Zia Sheikh – Love of Allah and his Messenger pbuh Towards Humanity
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Say, if you love Allah, follow me, Allah
will love you and forgive you your sins.
And Allah is Forgiving and Merciful.
I love such and such a person, so
you also love him.
So Allah commands Jibreel to love that person.
So Jibreel loves that person.
Then Jibreel, he calls out in the skies
and he says, Then Jibreel, he calls out
in the skies that Allah loves such and
such a person.
So everybody loves him.
So then the dwellers of the skies, the
angels, they love that person.
Then acceptance is put on the earth for
that person.
Meaning people accept him, people love him.
I was mentioning at Salatul Maghrib, we tend
to take for granted the fact that we
have scholars coming in on a daily basis
and giving us lectures.
I mean we have speakers that are in
demand throughout the US.
We have Brother Nauman coming in on Sundays,
we have Sheikh Abdul Nasir on Tuesdays, you
have Sheikh Hassan Khalil on Wednesdays, and then
myself on Thursdays.
And then on Fridays we have also lectures
taking place like we have tonight, off and
on.
So this, basically we are having lectures almost
on a daily basis, but we tend to
take these things for granted.
So we really need to make sure that
whatever event takes place, we need to take
full advantage of it and try to participate
and learn from these sheikhs.
As I have mentioned many times before, The
ulema, they are the inheritors of the Anbiya
a.s. The Anbiya a.s. they did
not leave dinars and dirhams and pounds and
shillings, they actually left knowledge for us.
That was the inheritance of the Anbiya a
.s. So the ulema, the scholars are basically
the representatives of the prophets right now.
Basically you can just say, as if the
prophet a.s. he sent the ulema to
teach us.
And they are his representatives, they are ambassadors,
his ambassadors.
So we need to respect that, and we
need to take full advantage of these study
circles, these lectures, these seminars, and try to
not just listen to them and benefit from
them, but put them into practice.
This is the main thing inshallah.
So tonight's theme is the issue of love,
and I've been given the topic to talk
about, love of Allah s.w.t for
us, and love for the prophet a.s.
for us.
And why is that important for us to
talk about?
Not just because we are Muslims, not just
because we are supposed to recognize Allah s
.w.t, Because we are living in an
American society, which is a Judeo-Christian society,
there is a deeper understanding that we have
to come to.
There is a deeper reason why we need
to recognize the love of Allah s.w
.t for us.
I remember when I first came to the
U.S., the first ever church group that
came to the masjid where I was serving,
there was an old lady that was sitting
in the back, and she put up her
hand while I was talking, and she asked
me a question.
Do you know that God loves you?
And that was basically something that I didn't
understand the depth of at that point.
But as I proceeded to be an Imam,
and studied this issue of what the Christians
believe, and the fact that there is a
huge concept of love in Christianity.
Love for God, God loves us, Jesus loves
us, because God loves us, he sent Jesus,
as they say, his only son to die
on the cross for our sins, so all
of that is related to the love of
God.
And the perception that is put across about
Muslims and Allah s.w.t, is that
Muslims, they worship a different God, a God
which is vengeful, wrathful, angry, punishes, that we
are supposed to be fearing all the time.
That is the perception that is put out
there.
We know that we worship the same God,
we worship Allah s.w.t, the same
God that sent Isa a.s., the same
God that sent Musa a.s., we worship
him.
So why is this, why is there a
misunderstanding?
And there is a misunderstanding from our part
also, we have to understand that.
We misunderstand Allah s.w.t, we don't
understand the mercy and love of Allah s
.w.t. We give priority to the fearing
of Allah s.w.t, more than the
love of Allah s.w.t. I'll talk
about that in a minute, but let me
tell you about a few weeks what happened.
A couple of weeks ago I was at
the Dallas University, University of Dallas.
And University of Dallas is a Catholic University.
I was supposed to be giving a talk
to a classroom, a world religions class or
whatever it was, but in the class itself
we had a few nuns and a few
priests, and one of them was a very
elderly priest.
He asked me a question.
He said that I've studied the Quran, but
I don't find verses which talk about the
love of God.
Of course there are some there, but he
didn't come across them.
But he asked the question, and the background
to the question is what I've just mentioned.
The background to the question is what I've
just mentioned.
That the perception is that they think that
we worship a God which is different, angry,
wrathful, vengeful, whatever.
So he asked me that question.
The very same week, a couple of days
later, we had a meeting.
