Seeking Contentment - A Reflection on Surah Al-Hadeed Ayah 20

picking out which clothes you're gonna wear, and you don't let your mother buy your clothes anymore, and you wanna get those shoes and no other shoes.

"I have to get those shoes. This is the only way to get into Jannah is these shoes. I cannot - how do you expect me to worship Allah without these sneakers?"

So physical appearance becomes important. You see young girls that are walking to the masjid for Jummah, and even the teenage boys - it's very entertaining to watch - they stop by every car. And why do they stop at a car? Because there's almost a mirror in everyone's shoes. Why are they doing this? They're walking. Girls that just first learned to wear hijab and it's just not coming out even - one side is sticking up higher than the other, they're beating it down. Every mirror they get.

This is actually beauty - obsessed with your own beauty. But not just your own beauty.

True story: Our dad used to drop us off at high school, my sister and I. He used to drop us off at high school and we had a very old car. We had a 1978 Cutlass Sierra. This thing looked like serial killers drive it. It was really bad, and it had been in a few accidents, and my dad bought it for $300. Okay, so it was really not a nice car.

So my sister would say four blocks before the school, she'd say, "You can drop us off here. We can walk from here." Because you don't want to be seen around things that are not associated with beauty. You want your home to be beautiful, you want your clothes to be beautiful, you want your appearance to be beautiful, you want your car to be beautiful. Everything around you should be surrounded with beauty, and people should - the last thing you want to be perceived as is ugly. So people spend a lot of time at a certain age and then onwards just working on appearances, just looking beautiful, feeling beautiful. That becomes a problem - (زينة).

And then another age hits. You go to university, and sometimes I've seen some students that are some of the smartest students I've ever met in university. They're doing their Bachelor's in two years instead of four, or they're expediting their way through their Master's, or they're fast-tracking to their PhD. But they're wearing a smelly t-shirt and their hair is all over the place. They look kind of nutty, but you know what? They're extremely competitive. They're extremely competitive.

A time comes in your life where even beauty is not as important - accomplishment becomes more important. You have to prove yourself. So as soon as you graduate and you get your degree and you get your degree from a certain university, nobody cares except you. But when you meet someone: "As- salamu alaykum." "Wa alaykum as-salam." "I graduated." Nobody asked you. "Yeah, medical school." "Alhamdulillah." "Okay, can you pass the rice?" I didn't ask for your degree, but you feel the need to show people that you've done something. You feel that need.

You have people - back in the United States masajid, a lot of masajid, the people that donate a lot to masajid are doctors. Alhamdulillah, they can make more wealth and they give more, and they end up - for some, not because of their donations, of course - but they end up becoming presidents of masajid. Right? So when you go to the masjid, first thing you see: "My name is Dr. [Name]. Alhamdulillah, I'm the president of this masjid, a humble servant." You feel the need.

You get your first - some people work, you get a new job. When you get a new job, some jobs they give you ID badges, right? And now you're accidentally wearing your ID badge to the masjid. "Oh, you got a job." And it's the other way so you can't - people can't tell, so you flip it over like, "Yeah, you know."

This need to show to others - this is why people frame their certificates and their diplomas on the wall, right? Or if they meet somebody famous, they put that so people can see it, or they can post it online: "Hey, you know what, I took a picture with [someone]." The show-off to you - who did you take a picture with? This idea can become an obsession for people to show off.

And by the way, this is not just a young people's problem. There are people that in very old age, all they do is compare themselves to others: "Oh, their kids did this. Our kids didn't do this. Oh, their son got married in that hall. Our son will get married in a bigger hall. This (تَفَاخر) becomes a problem.

And then the next problem after that is (تَكَاثُرُ فِي الْأَمْوَالِ وَالْأَوْلَادِ). You reach a certain age - you're not even competing anymore. The only thing running in your mind is the bills, the bills, the bills. "How am I going to pay the electricity? How are we going to pay for the house? How are we going to get the car? Oh my God, the college tuition is starting for my daughter. Oh my God, the wedding is coming up."

