The Secret to Finding Inner Peace | Allah's Names | Dr. Omar Suleiman | Ep. 14

Finding Peace Through Allah's Perfect Names

There are names of Allah like As-Samad that are meant to fill your emptiness. But then there are names that are made to deal with your restlessness. You've come to figure out that this world is full of a lot of noise, and then suddenly the hereafter doesn't feel that far away anymore, and in some ways it's become closer to you than the things you used to cling to.

You come to realize that you weren't created for a life without storms, but you were given what's needed to find stillness within them. The chaos of this world is meant to drive you to the source of peace, and meant to make a source of peace. All while you long for the final destination of peace.

And there you will have whatever your soul desires, and whatever you ask for. But that's Jannah, where everything is pure and perfect. Here you need to find peace in His perfection, while being an imperfect being experiencing an imperfect world.

The Three Sources of Peace

The scholars say that peace comes from three things. From knowing Him in His perfection, from trusting His perfect plan, and from remembering His perfect reward waiting for you in the next life. But what you don't want to do is find yourself on the other side of that plan, because you're the one spreading corruption or robbing someone else of their peace.

Sometimes your first test is not necessarily to make the world pure, but to remain pure within it, even though you're never going to be perfect. And that's where three names unfold inseparably. As-Subuh, the utterly perfect beyond all imperfection.

Al-Quddus, the entirely pure, who purifies what he wills. As-Salam, the one who is peace himself, and the source of any peace to be found within.

The Angels' Response to Adam's Creation

When Allah announced the Khilafah of Adam, an imperfect being on earth, the angels said:

Ya Rabb, will you put on earth those who spread corruption and spill blood, which is the opposite of peace. And we, on the other hand, glorify your praises and sanctify you. Meaning we don't just declare your perfection, but our worship in accordance with that perfection is pure. The scholars explained that when they said, نُقَدِّسُ لَكَ, they meant we offer to you only the purest of deeds without any shirk or any insincerity.

The Meaning of Tasbih and Taqdis

Now look at the words, تَسْبِيحَ declares him free of any imperfection, تَقْدِيسَ declares him pure of all contamination, and it purifies your own deeds for him. So for the angels, تَسْبِيحَ and تَقْدِيسَ looks like this. The Prophet ﷺ said that the heavens above you are creaking because there isn't a handspan except that there is an angel standing, bowing, or prostrating, glorifying Allah without a break.

(Hadith)

And when that angel who did nothing but worship Allah for his entire existence raises his head on the Day of Judgment, the only thing he will say is: How perfect are you. We did not worship you as much as you deserve to be worshipped. That's the angels.

But when you bow and prostrate like the angels in every rukoor and sujood, what are you doing? You're echoing their words aspirationally.

Perfect and pure is the Lord of the angels and the spirit. And then at the end of witr when you pray that extra prayer beyond obligation, purely out of love and devotion, when no one else can see you and you've chosen your devotion over desire, you say:

The angels questioned the favor that Allah was bestowing upon humanity because of what they already did and didn't know what we would be capable of. And when we choose devotion like them, we join them in their worship of tasbih and taqdis even though we have what they don't, shahwa, desire. Tasbih and taqdis are the acts that honor سُبُوح قُدُّوس And think of them as clearing the way and then filling the void.

The Deep Meaning of As-Subooh and Al-Quddus

سُبُوح means no flaw can ever be ascribed to him. قُدُّوس means no purity exists except from him. So between them you have the intense negation of anything unworthy of him and the intense affirmation of every perfection that belongs to him. سِبَاح means to swim and it also shares the root word because the swimmer is on top of the water. So you're declaring سُبُوح above all that is attributed to him.

And what did Yunus alayhi salaam say when he was drowning at the very bottom of the ocean?

There is no god but you. How perfect are you. I was amongst the wrongdoers. And Allah says:

Had he not been amongst those who do tasbih, then he would have stayed in the belly of that whale drowning until the day of judgment. The angel raises his head in the heavens, سُبْحَانَ اللَّهُ Yunus alayhi salaam in the bottom of the ocean, سُبْحَانَ اللَّهُ Both of them are declaring Allah is above it all.

Think of the whole world as a deep ocean and tasbih as the only way to breathe in it. So that's how you ascend. But how do you purify yourself after you stained yourself with sin? You come to Quddus, the pure who makes pure, the holy who makes holy.

Al-Quddus: The One Who Purifies

Ibn al-Jawzi rahimahullah said Allah called the holy land of Palestine, الأرض المقدسة Because it is المطهرة, it purifies the one who goes to it from all sin. And al-Quds is pure and blessed only by al-Quddus himself. And just as al-Quddus sanctifies places, he can sanctify people too.

When Salman al-Farisi radiyaAllahu ta'ala was settled in Persia, his brother in Palestine Abu al-Darda radiyaAllahu ta'ala sent him a letter and he said, هَلُمَّ إِلَى الْأَرْضِ الْمُقَدَّسَ Come to the holy land and join me. And Salman responds with a letter that says:

(Narration)

The land itself does not make anyone holy, rather the only thing that makes a person holy are his deeds. You could live in the holiest city on earth and still have a corrupted heart. You could be the neighbor of the haram in Mecca and live your life in haram and have no benefit from being where you are physically because of who you are spiritually. The place itself doesn't make you holy. The pursuit of the one who made that place holy does.

