Your Security Belongs to God

Your Security Belongs to Allah

Opening Praise and Testimony

Alhamdulillah, we praise Him, we ask for His help and we ask for His forgiveness. And we seek refuge in Allah from the evil of our souls and the evil of our deeds. Whomsoever Allah guides, none can misguide him, and whosoever He allows to go astray, none can guide him.

And His prayer and peace be upon the best of Allah's creation, upon our Master and Beloved Messenger, and upon his family and his companions, and upon him and his progeny. As for the rest, O servants of Allah, I advise you and I advise myself to fear Allah in secrecy and in public. Verily, fear Allah, the Exalted, the Most High.

Taqwa is the head of all that is good. And Allah, the Exalted, has commanded His servants to fear Him. And Allah, the Exalted, has made Taqwa the key to Paradise.

The Houses of Allah and Those Who Inhabit Them

Alhamdulillah. Allah, the Exalted, says in the Quran:

"In houses that Allah has permitted to be raised and wherein His name is mentioned. He is exalted therein in the mornings and the evenings, by men whom neither commerce nor sale distracts from the remembrance of Allah and performance of prayer and giving of zakah. They fear a Day in which the hearts and eyes will [fearfully] turn about." (Quran 24:36-37)

Allah, the Exalted, says that there are houses that He has permitted to be established, wherein His Name is mentioned, and He is praised and glorified in it in the early part of the day and in the latter part of the day.

And then it says, by men who are not diverted by either commerce or trading, buying or selling from the remembrance of Allah, the Exalted, from establishing the prayer, from paying the zakah. And Allah, the Exalted, says that He did this, in order for Him to requite them, to give them recompense for more than what they did, and to increase them from His bounty.

Allah Provides Without Reckoning

And then He says, subhanahu wa ta'ala that:

"And Allah provides for whom He wills without account." (Quran 24:38)

Allah provides whomever He pleases without any reckoning. Like merchants in this world, they reckon what something costs, the added value, transportation. They look at all those, they examine all of these things, and then they look at what their reasonable profit is, and then they sell it for that. And the person buying it also

thinks about it, he might go and look at other places, because he reckons. People in this world, they reckon. And why? Why do they do that? Because they're limited.

Their supplies are limited. Their capital is limited. The person purchasing knows that he has a limited budget. If you go buy a house, the first thing the real estate agent says to you is, what price range are you looking for? Because they don't want you to waste their time. Because they know you're limited. But they don't know how much that limit is. Is it 2 million, 5 million, 10 million? There's houses in the Bay Area, 15, 20 million dollars. There's people who can afford those. So, everybody has limitations on their bounty, on their wealth.

But Allah, subhanahu wa ta'ala, has no limitations. So, He has permitted houses to be set up, where He can be glorified in those houses by night and by day. And He does it and tells us that the people that are going to occupy those houses, are people that aren't diverted by their tijara and their bay'ah, by the worldly concerns of this life, engagement in activities.

The Minority in the Masajid

Now, this group in here or wherever we are in the Bay Area, there's a number of masajid in the Bay Area. This is a limited number. But if you look at the actual people that are in the masajid and how much they represent, first of all, of the overall community, it's a minute amount of people. Most people right now are working.

They're waiting till 5 o'clock. Thank God it's Friday or 4 o'clock, so they can leave their offices and go and do what they do on the weekend to return on Monday.

What is their primary activity? Their primary activity is the acquisition of wealth. That's the primary activity of what people are doing out there. And humans have to do that because we've created very complicated societies where we need exchange of goods. Nobody can do everything. We're not hunter-gatherers anymore. We have situations where we go and we work and we do these things and we help each other.

So, you need a pair of shoes, but you don't have to go out, hunt the animal, kill it, skin the leather, then tan the leather, and then sew the leather together and make your shoes. When I was in West Africa, it's very easy to make a pair of shoes. It's not hard. They won't be nice Prada shoes or some kind of Italian shoe, but it's not hard to do. You can even... There are homeless people that have cardboard that they just tie onto their feet. Humans can do a lot of things. But we've created complicated societies where we like to dress a certain way, we like to be fashionable, whatever.

The Complexity of Modern Life and Interdependence

So, all of those things create complication. The more complex a society becomes, the more difficult it becomes for any one person to become independent. No, they're completely dependent on others for groceries, all these things. We don't farm. We don't do this. This is the ta'awun of human nature.

But, the majority of people become so obsessed with the acquisition of wealth that they forget the primary purpose of life. Not only do they become so obsessed with the acquisition of wealth, but their obsession wears

them out. And because they get worn out, they need recreation.

