22 WHO IS ALLAH (lahul asmaul husna)

22 WHO IS ALLAH? (lahul asmaul husna) - Imam Siraj Wahhaj.

In the name of Allah, the most gracious, the most merciful. Praise be to Allah, we praise Him, we ask for His help, we ask for His forgiveness, we believe in Him, and we do not expect anything from Him. And we declare from the consciousness of our souls what we are capable of.

There is none worthy of worship except Allah, and there is none worthy of worship except Allah. I bear witness that there is no deity worthy of worship except Allah, and that Muhammad is His servant and Messenger. O ye who believe! fear Allah as He should be feared, and fear Him and you shall not die except as Muslims.

O ye who believe! O ye who believe! The Messenger of Allah, peace be upon him, said, (خَلَقَ اللَّهَ عَدْمُ عَلَىٰ سُرَاتِهِ وَيَقُولُ اللَّهَ عَزَّ وَجَلَّ فِي الْقُرْآنِ كَرِيمِ وَلَّيْسَ كَمِثْلِهِ شَيْءٍ - Khalaqa Allaha adama 'ala suratihi wa yaqulu Allahu 'azza wa jalla fil Qur'ani karimi wa laysa kamithlihi shay'un) believe in Him, we trust in Him, we bear witness, nothing deserves to be worshipped except Allah. And we bear witness that Muhammad, peace be upon him, is Allah's Messenger and His slave and the Seal of the Prophets.

We ask Allah the Almighty to guide us. We ask Allah the Almighty to bless His Messenger Muhammad, peace be upon him, and his family and his companions, all of them. Ameen.

Brothers and sisters, before I give this khutbah, I want to begin with a dua of the Prophet, peace be upon him. (اللَّهُمَّ إِنِّي أَعُوذُ بِكَ مِنْ عِلْمٍ لَا يَنْفَعُ - Allahumma inni a'udhu bika min 'ilmin la yanfa') O Allah, I seek refu knowledge that doesn't benefit. If we're going to sit together for 5 minutes or 5 hours, if we're going to speak about knowledge, it must be beneficial.

So that when you walk out of this masjid, there's something from Allah and His Messenger that's going to benefit you. I pray Allah subhanahu wa ta'ala to help me to articulate on my tongue what I feel in my heart. Someone once said that the most important knowledge you can have is the knowledge of yourself.

While I agree that the knowledge of self is very important, but the most important knowledge you can have is the knowledge of Allah. So today in this khutbah, I want to focus on two things. Number one, I want to focus on Allah.

(لَهُ الْأَسْمَعُ الْحُسْنَةِ - Lahu al-asma'u al-husna) He has the most beautiful names. And then I want to focus on us. I don't believe that you should listen to a khutbah just to get information, | something.

So that when we walk out of the masjid, we have something to do. The knowledge is supposed to produce something. I remember I used to be a Christian.

Allah blessed me to become a Muslim in 1969. I used to read the Bible. And when I became Muslim, I was speaking to a Christian audience.

And I told them that they had something in their Bible that we don't find in the Quran. This is years ago. And in the Bible it said that God created man in his image.

I told the Christians we don't... I was excited about that verse, but I said we don't find that in the Islam. But years later, the more I studied, the more I found out that is exactly not in Quran and Sunnah. Allah mentioned Quran about the Quran.

(مُصَدِّقًا لِمَا بَيْنَ يَدَيْهِ مِنَ الْكِتَابِ - Musaddiqan lima bayna yadayhi minal kitabi) It is a confirmation of the scripture that went before. So the Islam that we have, it confirms what Isa a.s. and Musa and Ibrahim an the prophets before them, it confirms what they say. In this hadith here, maybe Muslims get scared, but what I'm saying, (مُتَّفَقٌ عَلَيْهِ - Muttafaqun 'alayhi) It's an Al-Bukhari hadith Muslim hadith.

