Know Your Soul
By Omar Suleiman | 2026-01-06T21:26:53.44383+00:00 | Topic: Purification
Know Your Soul
Imam Omar Suleiman
Opening
Dr. Altaf Hussain has to leave but um I wanted to first and foremost thank him well that was a beautiful discussion subhanallah you know what we've been talking about the entire time about finding meaning in your life and doing something that's not shallow and I just wanted to really say to all of all to you Dr. Altaf I love you for the sake of Allah subhanahu wa'ta'ala you're one of the most underappreciated activists in this country there's no doubt about it you've done so much for the community so I want everyone to make dua for Dr. Altaf we ask Allah subhanahu wa'ta'ala to bless his efforts we ask Allah subhanahu wa'ta'ala to bless his time we ask Allah subhanahu wa'ta'ala to join him with the Anbiya and the Shuhada and the Siddiqoon we ask Allah subhanahu wa'ta'ala that for every moment that he spent with us and for every moment he'll spend with our brothers and sisters in New York we ask Allah subhanahu wa'ta'ala to replace it with a moment in Jannatul Firdaus Allahumma Ameen everyone say Ameen, Jazakumullahu Khair, Barakallahu Fikir, please keep us in your dua as you travel inshallah, what is my topic? all right bismillah walhamdulillah wassalatu wassalamu ala rasoolillah wa ala...
The Beauty of Our Deen
You know a lot of times as you might have been sitting here and reflecting on Mus'ab ibn Umair and listening to this this powerful story and honestly you know the beauty of this deen is that subhanallah with every orator with every different da'ia with every different Shaykh with whatever it is they could talk about the same thing over and over and over again you could listen to a tafsir of the same ayah over and over and over again you could listen to the seerah of the Prophet (صلى الله عليه وسلم) done by a bunch of different speakers and every one of them wallahi has its its different halal it has its different sweetness it's different taste and it has its different benefit and to be honest with you I never benefited from a talk on Mus'ab ibn Umair the way that I just did and I'm being very honest about that alhamdulillah rabbil alameen but you know that's really what our deen is all about.
The Complementary Nature of the Companions
And when we look at the life of Umar ibn al-Khattab (رضي الله تعالى عنه) I want to share with you a comment that was made when I when I spoke about Umar ibn al-Khattab and actually for those of you that will be taking the Al-Maghrib class that I'll be doing here I believe in a month and a half two months we actually look at the tazkiyah of Umar ibn al-Khattab (رضي الله عنه) with some depth but I remember a comment that was made about Umar ibn al-Khattab (رضي الله تعالى عنه) someone came to me after I gave a khutbah about Umar and said you know he's too harsh you know why does he always talk about hellfire why is he always so rough how come every time you read about Umar ibn al-Khattab (رضي الله
عنه) he's asking the Prophet (صلى الله عليه وسلم) ya Rasulullah give me permission to cut the hypocrites head off you know why why do we read about the Durr of Umar the stick of Umar ibn al-Khattab رضي الله عنه why is he so rough and I said because Allah subhanahu wa'ta'ala already had Abu Bakr رضي الله عنه in this ummah so Allah complimented Abu Bakr with Umar and that's true.
Listen to the Rasulullah (صلى الله عليه وسلم) once he's looking to Abu Bakr and Umar and Rasulullah (صلى الله عليه وسلم) by the way it was always I Abu Bakr and Umar did this I Abu Bakr and Umar saw this I believe this and one time Rasulullah (صلى الله عليه وسلم) said and I believe this and Abu Bakr and Umar also believe this so Rasulullah (صلى الله عليه وسلم) was always with these two companions of his and Rasulullah (صلى الله عليه وسلم) said that he would enter into Jannah with holding their hands and that is subhanAllah the way that they are buried you know just look at the beauty of the way that the Prophet (صلى الله عليه وسلم) is buried with his companions you know subhanAllah but in particular ones just looking at their different personalities and that's really what I want to focus on.
Rasulullah (صلى الله عليه وسلم) says to Abu Bakr (رضي الله عنه) that if I was to leave the world to Abu Bakr then perhaps the hypocrites and the disbelievers would all be free to go and if I was to leave it to Umar and they'd all be killed now the hadith has some weakness in it by the way but subhanAllah it shows you there's some truth in it when Rasulullah (صلى الله عليه وسلم) looks at these two companions and when we look at these two companions we see different personalities.
