Yousuf Raza – Friday 13-09-2024
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AI: Transcript ©
Love out of desire
for Allah.
He covets from the bottom of the heart
to see Allah, to be
able
to be in his presence and more than
just hearing him, more than just talking to
him to actually be able to see him.
There's an innocence in that desire as well.
But then there's the Bani Israel way of
asking questions
where they wanna learn the nitty gritties.
What is the color of the cow?
What is the gender of the cow?
What type of cow is it? We want
very precise knowledge.
There is knowledge that you seek in order
to put into practice,
but then there is knowledge that you seek
to evade practice, to run away from practice.
That I get so much into the nitty
gritties and the hair splitting details
that responsibility
be damned.
I don't have to worry about that anymore.
And then there's a third type of questioning
in which you're challenging,
in which you come from a place of
entitlement.
You come from a place of
prestige
where you really center yourself at
the heart of reality. The world revolves around
me, and I deserve to know
everything.
And how dare someone not tell me
something or anything?
And that's the kind of challenge that the
Bani Israel again post to Musa where they
said, we wanna look at Allah.
Now theirs was not a desire to learn.
Theirs was not a desire
to practice.
Theirs was not a desire for it wasn't
out of love of Allah.
It was rather out of a jealousy for
Musa alaihi sallam. How come you get to
talk to him and we don't?
How come you get this privilege and we
don't?
So there is an envy
in that search for knowledge apparently.
So even something as sacred as knowledge,
our intent
for knowing
can really make it impure,
make it the worst experience for us.
So even when we know
if
our demands for knowledge
are met,
we don't grow in that knowledge.
The dua that Allah teaches us in the
Quran,
Allah increase me
in knowledge.
It's not increase my knowledge.
It's increase me in my knowledge.
Because if I'm not increasing,
if I'm not growing,
and my knowledge is,
then that knowledge is a lot of questions
for me to answer on the day of
judgment.
That knowledge may be the reason why I
end up in the hellfire.
I know a lot,
but my action doesn't match up.
My practice doesn't match up. My responsibility
towards the community, towards my family, towards humanity
does not match up.
It is all well and good to seek
knowledge. It's encouraged. It's incredibly important.
But with what intent
am I increasing? Am I a better person?
Or the more credentials I have in front
of my name,
the more alphabets I add
in front of my name, does that increase
me in arrogance?
Do I talk condescendingly
to people?
Do I not have time
to have a civil human conversation with someone?
Because then that knowledge is not helping me.
What Allah
tells us in the Quran
that only those
who genuinely have this kashiyyah of Allah,
this awe of Allah,
this recognition
of his greatness,
they are who are those people? They are
the scholars.
It may well be they have no credentials.
It may well be that they don't have
any formal education,
but what they have is a fruit of
knowledge,
and that is
the kashiya
of Allah.
We may study chemistry
and learn
in books of chemistry, in our experiments, in
the lab or whatnot.
What is coffee made of?
What is the chemical structure of caffeine?
What's contained in milk? What vitamins?
We can have the chemical knowledge of it.
We can have very precise knowledge of it.
We can predict
how much caffeine does what to the heart.
By what percentage your heart rate is gonna
go up. We can have that level of
knowledge.
But if you've never tasted coffee,
if you've never experienced
what it does to you,
all that knowledge of chemistry, what good is
it?
It is good for a particular domain perhaps,
but in the in the domain of knowing
Allah,
you can know your creed.
You can know your tawhid.
You can know the sifaat of Allah by
then experiencing those sifaats.
That's the difference between the person who knows
just the chemistry and the person who
experiences the drink itself.
So experiencing
Allah.
When we turn to the book of Allah
with this understanding just looking for
do's and don'ts in the book,
not really realizing that the relationship
of Allah experiencing
Allah,
how important, how significant it is,
then the do's and don'ts become a burden.
The do's and don'ts become obstacles.
We feel fettered. We feel that this is
holding us back.
We want more freedom.
We wanna do what we wanna do. Why
do we have to be curtailed?
And so what does Allah want with all
of what he's telling us? Even though what
all of what he's telling us, one of
the beauties of Islam
is what needs to be done, the do's
and don'ts, the halal, the haram,
the obligations.
They're a very small list.
You can literally count them on your fingers.
The main obligations
and the main prohibitions.
And less than 6%, less than according to
some scholars, less than 3%
of the Quranic ayaats talk about that, but
even that becomes a burden.
Even that becomes so much.
So much of our of the rest of
our relationship with Allah is left open.
So much of that is, what do you
want to do?
How would you want to do it?
