Fearing Allah - Khutbah by Nouman Ali Khan

Fearing Allah

Khutbah by Nouman Ali Khan

Opening and Introduction

As-salamu alaykum wa rahmatullahi wa barakatuhu.

"But as for he who feared the position of his Lord and prevented the soul from [unlawful] inclination, Then indeed, Paradise will be [his] refuge."

O Allah, admit us into Jannah.

I want to talk about the fear of Allah Azza wa Jal in this 30 minute or less session that we have together, but before I do, I want to share with you some obstacles that you and I face in dealing with the subject in a healthy way.

Different Categories of Muslims in Our Community

First and foremost, there are different kinds of people in the audience and obviously within the Muslim community also. There are people at different levels in their relationship with Allah. There are youth that are maybe here at this conference, my guess is most of them aren't here that aren't even remotely religiously affiliated.

That, you know, as they were coming up, even if they were coming up in a Muslim household, the religion wasn't emphasized that much and they don't see the need, not even for the Jumu'ah prayer, even on the Fridays that they're off of school. They don't see the need to go. And their parents, as these kids are becoming teenagers and growing a little older, they're starting to feel the need to bring religion into the lives of these children because they realize the impact it's having on their character now than they ever did before.

So it's a state of emergency in certain families. That's one kind of person. But another kind of our category of Muslims, especially younger Muslims, are Muslims that had some sort of an awakening and you started turning towards the religion and one of the things that brought you here to this conference is perhaps maybe a lot of you even came without your family.

You came on your own. You came with a bunch of friends because you wanted to feel connected to a larger Muslim community. You wanted to be part of or meet with scholars and speakers and feel rejuvenated.

The Purpose of Islamic Conferences

It's a way of refreshing your iman and I really appreciate that about conferences. I've been coming to conferences since I can remember, my entire adult life. And people complain sometimes, well, you know in conferences you only get a 20-minute speech or a 30-minute speech and there's too many programs going on.

You don't even learn anything because the topics are all over the place. And I've always believed that's not the point. It's the halal party of the year.

That is what a conference is. So if you're coming here with friends and you attend, okay, you heard a little bit of good advice. You didn't come here to learn.

Please don't be offended. Other people, shuyukh, have a lot of great wisdom and knowledge to offer. But really guys, you're sitting here half the time you're on your phone.

So you're not here to learn. Let's be honest with ourselves. We're here to get a little bit of good advice, insha'Allah ta'ala.

Get a good vibe and feel good about being Muslims that have come together for something good. And insha'Allah ta'ala leave with a positive spirit to do something more with our lives after we leave. And that in and of itself is a worthy goal.

The Shift from Self-Focus to Other-Focus

It's a worthy goal. I don't think that the only goal for Muslims is to learn. I don't think that.

I do think coming together and feeling inspired. I bring my kids every year. Because I want them to see all kinds of weird Muslims walking around.

And they say, that one is Muslim too. And I say, yep, that one too. I want them to feel that.

But as we grow in our religion, one of the things that starts happening is we start talking about the problem of the Muslims. The problem of the masjid. The problem of the world.

The problem of politics. The problem of da'wa in America. The problem of some brothers and sisters on my college campus.

Who don't do this and don't do that. And brother, I was talking to this one Muslim who doesn't pray. How do I convince him, etc, etc.

Problems, problems, problems. And they're usually somebody else's problems. And you're trying to figure out the solution to everybody else's problems.

In other words, the more religiously awakened you get, after a while, your concerns shift from predominantly being concerns about yourself to concerns about others. You just worry about others. As though you have already been resolved.

That territory has already been conquered. Now it's time to move on and help somebody else. May Allah help those Muslims, brother.

Those guys from the Pakistan Student Association. Why aren't they in the MSA? The ones that are already one foot into Jannah. You know.

Why aren't they there? Why aren't they at the neighbor net? Why aren't they at this program or that? Or why aren't they showing at the conferences? What can we do for them? Well, first and foremost, we have to do something for us. And that's what this conversation of fear is about. I'm trying to address all of these different kinds of audiences.

The Problem of Losing Ourselves in Activism

And there are even more categories. But let me tell you something. The more you are out there in activism and doing things, there's a very natural tendency to forget about yourself.

You start getting concerned with the organization that you're serving, with the program that you're putting together, with, you know, whatever activity. And you start losing yourself in the process. At the same time, there's another problem.