Worthiness of the Holy Places

And when Allah talks about the holy places in the Qur'an, it's always in the context of are you worthy. When Musa alayhi salaam and his people are told:

Enter the holy land, and then Bani Israel refuses to do so because of their spiritual poisons. Allah ends up banning an entire generation from it, finding them unworthy of that pure land.

And then when Musa himself is about to approach, al-Quddus says to him:

Indeed, I am your Lord, so remove your sandals, for you are about to enter the sacred valley of Tuwa. So when you approach al-Quddus, you have to come worthy, and you have to come pure, physically and spiritually.

Physical and Spiritual Purification

Physically, you purify yourself by removing any impurity from your garment, and then making wudu and entering into a state of tahara so that you can pray and read Qur'an and do other acts of worship.

But spiritually, Allah says:

That there is a defilement of shirk and other spiritual impurities that keep a person away from Allah. And that's why the du'a for spiritual cleansing is this imagery of laundry:

Oh Allah, wash away my sins with water, snow, and hail, just as you purify a white garment from stain. You need a deep cleansing to be purified, and just as you wash the body for prayer, you wash the heart for presence.

Ar-Ruh Al-Qudus: The Holy Spirit

And that's why you have ar-ruh al-qudus, the Holy Spirit, being Jibreel alayhi salaam, who is purified by Allah and given a rank that no other angel holds. His entire being reflects the beauty and purity of Allah's plan.

Jibreel loves what Allah loves, and he's the first to find out what Allah loves, and then he does what Allah commands, and he's been given the greatest command of the angels by delivering the revelation without hesitation. And what do he and the angels descend with on the night of Laylatul Qadr upon the believers when they're standing in their state of worship? Salaam, salaam, peace, peace. But who is that peace from? It's not from them, it's from the one who sent them.

As-Salam: The Source of All Peace

As-salam is the one who is peace, who gives peace. He gives peace to the believers, and he is unlimited in his supply. Because faqidu shay la yu'tihi, the one who doesn't have something can't give it.

And when we give each other salaam, we're getting it from him and then extending it to the capacity that we have. And when we say as-salamu alaykum to each other, we're not just saying peace be upon you, we're saying no harm will come to you from me. And when we call upon as-salam, we're asking for peace on the inside and all around us.

And when you live with as-salam, peace stops depending on circumstance because the calm within can sustain you. Notice in your prayer, in your rukoor and your sujood, you say suboohun quddus. And where do you find more peace than those positions in your prayer? And then when you close the prayer, as-salamu alaykum wa rahmatullah, as-salamu alaykum wa rahmatullah, you're not just greeting angels. You're spreading the peace that you just received to everything right and left of you.

And then you seal it all with: Oh Allah, you are peace, and from you is peace. Blessed are you, oh possessor of majesty and honor. You return to the source of peace, and then you become a source of peace. And the Prophet said, afshu salama baynakum, spread peace among you.

Those who know as-salam don't just rest in peace when they die, they reflect it while they're still alive. Because salam isn't just a greeting, it's the state that you carry back from your prayer mat into a restless world, before you return to your eternal home.

The Call to Dar As-Salam

And all along Allah is calling you to the home of peace. And after the believers greet each other with salam in this life, and then the angels come to you and greet you with salam at death, the ultimate calm is when you hear salam from as-salam himself:

Peace. A word to you from your loving, merciful Lord. He greets you with His own names, and it's not just angels saying it on His behalf anymore, it's Him saying it to you directly. And Jannah isn't just a place of reward, it's a reunion with all those whom you love, including Him.

It's where every fracture in your soul is healed, every anxiety is erased, and every longing is fulfilled. But He's not just calling you to a place of peace, He's calling you to become peace, to carry it in yourself, so that by the time you enter into daar as-salam, you won't be walking into peace for the very first time. You'll be returning to it, repeating what the angels who are now all around you have always said from the beginning:

Perfect and pure is the Lord of the angels and the spirit.

Living in This World with Divine Peace

But you're not an angel, and you happen to live in a world of demons and imperfect beings just like yourself, and the only way to survive this world is through the peace that you find in Him.

Ya subooh subhanak, how perfect you are beyond everything I can imagine. When the world feels loud and heavy, remind me that you are untouched by its chaos. Let my glory and praise of you rise above the darkness, even if I drown myself in it, and pull me out of it by your perfection, even after I dragged myself down.

Ya quddus, purify me inside and out. Cleanse my worship of pride, my heart of resentment, my soul of anything that clouds its way back to you, and make me worthy of the nearness I seek to you.

Ya salam, send peace into every storm within my chest. Let your calm settle where fear once lived. Your safety surround what the world cannot protect. Make me a source of peace for others, until I meet you in the home of peace, and get to hear from you yourself. Salam.