Yousuf Raza – Jumuah 20 Sep 2024
AI: Summary ©
The importance of experiencing God's love and experiencing his emotions is emphasized in the importance of peace and humility. The experience of experiencing spirituality and experiencing one's emotions is also discussed, as it is a prophecy. The importance of focusing on one's responsibility and attention is emphasized, and a news update is provided on construction of a new bridge and events at Crown Plaza.
AI: Summary ©
Alhamdulillah Alhamdulillah We praise Him, we ask His
help, we ask His forgiveness, we believe in
Him and we put our trust in Him.
We seek refuge in Allah from the evil
of our souls and from the evil of
our deeds.
Whom Allah guides, there is no misguider for
him, and whom He misguides, there is no
guide for him.
We bear witness that there is no god
but Allah, there is no partner for Him.
We bear witness that Muhammad is His servant
and Messenger.
The best hadith is the book of Allah,
and the best guide is Muhammad, peace and
blessings be upon him.
And the worst of things are its innovations,
and every innovation is an innovation, and every
innovation is a misguidance, and every misguidance is
in the Fire.
Subhanahu wa ta'ala says in his holy
book after we say, I seek refuge in
Allah from the accursed Satan, In the name
of Allah, the Merciful, the Compassionate.
Did we not open for you your breast,
and place for you your seed, which saved
your back, and raised for you your remembrance?
Indeed, with hardship comes ease.
Indeed, with hardship comes ease.
And when you are free, then be steadfast.
And to your Lord is hope.
Sadaqallahul Azeem My Lord, open for me my
breast, and ease for me my affair.
My Lord, open for me my mouth, and
ease for me my speech.
My Lord, benefit us with what You have
taught us, and teach us what benefits us,
and increase us in knowledge.
My Lord, show us the truth of things
as they are.
My Lord, show us the truth as it
is, and grant us to follow it.
And show us the falsehood as falsehood, and
grant us to avoid it.
Ameen.
O Lord of the worlds.
The ayat that I just recited in front
of you, from surah inshirah, before I actually
get to these ayat, I would like to
talk about surah ad-duha.
And it is this that was going around
in my head, and rather than focusing on
the khutbah that I was giving, I was
thinking about the ayat themselves.
Subhanallah.
And they come at a time in the
life of the Prophet ﷺ, where he's getting
used to himself being a prophet.
Again, for Rasulullah ﷺ, he is not, from
the time of his birth, or even in
his teenage, or even in his young adulthood,
aspiring to grow up to be a prophet.
That is not on his radar.
That is not something that he has as
an aspiration or an ambition.
Not at all.
For him, it is the plight of his
people, the difficulty, the injustice that he sees
around himself, and to reconcile that with the
understanding of tawheed.
And his desperation to help people around him.
His yearning to understand Allah ﷻ.
And it is that which drives him.
That he chooses, rather, to distance himself from
a very loving family.
Everything that he has at his disposal.
He is in one of the wealthiest households
in Mecca.
And Rasulullah ﷺ detaches himself from that.
And he's spending night after night, day after
day, in a cave, pondering, reflecting, worshipping.
Working all of this out.
In the words of the Qur'an, he
is looking for guidance.
In these moments, in these retreats to the
cave.
And as his retreats bear fruit, and he
experiences revelation for the first time, he's terrified,
he's horrified.
He doesn't know how to respond.
He doesn't know what that is.
It takes for Khadijah ﷺ and then Warqa
ibn Nawfil, and then Abu Bakr ﷺ, and
then further revelations from the Qur'an itself,
for him to come to be at peace
with his own prophethood.
As far as he was concerned, he didn't
know what it was.
Is this a shaitan?
Am I being possessed?
Am I going crazy?
Am I becoming a poet?
All of these things he detested, he did
not want.
He did not want any of that for
himself.
It took for Khadijah ﷺ not once, not
twice, but in multiple ways, to demonstrate to
him, to reason with him, to console him,
that he is, in fact, experiencing something which
is from Allah.
It cannot be something negative.
It cannot be something demonic.
And so as he comes to believe, and
revelation after revelation he experiences, there comes a
time, and he's getting used to the phenomena.
He's getting used to this wahi from Allah.
It is incredibly painful, mind you.
Till the very end, the experience of wahi
was very painful upon Rasulullah ﷺ.
There was a physical strain that he would
feel as revelation is coming upon him.
Yet there comes a time where he starts
recognizing the immensity of responsibility upon him.
When he tells Khadijah ﷺ that the time
for rest is over.
Our life is going to be different from
now on.
This is it.
The direction that we're going to take from
here on in.
It's going to be a lot of struggle.
It's going to be a lot of hard
work.
