Yousuf Raza – Changing The World With The Quran #8
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The importance of finding one's own balance and not blaming oneself is emphasized in the discussion of Islam's use of negative emotions and the need for fear and hope. The speakers touch on the use of deities in relation to personal and professional life, including their roles in creating and achieving dreams. The discussion also touches on the potential for conflict between spirituality and reality, the use of shrooming from deities, and the importance of balance in life. The potential for distraction and suffering from negative events, including the implementation of Islam's policy of "the culture of peace" and the loss of acceptance in society, is also discussed.
AI: Summary ©
Subhanahu wa ta'ala in the name of
Allah, the Most Gracious, the Most Merciful.
In the name of Allah, the Most Gracious,
the Most Merciful.
Arabic
recitation Sadaqallahul
Azeem Arabic
recitation We are continuing
with our reading of Surah Al Ra'd and
I would recommend to everybody if you can
grab a Mus'haf or open the app
of the Mus'haf on your cell phones
and follow along the ayats as we read
them, the translations that you prefer.
As we move along again, remember that we
just concluded two weeks ago Surah Yusuf, one
of the ayats in Surah Yusuf told us
about how so many people believe in Allah
but there are elements of shirk that persist
in that belief.
That despite claims to Iman, there are back
doors through which shirk seeps in, sneaks in.
And so much of what we are reciting
in these surahs following Surah Yusuf is an
antidote to that shirk sneaking in.
Provided we are willing to reflect on these
ayats, pay attention to them, be mindful of
them and look for the enactment of these
ayats.
What does an ayah of the Qur'an
look like embodied, enacted in my personality?
What will make me or how will I
be a different person?
If a particular ayah of the Qur'an
or particular ayats of the Qur'an are
a continuous part of who I am, for
the most part what it would do is
make us closer to Tawheed, increase us in
Tawheed and decrease us in our proclivities and
tendencies towards shirk, however subtle those tendencies may
be.
And so, with this surah, so many of
the ayats of Allah in the universe around
us, in the world around us, we are
made cognizant of how they are signs of
God, they are signs of Allah, they are
means of relating with Him, they are ways
of knowing Him, they are ways of realizing
how close He is to every single one
of us and to realize that how much
care He has taken in bringing us about,
how delicate the balance is to keep us
alive.
There is so much in our bodies right
now that if it were to just snap,
if it were to just stop working, we
would die, we would drop dead, any one
of us at any time or all of
us altogether.
It's literally nanograms that the balance that's keeping
us alive, it goes a little bit here,
a little bit there.
We're not even talking about microscopic levels, we're
talking about nanoscopic levels.
And that's it, we're done for.
Yet, that doesn't happen.
There is this active sustenance.
Allah did not just create us and send
us into this world and now we're living
off our own accord.
So He created us and He sustains us,
He is keeping us alive.
When you see somebody in the ICU and
you're told, the physicians tell you that this
person is being kept alive on machines, they're
breathing for him or they're keeping his heart
running or whatever.
Then you look at that very sight and
it's very overwhelming, it's very intimidating.
Oh my God, that person is literally hanging
by a thread.
He's being sustained, you unplug the machine, he's
gone.
He's not going to be alive anymore.
What we do not realize is that so
many more delicate machines in our own bodies
and in our environment and there's a relationship
between what's in us and what's outside of
us that maintains that delicate balance that we're
hanging by multiple threads and that we are
alive and that we continue to be so.
But we won't be forever.
We can't take that for granted.
So the one who's operating those machines, who's
keeping those machines running.
Again, the metaphor fails us because the way
Allah manages us or Allah sustains us is
so much more intimate.
It's so much more closer to us.
There is so much of the miniscule details
of how we are alive that a technician
of a machine is not associated with a
machine in that way.
So we have to understand the limitations of
our metaphors as well.
And it is with all of this, the
culmination of our session last week, that all
of this protection of the human being, all
of this sustenance of the human being, with
the human being realizing that you are what
all of this is for.