And this problem is across humanity and Muslims are no exception. You know, there's a certain perception you have of me. Whatever that's based on.

But it's not the same perception that my wife or my children have of me. Or what my parents have of me. It's not the same perception.

They know a side of me you will never know. And I know a side of you that's just partial. We meet each other in public.

We say salams to one another. Even if we speak to each other for a little bit. I don't really know you and you don't really know me.

The Danger of Presenting a False Image

But you know what happens? When we present ourselves in public and we're out there all the time meeting with people, interacting with society, and we're not by ourselves much. You know what happens?

We forget that there is such a thing as also talking to yourself.

There is such a thing as being reconnected with yourself.

You know. We represent a certain version of ourselves to the outside world. There's a certain kind of language you're not gonna use at an interview.

There's gonna be a certain kind of tone you're gonna take when you're talking to your employer, or the imam of the masjid, or when you have a question with a scholar or something. There's gonna be a side of you that you're gonna present. And when you're among your friends, or you're at home by yourself, or you're among people that just completely know you, there's a different side of you that comes out.

There's a different side of you. But you know what happens for some people? They put that face out for so long, they even forget who they really are. You become so used to presenting this version of yourself to the outside world, you don't even know what it means to look in the mirror anymore.

You see someone who's not really there. We're not able to be honest with ourselves. I mean really, how many of us have done the actual exercise of... I know it sounds a little psychotic, but it's healthy.

The Need for Self-Reflection and Honest Assessment

I actually happen to think it's therapeutic to talk to yourself, and to be able to say to yourself, here are my shortcomings. Here is what is wrong with me. I tend to have an anger problem.

I rush into things. I start things and I don't finish them. I don't give enough attention to one thing.

I'm involved in too many things. I have short attention span. I am rude because when somebody is talking to me, I just start talking to somebody else.

Or I can't seem to put my phone down. Or I have this addiction online that I can't get rid of. Or I have these friends, when they do the wrong thing, I don't say anything.

I become a coward, I don't say anything. I don't even give them sincere advice. Or I have these late night hangouts and I keep missing Fajr.

When is the last time we actually sat down and said, here is what I would like to change about my life. We're so worried about the world's problems, like we don't have any. And when you forget that you don't have problems, then the only fears you have is for others.

You no longer have fears for yourself. What is the surprise then? Then when the dua is being made, when the Quran is being recited, you and I are having a hard time finding a tear to come out of the eye.

Because the genuine fear is no longer there.

The Balance Between Hope and Fear

That thought is not running, recurring in our minds. Hope is very powerful, but fear balances it. They have to go hand in hand.

You can't have one or the other. And so this last session, I want to try to balance the equation. It's not a counter to hope.

It's the balancing of that conversation. And it's a necessary part of that conversation. Our religion is not fire and brimstone, though it mentions fire and brimstone.

And it does that in a very balanced way. The other problem we suffer, before we can have a healthy conversation about fear. The additional problem we suffer.

One is we just keep presenting this, you know, artificial version of ourselves, thanks. The other problem is overstimulation.

The Problem of Spiritual Overstimulation

You know, so many of you are addicted to movies, and on top of that, horror movies.

And people, you know, they celebrate things that we're supposed to be afraid of. You know, just this morning, when we got to the hotel, I was going to put some PBS on for my kids, because they like watching some of the shows. And I was going to put like a cartoon on.

And you know how in the hotel TVs, they have the movie trailers? So they had, what is it? Hellraiser or something? Hell something? Hellrider? I can't tell. Ghost Rider. Dude's face is on fire.

He's riding a motorbike. And he's supposed to be a character that you love. Like, this guy is awesome.

His face is on fire. You know? It's... Hell is a joke. Your face on fire is entertainment? Do you understand how deluded that is? And by the way, I can think of outside a two-year-old.

My two-year-old just saw a glance of that and he got scared. But nobody else got scared. Which is disturbing.

It's disturbing that nobody else got scared because now these unusual weird things have become normal for us. Stuff blowing up. People on fire.

You guys are playing video games where the headshot is the best shot to take. You know? I got like five headshots in a row, bro. Slow motion.

Play that in slow motion. Oh, snap! That's good. You know, should I turn the blood off or on? No, turn it on, bro.

Turn it on. Turn the blood on. You know? You're not disturbed by that.

And then some of you are addicted to these like really disturbing, gory horror flicks. And the more bloody and, you know, disgusting they are, the more you wanna watch them. And on top of that, you're a vegetarian.