This is happening and you're constantly thinking: "Where are we going to get the money from? Where are we going to get the money from?" You're sleeping thinking about money, you're praying thinking about money, you're making wudu thinking about money, you're waking up thinking about - just constantly you're thinking about (تَكَاثُرٌ فِي الْأَمْوَالِ)

Or once you become parents, either you're constantly worried about finances or you're worried about the children. You're worried about the kids constantly. It's either one of those things are eating away at you, destroying you.

And your kids tell you, "When I'm old like you, I'm not going to be like you." Ha ha ha ha ha. And you're like, "I said exactly that. We will see." And then you get to that age and you're doing exactly the same thing because humanity has been doing that since the beginning, and Allah knows these are a few things that preoccupy us.

The Cumulative Nature of Life's Preoccupations

What has Allah listed here? Allah hasn't listed everything that happens in your life. Allah has listed the things that preoccupy you and me. And by the way, it's not like - let's start over. The first thing was

playing games, then it was entertainment and distraction, then it was beauty, wasn't it? And then after that, it was showing off to each other, and then it was collecting more in terms of money and securing in terms of children - (تَكَاثُرُ فِي الْأَمْوَالِ).

But those things - what they are, they're preoccupations. And it's not like one of them comes, that the age of play is there, but now when the age of entertainment comes, play has disappeared. No, play has not disappeared. Now you've got two problems instead of one. And by the time beauty comes around, you have three problems instead of two. You understand? It's not like the previous stuff goes away; it still stays there. Maybe some of it takes a back seat, but you keep piling on more and more and more things in your mind to think about.

Now this is a picture of what you and I go through in life. And by the way, if some of you, for example, say, "No, I don't think about these things. I just think about how much my mother hates me," or "I just think about - I just want to get married, I just want to do this" - you have these other thoughts in your mind. By the way, all of them go back to this too.

If you're thinking about, for example, "I just want to marry," you're thinking about beautifying your life, aren't you? That's what you're really thinking about. Or you're thinking about, for example, "If I just had that house, we'd be so happy." Some people don't even say it; they just think it as they're driving by this nice house. They're like, "One day, because when I have that, I won't have any more problems. When I have that, everything's gonna be good." That's (تَكَاثُرْ فِي الْأَمْوَالِ). That's (تَكَاثُرُ فِي الْأَمْوَالِ)

And some people in their head - some people, unfortunately, in many Muslim countries and cultures, fathers think of their daughters as a burden. So as soon as "I can marry her off, I can breathe again." And you're like, "Once I get rid of this," (تَكَاثُر) "once I get rid of this أولاد I'll be fine."

And in some other cultures, sons are considered your retirement plan. So when they make enough money, then I'm good. "I don't have to work anymore. They're gonna take care of me now." And these thoughts in our head: somehow when we have this, we're gonna be okay.

The Divine Analogy: Perfect Rain and Its Cycle

Now what does Allah - this is half the ayah, by the way. What I shared with you thus far is half the ayah. Then what Allah does is He says He wants us to think about this phenomenon in life, these distractions and these preoccupations. He wants us to compare them to this analogy that Allah is going to give.

كَمَثَلِ - He's going to give us an example. And so Allah's way of teaching things is by way of example. One of the most common ways Allah teaches us is by giving us really thought-provoking examples. And this is one of the most beautiful, profound, thought-provoking examples in the Quran.

So I'll share that with you briefly. He says:

"Like the example of a rain"

The example of everything that's been shared before, it's like perfect rain. Perfect rain - now there's not enough rain, not enough rain, it didn't produce crop, or too much rain that caused a flood. So there could be too much or not enough. But when rain is just right, the soil was able to absorb it perfectly. It didn't create puddles; it was just what the earth needed to produce vegetation. That's called غَيْتُ

Allah says the example I'm giving you is the example of perfect rain:

"Its vegetation pleases the tillers"

When the farmer - and by the way, there are lots of words in Arabic for farmers, but کَافِر which you might think "كَافِرٍ أَسْتَغْفِرُ اللهَ!" No كَافِرِ actually means - is one of the words for farmer in Arabic. And it's used for when the farmer puts the seed in the ground. Now that's important.

فلاح by the way - another word for farmer - is when he pulls the crop out of the ground, harvest. The harvester is called a فلاح. But the planter is called a کَافِر. The disbeliever, by the way, is called a کَافِر because he buries the seed of truth in his heart. That's why he's called a کَافِر because he's burying something inside. You understand?