Warqa had already told him, your people are
going to drive you out.
You're not going to be even allowed to
stay in your own city.
So Rasulullah ﷺ is ready for all of
that.
And with all of that, his relationship with
the Qur'an is developing.
When we say the love of the Prophet,
we mean two things.
The love that we have for the Prophet
ﷺ but then the love that the Prophet
had for Allah.
And it is sunnah.
It is for us to practice that sunnah
of the Prophet ﷺ as to how he
embodied that love of Allah in his life.
And we see a glimpse of that in
these ayats.
In these two surahs, particularly surah al-Duha
and surah al-Inshirah.
Where Rasulullah ﷺ is greatly saddened that
now after the beginning of revelation, where he's
getting used to it, where he's understanding his
role, where he's understanding Allah, his responsibility is
in front of him and all of a
sudden, revelation stops.
Jibreel is not coming anymore.
No more ayats from the Qur'an are
being revealed upon him.
He's waiting and nothing.
He had just gotten used to it and
now there's a break.
And Rasulullah ﷺ, the humility that he had,
the introspective person that he was, always looking
within himself.
The question that he asks himself, what he's
concerned about.
Did I do something wrong?
Did I make a mistake?
Again, the humility cannot be emphasized enough.
Rasulullah ﷺ is surrounded by the most obnoxious
people, by the most arrogant people, by the
people who are so full of themselves that
they think if there's anything like revelation, they
deserve it more than anybody else.
Who are not willing to see his truthfulness,
his trustworthiness, even though they testified to it
themselves.
They're not willing to acknowledge it anymore.
And yet he is looking within himself, am
I doing something wrong?
Did I not live up to the responsibility
that Allah placed upon my shoulders?
Is that why he has abandoned me?
Is that why he had forsaken me?
Has he forsaken me?
We speak a lot about confidence.
But if you talk about confidence without balancing
that with humility, then you're talking about arrogance.
If you're talking about confidence without focusing on
content, you're talking about narcissistic people who are
so full of themselves they have no idea
but they're still so full of themselves.
Rasulullah ﷺ did not, I dare say, go
to an American school where you're taught to
be confident before you're taught humanity.
You're told about your self-worth before you're
taught about your direction in this world.
Where you're taught about your desires being of
the utmost importance, worthy of worship, worthy of
being worshipped by others as well, before you're
taught about how true psychological development depends upon
curtailing those desires.
Where you raise leaders who don't have direction.
Where you raise students who have confidence without
content.
And so there is this unwillingness to learn.
There is this unwillingness to experience how much
more there is to Allah.
Something that Quran is for Rasulullah ﷺ.
Again, contrast that with our approach to the
Quran.
If I have not interacted with the ayaat
of Allah recently, opening myself up to the
message that they have, to the guidance that
they have, what is it that Allah wants
of me?
How is it that I can know Allah
better through the ayaat of Allah?
Understanding them, yes.
Reciting them, yes.
Talking about them.
Looking for the meaning.
Looking for guidance within the Quran.
If I have not had such interactions, am
I claiming that I already know whatever there
is in the Quran?
Am I saying that I already have a
good understanding?
It's talking about heaven and *, and tawheed,
and the prophets, and stories of prophets.
If that's all of what I think the
Quran is, and all of what I know,
and there's no relevance in my life, then
I contrast that with the attitude of Rasulullah
ﷺ, who in this instance is so doubtful
of himself, he's so afraid, scared for himself,
that Allah reveals the ayaat, reassuring him, telling
him, by the glorious morning light, and the
night when it is still, that this Quran
comes as the glorious morning light.
A light that pierces the darkness.
But how do you appreciate that light?
How do you appreciate daybreak, if you have
not experienced pitch black darkness?
If you have not experienced the night in
its unnerving stillness, where it seems like it's
gonna be perpetual, as if it's never going
to go away.
And so much of the revelation of the
Quran for mankind, for humanity, was daybreak after
such a long night.
Since Isa ﷺ, all the way to Rasulullah
ﷺ, that night spanned.
And then the sun rose.
But even within the lifetime of Rasulullah ﷺ,
the darkness of the night that he had
to go through without Quran, without the guidance
of Quran, without knowing where he is to
go, how he is to make sense of
all of what he's experiencing.
And then Iqra' happened.
And then even after Iqra' happened, there have
to be breaks in between.
There has to be a pause.
There has to be some rest.
He needs time to acclimatize, subhanAllah, with the
ayat of Allah, to be prepared for more.
There are at least two occasions in the
Quran other than this, where Rasulullah ﷺ's love
of the Quran, again, his sunnah that we're
trying to emphasize today, that Rasulullah ﷺ on
one occasion tells Jibreel, why do you take
so long to come?