So, the weekend in our culture becomes two days, or two and a half days, of just trying to restore some of their vital energy in order to go back into the fray of the work week. And then at the end of the day, they're so exhausted every night that they literally go home and completely just drop dead. Literally. They wind down, as they say. Wind down. Because they're all wound up, getting tighter and tighter. So, they wind down. Wind down usually with things like wine in this culture. That's how they wind down, with wine.

The True Purpose of Life

But, Allah subhanahu wa ta'ala tells us in the Quran that the primary purpose of life is not your commercial activities. The primary purpose of life is not the acquisition of wealth. In fact, we're warned about that in the Quran, in many verses.

There's people who say:

"I have destroyed vast wealth." (Quran 90:6) The person that does it, he's not self-reflective. And he says, I have consumed vast amounts of wealth. He's boasting. I've consumed vast amounts of wealth.

There's people who, in the Quran, Allah subhanahu wa ta'ala says:

"Competition in [worldly] increase diverts you, until you visit the graveyards." (Quran 102:1-2) The vying with one another in the acquisition of goods has you so preoccupied. It has you entertained.

The Meaning of Entertainment and Lahw

In fact, the word لهو, really the root of it is entertain. Entertainment is when you are diverted in something that is not primary. That's entertainment. In Arabic, لهو is to be concerned with something that is not primary to your concern to the detriment of what is primary to your concern.

Now, the Prophet permitted لهو in homeopathic doses. He permitted لهو during weddings, Eid festivities, things like that. Occasionally, لهو is important. Recreation. One of the things, one of the Sahaba said, sometimes I use باطل things that are meaningless things, in order to استجمع in order to recreate for حق. In order to recreate, in other words, to restore my energy for حق.

So, you can exhaust yourself in حق and باطل But, in our society, most people have become so preoccupied with the acquisition of wealth, and then, with trying to sustain the energy necessary for that complete preoccupation.

The Vicious Cycle of Work and Play

Allah جل جلاله says, both of those things are in reality waste of time, if those are your central activities, if that's why you're doing them. If you're doing the work in order to sustain your باطل, or if you're doing your باطل in order to sustain your work. So, people in our culture are trapped in a vicious cycle. In a vicious cycle. They work to play, and then they play in order to go back to work. So, it's really like the rat spinning, and that's why,

what do they call it? The rat race. Because rats race on those little spinning things, and they're not going anywhere, but they think they're going somewhere.

Now, if people stop and reflect on this, they have anxiety attacks. So, they go to the psychiatrist, and he gives them things like anxiolytic drugs. That's why there's a massive industry in our culture for people taking drugs to calm them down from their anxiety. So, there's all these people out there that are on these drugs. They're driving around. You go to the grocery store, and they're smiling, and you don't realize that that smile is the result of a drug. I'm not making this up. You just read the numbers in the drug industry.

Everybody's got economic downturn, except the people selling anxiolytic drugs. They don't have economic downturns. In fact, they go up when things go down, because people get more anxiety. They're worried about losing their job.

The Muslim Response to Anxiety

Muslims, if they understand their religion, don't have those same types of anxieties. Why? Because Allah says that man is created in anxiety, a state of hala, halu'a. Right?

"Indeed, mankind was created anxious: When evil touches him, impatient, and when good touches him, withholding [of it]." (Quran 70:19-21)

When good comes to him, he starts withholding it. Why does he withhold it? Because of the hala, because of the anxiety. If I don't hold on to this, I'm going to lose it. If I lose it, I won't have any money. If I don't have any money, I won't be able to buy food. If I won't buy food, I'm going to starve to death. If I starve to death, I'm going to die. If I die, I don't exist anymore. That's the way people think in states of anxiety.

But Allah says:

"Except the observers of prayer." (Quran 70:22) Why? Because

"Men whom neither commerce nor sale distracts from the remembrance of Allah." (Quran 24:37) They're not entertained in their acquisition of wealth from remembering the real reason that they're here which is to remember Allah subhanahu wa ta'ala.

The Muslim World and Remembrance of Allah

There was a time in the Muslim world when you couldn't go into the souk without having the majority of people either with a subha or reading Quran while they were waiting for customers to come in. That was the Muslim world. The Muslim world was filled with people that actually knew that the primary purpose of their existence was to know their Lord.

"And I did not create the jinn and mankind except to worship Me. I do not want from them any provision, nor do I want them to feed Me." (Quran 51:56-57)

I only created jinn and humans, the spirits and the humans, I only created them to know me, to worship me. I don't want provision. I'm providing for them. I don't need their provision.

