3 Types of Modesty

The Heart of a Believer's Journey

Ustadh AbdelRahman Murphy | Miftaah Circle

Opening

"[In the name of Allah, all praise is due to Allah, and blessings and peace be upon the Messenger of Allah, and upon his family and companions, all of them.]"

Ibrahim's Journey: From Rejection to Reward

One of the most amazing things about the passage that Shaykh Hassan recited and the reflection that Shaykh Abdullah gave was that Ibrahim (عليه السلام) in his constant plea to his father he kept using the same phrase over and over again and if you look in the books of tafsir when you look at this ayah these ayahs from Surah Maryam you see that he's asking his father and he's desperately pleading to him please, please (يَا أَبَتِ، يَا أَبَتِ) and at the end of it as Shaykh Abdullah mentioned the pleas did not work Allah did not will or decree that his father would turn to him based on even his kindness and normally when we do good things and the goal that we had in mind was not achieved so you do something good and the goal that you had in mind was not achieved you feel like what's the point like why even bother and then you say next time I'm not gonna try so hard you know I tried really nicely, I was very kind, I was patient and then it didn't work so next time I'm just gonna, who cares I'm just gonna do whatever makes my nafs happy, pleases me and then khalas, that's it but Allah subhanahu wa ta'ala in the Qur'an He says that He never wastes anybody's good deeds any good deed you do is never wasted and so now fast forward many, many, many years and you have another conversation between another father and another son and who is the father this time the father is actually Prophet Ibrahim himself and who is the son the son is his beloved son Ismail:

"Oh my son, I have seen in my dream that I have to slaughter you"

- commanded because it's wahi for the prophets in their dreams - what? that I have to slaughter you (فَانظُرْ مَاذَا تَرَى) tell me what you think and what does his son respond to him what words does his son choose to respond to his father in that moment everyone knows:

"He said, O my father, do as you are commanded. You will find me, if Allah wills, of the steadfast."

Later after he was rejected despite the kindness of the words that he used Allah delivered to him a gift in what? in a beloved patient obedient son Ibrahim your good deeds do not go to waste Allah will always make sure whether it's in this life or the next and subhanallah he says it comes in both this life and the next that Allah will always give you back the good that you did it may not be in that moment Ibrahim did not win that conversation with his father but when it came time for him as a father to have another tough conversation the first one was tough and the second one was tough when he told his son that I have to slaughter you it's a tough conversation his son says back to him what? Oh my dear father can you imagine subhanallah the sweetness in the heart of Sayyidina Ibrahim when he heard those words the

The Gradual Process of Faith Building

Subhanallah I have another topic that kind of shares a similar theme tonight and this is a very very critical topic in regards to not only the community but also within oneself there is an interesting narration from the Prophet Muhammad (صلى الله عليه وسلم) narrated by his wife Ummul Mumineen Aisha radiallahu anha Ummul Mumineen Aisha she says that the Prophet (صلى الله عليه وسلم) he said that or she she describes sorry she describes that that the first thing that Allah subhanahu wa ta'ala had revealed were the shorter chapters so basically from Surah Hujurat which is chapter 49 to the end of the Qur'an the shorter chapters the passages that were shorter and they had a specific theme I don't know if you guys are aware but in the time of Mecca versus the time of Medina there were different themes covered in the Qur'an what are some of the themes of Mecca? what do you guys think? let's make this interactive a little bit so far I haven't heard any noise from southern Florida tawheed, aqeedah that aqeedah came that that phrase came later but yeah iman belief in Allah they wanted they you know Allah subhanahu wa ta'ala sent down the passages that would inspire people to reflect about iman belief in Allah belief in the angels the books the day of judgment that this book is coming through a prophet that there is a messenger in front of you and so she says that she continues and she says what?

In these chapters in these passages there would be reminders to the people about the existence of Jannah and also the existence of the hellfire (حَتَّى إِذَا تَابَ النَّاسُ) until people developed a foundation a strong base in their iman (إلى الإسلام) and then after that (نَزَلَ الْحَلَالُ وَالْحَرَامٌ) so the first thing that Allah ta'ala sent with the prophet was not do this and don't do this the first thing that Allah subhanahu wa ta'ala sent and again we don't believe that Allah ta'ala did this accidentally right is the Quran strategic? yes or no is every letter perfect? yes or no this is part of our belief Allah did not send certain parts haphazardly or accidentally no every single thing strategically was sent by Allah subhanahu wa ta'ala there are scholars that have spent their focus in tafsir was on what? (أَسْبَابُ النُّزُولِ) where when did this come? at what point did this arrive? where what period in the seerah did this chapter this passage come down? because this is so critical to us understanding the development of iman in the heart of a Muslim and so she says when she's describing that Allah spent the initial phase of the revelation was to build the faith of people no halal and haram.