Finding Your Precedent in the Sahaba
In fact when we look at all of the sahaba and you know the beauty of that Rasulullah (صلى الله عليه وسلم when he said to follow his sunnah he said follow my sunnah and the sunnah of the sunnah of the khulafa you know subhanAllah whatever personality you have whatever circumstances have whatever economic situation you have you will find a sahabi that had a similar situation that you can relate to:
- If a person is an orphan they have a precedent
- If a person grew up wealthy they have a precedent
- If a person you know was married at a young age they have a precedent
- If a person is a widow they have a precedent
- If a person you know has issues with their parents they have a precedent in the sahaba of the Prophet (صلى الله عليه وسلم)
Whatever it is you can find something in the sahaba of the Prophet (صلى الله عليه وسلم) you can find inspiration and draw on their stories and the thing that we learn about them is you know what each and every single one of them struggled, each and every single one of them had to go through a certain journey, but they were masters in diagnosing their own situations and their own personalities and how to bring themselves close to Allah subhanahu wa'ta'ala.
Different Personalities, Different Approaches
I'll give you this example, in our communities, actually I'll ask this question, how many of you are driven more towards Allah subhanahu wa'ta'ala by the verses of Jannah rather than the verses of Hellfire? Raise your hand. How many of you are driven more towards Allah subhanahu wa'ta'ala by the verses about Hellfire than the verses of Jannah? Raise your hand.
50-50, right? Some people, if you ask them what their favorite surah in the Qur'an is, they'll say surah Al- Rahman. Some people will say it's surah Al-Munafiqun, right? People are different, people have different personalities, people have different journeys towards Allah subhanahu wa'ta'ala, people have different ways of diagnosing themselves, right, of being scholars of their own souls, how to bring themselves closer to Allah subhanahu wa'ta'ala and purify that nafs that Allah subhanahu wa'ta'ala has given to them, because each and every single one of us is unique in that regard.
The Example of Hudayf ibn al-Yaman
Hudayf ibn al-Yaman (رضي الله تعالى عنه)he says that the Sahaba used to always ask Rasulullah (صلی الله عليه وسلم about the good things, right, they always asked him about Jannah, they always used to ask him about the good things, but he said, I used to always ask the Prophet (صلى الله عليه وسلم) about Hell, and about the bad things so that I could avoid those things, that was his personality, that's what drove him, and perhaps that is why he was the one who Rasulullah (صلى الله عليه وسلم) entrusted with the names of the hypocrites, because Hudayf feared it so much, he could never be amongst them, that was his personality.
The Unique Case of Umar ibn al-Khattab
Now the life of Umar ibn al-Khattab (رضي الله تعالى عنه) is far too vast to cover in a session or in a talk, in fact it's far too vast to cover in a conference, in a class, the seerah of Umar ibn al-Khattab (رضي الله تعالى عنه) was one of the most fascinating seerah, and it's so fascinating, and the Prophet (صلى الله عليه وسلم just tells us about the intuition that this man had.
You know Rasulullah (صلى الله عليه وسلم) says:
(Sahih al-Bukhari Hadith 3689)
That there were people in the ummah before you, the nations before you that were muhaddathoon, not muhaddithoon, muhaddathoon, which means literally they were spoken to, he said if there's anyone in my ummah like that it's Umar ibn al-Khattab (رضي الله تعالى عنه), was spoken to.
And Ibn Hajar rahimallah he explains that, as Rasulullah (صلى الله عليه وسلم) was telling us there's some people from amongst Bani Isra'il that weren't necessarily prophets, but they were inspired by the mala'ika, they had intuition that just always agreed with the truth, and Umar (رضي الله عنه) had such a strong
intuition that the revelation would agree with Umar ibn al-Khattab (رضي الله تعالى عنه)sometimes even when he disagreed with the Prophet (صلى الله عليه وسلم)an ayah of Qur'an would be revealed which would agree with the opinion of Umar (رضي الله تعالى عنه) like with the captives of Badr, or like with praying janazah on Abdullah ibn Ubay ibn Salul, the revelation, the Qur'an, Allah agreed with Umar's opinion (رضي الله تعالى عنه you know how amazing that is?
Why? Because he was so sincere in trying to change himself for the better, he was so sincere in trying to attain the pleasure of Allah subhanahu wa'ta'ala, and Allah guides a person who is striving:
Striving in our cause, we will guide them to our subul, to our paths in the plural, the only time Allah refers to His sabil in the plural sense Allah always in the Qur'an reveals to the path of Allah, sabilillah, as one:
ظُلُمَاتٌ بَعْضُهَا فَوْقَ بَعْضٍ - Darkness upon darkness, one light
صِرَاطٌ مُسْتَقِيمٌ - One sirat, one path, one way
But here is the only time Allah, and Allah refers to the ways of shaytan as subul shaytan can delude you in many ways, shaytan gets you with different ways depending on your personality, right? some of you like chocolate, some of you like candy, you know, whatever it is he's gonna get you with your way and this time Allah subhanahu wa'ta'ala refers to His way as subul, as paths and the scholars describe that, paths that are all part of the one path but the paths of goodness, the path of sadaqah, the path of khushu' the path of Allah subhanahu wa'ta'ala brings you to the various wasa'il the various vehicles that bring you towards Him that bring you and keep you firm on the sabil of Allah subhanahu wa'ta'ala on the path of Allah subhanahu wa'ta'ala and when you are sincere.