It is left
for people to volunteer
themselves,
to increase in their closeness
to Allah.
Nevertheless, the question keeps coming, what does Allah
want? Why? Why all of this? So Allah
tells us quite explicitly,
you read Allah
Allah wants to clarify things for you.
Part of your intent is quite justifying. You
don't nobody likes to be confused.
Nobody likes to be kept in the dark.
You want light.
You want to be enlightened
because when you see,
you know.
And when you know, you see.
So Allah wants to clarify things for you.
So the contradictions,
the difficulties, the confusions,
they are dispelled. The more they're dispelled, the
more you're able to act.
The more you're able to do what you're
supposed to do.
And to guide you
to the ways of those
before you.
That you're not
the first batch of humanity.
There have been generations before us.
So many,
in fact,
millennia
of humanity,
of history that we need to learn from,
of how we need to become a people
of history.
So much about us becomes shortsighted because all
of what we care about is around us.
All of what we care about is what's
going on in the world right now.
And when we look at that,
we're quick to conclusions.
No, man. Muslims got nothing going for them.
Being Muslim
is a handicap
in the 21st century.
We're on the receiving end of practically every
genocide you can imagine.
We're gonna be suffering,
and it comes at a cost.
I may wanna put my Muslimness
behind me, hide it a little,
and then put my whiteness
or Americanness
in front.
Maybe that gets me certain advantages,
and that results
from a shortsightedness
because what we do not realize
is in
the expanse of human history,
the turn of events,
rise and fall of empires
has always taken the world by surprise.
But which world has it taken by surprise?
It has taken that world by surprise which
for
which
does not look at
history as a whole.
Those people are always shocked. Oh my god.
What just happened? They were such a superpower.
How did the tables turn?
The Roman Empire.
The Persian Empire.
The Ad, the Samud,
the pharaohs.
What happened to such great civilization?
To the ways of those people when they
became arrogant, when they became full of themselves,
when they thought that they knew enough
or that they were strong enough
to be able to manage and maneuver the
world without the help of God,
That they could turn their backs on God
and live life
the way they want to?
What did that result in?
What was the consequence of that attitude? And
what was the consequence of the attitude of
those people who humbled themselves before Allah?
Who turned to Allah? Who submitted before Allah?
Who
exalted the tawheed of Allah?
Whose values
perpetuated themselves in the history of humanity that
whatever good that it is today in the
world,
anywhere in the world,
you will definitively trace that good back to
the
prophets.
Whatever is recognized as good, whatever is recognized
as a value,
you will identify
if you were to trace it,
its origins
in scripture,
in prophetic work, in prophetic sacrifice,
and the followers of prophets, regardless of what
it is.
So Allah wants you to
guide to be guided
to that path of the people before you.
And he wants to turn to you.
Means to turn to someone.
Tawba means to turn back specifically in the
context of the Quran, to turn back towards
Allah, to turn towards Allah.
But it's a word that Allah does not
just use
for
human beings
that we are the people who are supposed
to do tawba. Allah uses this word for
himself too.
We do tawba,
we turn towards Allah, but Allah too is
and this is the context in which he's
using this word here.
So that Allah can turn towards you.
That you turn towards him, he turns towards
you.
But you need to have a self,
you need to have a strong enough individuality,
you you need to have a strong enough
personality
that it can withstand
that turning towards Allah.
That it can appreciate
Allah's turning towards it.
Because that's what Allah ultimately wants.
And Allah is all knowing, all lies.
Of the three things that the previous ayah
spoke about,
Allah picks out the last one
and puts extra emphasis on that and says
what Allah really wants
is to turn towards you.
What Allah really wants
is to face you.
Think about it.
We're
we're people
driven by self worth,
and our self worth
is determined very heavily
by what others think of us.
Am I knowledgeable enough? Am I good looking
enough? Am I rich enough?
Am I powerful enough? Am I eloquent enough?
All these measures that we put out,
and it's constantly running in our head. What
did they think of me? What did he
think of me? What did she think of
me?
What impression did I create?
How many likes did I get? How many
followers do I have?
How many people laughed at my joke?
How many how many people accepted my dinner
invitation?
We define our self worth through all of
these measures
of how people look at us.
Allah is inviting us, offering us
a very different measure.
A very different standard
of associating our self worth with,
and that is to do with our relationship
with him.
And he's already laid out, you know, whoever
you are,
however you are,
wherever you come from,
whatever the color of your skin,
whatever the level of your education,
however rich or poor you are,
whatever rank you have in the corporate sector,
wherever your house is, whatever car you drive,
none of that matters.
Bottom line, if you're a human being, Allah
wants to turn towards you.
