural affinity to gravitate towards intelligence. We talked to many classes ago about how regretfully we live in an era where that natural affinity has been ruined by trust issues, right? People in authority have been, have breached their trust, they've abused the trust that people that know less than them

that they had, I should say, from people who knew less than than, to the point now where the masses don't don't know what to believe and don't know who to trust. Exactly, the pen is mightier than the sword. Exactly. Wishes. If you want to go into our poets through the history, this is a real era, poets had a lot of power, sometimes more power than the actual rulers because their ability to put things into words, make someone look good or make someone look bad, was

even more of a concern for the rulers, sometimes then some of their enemies, there's a lot of funny, funny stories about that.

So Allah subhanaw taala has that expensive knowledge about everything,

everything that happened, everything that will happen, everything that's happening now. It's all the same thing. He sees it clearly he hears it clearly, without any need for physical materialistic mechanisms.

And that adds to his his grandeur and his greatness, that he is able to command so much intelligence and awareness. That's literally unfathomable to us, is a key ingredients of His greatness and grandeur.

The implication

of a lobbying LKB

and a law to either being at all the the greats the grant

is that every other greatness, or example of greatness,

for example of grandeur that we find in this world,

is tempered by that fact that Allah subhanaw taala is above that far, far above that.

Right, no matter how great

someone becomes, no matter how great someone's Dominion or control over political events, over

resources, over knowledge, anything in this world, it's all at the end of the day quite limited,

compared to what Allah subhanaw taala has as far as grandeur and greatness.

And so who then is deserving of

excessive praise aggrandizing behavior,

except for Allah's power, what's odd. And this is a very staple ingredient of our culture as Muslims that we shy away from excessive praise.

We know that sometimes what's hidden underneath doesn't match. What's on the outside, you can see someone who appears to be the most righteous person and they could have serious issues with their intention that happens.

And so our praise is temporary. Knowing that all of us power to Allah is the Greatest, the most grand above everything, he has unlimited strength, unlimited knowledge, all of these things,

makes our

all to use one of the words earlier brought up

of the Creation less

it rains in

and cuts in a positive way.

Our appreciation or our all that we have for anyone in the creation that might have a little bit of grandeur, a little bit of greatness, whether it's a particular skill, whether it's ownership, whether it's power, whatever it is knowledge.

It's always paling in comparison to what Allah subhanaw taala has.

The person who registers

and realizes that Allah is Allah kabhi allowing

the grand the Great, the one that has unlimited grandeur

then this person

It will be easy and automatic it will be organic

from that person

to

glorify Allah's Parmesan, this is the concept of tech be to glorify Allah.

Right? Even the derivative secondary greatness that we find in this world, what do we say Allahu Akbar. Allah is greater. Allah is grander.

And so appreciating this reality of Allah subhanaw taala leads us to remember it with our tongues. This is the secret of technique.

So the more that we know Allah's power, Donna, the more you can beautiful, the more that we

aggrandized him in the good way in a positive way, the more that we

register and glorify Him as the greatness that he is.

And so the more that we do this, and we register all of these qualities that Allah has, not only do we know him more intimately,

but we will love him more.

We will love him more, to know that he has all of this greatness and grandeur

that he's in control over everything.

It will make us appreciate all of the things that he's decided to give us. And we will love him more.

We will submit to Him more.

As we were saying before, this level of submission that goes beyond this exclusive realm of submission that belongs to a lost power to Allah alone.

Very good. Yes, the shahada found points out even saying Masha Allah

is praising Allah, you see something amazing Masha Allah, Allah will do. Right? We don't as Muslims, focus all of our praise. Oh, you're so good at that. You did a great you, you know, our, our culture, from the religious side of things, is to tie it back to Allah's Bounty and a law spavor. So that we might be grateful. And that's another consequence of registering our lien is that we become grateful. We know him more, and the more that we know him, the more that we're grateful, every skill that we have.

It's given to us from Allah subhanaw taala. How much can we take credit for something?

I did this, I did that I got this GPA. I did that. Guess what, that is only the greatness and grandeur of Allah subhanaw taala being manifested in your life being lent out to you on loan.

And the only reason why everybody doesn't know your dirty laundry, is because a lot is off man.

Allah is the Most Merciful. He's hidden. Every single one of us has stuff that we're not proud of, that we can seal that we would be ashamed if everyone knew, like everyone knew our resumes, and our accolades, right. Even the companions had the same phenomenon happened to them.

And so the more that we realize kind of the reality

for those who I mean, it's an old movie now, but the matrix, I always compare it to the matrix, the more that you see the reality

of how everything that we have is from a laws it's just a trickle off of laws, greatness and grandeur, is skill, ability, knowledge,

the more you kind of leave the world of delusion into thinking that it's you it's it's not you. It's a lost pounds either.

Yes, hello.

Oh, in the comments we have despite his grandeur, he listens to the weakest person answers supplication provide sustenance provides for us, and this makes us feel humble. Yes.

