Whose Validation Do You Need? | Sh. Shabbir Hassan | Juz 8 Qur’an 30 for 30 S7 | Ramadan Series

Opening: The Names of Allah - Al-Ghani, Dhur-Rahma

ذو الرحمة, I am full of mercy. ذو الرحمة here means Allah is Al-Haleem, Allah is As-Saboor, Allah is As-Sateer. So He is full of mercy, He is forbearing, He is patient.

So Allah doesn't need what's popular and Allah doesn't judge truth by what's popular. Don't be so desperate for validation from other people. Allah is not looking for their belief in a way like He needs them to believe.

There may be too much hope to where you say Allah غفور رحيم, I don't pray in Ramadan, that's fine. Or you have خوف, you say Allah will never forgive me. No, be in the middle course.

Welcome and Introduction

As-salamu alaykum wa rahmatullahi wa barakatuh everyone. Welcome back to Quran 30 for 30. We are in Juz 8 and we ask Allah to bless us as we're coming to the end of the first third of Ramadan, almost.

May Allah allow us to have an accepted Ramadan. May Allah see us through it and may Allah guide us to that which is best. Allahumma Ameen.

We're blessed Alhamdulillah to have with us for the first time on Quran 30 for 30 Sheikh Shabir Hassan. Alhamdulillah Rabbul Ameen. I remember you when Ilmfeed was starting up.

You know, one of the things that we're very big on is partnership at Yaqeen. Alhamdulillah Rabbul Ameen. We love to partner with other organizations, other efforts to uplift them.

About Ilmfeed

Tell us about Ilmfeed Sheikh. Ilmfeed, Mashallah, we set it up actually because we wanted to combat the negative news of Muslims in the mainstream. So we wanted to just highlight literally the positive contributions of Muslims.

We started with articles and things and then turned it to videos and the podcast. Alhamdulillah, it's just been growing. So I think Muslims just love a bit of positivity. I think when you get a bit of positivity, it just changes everything.

The Forgotten Sunnah of Optimism

What would you say to someone that is discouraged? Someone that's just discouraged when they start Islamic projects. I don't know if this is going to go anywhere. What do you say to them?

For me, Wallahi Sheikh, one of the forgotten sunnahs is optimism. You know, this is a sunnah which we talk about sunnah, we always say it's the clothing, the dress, even ibadah, it's important.

But you know, just adopting the positivity and the positive outlook of Rasulullah, I think that in and of itself is a sunnah which is being forgotten. You look around the world and you see all of the things that are happening. And it's very easy as a Muslim, as a believer to become dejected.

And I always turn to Surah Yusuf where Yaakub says:

It's only the people who don't have faith and belief and conviction in Allah who really give up, they give up hope. So I think we should adopt this sunnah of just having optimism, because it comes from having a good perception of Allah. Optimism literally is to have حسن الظن بالله.

So it's that relationship with Allah when you can figure that out. Look, I have the intention, I have the عزم, I've done what I can. As for the outcome, it's not in my hands. The outcome is never in our hands. And I think a lot of us, we focus too much on the outcome and the result.

That's not in our hands. And we just have to control the intention and the efforts and leave the rest to Allah.

Sheikh, your favorite name of Allah right now, what is it?

Al-Lateef. Al-Lateef always has to be. The way that Allah, He intricately plans things in our lives, and we don't understand why things are happening and the way they're happening. But Allah in a very subtle way with لطف, in a very gentle way guides us through.

I think for me, this is one of my favorite names. And again, turning to Surah Yusuf, that's the name at the end that comes in. It's a pleasure to have you and I'm looking forward to the discussion.

The Theme Connecting Juz 7 and Juz 8

I want to give a quick overview of how this Juz builds on a theme in the previous Juz. And SubhanAllah, I can tell you love Surah Yusuf. And one of the things about the story of Yusuf is you immediately become very emotionally invested.

And you have to think that when you're going through things, at some point you can start to think - what did I do? And is it me? Am I the problem? Am I a failure? Could I have done something differently that would have changed the trajectory?

You can imagine the shaitan chipping away, especially when people are in prison. SubhanAllah, when I talk to people in prison, you can see how shaitan attacks them in different ways. Can you think maybe shaitan probably came to Yusuf at some point and said, you shouldn't have done that with your brothers.

Maybe you provoked this, you brought this upon yourself. You can actually internalize it into a place of self-hatred, not accountability. Accountability is good. Self-hatred and despair.