And you are for akhirah.
That you have a higher purpose.
That there is so much more to you
than just breathing, eating, sleeping, defecating, procreating and
that's it.
Have a little bit of fun and then
die.
There has to be so much more that
you have to do in this life that
you've been given.
And precisely because you are to do what
you are to do, Allah won't do it
for you.
Allah will not.
Allah never changes the condition of a people
until they change what is within themselves.
The one who has all the power, all
the wisdom, all the knowledge, can do absolutely
anything that he wants to.
Yet he does not do what is necessary
to change your condition as a people.
He holds himself back.
Why?
Because if he were to do that, you
would never grow up.
You would never live up to the purpose
that you were created for.
You're not meant to be on training wheels
for the entirety of your life as a
society.
You're meant to take responsibility.
You're meant to strengthen your own self.
And if you're not interested, he's not interested.
He's made it very clear.
There's no shortage of power on his end.
What is missing is will on our end.
Allah is absolving himself in these ayats.
That don't put it on me.
Do not blame this on me.
Do not use fate or destiny as an
excuse for your irresponsibility.
I have made you cat.
Don't go around complaining, why does Allah not
change our condition?
Why does Allah not help us?
Why does Allah not make things easier for
us?
That's not how he created you.
That's not what he created you for.
That is not the sunnah of Rasulullah ﷺ.
His was a sunnah of empowerment.
His was a sunnah of taking responsibility.
His was a sunnah of turning to Allah
and asking, Ya Allah, am I doing enough?
Is there more that I need to do?
Where am I lacking?
His petitioning before Allah, his asking for Allah
to help him, was in the aftermath of
having done the best that he could possibly
do.
We put the cart before the horse.
Before we've made any effort, want Allah to
take care of everything.
And Allah repeatedly makes it clear in the
Qur'an, that he's no genie.
There's no magic lamp that you rub and
your wishes come true.
There has to be a difference between a
genie from a lamp and God.
And Allah, the creator of the universe.
He is not going to be scapegoated.
Because that's what we do.
As a routine, we scapegoat him.
We blame him for our complacency, laziness, and
irresponsibility.
For our unwillingness to confront pain.
To take on change.
And we say, he didn't change us.
All the while, with our tongues, looking to
exalt him.
And what is it that we're doing?
We're talking about his power, his greatness.
His ability over everything.
Allah won't have that.
You're not exalting him.
You're humiliating yourselves.
And when you're humiliating yourselves, and you being
the greatest creation of Allah.
Who is it that you're indirectly looking to
humiliate?
Who is it, whose takbeer you're not doing?
Who is it that you're denigrating?
Who is it that is being blasphemed practically,
while being exalted verbally?
If you put yourself down, you're putting Allah
down.
If you're not backing yourself up, if you're
not confident in what you're required to do,
in the responsibilities that you have, in how
you're supposed to execute them, then you are
not living up to Allahu Akbar.
You're not living up to SubhanAllah.
All the purity and exaltation and greatness that
you claim for Allah.
You're not living up to it, when you
put yourself down.
Because He has given this responsibility to you.
وَإِذَا أَرَادَ اللَّهُ بِقَوْمٍ سُوءًا فَلَا مَرَدَّ لَهُ
وَمَا لَهُمْ مِن دُونِهِ مِنْ وَارِهِ هُوَ الَّذِي
يُرِيكُمُ الْبَرْقَ خَوْفًا وَطَمَعًا It is He.
He shows you lightning.
Every time you see the sky light up
with lightning.
خَوْفًا وَطَمَعًا The very natural response that everybody
here would experience at a very personal, deeply
intimate level is fear and hope.
Especially in an agrarian culture, a culture dependent
on agriculture, a culture which requires crops or
the source of their water is rain dependent.
For them, lightning brings hope.
But as much as it brings hope, the
thunder that it is associated with, it creates
this fear.
It makes you tremble.
And that is, again, something very universal.
