Living for Allah

Living for Allah

Opening Praise and Testimony

الحمد لله نحمده ونستعينه ونستغفره ونعوذ بالله من شرور أنفسنا ومن سيئات أعمالنا من يهده الله فلا مضل له ومن يضلله فلن تجد له وليا مرشدا وأشهد أن لا إله إلا الله وحده لا شريك له وأشهد أن محمدا عبده ورسوله صلى الله عليه وعلى آله وأصحابه وسلم تسليما كثيرا

O you who have believed, fear Allah as He should be feared and do not die except as Muslims.

O mankind, fear your Lord, who created you from one soul and created from it its mate and dispersed from both of them many men and women. And fear Allah, through whom you ask one another, and the wombs. Indeed Allah is ever, over you, an Observer.

O you who have believed, fear Allah and speak words of appropriate justice. He will correct for you your deeds and forgive you your sins. And whoever obeys Allah and His Messenger has certainly attained a great attainment.

أما بعد فإن أصدق الحديث كتاب الله وخير الهدي هدي محمد صلى الله عليه وسلم وشر الأمور محدثاتها وكل محدثة بدعة وكل بدعة ضلالة وكل ضلالة في النار

We praise Allah, a blessed praise. We send peace and blessings upon our beloved messenger Muhammad صلى الله عليه وسلم upon his family, his companions, and those who follow them until the end of time.

The Core Belief: Everything is From Allah

One of the core beliefs of all Muslims is that everything we have is from Allah.

Allah says that He gave you everything you ask for, everything you would need.

And Allah says:

That there's nothing that traverses the face of the earth except Allah is providing for it.

We believe as an important theological principle that this includes what we think and understand. This is part of the mulk of Allah that Allah has given us. The only true sovereign is Allah. That's why He says:

That Allah, the mulk belongs to Allah.

Understanding Mulk and Milk

There's a difference in mulk and milk. Milk, like the milk we drink, you can remember it this way, is something that's specific. Like something you and I, we have milk. My house is my milk. But mulk means complete sovereignty. That's why in Surah Al-Fatihah we have two qira'ah: مَالِكِ which means milk and مَلِكِ which means mulk. As if to say like specific power and transcendent power كُلٌّ بِيَدِ اللهِ . Nothing escapes Him.

The Test of Sovereignty

We believe that within our relationship with our Creator, that sovereignty is given to us as a blessing or a test. That's why it says:

Who created life and death to test you, after mentioning His transcendent sovereignty.

We are going to react to this blessing, this rizq from the mulk of Allah in one of two ways, which is also mentioned in the Quran:

Either we're going to be grateful and show gratitude, or we're going to be ungrateful.

Four Areas of Allah's Provisions

In the Quran, these provisions that are given by Allah are divided really into four areas that we should think about.

1. Our Ability to Think and Experience Cognition

Allah says:

That Allah taught you what you didn't know.

So when I understand Allah's transcendent sovereignty and authority, and I want knowledge, then I will turn to the one whose knowledge is infinite. And that's why now you can understand why we don't say, you know, زِدْنِي عِلْمًا or عِلْمًا. But we say what?

The one who provides all things, increase me in knowledge.

That also includes the constructions by which we see the world, and how we see each other. When Allah says:

That the differences in our speech, in our pigmentations, is a blessing مِنْ آيَاتِ وُجُودِهِ an evidence of Allah's existence. But we perhaps allow color and language to inspire the opposite: ingratitude, bigotry, and racism, and so on and so forth. That we have failed to replicate or reciprocate that blessing of Allah, the knowledge.

2. Our Emotions

Allah says:

Allah says that, I made in the hearts, in your hearts, mercy and love.

And He says to Sayyidina Muhammad صلى الله عليه وسلم:

Allah said, If you, O Muhammad, had been harsh to them, they would have abandoned you. But Allah put صلى الله عليه وسلم mercy and patience in your heart

And of course, He says in the Quran:

That Allah gave us الأفئدة the emotional intelligence. To be a good Muslim is to be emotionally intelligent.

3. Our Religious Gifts

Allah says:

Allah blessed you when He guided you to iman.

Allah mentions that the fact that your heart is moved by Allah's revelation and remembrance is from the blessings that Allah has given you from His sovereignty.

4. Our Material Blessings

Allah guides who He wills, alhamdulillah.

We gave you provisions.