So the next couple of days, I saw
we had a meeting right in this room
over here, the children's room.
We had a meeting of pastors, priests that
came, and we are actually trying to get
together, and actually it's been decided that we're
going to have a retreat, imams and pastors
retreat.
And amongst them is, I'm sure a lot
of you are familiar with him, Pastor Bob
Roberts.
He's become a very good friend of mine
in the last couple of years, and he's
a very respectful, very polite person.
He respects Islam, he respects Muslims, and he's
actually very, he talks about the Palestinians very
favorably.
Unlike many of the, and he's evangelist too,
basically, which is supposed to be a very
hardline branch of Christianity.
But he, on the side, he talked to
me on the side.
And he asked me a very deep question
also, which is related to this.
And again, very respectfully, and he always starts
off with these words.
If I'm offending you, please just tell me
so I'll apologize.
And then he asked the question.
The question was this, and this is something
that probably Muslims never even think about.
That as Muslims, he said, when you practice,
is it because you are afraid of God's
punishment, and you don't want to go to
*, and you want to go to paradise?
Or do you practice Islam because you love
God?
That's a very deep and profound question.
And probably a lot of us have never
even thought about this question before in our
lives.
Maybe people from a tasawwuf background, who talk
a lot about tazkiyah, maybe they talk along
these lines.
But generally speaking, Muslims, we never think about
Allah subhanahu wa ta'ala along these lines.
That I should worship Allah subhanahu wa ta
'ala just because I love Him.
Not because I have any ulterior motive of
getting paradise and saving myself from the punishment.
The purpose should be that I love Allah
subhanahu wa ta'ala, and Allah subhanahu wa
ta'ala loves me.
And because of that love, I should express
my love through my obedience to Him.
And I think that's something that we really
need to contemplate and think about.
And especially living in this society, we need
to think about it.
So when we talk to Jews and Christians
about Islam, it should be with this understanding.
Another misconception that we have is the word
of taqwa that we use.
It's always translated as fear Allah.
And it's not as point blank as just
fearing Allah.
And the repetition of this word again and
again has made us think that Allah subhanahu
wa ta'ala is out there, just about
to send thunderbolts down upon us, the moment
we take a step wrong.
But the reality is that we see the
constant disobedience of Allah subhanahu wa ta'ala
taking place.
People associating partners with Him.
People disobeying Him.
Committing sins.
Stealing, killing, murdering, *, pillaging, starting wars.
Even, na'udhu billah, people worshipping the shaitan.
There are people who do that.
Instead of worshipping Allah subhanahu wa ta'ala,
they worship the shaitan.
But Allah subhanahu wa ta'ala is so
merciful that He doesn't send down His punishment,
despite all of this disobedience that's taking place.
If you put it from a percentage point
of view, even amongst the Muslims, how much
of a percentage of Muslims is truly practising
Islam?
Just think about that.
Truly practising Islam.
And then we see that Allah subhanahu wa
ta'ala is not sending down punishment to
us.
He's not sending down any kind of earthquake
or tornado or hurricane.
We see these from time to time.
But it's not a general trend that we
see every day that something happens, that because
of the disobedience of Allah subhanahu wa ta
'ala, these things happen.
Only sometimes to awaken us and to make
us realise that yes, Allah subhanahu wa ta
'ala is there.
He has the power to do these things
if He wants to.
But He doesn't.
He's so merciful that He doesn't punish us
that way.
So we really need to understand this, that
when we talk about taqwa, taqwa truly means
to avoid displeasing that creator of ours, who
is so merciful and loves us so much
that we don't want to displease Him.
So we stay away from those things that
would displease Allah subhanahu wa ta'ala and
could lead to our punishment.
That's basically, in a broad sense, what taqwa
is.
So Allah subhanahu wa ta'ala loves us,
but how do we gain His love even
more?
Allah subhanahu wa ta'ala, He tells us
in the Qur'an, قُلْ إِن كُنْتُمْ تُحِبُّونَ
اللَّهِ فَاتَّبِعُونِي يُحْبِبْكُمُ اللَّهِ وَيَغْفِرْ لَكُمْ ذُنُوبَكُمْ Tell
them, O Prophet of Allah, if you truly
love Allah subhanahu wa ta'ala, then follow
me, follow my footsteps, meaning the footsteps of
the Prophet a.s. And the result of
this will be, يُحْبِبْكُمُ اللَّهِ وَيَغْفِرْ لَكُمْ ذُنُوبَكُمْ
Allah subhanahu wa ta'ala will love you
in return, and He will forgive you your
sins.
