When You Need to Be Seen | Allah's Names | Dr. Omar Suleiman | Ep. 13

When You Need to Be Seen | Allah's Names

"I brought you some tea. It's really cold out here." "Oh, thanks Rahim."

"Rahim. I was wondering... if it's okay with you and Adia. No problem."

"Adam can stay with us. Go to your meeting. And you can come back until you're done."

"Are you... are you sure?" "It's no trouble. Really. Actually, we've grown very fond of Adam."

"He reminds us of our daughter, Sandra." "I didn't know you had a..." "Excuse me. What's wrong?" "It's just another investor pulled out."

"Look. I may not understand what you're doing, but... at the end of the day, it's... it's just work, brother. It's not worth it."

"You know? Tearing yourself apart for that? Things have a way of settling down. They always do." "Except that they won't."

"Why do you say that?" "Because I'm a cursed man. Cursed with war. Cursed with my grief and cursed with my roots."

"There may be people who are... less fortunate... than others, but... it doesn't mean that they're cursed. It's just the nature of life." "Life? What kind of life is that? You have no idea... what I've been through to get to where I am right now."

"Despite being a Palestinian. And then just watch the whole thing just collapse in a... second." "I don't know about your journey."

"But... I have an idea about... how it feels to be... you know, judged by your name. Your skin color. Come on, man."

"I'm Sudanese. I'm a black African. People don't even look long enough to decide if we are human or not."

"We are headline. A stereotype. You know? That's it."

"But Allah... sees more in us than that." "Really? You're bringing Allah into this? Where was Allah... when this kid was torn away from his mother? Where was he... when your people suffered? And where was he when I had to bury my own parents... along with my entire childhood? Where was he, Rahim?" "She's dead." "Who?" "A daughter, Sandra."

"You ask about her, she passed away." "I didn't... I... I don't know why that happened. I have no answer."

"You know... I have no answer... to make it hurt less. But I do know it wasn't for nothing. I was going through a lot."

"And I was given a lot too. Don't get me wrong. But... the only thing... that never left me... was him."

"What's the point?" "I don't know. But... the answer you're trying to get is... is right inside of you, you know? You... You haven't looked at the right part of yourself. The part that you're running from."

"You know... I used to call myself Raheem. I thought if I'd trim my name, I could fit in better. I thought if I erased where I'm from, I... I could be a new version of myself."

"But... But remembering... You know... Remembering looking at my daughter, you know, Sandra, it's just... And how proud she was... of who Allah made her. And books obtained me. I was ashamed of myself."

"I hated myself. For real. For all the time wasted, pretending... while she was still here."

"But she gave me something back. She taught me that... You don't have to be a label, you know? Not an apology or... a threat. Just Raheem."

"You know... Proud of... myself. For finally standing still."

Al-Basir: The All-Seeing

It can feel like you're invisible, and that no one seems to see your pain.

But you are truly under our watchful eyes. You are carried in our sights, not just caught by our sight. In a world where cameras capture your face but not your heart, his gaze is the only one that heals instead of hunts.

People look for your low lights or maybe even your highlight reel. Al-Basir looks at the hidden reel, the parts that you edit out even from yourself. Al-Basir is the all-seeing who sees what no one else sees.

Anyone else could be staring at you right now and miss something even on the surface. And when someone says, I want to feel seen, what they mean is they want to feel seen and understood. Al-Basir sees even through layers of darkness that no eye can penetrate.

Think about how dark the ocean is and the kind of night vision you would need just to make out the surface of it. And then remember the narration from Ibn Mas'ud رضي الله عنه about Yunus عليه السلام. Allah heard him and saw him في ظلمة الليل وظلمة البحر وظلمة بطن الحوت - in the darkness of the night, in the darkness of the sea, in the darkness of the belly of the whale.