We may train ourselves to deny the threat
associated with thunder.
We may train ourselves to not be afraid
and even claim a level of bravery for
not being afraid whenever it thunders.
We reassure our children and tell them, nothing
is going to happen.
It will all be okay.
Thunder never harmed anybody, which is not true.
Thunder and lightning do strike people.
And they are scary.
And they do.
Every lightning that you see can't be just
rain that is coming for your betterment.
It may as well be a flood.
It may well be an a'zaab of
Allah.
It may well be a sign of a
hurricane.
Or is that something that you just watch
in the news and it afflicts other people
in other parts of the world and not
you?
Our denial of death, our denial of how
long we're going to be alive, our insistence,
rather, that we will live up to the
average age or even beyond that.
We think that God owes us 70 years
at least, 80 if we're lucky, maybe 90.
We look at those numbers, we plan our
lives as if that number is guaranteed for
us.
We do not consider that maybe we've already
spent 90% of our lives, any one
of us, 95% of our lives.
The power of thunder, the clamor of thunder
does not remind us, if it does not
remind us, of our vulnerability, of how easy
it is for us to be fried, then
we have some very strong defenses.
We have some very strong walls behind which
we are denying the possibility, the inevitability, of
our own death.
وَيُنشِئُ السَّحَابَ الثِّقَالِ And He carries heavy clouds.
وَيُسَبِّحُ الْرَعْدُ بِحَمْدِهِ وَالْمَلَائِكَةُ مِنْ خِيْفَةِ And the
thunder exalts while praising Him.
There's a tasbih that the thunder is doing.
And again, an intimate association with the Qur
'an, to become people of the Qur'an,
is to attune our ears, so that the
next time we hear the thunder, we hear
that tasbih.
We are able to hear how it is
glorifying Allah.
And that doesn't mean that you're gonna hear
the thunder say, SubhanAllah, SubhanAllah, SubhanAllah.
I don't know, maybe you have that maqam,
I don't.
But I haven't heard of people experiencing thunder,
doing the tasbih of Allah, in precisely that
way.
What you're attuning yourself to, is how that
noise, that clamor rather, that deafening, intimidating noise,
how it is a source of Allah's mercy,
but also a threat.
Also a demonstration of Allah's power.
So many of the ayahs of Allah, demonstrate
the infinitude in the power of Allah.
For us to be attuned to hearing that,
is when we've really internalized these ayahs of
the Qur'an.
وَالْمَلَائِكَةُ مِنْ خِيْفَتِهِ And the angels as well,
they're also doing a tasbih of Allah, out
of this khawf, out of this fear of
Allah.
The sheer grandeur, the greatness of Allah.
وَيُرْسِلُ السَّوَاعِقِ And He sends the thunderbolts.
فَيُصْوِيبُ بِهَا مَنْ يَشَاءُ Striking with them whoever
He wants.
وَهُمْ يُجَادِلُونَ فِي اللَّهِ And yet the disbelievers
dispute about Allah.
They continue to be contentious.
They continue to ask questions.
Again, questions not for learning, questions for disputing.
Questions precisely to procrastinate on action and responsibility.
I'm not sure about this.
I'm not sure about that.
This doesn't make sense to me.
All of that hiding what?
A denial of death.
A denial of our vulnerability.
How long will it take for a thunderbolt
to completely turn us to ashes?
That does not happen very frequently.
Is that a guarantee for it never happening?
Is that a guarantee if Allah were to
take us to task, to punish us for
so many of our activities and so many
of our complacency and irresponsibility and what we
do to others.
How long would we last?
It is a matter of one thunderbolt.
وَهُمْ يُجَادِلُونَ فِي اللَّهِ وَهُوَ الشَّدِيدُ الْمِحَالِ And
He is severe in assault.
لَهُ دَعْوَةُ الْحَقِّ To Him alone is the
supplication of truth.
Turning to Him.
Now this means both things that you make
du'a to Allah.