The Prophets and Their Validation

And there is a theme, something that I caught for the first time, SubhanAllah, between Juz 7 and Juz 8. So I'll go back to Juz 7. We talked about this verse:

The day that Allah will gather all of the messengers. Allah will say, how did they respond to you? They would say, we have no knowledge compared to you. You alone are indeed the all-knowing of the unseen.

And you have to think - imagine being a prophet who was rejected constantly and you had no followers. What did I do wrong? Was it me? Could I have done the da'wah better? Could I have called them better?

But Allah is عَلَّامُ الْغُيُوبِ. Allah knows the unseen intricate details of your da'wah, the unseen intricate details of the one that you're giving da'wah to, their hearts, their minds, their thinking, the flaws, whether they're deserving or not.

So SubhanAllah, look what Allah says in this Juz now, when you come into Al-An'am:

If we were to send the angels upon them, and the dead were to speak to them. Actually, break this ayah up one by one. Let's say the angels came to them directly. That would not benefit them.

Let's say, كَلَّمَهُمُ الْمَوْتَى - the dead were risen and they spoke to them. That would not work.

وَحَشَرْنَا عَلَيْهِمْ كُلَّ شَيْءٍ قُبُلًا - and we were to assemble before their own eyes, every sign they demanded.

That's three challenges that Allah makes. The angels coming down, if the dead were to rise up and speak to them, or everything they asked from a sign, poof, it popped up right in front of them.

Allah says, مَا كَانُوا لِيُؤْمِنُوا إِلَّا أَن يَشَاءَ اللَّهُ - they would not believe unless Allah willed. وَلَٰكِنَّ أَكْثَرَهُمْ يَجْهَلُونَ - but rather most of them are ignorant.

The Validation Factor

So in this case, there are a few things that immediately stand out here. No matter how good your da'wah is, no matter how much you want to reach someone's heart, no matter how much you want to change somebody, if that person doesn't want to change, they will not change.

And there is a validating factor here. You know, we talked about Allah as the Wali of the believers in the previous Juz. That's a heavy theme in Juz 7. In Juz 8, Allah is comforting the prophets themselves, comforting Isa.

Isa had no flaw in his da'wah. I mean, what more do you want from Jesus Peace Be Upon Him? As some of the ulema mentioned, that because he was the last prophet of Bani Israel, Allah gave him all of the miracles of the prophets of Bani Israel.

Like there were prophets of Bani Israel that raised the dead. There were prophets of Bani Israel that healed the leper and the blind. There were prophets of Bani Israel that did every one of the miracles of Isa.

But he has all these miracles, yet still look how he was rejected. Is it me? Was I the problem? No, you were not the problem. Allah elevated you, raised you, established the proof through you.

But you should not think that you failed because of the way humanity responded to you. Don't be so desperate for validation from humanity. And of course, the prophets are not desperate for validation from humanity.

I'm saying for us, don't be so desperate for validation from other people. Allah is not looking for their belief in a way like he needs them to believe. We talked about Allah Al-Ghani Al-Hameed.

So, Allah being independent in this regard. Allah does not need their praise. Allah does not need their belief.

But there's something deeply profound about that. And I'll stop there for a moment InshaAllah because that's something that immediately catches my attention between these two ajza, between these two juz. Allah saying to the prophets and to the messengers, you did your jobs.

This was not because of a flaw with your job. You would not have been able to do a better job. And even if you did a quote unquote better job in terms of your estimation, it would not have changed the outcome because they were not going to be blessed with the gift of guidance and the gift of belief.

Efforts vs Outcomes

Sometimes we get so attached to outcomes and we tie outcomes to our efforts in a way that actually becomes counterproductive and dangerous. To where we then go back and we retroactively judge the efforts in accordance with the outcomes.

And Allah is telling you that there was a purpose for the effort and there was a purpose for the outcome. And don't mix those two things up.

It's beautiful. I always remind myself, bismillah, constantly throughout the Quran Allah says, وَلَٰكِنَّ أَكْثَرَهُمْ - and most of them do not do this. Most of them are not thankful. Most of them, يَجْهَلُونَ, most of them are very ignorant.

And this is indirectly comforting for the one that gives 110% in effort, bismillah, for the sake of Allah. So, I like how you mentioned the effort and then the outcome. So, the effort as long as you're doing it for Allah, as you mentioned Sheikh, you don't rely on the outcome or the outcome doesn't shape the way that you act in the future.

Because they didn't respond to me the way that I wanted, I have to sit back and say Allah wanted something else. And as a matter of fact, most of them won't anyway. So, it brings an indirect level of comfort in Allah.