The Importance of Sincere Repentance
Let me, you know so, I remember listening to, I believe the brother Imam Tariq Abdul Rashid, I think and he was talking about, you know, his way to Allah subhanahu wa'ta'ala his convert story and many times we, you know, to me the convert stories are so powerful when you read the stories of people you know, I love to just sit with people that reverted to Islam just tell me your story, it's so powerful, so powerful and I remember SubhanAllah, he was telling the story he was saying that as I was getting saved from a situation I made a promise to Allah subhanahu wa'ta'ala I was already thinking of the loopholes to that promise, right you word your, when you're making tawbah you word your tawbah in a way that you can still it's like we've gotten so used to dealing with insurance companies and stuff like that, and contracts that we even word our tawbah to have loopholes in them, right it's like when you make tawbah to Allah subhanahu wa'ta'ala and a covenant with Allah subhanahu wa'ta'ala dude, there's no fine print Allah knows what you're saying and Allah knows what's in your heart you can't have big print to Allah subhanahu wa'ta'ala and then have the conditions at the bottom.
But when we make tawbah it's like, SubhanAllah, I was telling there's a sister that was in a haram relationship this story happens many times brother and sister in a haram relationship and I want to get married my parents aren't letting us get married after we established a relationship 2-3 years ago and now we're telling our parents about it and now we're mad at them because they don't want to let us get married okay, fine, and you're acting like an angel the entire time and telling me about how vicious your parents are because they don't want to let you marry someone from another race which I agree, we should end racism in marriage but you're not exactly an angel yourself you kind of contributed to this problem too, you know and SubhanAllah, I'm telling, well I said, you know, for the first, for the most part we'll work on that inshaAllah ta'ala but for now, we need to make tawbah separate from each other make sincere tawbah to Allah subhanahu wa'ta'ala because you transgressed the bounds of Allah subhanahu wa'ta'ala and then inshaAllah ta'ala we can talk about the other stuff if it's a good fit and we can try to work on your parents but I really, really, really want him you know, yeah, I feel bad istaghfirullah but I can't live without him that's not a sincere tawbah.
Turn back to Allah with a sincere repentance right, oh Allah, I messed up and I know I messed up and I'm willing to do anything to have that black spot taken off of my heart whatever it has to be.
Umar's Approach to Self-Correction
Now with Umar bin Khattab (رضي الله تعالى عنه) we have a man and I said that every sahabi had a different diagnosis everyone needs to be dealt with a different way Umar (رضي الله عنه) was a roughneck simple as that Umar (رضي الله عنه) didn't listen to sweet talk Umar (رضي الله تعالى عنه) was a straight forward person no beating around the bush you want to correct Umar (رضي الله تعالى عنه) )you grab him by his shirt, you grab him by his beard you talk some sense into him that's what the Prophet (صلى الله عليه وسلم) did when he saw Umar (رضي الله عنه) come to his house he pulled Umar bin Khattab رضي الله تعالى عنه down and when Umar was on his knees he was making direct eye contact with the Prophet (صلى الله عليه وسلم) who was not a short man by the way that's how big Umar was you know, the guy that would sit on an animal and his feet would touch the ground sit on a donkey, his feet touch the ground he's that big when are you going to stop this, oh Umar? are you waiting for Allah subhanahu wa ta'ala to strike you with something? when are you going to stop? when are you going to turn your life around? and Umar (رضي الله عنه) turned his life around.
And you know what? Umar knew that he was a rough duck and that's why Umar dealt with himself roughly as rough as he was with other people he was always much rougher with himself and in fact when he was in a position of authority when he was the khalifa he was much more lenient than some of the most lenient personalities that assume leadership in this ummah he was a very lenient khalifa very lenient with people made excuses for people but for himself, there were no excuses.
This was a man (رَضِيَ اللَّهُ عَنْهُ) that used to sit with himself and used to put his hand next to the fire and say can you handle it, oh Umar? then how would the fire of hell be? this was a man that used to stand up and cry at night at the verses of hellfire at the verses of hellfire because he was rough and he needed to be dealt with in a rough way so he dealt with himself that way to a point that he developed two black marks under his eyes from crying so much he knew what he had to do.
