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.