And what's beautiful about the names we're going to cover, what we're going to cover is that you want to have غِنَاءٌ عن النَّاس, you want to be self-sufficient for mankind and only seek sufficiently in Al-Ghani.

So, when you're dealing with people and you recognize that they're not responding, I mean, how many of us have talked to family members that we thought were going to come back this Ramadan, or they promised us something, or they said something, or non-Muslim family members, and then you've done everything, you've sacrificed yourself, your money, your time, your friendships even, for that person not to respond in a way that you would expect.

This is a huge opportunity for you to turn back to Allah and to be more vulnerable to him and to rely on him and to realize, I have no ultimate control over this.

And as a matter of fact, again, most of the people will not understand, they just won't. And what's most important in here is that it's not a condition for us to know why they don't. And the battle that you will go through internally of trying to find out is human, but even within that battle, how will the battle end?

Will it end in submission or will it end in an element of despair? Will it end in an element with an element of dissatisfaction of the results? That's the test.

And that's what's important for us to recognize when we do توفيق between our efforts and the outcomes, as y'all both have mentioned. And SubhanAllah, it's very comforting, indirectly and even say directly when Allah mentions most people will not, most people will not do this. Most people will be like this.

So even though I've commanded you to do this to help them change, most people won't anyway. Most people will have this characteristic that's not praiseworthy, but that's not your responsibility.

The Theme of the Few vs the Many

And this theme Sheikh that you mentioned about the majority, it's amazing because SubhanAllah, it reminds me of the narration of in the time of Omar.

You know, he had this man who's walking in the streets and he's making this dua, اللهم اجعلني من القليل, O Allah, make me from the few, O Allah, make me from the few. And Omar hears this dua and he's like, what is this? I've never heard this dua being made before.

And SubhanAllah, this man explains, look, Allah in the Quran, he says, وَقَلِيلٌ مِّنْ عِبَادِيَ الشَّكُورُ. Anytime Allah in the Quran mentions the majority, actually he's condemning. It's the ignorant ones, the ones with no knowledge, the ones who are not grateful.

Whereas when Allah praises the few, it's, you know, Nuh, it was إِلَّا قَلِيلٌ, except a few believers that were with him, despite his centuries of efforts.

Like we're talking about the efforts versus the outcome. Nuh, SubhanAllah, I mean, it's the best example to use. Centuries of efforts, not years.

And yet at the end of it, you know, one could say from the outside, he had nothing to show for it. But Allah says إِلَّا قَلِيلٌ, and that قَلِيلٌ was enough. And Allah rescued the قَلِيلٌ.

So this man responds by saying, Allah says in the Quran, look, the قَلِيلٌ. So I'm asking Allah, the قَلِيلٌ are those, the few are those who are grateful. I'm asking Allah to make me from the few.

And Omar starts, you know, in classical Omar fashion, starts crying and saying, everyone is more knowledgeable than you, Omar.

So it's this theme in the Quran of minority, majority, and you're tying it in with the outcomes, I think, and the messengers are the best examples of this, where they made the effort, they did what they could. And on paper, it didn't necessarily look like they achieved something, but SubhanAllah, they did. And this is a blueprint really for all of us to follow.

Al-Ghani and Dhur-Rahma: Self-Sufficiency and Mercy

So Allah doesn't need what's popular. And Allah doesn't judge truth by what's popular. And there's something that's in the verse that you're going to talk about, Sheikh, where Allah says, that your Lord is self-sufficient, and full of mercy.

And Allah connects that to that if he wanted to, he could simply replace you with another group of people - you don't have to be, he doesn't need the majority to be on his side, nor should you need the majority to accept you, that that's a faulty way of judging truth.

I want you to walk us through that ayah, but also how you have the pairing of al-ghani, ذو الرحمة, because those two things, they don't seem to match when we talk about human beings.

Like غني, I don't need you. ذو الرحمة, I give you so much mercy. Usually you show mercy, you show sympathy, you show this because you want to get something, you want to provoke an emotion in return or something in return.

So that's a need that would cause you to do so. But Allah is غني, he is fully self-sufficient, yet shows mercy that is not matched by anyone else. So just take us through this ayah, inshallah, in surat al-an'am.

Understanding Al-Ghani

Yeah, so I mean, I remember when, you know, maybe the mashaikh can relate here, when you first start studying a little bit of Arabic, you come across a word like غني, and you think, okay, this means rich. It's like the popular vocab. غني, فقير, rich, poor.