These words aren't powerful enough? You know. These same words if they fell upon a mountain:

The first reaction for the mountain - And a mountain is just solid rock. It's just rock.

And yet that rock experiences internal change because of the word of Allah. And then it can't handle it, مُتَصَدِّعًا How much harder than that rock does a heart have to be that it hears the word of Allah and nothing happens? How much harder? That Allah has to complain in the Qur'an, what is going on? How come these words aren't having their impact? Don't worry about it guys, I have like 8 minutes left, I'll take less than that. Okay.

Taqwa: Protection Through Fear

Now I wanna talk to you about just a couple more fears. Two very common words that are associated with fear that actually they're related to each other. One of them, even though it doesn't technically mean fear, is taqwa.

And I think all of you know the term taqwa, right? You've heard it before? And a lot of times in the Qur'an when taqwa is translated, it's translated as fear. But just from a linguistic point of view, taqwa essentially is a fear or actions taken out of fear, precaution, protecting yourself. It comes from wiqaya which literally means protection.

So when you lock the house as you leave, that's taqwa. If you're going on a road trip and you left a couple of lights on on purpose and you set the alarm or you told the neighbor or you left the keys with a friend or whatever, all of that's taqwa. In other words, you took proper precaution to not get yourself into trouble.

Taqwa is before the fact. Taqwa is before the fact. In other words, you don't want to get yourself into trouble.

You don't want to get a ticket so you slow down before the red light comes. That's taqwa. In other words, it's a genuinely healthy logical attitude for someone who knows there's trouble out there.

That's what Allah Azza wa Jal wants from us. Just become awake, aware, conscious people. Be aware of your environment.

Know that this thing is going to land you into trouble. I remind you something about taqwa that I want to share with you. Allah Azza wa Jal did not tell us or tell Adam Alayhis Salaam don't eat from the tree.

Don't eat from the tree. He didn't say that.

Don't go near the tree.

Now, the next part of the ayah is فَتَكُونَا مِنَ الظَّالِمِينَ - don't go near the tree. You'll become from the wrongdoers.

But there's a step in between. Don't go near the tree. If you do go near the tree, as a result, you'll get tempted by the fruit.

Then you will eat the fruit. And then eventually you'll be counted among the wrongdoers. There's a whole process.

But as far as Allah is concerned and His knowledge of human nature is concerned because He knows what He created. He says, once you're within the gravitational force, you get close enough, you will get sucked in. So if Adam alayhis salam was told that, you, my brother, cannot say, No, I can handle myself.

I got this. It's not haram, is it? It's just like almost haram. You can't do that.

Because now you're within the gravitational field. You have to be afraid of the fences and even beyond. You have to stay out of the neighborhood.

You got to stay away. You can't even go near it. This is a very powerful thing Allah taught us.

Not just to fear Him, but to fear the things that lead us to sin. To be afraid of the things that lead you to sin. You're heading in the wrong direction.

You're not doing anything wrong yet. But I can see where this is leading. So stop.

A Practical Example of Taqwa

Let me give you guys a little bit of an example just so this is not entirely theoretical. So, sister comes up to me and says, or the brother comes up to me and says, this Christian girl in college is asking questions about Islam and she's asking about God. Or Muslim girl comes up to me and says, you know, this guy in my college class, he's asking a lot about God and he has these questions.

Could you help me answer them? Because he keeps arguing with me. Lady, sister, he's not arguing with you because he has a theological concern. Because those questions have well been answered online and there's plenty of resources on that available.

He just wants to spend some more time with you. And maybe deep down inside you already know that. But you come and you say, no, no, no, I'm trying to give him da'wah to Islam.

And you say, I'm gonna help this sister out. She's a sister, inshallah, you know. I wanna help her out and we're just gonna meet at Starbucks and discuss tawhid.

That's what we're gonna do. I mean, this is da'wah to Islam. And then maybe one day, you know, it's not Ramadan yet.

So yeah, inshallah ta'ala, right between Maghrib and Isha, I'm gonna take her to this restaurant. It's a halal restaurant. We're gonna do our totally halal da'wah.

And somebody says, brother, what are you doing? I was like, eating food at a restaurant, bro. Is that haram? You know, he's talking about Allahharam. No, but I can see where this is going.

And then four months later, bro, there's a sister, she's ready to convert. And I wanna marry her. Is she really ready to convert? No, but I think she might.

How do I convince my parents? Yeah. And this is the halal version of what you tell the imam. What happened in between, we all know.

