Yasmin Mogahed – Love Of Allah

Jasmine Mujahid and you're listening to serenity streaming live on one legacy radio. So today's topic is one of my favorite topics actually. It's, it's the topic of love of Allah subhanaw taala. And the reason why it's one of my favorite topics is because everything that we do in this life and everything basically should revolve around this particular station on the path to Allah subhanaw taala. So, we have talked about in the past, I mean, we talked about things like trust in Allah subhanaw taala we talked about trust, meaning, you know, tawakkol having full reliance on Allah subhana wa Tada, we talked about, you know, humility, we talked about these, the concept of RDA, for

example, the concept of Subbu, you know, rhythm meaning contentment with the decree of Allah subhanaw taala, Subodh patience, perseverance, all of these, you know, all of these different stations on the path of Allah subhanho data, and they either lead up to the love of Allah subhanaw taala, or they are a result of the love of Allah subhanaw taala so everything else every other station leads us or, or as a means to get to the love of Allah Spano data, or it is a fruit of that of that love. And if we you know, a lot of times we as believers, and you know, we might get to a point where we want to devote our lives, you know, to becoming better, we want to strengthen our

Deen, we want to better ourselves. And a lot of times what keeps us from taking that path is that it looks really hard, it looks like it's a very, you know, from the outside, when you look at, sometimes from the outside, when you look at Islam, all you see is all you know, like everything's hot, or it's too hard, you know, it's a lot easier to just not be religious. And there's this deception that people have about what it means to devote your life to Allah soprano data. But the truth is that if you really want to take the easiest path to Allah subhanaw taala, it really is this path, it's the path of love. And when I say that, what I mean is that if you think about the example

of another human being that what what happens if you compare, you know, like, how you are, what, you know, how difficult it is to be kind and giving and generous when you love someone versus when you don't love them. So if you think of an example, in your own life of a person in your life, who is very dear to your heart, someone who you absolutely love, maybe more than anyone else in the world, and then you think about how easy it is to, to give to that person, how easy it is to sacrifice for that person. And, and sometimes you'll even be willing to give up your own comfort for the sake of their comfort and, and sometimes you'll just, you'll sacrifice your own happiness to make them

happy. And this is something that when you really love someone isn't even very difficult to do, it's just sort of a natural consequence of love. And if you compare that to a situation where you don't really love the person, but you sort of feel obligated to the person, and it's a lot harder, at that point, sacrificing is much more difficult, you're basically going to just do the minimum for that person, you're not going to go above and beyond for that person, because you don't really love them. I mean, you don't have that, that regard for them. And so to give to them is a struggle. And it's especially difficult if it means self sacrifice. But if you go back to the example of the one who

you love, and especially if you're in love with someone is that is that when you're at that point, it becomes very easy, it becomes easy to not only give to that person, but it becomes very easy to remember that person. And in fact, if you think about a situation where someone is in love, it's not like they have to be reminded of the one that they love. It's like kind of like they have to get some you know, you need help to stop thinking about the one you're in love with, not the other way around. And so, when you when you think about the concept of love, love is a very, very strong motivator. And so when we when we look at how do we approach the path to Allah subhanaw taala how do

we approach this path to bettering ourselves or getting closer to him or, you know, in quotation marks being more religious? And really, I think that unfortunately, a lot of us go about it in the wrong way and even as children I think we're taught as children so much of what we're taught about Islam as children has to do with Oh, you're gonna go to * if you don't do this right. You have to do this. This is how Tom This is how Tom and this is how Tom so everything