Why don't you come more frequently?
Allah records Jibreel's response in Surah Taha.
And we don't come of our own accord,
ya Rasulullah.
We come when Allah tells us to come.
And in Surah Qiyamah, لا تحرك به لسانك
لتعجل به Do not move your tongue quickly.
Because Rasulullah ﷺ is reciting, as Jibreel is
revealing the Quran, he's reciting it quickly.
He doesn't want to forget anything.
He doesn't want to lapse in any way
with the responsibility that's on his shoulders.
Allah says, don't worry about it.
Just be calm.
As it's coming, receive it.
Experience it.
Open yourself up for it.
You don't have to do anything about it.
Yes, when it has been revealed, then you
go on and take that responsibility further.
So here too, his longing for the Quran,
ما ودعك ربك وما قل Your Rabb has
not forsaken you.
He hasn't abandoned you.
He's not displeased with you.
Again, for Rasulullah ﷺ, this was a very
real concern.
This was a very real concern that the
Quran is dispelling.
Something that in our relationship with Allah, we
have to see, do we have that yearning?
Do we have that concern?
Even if we do experience it, even if
we do experience that guilt, as we should,
do we just turn away from that guilt
because it's painful?
Do we just shut our eyes to it?
Don't wanna think about it too much because
it hurts.
Validate ourselves, console ourselves, sing lullabies to ourselves,
without having changed anything about ourselves.
For Rasulullah ﷺ, it was a long period
of time before this reassurance came.
And this reassurance comes because there is a
genuine concern that he has for himself.
And it comes from Allah.
And the rest of the surah talks about
the blessings of Allah upon Rasulullah ﷺ and
a promise that Allah will give him.
Again, he takes this promise on faith.
Because as of the moment that these ayahs
are being revealed, nothing seems to be in
his favor.
The odds are stacked against him.
A million to one.
He takes the ayahs and the promise that
the ayahs make on faith.
And he lives on that faith and the
promise comes true.
But contingent within that promise is the faith
that you have to uphold on your end.
We talk a lot about the promises of
Allah and the victory that Allah will give
to the believing people.
But we forget that the victory is for
the believing people.
أَنتُمُ الْأَعْلَوْنَ إِن كُنتُم مُؤْمِنِينَ You are going
to prevail.
You are going to be successful.
You are going to be superior if you
are believers.
That's a very scary ayah.
Because what that says is if you're not
prevailing, if you're not successful, if you're not
superior, what does that say about my iman?
Where do I stand?
And so the promise that Rasulullah ﷺ receives
from Allah and revelation restarts.
Few more ayahs when talking about Rasulullah ﷺ
time before revelation, how he was an orphan,
how he was searching for guidance, how he
was in need, and all of that was
fulfilled by Allah.
The next surah.
Now this particular surah talks about another tendency
that develops when you have that, when you
experience that intimacy with Allah, when you experience
that closeness, when you get to that level
and it's something that you experience on two
levels, on two stages.
Once is in the beginning of when you're
very spiritual, when you consciously decide I'm gonna
become a person of Allah.
The newfound religiosity.
Either you're a convert or you're born Muslim,
but there comes a time where you take
your religion seriously in those first few months,
the honeymoon period of spirituality if you will.
There's an intense feeling and attachment to Allah.
That's, again, absolutely incredible for those of us
who are fortunate enough to experience it, but
it doesn't last.
There comes a dip.
There comes a time where you don't have
that level of intensity.
Where your older desires and bad habits start
coming back.
And it is when you push past that,
struggle through it, seek Allah in spite of
it, not feeling like it the way you
used to, and you keep at it, you
keep at it, you keep at it.
Then the doors open again.
Then the attachment takes place again.
Then the longing and the yearning happens again.
But even there, it happens with a risk.
A risk that many spiritual people, many mystics,
fall for.
That this attachment, this experience of intimacy with
Allah, this experiencing His love, experiencing His responses,
experiencing Him as the ultimate cause of everything
around me.
It's so, it's such a state of tranquility.
There is so much peace in there.
And then, Quran is making sense.
You're relating, it's like Quran is talking to
you.
Allah is talking to you.
You find yourself being addressed.
With Rasulullah ﷺ, his nights are being spent,
one-third, one-half, two-thirds of the
night standing before Allah, reciting that Quran, that's
how much that yearning is, that's how much
that longing is, that's how intense that intimacy
with Allah is.
But the night comes to an end.
The praying has to stop.
He has to say, As-salamu alaykum wa
rahmatullah.
As-salamu alaykum wa rahmatullah.
Get up and get out.
And face who?
Abu Jahl, Waleed bin Mughira, Abu Sufyan, Abu
Lahab.