(خَلَقَ اللَّهُ عَدَمُ عَلَى سُرَاتِهِ - Khalaqa Allahu adama 'ala suratihi) Allah created Adam in his image. So today, inshallah, I want to deal with two things. I want to deal with Allah and I want to deal with u beings.

Who are we? I'm sitting in my office one day and I'm reading the Quran and I come across this ayah. (وَمَا تَسْقُطُ مِنْ وَرَقَةٍ إِلَّا يَعْلَمُهَا - Wa ma tasqutu min waraqatin illa ya'lamuha) And there is not a leaf that fa knows. Not a leaf that falls except Allah knows it.

I walk out of my masjid and I walk a long block and I'm reciting this ayah. (وَمَا تَسْقُطُ مِنْ وَرَقَةٍ إِلَّا يَعْلَمُهَا - Wa ma tasqutu min waraqatin illa ya'lamuha) Not a leaf falls except Allah knows it. And as I'm walking, ground thousands of leaves.

And I said, you mean to tell me Allah knows every leaf that falls? I did some research. I want to know how many trees are there on this earth? And according to the scientist, over 3 trillion trees. Some of them have as many as 350,000 leaves on one tree.

And you mean to tell me Allah knows every leaf? SubhanAllah. SubhanAllah. Allah is so great, so magnificent.

We have to understand that there is a major difference between Al-Khaliq, the Creator, and Makhluq, the Creation. We are the creation of Allah subhana wa ta'ala. But we're not just any kind of creation, we're very special.

What do you mean special? The Prophet, peace and blessings be upon him, said (أَحَبَّ أَسْمَعَيْكُمْ إِلَى اللَّهِ عَبْدُ اللَّهِ وَعَبْدُ الرَّحْمَنِ - Ahabbu asma'ikum ilallahi Abdullah wa Abdurrahman) The names most loved by Allah is Al around the world anywhere, begin with Kenya, begin with my country, the United States, begin with UK, begin with any country in the world, any Muslim country, you will find out that the most popular name is Muhammad. Everybody in the family, everybody knows Muhammad.

We love the Prophet, but the name most loved by Allah, Abdullah and Abdurrahman. We are the slaves of Allah. What make us special? We are the slaves of Allah.

(مَا خَلَقْتُ جِنَّ وَإِنسَ إِلَّا لِيَعْبُدُونِ - Ma khalaqtu jinna wal insa illa liya'budun) I have not created the jinn and the humans except to worship me. That's our special relationship and the name Abdullah make we're the slaves of Allah. Whatever we do, we do because Allah orders us to do it.

And when we refrain from doing something, we refrain because Allah refrained us from doing. Allah makes halal, Allah makes haram. So this human being, who are we? Let's take a few ayahs from the Quran.

If Allah created Adam in His image, what make human beings different? (لَقَدْ كَرَّمْنَا بَنِي آدَمَ - Laqad karramna bani Adam) Allah said in Quran, Allah has honored the children of Adam. Who ar

children of Adam? (النَّاسُ كُلُّهُمْ بَنِي آدَمٍ آدَمٍ مِّن تُرَابٍ - An-nasu kulluhum bani Adama Adama min turab) All of mankind, every human being are the children of Adam. And Adam was created of dust.

Me, Siraj Wahaj, I have many identities. I'm not just one, I have many identities. (أنا أسود - Ana aswad) I am black.

And you know what? I love being black. I love my black skin, and my kinky hair, and my broad nose, and my thick lips. I love it.

I can't wait to wake up every morning black. But why? Because Allah said (هُوَ الَّذِي يُصَوِّرُكُمْ فِي الْأَرْحَامِ كَيْفَ يَشَاءُ - Huwa alladhi yusawwirukum fil arhami kayfa yasha') It is Allah who created you in the wombs as He ple make me a black man, I'm pleased to be a black man.

(أنا أمريكيون - Ana amrikiyun) I'm American, I'm born there. (أنا أفريكيون - Ana afrikiyun) I'm African. (أنا بشر - Ana bashar) I'm a human being.