You know, we honored all human beings. We carried them on seas and lands, and we provided them طَيِّبَات those things that they will use in this world.

Praise be to the one who allowed us to have control of this thing.

Gratitude as Action, Not Just Feeling

So when we talk about Allah's sovereignty, we talk about blessings, Him giving us these things because كُلٌّ مِنْ فَضْلِ اللَّهِ . All of this we say is from the mercy of Allah. We're talking about how we see the world and think about the world, our emotional capacity, our spiritual blessings, and then our material blessings, alhamdulillah.

And that's why Allah in the Quran when He talks about gratitude, He doesn't restrict it to a simple attitude or a psychological state, but He phrases it as an عَمَلِيَّة . And an عَمَل is different than الفعل. And in theology, an is something which I have deliberately done, which I understand, and which I act on according to the right way.

إِلَّا الَّذِينَ آمَنُوا وَعَمِلُوا )multiple verses in Quran(

Not فَعَلُوا . So Allah in numerous places in the Quran when He talks about thanks, He phrases it as an not an idea or a feeling.

He says to the family of Sayyidina Dawud عليه السلام: you must make عَمَل of gratitude.

The Danger of Losing Focus

For that reason, it's very important that we refer to the Quran because we live in a time now which there is a tremendous amount of, we say سُحُب you know, there's a lot of clouds that can kind of keep us away from seeing clearly. It's easy to lose focus with those blessings that Allah has given us, whether intellectually, whether spiritually and emotionally, whether religious blessings or our material blessings.

The Incident of the Aus and Khazraj

We find in the Quran an incident that happened in the time of Sayyidina Muhammad صلى الله عليه وسلم where his companions began to employ a blessing and an understanding in the wrong way, and Allah corrected them. This was the Aus and the Khazraj in Medina who, of course, before the Prophet came to them صلى الله عليه وسلم had been constantly rocked by internal strife and division and fighting, which rendered them really incapable and socially and politically and economically impotent.

So somebody came to them and began to remind them of the old days before they had found the blessings of Islam, to invoke certain constructions to spark hatred amongst themselves, which caused them to forget the beauty of Islamic brotherhood and sisterhood, and they began to fight to the point that in Surah Ali Imran they almost got physical.

Allah says:

Allah says: how could you disbelieve in Allah? The great mujaddid, the scholar of the last century, Muhammad Abduh, mashaAllah, he said of course we don't believe the sahaba committed kufr. Allah says: وَكَيْفَ تَكْفُرُونَ بِاللَّهِ how could you disbelieve in Allah? He said this is a form of majaz, this is a form of rhetoric which means if you divide, the outcome of these divisions based on your failure to appreciate the true understanding of your differences will lead you to kufr. So the differences that split us apart are a process that leads us to kufr, subhanAllah.

And then Allah says very beautifully at the end of the next verse:

The Blessing of Religious Guidance

I appreciated, mashaAllah, in the Quran and today, subhanAllah, I realized I was so lucky to come and listen to

Shaykh Aisha. And I encourage people, you know, it reminds me of Umm Darda who used to teach in the

masjid in Damascus. She used to teach people, mashaAllah, in the early days of Islam, subhanAllah. And you

know she was explaining the 10th hadith in the 40 hadith of Imam An-Nawawi's collection, and it reminded me

actually of our subject because one of the components of Allah's blessings upon us is religion. Allah has guided

us, and Allah has increased us in guidance. That's why we say in Surah Al-Fatiha:

And ya Rabb, keep me on guidance, ya Rabb.

The Hadith of the Disheveled Traveler

And also the material component. Sayyiduna Abu Huraira رضي الله عنه says the Prophet صلى الله عليه وسلم

mentioned the person who Allah obviously had blessed with the outer symptoms of religiosity:

(Muslim, Hadith 1015)

ثُمَّ ذَكَرَ الرَّجُلَ يُطِيلُ السَّفَرَ أَشْعَثَ أَغْبَرَ يَمُدُّ يَدَيْهِ إِلَى السَّمَاءِ يَا رَبِّ يَا رَبِّ

And he mentions the Prophet in the hadith that the Shaykh was explaining: this person who's traveling and

they're disheveled, and we know that there are many narrations that say such a person's dua is accepted,

immediately, as we say in Masri الأطول. So that person begins to make dua.