The Modern Feudal System

They don't need like you see in feudal culture in pre-modern world and still in corporate feudal culture because it's a type of feudalism. People just think they're free now as opposed to the old days they knew they were a slave. But now people think they're free but they're still trapped in feudal systems.

In the feudal system the corporation is like the slave master. The people that come into the corporation are like the slaves. Now you have to take care of the slaves to a certain degree because you want them to work more.

You can go to seminars here that teach you how to make your employees more happy because happier employees have higher productivity. There's things you can do.

So they're not being nice to you because they're nice people necessarily. They'll fire you if they think they can make more money by firing you. But they're nice to you because they know one, there's gonna be less chance of suits against them in a litigious society where people sue very easily. But the main reason why people had servants and slaves and these things is to increase their wealth, to do things for them.

The Search for Security

The main reason they want increase of wealth: freedom from anxiety and a sense of security. They want a sense of security and they want to be free from anxiety. That's what everybody wants. As Ibn Hazm said, the foundation of human existence is (طرد الهم - Tard al-Hamm) - it's just trying to get rid of anxiety. That's what everybody's really looking for is how do we get rid of anxiety.

So what they do, these people out here, is they create systems to free them from these anxieties. They still have anxiety because there's no freedom from anxiety by conditions that are anxiety-creating conditions in the first place. As long as you're in the world you're in a state of anxiety because the world is uncertainty.

You have economic upturns, downturns, you have bubbles, the bubbles burst, people lose jobs. There's nothing. There's no security. When was there security? There's no security right now in this room. I'm being honest, do you feel secure that Allah can't shake the earth from under you? We're in California. It's one of the biggest fault lines in the world. They've been predicting that this state's gonna fall into the ocean. We could have a major tsunami. It's not impossible what happened in Indonesia. There's no security.

True Security is Only With Allah

The only security is with Allah subhanahu wa ta'ala. And the only way you secure yourself with Allah is Iman.

That is why Iman and security are related. Aman is from Iman. (آمنت بالله - Amantu billah) can literally mean in Arabic if you take the literal meaning of the word: I made myself secure with God. That can be the meaning - آمنت بالله I made myself secure with God.

That is what masajid are about. It's about being in a state of security and preparation for the great day of anxiety.

The day of real anxiety where there's no anxiolytic drugs. Nobody gets anxiolytic drugs on the yawm al qiyamah. People are going to be shaking, sweating, they'll be up to their head in sweat from their anxiety. Allah subhanahu wa ta'ala says in the Quran about that.

The Meaning of Masjid

Now what is the name of these buyut? It's masjid. Masjid in Arabic - (إِنَّمَا يَعْمُرُ مَسَاجِدَ اللَّهِ مَنْ آمَنَ بِاللَّهِ وَالْيَوْمِ الْآخِرِ - innamā yaʿmuru masājida-llāhi man ʾāmana bi-llāhi wa-l-yawmi-l-ʾākhir)

"The mosques of Allah are only to be maintained by those who believe in Allah and the Last Day."

Allah subhanahu wa ta'ala says that those who do imarat al-ard, those who do imarat al-masajid, that fill the masajid up are people that believe in Allah and the last day. They have a sense of understanding of who they belong to and where they're going.

Who do we belong to? Not the corporation. Not your employer. That's why if somebody says I can't go to Jummah. Why? Because I'll lose my job. That's where they've set their priorities. They put their priority with their job. That's where their priority is. And that's fine. You made a choice.

The Choice Between Jummah and Work

You made a choice to come to Jummah today. Other people made a choice to stay behind their computer terminal and be working. And they're Muslims. And they say oh I'm worried. It's a difficult situation. The employment, the job. I can't.

Those people I guarantee you that were going to Jummah and now they're not going to Jummah. Because they don't want to put themselves in a situation where maybe their employer will think about firing them before they fire other people. Anxiety about provision. Even though provision is guaranteed from the cradle to the grave. Everything that was written for you you will get. Nothing is going to miss you.

The Prophet ﷺ said (لَنْ يَمُوتَ ابْنُ آدَمَ حَتَّى يَسْتَوْفِيَ رِزْقَهُ فَأَجْمِلُوا فِي الطَّلَبِ - lan yamūtu ibnu ʾādama ḥattā yastawfī rizqahu faʾajmilū fī-ṭ-ṭalab) - "The son of Adam will not die until he completes all of his provision. So seek in the beautiful way for your provision." None of you will die until you completely finish all of your provision. So seek in the beautiful way for your provision.

Don't steal, don't cheat. Don't lose your religion based on dunya.