So now Allah is describing not the farmer, but he's describing one job of the farmer. What job? When he puts the seed in the ground.

Now, many of you are university students, which means you maybe don't have a job yet. Good for you. Your parents are exhausting their sweat, blood, and tears. But let me tell you something: most people when they have a job, they get paid once a week, maybe once in two weeks, maybe once in a month. Yeah? You have a weekly salary or a bi-weekly salary or a monthly salary.

But a farmer gets one paycheck per year. A farmer doesn't get a weekly salary. A farmer doesn't get a monthly salary. A farmer gets salary one season. He has to farm, and he has to hope that there's rain, and he has to hope that all of those seeds that he planted are good seeds, they're gonna come out, and they're gonna come out the right way. And he's hoping the bugs don't come and destroy it, or it doesn't get infected, or it doesn't go bad. And he's hoping that that - and that entire process may take an entire season, maybe take a whole year. And so he's gonna get paid how much? Once in a year.

And the hardest part of his job is when he's putting the seed in the ground, and he has no idea whether it's gonna be a paid year or not. He has no idea if he's gonna get paid this year or not. Maybe there's a drought and all of this work is gone. Maybe there's a flood and all of this work is gone. Maybe there's an

infestation of insects and all of this work is gone. You understand? So it's a very nerve-wracking thing for a farmer to put the seed in the ground.

And all of that seed that he bought, he paid so much money to get that seed. So much work to get that seed. And now he's put it in the ground, and all of his work has gone into it, and he doesn't know what's gonna happen.

And finally he sees - all of a sudden one day he wakes up and it's perfect rain. He looks out his window and he sees perfect rain. And Allah says:

Those farmers that had planted the seed, they look at the little blades of green starting to pop out of the ground as a result of the perfect rain. So now the farmer is very optimistic: "This looks like it's gonna work. It's gonna be a good year." It hasn't grown in its entirety yet. You understand? It's just little tiny نبات. It's just starting to show signs of growth, and yet the farmer is mesmerized: "This is gonna be awesome." He's optimistic now.

But is that the end of it? Is he getting paid yet, by the way? No. He's gotta wait until it what? It matures.

So now listen to this. Allah says:

"Then it dries"

Then that little blade that came out of the ground matures. So you know, in some parts of the United States, when I travel and go on road trips, you'll see crop - like in Ohio, you see crop that grows taller than you, right? It's harvest season. And so when it matures and it grows, that's the time where you're supposed - and it's fully green and it's fully matured - that's when you're supposed to what? You're supposed to cut it. You're supposed to harvest it.

Allah says:

"Then it dries and you see it turned yellow"

It matures. Listen to this carefully: Then it matures, and you will watch it turn yellow.

This is really strange thing to say. He says it matures and you will watch it turn yellow. Now the thing is, yellow is an expression for it's gone bad. The leaf is green. When does it go bad? It turns what? It turns yellow.

The farmer has to be crazy that he put all this work in, and the thing matured, and when time came to cut it, he's just sitting there looking at it until it what? It turns yellow. Like why didn't you cut it? This was the time for you to enjoy. This was the time for you to get paid. This is what you were working for. And the ironic language is: you're just gonna watch it turn yellow - (فَتَرَاهُ مُصْفَرًّا - fatarahu musfarran)

And if that wasn't enough:

"Then it becomes debris"

Then it will start drying up as plants do, and it starts getting crumbled, and it falls to the ground, and it becomes حُطَام.

حُطَام in Arabic - you know, like:

"And what can make you know what is the Crusher? It is the fire of Allah, [eternally] fueled"

You heard that before. حُطّام in Arabic is when you are walking, maybe remains of a leaf or remains of dried up grass, and they came under your feet, but you didn't even hear it. You know, you at least hear a crunchy sound. You hear nothing because the breaking pieces of it are so fine and so meaningless that you can walk all over it and not even feel a thing. That's حُطَام.

Some of you that clean up your kitchen yourselves - students don't, so I'm talking to the rest of you - if you're cleaning your kitchen, when you're sweeping the floor of the kitchen, those little tiny things on the ground that somehow show up and become a mountain on the side, that's حُطَام

He says that entire crop turns into worthless crumbled crust on the ground that you walk over and never even think twice. Completely valueless. Completely valueless.

