Tom Facchine – Who is Allah – Understanding Allah’s Names and Attributes #27
AI: Summary ©
The speakers discuss the importance of language and social events in shaping people's lives, and emphasize the need for individuals to not denying theircribing behavior. Kadeem is seen as a symbol of Islam, and given in a given situation is seen as a way to create a sense of belonging. The speakers also emphasize the importance of not denying one's desire or desire to be treated similarly to others.
AI: Summary ©
Bismillah R Rahman r Rahim
Al hamdu Lillahi Rabbil Alameen wa salatu salam ala shuffle MBI your most serene Lavina mattina Muhammad Ali after the Salah was cut asleep, Allahu Maplin the way and the founder, one family that I lumped in was eterna elmen era, but I mean, salam, Alaikum Warahmatullahi Wabarakatuh everyone, welcome to Saturday evenings, class on Who is Allah
understanding last names and attributes.
We have covered a lot of ground hamdulillah and tonight's class is related to our previous lesson. Our previous lesson was about a law's name Avani.
The rich free from need the self sufficient,
which refers to several aspects of a laws being
that he is free from meeting provision.
And that he is free from needing children that he is free from needing middlemen that includes angels,
Sons Daughters offspring.
He is not in need of our worship.
He does not depend upon anything.
He does not have any obstacles. He's not in need of effort to overcome the devil or evil or anything like that.
And we talked about all the things that flow from a laws, the nap, a laws,
self sufficiency, or a laws being free from need.
His perfect generosity, perfect both in its goodwill, in its
absence of expectation,
for compensation.
And finally, it came to the point where we imagine
the paradise of such a self sufficient being
if what we have in this world
is so remarkable
and given to us so freely
from a being that has no need.
That doesn't have anything to restrict its giving internal or external.
And if everything we have in the Quran and the Sunnah tell us that this is just
nothing worthless compared to what's to come compared to paradise.
Then
we stand in awe
of the blessing
that we stand to gain
by insha Allah being admitted to his paradise
somewhat similar to if you get an invite from somebody who's got like, the nicest house in the neighborhood.
There's a special excitement, right? Because when it's you and your little, your little shack,
you might be eating
I know the Arabic names for it. I'm trying to you might be eating doll and roti. Right?
Very simple. The leader, right? It's very simple, simple foods, sitting on the floor.
Right? Which is good and good for the soul and pure and fine. kondalilla But isn't it true that if you get an invite to go to
someone's house, who mashallah Subotic Allah, Allah has blessed him with wealth.
There's a certain excitement.
There's a certain
oh and ascertain even gratitude. You might wear slightly nicer clothes. These are all just natural things. They're not necessarily spiritually damning.
or anything of the sort. So imagine that imagine then being invited to this paradise of a loss. Allah who is the source of all of our wealth, all of our gifts,
everything we have, and everything that anyone has.
And imagine the excitement that it should,
that should stir
in our hearts and our souls for
doing whatever it takes to get an invite to the party.
Tonight's chapter flows very organically from
kind of the meditations at the end of the previous chapter.
A shift he moves on to talk about lKt and aircraft
which can variously be translated as the most generous or the most noble. We'll get there to what the translations mean.
But they have significant overlap with this consequence of a loss of the nap
of Allah's wealth and self sufficiency and freedom from need.
As for allocating
it occurs in the poor and three times.
Once in Salta naman verse 40 While amount of shock on offer in that yes goodwill enough see why man Kapha Rafa in Nairobi Avani you carry, so it's paired with kitty, excuse me, Kitty was paired with Lani here.
Translation of the verse and whoever is grabbed is grateful that he is only grateful for his own self for his own benefit. And whoever is in grateful
then certainly my Sustainer is Ani Keti is self sufficient is free of need and carry
generous, noble
and soulful in fifth off yeah, you have in San Miguel raka be Rob decal carry.
And finally in salt, me known fetter Allah Allahu Malik will have La ilaha illa who rombo La Silla Kareem.