Your heart can feel like that dark ocean sometimes and Al-Basir can see right through every single layer. And then when you stand in the night and no one else knows you're awake, he says:

The one who sees you when you rise and your circulation amongst those who prostrate. Between the two states, it's as if he's saying you are never unseen, not in your tears, not in your thoughts, not in your tests.

So when the world overlooks you and you start to feel invisible, remember that you are moving beneath his gaze and guarded by his sight. And Ihsan is أن تعبد الله كأنك تراه فإن لم تكن تراه فإنه يراك - You worship him as if you can see him. And when you can't, you know he sees you.

Your greatest comfort in this world becomes worshiping him while knowing he sees you. And your greatest desire of the hereafter becomes seeing him while knowing he's pleased with you. And just as Al-Basir is seeing your reality, he grants you Basira, an inner sight that sees his reality through everything else.

He sees through layers of darkness over your pain. You see through layers of deception that try to take you away from him. You stop being deceived by appearances and you start seeing things as they truly are.

As-Shaheed: The Witness

But will he tell the world what he saw that no one else did? There's being seen and then there's being witnessed. As-Shaheed is the ever-present witness who testifies for you and to you. It means that he is present in every scene, not just watching it.

And he bears witness to every truth. Isa عليه السلام will say on the Day of Judgment:

I was a witness over them so long as I remained among them. Then when you took me, you were the watcher over them and you are always a witness over all things.

I was a shaheed while I was there, but you are the shaheed over everything all the time. Our witnessing is limited. His witnessing is constant.

But just as he is a shaheed over us as an ummah, we are a shaheed over all other ummahs. So when the Prophets are called forth on the Day of Judgment and their ummahs deny them, Allah calls us as shuhada to testify as witnesses on behalf of all of the Prophets of Allah. He allows us to affirm what he already knew and honors us by making us witnesses to what he already witnessed.

But just like you testify to what you knew they did of good, even though you never saw it, a shaheed validates your unseen labor that no one else saw. He witnesses the time you held yourself in pain and only responded to that pain with patience and piety. And even with others, he witnesses that time you held your tongue or swallowed your pain that no one else noticed.

And he called the martyr whose pain he saw all along a shaheed, a witness, because the shaheed bears witness to Allah's reward and how he saw them in their pain and honored them for their sacrifice.

Ar-Raqeeb: The Watchful

And then he calls himself Ar-Raqeeb, the ever watchful. Ar-Raqeeb is someone who is watching you and accounting you.

Imagine if someone had a camera on you 24-7, how different would you be? And that would be even if that person had no worth. Imagine Allah who is so much more than that and has so much more than that. Imam Ibn Rajab رحمه الله relates that it's narrated that Allah revealed to one of his prophets:

Tell your people, O Prophet, why do you hide your sins from my creation yet commit them openly before me? If you think I don't see you, then you've disbelieved in me. But if you know that I see you, then why have you reduced me to the least of your observers?

If you know He sees you, then why act as though He doesn't matter? When Al-Junaid رضي الله عنه was asked, how do we lower our gaze? He said, by knowing that Allah's gaze upon you precedes your gaze upon whatever you're looking at. Allah is even observing your thoughts before your actions. And if you start to regulate your thoughts accordingly, you'll naturally also regulate your actions.

So just look at, for example, how Ibn Al-Jawzi رحمه الله describes the process of sin. He says, first, you have a passing thought, خاطرة. And then if you entertain that thought, it becomes a فكرة, a settled thought.

Then if you think about it too much, you invite shaitan into your thoughts to basically put on a commercial for that sin. So you spiritually watch the sin salesman. And then you develop نية, the intention to commit that deed.

And then once you've decided to do it, you move towards it determined and ignore the obstacles Allah puts between you and that sin. And that's called عزيمة, determination. And then you have عمل.

Allah actually allows you to commit that sin. Then as a punishment for that sin, he lets you sin again and again and again until it becomes a habitual sin. So in the process of sin, imagine if you were practicing muraqabah and you interrupted at the level of him observing your thoughts.