The Meaning of the Analogy

Now what in the world does this analogy mean, and what does it have to do with playing and entertaining ourselves and beauty? Remember those things in the beginning? It actually has to do with all of them.

Allah is teaching us that you human beings - and myself included - we will run after playing. "How about just get me that one game, that one video game? If I have that game (لَأَكُونَنَّ مِنَ الصَّالِحِينَ - la akūnanna minaṣ-ṣāliḥīn) 'I will surely be among the righteous' (Quran 7:143) - I'll become good. Just for Eid, I'll fast this entire month. Just this one video game."

Your kids will want you to buy them this game or this gaming system, or this device. And when you get it for them, their eyes have rolled open as if the gates of Jannah have opened. And then they play that game, and they play - they be (قيام اللَّيْلِ - qiyām al-layl) with that game. They stay on it day and night. The sun rises and falls, and they're with complete khushur. They are in focus earning the good deeds that are medals and whatever, scoring high.

And then when they beat that game and that game is finished, and it was a CD that they bought, where do you find that CD? One day you're having breakfast and you feel something under your feet. "Was that the game I bought you?" "Yeah, I beat it. That was okay."

The Pattern of Temporary Satisfaction

Some new movie is coming out. People line up outside theaters. People line up. I remember - I'm old - I remember when like a new version of Star Wars first came out. This was like 1998. Now I know - now you know how prehistoric I am.

So you know what happened in New York City when the second rendition of Star Wars came out? There were people dressed like Jedis, like proper ihram, standing outside the night before in line to get into the movie theater. People holding tube lights like lightsabers and ready to - because for them, this is it. This is the most amazing thing.

But once they get it, once they watch it: "The effects were okay. It was alright." Moments before, this was the most valuable thing to you. And moments after, it lost complete value. And some of your friends say, "Hey, you wanna go see it again?" "Nah, I already saw it. Eh. Okay, fine." And you know what happens? It turned yellow.

That same toy - my kids were obsessed, my boys were obsessed with action figures. Some of you are gonna ask me a fatwa about action figures later. I don't care; I'm gonna leave before that happens. So they have Spiderman fighting with Venom, and they're bashing each other's faces in. And later on you find one head is missing, some limb has been amputated, his hand is missing. And these toys were the most valuable to them, but once they had them, they lost their value.

Now there's something else out there that I want. Your kid - I recommend: never take your child to a toy store. Never take your child to a toy store. Because no matter what you buy them, as you leave, watch your child's eyes. Their eyes are on the rest of the 5 million dollars of merchandise still left inside the store, not the bag that they have in their hands. "I will be back for you."

We can't be satisfied. What we have turns yellow very quickly.

Beauty Turns Yellow

Beautification turns yellow very quickly. Some young man wants to marry a woman. She's the most beautiful thing to him he's ever seen in his life. They get married and he's crazy about her: "You're so beautiful. I can't believe you're part of this dunya. I thought this kind of beauty only existed in the akhirah." Even when she sneezes and she doesn't cover her mouth, he's like, "It's okay. It's like rain from Jannah."

But you know what? And they're walking together and she trips a little bit. She just trips. "Are you okay? I never want anything to happen to you."

And then 20 years go by. Guess what happens to that marriage? Let me put it to you this way: it turns yellow.

So you're walking again and she trips and falls, and he says, "Pick yourself up. Can't take you anywhere. God's sake, I'll be in the car. It's not that much blood."

The idea is things turn yellow. When you have your first baby, I see people with their first baby. They're so obsessed with them: "Let me take a picture. Let me snap everything they do." And then that same kid when he's 18, how yellow that turns.

Material Possessions Turn Yellow

So now the idea: every one of those things that we ran after, you just lose interest.

Some of you guys are really into cars. Allah describes - you know, men have this special desire for a beautiful ride. He says in Surah Al-Imran about branded horses, like branded horsepower, right? So you love this car. You really want to get it. You have pictures of it. You have a poster of it in your house. You're looking at it all the time. You go by the dealership and slow down as you walk by it. And you finally get that car, and you're in heaven when you have this car.