And there's a difference of opinion in between the Quran
as to whether al Karim here describes the throne,
or whether it describes a lot
and Huff's on awesome. The way that we recite it is Arambula how she'll carry me with a castle, which means that it describes the throne.
But in other Ashraf and other recitation styles of the Koran, it's recited with Abunimah while Hua rombo out of shield, Karina.
And so Kareem does not describe the OSH but it describes a law
as a job.
And both of the meanings are correct. And this is part of the miracle of the class, and the actual as that even if you go into the variance readings
that are authentically relied upon and proven from the Prophet salallahu Alaihe Salam, all of the slight meanings or slight variations in meaning are correct. Yes, his throne is kidding. And yes, of course, Allah Himself is Kitty.
As for electron, Akram only occurs once in the Quran. Most of you probably know
and so let's have a look at Quran whare vocal at Quran
and its significance that Allah
in the one time Okay, so I'll Ekrem is the superlative of Kenny. There's ketene
Ekrem Allah Quran, right? Good, better, best
gender generous, more generous, most generous.
And what is Allah talking about? isoa Joe when he's mentioning his name
at Chrome
Olivia Allah, Allah.
He's talking about reading and writing, teaching human beings
the gift of literacy
Everything else that Allah gives, of course, it's amazing, we'll get into some things.
But literacy,
specifically,
is a miracle.
And it's something unlike
any other creature has as a gift.
Yes, it's true science and scientists are discovering more every day about how
the animal kingdom is more complex than we initially gave it credit for.
animals communicate with each other with more sophistication and complexity and clarity than we initially gave them credit for.
That even things that are considered, quote unquote, lower are simpler life forms, such as trees, have forms of communication, even if they don't necessarily rely upon sound.
Similarly, things that are considered inanimate objects have aspects of life that were not previously understood. Even if they don't meet all the criteria of what typically, we would call something living according to biology.
And yet, despite all of these kinds of advancements,
human humans alone
enjoy this one miraculous gift
of literacy.
That no other creature has a share in as far as we know.
When it comes to food, yes, us and the rest of creation, when it comes to soundness, health,
being taken care of having solid bodies, lifespans, happiness, these sorts of things, yes, US and other beings.
comforts Joy's Yes, OS and other beings. But literacy.
Literacy is something a little bit different.
Literacy enables us to learn at an exponential rate.
We not just are able to learn through those whom we come into contact directly.
Or our observations of the outside world, we're able to benefit from anyone who has previously lived before us.
Who has written
down their observations, their thoughts, their analyses,
as long as we can understand their language and perhaps read their chicken scratch.
And this is something completely unique and remarkable.
Furthermore, and this is something that we we mentioned in the Arabic class. If you look at language itself, human language, let's say.
We find that if
ethno linguists and people who trace back the history of languages, they find something that
doesn't quite match the evolutionary model of
biology, and science and history. They find that human languages
used to be more complex than they are now. Or at least they're trending towards less complexity, as they get older, and are influenced by other languages and language becomes more of something that human beings are responsible for the makers of.
So as we're in the beginning, most languages were called synthetic languages, or decline herbal, they have various cases. Some of them especially North American indigenous languages, actually even what are called multi synthetic languages,
even more difficult.
Imagining that
this level of complexity and language just came out of nowhere, evolved from apes
is a little bit naive, or at least it's not satisfactory. It's not a satisfactory explanation. We find that the vast majority of languages that we're aware of, are now getting simpler and simpler. Over the centuries. English is one of the prime examples
getting more and more analytic, less and less complex, more and more technical.
And then we see that there's not really an evolutionary model that's appropriate but eat a deal devolution, right? A deterioration.
And along those best, but it seems to me that this points back to the divine hand. That is the source of language. It's found
the ultimate source of languages Allah subhanaw taala told us in Surah Talaaq
that I love a bit of color.
He taught man, literally the pen, figuratively there, automat have various things that they talk about literacy in general is probably maybe the best way to translate the entire concept. And the laws of Magellan only reserves this name for talking about literacy and the gift of literacy.
Any gift that we have
is
I should say it comes with expectations.
It comes with a duty
if somebody came and gave me a watch, a very nice watch a Rolex.