You know, the image that that that's created as children for us, sometimes in Sunday school and, and all that is that everything is held on, and I better not do it because if I do it, I'm going to go to *. And so the I think the big mistake in seeing Islam in this way is that it has nothing to do with the love of Allah, it just has to do with, you know, just trying to get myself out of Hellfire, you know, just the idea of thinking about Allah subhanaw taala in such a way that, you know, his attributes, which are more, most emphasized, are not emphasized in this way, when you just talk about a less patatas wrath and you just talk about Hellfire, you start to see a skewed and very

inaccurate picture of Allah subhanho, Donna, and I've seen a lot of times where children grow up in that way where they're taught in this way. And it really just turns them off from the whole idea of being religious at all. And sometimes it completely turns them off from a snap. And it's like it until and a lot of times people it's not until, like they get they grow up and they go to college, and sometimes in their Msh, they'll come back to Islam. But it's kind of like I've seen this pattern a lot where as children, because of the way they're taught about who Allah is and, and how we're supposed to worship Him. And it's so much of it is out of fear. So much of it is, you know, this,

this image of of a very wrathful type of God, who is you know, he's gonna punish you unless you do X, Y and Z. And, and so people get very turned off by that. And and then, you know, a lot of times, you know, Hamdulillah, through their MSA, they start to see the other side of Islam. And, and really the other side of God. And in fact, this is the most emphasized side of God. And so it's extremely dangerous to take that out of the whole equation. Now, when we, when we think back to the idea of love, we you know, going back to the example of when you feel like, you know, you really love somebody, and and when you are in that, you know, state, again, everything you do for that person

becomes much, much easier, it becomes very easy to remember that person. And it becomes very easy to sacrifice and give to that person. When we love Allah subhanaw taala the worship that we do, and the commitment that we make to him becomes much, much easier, because we love him, and we want to please Him and we want to be with him. And so really, that is the strongest motivator and it needs to be our strongest motivator. In the example that was given. It's, you know, a lot of times, people become sort of paralyzed by having either too much hope or having too much fear in the last panel data, more or less upon no data. And so what we're told to have is we have to have a balance between

the fear and the hope, where we,

you know, we fear for example, when we are, you know,

when we are committing sins we should fear Allah subhanaw taala as anger and that's part of taqwa. But at the same time, we should not allow that fear to paralyze us because if that fear paralyzes us, we're not going to be able to change we're not going to be able, we end up falling lower and lower and lower. And so what we have to do is let that fear actually drive us to get better, but not paralyze us. And the way to do that, is to balance it with hope, because hope in Allah subhanaw taala you know, anytime that I am committing sins, I should not lose that hope in Allah subhanaw taala to forgive me, because Allah subhanaw taala tells us all of these attributes of his which have

to do with forgiveness and forgiveness and and love and you know, the fact that Allah subhanaw taala is ultra bar for example, which means one of the meanings of this attribute is the one who mens and so if I'm, you know, if I'm broken or I am, you know, my deeds are by definition insufficient, Allah subhanaw taala can mend them. And Allah subhanaw taala is the most generous so even when I'm, you know, I'm giving him you know, very insufficient, a bad a very insufficient worship, and yet he still gives and gives and gives of his gifts to me, and that's because Allah subhanaw taala is the most generous and not because I deserve it. So inshallah We'll take a short break now and when we

return, we'll continue on the topic of love of Allah Spano.

Salam Alaikum This is Yasmin Mujahid and you're listening to serenity streaming live on one legacy radio. So before we return to the topic of love of Allah subhanaw, taala, I had a request on the chatbox to sort of give an inspirational message for students, I guess a lot of students are dealing with midterms right now. And that's a stressful thing. You know, I remember when I was a student, and it's interesting, actually, one really short, quick reflection about that is, I know that when I was a student, and I had an exam coming up, or I got a bad grade on the exam, or whatever happened, I remember, at the moment that it was happening, I thought it was like, the biggest deal in the

world, you know, like, Oh, my God, I have an exam tomorrow, or Oh, I did really bad, or what am i grades and this and that, and it becomes like, very, very important. And it's something that you focus so much on, and you're sort of, it's it becomes sort of your whole world at at that moment. And I'll just say this, that, like, once you are out of that moment, so many years later, you look back, and it like, totally didn't matter as much as you thought it did at the moment. So I just kind of want to give that reflection, having gone through it, and then looking back that, that that that particular moment where I was freaking out about a test, or I got it, you know, in the grand scheme