So if you want Allah subhanahu wa ta
'ala to love us, then we have to
follow in the footsteps of the Prophet a
.s. Do you know in which surah this
ayah was revealed?
Anybody knows?
Where's the hufaz?
Anybody?
Ali Imran, JazakAllah khair.
Now this ayah is slap bang in the
middle of the verses which talk about Isa
a.s. and Maryam.
Straight after these verses Allah subhanahu wa ta
'ala talks about the fact that Maryam a
.s. just like Shaykh Abdul Karim recited right
now, in surah Maryam, those verses were about
Maryam and the way that Jibreel a.s.
came to her and gave her the good
news that she's going to have a child.
Similarly, this story is mentioned in Ali Imran,
straight after the verse that I've just recited.
So this placing of this verse, I think
it's quite possible that the main focus is
amongst those people, the Christians, who talk about
love so much, loving God, God loving us.
If you truly love Allah subhanahu wa ta
'ala, if you truly love Allah subhanahu wa
ta'ala, oh Christians on the one hand,
and also Muslims, then the way to gain
the love of Allah subhanahu wa ta'ala
is what?
Tattabi'uni.
You have to give up all of the
previous teachings of the Anbiya a.s. and
adopt the teachings of our beloved Prophet Muhammad
s.a.w. and his sunnah.
Tattabi'uni.
Yuhbibkumu Allah, and as a result of that
Allah subhanahu wa ta'ala will love you
in return.
Allah subhanahu wa ta'ala, he has no
need for our deen, he has no need
for us.
He has no need for us to worship
him.
That's why he says in another verse of
the Quran, Ya ayyuhal ladheena aamanu man yartadda
minkum AAan deeni Fasawfa ya'tin lahu biqawmin
yuhibbuhum wa yuhibboona Azillatina AAala almu'mineen, Aizzatina AAala
alkaafineen, Yujahiduna fee sabili Allahi, wa la yukhaafuna
lawmata la'il.
Oh people of Iman, if you were to
return from your religion, if you were to
give up your religion, then Allah subhanahu wa
ta'ala doesn't need you, doesn't need me,
doesn't need anybody here, doesn't need our worship,
doesn't need our Iman, doesn't need our love,
he doesn't need it.
When we do something, it is for our
sake.
It is because we need Allah subhanahu wa
ta'ala.
So if we were to reject Allah subhanahu
wa ta'ala, then Allah subhanahu wa ta
'ala would bring other people.
And those people would have the quality, Yuhibbuhum
wa yuhibboona He would love them, and they
would love Allah subhanahu wa ta'ala.
This is a sign, that Allah subhanahu wa
ta'ala accepts these people.
And the quality of them will be, Adhillatina
AAala almu'mineen They will be humble amongst the
people of Iman.
They will have humility around the people of
Iman.
Aizzatina AAala alkaafineen And amongst the disbelievers, they
will, some people they say, they mistranslate this.
And I think the best meaning of this
is, that they are proud in front of
the disbelievers.
They are proud.
Proud of wearing hijab.
Proud of having a beard.
Proud of wearing a jalabiya.
Proud of having a Muslim name.
Aizzatina AAala alkaafineen It is the opposite nowadays.
Amongst the Muslims, we are so loud mouthed,
and obnoxious, and impolite.
Amongst the disbelievers, we lower our heads, and
we are the way we should be with
the Muslims.
So we have to be proud, even amongst
the non-Muslims, for what Allah SWT has
given us.
We should never feel ashamed of the religion.
But the point here is Allah SWT says,
that such people, yuhibbuhumma yuhibbuna They love Him,
and He loves such people.
Once Allah SWT loves us, then what is
the result of that?
There is a beautiful hadith in Muslim.
The Prophet SAW said, InnaAllahu ta'ala, Itha
habba abdan da'a Jibreel When Allah SWT
loves somebody, then He calls Jibreel alayhi salam,
the angel Gabriel.
Faqal in yuhibbu fulanan fa ahbibhu I love
such and such a person, so you also
love him.
So Allah SWT commands Jibreel alayhi salam to
love that person.
Fa yuhibbuhu Jibreel So Jibreel alayhi salam loves
that person.
Thumma yunadi fissamaa Then Jibreel alayhi salam, he
calls out in the skies, and he says,
InnaAllahu yuhibbu fulanan fa ahibbuhu Fa yuhibbuhu ahlus
samaa Then Jibreel alayhi salam, he calls out
in the skies, that Allah SWT loves such
and such a person, so everybody loves him.
