Buried in Mercy [

Buried in Mercy

By Shaykh Omar Suleiman

Opening

In the Name of Allah, the Most Beneficent, the Most Merciful. All praise is due to Allah, the Lord of the worlds.

And there is no enmity except against the wrongdoers, and the ultimate outcome is for the righteous.

Understanding Allah's Beautiful Names

Dear brothers and sisters, in this topic, when we're talking about Rahman, when we're talking about Ar-Rahman, Allah (سُبْحَانَهُ وَتَعَالَى - subhanahu wa ta'ala) tells us in the Qur'an something very very important about the names of Allah (سُبْحَانَهُ وَتَعَالَى - subhanahu wa ta'ala) that sometimes we misinterpret or we misunderstand.

And many times when you don't speak Arabic or when you don't understand the language of the Qur'an, as you're reading through the names and the attributes of Allah (سُبْحَانَهُ وَتَعَالَى - subhanahu wa ta'ala), how many times have you come across a name in English that you didn't even understand? Like what is this supposed to mean? Right? Or it's just duplication. Right? Allah is Ar-Rahman, Allah is Rahim, Allah is Ghafoor, Allah is Wadood, Allah is all of these things. And it'll be translated as, you know, Compassionate, Merciful, Merciful, Merciful.

And then you'll see all kinds of other words that you've never even heard and that you don't even use in your vocabulary. And Allah tells us in the Qur'an:

To Allah belong the most beautiful of names, so call upon Him with those names, interact with Him with those names. And that's a very powerful thing because if you really think about that, how are we supposed to interact with Allah (سُبْحَانَهُ وَتَعَالَى - subhanahu wa ta'ala) and personalize our dua if we don't even know what His names truly mean? So then you come with, He's the most merciful, and we're buried in mercy.

The Meaning of Ar-Rahman and Ar-Rahim

But then what is the difference between Ar-Rahman and Ar-Rahim? Because they come from the same word. Then where does Ghafoor come into play? Where does Haleem come into play? What is Wadood mean? How do you bring all of this together? And how do you turn this into a fruitful conversation with Allah (سُبْحَانَهُ وَتَعَالَى - subhanahu wa ta'ala)? How do you make this a successful dua? Because if you don't understand and don't ponder upon them, then your dua will lack quality just as you lack understanding of the one whom you're calling upon. So it's extremely important for us to analyze each and every single name and then to call upon Allah as He commands us in this verse.

And as we see in the life of the Prophet (صلى الله عليه وسلم - sallallahu alayhi wa sallam):

You are the one who is in no need whatsoever. You have no needs. You are self-sufficient. And we are in need of you.

You are the one who is endowed with all strength and power. And we are the ones who are in need of you. We are the weak ones. We are the ones who have no strength. This is how you interact with Allah (سُبْحَانَهُ وَتَعَالَى - subhanahu wa ta'ala) understanding His names. So I just want to look at from a few moments at these names of Allah (سُبْحَانَهُ وَتَعَالَى - subhanahu wa ta'ala) that we have: الرَّحْمَنِ الرَّحِيمُ، الْغَفُورُ الْحَلِيمُ، الْوَدُودُ

Five Names to Take Home

Five names that I want you to take home with you tonight and I want you to be able to call upon Allah (سُبْحَانَهُ وَتَعَالَى - subhanahu wa ta'ala) with these names and I want you to have a full understanding of them. You see if you translate it as mercy, mercy can mean many things in the English language and in fact mercy can be void of love. If you see a cat on the road that's been hit by a car and you go and you pick that cat off the road and you throw him on the side, you committed an act of mercy. You showed an act of mercy to that cat but that doesn't mean that you love that cat. And so saying Allah is most merciful using the word mercy is truly not enough to really convey the meaning of this beautiful name of Allah (سُبْحَانَهُ وَتَعَالَى - subhanahu wa ta'ala) and these two names that we are commanded to start every surah in the Qur'an with the exception of one with. The name that we say or the names that we pronounce as we leave our homes, enter our homes, begin our meals, at the end of our meals.

You know beginning every act of worship and even acts that are not acts of worship. Allah wants us to consistently be reminded:

In the name of Allah, the Most Compassionate, the Most Merciful.

The Root Meaning

And if we look at the root of this word we truly understand something. They both come from the word رحمة. And in the Arabic language the word رجم refers to the womb, right? When you say (صلة الرَّحِمِ - silatu-rahim) connecting or establishing and upholding ties of kinship, you're talking about the womb.