of things, it mattered very little to none. So, I'm not saying that, you know, you don't do your best you do your best. But I am saying that, you know, really like you do your best, but you just kind of are able to step outside of it and realize that it really isn't the, you know, the beginning and end of the world, it's something that you're doing and then inshallah it'll it'll pass. But basically, what I would say for advice about, you know, anything that you do, basically, whether you're studying or you're working, or anything that you're focused on, or working at in this dunya is just to make sure that your focus is clear, and that your intentions are clear, because the

prophets I send them told us that the way and he basically gave us a prescription to be successful in this life as well as the next life. And that prescription is to actually make your primary concern and your focus, not on this life. So when you're going in and you're taking a test, or you're studying or you're you know, you're working on your, you know, whatever degree it is,

you're doing that, but your end, your goal is not about dunya your goal and your end should not be just to get that degree or just to make a certain salary or, you know, to have a certain prestige in society. But Your goal should be bigger than that and greater than that, and, and, and better than that, and that is for the hereafter. And if you make that your goal and you make that your primary concern and where your focus is, Allah subhanaw taala will make your matters easy for you. And this is based on the Hadith of the prophets, I send them where he talks about the difference between the person who makes the dunya his primary concern, versus the one who makes acida. Hereafter his

primary concern and, and the one who makes the primary concern and the goal and the focus, aka the Hereafter, Allah subhanaw taala actually will join and make easy your affairs in this life. So always just remember, you know, your priorities. One One, you know, thing I want to point out is, sometimes we don't get involved enough in things that that will bring us closer to Allah subhanaw taala such as like study circles, or, you know, going to lectures or just basically being involved in these things because we have to study or because we have, you know, we're we have all these commitments at school. And while obviously you're not, you're not supposed to abandon your

commitments at school, but if you realize like, if you always put make it a priority, to put Allah subhanaw taala first you will find that Allah subhanaw taala will put Baraka will put blessing in your, even in your study time and, and you can be able to do things in less time than you would otherwise. If you make Allah subhanaw taala the priority so I it's just, you know, some reflections to think about, you know, it is very important that you are involved along with your school with some consistent activity, which is, which is keeping you and bringing you closer to Allah subhanaw taala some type of Vicar, some type of consistent halaqa for example, or something that you do

regularly that I cannot overemphasize, you know, that point it's extremely important, we cannot build our relationship with a last panel data based on just sporadic you know, you know, things that just, you know, we go to a lecture here we go to you know, we listen to something on YouTube one, sir, but it needs to be consistent, just like you need to consistently eat food in order to stay alive. You need to consistently have these remembrance you need to consistently be working on your heart in order to to keep it alive. So back to the mean.

To the topic of, of hope and fear and then love there's a really beautiful statement of immune Chi mo law in which he says on his way to Allah, a believers heart is likened to a bird. Love is its head, fear and hope are its wings. Hence when the head and wings are sound, the bird will perfectly fly. If the head is cut, the bird will die. And when he loses the wings, he will be inevitably objected to hunting is so like, found a law it will fly you and Ryan Holloman. So he, he's talking here about a concept. I mean, it's just Yes, it is deep. So so here if you if you think about he's talking about that the head of the bird is love. So what is it that leads the bird? It's love of