In truth it's only His right.
إِيَّاكَ نَسْتَعِينَ And also calling.
If you have to call to anyone, you
call to Allah.
If you're calling people to the worship of
anything, to any particular deen, then it is
the deen of Allah.
وَالَّذِينَ يَدْعُونَ مِن دُونِهِ And those who call
upon, who invoke besides Him.
Now this is specifically for supplication.
لَا يَسْتَجِيبُونَ لَهُمْ بِشَيْءٍ Don't respond to them
one bit.
They have no power.
إِلَّكَ بَاصِتِ كَفَّيهِ إِلَى الْمَاءِ They are but
like someone who extends his hands towards water.
لِيَبْلُغَ فَاهِ Wishing that water should reach his
mouth.
You can't sit a couple of feet away
from water, put your hand out, and expect
the water to reach you.
That is what calling on people other than
Allah is equivalent to.
It's expecting that water to fly into your
hands.
Rather your mouth.
Just because you're reaching for it.
It won't.
It never will.
But you have these reliances and these aspirations,
this association of power with entities that do
not have that level of power, that do
not have that kind of worth, that cannot
give you.
Of course for the people in Mecca, those
are idols, deities literally.
But with the displacement of those idols, with
the destruction of those idols, with idolatry being
practiced by not that many people anymore, still
a significant fraction of humanity, nevertheless, in Muslim
communities you will not find idolatry in the
form of worshipping stone idols or made of
rock or wood or whatever.
Nevertheless, other forms of idolatry persist.
Other forms of idolatry in which we rely
upon, we trust, other than God, to give
us, to support us, to help us, to
alleviate our suffering.
When means become ends, when means and resources
are given, are associated with absolute strength, that
if I obey Allah, I will lose out
on opportunities, on resources.
I will not have the capacity I will
fall down, I will fall short, I might
lose my job or XYZ, I will not
be rich enough.
If I make all of those sacrifices, then
how will I achieve those standards of success?
And the one after the other, starting from
more subtle forms and going on to more
severe forms of disobedience to Allah, our reliance
and our trust on material resources to alleviate
us, to give us salvation.
وَمَا هُوَ بِبَالِغِهِ But it is not going
to reach him.
وَمَا دُعَاءُ الْكَافِرِينَ إِلَّا فِي ضَلَالٍ And the
call of disbelievers is completely lost.
وَلِلَّهِ يَسْجُدُ مَنْ فِي السَّمَاوَاتِ وَالْأَرْضِ And before
Allah alone prostrates whoever is in the heavens
and whoever is on the earth.
صَوْعًا وَكَرْهًا Willingly or unwillingly.
وَظِلَالُهُمْ So do their shadows بِالْغُدُوبِ وَالْأَصَالِ In
morning and evening.
This is an ayah of sajda.
What we just did in response to an
ayah of Allah, an ayah that is pointing
towards again, ayahs in the world around us
where whatever is in existence is shown number
one to have a degree of consciousness a
degree of willfulness and number two is shown
that that willfulness that willingness, that consciousness is
submitted before Allah as we read in surah
Fussilat particularly that Allah asks the heavens and
the earth to come willingly or unwillingly and
it says we come willingly.
And in their shadows too conforming to the
sunan of Allah what makes life possible is
that these sunan of Allah and what I'm
calling the sunan of Allah is what we
study in science books as laws of nature.
It is a predictability of these laws that
make life possible.
You can plan for spring or summer or
winter loads your resources, logistics, whatever travel, going
from one place to another water, food, everything
from the most basic to the most complex
you know that if you get up and
start walking the earth will support you for
the most part there's a very strong likelihood
that gravity will stay in place if the
force of gravity were to change everyday it's
9 one day, 10 the other, 11 the
next day 8 the other day if God
changed his mind about how he wants to
do that every other day or if the
earth, the creation of Allah was to rebel
against Allah if the world of matter was
to rebel against Allah and not follow the
prescribed mass or movement or acceleration whatever it's
supposed to have life would be impossible.