And so the scholars say something very beautiful about this. The strongest, the strongest form of love that exists on the face of the earth is the love that a mother has for her child. It's not just mercy. It's a different type of love, right? You know sometimes you would see a woman when her baby starts crying, she starts crying too. Right? And if you're a man you think that's psychotic. Like, what's wrong with you? But it's a whole other form of love.

And a mother will always be open to her child. A mother will always yearn for her child. It's the strongest form of love that exists and that's why the Prophet (صلى الله عليه وسلم - sallallahu alayhi wa sallam) chose that incident to bring into light this beautiful name and attribute of Allah.

The Woman and Her Child

The incident which a woman ran between the ranks of the Sahaba as they were carrying their swords to find her child and she grabbed her child. And when she grabbed her child she started to suckle him. Holding him so tight and the Sahaba were in awe.

The Prophet (صلى الله عليه وسلم - sallallahu alayhi wa sallam) wanted to make light of this incident and said, you see that? Do you think that woman would ever throw her child into a fire? Do you think that woman would ever throw her child into a fire? Allah is more merciful and compassionate with you than that mother is with her child. That's not just in dunya, that's in akhira. As Sufyan ibn Uyaynah rahimahullah said, If I had a choice to be judged on the day of judgment by Allah or by my parents, I would choose Allah.

Because Allah has more rahmah with me than my own two parents. Can you imagine that? So then you might be thinking to yourself, if that's the case, then why does hellfire exist? And the answer is, as Umar ibn Abdulaziz rahimahullah said:

A person has failed and lost when he exits from the mercy of Allah that has encompassed all things. Imagine what it would take for that woman to throw her child into the fire.

Likewise, there are things that the human being does to reach hellfire, to reach jahannam. But Allah (سُبْحَانَهُ وَتَعَالَى - subhanahu wa ta'ala), not only is He merciful with him, not only does Allah (سُبْحَانَهُ وَتَعَالَى - subhanahu wa ta'ala) allow him to benefit from His mercy, because in this life, everyone benefits from the rahmah. The kuffar, the disbelievers, those who would curse God benefit from the rahmah. But then you say, wait a minute, what about us, what about the believers? Right? That's why Allah is rahim.

He is exclusively merciful, rahim to the believers on the day of judgment. There is a special type of mercy that's there. And then you might think to yourself, well, wait a minute, Allah is rahman, inclusively merciful, rahim, exclusively merciful.

Allah's Forbearance and Forgiveness

But how do I know that I can qualify for a rahim? Because I'm so terrible, I've done so much. And you know, that's what the shaitan does to you. He comes to you before you commit a sin.

And shaitan is your favorite mufti in the world. You don't need to look for any website. He tells you, come on man, it's halal. MashaAllah, you pray. MashaAllah, you fast. MashaAllah, you wear hijab.

You go to the masjid, you're good. What are you worried about? Shaitan tells you it's all good. And Allah is rahman, Allah is rahim. Shaitan reminds you Allah is rahman, rahim. And shaitan tells you how great you are. The minute that you commit the sin, shaitan tells you how vengeful Allah (سُبْحَانَهُ وَتَعَالَى - subhanahu wa ta'ala) is and tells you how horrible you are.

He completely flips the script on you. And so people end up despairing. It goes from a healthy fear which is khashiyah to an unhealthy fear which is despair.

What makes me think that I can enter into jannah? I've committed all of these sins. Well, first and foremost, Allah is haleem. Allah is the one who's forbearing.

And to truly understand that forbearance, imagine if Allah punished everyone right when they committed the sin. You imagine right when you commit the sin, a lightning bolt comes and strikes you when you're dead. Imagine how that would be.

Allah (سُبْحَانَهُ وَتَعَالَى - subhanahu wa ta'ala), if every single time a person cursed, if every single time a person committed zina, Allah (سُبْحَانَهُ وَتَعَالَى - subhanahu wa ta'ala) went ahead and took him then. Allah punished him then and threw him into hellfire. Allah doesn't do that.

Allah is haleem. He's forbearing. So much so that the Prophet (صلى الله عليه وسلم - sallallahu alayhi wa sallam) said what? Now we've all heard the hadith:

(Ibn Majah 4250)

The one who repents from sin is like the one who's never sinned before. But there's a whole other level there. Rasulullah (صلى الله عليه وسلم - sallallahu alayhi wa sallam) says in the authentic hadith al-Bayhaqi from Umamah radiyallahu anhu, that whenever a person commits a sin, Allah (سُبْحَانَهُ وَتَعَالَى - subhanahu wa ta'ala) tells the angel on his left, hold your pen for six hours.