Allah subhanaw taala. So this is what should be driving us. This is what should be leading us in our paths, Allah Spano Tata. And the wings, if you think about the wings, now what happens if one side of the wing is broken? And and or weaker than the other side, what happens now is the bird isn't as stable. And so it's more likely to be shot down. And this is a perfect analogy. If you think about a person who, who has too much fear, for example, and not enough hope and a loss of data. When you have too much fear. This is where you get a situation of like, well, I'm going to go to * anyway. What's the point? You know, people say things like that, like, you know, what's the point no matter

what I do, I'm gonna get punished or no matter what I do, I'm gonna I'm gonna sin or no matter what I do, I'm going to fail. So what's the point in trying? It's, it's this loss of hope, because the fear is too strong, and the hope is too weak? And if you look at that situation, now that person who has that mindset, are they motivated to really act? They're not. And that's because they don't have that proper balance. Now, if you look at the other side of it, where you have too much hope and not enough fear, when you have too much hope, this could be a situation where it's kind of like, I can do whatever I want, and I'm still going to be saved. In the end, it doesn't matter. Because I can,

you know, you kind of have too much wishful thinking, where you think that I can do whatever I want. Act however I want. And then you know, it's kind of the idea of I can live my life however I want. And then before I die, I'll just say like, I have a law, and then I'll be fine. But the problem with this thinking is that at the time of death, for example, the only thing that you're going to be able to speak with your tongue is what's filling your heart. And so if your heart is, you know, you live your entire life just living for dunya and loving dunya. And, and Allah subhanaw taala was not in your heart, guess what, he's not going to be on your tongue when you're dying, because your tongue

is going to speak what's in the heart. And so whatever your heart was attached to, that's what comes out at the time of death. And it's so interesting and rather very, it's actually very scary to look at people when they're dying to look at what they say and how they act. And there are times and I'm sure many of us have heard of these cases where people at the time of death, they can't c'est la ilaha illAllah they're not able to people around them, keep telling them c'est la ilaha illAllah. Repeat that, you know, repeat after me Say La la la la. And they're not able to say it. Allah subhanaw taala will not that person will not be allowed to say that la Mola unless they had La ilaha

illAllah in their heart, unless that's what they live. So what you live and what you carry inside is what what you're going to end up seeing and what you're going to end up speaking at the time of death. So the So the whole idea of the bird is that it needs to be balanced, that the love and the fear I'm sorry, the hope and the fear, need to be balanced. And the love needs to drive the person. This is really what ultimately what I what drives me is my love for Allah subhanaw taala that I want to please Allah Spano Tata, and I want to meet Allah subhanaw taala having him be pleased with me. And so on the topic of love, I want to I want to actually mention a couple of Hadith where the word

Allah subhanaw taala speaks about the issue of love of, of, of Allah for the slave and for and the love of the slave for a loss of panel data. Now, this is a hadith that I really really love, where Allah subhanaw taala says that when Allah loves a servant, he calls gibreel and says, I love so and so. So love him, and then gibreel loves him. Then he did really bounce in the heavens, saying Allah loves so and so. So love him, then the inhabitants of the heavens to the angels also love him. And then the people on earth love him. And when Allah subhanaw taala dis doesn't love someone Allah subhanaw taala dislike someone thus

Also starts to dislike him then the people object then then the people become the object of hatred on Earth as well. So here the high def is, you know this is and this is it and most of them well that's what that is saying here that when when Allah Spano Tata has hope has love for for a person he actually tells, I mean imagine the the honor of having Allah subhanaw taala love you that he tells gibreel alayhis salaam to love you and then gibreel Ali Salaam tells the angels that Allah Spano that he loves you and so they love you and then the the people on the earth love you This is a consequence of Allah subhanaw taala is love. Now, the question now should be well, how do we get the

love of Allah subhanaw taala? How do we, you know, how do we get this this amazing, you know, acquire this station where Allah subhana wa tada loves us. And there's a hadith which talks about this exact question where Allah subhanaw taala it's a high difficulty. And Allah subhanaw taala says that there is no, there is no action, that that that a slave gets close to him except by which is more Beloved, than those things which he has made obligatory. So the first part of this hadith is saying that lots of panatela that the thing, the action that Allah loves most, in order to get close to him, are those actions which are actually fought to those actions, which are obligatory. Now, I