But the most important thing أنا مسلم Why? Because not one black person will be in Jannah because they're black. Not one white person will be in hell becau they're white. No.

No. Not one woman will be in Jannah because she's a woman. Not one woman will be in the hellfire because she's a woman.

No. It's deen. It's iman.

It's taqwa. It's faith. So alhamdulillah, who are we? (أَنَّسُوا كُلُّهُمْ بِنُ آدَمٍ أَدَمٍ تُرَىٰ - An-nasu kulluhum bani Adama Adama min turab) And the Prophet, peace and blessings be upon him, he talked about the dignity of

Every human being have a right a house to live in. Every human being have a right food to eat. Every human being has a right to drink water.

Every human being has a right to wear clothing. You ever study us, study the human being? Look at us. Look at the human being.

We eat. Every human being have to eat. Everything alive have to eat.

If you don't eat, you die. And we must make sure that everybody eats. But look how we eat, what we eat.

Notice the difference between human beings and animals. I have a cat. Some of you may have cat, I don't know.

But look what the cats eat. They eat insects, they eat mice, they eat rats. It's something a human being can't imagine.

Human beings, not only do we eat, we cook it, we fry it, we broil it, we put season on it. Because you're a human being, you're different. Look at the animals.

What homes do they have? They live on the earth. But you, human beings, you build homes on the earth. Look at the clothing that we have.

All of this, why? Allah has honored the children of Adam. This is how we are. We are something special to Allah subhana wa ta'ala.

How special are we? (أَلَمْ تَرَى أَنَّ اللَّهَ سَخَّرَ لَكُمْ مَا فِي السَّمَوَاتِ وَمَا فِي الْأَرْضِ - Alam tara annallaha sakhkhara lakum ma fis samawati wa ma fil ard) Don't you see? Allah has subjected for you everything in the heavens and earth. For y creation of Allah.

(خَلَقَ لَا عَدَمُ عَدَمْ عَلَى صُرَاتِ - Khalaqa la adamu adama 'ala surati) Allah created Adam in his own image. Think about that. I went to Australia.

My wife. And when we landed in Australia, we went to the luggage claim to get our luggage. And there was a dog there.

And the security man was smelling everyone's luggage. And they were smelling my wife's luggage. And I got nervous.

And the reason I got nervous, because I know that the dog, they're looking for one of three things. Number one, they're looking for drugs. So I started looking at my wife.

Or number two, they're looking for explosives, bombs. So I started walking away from my wife. Or number three, they're looking for food.

In Australia, they don't allow you to come into the country with food. And for sure, my wife, she had food in her luggage. But look at the dog.

Look at the dog. Dogs have a sense of smell millions of times more than human beings. They can smell what we cannot smell.

Incredible. Can I tell you something about the human beings? If I would ask you how many people on the earth, you would say 7 billion people. 7 billion people.

Do you know that every human being have a distinct fingerprint? Everyone different. Yours different from his, and his different from his. Everyone different.

Not only that, you may not know this. I met an Imam Sa'd from Medina. And he has a very unique talent.

He's able to imitate 100 of the best reciters of the Quran around the world. And if he's reciting Quran from your one you love, you wouldn't know the difference. But the fact of the matter, every human being have a distinct sound.

Experts can tell. One more. Did you know that human beings, every one of them, 7 billion of them, have unique handwriting? Experts can tell.

They can look at your handwriting and say, Oh, yeah, it belongs to so and so. They know. And one more.

One more. Every human being have a distinct smell. If you don't believe me, if you don't believe me, go to Surah Yusuf.

When Yaqub a.s. said, I smell the scent of Yusuf. Why? Every human being, every one of them, have a unique smell. Why? Because you are unique.

You are the creature of Allah subhana wa ta'ala. And Allah made you unique. One more.

If I would ask you here, in this city, about animals, and I ask you, which is the biggest animal known to man? You will say blue whale. Blue whale. 100 feet

long, weighing 200 tons, with a tongue the size of an elephant, and the heart the size of an automobile.