This was a man who knowing his arrogance knowing his ego before Islam knowing his great pride would humble himself even to the little children of the ummah would humble himself to the slaves would humble himself to the people who were not Muslim in the ummah would always humble himself that a woman could call out to Umar and say to Umar, I remember you when you were Umair when you were a little Umair when you were a little boy playing around fear Allah subhanahu wa ta'ala and he would break down into tears before Islam he probably would have smacked her across the face that was his personality he was a rough man but he knew how to deal with himself.
The Balanced Approach
And that's the reality of the Sahaba they knew how to deal with themselves they knew when they needed to hear some Jannah and they knew when they needed to hear some hell sometimes telling people about Jannah too much is counterproductive because they get too relaxed they get too calm sometimes you need to be shaken up too our deen is a balanced and comprehensive deen if you find somebody that's struggling on the side of the street if you find someone that's a bum in this world you don't go to them and tell them don't worry, welfare is going to get better a democrat's in office hopefully something will get better for you you know, you're part of the 47% Alhamdulillah things will work out in your benefit don't worry, don't worry you don't tell them that if you love them you tell them get up and work nobody's going to do it for you stop being a bum because sometimes you need to be shaken up.
And it bothers me that not at this conference by the way why I'm going to do this but at some conferences when you go to a conference the organization will tell you Sheikh, we want to make our youth feel good you know, I remember I don't want to say the name of the country because I don't want to be in trouble when Hurricane Katrina took place all the ambassadors from the Muslim world came to give their checks for the Katrina victims even though their own people are in poverty but it was gestures, right? all these amirs and things and I was always a representative of the Muslim community and one time one of the amirs of a country called me because I was going to recite Quran before the meeting he said read something sweet and nice I'm like the entire Quran is sweet and nice what are you talking about? right? he's like, yeah, you know something like Surah Ar-Rahman you know, something like that and then I went and I read Surah Al-Qaf he was looking at me and he wanted to kill me and I was like I will never step foot in your country after this I know exactly what's going to happen I get enough issues when I travel but subhanAllah that's the attitude that we have, right? let's just talk about Jannah let's just
talk about let's just sit around and sing Kumbaya without music, you know so that it's still halal and let's all feel good about ourselves.
No you read about Umar (رَضِيَ اللَّهُ عَنْهُ) he dealt with himself in the way that he needed to be dealt with and that's the you know what? let's face it a lot of us sometimes need a heavy hitting speech the way that you know, Dr. Altaf you know, I'm sitting here complaining about my traveling and stuff like that he made me feel like garbage just now but that's good Alhamdulillah, JazakAllah Khair because I look at Mus'ab ibn Umayr (رَضِيَ اللَّهُ عَنْهُ) I'm like, dude, you're a joke you think you're tired because you get on a plane and you know, you're traveling you're a joke look at Mus'ab (رَضِيَ اللَّهُ عَنْهُ) we need to be dealt with that way we need to talk to ourselves that way.
Setting Goals and Standards
And subhanAllah, there's a very powerful statement that I once heard it's a quotation it's not a hadith it's not a qawl of a salaf but it says set your goals high enough to where they inspire you but low enough to where you won't be discouraged set your goals high enough to where they're inspiring you know, you're aiming high you know, it's like a lot of times I had a lot of catholic friends in New Orleans growing up and for lunch like, what are you gonna give up? I'm gonna give up a hamburger I'm not gonna eat hamburgers for lunch set your goals high enough to where you're striving to where they inspire you to where you're aiming high you're aiming in accordance with your potential and your capacity but low enough to where you're not deflated and discouraged that's what you do as a Muslim.
Umar (رَضِيَ اللَّهُ عَنْهُ) as much as he feared hellfire he didn't just say okay, well, I'm giving up you know, I'm not gonna do anything no! that fear of failure motivated him to succeed motivated him to be the best human being that walked the face of the earth after Abu Bakr (رَضِيَ اللَّهُ عَنْهُ) that wasn't a prophet to be the person that the Prophet (صَلَّى اللَّهُ عَلَيْهِ وَسَلَّمَ) said:
(Sunan at-Tirmidhi Hadith 3686)
If there was to be a prophet after me it would have been Umar (رَضِيَ اللَّهُ عَنْهُ)
That fear that he had of hypocrisy he feared his past yes, he did fear his past he did a lot of wrong in his past he feared it but he used it as motivation he didn't deflate himself as a result and not do anything.
Umar's Sincerity at Death
And subhanAllah, look at this man you really wanna see the sincerity of a person you see it at the time of death when he asks Allah subhanahu wa ta'ala:
Oh Allah, I ask you to die in your cause in the city of your prophet.