The Biggest Losers

Imam Malik was asked, Who are the biggest losers? And he said, Those who lose the next world in pursuit of this world. He said, Are there bigger losers than those people? He said, Yes. Those who lose the next world because of the material goods of others in this world. So in other words, they're just watching people and wishing they had what they had. They're not even getting what other people have. They're just watching them. Lifestyles of the rich and famous.

So Allah subhanahu wa ta'ala says that those who establish and occupy the houses of God are people who believe in Allah and the last day and establish the prayer and pay the zakat and don't fear anyone but God. They only fear God. They don't fear losing their job. They don't fear this, that or the other. They don't fear Tom or Dick or Harry. They only fear Allah. Those are the people that establish the houses of Allah subhanahu wa ta'ala.

Building Your House in Paradise

So the house, Allah has called us to a house in this world in order to prepare for a house in the next world. You build your house - (مَنْ بَنَى اللَّهُ بَيْتًا فِي الدُّنْيَا بَنَى اللَّهُ لَهُ بَيْتًا فِي الْجَنَّةِ - man banā-llāhu baytan fī-d-dunyā banā-llāhu lahu baytan fī-l-jannah) - "Whoever builds a house for Allah in this world, Allah will build for him a house in Paradise." If you build a house for God in this world, Allah subhanahu wa ta'ala will build for you a house in the next world. This is a hadith of the Prophet ﷺ.

What is the masjid? The masjid is the place of sujood. What is sujood? It's a state of abject humility before Allah subhanahu wa ta'ala or before a creature. That's why people used to do sujood. In the old days when they went into the king, they would go into prostration. There's people that still prostrate to people. Wallahi. And they can do it in other ways than just the physical prostration. Right?

The Story of Iblis and the Refusal to Prostrate

So Allah subhanahu wa ta'ala says when He told the angels to prostrate to Adam (فَسَجَدُوا إِلَّا إِبْلِيسَ لَمْ يَكُن مِّنَ السَّاجِدِينَ - fasajadū ʾillā ʾiblīsa lam yakun mina-s-sājidīn) - "So they prostrated, except for Iblis. He was not of those who prostrated." (Quran 7:11) Why?

"What prevented you from prostrating when I commanded you?"

"He said, 'I am better than him. You created me from fire and created him from clay.'"

He's using logic. You created me from fire and air and you created him from mud and water. I'm better than him. Why should I do sujood to him? So what stopped him from doing sujood? Arrogance. تكبر. Allah said in fact get out because there's no room for kibr in my presence.

Draw Near Through Sajdah

What does Allah subhanahu wa ta'ala say? (وَاسْجُدْ وَاقْتَرِبْ - wā-sjud wa-qtarib) - "Prostrate and draw near [to Allah]." (Quran 96:19)

Make sajdah and draw near to God. You come into the presence of God in sajdah because it's total humility before Allah subhanahu wa ta'ala.

What is humility in English? تواضع in Arabic In English it comes from a Latin word Humus. Humus is earth. Humility is knowing that you are from dust. Humility is knowing your origin.

The Day When All Will Be Called to Prostrate

So Allah called people to sujood in this world. Now in the yawm al qiyamah, Allah subhanahu wa ta'ala says يَوْمَ The Day" - (يُكْشَفُ عَن سَاقٍ وَيُدْعَوْنَ إِلَى السُّجُودِ فَلَا يَسْتَطِيعُونَ * خَاشِعَةً أَبْصَارُهُمْ تَرْهَقُهُمْ ذِلَّةٌ وَقَدْ كَانُوا يُدْعَوْنَ إِلَى السُّجُودِ وَهُمْ سَالِمُونَ - yukshafu ʿan sāqin wa-yudʿawna ʾila-s-sujūdi fa-lā yastaṭīʿūna * khāshiʿatan ʾabṣāruhum tarhaquhum ḏillatun wa-qad kānū yudʿawna ʾila-s-sujūdi wa-hum sālimūn) the shin will be uncovered and they are invited to prostration but they will not be able, their eyes humbled, humiliation will cover them. And they used to be invited to prostration while they were sound." (Quran 68:42-43)

When this momentous affair, when all of humanity is brought before Allah subhanahu wa ta'ala وَيُدْعَوْنَ إِلَى السُّجُودِ - and they're called to make sajdah فَلَا يَسْتَطِيعُونَ - but they will not be able to make sajdah.

خَاشِعَةً أَبْصَارُهُمْ - Their eyes are completely in a state of downcast and utter terror. تَرْهَقُهُمْ ذِلَّةٌ - Humiliation will cover them. They're in a total state of humiliation. Not humility. Humiliation.