It would not be possible for anyone to
move from point A to point B or
to do anything for that matter to speak,
to think all of it requires for so
much other than us to submit to Allah's
prescriptions for it Allah's orders, Allah's taqdeer how
he's measured everything out and when we see
that exhibiting it's submission and prostration before Allah
what we are seeing is these sunan of
Allah these habits of Allah in action and
there's a consistency in those habits there's a
reliability to those habits we, the people, the
creatures of Allah with the greatest degree of
freedom with the greatest degree of consciousness in
doing sajda as soon as we hear those
ayats what we're saying is that Ya Allah,
everything in this universe is in order because
it has submitted to your will the greatest
source of disorder in this universe is the
human being and human society we've used up
all the fossil fuels what it took millions
of years for those fossil fuels to evolve
and become available took us a couple of
decades they're almost done another two and we'll
be flat out the ozone layer has been
there for millennia we're like nope, zapping holes
in it left, right and center that most
conscious creation of Allah the most free creation
of Allah in its refusal to submit in
its refusal to prostrate in its refusal to
join the saf of Allah's creation is the
source of the greatest disorder but even then
as we look at these ayats it says
everything is still doing sajda that Allah's grand
scheme Allah's grand plan Allah's power is such
that even the disorder caused by human being
in the long run he has the capacity,
the ability to bring that disorder towards order
that that too again we learnt in Surah
Yusuf the disorder caused by the brothers of
Yusuf how the resilience the ihsan, the iman
of Yusuf was able to harness from something
so demonic something so beautiful that humanity was
rescued for generations to come because of Yusuf's
ihsan and his relationship with Allah in response
to his brothers and their relationship with shaytan
so even those brothers and those actions were
conforming and submitting to Allah his plan encompassed
them and he was able to draw good
out from them they still had to pay
for it that's the catch irresponsible action even
if Allah can bring good out of it
and he will do so through his righteous
people the people performing those irresponsible actions still
have to pay for it still have to
be punished for it قُلْ مَن رَبُّ السَّمَاوَاتِ
وَالْأَرْضِ قُلْ لِلَّهِ ask them who is the
Rabb of the heavens and the earth say
it is Allah قُلْ أَفَتَّخَذْتُ مِن دُونِهِ أَوْلِيَةٍ
do you still take others as your protectors
besides him even the ignorant Arab not very
learned not well versed, couldn't read or write
but their response to who is the Rabb
of the heavens and the earth would be
Allah they would say Allah they would not
say they would understand the creative power only
belongs to Allah the jump, the leap, the
connection that they could not make is the
one that they ascribe that power of creativity
to is the one that they owe their
obedience to as well لَا يَمْلِكُونَ لِيَنفُسِهِمْ do
you still take others as your protectors besides
him those who do not control even for
themselves what is the benefit of shirk what
is the advantage that they had because of
shirk see when you're submitting before Allah then
Allah places demands on you Allah ordains some
boundaries within which you have to live when
you take partners other than Allah when you
commit shirk one way or the other those
deities are your cheat codes they're your shortcuts
that we still get God's favor without having
to do God's work so they will intercede
for us on our behalf before Allah Allah
is inaccessible to us he's high, he's mighty
he's transcendent, all-powerful, all-knowing we're minuscule
creatures humble, powerless what can we do but
how do we ask them oh there's these
deities the under the table advantage of these
deities is because they're made by your own
hands you can put words in their mouth
you can project your desires onto them you
can make them prescribe whatever it is that
you want so those deities are used to
maintain power structures in society those deities are
used for people to feel good about themselves
and for them to assuage their guilt for
whenever they've done something wrong those deities are
very useful in making you feel good when
you've done bad you rob someone and you
give some charity to that deity you put
some food in front of that deity you
sacrifice a goat and place it in front
of that deity and you prohibit anybody from
eating that you smuggle, you rob, you murder