And then you come across a verse in the Qur'an in which Allah mentions he's غني. And in the very early stages, you're thinking, Allah is saying he's rich, doesn't make sense, he's saying we're فقير, and then you look at the verses deeper, and you start to understand that غني has a particular meaning.

As Imam Al-Shafi'i rahimallah mentions, غني is, Allah is غني, بلا مال, there's no مال, there's no wealth involved here. There's something far greater.

And that is when you see a person who is غني, like Uthman, we say he's غني, he's rich, but he's self-sufficient, he doesn't rely on anyone. And I think when you come across a verse like where Allah says in the Quran, Allah is غني, and you are all فقراء, meaning you are all in need, and you are all fully dependent on Allah, you need Allah, and Allah does not need you, your praise, your worship, and so on.

I think when you begin to unwrap these verses, that's when you fully start to understand, okay, غني here is not about wealth, like we think it is.

The Mercy of Allah Despite His Self-Sufficiency

So when Allah in this verse is saying, and if you go back a few verses, Allah literally says, Allah, He would never punish a people, despite their wrongdoings, if they are unaware, meaning if the message hasn't been presented to them, a messenger hasn't been sent to them, we would never punish a nation until we've sent a messenger to them, that's fair.

So Allah is saying here, after mentioning that, these people, we could have punished them, but we didn't, then Allah says, He is al ghani, even if you turned away from me, even the majority, like we find in the stories of pretty much all of the messengers, that the majority turned away, Allah says, He is fully self-sufficient, independent, He doesn't need your worship and praise, but then He adds, again, like Sheikh Omar mentioned, it doesn't make sense, a person who is self-sufficient, usually when you think of a person who's so rich and self-sufficient and doesn't need anything, isn't really the nicest person, the CEO of the company or the rich businessman, they're not really the nicest people to deal with, but Allah here is saying, He is full of mercy, why?

Because going back to that verse, He could have punished if He wanted to, Allah could have taken you to account, but here He's saying, no, look, I am fully independent, I am, and He reminds us, by the way, رَبُّكُمْ, He is your Lord, your Master, so He's established this relationship, at the end of the day, you're the servant and I'm the Master and I could have punished you, but ذو الرحمة, I am full of mercy.

And subhanAllah, I mean, رحمة encompasses all of these other beautiful names of Allah, ذو الرحمة here means, Allah is Al-Haleem, Allah is As-Saboor, Allah is As-Sateer, so He is full of mercy, what does that mean? It means that He is forbearing, He's patient.

If Allah wanted, like the previous nations, and Allah mentions this actually at the beginning of this juz as well, the trend you find is that Allah would punish the previous nations, and this is a mercy on our Ummah, in particular, the Ummah of Muhammad, that we sin, we make a mistake, can you imagine, our Prime Minister here, or your President, you have an average citizen, who commits crime after crime after crime, every single day, one day it's theft, one day it's assault, one day it's murder, and they're just like, yeah, it's okay, carry on, I mean, our President, I was gonna say, I didn't want to, he's not my President, so I left it to you, but can you imagine, you just let someone, let someone off every single day, it doesn't happen to an ordinary citizen.

But yet, here we are, ordinary servants of Allah, and we commit sins, every time we gossip, we backbite, sins of the tongue, sins of the eyes, on social media, Allah is just letting us carry on, and this is the mercy aspect, the رحمة aspect.

Allah's Ability to Replace

But then Allah goes on to say, if Allah wanted, then He could have replaced you fully, and this is a really scary ayah, to be honest with you, and there's many ayahs like this in the Qur'an, where Allah mentions:

If you turn away, then Allah can just replace you, here replacement doesn't necessarily mean, I mean, one of the meanings is that Allah completely wipes you off the land, and brings in new people, and we said that that happened to previous generations, it's out of Allah's mercy, it doesn't happen to us.

But I want to just end by mentioning something, because sometimes as Muslims, we look at these verses and say, yeah, this applies to non-Muslims, doesn't apply to us, it applies to us as Muslims, because Allah replacing here could mean, for example, if Allah has chosen you in His service, that Allah replaces you with someone else, who then is more than capable of doing what you were doing, but it's only out of Allah's mercy that He chose us to serve for His sake.

Two of my favorite topics, the names of Allah, and dua, so just combining the two, there's a dua that comes to mind, when we talk about oh Allah, use us, continue to use us for your خدمة, for your service, and do not replace us.