But then the next year, a new model came out, and they took the headlights and they turned them this way, just a little bit. And now your car just turned yellow. "What is this? What is this garbage? I should have waited another year." All they did was bend some plastic, and your entire - the value you had for this car has disappeared. Something else came and took its place.

The House Example

What Allah is teaching us is you're spending your life running after something that you think will make you happy if you have it. But the moment you have it, you have it but not happiness. You have it but not contentment. And then something else comes and says, "If you just had that, everything would be okay."

Some people live their life to get a house. They save: "I want to buy a house. I want to buy a house. Because once I have a house" - they see other people with a house, right? People when they buy a new

house, they give you a tour: "This is our bathroom." I know it's a bathroom. "This is our kitchen. We cook here. This is our window." And you're like, "I wish I had a window. I don't have a window. I want to get a window."

And then you tell yourself, "My life will be no good until I own a house too. Why am I living in an apartment? Why am I renting a place? I need to own." And once you own, then the plumbing goes bad, and the mold happens, and the foundation is cracked, and the neighbor is a mess, and then the grass is growing too much, and this wall is having a problem, and the electricity is having a problem. And you're like, "Oh my God, this house is killing me. This house is death."

And everybody else comes and says, "Mashallah, you have such a nice house." And you're like, "Yes." But it turned yellow a long time ago in your head. It's not what it used to be.

A Personal Story: The Mansion

Think about what it is that you're running after. Think about what you're preoccupied with. I can't answer that for you. What is it that you're thinking that once you have it, you'll be content? Once you have it, things will be okay. Once you have it, you'll be happy.

And let me tell you, Allah is telling you and me that all of those things that you think are going to lead to your contentment and your happiness are just an illusion. You're going to watch those things turn yellow before your eyes, before you ever actually get to reap from them. And then it will become worthless nothingness.

I was invited one time - I was teaching a course a long time ago in California, and this family invited me to their home. And they have this - they live in Los Angeles, and this couple of wealthy people, they own a mansion on top of a mountain overlooking the ocean, kind of like you guys have over here in some of the fancier neighborhoods, right?

So it was a beautiful, beautiful home. And I go there and it's like a seven-bedroom massive place. There's an infinity pool, and you just go inside and you're like, "Whoa, this is so beautiful." But the guy is 75 years old. He can't even go up the stairs of his mansion without feeling backache.

And I asked him - and I was like 23 at the time - I asked him, "Tell me, what do you want in life? What's the thing you want the most?" He says, "For my grandkids to visit me."

I said, "What about this house? I mean, this is the kind of house people dream about. You live in like the most - I mean, like dunya doesn't have much more to offer than this, right? You've pretty much got it." Allah says palm trees, gardens, rivers flowing. You've got a water fountain, you've got palm trees, you've got - I mean, you've got a preview of Jannah over here. You're doing pretty good.

He says, "All I want to see is what? My grandkids." Why? Because - and I'm sure they worked hard to get to that house - but once they got there, that wasn't what they wanted. You know what both of them said, the married couple? They said, "We just want to get out of this place. Get something small, closer to our kids, our grandkids, because they never have time to visit us." That's what he says.

Can you imagine? People will live their youth dying, struggling, sacrificing to live in a house like that one. And when they get there, they say, "I just want to get out of this place. I just want to go see my kids."

Allah said what an accurate picture of what it is that human beings run after and tell themselves the false story that if they have this, they'll be okay.

Living for Others' Approval

If people - so many people live their life not for their own happiness, they live their life based on what they think people will say. Meaning you've made other people your god. I'm sorry to say, for some of you, if you analyze that in yourself, other people dictate what should you say, how should you dress, what should you do, where should you go, where should you marry your children off, which neighborhood should you live in. And it has nothing to do with what will make you happy. It has nothing to do with the right decision. It just has to do with what are other people gonna say.

- "How are we gonna tell other people that our daughter got married at a masjid? No, we had to have a catering hall. We had to get this." And people go into loans and go into debt just to keep that going.

The Alternative: Seeking Contentment

And so what Allah does in this remarkable ayah is show us how temporary those things are. But then if those things are temporary and they don't make us happy, then what is going to make us happy?

