Yahya Rhodus – The Greatness Of Blessings –
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AI: Transcript ©
Did in Pharaoh. The Pharaoh himself manifests itself
throughout the course of history, until this day and age. There are
people that are Pharaonic in nature. There are people that will
be raised with the Pharaoh because of the connection of the hearts
that they have, even if they don't know his name or what that is
they're speaking because of who they are and how that they that
deal that with the world in which they live. So these archetypes
repeat themselves over history. But one of the things that you and
I have to always remind ourselves the job of the Prophet Muhammad
SAW rather all of the prophets who came before them, all of the
followers of those various prophets that came from the time
of Adam until the Seal of Prophets are Prophet Muhammad, sallAllahu,
salam, and all of the followers of the Prophet Muhammad until the Day
of Judgment, their essential goal in mission is the same. It's the
same. It hasn't changed, despite the different ways that those
various archetypes manifest throughout history, and that goal
is nothing other than to establish this Deen, to establish this
religion in our own selves. This is the goal you're from the wake
from the time that you wake up in the morning till the time that you
go to sleep at night. The goal of the believer should be to
establish the reality of this Deen in their own selves, and then to
work on those who are within the circle, their circle of influence,
to work tirelessly to establish the reality of this deen and
people that are around them, people that they're able to
affect, to live, first and foremost, its reality, so that
people are impacted by their state before their words, but then to do
everything that they can outwardly as well to people that are around
them, and to people that they might not have been able to reach
before, and so forth and so on. And this was the understanding of
the people who came before us. And one of the things that they
mentioned is that if you look at the likes of Mawlana Rumi, he
lived during the time of the Mongol invasion. If you look at
the type, the likes of Imam Al razari, he lived during the time
of the Crusades. But their most important works that both of them
that penned or were inspired with the metinawi and the Akhi alum din
respectively, where is the mentioning of the political
situation of their time. These were people, despite going through
very difficult situations, knew that their mission was, is to
teach people how to be,
and this is why some of them say it was one of the reasons that led
to that, the that freeing of Palestine during that time was
this book entering into the various curricula of the scholars
in the schools that people learned about these meanings, internalized
them, and then Allah changed their condition as a result. And I'm
speaking very generally, but that this has deep meaning. This was
their understanding, and certainly they might have commented on it in
that certain circles, in certain ways, but they understood despite
how difficult the time might have been, despite how dismal it would
have been to have seen this destruction before in that time
and then at different times in human history. Just think about
what Muslims went through through the whole colonial period. It
wasn't pretty. They knew, though, that their job was to establish
this Deen in their own selves, in their families, in their
communities, in the people, in their land, in as many people as
they could possibly affect. And if we all recognize this, that this
is our preoccupation from the morning until the evening, is that
you will find amazing doors that ALLAH SubhanA wa Taala then opens
up for you. And then, if we understand this, that then we can
understand this meaning of the importance, importance of
environments, environments in which seeds might be planted and
you cannot plant a seed, and a hostile environment, it is not
going to grow, but every gathering, every opportunity that
we expose ourselves to the Sweet breezes of Allah, to others mercy,
whether it is a Prayer, whether it is any form of worship, whether it
is the prayer, whether it is Salat Juma, or whether it's some form of
a class that we are learning, or whether it's some form of
gathering, like the one in which we're in, or reciting the Buddha
Sharifa that is in praise of our Prophet sallallahu, alayhi, salam,
or all of these different ways, whether it is A retreat, these are
different opportunities for us to expose ourselves to having a seed
planted in a heart. And when these things combine the right people
with the right environment, this is when the Mercy of Allah
subhanahu wa descends, and this is when people benefit profoundly,
and you never know what's going to.
That that is going to that settle in the heart, and I want to share
with you in the stories we mentioned before, I'm going to
share in its entirety. And it's a long story, but there are so many
deep meanings. The great Imam, sahabnid ibn ibn Abdullah, to
study, is one of the greatest Imams of this ummah, who reached
the pinnacle of closest to Allah, subhanho wa taala, someone who
dedicated himself entirely to his Lord, to barakah wa taala. And
when you mention him, just pinching his name, mercy descends.