It's a powerful notion. Sahl Ibn Abdullah رحمه الله, he says that my uncle taught me to repeat every night as I went to bed. الله معي، الله شاهدي، الله ناظر إلي.

Allah is with me. Allah is witnessing me. Allah is looking at me.

So he said, I would repeat this until I found the sweetness of it. أنت تراقب الله، والله يراقبك. You observe Allah and he observes you.

You start to observe Allah with everything around you, glorifying him, seeking him and trusting him. Ibn al-Qayyim رحمه الله says, the sign of true muraqabah of Allah's sight is to prefer what Allah has revealed, to magnify what he magnified and to treat as small what he treated as small. So you take this muraqabah and you use it not just to discourage you from sins, but to push you to secret good deeds.

I always tell people, let there be a good deed so secretive between you and Allah that you look forward to him bringing it up on the day of judgment. But before you seek that moment on that day and hope for the veil that will cover you from the creation and humiliation. What about when you do slip here?

As-Sittir: The Concealer

That brings us to his last name in this order, As-Sittir, the concealer.

Just like Al-Ghafoor covers the effects of your sin by removing its consequence, As-Sittir covers the sin itself from people while he calls your heart back to him. If he's been concealing your private sins from creation, know that he's still inviting you to heal. He honors your shame, but will you honor his name while he's watching you commit that sin against him? And if he exposes you, that may also be to heal you instead of humiliate you.

How is that possible? The Prophet صلى الله عليه وسلم said that whoever commits a sin in this world and is punished while they're still here, Allah is too generous to repeat that punishment in the hereafter. And whoever commits a sin in this world and Allah conceals it and pardons him, Allah is too generous to retract his pardon when he already granted it.

There was a thief that was once brought to Umar رضي الله عنه and he said, "By Allah, I have never stolen before."

Umar رضي الله عنه said, "You're lying. Because Allah never exposes a person the first time he commits a sin. He gives him a chance to come back before people find out."

And then afterwards, the man admitted that he actually stole 21 times before getting caught.

And because Allah is As-Sittir, he loves when we become a veil for one another. The Prophet صلى الله عليه وسلم said:

(Sahih Muslim, Hadith 2699)

Whoever covers the fault of a Muslim, Allah will cover him in this world and the hereafter.

So give others the very covering you crave from your Lord. Be the cloak, not the spotlight.

Sittir is not complicity with the sin. It's a mercy that restrains our tongues from broadcasting sin while we help a person repent and make amends and prevent them from further harming themselves before they harm someone else. And subhanAllah, the only exception to this is if they pose a threat of harm to other brothers and sisters who need to be forewarned.

And there's a warning here too. The Prophet صلى الله عليه وسلم said, "Oh, you who believe with your tongues while faith has not yet entered your hearts, don't go searching for the faults of the Muslims. For whoever pursues his brother's faults, Allah will pursue his faults. And if Allah pursues his faults, he will expose him even within his own house."

So let us be a community of Sittir, quick to help, slow to expose, brave enough to confront harm through the right channels and humble enough to leave off gossip disguised as concern. In giving cover to others, we're only imitating the Lord who has covered us more times than we can count.

And that means that even when we come across someone doing something wrong by chance, we remind them of As-Sittir in a very particular way. Muhammad ibn al-Munkadir, رحمه الله, once stumbled across a man and a woman alone on the path. So he said to them gently, "Allah sees you both. May he cover us and cover you."

Conclusion

Let Allah see you in beautiful struggle against sin and in beautiful secret acts of good that you did only for him and reminding people of his beautiful Sittir.

When no one saw you, Al-Basir saw you. When no one stood up for you, As-Shaheed recorded you. When you were about to derail, Ar-Raqeeb awakened you. And when you couldn't bear the shame of your lapse into sin, As-Sittir covered you.

And you may find that he doesn't just give you peace from the world that seeks to humiliate you, but he may honor you with a peace in your heart that only he holds.