And Allah subhan... and Hafsah (رَضِيَ اللَّهُ عَنْهَا) says to him you know, how are you gonna do that you know, Medina is the fortress people die when they go out traveling how are you gonna do that you know, how are you gonna die (فِي سَبِيلِ اللَّهِ) Allah subhanahu wa ta'ala make it happen he's sincere with that and subhanallah, look at what happens to him he is stabbed in the masjid of the prophet (صَلَّى اللَّهُ عَلَيْهِ وَسَلَّمَ) while leading salah and then buried next to the prophet (صَلَّى اللَّهُ عَلَيْهِ وَسَلَّمَ)
And you know what the request of this man was as he's dying he didn't want people to know that he was stabbed because he wanted them to keep praying this was a person that before Islam was trying to stop the people from praying was trying to stop this message from growing and spread Islam you know, all over the world and didn't want the people to stop praying and you know what else he said he asked, he said by the way, who killed me who was the one who stabbed me they said it was Abu Lu'lu al-Majusi it was the fire worshipper Zoroastrian, Abu Lu'lu and he said Alhamdulillah, the one who killed me wasn't from the ummah of Muhammad (صَلَّى اللَّهُ عَلَيْهِ وَسَلَّمَ) he was working to divide the ummah before Islam now, his concern is I want the ummah to stay together Alhamdulillah, the guy that killed me wasn't a Muslim because if he was a Muslim it would have led to widespread fitna think about that right.
Conclusion and Application
So find your calling know your personality and learn how to work on yourself and set your own goals and your own standards and you know what be rough on yourself when you have to be rough on yourself Umar (رَضِيَ اللَّهُ عَنْهُ) his tazkiyah is not pretty but it's necessary and that's where our tazkiyah has to be not pretty, but necessary sometimes.
Alhamdulillah we can get together and we can talk about Jannah and we can talk about how Alhamdulillah, you know we say لَا إِلَهَ إِلَّا اللَّهُ and Rasulullah (صَلَّى اللَّهُ عَلَيْهِ وَسَلَّمَ) said:
(Sahih al-Bukhari Hadith 128)
Whoever says it then Allah will forbid him from the hellfire Alhamdulillah, we're good we're good, we're good but Umar (رَضِيَ اللَّهُ عَنْهُ) keeps on going to Hudhayfa and saying to Hudhayfa am I one of the hypocrites? did Rasulullah (صَلَّى اللَّهُ عَلَيْهِ وَسَلَّمَ) mention my name to you? how much more reassurance do you need? Allah subhanahu wa ta'ala made you from the the ten promised paradise from the people that witnessed Badr and all of the battles with the Prophet (صَلَّى اللَّهُ عَلَيْهِ وَسَلَّمَ) Rasulullah صلى الله عليه وسلم told you that you would enter Jannah hand in hand with him but Umar (رَضِيَ اللَّهُ عَنْهُ) was always afraid he wasn't doing enough.
And many times, I'm telling you you know what the biggest problem that we have even amongst youth that work for Islam I'm not talking about the non-Masjid going youth I'm done, don't worry I'm just crumpling up these papers I'm not even reading them Dr. Altaf didn't care you know what the biggest problem is? I'm not even talking about with the youth that don't come to the Masjid don't attend organizations you know, don't attend conferences and stuff like that I'm talking about the youth that are
active today satisfaction with mediocrity don't be satisfied with being mediocre don't pat yourself on the back because you did something motivate yourself set higher goals for yourself right? and that's really the main thing that I take from the Tazkiyah of Umar bin Al-Khattab (رَضِيَ اللَّهُ عَنْهُ)
I ask Allah subhanahu wa ta'ala with that being said to bless our brothers and sisters for their efforts because we're let everyone be hard on themselves but:
(Sunan at-Tirmidhi Hadith 1954)
Whoever doesn't thank people doesn't thank Allah subhanahu wa ta'ala so we show gratitude to others but we hold ourselves to higher standards so hold yourself to a higher standard work on yourself be rough on yourself to motivate yourself and we ask Allah subhanahu wa ta'ala to bless YM for all of the incredible work that they're doing I hope everyone will become a part of this organization inshallah and will further and if it's not YM whatever youth group is active in your area but further this cause of getting the youth involved and not being satisfied with mediocrity not being satisfied with just enough but actually willing to make real sacrifices for this Ummah and actually willing to question themselves and be hard on themselves to try to achieve a higher goal.
JazakumAllahu Khayran Wassalamualaikum Warahmatullahi Wabarakatuh