Subhanallah. Don't even write it down. Give him a chance.

You know, sometimes right when you commit a sin, you realize it right away. Especially those who are close to Allah. Right? They feel that guilt sooner and with more severity.

Those, whenever they commit a sin, whenever they commit an act of disobedience, of open public sin, or any type of sin, they harm themselves. By the way ذكروا الله. They remember Allah and they say, Oh my God, I can't believe I did that. فَاسْتَغْفَرُوا لِذُّنُوبِهِمْ

So they immediately start to make istighfar. Allah (سُبْحَانَهُ وَتَعَالَى - subhanahu wa ta'ala) didn't even allow that sin to be written down in the first place. Allahu Akbar.

Allah is Ghafoor

Allah is Haleem. But wait a minute. What if the sin carried on? What if it carried on and what if I didn't repent in six hours? What if I have a character flaw that's been destroying me for 10-15 years? What if I've been committing the same sin over and over and over again? I understand the hadith about the six hours but now I really have no hope.

That's why Allah said غَفُور . You know what غُفْرَان means? غَفُور means? It's literally to take a hot pot, you know, boiling water, and to cover it up in a way that not only does the water not come out but it actually cools down. Allah covers it up for you.

Forgive and forget. Subhanallah. That's how merciful Allah (سُبْحَانَهُ وَتَعَالَى - subhanahu wa ta'ala) is.

Allah is غَفُور . But you know what? What if Allah (سُبْحَانَهُ وَتَعَالَى - subhanahu wa ta'ala) is out to get me? What if I've sinned so much? What if Allah just doesn't want to forgive me? You know, sometimes you find leaders that just quite frankly don't like you. What if Allah just doesn't like me? Well, that's why Allah is الودود

He's the most loving. Subhanallah. The Prophet (صلى الله عليه وسلم - sallallahu alaihi wasallam), he didn't just tell us that Allah will forgive and Allah is merciful and Allah shows pity.

No, it's more comprehensive. Allah (سُبْحَانَهُ وَتَعَالَى - subhanahu wa ta'ala) wants you and I to succeed. Allah (سُبْحَانَهُ وَتَعَالَى - subhanahu wa ta'ala) is willing to overlook 50 years of sin for a day of obedience if a person died on that.

Allah is willing to let it all go. And Rasulullah (صلى الله عليه وسلم - sallallahu alaihi wasallam) says something very beautiful. He says (صلى الله عليه وسلم - sallallahu alaihi wasallam), if you were not to sin, Allah (سُبْحَانَهُ وَتَعَالَى - subhanahu wa ta'ala) would remove you all and would replace you with the people who would sin so they could seek His forgiveness so He can forgive them.

The Story of the Artist

You know, they say the beauty of an artist, right? When someone claims to be an artist, it shows in his art, right? That's when you really know the beauty of the artist. You know, subhanallah. Shaykh Yasir Raja rahimahullah sent a very powerful story to me.

He was telling me the story just last week about a man who committed a huge sin. Destroyed his family. Huge sin.

And it was bad. It wasn't like I looked at a girl or I went out or I got caught. No, it was bad. Real bad. Shaykh Yasir says I asked him, he said, do you know why Allah is Al-Ghafoor? You know why Allah is Al- Ghafoor? Because people like you exist. Subhanallah.

That's why Allah is Al-Ghafoor. You need Allah to cover up for you. We all need Allah to cover up for us.

We need Allah subhanahu wa ta'ala to help us out on the day of judgment because none of us are gonna make it by deeds. We're all gonna make it by His mercy. And the goal is to just try to qualify for His mercy.

How Easy It Is to Qualify for Allah's Mercy

But you wanna know how easy that is? Remember what Omar ibn Abdulaziz said, what a loser you are if you manage to miss the mercy of Allah subhanahu wa ta'ala. Let me tell you how easy it is. Rasulullah sallallahu alayhi wa sallam said that if someone has a good intention and he follows it up with a good deed, what does Allah subhanahu wa ta'ala write down for him? What does Allah write down for him? 10 good deeds up to 700, up to what Allah subhanahu wa ta'ala wants to write for him.

Allah multiplies it. And if a person has a bad intention but ends up committing a good deed, now that doesn't mean you have a bad intention when you commit the good deed. You start off with a bad intention, then something happens along the way, you know what, it manifests itself in a good deed.