See, the Quran is remarkable in that it does not talk about what the American dream talks about. The American dream talks about the pursuit of happiness, right? By the way, how long have I been speaking? I speak forever. How long have I been talking? I have five minutes? I can pull this off in five minutes, I think so, inshallah.

Okay, so the American dream talks about what? The pursuit of happiness - life, liberty, and the pursuit of happiness. And let me tell you, that's a delusion. It doesn't take much to be happy. First of all, if you give me my favorite flavor of ice cream, I'll be happy. If some of you have class at seven in the morning and you have to get out of bed at five in the morning, and you get a text message "Class is cancelled," guess what? Guess what? You experience genuine, true happiness, isn't it?

The idea of happiness is not a difficult pursuit. You can do almost nothing and be happy. I've met people that say, "What makes you happy?" And they say, "Doing nothing." So why is that even a pursuit? You can just stay in bed and stay happy, man. It's all good.

You know what Allah is actually talking about in the Quran? Allah actually calls for a different kind of pursuit, and that is the pursuit of contentment. And I titled this talk "Seeking Contentment."

Two Words for Contentment in the Quran

There are two words in the Quran predominantly used for contentment. There's سكينة or any derivative of سكينة like:

"It is He who sent down tranquillity into the hearts of the believers" (Quran 48:4)

In Surah Al-Fath. Or there's طُمَأنينة :

"Unquestionably, by the remembrance of Allah hearts are assured" (Quran 13:28)

Being content.

The word سكينة comes actually from سكين which is the Arabic word for a knife. And they use it because when they slaughter an animal, when they slice its neck, it stops moving. And this is why the word سكين also gives you the word سُكُون which those of you that know a little bit of tajweed or recitation of Quran - سُكُون is a pause. When something stops moving, it is in a state of سُكُون just like the animal that experiences a سكينة, it is in a state of rest.

The idea of سكينة is actually to be in a state where you're not worried about the next thing. You're calm where you are. You're at rest. Things are going bad? You're still calm. Things are great? You're still calm. Your state didn't change. You're chill. You're relaxed. You're not a turbulent person. You don't read one message: "No, no, no!" You're calm. One thing goes bad: "It's okay, it's okay. We missed the flight. It's okay, it's not the end of the world." You're not banging your head into the window or trying to kill the flight attendant or nothing. You're completely okay because you've experienced something called سكينة

And that سكينة is something Allah says He sends it from the skies into the hearts of believers:

"It is He who sent down tranquillity into the hearts of the believers that they would increase in iman along with their [present] iman" (Quran 48:4)

We are incapable of being calm on our own. We can't have it. We can't have it. Only Allah can give it. Only Allah can give it. One of the things we ask - to ask Allah for - is actually سكينة.

Sakinah in Marriage

Interestingly enough, Allah عز وجل mentions that the purpose - one of the purposes of marriage - is:

"That you may find tranquillity in them" (Quran 30:21)

From the same origin, that you can find tranquility and rest even heading towards your spouse. Both husband finds that kind of calm and relaxation in the wife, and the wife finds it in the husband. That's actually supposed to be the purpose of marriage - is to find an element of tranquility that Allah put into the marriage. Allah عز وجل put that.

The idea being everything outside was a storm, and as you even think about your spouse, the storm calms down. And why do I say even think about her? Because the ishara was used in the ayah - إِلَيْهَا not even فِيهَا. لِتَسْكُنُوا إِلَيْهَا - it's a remarkable language, even to give you a visual.

The husband is leaving work and he's driving towards his wife. As he's even heading towards her, his heart is getting more calm. As he's even heading towards her, as she even heads towards the phone to send him a message, her heart is calm.

I know obviously that's not - you're like, "No, that ain't it. It's the opposite. As a matter of fact, the storm is اسكينة." لِتَسْكُنُوا عَنْهَا لا إِلَيْهَا in the house. I go outside to find

That's what marriage is supposed to be - to ask Allah for that to happen in a marriage, to ask Allah for that kind of سكينة

The Second Word: Tuma'neena

The other remarkable word is طمأنينة And طمأنة in Arabic is actually for something that was boiling or rising for it to settle down. Like, you know, temper rising and for it to calm down. Or somebody's back is aching and their back is arching, and their back straightens out. They actually say ظَهْرُهُ اطْمَأَنَّ - that their back straightened out, right? Or if the earth was becoming uneven and you leveled it out, you planed it out, that's actually called اطْمِنْنَانُ الْأَرْضِ. They say the earth was leveled out.