And what Allah is saying here is, look, if Allah wanted, He could have got rid of you and replaced you, so this is a dua to internalize really, which is, oh Allah, look, if you've chosen us for some خدمة, and there's many of you watching who you're thinking, yeah, but I'm not a community leader, and I'm not influential, trust me, you are doing خدمة in your own capacity, and this is خدمة, this is service for Allah's sake, keep asking Allah, Allah do not replace me, because I promise you, there are many people out there who could do much better than what we're doing, but Allah has chosen us for some خدمة.

So there's so much to mention, but you tie, in fact, three names of Allah together, the Rabb, Allah establishes that He is the Master, then He is Al-Ghani, He doesn't need your worship specifically, but ذو الرحمة, it is out of His mercy that He does not take you to account, does not hold you to account, does not punish you immediately for the sins and for our wrongdoings, but subhanAllah, so many names here that you could just really analyze a lot deeper.

Reflections on Allah's Self-Sufficiency and Mercy

Yes, it's so beautiful, I mean, subhanAllah, I like how you mentioned the three names, ذو الرحمة, when you see your Lord, who is He, from who He is, from lordship, as we would say, understanding His lordship and His authority and His divinity, from that emanates what? His self-sufficiency, and from that emanates Him being merciful, and from His mercy is that He made you Muslim even.

The fact that you made that small decision to stay Muslim or the decision to become a Muslim, that's from His mercy as well, so when we say, Ar-Rahman Ar-Rahim, Rabbul Alameen, that He is the Lord of all of creation, because they know and they are aware of His lordship, and He is a Lord that is merciful as well, but never forget that He doesn't need you, and that's what's so important of the self-sufficiency piece.

Because even at the end of the verse, He mentions that He will replace you just as He has brought you forth from the offspring of other people, أول مرة, so it's showing you, He's giving the example, like the fact that there's offspring, the fact that your older relatives will pass away, and that you will soon pass away, do you not see that this is, these are the days that will just consistently propel and continue on between mankind, that there will be a day that you, the fact that you know that you will pass away, and you don't know, is already scary in and of itself.

And Allah is showing you that, look, you will go, you will leave this earth, I will remain, I am free from any need of you, you need me, but I'm not saying that in a fashion that is arrogant, I'm saying in a fashion that is merciful, because everything that is in front of you is a manifestation of my mercy, it requires you to make a small effort, and just to look with the eyes that I've given you, that you see in color, that's mercy, look with بصيرة, with your heart, by observing this verse, the month of Ramadan, you voluntarily coming to the masjid, that's a mercy, because there are friends that are not right now, literally, when you're watching this video now, it could be friends that don't even want to watch it, don't even want to try to become Muslim.

The Balance of Hope and Fear

Because whether they, they think that there is too much, they're in despair, or they're taking it for granted, Ibn Qayyim mentions that there's خوف and رجاء, that there's a fear and there's a hope, and the head of the bird is love.

There may be too much hope to where you say, Allah غفور رحيم, I don't pray in Ramadan, that's fine, or you still have خوف, you say, Allah will never forgive me, no, be in the middle course, and with that reality, Allah is غني, but you are always فقير, you're always realizing, the more that you remember that you're deprived, the more it pushes you to seek his mercy, and to seek his forgiveness, so that's what this verse really reminds me of.

And mashallah, as you mentioned earlier, the importance of understanding his freedom from all of creation, is a means for us to push harder, and to go harder, especially in this month of Ramadan, may Allah make us from that.

Final Reflections

Last thing that I'll say here, subhanAllah, is don't ever think that you're punishing anyone but yourself, when you walk away from what is good for your akhirah, good for your hereafter, like the prophets were the most honored people on earth, and they were being subjected to the most humiliation on earth, in terms of people mocking them, and beating them, and treating them the way that we spoke about in the beginning of this episode.

But when you say, I'm not going to go to the masjid, they don't deserve me, I'm not going to do this Islamic work anymore, I'm not going to do this, this is a message to the people of da'wah, the people of activism, the people of knowledge, the people who volunteer, don't ever think that you walking away is hurting anyone but yourself.

Because Allah doesn't need you, and the greatest honor is to be a part of the process, the greatest honor is to be a part of the process of what Allah commands on this earth.

Embrace it. Allah use us and don't replace us. Allahumma ameen.

Jazakum Allah khayran, Sheikh Shabir, it was a pleasure to have you. Barakallah fiikum everyone. Sheikh Abdullah, as always, man, Jazakum Allah khayran.

Insha'Allah, we'll see all of you tomorrow night. Wassalamualaikum warahmatullahi wabarakatuh.