This is what they've always said from the time of the tabain, on
the tongue of Sufyan Ibn arayana and a number of others. And the
Dhikr salihim tends at a Rahma. Is that Yes, that we should speak
about evil to avoid it, yes, that we should be aware of the world's
tendencies. But if that's all we do, is that it's not going to
truly help your heart, except to ward off that falling into that
evil. But if you want mercy to descend, you have to mention the
righteous regularly, under the Karasu in tensor rahmah, mention
the righteous regularly, because when you mention them, mercy
descends down upon you. And just go to a gathering where people are
mentioning the righteous and see how your heart feels after that
gathering. This blessed city that our dear brother city, Muhammad
was speaking about, this is what people do when you go to their
home to eat lunch or to eat dinner, or you spend time with
them or have tea with them. What do they do outside of the other
things that they're doing in life? They tend to talk about the
righteous, their teachers, the great Imams of the past,
beneficial stories that bring the life to heart, where you're
benefiting, almost like you're in a class and you're having dinner
at someone's house, you're enjoying food and maybe dessert or
tea or coffee, and you're getting a pearl of wisdom that might
actually change your life, because you never know when you're going
to receive something that you actually really need. So this
great Imam, Imam sahila, to study is that he said when I was three
years old, I used to wake up at night for prayer when I was three
years old, not seven, not nine, not 11, he said, When I was three
years old, and I would watch My maternal uncle, who was named Imam
Muhammad Ibn siwad. I would watch him pray.
So he would wake up, and he would watch him pray.
And he said. Then one day, yoman fakhle Omen, he obviously noticed
that he was waking up, but he would just let him be, and he
didn't rush it. He's only three years old, and one day he said to
him, when he was a young boy, that shall you not remember the One who
created you, Who created you, shall you not remember the One who
created you? And so I said, I asked him, How do I remember him?
What do I say? He then said to him, say in your heart when you go
to sleep at night, three times without moving your tongue,
Allahu, My Allah is with me. Allahu now.
Allah is gazing upon me. Allahu, Shahidi Allah is witnessing me. He
said, say it three times. Look at the beauty of this. Look at what
happens when you have an environment where people are
waking up for prayer, when children or people in the
community are around other believers who are doing what
they're supposed to do, that will directly impact them, and that's
the greatest impact of all. The impact that is transpiring before
you even saying anything is that you're affected by the environment
in which you're in. And he was a young man, and look what he told
him. How long is that going to take to say this 15 seconds. It's
easy even for a child of this age. So he told him exactly what to do.
To say three times, Allahu, My Allah is with me. Allah ALA is
gazing upon me. Allahu Shahidi, Allah is witnessing me three times
in your heart without moving your tongue. And we're not mentioning
this so that we can just hear it sound good? We're mentioning this
because maybe a young person in this gathering, or even someone
who's older that actually takes this to heart. And if you do
sincerely, for the sake of Allah, it will my it will change your
life through His bounty the way that it changed his life. And so
he said, fat, don't do Allah. Radhika, so that I said this for
that several nights, and then I let him know that I've been doing
this. So look at this interaction after interaction. It's not enough
that it just happened one time, and so he just planted that seed.
He wasn't telling him every day. Did you do it? Did you he let him
be He.
And so he comes back to him, Imam sahilima, Abu Allah, and he said
that I let him know that I've been doing it. So then this great Imam
Muhammad a says to him, now say it seven times. So I started doing it
until that I came back to him at all, but I've been doing it
regularly seven times. And then he said to him, now, do it 11 times.
So he said, I went back, and I started doing it 11 times. And
then what does he say? Fauci.
Until the sweetness of it entered into my heart, I started to find
this dhikr sweet. It was something then that impacted me. Started
changing me. I started to that find intimacy in that saying these
very blessed words. Because if you pause to think about these
meanings, what are you saying when you're saying Allahu my you're
bringing to heart. One of the greatest meanings you can bring to
heart is that when you recognize that Allah is with me, with me,
Allah is with us, this is the reality with his knowledge,
Subhanahu wa taala. And when you bring that to heart that Allah is
with us, what reinvigorates the heart more than that, what
nurtures the heart and fulfills the human being more than the
recognition of that reality. And so that he said that
I did this for an entire year,
and then after a year, his uncle says to him, so he says he said to
him, after an entire year, he says DOM Ailey, alay ELA and Ted holla
cover, he said, remain saying this for the rest of your life until
you enter into the grave and it will benefit you in this world and
in the hereafter. So look at this beauty. An entire year passed,
these were people who knew how to put things in their proper place.
They were patient. They recognized that you can't grow something
overnight if you try to harvest before it's time. You're not going
to get anything you pulled the plant out and harasses done. You
have to wait for the right moment. He waited an entire year and then
counseled him to say it every day of his life, and look, there's
more. Falam, Azal, adeka, Sini, Hata wa Jaka, Hala, Wafi city. And
said, I remain doing this for years, until I found its sweetness
in my innermost being. And then look, and then Yeoman one day. So
there's still interactions. He's still meeting regularly. There's
an environment, and there's people that are radiant and illuminated.