The idea being upset emotions - anger, sadness, frustration, anxiety - when you can calm those down, bring those down, that's actually called طمأنينة

And Allah gave us a secret to طَمأنينة. He said:

"Unquestionably, by the remembrance of Allah hearts are assured" (Quran 13:28)

He said by remembering Allah, hearts become tranquil. They settle down. Anxiety goes away. Stress goes away. Fear goes away. Worry goes away when you remember Allah.

But that doesn't just mean - still feeling anxiety, still pretty angry - "لَا إِلَٰهَ إِلَّا اللَّهُ، لَا إِلَٰهَ إِلَّا اللَّهُ." No, no, no, no, no. Not like that.

The Right Way to Remember Allah

Our relationship with Allah is many things. It's many things. And you have to remember the right part of your relationship with Allah at the right time.

For example, somebody said something to you and it made you very angry. It made you extremely angry. And you're like, you turn to your friend: "Did you hear what they just said?" And your friend's like, "What's the big deal?" "What do you mean what's the big deal? Why aren't you as angry as I am? You heard what they said and you're not upset? This makes me even more upset." You understand that? That happen ever?

When Allah says He's خبير - خبير comes from خِبْرَة. They translate this as "Allah is All-Knowing." خبرة actually means Allah knows all experience. Allah knows exactly what you experienced. And when Allah heard what somebody said to hurt you, Allah knows exactly what they meant, exactly how it hurt you, exactly the pain it caused. He knows. He knows.

And when He knows - when you go to someone who can - you know, human beings, they find calm when they have someone in their life who when they talk to them, they say, "This person understands me. They don't judge me. They just understand me. And I can tell them and they know exactly how I feel." Very fortunate people find that in life and other human beings. But with Allah, you'll always find it. You'll always find it. You'll always find someone who hears you, understands exactly what you feel, knows your pain, knows it, and then will respond to it.

So you'll find even just thinking about Allah - "Allah knows. Allah knows exactly what I feel right now. He ". خبير is

"And Allah is Acquainted with what you do" (Quran 2:234)

"Indeed, Allah is ever Hearing and Seeing" (Quran 4:58)

Allah saw all of this. He heard all of this.

If somebody was engaged in criminal activity and they think they're getting away with it, but you know there's a security camera right there, so you're like, "Go ahead. No, no, please take it," because you know the camera is on and they're just digging their own hole. Now it's no longer a crime against you. They're only hurting who? Themselves.

Just recognizing - remembering that Allah is watching when someone's wronging you - just remembering that becomes a comfort for you.

Even some of those names of Allah that people almost take as scary names of Allah, like عَزِيزٌ ذُو انْتِقَام - "Allah is Mighty, capable of taking revenge." When you hear "taking revenge," you're like, "Allah's gonna take revenge against me?" Like you get like - "Can we just talk about الرَّحْمَنْ or something?" ذُو انْتِقَامِ

But you know, like Ibn Ashur رحمه الله and other scholars mentioned, even those names are comforts. Those names of Allah are comfort. Why? Because Allah has the authority to protect you, and Allah will take your revenge. When he's telling you to be patient, you could have said something back. You could have done something wrong too. You could have responded to one evil with another evil. But you said, "No, Allah can do that for me. I don't have to do it. He has the authority to do it."

So those names don't have to go against you. They can also go in your favor. You understand?

So when he says when you remember Allah the right way, the heart settles down. The heart settles down.

The Example of Musa's Mother

My last thing - just a case study of it. There probably isn't a better example of a turbulent heart, like a heart that's experiencing the most incredible earthquake, than Musa's mother as she's putting this baby in a basket and letting that basket float into a river. I mean, it can't be a more crazy example of someone experiencing turmoil in their heart - a raging heart.