So then the dwellers of the sky, the
angels, they love that person.
Thumma yudda'u lahul qabool fil ard Then
acceptance is put on the earth for that
person.
Meaning people accept him, people love him.
And you've probably seen and experienced this, that
you've never met a person in your life,
and suddenly you just see him, and you
just love that person.
It happens.
I was at an event in Richardson Masjid
the other day, and somebody was, who never
had met Sheikh Yasir Birjas before, who's going
to be talking tomorrow.
He said that, I didn't know who he
was.
He came to our masjid, he was sitting
there, and I felt compelled to go up
to him and tell him, that brother, I
don't know who you are, but I love
you for the sake of Allah.
This is actually a true story that happened
a couple of weeks ago.
Richardson Masjid.
And then afterwards he found out, well this
is Sheikh Yasir Birjas.
So he's going to be here tomorrow, so
you're going to benefit from him inshaAllah.
But this is what is meant by, ثُمَّ
يُؤْضَعُ لَهُ الْقَبُولُ فِي الْأَرْضِ That acceptance is
put on the earth for that person who
Allah subhanahu wa ta'ala loves, and Jibreel
a.s. loves, and then the opposite also
rings true sometimes.
The opposite also rings true sometimes.
Which is what we need to be careful
about.
وَإِذَا أَبْغَضَ أَبْدًا دَعَى جِبْرِينَ When Allah subhanahu
wa ta'ala doesn't like a person, He
calls Jibreel a.s. and tells him, إِنِّي
أُبْغِضُ فُلَانًا I don't like such and such
a person.
فَأَبْغِضُهُ You also don't like him.
فَيُبْغِضُهُ جِبْرِينَ ثُمَّ يُنَادِي فِي أَهْلِ السَّمَاءِ إِنَّ
اللَّهَ يُبْغِضُ فُلَانًا فَأَبْغِضُهُ فَيُبْغِضُهُ أَهْلُ السَّمَاءِ Then
he calls out into the sky, and the
angels, they also dislike this person.
ثُمَّ تُوضَى لَهُ الْبَغْضَاءِ فِي السَّمَاءِ And then
البغضاء, meaning disliking, is put in disguise for
that person.
And in this riwayah, the issue of hatred
in the earth is not mentioned, but only
the sky is mentioned.
We talk about the love of the Prophet
ﷺ for us.
This is the love of Allah subhanahu wa
ta'ala for us.
What about the love of the Prophet ﷺ
for us?
The love of the Prophet ﷺ is summarized
in a very beautiful ayah of Surah At
-Tawbah.
Right at the end of Surah At-Tawbah,
the last two ayahs.
Allah subhanahu wa ta'ala says, لَقُدْ جَاءَكُمْ
رَسُولٌ مِّنْ أَنفُسِكُمْ عَزِيزٌ عَلَيْهِ مَا عَنِتُمْ حَرِيصٌ
عَلَيْكُمْ بِالْمُؤْمِنِينَ رَءُوفٌ رَحِيمٌ One beautiful ayah that
sums up the love of the Prophet ﷺ
for everyone.
Allah says that indeed, a Prophet has come
from amongst you.
عَزِيزٌ عَلَيْهِ مَا عَنِتُمْ Any difficulty that you
endure, this عَنَتَ it has been translated and
interpreted in many ways.
Some scholars say, the fact that you are
misguided, it hurts him.
It is heavy upon him when you are
misguided.
And other scholars say, it is heavy upon
him and difficult upon him when you face
difficulty.
So there are different interpretations.
حَرِيصٌ عَلَيْكُمْ حَرِيص means greedy.
So he is greedy upon you.
Meaning he is greedy for your welfare.
He is greedy for you to be successful.
He wants you to be successful.
In this world and the hereafter, this is
what it means.
حَرِيصٌ عَلَيْكُمْ Just like the parents want their
children to be successful.
They want their children to be successful in
this world and the hereafter.
Similarly the Prophet ﷺ, he is حَرِيص upon
us.
He wants us to be successful.
عَنْ بِالْمُؤْمِنِينَ رَءُوفٌ رَحِيمٌ And specifically with the
people of Iman, he is gentle and merciful.
This ayah, like I said, it was at
the end of Surah At-Tawbah.
The disbelievers basically what they do nowadays, they
take ayat of Surah At-Tawbah and they
say that this ayah is full of warfare.