And this huge animal lives to be 85 years. Listen to what Allah said in Quran. (وَمَا مِن دَابَّةٍ فِي الْعَرْضِ إِلَّا اللَّهُ رَأَى اللَّهُ رِسْكُهَا - Wa ma min dabbatin fil ardi illa 'alallahi rizquha) There is not an animal on the earth exc to give it its sustenance.

So this blue whale, 100 feet long, 200 tons, have to eat. What does it eat? It eats a little shrimp-like animal called krill. And how many do they eat a day? 40 million krill, weighing 4 tons.

And yet Allah feeds it. Why? Because Allah is the creator of the heavens and the earth. But what about man? What about us? 2008, and you can look this up Imam, in the state of Nebraska, Nebraska is a state in United States, a man, state legislature, named Ernie Chambers, sued God in a court of law, saying, seeking a permanent injunction against God's harmful activities.

Astaghfirullah. You're gonna sue God? You're gonna charge God? So the judge threw out the case. They said that they threw it out because they can find no known address for God.

It comes to this ayat of the Quran. You see, brothers and sisters, people, they don't know about Allah. They wanna blame Allah.

Something happens to you, your mother die, your father die, your children die, your brother die, your Imam die, your leaders die, all of this, people around the earth die, and they wanna blame Allah. I heard a minister preaching one day, he said, If I were God, I would have done so and so. No.

If you were Allah, you would have done exactly what Allah did. That's what makes him who he is. So Allah put it this way (وَلَا يُسْأَلُوا أَمَّا يَفْعَلُوا وَهُمْ يُسْأَلُونَ - Wa la yus'aluna 'amma yaf'aluna wa hum yus'alun) He, Al questioned.

But they will be questioned. We will be questioned. So brothers and sisters, what I'm saying today, I just wanna show you who we are, who Allah is.

Sheikh, when I was in elementary school, I don't know what you call it, but I was in the third grade, which means I was like eight years old. And they taught us a song, I never forget the song. I don't know who wrote it, but I do remember it said like this.

I told you I never forgot it. The first time in my life, I forgot it. Getting to know you, getting to know all about you, getting to like you, getting to hope you like me.

For me, everything in life is about getting to know Allah. Getting to know Allah, and then getting to know ourselves. (لَا إِلَٰهَ إِلَّا اللَّهُ مُحَمَّدٌ رَسُولُ اللَّهِ - La ilaha illallah Muhammadun rasulullah) There is nothing like Allah.

I'm gonna give you an example. I told you that Allah knows every leaf that falls. It means that Allah is aware of everything, nothing escapes Him.

One of the greatest prophets, one of the five great prophets, Noah, Abraham, Musa, Isa and Muhammad the five greatest prophets. One of them, Musa. Musa's name is mentioned in Quran more than any other prophet.

He was known to be one of the smartest people. He's given a khutbah to Bani Israel. And a man, he stood up and said, Musa, is there anyone on earth smarter than you? He said, Y.

One narration said, who is the smartest person on earth? He said, أنا, I am. No big deal. But for Allah subhanahu wa ta'ala, it's a big deal.

So Allah revealed to Musa, My servant Al-Khidr, he knows more than you. So the credit of Musa, despite all the knowledge that he had, he wants to get more. He wants to learn from Al-Khidr.

And you know the story, he teaches them, go on a journey and he teaches. Let me tell you the first lesson that Musa learned. SubhanAllah.

Allah is so great. Allahu Akbar. When I think about the greatness of Allah, He is incredible.

Musa and Al-Khidr is walking near the edge of the river and there's a boat. And there's a bird on the edge of the boat. And the bird dips its dip, its peak in the water.

And Al-Khidr said, Ya Musa, He said, Ya Musa, O Moses, I have a knowledge that Allah taught me, you don't know it. And you have a knowledge that Allah taught you, I don't know it. He said, Moses, My example, your example, and my example, and all the people on earth, knowledge compared to Allah is like that water in the beak of that bird compared to the ocean.