A Father's Journey to Islam

You know Sheikh Abdullah he gave he asked how many converts do we have here? and I don't want to shock everybody because I know that I am a white dude but I'm not a convert my father has the honor of being a convert he's the one who accepted Islam James Murphy accepted Islam in Cairo Egypt why? he accepted Islam subhanallah because he heard the adhan and when he heard the adhan he thought it was a fire alarm and in a way it kind of is isn't it right? subhanallah so he said it was a fire so he comes

downstairs from the hotel he's staying at and he's running for the exit you know as he's leaving his hotel room he sees people taking the elevator he's like these people don't know anything about fires man you gotta take the stairs so he runs down the stairs right he's wearing like nothing like imagine like whatever an American guy from Springfield Illinois be wearing his pajamas right I don't want to describe too much so he's running and he's leaving for the front door and he sees everyone heading to the musalla of the hotel and he looks and he says where are these people going? is there like a fire shelter? and he goes and there's a young Somali boy who works at the cafe and he says where's everyone going? he goes they're going to pray and he said that noise you're hearing is not a fire alarm it's the call for prayer and that young Somali boy was the one who first introduced my father to Islam and my father at that point said if people can get out of bed to worship God it must be the right religion so you know needless to say there's been a lot of pressure on me to pray Fajr in my life all right because that's the origin story but I want you to understand that this point is a very important point now what's interesting is that when my father who had this very inspirational story and it wasn't scripted it wasn't like you know the Somali boy was not plotting and planning oh yeah if that white dude comes down here Jim Murphy checked into this room if he comes down I'm gonna tell him about Islam no it just happened this guy comes up what's going on? he goes they're gonna go pray we pray five times a day this is the first prayer of the day and then my dad learns more he ends up accepting Islam in Cairo Egypt and then meets my mother and that's where they get married but subhanallah when my father came back to America right well we're from Chicagoland when he came back to America and he told people people found out that he was a new Muslim and he had been Muslim for a few years the first thing they told him was you can't eat McDonald's anymore and we laugh because otherwise we would cry could you imagine a person has just come to understand that they were created for a purpose they've just come to agree to this point and they want to find out what can I do to come closer to my purpose my maqsad the reason why I exist and the first thing you say is drop the Big Mac and then the next thing they say to him is what? change your name which in Sharia is not wajib unless his name is like you don't have to change your name if it doesn't have a bad meaning but these people were dead set and may Allah reward them for their himmah but a misguided himmah can be more destructive than silence like if you have a desire to do good but you're not educated you don't have ilm you don't have training tarbiyah, ta'alib you don't have that it's better actually to remain quiet and so my father as a result of like the bombardment of Sharia like really quickly over the top over the top he developed a very interesting skepticism not from Islam no, alhamdulillah my father is still Muslim alhamdulillah he's alive today he practices he's beautiful loves Islam but he understood that I can't I can't trust everybody and look at how Allah subhanahu wa ta'ala perfectly lays out the message for people and Aisha she describes it and she says something so incredible she says if the first verse of Quran were to be do not fornicate don't commit adultery if that was the first thing that Allah sent down and we all agree that that is one of the rules of Islam she said the people hearing it would have said I will never stop committing adultery so in Islam we believe in something called what (تدرج) we believe that there is a gradual process for everybody by the way this includes you too when a person wants to get closer to Allah it is a very sneaky but common trick of Shaytan that he tries to get you to take on the most important to you at the moment the more important most sophisticated most complex most difficult things instead of just building your base and your foundation and establishing

what your relationship with Allah is and so this hadith of Aisha is very astounding it's very helpful for us it's one of those hadith in which we learn the strategy and the proper method and procedure.

