Light Up Your Heart

Light Up Your Heart - Khutbah by Nouman Ali Khan

Opening Du'a

"O Allah, make us among those who believe and do righteous deeds and advise each other to truth and advise each other to patience. Ameen, O Lord of the worlds."

"O Allah, make us firm upon death with the statement, 'There is no god except Allah.'"

"My Lord, expand for me my breast [with assurance] and ease for me my task and untie the knot from my tongue that they may understand my speech."

Introduction to Surah An-Nur

Surah An-Nur is the 24th Surah of the Qur'an. Many times some of the very difficult lessons and very profound lessons of the Qur'an Allah teaches by way of giving an example. And often times when you just read a translation of that example, it's kind of hard to make sense of what is being said. So what I'd like to do is give you a little bit of background and set the stage to help us better understand these beautiful parables. Not only are they beautiful, I think they're quite scary as well. And this is a place in the Qur'an where actually two things have been contrasted, light and darkness. So I want to talk to you a little bit first about the notion of light in the Qur'an and what Allah refers to as light.

The Concept of Light in Islam

Allah as Light

One of the first things we learn is Allah himself calls himself light:

"Allah is the light of the skies and the earth."

Light as Guidance

Another place you'll find the usage of the term light in the Qur'an is it's actually used as a synonym. As an alternative term for guidance itself. That light and guidance are actually considered the same. Just like somebody's in the darkness is the same as saying somebody's misguided. The opposite is also true, somebody's in the light or somebody has light is actually to say that somebody has guidance.

Light in the Heart

It's also important to note that this light Allah describes exists inside the hearts of people. It's inside the hearts of people. And the analogy of light in the Qur'an is like a house at night time with an indent or a niche inside the wall with a lamp inside it. And that's, you know, in the old days the niche used to look like an arch, right? And it's actually similar to the way that the ribcage is shaped. And the lamp in that example is actually a parallel for the heart itself. And so a lit-up lamp is like a lit-up heart whose glass has to be clean and all of that.

But in any case, just the point I was trying to make first and foremost is that the idea of light in the spiritual sense is something that lives inside our hearts. The reason that analogy is important is because light doesn't stay inside, light goes outside, right? So if somebody, if there's a lamp, its benefit is not only limited to the lamp itself, it illuminates its surroundings, doesn't it? And so if somebody has true guidance inside of their heart and a true iman is inside of their heart, they're not only going to be the ones that benefit, everybody around them is also going to be illuminated as a result.

Light Appreciated in Darkness

And as a matter of fact, light only truly gets appreciated when you're in the dark. In other words, our faith and our iman is only really put to the test and really its benefit comes out when we are surrounded by difficult circumstances. When we're surrounded by misguidance. And often believers feel, you know, if we only lived in better times. If only we lived in the time of the Prophet (صلى الله عليه وسلم). Or, you know, we're living in such dark times, etc.

That notion entirely is silly. All prophets, all prophets were a minority. The believers have always been a minority. And the majority of people around them were in the darkness. And so when you say, I wish I was living in those times, you're not wishing for anything much different. Maybe even wishing for something much tougher, right? So that's the first thing I wanted to get out of the way.

Light on the Day of Judgment

The second thing I want to talk to you guys about when it comes to this idea of light is it's not just something figurative. In other words, obviously if you open up somebody's chest, you're not going to see light inside. But actually a day is coming when you will. On the day of resurrection, Allah actually turns our faith into real actual light.

And we all have to take a walk on judgment day after our judgments are done. We have to take a walk towards our final destinations - either jannah or jahannam. And there are people who had faith with them:

"Their light will proceed before them and on their right."

There are two kinds of light that are going to aid us on that day when there's complete darkness. The light is going to be coming out of our chest and there's another light that's going to be coming out of our right hands. That's what the Qur'an describes on a couple of occasions. That light is supposed to help you navigate through this difficult path so you and I can make it to the gates of jannah. That's the point of it.

Two Types of Light

Now why are there two kinds of light? One of those lights has to do with your sincerity to Allah and the genuineness of your faith. That's inside of your heart. Only you know that and Allah knows that. Nobody else can check it. The other light, as I mentioned, comes from your right hand. And that light is actually a representation of the things you and I did in this life. If you had good deeds to do, if you did good works, then those works are going to get converted into light on that day.

So you've got these couple of torches on Judgment Day that are helping you navigate, that are helping you move forward. And at the end of the day, all of this conversation is - it's only got one purpose. You and I want to stand up on that day and we want to have some light on our hands. We want to be able to access that light so we can make our way to jannah.