So no matter how much you think you know, you know little compared to Allah subhana wa ta'ala. And not only that, not only that, get old and you will find out that you lose everything because that's the way it is. That's how Allah make it.

Allah humble you. Every soul shall taste of death. So whenever you think you're so big shot, Allah show you who the big shot is.

Allah make you sick, show you who the big shot is. Allah make you homeless, show you who the big shot is. Allah test you with many many things, you get sick.

Allah show you to let you know. And even when the prophet a.s. died, Umar radiallahu anhu took out his sword, said, I swear by Allah, the prophet is not dead. And here come Abu Bakr radiallahu anhu.

He said to him, sit. He said, Muhammadin sallallahu alayhi wa sallam, wa qada Muhammad mata. Wa man kana ya'budullah, inna Allah hayyun la yumut.

Those who used to worship Muhammad, Muhammad is dead. Sallallahu alayhi wa sallam. But those who worship Allah, Allah is alive and shall never die.

Kullu nafsin daikatul mawt. Wa man kana li nafsin anta muta ila bi-idnillah kitabin muajila. No soul can die except by the permission of Allah.

It's written in a book. So we're human beings and we have limitations. But also Allah has honored us.

I want to conclude with this. And hope that you get it. You are somebody special.

You're the slaves of Allah. Act like it. Act like you're the slaves of Allah.

If you are the slaves of Allah, what we supposed to be doing on this earth? You want to hear a big spectacle that happened sometime in the history of the earth, in the universe? Something happened was a big spectacle, unbelievable. Fasajda al-mala'ikatu kulluhum ajma'un. Fasajda al-mala'ikatu kulluhum ajma'un.

All of the angels bow down to Adam. All of them? Yes. Jibrail? Yes.

Mikael? Yes. Malikul Maut? Yeah. Every angel, when Allah ordered them to bow down to Adam, every one of them bowed down.

Why? Because Adam, human beings are special. They're honored. Everybody wants this what we have.

Wath qala rabbukul al-mala'ikatu inni ja'ilun fil ardi khalifah. Qalu wa taj'alu fiha man yusidu fiha wa yasfiku dimah. Wa nahnu nusabbihu bi hamdika wa nukadisu lah.

Qala inni a'lamu ma la ta'lamun. Angels, they don't disobey Allah. Angels do whatever Allah command them to do.

They do it, but not human beings, not this special creature, this khalifah. You do. You have the ability to even disobey Allah.

The angels don't have it in their DNA to disobey Allah. They can't do it. They don't know how to disobey Allah.

However, you, Allah's special creature, Allah tell you to do something and you don't do it. You, Allah's special creature, Allah orders you to do the good and we don't do it. He forbid you to do the haram and we do it.

I was in New York City, a store that I go to every week to get my newspapers. Muslim store, owned by Muslims and the workers are Muslim. One day I go into the store and I read this sign.

And the sign said, No alcohol sold here. I said, Allahu Akbar. Because in New York City, we have thousands of grocery stores, Muslims own thousands of stores.

And they sell alcohol, they sell cigarettes, they sell beer, they sell everything, they sell what's haram. So when I go to a Muslim store and say, No alcohol sold here. I said, Allahu Akbar.

Until Imam, I looked closer. It said, No alcohol sold here on Sundays. Before 1pm.

Are you kidding me? I found out recently, I had no idea how much cigarettes cost. Cigarettes is haram. Sorry brothers, I don't mean to get into your business.

Cigarettes is haram. No question about that. World Health Organization said that if the nations of the world do nothing about it, by the end of the 21st century, one billion people would have died as a result of smoking cigarettes.

How do you think smoking is permissible? So I don't know how much cigarettes cost. So I went into a Muslim store, I wanted to find out. I know he sold cigarettes.

How much cigarettes? He said, this is US, $