For eight, for example, this isn't a plug, I don't really wear watches. So please don't. But if someone did,
and then they noticed me, I'm not wearing the watch on my wrist and they think okay, well maybe he's a little bit shy to wear it out in public.
And then they come to my home, I invite them for tea or for coffee one day and they come to see that
I use it as a doorstop.
Or I use it as a paperweight.
Or I use it as a bookmark.
Or even worse, I've taken the thing apart and I've just you know, used one of the springs or views inside for something else.
Maybe I had to replace one of the gears in my egg timer.
And so I have to tough the Rolex and use that for that.
This would be Cooper COFRA Nirma. Let's linguistically This is ingratitude.
This is a denial of the gifts that one house
the improper use of something is a slap in the face
to the one who has given it.
And so if Allah azza wa jal has given us language, and more specifically than language, literacy.
Then there are some attendant expectations as to how we are to use that gift.
We are to develop
to develop that gift
doesn't Allah as we'll just say and Zoltan Issa
is escaping me but he uses the word very law.
Talk to them, and he uses the the adverb of the Leela
with a
fussy something that is eloquence, speak to them eloquently.
If the Prophet sallallahu alayhi wa sallam said in Allaha Katsa Bel Air Sana Allah cliche that Allah has prescribed excellence in everything.
Then our ability to wield language and use language and write in language is one of those things.
It's not simply meant to be able to type lol TTYL and things like this. Yes, these are functional uses of literacy.
However, Allah
gave us the Rolex
he didn't just give us you know, a plastic watch. If you'll allow the analogy he gave us you know, if we're gonna say cars, he gave us the Rolls Royce he gave us a jaguar. Right? So we should treat it like the gift that it is. We should develop our vocabulary we should develop our oratory skills, our ability to speak to other people to convince other people.
Muslims should be at the forefront and the leaders
and this is something that the prophets of Allah Juana he was salam even attended to in his time.
We saw the the value that he placed on literacy.
After the Battle of better, and the Muslims took 70 prisoners of war, some of them were able to purchase the
their freedom, not through any amount of money. But through teaching some of the teaching the companions to read. The Prophet sallallahu alayhi salam, he had specific companions that were gifted with language, learn foreign languages, in order to be able to communicate with them.
He had certain people who were his poets have sat him and phablets
and other people who were gifted, and they use their gifts in the service of Islam. We live in an era
where presentation matters. And in an era where there's more reach than there ever has been before. It's been democratized, even if it's true, that most media is only open is only owned and controlled perhaps by a few companies. Okay, that's true. But by and large, social media has opened opportunities for communicating to people across the world that were not imaginable.
A mere 100 years ago.
What are the airwaves are the
server space getting filled up with
getting filled up with junk food with trash?
Whereas the opportunity is there for the Muslims to develop themselves and to be able to reach people with language and learn new languages and attempt to spread the message of Islam as far and wide and effectively as possible? This is something that we don't really
give it its due
Allah subhanaw taala is I'll carry across
the URL when they talk about the base of this name of Kadeem, they say that Al Karim is the one from home flows, abundance, goodness and immense benefits.
Kadeem is not a word that is exclusive to Allah azza wa jal
in the sense that a ramen is exclusive to Allah azza wa jal or I had is exclusive to Allah azza wa jal, Karim. Allah uses Kadeem in the Quran to describe his throne, to describe the poor and
to describe
even the plants that he has created.
And if you look at plants on their role in our created universe, yes, Kadeem, they give shade, they give oxygen.
They give beauty.
They hold the soil through their root systems and prevent erosion. They cycle nutrients.
They feed the animals that we eat and use for clothing.
They provide nectar for bees, butterflies and other pollinators
that ends up as honey
of course, and similarly kitty.
It keeps giving and giving and giving. It's inexhaustible.
The amount of good that it gives.
There's no end
to reading the Quran.
There's no end to study in the Koran.
Once you've made it cover to cover, you start back again in the beginning and every time you read it, it's slightly new.
There are new things that you notice that you haven't noticed before you yourself has changed due to your experiences,
your exposure to other things in other parts of the Quran and the Sunnah.