Varying Degrees of Light

Our messenger, peace be upon him, would describe that that light on Judgment Day that we're going to be raised with is not all the same for everybody. It's not all the same. There are some people who barely have enough light - they can barely see their feet as they walk. That's how much light they have. There are those who have so much light that they can see from - it's as though you can see from one city to the next one. That's how much light you have. And that depends on the strength and the purity of our faith and the strength of the deeds we left behind, doesn't it? And so, that's the reason the parable of light is important.

This was not the subject of my khutbah. I just wanted to set the stage. Allah wanted us to understand the concept of light and how we have to preserve that light in ourselves and we have to ensure that that investment is maintained and not killed before we make it before Allah on Judgment Day. Right now, you won't notice it, but on that day, everybody's going to be wishing they have it.

Two Parables of Darkness

Now, this parable that I... These two parables that I wanted to share with you, these examples that I wanted to share with you, are actually not about light. They're about darkness. They're at the end, the two tragic cases of people who are not going to have light or who don't take advantage of the light that they have. And so, I'll go through them one by one.

First Parable: The Desert Mirage

Allah describes:

Allah says: As for those who disbelieved - which can also be translated those who buried away, meaning buried their light away. That's one of the other ways you can think of the word kufr. Anyway, those who've denied and have been ungrateful and have buried their light away. What about them?

Well, they are like somebody traveling in the middle of the day in a desert and they see a sarab, which means a mirage. So, a man is thirsty, a woman is thirsty, lost in the desert, and they're trying to find a place to survive. And of course, in the hot sun you start seeing waves where there are no waves. Things get a little watery looking in the distance, and that's a mirage. And because you're dying of thirst, you think that's worth something. And so:

The desperately thirsty one runs towards that water thinking that it's water.

Until the point where he reaches it.

He found nothing there. It was just sand. It was a false image.

And he will only find Allah there. He was looking for water and Allah makes a strange turn in the example. He says, instead of finding water there, he will find his master there. He'll find Allah there and Allah will complete his account there. Allah will give him what he deserves.

Allah is quick in taking the audit. Allah is quick in taking account of all the things you and I did. That's the first example. I haven't explained it yet. I just want you to know what it is first.

Second Parable: The Depths of the Ocean

Now look quickly the second example. Oh, another example. And this is gonna be almost the opposite scene. First time we were in the desert. Now we're gonna be in the ocean. He says:

It's like layers on top of layers on top of layers of darkness out at sea. So we're not talking about the daytime now. We're talking about the night time. In the first example it was clearly daytime because you don't see a mirage at night. You only see it in the day. And now you're out at sea and you're covered in layers of darkness.

And then he says:

Lujji means an ocean that is not merciful. That won't let up. Like the waves are getting violent and you're hoping it was just one bad wave and then things are gonna calm down. But no. The waves keep getting worse and worse and worse until:

A wave overtakes him. A wave is so huge out in the middle of sea that it crushes whatever vessel he's in. Whatever boat or ship that he's in, it's now underwater. And then:

On top of that wave that's already slammed you into the water is another wave throwing you deeper inside. And on top of that there are thunderstorm clouds. In other words, when the clouds are there, that's an indication a storm is coming, right? People that are experienced being out at sea, they can see the clouds and know we gotta get ready. Things are about to get ugly.

So Allah says that the waves are relentless and the storm is not letting up either. And this person, whoever they were, that poor soul is being now drowned into the depths of the sea in the middle of the darkness. And at the end of that parable, what does he say?

You're all the way at the bottom of the sea. You can't even try and get up. You try to get up, another wave comes and slams you down. That's the problem. You could try to swim your way up, but there's another wave on top. And so he says he's so much lost in the dark that when he takes his hand out, it's almost as if he can't even see his own hand.

How can they have any light? Whoever Allah didn't furnish any light, how could they have any light?

Understanding the Two Parables

So these, like I said in the beginning, these examples can be confusing. You might say, what does he mean by all of this? But I first wanted to kind of paint this scene for you. These two parables, these two examples and what they mean in brief translation. Now let's try to dig a little deeper and appreciate what's being said.

Two Types of Blindness

Basically in both of these cases, a person is not seeing what they're supposed to. One person's in the middle of day. It's bright outside. And yet they see things that aren't there. They see a mirage, don't they?

Which is as good as being blind. You might as well be in the dark because it's not there. What you see isn't there.

And in the other case, somebody's in the dark. They're at sea. There's not even moonlight because it's covered by the clouds. There's these waves. You're blind in another way. These are both sides of blindness. But why give two different sides of blindness? Because Allah is describing that on judgment day, people are going to come before him. The unfortunate cases are going to be of two kinds. There are going to be two kinds of unfortunate cases.