just want to make a quick reflection on this on this issue. A lot of times what we find in ourselves and people around us is that when we when we take this path, and we want to start to be more religious, and and you know, you know, basically make the deen more important in our lives, sometimes we, we kind of overlook the fundamentals and we go for like these extra things. So this is a situation where a person might be okay, they're very, like excited, and you know, they're, they're on this high and so they want to get very involved for example, so they might be involved in all these committees at the masjid and involved in activism. And, you know, they're, they're kind of

like, pumped, right and want to work for Allah subhanaw taala. But then, at the same time there, Salah is not really an order, or maybe, you know, they're involved in all these activities, but they don't wake up for fetchit this is a situation where we have overlooked what is false, what is obligatory, and we've gone to the to the things which are which are extra that no effort. And in Allah subhanaw taala is explaining here that you start with the fundamentals, you start with the with the obligatory and the reason why you start there is because that's what Allah loves most. Because that's what he made fun to see, like, we sometimes overlook these things, as if they're, you

know, just, oh, you know, that's just it's lesser, because it's fun. But what we forget to realize is the reason he's made it obligatory is because that's the action he loves most. So when he says, You pray fetchit at a certain time, when he says you pray these, you know, these five prayers at this time, you know, fasting and the and the Zakat and these things, he has made those things obligatory, for a reason, those are the things which are most beloved to him, and those are the things which will cure us and which will, will make our hearts healthy, most So that's this is kind of like the medicine, this is the strongest medicine and the best medicine to take is the things

that he has made obligatory.

And then after that, the Hadeeth goes on to say and then my servant continues to draw near to me by the things which I have made an effort direct extra things, the voluntary things and so here now we're talking so after you've done the photo ads, you've you've settled, you know, you've gotten and you've you you have the fundamentals down then you continue to get closer to Allah subhanaw taala through adding the extra things, this is where you add you know, the extra prayers, the extra fasts, getting involved in the community etc, etc. And then after this something amazing happens. And that is Allah subhana wa tada says, until I love him. So now this is the point where Allah subhanaw taala

now loves the servant. And once Allah subhanho data loves a servant, he says, I become his hearing with which he hears his sight with which he sees and his hand with which he strikes and his feet with which he walks. And if he asks me something I will surely give him and if he seeks my protection, I will surely protect him. This Hadeeth is like powerful. His head he talks about this Heidi talks about this process of getting to a point where not only do we love Allah subhanaw taala but Allah subhanaw taala loves us. And when Allah subhanaw taala loves a servant, even his his hearing and his seeing and his hand becomes a reflection of Allah subhanaw taala that everything

this person does is reflecting of Allah subhanaw taala

Light and so, this is the I mean this is the station that we you know we seek and we and we we wish inshallah that we can reach and this is the way to reach it it is through you know making sure that we have the fundamentals down the follow it down and then inshallah continuing to add extra things and until we get closer to Allah subhanaw taala and Allah subhanaw taala loves us

and and I want to inshallah just end with the with another idea of the Quran which links the to the love that we have for Allah subhanho data and then the love that He has for us and that is the idea that says I was a bit let him in a shaitana regime call in quantum to hipbone aloha factor, we are only your baby Kamala, or young fella comes the new back home. This is an area where the prophets I send them is told to say to the people, if you truly love Allah, then follow me.

And then Allah will love you and forgive your sins. So this is this is chapter three, verse 31. Now here you see the link first Allah saying, you know, to tell the prophet to tell us that if so, the first part of it is we love a lot. If we really love Allah, then this is what we should do. We should follow the Prophet we should follow his Sunnah we should we should follow his way and his example. And once we do that, now Allah subhanaw taala will love us back and he will forgive our sins, according holy *. That was Dr. lalibela come in Naga funan Rahim. subhanak Hello byham Dec. Misha dawanda illa Highlands nostoc Fukunaga to Lake wa salaam aleikum wa rahmatullah wa barakato.