So every time it keeps renewing,
much better than your newsfeed.
Every time you read it, it keeps getting slightly different and slightly different, more and more profound.
It's Kadeem, it keeps giving
when we reflect that Allah azza wa jal has actually told us
that the plants
are Ketty
if you're looking for references and so sort of to show
what I'm you know l LD can and that's Nafi me on police Oh Jim Carrey.
We realized another thing and that Allah azza wa jal
his key fob
his
speech to us, or his address,
to us is predicated upon something that's important and at risk today.
It's predicated that we have some sort of relationship with the natural world.
How often does a lot as a gel refer to
things in the natural world, the sun and the moon, the constellations, the oceans, the fish, the plants and the animals.
Time and time and time again.
He refers to this these things that he uses them as the springboard
to draw our attention to the fact that Allah is and Kadeem and therefore the conclusion that, yes, you should worship Him alone and dependent upon him alone.
And deepen your relationship with this
being that is Kadeem,
endless good, the endless giver of good.
And so we've reached an era
where
our ability to hear
this sort of conversation is somewhat compromised.
Depending on your neighborhood, depending on your job, depending on where you live.
You might live in the concrete jungle, you might live on pure pavement and then go to your car and then go to your indoor office and then with your air conditioning and climate control and move from one human
contrived environments to another.
And if that's your existence, if that's all that your existence is, you've lost the reference point that Allah uses time and time and time again, the poor man
and the difference is how a lot creates things and how we create things right. We create the building with asbestos shingles.
3040 50 years later, we realize Oh, oops, that creates cancer.
Then we move to another sort of material, then we oh no, and the pipes have led. And oh no, we shouldn't have done it this way. Consequences, unforeseen consequences, unintended side effects.
It doesn't have the same blessing, or the same aspects of
pure good as the things that Allah Himself has created.
That's right, Masha, Allah, like the mountains in Mecca and the mountains in the Adirondacks.
The things that the environments that Allah have created are perfect, good. Kadeem, keep giving and giving and giving, the environments that the people have created are not giving and they're not Kadeem, they don't give and given given fact they take the fluorescent lights, keep you awake at night
the GMOs,
make your stomach sensitive,
etc, etc. So it's important for everybody as much as possible
to do something that's going to keep that reference point alive.
That's going to give you an experience and a regular experience so that when Allah says Hey, Bob comes to you a laws
speech, his address, it won't just fall on deaf ears, it won't just mean nothing. No, you understand, you've looked at a bird, one foot away, two feet away three feet away.
You've looked carefully at a an ear of corn and a flower and you've seen a bee pollinate a flower these sorts of things that a lot of talks about
and then you'll get it when he's mentioning these things and says look and brings out the lesson for you and says Look at how Karim Allah is and look at how Karim the creation that he made for you and for your benefit is and it will become obvious.
It will be apparent
whereas if you're stuck in a concrete jungle, you look around you and you say I don't see. I don't see what he's talking about.
So Allah being al Karim, Allah Karim, Allah is inexhaustibly good
gives an inexhaustible, abundant goodness with immense benefits, no side effects, no drawbacks, no cost benefit analysis necessary.
He's also the one this is another shade of the meaning of Kadeem, who gives for no compensation.
And give us for no reason.
Instrumental reason
and gives indiscriminately. This is very much related to what we talked about with allows being a little funny.
Because his self sufficiency, his Lena, creates this or results in this pure intended giving this pure generosity. He doesn't need anything, so he's not going to keep anything for himself. What's he going to do with it? It doesn't benefit him at all. Or as you and me, yes, there's a certain limit to what we're going to be willing to give. You know, I made 20 cookies, I'm gonna give you 10 of them and I'll feel good about myself. But once I start getting to 1112 13, like, Hey, where are my cookies?
Right, this is because of our need and our desires, but also our need. We do need at the end of the day, we need food we need water.
Allah doesn't have a motive. He doesn't have an angle or an objective.