You are worthy of Allah.
You are worthy of Allah.
You are significant
enough.
You are important enough
for his attention.
To be the full focus of his attention.
And he wants nothing more
than to turn towards you.
In here is an invitation.
Would you want to turn towards him?
Because you turn towards him and he turns
towards you, what does that ultimately do?
This results in a very
real face to face meeting
on the day of judgment and then in
paradise.
Ultimately, you've been sent in this world
so you can be all grown up
and all strong enough
to appreciate
that reunion
with Allah, which you otherwise would not have
been able to appreciate if that's just the
state you were born in.
Your journey in this life from weakness until
strength is to have enough strength
to withstand
this degree of love from
Allah. What do the other people want?
Who would tell you follow your heart, be
yourself,
do you, you be you.
All your
influencers
who are inspiring you,
what do they want?
They want that you
those who follow their own desires,
they want you to follow yours
and just your desires.
And they want you to forget that every
single person who has chosen this life of
hedonism,
every single person who has put themselves and
their desires as their god
has been
destroyed.
You have 23,000,000
people in the United States of America who
are addicted to drugs who testify to that.
If they could, they would tell you, please
don't.
We came down this path, and now we
can't get off it.
We were told that following our desires was
our heaven, was our felicity, was our success.
Now we can't get off it.
So people who follow their desires, they want
you to be led astray as well. They
want you to identify with your desires.
I wanna be me. If wanting to be
me means
doing whatever it is that comes in my
heart,
that I'm setting this world up
for catastrophe.
Because then all of what this society turns
into
is
a jungle
where we're literally willing to rip each other
off
for whatever
it means to for me to be me.
Allah wants to make things easy for you.
When you go down the path of desires
only, ultimately, desires, it's not that Allah doesn't
care for your desires. He's kept them. It's
not that Allah doesn't care for your desires.
He's kept them for you. All he wants
is for you to curtail them, put some
boundaries around them. That's it. That unbridled following
of desires is what
he warns against.
That's what makes life hard.
Allah is not an enemy to human pleasure.
He created
it. He promises it.
He sanctifies
it. He's pleased with it. He rewards for
it too.
He wants to make things easy for
you.
Because a human being has been created weak.
And if in that weakness, we continue to
find support in that which is weak,
we weaken ourselves further.
We become more and more dependent.
The stronger
the object of our love,
the focus of our love,
the stronger it'll make us,
And Allah wants us to recognize that weakness,
and within that weakness, find our strength,
and with that strength,
stand in front of them.
And when we mention him, he mentions us.
When we mention him in a gathering, he
mentions us in a gathering
better than ours
to the point that he becomes the tongue
with which you speak, the hand with which
you strike, the foot with which you walk.
And if you go to him walking, he
comes to you running.
Please keep the row straight,
and please keep your phones on silent.
I'll
walk you
Before,
the announcements,
we would like to thank doctor Youssour Raza
for coming to Hamza and delivering this beautiful
chutba.
And, thanks to Hafiz Youssour also for leading
the Jum'ah
Salah.
By the way, doctor Youssour Raza also teaches
tafsir in Hamza every Sunday
between Maghrib and Isha.
All are encouraged to join.
Last week, share
doctor Youssouf Raza finished,
Suray
Suray Yusuf. Right? And what we will be
doing this Sunday?
Surat.
Okay. All are encouraged to come. It is
very beneficial.
Program every Sunday
between Maghrib and Isha. Now,
few quick announcements.
Tomorrow, we will have Cub Scout open house
at 2:30.
For more detail, please see brother Ehar Jamil.
Next Friday, we will have a Quran night
after Maghrib next Friday,
and Hafiz Junaid and his students will be,
there.
All are welcome, encouraged to join. It's Quran
night next Friday.
Next Friday, Al Maghribi is organizing
a program in Crown Plaza,
Norcross,
and,
sheikh
sheikh Majid Mahmood. And, sheikh Yasir Khadi will
be there also, and the program will start
at 6 PM. They will be talking they
will be telling us the stories of
prophet Dawud and prophet Suleiman.
So next Friday at 6 PM, Crown Plaza.
Madinah Institute
is organizing
an event,
Rabiu Laval is special,
next Friday at 7:30 PM, and,
Nasheed artist Nadir Khan will be there also.
Tomorrow night, Georgia
Islamic Institute is hosting a program,
Siratun Nabi, and Qazi Fadullah will be there.
Program will start at 7:30. Dinner will be
served. And last announcement is,
Greenview Madani Center is hosting a Siratun Nabi
program on Sunday morning after Fajr. Breakfast will
be served.