you do whatever you want to you exploit
human beings but then you come and you
do whatever your rituals are dance naked around
that deity and the deity is happy and
your guilt is assuaged that was easy to
spot that was easy to point out but
when you are still worshipping that deity still
performing that function with that deity that my
irresponsible life my sinful life where I'm exploiting
others where I'm being irresponsible in every which
way and I give charity I'm not mending
my affairs with others but I'm giving sadaqa
I'm not asking for forgiveness where I need
to ask for forgiveness but I pray to
ex-raraqat I have a responsibility towards my
community I don't worry about that I fast
I have responsibility of inheritance to make sure
that gets delivered to those who's right it
is sadaqat, zakat, who's right it is the
responsibility of community over me that's a little
too much I'm making sure I don't cheat
I'm making sure I don't steal of making
sure that I earn halal that's too much
extra salawat, extra prayer extra durus extra time
in the masjid have I not just turned
Allah into that deity am I not using
the name Allah but drawing from that name
the function of idolatry have I not just
made monotheism polytheistic have I not just made
tawhid very self-serving that
is difficult more difficult form of idolatry to
perceive to become conscious of than when you
have a stone idol in front of you
and it is that consciousness that the Quran
wants us to develop and if the function
of idolatry is being attained through monotheism that
is the worst the worst, the worst possible
representation of Islam there ever can be and
if people look at this kind of Islam
and they say we don't want to have
anything to do with your God we don't
want to have anything to do with your
religion your people are the most corrupt people
your people are the most untrustworthy people your
people are the most exploitative people your people
are the most irresponsible people can we blame
them can we blame them وَلَهَلْ
يَسْتَوِي الْأَعْمَىٰ وَالْبَصِيرِ ask them is the blind
the same as the one who sees أَمْ
هَلْ تَسْتَوِي الظُّلُمَاتُ وَالنُّورِ or can darkness be
equal to light أَمْ جَعَلُ لِلَّهِ شُرَكَا have
those whom they ascribe as Allah's associates خَلَقُوا
كَخَلْقِهِ created like His creation فَتَشَابَهَا الْخَلْقُ عَلَيْهِمْ
so the creation seemed similar to them and
they got confused and whatever vested interest again
there is the idolatry of the people of
Mecca that's in its own place and that
is the direct addressee of these ayats but
this subtle expression whatever it is the motivation
that we have worshipping of whatever desire worshipping
whatever money worshipping whatever power does that have
some role in creation does that promise to
sustain us the way Allah can sustain us
can that give benefit does that have autonomous
control any level of autonomy in giving us
benefit or harm sidestepping Allah bypassing Allah deceiving
Allah قُلْ لِلَّهُ خَالِقُ كُلِّ شَيْءٍ tell them
Allah is the creator of everything وَهُوَ الْوَاحِدُ
الْقَهَارِ He is the one the irresistible and
this unity of Allah in every domain of
your life your professional life your personal life
your relationship with your wife or your husband
or your children or your parents or your
neighbors or your community your workplace He is
the same Rabb if He is your Rabb
in the masjid but not when you are
at the workplace flirting who is your Rabb
there if He is the one that you
are praying your Salat to your Isha to
but not when you are by yourself with
your cell phone or your laptop who is
your Rabb there who is your Rabb when
those fishy transactions are going on who is
the Rabb there when you are deciding your
priorities in your life what are you to
attain what are you to strive for struggle
for what are your ideals who is prescribing
those the Quran is being recited for Allah
great wonderful but who are the career aims
and goals being decided for what are the
standards and values along which your children are
being raised does Allah have any say there
does He have any role to play there
or is He missing is He absent is
He manipulated is He made to say what
we want Him to say and is He
made to be quiet where we want Him
to be quiet for whenever it's self-serving
for the parents to tell their children then
there Allah is heard loud and clear but
wherever the parents are supposed to be taking
responsibility there He is not heard wherever ar
-rijalu qawwamuna ala an-nisa is needed it's
heard loud and clear but wherever wa-aashiruhunna
bil ma'ruf is necessary we can't hear
Him take care of them in the best
possible way again the selective study of the