Allah subhanahu wa ta'ala does what? He writes down the good deed for him. It's okay, don't sweat it, you're forgiven. And then, now if you have a bad intention and you commit a bad deed, you know, usually as human beings, as human beings, do we reward more whenever people are generous with us, whenever people treat us in a way that they deserve reward, with rewardable behavior, or do we punish more whenever people offend us? We multiply the anger, we multiply the punishment, right? You could have been good to a person forever.

You could have treated that person with good manners. You messed up one time, I've never seen anything good from you. You're terrible. You've never treated me with love. You've never loved me. You've never done this.

We always multiply punishment. We exaggerate the punishment. Allah does the total opposite.

You have a bad intention, you commit the sin, Allah writes it down for you as a sin. Just one. And inshallah ta'ala Allah is ghafoor, He can forgive it, He can cover it up.

Now the last one, and this is just incredible. When a person has a bad intention, it doesn't manifest itself in a bad deed, right? He makes the intention to commit evil, but it doesn't manifest itself. What does Allah subhanahu wa ta'ala do? Somebody tell me, I know you guys are sleeping.

Somebody tell me, what does Allah do for that person? No, not only does He not write it down, Allah writes down a good deed for him. Subhanallah. You imagine somebody coming to your house with a baseball bat to tear up your car, beat up your car, and then when they got to your house, they felt bad about it, you walked outside, you found that person, you know, holding the baseball bat about to hit the car, and they said, they walked up to the door and said, Look, I was coming to your house to break your car up, to bust your car up, but I decided not to, I just wanted to apologize.

And you say, hey, well, let me pay you for the gas. How much did you buy that bat for? Allah writes down a good deed for you. Allahu Akbar.

How amazing is Allah. How loving is Allah. How merciful is Allah. How forbearing is Allah. How compassionate is Allah. Subhanallah.

The Man Who Killed 99 People

And we see incidents in the seerah that we look over and over and over again, or a hadith that the Prophet sallallahu alaihi wa sallam mentioned to us in stories. The man who killed 99 people. Think of the worst serial killer you've ever seen.

Right? Think of O.J. Simpson, for example. That's a really unrepentant guy, right? Killed his wife, got away with it, then wrote a book that said, If I would have killed my wife, this is how I would have done it. Wink, wink.

Right? Imagine that guy coming up to a sheikh and saying, Hey, you think I can get away with this stuff? This guy killed 99. And he went to a righteous person. And he said to him, not a scholar, he went to a worshipper, a good guy, abid, someone who worshipped Allah.

And he said, I've killed 99 people. Can I be forgiven? Do I have any chance? Or am I done for? And he says, you killed 99 people. Are you serious? You think you just say, Astaghfirullah, start over, it's done? Are you serious? Now the worshipper, he's worshipping Allah all the time.

He's, subhanallah, caught up in his own self. So the man has such a serious temper issue. Not only does he say, you know, go away. Not only does he not curse him out and just leave the message, or spit on him and punch him in the face. He kills him. That's how addicted he's gotten to killing.

You know, when you do a sin over and over and over again, it doesn't matter how severe the sin is. He killed the guy because he didn't like his answer. Understanding his situation.

Then he went to a scholar, he said, Look, I killed 100 people. The last one being, you know, that righteous worshipper, the guy that was always in the masjid. I killed him too.

Any chance? He said, yeah. No one's gonna prevent you from being forgiven by Allah. Let's go forward.

But you need to go start your life over, right? Left. The masjid decided to go start his life over. Died on the way.

Now seriously, if it was anyone of us judging that person, what would we say? He didn't change. Seriously? You're gonna let go of 100 murders because he decided to start moving towards another land? He probably would've found a guy over there and said, Hey, look, I'm gonna buy a house here. Got any real estate advice? Now I'm kinda busy.

Probably would've killed him too. Guy had some serious issues with killing people. We wouldn't have forgiven him.

We would've looked at him with a skeptical eye. But how did Allah subhanahu wa ta'ala look at him? When the angels came to Allah, we don't know what to do with this guy. This is a case that puzzles us.

And Allah says, Well, just measure the distance between the land he left and the land he went to. Had Allah stopped there and not said anything else, that is already incredible mercy beyond human capacity, beyond what we could fathom. But Allah didn't stop there.

The man was actually closer to the land that he left. And Allah struck the earth so that he could be closer to the land he was going to. Subhanallah.

Allah is a tawwab. Allah is a tawwab. The one who turns to you.

Tawwab literally means, inabah is literally to turn to you. And subhanallah, some people came to Aisha radiallahu anha and they said to Aisha, How can we turn to Allah subhanahu wa ta'ala? How can we do tawbah to Allah subhanahu wa ta'ala? Aisha says, Allah turned towards you before you turn to Him just by you asking the question. Allah says in the Qur'an:

Allah turned to them so they could turn to Him.