The First Type: Delusional Righteousness

So here's where I'd like for you to pay extra attention to understand what is going on in these parables. There are people who assume that they are in light. There are people that are like that person out in the desert surrounded by light. You can't get brighter than the desert in the daytime. You know, so there are people that are in a good environment. They act religiously. They look religious. They talk religious. Their family's religious. Their community's religious. They're involved in the religious sense. They're involved at the masjid. You know, so everything around them - they're not drinking alcohol. They're not in the party scene. They're not at the club. They're not in that scene. They're in a religious setting. They're in a spiritual setting. They're surrounded by light.

And a lot of times we assume that people like that are straight one way ticket to jannah. They're good, they made it. They've got no issues. But unfortunately even when you're surrounded by that much light, you know what happens sometimes? You start becoming delusional.

The Problem of External vs Internal

You start thinking that the appearance of looking religious, the words that you use that make you sound like you're religious, the outside of your being, being committed to the faith - you look like you're pretty enlightened - doesn't actually say anything about what's going on on the inside. They could be two very different realities.

We have unfortunately in the Muslim world - this is something Allah comments exhaustively on in the Quran. I'll just oversimplify it for now. Basically what happens is you have people that look very spiritual, very enlightened, very religious, very committed to the faith on the outside. And they commit to those things that make them look that way. So clothing becomes very important. Appearance becomes very important. Pronouncing certain utterances becomes very important. All the things that other people can perceive become important.

But there's something going on inside of you like greed, like jealousy, like pride, like anger, like hatred. You can't see somebody else succeed, it bothers you. You don't feel even a little bit of sympathy when you're being ruthless to children in the family. You don't consider the people whose rights you're taking

away because it's all personal, nobody's gonna find out. You don't see it because it's not in front of people. So it doesn't matter. What is in front of people needs to look pristine and what's going on inside is ugly. It's dark.

The Danger of Comparison

And these people assume that because they're doing good things - they're volunteering, they even grew out a beard, they put the hijab on, they even memorized some Quran, they worked on their tajweed - all the outside stuff is pretty good. They start assuming also that Allah is gonna really reward me for all of this. I'm doing pretty good. As opposed to this other person who can't even recite the Fatiha. As opposed to that other person who can't even do this X, Y, or Z. They don't even pray in the masjid or whatever else. You start comparing yourself thinking you're doing pretty good because you're in the light.

And that, by the way, that sense of superiority is probably the worst of all of the other vices I mentioned. When you start thinking and I start thinking that I stand in a better place than another human being before Allah, that pride is actually a replica of the pride of the devil. Why did he say I'm superior? The sense of superiority.

The True Destination

Allah says that next home that he built, heaven, he made it for people who don't want to feel superior in this earth. They don't have a desire for aloo. They don't want to make themselves feel or give the impression that somebody else is little compared to them. Lesser compared to them. They don't want that.

And there are sometimes among us - maybe ourselves - because of our religious knowledge, because of our religious position, because of our religious perception of others, we do start thinking we're better than somebody else. We do become condescending towards others.

The Reality Check

This is the first example. People who actually think they're in light and they're doing good. But you're like a person in the desert. You're gonna die of dehydration and when you get there what you think is water meaning you think you're gonna go to jannah and be replenished for all the deeds you did - all you find there is Allah who says actually you did everything else on the outside but there was no light inside of you. You don't get anything here. Allah is gonna quickly take your account.

You and I have to become people of introspection. Whether or not people praise you and me means nothing. As a matter of fact, whether or not people criticize you and me also means nothing. You have to be able to ask yourself if Allah was to ask me right now what I'm doing is right or wrong. Am I able to

answer him? Am I doing right by Allah? Because he's the only one I'm gonna be meeting at the end of that journey.

The Second Type: Drowning in Darkness

On the other side of it, there's another darkness. There's another failed scenario. One of them was people who thought they're doing good and they get there and they find nothing. But the other one is a completely different scenario. And the other one is a scenario of someone - like I mentioned - in the dark. And then they're even pushed into more darkness and then more darkness. And they just keep going deeper and deeper.

The Environment of Darkness

This is actually someone who's not in a good environment. This is someone who's not involved with anybody. They're not even around people who have strong iman. As a matter of fact, all the friends they have make them even a worse person. They instill even worse habits in them. And the environments they put themselves in, the situations they put themselves in are pure evil. They're pure darkness.

But they're addictive also. They keep going to that stuff. They go to those environments. They go to those friends. They go to those dark places. And they can't even help themselves. Go back over and over and over and over again. And they form all forms of addictions. Addictions to certain kinds of behavior. They form addictions to substances. And they can't let go of that entire scene.

The Glimmer of Hope

And what does Allah describe? As these waves are coming and slamming you down and you're all the way in the depths of the darkness, the powerful thing here in this parable is Allah actually gave hope to those people too. He didn't say when he's at the bottom of the sea he can't even see his hand. He said he could almost not see his hand, right?