Very good. 100%

Knowing that Allah is the Greatest has all of this greatness and granted,

it increases us in submission to Him. Not just in a fearful way. You know that, oh, he might punish me. Maybe that's there too. Okay. But because it's automatic, it's deserving.

You realize your dependents. And so you respond in kind with submission. Fear is also there as well. fear in our tradition is not inherently it's not necessarily a toxic emotion or a toxic feeling. There is such a thing as righteous fear.

And that is the fear that inspires you

righteousness and self improvement. It's a productive fear.

And so knowing that Allah is great and grand and has the ability

to take you to task

should make you fear disappointing Allah, think about in this world, the person you fear disappointing the most.

Or the person you feel, you fear, excuse me, offending the most,

or the person you fear

their displeasure the most. Right. The goal is that all of us have more fear

of Allah than that.

That we fear disappointing a lot

more than we fear disappointing the creation, that we fear

the displeasure of a lot more than we fear, the displeasure of the creation. It also leads us realizing a lot of greatness and grandeur.

It makes us honor alone.

Just like with the formulae that we say Masha, Allah, Allahu Akbar, we will more readily it's a result or a product of being grateful. We will try to tell others and get others to realize what we've what Allah has blessed us to realize all of these things. It's just a loss greatness. It's not my greatness.

And so this will also lead us to obey Him.

It will lead us to remember him more. And to thank you.

And we'll close with this.

That when Allah in the Quran subhanaw taala often

blames the Kupo.

He speaks to the error of their mindset,

such as in sort of an iron.

Well, my mother in law, her Harper Kadri. He uses this phrase a few times to describe the error of the mentality of those who reject Faith by saying that

they didn't

estimate a law with a proper estimation. They underestimated Allah.

That might be a better translation.

They didn't

assess his greatness. They didn't assess his grandeur accurately.

They woefully sold a lot of shorts and underestimated Allah's greatness and brand new.

And so look at how that act of under estimating that

flowered

into what type of action into ingratitude the opposite of all the things that we just said,

taking credit for yourself, right? This is me, this is my project, and I did this and you can't have it. Right?

Getting upset when other people don't praise us. Right? Like, oh, well, you know, he should recognize that, you know, I'm really carrying him and this

happens.

In gratitude, disobedience, rebelliousness.

All these sorts of things are fruit from the roots of this tree of not

estimating Allah with a proper estimation, under estimating his greatness and His grandeur.

And so the implication is that

the more that you know, the reality of Allah,

the actions, even the actions of the heart, the fear, the humility, the submission,

praise, the gratitude, it all becomes automatic. It's all flowing easily from that source. Like we said in the Sunday night class. The first step to self improvement is believing in beautiful things. Right? When you believe in beautiful things, it organically releases into beautiful, productive actions of faith. And if you believe in

petty things, then it will bear fruit in time and the last Pousada knows best. That's all the time we have for today. Does anybody have any closing remarks or questions before we

dismiss?

So we have a question.

In the dunya

we see a level of arrogance

and misuse of power among those who are great, and give the rulers the tyrants all this other stuff.

But what we experienced from the last balance Arla is mercy and justice.

What effect will this have on us?

Forgiveness,

the idea of forgiveness, if I understand where the person is coming from,

is partly powerful.

When someone has the ability to punish,

right, I give the example to many of your children in the Sunday school. Like imagine some big guy like professional athlete.

You know, maybe he knocked over one of your kids, for foot, nothing

less than 100 pounds.

And then that child, that young person looks way up to that professional athlete and said,

You know what, this time I'll forgive you?

You know, what would we say that, you know, that person would probably laugh? Why would it be funny?

It would be funny, because

the act of forgiveness implies an ability to punish.

That was for gone, right? It's like, I had the ability to basically, you know, make you pay for what you do. But I'm gonna let it go. Because I'm the bigger person.

Right?

So when we see people who have arrogance,

and they have power,

and

they might have something of,

they might be deluded into thinking that they have some sort of grand or greatness, then every time that they oppress,

and they do not forgive, despite their ability to punish. And this is something that

depletes and subtracts and detracts from their grandeur and their greatness. This is why

the masses hate those people. Right? Is that true grandeur? Even if you have power, even if you have strength, everybody in the street is making dua against you and cursing. What type of grandeur is that.

Whereas a loss of power, Donna, he has the ability

to punish instantly if he wanted to. He says it and sort of them. He said if he wanted to, he could have punished us right now for everything that we do. And despite that, he not only gives us a long time to think it over to come back to him to say that we're sorry to repent.

But he also forgives more than we can even fathom.

So this adds to allows granted, and greatness, restraints,

the ability to take someone to task

and the refusal to do so or at least the great reluctance to do so. Unless somebody is really truly deserving that thing to the point where forgiving that person would actually be oppression to the victims of that person and a lost power to audit those best.

Okay, very good. Thank you very much everybody for your participation. Meanwhile, Jakub, I hope you are all well. And

insha Allah

will see you next time. So then what equal Welcome to Lucky