It's full of fighting.
And this was one of the last surahs
that was revealed.
But this ayah basically sums up what Islam
is.
Islam is not about warfare.
It's not about killing.
It's not about suppressing people.
It is a mercy for mankind that people
attain success in this world and the hereafter.
That's why the Prophet who was رَحْمَةٌ لِلْعَالَمِينَ
was mercy for the world, he was sent
for humanity.
And this Prophet had these qualities in him.
So all the fighting that takes place, it
is against those people that stand in the
way of people attaining success of the hereafter.
People who stand in the way, they become
a hindrance in the way of people attaining
that success with which the Prophet came with.
The message that the Prophet brought, those people
are fought against.
Otherwise, that's not the purpose of Islam.
The purpose of Islam is summed up in
this verse.
That the message of Islam is spread and
it is given to people.
So that they attain the success of the
hereafter.
Now I'll just finish off with a hadith
which you might have heard me mentioning many
times before.
And this hadith actually, the Prophet ﷺ, he
mentioned this at the time of Hajjatul Wada'
towards the end of his life.
He said that I wish to meet my
brothers.
I wish that I could meet my brothers.
So the Sahaba said, Ya Rasool Allah, Are
we not your brothers, O Prophet of Allah?
The Prophet ﷺ said, No.
You are my companions.
My brothers are the ones who have not
yet come.
So he's referring to us.
He's referring to me and you.
All the sisters upstairs.
He wanted to meet us.
He wanted to talk to us.
He wanted to see us.
He wished that he could have met us.
Do we have the same level of interest
and zeal to meet the beloved Prophet ﷺ?
Do we want to meet him?
Do we love him so much?
So the Sahaba said, Ya Rasool Allah, You've
never met all these people that are going
to come.
How are you going to recognize them on
the Day of Judgment?
So the Prophet gave a beautiful example.
He said that a person who has many
dark horses, one of those horses has white
markings on its face and its legs.
Can the master of those horses recognize this
particular horse from the other horses?
So the Sahaba said, Of course, Ya Rasool
Allah.
Of course he can recognize that particular horse.
So the Prophet ﷺ said that on the
Day of Judgment, my ummah will come and
their forearms and their faces and their feet
will be shining because of the effects of
wudu that they used to do in this
world.
So just think how misfortunate is that person
who deprives himself from the Prophet ﷺ recognizing
him by not praying, by not making wudu.
How misfortunate is that person?
The only way of recognition is the fact
that you're making wudu and you're praying the
Salat.
If you're not doing it, the Prophet ﷺ
is not going to recognize you.
And how fortunate is the person who is
praying and he is observing the farayat, he
is observing the Salat, he's making the wudu
properly as it should be done, making means
for himself to be recognized by the Prophet
ﷺ.
I'm going to just finish off inshaAllah by
just making a quick du'a.
May Allah ﷻ bless us with the ziyarah
of the Prophet ﷺ and bless us with
the drinking from the fountain of Kothar directly
from the hands of the Prophet ﷺ.
This is another thing that this Ummah is
going to have on the Day of Judgment
that we're going to be lining up and
drinking directly from the hands of the Prophet
ﷺ from this special fountain, Al-Kothar.
It's said that on that very hot day
when the sun is going to be above
our heads, when we drink from that fountain,
we will never become thirsty after that ever
again.
So this is something that we need to
strive for, something we need to yearn for,
something we need to work for.
And it's not something that is as the
hadith of the Prophet ﷺ said, The merchandise
of Allah ﷻ is not cheap, it's expensive,
it's precious.
What is the merchandise that Allah ﷻ wants
to trade with us?
It is Jannah.
Allah ﷻ wants to give it to us
but it's not cheap.
It comes at a price.
And that price is that we sacrifice ourselves
for Allah ﷻ who loves us very much
and we love the Prophet ﷺ by observing
his sunnah and adopting his sunnah in our
lives.
That is our sign of love for the
Prophet ﷺ.
I pray that Allah ﷻ gives me and
everyone the tawfiq to understand and practice what
has been said and heard.
Just a quick reminder before Sheikh Mamdouh takes
over.
Tomorrow we're going to have Fajr prayer.
Sheikh Mamdouh is going to lead and we're
going to make Unut Nazila, particularly for the
people of Syria tomorrow.
We know that they are going through so
much trouble right now and we are going
to pray for them.
Sheikh Mamdouh is going to lead the prayer
and following that we're going to have the
community breakfast.
Please do try to participate.