Hear them curse him.
See them torture those who follow him.
And so, what would you rather pick?
Those torturous, toxic experiences?
Or that time with Allah?
The superficiality and arrogance of people?
Or those angelic experiences in the middle of
the night?
Of course, anybody would pick the divine experience.
Except those on the sunnah of Rasulullah ﷺ
as he's being taught in that experience.
أَلَمْ نَشْرَحْ لَكَ صَدْرَكَ Have we not expanded
your chest for you?
Gave you clarity, gave you understanding.
وَوَبَعْنَ عَنْكَ وِذْرَكَ Removed your burden from you.
The Prophet felt the burden of not knowing
what to do on his back.
الَّذِي أَنقَضَ ظَهْرَكَ Which was pushing you down,
which was crushing your back.
وَرَفَعْنَا لَكَ ذِكْرَكَ And we exalted your mention.
Again, at the time of the revelation of
these ayat, this mention of Rasulullah ﷺ is
by a handful of people, not many.
In a lot of ways, this is a
prophecy.
فَإِنَّ مَعَ الْعُسْرِ يُسْرَى With difficulty is ease.
Not just after difficulty.
With it.
Packaged in it.
It is with that pain that growth comes.
Without it, it's not possible.
إِنَّ مَعَ الْعُسْرِ يُسْرَى فَإِذَا فَرَغْتَ فَانْصَبْ So
when you are free from your responsibility, prophetic
responsibility, interacting with people, facing whatever it is
that they have to throw against you, then
you can when you're free from your hard
labor, إِلَى رَبِّكَ فَرْغَبْ then you can turn
to Allah with that رَغْبَة with that focus,
with that attention, with that full commitment.
Which for Rasulullah ﷺ was an everyday affair.
That he would interact with people and he
would interact with people to the utmost level
of احسان, to the utmost level of excellence.
He would be the best with them.
Not just with his family but with his
enemies as well.
In forgiving them but in being stern with
them as well.
Whatever the situation demanded of him.
But then at night he would have his
opportunity to have his one-on-one with
Allah.
To experience that level of closeness, that conversation
with Qur'an standing before Allah crying profusely.
That was what he longed for.
So he followed this surah every single day.
And then he ultimately followed this surah in
the entirety of his life.
For when the time came and he was
given the option that you've done your job,
your hard labor is over.
The Arabian Peninsula is Muslim.
He said, Allah the highest companion which meant
that he chose death.
That is the sunnah of his love.
Allah the highest companion which meant that
he chose death.
Allah the highest companion which meant that he
chose death.
Allah the highest companion which meant that he
chose Allah the highest companion which meant that
he chose
death.
Arabic Arabic
Arabic Arabic Arabic Arabic Arabic
Arabic Arabic Arabic Arabic Arabic
Arabic Arabic Arabic
Arabic Arabic Arabic Arabic Arabic Arabic Arabic So,
please keep the rows straight and turn your
cell phones on silent.
All praise is due to Allah, Lord
of the Day of Judgment.
It is You we worship and You we
ask for help.
Guide us to the straight path.
The path of those on whom You have
bestowed favor, not of those who have incurred
Your wrath, nor of those who have gone
astray.
Did We not open for you your breast,
and place for you your burden, which broke
your back?
And We raised for you your remembrance, but
hardship is but ease.
So when you are free, be steadfast, and
to your Lord turn.
Peace and blessings of Allah be upon you.
Peace and blessings of Allah be upon you.
In two consecutive Jummahs in Hamza.
JazakAllah khair.
Alhamdulillah.
And now the announcements.
Tonight we will have a Quran night.
Hafiz Junez's students will be reciting Quran and
telling us the stories about the Sahabas.
So tonight after Maghrib.
Tonight Al-Maghrib is hosting an event called
Kings of Jerusalem.
Sheikh Majid, Mahmood and Yasir Qadhi will be
at Crown Plaza, Atlanta Northeast, Norcross.
Madinah Institute is hosting an event on Sidat
-un-Nabi after Maghrib.
And Nasheed artist Nader Khan will be there.
October 5th Hamza is hosting an event on
Sidat-un-Nabi.
And now I would like to request.
One last announcement is about our construction.
As you can see the construction is going
on for our Hamza Science Academy Islamic school.
And on your way out please grab a
pledge form, fill it out and bring it
back next week.
And may Allah accept your donation.
Now I would like to request Hafiz Yusuf
to make dua for brother Saud.
He is in ICU and Abdullah Fiday.
He is also in ICU.
May Allah alleviate their suffering.
We ask you for a complete and safe
recovery for both Ibn Saud and Abdullah Fiday.
Al Fatiha.