Quran where you cherry pick that is a
form of idolatry I pick what suits me
I reject what doesn't then who's the who's
deciding what's the standard of what I choose
and what I do not choose is it
my desires, my convenience then is it really
one God He is al-wahid al-qahhar
what He is saying is not worshipping Him
in certain domains of your life creating this
segregation where He is God in the masjid
but not anywhere else only wherever convenient then
His irresistibility is going to be experienced if
not now then later it's only a matter
of time He's going to make His presence
felt He's irresistible anzala min al-sama'i
ma'an He's the one, Allah is the
one who sends down water from the sky
fasalat awdiyatun biqadariha and valleys flow according to
their capacity fahtamala al-sailu al-zabad al
-rabiya and the torrents rise carrying foam wa
mimma yuqiduna alayhi finnaar and similarly when they
heat up the metal in fire ibtighaa ahilyatin
awmata' in order to make ornaments or utensils
zabadun mithluh there is a foam similar to
this kazalika yadribullahu alhaqqa walbaatil that is how
Allah depicts truth and falsehood that in these
two examples there is the rain that comes
down and depending on the capacity of the
valley to withstand that rain to contain all
the good that that rain has to give
and all that's falsehood it's filtered out both
this process of rain and this process of
heating ornaments, utensils these are processes of filtration
through which falsehood is wiped out through which
whatever is impure is wiped out and all
of what remains is sincerity, is purity this
takes place in the material universe through these
examples that Allah is giving us this takes
place in the spiritual universe as well that
these this phenomena of polytheism this phenomena of
turning monotheism into polytheism saying that we worship
Allah but then having idols in our own
self in our own heart how do we
know?
what do we do?
Allah says there is filtration processes that He
offers two in particular one, and there is
multiple places in the Quran where the Quran
itself is related to the rain so it
is the rain, the blessing of Allah as
it falls from the sky that gives rise
to the crop the Quran is though that
rain for your spiritual life for your relationship
with Allah so that the Quran can help
you filter out that falsehood create that level
of realization that it can help you identify
those idols for you you're able to confront
those those very demonic parts of yourself those
very impure parts of yourself and struggle that's
the second part the struggle like ornaments, utensils
are heated and how that heating process the
struggle, the strife, the difficulties, the suffering in
life how they filter out and which is
why the process of the word used in
the Quran whether it's ibtila or fitn they
both represent processes of filtration of bringing out
purity that we have these multiplicities within us
the divine potential that Allah has kept within
us there is asfal asafileen within us as
well the most beautiful mold that Allah has
created us on when nafakhtu feehi mirroohi Allah
says that incredible breath of Allah again, how
that's to be interpreted we're just translating in
plain sense right now but it's associated with
Allah Allah takes it upon himself that's how
I brought this human being from dirt to
life to being conscious, to being spiritual that
reality but that's mixed with that which there's
also these tendencies for pleasure, for power, for
wealth they become weaknesses to become your own
hawa becomes your ilah your own desires become
your God all of that is mixed up
so how do you then enact the tawheed
of Allah to understand him being al-wahid
al-qahad he's giving you opportunities these ayats
falling from the sky in the form of
the Quran revelation that is brought and then
the opportunities of suffering of struggle in your
life all of those are opportunities for this
purification to take place we cannot take we
cannot assume that my starting point is purity
that my starting point is absolute sincerity that
nothing has to be filtered out that nothing
has to be purified purification is a necessary
process tazkiyah has to be engaged in indulged
in consciously, deliberately carried out it has to
be suffered it is going to be a
painful process and if our journey with the
Quran with Islam, our relationship with Allah if
it does not have any suffering if it's
a walk in the park if it is
mere relaxation if it is all tranquility if
it is all bliss then something is wrong
this does not look like the process of
Rasulullah ﷺ and that of the Sahaba and
so if that is not what it looks