Subhanallah. That's Allah. That's who we've got.

The Man Who Asked to Be Burned

That's who's gonna question us on the day of judgment. Isn't that amazing? That's the one who's gonna question us. That's the one who's gonna look at me and who's gonna say, Here are the deeds that you've committed.

That's who I have to face on the day of judgment. (الْحَمْدُ لِلَّهِ رَبِّ الْعَالَمِينَ) Because we learn in the seerah also of another man who did no good in his life. The Rasulullah sallallahu alayhi wa sallam said that whenever the time of death came, then it occurred to him that, You know what, I've been messing up my entire life.

So he told his children what? He said, Burn me to ashes so Allah can't get me. I'm afraid of God. I don't want Him to get me. Just burn me to ashes. I've got no time left to repent. It's over with.

I'm gone. Right? Burn me to ashes. And Rasulullah (صلى الله عليه وسلم) says, So Allah subhanahu wa ta'ala would gather him up on the day of judgment and would say, Oh my slave, why did you do that? And what would he say? (خَشِيتُكَ يَا رَبِّ). I was afraid of you, oh my lord.

(وَأَنْتَ أَعْلَمُ). And you know that. I was just afraid of you, oh Allah. What was the answer of the Prophet (صلى الله عليه وسلم)? What does Allah say back to him? Somebody tell me.

What does Allah say back to him? So I can show you what you miss when you read over a hadith quickly. What did he say back to him? He forgave him, right? But it's even more powerful than that. Rasulullah says: (صلى الله عليه وسلم)

(Bukhari 3481)

Allah forgave him because he burned himself. Allah forgave him by virtue of the sin. Because Allah recognized his heart when he committed that major sin. Subhanallah.

That's what we're dealing with. That's who's gonna question us on the day of judgment. Allah wants you to turn to him.

Allah wants you to be forgiven. And in fact, Allah subhanahu wa ta'ala will give you every single chance so much so that the Prophet (صلى الله عليه وسلم) said, a person can make istighfar and tawbah to Allah until he starts foaming at the mouth. You know when you're dying and you're foaming at the mouth and you're not making sense anymore? Allah will forgive you until that moment.

No matter what you've done. What you've done, you can still be forgiven. And we even see that Fir'aun.

The Story of Fir'aun

Someone would say, what about Fir'aun? When did Fir'aun decide to make tawbah? Whenever the water was already in his lungs and he was drowning.

And then he said:

You know what Ibn Abbas (رضي الله عنه) says? He says Jibreel (عليه السلام). And who knows Allah better than Jibreel? Right? The angel that conveyed the message to all of the messengers. Who knows Allah better than Jibreel (عليه السلام)? Jibreel was afraid that Fir'aun, with all that he's done, still had a chance of being forgiven.

So he went under the sea and he started kicking dirt into his mouth. That shows you, Jibreel knows Allah. He knows Allah was even capable of forgiving Fir'aun.

Shaytan, Shaytan. And Imam Ibn Al-Jawzi (رحمه الله) says something so powerful. Allah is so merciful that Shaytan with all that he's done, on the day of judgment would think he has a chance.

After making the challenge and all that. He would still think he has a chance. Because that's Allah.

That's Al-Rahman. That's Al-Rahim. That's Al-Ghafoor. That's Al-Wadud. That's Al-Haleem. That's Al- Tawwab.

That's Allah. That's who we're dealing with. That's the one who judges us. Not everybody else. That's the one who's gonna look at us. And that's the one who recognizes even the smallest effort.

You're trying. You're trying. And sometimes we go to extremes and many times we go to extremes.

Balance in Understanding Allah's Mercy

Ali (رضي الله عنه) said, May Allah bless the scholar. The greatest faqih is the one who makes a person feel hopeful in Allah without giving him the concession to disobey Him. You know many times when we say, Allah is Ghafoor Rahim.

You don't tell a patient who's sick that go ahead and keep disobeying Allah because Allah is Ghafoor Rahim. You need to remind yourself with the proper names at that moment. Sometimes you need to scare yourself, right? Sometimes you need to scare yourself and say, Well, Allah is Ghafoor Rahim, but (عزيزٌ ذُو انْتِقَامٍ) Allah is also.

And when Ibrahim (عليه السلام) was speaking to his father and doing da'wah to his father, he says:

I'm afraid punishment is going to come to you from who? You know when you're trying to scare someone, you're not going to say, Punishment is going to come from al-Rahman. What are you going to