(Muslim, Hadith 1015)

وَمَطْعَمُهُ حَرَامٌ وَمَشْرَبُهُ حَرَامٌ وَمَلْبَسُهُ حَرَامٌ وَغُذِيَ بِالْحَرَامِ فَأَنَّى يُسْتَجَابُ لَهُ

But everything around him is impure. He doesn't marry the material with his religious inclination. There is a

contradiction, so how can his dua be accepted?

So here, subhanAllah, how she was explaining it, I realized that, you know, religion that doesn't adhere to the

material components - and you can extend this to a lot of things - is a problem.

The Story of Qarun

But the Quran also identifies those people who not only fail to use their religious talents but use the material

talents Allah has given them. As we mentioned earlier, they look at the world through a different set of lenses.

As we say in Boston about Kyrie Irving, it's a different kind of dude. It's just a different kind of person. So this

person doesn't see with basira. This person sees with their own selfish inclinations or based on what's around

them. As Imam Ali عليه السلام used to say, there are people who just, they're like, you know, branches on a tree.

Wherever the wind is blowing, it's all gravy for them. There's no foundations.

And in the Quran, Allah mentioned someone who's extremely wealthy:

In Surat Al-Qasas, verses 76-77, we find the story of Qarun, not Harun, Qarun, who was the cousin of Musa.

And you know something? Abu Zayd, a great Mufassir, he said that not only was Qarun blessed materially, he

said that he could recite the Torah beautifully, so his name, the people named him المُنَوّر. i.e., the one نَوَّرَهُ الل the

one who was illuminated by God to be able to recite so beautifully.

So oftentimes when we talk about the story of Qarun, we fail to recognize, as I mentioned earlier, out of the

different types of blessings, he was also blessed with, like, religious talent. Because the first person to go to hell

is the scholar who doesn't allow the knowledge to transform them.

But then Allah says he was from the people of Musa. So even though he had a relationship with Musa, it didn't

matter. You have a responsibility.

And we provided him:

Riches, and the Quran mentions that these riches had to be carried by strong people. That's how rich he was. He

had it going on. Dave Chappelle said wealth is the fuel of choices. He can make a lot of choices. That's why we

believe wealth can be a test. What choice do I make with it?

And he says:

You know, that all these blessings that Qarun was given, he didn't greet that with gratitude. He began to

transgress against his people. He found himself in a state of delusion. As Imam Ibn Ata Allah said: مِنْ عَلَامَاتِ

الاعْتِمَادِ عَلَى الْعَمَلِ نُقْصَانُ الرَّجَاءِ عِنْدَ وُجُودِ الزَّلَلِ you know the sign that we trust in our actions instead of God is that

when we're tested, we waver, we slip, to the point that his people said:

لَا تَفْرَحْ his people said to him: don't rejoice.

The Meaning of "Do Not Rejoice"

And he doesn't mean you can't be happy. One time, subhanAllah, I met a brother, he wouldn't smile. So I said,

"Hey man, like, why do you never smile?" He's like, "Allah says لَا تَفْرَحْ. Allah said don't be happy." I was like,

"No, that's not the context of the verse." The verse is saying don't be so happy that you forget the blessing, like

you replace God with yourself, you become autonomous of God.

Three Pieces of Advice to Qarun

So we learn something quickly from the nasiha of Qarun. How can we make sure that we're aligning our

blessings with what God wants from us?

First: Have Good Advisors Around Us

The first is to have good interlocutors, is to have good people around us who advise us, sometimes tell us things

we don't want to hear. Sayyidina Ali used to say: لَا تَنَالُ مَا تُرِيدُ حَتَّى تَصْبِرَ عَلَى مَا تَكْرَهُ you will never achieve what

you want until you are patient with what you hate. Like successful people, right, they find within the attempts at

Jannah hardship.

عَلَى قَدْرِ أَهْلِ الْعَزْمِ تَأْتِي الْعَزَائِمُ

You know, that great people المتنبي they're gonna find aversion because greatness isn't easy. So Sayyidina Ali is

saying: listen, successful people, meaning Jannah, they're gonna have to be patient with what they don't like,

praying on time, being a good person. One of the things we hate the most is people around us who can advise

us.

And he refused to listen to them. How we can phrase this in a contemporary way is like: who are our mentors?

Like who mentors us? And maybe it's through books, podcasts, maybe it's through watching documentaries, but

there has to be some kind of interlocutor, personal trainer.