like then there are so many opportunities of
purification of becoming mukhlis of becoming sincere it's
really incredible the very surah of tawheed does
not have the word ikhlas but it is
called surah al ikhlas to purify ourselves to
become sincere for the uniqueness and oneness of
Allah that in every domain of my life
He is the One that is how Allah
depicts truth and falsehood as for the foam,
it just disappears it's fluff it's all talk
it's hollow whereas all that is of benefit
to mankind it stays on earth that is
how Allah presents example that's how it happens
in the world around you in the material
universe that is how it happens in human
society as well what is beneficial perseveres wa
akhiru da'awanan alhamdulillahi rabbil alameen if there
are any comments or questions please do feel
free please fair,
so as part of the process if I
am turning to salah if I am turning
to Quran but other areas of my life
are not in order yet then of course
there is the process it's gonna take time
and asking Allah to guide me I'm looking
for the Quran to guide me so that
I can bring that to order but if
it goes on and my prayer is continuing
my Quran is continuing but my responsibility in
those other areas I'm still being lazy I'm
being unjust I'm being exploitative I'm being corrupt
I'm being all of what the Quran doesn't
want me to be the hadith of the
Prophet ﷺ which says that so many people
are reciting the Quran the Quran is cursing
them with the dua that Allah make the
Quran hujjatul lana and not alayna make it
an evidence for us on the day of
judgment not against us right, so Allah gives
me opportunities to get my house in order
get all of those other to be Muslim
in those areas as well to be mu'min
in those areas but if I persist and
if I start using the Quran and my
salawat and my sadaqat as an excuse to
continue to be corrupt in all of those
other areas where I come from some of
the most charity that is given to madaris
are by illegitimate businesses hmm
it's everywhere I don't want to generalize but
yeah I hope that again
yeah so for sure for sure
so many of us will bring all of
those shortcomings with us in that relationship but
if that is the mainstay of our relationship
with Allah if that shortcoming is egregious if
it is very evil and the society is
suffering immensely as a result of that and
yet I am content in my prayer and
my ibadat again it's for Allah to judge
who is capable of how much but if
it is me, myself I would be very
suspicious I would be very suspicious of myself
I would be again, we find the tradition
of being suspicious over yourself also from the
sahaba radiallahu ta'ala Ya Rasulullah am I
a munafiq so that persistent fear and we
don't want it's better for us not to
know if we are sincere or not that
anxiety has to be maintained so we continue
trying which is why Umar radiallahu ta'ala
didn't want Rasulullah to go and tell people
certain particular people about their place in paradise
he said they are going to become complacent
Umar himself was told about his place in
paradise he still didn't become complacent he still
carries that fear it was my name on
the list of hypocrites we have to break
9 o'clock we are done it's ok
please again
that laughter is the sign of how deep
that denial is to give you a joke
a person goes to a therapist and says
that I am so depressed I am so
sad I don't want to live I don't
know what meaning there is to my life
it's so I don't enjoy anything therapist tells
him there is this incredible clown in town
he is so funny I went to his
show yesterday you should go there he will
make your day you will have such a
great time he says doc I am that
clown so the laughter in the face of
phenomena that's not supposed to be funny that
is a wall that we are putting up
what's hiding behind that is a deep seated
fear is a denial underneath which we are
not ready to face our death we are
not ready to confront even the idea of
our death and that's something that the Quran
wants us to take very very seriously to
not be sure when we are going to
die to think to reflect on life in
that manner and to carry that paradox one
of the sayings attributed to Ali that live
life as if you are going to live
forever but live for Akhira as if you
are going to die today to be able
to have that developing that that's really something
how that balance is going to be it's
going to be different for everybody we have
to look struggle to find our own balance
more on that next week we should make
room for Aisha please Allah
Akbar Allah Allah
Akbar Allah Akbar I
bear witness that there is no god except
Allah I bear witness that there
is no god except Allah