And Allah عز وجل describes her heart. He says:

"And if We had not strengthened her heart" (Quran 28:10)

Had Allah not firmed up her heart. How did Allah firm up her heart? She remembered something about Allah. When Allah says:

"Indeed, We will return him to you" (Quran 28:7)

Allah promised her, "I'm going to give him back to you." And all she had to remember is Allah doesn't break His promise. Allah doesn't break His promise. She's putting her baby in - anybody watching her do

it is saying, "You crazy woman, what are you doing with your child?" And all she has to say to herself is what? Allah doesn't break His promise.

"Indeed, Allah does not fail in His promise" (Quran 3:9)

I'm going to be fine. Allah said إِنَّا رَادُّوهُ إِلَيْكِ - "We will return him back to you." And literally, the royalty handed the baby in her hands. The same royalty that was killing hundreds of thousands of kids is handing her the baby to take care of by Allah's promise, not a few hours later.

It takes a remarkable sense of remembering Allah the right way - not just utterances on our tongue, but really thinking about who Allah is. That's what it takes.

Closing: A Ramadan Series Proposal

Incidentally, as I close, this Ramadan I was really perplexed about what series I should do. Last Ramadan I did a series back in Texas on some of the du'as in the Quran and what they mean for us. But this year I've decided to do something about Allah and something about His messenger.

So one night I'm going to talk about one of Allah's names and how Allah describes that name and what that means to us. Like what does it mean that Allah is All-Knowing? Yeah, He knows everything. But what does that mean to you and me? How does that help you and me? What does it mean that Allah is Wise? How does that benefit you and me? Why? Because when we understand how Allah speaks about Himself, when we get these dimensions of Allah's being for ourselves, then our relationship with Allah starts evolving. It changes. The way we remember Him changes. That's one side of it.

The other side of it that I want to do every other day - so first, third, fifth, seventh day inshallah I'll be talking about Allah. And the middle days, the even days, I'll be talking about Rasulullah صلى الله عليه وسلم. How does Allah talk about Rasulullah? And I think that's important - a study to understand how is the prophet of Allah being talked about in the Quran.

We have praises of our messenger, but I can guarantee you nobody praises our messenger better than Allah does. I can guarantee you that. We honor our messenger; I can guarantee you nobody honors him better than Allah does Himself. We appreciate our messenger; I can guarantee you nobody is going to appreciate him better than Allah.

Just to understand how is it that Allah speaks about this man - it changes our appreciation of him. It changes our reverence for him. And hopefully our relationship with him. Because at the end of the day, at the heart of our faith is our relationship with Allah and our relationship with His messenger.

So that's my hope inshallah. I'm really grateful so many of you came out this evening, and I'm very happy that you came.

Question and Answer Session

So here's what's going to happen. I'm going to sit down. There's supposed to be written questions, and I'll tell you something that I do that I'm going to try, even if it gets me in trouble.

After answering a few of your written questions or trying to answer them, what I'm going to do is I'm just going to sit here and you guys can come up and ask questions if you like, or comments, or you want to throw something at me. That's fine too.

But the idea is a lot of times in large crowds, people may have a question but they're nervous about asking in front of everybody, so it's not easy for them to do. But maybe on a one-on-one setting or a little bit on the side, they maybe have the courage to ask. And so I get a lot more genuine questions from you if it's off the mic than if it's on the mic.

So I'm going to try to spend some time here inshallah answering some of your questions and doing it that way.

I'll tell you one thing: I was in Bahrain, it was a kids' school, it was like 500 boys, 500 girls. And I asked the girls' section, "Does anybody have any questions?" I've never seen girls that quiet. The only thing you have to do for girls to be quiet is "Does anybody have any questions?"

I was like, "Okay, I'm going to take this off and I'm going to walk through the girls' section, and if you have any questions, you can ask me without being on the mic." I was on the girls' section for 3 hours. "I have a question, I have a question, I have a question." "Okay, I have another question." "Okay, only 4 more, I wrote them down."

"Where were you when I said anybody have a question?" "I didn't want to ask in front of everybody else." "Okay, that's understandable."

So I want to respect that. Obviously, I don't know how many of you are here, but one minute for each of you means Ramadan is over, so I can't do that. But I'll do as much as I can.

"May Allah reward you [with] goodness. Peace be upon you, and the mercy of Allah and its blessings."