When he gives, it's not instrumental, it's not. Transaction airy, Allah gives and gives and gives. And that's why we see even the most vile hedonist atheists rejecter of faith and all that is moral and right, Allah will still give that person the family and happy memories and the decent job and you know,
these sorts of things, Allah doesn't, doesn't deny
based off of this when it comes to this particular type of giving a lot as kitty.
And when we realize this, it should make us
grateful, and it should give us a sense of awe.
This is a far far, far higher level than what you were I are capable of.
We were talking in the hookah the other day about even Abu Bakar Abu Bakr, the best Muslim, after the prophets of Allah hadI was someone
what happened after the if he wanted to punish his relative Mr.
By taking away his allowance by taking away his economic support of his poor relative.
Basically, there were strings attached.
Even if he didn't mean to do that, even if he didn't set out to do that in the first place. That's what it ended up becoming.
They said, Well, if you're going to insult my daughter and spread lies about my daughter, then you're not going to get anything. And then Allah corrected its power.
Because the laws Katyn and he wanted Abu Bakr to be Kareem. And to be Korean, you have to keep giving.
You can't stop, you can't withdraw. It's not like, you know, foreign aid from the United States, right? Like if you
have a ruler that we approve of you get your foreign aid. And if you do something else, then you can kiss that goodbye, right? The United States and everybody does it. I'm not trying to single out any nation. But this is politics, right? Foreign Aid and these sorts of things. People will give with strings attached and once you start to do what somebody else doesn't like them, that aid disappears, well, what was the purpose behind it and all along?
Allah is not like that allows ketene.
And finally, and this is another aspect that I learned that they mentioned when one of the shades of meaning behind Kadeem is that
Allah doesn't forget
who turns to them.
When it comes to you, or I, we prioritize we do
when you have a phone call from a certain type of person,
either a relative that kind of rubs you the wrong way, or somebody that is maybe below you in social status, we're much more likely to press ignore. Let it go to the voicemail. Text me talk to me some other time. What about when somebody that we respect and love and who's higher than us and social status and success calls us?
We might even be an addict.
out scenario and we take that call, we don't want to miss that opportunity.
So we prioritize, right? And we give different treatments to people depending on where they kind of where we've placed them.
In our pecking order,
Allah subhanaw taala isn't like that.
Allah subhanaw taala doesn't forget the little guy. He doesn't bump them back to the end of the line.
He doesn't say, Yeah, I'll get around to it.
Allah has the same level of care and generosity, and the Koran,
abundant goodness and abundant given to even the least of his slaves and worshipers.
That's because Allah doesn't look at what he stands to gain from these people, because a lot is out of it. He doesn't stand to gain anything. Whereas you and me, you know, the mayor or the governor calls us and we we pick up right away because we stand to gain something like Oh, rubbing elbows with this person is going to give me access into this Echelon or whatever have you.
Allah doesn't need that influence a lot doesn't need anything. And so he's able to give equal attention and equal care to all who turned to him and call upon Him.
And the Lord does not forget. Allah is able to keep track of everything.
So when we realize
and meditate upon the fact that Allah is Allah, Karim and Quran
it should make us grateful.
It should leave us in awe.
And this is one of the qualities of Allah that Allah wants us to embody and wants us to implement in our world in our lives. All these examples we brought up about the unfair treatments that we give to people depending on their social status, depending on how much we have and how much we want.
This isn't how it should be. It's not a license, we're not throwing up our hands and giving up
don't go and say oh, Imam said that this is how it is and
that's fine. No, we need to struggle against it.
And the Companions, they struggled against it, they developed this thing called ethos.
Which is giving generously when it's against you.
When you stand to lose
social status or material wealth or whatever
when you're desperately in need of something and I've actually written books about examples and stories of the sort
you are in desperate need of something and despite your desperate need, you are spiritually mature and disciplined enough
to give it to somebody else before partaking of it yourself.
So we should all strive to be a little bit more like a kitty
and that's all the time we have for tonight. Anybody have any questions comments, concerns before we depart?
Doesn't look like
okay,
everyone enjoy your evening and your weekend and inshallah I will see you soon, along with to Allah Salaam Alaikum.