We're not dumb. Okay, I was in college too once. I know how this stuff goes.

And when you question the guy, you question the girl, you say, what are you talking about? Astaghfirullah, I would never. Really, you would never? You get sucked in, you don't even realize it. One thing leads to another.

One thing leads to another. You have to be afraid of these things. And this will never happen.

I'm going back to the beginning of my conversation. You will not be afraid of these problems if you don't really know who you are. If you're delusional about yourself.

If you think that everybody else has a problem, you're here to save the world. You're here to give them Islam. If that's what your mentality has become, then you will never think that you have a nafs problem too.

You have shahawat also. You have the waswasa of shaitan too. You won't even be worried about that.

Wajal: Fear After the Fact

And by the way, I'll end with this. This last two kinds of fear. As I said, taqwa is before the fact. You take precautions ahead of time. And then after that, there's wajal. الوجل Wajal is after the fact.

You're afraid of what you've done. You're afraid of what you... You've done something wrong and you're super scared, man, I'm gonna get caught. I don't know what's gonna happen.

I just... I did this, bro. I don't know, I gotta talk to this imam. I gotta send him a brother.

I've done this really terrible thing. What should I do? I'm really scared. I can't tell you how many of those emails I have to delete.

Don't send me those emails. Talk to a counselor. Talk to a counselor.

Ask me Arabic questions, okay? But this is... wajal is after the fact. So Allah says:

When Allah is mentioned, when Allah is remembered, their hearts start trembling out of fear over what they have already done. In other words, standing in salat, reciting Quran, khushu' and wajal.

Wajal meaning your heart starts getting overwhelmed. Man, Allah azza wa jalla says, just said:

They stay away from useless conversation. I just finished one.

Oh.

They're constantly trying to cleanse themselves. I just finished watching some filth.

Oh, strike two. I'm afraid of what just happened. You're supposed to get afraid.

You're supposed to be a muhasabah of yourself. This is wajal. But the last kind of fear.

Ar-Rahab: The Most Intense Fear

Last kind of fear. I find this fascinating. Of the many kinds of fear, I just want to talk to you about this one.

This is called ar-rahab الرّهَب Ra, ha, and ba.

From it we get the word, rahbaniyah. Rahban, rahbaniyah. Rahbaniyah in Arabic means basically like a monk lifestyle.

Where you have: لَا تُرِيدُ لَذَّاتِ الدُّنْيَا . You don't want any pleasures of the world. You want nothing to do with them.

You know how these monks, they dress in uncomfortable clothes. And they sleep on like the floor. And they don't eat fruit because it might taste good or something.

You know. They don't want anything to do with worldly pleasure. They want to deny them all of that.

But from that derivation, you get one of the words for fear. And that word for fear particularly is used for the Israelites. In one case for example.

(Quran 2:40)

Be afraid only and only of me. Rahab is used. The question arises why? Some of our ulama commented on the word rahab here.

They said the problem of Bani Israel began with self-righteousness. They were self-righteous. They assumed they got it all figured out.

Everybody else has the problem. As a result of their self-righteousness, they stopped fearing Allah. And when they stopped fearing Allah, even their motivation for Jannah was gone.

When the fear of hell goes, next thing to go is what? Motivation for Jannah. One motivation dies, the other motivation dies. And if there's no longer a fear of fire, and there's no longer a motivation for paradise, then the only motives you have left are here.

Now listen to this. Listen to this catch. I told you rahbaniya, other worldliness.

Yeah, other worldliness. Rahab is a kind of fear that makes you lose the pleasures of this world. When you have that fear, you forget all the pleasures of this world.

They were so immersed in worldly pleasure, and they were so engrossed in it, the kind of fear Allah wants from them is the one that negates their addictions. The one that removes them. So He says:

(Quran 2:40)

This is the state you've reached.

It's one of the most terrifying states of fear in the Arabic language. You're so afraid that nothing good comes in your head. You're completely overwhelmed in your fear.

Allah used that word specifically for a people that were so deeply engrossed in this world. Because their motivations for the akhirah were gone. Their motivations were gone.

Fear as a Starting Point in the Journey to Allah

My final comment, I know it's a lot of time. My final comment about this issue, one of the ways to reconcile hope and fear, you know, is in the life of a Muslim, maybe your first entrance into Islam was something that scared you. Maybe it was a fear.

For me personally, it was. One of the things that brought me back to the deen was fear. It really was.