Humility Versus Humiliation

Because there's a difference between humility and humiliation. If you do not humble yourself before Allah subhanahu wa ta'ala, Allah will humiliate you before his creation. And they're related. Humility even in English they're related. Humility and humiliation ذليل in Arabic means humiliated. But it also means tractable. Like a camel that's ذليل is one that's easy to ride. That's why humiliated people are people that you can just do whatever you want with them. Because they have no dignity. They've lost their dignity.

On يوم القيامة that's what happens to the arrogant people here. They lose their dignity. What happens to the people of humility here? They're elevated. And they're given عزة and dignity before Allah subhanahu wa ta'ala. That's the difference. So you choose what you're going to do here, you choose. You decide who you want to be with.

But Allah subhanahu wa ta'ala says وَقَدْ كَانُوا يُدْعَوْنَ إِلَى السُّجُودِ وَهُمْ سَالِمُونَ - "And they used to be invited to prostration while they were sound." (Quran 68:43) They were called to sujood when they were well. When they could. When they were سالمون They had everything they needed. And Allah said اسجدوا - Make sajdah before me 5 times a day, 34 times if you just do the fardh.

You're going to go into a state of sajdah before Allah subhanahu wa ta'ala and draw near to Allah subhanahu wa ta'ala. But if you ignore that command of coming to the masajid, the place of sujood. That's masjid. It's اسم المكان in Arabic. It's the place that you do something. It is the place that you make sujood, the place of... The masajid are places of humility before Allah subhanahu wa ta'ala.

Leaving Worldly Status at the Door

It's forgetting about your position in dunya. You might be a big engineer. They might call you chief. They might call you high names. Wherever you are. They might say yes sir, no sir. You could be out there. There's people in here that are in those positions. You're the big doctor, (باشا دکتور - basha doctor). What do you think we should do doctor? The nurse says. You're making the decisions. But when you enter that door, you're nothing.

You stand next to the street sweeper. You stand next to the homeless. You stand next to the most poor people in the community. That's the masjid. It's a place where nobody knows who's chief and who's not. Because this is the place where Allah knows what's in the hearts. Allah knows what's in your heart. I don't know what's in your heart. I don't know who's arrogant here. I don't know who's filled with their nafs and their ego. I don't know that. Only Allah knows.

That's what this place is about. It's about humility. And that's why when you enter that door, you enter with humility. If you think you can come in here and become arrogant, wallahi Allah will humiliate you. This is the place of humility. This is the place to learn humility. This is the place to cultivate humility in your heart so that you can go out in the world in a state of humility. That's what these places are about.

A Wake-Up Call for Muslims

Now I'm just going to end on saying one thing. The Muslims in this country are asleep. It's a deep sleep. We can almost say it's a state of coma. Because the thing about coma, I used to work in a critical care unit and I had comatose patients. The way we used to test them is put needles in them and you poke them and you see if you get some kind of reaction. Because if somebody's in a deep coma, there's no reaction. Alright. You check their pupils. Pupil dilation. These things.

When you're in a deep sleep, Allah subhanahu wa ta'ala throws things into your life to wake you up. If you don't respond to those, they just get worse. They get worse and worse. The best thing that can happen to Muslims is tribulation. Really. Muslims after 9-11, they're suddenly organizing, thinking about where they're going, what they should be doing. And then now things are, oh Obama's in, everything's better, no more orange suits, they're going to shut down Guantanamo. Muslims go back to sleep. See.

But there's a benefit in tribulation. But I'll tell you, this is a tribulation. If you don't think this is a tribulation, you don't understand what's going on in this country.

The Growing Muslim Community and Our Responsibility

We have Muslims all over this country. They're increasing exponentially. We have large families, 3 to 7 children. Muslims aren't like people now that have one child maybe, or no children. They still have 3 to 7 children. I have 5 children. That's happening all over this country.

We're not thinking about where we're going institutionally. You can build masjids. You can rent places to pray. But think about this phenomenon because this is being replicated all over this country. And if we don't seriously start thinking as a community about where we're going, about what we're really supposed to be doing here.

Is this really about just getting the American dream? Having your home? Getting your Lexus? Driving to your work everyday? Going home? And then maybe Fajr and Isha if you're a devout pious person? That's all it is?

The Test of Faith

People think they can say I believe and they're not going to be tested. Because if you think that's what this is about, you're in the wrong religion. And you're on the wrong planet.

"Do the people think that they will be left to say, 'We believe' and they will not be tried? But We have certainly tried those before them, and Allah will surely make evident those who are truthful, and He will surely make evident the liars." (Quran 29:2-3)