And he said that my uncle said to me, yah, Sahib, oh Sahil, that
mankind, Allahu, mahu wanaaldhi wa shahidahu is that whoever realizes
that Allah is with him, Allah is gazing upon him, and Allah is that
with him? Ayasi, would you ever disobey Him? If you know that to
be the reality? Iyaka, when Marcia, he says, Beware of ever
disobeying Allah. Look at the beauty of that. He let him first
taste the sweetness of it, and then he reminded him he's giving
him something that if he sticks to this now for the remaining part of
his life, this is the key to Eli. This is the key that's going to
open up the door to Saint hunt. And don't think that this is
possible just for someone during their time there was distraction.
Was distractions in their time too, but this is possible. Who
someone that grows up, even in this crazy time, if someone starts
to taste the sweetness of Iman and the sweetness of remembering Allah
tabarakah, that doors will grow open up for them, where is that?
There will be a fortress on their heart that makes it impervious to
all of the tendencies on our time, rather the difficult tendencies of
our time will actually increase them in closeness to Allah,
because despite the difficulties, they're doing the right thing. And
as our Prophet, sallAllahu sent him that taught is that the one
who that remembered that the one who remembers me right and Abu do,
the one who worships that in the time of indiscriminate killing is
like the one who migrates unto me,
call sallallahu alayhi wa ali was Abu Salam. In other words, if you
live in a difficult time and you do what other people aren't doing,
the door opens up more quickly for you, and that you experience that
what other people might not have experienced any previous time. We
haven't even gotten through 40% of the story, because it tells about
how he then that then lives his life. So he goes on to say that I
used to go into states of solitude where I enjoyed being a.
Alone so he could remember his Lord. And when they sent me to the
mectev, which is the school where you go to learn how to read, how
to write, and you start to study the Quran, he says that I was
worried that I was going to get distracted, so I agreed with my
teacher that I would learn, that I would take my lesson, and then I
would go review at home, not at the actual school. And he said
that I memorized the entire Quran by age six or age seven. And he
said that I used to fast regularly, and the only food that
I would eat, and I'm not saying that we have to do this, that eat
well, eat healthy in a balanced fashion, but just to show you how
these people were, is that the only food that I would eat was
barley bread for 12 years, he said, until that I reached the age
of 13. He says, when I was 13, is that I asked my family to send me
to Basra. This is a city in modern day Iraq. He said, because there's
a question that crossed my heart that I couldn't find anyone to
answer? And I went to Basra, and I asked several scholars about this
question, and they couldn't answer me. So they guided me to a sheik
by the name of that ABI Habib, Hamza ibn Abdullah Al abdani.
And they commented, they say, what was this question? They crossed
the heart of Sahana bila to study is that, does the heart? Is there
such thing as a prostration of the heart? We all know the outward
sujood, but the question that came to his radiant heart is, is that
is there such thing as a prostration of the heart? And this
great araf Bilal responded to him, and he said, Is that Yes, son of
mine, is that the heart can prostrate, but when the heart
prostrate, prostrates, it never comes up again. It remains in
prostration. Imagine having a heart that is forever prostrating.
You come out, physically, out of prostration, and your heart is
prostrating. Is it you that go to the marketplace in your heart is
prostrating? Is that you're in a garden? Your heart is constantly
prostrating, completely humble, relying solely upon Allah
subhanahu wa so he says that I spent time with him, and I learned
from his ad, I learned from his manners and how he was until I
returned to my hometown of tustar. And then he describes that how he
was then throughout his life, and that one of the things that he
mentioned is that he would remain praying that all night long, for
the sake of Allah subhana, among other things, and how that minimal
that he took from this world. But the point in this is, is, if you
and I understand the greatness of the opportunities that are before
us. The hope is that when we that do what we need to do for his
sakes upon Hua Tara, that a seed will be planted. Is that a the
blessed meaning will be rooted in our heart that will lead to
abundant good. And this is what we hope for, not just for ourselves,
but all of those that are with us and for the Ummah of our Prophet
Muhammad, sallAllahu, alayhi, sabi Saddam, to be grounded in a time
where the vast majority of people around us are uprooted, to be
centered, when at a time that the vast majority of people around us
are decentered, and the meaning of the heart being centered is that
we have a heart that is directed to Our Lord Subhan Hua Tara. May
Allah give us Tawfiq and open up the doors for us to benefit. And
May these minute meanings penetrate into our hearts. Yamin,
and we may taste the sweetness of faith, and we taste the sweetness
of the remembrance of Our Lord subhanhu wa taala wa SallAllahu,
alayhi wa Sabi Salam alhamdulillahi.