Second: Realign Your Vision for the Hereafter

The second, they told him: realign your vision and use what Allah has given you for the hereafter. That's the

second thing: to live for more than this life, man, to have a life of purpose. To be a believer is to be in a room

that has an infinite number of doors. Anthony Hopkins said: to be an atheist is to be in a room with no windows

or doors.

Whoever fears Allah, Allah gives them ways out, not a way out.

Third: Don't Forget Your Share of This World

The third: and sometimes people make this mistake. They said to him: don't forget, you know, you need dunya,

you need power, you need - Allah has given you this mulk, use it, but use it for the right things. Abu Zayd, one

of the great early mufassir he said: لَا تَنْسَ أَنْتَ تُقَدِّمُ لِآخِرَتِكَ مِنَ الدُّنْيَا don't forget to send something for your hereafter

from your dunya. فَإِنَّكَ لَنْ تَجِدَ فِي آخِرَتِكَ إِلَّا مَا قَدَّمْتَ مِنْ دُنْيَاكَ because the only thing you're going to find in the

hereafter is what you and I did here.

Don't commit sin, don't harm people.

Summary of the Khutbah

So in this brief khutbah, mashaAllah, we address some information that really should help us appreciate the

depth of the Quran, not simply as a religious text that's read for ritual, but that the Quran is an exploration and

an emancipation of my heart and my mind from the temporal into the infinite.

And the first thing we talked about is Allah's blessings. His mulk manifests itself in our lives in four different

ways: our intellect and our understanding of the world around us, our emotional and spiritual capacity, religious

guidance, and then the material world.

And then we gave examples of people who didn't use these things for the right way. One is a religious man

mentioned by Shaykh Aisha in the 10th hadith of Sayyidina An-Nawawi رحمه الله, who traveled, who was

disheveled, made duaفَأَنَّى يُسْتَجَابُ لَهُ his dua wasn't answered, not because he didn't have the religious fashion,

but because his heart wasn't there and his outer wasn't there, his physical material wasn't there.

The second example I gave is someone who had the material together and the outer religious components

together but failed to use those things for Allah.

Striving for Ihsan

So ask Allah to help us reach the height of that moment, which is to worship Allah as though we see Him. So I

worship Allah as though I see Him with my knowledge, with my emotions, with my spiritual talents and

religious gifts, and with my material blessings. Ask Allah نَسْأَلُ اللهَ أَنْ يَجْعَلْنَا مِنَ الْمُحْسِنِينَ ask Allah to make us from

the muhsineen. Ask Allah to increase us in our awareness of Allah.

Ask Allah نَسْأَلُ اللَّهَ أَنْ يَجْمَعَنَا مَعَ حَبِيبِنَا سَيِّدِنَا رَسُولِ اللَّهِ كَمَا آمَنَّا بِهِ وَلَمْ نَرَهُ ask Allah to unite us with our beloved Prophet

صلى الله عليه وسلم . Can you imagine when you drink from the hand of the Prophet صلى الله عليه وسلم and the Prophet

مِنْ زُمْرَةِ سَيِّدِنَا مُحَمَّدٍ May Allah make us ? صلى الله عليه وسلم and he smiles at you ,صلى الله عليه وسلم he calls your name

. صلى الله عليه وسلم

Closing Supplications

Ask Allah to make us from those who are not wronged and those who wrong others. Ask Allah to help us limit

the potential of our own evil and amplify the potential of our good. Ask Allah to bless our parents. For those of

us who may be having difficulties with our parents, may Allah give us hikmah and wisdom and help us to heal,

inshaAllah, those relationships. For those of us whose parents are sick or ill, we ask Allah to cure them.

For those of us who are married, may Allah protect and bless our marriages and put between us love and mercy.

Ask Allah to bless our brothers and sisters in the Congo, in Zaire, in Chad, in Sudan, in Kenya, in Somalia, in

Senegal. Ask Allah to bless our brothers in Cote d'Ivoire. Ask Allah to bless our brothers and sisters in Kashmir, in India. We pray for our brothers and sisters in Egypt, in Palestine, in Syria. Ask Allah to bless our brothers and sisters in Iraq and of course in Yemen.

Ask Allah to make us a means of guidance for the people around us and to give us the confidence to be truly submissive to Allah.

"[All praise is due to Allah, Lord of the worlds]"