Your hand is a representation of what you do. Even in the depths of darkness, you could still kinda sorta see your hand. You know what that means? You still have some sense that this is wrong. What I'm doing is wrong. I shouldn't be doing this. I know better. I know I need to change. I'm humiliated by what I'm doing. I'm giving in to something inside me that's very animal. I'm giving in to something inside me that overtakes me and I lose my connection with Allah. And every time I dive in, that connection gets hurt more and more and more and more. But every time it gets hurt, there's less and less light, but there's still a tiny bit of light left inside you that still lets you see.

The Source of Light in Darkness

You know, to help you understand this part better, our eyes are useless without light. If there are no light sound inside this room and there are no windows and there's absolutely no light, we are completely

blind. Your eyes could be functioning perfectly, but there's no point, you're blind anyway because you are in the darkness.

Allah is describing here when you're in the bottom of the sea, when you're way down there, clearly there's no source of light, is there? I mean it's already dark. It's already night. There are already clouds in the sky and you're way deep down inside in the middle of the night. There should be zero light. You shouldn't say I can almost see my hand. You should not be able to see your hand at all. The point is you shouldn't be able to see your hand at all.

But Allah is saying there's some light somewhere. The question that arises, where is that light? That's actually the light Allah put inside you and Allah put inside me. Inside of our hearts he put it there. It's not some outside light, it's inside you. And it's using that and it's being dimmed away. It's weakened. It's been covered by a lot of darkness, but it's still enough for you to see somewhat that you're doing something wrong. There's still hope in you.

Allah's Protection of the Inner Light

That light Allah does not let die. Imagine back in the day, what is light at night time? How do you have a light? You have a lamp. You have a candle. That's how lights used to work. Once you take that candle underwater, what's gonna happen immediately? It's gonna blow out. There's not gonna be any source of light.

But somehow this source of light in the depth of the ocean is protected. Even though it's in such a bad environment, it's still protected. It's been weakened, but it hasn't been suffocated. It didn't blow out. It didn't get washed away. That's the light that Allah protected inside you and inside of me.

No matter how far gone you think you are and how far gone I think I am. Mistakes happen. Sins happen. Crimes against Allah happen. Our hearts go in bad place. In dark directions. Our hands go in dark directions. We've made mistakes. But Allah's mercy, what does He say at the end?

And for somebody who Allah wouldn't have provided them light, where would they have gotten light from? How could they have gotten any light if Allah didn't provide it?

What is Allah saying here? Can you imagine where can light possibly come from in the middle of the ocean at the bottom? Where would it come from? Where do you think that light came from? If not from me.

Allah is telling you and me we give up on Him, He doesn't give up on us. We let Him go, He doesn't let us go. He keeps the hope alive. He lets us... The ability for you to even feel bad somewhat. You drown that voice out. You hear it and you say nah, I don't wanna listen to this. I'm already in line to get into the club.

I'm like the third person left before the entry and now my conscience is kicking in and saying you need to turn around and go. You shouldn't be doing this.

That voice inside you is that little bit of light left. And you could suffocate at that time too. And then next time too. And then next time too. But there's a limit.

The Point of No Return

And that's what I wanted to finally share with you. There is actually a limit. It's not limitless. It's not like Allah will keep your light alive at any cost. Allah will mention people who are dead already. They're dead already. They have no light left inside them. Allah will mention people whose hearts have turned into stone. And if your heart is stone, that means if there's light inside it, it can't get out. Right, it's dead. There's no way it can get out.

What happens to those people when they suffocate themselves? Knowingly they suffocate the light inside of themselves. What happens to them? Allah says:

That's the last thing I want to share with you. When that happens, how do you know that's happened to you? You will know that's happened to you when those things that are evil, that even though they're attractive and they're tempting and you're drawn to them, there's still some part of you that feels bad, right? When that's gone and it only looks beautiful, you justify to yourself.

Not only is... forget that it's... You know it's one thing to say I know it's bad. I know I messed up, but I still do it. I need to stop. That's one thing. That means you still have some light left. At least you recognize that it's what? Bad.

But when the light is completely gone, then it's:

You don't see it as bad anymore. Now that's amazing. What do you mean it's bad? We're having a good time. What do you mean it's bad? You don't want me to live my life? What do you mean it's bad? That's awesome. That's like the reason we're alive. Your definition changes. You're no longer guilty. You don't even feel bad. You're actually now glorifying the sin that you're engaged in. You're glorifying the darkness that's become beautiful to you.

And that's when instead of the definition of beauty and ugliness coming from Allah based on the light that he gave you, now those definitions come to you from shaitan. Now that's a lost cause. That's beyond hope. And I pray Allah never lets us fall into that.

Defense Mechanisms and Self-Deception