The Proper Introduction to Allah

Now Imam Al-Ghazali in one of his books that he wrote it was actually a set of letters he gives some advice to one of his students about how to establish this closeness to Allah using this same methodology right because a lot of us have been unfortunately we've lived the story of Jim Murphy where it's no Big Macs and change your name right and by the way I'm not an advocate of the Big Mac okay I don't believe that we should all go out to McDonald's after this what I do believe is that Islam is so beautifully built upon a strong foundation that we are doing a disservice to people when we don't introduce them to Islam the way that Allah introduced them to Islam think of Surah Al-Fatiha think of the opener of the Quran the Prophet (صلى الله عليه وسلم) said:

(Sahih al-Bukhari)

"There's no prayer except that you have to read the Fatiha in it everything else is your choice why? have you guys ever thought about that? why is it that Surah Al-Fatiha is the requirement for the prayer? why not any other Surah? are there other ayat other Surah that are very... yeah of course and then think about how Allah introduces Himself Allah (جل جلاله) He begins with the Basmala:

"The theme of the first verses of Surah Al-Fatiha is nothing but the mercy of Allah all Allah discusses in the opener if I were like a random person I just took the Mus'haf and I opened it the first thing I would see is (بِسْمِ اللَّهِ الرَّحْمَٰنِ الرَّحِيمِ) in the name of God who is God? the most merciful and the overwhelmingly compassionate now when you introduce yourself to somebody don't you choose the things about yourself that you want them to remember I just flew down here on an airplane I know Mufti Kamali came alhamdulillah we're on the same flight and one of the things that people do on airplanes I don't know why there's like a there's like ijazah for this but people as soon as you sit down next to them they feel like your best friends that's not a very Muslim thing to say I should probably work on that but you know sometimes when you talk and teach for a living and you have two young kids six and four downtime is good time so anyways you sit on the airplane and the people you know you got your headphones in and people lean over and they want to like get your attention and you have to do a very important trick are you guys ready for this? I'm going to teach you something you're going to thank me later never remove the earphone more than one inch from your ear because by keeping it close there is a very clear ishara I am not interested no I'm joking right you have to keep it close if you pull that earphone this far out you're done the whole conversation now tell me about your mom tell me about your grandma so people ask you where are you going? is this home? right I'm like okay FBI agent where are you headed? how many kids you got? they go through the list and subhanallah whenever anyone talks to you and they ask you to introduce yourself what do you tell them? first you say your name and then they say tell me about yourself and you know what you do everyone here answers that question differently because you only answer by the things that you want them to remember so as a father I usually start with what? I'm

married and I have two kids I love them very dearly if someone's really proud of their job let's say somebody just got a new job and they sit on the plane someone says tell me about yourself well I just started a new role at Google this week things are going well you talk about what's exciting if you just bought a house you're like well we're about to close on a new house my family and I were moving Allah in his conversation with the reader of the Quran what does he want us to remember? all of the names all the attributes he could have said I'm the strongest I'm the most decisive I am the one who punishes I'm the all wise I'm the all knowledgeable instead he said what? ar-Rahman ar-Rahim now think about your own educational experience in life with Islam how many of us were introduced to Allah the way he wanted us to be introduced to him? how many of us were introduced in a different way?

Teaching Children About Allah

My four-year-old daughter came home from Islamic school and I love Islamic school well I have a complicated relationship with Islamic school I went to one I got expelled from one I taught at the same one that expelled me I swore I would never send my kids there I sent my kids there and my wife is the vice principal of that school so I have a very complicated relationship with Islamic school but alhamdulillah when your kids come home and they say:

You say take all my money take all my money right but my daughter came home and we're doing bedtime and bedtime for kids is like therapy it's where you turn off the lights we do some quran we do some dhikr du'as and then it's sleep time and they try to prolong that process so they just start free associating baba why do round pizzas come in square boxes? oh that's a really good question but my daughter she's four and she said baba who's going to hell? and I said I said Nooni Iman is her name Nooni where did you learn this? said oh sister so-and-so told us that allah made heaven and hell and you know and she focused a lot on hell and I said as a four-year-old why are you being introduced to the afterlife in a way that allah did not introduce us to the afterlife before he said (مَالِكِ يَوْمِ الدّين) he said (الرَّحْمنِ الرَّحِيمِ) and that's important if you don't believe that's important you don't understand quran so what Aisha radiallahu anha is telling us here is that allah has a system and if we abandon that system and then we complain that we're not getting results why are the youth not coming? why are this this this? why is my son not listening? you have to look at this hadith did you focus on al-halal wal-haram before you focused on sabat al-iman because if that's the case then we should not be surprised that the result is less than what we wanted.

Imam Al-Ghazali's Three-Step Program

So imam al-ghazali he has a really good game plan he says there are three things that everybody needs to adopt in order to follow this and think about their iman first before they before they go all in on the the legal the the legality like the legal system.

First: Focus on Your Soul

He says number one you have to be ultimately build the most concern that you have around your soul